What are you watching and enjoying?

[KnightWing]

After rewatching all of TOS and both Abrams films recently, I have to say that TOS-Kirk is a highly underrated and nuanced character who's unfairly come to be known as a cartoonish caricature of himself, while Pine-Kirk is actually based off that caricature. TOS Kirk was an effective leader who knew when and how do his job properly; Pine-Kirk is a thrillseeking overemotional teenager who throws himself into danger at a moment's notice.

It's particularly notable when you watch "Shore Leave" and hear Jim and Bones talk about how in his academy days, Jim was so incredibly "grim" and dedicated to doing his job that he was the butt of other students' pranks. Pine-Kirk would probably be the one playing the pranks.

[Stavros]

Agreed on that KW.

Actually using some Netflix jiggery pokery to watch some Voyager. Whilst I think it's an extremely flawed show there's episodes from the later series I've never had the chance to watch and I'm quite interested in, like the Equinox two parter.

Holy shit. Harry just made a joke and I laughed. Good for him.

[dc20willsave]

Say what you will about Voyager, Bride of Chaotica is probably one of the best hours in the history of Star Trek in my humble opinion.

[Dan]

Say what you will about Voyager, Bride of Chaotica is probably one of the best hours in the history of Star Trek in my humble opinion.

[Dread]

Season opener of Person of Interest was fucking great. Root ends the episode with one of my favorite TV monologues in history. Gorgeous.

Agents of SHIELD should hope for an iota of that much entertainment.

[Stavros]

Man, in the four episodes of Voyager that I've watched about 6 members of engineering have died. How was this crew sustainable?

According to head counts there were something like 20% casualties overall, but that's accounting for new crew replacing old (Seven, Icheb & co, the crew of the Equinox) so the real numbers have to be 25-30%.

Apparently, and somewhat hilariously, Voyager lost no less than 15 shuttles.

[Kenny Evil]

I liked Ron Moore's version of Voyager (aka Galactica) much better. Voyager isn't totally irredeemable (Robert Picardo's Doctor was always fun and Jeri Ryan... sorry, got distracted for a moment there, Jeri Ryan could do deadpan tremendously well, and there were a fair few good episodes here and there) but overall it was really let down by writers and executives who wouldn't fully commit to the premise and just wanted to do TNG with a different set of aliens. The cast was often better than the material they were given, and this is especially true of Kate Mulgrew and Ethan Phillips.

Also, I will never forgive the Voyager team for ruining the Borg and the Q.

[Stavros]

Dittoed.

Rewatching some highly recommended episodes right now and they're almost all based around the Doctor and Seven, since they're the only characters who actually have an arc complete with adversity. If this show didn't have Robert Picardo they would have been utterly screwed. Not that there aren't great episodes that revolve around other characters, I've always rated Year of Hell very highly and Timeless is great as well. Watching Bride of Chaotica now and it's great fun. However they tend to be the exception. The problem with a lot of these stories is that they come up with an idea and then attach it to the Voyager universe and don't do nearly enough work to make it fit properly. Characters, motivations, technology, they change wildly from episode to episode.

Plus they just got the cast wrong from day one. Neelix, Janeway, Chakotay, Harry, Tuvok, they're just not strong or interesting in their own right. How they ran DS9 so excellently in parallel to this is a mystery to me.

[Kenny Evil]

I think DS9 benefited from middle child syndrome. Because Voyager was the flagship programme on the newly launched UPN, it had to be a success and therefore commanded more of Rick Berman's attention. Meanwhile DS9 was able to try new things out and push boundaries because not much was expected of them.

[Stavros]

There's also the fact that DS9 was forced to contend with it's own choices. If Voyager was going to face a new long-term foe they could try them out, see how they did and them cut them if they weren't happy. With DS9 the Dominion HAD to work because they couldn't travel away from those issues. That's why Voyager has a string of mediocre bad guys in the Kazon, Vidiians, Hirogen etc. All had potential but because none of them had to work to make the show itself a success they fell by the wayside. There was no motivation to make them a success long-term.

I was especially annoyed with this when it came to the Vidiians. The Kazon and Hirogen were just recast aspects of the Klingons but the Vidiians were totally new and brilliantly scary. They were wasted by not becoming Voyager's big bad for most of their run.

I literally only just realised that Chakotay only has one name. He's so uninteresting that I guess I just assumed that was his surname and everyone just used that. Eighteen years since this show debuted and I never realised he only had one name.

[KnightWing]

A lot of Voyager and its relative quality or lack thereof has mostly to do with perspective. Some people outright hated every Voyager character aside from the Doctor and Seven, but others (like me) liked most of the characters and tolerated the rest. There's also the fact that Voyager played much, much better in its original airing format, where every episode was spaced out by at least a week and it was generally understood that the show was meant to be "a sci-fi action-adventure a week" rather than a serialized sci-fi drama like DS9. For most viewers (like myself), getting to see every episode on its original air date was out of the question due to scheduling and other concerns, so continuity was less important than having fun on an episode-by-episode basis.

Right now, most of the people who were kids watching Voyager when it aired are very active in the online Trek community, and Voyager is consistently ranking high in online popularity, often beating out TNG and TOS. And those fans of Voyager aren't wrong, either, they're just looking at it from its own perspective.

