The original UK host didn't partake in anything either. I do agree part of it is the lack of Drew Carey, as you could feel the genuine give and take between him and the performers. I also wouldn't be surprised if his behind the scenes work was more than you'd think.

Just curious as to if anyone's watched The Killing?  I've started season 1 and while I have some issues with it, am really impressed by the cinematography and its approach to procedural crime narrative.  It very much feels like an evolution of procedural cop drama (Dragnet->Mission Impossible->Hill Street Blues->Law and Order/Homicide: Life on the Streets->Boomtown->Life->The Killing), and I'm curious about others' opinions on it.

I've tried some Dane and Swedish narrative and it wasn't entirely my tonal bag, so I've not poked the original source. I might, but according to Finnish friends there's enough character changes between the two (Danish Holder is, apparently quite different) that it isn't a direct translation. Admittedly, that's second-hand info, so grain of salt. Still, I've heard enough good things about seasons 3 & 4 that I'm interested in pushing through. The partnership between Linden and Holder and the way their backgrounds are intersecting (and not intersecting) are very intriguing.

I am only on episode 7 of the first season, so it's possible it'll lose me, but it's gorgeously shot and intriguing!

Lately I've been watching Community and Awake. You folks heard of Awake?

Awake is certainly an interesting one. It's a show that lasted only a season before it was cancelled but it had an interesting premise. The basic premise is that a detective gets into a car crash with his wife and son. His son dies in the crash and life continues on. Except that when he goes to sleep, he's awake in a reality where it was his wife that died instead.

To him, both realities feel real to him. He sees psychiatrists in both realities that are trying to convince him that the other is just a dream. He works different cases in the realities but each reality appears to be giving him clues for the other case.

The acting is rather good, a good sense of intrigue and cinematography to help differentiate the two realities. It received positive reviews from critics but people just weren't watching it. There's no dvd/blu-ray of it so you can only check it online I guess.

Yay!

OH and I've also been watching the Legend of Korra and today's (S3) finale was awesome.

Quick recap:

Just awesome.

I'm not sure Nick knows what they are doing with it either. My guess is that since it got mature fast this season maybe they didn't want it to clash with their other programming. I dunno tho. :P

If they made a block at night for different age groups (à la Adult Swim) maybe we wouldn't have this problem.

Mind you, if they're hoping Nick will pay for a 4th season, you wouldn't expect them to say anything else.

I was hugely disappointed by the finale. Much like Frozen, I see a show that keeps hitting emotional buttons but doesn't make any f*cking sense. And, I know it is my problem. But, when things don't make sense, I lose my suspension of disbelief. Yes, it is amazing to see a Korra in the last moments of the finale. The fights generally look good, etc. See my spoilers for things that are just screwed up.

I seem to recall Mako lightning-bending in an episode waaaaay back in season 1 when he was working in a factory to raise money for the pro bending team with a bunch of other fire benders that could do lightning. I think it was to show that these techniques from the previous series were becoming more common place, like metal bending.

...I think that was the only time he used it too,  unless he used it in the series 2 finale at some point.

Avatar is my Star Wars, if ya can't tell :P

I know I'm in the minority here. I also must have forgotten the lightning factory. I can also say you could be correct that Mako is just half-assing most of the time. But, you have to admit that if you say something happened "so a fight took longer", that is weak writing. Ideally, remember setup and payoff. If the setup is right before the payoff, it's a contrivance. I have a low tolerance for contrivance. So, let me suggest a different way the season could have gone if the writing was stronger:

** Zaheer escapes prison. He splits his time between trying to talk to Korra and looking for a rare ore. When he finds the ore, he starts looking for a rare plant. He finally talks to Korra who turns him down in the spirit world. He tells Ming-Hua and Ghazan where to find Korra but she escapes. Finally, a red lotus member (did we see even one before the finale?) brings Zaheer the rare plant. He mixes a jug of poison. In their next fight, Ming-Hua bends the poison at Korra but it is blocked and absorbed by some earth. After the fight, Mako and the team investigate the substance and theorize it is a poison and may trigger the avatar state. Korra suggests she could take just a little of it and it might reconnect her with her past lives. "It's worth the risk", she says. But, Tenzin counsels caution so they don't try it. When we get to the finale, Zaheer brings out a bowl of the poison and we immediately know what it is and that it is too much. It will kill Korra. We also know that the substance requires both the plant and the mineral so a metal bender might neutralize it. Instead of flying, in the finale, Zaheer starts to glow and becomes some sort of spirit who can fly. Since he keeps hitting Korra's spirit, and he moves fast and flies, Korra is getting badly beaten. Her body is dying of poison while her spirit is being pummeled as well. Finally, the novice airbenders form a whirlwind while Jinora asks local spirits for help. The combined effort brings Zaheer down and he loses touch with the powerful spirit form he had temporarily achieved. Korra still cries at the end as she feels like she failed and Jinora feels like more of an avatar than she is. **

You might not like a single thing from what I wrote above. But, all I am doing is taking things that showed up out of nowhere and adding a setup for them somewhere earlier in the season or taking a setup and giving it a finale payoff. I think it makes sense and I like sense in a show that tries to make a point. ATLA was amazing. Korra has had a lot of problems. If you haven't listened to the commentary for season 2, the creators know they are dropping the ball, even if you don't think so:

http://avatarthelegendofkorraonline.com … otes/6054/

I don't think the poison needs to be set up so elaborately. It's poison. We understand how poison works. It's not even a magical poison or anything. A lot of people have speculated that it's mercury.

Last edited by Doctor Submarine (2014-08-27 13:31:55)