Docteur Qui

I don’t hate Giacchino, I think he’s a talented guy and enjoy many of his scores. But whenever he tries to directly emulate Williams, like in Rogue One or Jurassic World I can’t stand it. Hearing his style side-by-side with Williams’ just highlights how limited his palette is when it comes to melody, harmony and orchestral texture.
 
What I’ve heard of Brittel so far is very unlike Williams, which is ideal in this circumstance.

I don’t hate Giacchino, I think he’s a talented guy and enjoy many of his scores. But whenever he tries to directly emulate Williams, like in Rogue One or Jurassic World I can’t stand it. Hearing his style side-by-side with Williams’ just highlights how limited his palette is when it comes to melody, harmony and orchestral texture.
 
What I’ve heard of Brittel so far is very unlike Williams, which is ideal in this circumstance.

Britell is an exceptional composer and knows how to use an orchestra. He's miles ahead of, say Giacchino in terms of harmony and colour alone. He'll nail this.

Britell is an exceptional composer and knows how to use an orchestra. He's miles ahead of, say Giacchino in terms of harmony and colour alone. He'll nail this.

I can't tell you the last time I listened to a Nintendo podcast that didn't embarrass me.
 
I should just start my own already. Who's in?

Search Party is genius. So unhinged, particularly the later seasons. Absolutely adored that show and can’t wait to rewatch the whole thing.

Search Party
 
Absolutely loved this very funny, very well-written, very well-acted, and eventually, totally bonkers show that just ended its 5 season run on a high note.
 
All 5 seasons follow a group of self-entitled millennials living in New York City - Alia Shawkat (Dory), John Early (Elliot), Meredith Hagner (Portia), and John Reynolds (Drew) - who get up to increasingly ridiculous antics, often as a result of trying to cover up previous antics
 

 
Season 1 is like a comedy blended with an investigation drama, and the gang (well, mostly Dory) tries to find a former college friend who has disappeared.  Ron Livingston shows up a private investigator also trying to find her, Christine Taylor is Dory's boss, Rosie Perez is a terrific red herring, Parker Posey is a funny cult member, Michael Showalter is Drew's boss, Kate Berlant is here too.  The mystery builds as you get to know the characters, and the ending is probably a bit divisive, but I loved it
 

 
Season two is Hitchcockian style thriller where the gang has to cover up some events from the first season, going to incteasingly desperate lengths to do so.  Phoebe and Claire Tyers are great as some twins that get involved, Successions' J Smith-Cameron shows up as a senate candidate, Judy Reyes and Jay Duplass show up to.  I wasn't sure where the show could go after that season 1 finale, but they nailed it and made a second season just as good as the first while being wildly different at the same time
 

 
Season three becomes a courtroom drama as several characters pasts catch up with them.  Louie Anderson, Michaela Watkins , and the great Shalita Grant show up as lawyers, Chloe Fineman is a right wing talk show host Elliot gets to host a show with, and you also got Chelsea Peretti and Wallace Shawn.  I didn't think a courtoom show would fit into the show at all, but it really does.  
 


Season 4 is by far the weakest season, spending far too much time with Dory kidnapped by a stalker fan.  Even still there are many highlights in this section, with Cole Escola, Susan Sarandon, Ann Dowd, Christopher McDonald, and Busy Phillips showing up.  The ending of the season makes up for the beginning - when the rest of the gang finally reunites with Dory the magic is back, especially in a hilarious roundabot scene
 

 
They went into Season 5 knowing it would be their last, and they pull out all the stops, creating one truly bonkers season of televsion.  Jeff Goldblum, John Waters, and Kathy Griffin come into the mix and are all great, especially Goldblum who absolutely fits into the world of this show like a glove, he's a hoot.  The story wonderfully builds off everything before to its ultimate conclusion, along with other elements you just can't see coming yet somehow totally fit.  It was great.
 
So a total of 50 episodes, all under 30 minutes.  I'll happily watch through it all again some day.

It takes a few episodes to find its rhythm. But once it does, it really soars. 
 
If anything, it shows that despite his critics, Lindelof is definitely a strong writer.

I actually want to The Leftovers now. Watchmen restored my faith in Lindelof. He clearly excels on small screen.
 
Karol

I still think Theroux would have been the perfect casting for Joel in The Last Of Us series. He needs more dramatic roles like this. 

Hands down one of my favourite shows of all time. I think it's one of the finest examples of how much can be accomplished in the medium of television writing, and how deep it can cut. I think its tonal changes, however wild, have been masterful and its stylistic flourishes never lose sight of its heart and characters.
 
God bless Ann Dowd and Carrie Coon...the world needs more of them. Theroux also doesn't get enough credit for his performance and how it evolves throughout the show.

JW confirmed for Better Call Saul.

You know, it may very well be a recording of the Overture to the Oscars.  In fact, I am going to go with that as the most likely candidate. 

Luke had been closed to the Force for awhile.
 
You know, when a Jedi turns on the Airplane Mode, it means he can't talk to Yoda anymore!

