'Whatchu Watching About, Willis?!' DIGRESSION ALERT: Please, for the love of all that is, don't call it that. 2.

I find him... a bit much. Close friendship is great but it gets nauseating with him. Also it doesn't feel like he's had a lot of development, unlike Jake who is still kooky but no longer unbearably so.

Has anyone else watched High Score on Netflix? I finished it last night. It features a few things I knew about (such as the story of ET, and Miyamoto telling the StarFox devs "this space shooter would be more fun with woodland creatures in it") but a lot that I didn't, and features a good bit of representation from women, people of colour, and LGBT+ communities. I actually first heard about it from my sister excitedly texting about how Roberta Williams came on screen and she recognised her before they'd introduced her - we played a LOT of King's Quest in our house as kids.

Yeah I watched them - the Doom one was particularly good seeing how Doom had links to Mario 3. The StreetFighter and Sonic episodes were cool, but also mildly depressing. Might just be me, but they felt more about the people than about the games, which I guess is interesting but I'd rather they dived more into what made the game great, rather than who.

I've binged all five series of Line of Duty, an excellent bent cop drama on IPlayer and Netflix. Highly recommended.

@gjones wrote:

Yeah I watched them - the Doom one was particularly good seeing how Doom had links to Mario 3. The StreetFighter and Sonic episodes were cool, but also mildly depressing. Might just be me, but they felt more about the people than about the games, which I guess is interesting but I'd rather they dived more into what made the game great, rather than who.

Yeah, I'd agree with that - I wonder if it's because talking about the games more would make it more of a niche thing, rather than relatable to a wider audience?

In the Sega one I just kept thinking "it's so funny they went from being the underdog to a huge competitor in the 90s, and then it all just changed so rapidly at the turn of the century".

Yeah, what's funny is that SEGA was really only ahead for a couple of years, if that. 1992-1994 - didn't the SNES end up outselling the Mega Drive? Saturn flopped and Dreamcast did well for the 18 months it was around, but was too little too late. From "toppling" Nintendo, to effectively bankrupt in the space of 6 years. Now that's a series that needs to be made - an in depth look at the fall from grace that saw SEGA leave the hardware industry.

The SNES outsold the Mega Drive by about 20m in the end, but the MD did have better success in Europe & RotW but guess back then those were small markets unlike now.

SEGA has a interesting history and as a big fan I do find it funny lot blame Sony for the downfall with the PS2 yet so much went wrong before that.

Thinking of 'spooky' Hallowe'en appropriate watches, Dr. Terrible's House of Horrible is on AmPrime and it's great. A six-episode anthology show ripping the pish out of classic horror tropes, with Steve Coogan playing the heroes. Laugh? I nearly died.

What We Do In The Shadows (BBC iPlayer) is in a similar horror-comedy vein (pun not intended), but you really should have watched that already by now.

Watched all of The Queen's Gambit yesterday on Netflix and it's rather good that I wouldn't be surprised to win some awards.

The Boys. First show I've watched in a while. There were some moments that I found a bit too edgy but overall I really enjoyed it. I heard the second series is even better so I'm looking forward to it.

Apparently the edge is blunted compared to the absolutely ridiculous comicbook. It's one I'm interested in but to be honest I need less cynicism in my life right now, not more.

We don't really know what to watch on Netflix at the moment, so we've been going through Spongebob Squarepants

Aside from that we watched one of those nutty shows from a Z-list channel that somehow wound up on the flix, can't remember the name but essentially: DID ALIENS DO IT!?

Found it funny the amount of times the talking heads went, "but why is this pattern only properly visible from the sky!? Native Americans didn't have planes so it must be aliens! As if, you know, the simpler answer isn't just that civilisations across the globe have made tributes to the sun, moon and stars for thousands of years!

No, Muss, brown people can't do science on their own.

@Buskalilly wrote:

Apparently the edge is blunted compared to the absolutely ridiculous comicbook. It's one I'm interested in but to be honest I need less cynicism in my life right now, not more.

This is my reason for not watching The Boys.

Anyone watched the new Pegg/Frost caper Truth Seekers? Three episodes in and it seems like harmless fun so far.

@Balladeer wrote:

@Buskalilly wrote:

Apparently the edge is blunted compared to the absolutely ridiculous comicbook. It's one I'm interested in but to be honest I need less cynicism in my life right now, not more.

