• Registered: 2015-06-29
  • Posts: 191

Re: Random Thoughts about TV, Film and Media

ireactions wrote:

I used to be an obsessive DVD collector. I don't collect physical media much now, but I have kept my DVD (yes, standard definition DVD) collection.

I once spent crazy money on a complete set of DANGER MAN, half of which I gave away to my father (he loves the American episodes). There came a point when I had to ask myself whether or not I would ever actually rewatch any of these discs, and each time I asked myself that, I found myself more often than not deciding against the purchase.

I was a huge fan of EARLY EDITION and didn't realize a full series DVD release was out! Thanks for mentioning that, I will snap that up.

Before streaming I would buy DVDs in the store without seeing them in the theater. Which looking back on it, was such a waste of money. I was taking a crapshoot on whether or not I'd like it. Now before purchasing I generally watch the shows and movies via streaming and make a decision. If I think I'm going to watch it multiple times I may purchase it. I recently purchased The Prisoner box set, it's limited to 1,500 copies. It has Danger Man episodes in it, but I've never seen the show.

I loved Early Edition too when it was running. It's been out a while on DVD. I bought it directly through the manufacturer, https://www.visualentertainment.tv/ a few weeks ago. Honestly the DVDs looks even worse than Sliders. The packaging has the DVDs in a flip book binder just setting in a large DVD case. But at least it's been released. There's the shows Roar (Heath Ledger) and Lazarus Man (Robert Urich) that are out only on DVD. Last time I look, Lazarus Man was made to order. I watched them when they aired, but I can't even remember how well I liked them. Early Edition along with Christy which I have a website for, are shows that people aren't being exposed to through streaming. Anyway, I may have to muster the no strength I have left for a 3rd fan website, for Early Edition.

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  • Registered: 2015-06-30
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Re: Random Thoughts about TV, Film and Media

DVD's were fine, for about a decade.  When Blu-Ray came out, many studios began intentionally degrading their DVD releases on the same product.  Disney was notorious for this, as a way of showing off how much "better" BRD was.  In fact, it wasn't THAT much better.  The bit rate, sure, but given that 4K televisions did not become the "standard" until somewhat recently, there was often not a huge reason to have blu-ray's for close to a decade themselves, on older content.

  • Registered: 2015-06-21
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Re: Random Thoughts about TV, Film and Media

Grizzlor wrote:

DVD's were fine, for about a decade.  When Blu-Ray came out, many studios began intentionally degrading their DVD releases on the same product.  Disney was notorious for this, as a way of showing off how much "better" BRD was.  In fact, it wasn't THAT much better.  The bit rate, sure, but given that 4K televisions did not become the "standard" until somewhat recently, there was often not a huge reason to have blu-ray's for close to a decade themselves, on older content.

I wasn't aware that Disney was releasing poor bit rate DVDs (if I understand you correctly). Where can we read more about this?

Jim_Hall wrote:

I loved Early Edition too when it was running. It's been out a while on DVD. I bought it directly through the manufacturer, https://www.visualentertainment.tv/ a few weeks ago. Honestly the DVDs looks even worse than Sliders. The packaging has the DVDs in a flip book binder just setting in a large DVD case. But at least it's been released. There's the shows Roar (Heath Ledger) and Lazarus Man (Robert Urich) that are out only on DVD. Last time I look, Lazarus Man was made to order. I watched them when they aired, but I can't even remember how well I liked them. Early Edition along with Christy which I have a website for, are shows that people aren't being exposed to through streaming. Anyway, I may have to muster the no strength I have left for a 3rd fan website, for Early Edition.

I like EARLY EDITION a lot. I miss it so much. Kyle Chandler once remarked (and I'm paraphrasing), "EARLY EDITION isn't a crime show or a scary show. It's just a nice show that tells nice stories." There's something quite wonderful about the concept of a man who receives tomorrow's newspaper today and wants to do nothing more than prevent as many horrible things as he can in all the time he has.

