OT: The Avalounge (mod warning - No Politics)

[expatriatedtexan]

Overall I liked it, but was kind of annoyed with one of the subplots. Overall the bad guy was good

Gotta say, I'm wondering what took me so long to watch it. I think I forgot that it was out already. Same thing is happening to me with the new Bosch series. I keep missing when they release the new ones.

As for Justified, this is one of my all-time favorite scenes of television....

 

[UncleRisto]

Names, I need names. Universe needs those names.

I watched the pilot and stopped.

 

[Murzu]

I watched the pilot and stopped.

To get more popcorn before you continued?

 

[5280]

To get more popcorn before you continued?

It’s good he didn’t try to beat up the pilot

 

[Murzu]

It’s good he didn’t try to beat up the pilot

It is, the plane might have crashed if he did

 

[5280]

It is, the plane might have crashed if he did

Exactly!

 

[UncleRisto]

To get more popcorn before you continued?

Yeah, I'm still getting that popcorn.

 

[Murzu]

Yeah, I'm still getting that popcorn.

 

[JWK]

Ublock origin?

It worked for 3 days, RIP.

On another note, what kind of eye sore is this?

 

[McMetal]

My show that I'm working on right now is Star Trek: Lower Decks. As a lifelong Trekkie, it's an absolutely wonderful ride. It simultaneously skewers and celebrates all of the tropes of the franchise, and it's riddled with sly in-jokes and obscure easter eggs that only hardcore Trekkies will get. I waited way too long to watch this, I'm most of the way through season 3 now.

 

[The Moops]

It worked for 3 days, RIP.

On another note, what kind of eye sore is this?

Wild, I've never once had an ad on YouTube

 

[expatriatedtexan]

My show that I'm working on right now is Star Trek: Lower Decks. As a lifelong Trekkie, it's an absolutely wonderful ride. It simultaneously skewers and celebrates all of the tropes of the franchise, and it's riddled with sly in-jokes and obscure easter eggs that only hardcore Trekkies will get. I waited way too long to watch this, I'm most of the way through season 3 now.

My wife grew up watching Star Trek with her parents and is a life-long trekie. She absolutely loves Lower Decks. She was also jazzed when I told her I heard a rumor that the Orville was getting a 4th season. She's said that's her 5th favorite Star Trek show and it's not even Star Trek. *LOL*

We've got them ranked TOS >TNG >Lower Decks > Enterprise > Orville > DS9 > pretty much everything else in a bunch of not for us. I say these are "our" rankings but I've already told you who wears the Phaser in our household. I get the bowcaster and thermal detonators.

 

[McMetal]

My wife grew up watching Star Trek with her parents and is a life-long trekie. She absolutely loves Lower Decks. She was also jazzed when I told her I heard a rumor that the Orville was getting a 4th season. She's said that's her 5th favorite Star Trek show and it's not even Star Trek. *LOL*

We've got them ranked TOS >TNG >Lower Decks > Enterprise > Orville > DS9 > pretty much everything else in a bunch of not for us. I say these are "our" rankings but I've already told you who wears the Phaser in our household. I get the bowcaster and thermal detonators.

I love The Orville, I think it's the most Star Trek thing that's been on television since Voyager (in the Roddenberry sense of "Star Trek" as an optimistic vision of the future). However, sadly I'm pretty sure it's done. I would be happy to be wrong, but it looks like several of the main cast want out, and Hulu isn't really interested in doing the negotiations to keep them on board.

As for the order... TNG is my favorite. It was what I grew up on, and it's absolutely a comfort food show. DS9 is a very close second, though. I think objectively you could make the case that it's the best Trek ever, but TNG still edges it for sentimental reasons. Voyager is a tier below, it had some weaker characters in the ensemble but still had way more good than bad. It's hard to rank Lower Decks and Orville for me, I guess they're too new. Below those would be Enterprise and TOS. Enterprise only had one interesting character in the whole cast (T'pol), the rest were forgettable. And TOS had a lot of great ideas, strong characters, and was obviously foundational to Trek, but I have to admit it hasn't aged well. For some people the campiness and cheesiness is part of the charm, but it's not as fun for me to watch because of that.

