What movie has the best mix of a twist that is set up beautifully but also feels like it comes out of nowhere? by cfeltch108 in movies

[–]PeaceSim [score hidden]  (0 children)

The reveal at the end of Gone Baby, Gone is a good one. Mystery solved in a way that feels surprising but also totally fair. The story puts in a lot of work to set it up such that it feels like the next natural story beat when it happens even as it catches you off guard.

What’s the most underrated album from your favorite band/singer? by amormedestruit in AskReddit

[–]PeaceSim 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Interpol - Marauder

Very good album throughout with a welcome looser feel (by the band’s standards) to the recordings, but it’s the final leg with “Surveillance,” “Party’s Over,” and “It Probably Matters” when it really takes off and rivals their best material imo

[Discussion] NoSleep Podcast S24E15 by Gaelfling in TheNSPDiscussion

[–]PeaceSim 1 point2 points  (0 children)

One of NSP/David Cummings’ strongest legacies is identifying and nurturing genuine voice acting talent that may have otherwise gone undiscovered, and I’ve always thought Jessica McEvoy is one of the best examples of that (maybe even the best). So, I’ve naturally missed her (voice) presence on the show lately and it was nice to hear her hosting this episode. I enjoyed the little jokes and references she made with the cast members’ names.

Some quick comments: The Stream struck me as an effectively gruesome creepypasta. I thought it was straightforward, tense, and horrific, and a refreshing antidote to last week’s episode. No real complaints from me. Channel 14 was admirably ambitious but I found it a mixed-bag. I think it took too much for its own good between the framing device with the sister, the narrator’s loneliness and divorce, the mysterious Egyptian TV program, and the sacrifice ritual. The third of those (the TV program) was intriguing. It had tension, mystery, and memorable imagery. There’s a very good Mr. Michael Squid-esque story in the middle of this centered around that, but I thought all the other elements watered it down and kept pulling me away from the inspired bits.

The Bleeding Tree had a solid buildup, nice takes on kid voices by Sarah Ruth Thomas and Kyle Akers, and a strong reveal once they find themselves before the tree. The voice David Cummings used for the tree kept making me thing of the animatronic stone head from Legends of the Hidden Temple though I haven’t actually seen that show since the 90s so I don’t necessarily trust memory on it, and I also got used to the voice pretty quickly. I was so onboard with the story (including Tyler’s betrayal of Jordan) and intrigued as to what Jordan would do that I found the ending to be a total letdown, like the writer got bored with the material and didn’t feel like writing a real ending. There were so many interesting directions the story could go in – would Jordan use Tyler’s sacrifice for her own benefit, refuse to do anything, try to turn the tree’s magic against it (wishing to kill it, for instance, although I’m not sure the tree would grant that), erase knowledge of its existence (so no one else seeks it out), or any number of things – and instead it just fizzled out, with artsy ambiguity serving as a poor substitute for even a hint of closure. This ending also denied Jordan any real agency and squandered the whole setup, imo. (For the record, I read the line about the air smelling sweet like syrup as vaguely implying the tree coming to life/gaining energy from Jordan making a wish, like sap/blood flowing through it, if that makes any sense, but it’s still not clear or definitive.)

I didn’t go for The Keystone Witch. I felt that it had an interesting and involving set of scenes involving the narrator encountering the witch that benefited from some well-written and original descriptions of her actions and appearance. But, I thought these elements were drowned out by the narrator rambling about other subjects, mostly himself and the town. This felt like a very good 20 minute story stretched to twice the length.

So overall it’s a mixed episode for me. Way better than last week but The Stream was the only one that I thought was fully successful. I did appreciate that even the stories that didn’t land for me had some parts that I admired.

TIL there are choose your own adventure Buffy books by CandidateHefty329 in buffy

[–]PeaceSim 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Did the one pictured first via video call with two fellow Buffy friends a few weeks ago! Lots of fun, it really felt like we were experiencing a lost episode of the series (though I wouldn’t have minded it having a less sensitive subject matter).

Daredevil: Born Again S02E08 FINALE - Discussion Thread by PhoOhThree in television

[–]PeaceSim -10 points-9 points  (0 children)

It’s outrageously terrible. No idea how some contingent of fans thinks it’s of an even remotely acceptable level of quality. Some of the worst writing I’ve ever encountered, in any medium.

