f13.net

*Waves Magic Wand* Bing!

I kind of thought that was against the rules of the TV and Movies forums.

Honestly, I don't know. Sorry if I violated a rule. Mods can and probably will delete this.

(https://i.imgur.com/vWtFBB7.gif)

Hey, I like the idea--I tried this once in Movies, but it was eventually modded out of existence.

I have discovered I'm getting old. I'm tired of pointless sex scenes in shows that seem like they're only there so that the writers didn't have to come up with anything for that space.

I got bored with it bright and early on in Game of Thrones. I thought the Jessica Jones series was excellent, but again, long ass ( :why_so_serious:) sex for no purpose. Show the clothes on the floor and get on with the story.

That or start acknowledging humans evacuate waste and do bathroom cuts too.

I can kinda see where you are going, but let's get one thing straight:  sex scenes can be pointless, but nudity almost never is.  Remember the scene in GoT last year where one of the Sand Snake girls decided to show Bronn her rack?  Technically had no purpose, but it was still Must See TV.

Also, I like the Random TV thread.  There needs to be a place to discuss shows that don't otherwise deserve their own thread.

Yes, I agree.  No naked sex.  And boobs don't do anything for me.  We even have naked penises flopping about now.   :ye_gods:  NO MORE NAKED PENISES!

I've been on the "fuck sex scenes" wagon for a while now. That its happened can be a part of the story. Every frigging detail is rarely if ever part of the story.

And seriously, they are tits. Every woman has them, ffs. And yeah we really don't need to see the Penis brigade...

ITT old people.

Bring on the boobs and asses.  :awesome_for_real:

Pretty much, anything scene were it's just talking is massively improved if it's talking while airing out some titties.

Funny enough, thought about making this exact thread for movies late last week just to rag on some awful horror I'd been watching.

Clothed penises are no better...  :why_so_serious:

I propose retitling this thread "Useless TV" and stickying it.

Seconded.

Done.

Dude. Dish. I love awful horror.

Just posted a thread. I'm literally watching everything. My work has grinded to a halt due to the FDA, so I'm downloading literally everything from the past 5 years and plowing through it. What's in that thread is just the last week or so.

I'll put this here for now, but a weekend ago a friend and I decided to travel back to our childhoods and watch Mr. Ed.  Couple of surprises:
1. It's actually pretty damn good.  Meaning, it has some good writing and humor.  Or at least it fits our tastes in humor.  I think it molded my current sense of humor.
2. There are 26 episodes in season one.  We only made it through the first three.

Man those are conflicting thoughts.

Man, you just reminded me of the "Old TV" block that came on right before GI Joe/ Transformers/ Thundercats.  My Favorite Martian and Gilligan's Island. On early dismissal days I could catch Mr. Ed, too. Yes those were actually some good shows for their time. Much funnier than I Love Lucy, which still gets all kinds of accolades but leaves me cold.

I always liked I Love Lucy, but the show I used to watch a lot was MASH.  Although that is newer than the other shows mentioned.

MASH was good, yes. I don't even remember how I started watching that one or Three's Company now that I think about it.

I Love Lucy had a few good episodes, but I just didn't enjoy it as a whole. Carol Burnett and Mama's Family were more my style for women's comedy shows.

I've always been partial to Dobie Gillis myself.

MASH is so variable, some of it is great, some of it isn't.

I'm sure we've already got a thread for this but... Lost. Wife & I started watching it the other week. How did this shit get to survive for 5 seasons? It's fucking dreadful. Does it massively improve suddenly or something? We're about 5 episodes into Season 1 and I see no reason to continue whatsoever. The entire thing seems to be predicated on that same old crock of crap: "People are shitty and can't communicate!". ZZzzzZZZ.

There's a channel that shows nothing but old tv shows.  They have F Troop!  F Troop is very nearly almost the funniest show ever.

I have to say, tv is mostly very, very useless this summer.  :(

We would have kept going but we had a late start.  Nothing to do with the quality of Mr. Ed.

Furthering our hunt for things to watch during the summer, we started watching Black Sails and it's really good. Only 2 episodes in so far but loved both of them. It's like the antithesis of Pirates of the Caribbean.

And, OMG, the abs!!   :grin:

Black Sails.  Definitely not Useless TV.  Top 5 show right now, IMO.

Really? The second season made me bored so I stopped watching.

Peaky Blinders season 3 is on Netflix for those of you who like "gritty" period dramas (highly recommended).

Did Peaky Blinders pick up?  I made it about half way through the first season.  Started out promising, but just sort of meandered into boring....bleh.  Silly Romance stuff, slow pot movement.  I really liked it at first, but lost all will to watch. 

Actually, that's exactly the same thing that happened to me with Turn.  Way to much time wasted on soap opera love triangle romance shit nobody cares about.  10% on actual spying and period history.  Again, made it half way through the first season.

And I love period peace series.  Pretty much the only thing I can stand watching these days is fantasy/sci-fi, or realistic historical drama.  Been let down do far, but maybe those series get better.

I love Cops.

I don't think it's been mentioned here but Kevin Smith is getting a crack at making a Buckaroo Banzai TV show.  He plans on making it an continuation of the story and is hoping to get as many people back as he can for cameos and such.

I'm down with that.

I watched the entire run of Neon Joe, Werewolf Hunter and I had a great time.

We then watched the first 2 episodes of Black Jesus.  So far, so good.  Apparently it's loosely based on some book?

I watched Neon Joe expecting garbage and it was as fun as Saul of the Molemen was.

Black Jesus gets better each season. I don't know if it's based on a book or not.

My wife says I should read the Bible.

Everybody should, once.
It's great for a chuckle, if you can ignore the horrifying parts of it.

The author of SMBC just came out with an abridged Bible, part of his Religion: Ruining Everything Since 4004 BC Kickstarter campaign. Seems pretty accurate and only takes about 5 mins to read.


One of my favorites:

I wouldn't recommend anyone read the bible.

No good can come of it.

Some parts of it are pretty good, but most people ignore those (you know, the parts advocating being a basically-decent human being).

There's a lot of begatting going on in the first bit, tons of brutality in the middle, some encouraging bits that end up going south for the speaker, and it ends with an epic boss fight.

The sequel isn't as good as the original; it feels a bit tacked on in places.

Hollywood wasn't able to recreate the cultural and commercial success of the sequel until 1955.

I never got through the first part of it because it reads like a fucking telephone book.

Jews take their begetting very seriously.

I wasn't going to read it just to get all the jokes and references in Black Jesus.

There are some really interesting things about some of the older sitcoms when you look at them from a distance. For one, how edgy some of the marriages you see actually are. The Ricardos and the Mertzes both, Darren and Samantha, etc.  The Cleavers really aren't the typical sitcom family, they're actually unusual. Also there's a few really old sitcom couples that really come across as sexually active young marrieds, despite the separate beds for the Ricardos and so on. Rob and Laura Petrie (Dick van Dyke and Mary Tyler Moore) especially.

A show that I found just completely unfunny on re-watching was Carol Burnett. Also, my god but Carson's skits on the Tonight Show were just abysmal. Even the monologues mostly. His only real strength was the interviewing, which he was pretty good at.

Strictly speaking she wasn't married at the time becasue David had send the husband out into battle and arranged for him to get killed.  :oh_i_see:

What the fuck is wrong with you, man? That's like... comedy blasphemy or something.

It just doesn't feel to me like it ages that well. There's still some stuff that's great--that Tim Conway/Harvey Korman sketch where they're dentist and dental patient, but a lot of it is so vaudeville in a way that doesn't have much purchase still.

