o me it was obvious and the author took forever to get there.

That's how the first couple "Bones" books were...
Not anything like the series, but her writing got better in later books...
I guess that's how PHDs write when they are first starting....

By John M. Williams (Jay) on Saturday, March 30, 2024 - 03:20 pm: Edit

The third book (Death's End) is even worse. It's almost as if the author decided to squeeze every sci-fi cliche into the book he possibly could, regardless of whether it actually fit into the plot or not. I was not impressed.

By Mike Erickson (Mike_Erickson) on Saturday, March 30, 2024 - 07:19 pm: Edit

I got the free sample of 3BP on my Kindle. If it holds my interest I may buy it, but a pretty consistent review is that the ending isn't really well done. We'll see. If not maybe I'll just go back and read Forever War again...

--Mike

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Sunday, March 31, 2024 - 01:42 am: Edit

DEUS
Available on PRIME, this is a movie to avoid. Despite Claudia Black's best efforts, the plot makes sense only to the script writer and only while he is overdosed on cocaine.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Sunday, March 31, 2024 - 01:44 am: Edit

THE BEYOND
Available on PRIME, this is a movie I cannot recommend. It's tedious and boring and takes for frakking ever to get to a point that makes the whole plot a bad joke. Euro-documentary style film making.

By Terry O'Carroll (Terryoc) on Friday, April 12, 2024 - 12:43 pm: Edit

The new FALLOUT series is available on Amazon Prime. I sort of skimmed through the first episode, which was 1hr 30 minutes. I get that they need to introduce the Fallout world, but even so, the pace of this show is slooooow. I won't bother watching any more of it. Too much emphasis on eye candy CGI and not enough on getting on with it and actually telling the story. It bored me and could not hold my interest. Which is a shame, because the trailers looked great.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Friday, April 12, 2024 - 03:00 pm: Edit

FALLOUT
I watched the first episode on the recommendation of a friend. I had never seen the game or heard of it. The first episode was kinda ... icky, the world of Fallout is one that occupies my nightmares as I grew up in the cold war and the constant nuclear annihilation terrors (Berlin, Bay of Pigs, Cuban Missile Crisis). I haven't decided whether to watch more.

By Carl-Magnus Carlsson (Hardcore) on Friday, April 12, 2024 - 03:35 pm: Edit

Tnx for reminding me to dl it. I have played Fallout II and III and dlc and like the retro-futurism.
The wacky space ships, aliens that are little green men, ray guns, nuclear driven cars, The cheerful 50's American vibes, Chinese infiltrators in D.C. etc
Will be interesting to se what they import from the game

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Sunday, April 14, 2024 - 09:58 am: Edit

Leanna watched episode 1, did not like the cowboy-gollem, but said the rest was watchable as long as she wasn't trying to eat during it.

By Jessica Orsini (Jessica_Orsini) on Sunday, April 14, 2024 - 08:48 pm: Edit

You're not alone on that reaction, Steve. Having grown up with atom bomb drills in school and a shelter in the back yard, it's somewhat difficult material to watch.

By Ginger McMurray (Gingermcmurray) on Tuesday, April 30, 2024 - 09:35 am: Edit

It's definitely worth watching the whole season IMO. The gore factor never really goes away but the story makes up for it.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Tuesday, April 30, 2024 - 11:05 pm: Edit

Leanna and I quit halfway through episode 2 of FALLOUT. We grew up with grade school teachers preaching to us (every frakking day) that we would never grow up or graduate college or get married because we would all die in a nuclear war before we got out of school. FALLOUT was just too much.

By Lawrence Bergen (Lar) on Wednesday, May 01, 2024 - 12:09 am: Edit

We here have been on an End of Times run between Fallout, The 100, 3 Body Problem, etc...its been interesting to see the ebb and flow of these series on what director-folks think is gory and what might the world devolve into.

Most is humorous and like many horror shows the people run the wrong direction and do amazingly dumb shtuff to get themselves killed.

By MarkSHoyle (Bolo) on Wednesday, May 01, 2024 - 11:45 am: Edit

]b{do amazingly dumb stuff to get themselves killed. }

Not many on film, but there are the Darwin Awards, which highlight stupid things people manage to get themselves killed.

By Carl-Magnus Carlsson (Hardcore) on Thursday, May 16, 2024 - 10:24 am: Edit

Fallout suffer from a lack racism, Nuclear powered cars and the callous Vault-Tec experiments.
The first may sound odd to you, but the Fallout series is the future as imagined by the 50's USA. That future was white, because that present was unashamedly white. No chance vault-tec would have mixed populations in their vaults. I liked that part of the games. It made the setting more immersive.

By Ted Fay (Catwhoeatsphoto) on Thursday, May 16, 2024 - 10:45 am: Edit

I say the following with the caveat that I'm only 3.5 episodes in. However, I do not like the FALLOUT series on Prime because it is completely nihilistic, and utterly despairing of any human goodness.

The Fallout video games, and I played all of them extensively, had plenty of darkness - but there were always beacons of hope in the Wasteland.

So far I give the Brotherhood of Steel in the TV show an "F-." They may have had their own moral problems in the video games, but by and large they tried to act with honor. The BoS in the Amazon show are more like the Raiders, just a bit more disciplined. Their knights, at least what I've seen so far, are dastards - whereas the ideal of a BoS Knight in the video game series was something honorable. Don't tell me that there's always bad apples in any organization, I know that, but so far I have not seen one redeeming virtue in the BoS other than more discipline.

