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JackFetch

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The Good Place season one to two plot hole:

Spoiler

At the end of the first season, Eleanor placed the note inside Janet's mouth. Then Michael wiped their minds and reset Janet. We know Janet was reset because Michael says he has to reset her every time he updates the scenario; this is even shown. However, every time Janet is reset, her self-defense mechanism kicks in and she pleads for her life. So: how did Michael not notice the note in Janet's mouth when she begged for her life during the Attempt 1 to Attempt 2 switch over?

 

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Finished season two of The Good Place:

Spoiler

While I'm quite glad the show doesn't rest on its laurels, the constant direction-changing and rebooting is getting to be a bit much. Eleanor and Chidi meeting again at the end of the season is so frustrating. It looks like it might be a simulation this time and maybe they'll come back to the Judge's dimension when the simulation has run its course, but these characters need to move forward. They've grown a good amount, yes, but let them have forward momentum. Please! This is an otherwise fun, well-acted show. But this aspect is starting to become too much.

 

 

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Cobra Kai season one:

The Good

  • William Zabka does an amazing job reprising his role as Johnny. He's still a bully, but he's no longer at the top of the pecking order; he's a down-on-his-luck drunk who's one step above rock bottom, but he's the same character. In the 34 years since The Karate Kid, his life and the world has spiraled away from him. He's every jock who can't get past his high school glory days and teenage girlfriend. And even though Johnny's a racist, sexist dick, Zabka is able to inject so much sadness and humanity into the character. Easily the best performance in the show.
  • Xolo Maridueña's Miguel Diaz is the most lovable dork there is. He starts out as a super annoying kid (telling Johnny how to recycle), and grows into a confident young man and leader. Later in the series, your heart breaks for him when it becomes clear he's in a one-sided relationship -- in terms of honesty with their parents. What the show does with him in the final two episodes, however, is absolutely fucking criminal. (More in spoilers.)
  • Mary Mouser's Samantha LaRusso is the most believable high school girl I've seen on TV or in a movie in a long time. Samantha also grows into a confident young adult by the end when she realizes men are assholes and she's nearly lost a great friend because she wanted to be popular. It's clichéd, yeah, but Mouser's acting is so genuine. She's able to emote teenage angst and anger without contorting her face into almost-comically sad expressions.
  • Hawk is fucking amazing!
  • The fights are great, and the one that ends episode three, though out of focus, is brutal.

The Middle

  • I'm mixed on Ralph Macchio's Daniel. The fact that he's openly the bad guy for the first five episodes (and a little beyond) is a great flip to the Daniel / Johnny relationship. For example: in an attempt to close the new Cobra Kai dojo, Daniel uses his power, wealth, and stroke to fuck Johnny over financially. In a way, this is Daniel; we've seen him use his brain to get back at people before. In this case, however, he crosses a line. Which is great, because he can't still be the same wide-eyed kid he was in 1984. But it's sometimes too arch; he laughs about his scheme over a glass of wine line a Bond villain. Daniel's obsession with Johnny gets so bad, his wife tells him to get his shit together. And I get it: no matter how great a family one has, no matter how much respect, money, and power one wields, when a bully reenters our lives we're going to feel as powerless now as we did then. But it's a bit much here.
  • While Courtney Henggeler's Amanda LaRusso sets her husband back on the right path, she's too -- I don't know -- accepting (?) of everything. When she and Daniel come home to find Samantha has thrown a party without her parents' permission, Amanda is like, "Oh that's so cute. Our little girl is so grown up." When the right reaction is Daniel's: "What the fuck is this shit?!" And then later, when Samantha is grounded for something else, Amanda lets her daughter out of the house to drive someone home because she's too busy. When just 30 seconds prior she caught Samantha trying to get around her punishment. It's really poor writing. I've put Amanda in the middle, though, because Henggeler does shine through the character she was given.

The Bad

  • Ronny. I do not give a fuck about this character or his daddy issues or his tragic past or his angst or his drunk mom or or his schemes or his jail-bound friends or his attempt at redemption. This is no fault of Tanner Buchanan; he does what's asked of him and he does it well enough. The character is only here to inject unnecessary soap opera elements to the program, and said elements actively bring it down. In fact, he even says so near the end of the season. Oh no! A sad, moppy-haired white boy! Fuck off with this shit. (More in spoilers.)
  • Anthony LaRusso is the most annoying, unbelievable little shit ever. A completely unneeded character.
  • So much toxic masculinity! (More in spoilers.)

Pre-Spoilers Conclusion

The first eight and a half episodes are good to great, especially when the focus is on Johnny and Miguel. If you get a chance to watch this 10-episode series, don't pass it up. They average out to just under 30-minutes each, and are a great continuation of the original movie. It's truly fascinating how the Daniel / Johnny relationship has flipped, and it only works because William Zabka brings so much pathos to his utterly broken character. The revelations about Johnny's childhood / teenage family life are brief, but flesh out his character. They don't excuse his actions; they explain them.

