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Topic: TV we've been watching lately  (Read 145969 times)

Moriarty

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TV we've been watching lately #15
The Leverage universe may be populated by ridiculous cartoon villains, but the ep where they take on a Fox News parody character is still the best thing ever.

For better writing / production values in your con artist television, I have to recommend Hustle. It's easily among my top five favorite shows of all time. The con artists in it are just con artists, even if they target unlikeable people, and the show ends up having way fewer problems than it would have if the writers had tried to make them into actual heroes.

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TV we've been watching lately #16
Supernatural is a pretty cool show about two brothers who drive a cool car and shoot monsters with shotguns and don't have sex with dogs.

I felt like a lot of the early episodes were pretty good at getting an eerie feeling, like a sort of action-horror thing.  It starts to veer more toward drama with each season though, and I stuck it out for a while because the fifth season had one or two good episodes.

So I'd say give it a shot if you want to see some horrory TV, but if you start getting bored when the plot starts to creep up and strangle the fun, don't feel bad about dropping it, because it gets progressively worse and worse, to the point that it starts retroactively making things from episodes you've already watched less fun.

Also never, ever intersect with Supernatural fans on the internet, but since this is the F Plus forums, I figure you know about the Omegaverse.

chai tea latte

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TV we've been watching lately #17
Also supernatural is not a show with good depictions of women, if that's a thing you care about. iirc one of the leads called the show "gratuitously misogynistic" which is enough for me to give it a pass.

VVV
Peep Show is awesome. 
« Last Edit: November 12, 2013, 08:02:07 pm by kal-elk »

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TV we've been watching lately #18
Yeah, I suppose.  Off the top of my head the female characters I can think of, in order, are: dead in the first episode (x2), evil, bitchy, and written the way a lonely male twenty-nine year old TV writer would write a rebellious teenage girl.

In terms of shows that don't power the dark furnaces of Tumblr HQ, Peep Show is a good comedy that's stuck around for a surprising number of series considering how quickly British TV shows seem to pop up and fade away.  David Mitchell and Robert Webb are really good together and the show uses David's awkward/stuffy demeanor really well.

Locclo

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TV we've been watching lately #19
I've been binge-watching Leverage, and I just love it. It's a great mix between comedy and drama, with some great humor backed up with some serious and sometimes tearjerking moments.
Locclo, November 11, 2013, 02:52:42 am
So, I enjoyed watching Leverage quite a bit, but... you understand it's crap, right? I mean, it's fun crap, but... okay, let me set the stage for you.

In one episode, The Bad Guys are Monsanto. The Good Guy is a perky young woman who invented a potato which is better at being a potato. I think the hacker character describes it as "The iPhone of potatoes". Monsanto doesn't like this, because this woman's potato will single-handedly solve world hunger and therefore eat into their profits, so they want to confiscate the potato.

So an Escalade pulls out, and a stern looking businesswoman climbs out with two toughs in black suits behind her. The businesswoman explains to nice scientist that her potato was grown with Monsanto pesticides and is therefore Monsanto property. One of the toughs barges into her house and finds a potato and brings it to the businesswoman, who then puts it one of those silver briefcases with an indentation in the foam for the potato! They leave, triumphant.
Lemon, November 12, 2013, 12:55:34 am

Leverage is what most good genre TV is, for me-- unabashed in its ridiculousness. Yeah, it's silly and probably rubbish from a critical standpoint, but it's fun and worth enjoying unironically.

But I hate most serious genre shows, so my tastes are skewed towards things that wear their humor on their sleeves.
sherlockian, November 12, 2013, 01:18:55 pm

I generally don't read reviews for TV shows or movies anymore for this exact reason. When I decide to watch a TV show or go to see a movie, there's one thing I want: I want to be entertained. I don't care if the writing is crap, I don't care if the story is silly, if it entertains me for a while, I'm happy with it. I think that's exactly why I enjoy Leverage so much, it makes me laugh, and I love the main characters and their interactions.

Sherlockian

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TV we've been watching lately #20
Also supernatural is not a show with good depictions of women, if that's a thing you care about. iirc one of the leads called the show "gratuitously misogynistic" which is enough for me to give it a pass.
kal-elk, November 12, 2013, 07:34:19 pm

For the record, if that's something that you care about and you still aren't watching Sleepy Hollow, the main female characters are all bad ass (and also the cast is predominantly people of color, and Amandla Stenberg, who played Rue in The Hunger Games last year, is set to play Orlando Jones' daughter.)