I think a lot of it comes with the generation of comedy you grew up with & what you found funny in it. I've seen some late 50's & early 60's standup recently & while some of it is funny, a lot of it is situational to the era & delivered in a manner that is relatively foreign these days. If you weren't already a fan of that stuff nor did you have any connection to it like a sub-40 year old it's hard to relate to. The same can be said for vintage SNL (that everyone over 50 raves about) & Carol Burnett - some of it is definitely funny but there were plenty of experimental sketches that may have been funny then but fall pretty flat now, along with some bits that I wondered what they were thinking. She did run the show for almost 10 years and a lot changed in that era, including the format of the show so it's not surprising to find people not relating to it 40+ years later.

And I do find that most of the "modern" sitcom plot lines & routines were done 50 years ago & are just rehashes now...

It is completely true that most everything in sitcoms was done during the B&W era.  Having watched a lot of Honeymooners and I Heart Lucy, I see that and so I just pass on most shows since I've seen it already.  Then you can start filling in other shows over the years and there really isn't a lot of new stuff going on.  Hell, I don't watch Curb Your Enthusiasm because of my thorough absorption of Seinfeld and frankly I prefer Alexander's Larry David.

Another seemingly sexually active couple was Wilbur and Whatshername from Mr. Ed.  Quite a few jokes about it from the old and sexless neighbors, too.

First prime-time television couple to share a bed?  Fred & Wilma.  Lots of great tropes from that show.

There are only 7 story structures in all of humanity and they've all been used millions of times over. Even characters are rehashes at this point in history.

As the old idiom goes; there is nothing new under the sun.

Sure, there's some of it that's going to be very dependent on the times. But just about everything with Tim Conway is just goddamn genius, especially when he's riffing between himself and Korman or Burnett.

Jean Claude Van Johnson.  I like it but I feel dirty.

New Tick.  Same, perhaps.  I GUESS Serafinowicz is OK ... ugh.  Darker tone.

After some discussion on Discord I watched the first episode of Bloodline last night.

Pros: Good acting, possibly interesting story.
Cons: Yet another show about rich people zzZZzZZzzZ, really mediocre camera work. Not bad, just entirely uninteresting. It's something I've not yet seen Netflix pull off at all. The only thing that comes to mind that was interestingly filmed was bits of Daredevil, with excellent use of low lighting levels and claustrophobic sets. They really need to start hiring some directors and camera people who know more than just routine point & shoot, maybe who know how to use a tripod or dolly.

Batman: the Animated Series is on Amazon Prime.   :rock: :rock_hard: :hulk_rock: :yahoo: :Love_Letters:

So is Robotech: The Macross Saga.  :grin:

Though I'm sure that has not aged nearly as gracefully.

You know you love some Minmei song attack.

Even as a teenager, that shit made me cringe.

Song attack sucked, but SDF1 punching a hole into the Zentradi ships? Khyron and Azonia plowing into the SDF1? Roy Fokker's Death. Ben's Death. Max and Miriya's arc. All epic stuff of teenage awesomeness.

But no, it doesn't hold up. Particularly the Minmei-Rick relationship early on. I got the DVDs when they released years ago and only watched them once. I just can't now, they're so campy and terrible compared to the Anime that came later.

Hell, even Voltron held-up better for me than Robotech and that's sad.

Couple of shows I've been watching that I cba to make their own threads for.

Spotless: on Netflix, about a French ex-pat living in London who owns a small specialist cleaning company that deal with dead bodies and crime scenes, etc. Gets involved with gangsters. Pretty well done, best thing about it is that just about every single character in it is treated like a real person, with backstory and genuine motives. There's no throwaway cliche bit parts, they all feel like human beings. Liking it a lot.

The Get Down: Again on Netflix, the fictionalised tale of the birth of hip-hop in the South Bronx in the late 70s. It's a Baz Luhrmann production and the 1st episode is directed by him, so if you hate his stuff this won't be for you. Angry.torvald wouldn't like it, it's stars are all black people or women or sometimes both. Easy watching, a bit comic-book, but entertaining. Good music.

My daughter and I went through a Cops phase a few years ago. This was one of our favorite scenes:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jhrwC2BoAkE (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jhrwC2BoAkE)

Someone remixed it. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQTXawaAKNA)

I cannot imagine anyone making shows like the TV shows that I watched growing up. So politically incorrect. F-Troop. Get Smart. Hogan's Heroes. Yet as I recall, very funny.

I have no idea how they have held up over the years, though. I thought they were awfully funny at the time.

It depends on the show. Some shows from way back when I've been rewatching (Dick Van Dyke) and it's still hilarious and even in some cases funnier now that I'm older. Other shows haven't necessarily aged well and are kind of hard to sit through, but even still some have some pretty laughable moments. General rule though is if it's a tv show that didn't last long back then because it wasn't too funny, time likely has not been kind and it's still pretty cringe worthy and you can see why it was canned after 1-2 seasons...

Most things with a laugh track don't hold up very well.

.
A&E has this thing now on Friday night called Live PD where they bounce around to live body cams on cops when "something is happening". It's bizarre.

I've become hooked on Forged in Fire.  It's basically Chopped but with blacksmiths making a knife in 6 hours with challenges. Then the top 2 go back to their home forges and make a historical weapon. It's on the History Channel. They test the weapon by hacking and slicing on all sorts of shit. It's hokey as hell, but I dig it.  I'm actually contemplating taking blacksmith classes I've become so enamored with it.

:awesome_for_real:

The Crown is some first class monarchy history porn.

There's actually a show like this?  That's awesome.  I'll have to look it up for my brother in law... he'll love it.  I love shows where people make thingies.

John Lithgow deserves an emmy and stuff for his portrayal of Winston Churchill. So damn good.

I'm 3ep in to Westworld. Not reading the thread for fear of spoilers. I feel it can go either way. Worth continuing?

Fuck yes.

Your tastes are odd (as much as I can recall), so I won't presume. I consider season 1 of Westworld to be the second best thing HBO has ever done. I'm including single seasons of Rome/Deadwood/Sopranos/GoT etc. Not better than The Wire. Well, maybe better than season 5.

Ok I'll keep watching.

I don't watch much TV, I'm picky. I find entertainment that makes me think or that I interact with in some way much better.

This is at least somewhat provocative to date. I'm just wary of it going all 'American' and trying to explain everything and being less about interesting questions and imagination.

Westworld is pretty good and the (first) season has a plot that gets resolved to the point where it wouldn't have been a total waste of time even if there wouldn't be a second season to look forward to.

Just finished watching the first 3 seasons of "The Fall". Decent show overall, but really damn dark. The ending of the arc (they're going to do a 4th season, I think, with a new issue) was interesting, and not what I expected. It did not lighten the mood.  :awesome_for_real:

It was possibly a bit far up it's own ass at times with the non-subtle messaging and trying-too-hard cinematography, but was a really interesting look at all aspects of such a dire set of crimes. Gillian Anderson and Jamie Dornan are the stars and both do pretty damn well in their respective roles. 

I'm up to date with "The Fall".  It was a bit depressing and sometimes felt a little slow, but I thought it was pretty brilliant, too.  I thought Gillian Anderson was the best she's ever been.  I had never seen Jamie Dornan before this show and I wonder why... he's very, very good. 

Hap and Leonard (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3729898/) is back for the second season and it's awesome based on the first episode (but then again I'm a big fan of Lansdale's crime books so a bit biased).  :drill:

Binged through Santa Clarita Diet (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt5580540/). It was worth watching. Felt like it ended at a strange point, but it was a lot of fun. Olyphant and Barrymore are great in this. Unique take on the whole zombie genre. 

Also rewatching The Wire in between getting disappointed by other shows (Vikings, Arrow, Iron Fist). Still the best show ever and an excellent palate cleanser.

The Black Company is coming TV with Eliza Dushku as The Lady.

