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[Streaming Services] Cable Television for the Internet Age

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    shrykeshryke Member of the Beast Registered User regular
    Babylon 5, A Voice in the Wilderness (parts 1 and 2)
    So, you know the planet Babylon 5 has been orbiting around for the last season? The planet that was picked because it's extremely boring? Turns out it's weird. It starts having serious earthquakes, and when Babylon 5 sends a shuttle over to take a closer look, the shuttle gets zapped by an energy beam shooting out into space. The beam is some kind of beacon, coming from a fissure in the planet. Also, Sinclair (and Londo) sees a ghost, and Delenn's elderly mentor Draal has come to the station for a visit.

    After a second scan, where the shuttle gets shot at, things start to clear up; the reason the planet looked extremely boring was they only scanned to a depth of 2 miles, when all the weird stuff was 2.001 miles under the surface. Classic mistake. It's actually riddled with artificial tunnels and machinery. Anyway, Sinclair and Ivanova head down to take a closer look. They are guided to a chamber by the ghost, and find an alien strapped to an important-looking device. He asks for help, so they detach him and bring him back to the station. (This is where part 1 ends.)

    That's when an Earth warship stops by the station. Seems Earth government decided that the best thing for this situation was to put someone in charge who has only read the reports, not the person who has been handling this extremely unusual situation up to now, so the captain is there to take charge, not just act as support. Anyway, the captain sends fighters down to poke at the planet, which responds by destroying some and arming the planet's self-destruct. Sinclair gets the captain to back off by lying to him, a move that will not backfire in any way.

    Draal and Delenn hear the ghost, which directs them to medbay, where the guardian is being healed. He tells them that the planet will explode if approached improperly. Also, the captain has decided Sinclair was lying and has begun to approach the planet improperly. Sinclair gets him to back down again by threatening him. And that's when the aliens show up. They're the same race as the guardian, and claim that makes them the rightful owners of the planet (that, and their vast array of powerful weaponry) but the guardian tells Sinclair that they're assholes, and not to give them the planet. Meanwhile, Londo, Draal, and Delenn decide to return the guardian to the planet. They manage to do so, pissing off the alien ships, who start firing at everyone involved. On the planet, Draal gets installed as the new guardian, immediately tells everyone to get off his lawn, and destroys the alien ships when they approach.

    The B-plot is that Mars is no longer under Earth control thanks to a violent revolt. Well, actually the B-plot is that Garibaldi's ex-girlfriend lives on Mars, and he doesn't know what's happened to her. Turns out she's injured, but alive. Also, she married someone else since her and Garibaldi talked last.


    Thoughts:
    Part 1 felt a bit slow; it's setting all the pieces up, but not doing much with them.

    As a whole, I feel it could have benefited from a bit more diplomacy. They said that every power would want to have control of the planet, but the only parties that actually showed up are the aliens and Earth. (This would probably have been a bit derivative of "Deathwalker", but I feel there's enough of a difference to avoid a retread.) And while the planet was telegraphed as something that will be Extremely Important at some point, setting up pieces for a future story isn't the same thing as a story, and as a stand-alone episode it's a bit weak. (An extremely common mistake with serialized TV shows, to be fair.) I'm probably treating the episode harshly because it's a two-parter, but on the other hand, it feels like it could have been condensed into a single episode with a bit more editing, so I feel that's justifiable. (Maybe split off the revolution on Mars into a separate episode? It feels like that could go places with more runtime to work with.)

    The Free Mars subplot was alright, but I feel there should have been more worldbuilding here. Like, sure, Mars got it's independence, but the show hasn't given me enough information for me to feel anything about this. Is this an oppressed colony finally gaining independence? Are these terrorists with a flag, and the mass executions will begin soon? Are these a bunch of morons who will run out of air in three months? Are these overly idealistic revolutionaries, and Earth will stop by in a week and crush them? Any of these are a possibility right now, and that lack of basic worldbuilding harms my investment.

    Mars is not independent at the end of the episode. There's just a bunch of riots and violence around that issue but it's eventually quelled by the Earth government.

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    TexiKenTexiKen Dammit! That fish really got me!Registered User regular
    Rewatching the series on HBO and on the final season, people always said Billy Conolly ruined Head of the Class, no way, he was a breath of fresh air. Especially when Hessman was half assing it in seasons 3 and 4 and you could tell, mainly 4.

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    Mojo_JojoMojo_Jojo We are only now beginning to understand the full power and ramifications of sexual intercourse Registered User regular
    Spaffy wrote: »
    I've been watching Slasher Season 4 on Shudder, a Prime Video horror channel which costs like $4 a month (and has been great value so far).

    It's a horror anthology with each season focusing on a different set of characters getting fucked up by a serial killer. This seasons focuses on the family of a billionaire who meet at his secluded private island to compete in a vicious set of competitions, with the winner inheriting his entire estate... but the killer has other plans. Already you know this is gonna be kitschy.

