TV shows are awesome

A general discussion forum, plus hauls and silly games.
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andersonh1
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Re: TV shows are awesome

Post by andersonh1 »

138 Scourge wrote:You know, guys, I got run over by a truck one time. It dragged me underneath it, and I was dragged a little over a hundred feet before it stopped. It did not bounce harmlessly off of me, and there was considerably more damage to my bones than to the truck. So Superman is clearly bullshit.
:D
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Shockwave
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Re: TV shows are awesome

Post by Shockwave »

138 Scourge wrote:You know, guys, I got run over by a truck one time. It dragged me underneath it, and I was dragged a little over a hundred feet before it stopped. It did not bounce harmlessly off of me, and there was considerably more damage to my bones than to the truck. So Superman is clearly bullshit.
Well, I thought about using Superman as my example except for the whole bulletproof, hyperdense molecular structure thing. But, to the best of my knowledge, Flash doesn't have that. He's just really fast. And my point was that you can't be that fast as a normal human.

Also, I'm pretty sure the fact that you survived that makes you Superman.

I mean, there are some characters where their established power set accounts for some of the physics violations, but I think a lot of them don't. You know who else I never really cared for? The Hulk. Seriously, he just gets really angry and smashes things. IRL, he'd just be thrown in jail and fined for all the damage he causes and would probably have eleventy kajillion restraining orders against him.
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andersonh1
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Re: TV shows are awesome

Post by andersonh1 »

No superhero really makes sense. You just either go with it and have fun and enjoy the ride, or you don't. I think they're a lot of fun. I'm more than happy to suspend my disbelief and play along. :)
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Almighty Unicron
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Re: TV shows are awesome

Post by Almighty Unicron »

Shockwave wrote:
138 Scourge wrote:Seriously, he just gets really angry and smashes things. IRL, he'd just be thrown in jail and fined for all the damage he causes and would probably have eleventy kajillion restraining orders against him.
Can you really hold the Hulk responsible for his actions? I think Banner would legally be treated as mentally disabled. The Hulk is basically retard strength incarnate.
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andersonh1
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Re: TV shows are awesome

Post by andersonh1 »

I posted in the "hauls" thread that I found the 1990 Flash tv series last week. I watched this show when it first aired, and I remember it being this odd mix of tones, with parts of it being decent superhero drama and parts of it being just campy and silly. That's still fairly accurate. I've only watched the first two episodes so far, and the show clearly is trying very much to be just like the original Batman film with Michael Keaton which had come out the year before, right down to the (admittedly awesome) Danny Elfman theme tune. The Flash usually comes out at night, is on the outs with the police, and Central City is a fairly seedy place just like Gotham. Fifteen years before Geoff Johns revised Barry Allen's history so that his mom was killed and his dad blamed, they even give Barry an older brother (named Jay) who dies in the pilot episode so that Barry can be motivated to go out and fight crime instead of trying to rid himself of his newly acquired speed.

So it very much appears to be a product of its time, produced at a point when superheroes were still thought of as silly kids subject matter, but where Batman had started to change people's perceptions. I think that's where the mix of tones comes from. Some of the actors play the subject matter dead straight, and some camp it up. Still, it's fun to watch, and it's interesting to see such a tiny cast and episodic format compared to the larger cast and more ongoing storylines of the modern Flash series. I guess that's the difference between 90s tv and tv in 2015.
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andersonh1
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Re: TV shows are awesome

Post by andersonh1 »

The modern day Flash finale aired tonight, and what showed up near the end of the episode? Jay Garrick's helmet, wings and all, flying out of a time vortex created as part of the plot. I'd been hoping Jay would turn up at some point, so if his hat's there, maybe he won't be far behind. :D
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Sparky Prime
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Re: TV shows are awesome

Post by Sparky Prime »

andersonh1 wrote:The modern day Flash finale aired tonight, and what showed up near the end of the episode? Jay Garrick's helmet, wings and all, flying out of a time vortex created as part of the plot. I'd been hoping Jay would turn up at some point, so if his hat's there, maybe he won't be far behind. :D
Episode hasn't aired here yet, but I just saw an article at Newsarama that said season 2 will be exploring alternate timelines, including Earth-2.
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andersonh1
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Re: TV shows are awesome

Post by andersonh1 »

Sparky Prime wrote:
andersonh1 wrote:The modern day Flash finale aired tonight, and what showed up near the end of the episode? Jay Garrick's helmet, wings and all, flying out of a time vortex created as part of the plot. I'd been hoping Jay would turn up at some point, so if his hat's there, maybe he won't be far behind. :D
Episode hasn't aired here yet, but I just saw an article at Newsarama that said season 2 will be exploring alternate timelines, including Earth-2.
Nice! This has been a fun season and a fun show.
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Re: TV shows are awesome

Post by JediTricks »

INT. S.T.A.R. LABS - PARTICLE ACCELLERATOR/PRISON

*Fidgeting slightly, EOBARD THAWNE stands locked in his cell facing EVERYBODY AT S.T.A.R. LABS standing outside the glass*

EOBARD: How dare you not take me up on my plan, Barry?!? I gave you everything!

