Path: news.eternal-september.org!eternal-september.org!.POSTED!not-for-mail From: Arthur Lipscomb Newsgroups: rec.arts.tv Subject: Re: What Did You Watch? 2025-05-31 (Saturday) Date: Sun, 1 Jun 2025 14:41:04 -0700 Organization: A noiseless patient Spider Lines: 136 Message-ID: <101ihdg$2gtvr$1@dont-email.me> References: <101i5e2$2c51s$1@dont-email.me> <101igft$2fc2u$1@dont-email.me> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Injection-Date: Sun, 01 Jun 2025 23:41:05 +0200 (CEST) Injection-Info: dont-email.me; posting-host="679c9e1314dba6269565e42132fa4658"; logging-data="2652155"; mail-complaints-to="abuse@eternal-september.org"; posting-account="U2FsdGVkX18nQ34WXSHAntq30pmATQfN+IFXkUP2cq8=" User-Agent: Mozilla Thunderbird Cancel-Lock: sha1:aUhSq4ODJqimnpIpyULiaH0irrU= X-Antivirus-Status: Clean In-Reply-To: <101igft$2fc2u$1@dont-email.me> Content-Language: en-US X-Antivirus: Norton (VPS 250601-4, 6/1/2025), Outbound message On 6/1/2025 2:25 PM, Ian J. Ball wrote: > On 6/1/25 11:16 AM, Dimensional Traveler wrote: > >> What Did You Watch? > > I treated yesterday as my first "vacation day", and it was glorious! I > did nothing!  :D > > But I did get through the end of "Andor" and rolled that right into a > rewatch of "Rogue One" (or is it "Rouge One"?!!  ;p  ), plus a soap: > > soaps: DOOL - Thur's ep. Drama about the purchase of the hospital - > everyone who is a hospital board member is extremely ambivalent because > the two buyers are EJ ('nuff said!) and Xander whom everyone thinks beat > Philip to within an inch of his life (they're right - Xander did do > that!). In the end, Jada shows up to arrest Xander for that crime and > haul his ass off to jail, leaving the final board vote, which is > Brady's, to decide who gets the hospital. > > golf - Day three at the Memorial. No suspense here - Scottie Scheffler > moved into a tie for the lead, and then the outright lead when Ben > Griffin choked on a putt on the 18th hole and bogeyed... Expect > Scheffler to win this today. > > Andor (Disney+) - The final 3 episodes - ep's #2.10-2.12. >    The final three episodes are top notch, though the "One Year Later > (BBY 1)" teaser at the start of #2.10 is patently untrue this time, as > these episodes basically take place mere days before "Rogue One" (or is > it "Rouge One"?!!  ;p  ), which itself take place just days before the > original "Star Wars" movie's ending. (So, more like "BBY Day T-7" or > something!) >    These episodes do have some fun bringing back tons of people from > the "Rogue One" film... with one major exception - I didn't even realize > until I watched "Rogue One" again that Bail Organa had always been > played by Jimmy Smits, and not Benjamin Bratt as he was in season #2 of > "Rogue One"! (I really wonder why Smits couldn't make it back - they > claim "scheduling conflicts", but I'm not buying that and wonder if > Smits has health issues... or if they didn't want him back?!) FTR, I > actually *prefer* Bratt's take on Bail. You may be right. But Bratt had a bit more screen time, didn't he? That could help with general character development. >    Anyway, in the final episodes, Lonni Jung finally hits pay dirt in > Dedra Meero's files (which he's been snooping on!) and finds out that > everything that has happened previously is all tied together in the > Imperials' plan for a "super weapon"! (though Jung doesn't know the name > of this weapon). Jung wants out, but in his one final dastardly act, > Luthen Rael does NOT send Jung home to his family.  >:/ >    But doing all this likely means Jung is blown, which means Luthen is > also almost certainly blown to the Imperials as well. Sure enough, Dedra > Meero soon shows up. Will Luthen get out of this alive? Will Kleya > (Elizabeth Dulau)?! Will they be able to contact Cassian Andor in time > to come rescue them?! >    After episode #2.10, I was very worried that we would be robbed of > Kleya's escape from Coruscant (with them just skipping to her on Yavin), > but episode #2.11 pretty much was 100% about Kleya trying to escape > Coruscant. Also, there's finally backstory of how Luthen came to be > Luthen and how Kleya came to be his "daughter" (of sorts) in episode > #2.10 as well. I forgot about this one. When you said episode 9 was Mon's escape I kept thinking what was left for the other three episodes. >    The final episode is pretty much 100% set up for "Rogue One", which > is actually unsatisfying, as we know there will be no follow up on the > stories of Kleya, Vel Sartha (Faye Marsay) or Bix (Adria Arjona). In > fact, I'm finding this incredibly frustrating, as this series may end > with (effectively) Cassian's "end", but there are a bunch of others here > who survive "Rogue One" whom we will get no follow up on. >    (P.S. Whatever happened to Mon Mothma's dopey daughter, esp. after > Mon fled the Empire as a traitor?! We get a final scene with her > husband, and the lovely Rosalind Halstead as the mother of her > daughter's husband, implying that he wasn't arrested, but I am > skeptical, and we get no mention of the daughter after the wedding.) >    As for the Imperials, it goes badly for all of them, especially > Dedra Meero who finally gets her just desserts for being an Imperial spy > fangirl. >    But, as far as Cassian goes, this sets up a pretty heroic ending for > him (even if "Rogue One" doesn't 100% deliver on this), and gets all the > other pieces that we see in the "Rogue One" film in place. > > I then followed this up immediately with: > > Rogue One (or is it "Rouge One"?!!  ;p  ) (Disney+) - In glorious 4k! > though this movie looks so good that even in non UHDTV, it still usually > looks great. >    I mainly watched this to see, 1) how well it lines up with the > "Andor" TV series, and 2) how well it matches up in terms of how people > look between the film and the TV series (where season #2 was filmed > about 8 years later!). Everyone immediately watched the movie after the series, except for me. I was tempted, but held firm. I'm going to do a full rewatch of all the movies next year before the new movie comes out. >    On the former, I'm going to say... not well. At the end of "Andor", > Cassian is in possession of a lot more information that he seems to know > in "Rogue One" - like, he already knows the Empire has a "super > weapon" (even if he doesn't know its name), and he already knows about > Galen Erso, but *none* of that comes across in "Rogue One" which clearly > portrays Cassian as not know about the details of any of this stuff. Nor > does Cassian *ever* mention anything about a "girl he lost" in this film! >    I don't know what you call this phenomenon, but it's basically the > *exact opposite* of a "retcon [retro-continuity]"!! >    However, I did appreciate Andor's executing the informant in this > film being foreshadowed by what Luthen does to Lonni Jung. That was a > nice touch from the TV series. >    On the second point, they do a lot better: Diego Luna and Genevieve > O'Reilly look the same or imperceptibly different between the film and > the TV series. And while Alistair Petrie (as General Draven) looks a > little bit older in the series, it's not so as you'd really notice... >    However, this is definitely *not* true of Ben Mendelsohn as Krennic > - he looks *way young* in "Rogue One" which means he looks *way older* > in "Andor"! >    I'm going to say that Duncan Pow (as Sgt. Melshi) - and I didn't > realize he was in both seasons #1 & #2 of "Andor" as well as this film! > - also looks noticeably younger in "Rogue One" which means he looks > noticeably older in "Andor". >    And, of course, Jimmy Smits as Bail Organa here, while Bratt plays > him in Andor. >    "Rogue One" is very likely the best SW film since the original > trilogy (probably by a lot). But, in comparison to "Andor", it actually > comes off as "trite" and simplistic - not as simplistic as all the other > post-original trilogy SW films, mind you, but definitely trite in > comparison to the depth of "Andor". >    I wonder if, over time, they will come to regret making "Andor", as > it will inevitably take some of the "shine" off the good feelings that > "Rogue One" has engendered. > > > What did you watch? >