I fear the worst. Its very upsetting. Shes a fucking black widow.

Read recently the Wheel of Time TV series is going forward too. I'd ask "what next, wizards first rule?" But that already happened.

Everyone is desperate to find the next GOT and they're all going to suck in different ways.

I'd be more worried about Goyer's involvement since the only times he's made anything good is when he's riding on the shoulders of guys like del Toro and Nolan.

When I think about things like that I think about DB Weiss' lack of credentials when he started on Game of Thrones and that I was the only person, I think, on Earth that read his freshman effort.

What. The. Fuck. She can't act. I could throw a dart down the street and hit a better choice. There's literally thousands of better choices.

...I would love to be proved wrong, but yeah, let's be realistic.

Why did I make it this far in life and nobody ever told me how great Arrested Development is?  Directing this at the universe in general.

people won't shut the fuck about it to the point its attained legend status and has become completely overrated

the fuck you talking about?

I somehow don't frequent those circles, but this is true of most pop culture.  I literally knew not one thing about this show two weeks ago, other than that it existed.  Wouldn't have been able to even name one actor.

Those circles?

That circle is The Whole Internet. Somehow avoiding praise for Arrested Development makes me thing you live in a hole on the side of some mountain that exists on no map.

Yeah, it's called Denmark, only there are no mountains.  You probably didn't remember that I live in Europe, so I will assume you are not making the traditional American mistake of assuming that we are all exposed to the same cultural phenomena all the time.

Also, I keep my internet circle extremely small, which could be an interesting topic of discussion, only probably not.

In fairness, I only recently (last 2 months) watched AD and I knew NOTHING of it previously.

There are circles and circles, I suspect.

See?  And Ironwood is way more hip than I am.

Oh Dear.  That's your argument ?  We're gonna lose this one.

You two lost the minute he wrote the word hip to describe you.

That's what I just said ?

are we all not accessing the same internet?

How much you heard about Baahubali 2? Because that shit is all over the internet. If you're in India.

That would be an excellent response if any culture were as exported or pervasive as American culture, particularly on the internet.

THIS GIF HAS BEEN AROUND FOR 14 YEARS

(http://i.imgur.com/PLTZJRh.gif)

There's a lot of GIFs and references commonly used on the internet that at least I don't know the origin of or where - knowing the origin - I felt compelled to dive deeper into that origin. If you watched every movie/series/... there's a popular GIF of... Well, I don't do that.

I had the opposite problem -- it was overhyped to me and when I watched the first episode (many years ago) I was distinctly unimpressed -- a family full of despicable people with one guy set to be the "everyman" viewer proxy who would have to good-naturedly deal with their shenanigans every week. Yawn.

Yeah. Recently I decided to give it another chance and watched a few more shows in. Whups! Yep, brilliant. Especially when you realize that Michael is just as fucked up as the rest of his family, just with a better heart, maybe.

Even my wife is hooked, and she usually hates "those kind of shows."

Never seen that gif!

Seriously though, it is this way with a lot of things.  I vaguely remember hearing about AD back when it was a thing, but living in Europe at the time meant that it was probably off limits to me so there was no reason to really even give it a thought.  This is true of MOST American television, it might surprise you to find out.  Why pay attention to something you can't easily access?  Some of the good stuff (and a lot of the bad stuff) will make it to our version of Netflix and similar services eventually, but not only do we have no control over that, but as is the case with AD it might take 10 years.

So.  This is the part where I mention that I never watched Big Bang Theory, for basically the same reasons.  Same would be true for tons of hit American shows.

Minor thread necromancy just to comment that I absolutely loved Lucky Wander Boy, and somehow managed to avoid connecting that it was the same person show running Game of Thrones until like a week ago, and ever since I learned that have been mildly annoyed because it means that he'll probably never go back to writing books.

Maybe they'll have him finish the last Thrones book after Martin baconators himself 6 feet under.   :awesome_for_real:

Rasix mentioned it earlier in the thread, but if you haven't watched Santa Clarita Diet, it is highly recommended.  Really funny.  Barrymore is good, and Timothy Olyphant is great.  Supporting cast, especially the kids, also great.

I am avoiding the GoT thread as I couldn't watch the episode yet, but here is:


Littlefinger recaps season 6 in five minutes (https://youtu.be/DzrLtBC7wXc)

Need some ideas for some good situation comedy on Netflix.  Wife and I are getting to the end of a Modern Family run and looking to find something to replace it.  Suggestions?  Looking for something in a similar vein.

That probably requires knowing what you've already watched.

Salvation (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt6170874/) is a horrible example how to totally ruin an interesting idea (asteroid on course to hit earth) with stupid writing.

Ok, so I've got two that you may or may not have watched.

1) The Middle - While I never personally got into The Middle it was ok the times I did catch an episode. I'm not big on family comedies but it was entertaining enough I didn't turn it off.
2) Raising Hope - This show never got the praise I think it should have. It's by the guy who did My Name is Earl (and has some callbacks there at times) It's the lower-class version of shows like Modern Family.

This assumes you've already watched the other standards like The Office, Arrested Development, 30 Rock, Parks & Rec, The Office, It's Always Sunny, Scrubs, and Malcom in the Middle.

Malcom always deserves a re-watch if you haven't seen it in years. I think I'll start that myself this week.

Thanks, I'll add those to the list of possibilities.  Being in filthy Euroland, I have actually seen virtually none of those, save AD (and that only recently).

Oh! I forgot you were a Euro. Then yeah, all of that list.

Hell, if you're able to slog through early 90's tropes then Married With Children is a must. Ed O'Neil in Modern Family is an older Al Bundy who's learned to feel in his 2nd marriage.

I would second the recommendation for Raising Hope. It's hilarious from start to finish, Garret Dillahunt is amazing in the Dad's role and you get to see Elsie from Westworld in a comedic role.

Community would be my recommendation, though I'd probably stop at the end of Season 3.

For some reason I've been itching to watch Northern Exposure again.  I only saw it the one time back in the 90s and really loved it. 

It was brilliant.   And then wasn't.  Much like Due South.

Man, Due South. Exactly right--fucking out of the park great and then suddenly boom! it sucked.

Speaking of Stephen King... does anyone know anything about that alleged "Castlerock" series that's supposed to be airing on Hulu at some point in the near/far/never future?

Can someone give me a spoiler-free review of the latest GoT season? I haven't seen a single episode due to not being at home!

Will I like it?

Do you like Dragons burning things?

IF so, yes.

If not, give it a pass.

Don't think too much about things. Lots of stuff happens. Some of it sucks, some of it doesn't.

Also, Westeros is tiny.

It takes less time to travel across westeros on foot than it does Rhode island in a car, on a Sunday, with no traffic during the summer.

Roger. Thanks. I'll see to find someone willing to rewatch the season with me. (Alone feels lonely. Also good to have someone to rant to in "Omg, what bullshit. This is totally out of character, what where the writers thinking, such bullshit, this is Battlestar Galactica season 4 all over again."-type situations.


OTOH hand, stopping to watch when Cersei is queen and most st did definitely will have a long and fruitful reign ahead of her might be not so stupid either....

Cersei has been turned into a conniving Trump figure and the entire season was preachy nonsense morality hokum, if we're being honest.

What do the Dragons represent in this analogy?  Bourgeois?  Antifa?  Ethics in gaming journalism?

Since the Dragons are servants of a mistress... Maybe they symbolize the Main Stream Media in it's 3 incarnations print news, TV and Hollywood.

