Moments when a piece of entertainment completely lost you.

Absentminded_Wizard · Post by **Absentminded_Wizard** » Mon Jul 20, 2009 1:11 am

Prak_Anima wrote:
Absentminded_Wizard wrote:Well, MST3K was really on its last legs when they cancelled it. But they've been a perrenial disappointment. In the beginning, they used to have a news show that covered all the different kinds of science fiction--not only TV and movies, but books too. Ever since they cancelled that, they've been devolving. Right now, everything they do that isn't a rerun is a TV premiere of a usually really shitty straight-to-DVD movie with the production values of a children's lemonade stand.
fixd.

I thought "straight-to-DVD" implied all those things you bolded.

Ganbare Gincun · Post by **Ganbare Gincun** » Mon Jul 20, 2009 6:44 pm

Absentminded_Wizard wrote:Well, MST3K was really on its last legs when they cancelled it.

Given the fact that MST3K was left to languish and die in a Saturday 6 AM time slot, I'm not surprised that it was eventually "canceled". They did well for a while on the Sci-Fi Network, but once the leadership at Sci-Fi changed, they were set up for failure and doomed to oblivion.

Given the success of Cinematic Titanic and RiffTrax, I think it's pretty clear that there's a real market for that kind of entertainment. It's just that the idiots at Sci-Fi would rather spend their time putting on vapid shit about hunting ghosts, terrible knock-offs of big budget films, and sitting around trying to figure out how to rename their network with the goofiest name possible.

Absentminded_Wizard · Post by **Absentminded_Wizard** » Tue Jul 21, 2009 9:58 am

The quality of MST3K was going downhill in its later days on Comedy Central. Granted, some of that had to do with the fact that they'd exhausted just about all the sci-fi and horror B movies they could get access to. I was hoping that access to Sci-Fi's exclusive collection of old SF movies would help. In the end, though, I think the drastic changes in the setup didn't work for them (the show's supposed to be about the movies and the jokes about them, not the meta-plot). That said, I'd still rather watch even that version of MST3K than the standard SyFy Saturday night movie....

Maj · Post by **Maj** » Wed Jul 22, 2009 12:55 am

Maxus wrote:I still loathe that 'Merlin' show with every fiber of my being. The plot is, "How can Merlin scurry behind the scenes to keep Arthur alive THIS week?"

Merlin is the equivalent of Smallville for fantasy lovers. It's not supposed to be some sweeping epic tale of Merlin and Arthur. It's supposed to be the high school version of the legend. In that regard, I think it works just fine.

Maxus wrote:Uthur: Shut up! Arthur, go out and hit it harder!

Merlin's Teacher: Your Majesty, I tell you the truth

Uthur: Shut up! Just because you were right about the magic shield three weeks back...And about the witch-woman. And probably some other stuff that I didn't even know about...doesn't mean you're right now!

Not exactly...

Uther's an ass. It doesn't matter if a creature is magical or not - no one on his side is allowed to do magic. Ever. For any reason. There's not even allowed to be a discussion on that point. And so, even though the beast must be slain with magic, no one is allowed to do the magic required to kill it. So Arthur must go out and poke it until something different happens - which in this case was retreat, let Lancelot have a go while Arthur was hiding out, and let Merlin secretly do the magic no one else is allowed to do.

There are other issues the show suffers from - continuity being one of those. The last episode was so bad in that regard that I had a hard time watching. Day! Night! Day! Night! Day! It was almost as bad as House of Flying Daggers in that regard. And what the hell is up with Guinevere? Her name means pale/white/fair. The actress is... Not.

Psychic Robot · Post by **Psychic Robot** » Wed Jul 22, 2009 1:07 am

To interject my own opinion:

Evangelion lost me completely. I tried reading the manga in hopes that I might better understand what was going on, but the dialogue was unnaturally phrased, something that quickly got under my skin. The art was also sloppy, making it difficult to tell what was happening in the scenes.

Maxus · Post by **Maxus** » Wed Jul 22, 2009 1:51 am

Maj wrote: Some very reasonable points about Merlin

I agree; I'm likely being unduly harsh and irritable because that out of all the rich variety of fantasy out there, ripe for adaptation...THIS is what appears on TV. I guess I'm not a member of the target audience.

Also, yeah, what's up with Guinivere?