    I'm really enjoying it. Some of the acting and writing is a little bit eh but generally it's good enough to carry the story which is... outlandish, but really fun.

    The kills are super gory, more so than any I've ever seen on TV, and the characters are sufficiently loathsome that you occasionally cheer when they meet a grisly end. There's some non-binary representation that seems well executed and some of the deaths genuinely do hit hard.

    It's not as glossy or Hollywood as American Horror Story, but it tells tighter, more focused and grounded stories that don't lose their way mid-season so much.

    I'll definitely be going back and watching the first 3 seasons.

    How does it compare to Harper's Island?

    Homogeneous distribution of your varieties of amuse-gueule
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    SatanIsMyMotorSatanIsMyMotor Fuck Warren Ellis Registered User regular
    Spaffy wrote: »
    I've been watching Slasher Season 4 on Shudder, a Prime Video horror channel which costs like $4 a month (and has been great value so far).

    It's a horror anthology with each season focusing on a different set of characters getting fucked up by a serial killer. This seasons focuses on the family of a billionaire who meet at his secluded private island to compete in a vicious set of competitions, with the winner inheriting his entire estate... but the killer has other plans. Already you know this is gonna be kitschy.

    I'm really enjoying it. Some of the acting and writing is a little bit eh but generally it's good enough to carry the story which is... outlandish, but really fun.

    The kills are super gory, more so than any I've ever seen on TV, and the characters are sufficiently loathsome that you occasionally cheer when they meet a grisly end. There's some non-binary representation that seems well executed and some of the deaths genuinely do hit hard.

    It's not as glossy or Hollywood as American Horror Story, but it tells tighter, more focused and grounded stories that don't lose their way mid-season so much.

    I'll definitely be going back and watching the first 3 seasons.

    Shit! I had no idea this was out.
    I fucking love the Slasher series. They are genuinely a good time with some amazing kills and a great 90s style whodunnit plot. I know what I'm doing tonight! Thanks!

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    AlphaRomeroAlphaRomero Registered User regular
    New ep of Only Murders in the building was ok, more stuff coming together BUT that ending was a huge misfire. It's obviously teasing
    the deaths of our main characters which isn't gonna be the case, but it's also telling us that whatever they're doing flops because they become the subject of a story instead.

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    MorganVMorganV Registered User regular
    Ted Lasso S2 is coming to an end (four more weeks), and while it hasn't captured the lightning in the bottle of the first season, it's very much a worthy successor to it.

    Lucifer S6 just dropped (final season), so I know what I'm doing this weekend. Really interested in seeing how the events of last season play out.

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    notyanotya Registered User regular
    New ep of Only Murders in the building was ok, more stuff coming together BUT that ending was a huge misfire. It's obviously teasing
    the deaths of our main characters which isn't gonna be the case, but it's also telling us that whatever they're doing flops because they become the subject of a story instead.
    That's not how I read that ending. I read it as Tina Fey's character RIPPED THEM OFF and stole their story after they spilled the beans to her.

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    Raiden333Raiden333 Registered User regular
    edited September 2021
    I needed something to keep me busy at work and couldn't find anything good, so I started up this movie Prey that just went up on Netflix today. Holy crap I haven't had this much fun laughing at a bad movie in a long time. It checks all the boxes!

    -Dialog written like it came from an alien who overheard some humans have a conversation one time and is trying to wing it from there
    -Completely wooden acting from characters who are trying to sound American but keep slipping back into European accents at the end of every few sentences
    -The most hilarious neon colored strawberry jam for blood I've ever seen
    -ENTIRE SCENES WHERE THE ADR IS OUT OF SYNC WITH PEOPLE'S MOUTHS

    Only halfway in, this is going to be a ride.

    edit: Unfortunately, the back half was very boring and dumb.

    Raiden333 on
    There was a steam sig here. It's gone now.
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    AphostileAphostile San Francisco, CARegistered User regular
    I learned from Dark. Never watch anything live-action dubbed.

    Nothing. Matters.
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    Kipling217Kipling217 Registered User regular
    edited September 2021
    Especially on Netflix. I almost bailed on Money Heist(La Casa De Papel) in the first 2 minutes because of how shitty the dub was.

    Glad I didn't because I just finished Season 5 part 1 today and I have to say that I am stoked for part 2 in December. Like legit stoked to see how this series ends, cause its pulling out the all the stops.

    I think more people should watch stuff with subs in general, especially live action. There is something about hearing a foreign language in its original setting. Dubbers not only have to fit their language to the mouth movement(if they can), but they never quite get the tone right even if they do, because they are not there actually emoting on screen.

    Its less of a problem in cartoons and anime, but even there a good dub is hard to come by.

