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Snakes In The Ball Pit => How I choose to spend my time => TeeVee => Topic started by: chai tea latte on November 10, 2013, 04:16:17 am

Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: chai tea latte on November 10, 2013, 04:16:17 am
Because there's a movies thread, but not a television thread.

Recommendations for things you've been watching or teeveechat go here, I guess.


I'm about five episodes into Orphan Black and I have to say that I really enjoy it so far. Modern science fiction, but less 'aliens and warp drives' and more 'there is a mystery afoot which has roots in exploration of science's limits'. I really don't want to spoil too much about the plot, because the way it develops in the first two episodes is phenomenal, but it is Very Exciting so far. So I'll just link to the first three minutes on youtube, which set the plot in motion.

Also the lead actress, Tatiana Maslany, is utterly incredible. So much of what I've seen so far is this utterly exquisite character piece and I'm just flabberghasted by how good she is.

e: if you are interested in watching the show please don't google it or anything, there's some spoiler-y stuff that comes up in search results that is way more fun to try to puzzle out before the reveal.


Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Sherlockian on November 10, 2013, 12:21:10 pm
Sleepy Hollow

If you can get over all of the historical inaccuracies and poor biblical research (and the fact that the plot is all about the biblical book of Revelation), it's a lot of fun.  Nicole Behaire and Tom Mison are fabulous actors-- it's a very odd-couple sort of dynamic (cynical, 21st century cop meets civil war-era professor and soldier).  The pacing is great and despite the silly premise, I'm finding the meta-plot fairly engaging.

Also, John Cho and Orlando Jones play supporting roles.

Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: cyclopeantrash on November 10, 2013, 01:22:05 pm
Agreed on Sleepy Hollow. It's pretty damn fun. Ichabod has a pretty great sense of sarcasm and is legitimately funny. The book of Revelation bit did make me roll my eyes. As far as tired themes go, the biblical apocalypse in contemporary fantasy is comatose.

I've mostly been watching Jonathan Creek. It's a British mystery pseudo-serial. It's about a lateral thinking stage magic mastermind who lives in a windmill and solves various preposterous locked room mysteries. It's really damn fun and has a unique atmosphere to it. Also the titular character is really awkward and they play fun at sexual tension a lot. There are some weaker episodes, but it's pretty consistent.

At Kal-Elk's recommendation I started watching Top of the Lake and I have to say, it's one of the most unsettling shows I've ever seen. Brilliant so far.

I don't really watch TV all that much, so that's about the extent of it.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: chai tea latte on November 10, 2013, 01:26:39 pm

At Kal-Elk's recommendation I started watching Top of the Lake and I have to say, it's one of the most unsettling shows I've ever seen. Brilliant so far.
MicroMissles, November 10, 2013, 01:22:05 pm
It gets even better. And yeah, it's not really a pleasant show, but I think it's still an important one. How far in are you?
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: cyclopeantrash on November 10, 2013, 01:48:52 pm
I'm only on episode 2. But every single conversation up to this point has been awkward and tense. Especially conversations that involve the Mitchams.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: chai tea latte on November 10, 2013, 01:52:34 pm
I'm only on episode 2. But every single conversation up to this point has been awkward and tense. Especially conversations that involve the Mitchams.
MicroMissles, November 10, 2013, 01:48:52 pm
Oh shit, it hasn't even started to get tense yet. Well, obviously it has, but not like it will. I'm excited you're watching it, though! I thought it was one of the better shows I've seen.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Yossarian on November 10, 2013, 03:32:00 pm
I was watching Southland (http://www.tntdrama.com/series/southland/) until it was canceled. It got a firefly style treatment and but was cancelled after 5 seasons in the middle of growing ratings and amazing reviews. The cast was entirely amazing and the show was keeping me hooked but it ended on a horrible cliffhanger. There is the possibility of a movie floating around though.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Lemon on November 10, 2013, 04:06:01 pm
Motherfucking Eastbound & Down is back.

The T is for Taters.
The N is for And.
And the final T? Tits.
Cause all the waitresses at TNT have huge tits. Taters and tits
(http://cdn.uproxx.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/10-Look-at-Steve.jpg)
Damn Kenny, how did you think of that shit!?

Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Locclo on November 11, 2013, 02:52:42 am
After finally getting through Breaking Bad, I was kind of in a haze, wondering what to watch next. Then Netflix added a bunch of new stuff that I was hoping to see - namely, Dexter, Leverage, and Chuck.

So far, 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. Plus, it's pretty neat to see that each of the five main characters has their own soft side tucked away.

Worth a watch, in my opinion. There's some great humor to be found inside it.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Goose Goose Honk At Me Now on November 11, 2013, 01:29:04 pm
I'm excited about the Doctor Who fiftieth anniversary special because John Hurt is in it and that man is one of the three voices of my childhood. If you never watched Jim Henson's The Storyteller, please to do so with promptitude. The writing is beautiful, Sean Bean is in an episode and lives all the way to the end of it, and of course the puppetry is awesome.

The rest of the TV I watch is too embarrassing or bad to go in this thread.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Lemon on November 12, 2013, 12:55:34 am
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.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: chai tea latte on November 12, 2013, 12:57:59 am
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
what the fuck
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Sherlockian on November 12, 2013, 01:18:55 pm
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.

Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Runic on November 12, 2013, 03:38:47 pm
That sounds fucking amazing.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: cyclopeantrash on November 12, 2013, 04:46:43 pm
Oh it is dear Runic, it is. Leverage is schlocky genre series fun.

Speaking of schlocky fun. I've been re-watching Friday the 13th: The Series (note: in no way related to the film franchise) and man I forgot how campy and incredible this show was. It all the best and worst parts of monster of the week. It also had the best special effects that a late 80s cult TV show could have.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Moriarty on November 12, 2013, 05:14:05 pm
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.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: EYE OF ZA on November 12, 2013, 07:29:56 pm
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.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: chai tea latte on November 12, 2013, 07:34:19 pm
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. 
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: EYE OF ZA on November 12, 2013, 07:59:39 pm
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.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Locclo on November 13, 2013, 01:31:37 am
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.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Sherlockian on November 13, 2013, 01:43:25 am
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.

Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: chai tea latte on November 13, 2013, 02:56:14 am
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.


Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Goose Goose Honk At Me Now on November 13, 2013, 09:29:20 am
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.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: chai tea latte on November 13, 2013, 11:24:05 pm
Just finished Orphan Black.

Holy shit that was good. If you like science fiction you should probably watch it.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: KingKalamari on November 14, 2013, 07:47:01 pm
I've been diggin' on Bob's Burgers a lot lately. Reminds me of early Simpsons
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: EYE OF ZA on December 19, 2013, 12:19:53 am
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."
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: TheCrawlingChaos on December 19, 2013, 01:28:03 am
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.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: chai tea latte on December 19, 2013, 02:41:24 am
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.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Goose Goose Honk At Me Now on December 26, 2013, 08:15:05 am
New season of Sherlock starts on New Year's Day!

That's all I have to contribute, really.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: EYE OF ZA on December 27, 2013, 10:35:00 am
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.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: count_actuala on December 27, 2013, 12:04:21 pm
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
Fucking SOLD.

On the subject of contributions:
DARKPLACE! DARKPLACE! DARKPLACE! DARKPLACE! DARKPLAAAAAAAAAACE!!
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: TheCrawlingChaos on December 27, 2013, 01:47:42 pm
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.
EYE OF ZA, December 27, 2013, 10:35:00 am

I can't deny this is kind of making me want to hate-watch it some more. (Not helped by Juice's above reference to Darkplace, which is pretty much what AHS would be if it knew how ridiculous it was.)
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Sherlockian on December 27, 2013, 01:55:38 pm
I've started watching Almost Human which has exactly two redeeming factors, named Karl Urban and Michael Ealy. 

It's about a grouchy, self-hating cop in 2048, who is all traumatized after his partner died and had to get a cybernetic leg (Karl Urban), and who is required to have a cybernetic partner.  Instead of giving him one of the boring, emotionless ones, they give him a cybernetic partner who was supposed to be decommissioned because it has emotions and a soul and shit and therefore wasn't fit for police work (Michael Ealy).  They fight crime.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Runic on December 27, 2013, 03:09:28 pm
Is one of them a loose cannon who doesn't play by the rules but gets results and the other one a by the books cop who is nonetheless loyal to his partner in a pinch?
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: EYE OF ZA on December 28, 2013, 07:25:10 am

I can't deny this is kind of making me want to hate-watch it some more. (Not helped by Juice's above reference to Darkplace, which is pretty much what AHS would be if it knew how ridiculous it was.)
TheCrawlingChaos, December 27, 2013, 01:47:42 pm

I'm watching it, but that's because I have nothing else to do while playing Cookie Clicker.

The first season ended with the biggest attempt at horror the show's ever made for about ten minutes when the whole family comes together to scare a new family out of the house.  Unfortunately, it still pales in comparison to the horror in such gut-wrenching films as Beetlejuice.

Then the next season starts off by tackling racism.   Did you know racism is bad?  Well, American Horror Story is going to tell you!  A lot!  In a really gentle way because they don't want to make anyone uncomfortable.

(The highschool shooter from last season is playing another character this season, and he's married to a black woman who's about as white as you can get.)

e: this season has fucking aliens, I'm going to be so pissed when they turn out to be just ghosts
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: TheCrawlingChaos on December 28, 2013, 02:19:18 pm

I can't deny this is kind of making me want to hate-watch it some more. (Not helped by Juice's above reference to Darkplace, which is pretty much what AHS would be if it knew how ridiculous it was.)
TheCrawlingChaos, December 27, 2013, 01:47:42 pm

I'm watching it, but that's because I have nothing else to do while playing Cookie Clicker.

The first season ended with the biggest attempt at horror the show's ever made for about ten minutes when the whole family comes together to scare a new family out of the house.  Unfortunately, it still pales in comparison to the horror in such gut-wrenching films as Beetlejuice.

Then the next season starts off by tackling racism.   Did you know racism is bad?  Well, American Horror Story is going to tell you!  A lot!  In a really gentle way because they don't want to make anyone uncomfortable.

(The highschool shooter from last season is playing another character this season, and he's married to a black woman who's about as white as you can get.)

e: this season has fucking aliens, I'm going to be so pissed when they turn out to be just ghosts
EYE OF ZA, December 28, 2013, 07:25:10 am

Well. if you don't mind some spoilers for Season 3, according to Tumblr racism has been solved forever by the casting of Angela Basset as an extremely vindictive Marie Laveau who's out to punish the modern descendents of white witches from back in the day for the entirety of slavery, or so I've gathered. I'm taking this with a pinch of salt because Tumblr but it does at least sound interesting. I've always been a fan of the woman in question and as such am considering skipping to Coven just to see if it's any more engaging than Season 1.

ETA: Zachary Quinto, you are so much better than this. What the hell are you doing.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Moriarty on December 28, 2013, 05:31:12 pm
I considered watching AHS, but I've been put off by the promotional posters I keep seeing. I mean, what the fuck is this even supposed to be?

(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/e/ed/AHSCovenPoster.png)
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Runic on December 28, 2013, 05:32:31 pm
Hot. That's what it's supposed to be.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: EYE OF ZA on December 28, 2013, 05:39:45 pm
Well. if you don't mind some spoilers for Season 3, according to Tumblr racism has been solved forever by the casting of Angela Basset as an extremely vindictive Marie Laveau who's out to punish the modern descendents of white witches from back in the day for the entirety of slavery, or so I've gathered. I'm taking this with a pinch of salt because Tumblr but it does at least sound interesting. I've always been a fan of the woman in question and as such am considering skipping to Coven just to see if it's any more engaging than Season 1.

ETA: Zachary Quinto, you are so much better than this. What the hell are you doing.
TheCrawlingChaos, December 28, 2013, 02:19:18 pm
Luckily the focus of the second season has shifted off of racism.  Unfortunately it now falls instead on homophobia in a lesbian-victims sort of sense.  That is to say homophobia, Catholicism, rape, child abuse, and Nazi war crimes.  I think maybe the writers don't actually know what horror is, so they're just putting in as many uncomfortable things as possible.  Plus, due to it trying to be darker, the second season is more shitty Saw-ripoff and less hilariously dumb.

There's also this weird anti-psych theme that's running throughout it.  In the first season, the psychiatrist slept with a student, did poorly at his job, and near the end had a breakdown where he said all psychiatrists were liars and that they were basically the same as psychopaths.  In the second season the psychiatrist is a serial murderer who tricks all the people who come to him for help, as well as taking a lot of time to show off old theories that have been debunked, like behavioral modification for curing homosexuality.  Someone on the writing staff really doesn't like psychiatrists.

Plus, no spoilers, but while the first season had some vague focus (ghosts haunting a house that traps your spirit there) the second season is just random.  Nazi medical experiments, serial killers, demonic possession, and fucking aliens all at once.  Even Supernatural had more thematic consistency.

I have no idea how this show won awards.

I considered watching AHS, but I've been put off by the promotional posters I keep seeing. I mean, what the fuck is this even supposed to be?
Moriarty, December 28, 2013, 05:31:12 pm

You are supposed to be a heterosexual male and find that hot, because snakes and women's mouths and shit.  Season 1 of AHS seemed to be trying for a simultaneous adult male/teenage girl demographic with the constant male-fantasy sex scenes alongside the Twilight-esque pretty boy/outcast girl romance, but with Season 2 it seems to be punching up the male fantasy stuff a lot more.

Also season 2 is set in the sixties which makes me guess the writers saw Mad Men and said "let's do that".
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Sherlockian on December 30, 2013, 12:59:07 am
I considered watching AHS, but I've been put off by the promotional posters I keep seeing. I mean, what the fuck is this even supposed to be?
Moriarty, December 28, 2013, 05:31:12 pm

A raccoon.
(https://i.chzbgr.com/maxW500/7795254784/hFD259B46/)
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Goose Goose Honk At Me Now on December 30, 2013, 09:52:58 am
I considered watching AHS, but I've been put off by the promotional posters I keep seeing. I mean, what the fuck is this even supposed to be?
Moriarty, December 28, 2013, 05:31:12 pm

A raccoon.
(https://i.chzbgr.com/maxW500/7795254784/hFD259B46/)
sherlockian, December 30, 2013, 12:59:07 am
Animal Crossing: it's not a place you want to fuck around.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: CormansInferno on December 31, 2013, 11:55:56 pm
I've really been enjoying Rick And Morty, but I've been a Justin Roiland fan since House of Cosbys. It does the maladjusted idiots dealing with the sci-fi nonsense thing like Homestuck but about a thousand times more concise and without the shrill teenage fanbase. It came from a very NSFW cartoon (http://vimeo.com/49664066) Roiland made after Channel 101 received the C&D letter from Bill Cosby's lawyers that shut down House of Cosbys.

I actually made this as a way to poke fun at the idea of getting cease and desist letters. At the time (October 2006) I had nothing to lose and my original intention was to call this "back to the future: the new official universal studios cartoon featuring the new Doc Brown and Marty McFly" and then I'd just sit back and wait for a letter from their lawyers to arrive. That's actually why it's so filthy. I was just looking to "troll" a big studio.

Then, as I began editing the radio play and boarding it, the two characters ended up becoming something different than just a bad impression of Doc and Marty from BTTF. They slowly became two of my favorite characters that I've ever voiced. I backed down on the cease and desist bait and changed the spelling of their names and whatever else I could still change. I mean, it's still ultimately a back to the future joke/ (parody?), but to me all these years later, these two characters have become something of their own. You'll see as you go through this website that these voices pop up in several of my failed pilots.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: CormansInferno on January 03, 2014, 11:19:10 pm
Also if you're a fan of frenetic Superjail style animation Tommy Blancha and illustration wizard JJ Villard got their series King Star King picked up for a full run. The entire pilot is on YouTube and is I guess is technically safe for work if your workplace is cool with grotesque monster people killing each other.

Video link because even the title screen is a bit ripe (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hAwhSA3Btvw)


Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: fluffy on January 07, 2014, 01:42:21 am
I've been rewatching old Doctor Who episodes to remind myself what that show was like when I actually enjoyed it.

Pertwee is still my favorite.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: chai tea latte on January 07, 2014, 02:49:08 am
Davison forever.

Also, just saw the three-part The Bletchley Circle on Netflix. British mystery, set in post-war London. A quartet of former codebreakers at Bletchley Park team up to catch a serial killer. Three 45 minute episodes, pretty fun.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: TheCrawlingChaos on January 07, 2014, 05:31:52 pm
Naw, man, McCoy is where it's at. He might've had some of the worst effects budget and least attentive showrunners but I feel like he had some of the best premises and companions in the history of the show even if the former occasionally fell down in execution. (See also Rememberance of the Daleks and Battlefield, which have definite flaws but which are some of my very favorite episodes of all time.)
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Goose Goose Honk At Me Now on January 07, 2014, 06:35:08 pm
My favorite Doctor is all of them, though I have a soft spot for Colin Baker. Partly because Trial of a Time Lord is some of the most hilarious television ever produced.

I also appear to be the only person on ballpit who's legitimately enjoying Sherlock, which makes me feel like an asshole, but Benedict Cumberbatch got punched in the face three times, so I got what I came for.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: fluffy on January 07, 2014, 07:22:34 pm
Naw, man, McCoy is where it's at. He might've had some of the worst effects budget and least attentive showrunners but I feel like he had some of the best premises and companions in the history of the show even if the former occasionally fell down in execution. (See also Rememberance of the Daleks and Battlefield, which have definite flaws but which are some of my very favorite episodes of all time.)
TheCrawlingChaos, January 07, 2014, 05:31:52 pm
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Goose Goose Honk At Me Now on January 08, 2014, 12:12:29 am
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: fluffy on January 08, 2014, 01:03:10 am
The full thing (http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p01m3kfy) is pretty great. Thanks!
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Goose Goose Honk At Me Now on January 08, 2014, 08:55:08 am
Fun fact: Tom Baker's voicemail was recorded by a guy named Jon Culshaw. Culshaw has pranked both Tom and Colin Baker by calling them up in-character as the Fourth Doctor.

Tom Baker rolled with it and immediately started improvising. Colin Baker's response to a call from the Doctor was "Tom, are you drunk again?"
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Odd on January 13, 2014, 07:01:49 pm
Sciiiii-Fiii!
Almost Human: Future-Vancouver has blackouts because of solar flares. Hobos spray your digital windshields with digital water to clean the dirty bits off your digiscreen. Career criminals use bitcoins to move money without leaving a trace, banks can just straight up load money into Bitcoin wallets in a robbery. Florists use 3D printers to make custom-colored flowers.
Its dumb and it makes me miss the short lived and cheesy-in-a-better-way "Total Recall 2070". That one at least had R. Daneel Olivaw under a different name.

Update: New Almost Human episode. What was that? This one had a better Sci-Fi story with a Russian tracking bullet that used the systems in targeted advertisement machines to find its victim. How the bullet was able to zig zag in the air for a mile without any clear mention of a propulsion system and only navigation systems was a point against the story but it could be explained with a electromagnetic propulsion system.
Its not hard sci-fi but the tone, quality and understanding of actual emerging technologies was completely different. They still mentioned bitcoins but that was the most foolish technobabble in the episode and that says something.

Helix: Corporate research station in the pole asks for the help of the CDC concerning the sudden outbreak of a dangerous pathogen in one of their labs. It is a mystery-horror-scifi show but if is going well so far even if the cast is generic. The way things are shaping up the lab may be affiliated with Umbrella Corp.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: TheCrawlingChaos on January 15, 2014, 12:57:25 am
Luckily the focus of the second season has shifted off of racism.  Unfortunately it now falls instead on homophobia in a lesbian-victims sort of sense.  That is to say homophobia, Catholicism, rape, child abuse, and Nazi war crimes.  I think maybe the writers don't actually know what horror is, so they're just putting in as many uncomfortable things as possible.  Plus, due to it trying to be darker, the second season is more shitty Saw-ripoff and less hilariously dumb.
EYE OF ZA, December 28, 2013, 05:39:45 pm

Wait, the Nazi doctor's name is Hans Gruber? What is this I do not even.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: EYE OF ZA on January 15, 2014, 03:24:13 pm
Hans Gruper, but close enough.