In the video games there was hope, and goodness in people and not just evil. The BoS in all the Fallout games had their moral problems, but overall they genuinely wanted to help humanity in their own way - not JUST find and preserve pre-war tech. The Minute Men in Fallout 4 , again with their own problems, genuinely wanted to build a prosperous Commonwealth where people could live their lives in peace supported by each other. Even the Institute in Fallout 4 had their own perverted sense of improving mankind.

In the Amazon show, it's nothing but despair. The only people who seem to show any sense of moral rectitude are the denizens of Vault 33 - but they are portrayed as 1) hopelessly naive, stupid, and arrogant, and 2) a people that will devolve into the dog-eat-dog (literally) world of the Wasteland when confronted by the reality of harsh evil.

Frankly, it's not realistic - at all. I'm not talking about the science, I'm talking about the sociology.

The show is also *brutally* violent. It is not for the feint of heart, and DEFINITELY not for children.

All that brutality with NO goodness leaves me feeling down after I finish an episode. I say "BOO! HISS!"

As a Fallout fan, I'm quite disappointed. The video games are MUCH MUCH better in terms of being socially realistic. Sure, you can point out flaws in the games too, but at least the games were engaging and held out the hope of a brighter future.

On the plus side, the Amazon show is absolutely chuck full of Easter eggs, and the special effects, costumes, and art are absolutely first rate. The acting is also very good.

The writing... not so much.

My take so far. Being a Fallout fan I will go ahead and finish the series and comment in full when I'm done.

By Carl-Magnus Carlsson (Hardcore) on Thursday, May 16, 2024 - 03:34 pm: Edit

Ted, yeah, all that too. Myself I didn't like how they do that fan service thing either. In Fallout New vegas you can get the black armor on the Lonesome Road, but here they just put it on a couple of farmers as some sort of wink to the fans.

And that Ghoul things is not very convincing either. "He is missing his nose!" (can't say i really notice).
The protagonist btw, is that the ghoul?
Yes, the writing sucks.

Happy you could put it in more words than me^^

By John Barnes (Nitehawke) on Monday, May 20, 2024 - 09:07 pm: Edit

This is an appeal for help in identifying a television program.

It was a sci-fi/horror anthology program in the same mold as the original Twilight Zone/Outer Limits/Night Gallery. All I remember is the intro sequence. It started outdoors looking at a largish country house, with the camera moving to then through the front door. Once inside, the camera moved down a hallway with many doors, and each episode stopped and opened a different door whereupon the story began. While the camera was moving the narrator set up the episode. I remember this as a black and white program, though that may be because my parents had a black and white television. The time frame would have been the early 70s, though it may have been reruns of an older program.

I have been trying to figure out what the program was for years, and have had people tell me it sounds familiar, but they were unable to identify it. I'm thinking it was on later in the evening, and started around my bed time, so all I ever saw was the intro sequence.

If anyone is able to offer any insight I would be grateful.

By Ryan Opel (Ryan) on Monday, May 20, 2024 - 09:58 pm: Edit

Try this list.

https://m.imdb.com/list/ls063992905/

By Ryan Opel (Ryan) on Monday, May 20, 2024 - 11:31 pm: Edit

Try this list.

https://m.imdb.com/list/ls063992905/

By Carl-Magnus Carlsson (Hardcore) on Tuesday, May 21, 2024 - 06:39 am: Edit

Chatgpt says: The television program you're describing sounds like it could be **"Journey to the Unknown"**, a British anthology television series that aired in 1968-1969. Here's why it matches your description:

1. **Format and Theme**: "Journey to the Unknown" was a sci-fi/horror anthology similar to "The Twilight Zone" and "The Outer Limits."

2. **Intro Sequence**: The opening sequence featured a camera moving through a country house, which aligns with your memory of the camera moving through a house and down a hallway with many doors.

3. **Narrator**: The series included a narrator setting up each episode, consistent with your description.

4. **Black and White Perception**: Although the show was originally filmed in color, many people watched it on black and white televisions in the late 60s and early 70s, which could explain why you remember it in black and white.

5. **Time Frame**: While it originally aired in the late 60s, it's plausible that reruns were shown in the early 70s, fitting the timeline you recall.

If this doesn't seem quite right, another possibility might be **"One Step Beyond"** (also known as "Alcoa Presents: One Step Beyond"), which aired from 1959 to 1961 and was similar in style to the shows you mentioned. However, its intro sequence is less aligned with your description than "Journey to the Unknown."

Given the specifics of the intro sequence you remember, "Journey to the Unknown" is likely the show you are thinking of.

By Jessica Orsini (Jessica_Orsini) on Tuesday, May 21, 2024 - 08:53 am: Edit

Chatgpt is woefully in error. I remember "Journey to the Unknown" in syndication; it's intro was set in an amusement park at night.

By Terry O'Carroll (Terryoc) on Tuesday, May 21, 2024 - 10:51 am: Edit

Don't trust ChatGPT for anything. It's not a search engine, it's a chatbot and it's designed to create *plausible-sounding* answers that are almost never factually correct. It's known to create references to non-existent legal cases and scientific papers, for example.

By Carl-Magnus Carlsson (Hardcore) on Tuesday, May 21, 2024 - 11:16 am: Edit

Good to keep in mind, Terry^^ Tnx for the reminder.

By Carl-Magnus Carlsson (Hardcore) on Tuesday, May 21, 2024 - 11:17 am: Edit

Problem is google is pretty useless nowadays. I heard the advice to add "reddit" to any google searches.