    Kipling217 on
    The sky was full of stars, every star an exploding ship. One of ours.
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    Banzai5150Banzai5150 Registered User regular
    Kipling217 wrote: »

    I think more Americans should watch stuff with subs in general, especially live action. There is something about hearing a foreign language in its original setting. Dubbers not only have to fit their language to the mouth movement(if they can), but they never quite get the tone right even if they do, because they are not there actually emoting on screen.

    Its less of a problem in cartoons and anime, but even there a good dub is hard to come by.

    I watch quite a few things on various services in foreign languages. My only problem is that I have to focus much closer to read the subs than just listening. So when I’m in the mood for something sorta background’sh and I enjoy a series that’s in another language, I have to pass on it until I can give it my full attention. Which is rare now a days for me to have that kind of time.

    50433.png?1708759015
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    TexiKenTexiKen Dammit! That fish really got me!Registered User regular
    I just can't do dubs anymore because they try too hard. Everyone now feels looking for the big break to be a videogame voice actor or get a Pixar gig and are just so repetitive in their voices, in such a small group now, that there's nothing unique about the voices anymore. This is a major issue with Funimation who now basically has carte blanche with animoo in America. Unless it's a game show or a variety show, you always give the thing watched respect the first time and for me that means the sub. But I do hold a special place for the 80's hong kong dubs because the people were often so starving they put in a strong performance or were too high to care otherwise.

    Truth in memes:
    it6y7aY.jpg

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    a nu starta nu start Registered User regular
    Banzai5150 wrote: »
    Kipling217 wrote: »

    I think more Americans should watch stuff with subs in general, especially live action. There is something about hearing a foreign language in its original setting. Dubbers not only have to fit their language to the mouth movement(if they can), but they never quite get the tone right even if they do, because they are not there actually emoting on screen.

    Its less of a problem in cartoons and anime, but even there a good dub is hard to come by.

    I watch quite a few things on various services in foreign languages. My only problem is that I have to focus much closer to read the subs than just listening. So when I’m in the mood for something sorta background’sh and I enjoy a series that’s in another language, I have to pass on it until I can give it my full attention. Which is rare now a days for me to have that kind of time.

    Couldn't watch Space Sweepers because of the subs. The dialog was pretty rapid to where I barely felt like I was keeping up. Then people would talk in different languages so they always put [In English] or [In Korean] on every line. And then when someone spoke in English, the English subtitle would say something completely different. Maybe it's just the opening action scenes are like that and it calms down later, but I just can't get far enough to find out.

    Number One Tricky
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    DiannaoChongDiannaoChong Registered User regular
    edited September 2021
    I really can't believe the sub vs dub war is going on still, people complaining about dubs now have no clue how good they have it. it used to be dub vs sub because dubs were terrible and unwatchable.

    Its been 20 years since productions bothered to get the same voice cast back together for a movie or ova or additional seasons. I get why you prefer one over the other but its still a very 'depends on what I am watching' decision, which is a super nice evolution of the anime/localization industry.

    Sometimes we get simul-dub airings? Holy cow!

    DiannaoChong on
    steam_sig.png
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    Kipling217Kipling217 Registered User regular
    I really can't believe the sub vs dub war is going on still, people complaining about dubs now have no clue how good they have it. it used to be dub vs sub because dubs were terrible and unwatchable.

    Its been 20 years since productions bothered to get the same voice cast back together for a movie or ova or additional seasons. I get why you prefer one over the other but its still a very 'depends on what I am watching' decision, which is a super nice evolution of the anime/localization industry.

    Sometimes we get simul-dub airings? Holy cow!

    We are talking live action, not anime. Your point isn't really relevant,(Though its a good point as far as anime is concerned).

    Anime/cartoons are already a stilted, stylized version of reality, so dubbing is much less a issue. In Live action it becomes uncanny valley pretty quickly, no matter how good the dub is. It really has an impact.

    The sky was full of stars, every star an exploding ship. One of ours.
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    ReynoldsReynolds Gone Fishin'Registered User regular
    But sometimes you get Comrade Detective, which is just delightful.

    uyvfOQy.png
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    LostNinjaLostNinja Registered User regular
    I don’t think I’ve complained about Amazon’s UI lately so I will again now. I actually had to google how to find my watchlist on the FireTV today after there recent redesign. It’s that bad…

    Anyway, I ended up watching The Future War. The premise is super silly (why send people from the past to fight a war in the future and dwindle your potential future population rather than just training them in how to fight it and letting them know “it starts in this location in this year”?). Anyway that leads to some bad plot holes, but once you ignore those it’s a fun sci-fi movie. And it did actually get me to tear up at one point so there’s that.

