I keep hearing about Mr. Robot but I have no fucking idea what it is or what it's about. :( Is it on le Netflick?

it's on USA cable or was it showtime i forget

i rent primitive technology over the mail

Sticking with Taboo.

Taboo. This one's something. I recommend it. Weird, dark, scary... villainous East India Trading Company appear to be the main antagonists in a story that was sculpted by Tom Hardy and his father ("Chips") and Ridley Scott, who exec. produces.

Me likey.

on season 3 of Brit House of Cards. quite saucy

I'm interested in this.

I have to admit, I grow weary of U.S. imports of British shows. Britain has shown a really quite incredible intuition for television, predicting both the cinematic story telling that has become the default for American drama, death of the laugh track/multi-camera sitcom (or at least most of them.) Personally, I kind of fucking hate The Office UK. Kind of fucking hate Ricky Gervais. Also kind of fucking hate The Office US, but it had its moments. BUT... by and large I think the BBC has done some extraordinary things, and imported shows (see Being Human US, Torchwood's shameful US season, etc.) usually suffer from being entirely commercially minded piles of shit.

House of Cards is one that I am approaching from a different angle, as I haven't seen the UK original series. I like the Netflix series despite Kevin Spacey's often excruciating take Southern "Dandy" horseshit, because it's a well-made political drama that actually explores the workings on Congress, and I'm a teency bit of a politics and government nerd. It's nice to have a show that embellishes and pours on the tension just enough to make politics feel exciting to the average person.

Sooo... I've considered watching the U.K. version at some point, but I guess I was planning on waiting until HOC US ended, so it wouldn't color my perception of it. I know the U.K. show ended after 3 seasons, while the US is pushing... what... six? That liberty-taking rubs me the wrong way. Like how Game of Thrones is just doing its own goddamn thing now (apparently... I stoped watching long ago and decided to just be a book guy), and is readying heir final season when there are still two books yet to come out, and god knows when that will happen. Yeah, I dislike that shit. I object to it. Tell the story, see it through, do it right, or call yourself something else. Asstwats!

What were we talking about again?
Oh right, Doctor Who or something. No?

that British HoC is really good. I just finished 1st season of the Gommora series. At first I was comparing it to the movie and wasn't thrilled, but it got better and better and had a pretty spectacular conclusion. 8/10?

the mother, Immacolata. What a great name!

Will someone please watch this and talk to me about it? Preferably validating my opinion that it's good?

The first episode is free on iTunes and Google Play (or was), so check it out! I'm going to keep hammering at this until someone watches a bit and trows in their 2 cents.

Would it help if I told you it was about the death of a rich, mad English merchant whose rich mad son (Tom Hardy) has been presumed dead for 10 years, and returns to England from an extended and mysterious tenure in Africa to exact revenge on the people who conspired to murder his father? Eh?
Oh, also to "reunite" with his hot, brainwashed puritanical sister, to reunite with his sister who is more than a "sister" if'n you know what I mean ;) )??

What if I told you there was some creepy magic shit? Slave ships? That our leading man is an alleged cannibal? That he claims to be "dead?"

Also he's a total freaking badass, even though he has yet to throw a single punch in what I've seen.

It's exquisitely filmed. The cast is full of strong actors from successful BBC series, so there's no real weak link as far as acting is concerned. And it's engaging as hell.

WATCH TABOO.

Madoka Magica

So I watch the first episode, think I know what's in store. Then, by the end of episode three ... fuck me! I have a worrying feeling that I could become obsessed with this.

ha ha ha ha. wat? explain, explain... i'm curious now!

It's kind of a deconstruction of stuff like Sailor Moon. Suffice to say it ups the cuteness factor by about a million then leaves you utterly traumatised by what it does with it.

Essentially ...

I'm 3 episodes into Taboo. Not bad, it's got a bit of Melville, a bit of Heart of Darkness Conrad and a hell of a lot of gin alley in it. Great cast including Johnathan Pryce, Stephen Graham, Franka Potente, a very well disguised Mark Gatiss, who seems to be in everything these days, but is pretty damned good as the genetically challenged Prince regent. I think Pryce's part is overplayed, he's too involved in the minutia of his position, but it's a good story.