Daneris could be George Soros (Jews=Valyrians) or maybe a Genderqueer femimazi. In this picture the Tagyerians represent the Romans, who on their height went decadent (gay, adultery) and who thus invited their downfall (Cataulsm ia a stand in for Babarians). She is destroying the old order, with help of castrated men (=representing the modern metrosexual feminist cuck). Her eyebrows not matching her head hair is a subtle hint towards that her womaness isn't really real. cf Karl Drogo taking her from behind (another hint).

Her desire to "break", in other words desconstruct, the wheel is an analogy for the corrosive effect postmodern Marxist cultural studies have on traditional societies. Her rise and thus return of the Taygerians symbolizes the danger of America becoming decatent Rome.

Unless she is stopped by a white cis Man, who forgot and first must remember his birthright as leader, this is symbolzed by Jon Snow thinking he is a worthless bastard.

Edit: I hope it is clear all of the above was greentext

the dragons were just dragons

Started watching Shameless.  I've made it through 2 seasons and the first couple episodes of 3.  I'm not sure this is worth continuing to watch despite the somewhat interesting drama, comedy, and frequently nude Emmy Rossum. 

It's just so depressing and most of the characters are despicable. Frank Gallagher is beyond putrid as a human being. The most satisfying parts of the show are when he's physically harmed.

Anyone make it through the entire series and recommend a good stopping point? I've heard the last few seasons get even more depressing.

The ex loved the show.

That's all I needed to know about not continuing to watch.

Ok, help me out ;  I've now watched 3 episodes of Tin Star and it's just fucking awful.

Is it worth it to continue ?  I haven't felt this bad about a show since Fortitude.

I didn't even know that show existed. I'd be interested for Tim Roth alone unless you're telling me it sucks.

I think it has potential, but thus far it's pretentious pish.

So I've been catching up on Midnight, Texas (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Midnight,_Texas_(TV_series)): It's not horrible, although it does take the supernatural milieu straight to 11. Only 3 episodes in, but I'm going to keep working through it.

--Dave

So okay, I noticed Colony was pretty highly rated on its network, so I watched the first pilot episode.

I found it pretty bad. Now, I know plenty of shows that got better as they went on, so is anybody watching this and can tell me if the same is true here? Cause I thought the pilot was a turgid mess of indifferent acting and outworn tropes.

I'd like to avoid spoilers other than that though.

So I finished it...It got better for a while, then the last two episodes were one whiplash ass-pull unearned plot device after another. It was likely they originally plotted it for 13 episodes, and had to compress the last 6 into 2.5.

--Dave

So, just to keep you updated, Tin Star finally let Roth out the box for episodes 5 and 6 and he was GLORIOUS.  Alas, the rest of it is still utter keich, but if you like Roth, you'll like those episodes.  I suspect the rest of the season is only going to let him out more until it culminates in the usual banshee style blood bath.

Still not worth it if you don't like Roth.


Edited ;  For Gods Sake, Don't watch this.  Finished it.  It's utterly terrible.

Tim Roth is one of my favorite actors ever, mostly due to Legend of 1900 which is the best movie barely anyone has seen.

This looks like shit.

He made Lie to Me.

They had a really good concept, a good twist...and then spent the last 3 episodes passing the Idiot Ball around.

--Dave

He never should've wasted his time with Lie to Me (still watched all of it).

It was.  I'm utterly serious here chaps ;  I watched this so YOU DON'T HAVE TO.  If I catch anyone watching this, I'll take it personally because otherwise I've wasted hours of my life.

Exactly what I meant.  Just watching him be fucking bored of people's bullshit was worth the time spent.

Been watching The Equalizer again (was a big fan in its original run).  Very 80s but a good show and its amazing the people who show up on it that went on to greater things. Woodward is totally boss too.

The theme music (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g87nDBIyqeU) on that was awesome too.

Interesting. I too have been watching the equalizer, but for some reason they call it 'person of interest' these days. Its quite good and a surprise Amy Acker has appeared. I like the dog.

Last ep I watched had Kevin Spacey in it. His second earliest imdb entry.

Actually, no, Person of Interest has reincarnated into Wisdom of the Crowd.  I wish they had just not canceled Person of Interest since it was a much better show.  Both CBS, too.  The only thing I didn't much like in Person of Interest was Fred.  I didn't like her in Angel, either.

I like her though.

I'm really, really liking this show.  Also, since I came to it late, it has an end, so I can just graze on it liberally.

I really love the dog.

I enjoyed the show up until Amy Acker's character became a regular. At that point I felt it really jumped the shark and I couldn't enjoy it as much. There was also one event I realized killed my interest in the show, but not knowing where you're at I won't discuss.

Holy shit, they killed Carter.

There it is. I didn't want to say too much, but yeah. That's where the whole show shifted for me and I lost interest. It wasn't the same after that.

But in fairness, at least they're not dicking around anymore with vagueness ;  it's an AI.  Only Harold seems to be resistant to the idea at this point.

Carter went over to her own show. They didn't kill Carter. Carter killed Carter

I found the show to be super tedious until Amy Acker's character became a regular. At that point the show really picked up and became consistently enjoyable.

Thus proving myself to be the anti-Merusk.

Also, yeah, the actress that played Carter jumped ship to Empire. Which suited me fine -- I wasn't a fan.

Amazon making a The Lord of the Rings prequel show: http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=176060&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=2316587

God that won't be slow and boring at all.

Why ?  Why do this ?  Surely Hobbit movies killed this one stone dead ?

They probably paid far too much for the rights since Netflix was also interested. I wish they'd do series based on something like Robin Hobb's books instead.

Because at least half of all movie/tv execs greenlighting things are marketing cobblefucks that could not imagine making a property that wasn't already a well-known IP.

I would probably watch "Silmarillion!  The Musical"

Keeping up with the Kardashians is in its 14th season. Fuck.

--Dave

My ex was making me watch that trash before our kiddo was born. That was 11 years ago...

ALTERED CARBON Official Trailer TEASER (2018) (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NV8YovA4yzE)

I'm looking forward to this as a fan of the books.  :grin:

Oh Yeah.

‘Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency’ Canceled At BBC America (https://deadline.com/2017/12/dirk-gentlys-holistic-detective-agency-canceled-bbc-america-1202229367/). While the second season wasn't as good as the first I still enjoyed it for what it was.

And this is the first time I've heard of it. I liked the book, so guess I'll add it to the queue.

Marvelous Miss Maisel on Amazon Prime is pretty good.

Korean Horror/fantasy soap opera named 'Black' on Netflix is kinda amazing. It's hokey, charming, horrifying, sad and hilarious. I've not finished it, only onto episode 9 of 18 and I'm not sure they can keep the drama fresh, but so far so good.

Binged through "End of the F***ing World" (their edit, not mine) on Netflix. Well worth watching as it was really well acted and paced. Maybe a bit too fast, as it's only about 8 20 minute episodes, but nothing of it felt wasted. Emotionally heavy and quite sad, but not oppressively.  Plus, it's got Yara from GoT in it.

X-Files is back, and I am pretty sure that Chris Carter is just phoning in shit from the rejected script pile of the original run. They *literally* turned the entirety of the 10th season into a coma hallucination in the first 2 minutes of the 11th, then Mulder spent the rest of the episode narrating his existential angst while driving.

--Dave

Good. 10th season was horrible, and needed to be blamed on a gas leak or something.

Unfortunately I have no faith that 11th will be any better, and in fact unless I hear some really glowing reviews I'm not even going to bother.

The X-Files premiere was fucking dire. Chris Carter is trolling the fans now.

On a positive note, and I'm not sure it doesn't deserve its own thread, Netflix has come out with a Japanese 'live action' series based on an anime series named "Erased". Its essentially a time-travel rewind the past to correct the present type tale but that's not doing it justice. If you enjoy good anime stories like Mushishi or Full Metal Alchemist which combines a blend of the brutal realities of child abuse and murder with the most gentle and sweet interactions between characters to make a devastating concoction, this may be for you.

