[TV] Talk about the last TV you watched, the catchall thread

Goggins was doing a photo shoot as the original vault boy. As he was getting his picture taken he gave them a smile and big thumbs up, which is where the icon comes from.
To be fair it’s implied that the reason he chose it in episode 3 is because of the explanation of what it meant in the war to his daughter. Which is the mushroom cloud size compare is on thing.
And I’m fine with it.
 
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To be fair it’s implied that the reason he chose it in episode 3 is because of the explanation of what it meant in the war to his daughter. Which is the mushroom cloud size compare is on thing.
And I’m fine with it.
My nitpicking whine is back on!

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Also, I just want to reiterate that I'm not trying to rain on anybody's parade here. If you like the Fallout TV series, then I am seriously, genuinely, sincerely, honestly happy for you, and I am not trying to discourage anyone from watching it. I'm just being ornery because Fallout lore is one of those things I like delving into, so I don't like seeing deviations. It's purely a me thing.
 

figmentPez

Staff member
Last nitpicking whine from me about the Fallout show, I promise:

There has been a persistent rumor for the last decade or so that the Vault Boy's thumbs up pose is meant to depict him comparing his thumb to a mushroom cloud, the idea being that if your thumb can cover the cloud you're safe from the blast or the radiation or whatever. There's no basis to this rumor, in fact it's been stated by Interplay founder Brian Fargo, Fallout creator Tim Cain, and Vault Boy artist Tramell Ray Isaac that it's just meant to be a thumbs up, that's all. It's meant to be a humorous contrast between a cheery thumbs up and nuclear armageddon. Experts have also stated that this "rule of thumb" is worthless, and that it has never appeared in any manual or guidelines about nuclear safety. But apparently the series changed it so that yes, Vault Boy is holding up his thumb because he's comparing it to a mushroom cloud.

Is this a big deal? Of course not. Having a nuclear shelter company's mascot doing something like this is perfectly reasonable. But, once again, this is a retcon that didn't need to exist, and it shows that the writers either did not know or did not care about what the Vault Boy was designed to represent.
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A cartoon mascott advocating a worthless practice that won't help at all in the event of nuclear attack? That's absurd, and not at all realistic.
 
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A cartoon mascott advocating a worthless practice that won't help at all in the event of nuclear attack? That's absurd, and not at all realistic.
Oh yeah, Vault Boy pointing his thumb at a mushroom cloud completely fits the aesthetic and theme. But that doesn't change the fact that Vault Boy was not meant to be pointing his thumb at a mushroom cloud at all.

It must suck playing the games then. They contradict themselves quite frequently.
Not as much as you'd think, actually. A lot of the alleged contradictions can be explained away with only mild mental gymnastics.

Though I do choose to pretty much ignore the Brotherhood of Steel game from 2004.
 

figmentPez

Staff member
Oh yeah, Vault Boy pointing his thumb at a mushroom cloud completely fits the aesthetic and theme. But that doesn't change the fact that Vault Boy was not meant to be pointing his thumb at a mushroom cloud at all.
Batman didn't start off hating guns (in fact, he used them in early comics), and Alfred the butler's first appearance had him meet and enter Mr. Wayne's employ after Bruce was already Batman. Wolverine's claws were originally planned to be part of his costume. The Hobbit was rewritten after the release of the Lord of the Rings to change how Bilbo got the ring, because The Hobbit wasn't written with any notion of the ring being evil.

Sometimes retcons make things better. (Sometimes they make things worse.)
 
Someone I follow on Twitter posted the great big spoiler for X-Men '97's fifth episode. I've unfollowed them and voiced my displeasure.

On the one hand, I fucking hate spoilers.

On the other hand, the spoiler involves one of the worst comic book characters of all time, so I have something to look forward to now.
 
Whoa, whoa, whoa. I will not tolerate the besmirching of my crimson eyed boy. Especially when he was pretty badass in the first episode.
I'm an endless Cyclops stan, and I'll die on that hill.

Can he sometimes be a stick in the mud? Sure, but that's because he's the leader and he takes that shit seriously. Oh, everyone loves Wolverine because he's the tough guy loner? He can only be that because Scott has all their shit covered. The other members might poke fun at Scott for being the boyscout, but when things go down and the shit hits the fan, they all fall in line behind him because they know they can trust him with their lives, and trust his decision making. Even Storm, the defacto other leader of the X-Men, will defer to Scott when he's there because she trusts his judgment that much.

But yeah, X-Men 97 treats him very well, I'm very happy with his portrayal so far and I've seen all the episodes thus far.
 
Look, guys, I'm married to a Cyclops fanboy, so I know what you're going to say, but the objective truth is Scott is the worst.



Scott is a good soldier, but not a good leader. He can follow directions, god know he's Xavier's lapdog, but he's terrible at actually being there for his team, emotionally or otherwise. Scott gets called a boy scout because he's almost always written by guys who give him a pass, but Superman is a boy scout; Scott is the internet definition of a Nice Guy. He feels entitled to everything because he's one of the first X-Men and will endlessly whine when things don't go his way. There hasn't been a single episode aired yet that Scott doesn't whine about SOMETHING. He practically stomps his feet when things get hard, and he wonders why Charles left the X-Men to Magneto? What does that say about you, Scott, that Charles would rather your great enemy lead the team? But he's a border-line narcissist. And then there's the way he treats every women who's stupid enough to date him like garbage. He's been shit to Jean so many times I've lost count. He was garbage to Madelyne in the comics, and not great on tv, treated Emma Frost like crap... and he never blames himself. I don't remember him being particularly great to his kids, either, but I'll give that a slight pass, alternate universes and all that. Even in Age of Apocolypse he was a self-serving douche.

