I’ve found that for most popular shows you can find a decent guide online that’ll tell you which early-season episodes to watch to get to know the characters and concept, but which you can safely skip to get to the good stuff. Often for network shows, you’re really only watching like 5-7 episodes out of a 22+ first season.
I don’t always agree with them, but it’s a good starting point. The Star Trek guide I’m looking at has you watching “Skin of Evil” for “continuity.” Man, fuck that, that episode is terrible. Tasha gets killed by a trash bag monster. That’s all you need to know. I just saved you forty five minutes.
I’ve found that for most popular shows you can find a decent guide online that’ll tell you which early-season episodes to watch to get to know the characters and concept, but which you can safely skip to get to the good stuff. Often for network shows, you’re really only watching like 5-7 episodes out of a 22+ first season.
I don’t always agree with them, but it’s a good starting point. The Star Trek guide I’m looking at has you watching “Skin of Evil” for “continuity.” Man, fuck that, that episode is terrible. Tasha gets killed by a trash bag monster. That’s all you need to know. I just saved you forty five minutes.
There's a good list out there that does something similar for Babylon 5, with I think like six episodes from season 1 so you can be caught up on the important bits.
I’ve found that for most popular shows you can find a decent guide online that’ll tell you which early-season episodes to watch to get to know the characters and concept, but which you can safely skip to get to the good stuff. Often for network shows, you’re really only watching like 5-7 episodes out of a 22+ first season.
I don’t always agree with them, but it’s a good starting point. The Star Trek guide I’m looking at has you watching “Skin of Evil” for “continuity.” Man, fuck that, that episode is terrible. Tasha gets killed by a trash bag monster. That’s all you need to know. I just saved you forty five minutes.
There's a good list out there that does something similar for Babylon 5, with I think like six episodes from season 1 so you can be caught up on the important bits.
there's also the movies that have a viewing order:
And no one needs to see Crusade. Twas a silly series.
I decided to try that show "Evil" because I like Mike Colter. I search "ev" and what's the first result? Angkor Revealed and Evil isn't even in the top row. It's 2020. How do you fail that hard at a search function?
Then the connection broke and the only way to get it back was to reboot my PS4. And then it lost my place in the episode. This would've been bad UI in 2007. Now it's mind-boggling incompetence.
They're lucky they own Star Trek.
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ShadowfireVermont, in the middle of nowhereRegistered Userregular
I’ve found that for most popular shows you can find a decent guide online that’ll tell you which early-season episodes to watch to get to know the characters and concept, but which you can safely skip to get to the good stuff. Often for network shows, you’re really only watching like 5-7 episodes out of a 22+ first season.
I don’t always agree with them, but it’s a good starting point. The Star Trek guide I’m looking at has you watching “Skin of Evil” for “continuity.” Man, fuck that, that episode is terrible. Tasha gets killed by a trash bag monster. That’s all you need to know. I just saved you forty five minutes.
There's a good list out there that does something similar for Babylon 5, with I think like six episodes from season 1 so you can be caught up on the important bits.
there's also the movies that have a viewing order:
And no one needs to see Crusade. Twas a silly series.
I’ve found that for most popular shows you can find a decent guide online that’ll tell you which early-season episodes to watch to get to know the characters and concept, but which you can safely skip to get to the good stuff. Often for network shows, you’re really only watching like 5-7 episodes out of a 22+ first season.
I don’t always agree with them, but it’s a good starting point. The Star Trek guide I’m looking at has you watching “Skin of Evil” for “continuity.” Man, fuck that, that episode is terrible. Tasha gets killed by a trash bag monster. That’s all you need to know. I just saved you forty five minutes.
There's a good list out there that does something similar for Babylon 5, with I think like six episodes from season 1 so you can be caught up on the important bits.
there's also the movies that have a viewing order:
And no one needs to see Crusade. Twas a silly series.
Also you should just watch them in release order, like most things. And you don't really need to watch any of the movies honestly.