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    MorganVMorganV Registered User regular
    LostNinja wrote: »
    I don’t think I’ve complained about Amazon’s UI lately so I will again now. I actually had to google how to find my watchlist on the FireTV today after there recent redesign. It’s that bad…

    Anyway, I ended up watching The Future War. The premise is super silly (why send people from the past to fight a war in the future and dwindle your potential future population rather than just training them in how to fight it and letting them know “it starts in this location in this year”?). Anyway that leads to some bad plot holes, but once you ignore those it’s a fun sci-fi movie. And it did actually get me to tear up at one point so there’s that.

    While it is definitely a stupid movie, both your issues are explained within the movie.
    Everyone recruited died before the war. Pratt's character has a heart attack, the black 'veteran' guy has cancer.

    And they don't know exactly where or when. They're only able to piece it together from unexpected knowledge.

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    PreacherPreacher Registered User regular
    Watched the amazon documentary on Lularo. It was interesting (I swear I must have seen parts of the free version of this because I recognized ladies from that in this), but man some of the women are still just lying about their involvement and the two at the top are the snakiest motherfuckers you've ever seen wearing human skin.

    I would like some money because these are artisanal nuggets of wisdom philistine.

    pleasepaypreacher.net
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    MorganVMorganV Registered User regular
    Preacher wrote: »
    Watched the amazon documentary on Lularo. It was interesting (I swear I must have seen parts of the free version of this because I recognized ladies from that in this), but man some of the women are still just lying about their involvement and the two at the top are the snakiest motherfuckers you've ever seen wearing human skin.

    Internal dialogue "That's gotta be a pyramid scheme"
    *googlesearch*
    Ayup.

    Seriously, there needs to be more scrutiny of businesses that try to do this shit, and more consequences for the orchestrators of.

    Would also help if there was more financial literacy and numeracy in education. If someone offers you a deal that's too good to be true, it almost certainly is.

    Yeah, I removed the qualifier, because while it's technically true, most people clearly have no understanding of how odds/statistics work. Which is the problem.

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    LostNinjaLostNinja Registered User regular
    MorganV wrote: »
    LostNinja wrote: »
    I don’t think I’ve complained about Amazon’s UI lately so I will again now. I actually had to google how to find my watchlist on the FireTV today after there recent redesign. It’s that bad…

    Anyway, I ended up watching The Future War. The premise is super silly (why send people from the past to fight a war in the future and dwindle your potential future population rather than just training them in how to fight it and letting them know “it starts in this location in this year”?). Anyway that leads to some bad plot holes, but once you ignore those it’s a fun sci-fi movie. And it did actually get me to tear up at one point so there’s that.

    While it is definitely a stupid movie, both your issues are explained within the movie.
    Everyone recruited died before the war. Pratt's character has a heart attack, the black 'veteran' guy has cancer.

    And they don't know exactly where or when. They're only able to piece it together from unexpected knowledge.
    Them being dead in the future doesn’t mean they wouldn’t have had kids first (in the time between the point where they were sent to the future and when they died) that would be alive then had the timeline not been altered and they not been send to their death prematurely. The plan even after they massed produced the toxin was to take it back to the future and not just stockpile it until they appeared.

    I also think giving the past tech from 30 years in the future and being like “hey we don’t know exactly when if where, but this starts somewhere is Russia in 2048 give or take a year or so” would have been preferable to “send us people people by the thousands with a 30% survival rate”.

    I actually did enjoy the movie, but those plot points took some mental gymnastics to ignore.

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    ShadowfireShadowfire Vermont, in the middle of nowhereRegistered User regular
    MorganV wrote: »
    Preacher wrote: »
    Watched the amazon documentary on Lularo. It was interesting (I swear I must have seen parts of the free version of this because I recognized ladies from that in this), but man some of the women are still just lying about their involvement and the two at the top are the snakiest motherfuckers you've ever seen wearing human skin.

    Internal dialogue "That's gotta be a pyramid scheme"
    *googlesearch*
    Ayup.

    Seriously, there needs to be more scrutiny of businesses that try to do this shit, and more consequences for the orchestrators of.

    Would also help if there was more financial literacy and numeracy in education. If someone offers you a deal that's too good to be true, it almost certainly is.

    Yeah, I removed the qualifier, because while it's technically true, most people clearly have no understanding of how odds/statistics work. Which is the problem.

    All of those MLMs are trash, and it really shows when your "friends" have to trick you too get you interested. True fact that Amway and the like have been around forever is depressing.

    WiiU: Windrunner ; Guild Wars 2: Shadowfire.3940 ; PSN: Bradcopter
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    PreacherPreacher Registered User regular
    Shadowfire wrote: »
    MorganV wrote: »
    Preacher wrote: »
    Watched the amazon documentary on Lularo. It was interesting (I swear I must have seen parts of the free version of this because I recognized ladies from that in this), but man some of the women are still just lying about their involvement and the two at the top are the snakiest motherfuckers you've ever seen wearing human skin.