Four seasons was a good run, and while I would have liked a fifth season, the fourth season finale of Gary learning why he was chosen to receive the paper and declaring that he wouldn't be the last -- that was a really nice way to end the series. I'm looking forward to checking out the DVD and am so glad that you randomly brought it up. Even if the video quality is less than awesome, it'd still be great to have it close by.

Slider_Quinn21 wrote:

I usually go see movies with my buddy.  I will buy the tickets and then he'll buy the next ones.  Looking at my credit card bill, it looks like I spend $30.08 for two tickets including whatever fees and tax or whatever.  He and I live on opposite sides of the city so we have to sorta find a theater that works geographically and we've settled on that one.  I don't get any concessions (I will have already eaten dinner and I don't need anything that will make me have to pee in the middle).

Budgets are different for each person, but I think $15 for the opportunity to hang out with my friend and see a new release is okay with me.  Especially for situations like a) getting to experience the surprises of Deadpool and Wolverine without being spoiled or b) getting to see George Miller action on the big screen or c) experiencing a new Alien film on the big screen in a silent theater.

To me, $15 was an acceptable price for me to see MISSION IMPOSSIBLE and THE MARVELS and DEADPOOL AND WOLVERINE. There were a bunch of movies I wanted to see in theatres, but didn't muster the energy to make it: MARIO, BARBIE, LADY FRANKENSTEIN. $15 made going to those movies feel like work I was doing at my own expense whereas $8 feels like the movie theatre is meeting me halfway.

Also, while I'm sure THE SUBSTANCE with Demi Moore, MY OLD ASS with Aubrey Plaza and NEVER LET GO with Halle Berry will have interesting performances, I can't say these low to mid-budget dramas are something I need to see on a big screen for $15. But to see them upon release instead of waiting for them to reach VOD? That's worth $8 each to me.

Slider_Quinn21 wrote:

I think that's a good experience.  I've also found myself watching a lot of things while I'm working or even getting my phone out while something is on.

I've had a lot of trouble watching TV I'm eager to see because I keep using it as background noise. Sometimes, I prefer to have something I don't like all that much so that I don't need to give it too much attention. During a particularly tiring bout of data entry recently, I watched two Aurora Teagarden Hallmark Mystery movies which have such poor dramatic range and a total lack of subtextual scripting... which is great because I can follow the story despite missing one out of three lines of dialogue.

As a result, it somehow took me a year to watch the final season of THE MARVELOUS MRS. MAISEL because I only wanted to watch it when I was giving it my undivided attention.

  • Registered: 2015-06-30
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Re: Random Thoughts about TV, Film and Media

ireactions wrote:
Grizzlor wrote:

DVD's were fine, for about a decade.  When Blu-Ray came out, many studios began intentionally degrading their DVD releases on the same product.  Disney was notorious for this, as a way of showing off how much "better" BRD was.  In fact, it wasn't THAT much better.  The bit rate, sure, but given that 4K televisions did not become the "standard" until somewhat recently, there was often not a huge reason to have blu-ray's for close to a decade themselves, on older content.

I wasn't aware that Disney was releasing poor bit rate DVDs (if I understand you correctly). Where can we read more about this?

Well, the first thing to look at would be what "extras" are on the discs?  For several years, DVD's mostly were sold with simple audio commentary track(s), trailers, a limited menu, and maybe a few deleted scenes.  This required minimal disc space.  Some studios like Warner Brothers often printed double-sided discs, one for widescreen and one for pan & scan.  After that first "wave," studios decided that they could start releasing other editions like director's cut, blah blah blah.  Yet, these would need to be additional discs in the case, so really no change.  With the advent of the blu-ray, and its well over 5x capacity increase from DVD, you could fit a larger film file (1080p) encoded at a higher bit rate.  However, you could also offer additional cuts, extras, and newly produced bonus content like interviews and documentaries, all on a single disc.  Well, when the studios go to sell them early on, they can't simply sell a blu-ray release, especially of a new film, you had to release a DVD or you'd lose out on millions of customers.  Since the DVD now needed to fit some (not all) of the litany of BRD extras, the studio would often sacrifice DVD bit rate to squeeze it on there.   Granted, many releases simply put the extras onto a second disc, but that's a cost associated.  Frankly, producing new bonus content wound up being a waste of money, as studies found the vast majority of it went unwatched. 

