TV shows

Forum Moderator Joined: 02 Mar 2004 Posts: 19978

right since we all watch it what you into?

Anyone like Oz? The prison series

Lost 90% of people seem to like.

Desperate housewives, worth watching even if only for eva longoria!

What else?!

Forum Moderator Joined: 18 Feb 2004 Posts: 7432

I dont really watch a lot of TV, as i have a steady stream of movies to watch. Of course Ill watch the simpsons or futurama if its showing when i switch on the TV. Ive seen virtually all of them now though.

American shows tend to be far too dumbed down for my liking. As soon as they start using some form of computer, it all goes downhill as they do totally impossible things.

The classic 'enhancing' of a grainy CCTV footage to show a crystal clear image of something/someone will make me switch it off, every time.

So will a flashy GUI or 'Access Denied' flashing up on screen in big letters when someone is 'hacking'

Basically any kind of dumbed down technical guff and the show gets turned off.

Lost was on the verge when that dude made the 3 transmitters out of old bits of broken radios to 'triangulate' the location of the distress call. I mean WTF? I feel insulted that I'm expected to watch that and not laugh at how stupid it is.

Thats before i even mention the fact that they worked out that the distress call had been playing for exactly "16 years and 5 months", based on the number of iterations and the length of the message which was, er, 'roughly' 30 seconds. Huh?

I also want to know how that engine in the first show was speeding up and down after the crash and had enough speed to suck someone in from 10 foot away?

Dont even get me started on the absolute shite that is 24

Anyway im ranting.

Forum Moderator Joined: 02 Mar 2004 Posts: 19978

never watched 24, say bit sof a few episodes and never got into it.

I know what you mean.

best one, somehting is on his back, from 1 camera, rotate around, enhance, zoom in etc etc load o shoite!

yeah losts technical erm stuff is laughable.

The engine in theory coudl have stayed running for a while if the fuel was still feedign it and sporadic fuel supply could also account for the engine revving up and down, however hpw some get sucked in and others don't is a bit daft.

Forum Moderator Joined: 16 Feb 2004 Posts: 1356

I liked oz when it was on channel 4, all the guys wearing dodgy skull caps n the guy in the wheelchair etc

I quite liked the first series of 24, got a len of the DVD set few years back now - never seen any of the others

Forum Moderator Joined: 18 Feb 2004 Posts: 7432

Chris H wrote:

best one, somehting is on his back, from 1 camera, rotate around, enhance, zoom in etc etc load o shoite!

Yeah they do that in Enemy of the State. Bollocks.

They also use that in Blade Runner with the ESPER machine, but you can get away with it in a film based in the future, perhaps the machine interprets all the reflections on all the objects in the picture and extrapolates what it might look like from a different angle, who knows, its in the future.

Something thats based in the present though, forget it, its stupid.

Forum Moderator Joined: 02 Mar 2004 Posts: 19978

the guy in the wheelchair in oz is michael in lost. Also in series 2 simon/adebisi from oz is in it.

Oz is still on 4 sporadically, I only saw the 1st series in its entirity but only parts of series 2.

blasde runners a load of shite as well. Its a normal photograph an old one. Theres no way you can magnify it up that much, it woudl be pixeltaed, if you know what I mean, he must have zoomed it in over a thousand times to get to see her tatoo on the wrist. Load o shoite.

Forum Moderator Joined: 18 Feb 2004 Posts: 7432

Soneji wrote:

I quite liked the first series of 24, got a len of the DVD set few years back now - never seen any of the others

Yeah someone lent me the box set and i watched it all.

One example of the gaping plot holes in it:

Towards the end of the series they bribe some guy who works at the power station to turn off the power to some bunker thing at a certain time. Cue loads of running around and drama etc. At the end of the episode the guy gets knocked off before he can perform his task. Oh no, what are we going to do now??

Next episode: 'So yeah, hes dead, lets just go down the road and knock out the substation (little hut in the woods) supplying the bunker, job done'.

HUH???

Thats what happens when youre making the story up as you go along and you have to end each episode on a STUPID FUCKING CLIFFHANGER.

The 3 transmitter thing in Lost was similar. The storyline of triangulating the signal was a dead end plot. They didnt make anything of it, so why put it in, it just serves to insult my intelligence. Designed for Americans.

Forum Moderator Joined: 18 Feb 2004 Posts: 7432

Chris H wrote:

blasde runners a load of shite as well. Its a normal photograph an old one. Theres no way you can magnify it up that much, it woudl be pixeltaed, if you know what I mean, he must have zoomed it in over a thousand times to get to see her tatoo on the wrist. Load o shoite.