Crusade is a lot like early B5, in that it's got hints of interesting ideas it's setting up but it's also kinda stumbling around and hasn't hit it's stride. And on top of that it's got a ton of network fuckery going on. Crusade was going some interesting places I think but what we got is mostly a mess.
Wasn't 2 seasons the line Netflix drew for cancelling shit because that's when the costs jumped up cause of contracts and the like? Or was that 3 seasons?
That's the public perception of what's happening, yes.
3 seasons is where you gotta start paying people more to stick around
Any season greater than 1 is when you pay people more to stick around, unless it's already been negotiated up front for multiple seasons.
People need to keep watching shows for Netflix (and every service under the sun) not to cancel them. There are few exceptions.
Wasn't 2 seasons the line Netflix drew for cancelling shit because that's when the costs jumped up cause of contracts and the like? Or was that 3 seasons?
That's the public perception of what's happening, yes.
3 seasons is where you gotta start paying people more to stick around
Any season greater than 1 is when you pay people more to stick around, unless it's already been negotiated up front for multiple seasons.
People need to keep watching shows for Netflix (and every service under the sun) not to cancel them. There are few exceptions.
The only one that ever seemed odd to me is Santa Clarita Diet. The Marvel stuff I get. And most of the other stuff that came and went I get. But SCD always seemed like the one show that every real-life person I know watched, seemed to have critical approval, and seemed to get significant buzz every season. Like it looked to this member of the viewership like it was about as popular as a Netflix show, particularly a half-hour comedy, could expect to be.
But obviously the numbers behind the curtain can always be different. Everybody I know watched Parks and Rec too, and guess what wasn't anywhere near the top of the ratings pile...
I'd never seen Avatar or Legend of Korra, but Korra popped up as a recommendation a few weeks back so I figured I'd finally take the plunge. I enjoy seeing newbies dive into older properties I love so I'll throw impressions and stuff into some spoilers for the curious.
I did know a few things going in just from online discourse/memes/etc:
"That all changed when the Fire Nation attacked."
Uncle Iroh is a favorite, dispenses wisdom like it's his job, and he dies and it's really fucking sad (not 100% on the last bit).
Zuko starts as a bad guy and eventually turns and I'm pretty sure it's regarded as a very well done character arc.
I was vaguely aware of somebody named Toph that is popular.
The Avatar movie is considered a crime against humanity.
I knew pretty much nothing about Korra or anyone on the show before it came up on my feed.
Started with Korra because I like lady leads, liked what looked like an older age group of the cast, and I thought it might be neat to watch it without the context of Avatar and see if filling in the prior series after the fact changed much for me (and changed much for watching Avatar).
Went thru two seasons of Legend of Korra first:
After one season:
Bolin's great but it's not cool to be a dick to butlers, dude.
Korra's awesome and can do better than Mako.
Asami's awesome and can do better than Mako.
Mako's kind of a turd but not enough to drag the show down.
Captain Beifong is awesome.
Naga: the best girl.
The pro bending matches are a fun side story. Love seeing the take on sports in altered settings like this.
Adult, spirit/Avatar Aang seems like a cool dude.
Season 2:
Oh shit that's Aubrey Plaza.
I will never get tired of Tenzin being flabbergasted by his family.
I applaud the writing choice to use Tenzin's kid as the guide in the spirit world instead of him. An interesting emotional obstacle to explore with Tenzin and a good lesson about accepting that sometimes shit doesn't work out for you.
Tenzin is not allowed to pick a favorite child but I am, and it's Jinora.
The flashback episodes to the first Avatar were very cool.
Korra and Asami: still awesome.
Mako: eh. He's fine.
Bolin: Still good... but a little turdish with the 'movie star ego' and bailing on your brother a little too easily, bud.
Naga: Still the best girl.
Korra must become a God by the end of season 4 if they keep trying to escalate from here.
Iroh seems pretty great. Looking forward to more of him.
