What’s the antithesis of Arrested Development, Firefly or The Big Lebowski? Those may never have ‘found their audience’ but over time seemed to recognised by everyone. What are the deep cuts that you liked but it feels like everyone has completely forgotten they even existed.
Dredd, highly praised by fan and critics; Also a recent one Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves no buzz but high praise overall.
Dredd had a really poor advertising campaign. I think the first trailer only came out a few weeks before it’s release when for other films it’s months in advance.
I think the first footage I saw was actually a VFX breakdown that somehow made it’s way into YouTube but it didn’t stay there long.
There was a big campaign to get a sequel and Dredd on Blu-ray rose to #1 in the Amazon sales charts.
One of the executive producers, Adi Shankar, explained in a YouTube video that he appreciated the effort but the big problem was the box office returns. Everyone who invested made a loss, so no one wanted to invest in a sequel.
Rebellion were going to make a Mega City One series which may have had appearances from Dredd occasionally but I think that project has stalled.
Removed by mod
If I remember correctly here in German it was marketed as “Dredd 3D”, which turned me off at the time.
Same in the US. Putting 3D in the title is lame, especially if it’s not the third in a series.
The Dredd: the Musical parody is pretty good.
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Honor Among Thieves was so good. I couldn’t stop geeking out over how much D&D was in it. They even cameo’d the freaking Animated Series party! It’s nuts.
It’s the first time I’ve unexpectedly felt, “Wow, that was so fun!” since maybe Zombieland or The Lego Movie. The definition of a “fun movie,” it was so much better than I expected.
I think the worst thing about Dredd not getting a sequel is people who only see it will think he was just a generic action hero.
it is absolutely baffling to me that Dredd (2012) has a better review score than Judge Dredd (1995) (a far superior movie in my opinion).
both are good for different reasons
Dredd was fun don’t get me wrong, but i feel like it dropped a lot of the good themes and sci-fi worldbuilding of the original in favor of a pretty generic (if competently executed) action shoot-em-up.
Mr Robot is a damn masterpiece and I don’t think I’ve ever participated in or heard a verbal discussion about it. But whenever it pops up in a thread or comment section there’s always tons of people giving it praise.
I know the camera operator that shot Mr Robot. They created a completely new camera framing language. Breaking the norms and conventions. It really deserves more recognition than it got.
Could you discuss a bit more what you mean by new camera framing language?
I thought nothing could top Breaking Bad, but then I watched Mr. Robot.
The creativity, cinematography and unique ideas in that are outstanding. The episode with almost no dialogue is particularly brilliant.
The episode with almost no dialogue is particularly brilliant.
Despite not liking most of the last season, I agree that episode is brilliant. I did not even notice there wasn’t any dialogue while watching it, I was that captivated.
I didn’t notice until near the end, when I couldn’t recall anyone saying anything or the music stopping. 😄
My personal favorite episode is “Don’t delete me”. It just has a certain feel to it that other episodes don’t, especially with the “Trying to find a purpose” theme.
I watched the first season and found it cringe.
THANK YOU. I couldn’t get past the god-damned teenage angst.
I don’t know the last time I fell off a show so hard. It sets up this amazing conspiracy plot with dramatic cloak-and-dagger stuff, all supported by interesting characters I wanted to see more of, and then it completely went off the rails into addiction and petty crime.
I’m sure that stuff gets relevant later but it felt like I was watching a different show. Completely lost interest.
It just feels so Reddit
I think you’re supposed to see that and see that it’s cringe though. I still couldn’t get into it though. I watched the first season and half of the second and it didn’t do it for me
My partner and I had the same experience. I kept powering through because I had heard from some folks OH IT IS SO GENIUS AND AMAZING but it felt… awful.
First season is the best, it actually gets much worse after that. Shows tries extra hard to be edgy, graphic and “weird”. It also becomes less and less about hacking, which was the most interesting part of the show.
The first season was “so bad it’s funny” for me, I never got the praise.
I thought the ending was atrocious tbh, had it been as strong as the early show I would’ve been talking about it!
Better Off Ted is still my favorite sitcom. Corporate came along and tried to pick up the mantle, but I still prefer Ted.
Yes! I was thinking of this when I wrote the question. I feel like it was great and just totally disappeared.
I kept thinking about it’s parody ads when all those ‘we’re in this together’ ads kept playing during the start of the pandemic.
I would upvote this fifty times if I could. Better Off Ted was an absolute gem.
Loved Better Off Ted. I still use Veronica’s “I’m going though a tunnel…” line when speaking to someone in-person.
The hair is up. That’s all they hear.
I often quote “deal with it, Ted”
Yeah! Deal with it!
