cavalcade

I once did a cycling tour from Scotland to France, and Burnley was on the route. Had mechanical problems there and by god the people were lovely, the scenery all around Burnley was lovely and the entire experience was lovely. Since then I have had a soft spot for the football team and worm cruncher Dyche and celebrate any ground out draw against clubs who "should be beating" them.

Episode 7 is one good scene, let's not get carried away.

I don't even remember that bit. To be honest some of it I was pretending was an especially poor episode of Narcos.

I like you.

I'm not sure that was as pithy and scathing as you intended it to be.

You maybe need to chat to Matt about the predictability then, because "who else could it be".

It's boring, lazy, predictable, pandering to the mouthbreathers who didn't like the characterisation in TLJ and is topped off with CGI that would've disgraced Seaquest DSV.

I've finished S2 now. Glad to see some more grump in this thread now, as I can't say the run in to the end of S2 did anything other than make me even less inclined to like the show. I was pondering its total lack of.... spirit? joy? wit?.... as I watched Episode 6, and I think the opening 5 minutes pretty much encapsulate all my issues with it. It's helmet man and yoda sitting in the spaceship having a chat. Stilted almost.... improvised? dialogue so banal and mundane I genuinely couldn't believe it had reached the screen. I guess this is the predictable end point when you essentially have

Pew pew layzors in the action scene sense. In the Expanse.... brrpbrrrp machine guns. I'm not saying it's poor because of the Star Wars references - though saying it only has one scene that leans on nostalgia is crazy talk - but it's a hollowed out experience that depends on a cloud of third party analysis to flesh out the vestigial storytelling and characterisation. I have no doubt people watch it and enjoy it, but people watch any old shit and it has a cuddly Yoda and talking frogs in it doing a lot of the heavy lifting. It's fine, I have no great amount of skin in the game. I j

I went to see Empire in the cinema when it came out. Tried to move pencils across my school desk with the Force. Appeared in an issue of PC Format with a hexidecimal hack to bring dead pilots back to life in the original X-Wing. I'm fan enough. Doesn't mean I enjoy mediocre Star Wars for Star Wars' sake. And I think I'm being misrepresented - I don't want sparkling Wheedon-esque dialogue, I just want a soul to it. I'll finish it off tonight, I've got a couple of episodes to go. Just a shame it couldn't be better. I'd trade some of the visual splendour for just a whiff of character. That's all

@FiveFootNinjaI would always prioritise a scifi show standing as a show if you took the pew pew layzors out and imagined it as a stage play or something. BSG isn't universally good and the last couple of seasons were dreadful, but it had moments of gravitas. Firefly has heart and the #bants Buffyesque JW dialogue now prevalent in Marvel movies etc. My issue with the Expanse and Mandalorian is simply that they have no wit or verve and the acting in most cases is stilted, unnatural and fairly crude. Obviously both the Expanse and Mandalorian have good points, but if at the core of a show you don

I hadn't thought of that, thanks. If I stopped watching any scifi TV show that had dialogue worse than Firefly I'd have to stop watching them altogether. The Expanse finally broke me, as that had similar issues with piss poor dialogue, acting and characterisation but didn't have some of the painterly wonder of The Mandalorian (or a lifetime of being a fan of the franchise) to fall back on. So, I'll keep watching it and criticise it if that's OK with you?

I'm one of those tiresome people who doesn't really like the Mandolorian. I've forged on with Season 2 and I have to say my overwhelming feeling is that it's such a waste. Some of the visuals are spectacular - proper 70s scifi paintings come to life. Absolutely beautiful imagery hobbled by such ponderous, terrible characters and dialogue. Imagine if Firefly was blessed with this sort of budget and quality of CGI. That would be a show and a half. Imagine if the Mandolorian had any sort of humour, soul or verve in the writing. The introduction of Katie Sackhoff in an episode just se

Lego Worlds is also shite. Another shout here for the excellent Toy Story 3. Also take a look at Banjo Kazooie Nuts and Bolts. My kids were obsessed with that when younger. Many of the toys to life games might be worth a look too - you could get a massive set of Skylanders second hand for peanuts and some of the games were great (and co-op). Plus they can play with the toys for real. Ultimately though, if he likes Minecraft all of these recommendations are pointless. If he likes Minecraft there will be only Minecraft and Dan fucking TDMs voice boring through your skull

Add another voice that a Raistlin led thing could work. A lot of Dragonlance is ghastly nonsense, but the Raistlin angle has lots of great emo fucked up stuff that could stand up to scrutiny today.