I think you're correct, but if no internality, why is it asking quasi-self reflecting questions? Some remnant of consciousness expressing itself through the software? An effect of consciousness as code, perhaps.

Start Trek: Picard and Discovery

I'm not much of a Trekkie - I liked the original show ok growing up, I liked some of the movies, but not enough to care of it's recent resurrection. Long story short, a friend of mine convinced me to watch Picard and Discovery. If you can forgive the inane sci-fi tech, they've done well with the latest installments of the franchise. Picard was excellent, imo - very good writing, nice directing jerking the viewer back and forth, good stuff. Discovery makes me giggle, it's like Tarantino was consulted, LOL! It's a bloody mess, so I like it . But again, you have to forgive the stupid tech and overacting, but I guess I give it props for not deviating from it's persistent theme of morality to the point of absurdity ( sometimes blowing some fucker out the airlock is the best/obvious decision - in this case, they beam you out into space, LOL! ). Anyways, Discovery has a touch of horror-show, high body count, so that brings the franchise into modern sensibilities somewhat at least. It's almost comical to see the show ride between gritty-dark and over-acted moral decisiveness. Between the 2, Picard does a better job of managing the two, but Discovery has more surprise to it, which is cool.

Anyways, I like it, I'm up to Discovery Season 1, Episode 14 and yes, too saturated with ridiculous made-up tech, but that's a consistent feature of Star Trek, so I guess I can't beat up on the show too much for that. It's certainly better written than it's predecessors. Those who've criticized Picard for not having enough action can get fucked, it's the fact that it was grounded that makes it so much better - there are movies for those who want action with stupid writing, they're called Star Wars episodes 1 - 3. But, I'm not a true Trekkie, so I guess the producers should take the feedback from those who care about it more.

The Nevers

I like it so far, 6 episodes and the next 6 episodes next year. At first it seemed like women-can-be-tough-too bullshit, but no, it's much more than that. An uninteresting premise got interesting and some peculiar shit going on makes it entertaining. It plays a trick on the viewer, setting your expectation of fanciful crazy shit, but there's design behind it all. Episode 6 sheds light on stuff, so don't get frustrated at so much unexplained for a while in the story. The dialogue is excellent and so far superior to the plot - the dialogue alone makes this show a winner. I'll stick with it to see if it gets legs, but so far pretty good. Hoping the potential complexity doesn't disappoint. I like it's following the grim-dark frame where no one is purely good or evil. I like the (potential) bad guy, they did a good job with him.

Well - a twin that murders his twin may do the trick is what I was going for. The murder creating the topoi required to complete the collapse, not just your twin dying as they would've likely encountered such a person through their testing.

Quote from: H on June 01, 2021, 01:26:16 pm

Quote from: TaoHorror on May 31, 2021, 11:07:35 pm

Bloodlands

Huh, might have to check this out.

If you weren't watching Mare of Easttown though, I think it is another good option.  Nothing revolutionary, but the show (to me) is very well written and well acted, even if it is a bit formulaic.  But it doesn't pull any punches really.  The show is complete as on Sunday, 7 episodes.

The kids depart to their mother's tomorrow, so I'll start this show this weekend. It looks like my kinda thing.

I started this, H - I dig it, I like it a lot so far, some nice humor strewed about.

I watched City on a Hill ( 2 seasons out so far ). Bit over done in parts, if you can forgive it for that, there is some great dark comedy. Pay attention to episode 5 in season 1 - don't consider this a spoiler really since it's an ancillary part of the story, so I'll spill it: the (sorta) corrupt Boston FBI agent ( Jackie Rohr - Kevin Bacon ) and this NYC cop hate each other and the cop is dying in an ambulance from gun fire and the agent torments him while he's dying, LOL! Some funny stuff. Anyways, not the greatest thing you'll ever watch, but it's pretty good.

Bloodlands

I had to write about this one right away. Just watched it, new release on AcornTV ( Amazon's Britt channel, add-on to Prime service ). Great story - the story is better than the execution, but still well done, strong acting. Won't say any more, hee hee! If you dig True Detective and Dublin Murders, you'll like this. The Irish, besting the Britts with their cop shows, impressive! Not really, Luthor is on par with this stuff as well, but the first 2 Irish crime shows I see out of the gate and they're winners. These are the kinds of stories I've been missing from cool tv. The Irish are some dark mother fuckers, I tell ya - my kind of people!

Gardens of the Moon ( Malazan )

Took me 3 years to read it, just couldn't get into it. Getting it on Audible allowed me to finish it. I'm glad I did, the second half of the book gets much better. I enjoyed it, some very cool characters, some nice twists and turns in the end that I liked. Not sure I'll read the 2nd book unless someone can tell me if it takes up where the last one ends or if it's a time jump into the future and essentially a different story. Not that I wouldn't still read it, just too much on my reading list to commit to more at this time. Anyways, I like R and Abercrombie more, but I would still give it an A, well written and it got fun to read. I'll steal a few ideas for my D&D campaign ( loved the Jaghut Tyrant - I want to be him and using him in my campaign kinda would make me, hee hee! - not sure if I spelled the correctly as I was listening to the book ).


EDIT

Starz are mother-fuckers, I tell ya. First they cancel Boss ( incomplete ) and then Counterpart ( quazi complete, but had more gas in the story to tell ) and now American Gods ( serious cliffhanger ). Really? I'm guessing because it wasn't watched by enough people, but plenty of people waited for the entire thing to be released to binge watch it, like myself. Anyways, I loved the show, some killer gay/trans sex going on near the end of season 3 ( an extraordinary scene, amazing render of unrepressed human love ).

I guess I'll have to finish the book to learn the end ( found the book boring - but I guess I suffer a lack of imagination given how beautiful the show is ). Still worth watching even though the story "ends" on a cliffhanger.