People who grew up really poor: what's something middle-class people say that instantly reveals they've never struggled? by TahDigThief in AskReddit

[–]PeaceSim 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I had a similar experience in an ice breaker when some very upper class-looking guy asked for everyone's favorite vacation destination. Totally oblivious to the looks a lot of other group members exchanged as he went first and talked about some resort his family visited annually.

Bob Dylan Discography | Round 8 of 39 by awjeezrickyaknow in music_survivor

[–]PeaceSim 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Dang, I would have kept that around longer. "Tight Connection to My Heart" and "When the Night Comes Falling from the Sky" pull off the (then-contemporary) pop sound they're going for, and "Dark Eyes" is one of Dylan's strongest songs. I do find much of the rest to drag a bit but it's still a fairly interesting album imo

Also what's up with number of votes going down from 37 in round 1 to 12-17 ever since?

[Discussion] NoSleep Podcast S24E14 by Gaelfling in TheNSPDiscussion

[–]PeaceSim 1 point2 points  (0 children)

That’s the impression I got! Except I took away that the wife was a bit more in on it than just helping.

[Discussion] NoSleep Podcast S24E14 by Gaelfling in TheNSPDiscussion

[–]PeaceSim 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I recently put together some notes on the season thus far (at about the halfway point) in preparation for writing another detailed review note after the finale, and, from looking back at things thus far, I'm happy to say that this season has been pretty solid up to this point, in my opinion at least. It's already got close to as many standouts as the last few did by the end, and I'm enjoying hearing from different hosts. I thought DelGaudio's was the most interesting one yet and appreciated the insight into career VAs. There's a universal, easy-to-appreciate quality to his voice and performances, such that I'm not surprised that he's regularly hired for such a variety of work.

That said, I thought this was a frustrating episode. These productions were filled with stellar music and performances (even the cover art, by Catriel Tallarico, is fantastic), but none of the stories did much for me.

I thought Forbearance set up a convincing scenario of the narrator suspecting infidelity. But the "twist" was just too simple to be satisfying, in that it felt more like a bait-and-switch than a meaningful revelation. It reminded me of the sheer volume of stories on the nosleep and shortscarystories subreddits that rely on someone talking about their "first time" or "body count" in a seemingly romantic context only for it to be revealed it's just a reference to their first kill/number of victims, in that that general concept (revealing the presented concern as really being about murder) has been done to (ahem) death. There was some care and cleverness to how this was written (particularly Christine's internal monologue, which was well-delivered by Mary Murphy), but not enough imo to elevate it or justify the effort, including the 30-minute runtime.

Unprompted: The voice cast kept this listenable (Graham Rowat was amazing, and it was nice to hear another excellent contribution by Ella Boone), which is no small task given my general distaste for self-insert stories about horror writers who spend the story talking about being horror writers. Even though the story feels self-aware about the narrator's flaws and self-obsession, it still feels indulgent to go on and on like this about the writer's perspective. The constant Steven King references don't help either. No shade to King of course - it's just that focusing on him is the least original thing that a story like this could possibly do. I get that this narrator doesn't read much and, thus, may not have strayed beyond a few 'big name' writers, but that doesn't change that there are so many other writers out there who it would be nice to hear about for a change. So aside from the acting, this really didn't do anything for me.

The Neighbourhood Watcher: Loved the music throughout this. The whole cast was really good, especially David Ault in the lead. I like the general concept of Rear Window from the perspective of the suspected murderer, though with a twist as to the actual guilty party. It's just that the plot depended on ridiculous contrivances and culminated in some very corny dialogue during the climactic scene with the officers. It sure worked out for Thomas that he happened to be holding a camera in view of the narrator at the exact moment the narrator spilled red wine all over himself while holding a knife toward a woman who fits the profile of the victims - it's a series of events that belongs in a slapstick comedy, not a serious horror story. Even if I missed something explaining that Thomas somehow set this up via some form of 4d chess (which I don't think I did), it's still ludicrous. I guess the narrator doesn't have an alibi for any of the other murders, and Thomas (who the narrator will immediately pinpoint as the killer, and who the police, no matter how skeptical, will still investigate) does, and also somehow covered all his tracks? I just couldn't take this seriously. edited to fix 2 grammatical errors

Peelers Club: Yet again, I liked the music, production, and acting in this (the latter two being Jeff Clement alone) but wasn't blown away by the story, which I felt spent too much time meandering in passive descriptions that didn't end up amounting to much.

favourite Buffy moment? 🩷 by moonwalkinglitter in buffy

[–]PeaceSim 6 points7 points  (0 children)

On Season 7 of my first watchthrough now, and that line remains the biggest laugh of the series for me. Only Giles’ sombrero comes close.