BARRY: There's no reason for me to do any of this, and even if I did use your plan, there's no reason to let you out to travel time, I can just do it and leave you locked up.

*Enraged, EOBARD slams his fist on the glass and spits as he yells*

EOBARD: You will all pay with your lives!!! I will break out of this cell one day, no matter how decrepit with age, I will hunt you all down and kill you, then I will find new means to travel back in time and kill you all aga- Argh!

*Suddenly, EOBARD cries out in agony*

CISCO: What's happening to him?

CAITLIN: He's... he's... disintegrating!

*insert fx shot of EOBARD's arms and torso coming apart, molecule by molecule*

EOBARD: (screaming) No, noooo! How is this happenin--?

*insert shot of prison cell empty*

BARRY: What happened to him?

CISCO: It's like he was erased from time, like Marty McFly nearly was. But how did this happen?

*the cast look around, confusedly, until EDDIE THAWNE clears his throat*

EDDIE: Ahem.

IRIS: Eddie? What is it?

EDDIE: Oh, nothing, I just decided to get a vasectomy.

CISCO: Holy crap, he totally pulled a "Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure" on the Reverse-Flash! He made a decision about the future which changed Eobard's past, that's brilliant!

*entire cast looks astounded. JOE WEST pretends to punch EDDIE THAWNE in the groin, they share a look and a laugh. BARRY ALLEN smiles*

BARRY: Ha ha! Well, that's fantastic, let's all get some lunch together. Then I'll go visit my dad in prison and tell him the good news, and try not to remind him that he'll still rot in jail forever because I had already decided I wasn't going to change the past no matter if I did or didn't go back in time.

*end scene*


-----------------------------

This whole episode could have ended 30 minutes sooner if Eddie had just gotten himself sterilized, as I dramatized below.

Here's the thing, this was a very strongly-acted and -directed episode, production was fairly solid, none of the acting really lagged in quality, and Grant Gustin did a fair job of carrying emotional scenes in a way he hadn't been as convincing at earlier in the season. Rick Cosnett as Eddie did a lot of good work without taking away from scenes. No stupid Iris stuff (tho' Caitlin forgot all science), the scene between Dr. Stein and Eddie was good, everything was quite watchable...

And then Barry risked the planet to NOT save his mother or father. He didn't change anything. Meanwhile, Eddie stopped the villain by shooting himself instead of the villain who was STANDING STILL AT THE TIME, or just shooting himself in the groin, or just deciding not to have kids. Then the wormhole changed its mind and turned into a black hole, because Dr. Stein was stupid and used a vague sense of stopwatch timing for something that required galactic-level precision. None of the actual plot made any sense, undermining all the good character work.

In fact, there was a clear point when the script made it obvious Barry wasn't going to change the past, and it left me wondering why we still went through with this at all.

But hey, at least it ended with yet another episode saying "Barry can only save the day if he runs faster" not once but TWICE.

Of course, none of this should matter since Eobard being erased from the timestream should just erase STAR Labs and every event leading up to it, including Nora Allen's murder, except it didn't. I guess chalk that up to more of "things happened to happen" moments, like Caitlin and Ronnie randomly getting married, Cisco building a time sphere machine and Ronnie addressing a problem with it using tungsten only to go nowhere, Ronnie getting electrocuted (possibly will pay off in part 2), Captain Cold and future hero Hawkgirl reacting to the singularity, and Eddie getting sucked into the singularity (foreshadowing perhaps a return/plot twist down the road) along with a solitary random SUV that apparently was unluckier than all the other cars next to it.

And finally, THIS SHOW HAS NO IDEA WHAT A PARTICLE ACCELERATOR IS OR DOES OR HOW PARTICLE PHYSICS WORK AT ALL!!!
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See, that one's a camcorder, that one's a camera, that one's a phone, and they're doing "Speak no evil, See no evil, Hear no evil", get it?
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andersonh1
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Re: TV shows are awesome

Post by andersonh1 »

Yeah, they went for drama rather than plausibility. Eddie shooting himself instead of Thawne was the big one. But it's hardly the first time, so I'm not going to hold it against them at this point.

Though I will say it looked as if Barry had every intention of saving his mom, right up until the point that his older self looked at him and essentially warned him not to do it. That's when he changed his mind.
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