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san il defanso wrote: Rewatching Breaking Bad with my wife, who has never seen it before. Interesting to revisit the show five years after the finale. A lot of the narrative surrounding the show at the time, especially surrounding Skyler, seems to offer a glimpse into toxic fandom toward female characters. Whatever the cultural context, it's still a very well-crafted show, and so tense and entertaining. They did something that I appreciate, where they were very judicious about introducing new elements into the show. There is a great economy of characters and situations, so they were able to feel like everything got squared away narratively.
The concept of Breaking Bad is great, and the show impressed me at times. But I grew to resent all the scenes with his family. They were important for character motivation, but often really annoying.
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I strongly disliked the re-framing of Walter's motivation from providing for his family to just being bad for the sake of being bad, because that's stupid. Almost nobody ever thinks of himself as a bad person, because it's easier to live with rationalization for bad behavior. I'm glad that I watched Breaking Bad once, but I wouldn't enjoy watching it again.
I never dug deep into the fandom, so I’m not aware of their specific complaints. For my part though, Skylar always came across as a nag and scold because she kept trying to get Walt to stop cooking and dealing. THAT’S ENTIRELY REASONABLE TO NOT WANT YOUR HUSBAND TO BE COOKING METH. But she was a character in a tv show, and we wanted to see Walt chuck fulminated mercury and order hits. We wanted him to live our fantasies, and she tried to make him live our life.
I disagree that Walt cooked to be bad. He cooked out of pride once the medical bills were covered. He was the best at it and got to be a DEA bogeyman. It made him feel big and assuaged his ego wounded at cashing out of Grey Technology(?).
From season 5, episode 15: "I did it for me. I liked it. I was good at it. And I was really -- I was alive." -- Walter White
charlest wrote: I use SlingTV for sports and very happy with it. Pay month to month and price never changes.
I just started using YouTube TV and it is very good. Superficially similar, but it is MILES ahead of PlayStation Vue in terms of interface, DVR, multiple devices, and especially picture quality.
SaMoKo wrote: With a lack of Game of Thrones or anything catching my interest on Netflix, I mostly just watch baseball now.
I’m from Baltimore, that’s not an attractive option.
Bless you for being the one team lower than the Blue Jays in the division of death. I’ve always had a soft spot for our fellow birds in the AL East. Mostly because fuck the Yankees, and visiting Baltimore fans are chill.
At least Machado had a return for your rebuild. Donaldson and Tulowitski are worth absolutely nothing to us or anyone lol
Just finished reading Laviathan Wakes and decided to check out The Expanse. I gotta say, I think it is the worst casting that I have ever seen in my life.
lol, last night I watched some Next Gen and had to sit through a Geordi Laforge love story and watch Troi try to be a covert Romulan operative. I don't think I can blame the casting here as much as the script writers thinking these are good arcs for these characters. Yikes.
Watched the 10 episodes of Disenchantment, Matt Groening's medieval/fantasy Netflix show. We thought it was pretty good and watched it in a short period of time. It's not as good as the best Futurama, but there were some interesting choices, like the Elves being more like Buddy the Elf than Legolas. It's also kind of weird to see him make a show that has an ongoing plot instead of feeling more sitcom-y.
Just finished reading Laviathan Wakes and decided to check out The Expanse. I gotta say, I think it is the worst casting that I have ever seen in my life.
We've kicked this around before, but I'm always up to talk about it again. I thought most of the casting ranged from serviceable to good. Alex was spot on. I didn't like Amos at first, but he grows on you. Unfortunately, the choice of whoever (not going to look it up) is playing Holden is completely miscast. They need to take a page from soap operas. (voiceover) "The role of Jim Holden will now be played by someone who doesn't suck."
Lasted six minutes of Million Pound Lunch on Netflix. It’s Shark Tank but for British restaurants and with a three-day pitch period rather than five minutes or whatever.
I know I’m late to the party on these investor shows but what? The protagonists are the people wealthy enough to make high-risk, high-reward investments with their money, not the scrappy entrepreneurs actually doing the work. I’m not saying the investment wouldn’t make a big difference or that these people couldn’t help the chefs be successful, but why are the investors the wise heroes? I was choking on the b-roll of people in expensive clothes looking serious and marking the business plans. I thought we were sick of people who can afford to make money with their money. Why is this even a genre in 2018?
Last edit: 29 Aug 2018 15:29 by DarthJoJo. Reason: Thought of a more concise opening line
I think the casting on The Expanse TV is only bad if you've read the books. It's very far off from the books but I think it mostly works. In fact, I hate Holden in the books but I think his remake in the show is much more palatable.
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I thought most of the casting ranged from serviceable to good. Alex was spot on. I didn't like Amos at first, but he grows on you. Unfortunately, the choice of whoever (not going to look it up) is playing Holden is completely miscast. They need to take a page from soap operas. (voiceover) "The role of Jim Holden will now be played by someone who doesn't suck." 