The person who breaks the revelation that the guy is a Nazi is Anne Frank.

Except she isn't Anne Frank but she's still right about the Nazi stuff because of narrative convenience.

This show won awards.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: fluffy on January 18, 2014, 09:15:26 pm
Finally got around to watching Orange is the New Black. I'm mostly done with season 1, just in time for season 2 to drop. I definitely prefer the stories which don't focus on the main character, although later on she actually gets knocked around enough to ALMOST learn an important lesson and ALMOST become someone worth paying attention to.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: TheCrawlingChaos on January 22, 2014, 11:53:26 pm
Hans Gruper, but close enough.

The person who breaks the revelation that the guy is a Nazi is Anne Frank.

Except she isn't Anne Frank but she's still right about the Nazi stuff because of narrative convenience.

This show won awards.
EYE OF ZA, January 15, 2014, 03:24:13 pm

:\ The angel of Death's just shown up and I admit I'm rather digging her as a character but everything else continues to be intensely stupid and not particularly scary. Lana's little adventure with Doctor Sylar was less frightening than it was predictably uncomfortable, f'rex. Blah blah blah serial killers with mother and gender identity issues, heard it before and better.

ETA: oh, yes, of course she has issues because her husband left her for her infertility. Eat a dick, show.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: KingKalamari on January 30, 2014, 08:03:25 pm
Space Dandy is pretty awesome despite containing a slightly uncomfortable amount of anime boobies. The most recent episode with the zombies was probably the best zombie-related thing ever made.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Geremy Tibbles on February 18, 2014, 08:44:22 pm
True Detective is fucking amazing.

Also, The Following is pretty alright.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: chai tea latte on February 18, 2014, 11:35:29 pm
Brooklyn Nine-Nine is very funny and has Andre Braugher in it.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Horza on February 25, 2014, 05:32:22 am
ahahhaha House of Cards rofl
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Goose Goose Honk At Me Now on March 04, 2014, 01:12:09 pm
Season 2 of Hannibal just started. I'm genuinely interested in what Lecter's one mistake is going to be, because we know from the opening scene that at least one of the other major players will realize exactly what he's been doing by the end of the season, and I'm curious as to whether they're going to move into Silence of the Lambs territory.

That said, the Maryland locations continue to be emphatically not Maryland (especially not the Metro and its trains), and the crime scenes continue to be disgusting.

I'm also acquiring, via perfectly legal means, seasons 1 and 2 of Charlie Brooker's Black Mirror.

EDIT: Holy jesus fuck, are all the episodes of Black Mirror as fucking bleak as the first one?
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: fluffy on March 04, 2014, 08:25:37 pm
I'm also acquiring, via perfectly legal means, seasons 1 and 2 of Charlie Brooker's Black Mirror.

EDIT: Holy jesus fuck, are all the episodes of Black Mirror as fucking bleak as the first one?
CuddlePLEASE MAKE IT STOP SNOWING, March 04, 2014, 01:12:09 pm
No, most of them are even bleaker.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Runic on March 04, 2014, 08:28:16 pm
Did... did Lumpy Space Princess just kill her boyfriend? I think that just happened.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Goose Goose Honk At Me Now on March 04, 2014, 08:59:32 pm
EDIT: Holy jesus fuck, are all the episodes of Black Mirror as fucking bleak as the first one?
CuddlePLEASE MAKE IT STOP SNOWING, March 04, 2014, 01:12:09 pm
No, most of them are even bleaker.
fluffy, March 04, 2014, 08:25:37 pm
The second episode has made me seriously reconsider my plans to get back on the exercise bike tomorrow. Ditto my plans not to drink whiskey tonight.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: chai tea latte on March 04, 2014, 09:10:50 pm
EDIT: Holy jesus fuck, are all the episodes of Black Mirror as fucking bleak as the first one?
CuddlePLEASE MAKE IT STOP SNOWING, March 04, 2014, 01:12:09 pm
No, most of them are even bleaker.
fluffy, March 04, 2014, 08:25:37 pm
The second episode has made me seriously reconsider my plans to get back on the exercise bike tomorrow. Ditto my plans not to drink whiskey tonight.
CuddlePLEASE MAKE IT STOP SNOWING, March 04, 2014, 08:59:32 pm

That's my favourite episode! I totally empathize.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: fluffy on March 04, 2014, 09:47:43 pm
Did... did Lumpy Space Princess just kill her boyfriend? I think that just happened.
Runic, March 04, 2014, 08:28:16 pm
I just want to know what was going on behind the CN logo with the cat.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Boots Raingear on March 04, 2014, 10:13:49 pm
Did... did Lumpy Space Princess just kill her boyfriend? I think that just happened.
Runic, March 04, 2014, 08:28:16 pm

Watch the last minute again.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: fluffy on March 04, 2014, 10:19:40 pm
The literal framing device does make it one of the more interesting recent episodes, yes.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Lemon on March 05, 2014, 08:48:49 am
I was finally bullied into True Detective. It took some doing, because "Woody Harrelson and Matthew McConaughey are detectives trying to solve a murder" is a whole bunch of words I do not like in one sentence, but now that I know that it's about the futility of the human condition, I'm in.

Also watching Childrens Hospital and Ink Master, so a general gradient of quality.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Fanzay on March 10, 2014, 08:59:01 pm
I just got into True Detective myself. I love how there's no flashyness or any stupid techy bullshit, it's all run-down and institutional while being obviously nineties. It's nothing short of amazing.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: cyclopeantrash on March 10, 2014, 10:30:13 pm
I just binged True Detective and I'll have to agree with all of its praises. I adore magical realism and it definitely satisfied me in that regard. I can't wait to see what's in the next season.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Locclo on March 10, 2014, 11:12:07 pm
Now that the entire series is on Netflix, I've been rewatching Burn Notice (only ever saw the first couple of seasons), and I'm really enjoying it so far. I love dry humor, and this show is just full of it - the subtitles introducing new characters are always great, and Michael's voiceovers about spy advice is usually pretty funny.

I have to say, though, I'm curious to know how it's going to go about justifying being stretched out for seven full seasons. The setup (a spy being fired, followed by him investigating it and how to reverse it) just doesn't seem like it would lend itself to seven years' worth of plot. Still, the individual episodes have been great so far, so I'm looking forward to finally watching it through to the end.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Moriarty on March 15, 2014, 05:09:26 pm
There's only been one episode so far, but I'm really liking Resurrection. I hope the other seven episodes will live up to the first one. I like magical-return-from-the-dead plots, but I've been disappointed before (looking at you, Les Revenants)
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Fanzay on March 20, 2014, 01:18:24 am
You all should see Lilyhammer if you've got Netflix. It's really funny, as it makes equal fun of Sopranos-style gangster themes and naïve countryside Norwegian culture. It received some flack here in mountain monkey land by people who missed the goddamn point, it paints a semi-accurate picture of us. It helps that Steven van Zandt plays Steven van Zandt as only Steven van Zandt could.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: CormansInferno on March 24, 2014, 12:53:28 am
Rick and Morty has been killing it lately.

Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Goose Goose Honk At Me Now on March 29, 2014, 02:32:56 am
Yeah no, fuck Hannibal, after the latest episode I'm pretty done with this shit.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Locclo on April 01, 2014, 01:48:37 am
Just finished watching the first season of American Horror Story, on a friend's recommendation, and I was surprised how much I actually enjoyed it since I'm really not into horror films. The show does a great job of allowing the viewer to piece things together bit by bit, rather than explaining everything that goes on. I thought the ending was a little weak, but everything else - the character relationships, the actual horror, etc - was all really solid. It was just unsettling enough to keep me intrigued without being too gory or outright frightening.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Goose Goose Honk At Me Now on April 07, 2014, 03:21:37 pm
Two of my friends convinced me to watch Kamen Rider OOO, which is adorable and goofy as shit. Reasons to watch it include:
* a character who is obsessed with birthday cakes
* amazing rubbersuit monsters punching dudes
* soda cans that turn into adorable little Transformer animals
* female leads who actually have a purpose and personality and aren't anyone's love interest
* dot eyes and bitey mouths everywhere
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Ryan Byewood on April 13, 2014, 11:39:41 am
I'm years late to the party but I've started watching Twin Peaks.

And to avoid a life of school work I have started watching dumb reality tv shows to not think about school.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Mister Smalls on June 04, 2014, 11:13:42 pm
Now that summer is here and I've had more time to splay myself out on a couch like a fucked-up suburban lizard, I've been watching a lot more TV.

Turn (the semi-real story of the Culper Ring, a spy ring that operated during the Revolutionary War) is fucking great and I've been watching it semi-religiously.  Halt and Catch Fire (the mostly fictitious story of the personal computer revolution of the mid-1980s) is fucking abysmal bullshit and I gave up on it after one episode.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: chai tea latte on June 11, 2014, 01:46:01 pm
I've only seen a couple of episodes, but so far Broad City is sort of what I imagine Girls must be like in the mirror universe where Girls is both good and funny (and has likeable characters). Also, it's executive produced by Amy Poehler and Hannibal Burress is really good in it.

e: just finished the first season, definitely recommending the show.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: STOG on September 12, 2014, 07:34:30 pm
GOING DEEP WITH DAVID REES

GOING DEEP WITH DAVID REES

GOING DEEP WITH DAVID REES

GOING DEEP WITH DAVID REES
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Locclo on September 30, 2014, 11:28:39 pm
I have just started watching Gotham, which was described to me as CSI meets Batman. The story begins with the murder of Thomas and Martha Wayne, Batman's parents, and it follows James Gordon, currently a detective, as he investigates who killed them. It's apparently meant to serve as one gigantic origin story for both Batman and his gallery of rogues.

I like it so far, I'm greatly enjoying Gordon and Penguin, especially. I'm curious to see how this will tie into the rest of the DC film universe that they seem to be planning, and whether or not we'll eventually see Batman make an appearance. At the moment, you can watch the first two episodes here (http://www.fox.com/watch/331992131936) at Fox's website, though only for a limited time (about a month and a half after the air date).
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: chai tea latte on October 01, 2014, 12:56:46 am
Rectify is an exquisite drama, written by Ray McKinnon (Reverend Smith on Deadwood). It unfolds slowly and delicately, and like that show, is intimately (and warmly) human. Daniel Holden has been imprisoned on death row since he was 18, accused of the rape and murder of his high school girlfriend, but almost two decades later, he's been exonerated by DNA evidence. He returns home to a town (and family) he no longer recognizes, and his arrival threatens to renew old wounds in the community.

That's a basic outline of the plot, but so much of the show is centered on human relationships. The first season is a brief six episodes, and both seasons one and two are available on Netflix (http://www.netflix.com/WiMovie/70260729?trkid=13752289).It's probably not for everyone, but I think it's a show full of moments of intense, quiet beauty.

I had to watch Rectify in chunks, because it got kind of intense. Fortunately, I've also been watching Penny Dreadful.

the first episode of Penny Dreadful stars Timothy Dalton with a sword-cane, homoreotic Young Frankenstein, an American Werewolf comma In London trick gunslinger, and Eva Green doing her best steely-eyed sherlock holmes impression. this works exceedingly well because eva green has beautiful, pericing eyes. It's basically an ode to trashy victorian penny dreadfuls (e: and Hammer Horror films) and it's incredible

Then Dorian Grey and Billie Piper with the worst Irish accent I've heard join the cast.

This show is incredible.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Mister Smalls on November 27, 2014, 07:35:53 pm
I might want to make a topic of its own for this kind of thing if enough people read this and agree but I've been catching up on Doctor Who (because I hate myself) and Steven Moffat's Doctor (the most recent one (the Peter Capaldi one)) is such a cunt I cannot watch this fucking show anymore
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: EYE OF ZA on December 11, 2014, 06:54:58 am
Since I'm not actually paying for the show and it recently came out on Netflix, I decided to try to watch American Horror Story's third season, which is about a witch school in New Orleans.

There's awful references about how MODERN everyone is like "oh, frat party, just got the tweet" and talking about how they're witches in an age of "twitter and facebook".  Old narcissist slut witch wants plastic surgery to look younger.  Young narcissist slut witch is a movie star who literally acts insane and no one calls her out on it, also gets date-raped in the first episode.  Females Aged 13-24 Demographic Please Identify With This Witch is sarcastic and moody and basically the same character she played in the first season, except her witch power is that she can kill guys by having sex with them.  Black witch is black and fat, so she worked at a fried chicken place in Detroit before coming to shitty Hogwarts.  The racist from-the-1800's witch is there to be racist and edgy, but it's not like WE'RE racist, because she's being forced to be the black witch's slave.  The witch with Down's syndrome has her part written better than it's been in the last two seasons, at least.  And the headmistress witch is trying everything she can to have a baby.

Witches defined by beauty and/or vagina/womb: 4
Witches who are an easily defined stereotype: 5
Witches who help punch up the show's exploitation genre cred: 5
Total witches: 7

Oh, and there's zero fucking horror so far, because it's secretly American Shitty Drama Story.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Agent (gobble, gobble) Coop on December 11, 2014, 07:10:27 am
Since I'm not actually paying for the show and it recently came out on Netflix, I decided to try to watch American Horror Story's third season, which is about a witch school in New Orleans.

There's awful references about how MODERN everyone is like "oh, frat party, just got the tweet" and talking about how they're witches in an age of "twitter and facebook".  Old narcissist slut witch wants plastic surgery to look younger.  Young narcissist slut witch is a movie star who literally acts insane and no one calls her out on it, also gets date-raped in the first episode.  Females Aged 13-24 Demographic Please Identify With This Witch is sarcastic and moody and basically the same character she played in the first season, except her witch power is that she can kill guys by having sex with them.  Black witch is black and fat, so she worked at a fried chicken place in Detroit before coming to shitty Hogwarts.  The racist from-the-1800's witch is there to be racist and edgy, but it's not like WE'RE racist, because she's being forced to be the black witch's slave.  The witch with Down's syndrome has her part written better than it's been in the last two seasons, at least.  And the headmistress witch is trying everything she can to have a baby.

Witches defined by beauty and/or vagina/womb: 4
Witches who are an easily defined stereotype: 5
Witches who help punch up the show's exploitation genre cred: 5
Total witches: 7

Oh, and there's zero fucking horror so far, because it's secretly American Shitty Drama Story.
EYE OF ZA, December 11, 2014, 06:54:58 am
Coven was probably the most enjoyable show to rip on the next day I've seen in a while, but yeah, fuck anyone who takes that show seriously. I think Leland Palmer plays the axe man of New Orleans iirc, so at least that's pretty cool
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: A Whirring Bone-White Gleech on January 13, 2015, 01:51:51 pm
I finally got around to watching Danger 5, and it was actually really funny.

Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Slayer of Yaks on January 29, 2015, 05:25:44 pm
Oh my god, I cannot stop watching Cutthroat Kitchen. Alton Brown is so sassy.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: A Meat on January 30, 2015, 02:35:13 am
Oh my god, I cannot stop watching Cutthroat Kitchen. Alton Brown is so sassy.
Slayer of Yaks, January 29, 2015, 05:25:44 pm

I only discovered it recently and it's great. I also found out recently about Sweet Genius and I'm already sad that I've watched a whole season and I only have two left to go. Sweet Genius is just Chopped only just about sweet stuff, if I had to describe what it is, but I still love it.,

On the other hand, I could always plunge into the huge pile of Chopped episodes I haven't watched yet.

Cooking competition shows are my choice of poison and I suspect it will in some way shorten my lifespan
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: chai tea latte on February 09, 2015, 07:43:23 pm
Season one, episode four of Nathan For You is the best, most sublime beautiful thing Comedy Central has paid for in the last five years.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Sherlockian on February 10, 2015, 11:23:09 am
I really enjoy Empire, but it's running up against my hatred of soap opera-style plotlines.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: CormansInferno on February 19, 2015, 05:17:26 pm
I got see an advance screening of The Last Man on Earth by Will Forte and Lord & Miller (the LEGO/21 Jump Street guys). Holy shit, I cannot wait for the rest of this series. Probably my favorite post-apocalyptic comedy since Adventure Time. They're so wary about spoiling the rest of the suprises in the season that they decided not to show the third episode. It really works better the less you know going in, but I will say that going forward there needs to be moratorium on Cast Away jokes in pop culture because this one ain't gonna be topped.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Nikaer Drekin on February 20, 2015, 11:24:02 am
I've recently fallen in love with The Eric Andre Show.

Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: positive stress on March 07, 2015, 04:01:26 pm
I'm four episodes into Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt and I am loving this a whole lot. It's made by Tina Fey and Robert Carlock and it's got a very 30 Rock feel. Ellie Kemper and Titus Burgess are great, and Jane Krakowski is Jane Krakowski. Highly recommended
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Lemon on March 09, 2015, 12:33:20 pm
I'm four episodes into Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt and I am loving this a whole lot.
fruithag, March 07, 2015, 04:01:26 pm

I'm not really on board with this one. It's got the pacing and tone of 30 Rock, but the characters and story seem a little thin and uninteresting to me so far, at two episodes in.

If I go back to it, it'll totally be for Jane Krakowski because I think she's terrific and Jenna Maroney was one of my favorite comedy characters ever, so those bits are a return to form, although it feels a tiny bit forced. For the rest, I'm not particularly interested in Kimmy and I feel like it doesn't seem either realistic enough to be a story about a little girl in a big city or fantastical enough to be a story about an escapee from a religious cult and her interactions with lunatics.

Nice to see that Carole Kane is still alive though.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Adam Bozarth on March 10, 2015, 01:38:16 am
I know it's not new, but if you get a chance, check out The Knick. It's a medical drama set in 1900 New York City, and it's a fascinating examination of medical history and a eye-opening look at the birth of Modern America. It can get a little hokey, but I love watch Clive Owen as Dr. John Thackeray, a tortured genius and inadvertent butcher. The era it's set is so rich with details. The tightly cuffed society only serves to highlight the barbarism lurking inside of each character, save for a few. It's high drama, full of blood and guts, and the direction is full of surprises. The show is directed and co-created by Steven Soderbergh, and I tend to like his films a lot for the same reasons. There's a lot of inventive direction and a great electronic musical score.

If none of that sounds enticing, then at least watch it for the rat stomping fight in the basement of a saloon.

I really hope other people are enjoying this show, because I really want it to come back.

I also have been watching The Jinx from the beginning, and it is well worth checking out. A really great True Crime documentary series from the director of "Capturing the Friedmans." Only 6 episodes. I usually don't like True Crime all that much because it feels ghoulish, but the thread you follow with Robert Durst is so intriguing, you follow it through every crazy step just to find out what happened. Even as the cases go unsolved, the story reels you in more and more, and it begins to bleed into the present day. Check it out.

I also didn't like Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt at all and I don't know who else to tell.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: CormansInferno on March 11, 2015, 03:13:53 pm
The Jack and Triumph Show makes me thank a god I don't believe in that Robert Smigel is back on television. And that he can get C-grade celebrities to go along with such a brutal level of self-mockery. I hope it runs for 10 seasons (or 20 years, with the production pipeline Adult Swim has for shows).
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: chai tea latte on April 02, 2015, 05:52:32 pm
iZombie is an adaptation of the Vertigo comic of the same name and it's pretty solid so far - I'm excited to see what happens as the season progresses. Liv Moore (Rose McIver) is a zombie ME, who works at the Seattle PD morgue, and eats dead people's brains in order to psychically solve their murders. (Think Psych meets Dead Like Me but from the Veronica Mars team and good) She teams up with rookie cop Babineaux to solve crimes, it's a procedural, you know how this works. I haven't read the comic but allegedly it's not very good and the show is startlingly competent and snappy.

When Liv eats brains, she absorbs memories and also facets of the victim's personality - this is really where the show gets to shine / stand out from the pack, and it's all well done so far!

also Sark from Alias shows up as another zombie and he's dreamy and conflicted or whatever
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Really_Quite_Nice on April 05, 2015, 09:29:40 pm
Hannibal


Overblown in the best possible way. Excellent acting, visually gorgeous, and some wonderful comedic moments.

I love Peep Show to death, it's my favorite comedy; I prefer it to Black Mirror. That sentence was not repetitive.