Now, obviously how the particularly movie you bought on DVD 15 years ago was shipped, in terms of extras and # of discs, etc., varied on a case by case basis. 

There are videophiles complaining incessantly on Reddit about 4K releases, and the type of BluRay disc being used.  They go crazy about whether a studio compresses to fit on a cheaper disc, when in fact the human eye is never going to discern the difference.  Perhaps in a screen capture, but who cares?  In fact, when they came out, people were screaming about how the studios often just took the DVD stream, and upscaled it, and sold you a 1080p version of an old film that your TV probably could have upscaled similarly, ha ha ha. 

The other issue is that many of the old forums and websites have vanished, but here's one where a customer was annoyed that Disney cheaped out and stuck too much on a single disc, and fouled up the video quality.

https://www.avsforum.com/threads/disney … tby=newest

  • Registered: 2015-06-29
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Re: Random Thoughts about TV, Film and Media

To be honest I'm surprised so many 4K discs are still being produced, especially when the 4K players are outrageously priced. I bought two players, one $420 and the other $250. I figure 4K is the last resolution that will be ever be adopted. However I'm using a 5K iMac and the difference between reading text is like night and day. That's at desktop viewing distance though. I don't think many people would even watch a 5K TV that close. It'd be useless anyway because lack of content.

I've been buying 4K discs saying, yep, that'll be the last time I ever buy that movie again. One of the pros of buying a 4K disc is a wider color gamut than blu-ray. I don't see how they can improve on it anymore, because as Grizzlor stated your eye can only perceive so much.

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  • Registered: 2015-06-21
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Re: Random Thoughts about TV, Film and Media

Grizzlor wrote:

DVD now needed to fit some (not all) of the litany of BRD extras, the studio would often sacrifice DVD bit rate to squeeze it on there.   Granted, many releases simply put the extras onto a second disc, but that's a cost associated.  Frankly, producing new bonus content wound up being a waste of money, as studies found the vast majority of it went unwatched.

That's unfortunate!

To me, I think of how the Universal DVD release of SLIDERS looks shockingly poor on DVD for Episodes 102 - 109, but if played on a CRT television, I don't think anyone could tell that those episodes looked any blurrier than the pilot or the subsequent seasons. I also doubt poor DVD bit rate was a problem until HD televisions started reaching 75 percent of homes by 2013, at which point DVD was already too low a resolution for the screen, and overcompression would make it worse. However, by 2015, it was pretty clear that DVD was going to fade in favour of streaming and, if anyone really wanted physical media, blu-ray for collectors.

  • Registered: 2015-06-30
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Re: Random Thoughts about TV, Film and Media

Jim_Hall wrote:

To be honest I'm surprised so many 4K discs are still being produced, especially when the 4K players are outrageously priced. I bought two players, one $420 and the other $250. I figure 4K is the last resolution that will be ever be adopted. However I'm using a 5K iMac and the difference between reading text is like night and day. That's at desktop viewing distance though. I don't think many people would even watch a 5K TV that close. It'd be useless anyway because lack of content.

There's still revenue to be had there, and the studios want it, particularly on new releases.  I still don't even own a 4K television!

ireactions wrote:
Grizzlor wrote:

DVD now needed to fit some (not all) of the litany of BRD extras, the studio would often sacrifice DVD bit rate to squeeze it on there.   Granted, many releases simply put the extras onto a second disc, but that's a cost associated.  Frankly, producing new bonus content wound up being a waste of money, as studies found the vast majority of it went unwatched.

That's unfortunate!

To me, I think of how the Universal DVD release of SLIDERS looks shockingly poor on DVD for Episodes 102 - 109, but if played on a CRT television, I don't think anyone could tell that those episodes looked any blurrier than the pilot or the subsequent seasons. I also doubt poor DVD bit rate was a problem until HD televisions started reaching 75 percent of homes by 2013, at which point DVD was already too low a resolution for the screen, and overcompression would make it worse. However, by 2015, it was pretty clear that DVD was going to fade in favour of streaming and, if anyone really wanted physical media, blu-ray for collectors.