Throwing opinions about how much this film or that project are beyond or worth of his time and talent is a useless exercise. At this point in his life, the man is doing whatever he wants and likes to do. He lived a greatly privileged life, working with incredible people and on projects that will last beyond all of our lifetimes. He sounds also very serene about approaching the end of his journey on Earth, so he values time greatly and, as he says, six months now is an extremely long period for him. He knows better than any other how to manage time as it's part of his DNA as a composer. We as fans might approve or not if he's using this time for doing another franchise score or a personal concert piece, but it's not our call. Let's just be grateful he's spending his last years among us writing new music and doing concerts all around the world.

ALL controllers are too expensive.
 
Just about all of this is how I feel about it too.
 
Graphics are worse than Gamecube and the story is complete crap, but they managed to figure out how to make Pokemon actually FUN (when they let you actually play the game).
 
Everyone keeps citing this as the problem with Pokemon, that it never changes, but that's far from the problem. The early games are still good and the later games are still bad. Doesn't matter if your first game is Sword and Shield or if it's Red and Blue like me.
 
The problem with Pokemon is it's been watered down. It doesn't mean anything anymore. They put in no effort. The graphics are ugly, the world design is non-existent, and they're super cheap and the music sounds like Finale's stock instrument playback. 
 
Pokemon in 1996 was a technical feat. I'm sure many of you even heard the stories about how Iwata helped program Gold and Silver so they could fit the entire first game in there again.
 
Now? They copy and paste old animations from the previous game for a similar character, have stock Pokemon models and then lie to the player base and claim that they can't have all the Pokemon programmed into the game because they have to model them all and animate them when that's already done.
 
It's cheapness, laziness, and poor design that's why Pokemon has been a stinker for over a decade, not it's inability to move away from a formula which, frankly, still works.

I don't enjoy Pokemon games, but I feel weirdly invested in the franchise "meta-narrative" (as in, the reception of individual games and the perceptions of the franchise's overall direction).  I guess just because, even for the games in genres I don't care for, I want all of Nintendo's properties to be respected and seen as feathers in their metaphorical cap.
 
Anyway, it's been clear that the "perceptions of the franchise's overall direction" have been on an overall downward trend for years now.  Sure, each individual generation has its fans, but even the most ardent defenders are having to start from a place of conceding that the franchise has been pathologically averse to change, mostly leaving any experimentation to when they license the property to developers outside Game Freak (with Go being the most obvious example).  So it's nice to see a game from the flagship developer that is genuinely experimenting with the formula, and even if it's not perfect, seems like it could be a good foundation for a whole new branch of the Pokemon tree.

I've been playing the new Pokémon game a lot lately. It's far from perfect, and certainly no BOTW despite the similar trappings, but I have to say it's a lot of fun and definitely the best Pokémon game I've played since the DS era. There's something so simple yet incredibly satisfying about actually aiming and throwing a Pokéball. The story is garbage, as per usual, and the trainer battles are underwhelming, but I'm actually interested in catching them all and finishing the pokédex for probably the first time in my life. Last night I spent a good 30 minutes strategising about how best to catch a level 85 Garchomp, and after a lot of trial and error, team swaps and intense battling I was successful. Pokémon is finally fun again!

I've been playing the new Pokémon game a lot lately. It's far from perfect, and certainly no BOTW despite the similar trappings, but I have to say it's a lot of fun and definitely the best Pokémon game I've played since the DS era. There's something so simple yet incredibly satisfying about actually aiming and throwing a Pokéball. The story is garbage, as per usual, and the trainer battles are underwhelming, but I'm actually interested in catching them all and finishing the pokédex for probably the first time in my life. Last night I spent a good 30 minutes strategising about how best to catch a level 85 Garchomp, and after a lot of trial and error, team swaps and intense battling I was successful. Pokémon is finally fun again!

Spielberg showing up to JW’s house in 2026 with a rough cut of Indy 6

Happy Birthday, Maestro!
 

LOST is definitely in my top 10, probably top 5 even. For all its shortfalls, the ambition and scope was unlike anything else that came before, and the influence it had on the television landscape in terms of what you could actually do on the small screen is still felt 18 years after its stellar debut. There would be no Game of Thrones or “golden age of television” without it. And it was a network show, not even prestige cable! 
 
I’m so glad Lindelof is still writing. The Leftovers and Watchmen were really special. I really hope we see him tackle something at the same scale as LOST one day, preferably new and not an existing IP.

Or maybe just people with a different taste in music?? The question wasn’t what his most iconic or popular score is, it’s what their personal favourite is. The implication of course being the score that speaks most to them, personally, on an emotional level.

I really loved reading this; a really diverse set of voices to hear from. There are multiple generations of composers who have been directly influenced and inspired by Williams and it’s wonderful to see it acknowledged. Also delighted at how much love Memoirs of a Geisha and Witches of Eastwick got from this group. The latter especially marked a very significant turning point in JW’s style that soared through the Potter films right up to his recent collaborations with Anne-Sophie Mutter. Glad to see it’s being recognised as such by his peers.

I imagine them being professional composers means they’re probably more well-versed in Williams’ oeuvre than the typical person. And I would add, probably have as much if not more insight about his music than most people here.
 
I don’t care much for a vast amount of Williams’ work myself, and probably haven’t even heard about a third of it. Personally my favourite is the first Potter score. Plenty of people here think it’s derivative, garish, and nothing he didn’t already do better with Hook. It doesn’t make my opinion any less valid.