u/khroshan

Hi guys, I've watched all of David Simon's HBO shows and miniseries except The Plot Against America. And I've actually loved them all.

While all the other shows instantly gripped me, I just can't help but be completely bored by this one. After multiple tries I managed to finish the first episode but I've never been able to complete the second.

I don't care about the characters, the setting seems fake (I know it's alternate history but you can make it feel real), the sets look very sanitized and have that cottagecore aesthetic, the whole thing looks sterile and digital and overly filtered, the writing is not naturalistic, it feels more like a soap opera with pointless bickering and manufactured drama, and it's so dull and plodding and purposely slow, like they just don't have enough story to fill the episodes.

However, it seems to have gotten good reviews. Wanted to know if I'm missing out on anything? How does it compare to The Wire and the other David Simon shows? Is there a reason that this one show feels so different from all the other work Simon has done?

I'm watching the first episode of Mad Men again after almost two decades and holy shit my mind is blown after just 10 minutes of it. I also rewatched Band of Brothers earlier this year and I have some very similar thoughts on these shows but I'm going to focus on Mad Men here.

First, there are rich details in the sets that still look realistic, natural and lived in. Modern period shows have sets that look clean and sanitized as though they curated every single thing to have a retro aesthetic. They don't feel real, it's like watching some kind of cottagecore tutorial on YouTube. That everything has to have some shade of yellow filter and appears to have been airbrushed just makes it even worse. It's nice to see colors and grit.

People act normal, like human beings. Maybe different from how people are today but still recognizably real. Newer period shows have people acting in very affected ways that makes it seem like they're just LARPing. It becomes impossible to relate to the obviously fake caricatures.

Then the writing. From the very first conversation and scene, the show draws you and hooks you in. There isn't a single wasted line of dialogue or moment. I've become used to boring dialogue, filler scenes, and plowing through hours of plodding plotlines waiting for something to happen. Mad Men is actually shockingly riveting. Also, it's immersive because you can easily believe that similar things must have happened in ways that are shown.

Last, the sheer effort. Many scenes have multiple moving characters or involve various actors, each one doing something different. There's no way these shots / scenes could have been easy to get right! Like the elevator scene with the 4 guys harassing Peggy and each one has a different expression.

I've been hoping for a show like this to come out and have waded through uncountable number of highly reviewed shows on streaming platforms that just turned out to not even have serviceable levels of writing, plot or acting. Sometimes I think there's something wrong with me but going back to older shows, you can really see that quality levels have actually totally crashed compared to the golden age of cable dramas. Not even most HBO shows hit like this anymore, notable exceptions being Succession, White Lotus and a few miniseries (and Better Call Saul).

Hi guys, I just watched an Apple series yesterday, Sugar, and it made me miss the golden age of TV. Because the writing, plot, characterization was just not up to par. They're trying to imitate prestige TV of the old days but the result is more like network slop. There are just so few shows nowadays that I can feel fully immersed in and actually care about the characters.

Here's a list of shows I've enjoyed, could you please let me know if there are any really great shows or miniseries that I've missed out on and should check out?

Hi guys, when I posted my last guide, there were a couple of people that objected to "cyberpunk" being a substyle of darksynth, it was mentioned that in particular the midtempo variety is a genre of EDM or EBSM and not related to darksynth at all.

So to be clear, I'm referring to bands like Celina, Call Me Sleeper, newer Powernerd, F.O.O.L, Magnavolt, Void Stare, Kodeseven, Starfarer, Extra Terra, newer Ray Gun Hero, Max Brhon, Sawlo, Head Splitter, Light4storm, also Chris Keya before he abandoned the style. To a lesser extent I guess Re_ii, YM_IRR, Cyberthing, Cerebra, Cyberpriest, Chrome Skin, Droidglow, Zith, some of Alex and Tokyo Rose, etc could also be connected although their music is heavier and much less dancy.

My thoughts are:

• A lot of these bands that have been around for a while used to make music that was even more simple than darksynth, I would call it dark synthwave or cyberpunk synthwave. So the genesis of the style seems to be from within the middle ground between synthwave and darksynth.
• Most of these bands tag or have tagged their music in the past as synthwave, darksynth or dark synthwave
• Much of the external genres they're supposedly connected to, like EDM, EBSM, midtempo, phonk, dubstep, hardwave, etc are by and large shitty music - uninspired, dull, repetitive and simplistic. So since their music is actually good the part that makes it good must have some other origin (that being synthwave-darksynth).
• My thesis is that the genre is essentially dark synthwave that was crossed with EDM/EBSM and so is essentially a darksynth substyle.

What do you think? I'd love to hear more opinions on this!

Hi guys, was wondering if you have any recommendations for pet friendly restaurants around Metro Manila? And by pet friendly I mean that doggies should be allowed inside, al fresco doesn't count as pet friendly. It's so hot nowadays and it's hard to find places I can spend time with my dog without her overheating in this weather!

One of our go to places that I'd recommend is Fat Seed in BGC, they have great food and are also are truly welcoming to pets.

For context, I have been trying to watch the first episode of Masters of the Air (MotA) for over a month now, but have lost interest and even fallen asleep multiple times. Now, I am rewatching Band of Brothers (BoB), this time with my wife, and we have blown through 5 episodes in about a day. I then went back to MotA and finally pushed myself through the first episode. The difference between the shows is really stark.

- In MotA no one credibly behaves or talks like a real person much less a WW2 soldier

- The acting is awful and wooden. This has an ensemble cast but they're all terrible, BoB on the other hand was so good that it made the careers of so many of it's cast members

- That plus cheap CGI means even battle scenes are actually boring, you don't get the feeling of the brutality or chaos of war. Even the way the German planes fly, the batteries of guns, none of it feels remotely real. The smoke clouds are so evenly spaced from each other that they look like a cut and paste job. You don't even see the land or sea below the planes.

- The writing is 2020s emo, no stoicism or military discipline, you don't feel like you're ever watching soldiers, you barely even see saluting and basic military practices, you feel like you're watching a bunch of fools or clowns.

- There isn't a scene that looks like an event that could have actually / plausibly happened that way, a lot of what they show is outright silly unlike BoB which always felt grounded in reality. Despite this, BoB is so engrossing from the start of first episode, Currahee, and that just showed us soldiers doing drills, and every scene feels real and lived.

Sorry for the rant but writing and storytelling have really gone to shit over the past couple of decades. What's worst is that with BoB and The Pacific, you could tell that Hanks and Spielberg with HBO tried to get everything right to honor the lives, legacy and sacrifice of all those soldiers. It had a greater goal, a purpose guiding the creation of a couple of the greatest miniseries of all time. Whereas with MotA it feels like a streamer just needed to autogenerate 10 hours of filler content so they they have a war show in the catalogue that they can recommend based on your browsing history.