Spoiler

Spoilers

  • Good: Daniel and Johnny coming this close to becoming friends and nearly (drunkenly) pulling a Rocky III was amazing. Despite their past, the fact that the two men could bond over cars, music, the loss of Ali, and growing up sans fathers was touching. I just wish we could have seen more.
  • Good: The return. I genuinely thought that person died in real life years ago.
  • Good: Ed Asner!
  • Good: There's a genuine attempt to undo what The Karate Kid II did to Ali. Even as a kid, I hated how that movie opens by throwing her under the bus. It was pure character assassination. In Cobra Kai, both Daniel and Johnny still very clearly hold a candle for Ali and none of the "she wrecked my car and dumped me" bullshit is mentioned. Hopefully  Elisabeth Shue will cameo in season two.
  • Bad: Okay, here we go. THEY TURNED MIGUEL HEEL! WHAT THE FUCK! Turning Miguel into the bad guy and Ronny into the good guy in the final two episodes was pure, utter bullshit! Yeah yeah yeah! Johnny realizes what he's done and that he's no better than Kreese and that his toxic masculinity has possibly ruined this boy's life (as well as the lives of the other kids) and, yeah, this will be Johnny's storyline in the next season, but come the fuck on! We spent eight episodes watching Miguel grow into this wonderful, charming, confident young man. To have him turn into the bully so the troubled white boy can become the sympathetic hero was the most tone deaf decision I've seen in a long time. And how did they turn him heel? By having him accidentally strike Samantha when he was trying to attack Ronny. That's right. They pulled a Hank fucking Pym with Miguel, who's now nearly unredeemable. He's brutish and lost every ounce of compassion he earned throughout the show. Such a stupid ending to an otherwise amazing show. While I stand by my pre-spoiler conclusion -- Cobra Kai is worth your time -- just be aware of what it does in the end.

 

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I saw the first episode of Kobra Kai, but I don't have a YouTube Red subscription so I don't know how much more I will be able to watch. Hopefully the episodes will be offered on iTunes or Amazon or something so I can buy them there.

Anyway, I loved and was glowing immediately after watching it. As I walked my dog around the block and thought about it, the show is more flawed than I initially thought. Mostly that the antagonists for Johnny were way too one dimensional. The second and third movies were totally ignored. I think I was running on nostalgia before nitpick mode kicked in.

That said, I still loved it. Major nostalgia for an 70's / 80's kid.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Movies you like that everyone else hates?

I liked X-Men 3: The Last Stand.

I recently re-watched X3 and while it isn't perfect I don't think it deserved the hate it got. Magneto showing off his tattoo from being in a Nazi death camp was just bone chilling. I saw that in the theater back in the day, and to this day that scene has not lost any of its original impact.

I also liked Spider-Man 3.

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13 hours ago, S-T said:

Movies you like that everyone else hates?

I liked X-Men 3: The Last Stand.

I recently re-watched X3 and while it isn't perfect I don't think it deserved the hate it got. Magneto showing off his tattoo from being in a Nazi death camp was just bone chilling. I saw that in the theater back in the day, and to this day that scene has not lost any of its original impact.

I also liked Spider-Man 3.

I think X3 was rushed but it's far from the worst X-Men movie. Or at least, the worst X-Men movie is much, much worse than X3.

Everyone knows my answer: Wild Wild West.

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14 hours ago, S-T said:

Movies you like that everyone else hates?

I liked X-Men 3: The Last Stand.

I recently re-watched X3 and while it isn't perfect I don't think it deserved the hate it got. Magneto showing off his tattoo from being in a Nazi death camp was just bone chilling. I saw that in the theater back in the day, and to this day that scene has not lost any of its original impact.

I also liked Spider-Man 3.

Didn't he do that in the first X-Men film?

I like Spider-Man 3. Like Dark Knight Rises, it dissapoints in some ways but the directing is awesome and from a writing standpoint it works. It's still focused on the core three characters it's built up since the first one, and the action sequences are as good as ever. I just don't like the Sandman retconning of the origin or Venom only appearing in the last act. But I never hated Spider-Man 3.

Speed Racer and, lately, Age of Ultron are other films that come to mind I seemingly solitarily enjoy. 

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34 minutes ago, Professor said:

Random question:  Is there any fiction that deals with a cured zombie outbreak, more specifically people dealing with the fact they were zombies that killed/ate people?

There's post-post-apocalypse stuff, but nothing zombie specific that I can particularly think of. 

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Not quite what you'e asking for, but the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "Brothers" has Picard trying to deal with having killed thousands of people as Locutus of Borg. They're kind of zombies.

Warm Bodies features someone who knows he's a zombie and is actively trying not to become worse. Again, it doesn't quite answer your request, but it's something different.

Des, have you covered Warm Bodies?

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1 hour ago, The Master said:

Not quite what you'e asking for, but the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "Brothers" has Picard trying to deal with having killed thousands of people as Locutus of Borg. They're kind of zombies.

Warm Bodies features someone who knows he's a zombie and is actively trying not to become worse. Again, it doesn't quite answer your request, but it's something different.

Des, have you covered Warm Bodies?

No, but I've seen and read a bunch of "I used to be a zombie" things, though. I was going more by post zombie apocalypse. Most notably springing to mind is THE CURED.

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Day of the Dead (1985) deals with re-humanizing a zombie. It even saluted after it shot someone with a handgun. It was very corny, but an interesting concept nonetheless. If Zombie-ism is a disease caused by a virus or bacteria, can it be cured? I think Land of the Dead also showed zombies could be sentient and solve problems.

Return of the Living Dead 3 also dealt with a woman infected with Zombie-ism that was fighting it.

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