Don't knock the CRT!  HA HA HA.  Oh there are entire communities, of which I am part of one on Fartbook, devoted to our oversized, aging, yet reliable friends.  Mainly their preservation, so when we find one on the curb or a curb-listing, we try to get them, and offer them up to others.  As with arcade monitors, there are no CRT factories remaining on the planet.  There is nothing quite like playing old school video games in front of the glow of the cathode ray tube!  Many of those aficionados watch literally everything on them, ha ha, something I myself would not dare.  But if you can find one of the "HD" CRT's that were sold in the 2000s, and were widescreen, they are very popular with those folks.

  • Registered: 2015-06-21
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Re: Random Thoughts about TV, Film and Media

Last night, in the depths of despair over how I can't properly upscale "Summer of Love" to "Luck of the Draw", I started looking on Kijiji for used CRTs. I saw one for $15 USD. Then I realized that while I have $15 USD, I have absolutely nowhere sensible to put a CRT television set because anywhere it could go is already occupied by a modern TV.

I've a really interesting program called ShaderGlass. https://mausimus.itch.io/shaderglass

It casts an overlay over the screen of a Windows PC, which you can apply to different windows or make fullscreen. It makes your screen mimic a cathode ray tube television with the dot pattern and the screen curvature and the crushed blacks. ShaderGlass made "Luck of the Draw" look like it did in 1995 for the first time since I'd thrown out my old CRT. And unlike an actual CRT, ShaderGlass doesn't cost or weigh anything or take up any physical space.

  • Registered: 2015-06-21
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Re: Random Thoughts about TV, Film and Media

ireactions wrote:

Awhile ago, Temporal Flux recommended this 2020 series called ZOEY'S EXTRAORDINARY PLAYLIST, a musical series set in San Francisco featuring one of my favourite actresses, the assertive and sardonic Jane Levy. I watched the first episode and... refused to watch more. Mainly because it was such a lavishly shot, high budget series that I did not want to watch it on my little 10.4 inch Samsung Galaxy Tab A7 tablet at the time, the screen on which I was watching most TV shows. Something as elaborate and visually sumptuous as ZOEY'S EXTRAORDINARY PLAYLIST needed to be watched on a full-size television.

I'm trying to find some time to watch it now, over two years since it was cancelled on a cliffhanger and resolved in a movie length special.

Eight months later, I finally finished ZOEY'S EXTRAORDINARY PLAYLIST, which was cancelled on its Season 2 cliffhanger finale and then resolved in a feature length Roku-streamed Christmas special, ZOE'S EXTRAORDINARY PLAYLIST.

It was really good. It provided both a climax and conclusion to the ongoing threads of the series, while simultaneously leaving some room for development should there ever be a follow up in the future.

I wonder what SLIDERS would have been like if Robert K. Weiss' 2000-era bid for a feature film had ever come to pass.

  • Registered: 2015-06-22
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Re: Random Thoughts about TV, Film and Media

Anyone watch Terminator Zero on Netflix?

I don't love anime, but I think it's a pretty interesting story.  Almost all of Terminator is set in Los Angeles, and it's interesting to see the perspective of another location.  I have three episodes left, but I like it so far.

I also rewatched the original Terminator.  I forgot how much damage the Terminator takes.  He's not invincible, and he's pretty roughed up even before he gets blown up.  It ended up being a bit more realistic than I remembered - he's strong and doesn't stop, but he takes damage from car wrecks and falls.  I feel like some of that got lost as the series continued.

  • Registered: 2015-06-30
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Re: Random Thoughts about TV, Film and Media

Afraid not, the last anime I watched, needed to force myself to get through it, which was the one for Supernatural.

  • Registered: 2015-06-22
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Re: Random Thoughts about TV, Film and Media

Yeah I have trouble connecting with the artwork, but I can get through it if the story is good.  And this story is pretty solid - after 40 years of Terminator stuff, it's a fresh look at the franchise.  They also take advantage of the fact that the Terminator is in a place where it isn't as easy to get guns.  So he has to improvise a bit more.

