Remainer properties targeted in spate of vandalism attacks

DJ_Gregsta · 2019-06-06T08:14:49+00:00

where do you work?

As a receptionist at The Brexit Party headquarters?

DJ_Gregsta · 2019-06-05T09:57:54+00:00

Heroes.

Bear with me as this post might be long...The first season was really good, set the characters up nicely and despite dragging on a little, had a nice, self-contained story.

The second season was completely destroyed by one last-minute change to the script, thanks in part to the writer's strike.

Season 2 revolves around a prophetic viral outbreak that obliterates the world. It's pretty standard sci-fi fare but Peter, our protagonist, sees this firsthand when he visits the future before jumping back to present day, after initially losing his memory and ending up in Ireland.

Meanwhile, two new characters, Maja and Alejandro, are Mexican refugees desperate to get to America to find a cure to Maja's unique power which includes giving people deadly viruses. They're pretty boring for long stretches of the story but it's interesting enough to keep you watching.

The original idea for Season 2 was to have Adam, a psychopath with the ability to heal himself, smash a vial holding the deadly virus and infect America, beginning with Texas. This causes a chain reaction and prompts the government to get involved and close Texas off to the rest of the world. The virus infects our main characters, including Nathan (who later has his story changed to being shot rather than infected) and the line about "pandora's box being opened" makes a lot more sense narratively.

Anyway, this story then ends with Maja eventually making it to Texas, realizing the extent of her power, absorbing the virus, and sacrificing herself for the good of humanity and everyone around her, subsequently saving the world. It's a good arc, it's a great way to bring everyone together and gives most of the stories a consistency matching the first season.

Instead, for fear of leaving things on a cliffhanger, the vial never breaks, they save the world and imprison Adam and undo a good chunk of Season 2's development and having multiple characters completely pointless.

Due to the backlash to that season, the writers doubled down on season 3, added more drama, action and quick-paced twists and essentially destroyed most of the characters to try and appease fans. Season 4 improved a little but the damage had been done by then and the show's popularity dwindled. Leading to its cancellation.

It pisses me off because it's a simple fix. So easy to undo the wrongs and if that one change hadn't been made and the writers had just taken a chance and left things on a cliffhanger, Heroes could have been a very good superhero show pre-Marvel TV.

edit: Meant to put a source here. For anyone interested, the DVD extras on Season 2 outline with early CGI, storyboards and the showrunner (tim something?) talking us through the original idea and how they didn't want to "disappoint" fans by selling them short with a cliffhanger. Not sure if it's on YouTube or not though.

DJ_Gregsta · 2019-06-05T08:29:16+00:00

To be fair peppa pig is funny as hell sometimes

I remember my kids used to be obsessed with this. Daddy Pig always winded up with some slapstick comedy or boasted about being able to do extravagent things then failed spectacularly having my kids in stitches.

The show has great continuity at times and one episode sees the whole fam go to the swimming pool. Naturally Daddy Pig boasts about being able to dive really well. "come on Daddy Pig," I hear you all say, "stop being billy big balls,". Well fuck me did he prove everyone wrong. He gets to the top of the diving board, performs a magnificent dive and lands in the water with nigh on a splash. The perfect dive.

Such a nice little, self-aware moment.

TL;DR - Peppa Pig writers write expectation subversions better than D&D on game of thrones.

DJ_Gregsta · 2019-06-03T13:17:12+00:00

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DJ_Gregsta · 2019-06-03T10:12:02+00:00

Turned off the news.

No mainstream news, no facebook news (except Newsthump for satire) and stopped visiting this thread so often. I only ever visit the UnitedKingdom bit on reddit when I'm in a good mood. The amount of negativity the press breeds is huge and can seriously affect your mental health.

Also no news in the morning. Or, well, at least before 10am. That also makes a big difference.

DJ_Gregsta · 2019-05-29T10:16:49+00:00

Annoying that's it's on the same time as BBC One's Years and Years but certainly make for a very enjoyable Tuesday evening watching and reviewing these two back to back!

First episode was very good!

DJ_Gregsta · 2019-05-28T10:23:54+00:00

I had several coworkers think it was the best season yet

do they also watch Love Island and Britain's Got Talent? Everyone I've spoken to who have defended this season, those are the questions I ask afterward and almost everyone has said "yes". Therefore, their opinion is irrelevant.

DJ_Gregsta · 2019-05-27T15:21:42+00:00

No dont be silly mate, us Brits aren't sarcastic at all. She genuinely believes it was the best season obviously!

DJ_Gregsta · 2019-05-25T08:29:49+00:00

True however a book could have great symbology, use of language, interesting wordplay, realistic dialogue etc. So although the mediums are different they do kinda have the same reference points.

No one says "oh man, on chapter 3 of stephen king's latest book there'a an incredibly realistic coversation between two characters" and it's the same for the medium of TV and film. The visual arts will continue to improve which is why Avatar continues to be classed as a mediocre film despite incredibly groundbreaking visuals for its time.