At this point I'd seen enough allusions to the prior series that my interest was piqued and I decided to flip over to Avatar (I was surprised to learn it was only 3 seasons)
After one season of Avatar:
Sokka sucked a lot to start, but sucked less and less as the season went on until I became a fan and then they had to hit me with Yue. Dick move, writers.
Katara's the best. Immediately and ongoing.
Child Aang and adult Aang are wayyy different and it's interesting to project the arc between them.
OK yeah, Iroh is definitely the best, and I like his relationship with Zuko.
Coming to this from Korra, I'm getting the impression that bending as a whole got quite a bit stronger over those 100 years in between. From no metal-bending to a police-force full of them, for example.
Then again, maybe it had to from the writers' perspective to keep pace with the technological development. Glad they made the leap there and decided to explore a different setting in the second show.
Bless this show for stuff like the Kyoshi warriors and Katara straight up fighting the water bending master so he'd train her. Good shit.
Love Appa and Momo.
Season two:
And then, the Lord looked upon this show and said "Let there be Toph," and everyone saw Toph and squealed with glee.
Katara remains the best and every hint of friendship with her and Toph is a delight.
Iroh remains the best and I loved his little chat with Toph.
Toph is so great that it feels like a crime we had to wait this long to get her.
Sokka keeps getting better.
Major props to this show for two things: Ending the season with the villains winning a major victory and holding off on Zuko's turn. Feels like they had their series story arc planned out from the start and that should make the payoffs that much better.
Fuck I did not expect to care so much about an air bison being kidnapped, nor did I expect them to hold that so long.
The Aang/Katara romance is cute.
I *love* Toph.
If Suki is dead I'm gonna be very displeased.
They a neat job of interweaving some of the minor/nameless characters to show how close Zuko/Iroh got sometimes to Aang and gang. Probably something you could catch a lot of on a rewatch.
Fuck Iroh's gonna die and it's gonna be crushing, isn't it?
Azula's a good villain but she kiiiind of sidles up a little too closely to the "cackling evil for evil's sake" line sometimes.
Mai is a turd.
Ty Lee makes up for Mai and then some. Love the crush on Sokka and I'm surprisingly a little torn between rooting for her or Suki there. Good for you, Sokka.
It's a shame we couldn't bring in an air nation crush for Sokka to fully round things out. I suppose we can really stretch and call Suki air-adjacent since I think Kyoshi had some air-nation association of something (hence the war fans, right?)
I would die for Toph.
Now making my way thru season 3. Starting to feel like I should subject myself to the movie someday to get the full Avatar Fan Experience. Maybe on a day when I wanna feel sad or something.
I keep meaning to get into Star Trek but I can't quite pull the trigger because I hear Season 1 is bad but I also don't want to "miss" anything.
I've rewatched Parks & Rec 3 times I think? And I've never seen Season 1. It is completely skippable.
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Munkus BeaverYou don't have to attend every argument you are invited to.Philosophy: Stoicism. Politics: Democratic SocialistRegistered User, ClubPAregular
Munkus BeaverYou don't have to attend every argument you are invited to.Philosophy: Stoicism. Politics: Democratic SocialistRegistered User, ClubPAregular
The Q ones are basically stand alone episodes with a reoccurring god character, so they are a nice introduction to the series.
Humor can be dissected as a frog can, but dies in the process.
The first season of TNG is good! It just also has some very bad episodes. I really think the fan discussion of it has it backwards, people should be making lists of the early episodes you shouldn't watch.
Honestly TNG has a lot of dishwasher tv style episodes in it, you can have a large amount of it on in the background. The neat thing I noticed watching through the first time, was that the stand out episodes everyone talks about, are usually attention grabbing enough that you stop whatever else you are doing and pay attention. The first season is full of them, but you will want to pay more attention as they go on.
I started watching it when discovery came out and was surprised to see cross characters decades apart, it was neat ish, if discovery werent so bad.
I keep meaning to get into Star Trek but I can't quite pull the trigger because I hear Season 1 is bad but I also don't want to "miss" anything.