    Internal dialogue "That's gotta be a pyramid scheme"
    *googlesearch*
    Ayup.

    Seriously, there needs to be more scrutiny of businesses that try to do this shit, and more consequences for the orchestrators of.

    Would also help if there was more financial literacy and numeracy in education. If someone offers you a deal that's too good to be true, it almost certainly is.

    Yeah, I removed the qualifier, because while it's technically true, most people clearly have no understanding of how odds/statistics work. Which is the problem.

    All of those MLMs are trash, and it really shows when your "friends" have to trick you too get you interested. True fact that Amway and the like have been around forever is depressing.

    Yeah they are all fucking awful, amyway, avon, herbalife etc. What's really shit is how much money it takes from vulnerable people and isolation, all your non MLM friends bail when your social feeds just become an advertisement to become your own boss and make money without any effort etc. So you're only left with the MLM burn outs and even they leave eventually wouldn't surprise me if people involved in MLM have a higher rate of suicide.

    I would like some money because these are artisanal nuggets of wisdom philistine.

    pleasepaypreacher.net
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    Hexmage-PAHexmage-PA Registered User regular
    Man, season 2 of Evil almost feels like it was made for me. I just started episode 9 and it's apparently partially about the "the angels in the book of Ezekiel were actually aliens and UFOs" claim that I remember reading about in books about aliens when I was a kid.

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    HappylilElfHappylilElf Registered User regular
    Preacher wrote: »
    Shadowfire wrote: »
    MorganV wrote: »
    Preacher wrote: »
    Watched the amazon documentary on Lularo. It was interesting (I swear I must have seen parts of the free version of this because I recognized ladies from that in this), but man some of the women are still just lying about their involvement and the two at the top are the snakiest motherfuckers you've ever seen wearing human skin.

    Internal dialogue "That's gotta be a pyramid scheme"
    *googlesearch*
    Ayup.

    Seriously, there needs to be more scrutiny of businesses that try to do this shit, and more consequences for the orchestrators of.

    Would also help if there was more financial literacy and numeracy in education. If someone offers you a deal that's too good to be true, it almost certainly is.

    Yeah, I removed the qualifier, because while it's technically true, most people clearly have no understanding of how odds/statistics work. Which is the problem.

    All of those MLMs are trash, and it really shows when your "friends" have to trick you too get you interested. True fact that Amway and the like have been around forever is depressing.

    Yeah they are all fucking awful, amyway, avon, herbalife etc. What's really shit is how much money it takes from vulnerable people and isolation, all your non MLM friends bail when your social feeds just become an advertisement to become your own boss and make money without any effort etc. So you're only left with the MLM burn outs and even they leave eventually wouldn't surprise me if people involved in MLM have a higher rate of suicide.

    The thing about being your own boss is that it seems like most people who fall in fore these things are pretty shit at being their own boss. Buying a bunch of product, stacking it in your living room, and then ignoring it doesn't really work.

    I've only known one person who made any money at this kind of thing (Pampered Chef) and while she did make some good money she essentially treated it like a second full time job.

    She made almost 100k over 5 or 6 years but if you actually calculated all of the hours she put into it I doubt she walked away with minimum wage and it absolutely cost her a lot of friendships because the only time she ever talked to any of her female friends during that period was to either invite them to a sales party or try and convince them to host a sales party.

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    PreacherPreacher Registered User regular
    Preacher wrote: »
    Shadowfire wrote: »
    MorganV wrote: »
    Preacher wrote: »
    Watched the amazon documentary on Lularo. It was interesting (I swear I must have seen parts of the free version of this because I recognized ladies from that in this), but man some of the women are still just lying about their involvement and the two at the top are the snakiest motherfuckers you've ever seen wearing human skin.

    Internal dialogue "That's gotta be a pyramid scheme"
    *googlesearch*
    Ayup.

    Seriously, there needs to be more scrutiny of businesses that try to do this shit, and more consequences for the orchestrators of.

    Would also help if there was more financial literacy and numeracy in education. If someone offers you a deal that's too good to be true, it almost certainly is.

    Yeah, I removed the qualifier, because while it's technically true, most people clearly have no understanding of how odds/statistics work. Which is the problem.

    All of those MLMs are trash, and it really shows when your "friends" have to trick you too get you interested. True fact that Amway and the like have been around forever is depressing.

    Yeah they are all fucking awful, amyway, avon, herbalife etc. What's really shit is how much money it takes from vulnerable people and isolation, all your non MLM friends bail when your social feeds just become an advertisement to become your own boss and make money without any effort etc. So you're only left with the MLM burn outs and even they leave eventually wouldn't surprise me if people involved in MLM have a higher rate of suicide.

