198 replies to this topic

[Steve Sensible]

If it's just something like a badge shot or a drinks label pointing towards camera, I have no problem with product placement. We're bombarded with labels and logos in real life anyway.

It only bugs me when you get scenes like Will Smith and his stupid "vintage" Converse sneakers in i-Robot. That scene actually made me want punch my TV in.

[Russell H]

It only bugs me when you get scenes like Will Smith and his stupid "vintage" Converse sneakers in i-Robot. That scene actually made me want punch my TV in.

Product placement in a thread? Disgraceful.

I almost spilled my cola.

[Ogul]

This was a fun Penny Arcade strip on the topic (well, about a game that had product placement)

They also have a "4th wall" episode of their web series that shows the discussion that inspired the comic.

The sad thing is, I doubt they actually arranged to receive advertising dollars for that strip.

Edited by Ogul, 12 June 2012 - 12:06 PM.

[steveuk]

<SNIP>

I almost spilled my cola.

A lucky escape then?

[Russell H]

A lucky escape then?

I would have had to clean it off my carpet with my cleaner.

It would be a right pain in the .

[jleal]

I've been going back through "The Shield" again...Walton Goggins' "Shane" character is one of my favorite parts of the series. In the first season, he didn't do much talking, and then only said smart alecky things. Juxtapose that with his tour de force in the final 2 seasons, and you've got a remarkable run.

[Rory Abel]

Watched X-Files: I Want To Believe, which is... odd. Felt like an overly long, and weaker, episode rather than a feature.

[Ogul]

I think the Bones writers are getting downright annoyed with it since the Avatar episode, to be honest. The last major product placement scene saw them talking about the GPS, and no sooner are they done than Booth misses a shortcut and drives the long way round because he's following the GPS.

Yeah, my absolute favorite was on Community, where this last season had several Subways product placements where, instead of gushing about how great Subway is, like on Chuck, they actually made them out to be more or less antagonists on the show, first stealing the vendor spot from Shirley, and then funding a human analog shill.

[Craig MacD]

Have watched the first three episodes of the new Showcase series "Continuum" and I have to say I'm impressed. I thought the show would be pretty formulaic and use out its concept after the pilot episode, but it's been surprisingly clever and Rachel Nichols (Star Trek 2009 movie) is pretty good as the lead character. Also, if you're a genre fan there are a lot of familiar faces here (Lexa Doig from Andromeda, Mike Dopud from Stargate: Atlantis and Stargate: Universe, Jennifer Spence from Stargate: Universe, the guy who played the Cigarette Smoking Man from the X-Files, the guy who played the leader of Teal'C's people on Stargate: SG-1, etc.).

More about the show here: http://continuumtheseries.com/about

[brucegray666]

Watched X-Files: I Want To Believe, which is... odd. Felt like an overly long, and weaker, episode rather than a feature.

Is that the more recent movie with Billy Connely playing a priest? I saw it in the cinema and I'm sure I came out of it feeling the way you described above.

[Scott Wilkinson]

Just watched the new Irn Bru advert . . .

Depends on what the word "fanny" means to you . . .

Edited by Scott Wilkinson, 13 June 2012 - 05:03 PM.

[Rory Abel]

Is that the more recent movie with Billy Connely playing a priest? I saw it in the cinema and I'm sure I came out of it feeling the way you described above.

Yeah that's the one. Sad that they did a monster of the week movie and didn't do something more interesting than psychic priest.

[Rory Abel]

Have watched the first three episodes of the new Showcase series "Continuum" and I have to say I'm impressed. I thought the show would be pretty formulaic and use out its concept after the pilot episode, but it's been surprisingly clever and Rachel Nichols (Star Trek 2009 movie) is pretty good as the lead character. Also, if you're a genre fan there are a lot of familiar faces here (Lexa Doig from Andromeda, Mike Dopud from Stargate: Atlantis and Stargate: Universe, Jennifer Spence from Stargate: Universe, the guy who played the Cigarette Smoking Man from the X-Files, the guy who played the leader of Teal'C's people on Stargate: SG-1, etc.).

More about the show here: http://continuumtheseries.com/about

Reminds me of the old tv show Time Trax.

Edited by Rory Abel, 13 June 2012 - 06:05 PM.

