Fifth Avenue Forum

Shōgun Ep 6

5+ hours of storytelling and playing with language - and subtitles and Mariko's ever more selective translations - paid off beautifully in the Willow World scene. Exquisite.

Lady Ochiba creeps me the f**k out.

Slow Horses series 3 started back up. First two episodes out, and new ones out each Friday. Very good so far, and season 4 is on the way soon. I wonder if they film these back to back? It's cool how they have a promo for the following season out after the current season ends.

Watching reruns of Roseanne on TV Land and it pops up TV-G for the rating. That seems wrong lol. Great show and holds up very well.

Watching reruns of Roseanne on TV Land and it pops up TV-G for the rating. That seems wrong lol. Great show and holds up very well.

Yeah I’ll rewatch Roseanne every few years. Such a good show especially the earlier seasons. When I do a rewatch, I tend to skip the final season and I definitely don’t watch the reboot. There are very few shows that actually have a legit jump the shark moment but the Conners winning the lottery has to be up there with Fonz literally jumping the shark. Michael Scott moving to Boulder is another.

I’m still watching The Conners week to week for some reason. It’s bad.

I watched the first 3 episodes of the new curbed season. I could watch this show forever. Even episodes that aren’t great are still hilarious.I thought the 3rd ep was the best of the three.

Agreed. This season has been solid. I have a weird hunch that the finale is heading toward a Seinfeld-esque finale with a trial and Larry getting sentenced to jail. If that happens, after how much hate the Seinfeld finale still gets, I’ll love Larry David even more.

I just finished S03 of The Witcher. Writing was garbage, and really, the only redeeming quality was a few of the actors - first and foremost, Henry Cavill. So I'm at a crossroads. I have zero interest in a Hemsworth-led Witcher, but I'd like to actually see the conclusion.

I just finished S03 of The Witcher. Writing was garbage, and really, the only redeeming quality was a few of the actors - first and foremost, Henry Cavill. So I'm at a crossroads. I have zero interest in a Hemsworth-led Witcher, but I'd like to actually see the conclusion.

I finally finished the last season too and completely agree. The quality of the show really dropped from the 1st season. I'll probably watch the next season to see where the story goes, but could easily bail if the quality of the show gets worse.

Further Shōgun musings

Something that occurred to me last night while ruminating.

Ishdio has levied the charge that Toranaga aims to assassinate the heir to the throne - Yaechiyo, the son of the deceased taikō - and that is why there have been all the machinations with the Council of Regents and whatnot. Toranaga wants to forcibly take what is not rightfully his, and that is the source of all the fighting. There apparently is no heir in the book or the original miniseries, and the real heir during the events fictionalized here didn't meet his end until some number of years later as a young adult, so this subplot is new for the current telling of the story.

That got me thinking..............

What if Ishido is right?

Ishido is the one trying to form a bond of matrimony with Ochiba no kata (Yaechiyo's mother) to solidify his own claims to power peaceably. Toranaga is the only member of the Council standing in opposition, and thus the only real threat vector in terms out outright hostility.

Toranaga has said all along he does not seek the title shōgun, but the show is called Shōgun, not Pre-teen Heir, so...... spoiler alert. Ishido is not the obstacle to Toranaga accomplishing this.... the kid is.

Toranaga just let his best friend slit his own belly to maintain a ruse that he does not intend to fight. Surely it is within the character of such a person to murder a kid..... or have a kid murdered.

Which brings us to Mariko and the mission she has been chosen for because of her personal kinship with the mother of the heir.....

What if this whole time....... Toranaga has been the villain.

After starting The Expanse last year, getting side tracking in Season 3 and then deciding to restart the series, I have finally made it through Season 5...

I **** love this show. It's not perfect, but it's pretty damn close. As a huge fan of the Mass Effect series, this show spiritually feels like as close as I'll ever get to a live action Mass Effect show.

Season 1: I think this is a perfect world building season while also giving us Miller's noir murder mystery until our story takes a page out of a Johnny Gossamer novel and both cases are tied together. I love the contentious universe this series takes place in and the measures taken to add a significant level of realism. Thomas Jane is a complete scene stealer while Errinwright has the most punchable face.

Season 2: Loved the addition of Bobbie and giving us a Martian perspective on the universe, which continues to expand as we're introduced to places like Ganymede. Shohreh Aghdashloo carries a ton of weight in political scenes.

Season 3: Lots of shitty people finally get their due in this season, while the obvious transition between books felt a little wonky to me. Drummer grew into a favorite while David Strathairn was a hell of an addition to the cast. So glad this wasn't the end of the series.

Season 4: At times S2 and S3 felt like they could be an episode or two shorter, while I wish this season was an episode or two longer. Obvious budget upgrade from Amazon, but probably my least favorite season. While we get glimpses of the greater universe with Avasarala, Drummer/Ashford, and Bobbie playing black market with some actors getting paid scale, I thought too much time was spent on Ilus. For the first time in this show the universe felt small, which was weird since they were on a new planet in a different system. Loved the expanded, and still not answered, mystery of what the hell is going on with the protomolecule and whatever tried to destroy it and Murtry was a great antagonist.

Season 5: At the outset of this season I was a little perturbed by our crew being split up, and while it sucked that we'll never truly see them together again, I thought it worked well for the story and made the universe feel expansive again. Since S1 Amos quickly became my favorite crew member and it was great to learn more about him and watch him and Peaches play out their own version of The Road. Alex (second favorite crew member) and Bobbie was a great pairing and I loved them working together. The attack on Earth was fantastic and the surprise attack on Tycho Station was a complete surprise to me. I didn't think Holden had a ton to do this season but was okay with that. I thought Marco Inaros was a fantastic villain and his teenage kid is an annoying ****, so mission accomplished. I could have done with a bit less captive Naomi and the broken family, but thought her post escape struggles were fantastically done. Drummer is awesome.

I can't believe S4 is the last time getting to see Alex do cool **** with the Roci. I really liked the character and thought they handled his re-written death as good as could be expected given the situation. The character went out heroically trying to save a member of his family. Cas Anvar can **** off for his actions. Monica was less annoying than when she was being a documentary minx in S3 and I grew to really like Peaches and look forward to seeing her with the crew (Amos "convincing" Holden to bring her on was hilarious). I'm super excited for S6 but also can't believe the end is near and wonder how they're going to fit everything into what will likely be a 10 episode season again. Marco Inaros needs to be dealt with, the Laconians are out there waiting to cause trouble, and lots of protomolecule stuff still needs explained.

Season rankings: 1, 5, 3, 2, 4

Random musing: The guest casting on this show cracks me up at times. Thomas Jane was **** awesome and I'm glad he made appearances post-protomolecule obliteration. Same goes for David Strathairn and Burn Gorman. On the flip side, they paid decently well known actor Jay Hernandez to show up for half of S1 and do nothing. Elizabeth Mitchell's character could have been played by anyone and it wouldn't have made a difference. Jared Harris is in the show for like 30 seconds. Tim DeKay did nothing but die. Weird stuff.

Fallout tonight! Hype!