Er, sounds good, I guess.

I'm looking for a new crime/detective series to watch, but at this point I think I've seen them all - at least all the British ones. Do the US have any decent ones on offer, or are they all CSI style rubbish?

Elementary?

Edit: there's also Life which is one of my favorite shows.

Alas, I've watched them both. Elementary went a bit off the rails for me (UK Sherlock tho).

"Castle" was a pretty good procedural, up until they stopped being episodic and tried to have season arcs.  It had a cutsey twist to make it stand out, and Nathan Fillion is fun.

"Forever" was decent.  Its shtick was an immortal who worked as a coroner for the NYPD.  only one season, tho.

These are network crime dramas -- they're pretty tame.  If you're looking for edgier, NetFlix/HBO dramas, you may find these a little dull.

The Bridge was a pretty decent FX cop show that lasted 2 seasons about a Mexican cop and an American DEA agent, based on I think a Finnish or Swedish show of the same name.

Great cast and my first introduction to Damien Bashir.  Kruger and Buffalo Bill were great too.   The show actually got better in the second season after they ditched trying to remake the Scandinavian original series (Franka Potente was wild).   I think if this was on AMC it would have kept going and found an audience. FX too quick on the trigger.

Yeah, we watched some of the scandi original, and the UK remake (the Tunnel), but not the US one. I wasn't sold on it. I prefer the more mystery side of these things, rather than the drama or thriller aspects (I dislike Broadchurch for example, as it's pretty much just a soap opera).

Never given Castle a go though, will look it up.

Castle is amusing, though it eventually wears out its welcome.

It's not exactly a cop drama, but all 3 seasons of Fargo are goddamn excellent.

Castle is Nathan Fillion being Nathan Fillion. If you find him amusing you will enjoy it for a couple of seasons. If you don't then pass.

If you like documentaries, Alex Gibney has a new series on Netflix called Dirty Money, specifically about different ways big businesses are fucking the shit out of people. The first episode of 6 is about Volkswagen's emissions standards defeat device and the prevalence of European car manufacturers (and really US ones too) using defeat devices to lie to regulators about the pollution from diesel cars. I've only watched that first one but it's good.

What Freshman shows reallyvvstuck the Season 1 landing in the last few years? Way too many good shows fall apart withb3 episodes to go... I'm looking for a few that end strong.

I watched 5 hours of a MASH marathon tonight.  Seen every episode like 10 times before back in the 80s when it was on 3 times a day. Was like putting on a nice, well-worn shoe.  I am old.

How did it hold up? We've done something similar but with Golden Girls.  It really holds up except for the fact that the ladies are in their late 50s in the show and thats.not.that.far.

Pretty well. It was late period MASH which is hit or miss for me (l like CEWIII a lot but  the show gets very Klinger heavy which gets old) but it was a very well made and written show with some real gems even in the last few years.

I felt the opposite re-watching a couple of episodes recently. Unbearably twee.

Later seasons of MASH veer from farce to maudlin. Doesn't bear up to rewatching for me. I've been watching some old westerns on H&I and while the plots are simplistic, they're still enjoyable for the most part (Rawhide, Wanted Dead or Alive, Have Gun Will Travel)

Living Biblically (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4a5OaxWEOxI) is apparently a real CBS comedy series. I don't think I've ever seen a worse trailer.

Well that looks horrifying.  :ye_gods:

It puts the FUN in Fundamentalist.

If you didn't click on that link, that is the actual marketing for it.

Really depends on the episode. Watched "Life Time" tonight (for some reason been watching this show a lot lately) which is Season 8 and is quite brilliant IMO. Guy has his aorta shot out and they have a clock running in the corner while they wait for another guy to die to get a graft. 

Uh, he has his Aorta shot out ?

That sounds like a short fucking timer.

Watching "Ministry of Time" on netflix. Its a spanish sci-fi show that's quite good. Its sorta Dr. Who-ish in intent. The premise is that Spain has a bunch of portals to various places in time, and there's a secret government agency who manages it, named, stunningly, the Ministry of Time. Their job is to ensure that Spain's glorious history proceeds without interruption. Of course, there are evil time travelers who try to steal Guernica, get Lope De Vega killed, sabotage Dali's education, etc. Its very dramatic and filled with heartache, pain, lust, tragedy, death, and an assortment of strategically placed boobs.

Meanwhile on... Youtube Red: Cobra Kai (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xCwwxNbtK6Y)

Low budget, cornball, and at least 13 years too late.

Seems like it is actually buying into the theory that Daniel is the villain of the original. Love it.

pfft looks awesome

Illegal kicking motherfucker.

That looks hysterical.

MEANWHILE IN THE WORLD OF CHINESE PUPPETRY (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4WTOaGLSSXE)

Uh, they’re speaking Japanese.

All I can think of is "MATT... DAMON."

Yes, but it's Chinese glove puppetry (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glove_puppetry) as opposed to marionettes, shadow puppets, or Bunraku.

It's also recorded in three languages: Mandarin, Taiwanese and Japanese. The characters all have Chinese names too.

Saw that they had Chinese names, but kept hearing Japanese so figured it was one of their shows.

I just watched Hap & Leonard season 3 and I thought it was really good (far better than season 2). I really hope they do another season despite the low numbers.

All five seasons of Babylon 5 are coming to Amazon Prime in June.

I know most of the series doesn't deserve the pedestal that geekdom has placed it on, but there are quite a few episodes in seasons 2-4 I'll gladly rewatch.

Edit: I can't calendar today.

Amazon passed on an Old Kingdom/Sabriel TV series co-written by the author. Fools!

Pilot has been written, now shopping to other networks.

Man in the High Castle S03E10

(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DpQFuTCX4AAREAO.jpg)

Dornier Do-31

Did you know that's a real thing? Vertical take off transport plane! :heart: :heart: :heart:

(https://i.imgur.com/OPwX1F1.gif)

Watch for sound: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x3YueCf1JeI

That thing looks like War Rocket Ajax.

Haunting of Hill House starting off strong, but I dearly wish that the Horror Genre could escape the clichés even once.  You can literally write the jump scares and tropes yourself as you go.

Interesting cast and dynamic thus far tho.

i couldn't bring myself to finish episode 2

i'm going to force myself through it though, and considering i just watched slender man tonight i really have no fuckin excuse

I only watched the first episode of the Hill House one.  It was okay but I'm in no hurry.  I've been addicted to horror films since I was like six or something and I aways watch a lot during October... tis the season... and most of it is rubbish.  Now that you've watched Slender Man, you also have no excuse not to watch Stickman.  Poor you.

Recommend the Bodyguard on Netflix with Robb Stark. Well done British thriller tv.

Binge watched 'Press' on the plane. 6 episode series about competing UK papers.

Pretty good. Looks like available on PBS for US viewers.

I am hearing and seeing references to this damn Bird Box thing, so I feel compelled to watch it just so I feel like I can be in on the meme.

Me too.

And without spoilers, is this movie actually, you know, good? At least to whatever viewing demographic I'm pigeonholed in.

(Meaning I never need to see another movie again that eloquently, and solely exists to, demonstrate the evils of racism/drugs/bullying/religious intolerance/whatever. I got that, I'm good and informed thank you.)

I liked Bird Box. It’s not groundbreaking (think A Quiet Place) but it is well acted and done. “Hell is other people” is a big theme though so if you don’t want to see humanity screwing each other at the end of the world you’ll be disappointed.

Finished the first season of Kingdom on Netflix and it was pretty bloody good.  I mean, not good enough to make a thread about (or even find one) but bloody good.  Glad they subtitled rather than dubbed, loved the hook of the monsties, acting was great with one exception and the cliffhanger was BRUTAL.