[Christian U]

Finished some of the current series over the last weeks. Desperate Housewives (lackluster season, okay finale, very nice last five minutes or so), Cougar Town (pretty good season, nice finale), Awake (shame it was cut, but this one season works very well as one long movie - very good series, I thought), Once Upon a Time (meh), Grimm (entertaining enough, but not great).

What's next, apart from True Blood? When's Burn Notice starting again?

[Nicholas Taggart]

What's next, apart from True Blood? When's Burn Notice starting again?

Burn Notice is back on Thursday.


Bunheads, the new Amy Sherman-Palladino show just started. I watched the first episode and thought it was a good one. I think anyone who liked the Gilmore Girls would enjoy it.

Sorkin's new show The Newsroom starts in two weeks.

[Ben the Obiwomble]

Sigh, it seems whoever puts out Venture Bros in the UK is aping the worst TPB habit - keeping only some volumes of a series in print, or seasons rather! I have Season 2, it's a blast, can I get season 3? No. Is Season 4 out? Yes.

How stupid is this on a 10-point scale? Got to be 11.

Edited by Ben the Obiwomble, 13 June 2012 - 08:24 PM.

[Nicholas Taggart]

[Paul F]

Finished some of the current series over the last weeks. Desperate Housewives (lackluster season, okay finale, very nice last five minutes or so), Cougar Town (pretty good season, nice finale), Awake (shame it was cut, but this one season works very well as one long movie - very good series, I thought), Once Upon a Time (meh), Grimm (entertaining enough, but not great).

What's next, apart from True Blood? When's Burn Notice starting again?

Revenge is worth watching, but I think it started slipping in its second half. Comedy-wise, Happy Endings had a great season, and Suburgatory was very enjoyable. New Girl started only okay but improved a lot as the season went on.

[Adam Balson]

Revenge is worth watching, but I think it started slipping in its second half. Comedy-wise, Happy Endings had a great season, and Suburgatory was very enjoyable. New Girl started only okay but improved a lot as the season went on.

New Girl and Happy Endings are great.

Anyone been watching Cardinal Burns on E4? I went into it not too sure what to expect but the first very short sketch before the opening credits really sets the tone of the rest of the show: it's a really well done short zombie film. Except when two of the zombies go to town on a guy one of them eats something suspiciously phallic looking and the other stops eating and asks 'Whoa...! Did you... just eat his penis?' '...Mmhmm, yeah. I always eat the penis.' Zombie A starts to look freaked out and uncomfortable with Zombie B keeps eating it and tries to get Zombie A to nibble on it and stick it in his mouth.
I'm absolutely loving it, the whole series has been mental and can get really weird but it's hilarious so far. The cross-dressing sketches are so unnervingly funny. I can't not laugh when I see them. The two guys are fantastic at getting the mannerism's down but physically they are just painfully not feminine, it's great!
The really intrusive music that plays during at the intervals makes me laugh every time to and I have no idea why.

Edited by Adam Balson, 13 June 2012 - 10:41 PM.

[Ogul]

Revenge is worth watching, but I think it started slipping in its second half. Comedy-wise, Happy Endings had a great season, and Suburgatory was very enjoyable. New Girl started only okay but improved a lot as the season went on.

Yeah, Happy Endings, Suburgatory, and Apartment 23 were all awesome this year. I didn't think I'd like Suburgatory, given how campy it was, and some parts continued to bother me (I really hate Ana Gastyre's character), but it was still very funny and had plenty of good characters too.

Reven8e was good too, as a soap opera/ thriller. Emily Thorne and Victoria Grayson were great characters throughout. I missed a bunch of episodes in the middle because I tend to drift off on Wednesday nights, but I caught the last few and they were great.

If you're looking for good shows to watch, the cartoons are where it's at this season. Young Justice is the best DC project EVER, in any medium. Thundercats and Green Lantern have faily basic writing, but both are decent fun and have good animation. Mighty Avengers continues to be great (until Marvel kills it), mashing together decades of Avengers continuity into a rich gumbo, but Ultimate Spider-Man is terrible, taking on the worst excesses of the Teen Titans cartoon, with few of the positives. It tries to be a comedy, but is only very rarely amusing. I also started watching Tron Uprising, and while I'm not sold on the character designs and the story is very by-the-numbers, the visual effects are insane.

I've been thinking of catching up on Grimm, have the back half of the season set to download, but don't want to watch the whole thing, anyone know which episodes were really worth watching?