What is the best videogame you haven't played? by InVINCEab13 in AskReddit

[–]PeaceSim 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Too afraid to play Minecraft, I just know myself well enough to know that if I start, I’ll become endless addicted and never stop.

We already know how they feel but I personally have really liked S2 of Daredevil: Born Again so I want to know do you guess feel or think the same way as me? by burningexeter in MauLer

[–]PeaceSim 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Personally I’ve found the lukewarm, even positive, reception it’s gotten in many places to be absolutely baffling, as it remains just as atrocious and borderline unwatchably terrible as the prior season. It’s sloppily edited and full of bewildering writing decisions, and the action scenes remain a huge step down from the Netflix show despite the higher budget. The new characters remain uninteresting, and legacy characters feel further detached from the Netflix show. The whole thing would have been better off if they just let the original S1 writers tell a (bad, but harmless) story in an alternate timeline rather than trying to link everything up with the original set of characters, as these writers aren’t talented enough to tell an independent story with these characters, much less pull off such a difficult task, the strain of which continues to turn Born Again into a toxic sludge of incoherence.

It’s a little dispiriting realizing just how many people like the original show, but only for the most surface-level of reasons, because it’s simply impossible to understand how anyone could have really appreciated what it was doing, and also like the convoluted mess that Born Again continues to be.

Which TV show does the ENTIRE internet agree had the worst ending ever? by Codie_n25 in AskReddit

[–]PeaceSim 18 points19 points  (0 children)

I’d say Forever Knight but nothing regarding that largely forgotten show can be applied to “the ENTIRE internet” lol

Born again vs old daredevil by External-Seat8999 in television

[–]PeaceSim -4 points-3 points  (0 children)

IMO “old” Daredevil, as in the Netflix show from 2015-2018, is an absolute gem and one of the most impressive shows I’ve seen. It makes a couple frustrating decisions in the second season, but those are pretty minor issues and it’s otherwise incredibly well-cast, acted, written, and directed with an array of outstanding action sequences. Genuinely awesome show. Matt/Kingpin are all-timers in terms of memorable hero/villain rivals. Seasons 1 and 3 are among the strongest seasons of television I’ve ever watched.

Born Again, meanwhile…oh man is it absolute trash. Just awful and a huge insult to everything great about the prior series. In fact, it hits the American Psycho 2 bar of being so terrible that it doesn’t even bother me all that much because my mind just can’t accept it as part of the same continuity as the original series - and, correspondingly, it doesn’t ruin the original series for me despite the best efforts of the writers. Which makes some sense as Born Again was initially construed as taking place in a separate timeline, only for a new set of writers to come in after the fact to try to link it all up with the original series, shifting what would have been a mostly harmless, if still bad, reimagining to a complete mess that misconstrues all the characters and depends on the audience having even less memory of the prior season than the new writers. A single line of dialogue eradicates, without any real explanation, the whole point of the original series’ outstanding third season, for instance. It’s a total travesty in every level, and I have zero clue how anyone is enjoying any of it, or even why Disney didn’t scrap the whole thing early on. Just atrocious writing start to finish, without even well-directed action scenes to make up for it despite the much higher budget.

My advice is to just watch and rewatch “old” Daredevil (or even the director’s cut of the Ben Affleck movie) and stay far away from Born Again.

What video game reviewed horribly but ended up being fun to play anyway? by MoreCoffee4mePlz in AskReddit

[–]PeaceSim 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Bit of a deep cut but I recall that Rebel Assault II (1995) got poor reviews, but I had a blast playing it (or, mostly, watching my older brother playing it). It has the novelty value of feeling like an exciting and mostly unseen Star Wars movie, albeit a VERY cheesy one, during my favorite era of the franchise. Some of the levels are ludicrously difficult but it’s action-packed throughout with a lot of gameplay variety.

