The sci-fi TV thread

Not sci-fi, just science. Holy crap, this is beautiful. The Tarantula Nebula

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Never mind.

You just spoiled the season’s big reveal. Might want to hide that part of your comments.

I’ll circle back on this.

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The Rings of Power is ramping up. Enjoying it.

FAM S3E8:

Spoilers

Danny says he’s been trying to live the life Shane should have had? The Karen obsession somehow just got WAY more disturbing.

The Russian doctor can say “subdural hematoma” in English, but has to revert to “she is with child” in his own language???

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I’m on E6.

Looking forward to getting caught up.

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I watched Moonfall this morning. OMG what a stupid movie.

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Laughably stupid in so, so many places

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FAM S3E10:

What the hell did I just watch??

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FAM Season 3

Spoilers

Pretty compelling. It’s a character driven show so here.

  1. Ellen/Larry: I’ve felt sympathy for Ellen since season 1. Larry definitely got the better end of their deal and frankly he was annoyingly selfish thru most of the series. I wish I could say no one in his position would risk so much for a sexual dalliance but of course people have done so forever. They portrayed her as a typical ideal/noble politician, but I like her so I’m glad they did and glad she came out the way she did. I guess we’ll see what the aftermath was in the opening montage for S4.

  2. Margo: she danced with the devil and got burned. She’s one of the more realistic characters in that she’s been consistently the same person. I guess that was Tel Aviv in the last shot?

  3. Karen: speaking of consistent. Kidding. Yet another incarnation. Now she’s a savvy corporate type who moves easily in a multi billion dollar industry. The acting is excellent. I just don’t see a way that season 1 Karen becomes season 3 Karen. I know the style of the series is to leave gaps that we can fill in ourselves. No matter. Yet again the acting was very good. The season 1 story/performance were so good. Her parenting and handling of Shane’s death was authentic.

  4. Dev: annoying from the get go. Talented but blinded by his desire. Karen did a great job of calling his BS twice.

  5. Ed: he’s as subtle as a sledge hammer. A manager of people (and emotions) he is not. But man that was an emotional scene when he delivered Kelly to orbit. And very Chuck Yaeger/The Right Stuff as he walked toward the rover. Loved it.

  6. Danny: good grief. This is what S2 Karen wrought. The dialog with Ed as they were buried was well done. I’m guessing he will ultimately sacrifice himself like he tried to do with Kelly.

  7. Jimmy: Poor Jimmy. I hated those friends of his from the get go which was probably the point. Very “Contact”/Gary Busey’s son vibe to the bombing.

  8. Molly/ Wayne: Molly played up the rough around the edges thing so much it felt like an affectation. I guess they were done with her so the gave her a send off. But it felt forced (watch the horizon and time it just right or you’ll die; gee, thanks for the insight). Mostly I felt like the writers let her down. I love Wayne. His scene with Karen in S1 where they shared their nightmares was great writing/ acting. I’m guessing he’ll phase out with Molly and Karen gone.

Yes there were things that strained credulity. And I skipped thru several dialog scenes. But S3 delivered and I’m looking forward to S4.

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It’ll be interesting how they handle the surprise they found.

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Ok, time to dive into my thoughts:

Margo:

Summary

The scene looked like Space City to me. I think we’re pretty clearly led to believe, by her conversation with Sergei, that she chose to trade her life for his. But we’re going to need some resolution on how she got from that piano to Russia, and I’m not buying that Jimmy’s friends were somehow in cahoots with the Russians.

Ed:

Summary

This guy’s temper has almost always had him in the wrong, but his response to Danny was note perfect. You don’t get to assuage your guilt by putting his daughter in danger.

But the whole launching Kelly on top of Popeye thing was bullshit. There’s enough atmosphere to cause heat reaction on reentry, but not to cause her friction on liftoff?

The Stevens boys:

Summary

Wow, hard to decide which of them is the bigger fuckup. But at least Jimmy finally figured out that these folks might not be so nice after all, as opposed to Danny, who is at least guilty of manslaughter.

But Danny’s exile leads to the whole North Korean thing. The boot step was a mansterful fake out, but it just doesn’t hold up. That capsule barely held the two cosmonauts, it certainly didn’t have an airlock. How the hell is anyone surviving in that thing?

Karen:

Summary

Oh, Karen. How will we remember you? Devoted astronaut wife? Seducer of your dead son’s best friend? Reputed ‘master negotiator’ whose tactics involved meeting at the halfway point in less than a minute?

No, we will remember you getting a call that there was a possible security threat, and that when you saw that the man who called you had his phone taken, you didn’t even alert the low-level security guard, despite the fact that you had enough clout to call the head of security. No, instead you wandered to find Jimmy and endangered everyone else in the process.

Well… bye.

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The funny thing about Karen is

Spoiler

you can call her “seducer of her dead son’s best friend” or “seducer of her dead best friend’s son,” both accurate.

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This is actually plausible. Remember a similar scene from The Martian:

Summary

How scientifically accurate is The Martian? | The Martian | The Guardian

Removing the windows from a rocket

Would you need windows in a rocket to survive a launch from Mars? It’s an interesting question. The atmosphere is very thin, so can you get high enough that the atmosphere becomes irrelevant before you’re going fast enough that the atmosphere is a threat? It depends on the thrust profile. The question is, at what altitude do they reach 1km per second? Let’s figure it out: OK, so 1,000 metres per second squared, divided by … [Zubrin mutters some equations to himself] … you want to go slow in this case, so let’s say 1G. Let’s try [more muttering] … 50 kilometres. So, with a slow acceleration of 1G taking off from Mars you’d get to 50 kilometres before you’re travelling at 1km per second. So I’d lean towards yes, it’s possible.

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I am 1 1/2 episodes in to Andor. It looks amazing, but the fact that I’m posting this rather than being enthralled tells you a lot about the show.

I think the script has been head and shoulders over the two most recent series. But not much is happening. That Space Buttigieg rent-a-cop seems to be driving the story more than Cassian.

I didn’t push through to watch Ep 3. I might, but it’s not looking good so far.

Andor ran through his character arc in Rogue One. Just because people liked him doesn’t mean he needs to get a whole series to establish a back story. Shit, even Han Solo’s backstory was a waste of time.

That’s what I find funniest—the one show where I actually like the dialogue and the direction is the show that has the least reason to exist.

On the direction: Toby Haynes did the first few episodes, you may know him from Sherlock, Doctor Who (some of the good episodes), and the excellent Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell adaptation. The next few will be directed by Susanna White, who did Parade’s End, which I think is one of the best-directed miniseries ever made.

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