Is anyone watching this? I finished season two about 6 weeks ago but I'm wondering if I should just rewatch the first two seasons before starting the third.

If you're unfamiliar with the show, I can't recommend it highly enough. It's probably the best TV show, of any type, that I've ever seen. Here's the original trailer, but there's SO much more than what it shows. In the words of @Bezarius who recommended it to me:

The German show Dark is incredible. I just finished watching the first season this evening and it's the most perfect season of television I've seen in a long, long time. Literally the only thing I would rate alongside The Sopranos or The Wire. It has it all - complexity, deep philosophy, theoretical physics, horology, sci-fi elements, brilliant characterisation/acting, unpredictability, great dialogue and masterful pacing. Check it out.

A word of warning though. DO NOT watch it in English, The English voice acting is atrocious.

Just finished Annihilation. Decided to share some random thoughts:

The film looks absolutely stunning. Perfect blend of beautiful and horrifying. But the characters… ugh. They are your classical horror film bunch of idiots. And, as per tradition with the modern sci-fi horror, they're supposed to be “scientists”. Bah.

It seems like both the screenplay and the visuals were heavily inspired by Roadside Picnic by the Strugatsky brothers, and possibly Andrei Tarkovsky's film adaptation, Stalker (1979), as well as a bit of his other sci-fi work, Solaris (1972), here and there. Honestly, if you like the idea of “alien shit twisting stuff around it”, and you like reading, you're way better off just reading Roadside Picnic.

Why didn't most trees change? The flowers, the moss, and the animals get all kinds of wild twisted colours and mutations, but the trees remain just green? That really bothered me. They also don't mention all this mutated flora and fauna going outside “the zone”, which, I assume, would be a giant issue.

That lighthouse would be so destroyed if it was really hit by an object of that diameter.

I found it ironic that the psychologist of the team was the one who was severely depressed. Here in Russia we call that a “barefoot cobbler” situation. But the way the film shows severe depression is pretty accurate.

Overall, I reluctantly enjoyed the film, but I couldn't stop thinking that all those visual effects and designs would be much more amazing in a Strugatsky bros. adaptation film.

… essentially Cube 2: Hypercube. It's even written and directed by Vincenzo Natali, the man behind Cube. I didn't dislike it, in fact I liked it. But seriously, am I the only one who noticed that?

Also, Harrison Gilbertson has big Aaron Paul energy. Especially in the voice.