Back in middle school/junior high, there was a bunch of us fan girls, mostly because of the cartoon and it's soap opera-like qualities, that got into watching/reading X-Men, and no one liked Scott. We all knew guys like that: thought they were never wrong, would act like assholes, and then turn around and blame everyone and anyone else when things didn't go their way. Scott's the guy you never want to stuck alone with (if you're a woman, anyway).
 

figmentPez

Staff member
Not available for me on a desktop web browser nor my phone app. I've heard Disney is rolling out the merger in waves to users. I'm not sure how they're deciding who gets the added content first.
And today I just got all the Hulu stuff added. Lots to watch!
 
Started watching Snowpiercer recently. Only four episodes in. I know it's based on some visual novels or books or something, but I don't know anything about the lore/background, so nothing to compare or get angry over.
Seems fun so far. Just two episodes airing a week here, and probably only the first season for now, which means my wife forgets half of what happens every time, but, oh well.
Not the most realistic of worlds, but it's a nice different take on scifi, at least so far. So far it hasn't been really significant that the ark's in the shape of a train, other than giving cool visuals and making for easy separating and compartmentalization.
 
So I watched the first 4 episodes of Fallout and while I like it quite a bit, though not nearly as much as the internet at large though I imagine that's just the prestige tv hype cycle that happens where everything is THE BEST THING EVER for a few weeks.

My issues are largely that I'm getting huge Westworld deja vu vibes and I hope the show doesn't completely collapse into crap like Westworld did.

Also, Fallout 4 guns looked awful in Fallout 4 and they look especially fake and toylike in Fallout tv. Based on Starfield and Fallout, Bethesda sucks complete ass at weapon design.
 

Dave

Staff member
Just finished Fallout. Holy crap that was so much better than I expected it to be. But while it had some funny moments calling it a "dark comedy" is just wrong. It's very serious. And the ending? Well shit. Season 2 better come fast.
 
Also, Fallout 4 guns looked awful in Fallout 4 and they look especially fake and toylike in Fallout tv. Based on Starfield and Fallout, Bethesda sucks complete ass at weapon design.
I think they're supposed to look like toys. The 1950s saw ridiculous contraptions such as the Davy Crockett nuclear recoilless gun.
 
I think they're supposed to look like toys. The 1950s saw ridiculous contraptions such as the Davy Crockett nuclear recoilless gun.
I don't think they're meant to look like painted plastic when they're supposed to be metal objects. They look like homemade cosplay props a lot of the time.

Anyways, I finished the show and I really, really liked it. It made some decisions to shuffle around locations (Shady Sands being in the Boneyard or Adytum in LA instead of way further north between LA and San Francisco) that are just nitpicks and I'm honestly shocked how much it exceeded my (albeit very low) expectations. I think Walton Goggins is the standout even though he's kinda just phoning in Boyd Crowder (even phoned in rocks) and everyone else is...ok I guess. No one else really puts forth any real standout performances.

Maximus fucking sucks ass and is barely tolerable as a lead, but he's also a good character if that makes any sense? Boy he sucks so bad though. If he were a companion in the game, I would let Ian riddle him with bullets and leave him in a random encounter.

I'm looking forward to more and honestly I hope it gets a week to week treatment next season and they get a bit more money for props.
 
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Dave

Staff member
Maximus is a lying, opportunistic coward. You can't count on him to back you up when the chips are down, but you also have to forgive him a little considering his upbringing. He was a child when the bomb went off in his town and he immediately took up with the Brotherhood where they preached that pain was a good thing and he was routinely beaten and broken. He was starting to show a little life at the end, but we'll see if that carries on when season 2 comes around.
 
I haven't watched the last two episodes yet, but I love Maximus as a character. He's not a good person, he's ambitious and power hungry, and it's because he's been shit on his entire life. I thought the introduction to his character was fantastic, and I love that they never answer whether he did the thing he's accused of in the beginning (as time goes on you realize he totally did) and it's a really interesting contrast to naive but good Lucy and evil (in the self service sense) Coop.
 
The whole Hulu vs Disney+ division is fading away here in the US, lots of Hulu content is now available on Disney+, including Shogun. Just went to my app and pulled it up there.
The news follows similar moves by Disney, including adding Hulu to the Disney+ app, as well as plans to add ESPN to Disney+, too, according to The Information. Disney is also attempting to launch a joint sports-streaming app with Fox and Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD). "The idea is to make Disney+ a service that has something for everyone, anytime," The Information reported.

That sounds an awful lot like cable, which spent years growing customers' monthly bills by adding more channels and bundles aimed at specific interests, like children's entertainment, sports, and lifestyle.
--Patrick
 
Just finished up Black Summer S1 and 2. Overall, we liked it okay. I liked that you had to piece together the narrative. The silly stuff like endless magazines was eye rolling. The big thing I didn't care for was the naming of the segments, and sometimes when they would go back in time to give back story they lingered on it a bit too much; too much retelling of the same story.
It was fun but I am not disappointed there isn't going to be a S3.
 
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