On Topic: I love Once Upon A Time despite it's horrible cheesiness, awful depiction of the way adoption works, heavy reliance on Disney, and general melodrama. The plot is just weirdly engaging enough for me to be entertained, and certain of the characters are really fascinating.

Same with Once Upon a Time In Wonderland, although the first episode's timeline is beyond confusing.  It also doesn't lean heavily on family dynamics as plot points, so if you dislike family melodrama, Wonderland's probably more up your alley. Also, Naveen Andrews is playing Jafar.

chai tea latte

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TV we've been watching lately #21
Also supernatural is not a show with good depictions of women, if that's a thing you care about. iirc one of the leads called the show "gratuitously misogynistic" which is enough for me to give it a pass.
kal-elk, November 12, 2013, 07:34:19 pm

For the record, if that's something that you care about and you still aren't watching Sleepy Hollow, the main female characters are all bad ass (and also the cast is predominantly people of color, and Amandla Stenberg, who played Rue in The Hunger Games last year, is set to play Orlando Jones' daughter.)

On Topic: I love Once Upon A Time despite it's horrible cheesiness, awful depiction of the way adoption works, heavy reliance on Disney, and general melodrama. The plot is just weirdly engaging enough for me to be entertained, and certain of the characters are really fascinating.

Same with Once Upon a Time In Wonderland, although the first episode's timeline is beyond confusing.  It also doesn't lean heavily on family dynamics as plot points, so if you dislike family melodrama, Wonderland's probably more up your alley. Also, Naveen Andrews is playing Jafar.
sherlockian, November 13, 2013, 01:43:25 am
I haven't heard too much about Sleepy Hollow; I'll definitely make the time to check it out. I tried to get into Once Upon A Time on multiple peoples' recommendations but it didnt really work for me. I can see how it would for other people, though!

Also Battlestar Galactica (the remake, not the original) is fantastic and hits my sci fi nerves just right.



re: reviewchat - I understand the desire to be entertained by a movie/TV but that's usually not enough for me. I like seeing reviews of movies which give me better technical understanding of the excellence (or not) in the movie's crafting that a lay viewer might not see.

Now, I agree that a lot of the criticism that's out there is not very good (in fact, is abysmal). Number ratings have replaced brief essays, and while this answers the question 'am I likely to enjoy this movie', it forgets entirely the question of whether or not the movie is any good. I thought The Avengers was a bad movie. I also had a good time watching it; these are not inconsistent viewpoints.

Movie critics led me to see films I might never have heard of if it hadn't been for them. Tree Of Life is a fantastic movie that I can't really picture being 'hey, let's go to the theatre today' fodder. My best friend and partner, who knows more about movies than I think I will ever know about any one subject, consistently points me towards new viewing experiences that she thinks I'll enjoy not just watching but having watched. To me, that's what critique is for. I posted in the Movies thread a little while ago about having watched the film Room In Rome. If I hadn't been looking for directorial intent ('this movie is about the lies we tell ourselves and others') I think I would have been very frustrated with it and thought it was pretentious bullshit. But because I was looking to be entertained not just by what went on onscreen but the obvious effort and work of the people who created the film, I had a really great time.

Rotten Tomatoes and IMDB aren't, typically, good places to go looking for critique. But there are gems out there; reviewers who will shine light on greater interpretations of cinema and television and make the viewing experience better, not worse. I'm really fond of both SA Current Releases and FILM CRIT HULK for sharing their greater understanding of genre conventions and what it means when certain films buck them (discourse on the hero's journey, superhero movies in general, the link between the supernatural in horror and the mundane it underscores). When I read their reviews of movies and television, I parse their respect and adoration for an incredibly deep art form into a greater understanding and admiration for films or tv as a whole and the piece being reviewed specifically.


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TV we've been watching lately #22
On Topic: I love Once Upon A Time despite it's horrible cheesiness, awful depiction of the way adoption works, heavy reliance on Disney, and general melodrama.
sherlockian, November 13, 2013, 01:43:25 am
Oh hey, what's up fellow Once fan!

I recognize it's not an objectively good show, but it's got things that hit my buttons really hard, especially since I love fairy tales. To borrow a phrase, it's the show I need, but not the show I deserve.

chai tea latte

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TV we've been watching lately #23
Just finished Orphan Black.

Holy shit that was good. If you like science fiction you should probably watch it.