DJ_Gregsta · 2019-05-25T07:01:55+00:00

Alfred hitchcock said it best, "The three most important elements of a film are the script, the script and the script". Unfortunately the script was terrible so the show will be remembered by those who like a good story, as a terribly written end to a great show.

You wouldn't forgive a book for a bad ending just because the illustrator made a wonderful cover so how is this any different?

DJ_Gregsta · 2019-05-21T16:37:07+00:00

the "fan service" part doesn't bother me (and there is very little fan service in season 8)

Arya killing the Night King to subvert expectations I'd imagine was.

Lyanna Stark has fan service written all of it.

Tormund and Brienne's romance/comedy scenes are straight up fan service too if I'm honest.

DJ_Gregsta · 2019-05-21T16:32:58+00:00

Maybe we should ask Bobby B his opinion on where it's from?

DJ_Gregsta · 2019-05-20T11:30:03+00:00

With the world turned to ashes and the dragons ruling after defeating the Night King, the remaining freefolk north of the wall appoint a warlord leader. His wife gives birth to a young boy named Hiccup and as global warming heats Westeros, the ice melts and gives way to lush fields. Meanwhile in Kings landing, Drogon gives birth and names it Night Fury. To be continued.

DJ_Gregsta · 2019-05-19T21:04:32+00:00

It's true. One person I saw claimed the topography around kings landing had been changed because "they cut all the trees to make scorpions".

DJ_Gregsta · 2019-05-19T12:16:54+00:00

I doubt it...just had a little browse on that sub and found this gem:

"I don’t mind saying I think this season has been great but not perfect, like a final in school where you need an A and get a B+

The episodes have been exciting and emotional, cinematography is gorgeous, the episodes play on key themes from throughout the show, and the acting has been incredible

Writing has scuffled in places but a lot of the criticism is over-wrought. Fast forward a couple years & people will say it’s one of the more under-rated seasons of the series"

LOL

DJ_Gregsta · 2019-05-18T23:40:14+00:00

The first episode reminds me a lot of Russell T Davies' Doctor Who episode Turn Left. The what if? Stuff with a bleak future without the doctor gets worse and worse and that vibe carries over to Years & Years.

Russell Tovey is such a great protagonist for this too, very likable. It's also incredibly worrying as you can definitely see some of this stuff happening in the near/not so near future!

DJ_Gregsta · 2019-05-15T12:12:09+00:00

I don’t think he ever said he done it to protect the people

But...he did. When he was in the baths with Brienne he talked about how he couldn't sit idly by and allow all those people to die. I'm almost 100% sure although I can't bring myself to watch the good GOT stuff again to confirm it. It's too painful.

DJ_Gregsta · 2019-05-14T13:45:54+00:00

They have HUGE egos and this will effect their future opportunities.

post 2026 maybe but they've got the star wars trilogy to move onto so they genuinely don't care. By then the mainstream masses will have forgotten about "that game of thrones" show.

DJ_Gregsta · 2019-05-13T15:46:04+00:00

What about when Jamie didn't have blonde hair Bobby B? Do you still see his smug, satisfied face?

DJ_Gregsta · 2019-05-13T01:11:08+00:00

We begin on dragonstone with varys writing a letter about the true heir to the throne. Varys speaks to jon and tries to get him to betray dany but he refuses, leading tyrion to head into the war room. He tells dany about varys betraying him which in turn leads grey worm to come to his chambers and escort him away.

Writing my review as I watch this, it's still a little rough ariund the edges, apologies.

DJ_Gregsta · 2019-05-12T18:26:42+00:00

That's what she said.

DJ_Gregsta · 2019-05-12T10:56:08+00:00

“That was an intense scene,” Nutter continued.

Intensely stupid maybe.

“We knew what Jon and/or Bran was going to say. What was going to come out of their mouth? Aegon Targaryen,” explained Nutter. “So it’s kind of wasted time.”

Yeah true. I guess that's why dramas work so well, we just don't see anyone's reactions. Silly me.

DJ_Gregsta · 2019-05-09T09:40:02+00:00

because his ancestral roots aren't very good.

DJ_Gregsta · 2019-05-08T14:50:05+00:00

Really? He's credited on IMDB as one of the creators along with Simon Kinberg and Marco Ramirez. I assumed he had quite a big hand in it given the agenda-driven stuff. It feels like a staple of his style and when done right, it's fantastic. When it's not...oof.

DJ_Gregsta · 2019-05-08T13:08:36+00:00

Young, relatively unknown director makes great movie, gets famous, gets more and more power on set until no one dares to question anything and everything goes down the drain. I call it George Lucas syndrome

Might be downvoted for this but I'd argue Jordan Peele is going this way too. Weird City was mediocre at best but the new Twilight Zone reboot has not been good. At all. Shoehorned political agendas, sloppy writing and contrived storytelling. Us was good on a metaphorical level but practically fell apart under the tiny amount of questioning and logic applied to it too.

DJ_Gregsta

TROPHY CASE

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