YESSSSSSSSSSS Madoka is legit. I haven't watch the 'remake' or whatver it is, but the show is pretty fucked up. Wasn't expecting that.


EDIT: The only reason I watched it is because of an article someone wrote on Kotaku. They mentioned that this wasn't your typical magical girl anime. It's dark and not necessarily in a creepy way either. Anyways....it's a pretty good one.

Finally got into Westworld. Watched everything but the season finale at this point, and I have to say, it's impressive and smart in all the ways I was fearing it wouldn't be. It's better than Game of Thrones, which I've just given up on completely.

Can't wait to see how it all comes together/falls apart.

^^ that madoka magica looks hilarious. i might look for it around halloweenzes (or maybe sooner, ha ha ha)

same as taboo. sounds like a good choice for horror season

me just finished disc 6 of the whole monty python thing, and so far it's been great

also recently watched girls season... 5? girls is a show that i love to hate on. i hate most characters but i must watch it somehow

oh, offlined all mozarts in the jungle season 3 to binge on. monica bellucci is just so... she's from another planet is what she is. i have no words to describe her. she's beyond language.

Yeah I'm only talking about the series. I love magical girl anime generally, and I knew Madoka played around with it so delayed watching it cos the simplicity and innocence of those series is a large part of their appeal for me. But Madoka doesn't just fuck around with that, as you say it gets really dark in parts, to the point where it's pretty depressing. Not what I'd normally want from a magical girll series at all but it does it so well. And it's not just about the story, some of the animation sequences, especially involving the witches, are truly amazing.

Symbols: Madoka would be an interesting choice for halloween. It's not horror by any means but could sort of work. Bear in mind though, it's a series not a film so it's a lot of watching.

Yeah. The witch scenes are the best. Looks like mixed media too. That witch battle with Mami though, you know which one I'm talking about. That was insane, not only because you didn't see it coming but but the warping of reality made it look so cool and really contrasted the seriousness of the situation.

That scene traumatised me big time, and yeah, the way its animated just reinforced the sense of total shock while at the same time made me wonder for a minute or two if it actually happened. It did, the bastards!

I didn't know there were anime heads here. (!!!)

I've been watching HUNTERxHUNTER (the 2011 remake of HUNTER) in my spare time lately, and I love it. Love he sinister elements of it, especially for a show about children.

I've never heard of this Madoka thing. Where is it? Netflix? KissAnime? Where can I watch and be disgusted/disturbed? Also, which version is the one to go with?

Top 5 anime shows:
- Bleach (minus season 3 and the final season after the Espada battle, and also all the filler... so basically just seasons 1-2 and 4-5 -- I think -- y'know, the whole Aizen arc. That's like the Lebron James of anime. The rest is like ... the Kobe Bryant.)
- Tokyo Ghoul (Fucking so gross and dark and fucked up. Love it! Little RoboCop/dystopian future of law enforcement element mixed in doesn't hurt one bit.)
- Claymore (WHY DID THEY ONLY MAKE 1 SEASONS OF THIS?)
- One Piece (its incentive and fun enough to offset its annoyingness)
- HUNTER

Yanimey!

The Complete Series is available on DVD, full title Puella Magi Madoka Magica. That's the anime which we've been talking about. I'm sure there's plenty of other online sources for them. But yeah, basically you just want the anime, episodes 1-12.

There's also 3 off-shoot feature films which I haven't seen: 1 - Beginnings; 2 - Eternal and 3 - Rebellion but when people talk about Madoka generally, they're not talking about those.

Needless to say there are countless Manga too. I haven't read any of those either.

I haven't watched too many shows, but a couple I've really enjoyed are: Hellsing Ultimate, Nichijou, NGE, and last but not least the Berserk OVAs. The new Berserk is kind of shitty at times with the animation, but I really loved how they decided to start from where they did...well past the eclipse.

I mostly watch slice of life stuff. K-On, Lucky Star that kind of thing (yes I love Nichijou too) but I'm also a big fan of magical girl series like Illya/Fate, Sailor Moon, Cardcaptor, Madoka, etc. I generally don't like sci-fi or horror anime; which is weird in terms of horror at least because it's probably my favourite genre when it comes to live action films. It just rarely seems to work for me in anime, or animation generally. I love the whole kawaii thing which obviously isn't that compatible with horror.