I've rewatched Parks & Rec 3 times I think? And I've never seen Season 1. It is completely skippable.
TNG season 1 is even less essential viewing that season 1 of Parks & Rec. Remember that TNG was built for syndication, where continuity is a dirty word; if you know what a transporter is, you can jump into literally any episode and understand what's going on. If you don't like an episode, skip it. Or start with TOS or DS9.
That being said, the badness of season 1 of TNG is overrated; season 1 started with some absolute stinkers, but after that, it's mostly just a bit sterile, and you start getting decent episodes pretty quick. (Though still a bit uneven.) If you're alright with a bit of sterility, I suggest just starting with "Datalore", then coming back to the first half of the season at a later time.
(Heads up on "Code of Honor" (racism), "Angel One" (sexism) and "When the Bough Breaks" (racism again), though.)
I keep meaning to get into Star Trek but I can't quite pull the trigger because I hear Season 1 is bad but I also don't want to "miss" anything.
I've rewatched Parks & Rec 3 times I think? And I've never seen Season 1. It is completely skippable.
TNG season 1 is even less essential viewing that season 1 of Parks & Rec. Remember that TNG was built for syndication, where continuity is a dirty word; if you know what a transporter is, you can jump into literally any episode and understand what's going on. If you don't like an episode, skip it. Or start with TOS or DS9.
That being said, the badness of season 1 of TNG is overrated; season 1 started with some absolute stinkers, but after that, it's mostly just a bit sterile, and you start getting decent episodes pretty quick. (Though still a bit uneven.) If you're alright with a bit of sterility, I suggest just starting with "Datalore", then coming back to the first half of the season at a later time.
(Heads up on "Code of Honor" (racism), "Angel One" (sexism) and "When the Bough Breaks" (racism again), though.)
I think you need the first episode as well ultimately. It is a Q episode and is involved in the majority of continuity in the series. I find most Q episodes are pretty good anyways, but you only really need the first one from Season 1.
Altered Carbon went to shit in S2. S1 was a fairly good adaption of the book, with what was essentially a locked room mystery in a cyberpunk setting(Bancroft was the only one that could pull the trigger, but he says he never would). The followup book is a heist movie where they try to aquired a interstellar gate in the middle of a warzone. It explains the Martians(Elder race in the show) and how Humans relate to them(pretend they kill themselves off because they let people have to much independence).
It was book 3 that went back to Harlan's world with Kovacs going on a roaring rampage of revenge. Trying to combine book two and three was garbage. It did neither book right and was less then the sum of its parts. It neutered the war story and practically made a joke of the revenge story.
Toning down the semi-pornography was a mistake. It was a part of the setting that bodies where disposable sleeves, to be used and discarded like so much junk. People didn't think much of nudity because it wasn't "them" exposing themselves, it was just their sleeve and their sleeve could be changed, enhanced and modified to suit their whims.
The sky was full of stars, every star an exploding ship. One of ours.
I keep meaning to get into Star Trek but I can't quite pull the trigger because I hear Season 1 is bad but I also don't want to "miss" anything.
I've rewatched Parks & Rec 3 times I think? And I've never seen Season 1. It is completely skippable.
TNG season 1 is even less essential viewing that season 1 of Parks & Rec. Remember that TNG was built for syndication, where continuity is a dirty word; if you know what a transporter is, you can jump into literally any episode and understand what's going on. If you don't like an episode, skip it. Or start with TOS or DS9.
That being said, the badness of season 1 of TNG is overrated; season 1 started with some absolute stinkers, but after that, it's mostly just a bit sterile, and you start getting decent episodes pretty quick. (Though still a bit uneven.) If you're alright with a bit of sterility, I suggest just starting with "Datalore", then coming back to the first half of the season at a later time.
(Heads up on "Code of Honor" (racism), "Angel One" (sexism) and "When the Bough Breaks" (racism again), though.)