[JackFetch]

Now that I have fast reliable internet I'm going through shows on Netflix. I'm watching Bones right now. Not a terrible show, but it seems to get pretty strange sometimes for no reason. For instance Bones is almost killed and they do a song and dance number to a Journey song. Also, I know NCIS gets a lot of shit for their creative use of technology, but I think Bones has it beat.

[SuaveStar]

I don't want Breaking Bad to end. This weeks episode was so good.

In contrast, the final episode of Dexter was pretty damn awful. It's a shame how far that show fell.

[JackFetch]

In contrast, the final episode of Dexter was pretty damn awful. It's a shame how far that show fell.

The last two seasons were awful, and the poor supporting cast never got to finish their stories. It all felt so rushed at the end.

[Venneh]

Watching the Parks and Rec season premiere from last night. This is adorable.

[SuaveStar]

In contrast, the final episode of Dexter was pretty damn awful. It's a shame how far that show fell.

The last two seasons were awful, and the poor supporting cast never got to finish their stories. It all felt so rushed at the end.

I would say everything from season 5 was mediocre at best. The show really peaked with the Trinity Killer storyline.

[Venneh]

So, I'm watching Breaking Bad, playing catch up on Netflix. (I've already long since been spoiled for the series at the stage.)

Just hit the end of season 2. So, how did no one else catch that even before Walt dove headlong into the meth underground, Walt was more than a little bit of a sociopath?

[Gareth]

So Breaking Bad finale, did you guys like it? I thought it was pretty great. The very last scene is the only one that felt a little off to me. The song was very obvious and I knew exactly what was going to happen. Anyone have similar thoughts, different?

[Stavros]

Argh! Currently blocking the top half of my mobile to avoid spoilers there dude. All I saw was "breaking bad" and "finale" and I went all ark of the covenant on this. I'm literally grabbing some BBQ for our viewing party right now!

[Dread]

So Breaking Bad finale, did you guys like it? I thought it was pretty great. The very last scene is the only one that felt a little off to me. The song was very obvious and I knew exactly what was going to happen. Anyone have similar thoughts, different?

Knowing what was going to happen at the end of this episode doesn't necessarily make you clairvoyant. I was pretty sure by the halfway point of season 1 what the end was going to look like. I found it super-satisfying. I am hard-pressed to think of another series finale as good. Cheers, maybe?

I thought it was beautiful. Everything about it. There was satisfaction in everything for me except in Jesse's story. I thought

that although the scenes with him and Walt in the house and then driving away were great, he had far too little to do in the last episode.

C'est la vie, I guess.

Fuck you to the Skyler haters out there. Anna Gunn was a fucking revelation last night and I will brook no argument.

[Gareth]

Right, everyone already knew what the final scene was going to be from the get go. But don't you think it would've been more effective without music, just silence then cut to black. Either that or maybe some original music by Dave Porter. The song they chose just seemed so, I don't know, heavy-handed.

Aside from that, here are two scenes from the finale that had me in awe:

1. Jesse making the box.

2. Walt admiting that he did it for himself, that he liked it.

[Dread]

Yeah, the second one in particular was fantastic. In a way

it was him sort of coming full circle with the fact that he has been the bad guy all along, putting a final nail in the coffin for anybody who lived vicariously through him.

[Dread]

Remember, though, that the greatest tragedy in all of Breaking Bad is still unresolved, for somewhere in New Mexico, this is happening:

[MaxPower]

LOL, that's the second spin off that they are keeping under wraps.

Agree with you guys on that second scene, had a bit of a Shield feel about it, in that they reminded you that we shouldn't be cheering for this guy, he is a really bad guy.

Also loved the laser scene, despite the above comment about him being a bad guy, I liked that he got money to the family somehow. Or maybe I just liked seeing Badger and Skinny Pete again

[Pan-dub]

Just finished Breaking Bad. Sorry, have to type this all out or I won't sleep tonight for thinking about it:

Laser scene
Fuck Gretchen and Elliot. I loved that they'll be living in ill-deserved luxury and terror. Although having said that the fact that we're never given a clear reason as to why their relationship soured does leave this up to interpretation as to whether it is deserve or not. Whatever your angle it definitely fulfils the badassery quota for the show before we're 1/3 done!
Also: It would have ruined the tone and is impossible because he had fled, but it would've been hilarious for Saul to have been one of the laser pointers and to have made a joke about Laser-Tag. A man can dream...

Skyler
Des is totally right: Anna Gunn continually knocked it out of the park in a very thankless role and it was great to finish her time on the show so well.

Jesse
On reflection I prefer that Walt and Jesse didn't say more to each other at the end than they say too much. Jesse's line "Then do it yourself" gave me shivers because I felt it showed how far Jesse had come from the first episode when Walt blackmailed into partnering with him. The box making scene was a lovely way of showing Jesse's inner thoughts and hinting at how he might improve his life after being freed, but I do wish we had more from him.

Walt
The episode showcased everything we know about Walt has become. Agree with Gareth: his admission of selfishness made the show for me. While part of me expected him to have suicide-bombed his way out to satisfy his ego I'm so glad he exited trying to right wrongs. I've always liked Walt, despite his sharp moral decline and felt rewarded for believing in his conscience.

All in all: bloody satisfied.