    The thing about being your own boss is that it seems like most people who fall in fore these things are pretty shit at being their own boss. Buying a bunch of product, stacking it in your living room, and then ignoring it doesn't really work.

    I've only known one person who made any money at this kind of thing (Pampered Chef) and while she did make some good money she essentially treated it like a second full time job.

    She made almost 100k over 5 or 6 years but if you actually calculated all of the hours she put into it I doubt she walked away with minimum wage and it absolutely cost her a lot of friendships because the only time she ever talked to any of her female friends during that period was to either invite them to a sales party or try and convince them to host a sales party.

    And that's the truth about a lot of these things. Like I remember extreme couponing shows would show these people getting like 3 carts of groceries for twenty bucks. Oh my god the savings! Except they bought a bunch of shit they'll never need or use and it took them more time to set up that shopping trip than just working regularly. Hooray you wasted hundred hours to save 200 dollars!

    I mean I work adjacent to real estate and so many people get in as a second job without realizing real estate done well is a first job and basically opening your own business, so if you don't have cash on hand and willingy to work 40+ hour weeks you aren't making shit and just burning money down a piss hole.

    I would like some money because these are artisanal nuggets of wisdom philistine.

    pleasepaypreacher.net
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    nexuscrawlernexuscrawler Registered User regular
    Preacher wrote: »
    Shadowfire wrote: »
    MorganV wrote: »
    Preacher wrote: »
    Watched the amazon documentary on Lularo. It was interesting (I swear I must have seen parts of the free version of this because I recognized ladies from that in this), but man some of the women are still just lying about their involvement and the two at the top are the snakiest motherfuckers you've ever seen wearing human skin.

    Internal dialogue "That's gotta be a pyramid scheme"
    *googlesearch*
    Ayup.

    Seriously, there needs to be more scrutiny of businesses that try to do this shit, and more consequences for the orchestrators of.

    Would also help if there was more financial literacy and numeracy in education. If someone offers you a deal that's too good to be true, it almost certainly is.

    Yeah, I removed the qualifier, because while it's technically true, most people clearly have no understanding of how odds/statistics work. Which is the problem.

    All of those MLMs are trash, and it really shows when your "friends" have to trick you too get you interested. True fact that Amway and the like have been around forever is depressing.

    Yeah they are all fucking awful, amyway, avon, herbalife etc. What's really shit is how much money it takes from vulnerable people and isolation, all your non MLM friends bail when your social feeds just become an advertisement to become your own boss and make money without any effort etc. So you're only left with the MLM burn outs and even they leave eventually wouldn't surprise me if people involved in MLM have a higher rate of suicide.

    The thing about being your own boss is that it seems like most people who fall in fore these things are pretty shit at being their own boss. Buying a bunch of product, stacking it in your living room, and then ignoring it doesn't really work.

    I've only known one person who made any money at this kind of thing (Pampered Chef) and while she did make some good money she essentially treated it like a second full time job.

    She made almost 100k over 5 or 6 years but if you actually calculated all of the hours she put into it I doubt she walked away with minimum wage and it absolutely cost her a lot of friendships because the only time she ever talked to any of her female friends during that period was to either invite them to a sales party or try and convince them to host a sales party.

    The real question is did she actually make money selling product or ripping other people off.

    Most MLMs make getting money from selling product almost impossible. The people buying the shit in bulk are the whales of the outfit.

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    PreacherPreacher Registered User regular
    Yeah like one of the people in the Lula documentary clearly made a lot of money from the pyramid part and in the documentary doesn't want to discuss how much or even admit that's where she made her money.

    That was what I liked the expert pointed out, MLM turn your customers into your competitors almost immediately, so the ability to make money selling whatever product is almost impossible.

    I would like some money because these are artisanal nuggets of wisdom philistine.

    pleasepaypreacher.net
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    southwicksouthwick Registered User regular
    Y The last Man is on Hulu. Really enjoyed the first episode.

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    CptHamiltonCptHamilton Registered User regular
    MorganV wrote: »
    LostNinja wrote: »
    I don’t think I’ve complained about Amazon’s UI lately so I will again now. I actually had to google how to find my watchlist on the FireTV today after there recent redesign. It’s that bad…

    Anyway, I ended up watching The Future War. The premise is super silly (why send people from the past to fight a war in the future and dwindle your potential future population rather than just training them in how to fight it and letting them know “it starts in this location in this year”?). Anyway that leads to some bad plot holes, but once you ignore those it’s a fun sci-fi movie. And it did actually get me to tear up at one point so there’s that.

    While it is definitely a stupid movie, both your issues are explained within the movie.
    Everyone recruited died before the war. Pratt's character has a heart attack, the black 'veteran' guy has cancer.

    And they don't know exactly where or when. They're only able to piece it together from unexpected knowledge.