I'd start with Encounter at Farpoint, maybe throw Q Who in there, and then move to Season 3. If you end up liking Season 3/4, then think about swinging back for some of the episodes in the first 2 seasons. I'm sure folks in the Star Trek thread could help with suggestions.
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SteevLWhat can I do for you?Registered Userregular
We have been enjoying Deep Space Nine lately. I remember watching it when it first aired and I wasn't into it at all. I fell off of it pretty quickly back then, occasionally hearing about the stuff people liked about it in later years. Now I appreciate it a lot more, although there are some pretty bad episodes in there...like "Move Along Home" in season 1. It definitely starts to pick up, though, and season 2 has been a lot better. We most recently finished "Blood Oath" and the first part of "The Maquis".
I’ve found that for most popular shows you can find a decent guide online that’ll tell you which early-season episodes to watch to get to know the characters and concept, but which you can safely skip to get to the good stuff. Often for network shows, you’re really only watching like 5-7 episodes out of a 22+ first season.
I don’t always agree with them, but it’s a good starting point. The Star Trek guide I’m looking at has you watching “Skin of Evil” for “continuity.” Man, fuck that, that episode is terrible. Tasha gets killed by a trash bag monster. That’s all you need to know. I just saved you forty five minutes.
There's a good list out there that does something similar for Babylon 5, with I think like six episodes from season 1 so you can be caught up on the important bits.
there's also the movies that have a viewing order:
And no one needs to see Crusade. Twas a silly series.
Also you should just watch them in release order, like most things. And you don't really need to watch any of the movies honestly.
Crusade is a lot like early B5, in that it's got hints of interesting ideas it's setting up but it's also kinda stumbling around and hasn't hit it's stride. And on top of that it's got a ton of network fuckery going on. Crusade was going some interesting places I think but what we got is mostly a mess.
You don't need to watch the movies, but you should watch In the Beginning because everyone is absolutely nailing the characters and lines. Plus you'd be missing out on Londo's delivery of "Ah, arrogance and stupidity all in the same package. How efficient of you."
Shut up, Mr. Burton! You were not brought upon this world to get it!
Altered Carbon went to shit in S2. S1 was a fairly good adaption of the book, with what was essentially a locked room mystery in a cyberpunk setting(Bancroft was the only one that could pull the trigger, but he says he never would). The followup book is a heist movie where they try to aquired a interstellar gate in the middle of a warzone. It explains the Martians(Elder race in the show) and how Humans relate to them(pretend they kill themselves off because they let people have to much independence).
It was book 3 that went back to Harlan's world with Kovacs going on a roaring rampage of revenge. Trying to combine book two and three was garbage. It did neither book right and was less then the sum of its parts. It neutered the war story and practically made a joke of the revenge story.
Toning down the semi-pornography was a mistake. It was a part of the setting that bodies where disposable sleeves, to be used and discarded like so much junk. People didn't think much of nudity because it wasn't "them" exposing themselves, it was just their sleeve and their sleeve could be changed, enhanced and modified to suit their whims.
It doesn't help that they seemed to fully replace Laeta Kalogridis (who has made some serious shit but also had a good handle on the world building) with Alison Schapker who did Alias (which was pretty much a shitshow), Lost, and the Flash, all of which are mystery box meandering shows. Given t he wildly different styles and tones of the only two series, I have to figure that Laeta had a better handle on what the show was meant to be.
Altered Carbon could be gratuitous but tbh that is what I wanted from a blade runner murder mystery in a world where life is cheap and immortality is possible and where the rich are just obscenely rich. It's grim, it's gritty, it's dark, it's probably pretty realistic of where we would be given the stack tech, and I even liked the twist
that his sister was alive and had been corrupted by centuries of trying to salvage her brother, or things like resurrecting your deceased loved ones to spend time with them.
The second series' felt it's biggest draw was fucking magnetic guns. Like Kinnaman can be wooden, but if you're going to be a bad-ass, stoic, dead-inside, advanced future cop you would have a body like that and all the powers that come with it, not magnetic guns. The second season is bright and clear and doesn't dwell on the darker aspects of a modern immortal society at all. Anyway, the second series was so poor that it killed my interest in the franchise and I didn't even bother with the anime.