KingKalamari

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TV we've been watching lately #24
I've been diggin' on Bob's Burgers a lot lately. Reminds me of early Simpsons

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TV we've been watching lately #25
I got started watching American Horror Story and it is cheese of the highest caliber.  It'd be an amazing show if it knew how cliche it was and rolled with it, but as it is it's kind of just silly and dumb and up its own ass a bit.  (Example: the pilot episode establishes a troubled couple with a distant daughter moving to a new creepy house with a magical down's syndrome girl living next door where the realtor selling them the house is legally obligated to tell them that the last owners killed themselves in a murder-suicide pact, and the distant girl thinks that's 'cool'.  The girl also smokes at school and gets into a fight with the popular girls first thing, plus she cuts herself.

One of the scenes in an episode made me think it was some 70's gay porn parody.  I mean, the guy literally said "that's not what your dick is saying," but no, that was supposed to be a really serious flashback to a hate crime.

In five episodes I haven't been remotely scared, though I have laughed out loud and did a spit take once or twice.

Also the dialogue is...something.  Words.  Maybe?

"My hair is turning white from fear.  Yeah.  I read on the internet that's possible."

eta: oh jesus the 'dark' teenage boy just gave the distant daughter a rose he painted black because, "I know you don't like normal things."
« Last Edit: December 19, 2013, 12:30:30 am by EYE OF ZA »

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TV we've been watching lately #26
I got started watching American Horror Story and it is cheese of the highest caliber.  It'd be an amazing show if it knew how cliche it was and rolled with it, but as it is it's kind of just silly and dumb and up its own ass a bit.  (Example: the pilot episode establishes a troubled couple with a distant daughter moving to a new creepy house with a magical down's syndrome girl living next door where the realtor selling them the house is legally obligated to tell them that the last owners killed themselves in a murder-suicide pact, and the distant girl thinks that's 'cool'.  The girl also smokes at school and gets into a fight with the popular girls first thing, plus she cuts herself.

One of the scenes in an episode made me think it was some 70's gay porn parody.  I mean, the guy literally said "that's not what your dick is saying," but no, that was supposed to be a really serious flashback to a hate crime.

In five episodes I haven't been remotely scared, though I have laughed out loud and did a spit take once or twice.

Also the dialogue is...something.  Words.  Maybe?

"My hair is turning white from fear.  Yeah.  I read on the internet that's possible."

eta: oh jesus the 'dark' teenage boy just gave the distant daughter a rose he painted black because, "I know you don't like normal things."
EYE OF ZA, December 19, 2013, 12:19:53 am

In a fit of mid-sickness boredom a couple months back I ended up watching about half of the first season and wondering "This is it? Does anyone actually become at all sympathetic or even all that interesting? God damn it, fandom lied to me again." So then I went back to Supernatural which at least has some good one-liners and interesting mythology porn amonst its particular brand of cheese.

I do have to admit the gimp suit ghost was amusing, if only in a completely cracked-out way.

chai tea latte

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TV we've been watching lately #27
As far as I can tell the entire point of AHS is to provide source material for sexy gifs on tumblr, so it's kind of disappointing that it doesn't go for it. Also too cheesy for me was Scandal, which I enjoyed the first few episodes of while inebriated, but then the plot got WAY out there ('Kerry Washington is blackmailing the president of the united states' soon became 'Kerry Washington is behind every loose plot end we've introduced in a show which delights in introducing dozens of loose plot ends'). First season was a ten-episode planned arc, though, and I'm usually a sucker for those.

I've been watching The Good Wife (on Netflix!) and I'm enjoying it so far. Fun courtroom drama with Things To Say About Women (e: although so far it is not very good at saying them, but I've only seen a few episodes). Still haven't seen Sleepy Hollow, but that's what the holiday season is for.
« Last Edit: December 19, 2013, 02:44:58 am by kal-elk »

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TV we've been watching lately #28
New season of Sherlock starts on New Year's Day!

That's all I have to contribute, really.

EYE OF ZA

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TV we've been watching lately #29
As a follow up to my previous post about American Horror Story, it continues to be hilariously, cartoonishly dumb, and I haven't really seen any horror in it yet.

It's amusing to see how every female character along with the gay male characters are interested in babies.  And in the episode I just watched, the gay couple wants to get babies, then kill then when they're one and a half years old, so they'll be 'cute' forever.  (Because the house makes you a ghost stuck at the age when you died.)

It's pretty clear based on that scene that no one writing it has ever had children, is female, or known anyone who had children or is female.  If you have to spend a literal eternity with a kid maybe try to aim for once they've stopped shitting themselves?

(As a side note, the one non-baby-crazy female character is like that for one episode then immediately gets retconned to being baby crazy.)

eta: By the way "superfetation" comes up so maybe that's where the Butt Ghost episode people learned about it.
« Last Edit: December 27, 2013, 10:49:39 am by EYE OF ZA »