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Mycelia Board Game Review

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River Wild Board Game Review

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Outback Crossing Review

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What TV SHOWS are you watching?

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13 Oct 2017 15:25 #255683 by hotseatgames
Watched episode 1 of season 3 of Mr. Robot. Seems like the story line might be good this season. The show is up to its usual "let's make no fucking sense" antics.

Also watched episode 1 of Mindhunters, a new Netflix series about FBI criminal psychologists in 1977. I don't know how I feel about it yet, but I do know that the titles they flash on the screen any time the scene goes to a new location are very jarring.

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13 Oct 2017 15:37 #255685 by Grudunza
I thought the writing/dialogue was kind of weak for the Mr. Robot premiere, but then there was that extended nihilistic piece that Elliott has. They do those kind of things every once in a while, and I keep coming back.

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13 Oct 2017 22:50 #255700 by Jackwraith
Watched season 1 of Stranger Things over the past week or so. Pretty good. I had to laugh when I read that the Duffers had apparently pitched it to several cable networks, most of which doubted the viability of a series with children as the lead actors. Have these people never heard of Harry fucking Potter? How out of touch with the last two decades of fiction and film do you have to be to come to that conclusion?

Anyway, it had some interesting aspects. The Duffers are clearly infatuated with the 80s and they did a good job of injecting several elements into it that were redolent of that decade, including the score and mimicking techniques of directors like John Carpenter. Kind of convenient that season 2 starts in two weeks, too.

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23 Oct 2017 13:34 #256205 by Shellhead
Although there is no need to watch the seasons of American Horror Story in order, i want to watch them that way so I can also see how the creative team is developing over time. So it was a bit of a wait to get a hold of season two from the library. I am about halfway through the season so far, and Asylum is good. It takes place in a Catholic-operated mental institution in the early '60s, and the show is very focused on the social norms of that time.

At least three actors from season one are back: Jessica Lange, Evan Peters, and Zachary Quinto. Though Quinto is genre favorite thanks to his turn as Spock, Lange completely owns every scene she is in. She plays an archetypal strong and self-righteous nun, though it turns out that she is compensating for some insecurities and a dark past. James Cromwell plays the asylum doctor, and he holds his own in scenes with Lange. Lily Rabe is delicious, and Quinto gradually reveals some interesting depth to his initially stoic character. The only disappointment so far has been the Monsignor played by Joseph Fiennes.

As with first season, Asylum is more than just variations on a single theme. In addition to the expected nods to One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, there is some UFO stuff, an exorcism, a nazi war criminal, The Bad Seed, and a serial killer on the loose. So far, the disparate elements are holding together just fine, anchored by the strong acting and the brooding presence of the interior sets of Briarcliff Mental Institution. So far, Asylum isn't quite as compelling as season one's Murder House, but season one faltered in the final episodes when too many of the main cast had become ghosts and the horror turned to soap opera.

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25 Oct 2017 08:16 #256306 by Mr. White
Here's some TV shows I'm trying to watch...

Stranger Things 2...oy. My local Target must have a piece of ST2 merch on every aisle. I'm not sure I've ever seen such a blitz of fan tailored goods. I'm overwhelmed and to be honest it sort of puts me off the sequel. I liked the first one well enough. It's no Detectorists, but it's fine escapism. I'm sure we'll watch this sometime in Nov though.

David S Pumpkin cartoon. Like the rest of the country, we thought the skit was fantastic. My kids, in particular, loved it and must have seen it a few dozen times. Hell, they'll probably watch it some more this weekend. So, NBC is doing a 30min cartoon, but it comes on at 11:30pm? Why. Is this lame adult material? The skit was funny as hell being all ages. It was like Napoleon Dynamite, the humor wasn't crude, crass, or edgy. Why would the cartoon be different? Hopefully I'm wrong, but still...why the late air time?
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25 Oct 2017 08:58 #256309 by charlest
I love David S Pumpkins. But a cartoon? What?

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25 Oct 2017 09:03 #256310 by Mr. White

charlest wrote: I love David S Pumpkins. But a cartoon? What?


Yeah, supposedly there's a 30min cartoon/halloween special coming on this sat. I fully expect it to be like most stretched out SNL sketches not named Blues Brothers and will suck.

Still, I'd like to check it out on the hopes it doesn't.

They could have had a modern Pumpkin Patch Charlie Brown thing here. A great new character and tradition.

I'm very skeptical because of that air time though...

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25 Oct 2017 09:39 #256318 by Shellhead

Mr. White wrote: Stranger Things 2...oy. My local Target must have a piece of ST2 merch on every aisle. I'm not sure I've ever seen such a blitz of fan tailored goods. I'm overwhelmed and to be honest it sort of puts me off the sequel. I liked the first one well enough. It's no Detectorists, but it's fine escapism. I'm sure we'll watch this sometime in Nov though.


I still haven't gotten around to Stranger Things, let alone the sequel. A local disc jockey hosts a weekly '80s dance event that has been going on for over 15 years now, and he is a big fan of Stranger Things. His annual Halloween event had a Stranger Things theme last year and again this year.