Bob's Burgers is one of the friendliest, most optimistic shows I've ever seen. The voice acting and character development are phenomenal.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: CormansInferno on April 06, 2015, 08:18:41 pm
Not to go all brony here, but 70s' anime and 90s' lo-fi indie movies had a baby and called it Steven Universe. I liked their first batch of episodes, but they seem to have really hit their stride in balancing character development, vignettes about day-to-day life, and sci-fi space opera by the end of Season One.

And I don't know if there's any fans here, but there's a new Netflix season of Trailer Park Boys. I thought it started losing a little steam towards the end because they were focusing so much on setting things up for the next two seasons, but the end to the Colonel Dancer storyline was fantastic, as well as Lahey swimming with the Julian dummy in the blueberry vodka hot tub.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: cyclopeantrash on April 07, 2015, 03:10:17 pm
Not to go all brony here, but 70s' anime and 90s' lo-fi indie movies had a baby and called it Steven Universe. I liked their first batch of episodes, but they seem to have really hit their stride in balancing character development, vignettes about day-to-day life, and sci-fi space opera by the end of Season One.
CormansInferno, April 06, 2015, 08:18:41 pm

Steven Universe is great and might also be the gayest children's cartoon allowed on American television. Non-ambiguous inclusiveness is pretty great, yo.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Mister Smalls on April 07, 2015, 07:30:18 pm
I have sobbed openly at a children's cartoon three times in my life and all of those times were related to Steven Universe
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Tiny Prancer on April 30, 2015, 04:36:45 am
So a friend of mine is a huge fan of Moral Orel and talked me into watching all three seasons with her, and god dang what a series. In case you don't know about it, it's a stop-motion comedy series about a twelve-year-old boy who lives in an extremely religious community and has a tendency to wind up in utterly ridiculous situations because of his naiivity, but it's also a series that gets its humor and timing down like clockwork in the second season and then starting from the end of the second season goes to some incredible places in terms of character depth and storytelling and tells both some intensely dark and incredibly tender stories in its final season. The first season and the start of the second honestly feel like they rely on gross shock humor way too much, but it's a series absolutely worth watching for where it goes in the end. My friend made this comparison (and I agree with her) that the only show she's seen that compares in terms of the intense tonal shift is Evangelion, especially since both series have creators who went through some serious life issues as the series went on that really obviously contributed to how the latter half of the show developed.

Also, the stop-motion animation gets really good in the latter part of the series. Like, looking back on it, I legit forgot they were puppets at certain points.

(also, if you decide to look into it, skip the episodes "god's chef" and "god's image" because those are probably the worst/grossest ones and have very little importance to the overall story, although they do get referred back to a few times in the series. Just read the wikipedia synopsis for those ones.)
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Fanzay on May 08, 2015, 12:43:52 am
How come nobody told me 30 Rock was this funny?
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: chai tea latte on May 08, 2015, 01:03:09 am
How come nobody told me 30 Rock was this funny?
Fanzay, May 08, 2015, 12:43:52 am

The scene in the pilot where tracy and liz are talking about white men putting AIDS in the chicken nuggets was the first time I ever really 'got' intersectional feminism
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Fanzay on May 08, 2015, 01:05:28 am
How come nobody told me 30 Rock was this funny?
Fanzay, May 08, 2015, 12:43:52 am

The scene in the pilot where tracy and liz are talking about white men putting AIDS in the chicken nuggets was the first time I ever really 'got' intersectional feminism
chai tea latte, May 08, 2015, 01:03:09 am

I can't tell if you're joking or not.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: chai tea latte on May 08, 2015, 01:06:50 am
100% serious
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: crow on May 08, 2015, 01:35:41 am
How come nobody told me 30 Rock was this funny?
Fanzay, May 08, 2015, 12:43:52 am

It isn't 2008 anymore
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Fanzay on May 08, 2015, 01:43:13 am
I'm sorry I'm not up to date on every goddamn show in the world, I'm working to rectify that. Dick.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: EYE OF ZA on May 08, 2015, 03:55:51 am
30 Rock is consistently pretty funny throughout, and the fact that they knew the last season would be the last means it ends nicely without decaying into irrelevance or nonsense.

It's also one of the places where my comedy tastes overlapped with my parents'.  They like Big Bang Theory and 30 Rock, I like 30 Rock and Always Sunny.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: crow on May 08, 2015, 05:41:00 am
I'm sorry I'm not up to date on every goddamn show in the world, I'm working to rectify that. Dick.
Fanzay, May 08, 2015, 01:43:13 am

calm down fam
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: strifeheart on May 13, 2015, 04:48:41 am
I'm sorry I'm not up to date on every goddamn show in the world, I'm working to rectify that. Dick.
Fanzay, May 08, 2015, 01:43:13 am

You asked, he answered!
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Agent (gobble, gobble) Coop on June 16, 2015, 10:48:30 am
Cutthroat kitchen takes the best part of any televised cooking shows, lunatics and douchebaggery, and just totally runs with it
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: A Meat on June 16, 2015, 12:32:43 pm
Cutthroat kitchen takes the best part of any televised cooking shows, lunatics and douchebaggery, and just totally runs with it
AgentCoop, June 16, 2015, 10:48:30 am

You forgot over the top acting.

It's amazing. I can only imagine how it is to be the person who goes through all the applications and go "Too nice, too nice, Too boring, Oh, another one for the crazy pile, Too nice..."
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Ambious on June 16, 2015, 04:08:51 pm
Sense8 starts kinda slow but evolves into something really good, powerful and clutching.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Locclo on June 16, 2015, 04:33:39 pm
I tried to watch the Dresden Files TV show since I'm a huge fan of the books...it's not good, to put it mildly. Even putting aside everything that's changed from the books (which could be a whole post in itself; aside from a few names and the general concept, they have nothing in common), it's just not a good show in general. There's almost no world-building, at least not in the first three episodes - it's just Harry fighting whatever monster is terrorizing Chicago that week. I remember a minor plot point in the first episode was that Dresden was having issues with his girlfriend, a plot point that doesn't come up later, nor is the girlfriend ever even mentioned in the following episodes. Oh, and of course, there's almost no magic in the first few episodes, it's mainly just monsters and Harry pulling a MacGuffin out of his ass to save the day (a "doom box" in the first episode, an ancient Egyptian tablet in the second). Maybe it gets better as the show goes on, but right now the best positive I can say about it is that the acting is alright, and I do like Paul Blackthorne as Dresden.

On the more positive side, I did start watching Arrow on a friend's recommendation, and it's much, much better. The first few episodes were a little rocky, but the acting is great, the characters are great, and I love that even though it's been sort of villain-of-the-week, every episode expands on what happened to Oliver on the island. I definitely recommend it if you're into superhero stuff, it's pretty solid.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: chai tea latte on June 16, 2015, 04:42:42 pm
Sense8 starts kinda slow but evolves into something really good, powerful and clutching.
Ambious, June 16, 2015, 04:08:51 pm
The dialogue is textbook JMS (tell don't show, chew scenery) but if that means the plot is textbook JMS too I think everybody wins. (I'm really excited for the next few seasons. I was hoping they'd get more into issues of identity but that probably makes more sense later.)


Also, I finished the season. Now, this is a show written by JMS with a name based on a word followed by a random digit and a five year plan baked into it. If anybody remembers the last show with those parameters, Babylon 5, the first season was like the k-mart, Gobots Star Trek that you got for Christmas one year and tried to smile because it was almost what you wanted, then returned to your room to lie in bed for sixteen hours brooding over the realisation that literally nobody knows you or understands what you want, and even when they try to love you it hurts. The second season, meanwhile, was like forgetting all your financial worries for an afternoon to walk to a locally-owned confectionery in a nice summer dress, feeling the apricity of the sun on your shoulders and the cool breeze on your legs, getting a banana split with chocolate, strawberry and vanilla ice cream, it tasting just as good as it's supposed to in the stories, and watching the Narn-Centauri War develop into one of the most stirring large-scale tragedies in any Space Opera.

Meanwhile, this season can best be compared to making out in an elevator with a tall chick you just met, that is to say, exciting, surprising, kind of awesome, somewhat awkward, unexpectedly tingly, ending in extreme anticipation of what might come next, and with a badass machete fight thrown in to the second half.

Can we hope for Sense8 to have the same incremental improvement with each season? It would make sense, since Babylon 5's first season was all about taking like 20 episodes to establish what 'normal operations' on the station looked like while moving the pieces into place and making the stakes clear for the real show about to start, while Sense8's first season basically does in twelve episodes what most shows do in 2 - establish all the characters, establish the basic conceit, then have them learn how to use their powers and demonstrate this in an adventure where they use all their combined talents to succeed. So maybe Season 2 will be when the real fireworks (plus an orchestra and several dilating vaginal cmonster cocks) will start.

If so, I can only assume that Season 2 will be like, MDMA sex, or constructing a detailed socio-political monster cockogy with your friends out of a game of hitting each other with sticks on a beach on Canada Day, or watching your daughter graduate summa cum laude and tell her class that you're her role model, or watching the life drain out of Stephen Harper's eyes and seeing a flicker of fear and remorse in the last fraction of a second. idk, I'm just spit-balling the best things in the world, I don't actually have real life experience with most of these, sub in your own personal Lou Reed Perfect Day. Wait, wasn't that song about heroin? Maybe the second season will be as good as heroin.Quote from
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: chai tea latte on June 29, 2015, 12:13:50 pm
Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, BBC

some Northern lads get into a tiff about disreputable magic and napoleon, the omission of Lord Byron from the Venice storyline is tragic but redeemed by the promise of a second season

Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Blandest on June 30, 2015, 07:01:35 am
I've been catching up on the second season of Rectify now that I can get Netflix. My god that show is horrible in the best possible way. I can't count the number of times I have almost been brought to the brink of tears watching Daniel try his best to live his life. Basically everyone should watch that and make sure the Sundance channel puts out more great shows like that and Top of the Lake (which was also amazing)
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Geremy Tibbles on July 01, 2015, 05:55:00 am
True Detective Season 2 and I'm not enjoying it in the slightest.

Additionally, is it wrong that I liked True Detective more when it had the possibility of a kind of "mundane supernatural" feel. That maybe the hallucinations and shit weren't quite hallucinations?

(http://i.imgur.com/laExZS2.png)
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Frank West on July 01, 2015, 10:59:58 am
I have been watching sens8 and it is a hot mess, but it's an entertaining mess, which I guess is the Wachowski special?

In the episode I watched last night there was a scene where one of the main characters watching a symphony causes all of the main characters to psychically remember their births in vivid detail. It's a very, very long scene. This was about 10 minutes after a shootout. Inbetween a cop bonded with his copdad.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Agent (gobble, gobble) Coop on July 01, 2015, 11:25:01 am
True Detective Season 2 and I'm not enjoying it in the slightest.

Additionally, is it wrong that I liked True Detective more when it had the possibility of a kind of "mundane supernatural" feel. That maybe the hallucinations and shit weren't quite hallucinations?

(http://i.imgur.com/laExZS2.png)
Geremy Tibbles, July 01, 2015, 05:55:00 am
Definitely isn't wrong, but I'm still holding out hope that this season will pick up, because it hasn't been atrocious

E: I  meant isn't
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Lemon on July 01, 2015, 09:01:30 pm
This show is the boringest.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: A Meat on July 02, 2015, 05:37:18 am
I haven't watched True Detective, but I would watch a show called False Detective about a dude pretending to be a detective and obstructing justice through his self delusion.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: chai tea latte on July 02, 2015, 10:29:49 am
I haven't watched True Detective, but I would watch a show called False Detective about a dude pretending to be a detective and obstructing justice through his self delusion.
A Meat, July 02, 2015, 05:37:18 am
watch true detective
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Nikaer Drekin on July 04, 2015, 12:51:37 am
Daredevil was fantastic, I can't wait for Season 2.

Season 3 of Orange is the New Black is certainly a television show. It's very enjoyable, though as far as I've gotten (like 5 episodes in) there doesn't seem to be a major conflict to drive the season forward. Hopefully that changes soon.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Really_Quite_Nice on July 08, 2015, 09:09:37 pm
I watched the first season of True Detective and hated it. The characters were garbage, the M-Theory crap (and the brooding protagonist) were pretentious, and the show's approach to cosmic horror was botched.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Nikaer Drekin on July 12, 2015, 08:40:18 pm
Season 3 of Orange is the New Black is certainly a television show. It's very enjoyable, though as far as I've gotten (like 5 episodes in) there doesn't seem to be a major conflict to drive the season forward. Hopefully that changes soon.
Nikaer Drekin, July 04, 2015, 12:51:37 am

I'm closer to the end now and some of the stuff that's happening does have a little more consequence to it. Still kind of feels like a season of subplots, with the whole "prison" element feeling more like an inconvenience to the characters (in a lot of cases) than anything else.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: chai tea latte on July 12, 2015, 09:05:03 pm
Season 3 of Orange is the New Black is certainly a television show. It's very enjoyable, though as far as I've gotten (like 5 episodes in) there doesn't seem to be a major conflict to drive the season forward. Hopefully that changes soon.
Nikaer Drekin, July 04, 2015, 12:51:37 am

I'm closer to the end now and some of the stuff that's happening does have a little more consequence to it. Still kind of feels like a season of subplots, with the whole "prison" element feeling more like an inconvenience to the characters (in a lot of cases) than anything else.
Nikaer Drekin, July 12, 2015, 08:40:18 pm

I WONDER IF THERE IS A MORAL HERE ABOUT SOLIDARITY AND CATHARSIS (please finish the season!)
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: positive stress on July 15, 2015, 12:18:37 am
I've been watching The Chris Gethard Show, the new episodes on Fusion as well as a handful of the old public access episodes on Youtube, and man I love this show so much. I can't believe none of my weirdo hipster nerd friends ever told me about this, I had to find out about it from Conan O'Brien of all people. It's everything I could ever want from a talk show. The sleep deprivation episode was beautiful.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Ambious on July 15, 2015, 04:15:51 am
Finally catching up on Parks and Recreations.
It starts a bit slow which is why I couldn't connect to it at first, but I gave it another chance and I'm glad that I did.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Caroline on July 16, 2015, 03:46:15 pm
Married at First Sight is the most awkward thing I've ever seen.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Really_Quite_Nice on July 16, 2015, 09:29:05 pm
Finally catching up on Parks and Recreations.
It starts a bit slow which is why I couldn't connect to it at first, but I gave it another chance and I'm glad that I did.
Ambious, July 15, 2015, 04:15:51 am

The first season of Parks and Rec is basically a spin-off of The Office.

Parks and Rec is a great show for lazy-weekend binge watching.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: CormansInferno on July 24, 2015, 02:26:47 pm
Don't know if anyone caught Your Pretty Face Is Going to Hell when it was last on nearly 2 years ago (hurray Adult Swim scheduling), but the second season has been pretty great. It's pretty obvious they were given a bigger budget to work with and they ran with it. The episode with Jack McBrayer as a shoulder angel is my favorite so far.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Locclo on July 29, 2015, 01:34:55 am
Finally started watching Flash recently, and DC continues to impress me. It's vastly different in terms of tone and style (lighthearted and comedic instead of grim and serious), which is a big breath of fresh air in my opinion. Also, it's a nice change of pace to see a hero who's pretty much completely out of his element as a superhero, with little to no actual combat training, just his power. I'm sort of concerned about how the show is going to handle being intertwined with Arrow, even if it's only a little bit. I imagine that there will be people who just watch one or the other, or just marathon them all the way through without going back and forth to keep up with the occasional crossovers and references.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: eatenmyeyes on August 24, 2015, 04:35:30 pm
Bojack Horseman, Gravity Falls, Rick and Morty, and True Detective are all pretty good.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: chai tea latte on August 24, 2015, 05:18:35 pm
People keep telling me to give Bojack another try but the first season was just awful. Is it actually better, or is there just more of it?
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: eatenmyeyes on August 24, 2015, 06:07:40 pm
People keep telling me to give Bojack another try but the first season was just awful. Is it actually better, or is there just more of it?
chai tea latte, August 24, 2015, 05:18:35 pm
Are you watching it solely as a comedy?  Not to say it's not funny, but there is a lot of pathos.  He wants to be a good person, but has trouble getting there.  I'd say give it a try.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: chai tea latte on August 24, 2015, 11:00:04 pm
People keep telling me to give Bojack another try but the first season was just awful. Is it actually better, or is there just more of it?
chai tea latte, August 24, 2015, 05:18:35 pm
Are you watching it solely as a comedy?  Not to say it's not funny, but there is a lot of pathos.  He wants to be a good person, but has trouble getting there.  I'd say give it a try.
eatenmyeyes, August 24, 2015, 06:07:40 pm
i have enough of that already, but i'll give S2 a few episodes.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Tiny Prancer on August 26, 2015, 01:01:15 pm
Started to get back into trailer park boys, and managed to get a friend into it as well, which I'm thrilled about. Also have finally been checking out The X-Files and have been really enjoying seeing the series come into its own. Watched the first two eps of rick and morty and want to watch more but I promised a friend I'd hold off on watching it so we can watch it together (she loves the series and wants to rewatch the first season with me).
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Agent (gobble, gobble) Coop on August 26, 2015, 01:10:01 pm
Started to get back into trailer park boys, and managed to get a friend into it as well, which I'm thrilled about. Also have finally been checking out The X-Files and have been really enjoying seeing the series come into its own. Watched the first two eps of rick and morty and want to watch more but I promised a friend I'd hold off on watching it so we can watch it together (she loves the series and wants to rewatch the first season with me).
Tiny Prancer, August 26, 2015, 01:01:15 pm

The X-Files is probably one of the most consistently entertaining shows with as many seasons as it has. When it's good it's good, and when it's bad it can still be really entertaining
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Agent (gobble, gobble) Coop on August 27, 2015, 04:05:58 pm
One episode into the brink and its decent, liking it more than I though it would but hoping it gets a little better
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: A Meat on September 24, 2015, 11:54:14 am
Been watching a bunch of Chopped and Cutthroat Kitchen, and I have to say, CK has been getting increasingly ridiculous and slapstick and less and less about cooking, which is a huge shame in my opinion, since the small sabotages are much more interesting than someone having to prep everything in a hat while holding an apple in their mouths or whatever the fuck they come up with next. Or at least limit the sabotages to ones that affect the cooking process and not just physically limiting the chefs.