I didn't get the magnetic guns, I think he used them all of once. Seemed so pointless. Why did they even add them. My understanding was the setting for the second book was way too grandiose for the budget. Anthony Mackie is ok, but like some other actors, he felt like...'hey, it's uh... anthony mackie being anthony mackie'. I think Kinnaman had the benefit of me not seeing him in much before hand. The sister was a pretty great part of it all, the actress did a bang up job. I really enjoyed Purefoy, but I always like him in stuff.
I didn't get through the anime, but I did make it through the second season.
Amazon Prime has released a behind the scenes production video for the Critical Role animated series, The Legend of Vox Machina. You mostly get to see design work for architecture, landscapes, and interiors, but it's still a pretty neat first look.
Amazon Prime has released a behind the scenes production video for the Critical Role animated series, The Legend of Vox Machina. You mostly get to see design work for architecture, landscapes, and interiors, but it's still a pretty neat first look.
I'm a newcomer to Critical Role (thanks to work-from-home), but I warned my wife that when this comes out I'm forcing her to watch this with me (she hates animated shows).
Critical Role should be right up my alley, but I find watching voice actors hamming it up to be unbearable. I hope an animated version can get me past my hang up.
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I don’t always agree with them, but it’s a good starting point. The Star Trek guide I’m looking at has you watching “Skin of Evil” for “continuity.” Man, fuck that, that episode is terrible. Tasha gets killed by a trash bag monster. That’s all you need to know. I just saved you forty five minutes.
There's a good list out there that does something similar for Babylon 5, with I think like six episodes from season 1 so you can be caught up on the important bits.
You'd miss a couple of good ones, like the Gaiman Day of the Dead one.
Choose Your Own Chat 1 Choose Your Own Chat 2 Choose Your Own Chat 3
there's also the movies that have a viewing order:
I decided to try that show "Evil" because I like Mike Colter. I search "ev" and what's the first result? Angkor Revealed and Evil isn't even in the top row. It's 2020. How do you fail that hard at a search function?
Then the connection broke and the only way to get it back was to reboot my PS4. And then it lost my place in the episode. This would've been bad UI in 2007. Now it's mind-boggling incompetence.
They're lucky they own Star Trek.
Crusade is watchable, but not great.
Legend of the Rangers was fuckawful.
Also you should just watch them in release order, like most things. And you don't really need to watch any of the movies honestly.
Crusade is a lot like early B5, in that it's got hints of interesting ideas it's setting up but it's also kinda stumbling around and hasn't hit it's stride. And on top of that it's got a ton of network fuckery going on. Crusade was going some interesting places I think but what we got is mostly a mess.
Any season greater than 1 is when you pay people more to stick around, unless it's already been negotiated up front for multiple seasons.
People need to keep watching shows for Netflix (and every service under the sun) not to cancel them. There are few exceptions.
pleasepaypreacher.net
Some of the scripts they had written were pretty damn cool.
We were even like 1 or 2 episodes-in-production away from Bester returning.
The only one that ever seemed odd to me is Santa Clarita Diet. The Marvel stuff I get. And most of the other stuff that came and went I get. But SCD always seemed like the one show that every real-life person I know watched, seemed to have critical approval, and seemed to get significant buzz every season. Like it looked to this member of the viewership like it was about as popular as a Netflix show, particularly a half-hour comedy, could expect to be.
But obviously the numbers behind the curtain can always be different. Everybody I know watched Parks and Rec too, and guess what wasn't anywhere near the top of the ratings pile...
I did know a few things going in just from online discourse/memes/etc:
Uncle Iroh is a favorite, dispenses wisdom like it's his job, and he dies and it's really fucking sad (not 100% on the last bit).
Zuko starts as a bad guy and eventually turns and I'm pretty sure it's regarded as a very well done character arc.
I was vaguely aware of somebody named Toph that is popular.
