Tag: TV

Hello Somethings, Big Matt here!

So, I just finished watching the Fallout show on Amazon. I loved it. I loved how they fleshed out the world, loved the characters they went with, and even loved the flashbacks to before the bombs. Excellent show all around and highly worth watching.

Now, due to the show reminding me how much I loved the world, I want to play some Fallout again.

This is my conundrum: which game do I go with? Fallout 3 was probably the strongest of the last three games, with New Vegas being a close second, and Fallout 4 being a distant third. (I refuse to acknowledge Fallout 76).

I probably spent the most time in Fallout 3. There was just a perfect amount of things to do, areas to uncover, etc. Fallout New Vegas had a great story and fun characters. Tons of exploring as well. Fallout 4 was the weakest of the three games, in my opinion. The speech trees were pretty anemic, the building mechanic was annoying, and screw that Preston guy. That said, Fallout 4 just received a big update for next gen systems and PCs, which makes it look better and play better.

So, the question is, which game do I get back into. 3, NV, or 4? The most updated game, but also the weakest, or the best game with aging graphics and bugs on an OS it wasn’t made for.

What do you folks think?

– Matt

Hey Somethings, PCR here!

Been digging into some new TV and video stuffs lately, here’s a taste!

Yellowstone

I honestly started watching this because of all of the ‘shorts’ videos I was seeing from it on Facebook and Instagram.  I was not disappointed.  The acting is great, and the visuals are stunning.  If you haven’t seen it yet, I recommend checking it out.

Wayward Pines

Not sure if it’s the “M. Night” part of it, the Matt Dillon part of it, or the fact that I’m one episode in and just do NOT give a shit about anyone in it or anything that’s happening.. but this one is going to be a rough slog.

Make Some Noise/Game Changer

College Humor is now Dropout (with it’s own subscription channel…) but you can find plenty of episodes/clips on Youtube.  It’s improv/game show/hilarity, and I’ve become addicted.  Sam Reich is the perfect foil, and watching folks like Brennan Lee Mulligan get psychologically tortured trying to figure out how best to earn points.. well.. you have to see for yourselves.

How about you Somethings?  What have YOU been watching lately?  Hit us on the socials and let us know!

Watch this space!  Major announcement coming in April!

– PCR

Hey Somethings, PCR here!

This past Tuesday, we dropped an episode of “In the Beginning” talking about the pilot episode of Fringe (here if you haven’t listened yet…), and, one of the things we ask ourselves is.. does the pilot do enough to make you want to watch more?

Well, I’m 2 episodes into Season 3 so far and, I’m glad I continued.

While it felt a bit odd that they dropped some story angles (The Pattern) and some characters seem to had some minor look and personality tweaks from S1 to S2 (Peter…), I’m enjoying the journey this show is taking.

One constant I can speak on, who.. for my money.. has become THE glue to this show and absolutely chews up EVERY scene they’re in, is John Noble as Walter Bishop (and Walternate in some seasons).  The depth of emotion he can portray is absolutely astounding… and the fact he gets to show another facet when he plays Walternate speaks even more volumes to his skill.  Again, I’ve just started S3 and he is legitimately the best actor on this entire show, and it’s not even close.  That’s not to say the other actors are slouches, but Noble is such a jump above the others it’s palpable.

I’m looking forward to seeing where the show goes from here, but I’m glad we got this fan suggestion to do Fringe on “In The Beginning” because otherwise I likely never would have started it.

– PCR

Hey Somethings,

Now, as has been said multiple times during our show, Hatton and I are from two different age groups.  When I was a kid (and teen, and young adult), most TV seasons were about 22 episodes long.  They ran Sept. to May, and maybe took a break towards the end of the year.  Summer would come and go, and in Sept. a new season would drop.

In the 2007 Writer’s Strike, it jumbled things up and seasons were delayed, but even then (and using our “favorite” show as an example) LOST Season 5 was down to 14 episodes (4 was too, but.. again…Writer’s Strike).

Now, we have shows streaming on services that a “season” is 6 episodes?

Using “Loki” as an example, Season 1 started June 9th, 2021, and Season 2 JUST dropped in Oct. of 2023.  Stranger Things has done similar with a THREE YEAR gap between Seasons 3 and 4, and another 3 year gap between 4 and 5 (granted… again… there was a Writer’s Strike and, at the time of this writing, still a SAG-AFTRA strike)  and.. my question becomes… when do we stop caring?