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Re: Random Thoughts about TV, Film and Media

I thoroughly enjoy the artwork, animation style, effects they use.  The problem is the pacing.  Everything is so dark, and ultra slow.  Often the translations don't work well with the scenes, although I could assume this one is alright considering the production value.  The pacing is kind of what has soured my viewing of most of the Star Wars saga on Disney+.

  • Registered: 2015-06-22
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Re: Random Thoughts about TV, Film and Media

Yeah I understand that.  I do think they can be slow.

This one is 8 25-minute episodes.  I guess some of it could probably be cut but they try to do character development, and that means situations like the movies where the terminator shows up and then they escape.

I don't know, give it a shot if you're interested.  I'm curious what people think about it.

615 Reply by ireactions (edited by ireactions 2024-09-11 19:22:52)

  • Registered: 2015-06-21
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Re: Random Thoughts about TV, Film and Media

I'm looking forward to seeing it. I mean, having sat through all of the TERMINATOR movies, I might as well weather through whatever this is, although I've heard good things.

Another piece of TERMINATOR writing I'd like to finish reading: a fan wrote 28 (!!) screenplays wrapping up THE SARAH CONNOR CHRONICLES with a virtual Season 3 of 22 episodes and a virtual Season 4 of five episodes and a feature length finale screenplay. I've read the first one and it's precisely the show I remember, from Josh Friedman's sardonic and militaristic tone to the omnipresent shadow of war and violence over every scene.

https://tib.cjcs.com/terminator-the-con … c-project/

  • Registered: 2015-06-22
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Re: Random Thoughts about TV, Film and Media

I didn't know where to put this (maybe we need to rename the DC Threads to CW/Arrowverse and DCU) but I decided to put this here because it's technically not DC related.  But I watched Rebel Ridge on Netflix, and the star of that (Aaron Pierre) has been cast as John Stewart in the Lanterns show.  Not only is the movie really engrossing and entertaining, but I think he's great in it.  I think he also has really powerful eyes that almost look "Green Lantern-y" in certain angles, and I think he's gonna be really good.  I know there's some criticism that he's not a dark-skinned person like John Stewart is traditionally, but I think he's gonna do great.

If you're interested in Lanterns, I think checking out some of the movie will make you feel great about the casting.

  • Registered: 2015-06-21
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Re: Random Thoughts about TV, Film and Media

Which threads do you want renamed to what?

  • Registered: 2015-06-22
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Re: Random Thoughts about TV, Film and Media

We have two DC threads:

DC Superheroes on TV (CW & HBO Max)
DC Superheroes in Film (Theatrical and Streaming)

This is just one stupid man's opinion, but I worry that there might be some confusion with the HBO Max part of that because Lanterns is DCU but is TV and will air on Max.  I think it makes more organizational sense to have all the James Gunn stuff in one place particularly since they'll all tie together.  So my recommendation would be to have one thread for Arrowverse/non-DCU and the other for the DCU (Theatrical and Streaming) but as I'm typing this out that might not be any less confusing.

Like I said I'm a stupid man big_smile

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Re: Random Thoughts about TV, Film and Media

Well, I just started a new thread for the James Gunn era: https://sliders.tv/bboard/viewtopic.php?id=487

All DC TV shows and animated productions from 1966 - 2024 can be discussed in the newly named DC Superheroes on TV & Streaming (1966 - 2024) thread: https://sliders.tv/bboard/viewtopic.php?id=67

All DC feature films from 1943 - 2024 can be discussed in the DC Superheroes in Film (1943 - 2024) thread: https://sliders.tv/bboard/viewtopic.php?id=60

We can talk about SMALLVILLE here: https://sliders.tv/bboard/viewtopic.php?id=167

I hope that isn't too confusing. I'm already having to make exceptions:

  • The 1966 BATMAN film is discussed in the 1966 - 2024 TV thread (because it launched from the TV show)

  • THE BATMAN (2022) is discussed in the 2025 thread (because its sequel will be produced by James Gunn and we may as well cover the first installment in the same thread)

  • THE SUICIDE SQUAD (2021) and PEACEMAKER's first season in 2022 are also part of the 2025 thread (because both are James Gunn projects).