Chopped is always fun to watch to some extent, even if it is somewhat repetitive. But I actually like that they sometimes have themes to the episodes so it isn't just the same every time
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: chai tea latte on September 24, 2015, 12:55:37 pm
my favourite food shows are Iron Chef America for Serious Cooking Television and Food Network Canada's really pleasant and nice You Gotta Eat Here, which is basically if Diners, Drive-ins and Dives was hosted by your second-grade math teacher and focused on Canadian comfort food instead. Good Eats was also excellent, and there's a page online (http://www.goodeatsfanpage.com/GEFP/EpisodeByOrder.htm) with links to the back episodes.

agree that Cutthroat Kitchen is pretty gimmicky of late but i mean that's what seems to be working for the edits so i can't blame them. we get Chopped: Canada here which I'm always content to have on in the background if I'm cooking or sewing or whatever, agree on that front.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: chai tea latte on October 22, 2015, 07:03:02 pm
Nathan For You is back and amazing
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Vorko on October 23, 2015, 05:35:46 am
Go watch Fringe.  It's good for you.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Ambious on October 23, 2015, 09:36:57 am
Go watch Fringe.  It's good for you.
Vorko, October 23, 2015, 05:35:46 am

Some of Australia's best are in that show!
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Nikaer Drekin on November 01, 2015, 05:35:07 am
The new Muppets show is terrible and gets the Muppets completely wrong.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Vorko on November 01, 2015, 06:03:02 am
Go watch Fringe.  It's good for you.
Vorko, October 23, 2015, 05:35:46 am

Some of Australia's best are in that show!
Ambious, October 23, 2015, 09:36:57 am

John Noble is amazing.   He's going to be in Elementary this season as well as the world's worst dad.  Again.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Fanzay on November 03, 2015, 01:10:28 pm

John Noble is amazing.   He's going to be in Elementary this season as well as the world's worst dad.  Again.
Vorko, November 01, 2015, 06:03:02 am

I've been watching Elementary, and I really like it a lot more than Sherlock. That could be because I like the more human version of Holmes, or the fact that I despise Steven Moffat's awful writing. Probably both.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Agent (gobble, gobble) Coop on November 06, 2015, 04:28:37 pm
They got Black Books on netflix yo, and it hasn't decreased in entertainment value since last I watched it many years ago
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Ambious on November 06, 2015, 05:42:58 pm
Go watch Fringe.  It's good for you.
Vorko, October 23, 2015, 05:35:46 am

Some of Australia's best are in that show!
Ambious, October 23, 2015, 09:36:57 am

John Noble is amazing.   He's going to be in Elementary this season as well as the world's worst dad.  Again.
Vorko, November 01, 2015, 06:03:02 am

True, but I was referring to Anna Torv
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Frank West on November 06, 2015, 06:20:53 pm
I choose to believe that Fringe is a spin-off of The Wire.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Fanzay on November 07, 2015, 04:44:00 am
I've been watching Gotham on Netflix, and it's sometimes great, sometimes awful and mostly bland. Robin Lord Taylor is fucking amazing as Cobblepot, though. Worth watching for him alone, as well as a certain conundrum-geek. Also Ben McKenzie's facial expressions are great.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Ambious on November 07, 2015, 06:44:56 am
I've been watching Gotham on Netflix, and it's sometimes great, sometimes awful and mostly bland. Robin Lord Taylor is fucking amazing as Cobblepot, though. Worth watching for him alone, as well as a certain conundrum-geek. Also Ben McKenzie's facial expressions are great.
Fanzay, November 07, 2015, 04:44:00 am

I'm not watching it because the pilot bored me to death, but I suspect sooner or later they're gonna run into the Smallville problem where they've used all the villains in the prequel to the point where the original canon no longer made any sense.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Fanzay on November 08, 2015, 12:45:57 am
That has already happened, and I'm at episode 14. It feels more like a standalone thing that has lifted the batman setting wholesale. It's mostly fun for the hilarious amount of scenery chewing.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: STOG on November 15, 2015, 10:16:46 am
Y'all should be watching the new With Bob and David on Netflix, because these old motherfuckers still got it.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: chai tea latte on November 18, 2015, 11:18:04 pm
I'm a couple days late on it, but this week's Nathan for You has probably the most Nathan Fielder moment possible. "Again", oh my god
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: chai tea latte on December 06, 2015, 12:12:08 am
Mr. Robot is great and I'm an idiot for not watching it until now
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: A Meat on December 06, 2015, 01:41:40 am
Help, I'm really enjoying Restaurant: Impossible
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Agent (gobble, gobble) Coop on December 06, 2015, 03:20:05 pm
Y'all should be watching the new With Bob and David on Netflix, because these old motherfuckers still got it.
STOG, November 15, 2015, 10:16:46 am
Mad seconded.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Ambious on December 06, 2015, 04:05:17 pm
Ash vs. The Evil Dead is everything I ever wanted and more
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Mu. on December 11, 2015, 10:28:48 am
I started watching Adam Ruins Everything and I really like it.

It's got some fascinating insights into the origins of US cultural norms. You guys and your norms got screwed hard by every kind of business interest ever.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: chai tea latte on December 11, 2015, 10:31:06 am
Y'all should be watching the new With Bob and David on Netflix, because these old motherfuckers still got it.
STOG, November 15, 2015, 10:16:46 am
It's true
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Ambious on December 11, 2015, 04:03:34 pm
Y'all should be watching the new With Bob and David on Netflix, because these old motherfuckers still got it.
STOG, November 15, 2015, 10:16:46 am
It's true
chai tea latte, December 11, 2015, 10:31:06 am

They have their moments, some of it falls flat though.
At the absolute top of their run is this piece of brilliance:

Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Really_Quite_Nice on January 25, 2016, 09:13:08 pm
(https://49.media.tumblr.com/9afa18ab4f29ab2920f58820b6518bd1/tumblr_moz4f0onYf1qhjgado2_r1_500.gif)
 
So, uh... Gravity Falls is wonderful.

I was also (unexpectedly) charmed by iZombie.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Kaleidoscope on January 26, 2016, 12:58:31 pm
Gravity Falls has to be one of the best cartoons that Disney Channel ever showed.

Too bad they kept on having hiatuses so much. I never understood why it took so long for episodes to come out
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Fanzay on January 29, 2016, 10:28:55 pm
The Americans is really good, I'm liking it so far, nine episodes in. I like that they play it completely straight.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: A Meat on January 30, 2016, 02:19:40 am
Restaurant: Impossible is pretty great, it's like Kitchen Nightmares only with a slightly different focus.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: chai tea latte on February 17, 2016, 09:21:32 am
I'm tentatively excited about Vinyl. Anyone else?

e: nope
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: speedbath on February 20, 2016, 12:34:03 am
Love came out on Netflix today. It's some kind of comedy TV show thing, ten episodes. I like it.

Paul Rust and Gillian Jacobs are in it.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Ambious on February 20, 2016, 03:16:46 am
Love came out on Netflix today. It's some kind of comedy TV show thing, ten episodes. I like it.

Paul Rust and Gillian Jacobs are in it.
speedbath, February 20, 2016, 12:34:03 am

I watched half of it already but decided to stop.
The neurotic schtick gets annoying after a while, and even worse - Russ reminds me of who I used to be and kinda still am in some ways, and it's a sad personal reminder I don't really need in my life.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: A Whirring Bone-White Gleech on April 06, 2016, 07:02:15 pm
A friend just got me into Letterkenny, it was great.

NSFW content. Click to show.

I imagine that it made Boot's life a living hell.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: eldritchhat on April 06, 2016, 07:19:39 pm
Hey, if anyone likes Portlandia at all, definitely check out Bill Hader and Fred Armisen's Documentary Now!

It's basically a show that parodies different styles of documentary, from investigative to band documentary. It is quite funny, and surprisingly inline if you've seen many documentaries. However, they have not done a Herzog parody yet, so I'm hoping that'll be in the next season.

Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: CormansInferno on April 13, 2016, 11:35:32 am
Everything is Terrible/Memory Hole's Adult Swim pilot Gigglefudge USA (http://www.adultswim.com/videos/specials/gigglefudge-usa/) is up. Watching this much Memory Hole in one sitting might not be advisable.

Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: chai tea latte on May 04, 2016, 02:50:59 am
The Expanse is a caramel macchiato everyone-is-queer hard sci-fi space opera and it doesn't give a shit if you're not into that.  The soundtrack (ambient/electronic instead of thundering Bear McCreary drums) and world design are great, and my only complaint so far is that it's almost too dense - I never read Leviathan Wakes and there's very little narrative hand-holding - but if you liked the first few seasons of Game of Thrones or Battlestar Galactica you'll almost definitely like this.

Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Turtle on May 04, 2016, 10:02:58 am
Who wants to talk about the latest in modern television, The Wire?
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Agent (gobble, gobble) Coop on May 04, 2016, 11:55:53 am
Who wants to talk about the latest in modern television, The Wire?
Turtle, May 04, 2016, 10:02:58 am
I'm always ready to talk about the wire
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: CormansInferno on May 20, 2016, 04:39:18 pm
I never even watched this show but this is fantastic breakdown of 9/11-era pop culture. Please be advised there's some intense action movie violence:

"24" was the Bush administration's favorite TV show. It was also a quasi-apocalyptic nightmare that reduced America to a cathedral of death worship. That is not coincidental.Quote from
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: STOG on May 21, 2016, 12:04:48 pm
Justified is still pretty good. I could listen to good faux-Elmore Leonard dialogue all day.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Really_Quite_Nice on May 30, 2016, 03:41:46 pm
Brooklyn Nine-Nine is funny. You should watch it.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: CormansInferno on June 03, 2016, 06:39:04 pm
Oh hey, NBC has something worth watching again:

Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Agent (gobble, gobble) Coop on June 06, 2016, 09:41:56 pm
I'm starting Deep Space Nine.


Here we go
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: chai tea latte on June 06, 2016, 10:05:51 pm
I'm starting Deep Space Nine.


Here we go
AgentCoop, June 06, 2016, 09:41:56 pm
it's the best star trek to binge watch and anyone who says otherwise is wrong, enjoy
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Blandest on June 07, 2016, 04:08:45 am
I'm starting Deep Space Nine.


Here we go
AgentCoop, June 06, 2016, 09:41:56 pm
it's the best star trek to binge watch and anyone who says otherwise is wrong, enjoy
chai tea latte, June 06, 2016, 10:05:51 pm

I find voyager an easier watch even if half the cast annoys me.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Agent (gobble, gobble) Coop on June 08, 2016, 11:15:21 pm
"Killing your own clone is still murder!"

-Odo the shape shifting goop-dude
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: A Meat on June 10, 2016, 06:34:55 am
I've been watching the Israeli version of Bake-off, and it's so dissimilar to the Great British Bake-off that it's amazing.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: eatenmyeyes on June 16, 2016, 05:35:48 pm
I've been watching the Israeli version of Bake-off, and it's so dissimilar to the Great British Bake-off that it's amazing.
A Meat, June 10, 2016, 06:34:55 am
How much white phosphorus gets used in the BBC version?
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Ambious on June 16, 2016, 05:41:22 pm
I've been watching the Israeli version of Bake-off, and it's so dissimilar to the Great British Bake-off that it's amazing.
A Meat, June 10, 2016, 06:34:55 am
How much white phosphorus gets used in the BBC version?
eatenmyeyes, June 16, 2016, 05:35:48 pm

We don't mix business and pleasure.
White phosphorus is what we give the Palestinians.
Our cooking shows only use pristine virgin Christian kinder blood.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: eatenmyeyes on June 16, 2016, 07:51:02 pm
Ah yes, the two great corner-cases for kosher rules: blood of the Righteous and Chinese food.
I just realized that Jews in Shadowrun probably eat a lot of locust fried rice.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: CormansInferno on June 18, 2016, 03:15:42 pm
Get hyped, folks. GET MOTHERFUCKING HYPED. (http://www.adultswim.com/misc/time-rift-secrets/samurai-jack.html)
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: cyclopeantrash on June 19, 2016, 07:28:07 am
Get hyped, folks. GET MOTHERFUCKING HYPED. (http://www.adultswim.com/misc/time-rift-secrets/samurai-jack.html)
CormansInferno, June 18, 2016, 03:15:42 pm

Don't know if I'm that fond of Adult Swim handling a beloved childhood cartoon. Will it have the spirit of the original SJ or will it be an arbitrary grimdarkening with swear words and boobs?
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: A Meat on June 19, 2016, 07:38:46 am
I've been watching the Israeli version of Bake-off, and it's so dissimilar to the Great British Bake-off that it's amazing.
A Meat, June 10, 2016, 06:34:55 am
How much white phosphorus gets used in the BBC version?
eatenmyeyes, June 16, 2016, 05:35:48 pm
I don't remember Paul Hollywood and Mary Berry talking trash about each other in front of the competitors,on the other hand I have no idea what goes in a Cornish pasty, so it might be white phosphorus, so the two shows might share that in common.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Ambious on June 19, 2016, 08:19:22 am
Wynonna Earp is not good.
It's cheesy and campy, but not audacious enough to pretend it's on purpose (it tries to, though).
Still, I'll be watching - because I have no standards.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: chai tea latte on June 19, 2016, 10:21:23 am
Wynonna Earp is not good.
It's cheesy and campy, but not audacious enough to pretend it's on purpose (it tries to, though).
Still, I'll be watching - because I have no standards.
Ambious, June 19, 2016, 08:19:22 am
Are you watching Penny Dreadful? It is similar but better-produced and at least when you cringe at the dialogue it's b/c you're supposed to

bonus Penny Dreadful fact - it is a show where Timothy Dalton, playing an effete gentleman scholar looking for his daughter (who was kidnapped by Dracula) teams up with Victor Frankenstein and an American Werewolf (who happens to be In London) and Eva Green's piercing, beautiful eyes to fight miscellaneous servants of the devil

also there's Dorian Grey, Dr. Jekyll, on-screen dick, voodoo, Billie Piper with (and later without) a cartoonish Irish accent, undead radical feminists, a woman fighting a doll version of herself and the doll is possessed by Satan, and lots and lots of sex and blood, not infrequently together

it's campy and stupid and very well put together and i love it so much
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: A Meat on June 19, 2016, 10:25:48 am
That sounds suspiciously like Mystery Men, I'm assuming it's better?
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: CormansInferno on June 19, 2016, 04:30:11 pm
Get hyped, folks. GET MOTHERFUCKING HYPED. (http://www.adultswim.com/misc/time-rift-secrets/samurai-jack.html)
CormansInferno, June 18, 2016, 03:15:42 pm

Don't know if I'm that fond of Adult Swim handling a beloved childhood cartoon. Will it have the spirit of the original SJ or will it be an arbitrary grimdarkening with swear words and boobs?
MISANDRY CANNON, June 19, 2016, 07:28:07 am

Gennedy is in complete control of it, I assume parts of this are the Samurai Jack movie he tried to make on and off for a decade. All indications are that it's the same show, the action movie violence and stakes are just amped up.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: chai tea latte on June 20, 2016, 06:26:56 am
That sounds suspiciously like Mystery Men, I'm assuming it's better?
A Meat, June 19, 2016, 10:25:48 am
it's better
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: lazzer grardaion? on July 14, 2016, 11:38:44 pm
Man-oh-man.

Star Trek: Enterprise is the prequel series to the original Star Trek, airing from 2001 to 2005, and I hadn't actually watched it since it was being aired, so I figured that it might be time to give it another go. It was the first star trek series that my family stopped watching (and we watched Voyager together). The air date puts a lot of the things that happen in the show in context, I think. Anyways, so the show's aim was to make Star Trek 'fresh' again, something that modern audiences would sit down and watch over other primetime television of the era. So, they aimed to make Star Trek something that could compete with Buffy or Alias: something exciting, occasionally gritty, and above all, SEXY

But, like, they start with the bits where they have to rub decontaminant gel on each other, in tank-tops and shorts.

(http://i.imgur.com/1noY830.jpg)

"Not good enough! Make it sexier!"

Uh, then they move it to, like, intimate massages for "Vulcan neural realignment therapy".

(http://i.imgur.com/HP0Zyk7.jpg)

"Still not good enough! Ratings are too low!"

Fuck it. Naked Vulcan shower massages.

(http://i.imgur.com/5lD1fc7.jpg)

"NOT WORKING! PULL UP PULL UPPPPPP!"

(http://i.imgur.com/HCIbQ7n.jpg)

AUGH. Are you wearing a snake's skin?! Anyways, so yeah, the totally transparent boobs=ratings grab was shitty and remains shitty.

There's also the really muddled nature of the show's politics: the show started in 2001, and continued through 2005. You've got 9/11 there at the start,  the main villains of the first couple seasons are named the Suliban, just a couple letters off from Taliban. You've got the Iraq war happening, and there's a storyline about an alien race, the Xindi, that is developing a WMD that could wipe out the earth. And the traditional enlightened Star Trek 'all problems can be solved by communication, and all sentient species deserve our respect' collides with the 24-esque sensibilities of the era. Captain Archer fucking tosses a dude in an airlock and starts sucking the air out 'til he tells him where the weapon is, and that's not something that anybody ever calls him out on.

This sort of dovetails with the show's weird racial attitudes: the Xindi, developing the WMD, are composed of five subspecies, some of which don't actually want to destroy Earth. Like, I guess the intention was to demonstrate that sometimes there are internal groups in a conflict that we don't necessarily see, and no species is 100% ideologically aligned, so we shouldn't hold all of them responsible for the actions of a few, but two of the subspecies are just out-and-out evil, which kind of contradicts the whole point. Plus, there's this weird thing where the Vulcans are actually, like, controlling the human government? And they get to say what kind of missions Starfleet undertakes? It's got a really weird kind of Jewish cabal/Illuminati vibe to it. Plus, there's a bit where kindergarteners are sending their crayon drawings to the enterprise, and the one of the Vulcan officer is this weird green racial caricature, and it's played for laughs! Like, if there were a chinese character, and some kids drew, like, a yellow-skinned buck-toothed crayon drawing, that would be some serious shit.

Also, the writing is bad, the characters are one-dimensional and totally fail to grow in any significant way over the course of the show, they don't ask any interesting questions or explore any interesting themes, and they do way *way* too many dumb episodes where they meet (THING YOU KNOW FROM STAR TREK) for the first time, even if it doesn't make any sense and directly contradicts what we know from the other Star Trek series (the Borg, the Ferengi, the Romulans).

AUGH.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: CormansInferno on August 02, 2016, 12:21:07 pm
Vice Principals is probably the darkest thing McBride and Hill have made. Walton Goggins plays the Oily Sociopath role to perfection. Love how they make the revenge plot against the new principal at least somewhat empathetic when the receptionist is fired, then 5 minutes later they BURN DOWN HER FUCKING HOUSE. The only way the series ends is with the death of one or both of these characters.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: STOG on August 10, 2016, 09:31:45 am
I don't know if you've noticed, but Stranger Things is pretty much a love letter to 80's science fiction horror and it's pretty good? Like, I've heard people talking about it, so I took the plunge myself because I'm a sucker for Stephen King inspired teleplays and The Stand TV miniseries is still my favorite Stephen King thing ever???? You should check both of these things out?????????

What??????????
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: NutshellGulag on August 10, 2016, 01:01:29 pm
I don't know if you've noticed, but Stranger Things is pretty much a love letter to 80's science fiction horror and it's pretty good? Like, I've heard people talking about it, so I took the plunge myself because I'm a sucker for Stephen King inspired teleplays and The Stand TV miniseries is still my favorite Stephen King thing ever???? You should check both of these things out?????????

What??????????
STOG, August 10, 2016, 09:31:45 am

I really liked it. I'm glad there's going to be a second season, but now I have to wait and it suuuucks.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Frank West on August 21, 2016, 12:17:24 am
I just finished Stranger Things, and it's really really good. I like how each set of characters is in their own type of 80s movie (Spielbergian coming-of-age, Stephen King supernatural conspiracy thriller, and teen horror romance, respectively) and they gradually blend together. It really fits with the atmosphere of the show, too, as the characters gradually unite and cross over into the other world.

The downsides are that it does get less scary as it goes on.  The fear of the unknown gets less scary when we start learning the rules of the unknown, although it ends strong. In fact, it ends TOO strong. I don't see a second season of this being any good. Where could they possibly go? Everyone is a badass demon hunter and they go to save Elle from even MORE monsters? Will causes the other world to seep into ours and now they have to fight to stop Armageddon? I don't see it working, unless they maybe change the entire genre, and base season two on, like, Alien and Conan instead of E.T. and Poltergeist.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: CormansInferno on August 22, 2016, 09:25:44 pm
Saw the new Christopher-Nolan'd Tick pilot. Not bad, but weird timing bringing it out when superhero fans are getting tired of the grim, grey reboot. Hopefully it compensates by getting even more satirical and mean with the superhero jokes, ala Mills and O'Neill's Marshall Law or the Venture Bros (which literally owes its existence to both Tick TV shows). There's a hint of that in the flashback where the Terror causes a spaceship to crash on Arthur's father and then casually murders 4 B-List superheroes, but I hope it pulls more in that direction instead of trying to make the Tick "real". Also hilarious reading the negative Amazon reviews saying "whoever made this show doesn't GET the the Tick" when it was written by the guy who created it and is the 2nd live-action Tick series Barry Sonnenfeld has produced.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: A Meat on August 23, 2016, 02:15:18 pm
I tried watching the first three episodes of Rick and Morty.

I didn't really like it. Was all pop culture jokes, and just not too funny in general
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Jack Sensation on August 24, 2016, 12:48:26 am
I liked Rick and Morty but looking back on it I don't know why because whenever I think of an episode I just remember hating it.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Ambious on August 24, 2016, 04:54:18 am
I tried watching the first three episodes of Rick and Morty.

I didn't really like it. Was all pop culture jokes, and just not too funny in general
A Meat, August 23, 2016, 02:15:18 pm

Same.
It was funny, but... A bit over the top.