Well worth a watch.

Interesting.  The trailer looks interesting, but I am not quite sure I can get my filthy, uncultured arse to watch a subtitled show these days.  It would force me to actually look at the screen for the entire time, which it bothers me to consider that I may be unable to do.

I watched it dubbed, it was pretty good that way too. And yes, fuck that cliff hanger.

Hey, you know it worked ;  you really wanna know what happens next, right ?

Oh absolutely, i just want it now :(

Russian Doll was a pretty decent show I thought.

On balance I enjoyed it, but thought it was about twice as long as it needed to be for the story it had to tell.

Yeah I thought it was building to something more interesting than it ended with.

Russian Doll.  Avoid.

It adds nothing new.  And it's annoying as fuck.

I see Into the Badlands has been cancelled. The martial arts choreographers for that show deserved a better series, I hope someone has the good sense to hire that entire team.

What really ruined the show was the fucking kid, who has to have been the worst actor in a major role that I've seen anywhere, just about. Painful.

I agree he wasn't very good, but I wouldn't say worst ever  :why_so_serious:

But yeah, kind of a shame.  I like Season 1 a lot, the last two seasons were kinda meh.  But the choreography was unbelievable.  I hope they find another vehicle for that guy.

So I can't find a thread that talks about True Detective Season 3;  However, I've just finished it and it was brilliant.

The comparison between it and season 1 will be drawn (particularly amongst people who don't acknowledge season 2 existed), but for my part, I am honestly trying to figure out if I liked this one MORE and I fear the answer might be yes.

If you haven't watched, you should.  It's truly fine.

Trying to avoid spoilers, but it's on my "watch next" list.

Edited to add: Just watched the first episode, and it is certainly starting off strong.

But then I didn't hate the second season either. It wasn't as gripping as the first, but then what was?

Still going to avoid too much discussion about it yet though. This is not a show I can binge watch, so will be a few weeks before finishing.

I keep trying to get the other half to watch it but she wants to dedicate a weekend or holiday to watch it as we tend to get sucked in. Hopefully we can watch it soon.

Love Death and Robots has started and omg, they've made a cartoon of Sonnies Edge, the story by that pervert Hamilton.

That's a bit mental.  I wonder who else they're gonna do.


Edit ;  ooo full listings and they did Reynolds as well.  wheee.

Yah enjoying this so far.

Watching that Vampire thingy 'The Passage' with the family.

Strangely entertaining.

Santa Clarita Diet season 3 is out, and so I went back to the beginning and started with S1 again.  I think this is one of the funniest shows around.

ends with a cliffhanger and has been canceled

I'm about done with Netflix over this shit. I have actively started waiting to watch shows until they're wrapped up because of this crap. I know the networks did the same shit, but it becomes so much more egregious with how we binge consume content now.

Nooooooooooooooooooo.  You are fucking with me.

Goddammit.  For a service that relies more and more on original content, they sure have a fucking strange approach towards evaluating that content.  They are going to end up cannibalizing themselves.

Finished the last episodes of Santa Clarita now, and fucking fuck.  I hope they lose a billion subs over this.  At some point they have to stop this crap, it isn't network television.

why would i do that

Because I would have preferred that over having SCD cancelled?

I want Archer Season 10 and I don't get it.

I hate life.

This Dark Crystal series is actually quite entertaining thus far.

Was thinking about starting in on that, but I never saw the original stuff (probably because the family matriarchs were concerned about it being a conduit straight to Satan).  Is the original required viewing and/or does it remotely hold up?

Prequel, so no not required (in fact, you could argue that it's better not to have...)

Cool, sold.  I am about to wrap up Handmaid’s Tale season 3 (which everyone should watch), so I will probably start this next.

So this Dark Crystal stuff is surprisingly well done.  It took me a bit to get over the fact that am watching fucking muppets, but the quality here is indeed high.  Visually excellent,  Great voice work.  Great puppetry (muppetry?).  Both whimsical and dark.  Skeksis would have scared the shit out of the 10 year old version of me.  It all feels rather epic.  Also, I fucking love Hup already, and Podlings in general.

Oh, and under the assumption that this is mostly puppets and actual built set pieces, it puts a lie to the idea the CGI is better.  Whatever this is is better.

Watch all the episodes.  Then when it automatically starts to play the making of, WATCH THAT TOO.

The effort put into this show is superhuman and it shows.

Will do.  Even halfway through the first episode, I was wondering to myself how the fuck they managed 10 episodes.  Just the sets alone....

3 down, 7 to go.

Damn.  Finished up the Dark Crystal, and also the ‘making of’ that followed it.  Just great.  If there is still a little kid inside you, you should watch this.  I have no idea how this prequel series flows into the movie (I haven’t seen it, but I for sure will no)....but I sure hope they make more of this.  Wonder if the economics are worth it, it looks like it was a huge undertaking.

NBC announced (https://www.cnbc.com/2019/09/17/nbc-names-its-new-streaming-service-peacock.html?__source=twitter%7Cmain) a streaming service called Peacock (lol) headlined with a new Battlestar Galactica reboot by Sam Esmail (Mr Robot).

Huh.  Okay.  I'd be down for another BG.

Currently watching "The End of the F**king World".  Weird British series.  I like it, but I don't know why.  2 short seasons, and the episodes are barely over 20 minutes.

It is not really about the end of the world, despite the title. 

Just finished up Chernobyl, which maybe has a thread, I dunno.  Really well done, and really well acted by both whathisface and the other guy.  For whatever reason, I never received a proper education about what actually went on with that whole mess, so what a goddamn eye-opener that was.  I mean, it was a disaster obviously, but was it really that close to being a global catastrophe like they depicted?  Jesus F Christ.

The whole eastern bloc was full of similar reactors when communism fell. Could probably do a whole series about near-misses and post-communism troubleshooting that went on.

Hulu wants you to watch a whole documentary about Hillary Clinton and has released a trailer (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PdgWO9FPczE).

future man or nothing, hulu

But why though?

Her emails.

Started a rewatch of all seasons of Spartacus.  Which makes no goddamn sense when I still have a backlog of shit I have not seen waiting.  It still holds up perfectly.  This show is like my happy place.

We started Ragnarok. Not sure it warrants a thread but not sure it deserves all the hate it is getting from people who think it's Twilight. Better than Percy Jackson at any rate

Not sure if anyone is watching Ozark, but that is some good shit.  Jason Bateman is one of the most underrated dudes on TV.

Ozark is very good tv. I got halfway through S3 and decided to rewatch from scratch. Show is flipping brutal and the tension is legitimate.

Yeah, I restarted when S3 came out, totally worth it.

If you happen to have Epix, the show Pennyworth is pretty good. It's by the same showrunner as Gotham (Bruno Heller), and it focuses on the early adult life of Alfred Pennyworth, Batman's butler. The lead is pretty good and it reminds me a lot of a mixture of Guy Ritchie's crime movies and Gotham's visual and character style. I've seen the first two episodes. Since it's on a pay channel, they do not spare the fucks and adult content.

I've now finished the first season of Pennyworth and I'll say it's worth watching if:

1) You liked Gotham - it very much has the same Euro-weird vibe especially to the villains and such. I don't know how else to describe it but it's definitely something that wasn't cooked up by an American, from the sense of humor to the violence, and it definitely fits right in the wheelhouse of a lot of BBC action type things I've seen in the past.
2) You like Guy Ritchie's Cockney Crime dramas mixed with a bit of Man from UNCLE style action. It's fun and daffy at times but overall mixes dark humor with weird characters and some gritty character drama.

