"AestheticsInMotion" (aestheticsinmotion)
02/07/2018 at 00:23 • Filed to: None | 3 | 11 |
Have you seen it? Non-spoiler review
I just finished the last episode.... And was blown away. My favorite Netflix series to date, and that’s saying something after enjoying The Punisher so much a few months ago.
Here’s some thoughts. Will mark as spoiler when necessary...
Sci-fi has always been about pushing the boundaries, but even so... this is one of the first relatively big series I’ve seen where LGBT relationships are portrayed realistically (as in not just the stylish, impeccably dressed buff gay guy trope, etc.) while at the same time feeling completely unforced. You never end up feeling like they just added more diversity to appease certain crowds, or for political relavance. The diversity is a part of the universe, and it feels natural. There are also some... “unique” relationship situations that go hand in hand with the world building, but to say more would be spoilery. Let’s just say that tattood beard-grandma was surprisingly emotive, and made me feel things. “Is... Is someone cutting onions in here?! Stop it!”
That said... The cynic in me wonders if Netflix decided to see exactly how close they could get to a non-white male lead without actually ccommitting to the deed. That will make more sense if you’ve at least seen a few episodes, but again this is just minor nitpicking on a more meta level and at the end of the day the casting was excellent. Fresh faces and experienced actors alike (anyone else watch Bones...?) really dragged you in with multi-dimensional characters with their own goals
the writers have done wonderful world building, showing a possible future for all of us some time in the future. Frankly, the issues facing the protagonists are terrifying because given similar technological advances, it’s not hard to imagine our own world going down the same path. I’m not going to get into the plot, but suffice to say it’s a smart series, that manages to avoid getting bogged down in itself like some other well-loved but flawed sci-fi adventures *cough* Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence *cough*. Action scenes are interesting and well shot when they come, but it’s the slowly unfolding story that grabs you by the back of the neck and doesn’t let go.
The show is absolutely beautiful, and if you tell me about how stunning it was watching it on your 100" OLED TV I might just cry because I watched it all on a smartphone. Fml
I’m giving it a 9/10, one of the best Netflix series’ to date and a future classic for any and all sci-fi aficionados. My one complaint? I feel like I’ve seen the “attractive female Spanish sidekick who’s passionate about what’s right, and has a strong attitude dammit! Plus catholic overtones!” so many times now at this point that it elicits a groan of boredom.
Anyways, go watch it. Ten hour-long episodes because Netflix loves you. As with all cult-classics, reviews are mixed, with some calling it the absolute greatest sci-fi series of the decade deserving a place on the (digital) shelf of all media lovers, and others calling it mediocre albeit with stunning visuals. To hell with critics, check it out for yourself! Wait... Except for me. I’m a GOOD critic. You can trust me, friend. Oh and there’s tons of nudity and violence, drugs, etc. I’d probably watch solo before showing your kid, but then again my dad probably (definitely) watched worse with me, and look at me now! I’m doing great! Got a fuckin’ Miata, and a condo, and a severe terror of dying in my sleep via Freddy Krueger, and....
FEEL FREE TO PUT SPOILERS IN THE COMMENTS. If you haven’t watched, you have been warned.
Wagon Guy drives a Boostang
> AestheticsInMotion
02/07/2018 at 00:33 | 1 |
I have only watched the first episode. I have a habit of only watching one or two at a time and letting the series drag out instead of binge watching. It’s good so far.
AestheticsInMotion
> Wagon Guy drives a Boostang
02/07/2018 at 00:37 | 0 |
Nowadays, for shows that release one episode a week I just wait until an entire season is out before watching. Netflix has spoiled me.
I’ve yet to touch game of thrones though, despite loving the books. I’ve made it this far so I figure I’ll wait until it’s over, and watch it all at my leisure.
415s30 W123TSXWaggoIIIIIIo ( •_•))°)
> AestheticsInMotion
02/07/2018 at 00:38 | 1 |
Cool, I heard of it. Downloading now....
Nick Has an Exocet
> AestheticsInMotion
02/07/2018 at 00:45 | 1 |
I’m watching Episode 9 as I type this. It’s a fine show. I give it a 6/10. It gets better in the second half of the season.
They spend far too much time trying to explain over-complicated bits that they should have ironed out back before script editing was completed. This is one of those concept > execution series where the concept is a pure once in a lifetime kind of achievement so execution was not likely to match up.
I’m also a bit jaded after having had to sit through what feels like a decade of dark anti-hero bullshit. All I want is a show with some likable characters. Actual heroes. Enough with all this broody BS.