Anyway, I ran into the weirdest little mini-series called "Dramaworld" (it's on Netflix). The premise sounds a lot like bad fanfiction but it's actually really fun.
It's about a girl who's obsessed with K-Dramas and gets sucked into "Dramaworld" which is a place where all the K-Dramas she's watching are real and she becomes part of the show, and her role in that world is trying to set up the two main characters in every series.
I know - it sounds stupid - but it's actually really adorable and fun so give it a shot. It's also pretty short, so it's not a huge commitment to watch.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: A Meat on August 27, 2016, 07:40:45 pm
Opinion about rick and morty mark II:

Some of the episodes are good and funny , and some are downright embarrassingly bad, it's very hit and miss
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Ambious on August 28, 2016, 01:48:00 am
Opinion about rick and morty mark II:

Some of the episodes are good and funny , and some are downright embarrassingly bad, it's very hit and miss
A Meat, August 27, 2016, 07:40:45 pm

Same - Mark II.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Kaleidoscope on September 04, 2016, 12:17:22 pm
I've been watching Stranger Things and everyone else must watch it because it's fantastic
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Gyro on September 04, 2016, 08:33:46 pm
I've been watching Stranger Things and everyone else must watch it because it's fantastic
Kaleidoscope, September 04, 2016, 12:17:22 pm

I just marathonned all of Season 1 of Stranger Things with my dad and it is FUCKING GREAT.

I want this soundtrack now.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Kaleidoscope on September 05, 2016, 04:25:51 am
I've been watching Stranger Things and everyone else must watch it because it's fantastic
Kaleidoscope, September 04, 2016, 12:17:22 pm

I just marathonned all of Season 1 of Stranger Things with my dad and it is FUCKING GREAT.

I want this soundtrack now.
Gyro, September 04, 2016, 08:33:46 pm
Me too.

It sucks we have to wait for season 2 though
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: chai tea latte on September 20, 2016, 09:58:15 am
Raja, Rasoi, Aur Anya Kahaniyaan (https://www.netflix.com/title/80102162) (Kings, Kitchens, and Other Stories) is a phenomenal Indian food documentary show. There are two seasons, one on Netflix, each of 12 episodes, and each episode covers a specific region of India, its royal culinary history, some social and demographic content, and then how the historical food of kings survives and morphs through the present day. I was mildly interested in the first two episodes but starting from S01E03, the Delhi episode, I was totally hooked. The depth with which it dives into each region of India's culinary history is fascinating to me as an outsider, and it's gorgeously shot. The subtitles are sometimes a little off, and it's annoying to have to read English subtitles for a Hindi voiceover of an English interview, but the show is otherwise without blemish. Highly recommended.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: CormansInferno on September 20, 2016, 11:41:27 am
Holy FUCK, the season finale to Vice Principals. Some of those synthwave drops over the season seemed a little out of place, but it all makes sense now. This whole first half of the series was a set-up for what is going to be a bloody and brutal South Korean revenge movie set in the American South. I am both excited and nervous to see where this goes.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Ryan Byewood on October 13, 2016, 12:03:33 pm
I've been rewatching Harvey Birdman Attorney at Law for like the 100th time and that's really it. I haven't found anything that catches my eye to start watching.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Vinny Possum on October 16, 2016, 08:53:58 pm
Just finished Kakuranger. Great, insane sentai show. Also the only one with a legitimate female lead who is portrayed as both human and capable, rather than a Strong Female CharacterTM.

I highly recommend it.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Ambious on October 24, 2016, 08:21:13 am
Ash Vs. The Evil Dead is super stupid and super fun! Watch it if you liked the original Evil Dead movies.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Blandest on November 18, 2016, 04:18:01 pm
For some reason it took me until now to watch Ash Versus the Evil Dead. I regret my decision to wait this long as any moment not having watched old Ash fighting the Evil dead 30 years after he originally did was a moment wasted.

If you like enjoying things and being happy then I suggest watching this show.

Come on
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Really_Quite_Nice on November 19, 2016, 05:39:54 pm
A Penny Dreadful podcast ran an F Plus episode. (http://dreadfulthoughts.libsyn.com/burning-questions-and-heated-fanfic)
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Breakfast on November 25, 2016, 01:57:23 am
I didn't catch the Turkey Day MST3K marathon, but I just watched Manos: The Hands of Fate and now I'm a little ways into Time of the Apes! God, Mystery Science Theater 3000 was such an amazing show and I'm surprised people don't talk about it more here.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: CormansInferno on November 29, 2016, 05:01:45 pm
Wait until January and you will pray for death instead of having to hear another hot take from the recaposphere on how the new season of MST3k gives liberals the rhetorical tools to fight Trumpism.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Fanzay on December 07, 2016, 07:14:56 pm
I've been marathoning Westworld. It was great! I'm curious how and where they would go from here, though. I almost don't want a second season.

Speaking of, Norwegian national treasure Ingrid Bolsø Berdal has a semi-large supporting role in it, and she fucking steals every scene she's in.

Watch Westworld.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: positive stress on December 27, 2016, 09:04:40 pm
Some mad lads on reddit have been working for a while on remastering Avatar: The Last Airbender and they finished a couple weeks ago (https://www.reddit.com/r/RemasteringATLA/comments/5hr9w2/atla_remastered_in_1080p/). If you've ever watched ATLA in the past five years you know that even on the DVDs the visual quality is nowhere near as good as that show deserves, and this version is glorious.  You can check the screenshot comparisons here (http://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/185686/). I highly recommend using the torrent link and just downloading it episode by episode because the whole thing is 63 gb.

Also, if you haven't watched Avatar: The Last Airbender, oh my god please. This show is incredible. I always thought it looked like a dumb fake anime for children, and it kind of is for the first few episodes, but by the end it's actually the best show ever.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Patterns on December 29, 2016, 12:46:30 pm
Last Chance U is a very good Netflix documentary series about a community college in Mississippi that recruits football players who are talented enough to play Division 1, but don't have the grades to be eligible. This team slaughters every other junior college in the area, but the challenge is getting the players to perform well enough academically to be eligible to transfer. It's a really interesting look at the personal lives and struggles of these elite athletes, and how going to a bad high school can hold you back.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Breakfast on December 29, 2016, 04:52:11 pm
Terrace House! Terrace House! Terrace House! I'm only on episode 18 and I can confidently say that it should be considered the new standard for all reality TV. I seriously can't get enough of this show.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: CormansInferno on December 30, 2016, 07:10:55 pm
I'm looking forward to Hate-watching Dark Archie:
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: BARK RANGER on January 08, 2017, 12:44:53 am
Netflix is stepping it up, Ice Fantasy is insane

It's like an entire series that's just live-action Fantasy RPG cutscenes, but with the kind of acting you'd see in telenovelas or high school plays, and the kind of ADR you'd see in old kaiju movies.  Script is like high-fantasy Mad-Libs, and it looks like 90% of the budget went to costumes.  It's fun but I don't think the fun can last for 60 episodes
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Malten on January 19, 2017, 09:47:02 pm
Why are so many people raving about Netflix's Series of Unfortunate Events... series? I've watched the first two episodes and it's not captivating me even slightly. Is this just my broken judgement? I don't want to sound like an asshole. Is it one of those things that gets a lot better? The titty joke made me laugh.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: I Liked That Joke on January 20, 2017, 04:49:48 pm
Why are so many people raving about Netflix's Series of Unfortunate Events... series? I've watched the first two episodes and it's not captivating me even slightly. Is this just my broken judgement? I don't want to sound like an asshole. Is it one of those things that gets a lot better? The titty joke made me laugh.
Tose, January 19, 2017, 09:47:02 pm

I really liked the series, but it took me a little while to get into it because there's a lot of awful green screen in the first couple that kept pulling me out of it. It's possible that the only reason I like it is because I read the books when I was younger. I also liked the way they implemented Snicket's asides to the reader.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: bubbleuj on January 23, 2017, 02:14:11 pm
I can't recommend Those Who Can't enough.

It's a great show and it features the Grawlix which is a Denver based group.

It's been described as It's always sunny but with teachers.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N5uKUg7FLq4 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N5uKUg7FLq4)

 
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Patterns on February 05, 2017, 12:08:05 am
I am way behind the curve and have just gotten into Black Mirror, which is a very good show. What's nice about it is not having to watch every episode, I can just watch the ones that I think have interesting premises without worrying about losing a narrative thread.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: BARK RANGER on February 13, 2017, 11:03:23 pm
  Did Fox Sports buy the rights to Westminster Doggo show just to shit the bed? This isn't coverage of a century-spanning tradition, this is a third-rate Tim and Eric sketch. Disney-ass infographics, filming judge's backs for 10+ seconds during each dog's announcement, constant cuts to the audience... and why include a segment mentioning 9/11 without even contextualizing it with rescue dogs?  Why is Chris Myers here? Is this Footbaw Congress: Good Boy Edition? 
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: CormansInferno on February 22, 2017, 09:53:53 pm
April 15th!

(https://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/s--KiVxIkdy--/c_scale,fl_progressive,q_80,w_800/qpadpeb3knhgqphvhojw.jpg)
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Patterns on February 23, 2017, 09:04:03 am
This MBMBAM show is pretty good, actually
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: bubbleuj on February 28, 2017, 02:22:00 pm
I just started watching The Mick and Superior Donuts.

Both of them have only a few episode but they're surprisingly strong,

The Mick is pretty heartwarming while also being good for trashy humour!

Superior Donuts is just straight up heartwarming. So if you like Mike and Molly, you'll probably like that show.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: chai tea latte on March 03, 2017, 07:31:14 am
If you like reality tv or game shows, I can't recommend South Korean The Genius enough. It's a weekly elimination show but the contestants are all already famous, so people aren't trying to make their name with how they perform on the show, and the prize pool is relatively meager so it becomes much more sporting and equitable than many other competition game shows. Also, it's all game theory games with an emphasis on both teamwork and individual excellence, so there's a very high level of competition. I would personally say this is the best reality game show that exists, and the best game show on TV, narrowly edging out Jeopardy!. Season one is available (subbed) on Youtube, and seasons two through four are on Dailymotion (http://bxrme.tumblr.com/tagged/the-genius). I 100% recommend watching it, and if you don't like it by the end of the second episode, you never will. I've gotten a few people on this forum into the show and I would like to extend the opportunity to get into it to more people. It really, honestly is the best reality TV game show in the entire world.

Here is the first episode:
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Eider Duck on March 09, 2017, 05:31:28 pm
If you want a fun period piece crime series starring a woman who kicks ass and looks fabulous while doing so, Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries is quite good. Just watched the first 2 episodes on Netflix and I quite enjoy it.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: CormansInferno on March 09, 2017, 08:44:00 pm
Waiting in line for Samurai Jack premiere + Q&A w/ Genndy.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Agent (gobble, gobble) Coop on March 15, 2017, 08:47:48 am
First two seasons of Lucha Underground on Netflix now, you should watch it if you ever enjoyed wrestling, it's wild
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Kreega on March 20, 2017, 09:06:18 pm
I've just caught up on FX's Legion and I cannot recommend it enough. Go watch, it's cray
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Macho Masc Sangy Savage on March 21, 2017, 11:37:02 pm
Waiting in line for Samurai Jack premiere + Q&A w/ Genndy.
CormansInferno, March 09, 2017, 08:44:00 pm

Watched the two new episodes and damn is this series just so good.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: CormansInferno on March 22, 2017, 01:14:09 pm
Waiting in line for Samurai Jack premiere + Q&A w/ Genndy.
CormansInferno, March 09, 2017, 08:44:00 pm

Watched the two new episodes and damn is this series just so good.
Sanguinary Novel, March 21, 2017, 11:37:02 pm

Next week's episode is a scorcher too. Excited to see what the rest of the series looks like.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: lazzer grardaion? on May 10, 2017, 06:12:58 pm
So, it's generally not something that people think of it for, but Crunchyroll has a selection of live-action Japanese television shows, and I just found out that they have NINE DIFFERENT ULTRAMAN SERIES (http://www.crunchyroll.com/videos/drama/alpha?group=u), from the 1974 Ultraman Leo, to the 2016 Ultraman Orb. Excuse me while I drown in giant monster wrassling
(http://media3.giphy.com/media/12CG3zRhS63JJu/giphy.gif)
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Agent (gobble, gobble) Coop on June 20, 2017, 02:03:03 pm
Putting this in the big TV thread because it's important, for just FOUR (that's right, 4) bux a month, you can legally help combat space imperialism and listen to some chill opera bangers. This is like one of the "least anime" anime ever, check it out it rules

(http://i.imgur.com/v301PVA.jpg)
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: lazzer grardaion? on June 20, 2017, 06:37:15 pm
Putting this in the big TV thread because it's important, for just FOUR (that's right, 4) bux a month, you can legally help combat space imperialism and listen to some chill opera bangers. This is like one of the "least anime" anime ever, check it out it rules

(http://i.imgur.com/v301PVA.jpg)
AgentCoop, June 20, 2017, 02:03:03 pm

And to whom should I be paying these 4bux?
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Agent (gobble, gobble) Coop on June 20, 2017, 07:20:12 pm
Putting this in the big TV thread because it's important, for just FOUR (that's right, 4) bux a month, you can legally help combat space imperialism and listen to some chill opera bangers. This is like one of the "least anime" anime ever, check it out it rules

(http://i.imgur.com/v301PVA.jpg)
AgentCoop, June 20, 2017, 02:03:03 pm

And to whom should I be paying these 4bux?
LancashireMcGee, June 20, 2017, 06:37:15 pm
Yo my B, the sites down right now but it looks like HIDIVE

http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2017-06-20/hidive-anime-streaming-service-launches-with-legend-of-the-galactic-heroes/.117768 (http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2017-06-20/hidive-anime-streaming-service-launches-with-legend-of-the-galactic-heroes/.117768)
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Agent (gobble, gobble) Coop on June 21, 2017, 07:43:22 am


It looks like the site is up (https://www.hidive.com/tv/legend-of-the-galactic-heroes)
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Agent (gobble, gobble) Coop on June 26, 2017, 05:29:36 pm
I feel like I've been remiss in not mentioning that the new twin peaks rules, cause it does, it rules ass, check it out
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: znarf on July 01, 2017, 01:41:58 am
GLOW on Netflix. 

Really enjoyed.  Finished it today.  Last scene of the first episode and the conclusion of the Machu Pichu arc are my favorite moments.

I didn't even recognize that was Carlito in the scene and he was holding a damn apple.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Ambious on July 15, 2017, 05:16:13 pm
Rewatching Star Trek: TNG.
Darmok is probably one of the best written episodes of any TV show ever.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Blandest on July 15, 2017, 05:23:40 pm
Rewatching Star Trek: TNG.
Darmok is probably one of the best written episodes of any TV show ever.
Ambious, July 15, 2017, 05:16:13 pm

The first two seasons contain some real Shaka when the walls fell episodes though. I'm coming to the end of my rewatch of TNG, next up is another rewatch of DS9.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Vinny Possum on July 16, 2017, 09:49:19 pm
A list of the team in the newest sentai show:

The Luckiest Man Alive Who Won't Shut Up About It
Sad Wolf Boy
Totally Not Spock, I Swear Guys
Captain Italian Stereotype (but still Japanese)
Angry Justice Bull
Lando Calarissian and C-3P0's illegitimate love child
Calvin, but a female android
Bossy Ninja Chick
Angsty Scorpion Man

It's a fun show, but I'll be surprised if they can keep me caring about the characters.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Ambious on August 10, 2017, 12:07:36 pm
GLOW on Netflix. 

Really enjoyed.  Finished it today.  Last scene of the first episode and the conclusion of the Machu Pichu arc are my favorite moments.

I didn't even recognize that was Carlito in the scene and he was holding a damn apple.
znarf, July 01, 2017, 01:41:58 am

Tried a couple of episodes and really didn't like it.
I found the writing lazy and the characters unoriginal.
The concept of the show is really good, but the execution is your basic Netflix formula of "boring and sad main character with an assortment of quirky and 'interesting' side-characters".
Did not surprise me one bit to learn it's from the same people who made "Orange is the new Black", not because it was bad but because it's basically the same show in a different setting.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: chai tea latte on August 24, 2017, 03:53:18 pm
GLOW on Netflix. 

Really enjoyed.  Finished it today.  Last scene of the first episode and the conclusion of the Machu Pichu arc are my favorite moments.

I didn't even recognize that was Carlito in the scene and he was holding a damn apple.
znarf, July 01, 2017, 01:41:58 am

Tried a couple of episodes and really didn't like it.
I found the writing lazy and the characters unoriginal.
The concept of the show is really good, but the execution is your basic Netflix formula of "boring and sad main character with an assortment of quirky and 'interesting' side-characters".
Did not surprise me one bit to learn it's from the same people who made "Orange is the new Black", not because it was bad but because it's basically the same show in a different setting.
Ambious, August 10, 2017, 12:07:36 pm
Interesting review! To me, Jenji Kohan shows start out strong and get weaker over time, so I really enjoyed the first season of GLOW but don't know if I'll end up liking the third.

Ozark$ seemed bad. Bateman is good but I can't buy into the plot.

I watched a few eps of Penn And Teller: Fool Us while I was really stoned and I still don't think I'd recommend it. Lots of little moments of sexism, usually from Penn Jilette. The magic tricks were very cool, though. Here (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EAN-PwRfJcA) is the most visually impressive trick I saw.

Friends From College, the Netflix Keegan-Michael Key vehicle, seemed bad but not offensively so.

The show I've really liked lately is Netflix's Last Chance U. It's a compelling human documentary that feels a lot like Friday Night Lights, which is a good thing. Lots of footage of people torn between worlds, obligations, and self-preservation.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Agent (gobble, gobble) Coop on September 03, 2017, 10:39:10 pm
Please watch the new twin peaks. It's downright astounding that I've spent the last 17-or-so weeks watching the show that basically formed my media taste as a young teen wrap up (something I was sure would never happen). It feels like David Lynch's victory lap idk, it's just been a really incredible thing to have been a part of, even if I was just some dude who watched it
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Guts Going Nutz on September 12, 2017, 03:59:38 pm
Did I miss Silicon Valley being mentioned?

Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Jack Burden on September 12, 2017, 07:45:10 pm
New season of BoJack Horseman does not disappoint.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: znarf on October 01, 2017, 02:55:06 am
GLOW on Netflix. 

Really enjoyed.  Finished it today.  Last scene of the first episode and the conclusion of the Machu Pichu arc are my favorite moments.

I didn't even recognize that was Carlito in the scene and he was holding a damn apple.
znarf, July 01, 2017, 01:41:58 am

Tried a couple of episodes and really didn't like it.
I found the writing lazy and the characters unoriginal.
The concept of the show is really good, but the execution is your basic Netflix formula of "boring and sad main character with an assortment of quirky and 'interesting' side-characters".
Did not surprise me one bit to learn it's from the same people who made "Orange is the new Black", not because it was bad but because it's basically the same show in a different setting.
Ambious, August 10, 2017, 12:07:36 pm

Never watched "Orange..." and I'm a sucker for wrestling stuff.

In other news watched the first episode of Inhumans and it is bad.  Not boring, but bad.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Achilles' Heelies on November 08, 2017, 04:54:51 pm
I've been watching Ozark on Netflix, it's pretty good so far. However, I get distracted, because this dude looks like a hillbilly Boots Raingear.
(https://nypdecider.files.wordpress.com/2017/08/ozark-episode-9-russ-langmore.png)
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Macho Masc Sangy Savage on November 08, 2017, 05:06:36 pm
Newfie Boots Raingear
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: bubbleuj on November 17, 2017, 01:59:01 am
There is this trashy MTV reality show called "Are You The One". Its amazing.

Not because of the drama (which is awesome) but the premise of the show is just facinating.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: FinchChunk on November 17, 2017, 07:15:59 am
Is that based on the Chinese dating show? That's semi big over here (Aus) though I've not seen a lot of it myself.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: bubbleuj on November 20, 2017, 09:38:13 pm
Is that based on the Chinese dating show? That's semi big over here (Aus) though I've not seen a lot of it myself.
FinchChunk, November 17, 2017, 07:15:59 am

I have no idea! I checked wiki and it doesn't seem to be based on anything.

