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Off (and insane) Topic discussions / Re: Random Crap 2021: The Downward Spiral Of Our Days
« Last post by Silver Sorrow on May 09, 2021, 08:57:23 PM »So I watched some of Shadow and Bone on Netflix (might as well watch something as they're charging me $18 a month) and...
...I don't know. Every media outlet that mentioned the show treated it as if it were the second coming of Christ, but I couldn't make heads or tails out of it. Okay, there's magic, there's a girl who people don't like because she looks different, and there's a kind of steampunk thing going on...
...which wouldn't be a bad setup, but I can't understand a goddamn thing coming out of the actors' mouths! A bunch of British actors spewing out their lines as if they're all in a race to reach the end of each scene first, and I hate having to turn on subtitles just to make sense of what's going on. I made the mistake of folding towels for part of it, and was thoroughly lost. "Why is she doing that? What did he say? Why is she...wait, is this a flashback? Why...uh...oh God no."
[SCENE: A man and a woman flirt]
MAN: [insinuating smile] Dyouthinkwhatsitwatermelonfre nchfries?
WOMAN: [wincing smile] Oh, IdunnowhatthetimeisbutIthinki tmightbepatagonia!
MAN: [smooth chuckle] Tacobellcheeseonthursdaywotch erbobmexicovivalamanoflamanch a!
WOMAN: [laughs]
[END SCENE]
I gave up after 20 minutes of this. Apparently they have all this lore and backstory to establish in the first episode, a lot of exposition, a ton of character establishment and motiviation, and so on. So they gotta get through it and FAST, establishing the world to hook the viewer before their ratings crater and Netflix cancels them. So the actors have to deliver their lines like auctioneers.
It's bad enough with American actors, but the added difficulty of the British accents tend to make me especially patriotic on the 4th of July.
There is an alternative, though: it involves these things called "books." The series is based on a trilogy, but...I don't know if I care enough to start another series. I already have a backlog of reading material...I mean, I never finished the third Thomas Covenant series, I'm only a third of the way through Adrienne Barbeau's autobiography, and I have yet to make it through the maze on the back of the Cap'n Crunch box. I just don't have the room for more things to read!
...I don't know. Every media outlet that mentioned the show treated it as if it were the second coming of Christ, but I couldn't make heads or tails out of it. Okay, there's magic, there's a girl who people don't like because she looks different, and there's a kind of steampunk thing going on...
...which wouldn't be a bad setup, but I can't understand a goddamn thing coming out of the actors' mouths! A bunch of British actors spewing out their lines as if they're all in a race to reach the end of each scene first, and I hate having to turn on subtitles just to make sense of what's going on. I made the mistake of folding towels for part of it, and was thoroughly lost. "Why is she doing that? What did he say? Why is she...wait, is this a flashback? Why...uh...oh God no."
[SCENE: A man and a woman flirt]
MAN: [insinuating smile] Dyouthinkwhatsitwatermelonfre nchfries?
WOMAN: [wincing smile] Oh, IdunnowhatthetimeisbutIthinki tmightbepatagonia!
MAN: [smooth chuckle] Tacobellcheeseonthursdaywotch erbobmexicovivalamanoflamanch a!
WOMAN: [laughs]
[END SCENE]
I gave up after 20 minutes of this. Apparently they have all this lore and backstory to establish in the first episode, a lot of exposition, a ton of character establishment and motiviation, and so on. So they gotta get through it and FAST, establishing the world to hook the viewer before their ratings crater and Netflix cancels them. So the actors have to deliver their lines like auctioneers.
It's bad enough with American actors, but the added difficulty of the British accents tend to make me especially patriotic on the 4th of July.
There is an alternative, though: it involves these things called "books." The series is based on a trilogy, but...I don't know if I care enough to start another series. I already have a backlog of reading material...I mean, I never finished the third Thomas Covenant series, I'm only a third of the way through Adrienne Barbeau's autobiography, and I have yet to make it through the maze on the back of the Cap'n Crunch box. I just don't have the room for more things to read!