Have you watched K-On? As a J-Pop fan I can see you liking that. And it's just a great series all-round.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TIpA_B5khZc

Nichijou is probably my favorite anime to be honest. It's fucking hilarious.
This is the image on my phone case.

As far as K-On goes...I've been watching clips and a lot of it looks funny, but I haven't gotten as far as watching an episode. I was a huge fan of the song, 'go go maniac'...which I believe was written for that show. I wish I could find this amazing cover of the song, but it was removed from youtube.


and for the horror/supernatural/sci fi. It's really hit or miss. I feel like anime and manga too, is incredibly saturated with these themes. So either I get a recommendation or I randomly stumble upon stuff to read/watch. Berserk and Oyasumi PunPun are my favorite manga's. Berserk is dark as fuck, really nasty sometimes, but it's really well done. The art and landscapes are incredible, and this guy has drawn literally thousands and thousands of monsters without recycling anything. And Oyasumi PunPun was written by Inio Asano who's an amazing author. His slice of life stories are always so heavy....like 'makes things sad for a day or two' heavy. Nijigahara Holograph and What a Wonder Life(vol1 n 2) are also really good. I highly recommend those as well.

Knights of Sidonia is a really good far-future space opera anima. I've never encountered the manga (don't read manga, almost as a rule) but I'm sure it's based on one. Knights season 3 should be on Netflix any time. It's kind of a "mech" thing but with a lot of nice added complexity and post-sexual, post-race stuff. I do quite like it, and hope it continues.

knights of prosperity was a great show that unfortunately lost track if itself and got cancelled. but man! it was so hilarious when it was good.

anyway, got the lightning-hdmi-charger device and now time to test it.

turns out my wife's phone has like 20 times more storage than my old ipad. so. i packed her phone with shows ha ha ha

workaholics 5! still the best

Now I'm watching Marvel's Iron Fist on Netflix. Just plowing right through it, because it's my first day off in two weeks and I get to be a lazy.

It's not good. Some of it is almost unbelievably bad. Seems to be mining cheesy early '90s big city martial arts B movies like "Lionheart" for inspiration, with a little mysticism thrown in. Ick.

Whatever I'll watch, at least for today.

I'll probably check out Knights next time. Need something to hold me over until new berserk.

knights of prosperity!

stealing from the rich to give to themselves

that show was so funny. i know you guys are talking about something else, but whenever i hear "knights" i cant help myself from thinking about this and laughing

if you can ever find it check it out



eta: seems to be on hulu

It's really quite good. It's well thought out and beautifully animated. The style is at once retro (a la Akira) and extremely clean and new. I'm not sure what the style is called exactly, but it's impressive how they pay homage and do their own thing simultaneously.

The story line is awesome. It's both traditional -- in a kind of "hero's journey" sense -- and novel, daring, and just plain weird enough to make for a really engrossing watch.

It's got the Netflix brand on it, but it's one of those shows that started off in Japan and was brought to U.S. audiences later, so it's not truly a Netflix "original," but compared to the other anime they've offered up (Seven Deadly Sins, Cyborg 009) it's fucking REALLY high quality. I haven't seen the other Netflix anime imports like Kuromukuro or Adventures of Sinbad or AJIN, so I can't comment on those, but so far it's just exponentially better than anything else they're out their brand on.

Season 2 came out in, like, fall or late Summer of 2015, so I have no idea why a third season hasn't made its way here yet, but there are very few anime shows that my girlfriend and I will drop what we're doing to watch as soon as they become available, and it's one of them. So check that shit out man. Let me know what you think.



I call it a mech/mecha anime, but it's really more of a horror premise. It definitely aims to terrify.

Marcel's Iron Fist has proven worthy enough to not completely dump. Especially because I'm sick as shit right now, and stuck at home with fuckall else to do.

It's not as good as Daredevil or Jessica Jones or Like Cage ... or Agents of SHIELD (which has really picked up in 2016/17), but it's not completely worthless.