PhoneLobster · Post by **PhoneLobster** » Wed Jul 22, 2009 2:45 am

Maj wrote:Merlin is the equivalent of Smallville for fantasy lovers. It's not supposed to be some sweeping epic tale of Merlin and Arthur. It's supposed to be the high school version of the legend.

I'd say you were wrong and that Merlin is rather "lets make a lame teen soap with a gimmick to draw people in, lets see, gimmick hat... "Merlin", right lets make "Merling the teenage witch" What do you mean we can't use "teenage witch!" OK, then just cut that off the end of the title..."

But really since Smallville is basically the same thing only they drew "Superman" out of the lowest common denominator gimmick hat you are basically right.

Except for the point where you think that either show is somehow a good thing. I mean you could swap out Clarke and Merlin and change the costumes and the shows would be interchangeable low quality dross.

Gimmicks potentially still in the "Gimmicks for lame teen soapy" hat,
Batman the teenage witch
Al Capone the teenage witch
Attilla the Hun the teenage witch
Jr Cardinal Ratzinger the teenage witch
That Flamboyant pirate from the pirates from the carribean, the teenage witch
High School President Clinton, the teenage witch
Jesus Christ, the teenage witch

Gimmicks already removed from the hat,
Merlin the teenage witch
Superman the teenage witch
Little Grey XFile Aliens, the teenage witches
Cloned Jesus, the teenage witch
Sabrina the teenage witch

Koumei · Post by **Koumei** » Wed Jul 22, 2009 4:32 am

PhoneLobster wrote: Sabrina the teenage witch

You made that one up.

Crissa · Post by **Crissa** » Wed Jul 22, 2009 4:54 pm

Except, Superman actually went to high school.

This has Captain N Babies written all over it.

-Crissa

Count Arioch the 28th · Wed Jul 22, 2009 5:05 pm

Maxus wrote: Also, yeah, what's up with Guinivere?

She's a whore?

Then again, I've never seen the show. It all depends on who is telling the story, supposedly there's an interpretation that Launcelot and Arthur were bi and the three had fun like that.

Maxus · Post by **Maxus** » Wed Jul 22, 2009 5:17 pm

Not exactly. Here's a picture of the cast...

Merlin and Arthur are in the middle. To the left of Merlin is Guinevere.

mean_liar · Post by **mean_liar** » Wed Jul 22, 2009 5:33 pm

The Lady of the Lake is the antagonist in the 1st season? Well. That's a little unorthodox.

Maj · Post by **Maj** » Wed Jul 22, 2009 7:15 pm

PhoneLobster wrote:Except for the point where you think that the show succeeds at being the teen angst version of the legend.

Fixed.

Just because I believe that the show succeeds at being high schoolish doesn't mean that I believe it's good. That's like saying that GW Bush was a good president because he makes a good chimpanzee.

Count Arioch wrote:She's a whore?

Not yet.

Maxus wrote:Merlin and Arthur are in the middle. To the left of Merlin is Guinevere.

I think Morgana's pretty hot (far left), but what do I know?

mean liar wrote:The Lady of the Lake is the antagonist in the 1st season? Well. That's a little unorthodox.

I thought Nimueh was always antagonistic - toward Merlin. Which seems to be her motivation, though it's kind of hard to tell.

angelfromanotherpin · Post by **angelfromanotherpin** » Wed Jul 22, 2009 8:16 pm

Count_Arioch_the_28th wrote:She's a whore?

Let's be clear. Guinevere never took money for her favors, so she is at worst a slut. In fact, the only person ever to actually shell out cash for her (Arthur, in the form of bride-price and ransoms) is also a person she didn't put out for.

But let's take a step back.

While there have been as many versions of this story as stars in the sky, in general the marriage of Arthur to Guinevere is portrayed as at least initially political. And there's good reason to believe that in the earlier versions, when they get married, Arthur is about 13 and Guinevere is in her early 20s. Immediately their lack of sexual chemistry becomes clearer.

And when Guinevere doesn't want to put out for Arthur, he respects that, specifically because he's the child of a rape and has sworn not to repeat his father's sins.

That's the position they were in before the French started writing bad Tristan and Iseult fanfic all over the Arthurian mythos. They may have liked each other, but they were not in love; and both were in a position to want to step out on the other.