Discovery I don't even count. I watched a few episodes and stopped, it really didn't feel like Star Trek to me. It felt more like Battlestar Galactica, which was a good show, but it was not Star Trek. I've heard some good things about SNW but Disco kind of killed modern Trek for me.

 

[expatriatedtexan]

Yeah, Star Trek is probably a bit like the Dr. Who. You might ending up liking several Doctors, but you won't forgot your first Dr. Who. As for the original Star Trek not aging well. That stuff only happens if you judge it using modern lenses. For every completely socially acceptable thing that happened on Start Trek that is taboo today, they still had the first multi-racial kiss on television. Not that that even dawned on my ~10 year old self when I saw it.

Good sci-fi has always at its heart been about humanity. It uses science and fiction to setup specific situations to allow us to question ourselves, who we are vs who we want to be. Done properly it allows us to have conversations about which paths we want to take before we get to the forks in the road.

[edit...if anyone has been living under a rock for the last decade and wants a smart sci-fi series to watch, check out the Expanse on Amazon. Best hard-ish sci-fi I've seen converted to film/tv in forever. Much like my appreciate to Netflix for purchasing Longmire and giving them three more seasons to finish the story, Amazon did the same for the Expanse and gave them 3 additional seasons to bring the story to at least a logical stopping point.]

 

[Avsboy]

Anyone love Cajun shrimp boils?

They went to a war over a shrimp in a sub?

Or did they done went to war over a shrimp IN a sub?

 

[McMetal]

Yeah, Star Trek is probably a bit like the Dr. Who. You might ending up liking several Doctors, but you won't forgot your first Dr. Who. As for the original Star Trek not aging well. That stuff only happens if you judge it using modern lenses. For every completely socially acceptable thing that happened on Start Trek that is taboo today, they still had the first multi-racial kiss on television. Not that that even dawned on my ~10 year old self when I saw it.

Good sci-fi has always at its heart been about humanity. It uses science and fiction to setup specific situations to allow us to question ourselves, who we are vs who we want to be. Done properly it allows us to have conversations about which paths we want to take before we get to the forks in the road.

[edit...if anyone has been living under a rock for the last decade and wants a smart sci-fi series to watch, check out the Expanse on Amazon. Best hard-ish sci-fi I've seen converted to film/tv in forever. Much like my appreciate to Netflix for purchasing Longmire and giving them three more seasons to finish the story, Amazon did the same for the Expanse and gave them 3 additional seasons to bring the story to at least a logical stopping point.]

You're absolutely right that TOS did a lot of radical things in the 60s that modern viewers wouldn't catch. I mean, a Russian helmsman in the middle of the Cold War? Implying that contemporary conflicts would be behind us in the far future when the world unites? That was a big one. And forget the kiss, just showing a black woman having a job, being good at it, and having the respect of everyone she works with was pretty jaw dropping. Like I said, it had a lot of good characters and ideas, but that 60s camp kind of takes me out of it on a personal level.

And yeah, all good sci-fi is really about modern humanity at a fundamental level. It uses magical technologies and aliens to allegorically explore ourselves. At its best, Trek is an aspirational vision of the future that argues that our better nature will emerge victorious out of today's darkness. I've always liked that perspective.

 

[SirLoinOfCloth]

I'm one of those unicorns in my profession. I am a web developer and I do not care for sci-fi at all. Star Trek does not interest me in the slightest.

 

[henchman21]

Bears. Beets. Battlestar Galactica.

 

[McMetal]

Bears. Beets. Battlestar Galactica.

I really liked BSG, even though the last season seemed like they were just desperately reaching for ways to wrap up all their storylines. Sometimes writers come up with all kinds of cool storylines and then have a hard time bringing them all together for a conclusion. The spin-off series, Caprica, was quite good as well, although apparently I was the only one that watched it, because it was cancelled after one season.