The show runners clearly watched a lot of Nicolas Winding Refn movies for inspiration to set the tone, but it comes across more like Lionheart/Kickboxer/Bloodsport, etc. than it does like Only God Forgives or Drive. Which means they failed, but whatever I'm sick. Fuck it.

man. way to ignore knights of prosperity.

when the first 8 episodes eventually turn into a cult show people will finally rave about it.

so, shit.....I watched the 4th episode of Taboo the other day. One lowsy scene. The protag is sucker punched by a monster of a human, like 6"taller, 100 pounds heavier. After taking a good kicking and punching job, he's hit full force on the top of the skull with a cosh about 18" long and 5 pounds weight. Not only does he survive, he ends up killing the big guy. And then the guy attends a dance that night, looking AfuckingOK.

I asked the 12 year old daughter of a friend of mine who is into anime what to watch and she gave me recommendations.
I am about 5 episodes into Attack on Titan



ALSO, Trailer Park Boys is back and it is awesome new season is dark and funny as fuck

So.... you don't like it because of THAT?

In case you missed the atmospheric hints, James Keziah Delany is a fucking monster of a human being, with a never-quite-fully-revealed amount of cunning and some serious fuckin' fightin' chops.

How serious? Serious enough that a glance from him is enough to give most folks a near-death experience.

Anyway... the believability of the fight scenes aside, how do you feel about the rest of the show? Goddamn amazing, right? Fucking weird and glorious as hell, yeah? Probably my favorite show of the year, that one. Fucking epic!

Never watched Attackn on Titan, actually. What do you think?

Also, why ask a twelve-year-old girl when you have ME? ;)

if you say so.......

watching season 1 of REPLICANTS

lol, i meant HUMANS

which is about... replicants ha ha ha ha

but yeah they dream of other stuff

it's a decent enough show, with all the predictable artificial life form tropes at this point, and i would enjoy it more if it was just cut a little faster and it was a little more exciting. everything takes sooo fucking long. like, do i need to look at people staring at each other for all of 20 seconds? come on!

it's made in england and i'm beginning to realize british tv is great at period pieces but maybe doesn't get this type of science fiction. dr. who hell yes-- low production values and everything in the abstract, great. red dwarf the same plus jokes, great.

but both this one and some shit i saw about domestic surveillance make these scenarios a little pedestrian and boring. mind you, it's not unwatchable, but it's just a bunch of wasted chances in a way that some cheapo cardboard production like 12 monkeys or even defiance is not.

i'll watch the whole of it though i think, but just saying it could have been brilliant and it falls short.

i think maybe they try to be too didactic. yes, people get the point, you don't have to make such a fucking long explanation.

that's the same reason i stopped watching orphan black btw. "oh, if clones" and make each scene last forever. big yawn.

hahahahh. She is the daughter of one of my best friends and she is into manga and anime and her parents know NOTHING about it, and her brothers are both under 6 years old. She has never seen the Gibli films and I am gathering up a collection of them on DVD so she can watch them. Then, when she is in High School, I will send her Akira.

Attack on Titan is amazing shit. very weird, cool shit. Makes me wanna read the manga.

My wife and I finished the Brit HOuse of Cards too. Awesome. so mcuh funnier and cutting and sharp that the US version, which I dig, but which is very "arch" and overly refined at times.

There was a live action Japanese film based on Attack on Titan too. Haven't seen it because I tend to hate live action anime/manga adaptations, no matter what country they come from, but I'll watch Attack on Titan soon.

Akira is one of the greatest amines ever. Obviously. Probably, like, he Godfather of anime movies. I guess they're planning a white Hollywood live action avaptation of that too, to follow the guaranteed financial success of Ghost in the Shell. Ugh.

Anyone seen Marvel's Iron Fist? There's an actress in that show -- Jessica Henwick, who was also in Game of Thrones and had a small part in The Force Awakens -- who, in my opinion, would have made an EXCELLENT Motoko in the GITS movie. Yeah, she's British and Chinese/Singaporean, not Japanese, but it's not like there aren't Asian actors out there to use for these roles. I'd MUCH rather see a real-deal Ghost in the Shell film that, like, DIDN'T have the biggest female star in the world in it. It would be more interesting. Scarlett Johansson can only play so many sci-fi/action femme fatale leads for fuck's sake.

Anyway, maybe I'm stupid or being culturally insensitive to white people or something, but to me this looks like a better Motoko than Scarlet.