Andor

The Bobby Fett show is shit though, reviews were also poor/mediocre for it.

No spoilers but watch the three episodes in one go, the pacing is deliberately slow until it isn't.

I did see the intro thing that they wanted to use as much practical as they could, it makes sense when in small towns and ships etc. I’d have thought that by now, if they planned these things right, there would be a lot of pro and set reuse.

Love the visual style and general tone. Absolutely light years ahead of prequel level stuff like some of the worst Boba Fett episodes.

Only had time to watch ep 1 tonight, and so far, so underwhelming, but it's a marathon not a sprint, so I'll give it time.

The thing that bugs me about it (and most streamed films / blu-rays these days) is that the sound editor / designer / mixer produces a dialogue soundtrack that's optimised for a barn full of people, via a specialist sound system. Which means that when I watch it on my telly I CAN'T HEAR WHAT THEY'RE FREAKING SAYING!

I'm sick of having to keep one hand on the volume control so it's cranked right up to listen to the dialogue and then you have to jump on it when there's an explosion so you don't burst your eardrums. I'm sure that 90% of people aren't watching through a Dolby 5.1 system with the option to adjust the speech independently, so why not optimise the soundtrack for the vast majority of your audience?

When's this set again? I have lost all track of this stuff. Just too much content to consume.

It's 5 years BBY, possibly the first time that's been shown on screen in live action.

Yeah I had to turn on the 'Speech' setting on the Sonos app as I couldn't hear a word they were saying

So far above everything else Star Wars in acting, dialogue, pacing and tension building it doesn't feel like Star Wars.

As reviewer says, yes. I really enjoyed the build up so far, hope it develops nicely.

I really hate this too. I actually do have a Dolby 5.1 system, with a calibrated centre channel, and it's often not any better. It's not simply the dynamic range it's a lack of clarity in the mix.

I have neighbours and even if I didn't, I don't always want or need explosions to be ridiculously loud anyway so typically run with dynamic compression (which reduces the difference between loudest and quietest audio) on to some extent. FYI it might be labelled 'night mode' in some systems, and is worth trying as it can stop some of the constant manual volume adjustment.

Still doesn't help for annoying 'cinematic' choices like directing characters to mumble menacingly in a deep voice (thanks for that trend Mr Nolan), or whisper enigmatically, or obscuring mouths with masks for protracted periods so you can't even lip read (also thanks for the first 15mins of Tenet Mr Nolan).

Watched all three episodes in what passed as an exceedingly quick two hours.

Absolutely fucking fantastic stuff. Best damn thing with a Star Wars label since Mandalorian. I can see this surpassing that show as I’m deeply invested in a whole bunch of characters already and can tell there’s going to be no fat, no monster of the week shit with this one.

It feels like there’s a story they want to tell with these characters, rather than characters they are trying to find a story they can make a show around.

Every single character in those episodes was a character. If they had a speaking part, they were memorable. Fuck the Star Wars aspect, this is just phenomenal work in any genre

The only thing I have a quibble with is the coloring. The desire to make complimentary palette choices felt too forced, too unnatural. But as a quibble goes, it don’t get more minor than that

Yeah no problems for me on my old TV either, not something I can say about the audio mixing on Doctor Who these days with the fucking music drowning out the dialogue all the time.

I have the subtitles on, as one of my nephews has cochlea implants. He struggles with some dialogue, so the option too read it has become his default. I do find it pay more attention to it with Disney + more than other sources. The audio can be fine for parts, but the music seems to go off the scale at times.