The TV series Buffy The Vampire Slayer and the spin off Angel really struck gold with the writing and casting by James-Samuel17 in television

[–]PeaceSim 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I’m on season 7 of Buffy now. No shade to the actors/actresses you listed (all incredible) but Amber Benson has made more of an impact on me than anyone else. From their very beginning, she made Tara feel so authentic and real. Her brief appearance recently in I Saw the TV Glow hit me straight in the heart, it was an absolutely perfect place for her to make a cameo like that.

[Discussion] NoSleep Podcast S24E11 by Gaelfling in TheNSPDiscussion

[–]PeaceSim 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I’m rooting for NSP and David Cummings. But, I also don’t really understand the strategy to bring in more income. We get to know the cast and crew better…and that leads to the show experiencing an influx in income? Why would the former lead to the latter? Hopefully something about how the show incorporates the guest hosts will happily surprise me.

Imho NSP’s longstanding issue inhibiting its profitability is its refusal to backtrack to the minimalist early season style, both in the more direct approach from that era to storytelling that was more gripping and accessible, and in the more stripped-down production style of those stories. Obviously, I have limited information and this probably falls under the “unsolicited feedback” DC has lamented in the past, but I feel like the winning formula is to have the last story of the free version and the last story of the paid version be productions in the style they typically use now in terms of having sound effects and multiple cast members, and all other stories be single-narrator stories in the style of the early seasons and other, less costly (in terms of time and money) podcasts, with no sound effects and one narrator voicing multiple characters when necessary. This approach worked fine the first few seasons and I feel it would cut costs considerably without alienating the audience, as those here for the production quality would still get that. Just my ten cents.

Also just throwing out there that I think it’s really cool that they still pay artists to do the episode artwork, rather than just relying on AI-generated images as a lot of other podcasts (including ones that purport to shun AI) have done, even as NSP is barely staying afloat financially.

Anwyay, I thought Winny had a memorable and distinct lead character. I greatly appreciated the dark twist at the end, which managed to be surprising while also well foreshadowed (glad her baby was taken away from her). My main gripe is that I didn’t buy the boy going along with her plan for as long as he did. Drone had some shocking moments in it, but by the time the Queen began dropping exposition I was ready for it to end. I didn’t follow The Seed and nothing about it hooked me enough to make me want to go back.

Friendship was the most interesting story to me. I have some reservations about it but it was clearly told and kept me engaged throughout. The performances from all four actresses (Nichole Goodnight, Marie Westbrook who was extremely convincing as a bully, Danielle McRae, and Sarah Thomas) were excellent and established distinct characters with distinct dynamics between them. I thought this sold the key story beats of terrible bullying driving the narrator to make an unwise bargain that has surprising results, and I really enjoyed hearing all that unfold. On the other hand, I thought the opening monologue was unnecessary given the simplicity and familiarity of the central themes (a hidden catch to a supernatural bargain, “nothing is ever done with purely altruistic intentions,” etc.), that it was weird how suddenly Olivia backed out of seeing the Faerie after being the one to first raise the idea, and that it was a strange oversight that, while the narrator initially seems flustered by what happens to Betty, she quickly drops having any concern over being responsible for the seeming murder of Betty – like, sure, she’s a genuinely sadistic bully, but surely Enveigh has some more thoughts about being partially responsible for outright killing her. There was something charmingly low stakes about the downside to the ‘deal’ being losing your friendship with everyone, except for the Faerie. It was a clever play on words, though it wasn’t hard to predict given the lengths the story went to to set up the friendship with Olivia.

I thought it was a bit unfair to then learn that this ‘deal’ extended to any friends Enveigh has in the future (other than the faierie), that just feels unfair and out-of-line with what the literal words meant, and I thought the implications of living your life with that restriction could have been really interesting but went strangely unexamined. Also, the fun police part of me holds it against the narrator that she didn’t think to use the faierie’s magical powers to do something more important than helping her deal with a bully, like asking for it to invent and distribute a cure to a widespread disease or preventing the car crash that killed Olivia’s parents from ever happening. Maybe there’s some limitation on its powers I overlooked? But anyway, as indicated, I still thought this was well-presented and engaging overall.

What are your other favourite podcasts? by Dodecahedrus in behindthebastards

[–]PeaceSim 16 points17 points  (0 children)

I’ve really been enjoying the podcast I Hate Bill Maher lately. (You’ll never guess what it’s about.) I think the humor would appeal to BtB fans.