If someone has a better idea, lay it out and I'll see what can be done.

  • Registered: 2015-06-22
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Re: Random Thoughts about TV, Film and Media

I'm not sure if the old Continuum thread was lost but I was pleasantly surprised to find it on tubi in the u.s. tonight. All four seasons.  It has been elusive to find since leaving Netflix 6 or 7 years ago.  But it's streaming for free in the u.s. now on tubi.

  • Registered: 2015-06-21
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Re: Random Thoughts about TV, Film and Media

I would appreciate it if you would watch Season 3 and tell me what the hell is going on because I could not understand it.

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Re: Random Thoughts about TV, Film and Media

ireactions wrote:

I would appreciate it if you would watch Season 3 and tell me what the hell is going on because I could not understand it.


Ha.  Well you've always been much better on details as me.

I never finished the series when it was streaming on netflix, so I can't recall how far I got.  I just remember feeling like I was watching a believable world, with fully thought out, well-constructed logic that was very much grounded in a speculative sort of reality.   It didn't feel artificial or convenient.  It felt real, despite the drama and the science fiction.

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Re: Random Thoughts about TV, Film and Media

I liked the show too. I just... got lost with Season 3. I couldn't understand it.

Season 4 was more coherent and good, but I'm still very confused about year 3.

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Re: Random Thoughts about TV, Film and Media

did anyone know about this?

https://uk.strangerthingsonstage.com

  • Registered: 2015-06-22
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Re: Random Thoughts about TV, Film and Media

Posting for grizzled
https://www.the-sun.com/entertainment/1 … hollywood/

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Re: Random Thoughts about TV, Film and Media

RussianCabbie_Lotteryfan wrote:

Posting for grizzled
https://www.the-sun.com/entertainment/1 … hollywood/

Ha, yes she's into "psychedelic-assisted therapy" now, and campaigned to legalize psychedelics in some manner in Mass, which did not pass.  Her socials basically came to life after years of inactivity, a month ago.  The career path is not a surprise, as she's wanted to go in that direction for as long as I've known her, which was partly what her mother's group was doing in Africa, minus the mushrooms.  Obviously I'm happy that she's happy and seems to be going strong.

  • Registered: 2015-06-22
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Re: Random Thoughts about TV, Film and Media

Grizzlor wrote:
RussianCabbie_Lotteryfan wrote:

Posting for grizzled
https://www.the-sun.com/entertainment/1 … hollywood/

Ha, yes she's into "psychedelic-assisted therapy" now, and campaigned to legalize psychedelics in some manner in Mass, which did not pass.  Her socials basically came to life after years of inactivity, a month ago.  The career path is not a surprise, as she's wanted to go in that direction for as long as I've known her, which was partly what her mother's group was doing in Africa, minus the mushrooms.  Obviously I'm happy that she's happy and seems to be going strong.

I'm glad she's independently wealthy now and could pursue her interests.  At least she doesn't have the financial pressure to have to act anymore, and can explore stuff like this.  It does seem like she's had quite a life.

  • Registered: 2015-06-21
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Re: Random Thoughts about TV, Film and Media

THE BIG BANG THEORY had a prequel series, YOUNG SHELDON, which now has a spinoff, GEORGIE AND MANDY'S FIRST MARRIAGE. Georgie, a cheery Southern mechanic, first appeared on THE BIG BANG THEORY played by Jerry O'Connell.

On YOUNG SHELDON, Georgie is a teenager played by Montana Jackson, who now is the lead of GEORGIE AND MANDY'S FIRST MARRIAGE. Georgie is a 19 year old high school dropout who gets the late 20s Mandy (Emily Osment) pregnant in a one night stand. Georgie immediately drops every frivolous pursuit in life to support his baby and Mandy, for whom Georgie is head over heels in love. One of their supports is Jim, the father of Mandy who is played by Will Sasso (Gomez Calhoun).

So, if you ever felt the need to watch young Quinn and Gomez as pseudo father and son, here you are. Emily Osment is splendid too.