    They never actually explain that first point in the film.
    We know the soldiers recruited are dead in the future but nobody from the future ever explains why. "They can go fight in the future because they're going to die anyway" is a surface-level-reasonable justification but the only justification for why they recruit the dead in the film is supposition between Pratt and one of the other recruits. They conjecture that they only recruit the dead for the same reason the recruiters are all very young - you can't be alive twice in the same time period. So only people who would be dead can go to the future and only people who haven't been born yet can go to the past.

    It's a fun movie but it doesn't really make sense. The future was obviously doomed. Evacuating those to the past who can go and putting all their eggs in the "figure out where the invaders landed and stop them there" basket seems like a way better use of the technology than importing thousands of troops as cannon fodder. Hell, if you think 30 years isn't enough time to prepare for the invasion, send the schematics for the time machine to the past and give yourselves 60 years to prepare. Could probably make another hop back from the 1990's, even, and fast-forward the 1960's to post-information-age tech levels. Probably would take too long to build the infrastructure to jump back to the 1930's but giving the '60's green energy tech might actually prevent the global warming that released the aliens in the first place, so after 90 years of prep work the "invasion" wouldn't even happen.

    PSN,Steam,Live | CptHamiltonian
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    RingoRingo He/Him a distinct lack of substanceRegistered User regular
    MorganV wrote: »
    LostNinja wrote: »
    I don’t think I’ve complained about Amazon’s UI lately so I will again now. I actually had to google how to find my watchlist on the FireTV today after there recent redesign. It’s that bad…

    Anyway, I ended up watching The Future War. The premise is super silly (why send people from the past to fight a war in the future and dwindle your potential future population rather than just training them in how to fight it and letting them know “it starts in this location in this year”?). Anyway that leads to some bad plot holes, but once you ignore those it’s a fun sci-fi movie. And it did actually get me to tear up at one point so there’s that.

    While it is definitely a stupid movie, both your issues are explained within the movie.
    Everyone recruited died before the war. Pratt's character has a heart attack, the black 'veteran' guy has cancer.

    And they don't know exactly where or when. They're only able to piece it together from unexpected knowledge.

    They never actually explain that first point in the film.
    We know the soldiers recruited are dead in the future but nobody from the future ever explains why. "They can go fight in the future because they're going to die anyway" is a surface-level-reasonable justification but the only justification for why they recruit the dead in the film is supposition between Pratt and one of the other recruits. They conjecture that they only recruit the dead for the same reason the recruiters are all very young - you can't be alive twice in the same time period. So only people who would be dead can go to the future and only people who haven't been born yet can go to the past.

    It's a fun movie but it doesn't really make sense. The future was obviously doomed. Evacuating those to the past who can go and putting all their eggs in the "figure out where the invaders landed and stop them there" basket seems like a way better use of the technology than importing thousands of troops as cannon fodder. Hell, if you think 30 years isn't enough time to prepare for the invasion, send the schematics for the time machine to the past and give yourselves 60 years to prepare. Could probably make another hop back from the 1990's, even, and fast-forward the 1960's to post-information-age tech levels. Probably would take too long to build the infrastructure to jump back to the 1930's but giving the '60's green energy tech might actually prevent the global warming that released the aliens in the first place, so after 90 years of prep work the "invasion" wouldn't even happen.

    That actually sounds like a more interesting movie

    Sterica wrote: »
    I know my last visit to my grandpa on his deathbed was to find out how the whole Nazi werewolf thing turned out.
    Edcrab's Exigency RPG
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    SatanIsMyMotorSatanIsMyMotor Fuck Warren Ellis Registered User regular
    southwick wrote: »
    Y The last Man is on Hulu. Really enjoyed the first episode.

    I'm not sold on Yorick yet but the rest of the cast seems perfect. Hero specifically feels like 100% perfect casting.

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    HappylilElfHappylilElf Registered User regular
    Preacher wrote: »
    Shadowfire wrote: »
    MorganV wrote: »
    Preacher wrote: »
    Watched the amazon documentary on Lularo. It was interesting (I swear I must have seen parts of the free version of this because I recognized ladies from that in this), but man some of the women are still just lying about their involvement and the two at the top are the snakiest motherfuckers you've ever seen wearing human skin.

    Internal dialogue "That's gotta be a pyramid scheme"
    *googlesearch*
    Ayup.

    Seriously, there needs to be more scrutiny of businesses that try to do this shit, and more consequences for the orchestrators of.

    Would also help if there was more financial literacy and numeracy in education. If someone offers you a deal that's too good to be true, it almost certainly is.

    Yeah, I removed the qualifier, because while it's technically true, most people clearly have no understanding of how odds/statistics work. Which is the problem.

    All of those MLMs are trash, and it really shows when your "friends" have to trick you too get you interested. True fact that Amway and the like have been around forever is depressing.