Blade Runner 2049. Extremely highly rated, just wasn’t popular enough
I watched Blade Runner 2049 about half year after its release, and about 15 years after I watched the firs movie. My reaction was “I do not understand all the criticism of 2049 - it is a good movie”. And then I decided to rewatch the first movie. And then I understood. And that’s despite of the fact that the first movie is really old.
People just don’t have the patience anymore to soak in a mood and atmosphere while a story slowly unfolds.
I feel like it also wasn’t marketed at all. The only reason I knew about it is because I check what’s playing in IMAX every month.
I never saw a single ad or any hype for it
I must say that I felt the atmosphere was forced in 2049. In the original, the atmosphere was part of the setting and not lingered over. 2049 forced the audience to look at it, “soak” in it as you say, and I thought it was detrimental to the progress of the film. JMO, of course. Still a great movie.
It’s a worthy successor to the original, which is remarkable.
I missed seeing the original in theaters (just a bit too young, then only got to see it on VHS) but caught a theatrical showing with my son and his friend just before 2049 came out and man, two great flicks to see on the big screen. TV just do not do these types of movies justice.
Blade Runner PC game by westwood was also amazing, but didnt seem to get any traction.
Fucking fantastic game, though. Everyone should play it… theres an enhanced now, so you don’t have to do the weirdo workaround shit with the 16bit installer.
Like, it’s fine, but I don’t feel like it was anything special?
If you’ve only seen it once, I’d recommend a rewatch. I feel like subsequent viewings just get better.
Not enough people understand how great of a show Bojack Horsman was.
Absolutely love that show. I kinda have to be in a good headspace to watch it though, cause it has definitely had a negative impact on my own depressive thoughts before. But that show can be so damn cathartic and just a great watch overall
It’s popular and well-loved, but I agree - I always say that the penultimate episode of the final season is the greatest episode of television ever made.
It would be if they hadn’t chickened out with the last episode. Unfortunately that kind of tarnishes the impact of the penultimate episode in hindsight.
Interesting I thought the last episode was the perfect ending. Cause it’s so grounded. No cheesy happy end, no sensational bad end, just a very grounded “yea shit happens in live and you gotta keep on living and deal with it”, cause that’s how live actually is for most people.
What would you have preferred the ending be?
I still think the finale of The Good Place beats it, but the competition is close!
I really enjoyed Equilibrium (2002). Is it derivative of 1984 and Fahrenheit 451? Absolutely. But so was V for Vendetta.
It’s a B level film that still packs a punch today, particularly in a dystopian era of politics. The message of learning to connect continues to be relevant in a hyper connected, but shallow relational landscape.
If I could get a version of the movie with the swish sounds removed then it’d be 10/10. I love that movie
not without incident.
Don’t forget that it’s riding heavily on the cinematic style of The Matrix. Doesn’t matter though, still an excellent movie, especially if you watched it as a teenager!
Stargate. Had a long run with good viewership and multiple series, but has had very little cultural impact compared to trek/wars. Sg1 can stand up to any trek series
I always thought that Stargate: Universe was a Firefly situation. Maybe it was a touch below Battlestar Galactica, but it’s not ludicrous to mention them in the same sentence.
Universe was my favorite of all of Stargate. It asked the best questions and showed how easy it is to die on a super advanced spaceship if there isn’t fresh air and clean water. A shame it is discontinued.
Universe was so fkin bad it killed the whole franchise…
It’s been a long time since I watched, but people mention the way the world actually changes and grows as it progresses. In Star Trek, they use phasors the exact same way for centuries, in Stargate their M.O. completely changes from start to finish of the series.
The Man from Earth is not forgotten, it has never been recognized. I’ve never seen such a great movie. The plot: a bunch of techers talking. That’s it. But that talk is mindblowing.
The Last Man on Earth was also amazing and under recognized.
Just make sure to never - never - watch the sequal
Great watch!
My only gripe was the fact that he actually declared himself as [the one they accused him of being]. I wonder what would have happened if he kept it subtle or even passed it off as “It’s a joke guys” in a convincing manner. Would have been left to audience interpretations and may have increased tension. One may never know.
He didn’t really declare himself as anything during that portion of his story though. He explained how certain misperceptions and misunderstandings led to things getting out of control.
I think I remember someone directly asking him the question and he simply replied. Think you’re right though. Damn humans and their need for answers!
It’s definitely time for a rewatch as my impressions have become hazy. Thanks mate.
The good place. It’s fairly short and starts out more of a comedy but evolves into a real ethics lesson. One that a lot of people need to hear.