Why would a film photo be pixelated? The only limit to the 'resolution' of a film photo is the grain of the film emulsion, so when you blow them up they just look grainy, which it is in the film.

Forum Moderator Joined: 02 Mar 2004 Posts: 19978

I know its the worng word couldn't think of a better one!

yeah but his grains must have been microns in size.

Forum Moderator Joined: 18 Feb 2004 Posts: 7432

Well perhaps it isnt a film picture at all, perhaps its an advanced dye-sub print of a digital photo taken in the future with a 100 megapixel digital camera Wink

That's why I say you can get away with it in a future film.

Site Subscriber Joined: 17 Mar 2004 Posts: 342

Neal 19 16v wrote:

American shows tend to be far too dumbed down for my liking. As soon as they start using some form of computer, it all goes downhill as they do totally impossible things.

So will a flashy GUI or 'Access Denied' flashing up on screen in big letters when someone is 'hacking'

Basically any kind of dumbed down technical guff and the show gets turned off.

I know what you mean but sometimes you have to sit back and enjoy it for what it is. Most films are produced for mass market to get everyone in and out of the cinema.
Take 90's film, "Hackers" with Angelina Jolie (mmm) and Johnny Lee Miller. It is one of the worst films i've seen that mis-represents computers and hackers. Just like you said, no proper command prompts but flashy menus and screens. Sometimes though the fantasy is more interesting to watch than the reality. 80's film war games is a classic example.

Forum Moderator Joined: 18 Feb 2004 Posts: 7432

But TV and films are all about suspension of disbelief. Stupid technical bollocks breaks the spell instantly.

Of course it is all to do with context. In sci-fi films set in the future you can get away with some implausible technical stuff. In fantasy films you can have magic and the suspension of disbelief is maintained.

My issue is films/shows which are intended to be pseudo-realistic having guff in.

You're right in that they are designed for 99% of people who have no idea what is possible and what is not, and lack the intelligence to spot gaping plot holes. That's what is upsetting. I want things to be designed for us, not the lowest common denominator. If theyre too stupid to understand it, fuck 'em.

FCS Event Manager Joined: 04 Jan 2005 Posts: 3680

I don't really watch TV, its too mind numbingly boring, would rather listen to music.

i will watch Top Gear if its on, thats always good for a laugh but i dont go out of my way to watch it, can always download it later if i miss it.

the only series that i watch is Battlestar Gallatica and again i dont watch it on TV, i will download it several episodes at a time

Forum Moderator Joined: 16 Feb 2004 Posts: 1356

Tranton wrote:

Neal 19 16v wrote:

American shows tend to be far too dumbed down for my liking. As soon as they start using some form of computer, it all goes downhill as they do totally impossible things.

So will a flashy GUI or 'Access Denied' flashing up on screen in big letters when someone is 'hacking'

Basically any kind of dumbed down technical guff and the show gets turned off.

I know what you mean but sometimes you have to sit back and enjoy it for what it is. Most films are produced for mass market to get everyone in and out of the cinema.
Take 90's film, "Hackers" with Angelina Jolie (mmm) and Johnny Lee Miller. It is one of the worst films i've seen that mis-represents computers and hackers. Just like you said, no proper command prompts but flashy menus and screens. Sometimes though the fantasy is more interesting to watch than the reality. 80's film war games is a classic example.

War games is a brilliant film! Hackers, well hacking using macs you really ain't gonna be using much command prompts really without emulating some kind of unix derivative which back then on those comptuers would have been pointless - the books they mentioned are real (back then), however one thing that really pissed me off was - "the P6 chip (Pentium Pro if you don't know), triple the speed of the pentuim" all they needed was to go on the net to find out the real speed benefits (certainly wasn't 3x the speed). Also the Pentium Pro was never released in mobile platforms, sucked too much juice to be of any use in laptops etc. I think Hakcers conveyed the security forces well for the time, had some good Prodigy tunes too! Roller blades!!! Its the same sort of thing with Sord Fish.

But you have to accept that computers are generally fucking boring, and delving into the technical dark depths of computer hacking is even more dull and dry to watch let alone learn, you'd only get computer hacks going to see such a film and therefor the studios would have no reason to get 'technical'.

It is all make believe after all!

Forum Moderator Joined: 18 Feb 2004 Posts: 7432

Ive seen in a film someone using a Linux command line, all accurately portayed, might have been one of the Matrix films.

In fact I'm sure it was, the bit with Trinity cracking the power station terminal.

Forum Moderator Joined: 16 Feb 2004 Posts: 1356

Jurrasic Park - when the girl is trying to lock the doors to the centre - that was Unix albeit with a simple GUI shell wrapped over it