#it's aight

[idkriddleboi]

So I've been playing MWII...

[teazzle]

i am watching the pitt. the sad looking one is my favourite

[theprettieststarfr]

Omg im Russian you guys what

[deathampton]

The Magnum Opus.

[2urbles]

(me, a desperate Xiao main) Let's see that Xiao build buddy

[just-a-whumping-racoon-with-wifi]

okay summing up my info: you're a virgo who wanted to do a bullet journal and got the pens but it never happened. You also like to bake and draw but you don't think you're good at either and i bet you're also a picky eater, but you like.... asian food?

I’m getting better all the time about being a picky eater! I really, really didn’t use to like strawberries until one day I just ... Did? 

[randrick-and-co]

21.03.23 watermelon lemonade

[jakey-beefed-it]

Watched Season One of the Expanse, first impressions and thoughts under the cut.

Here we have a high production value action/mystery sci-fi show set in the comprehensibly nearish future of a couple centuries from now, employing just enough elements of ‘hard’ sf to keep some decent verisimilitude going on. I feel like it would actually benefit from more suspense and less out and out action after the initial pair of disasters, but I’m as much of a military sf nerd as the next asshole so I’m okay with watching point defense cannons blasting torpedoes out of space while rail guns punch holes in hulls.

The show wears its influences on its sleeve, for good and ill. The ‘handheld’ camera shots, kinetic weaponry, and soundtrack ache for the 2000s Battlestar Galactica much in the way that my own heart does, so that’s kinda fun if a bit overt. Random sidenote- the presence of Mormons! In! Spaaace! also put me in mind of (original) BSG particularly, though at least none of these space mormons are major characters so much as backdrop. There are some visuals, musical cues, and potentially themes that also put me in mind of Mass Effect, which is neck and neck with said re-imagined BSG for my personal favorite sci-fi series ever. The small arms tend to sound rather Babylon 5, despite being just Future Bullets. There’s also a fair bit of Total Recall, Blade Runner, Cowboy Bebop, and all sorts of other things I can’t think of right now but were in the back of my mind while I was watching it. Most work okay, some work well, and some fall flat.

There are interesting mysteries and really interesting premises and settings and it’s all pretty well done, but the thing that’s keeping me from really engaging with it is the characters. The ones that are the most interesting are kind of terrible people, some more watchable than others.

I quite often like Thomas Jane and he’s... fine, in this, but his character is basically a walking testosterone overdose COP ON THE EDDDDGEEEE and I just... that I care at ALL about Miller is a credit to the actor, because he is like STRAIGHT out of a lesser noir film. Complete with the weird and frankly a little creepy obsession over finding a particular young woman he doesn’t even know, who May or May Not be a sinister femme fatale or a doe-eyed ingenue.

Shohreh Aghdashloo is always compelling in any role she’s in, but her character’s introductory scene was PERSONALLY overseeing a black site torture session. If she were a villain, or THE villain, I’d probably be a lot more tolerant of such things, but she’s pretty clearly meant to be more of a magnificent bastard antihero.

Jared Harris is also here and while he holds down his scenes with characteristic intensity, he’s hindered by a funky accent and future patois that put me in mind of nothing so much as Edward James Olmos’ debilitating funny talkin’ in Blade Runner. And he’s *a* villain without really getting to be *the* villain, which means he’s kinda wasted a bit. The man was born to play deeply flawed protagonists who almost stumble into decency, or Satan, and really nothing in between does him justice.

Probably the most straightforward part of the series follows the survivors of the aforementioned disasters early in the show, and while most of them are interesting, really only the one black British actress playing Naomi holds your attention enough to drive that plot. She’s got an interesting and conflicting mix of selflessness vs survivalism, a mysterious past she actually sells, and is always interesting to watch. Unfortunately, she’s not the protagonist here.  The protagonist of that part of the series is... a fairly bland white dude. He is also, unfortunately, the character with the most in the way of a moral outlook in the entire series so far. There were a couple of moments where I almost felt like he was starting to sell a character worth watching, but then he would be almost instantly upstaged by literally anyone sharing the screen with him. The pilot is kinda fun. The goon is compelling to watch and has some really interesting hints at further depth, but is ultimately too small a part to really get to shine.

I’m going to watch the second season (unless it downright pisses me off somehow) but so far my main impression is that what wants to be a delicious jambalaya of different elements is more like a half-assed chipotle burrito where the ingredients are weirdly spread such that you take a bite at one end and it’s all lettuce and all the guacamole has dropped down to the other end. Sure the beans and cheese are mixed well... enough ...but the overall experience is not what you’re looking for in a burrito sci-fi show.

Also I know i’m a half-white cis dude and have basically zero authority to say anything but if I’M noticing your show seems a little white and macho maybe you should reconsider some elements.