It's basically a giant game of mastermind

(this one) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mastermind_(board_game) (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mastermind_(board_game))
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Wrought on December 15, 2017, 10:43:23 am
I started rewatching Secret World of Santa Claus, a series that used to air (and I think still airs) on Teletoon around christmastime. It's really good for christmas media, they don't really hold back on weirdness so you'll get plotlines like "Rudolph is feeling unappreciated and ran away and Santa has to find him!" and then still manage to end up with shit like Santa Claus shooting fireworks out of sleigh-mounted missile launchers at wolves. I highly recommend it. Here's the theme song, which is also awesome.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Wrought on December 24, 2017, 12:20:51 am
Also there are no results on this forum for Xavier: Renegade Angel, which is fucking criminal. The entire series is on youtube, so go watch it, it's a good criticism of new-age philosophy/spirituality and also has really smart, well written dialogue and jokes.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Victor Laszlo on January 11, 2018, 12:26:48 am
I'm halfway through season 1 of True Detective.  It's so gorgeous I want to cheat on my wife with it.  I don't know if you can win any sort of award acting in an HBO show, but Matthew McConaughey (or however you spell it) is fucking amazing.  Spellbinding.  Woody Harrelson is the best I've seen him.  I mean, you never forget he's Woody, but he pulls off some subtle looks that only a professional can do.  The whole thing is shot amazingly - everything is perfectly framed, perfectly lit, perfectly set.  It's fucking great.  I hear season 2 was utter shit, but I figure I've got 4 more amazing hours before that happens.

I'm also working through The Americans, which is really good for basic cable TV.  It suffers from a certain degree of predictability that I think is a inherent to being on basic cable, but overall the writing is very good and most of the characters are well developed.  I have issues with both kids, but otherwise it's pretty tight.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Ambious on January 12, 2018, 03:25:37 pm
The new episode of the new X-Files seasons made me completely drop the entire thing.
Last season had its ups and downs, but this was a complete fucking mess.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Muffinator on January 18, 2018, 04:49:21 pm
That new Godzilla show on Netflix is like

Okay so full disclosure I don't watch anime because it's so often both melodramatic and boring.

Holy shit is Godzilla some sort of pinnacle of melodramatic and boring. There is so much exposition. Forty minutes and eleven seconds: that's how long it takes for anybody in the episode to stop saying exposition and to actually do anything. I counted four separate uses of "AS YOU KNOW". Our main character has given two dramatic speeches and nothing has happened.

Even when stuff does happen, it's just people shouting technical specifications of their guns. "AS YOU KNOW MY MAG-CANNON HAS A FIRE RATE OF 12 ROUNDS PER SECOND, WHICH SHOULD BE ENOUGH TO PENETRATE GODZILLA'S SHIIIIIIELD!"

Normally when I watch a bad TV show I just stop, but I'm kinda rooted to this thing in morbid fascination.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Macho Masc Sangy Savage on February 09, 2018, 06:32:12 pm
Omg my friends if I can call them that put on the Queer Eye reboot and they're helping a MAGA cop and is it ever full of the worst ideas. As an opener they have his cop friend fake pull them over while the black guy is driving. Then the same black queer man finds a MAGA hat. Then they have a really forced shitty "cops and black people just gotta understand each other".

I hate thiiiiiiiis
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Kaleidoscope on February 24, 2018, 06:42:36 pm
Yeah, that episode made me a bit uncomfortable. When they got pulled over, I was terrified. If you are going to watch the new Queer Eye, just skip that episode. It's cringy.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Macho Masc Sangy Savage on March 16, 2018, 05:56:10 pm
Watching "Canada's Worst Handyman" and uh, is Nova Scotia the Texas of Canada?

I also actually learned things about home improvement, so it's not the worst show.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: chai tea latte on March 16, 2018, 07:44:14 pm
Watching "Canada's Worst Handyman" and uh, is Nova Scotia the Texas of Canada?

I also actually learned things about home improvement, so it's not the worst show.
Sanguinary Novel?, March 16, 2018, 05:56:10 pm
Alberta is the Texas of Canada in that they have oil, cowboy hats, and guns. Nova Scotia is not the Texas of Canada and in fact short of Alberta and BC (our Cali) our provinces and territories don't really map onto your states.

Canada's provinces break down into a couple simple groups. The West (BC) also includes The Prairies (Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba) even though culturally BC is kind of sui generis and the prairies are where hardworking honest folk mine uranium and grow wheat and rapeseed. Then there's Out East, which is Ontario (somehow the province 'where everything happens' is also the most boring) and Quebec (they're french, love unions, and hate Islam). The Maritimes is all the formerly thriving small communities where now everyone's on employment insurance because the jobs done moved away, eh? used to be you could 'walk across to europe on a road of Atlantic cod' but overfishing and fish stock depletion means there isn't very much cod anymore, and there isn't very much anything else either.

The Territories are different. they're very sparsely populated, and very cold. a can of Coca Cola costs twenty five dollars, and there are no jobs. there's probably 1-3 towns per territory and everything else is just...wilderness. now you know more about canada (turtle island) too!

TV i've seen lately:
Ugly Delicious: extremely good, one of the best formats i've seen in a food show. if more food tv becomes like Mind of a Chef or this, it will be a very good thing.
Altered Carbon: i really tried to like this, but it's bad. too bad to start watching again. if you like this i don't think less of you for it but i just can not bring myself to watch more than i have (2-3 eps?)
The Mick: Kaitlyn Olsen from Always Sunny has the best breakaway show of the IASIP stars. ambitious and funny.
Planet Earth 2: i missed this when it came out so i've been watching it now that it's on netflix. good shit, can't go wrong.
Goblin is a k-drama that got a lot of funding from the Quebecois art council or whatever they're called, so it's a beautifully shot insane korean romance show set in gorgeous Quebec. if u like the genre watch this.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Dr. Buttplug on March 18, 2018, 03:57:36 am
Altered Carbon: i really tried to like this, but it's bad. too bad to start watching again. if you like this i don't think less of you for it but i just can not bring myself to watch more than i have (2-3 eps?)
chai tea latte, March 16, 2018, 07:44:14 pm
Just started watching and it's biggest problem so far is it seems to be slavishly recreating the content of the book. Watchmen had a similar problem. I'll probably enjoy it because I have read and liked the book, but yeah not an easy one to recommend.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: nuffkins, of all people, on March 19, 2018, 01:06:36 am
Watching "Canada's Worst Handyman" and uh, is Nova Scotia the Texas of Canada?

I also actually learned things about home improvement, so it's not the worst show.
Sanguinary Novel?, March 16, 2018, 05:56:10 pm
Alberta is the Texas of Canada in that they have oil, cowboy hats, and guns. Nova Scotia is not the Texas of Canada and in fact short of Alberta and BC (our Cali) our provinces and territories don't really map onto your states.

Canada's provinces break down into a couple simple groups. The West (BC) also includes The Prairies (Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba) even though culturally BC is kind of sui generis and the prairies are where hardworking honest folk mine uranium and grow wheat and rapeseed. Then there's Out East, which is Ontario (somehow the province 'where everything happens' is also the most boring) and Quebec (they're french, love unions, and hate Islam). The Maritimes is all the formerly thriving small communities where now everyone's on employment insurance because the jobs done moved away, eh? used to be you could 'walk across to europe on a road of Atlantic cod' but overfishing and fish stock depletion means there isn't very much cod anymore, and there isn't very much anything else either.

The Territories are different. they're very sparsely populated, and very cold. a can of Coca Cola costs twenty five dollars, and there are no jobs. there's probably 1-3 towns per territory and everything else is just...wilderness. now you know more about canada (turtle island) too!
chai tea latte, March 16, 2018, 07:44:14 pm
I've explained Canada to Americans a lot recently, here's a more comprehensive entry:

First, most of Canada is arctic or subarctic. So, a vast majority of our population is within a day's drive of the US. The main exception to this is Alberta, where the tar sands are quite far north, so cities are pretty big up there. The territories are huge but most folks there are: indigenous, environmental scientists, folks working for government (teachers, doctors, etc.). Jobs are scarce and most food has to be flown up, so everything costs a ton.

And now, the provinces -- west to east:

BC is Canada's California, in that it has lots of people, costs a lot, and has pretty diverse wildlife. It has the rockies, some arid land, and lots of forest. Vancouver island and Victoria are excellent, but also hippie magnets. BC is where TV people, asian investors, and rich liberals live.

So, Alberta is our Texas in that it has cowboy hats, oil money, and conservatives. It's one of two conservative areas in Canada. The rest of the prairies (Saskatchewan, Manitoba) are traditionally farmland, politically neutral, and sparsely populated. To avoid Canada slang, the prairies are for hicks. (I hear Winnipeg is nice!)

Ontario is Canada's population center. Toronto is a sprawling nightmare whose suburbs continue through Hamilton. Depending on where you draw the line, Toronto is anywhere from ~3 million people to ~11 million. (Canada's total population is, last I checked, ~36m.) Toronto (and all of southern Ontario) is the other conservative area, but it's a damn populous one. This is the biggest and most important province, and the most generic. Toronto has some nice punk bands.

Quebec is the most European province, for good (low tuition, great food) and bad (most recently, islamophobia) but also the least suburban cities in Canada. Most people love Montreal, which is a great city, but I like Quebec City more (and some towns along the St. Laurent are excellent too.)

The Maritimes (New Brunswick, PEI, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland & Labrador) used to be the richest part of the country, back when sea trade with Europe, fishing, and our navy were important. They're now probably the poorest part of the country (trailer park boys and a ton of folk culture comes from the maritimes). If BC is home to hippies with money, the maritimes are home to hippies without. The Maritimes aren't like the south (that's the prairies), they're more like the Dakotas or Vermont. Newfoundland has its own culture too, but I've never been so I can't talk much about that.

Ugly Delicious: extremely good, one of the best formats i've seen in a food show. if more food tv becomes like Mind of a Chef or this, it will be a very good thing.
Ya boy doesn't have netflix, but I've convinced a friend to watch it with me. I'm pretty hype.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: KingKalamari on March 19, 2018, 04:54:50 pm

Ontario is Canada's population center. Toronto is a sprawling nightmare whose suburbs continue through Hamilton. Depending on where you draw the line, Toronto is anywhere from ~3 million people to ~11 million. (Canada's total population is, last I checked, ~36m.) Toronto (and all of southern Ontario) is the other conservative area, but it's a damn populous one. This is the biggest and most important province, and the most generic. Toronto has some nice punk bands.
nuffkins, of all people,, March 19, 2018, 01:06:36 am

As a Torontonian I must correct you on one point there: It's only the surrounding suburban communities of Toronto that are traditionally conservative. The ridings in the downtown core tend to skew much more heavily centre-left come election time: Toronto proper was almost exclusively Liberal1 in the 2015 election and a number of these districts are some of the few ridings in Southern Ontario that have traditionally skewed to the NDP2

1 - To those non-Canadians on the forum:  the Liberal party is, counter-intuitively, not the most left-leaning of Canada's political parties. It is instead the country's centre-leaning party however a large number of traditionally more left-leaning ridings voted Liberal in the most recent election in an effort to oust the then ruling Conservative party.
2 - The NDP is the second-most left leaning of the major Canadian political parties (The most left-leaning being the Green party, but they've only ever been able to gain one or two ridings in BC and nowhere else) and is popular in Northern Ontario, Quebec and some parts of BC.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Dr. Buttplug on March 31, 2018, 07:02:39 pm
Got around to finishing "Altered Carbon." I enjoyed it but it was only because I read the book and really enjoyed seeing the fantastical action elements brought to life. The biggest problem though is, as I said earlier, it is basically just the book transmuted into an episodic screenplay. There are a lot of internal monologue and flashbacks that just aren't necessary to the overall story in show form. This is a problem that comes up a lot in adaptations.

If you're interested in the concept of "Altered Carbon" at all, just pick up the book and maybe watch a supercut of the action scenes. It's a decently long book, but it's a fast paced page turner.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: A Whirring Bone-White Gleech on April 19, 2018, 02:02:27 am
I've only seen the first 5 episodes of season 1, but so far, American Horror Story is impressively bad.  Uncompelling baby drama and idiots making every decision wrong, stretched out over a whole season.  Fuck this garbage.

ETA: On the up side, Carnivale is actually really good.  It's all the good things about supernatural horror, instead of all that's god-awful in the genre.  Jesus, why aren't I finishing that instead of watching this garbage?
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: EYE OF ZA on April 19, 2018, 02:27:58 am
I watched like two and a half seasons of AHS before I decided it was too bullshit and dumb for me to bother with.

My super sick burn on it was "American Shitty Melodrama Show"
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: A Whirring Bone-White Gleech on April 19, 2018, 04:34:55 am
OK, so, after the grossly stereotypical cattish gay couple who describe their open relationship (?) with "don't ask, don't tell," and now that the christian religiosity has started to lean in (what with devil hooves showing up on an ultrasound), and now that Tate the K-Mart-brand Columbine shooter is revealed to have asked one of his victims if she believed in God before shooting her, I'm starting to get a real overbearing conservative vibe here and that's not making me like this show more.

I should stop shitting up the thread.

ETA: and the evil disfigured man just used the Americans with Disabilities Act to force his way into an invitation-only open house event that he wasn't invited to.  HAHA when will lie-berals learn that ugliness outside always reflects ugliness within?  Also I find it incredibly convenient that at no point did this fucking couple talk and notice that the husband doesn't remember the sex that resulted in the conception of their child.  "Honey, remember the time you wore the gimp suit, one of the two times we've had sex in the last year?  No?  Uh-oh."

ETA2: Surprise, the real-estate developer is an evil dick-head.  Brilliant, revolutionary screen-writing.  Oh, and he's a sexist prick too.  Wonderful.  I'm not nearly hammered enough for this shit.  And explain to me why the fucking ghost puts up with verbal abuse from someone that I'm pretty sure she could, I dunno, poltergeist the shit out of without consequence.  And also psychotherapy does not work the way this TV show thinks it works.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: chai tea latte on April 19, 2018, 03:18:03 pm
if all you want is supernatural horror and camp you should watch Penny Dreadful instead, which at least takes that desire seriously and delivers some goddamn delicious pulp to go with it
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Frank West on April 19, 2018, 11:06:04 pm
Counterpoint: AHS seasons 1 and 2 are so goddamn crazy they're actually good. A fun thing about AHS is that it's so disconnected from rationality that essentially anything can plausibly happen. Season 2 in particular is a masterpiece imho, albeit potentially accidentally. (everything after that gets boring so I stopped watching but maybe cult is good?)
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: A Whirring Bone-White Gleech on April 20, 2018, 05:11:48 pm
if all you want is supernatural horror and camp you should watch Penny Dreadful instead, which at least takes that desire seriously and delivers some goddamn delicious pulp to go with it
chai tea latte, April 19, 2018, 03:18:03 pm

Thanks for the reprieve tip!
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Nikaer Drekin on April 21, 2018, 09:20:39 am
A Series of Unfortunate Events was one of my absolute favorite things as a kid and I'm thoroughly enjoying season 2 of the Netflix show! I still have a certain amount of affection for the Jim Carrey movie, but it really does work so much better as a TV show than as a film, especially since the books were so episodic to begin with. Also, I feel like the books were kind of figuring out the V.F.D. stuff as they went along, whereas it's all established from the start now so the series has been better about gradually revealing tidbits about secret organizations and the like. Also, the casting on this show is terrific.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Macho Masc Sangy Savage on April 21, 2018, 08:36:55 pm
Why did I watch Canada's Worst Handyman? Why I'm I watching the next season?
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Wrought on April 28, 2018, 05:31:38 pm
Seconding the Ugly Delicious recommendation for whoever recommended it, it's a great show even though the first episode was kind of annoying at some points and I hated the segment with walter green
Edit: I just saw the fried chicken episode! It's probably the best one yet! It really does a great job at covering all the angles when it comes to the cultural image of fried chicken in the united states and abroad! Why the fuck did Walter Green get another fucking segment?! It added nothing! It actually detracted from the show! It took time out of the discussion of fried chicken to instead waste on a message that could be conveyed in four words "chicken nuggets are bad"! I hope Walter Green spontaneously loses his sense of taste so that he will never be featured on anything having to do with food again because he's an obnoxious fucking tool!
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Macho Masc Sangy Savage on May 06, 2018, 04:06:55 pm
Aggretsuko is fucking great, and even though the issues it explores is very Japan work culture-centric, there's still a lot to relate to.  I also wish I had Retsuko's metal screamo voice, it's so good.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Wrought on May 06, 2018, 07:39:23 pm
I finished the second series of Unfortunate Events on netflix and I like that it's a lot more miserable than the first series. I love that there's just so many times where it's like "okay we have a handle on things and we can work towards our goal a little better now" and then count olaf walks by and shits into the kids open mouths mid sentence. The scene with patrick warburton and nathon fillion in the car actually made my eyes a little wet.
NSFW content. Click to show.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: chai tea latte on May 10, 2018, 06:19:03 pm
The Expanse continues to be very good
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Wrought on May 16, 2018, 10:15:08 pm
I watched Netflix's newest true crime documentary, Evil Genius. It was great and fantastic but I have one problem with it*
Nsfw for spoilers (is it spoilers if it happened in real life? whatever)

NSFW content. Click to show.

*This isn't actually a problem with the documentary. This is a problem with reality. The documentary ends on the most likely scenario of events, so it's not the show's fault. It's the criminals who are stupid.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Wrought on May 17, 2018, 08:13:15 pm
Does anyone have any thoughts on To Catch A Predator? I've been watching and rewatching it for years now, the original series, Predator: Raw, even the newer thing, Hansen Vs. Predator. It's a great show IMO, but more interesting than that to me is the huge societal impact it's had, both in the US and abroad. There's just so much stuff to talk about with so much depth and nuance that I wouldn't be surprised if someone made a podcast about it (ngl I'd definitely listen to it). Any thoughts?
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Frank West on May 18, 2018, 12:22:44 am
Does anyone have any thoughts on To Catch A Predator? I've been watching and rewatching it for years now, the original series, Predator: Raw, even the newer thing, Hansen Vs. Predator. It's a great show IMO, but more interesting than that to me is the huge societal impact it's had, both in the US and abroad. There's just so much stuff to talk about with so much depth and nuance that I wouldn't be surprised if someone made a podcast about it (ngl I'd definitely listen to it). Any thoughts?
Wrought, May 17, 2018, 08:13:15 pm

I don't know anything about what happened after the original show, but I think I hate it a lot. Public entrapment and humiliation doesn't really serve and purpose except to make trash tv, and the idea of finding our worst citizens and then parading them around on tv so we can get justice boners seems self-evidently horrifying.

The production+perverted justice actually fucked up a lot of ongoing investigations by more-or-less taking over the police role with their celebrity and then leaving the police with nothing when they moved on. There was also, of course, the time that the show (probably) managed to somehow be responsible for deciding how the cops do their jobs and directed them to storm into a suspect's house with a swat team, which caused him to shoot himself in the head. I get that probably every person who went on the show was real fucked in the head, but that's some dire shit to do regardless.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Adam Bozarth on May 18, 2018, 02:15:51 am
I started watching Bill Hader's new show Barry, and it is really good. It's a bit hard to buy Hader as an ex-Marine, but the rest of the show strikes a similar balance. The supporting cast is amazing, and Noho Hank will be your new favorite television character from this year. Henry Winkler is perfectly cast as the hard-ass acting teacher Gene Cousineau. Plus, my former improv teammate D'Arcy Carden is in it! Also, a few of the episodes were directed by Hiro Murai, who did the music video for Childish Gambino's "This is America." Lots of good stuff.

I also just wrapped up The Tick, Season 1, on Amazon, and it is fine. It wasn't laugh-a-minute like I was hoping from something with The Tick in it. It was more like an Arthur origin story. I am hoping the next season will actually serve the titular character better. Peter Serafinowicz starts the series with this bombastic energy that is near deflated by the last scene of the season. There are some really solid bits throughout the season, however, that made it worthwhile for me. The episodes I liked the best featured retired superdog Midnight, voiced by the animated Tick's Townsend Coleman. Since this series comes from Tick creator Ben Edlund himself, I have to respect what he was trying with this decades-old character.