The Avatar movie is considered a crime against humanity.
I knew pretty much nothing about Korra or anyone on the show before it came up on my feed.
Started with Korra because I like lady leads, liked what looked like an older age group of the cast, and I thought it might be neat to watch it without the context of Avatar and see if filling in the prior series after the fact changed much for me (and changed much for watching Avatar).
Went thru two seasons of Legend of Korra first:
Bolin's great but it's not cool to be a dick to butlers, dude.
Korra's awesome and can do better than Mako.
Asami's awesome and can do better than Mako.
Mako's kind of a turd but not enough to drag the show down.
Captain Beifong is awesome.
Naga: the best girl.
The pro bending matches are a fun side story. Love seeing the take on sports in altered settings like this.
Adult, spirit/Avatar Aang seems like a cool dude.
Season 2:
Oh shit that's Aubrey Plaza.
I will never get tired of Tenzin being flabbergasted by his family.
I applaud the writing choice to use Tenzin's kid as the guide in the spirit world instead of him. An interesting emotional obstacle to explore with Tenzin and a good lesson about accepting that sometimes shit doesn't work out for you.
Tenzin is not allowed to pick a favorite child but I am, and it's Jinora.
The flashback episodes to the first Avatar were very cool.
Korra and Asami: still awesome.
Mako: eh. He's fine.
Bolin: Still good... but a little turdish with the 'movie star ego' and bailing on your brother a little too easily, bud.
Naga: Still the best girl.
Korra must become a God by the end of season 4 if they keep trying to escalate from here.
Iroh seems pretty great. Looking forward to more of him.
At this point I'd seen enough allusions to the prior series that my interest was piqued and I decided to flip over to Avatar (I was surprised to learn it was only 3 seasons)
Sokka sucked a lot to start, but sucked less and less as the season went on until I became a fan and then they had to hit me with Yue. Dick move, writers.
Katara's the best. Immediately and ongoing.
Child Aang and adult Aang are wayyy different and it's interesting to project the arc between them.
OK yeah, Iroh is definitely the best, and I like his relationship with Zuko.
Coming to this from Korra, I'm getting the impression that bending as a whole got quite a bit stronger over those 100 years in between. From no metal-bending to a police-force full of them, for example.
Then again, maybe it had to from the writers' perspective to keep pace with the technological development. Glad they made the leap there and decided to explore a different setting in the second show.
Bless this show for stuff like the Kyoshi warriors and Katara straight up fighting the water bending master so he'd train her. Good shit.
Love Appa and Momo.
Season two:
And then, the Lord looked upon this show and said "Let there be Toph," and everyone saw Toph and squealed with glee.
Katara remains the best and every hint of friendship with her and Toph is a delight.
Iroh remains the best and I loved his little chat with Toph.
Toph is so great that it feels like a crime we had to wait this long to get her.
Sokka keeps getting better.
Major props to this show for two things: Ending the season with the villains winning a major victory and holding off on Zuko's turn. Feels like they had their series story arc planned out from the start and that should make the payoffs that much better.
Fuck I did not expect to care so much about an air bison being kidnapped, nor did I expect them to hold that so long.
The Aang/Katara romance is cute.
I *love* Toph.
If Suki is dead I'm gonna be very displeased.
They a neat job of interweaving some of the minor/nameless characters to show how close Zuko/Iroh got sometimes to Aang and gang. Probably something you could catch a lot of on a rewatch.
Fuck Iroh's gonna die and it's gonna be crushing, isn't it?
Azula's a good villain but she kiiiind of sidles up a little too closely to the "cackling evil for evil's sake" line sometimes.
Mai is a turd.
Ty Lee makes up for Mai and then some. Love the crush on Sokka and I'm surprisingly a little torn between rooting for her or Suki there. Good for you, Sokka.
It's a shame we couldn't bring in an air nation crush for Sokka to fully round things out. I suppose we can really stretch and call Suki air-adjacent since I think Kyoshi had some air-nation association of something (hence the war fans, right?)