The Expanse is on my short list. A series that gets universal acclaim like that has to be doing something right. Who knows when I'll get to it, though.

 

[henchman21]

I really liked BSG, even though the last season seemed like they were just desperately reaching for ways to wrap up all their storylines. Sometimes writers come up with all kinds of cool storylines and then have a hard time bringing them all together for a conclusion. The spin-off series, Caprica, was quite good as well, although apparently I was the only one that watched it, because it was cancelled after one season.

The Expanse is on my short list. A series that gets universal acclaim like that has to be doing something right. Who knows when I'll get to it, though.

BSG is one of my favorite shows of all time. So so good.

I’ve watched the first half season of the Expanse probably 5 times and just can’t make it to where it actually gets good.

 

[expatriatedtexan]

I really liked BSG, even though the last season seemed like they were just desperately reaching for ways to wrap up all their storylines. Sometimes writers come up with all kinds of cool storylines and then have a hard time bringing them all together for a conclusion. The spin-off series, Caprica, was quite good as well, although apparently I was the only one that watched it, because it was cancelled after one season.

The Expanse is on my short list. A series that gets universal acclaim like that has to be doing something right. Who knows when I'll get to it, though.

BSG is one of my favorite shows of all time. So so good.

I’ve watched the first half season of the Expanse probably 5 times and just can’t make it to where it actually gets good.

I really suggest you both to give the Expanse a real effort. Henchy the first few episodes are all over the place because they are introducing such a huge world all at once. You're skipping between Earth, Mars and the Belter Colonies trying to get a feel for who all the power players are right as a major incident takes place in space. Won't be too long until they throw in a mystery based on ancient alien technology that all three sides desperately want for themselves.

I personally started and stopped about three times before it started to click. I think the big key for me was that at that point, I also put the iPad down and gave it my full 100% attention. It's a smart enough show that you do have to keep up.

BSG reboot was my favorite TV sci-fi until the Expanse. The wife and I just did like a two week burn through of the complete series this winter and I actually really enjoyed it again.

 

[henchman21]

I really suggest you both to give the Expanse a real effort. Henchy the first few episodes are all over the place because they are introducing such a huge world all at once. You're skipping between Earth, Mars and the Belter Colonies trying to get a feel for who all the power players are right as a major incident takes place in space. Won't be too long until they throw in a mystery based on ancient alien technology that all three sides desperately want for themselves.

I personally started and stopped about three times before it started to click. I think the big key for me was that at that point, I also put the iPad down and gave it my full 100% attention. It's a smart enough show that you do have to keep up.

BSG reboot was my favorite TV sci-fi until the Expanse. The wife and I just did like a two week burn through of the complete series this winter and I actually really enjoyed it again.

I’m certain to try again. I’ll probably fail again, but I’ll keep climbing on that Symbian.

 

[The Moops]

I'm one of those unicorns in my profession. I am a web developer and I do not care for sci-fi at all. Star Trek does not interest me in the slightest.

I'm kinda in the same boat, but I do enjoy sci-fi. Just not Star Trek, never did anything for me.

 

[expatriatedtexan]

I’m certain to try again. I’ll probably fail again, but I’ll keep climbing on that Symbian.

I reached on here for a bunch of book recommendations when I had my first couple of surgeries for cancer. I can't remember who it was that recommended the Expanse book series. I have to admit, I struggled reading after surgery so I found the TV show and ended up going that route. From what I hear, I can actually nicely pick up the series by starting the books up where the show left off. I've heard they're close enough that you shouldn't miss much doing it that way.

 

[henchman21]

I reached on here for a bunch of book recommendations when I had my first couple of surgeries for cancer. I can't remember who it was that recommended the Expanse book series. I have to admit, I struggled reading after surgery so I found the TV show and ended up going that route. From what I hear, I can actually nicely pick up the series by starting the books up where the show left off. I've heard they're close enough that you shouldn't miss much doing it that way.

Did I make an unintentional reference?