Overall, it was worth the watch and I look forward to see where they go with Season 2, whenever they can get it filmed. Whether it's worth the Epix subscription price is up to you - I got a free month from YoutubeTV and will probably subscribe because Julian Fellowes new drama Belgravia is on there as well and my wife loves her some Julian Fellowes stuff.

Upload (Amazon): Probably not worth it's own thread, but fun. Maybe works a little too hard at trope subversion, but generally earns it.

--Dave

Against my better judgement, I started watching Colony on Netflix.  Alien invasion type thing with Josh Holloway (Sawyer) and Sarah Wayne Callies.  It a good placeholder show, the kind of thing to watch when you aren't sure what else to watch, much better than I thought it would be.  Also the only thing with SWC where I didn't want to punch her straight in her dumb face.  And Holloway is quite good.

So, Fleabag is a very good show.

Anyone watch that Relics and Rarities stuff on Youtube.  I hear it is good, so going to give the first one a spin.

We tried the first few episodes of Ragnarok. It...wasn't bad? But I get the people who were like "Norse Mythology + Twilight = bad".

So, having listened to the soundtrack many times, I still got a lot out of watching the filmed version of "Hamilton".

The soundtrack is good, but it's really the stagecraft that makes that show IMO.

Having seen it live in the theater twice from the cheap seats, I still really appreciate having the filmed version because now I can actually see faces.   :awesome_for_real:

Sorta related, while I was YouTube hopping last night, came across a CBS News video of the original Hamilton Broadway cast performing "Alexander Hamilton" for President Obama and others at the White House.  And even without the stagecraft, it was so cool.  But one of the actors (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Okieriete_Onaodowan) looked really familiar to me.  Guy who plays a firefighter on the show Station 19 (hey, it's a guilty pleasure show!) was in the original cast.  Like, how do you go from being on Broadway in one of the biggest stage hits in years to being on a TV show?  Had to be the regular paycheck, I'm guessing.

I watched all of Space Force, and it was better than the terrible reviews it generally received.  Malkovich in particular is goddamn hysterical in this, and so is the guy who plays Fuck Tony (same guy who plays Jean Ralphio in Parks and Rec, and basically the same character).  Not great, but I would like to see a second season.

It took me a while to get around to it, but I finally watched some of this.  I have never played tabletop DnD, so I have nothing to compare this to...but I was utterly sucked in.  I tend to have a bit of ADD when watching stuff, but this commanded my full attention for about 6 straight hours of binging.

Deborah Ann Woll (AKA Karen Page from Marvel TV stuff) is Dungeon Master, and she is absurdly good at it from my novice perspective.  She is not acting and it is not scripted, she is a legit DnD nerd.  They have four static adventurers, and one celebrity guest that changes from each episode.

Very entertaining, and often hilarious.

Probably doesn't warrant a new thread considering the show ended back in 2006 (I think) but the husband has discovered The West Wing on Netflix and I've been passively semi-watching along with him.  Besides the fact that it's an awesome show, my biggest takeaway is just how dang long the seasons feel when you have 22 episodes to play with. 

Well, that and the fact that so much of what was going on in the show is still far too topical today. :(

Any suggestions for binge worthy shows that might have escaped mainstream attention?

What even does "mainstream" mean in the age of Netflix and personalized recommendations?

From Dusk Till Dawn, The Series is Supernatural with boobs every 3rd episode, so...

--Dave

Weird one to drop but having never really watched it properly, I just covered seasons 2+3 of Buffy over the last couple of weeks. It was... an interesting experience. I think, those two seasons at least, were pretty well done series that definitely worked super well for weekly series shows and translates pretty well into binge watching as well. They've definitely got a variety of 'monster of the week' type episodes with metaplot ones, although plot wise my biggest issue would be that they have a few things going on fitting into a few episodes within the season so even though there's 22 episodes some character arcs end up getting squeezed into 3 or 4 episodes where things actually change and character transformations (even ones that have been telegraphed somewhat) feel pretty sudden.

The biggest thing I noticed though was just the social attitude changes, which I guess is also partly Whedon stuff. There's one episode where a coach is drugging the high school team with an experimental steroid cocktail that has the side effect of turning them into murderous fish creatures. He point blank tells Buffy he's going to throw her into a pit with them so they can rape her (iirc she says they won't be hungry any more and he says well you know boys, they've got other needs you can satisfy), which is kind of played off for laughs (because of course the Slayer is totally bad ass and can escape). It's pretty jarring, especially considering earlier one of the still human guys has Buffy in his car and sexually assaults her, which results in her getting in trouble for breaking his nose. The message coming off it is very much, 'sexual assault and mistreatment of women happens and the authorities will do nothing to stop it.' Also as I said, kind of played for laughs, which is just icky.

Disney dropped a few trailers for Marvel stuff on YT and announced two Mando spinoffs, Ahsoka and Rangers of the New Republic. (Apologies if the latter was mentioned in the Mando thread, I'm a week behind and avoiding the thread for now).

I wasn't too hot on Wandavision or Falcon & Winter Soldier, but the new trailers looked better. Even the What If animation looked kind of interesting, and I don't normally go in for that stuff.

Well, playing serious stuff for laughs was the way they were able to bring in that stuff at all, especially in the beginning. They were able to get a surprising amount of highly emotional material in under the radar.

Full disclosure, I'm still a pretty big fan of the show, and enjoyed it all the way through -- even the "bad" sixth season. Second and third season is especially enjoyable  as you can watch most of the newbie actors literally learning to act and come together as an ensemble cast, and in the second and third season the viewer could still be surprised at the quality of the show despite the greeness of the cast and the low production budget.

After catching up on the Umbrella Academy, I went looking for something else to watch on Netflix and found The New Legends of Monkey.  It's actually a kids show from Australia/New Zealand, based on "Journey to the West".  Half hour episodes but nothing felt really rushed or skimped on, 10 episodes in S1 (which I've finished) and 10 in S2 (which I plan to start soon).  It's enjoyable and I like it, which is about all I ask for in shows, tbh.

Been watching Fate: The Winx Saga on Netflix.  Usually I can't stand the teenager stuff, but I'm actually enjoying it.

United States of Al

https://youtu.be/SQEwuapZ5RA

It's like the quota-negro is an Afghan. With horrible stereotypes. Who greenlights this?

It's on CBS - almost all of their shows are made for people my dad's age.

It’s from Chuck Lorre — most of his shows are all about milking stereotypes for laughs (tracks).

Probably Kelly Kahl.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kelly_Kahl

We just watched the entire run of Blackadder, all of them. The first season sucks, the rest are funny. There is stuff that doesn't work at all any longer, but no shock there, I think. The last episode of the World War I season is still as fucking devastating as it ever was. I think the kicker for me now as in the past is when Hugh Laurie's character suddenly flips to being rather serious about not wanting to die after having been an upper-class idiot to that point. That's where you really know what's coming.

I disagree about the first season. I think it's hilarious. How can you not like Brian Blessed's king? It's a lot more silly than the other seasons but I still think it's good. My favorite is still the second season, though. That felt like all the pieces merged perfectly.

Yes, Blessed is fantastic. It's just that the whole thing didn't really fully click until the second season.

That I can agree with - it's clear they were still trying to figure out what kind of show it was during first season.

I couldn't get past the first episode of Jupiter's Legacy. Does it get any better? It just seemed kind of corny with really bad acting/actors.

I'm up to ep 5 or 6? and I enjoy the flashback stuff, the current era parts of the show are lame because of how pants on head retarded the "code" is.

I'm at the same spot.  They writers are clearly stealing inspired by the Godfather II with the switch between the two timelines.  I would rate it at 7 out of 10, much like the rest of Netflix's content.

Kid is enjoying a re-watch of Farscape. She's more surly about B5, even with me skipping the bad episodes.

did you try the BSG reboot yet?