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25 Oct 2017 17:18 #256355 by Not Sure

Mr. White wrote: Here's some TV shows I'm trying to watch...
David S Pumpkin cartoon. Like the rest of the country, we thought the skit was fantastic. My kids, in particular, loved it and must have seen it a few dozen times. Hell, they'll probably watch it some more this weekend. So, NBC is doing a 30min cartoon, but it comes on at 11:30pm? Why. Is this lame adult material? The skit was funny as hell being all ages. It was like Napoleon Dynamite, the humor wasn't crude, crass, or edgy. Why would the cartoon be different? Hopefully I'm wrong, but still...why the late air time?


Because NBC didn't have a time slot to air it, so Lorne Michaels gave up the first half-hour of SNL to do it. They're padding out the last hour of the slot with "Best of SNL Halloween". www.vulture.com/2017/10/david-s-pumpkins-oral-history.html

I can see NBC not giving up a primetime slot for what's basically the extended second coming of a pretty iffy joke to begin with. Like your worries about ST2, I think anything expanding on the sleep-deprived stupidity of David S. Pumpkins is just trying to put lightning back in the bottle.
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25 Oct 2017 17:35 #256357 by barrowdown
We finished American Horror Story: Roanoke this week and it is easily one of the better seasons. I will slot it above Hotel and behind Asylum. It's probably their best plotted season with probably the least amount of structural issues of any of their seasons. It is much more like Asylum and Hotel due to the overstuffed nature of jamming everything in that it can possibly think of. It's episode 5/6 pivot is better than most of the other seasons and reframes its context and uses its cast in more interesting ways. It's also the first episode to actively play with its structure to screw with the viewer through the use of unreliable narrators and camera styles.

Shellhead, Asylum also has Lily Rabe, Sarah Paulson, and Frances Conroy back from the first season.
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26 Oct 2017 05:10 - 26 Oct 2017 17:25 #256381 by ThirstyMan
Please will someone stop me watching DC Legends of Tomorrow. It is fucking awful but it's like Martini in a bottle....OK if there's nothing else.

Also addictive in an annoying way.

Like Arrow, same schmaltsy terrible relationships and nonsensical decision making and a bloody terrible exposition of time paradoxes.

Marvel's Agents of Shield is so much better than this dross.

Stop me before I slit my own throat.
Last edit: 26 Oct 2017 17:25 by ThirstyMan.
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26 Oct 2017 14:17 #256414 by Feelitmon
Yeah, I had to take a break from the CW superhero shows, and that "break" has been going on for quite a while now. Beyond the normal issues folks have with those shows--the CW relationship-drama-of-the-week, for example--what became unbearable for me was that Arrow, The Flash, and Legends of Tomorrow are all minor variations on "It's My Fault: The TV Show." Something bad happens, the hero blames himself for the next quarter-season, repeat. It gets tiresome, for one thing, and it also makes the protagonists extremely unlikeable after a while. Blaming themselves for all the ills of the world--even those things that they could not conceivably have prevented--is a power move, just pure ego. Not an admirable characteristic.
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26 Oct 2017 14:42 - 26 Oct 2017 14:44 #256418 by ChristopherMD
I like Legends of Tomorrow because its goofy fun and doesn't take itself seriously. They have a pseudo-villain that hangs around their ship drinking beer all the time and basically stealing the show. Only real issue is that Firestorm could win every single battle but they always have lame excuses not to use him.
Last edit: 26 Oct 2017 14:44 by ChristopherMD.

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26 Oct 2017 15:08 - 26 Oct 2017 15:09 #256425 by san il defanso
Things have been pretty stressful around here, so as in all times of stress I've gravitated toward shows that are something of a comfort. For me that means The Simpsons, and lots of it. I have all of the DVD sets except for the last one they released. Like most reasonable people, I know that the Simpsons peaked around season six and seven (at least those are my favorites), but I've been watching things from later in the run. Season 11 was where I started, which is a period that a lot of fans recognize as one of the low points for the show. I see their point, but it's also when I first got into the show as a high schooler, so I have a soft spot for those episodes. I have burned through those sets in a hurry, I'm now roughly 2/3 of the way through Season 15, which corresponds to when I was watching in college. It's better than I remember or than it's given credit for, even if it's not nearly as fresh as the show was at its peak.

Late-season Simpsons pushes against a lot of the assumptions we have about modern TV, which I think has fed the narrative of the show sucking these days. The characters don't advance ever, and it doesn't operate on the assumption that you've seen every episode, so what does it matter if a show in its 29th (!) season repeats itself all the time? It also frequently puts out shows that are basically just fine, as if they just felt the need to put out SOMEthing. There's a sort of factory made quality to The Simpsons that defies the obsessive nature of TV these days. It's clearly a show from a different era, when it was assumed that TV was a product before it was an art form.

Anyway, I need something comforting and familiar these days, and there is nothing more comforting and familiar in pop culture for me than The Simpsons. Still probably my favorite show ever.

I started rewatching Stranger Things a week or two ago, but I don't rewatch a lot of dramas. I am excited for season 2 coming out tomorrow though.
Last edit: 26 Oct 2017 15:09 by san il defanso.

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26 Oct 2017 15:35 #256429 by Sagrilarus
Good Behavior is back for season 2. Anyone watching?

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