Useless TV

[Rasix]

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.

[BobtheSomething]

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?

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

[HaemishM]

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

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.

Quick answer... you can't.

Longer answer, NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.

[Khaldun]

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 The show's issues are not in its outdated effects and so on.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.

[slog]

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.

[Khaldun]

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

[Cyrrex]

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.

[rattran]

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

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.

[Morat20]

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

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.

[lamaros]

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

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.

[Trippy]

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

[Rasix]

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

[satael]

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).

[slog]

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

[Samwise]

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.

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.

[lamaros]

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.

[Cyrrex]

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.

[HaemishM]

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.

[slog]

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.

[MahrinSkel]

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

[MahrinSkel]

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

--Dave

[Trippy]

The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special:

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

Streaming on Disney+ starting November 25

[schild]

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)

[Velorath]

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).

[schild]

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

[Velorath]

Did you actually start watching it?

[schild]

yes.

[Sky]

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

https://www.twitch.tv/watchmeforever

 

[Samwise]

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.)

[Velorath]

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.

[Khaldun]

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

[Velorath]

Yeah, Shandling was great in general, and even into his later years. I frequently rewatch the episode of The Green Room 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).