AestheticsInMotion
> Nick Has an Exocet
02/07/2018 at 00:53 | 0 |
Fair enough. I like the darker stuff more. It’s why I enjoy the Netflix marvel series much more than the movies right now.
I did find the whole “woman who fell from the sky” to be severely under-explained until right up until the end. Was that just me or...?
Thinking back, all of my favorite sci-fi movie/series/books have definitely been on the darker side, from Dune and Dark City to Stargate Universe, The Black Company and endless anime.
AestheticsInMotion
> Nick Has an Exocet
02/07/2018 at 00:56 | 0 |
Oh and speaking of heroes... When do you think we’ll move past that and onto something else? I feel like before the big Marvel push that was built on the back of the few prior successful superhero films (x-men, Christian bale Batman, Blade, etc) we had a very, very long period of zombies being THE THING. now it’s 100% superheroes and doesn’t look like it will slow. What’s next....
Nick Has an Exocet
> AestheticsInMotion
02/07/2018 at 01:20 | 0 |
Yeah, the woman from the sky thing was probably the weakest point. Even the explanation is pretty meh. Game of Thrones this is not.
The zombie things comes and goes every 15 years or so - or whenever someone adds a new twist. Gen 1: Romero zombies. Gen 2: Schlockey Zombies (80s zombie flicks). Gen 3: Realism Zombies (28 days later). Gen 4: comedy zombies (shaun of the dead).
Almost everything in entertainment is a fad - or counter-fad. Sometimes counter-fad starts a new fad. Batman Begins was counter-fad. Prior to that you had Mystery Men, Orgazmo, Power Rangers, Hellboy, Ninja Turtles, etc. Things were mainly dominated by either do-gooder and off-color heros. The exception to that being The Crow, which was pretty...uhm... yeah.
You can kind of think of pop-film as being a spiderweb. One intersection links to many others and so on. There was kind of an interesting thing that happened when Marvel really broke things out - they had two directions: Spiderman and Batman. Spiderman? Toby Maguire. That bubble gum spiderman. Batman? Anti-hero gritty reboot. The anti-hero really outlived everything else.
In my mind, there was another fracture when Guardians of the Galaxy made a bajillion dollars. Now you can watch any number of movies where it seems like everyone needs to make a dick joke in the middle of combat. You could basically interchange the latest Thor movie with Guardians 2. If you wanted to really trace that lineage back, you may even find some strands leading back to Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World (2010).
TV seems to more or less mimic film. Especially now that Disney owns the top universes.
AMGtech - now with more recalls!
> AestheticsInMotion
02/07/2018 at 03:51 | 0 |
Just started watching tonight and I’m loving it so far! As for the sidekick, is it really any less boring than a white male lead? Latino folks are pretty common, so having one as a main character is realistic. And the Catholic overtones play nicely into the 653 movement or whatever it’s called. It’s a lot less boring to me than a Russian hitman at least.
Daily Drives a Dragon - One Last Lap
> AestheticsInMotion
02/07/2018 at 08:12 | 0 |
Looks interesting. I started watching the first episode but didn’t finish it
CobraJoe
> AestheticsInMotion
02/07/2018 at 09:29 | 0 |
Well I’m sold.
Think my wife would like it? She’s usually more interested in more serious dramas. (she’s watching the West Wing now)
aquila121
> AestheticsInMotion
02/07/2018 at 22:40 | 0 |
Unpopular dissenting opinion time: I became less enthused over the course of the series, personally. This was one of those mysteries where as answers to the story’s mysteries were revealed, it often struck me as the least interesting explanation.
I’m not even sure how to fully justify my disappointment—the series did have positive elements, first of which being that the visuals were better than I expected. I love mysteries in general, and the ethical questions raised by transferring sleeves, the caste system of the obscenely wealthy buying their way out of death, those details of the world worked. But the nature of how the tech has upended all of society means a lot of dry expositional dialogue going on between characters. And then the last few episodes get loaded down with discussions of hacking BS, and everything seems to hinge on contortions to sidestep the whole concept of the rich having their backups.
The acting’s solid, the tone feels right, but I knew things were going downhill in my mind when I spotted the cover of White Zombie’s “More Human Than Human” in Carnage’s fight ring and actively sneered to myself. Joel Kinnaman’s fine in this (I liked him a little more in The Killing , but that’s just me), I smiled to myself when I saw Dichen Lachman and Tamoh Penikett from Dollhouse —maybe that’s a bit of my issue, that I’ve seen the “transfer of consciousness ruins society” already in that series.
And Lizzie being a goddamn T1000 deus ex machina in a bondage suit was just fuckin’ weird.