I caught up on Better Call Saul, which is thoroughly great television, though it is not as funny as it has been in the past. It continues to showcase what an amazing talent the entire cast has. If you didn't like Breaking Bad, you will still love Saul.

I also just watched this Netflix anime Kakegurui - Compulsive Gambler on recommendation from my friend and podcaster Andy Beckerman. If you are unfamiliar, the series is set in a private academy where the students social lives are determined by gambling. Each episode is some strange, invented gambling game. It reminded me a lot of that YouTube video of "If Uno Was an Anime." (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I1XQduS6IfA) We checked it out because Anna and I have been playing in a weekly poker game. Anna has also been watching YouTube archives of the World Series of Poker because she never once saw it when the poker craze started.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Macho Masc Sangy Savage on May 18, 2018, 05:21:50 pm
I wanted to love Nailed It, I really did. But it's just regular bad, not fun bad.

What I really want is a new season of Work of Art, and it'll never happen.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: chai tea latte on May 18, 2018, 06:05:11 pm
Also, a few of the episodes were directed by Hiro Murai, who did the music video for Childish Gambino's "This is America." Adam Bozarth, May 18, 2018, 02:15:51 am

Hiro Murai directs most of Atlanta, also. Atlanta is the best show currently on television. Hiro Murai + Donald Glover is a recipe for exceptional success.

e: Atlanta is a little hard to describe, so I won't, but you should all watch it.

Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Lemon on May 19, 2018, 05:30:42 pm
I started watching Bill Hader's new show Barry, and it is really good.
Adam Bozarth, May 18, 2018, 02:15:51 am

I haven't bought into Barry yet, I just keep getting thrown by the tone of the thing. I mean, Bill Hader and Stephen Root are two of my favorite comedic actors ever so I'm just gonna keep going back with the promise of them being funny on screen. Winkler is solid too, but I feel like what I've seen so far tries to keep itself grounded in its own story, but that doesn't prevent it from doing wild gags. I mean, for me I'd just prefer the wild gags, but if you're going to do a two minute bit where Stephen Root is getting beaten by Serbians while Bill Hader is outside the glass door and can't hear them, I'm having trouble transitioning into a longing for meaning and acceptance. Again, want to like it, and I've only done 2 or 3 so far, but I feel like I want it to lean in a direction and stay there.

What I really want is a new season of Work of Art, and it'll never happen.
Cyborguinary Novel?, May 18, 2018, 05:21:50 pm

Can we start a petition?

...other than that, Duck Tales is still gorgeous to look at, Silicon Valley is still a perfect show. Add to that Bob's Burgers, Simpsons and Last Week Tonight and that's the sum total of what I've been watching.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Wrought on May 19, 2018, 06:56:31 pm
Started watching Encounters With Evil, and it's a very serviceable true crime show. I like learning about the different crimes and criminals, but at the same time it doesn't have a whole lot of personality outside of its content. I like the different british people they have on to talk in between the narration. I like the narration itself. I like the interview footage they use. I dunno, I like this show a lot but from an objective standpoint it's kind of..."bland"? Not really bland, but so straightforward that it doesn't really have much room to breathe artistically.

Maybe I'm just crazy, but I've watched like 9 episodes of this show but at the same time I can't actually describe why I like it other than that I like learning about true crime stuff. Does anyone else feel this way about shows they like?
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Macho Masc Sangy Savage on May 27, 2018, 09:13:01 am
Danger 5 is dumb and silly and it's fucking great. It's kinda like a live action Archer, and what Team America: World Police wished it could have been.

(https://i.imgur.com/Ou4nzGv.gif)





And according to Imgur, the people who made Danger 5 are also responsible for this masterpiece:

Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Eider Duck on May 27, 2018, 12:10:59 pm
Yup, that final gif came from a series of videos called Italian Spiderman. It was a love letter to those 60s European films that ripped off popular properties. The makers were contacted by SBS (an Australian TV network) to make a series, and long story short, the wonderful Danger 5 came about instead. I could watch Hitler go through that same window for hours.

I watched the first few episodes of Westworld and I love it. It looks beautiful and I like the plot
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Victor Laszlo on May 30, 2018, 11:26:01 pm
I don't know how I feel about the series finale of The Americans.  I know a few things I feel:

I love to death the "I think Renee might be one of us.  I'm not sure" line just tacked onto the end of that scene in the garage.  And I love that the series ends without any resolution in either direction to that particular fan theory.

Otherwise I didn't like the garage scene - it was nice to have a final conversation between Philip and Stan, but it didn't feel true to Stan's character for him to be talked into letting them walk away without immediately setting pursuit upon them.

The show has always been great with its score - music from the particular year/era which underscores the on-screen action - but the two montages (Brothers In Arms and With Or Without You) were perfectly executed - especially the latter, which was clearly all about Henry right up until the fadeout/fadein when it was all about Paige.  Gorgeous.

I found it interesting that Paige returned to Granny's house, but again with being true to characters, Granny cleaned the place out and left vodka?  That is sloppier than Granny was in six entire seasons combined.


The acting was superb, the cinematography was superb, the score was superb.  I considered 3-4 potential endings for the series, and they went with the one I felt least likely, and most disappointing. 

It was really a great show, though.  One of the best non-HBO shows I've ever watched.  You should watch it if you haven't.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: bubbleuj on May 31, 2018, 08:31:31 pm


I also just wrapped up The Tick, Season 1, on Amazon, and it is fine. It wasn't laugh-a-minute like I was hoping from something with The Tick in it. It was more like an Arthur origin story. I am hoping the next season will actually serve the titular character better. Peter Serafinowicz starts the series with this bombastic energy that is near deflated by the last scene of the season. There are some really solid bits throughout the season, however, that made it worthwhile for me. The episodes I liked the best featured retired superdog Midnight, voiced by the animated Tick's Townsend Coleman. Since this series comes from Tick creator Ben Edlund himself, I have to respect what he was trying with this decades-old character.

Adam Bozarth, May 18, 2018, 02:15:51 am

Season 2 of the The Tick is honestly great. Season 1 does not compare. It really feels like they should have both been "season 1" since it wraps up a lot nicer. The show gets funnier and a lot more sweet.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Spenny on June 02, 2018, 01:11:37 am
Anybody else watch the new Arrested Development?

I'll be frank, I love what is provided. On the other hand, I will gladly acknowledge it does not even attempt to take care of half of the S4 plotlines that are still open and even opens up more of its own. I want to hope the second half is building to a good payoff, but we'll have to wait and see. Honestly, the split baffles me. This is not the kind of show you split with many months in-between. The eventual payoff works pretty well with some weekly build up, not a binge and subsequent binge 6 months later.

The Shoe-Gini is my favorite bit, though. That transition had me in tears.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Wrought on June 02, 2018, 10:12:45 pm
I watched American Bible Challenge hosted by Jeff Foxworthy and learned that the bible says it's okay to eat grasshoppers
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Cleretic on June 02, 2018, 10:38:05 pm
My girlfriend's gotten me into watching Brooklyn 99.

Andy Samberg's character is the worst part of the show, but I feel like everyone involved is actually aware of that, so it works.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: sambair on June 02, 2018, 10:47:54 pm
I'm slowly watching King of the Hill again, after watching it pretty regularly when it originally aired, but only sporadic episodes since then. It's oddly a lot like Beavis & Butt-Head in that a lot of the deeper themes went over my head as a kid, mainly in that both shows (and Mike Judge's comedy in general) are about people who've been failed by the authority figures in their lives.
Title: Amor Vincit Omnia (Sense8 finale)
Post by: chai tea latte on June 10, 2018, 03:51:42 am
Here are my loose, uncollected thoughts on the Sense8 season finale movie. No spoilers, I wouldn't do that to you.

It begins weakly - exposition is not the strong point of this show. It has never been, and was never meant to be. I think Netflix wanted the movie to be accessible for people who had not seen both season previously. It is, I think? But at the same time, that's impossible.

After the clunky-for-the-Wachowskis (so ultimately not so bad, really) dialogue early, the remaining two hours are a triumph. Many plot threads are wrapped up. There is a music video segment, cool gun-fu, and the other things you expect from this show. All of these key elements are executed well. The cinematography continues to thrill and delight, with the camera techniques developed over the course of the first season - all of which feel natural and very tight.

When the Christmas special ended with Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah, but in a way that was somehow still meaningful and beautiful and not trite, I assumed the show would not be able to reduplicate this feat. It does, perhaps even more so, at the end of the movie. The author's statement in the penultimate scene is somehow neither overdone nor incomplete. The final scenes are wonderful closure, and I "ugly cried" at least five separate times.


I don't know what I really wanted this to be, and took pains not to learn anything about the finale until I saw it. The movie was a joy to experience. If you watched this show, you should watch the movie. If you didn't watch the show, I earnestly encourage you to check out one of the most novel and beautiful portraits of the variety of human intimacy I have ever seen.

Thank you. Thank you for reading this post, thank you to the Wachowskis and JMS for this series. Thank you to the fans who, as I did, wrote letters, sent emails, and made Netflix fund this capstone to something that I will probably treasure for a very long time.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Spenny on June 25, 2018, 12:34:58 am
Community S2E09 is still one of the absolute best episodes of the entire show. The A-plot is full of hilarious and insane twists, and the B-plot introduces one of the most important parts of Troy and Abed's relationship.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Macho Masc Sangy Savage on June 26, 2018, 03:11:19 pm
Not sure if this is the place for comedy specials, but goddamn Hannah Gadsby's Nanette is really good!

Edit: Huge Content Warning!!  Hannah talks about some really heavy shit, include sexual assault, violent homophobia, and mental illness. Watching it at work was kinda  a mistake.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Bunnybread on June 29, 2018, 02:44:12 pm
Not sure if this is the place for comedy specials, but goddamn Hannah Gadsby's Nanette is really good!

Edit: Huge Content Warning!!  Hannah talks about some really heavy shit, include sexual assault, violent homophobia, and mental illness. Watching it at work was kinda  a mistake.
Sanguinary Self-Help Novel, June 26, 2018, 03:11:19 pm


So it gets better?  We probably watched 10 minutes waiting for it to get intense but turned it off because the show seemed about as boring as Gadsby described herself.

This is sorta related but has anyone ever seen that one Tig Notaro routine?  Supposedly the most powerful stand up ever since she had just been diagnosed with cancer but still went out there and did her thing.  I wanted to know if it was REALLY as awesome as I've been led to believe. 
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Macho Masc Sangy Savage on June 29, 2018, 05:02:19 pm
Not sure if this is the place for comedy specials, but goddamn Hannah Gadsby's Nanette is really good!

Edit: Huge Content Warning!!  Hannah talks about some really heavy shit, include sexual assault, violent homophobia, and mental illness. Watching it at work was kinda  a mistake.
Sanguinary Self-Help Novel, June 26, 2018, 03:11:19 pm


So it gets better?  We probably watched 10 minutes waiting for it to get intense but turned it off because the show seemed about as boring as Gadsby described herself.

This is sorta related but has anyone ever seen that one Tig Notaro routine?  Supposedly the most powerful stand up ever since she had just been diagnosed with cancer but still went out there and did her thing.  I wanted to know if it was REALLY as awesome as I've been led to believe.
Bunnybread, June 29, 2018, 02:44:12 pm

Yeah it takes a little to build up, probably about 20-25 minutes. Maybe I find her boring-relatable and didn't notice
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Victor Laszlo on July 02, 2018, 12:08:08 am
Now working my way through Westworld.  It's a narrative disaster: too many threads, too many stories, too many timelines.  It tiptoes so close to having something interesting to say about suffering/pain and what it means to be alive/human, but it always stops short like a kid afraid of jumping off the high dive.  And yet, I can't stop watching it.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Wrought on August 02, 2018, 12:51:56 pm
I watched all of Chewing the Fat and Still Game, both scottish comedy series, and I really liked Still Game, and I liked about half the skits in Chewing the Fat. Go watch Still Game if you like old scottish men being crass, and go watch Chewing the Fat if you watch all of Still Game and still want to see more of Jack and Victor's wacky antics. Out of all of Still Game there was one episode I really didn't like just because it had a really terrible resolution where an alcoholic character relapsed and chose whiskey over a cash settlement in court, which they tried to play for laughs but even the live studio audience half laughed and half went "ohhhhh". Apart from that, I liked it!

Now I'm watching Final Fantasy XIV: Dad of Light, which is a Japanese series about a man trying to reconnect with his dad through playing Final Fantasy XIV with him. It hits really close to home, given that I really love FFXIV and me and my dad used to play WoW back when I was a kid, and even though the plot is kind of contrived (for whatever reason, he won't tell his dad that he's playing with him, he just goes along with him on his character and plans to reveal that it was him all along later) I still get some feelings from it. Recommended if you have the exact same background as I do, or if you like videogames and your dad.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: bubbleuj on September 05, 2018, 01:07:08 pm
The first episode of God Friended Me just came out!!

Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Sherman Tank on September 30, 2018, 08:58:47 am
Watched all of The Terror last night. Pretty good stuff apart from a few historical inaccuracies (the expedition wasn't looking for the Northwest Passage, they were part of a larger effort to chart geomagnetism (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Sabine#The_magnetic_crusade)).
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Cleretic on October 01, 2018, 05:04:49 am
Watching through all the Arrowverse shows in chronological order (not quite airdate order, there's slight reordering all throughout to link all the crossovers up right) is a task that starts off reasonable, and then slowly reveals itself to be insane. It's doubly awful if you try doing it in Australia without a VPN, where all the shows are on different streaming services, except for Supergirl which is on none of them.

Still makes it weirdly satisfying to watch and see all the more minor crossover details turn up between shows that indicate you actually are seeing all this unfold in the right order. It also makes Arrow metatextually hilarious, because you can see the exact moment in season 2 where they decide what they want to do with The Flash and how they need to make Arrow a little more fantastical to have the two fit into the same world... and then realize when the first season of The Flash starts that they did not do enough because Arrow characters turning up in The Flash feels weird every time.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: beelzeboob on November 28, 2018, 08:44:35 pm
I guess I'll put this in here?

Started watching She-Ra on Netflix because it looked cute and I heard it was making dudes angry. I am loving it to bits. It's predictable (kids shows often are, whatever) but it's SO cute and I love the characters a lot. I can understand how this is making weird gross dudes angry because she has SHORTS ON under her skirt when she transforms, what a concept, and her neckline is just that -- a neckline, not a mid-chest line. Glimmer made me gasp when I first saw her because she has actual big size thighs and is still a main character who isn't there for gags. Everyone is so precious and I'm excited to see how the show fills the distance between the obviously lined up plot points.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Ramona Chingona on November 28, 2018, 09:11:24 pm
I guess I'll put this in here?

Started watching She-Ra on Netflix because it looked cute and I heard it was making dudes angry. I am loving it to bits. It's predictable (kids shows often are, whatever) but it's SO cute and I love the characters a lot. I can understand how this is making weird gross dudes angry because she has SHORTS ON under her skirt when she transforms, what a concept, and her neckline is just that -- a neckline, not a mid-chest line. Glimmer made me gasp when I first saw her because she has actual big size thighs and is still a main character who isn't there for gags. Everyone is so precious and I'm excited to see how the show fills the distance between the obviously lined up plot points.
beelzeboob, November 28, 2018, 08:44:35 pm

As someone who could only make it through a handful of the new My Little Pony episodes before realizing it was literally just a show for little bitty kids that wasn't shitty about gender -- is it worth watching at all beyond maybe just an episode to see what the fuss is about? My nephews aren't into it, just like they aren't into MLP, so I don't actually have an obligation to sit through it (they do like some stereotypically "girly" stuff, just not these specific franchises).

But so many people have such strong fucking opinions about it, and have written so many, MANY fucking words about how either masterful or repugnant it is, that I don't know if there's anything actually interesting there beyond just being a fun cartoon that maybe isn't all weird about girls. I say this as someone who was generally ambivalent about the original MLP and She-Ra as a kid (but Rainbow Brite and Jem were my fucking jams. And I have A Lot of opinions about Disney princesses. A Lot).
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: beelzeboob on November 29, 2018, 12:39:30 am
As someone who could only make it through a handful of the new My Little Pony episodes before realizing it was literally just a show for little bitty kids that wasn't shitty about gender -- is it worth watching at all beyond maybe just an episode to see what the fuss is about? My nephews aren't into it, just like they aren't into MLP, so I don't actually have an obligation to sit through it (they do like some stereotypically "girly" stuff, just not these specific franchises).

But so many people have such strong fucking opinions about it, and have written so many, MANY fucking words about how either masterful or repugnant it is, that I don't know if there's anything actually interesting there beyond just being a fun cartoon that maybe isn't all weird about girls. I say this as someone who was generally ambivalent about the original MLP and She-Ra as a kid (but Rainbow Brite and Jem were my fucking jams. And I have A Lot of opinions about Disney princesses. A Lot).
Ramona Chingona, November 28, 2018, 09:11:24 pm

Lol it's not masterful, it's a kids show. I haven't seen many shows for any audience that I'd call masterful, actually. It's just a show that isn't sending horrible messages to little girls, and is actually intended to be consumed by them rather than catering to the shitty adult male audience (see: Derpy Hooves). I like children's television because it's less stressful and more colorful than adult tv, which every time I watch it makes me even tenser than my already tense adult life. Sometimes I just wanna watch a show and relax, you know? That's what this show is good for.

Other enjoyable children's shows include that space rocks show everyone can't shut up about (cute character design, good plot), Miraculous Ladybug (terrible plot and characterization, great visual character design and high-energy animation), and I just finished catching up on Dragon Prince (reminds me heavily of Avatar, which makes sense seeing as it was made by the same dude. Very good plot, average character design visually but great characterization).

A show doesn't have to be groundbreaking to be enjoyable. Sometimes people just have fun because it's nice to have fun.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Ramona Chingona on December 03, 2018, 08:46:58 pm
I feel you, and I hope my post didn't come off as me trying to rip on people that like to watch shows aimed at younger demographics just for the fun of it. I do the same thing, and there's also plenty of media out there that I've been meaning to watch but haven't because I didn't have it in me to feel challenged.

Thanks for the other recommendations, I'll see if my nephews are familiar with the other shows you mentioned, and if not I'll lobby to give them a try. Right now, anything that isn't about dinosaurs will be a nice diversion.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Shell Game on December 03, 2018, 08:51:21 pm
Frank West has been showing a small group of us American Horror Story season one and MY GOD THERE'S SO MANY FUCKING GHOSTS AND THEY'RE ALL FORGETTABLE.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Macho Masc Sangy Savage on December 03, 2018, 09:01:16 pm
Frank West has been showing a small group of us American Horror Story season one and MY GOD THERE'S SO MANY FUCKING GHOSTS AND THEY'RE ALL FORGETTABLE.
Shell Game, December 03, 2018, 08:51:21 pm

"Fucking ghosts" works as both a expletive AND a noun!
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Shell Game on December 04, 2018, 12:22:28 am
Frank West has been showing a small group of us American Horror Story season one and MY GOD THERE'S SO MANY FUCKING GHOSTS AND THEY'RE ALL FORGETTABLE.
Shell Game, December 03, 2018, 08:51:21 pm

"Fucking ghosts" works as both a expletive AND a noun!
Supermarket Christmas Novel, December 03, 2018, 09:01:16 pm
It is extra fitting in this show's case i guess. Wow it's so bad.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Macho Masc Sangy Savage on December 04, 2018, 12:25:59 am
Frank West has been showing a small group of us American Horror Story season one and MY GOD THERE'S SO MANY FUCKING GHOSTS AND THEY'RE ALL FORGETTABLE.
Shell Game, December 03, 2018, 08:51:21 pm

"Fucking ghosts" works as both a expletive AND a noun!
Supermarket Christmas Novel, December 03, 2018, 09:01:16 pm
It is extra fitting in this show's case i guess. Wow it's so bad.
Shell Game, December 04, 2018, 12:22:28 am

So very, very bad - a tryhard ghost sexcapade that proves neither scary nor titillating. You are made of much stronger stuff shell
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Shell Game on December 04, 2018, 12:46:55 am
Frank West has been showing a small group of us American Horror Story season one and MY GOD THERE'S SO MANY FUCKING GHOSTS AND THEY'RE ALL FORGETTABLE.
Shell Game, December 03, 2018, 08:51:21 pm

"Fucking ghosts" works as both a expletive AND a noun!
Supermarket Christmas Novel, December 03, 2018, 09:01:16 pm
It is extra fitting in this show's case i guess. Wow it's so bad.
Shell Game, December 04, 2018, 12:22:28 am

So very, very bad - a tryhard ghost sexcapade that proves neither scary nor titillating. You are made of much stronger stuff shell
Supermarket Christmas Novel, December 04, 2018, 12:25:59 am
I think we're gonna be going through as many seasons as we can tolerate.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Cleretic on December 05, 2018, 05:42:03 am
Watching through all the Arrowverse shows in chronological order (not quite airdate order, there's slight reordering all throughout to link all the crossovers up right) is a task that starts off reasonable, and then slowly reveals itself to be insane. It's doubly awful if you try doing it in Australia without a VPN, where all the shows are on different streaming services, except for Supergirl which is on none of them.