Nope. Probably next on the list, though.

What are heroes without a code?

The biggest thing that bothered me was that they were sending out the younger heroes without showing/explaining how they were trained and without pairing them up. When the mom finds the girl hero with a critical injury, I thought, where is her partner? It doesn't seem like they put any effort or time into ensuring that the new heroes are trained or protected.

The majority of the flashback stuff could have been removed. I didn't really need to see the entire journey. A montage would have worked fine once they got together on the boat.

Obligatory https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pFrMLRQIT_k

I wish those two could wrap their humor and serious commentary into a more palatable presentation. The fiancee loves their writing but hates cartoons and puppets.

I just wanted to say I just heard of a live action 'Powerpuff Girls' TV series in production. And I just needed a place where I could mention it and then go AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

Thank you.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt12976292/

I'm pretty sure it was cancelled or 'reworked' after the first episode. It needs to just be binned.

So, anyone other than me gotten really into the UK's Taskmaster show?

How is Farscape for children?  My son is 10 and really enjoys TNG and Stargate SG1.  We’re saving Babylon 5 until he’s in middle school, though, because it’s probably a bit too nuanced for him to follow,

Not...ideal. 

I'd say 13-14 at the earliest. Mostly due to violence, torture, etc.

The main characters do not have a pleasant life, you know?

Babylon 5 is going to rebooted, written and directed by JMS himself!  :heart:  :heart: :heart:

https://gizmodo.com/babylon-5-is-getting-rebooted-with-j-michael-straczyn-1847752907/

I am not sure how can redo this show and do it justice. But hopefully it works. Maybe it will be changed enough so it's not a complete 1:1 redo. Else it would be very hard not to instinctively & constantly compare the new actors to the the "real Londo" "real Vir" "real Delenn" etc..

Squid Game was neat. Very Korean. Not a super happy time, so I wouldn't suggest watching it unless you're in a good mental place.

Thanks!  I think we’ll wait a while on it, then.

Quick answer... you can't.

Longer answer, NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.

Yeah, I just can't see this. Especially not if it's JMS doing it. I don't know how you remake it where the arc has the same intensity and integrity and sense of surprise. The show's issues are not in its outdated effects and so on.

The only way a reboot could work would be: a) change the story in a major way and b) find someone other than JMS who would have a fundamentally different take on it.

The only core element you could keep would be "Babylon 5 as a port of call for wanderers etc."--the Shadows-Vorlons conflict and the breakaway from Earth would need to play out so differently just to keep us guessing and engaged. I suppose you could do G'Kar and Londo in some way but I don't see that either without some genius wizard casting.

Babylon 5 on the CW?  I can picture it now: a low budget series featuring a bunch of twenty somethings trying to look like teenagers.

I want to start Squid Game but I'm not sure I'm in the mood for something so bleak.

Hey, if my 9 year-old can handle it, so can you.

Unrelated, but the other day my 9 year-old showed me the still-screen headliner for a new Netflix series that totally made it appear to be a kid's show and even had a very silly and cute name so I totally disregarded it and let him continue watching it.

I've been watching Taskmaster as it comes out each season. Some really, really funny bits. Just caught the start of season 12, looks like it'll be a good one.

Season 12 I haven't started yet, but Seasons 1-11 are now on Amazon which is nice.

It's a clever little show. I think social distancing is making it a bit more difficult, but some of the tasks they've done with that have been quite fun.

It's an odd combo of silly comedy, battle royale, (too) super serious political commentary, and just really really dumb. At no point would I call it reaching bleak.

Also I wouldn't say it's especially good, but it's diverting in parts.

Netflix's Cowboy Bebop moved to its own thread: http://forums.f13.net/index.php?topic=26322.0

Hellbound is OK. Not great, but it's somewhat interesting.

It had some interesting ideas but the writing was rather mediocre which hurt the show especially in the last episode though a second season could fix a lot of the problems (or in the more likely case make them worse).

I started watching "Raised by Wolves" on the plane ride home. (HBO Max, Delta's in flight entertainment is amazing) I  love the concept.

Thread here. (http://forums.f13.net/index.php?topic=26207.0)

I'm almost done rewatching DS9.  It's somehow much better than I remembered and I think I'm going to be sad when I run out of episodes.

I watched the Vox Machina show. It's passable, if pretty generic.

I enjoyed it about as much as Arcane, though Arcane has much better animation, both are pretty eh otherwise. This one had a stronger narrative, but even more paint by numbers.

I assume you know this, but it is based completely on their DnD campaign and follows it fairly strictly, although necessarily cutting a bunch of stuff out.  So the narrative is already written and has the usual clichés.  And all these people got their starts in anime voice-acting, which would explain the animation style.

Only for the strong of stomach, I'm only 1 episode away from finishing the 3rd season of Titans on HBO Max. This thing had the ability to be decent (even getting past the "Fuck Batman" try-hardness) but fuck's sake, 3rd season just goes off the rails into just braindead stupidity. Characters do the absolute dumbest fucking things over and over again and are somehow surprised when the shit doesn't work. 13 episodes a season is too much for them - they seem to want to tell multiple stories in a season, but all of them at the same time, and it results in episodes that just stumble from one scene to the next for no rhyme or reason.

Second season was probably the best, but that's grading on a relative scale. Avoid unless you are a masochist or just a sucker for DC superheroes.

It's too bad.  I loved Doom Patrol.

The Quest (D+) is completely useless, but way more fun than it should be to just run in the background. On one level, it's a cheesy LARP campaign enacted for TV with way too high a budget. On another, it's a too wholesome by half reality show.

But at the end of the day, 8 teenagers got a geek's best possible summer camp.

--Dave

I gotta say, The Time Traveller's Wife is 90% creepy grooming and 10% fatalism.

--Dave

The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OYhFFQl4fLs

Streaming on Disney+ starting November 25

i'm a no fun guy that doesn't want money being spent on this kind of shit

(i'll still watch it because it's probably fucking canon somehow)

Never read the books and am only familiar with this stuff through the movies, but the first season of Interview with the Vampire was surprisingly good. Smart ways to update the material, the modern day stuff is great, and Grey Worm from GoT turns out to be a really good actor. I was very skeptical of this when the trailers came out, and only started watching because the reviews came in saying "actually this show is really good". I'm still surprised how much I liked it (partly due to the rock bottom expectations I had going in).

it's really good and i'm mad online about it

Did you actually start watching it?

yes.

What if AI made an animated Seinfeld show that ran forever?

https://www.twitch.tv/watchmeforever

 :uhrr: :ye_gods: :grin:

How come nobody told me about Schmigadoon!?

Based on the title and overall premise I was expecting some hackneyed Seth McFarlane sort of "ha ha ha we're going to self-referentially comment on the conventions of this genre while looking directly at the camera, aren't we ironic" crap, but instead it's... good?

(Seth McFarlane was not involved in this show, thank God.)

I'm going to ignore the Seth McFarlane hate there, and just say that I don't have a strong opinion on Schmigadoon either way, aside from being glad to see Cecily Strong doing stuff outside of SNL and Verizon commercials. The trailer for season 2 actually looked more interesting to me than season 1.

We just started a rewatch of the Larry Sanders Show and it insane how well it holds up.

Yeah, Shandling was great in general, and even into his later years. I frequently rewatch the episode of The Green Room (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wwXAmpMv32Y) that he and Bo Burnham were on because they both get some great off-the-cuff comments in.

But yeah, there was a lot of talent involved in the Larry Sanders show and it was way ahead of its time. As far as HBO stuff from that era, I also liked watching Dream On, but due to the nature of that show and all the movie clips it used that one is probably never going to get legitimately streamed or sold (aside from old dvd sets).