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its great that it has brought the issues with PO alot more in public eye.
RM (when it was the same company) and POL has history of badly treating postmasters even this day and age they are treated unfairly

 

Reacher S2 is, so far, not grabbing me. Rather like John Wick vs its sequels, a lot of the momentum, intrigue, sympathy and cast balance are weakened. All the new characters are not grabbing me, and having featherweight hipster looking randos win fights as easily as Reacher himself somewhat diminishes the sense that he's an exceptional force. As with John Wick, the establishment of baddies as acceptable targets takes a back seat once the audience are secured, and increasingly I find myself second-guessing the ethics of what the protagonists are doing and to whom.

 

Agreed, enjoyed the first series, but the second series is truly awful. Good point on the ethics too, there are a number of people Reacher kills on later episodes of season 2 that are really questionable and hard to justify.

 

Slow Horses Season 2.
Boy Swallows Universe.

 

enjoyed slow horses S2, 1st was better and the trailer at the end for season 3 has plot spoiler

as for Reacher S2, i am just watching like i do with 80s/90s action movies and not thinking too much about it. the violence means its lost the charm the 1st season had

 

1/2 agree, it's not as good as the first series, however it isn't a million miles away from the book it is taken from.
And having jumped 10 of the books going from series 1 to 2, you do miss out on a whole hell of a lot of character building which would in some small amount explain the ease / lack of guilt / questionable ethics and ease upon which he 'just' kills his enemies.

What's even more annoying (to me) is the 101 online reviews which bitch and moan about lack of characters from series 1 carrying over into series 2, which is one of the main points of the 28 book (so far) series, there is only ever 1 carry over aside from Reacher himself.
Since Child has been a co-author with his brother instead of sole author of the book series since 2020 they've gone down hill and become dull and formulaic, so I expect that to peter out soon.

 

Speaking of character carry over, that reminds me - having the likeable cop from S1 randomly appear for like 5 minutes and then disappear again was ridiculous, like yeah, he was a great character but either involve him or make it a clean break, this cast is cluttered enough already.

Off topic, but are the books good?

 

I have them all, which should be answer enough
They're not groundbreaking in any way and you know what you're going to get, as said above they have begone to tail off now Child is taking less of a writing role and it may be time to pull the plug on buying anymore

 

Since having the Apple free trial, I've been checking out:

Foundation
Which was doing well through series 1 and had me interested, but since series 2 it has taken a bit of a downturn due to its having been unnecessarily Pride-washed and its decision to get all unnecessarily sweary. I don't mind a good swear (especially if it's inventive) but its absence the first time out makes this feel like they've done it to be edgy. It also STILL cannot produce non-janky ground battle effects despite some awesome spatial ones. It can be a bit difficult to follow in places with all the time jumps and different actors playing the same character, but that probably isn't helped by watching it late at night with gaps between episodes. Strange plagiaristic Event Horizon vibe going on as well, with the

Spoiler

super star destroyer planet killer

In its defence though, it does have Demerzel. My appreciation of the robot form deepens.

Also, Slow Horses 1-3
Good, if incredibly predictable in places (incl the opening of series 1 and the end of series 2). First series was certainly engrossing - taken as a light touch effort it's most definitely watchable, mainly due to River and Lamb. Series 2 was somewhat daft but 3 was downright ridiculous. Shame.

I haven't started Reacher series 2 yet, mainly because the ending of the first series was so frustratingly poor. The whole warehouse bit was just embarrassing.

And for the gym, The Punisher series 1
Got better after giving it a second chance, but it's definitely a treadmill series due to the pacing. Which reminds me - all this talk about moral killing of bad guys is pointlessly ludicrous to me on a few counts:

- they're bad guys. Clue is in the name
- they took the money, they knew what the job entailed, thus they're legitimate targets when they hang about on the fringe of "the meeting" looking sinister. I don't believe Dave turned up for work last Monday unaware that he was in fact working for Global Nutcase Steve and as a result has been caught up in his nefarious schemes and thus doesn't deserve a bullet. It's a bit more likely that Dave went down the local Goon Centre or chatted to Alan in the back room of the pub about a possible opening, since those were the very dodgy circles he moved in, in which case he made his choice knowing full well what the "hired gun" job might entail. And at the point of the interview where they went "Here's yer sidearm, look menacing and shoot anything that gives you lip or looks a bit tasty," then Dave really should have either wrapped things up there and then or (more likely) thought of the hazard pay. So yes, valid target for someone taking on Steve because it's Dave's new job to get in the way
- they are literally there as album filler and to retain the pacing, otherwise everything would be over in ten minutes. No hidden subtext as far as I'm concerned. If there weren't a bunch of Daves in the way then it would be a very short story, because the route to Steve would be that much more direct and the hero would have very little struggle. It would just be a stand-up pub row.
- it's all pretend anyway

HOWEVER. If you do want to read into it and take umbrage with the whole thing, then point your finger at the Punisher, who seems to have no issue with flatlining guys that quite literally went to work for a security contractor in good faith without knowing what the boss was involved in and end up as blood donors for the walls and floor. He's a bit extreme (but then, clue is in the name again).

Without some MIB magic, I could never fit a whole universe in mine. Too painful.

 

How much, if any, resemblance does this have to Asimov's trilogy, sorry, heptalogy?

 

There's enough in it to be recognisable and it does help with watching tbh.

Having read the trilogy (the additional) several times I've loved the first two seasons.

I do always treat them as separate entities to books though, you can never make direct comparisons but I feel it's true to the feel of the books.

There are definite pickings from the prequels and some changes made here and there, some additions and so on but I really think there a benefit to a series format. Some changes do have to be made in order for it to work I feel.

But, yeah, they are not the books but they are it's relative and I have thoroughly enjoyed them.

 

I read the trilogy, when it still was a trilogy!

 

Sorry, bud - was tied up yesterday but dan's covered it (and in better detail than I would have been able).

 

We'll have to agree to disagree I guess. I think the trope of a person straight-up murdering loads of people just because they're working for someone is grotesque, and I don't find it entertaining, and the fact such a morally distasteful situation is wrung out, again and again, for all the blood it can produce simply to expand the runtime and pacing of a show rather than to address any of the more serious ideas prompted by mass killing makes it worse for me, not better, but you do you.

I do hate the Punisher for it especially, though.

I also think if you're super chill with things being "all pretend anyway" on screen you're not watching stuff the same way I watch it, which is not to say my way's better or worse, but I get quite emotionally invested in fiction and suspend disbelief as much as possible, considering the situations as if they were real (at least in gritty, grounded things involving life and death stakes). I hate The Boys precisely because it treats gore, murder, accidental death, revenge killing and so on as comedy fodder and punchlines. I find it icky. I know a lot of people don't, and that's fine for them.

The same difference in viewing mentality divides the people who enjoy slasher/splatter horror and those who don't. I can't understand why anyone would want to watch stuff like that - I can handle watching it, lord knows I've seen worse things online that were actually real (thanks internet), but I don't enjoy it at all, and I can't relate to people who do. But it'd be ****ing boring it we were all the same, wouldn't it.

Newest season of Sex Education is totally losing me. It's jumped the shark IMO. The school looks like some middle class hipster's acid trip fantasy of a private school, the characters are all becoming flanderized and unlikeable, everybody argues constantly for little to no reason and oh my, it's just exhausting and not fun. Season 1 was legitimately fun and had a sort of warm hearted niceness to it. Season 2 got a bit up itself with character drama but remained basically well rounded. This is just getting daft. It's like the writers were having a competition to make the most unlikeable and annoying character with the new introductions.

 

This looks so close to the original that might actually be worth a punt!

 

Babylon 5

Love it. Absolutely freakin' love it.

 

Have you caught the new sequel animation "The Road Home" yet?

 

Ooh, now there's a thought.

I have a weekend to myself and was mulling in the film thread whether to watch all the Star Wars movies.

But... I don't think I ever watched all of Babylon 5. I presume you'd say that was a good time investment of a weekend?

 

Gave up 4 episodes in to series 2, also know as the last series.
It really has no redeeming story lines, characters, plot or anything cohesive to make in enjoyable, it truly shall always be a festering carbuncle on the nose of the SG universe.