This is my reason for not watching The Boys.

Anyone watched the new Pegg/Frost caper Truth Seekers?  Three episodes in and it seems like harmless fun so far.

I've watched both seasons of The Boys in the last few months and while there are bouts of cynicism in there I don't think I could have watched it at a better time than now. Sure, it holds up a big fuck off mirror to the world that you might not want to look at but I really enjoyed seeing those characters band together and push through all of that.

It was just so refreshing to have a show that isn't scared to show the flaws of the main characters or sugar coat anything. Loved it.

@The_Jaster wrote:

I really enjoyed seeing those characters band together and push through all of that.

This is the first thing I've heard which makes me interested in checking The Boys out.

I basically don't watch anything apart from Star Trek, Digimon and stuff for podcasts.

@Buskalilly wrote:

@The_Jaster wrote:

I really enjoyed seeing those characters band together and push through all of that.

This is the first thing I've heard which makes me interested in checking The Boys out.

I basically don't watch anything apart from Star Trek, Digimon and stuff for podcasts.

Same it's Discovery and Mando at the moment, with the odd thing that lands on Netflix or Plus

I've got a little bit of catching up to do with Warrior season 2, hopefully that picks up the pace a wee bit because the first episode just felt like a main character recap.

The Boys is a pretty interesting one from the first season, aside from most of the characters they've diverged pretty heavily from the original, so I wouldn't let any preconceptions about 1 colour the other at all.
I need to get around to Season 2, but I'm really not into TV at the moment - it's only Taskmaster & Richard Osman's House of Games that get any TV time in at the moment.

Very late in the day, but we finally finished Season 3 of Castlevania this week.

Spoiler:

 

Episode 9 was written by a horny Catholic wasn't it? 'I really want all the sex but also sex is bad and will get you enslaved/trapped.' Bloody hell. Also where the heck did the Sumi/Taka suddenly being awful come from? The show's been pretty good with its character development up to that point, but the random sibling seduction/death ploy seemed to come out of nowhere.

The judge bit was good though. Well, not good, but you know what I mean. Belmont/Sypha spending all season not fighting anyone interesting was less good. Bring back Isaac/Carmela/anyone!

Yeah, yeah, what's up? Whatchu watchin about, willis?!

I tell you.

You like ah those middle brow shows like Master Chef? You want a 25 minute run time?



I been watchin the top shaggers blow off in, Blown Away.

Essentially it's a prototypical knock out competition where 10 blow guys get together and make a bunch of glass until there's an eventual winner 10 episodes later.

There is something quite mesmerising about watching them turn molten glass into all sorts of things dependant on the brief in the episode and there's all sorts of techniques that they use. It's a good show to watch with someone, because you can both armchair critique everything they do (or what the judges say) and that succinct run time keeps everything moving smoothly.

Unfortunately there are some people in the show that really put the art in fart, and not the musical kind that comes out yer bum. Across both seasons (yes, I binged them both) there are a few sods who talk of themselves and their work as if it's up there with Vinnie Van Gogh, and there are moments where the judges ejaculate with excitement over ideas with less depth than a Year 8 art project, but that's part of the fun of critiquing the show while you watch. Also the head judge is definitely a Tory trying to convince people she's a real person.

On the flip side, this is counter balanced by there being people in the show that are nice and who you root for, as well as some genuinely clever art, a whole lot of fire and a very palatable run time.

So if you're looking for some trash tv, a quick reality flick that's got a weird theme, this is a surprisingly solid option.

I adored the first season of Blown Away and it landed at the perfect time for me, haven’t got around to season 2 yet though.

We preferred the second season, although that's also the one that we started with because we did not realise that there was a season one! Absolutely howling at some of the judging decisions in season one!

The quality of the field is higher in season 2, as is the size of some of the ass holes. Although there were a few dreadful decisions in season 2 as well.

I've been watching Vikings lately. It's scratching that Game of Thrones itch that needed scratching following the Season 8 debacle - here's hoping Vikings finishes in a much stronger fashion!

How historical is Vikings? Is it complete fiction or is it based on real dudes?

It's heavily fictionalised but based on history. The thing with that period of history is the records we have of it in real life are a mixture of the historic and the mythic anyway, as well as being very incomplete so there is a lot of room for artistic licence!

It's a great show anyway for the most part. I do prefer The Last Kingdom but they have their own focuses and only slightly overlap in setting.