I would die for Toph.
Now making my way thru season 3. Starting to feel like I should subject myself to the movie someday to get the full Avatar Fan Experience. Maybe on a day when I wanna feel sad or something.
I've rewatched Parks & Rec 3 times I think? And I've never seen Season 1. It is completely skippable.
Just watch the Q episodes.
But seriously, the only bad episodes are Crusher episodes.
Bev has the one where everyone disappears and the one where she has a telepathic bond with Picard.
Choose Your Own Chat 1 Choose Your Own Chat 2 Choose Your Own Chat 3
I would not watch Star Trek again for years to come.
I started watching it when discovery came out and was surprised to see cross characters decades apart, it was neat ish, if discovery werent so bad.
TNG season 1 is even less essential viewing that season 1 of Parks & Rec. Remember that TNG was built for syndication, where continuity is a dirty word; if you know what a transporter is, you can jump into literally any episode and understand what's going on. If you don't like an episode, skip it. Or start with TOS or DS9.
That being said, the badness of season 1 of TNG is overrated; season 1 started with some absolute stinkers, but after that, it's mostly just a bit sterile, and you start getting decent episodes pretty quick. (Though still a bit uneven.) If you're alright with a bit of sterility, I suggest just starting with "Datalore", then coming back to the first half of the season at a later time.
(Heads up on "Code of Honor" (racism), "Angel One" (sexism) and "When the Bough Breaks" (racism again), though.)
I think you need the first episode as well ultimately. It is a Q episode and is involved in the majority of continuity in the series. I find most Q episodes are pretty good anyways, but you only really need the first one from Season 1.
It was book 3 that went back to Harlan's world with Kovacs going on a roaring rampage of revenge. Trying to combine book two and three was garbage. It did neither book right and was less then the sum of its parts. It neutered the war story and practically made a joke of the revenge story.
Toning down the semi-pornography was a mistake. It was a part of the setting that bodies where disposable sleeves, to be used and discarded like so much junk. People didn't think much of nudity because it wasn't "them" exposing themselves, it was just their sleeve and their sleeve could be changed, enhanced and modified to suit their whims.
DeBlasio has made it mandatory.
I'd start with Encounter at Farpoint, maybe throw Q Who in there, and then move to Season 3. If you end up liking Season 3/4, then think about swinging back for some of the episodes in the first 2 seasons. I'm sure folks in the Star Trek thread could help with suggestions.
My Backloggery
You don't need to watch the movies, but you should watch In the Beginning because everyone is absolutely nailing the characters and lines. Plus you'd be missing out on Londo's delivery of "Ah, arrogance and stupidity all in the same package. How efficient of you."
It doesn't help that they seemed to fully replace Laeta Kalogridis (who has made some serious shit but also had a good handle on the world building) with Alison Schapker who did Alias (which was pretty much a shitshow), Lost, and the Flash, all of which are mystery box meandering shows. Given t he wildly different styles and tones of the only two series, I have to figure that Laeta had a better handle on what the show was meant to be.
Altered Carbon could be gratuitous but tbh that is what I wanted from a blade runner murder mystery in a world where life is cheap and immortality is possible and where the rich are just obscenely rich. It's grim, it's gritty, it's dark, it's probably pretty realistic of where we would be given the stack tech, and I even liked the twist
The second series' felt it's biggest draw was fucking magnetic guns. Like Kinnaman can be wooden, but if you're going to be a bad-ass, stoic, dead-inside, advanced future cop you would have a body like that and all the powers that come with it, not magnetic guns. The second season is bright and clear and doesn't dwell on the darker aspects of a modern immortal society at all. Anyway, the second series was so poor that it killed my interest in the franchise and I didn't even bother with the anime.
I didn't get through the anime, but I did make it through the second season.
Yep, I watched that yesterday.
I'm a newcomer to Critical Role (thanks to work-from-home), but I warned my wife that when this comes out I'm forcing her to watch this with me (she hates animated shows).