Koumei · Post by **Koumei** » Wed Jul 22, 2009 10:27 pm

The best thing about that series is that it has Giles the Repo man in it. And I usually don't care about actors and get pissed off by people who watch/like movies/shows just because it has so-and-so in it.

That being said, I don't watch it.

PhoneLobster · Post by **PhoneLobster** » Wed Jul 22, 2009 11:53 pm

Maj wrote:Fixed.

I'll agree with you if we can negotiate a more derogatory term than "teen angst" for the genre. I'd prefer something like "Shallow poorly written teen targeted trash".

"Teen angst" sounds too much like there is potentially some redeeming dramatic quality to it, rather than a poorly executed buzz word filled attempt to get the lowest common denominator audience to swallow it hook line an sinker.

Maj · Post by **Maj** » Thu Jul 23, 2009 1:59 am

Phone Lobster wrote:"Teen angst" sounds too much like there is potentially some redeeming dramatic quality to it

In my vocabulary, both "teen angst" and "high school" are very derogatory terms. But if you prefer "shallow, poorly-written, teen-targeted trash," that's OK with me.

Ganbare Gincun · Post by **Ganbare Gincun** » Tue Jul 28, 2009 12:08 am

Psychic Robot wrote:Evangelion lost me completely. I tried reading the manga in hopes that I might better understand what was going on, but the dialogue was unnaturally phrased, something that quickly got under my skin. The art was also sloppy, making it difficult to tell what was happening in the scenes.

Haven't read the manga, but watched the anime plenty. What do you have questions about?

Lago PARANOIA · Post by **Lago PARANOIA** » Tue Jul 28, 2009 9:42 pm

Wow. The ending of Hokuto no Ken 2 was just awful. I mean, I really loved the ending montage and the song but the final battle with Kaioh and the subplot with Han was just garbage. Even for a series that I don't take too seriously and have low standards for, this was just bad. Not Chrono Cross bad, but definitely the low point of the series.

Ganbare Gincun wrote:Haven't read the manga, but watched the anime plenty. What do you have questions about?

What was up with the series going out of its way to derail Shinji's character growth when the purpose of the first 3/4ths of the series was to show him growing out of his psychological issues? I've only watched the series over my brother's shoulder, but after what happened to Rei I have no idea how anyone can see what happened and not be majorly pissed off at the story doing that.

Ganbare Gincun · Post by **Ganbare Gincun** » Wed Jul 29, 2009 2:43 am

Lago PARANOIA wrote:What was up with the series going out of its way to derail Shinji's character growth when the purpose of the first 3/4ths of the series was to show him growing out of his psychological issues? I've only watched the series over my brother's shoulder, but after what happened to Rei I have no idea how anyone can see what happened and not be majorly pissed off at the story doing that.

You are referring to the final two episodes of the series, I presume?

Lago PARANOIA · Post by **Lago PARANOIA** » Thu Jul 30, 2009 5:34 pm

Koumei · Post by **Koumei** » Fri Jul 31, 2009 5:31 am

Lago PARANOIA wrote:but after what happened to Rei I have no idea how anyone can see what happened and not be majorly pissed off at the story doing that.

Which particular incident? You mean all her spare bodies being destroyed, or her exploding herself to save him (then a new one wandering along and not being entirely sure what she did)? Or possibly something else that I forgot?

And I wasn't a big fan of the last two episodes, but it didn't fill be with the kind of rage that others felt - the ones who sent death threats to Anno, for instance. And that is why he made Death & Rebirth + The End of Evangelion. As a way of saying "Yeah, well fuck you. In the ass." to those fans.

...and I hear there are two other movies for Eva that I didn't know about.

Lago PARANOIA · Post by **Lago PARANOIA** » Fri Jul 31, 2009 5:34 am

The one where Rei exploded herself to save him which meant that all of the character development she had with Shinji up until then went down the tubes.

mean_liar · Post by **mean_liar** » Fri Jul 31, 2009 12:49 pm

I just watched the finale of Samurai Champloo. What a bag of shit that was. Jin and Mugen should have died, and why the fuck was everyone all hot-shit to kill a man on his deathbed?

Koumei · Post by **Koumei** » Fri Jul 31, 2009 2:11 pm

I only watched the first few episodes of that one. It wasn't bad, but I couldn't build up the interest to watch the whole lot.