The Good Place might just be my favorite TV show. It’s just so well done on every level and is one of few sitcoms where the main characters aren’t just terrible people. They’re not perfect or anything, but it’s just nice to see characters earnestly carrying for others and trying to be better people.
Parks and Rec is another show like that (also by Michael Schur) that I just love.
Really underrated!
I watched it, would absolutely recommend.
Take it sleazy.
There’s a subreddit for discussions.
Little Miss Sunshine
Hilarious indie comedy. I’ve never heard of anyone disliking it, but it also almost never gets brought up.
Such a good movie and a great showcase of Steve Carrell’s (and the rest of the cast’s) range, managing to be heartbreaking and laugh out loud funny throughout the movie.
Only when colour blind tests come up
I’m going to throw out 2 series that were canceled early that I’m still salty about: The River that was on track to rival Lost in quality, and Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles which is another case where Summer Glau got screwed. Lena Heady has said if SCC didn’t get canceled, she wouldn’t have gotten Game of Thrones, which hits a lot different now than 10 years ago when GoT was good.
I loved SCC, it was such a great show that didn’t get the attention it deserved.
HBO’s Rome
That show had great scripts, great acting, and great visuals. I can’t think of one area where the show had a serious deficiency. It was the quality of Game of Thrones before Game of Thrones. It just never caught on. I give it a rewatch once every few years.
RIP Ray Stevenson. 13!
Pullo was the best character ever.
As great as it is, you could tell they had to cramp two season’s worth of story into the second season so that it felt very rushed and important side characters died off screen. And then of course the sets burned down ironically, making any continuation impossible.
Rome was an absolutely fantastic show. At least they managed to wrap things up without any loose ends.
No loose ends?!?! What happened to Rome?
lol touche
Star Wars Galaxies. It really was really lightning in a bottle. No other game has come close to recreating the social player-driven sandbox experience that was SWG. This was the first MMORPG I played to feature a classless build system and I haven’t played another game which does it quite as well. Honourable mention goes to the Jump to Lightspeed expansion, truly the coolest expansion for any game I’ve ever experienced. We will never be able to recreate the experience of SWG again, the culture of gaming has changed too much. It was a game where you simply couldn’t solo the entire game or hang around with a dungeon finder or anything like that. You had to interact with other people - you had to kick back and hang out in bars together, you had to ask someone to help you change your hair colour or style, you had to ask doctors to heal you, or tailors to make clothes for you in a style you liked, or settle for off-the-rack fashions bought from player-owned stores. Players would also take the role of bounty hunters to hunt down criminal players for credits. You’d get to know a lot of the people you shared a server with, you’d remember who was fun to team up with, or who saved your ass, or who gave you some buffs, etc. and it really made the experience unforgettable.
Shit, close to 10 years after we stopped playing, my wife was playing WOW and someone was all, “Icarii… from Corbantis? I bought so many weapons off you, yours were the best!”
I have good news for you! SWGEMU dot COM. Development has been going on for damn near 20 years now. Hope you have your original install discs or it’ll be the high seas for you, mate.
Black books is brilliant and wildly underrated. Dylan Moran as a misanthropic book shop owner with an idiot for a sidekick
Co-created by Graham Linehan who also did Father Ted and The IT Crowd. Shows about misanthropic priests and IT dept guys with idiots for sidekicks. It’s a winning formula.
Linehan being attached to something isn’t a plus these days…
Yeah, he really Rowlinged himself. Shame.
This is one of my absolute favorites. Few shows get a proper laugh out of me, but him coming out in a jacket made of his tax receipts me ever time.
Deadwood.
I agree with the Mr. Robot take in this thread but nothing matches the infectious dialogue and energy that takes place throughout the entire Deadwood series. I never hear or see it talked about online or in my friend groups.
Yeeees. I’ve tried to get so many people to watch it. “It’s like literature in TV show form, you’ve just gotta!” Nobody has. It’s so, so, so good. I’ve watched it multiple times and, weirdly, it’s become comfort TV, despite how heavy it gets.
It took me a few tries to get through the first episode, but once it clicked I was hooked. The flowery vulgarity is such a great style of writing. It’s since become one of my favorite shows.
About a year or two ago, through a weird six degrees type situation, I got a surprise phone call from Leon Rippy, the actor who played Tom Nuttal. He spent hours chatting with me that night and over the few days that followed. He was so amazingly friendly and full of great stories about Deadwood and all the other shows and movies he’s worked on.
SAN FRANCISCO COCKSUCKA!
I was in Deadwood SD this summer, I’ll have to check out the series. Thanks for the suggestion!
Literally one of the greatest TV shows of all-time. You won’t regret it. Enjoy your first watch; I envy you.
