""The Rain"" Topic

All,
Is anyone watching this superb Post-Apocalyptic series on Netflix? It is what I think PA should be, no zombies, just humanity struggling with an extinction level event. Highly recommended.

No zombies? Ok count me in then. I'll check it out.

Dan
PS. Nick, no vampires either, right?

Nope, just actual people.

I thought it was ghastly. Good idea for a plot but unfortunately it was dubbed (why does it always sound wrong somehow?) and it involves a group of teenagers who the viewer is probably supposed to care about but most of whom you were hoping would die.

Paul: "but most of whom you were hoping would die."

That happens to me sometimes. Definitely did with Walking Dead.

Is it some residual effect from watching slasher films, where nothing really happens unless the characters are taken out, and so you don't want to form any connection with any of them?

Dan

Paul, as recommended, I watched it with subtitles. I thouroughly enjoyed it.

"just actual people."
Boring!!
It's on Netflix, so I'm not watching (no account/time).

The older I get, the harder I find it is to connect with / care about the characters. They are usually fall into one of these categories:
1. angst ridden teens (I'm past that)
2. Rambo-esqe super people (I've stopped admiring those that think they are)
3. The chosen one (not many of those in real life, either)

I think that's why I liked the first few seasons of Walking Dead, you really got a feel that these were normal people and you didn't know who was going to get eaten next.

I want to like it but whiny, angsty teens blundering around the countryside gets tedious fast. I understand being characters being shocked and ignorant at first, but stupidity as a plot device is lazy, especially as the episodes progress. At this point, I don't care enough about the characters to finish it.

In the U.K we weren't given the option of watching in the original language with subtitles. I take it you were in the USA.
It's the teens who are stupid, impetuous and never listen to warnings/sensible advice that I just have no sympathy with, I just want the Darwin awards to kick in.

Paul B: "It's the teens who are stupid, impetuous and never listen to warnings/sensible advice"

That's a hell of a lot better than other shows and movies where the only wise ones are the urban kids who have always had a roof provided over their heads, and the grown ups are the ones depicted as clueless about survival.

Dan

I "had" to watch dubbed. I had it playing while working on other projects.
Looking past the disjointed dubbing I thought the story wasn't too bad. I liked the brother and sister, couldn't care less about the other characters.
I couldn't quite understand the "Strangers", or whatever they were called. Their mission versus their actions didn't really seem to match up.
Anywho, I would give another season a watch. The second season is usually the make or break story anyways.

roving bandit,
I agree about "The Strangers". Their mission ultimately seemed to be noble, though their tactics said otherwise. As to the other "kids", I liked how the episodes tried to give a bit of background about each one except Martin. Still, very refreshing to watch a PA story without zombies and mutants, more like "The Road" or "The Book of Eli".

I know it was just a production slip-up, but the main thing I didn't like about the other characters was that they didn't change from their backstory to the "present".
They had the same hair, pretty much the same clothes, and looked like they just took a shower… strange for characters afraid of the rain.
At least the sister had a new haircut and of course brother was replaced with a older actor.

It was alright. The thing that annoyed me the most is the characters had plenty of opportunities to pick up guns and no one did besides the army dude. Umm, end of the world, pick up a bloody gun!

A different culture when it comes to guns. I saw it more as, at least these kids, whom have never had any training, were smart enough NOT to pick up the guns and shoot themselves accidentally.

I keep forgetting about that.

There was a BBC series called Survivors (2008) and I couldn't believe they didn't have a single pistol, rifle or shotgun between them. Then they came across some remnant of the "government" who immediately captured the small group of plague survivors, enslaved them (putting them to work fields and such) and then even executed a couple of the civilians for insubordination.

Yep. Different mindsets around the world.

Dan

Roving Bandit: What kind of an idiot doesn't know how to operate a firearm?? They are rudimentary machines, about one step up from a monkey wrench. It ain't rocket science. Even if aliens took over the earth and their weapons were totally unfamiliar to me, I would still try to figure out how to operate one. Just to increase my chances of survival.

Yeah well I know plenty of people who can't work a monkey wrench to save their life, let alone a semi-automatic rifle.

You are looking at this from American eyes. A lot of Euro-countries children are taught from birth to not touch (if they even ever see one) guns. That is something that is hard to over write.

The one "troubled" kid didn't have a problem picking up a gun. But he also proved he barely could use it. The other "nerdy" kid also showed difficulty using a gun (but still managed to shoot that guy).

They have the same movies and video games, so I suppose they at least know which is the dangerous end, right? And they have access to internet and can see in detail how real people use real weapons at a shooting range too.

But writers want to create artificial fantasy bubbles around their characters, like survivors in a zombie movie who have NEVER watched a zombie movie. :)

And then it takes several of them to die before the rest of them realize that you have to strike at the head if the zombies, to damage their already liquified brains, in order to take them out.

Dan

The Shadow: a LOT. Many times people have RTFM or even simply UBD malfunctions with new guns that they actually buy, complete with instructions. That old motifake about the freak who loaded all his magazines backwards? Not so freakish. There's an Iraqveteran8888 Gun Gripe video where they tell us they've had that several times. Some highlights:
Guy grabs a pair of pliers and, inexplicably, starts ripping the followers out of the tops of empty magazines, because he just can't fathom that it's supposed to be there.
Woman buys a revolver and comes back with it loaded, saying it just wouldn't fire. The late Barry takes it carefully out the back to test, finds no problem. SHE DIDN'T KNOW YOU HAVE TO PULL THE TRIGGER.
Guy drives half an hour back to the store to ask how to open the box of ammo he just bought. It has instructions for this printed on the outside of the box.
You can't even trust sellers: one pregnant woman came in looking for a defensive gun, and claimed a different gun store tried to sell her a .500 S&W revolver. Someone online once even stated that some gun store picked an Appeal of the shelf to show them, and described it as a bolt-action, single-shot .410 shotgun.

In fact, check this:
YouTube link
YouTube link
YouTube link

Plus, this simple fact that "knowing how to use a gun" is not the same as "knowing how to use a sword". Picking it up and operating its mechanical functions without killing yourself is one thing, but actually fighting with it is different.

Good analogy with sword.

Roving bandit: The first video was pretty funny. I met a woman at Cabelas gun counter. I am not a "gun store commando", but she appeared to be having difficulty choosing a weapon for home defense, so I asked her "if she was prepared to kill a person". She looked at me in shock and said that she "had never thought of that", and immediately left the store. So, OK, there *are* people that just don't know how to think, but generally my experience has been very different. In Air Force Basic Training, back in 1965, nobody in my unit that I can recall had any problem understanding the basic operation of the M1 Carbine, and later that year the M16 with very minimal instruction. Was it because we were all geniuses? I don't think so. I know that there are morons in this world, but if a person is concerned about their own safety when examining a firearm, that shows good sense, and my bet is that the person will do just fine cautiously figuring it out. But I will agree that if a person does not know that the front of the weapon should be pointed at the enemy and the trigger must be squeezed in order for the weapon to fire, that person would be better off throwing rocks.

"Even if aliens took over the earth and their weapons were totally unfamiliar to me, I would still try to figure out how to operate one. Just to increase my chances of survival."

But who would you ask about the red button?

YouTube link

Roving Bandit: Good one man! I actually laughed out loud at that!

That is one of my favorite sci-fi comedy moments. I love the guys in the background shooting nets.