    Yeah they are all fucking awful, amyway, avon, herbalife etc. What's really shit is how much money it takes from vulnerable people and isolation, all your non MLM friends bail when your social feeds just become an advertisement to become your own boss and make money without any effort etc. So you're only left with the MLM burn outs and even they leave eventually wouldn't surprise me if people involved in MLM have a higher rate of suicide.

    The thing about being your own boss is that it seems like most people who fall in fore these things are pretty shit at being their own boss. Buying a bunch of product, stacking it in your living room, and then ignoring it doesn't really work.

    I've only known one person who made any money at this kind of thing (Pampered Chef) and while she did make some good money she essentially treated it like a second full time job.

    She made almost 100k over 5 or 6 years but if you actually calculated all of the hours she put into it I doubt she walked away with minimum wage and it absolutely cost her a lot of friendships because the only time she ever talked to any of her female friends during that period was to either invite them to a sales party or try and convince them to host a sales party.

    The real question is did she actually make money selling product or ripping other people off.

    Most MLMs make getting money from selling product almost impossible. The people buying the shit in bulk are the whales of the outfit.

    My understanding is that Pampered Chef isn't really scammy in the sense of ripping people off but more in the sense that if you want to make any money at it you need to be able to do sales parties pretty regularly which almost always take more time and effort to plan/set up than what you're likely to make at any given party if you look at it from a $/hour viewpoint. I'm definitely not an expert or anything on it though.

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    thatassemblyguythatassemblyguy Janitor of Technical Debt .Registered User regular
    A second season of the vacation show, but still no new season of extraordinary houses >=|

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    ElJeffeElJeffe Moderator, ClubPA mod
    I forgot that season three of What We Do In the Shadows just started.

    The show is still delightful.

    I submitted an entry to Lego Ideas, and if 10,000 people support me, it'll be turned into an actual Lego set!If you'd like to see and support my submission, follow this link.
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    MorganVMorganV Registered User regular
    ElJeffe wrote: »
    I forgot that season three of What We Do In the Shadows just started.

    The show is still delightful.

    I've been meaning to get into it, but in an unspoilery way, is this a sequel or a reboot of the movie?

    ie, should I watch the movie first, or is the show a different direction?

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    Mojo_JojoMojo_Jojo We are only now beginning to understand the full power and ramifications of sexual intercourse Registered User regular
    MorganV wrote: »
    ElJeffe wrote: »
    I forgot that season three of What We Do In the Shadows just started.

    The show is still delightful.

    I've been meaning to get into it, but in an unspoilery way, is this a sequel or a reboot of the movie?

    ie, should I watch the movie first, or is the show a different direction?

    No need to watch the film first, there's no continuity. The series is a remake/new stories in a similar setting.The film is also excellent though

    Homogeneous distribution of your varieties of amuse-gueule
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    NorgothNorgoth cardiffRegistered User regular
    Mojo_Jojo wrote: »
    MorganV wrote: »
    ElJeffe wrote: »
    I forgot that season three of What We Do In the Shadows just started.

    The show is still delightful.

    I've been meaning to get into it, but in an unspoilery way, is this a sequel or a reboot of the movie?

    ie, should I watch the movie first, or is the show a different direction?

    No need to watch the film first, there's no continuity. The series is a remake/new stories in a similar setting.The film is also excellent though
    The end of season one confirms it's set in the same universe however

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    The Zombie PenguinThe Zombie Penguin Eternal Hungry Corpse Registered User regular
    Banzai5150 wrote: »
    Kipling217 wrote: »

    I think more Americans should watch stuff with subs in general, especially live action. There is something about hearing a foreign language in its original setting. Dubbers not only have to fit their language to the mouth movement(if they can), but they never quite get the tone right even if they do, because they are not there actually emoting on screen.

    Its less of a problem in cartoons and anime, but even there a good dub is hard to come by.

    I watch quite a few things on various services in foreign languages. My only problem is that I have to focus much closer to read the subs than just listening. So when I’m in the mood for something sorta background’sh and I enjoy a series that’s in another language, I have to pass on it until I can give it my full attention. Which is rare now a days for me to have that kind of time.

    I got so used to watching anime/toku i found i could watch it on a second screen while doing something else quite easily.

    Then i tried to watch The Untamed and got compeltely clowned on - i'd unknowingly riding on a surprisingly decent grasp of japanese i'd somehow developed the entire fucking time with the former options.

    welp!

    Ideas hate it when you anthropomorphize them
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    TheBigEasyTheBigEasy Registered User regular
    Anyone seen "Kate" yet on Netflix? Mary Elizabeth Winstead & Woody Harrelson - where she is an assassin in Japan getting poisoned right before a job and then goes on a revenge tour before she dies. Yeah, the plot is rather forgettable and actually quite predictable, but the action is good and I especially liked the visual style of the film.

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