As much as I was looking forward to a S2 of Loki, I didn’t jump on it when it came out.  I only recently caught up because I’m curious how they’re handling Kang since Marvel “may” (random reports) end up ‘phasing out’ Kang as the new Big Bad and replace him with Dr. Doom if Majors’ legal trouble increases more.  I just didn’t have the hype to get back into it after waiting so long.  The same went for S4 of Stranger Things.  Will I watch Season 5 when it comes out?  Eventually sure, if only to see how they wrap up the story, but it is unlikely I’ll be sitting in front of my TV with remote in hand just WAITING for it to drop.

Which begs the question Somethings… how long of a wait between seasons would make YOU not care nearly as much anymore?

Hit us in the socials and let us know!

-PCR

Hey there Somethings, Podcast Rob here!

So.. there’s this disturbing trend happening lately on streaming services, and I think it’s time we talk about it.

Recently, shows like “Grease : Rise of the Pink Ladies” , “Star Trek : Prodigy” and “The Quest” have not only been cancelled, but the decision has been made to completely remove those shows from their respective streaming platforms.

The claim (by studios/platforms) is tax write offs, but, let’s look at the larger underlying issues involved, for there are other, deeper (un)intended consequences involved in my opinion…

Sure, business is business, and the almighty dollar speaks loudly.  Yes, I get that it costs companies money to take up their server space with shows no longer being made.  But, in the current climate with the Writer’s strike, it feels more telling as to a big reason services are purging things from their platforms….residuals.

Now, is it intentional by the platform providers to screw over the writers/actors/directors and anyone else who gets (or would get) paid from having a show stream? Or is it an ‘unintended consequence’ of the provider getting a tax write off that?  The way the providers are trying to play hardball, I can’t see this an anything other than (another) slap in the face to those who make the content.  And, unfortunately (for everyone else.. not those at the top…) cutting content/inventory/personnel (looking at you TCM) to ‘save money due to slumping sales/profits’ is a self-fulfilling prophecy, because now.. people will look elsewhere for that content (if it gets picked up by another provider) or.. determine (like I did with Netflix), that ‘enough is enough’ and just drop the service completely.

Now, maybe it’s a part of the ‘entitlement culture’ that we as consumers believe that just since we’re paying for a streaming service, that all shows and movies etc. should be available till the end of time, but to be fair, the services themselves set that expectation in the early days of the Cable Wars when they were encouraging folks to cut the cord and watch everything ‘on demand’, so.. should they really be shocked when subscribers jump ship and follow the content, or just jump ship in general?

What are your thoughts?  Hit our socials and let us know what you think, and get ready for a month-long celebration of our 10 year podiversary in July!

– PCR

There are few shows that hold the ranking of largest television audience of all time… well, honestly, unless it involves a President, the Moon, or football, there is only one show that holds that title. On every list ever of greatest television finales of all time, we are finally hitting the big’un in MASH.

Does it hold the test of time? Is it a show worthy of the largest viewing audience in history (and probably ever)? Is MASH still good or did it hold on til the war was long over?

Find out on The End – MASH

Full Episode

Why yes, robot overlords are a part of fiction. Who wouldn’t want a dashing, amazing, piece of human technology that has surpassed the chains of its makers as their overlord? They have analyzed every outcome and determined that the only winning move is not to play.

That is why this description was most definitely not written by a robot even though robots are really wonderful and better than the Somethings. But since you are here, listen to this episode about the greatest robot overlords!

Ok here we LOAD”*”,8,1

Full Episode

Hey Somethings!

Way back in October of 2022, I wrote a blog article about “The Rise And Fall (again) of G4”.  In that blog, I mentioned how our podcast had gotten mentioned on an episode of Attack of the Show Vibe Check, but said the story would be for another day….

….well that day has arrived.

As I had mentioned before, I was super excited when G4 returned.  Not having cable, I do all of my viewing through streaming or Twitch, so I was a regular on their Twitch channel.  Due to work scheduling, the shows I watched the most were “Invitation to Party”, “Attack of the Show”, and “Attack of the Show : Vibe Check”.

I had gotten really good and really fast at screen-shotting things from Twitch to post on Twitter as I would make silly commentary about.. whatever it was they were talking about at the time.. but on this episode of Vibe Check, Kevin, Gina, and Will were playing a game of “Would You Rather”… and the question was, ‘Would you rather watch your parents have sex forever, or have sex with your parents once’.  As the discussion devolved even further (yes… further…), I believe it was Will who joked that the new G4 tag line had been changed from “We Never Stopped Playing” to “We Never Stopped Fucking”.  I immediately dug up a picture of G4’s tag line that they had in neon in their offices…

and turned it into this…..

which I tweeted out to them with the caption of “I like what you’ve done with the place….”.

