The latest Penny Arcade podcast, while extremely positive on Stranger Things, compared it to 80s pandering on a level of Ready Player One. That scared me. So it is with great relief that I see it praised here.
Vikings really turned me off with the Yidu storyline
Yeah: exotification, objectification, devious Asian trope/stereotype, use of an Asian character as a prop in a white male's story line, a female slave who seems more than willing to partake in sex acts with her "master" (falling into the Asian hooker trope/stereotype and Asian goddess of kinky sex tropes), a Chinese princess who seems less capable than her counterparts in the Viking court, some interchangeable Asian issues, etc. It was surprisingly racist and sexist from a show that seemed to buck such story lines, tropes, and pitfalls.
Eh what do Mike and Jerry know anyways. Listen to us FrontRowCrew folks we are never wrong about anything.
This is true that their judgement hasn't aligned well with my own for many years now. It used to be flawless.
Mmm, they've been wrong for longer than you remember. We only aligned with them up until about Tribes 2 times. Once they went off and played WoW, was the point it diverged. After that I only really learned about a few good indie games from the Tycho postings before there were other better places to discover them.
Vikings really turned me off with the Yidu storyline
Yeah: exotification, objectification, devious Asian trope/stereotype, use of an Asian character as a prop in a white male's story line, a female slave who seems more than willing to partake in sex acts with her "master" (falling into the Asian hooker trope/stereotype and Asian goddess of kinky sex tropes), a Chinese princess who seems less capable than her counterparts in the Viking court, some interchangeable Asian issues, etc. It was surprisingly racist and sexist from a show that seemed to buck such story lines, tropes, and pitfalls.
And all of that could have at least led to something interesting (flawed for the reasons you mention but at least interesting) but, well, no not really. I was interested to see where she was going to fit into it but, like Count Odo and others, its a whole lot of meh surrounding a core that is still full of potential. I'm waiting for the next season still, mostly because the story can hopefully move in new directions with the sons of Ragnar.
More importantly, The Expanse season 2 trailer is out and I'm much excite. Only 4-ish more months now. That's, well, less than half a year! Having become a book reader for the series as well, I'm really hoping Syfy sticks to its guns and even if it has to be like FX is with The Americans, they better complete the vision. Considering the books are 5 deep, #6 is on the horizon, and book 5 is the "Empire Strikes Back" of the series, well, this show could have some serious legs. I predict by 2018 there will be a measurable amount of Expanse themed swag at convention booths.
Who the hell told me Knights of Sidonia was a good show? Two seasons and literally NOTHING got resolved. Every single conflict or question that was presented during the show went unsolved. What the fuck?
I enjoyed Knights of Sidonia (though haven't watched the last few eps of the second season). Though it gets a little alien Waifu in the second season for my taste. Season 3 probably will be out next year though (since it's had Netflix money)
But I'm also a sucker for Sci-fi that involves struggles of whether turning 5 degrees kills half your crew.
We watched it because space wars. It wasn't *bad.* Just not *good.* The beginning seemed pretty cool; it escalated fast and everything was super high-stakes.
Then it started bouncing back and forth between high school harem drama and super-generic space mech battles. But occasionally cool/interesting plot stuff happens! And then... none of the cool/interesting plot stuff went anywhere. Crazy mind-control parasites! Aliens we can't talk to but maybe there's a way?! Secret immortal ruling class! A FUCKING BEAR CYBORG! Y U NO DO SOMETHING WITH DIS??
The show did a great job at setting up interesting questions. It did a terrible job at answering any of those questions.
Also, ALSO, fuck you for continually harping on the inability to communicate with the enemy and then never actually doing anything with that plot point.
Human photosynthesis, which could have been an interesting plot point, was instead used as an excuse to show naked girls and/or put the protagonist in stereotypical harem scenarios. "OH NO I ACCIDENTALLY PEEPED AT NAKED LADIES AND NOW ONE IS PUNCHING MY FACE HUR HUR I'M SO AWKWARD."
I've been watching Star Trek: Enterprise. Other than the opening theme, which is one of if not the worst opening theme songs ever, it is actually quite enjoyable. I know that it has a bed rep, but the characters are engaging, the stories display a nice mix of the character driven plot and traditional sci-fi, the dialogue is decent, the performances are tolerable-to-good. I like it better than Voyager thus far.
Enterprise was always too culturally imperial for me. The whole white-man-philanthropy bc indigenous folk can't solve it.
The only Star Trek that doesn't do that is Deep Space nine and only just ;-p
Not really. Once the prime directive is in place, they don't intentionally interfere with alien cultures without being asked. Even then, they often refuse.
Comments
More importantly, The Expanse season 2 trailer is out and I'm much excite. Only 4-ish more months now. That's, well, less than half a year! Having become a book reader for the series as well, I'm really hoping Syfy sticks to its guns and even if it has to be like FX is with The Americans, they better complete the vision. Considering the books are 5 deep, #6 is on the horizon, and book 5 is the "Empire Strikes Back" of the series, well, this show could have some serious legs. I predict by 2018 there will be a measurable amount of Expanse themed swag at convention booths.
But I'm also a sucker for Sci-fi that involves struggles of whether turning 5 degrees kills half your crew.
Then it started bouncing back and forth between high school harem drama and super-generic space mech battles. But occasionally cool/interesting plot stuff happens! And then... none of the cool/interesting plot stuff went anywhere. Crazy mind-control parasites! Aliens we can't talk to but maybe there's a way?! Secret immortal ruling class! A FUCKING BEAR CYBORG! Y U NO DO SOMETHING WITH DIS??
The show did a great job at setting up interesting questions. It did a terrible job at answering any of those questions.
Also, ALSO, fuck you for continually harping on the inability to communicate with the enemy and then never actually doing anything with that plot point.
Human photosynthesis, which could have been an interesting plot point, was instead used as an excuse to show naked girls and/or put the protagonist in stereotypical harem scenarios. "OH NO I ACCIDENTALLY PEEPED AT NAKED LADIES AND NOW ONE IS PUNCHING MY FACE HUR HUR I'M SO AWKWARD."
Anyway, I'll probably watch season 3.
Adventure Time
Steven Universe
TAWOG
TT:GO
Stranger Things (very soon)
What a time to be alive and have a TV.