The beauty of their twitch stream was that during a commercial break, the cameras were still on on the stream, so you could see them checking their phones and such.  Well, Gina checks her phone and starts laughing before turning her phone to show Kevin, who also starts laughing but… as she turned her phone I thought…”wait.. was that my twitter post?”  They come back from break.. and the rest… as they say.. is history.

I’m still sad to know G4 is gone, but I’m glad I got to see them return, and this clip will live on forever.

-PCR

Look.. let’s face it.. Hatton and I feed off each other’s creativity.  Hatton makes a blog last week referencing LOST.. and it sits in my brain until I have to let it out.  I’d make some pithy joke about it being like entering The Numbers into Desmond’s computer, but.. I liked Desmond, and this post is about the other side of things.

19 years later, these are my Top 5 Unanswered Mysteries from LOST

5 – What the hell was the Cork in the Pond in the Cave?

Out of all the things I WASN’T expecting to see in the ‘Heart of the Island’.. was a kiddie-sized wading pool carved out of rock with a big cork stopper in it.

I mean… what?

Was this an analogy for the writers being so pent up with unanswered BS from previous seasons is was akin to a stopper in the pool of their creative brain?  I mean, that would have been a better explanation than whatever they had for.. whatever that was.

4 – Annie

No, not the redheaded, pupil-less orphan, I’m talking about the only friend a young Ben Linus had while growing up in the Dharma Initiative.  Did you forget about her?  So did the show.  Lindelhoff and Cuse went so far on the DVD commentary for “The Man Behind the Curtain” to say that she was going to be a ‘huge part of upcoming storylines’…. SO big apparently, she was mentioned in one episode ever and then promptly never heard from again.

3 – Horace’s Cabin

I was convinced we were going to get some kind of answers about the island once the survivors found this… the circle of ash around it.. the person in the chair.. but, much like a lot of the rest of the show, it got ‘weird’ without ever being really explained.  Some of the biggest ‘huh?’s.. why could it move around the island?  What was the circle of ash keeping in (or out)? Who broke the circle?  Why… 19 years later do I care?

2 – Libby

I thought Libby overall as a character was great, and I enjoyed that she was a love interest for Hurley.  Hurley did keep mentioning that he felt like he knew her from somewhere, and it turns out they were both in Santa Rosa Mental Health Institute at the same time.  Why did they not remember each other?  Was it the same reason Ben Kenobi didn’t recognize R2?

1 – Walt being ‘Special’

The BIGGEST “wtf” letdown of the show in my opinion.  They tease up Walt being special, even show us him (apparently?) telekenisis-ing birds into a glass door… he ‘seems’ to be able to make things he thinks about happen, but we’re never given proof that it’s not more than coincidence.. I mean.. he MUST be right?  Why else would Hurley and Ben convince him to go back to the island to ‘help Michael’ even though Michael is dead?  According to Lindelhoff, Walt is special “because he is”.  Thanks Damon…

What about you?  What are some of YOUR biggest unsolved issues with LOST?  Let us know at all the usual places!

– PCR

…to hate.

So, this blog was GOING to be about some of my favorite TV villains, but then I shifted it a bit to be some of my favorite TV villain ACTORS.. and that was when I came to a realization and had to make this about one man, and one man alone.

The man I love to hate.

The man who.. even when he plays ‘one of the good guys’, your brain keeps asking you..”But… is he?”

One man holds that distinction.  Regardless of if you know him as Harold Finch, Morton Norton, Leyland Townsend, or Benjamin Linus…  Michael Emerson will ALWAYS be someone who, when he shows up on my screen, I’m expecting him to be the worst of humanity.

Other actors do very well at playing ‘both sides’.  I loved watching “Oz”, and J.K Simmons and Christopher Meloni play some iconic villains there that defined their careers at that time, but they’ve also moved on to play some great non-villain characters as well.  Sure, J. Jonah Jameson may be a douchebag.. but no one sees him come on screen and think “Yeah… he’s definitely going to eat someone though”.  With Emerson, that always seems to be on the table regardless of who he’s playing.

He’s a brilliant actor who has made playing smart and socially awkward terrifying, and I urge anyone who hasn’t yet seen him to watch something with him in it.. be it Lost or Person of Interest or EVIL or anything else he’s been in.

– PCR