Still makes it weirdly satisfying to watch and see all the more minor crossover details turn up between shows that indicate you actually are seeing all this unfold in the right order. It also makes Arrow metatextually hilarious, because you can see the exact moment in season 2 where they decide what they want to do with The Flash and how they need to make Arrow a little more fantastical to have the two fit into the same world... and then realize when the first season of The Flash starts that they did not do enough because Arrow characters turning up in The Flash feels weird every time.
Cleretic, October 01, 2018, 05:04:49 am

I got to Supergirl in this journey, and... ooh boy, this one hurts. Going through the other three shows on the way to it makes Supergirl all the more stark, because compared to all those other shows, Supergirl treats its protagonist like shit. There's a few notes that these sorts of serialized superhero shows apparently have to hit sometime, and Supergirl hits them way faster. The 'actually, maybe this superhero is bad' trope doesn't really get going in Arrow until a decent clip into the first season (and he's meant to be the really shady one so it should've come quick), and it doesn't hit The Flash until season 2, but Supergirl gets it in the second episode. The first time the hero fails because their skills aren't enough hit Arrow and The Flash at around the episode 6-ish mark; it happens to Supergirl in the pilot, and basically the whole rest of the episode is spent beating the shit out of her.

It's also kinda funny that it was supposed to be the higher-budget one of the lot in its first season, but looks and feels really cheap in comparison. A big part of that is just that Supergirl doesn't have as visually interesting a powerset (especially since we've had so many Superman movies), so the action scenes aren't as flashy with special effects or choreography, but there's more to it I can't quite put my finger on. The aliens and the black ops military stuff feel very 'early 00s', somehow.

Also also, the show's rogues' gallery just feels kinda sad. Supergirl doesn't really have much dedicated supporting cast or villains like Green Arrow and The Flash could build their shows around (and Arrow cheated by stealing Teen Titans stuff, so that's off the table, too), so especially early on it's working with some really cut-rate names.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: chai tea latte on December 05, 2018, 07:40:50 pm
i wonder if a notoriously woman-hating industry (tv) cribbing from a notoriously anti-woman genre (comics) could in some way make the one show about a woman fail to hit the right beats at the right times

lately i finished Sharp Objects which was very good. I mentioned it earlier and everything I said carries through the season. It ends well.

I've also been watching Rectify (so, so good. a heavy show with a remarkable grace and lightness) when I want good TV and Penny Dreadful when I don't. full endorse on both of those as well.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: KingKalamari on December 05, 2018, 10:01:18 pm
I guess I'll put this in here?

Started watching She-Ra on Netflix because it looked cute and I heard it was making dudes angry. I am loving it to bits. It's predictable (kids shows often are, whatever) but it's SO cute and I love the characters a lot. I can understand how this is making weird gross dudes angry because she has SHORTS ON under her skirt when she transforms, what a concept, and her neckline is just that -- a neckline, not a mid-chest line. Glimmer made me gasp when I first saw her because she has actual big size thighs and is still a main character who isn't there for gags. Everyone is so precious and I'm excited to see how the show fills the distance between the obviously lined up plot points.
beelzeboob, November 28, 2018, 08:44:35 pm

I really like the art direction and design of the show (The backgrounds in particular are simply wonderful) but feel it's held back a bit on the writing leaning a bit too heavily on the expected tropes associated with its demographic (That being kids aged 6-12ish): The bar has been raised quite high for kids' shows of late by your Steven Universes and Voltrons and whatnot and, while She-ra is certainly doing alright thus far, I hope the writing team is able to step up their game a bit as the series moves on.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: beelzeboob on December 06, 2018, 09:18:35 am
I really like the art direction and design of the show (The backgrounds in particular are simply wonderful) but feel it's held back a bit on the writing leaning a bit too heavily on the expected tropes associated with its demographic (That being kids aged 6-12ish): The bar has been raised quite high for kids' shows of late by your Steven Universes and Voltrons and whatnot and, while She-ra is certainly doing alright thus far, I hope the writing team is able to step up their game a bit as the series moves on.
KingKalamari, December 05, 2018, 10:01:18 pm

I agree! I think it could do with some genuine foreshadowing rather than in-your-face blunt not-really-twists that we all saw coming a mile away. THAT SAID... it's a kid's show. Kids AREN'T as good at picking up on tropes because they haven't seen them before. She-Ra is immeasurably better than the other things I've seen the 10 year olds in my life watching ("Loud House" etc), as well as other kids shows I'm fond of myself (Miraculous Ladybug sucks so bad in this department), because it actually has an intentional plot and character development, cliche though they may be. I'm hoping that it does up its standards a bit, but even if it doesn't, I don't think that kid shows should be held to the same standards as adult media. It does what it sets out to do well, which is provide a simplified plot for kids to get invested in.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: KingKalamari on December 06, 2018, 10:04:58 am
I agree! I think it could do with some genuine foreshadowing rather than in-your-face blunt not-really-twists that we all saw coming a mile away. THAT SAID... it's a kid's show. Kids AREN'T as good at picking up on tropes because they haven't seen them before. She-Ra is immeasurably better than the other things I've seen the 10 year olds in my life watching ("Loud House" etc), as well as other kids shows I'm fond of myself (Miraculous Ladybug sucks so bad in this department), because it actually has an intentional plot and character development, cliche though they may be. I'm hoping that it does up its standards a bit, but even if it doesn't, I don't think that kid shows should be held to the same standards as adult media. It does what it sets out to do well, which is provide a simplified plot for kids to get invested in.
beelzeboob, December 06, 2018, 09:18:35 am

I would respectfully disagree with the need to simplify things too far for kids. It's definitely the case that kids often need the narrative spelled out for them a little bit more than older audiences but I feel that programming aimed at a young audience has had a history of over-compensating in this regard. We're now starting to see kids programming that introduces more complicated narrative structures and devices and is appreciated all the more for it. Of course this is not to say I think She-ra is bad in this regard, just that I feel they could push things a bit further moving forward than they are now. I definitely agree with you that this show is a very nice stand-out among even other kids programming on right now and shows some excellent potential.

With the critique out of the way I'll take a moment to gush a bit: I think that one thing I really appreciate was how the show avoided the usual trap of making Hordak an asshole to his subordinates for no reason: While he punishes Shadow-Weaver pretty heavily for her failures, that's mostly motivated by her constantly going behind his back and disobeying his orders. Even in spite of her blatant, Starscream-esque schemes Hordak gives her a lot of chances to turn things around before he goes full "You have failed me" on her. Also in favor of his management techniques: he never holds Shadow Weaver's subordinates accountable for her failures and recognizes Catra's potential as a commander: He rewards her for her successes and, while not happy about her failures, doesn't drop her like a hot sack of potatoes when she stumbles in her duties. All things considered he seems like a pretty alright evil overlords to work for. I give him a solid 4.5 stars on ratemyoverlord.com!
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Vinny Possum on December 08, 2018, 06:49:31 am
Speaking of watching kids shows AND watching stuff with other internet people, Dijon Du Jour and I finished Dairanger and it's complete mindfuck of an ending and have started on the insane, ultra-90's romp that is Kakuranger. In Kakuranger, five apparently homeless teens/ninja superheroes living out of their Catbus/Crepe truck have to defeat the demon lord of the yokai and his minions, who are run less like an empire and more like if the mos eisley cantina were the mafia. It's also the only sentai I know of with an actual female main character, and features an actual asian-american actor (who couldn't speak japanese when the show started) as the "American Ninja".

I highly recommend it.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Agent (gobble, gobble) Coop on December 08, 2018, 04:23:51 pm
old episodes of The Ultimate Fighter
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: EYE OF ZA on December 15, 2018, 12:51:16 am
Happy! is a really good show. Movie? It's a miniseries by the guy who did the Crank movies.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: lazzer grardaion? on December 18, 2018, 10:36:03 pm
I recently finished watching Kamen Rider W (pronounced 'Double'). I've been a fan of Ultraman for a very long time, and was looking for a place to get started with this almost-as-old series, and a bunch of different people said that this was the perfect place to get started with the modern incarnation of the franchise.

(https://i.imgur.com/sCwwup2.gif)

They weren't wrong! It's a show that borrows a lot of story beats and characters from detective fiction (one of the protagonists is named Philip, after Philip Marlowe), which I already love. Every episode is a two-parter (in keeping with the 'Double' theme), which allows them to tell more complicated stories. There are a lot of weird and creative powers (a robot t-rex going all end-of-Akira is a highlight). Every time the two protagonists transform into Kamen Rider ('Double'), one of them passes the fuck out wherever he's standing, and it's adorable.

(https://i.imgur.com/houxg4A.jpg)

Give these good boys a shot.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Vinny Possum on December 19, 2018, 02:39:35 am
Double is super good. I wasn't super fond of the ending though.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: lazzer grardaion? on December 20, 2018, 07:27:41 pm
Double is super good. I wasn't super fond of the ending though.
Vinny Possum, December 19, 2018, 02:39:35 am

So, since you seem to be in-the-know, would you have any recommendations for where to go from here? I figure the most natural thing is to go to the next series, OOO, but the first of the Heisei series, Kuuga, also looks interesting.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Vinny Possum on December 21, 2018, 01:37:08 am
Double is super good. I wasn't super fond of the ending though.
Vinny Possum, December 19, 2018, 02:39:35 am

So, since you seem to be in-the-know, would you have any recommendations for where to go from here? I figure the most natural thing is to go to the next series, OOO, but the first of the Heisei series, Kuuga, also looks interesting.
LancashireMcGee, December 20, 2018, 07:27:41 pm

It depends! Kabuto is also a good intro series. Gaim is super good but very modern (read: toy sales centered) and a bit dark. Faiz is in my opinion the best series I've seen so far, but I might not have liked it as much if I didn't get a feel for the genre. I'm watching Den-O right now and it has a similar vibe to Double, at least tone wise.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: lazzer grardaion? on December 21, 2018, 01:26:47 pm
Double is super good. I wasn't super fond of the ending though.
Vinny Possum, December 19, 2018, 02:39:35 am

So, since you seem to be in-the-know, would you have any recommendations for where to go from here? I figure the most natural thing is to go to the next series, OOO, but the first of the Heisei series, Kuuga, also looks interesting.
LancashireMcGee, December 20, 2018, 07:27:41 pm

It depends! Kabuto is also a good intro series. Gaim is super good but very modern (read: toy sales centered) and a bit dark. Faiz is in my opinion the best series I've seen so far, but I might not have liked it as much if I didn't get a feel for the genre. I'm watching Den-O right now and it has a similar vibe to Double, at least tone wise.
Vinny Possum, December 21, 2018, 01:37:08 am

Let me reframe the question: which one has the most cute boys?
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Vinny Possum on December 21, 2018, 02:15:13 pm
Depends. Pure quantity? Gaim by far.

However the main guy in Den O is pretty hot and plays like five different characters all with over the top style that change depending on which spirit is currently possessing him.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Cleretic on January 04, 2019, 12:43:44 am
Just now hitting season 2 of Supergirl, and the thing I've really started noticing is that that cast needs interesting guest stars to work.

The central cast of that show is fine. They're perfectly serviceable, but without something else to work with, they're in service to nothing. The highlight of the first season is when Barry Allen turns up, but it's not because Barry Allen is more interesting (even if he is); it's because they've got something fun to bounce off of.

The start of season 2 seems to suggest they knew that, because they go from two episodes with Superman (who might be the best Superman of the 21st century, but that's not a hard field to win in) straight to an episode with President Lynda Carter, and the show's so much more fun with that sort of catalyst instead of a mediocre monster of the week.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Jack Burden on January 09, 2019, 07:44:40 am
Happy! is a really good show. Movie? It's a miniseries by the guy who did the Crank movies.
SATAN MILKSHAKE, December 15, 2018, 12:51:16 am

Co-sign! I was worried it was going to be edgy for edgy’s sake, but I don’t think it ever crossed the line into that. Just gleefully crazy.

And the cast is great.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: moooo566 (taylor's version) on January 10, 2019, 03:23:21 pm
I'm about halfway through the first season of 30 Rock and I've laughed it at far more than I've laughed at any other TV I've ever seen. Why did the world hide it from me for this long?
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Macho Masc Sangy Savage on February 08, 2019, 10:03:45 pm
Getting drunk and watching Letterkenny, which really is the best way to watch Letterkenny.

Brewin' and tubin'
Watchin' and washin' it down
Jokes and jack
Boozin' while borrowin' the Hulu
Drinkin' sours during TV hours
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: A Whirring Bone-White Gleech on February 16, 2019, 12:19:55 am
So, Netflix remade the Haunting of Hill House as a series.  It's good, as these things go, but it's not great.  Basically I have two problems with it.

Point one, one of the characters is basically presented as being evil because he's a skeptic.  I am a fedora athiest, and I really, really hate that shit.  He's also depicted as evil for making money by writing a book about his familiy's horrible experience in Hill House--I'm closer to getting that, I get how that's sleezy, but I still think everyone's reaction is waaaaay outsized for it.  The rest of his family basically hates him and constantly rides him for it.  I think the show hates on him so much for it because we're already supposed to resent him for writing ghost stories even though he doesn't believe in ghosts, which seems like stupid heaped on top of stupid to me.

Point two: in the original Haunting of Hill House, it's ambiguous how much of what we see is actually caused by ghosts, versus how much of it is Nell having a breakdown versus how much of it is Nell having psychic powers that she cannot fully control (it's one line, but it's revealed that her house was pelted by rocks when she was little and it's suggested that it might be because of some kind of psychic power that Nell has).  In the remake, it's pretty much all ghosts, unambiguously.

Edit: Point three is that it's a story told out of order, which can be fine, but doesn't really work here.  The events of the story happen in two sort of eras, one when the characters where at Hill House as children and one in the present and recent past.  Events are told out of order so that each character can get an episode that's mostly their story.  This also allows them practical advantages like allowing them to interleave time a that the family was at a given location with time b that the family was at a location so that we can easily see the parallels between the two.  The problem is that sometimes they jump back and forth between, say, moments in the present and recent past, and it can be really hard to figure out just when exactly a given scene is set, and when a given scene is set relative to everyone else's stories (which can make it super hard to assemble the whole story or to put things in context).  Sometimes a scene will be mixed with a scene from a year or two ago without enough establishing context and it's impossible to figure out just when Scene B is actually supposed to be happening w.r.t. to the character's own timeline and the events of the episode.

Frank West has been showing a small group of us American Horror Story season one and MY GOD THERE'S SO MANY FUCKING GHOSTS AND THEY'RE ALL FORGETTABLE.
Shell Game, December 03, 2018, 08:51:21 pm

"Fucking ghosts" works as both a expletive AND a noun!
Supermarket Christmas Novel, December 03, 2018, 09:01:16 pm
It is extra fitting in this show's case i guess. Wow it's so bad.
Shell Game, December 04, 2018, 12:22:28 am

So very, very bad - a tryhard ghost sexcapade that proves neither scary nor titillating. You are made of much stronger stuff shell
Supermarket Christmas Novel, December 04, 2018, 12:25:59 am
I think we're gonna be going through as many seasons as we can tolerate.
Shell Game, December 04, 2018, 12:46:55 am

I have previously hated on American Horror Story in this thread, I completely agree.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Ambious on February 16, 2019, 07:33:09 am
The Dragon Prince season 2 is really good.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Mr. Hunky Academia on February 22, 2019, 12:48:39 pm
It's been almost 2 years and I still haven't processed the fact that we got  18 hours of new Twin Peaks content. Every scene felt so dense, like a puzzle you had to solve in real time while at the same time recalling the bizarre lore of the previous seasons. And before you could begin to understand what is going on your on to a completely different scene. No other show has come even close to whatever David Lynch was doing with The Return.

Re-watched the first episode and jesus this has to be the most unnerving piece of television ever broadcasted .
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Cleretic on February 23, 2019, 03:22:18 am
The Arrowverse shows all have a specific moment when they get good, either in general or specifically at the thing they end up being good at.

Arrow's is either Slade Wilson's first appearance in flashbacks, or the season 2 episodes that have a pre-Flash Barry Allen, depending on if you consider season 1 even the same show as the rest.

The Flash generally knows what it should be right from the start, but Captain Cold's first appearance in season 1 is when it hits its stride.

Supergirl lights up the moment that Superman turns up at the start of season 2.

And Legends of Tomorrow has glints of what it should be through the first season and a half, but it all comes together when they decide the timecrime of the week will be George Lucas not going into filmmaking.

EDIT: To clarify, I'm not sure why I'm still watching through all these shows, but I think at this point it's to get more weird D-list DC characters to look up and boggle at.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Ambious on February 23, 2019, 10:18:07 am
The Arrowverse shows all have a specific moment when they get good, either in general or specifically at the thing they end up being good at.

Arrow's is either Slade Wilson's first appearance in flashbacks, or the season 2 episodes that have a pre-Flash Barry Allen, depending on if you consider season 1 even the same show as the rest.

The Flash generally knows what it should be right from the start, but Captain Cold's first appearance in season 1 is when it hits its stride.

Supergirl lights up the moment that Superman turns up at the start of season 2.

And Legends of Tomorrow has glints of what it should be through the first season and a half, but it all comes together when they decide the timecrime of the week will be George Lucas not going into filmmaking.

EDIT: To clarify, I'm not sure why I'm still watching through all these shows, but I think at this point it's to get more weird D-list DC characters to look up and boggle at.
Cleretic, February 23, 2019, 03:22:18 am

I'm still watching Flash and Supergirl out of pure momentum. Flash still has good episodes and plotlines, but Supergirl is complete and utter shit and I hope it gets cancelled so I can stop watching. I know no one is making me but just like you said, it has occasional good moments which make me still watch despite them being very few and very far apart.
I gave up on Arrow earlier this season and I could never really pick up Legends. I hope they retire the Arrowverse and put more attention in the Titans continuity.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Cleretic on February 23, 2019, 06:29:11 pm
I'm still watching Flash and Supergirl out of pure momentum. Flash still has good episodes and plotlines, but Supergirl is complete and utter shit and I hope it gets cancelled so I can stop watching. I know no one is making me but just like you said, it has occasional good moments which make me still watch despite them being very few and very far apart.
I gave up on Arrow earlier this season and I could never really pick up Legends. I hope they retire the Arrowverse and put more attention in the Titans continuity.
Ambious, February 23, 2019, 10:18:07 am
I think Arrow is the only oen that actually needs to get retired, but I think all four need a bit of a difference in approach.

-Arrow, yeah, needs to end. There's only so much you can wring out of it, and they've run out of that (and I'm still going through the archive, it goes on for several seasons after the point I'm at). They can take a cue from Iron Man in the MCU though, basically just make him the Crossover Guy; he's still good, he just doesn't really have the juice for more stories focused on him.

-The Flash somehow needs less seasons. They can never come up with a season-long villain that isn't "But this one's FASTER", but its villain-of-the-week stuff is great and should be more of a focus.

-Supergirl needs to go down to, at the most, Legends of Tomorrow's 16-episode seasons. They've got some standout elements, and they know that, but a full season order is too much for them to fill without just spinning their wheels and beating Supergirl up, like... a lot.

-Legends of Tomorrow is basically fine as-is, but it's the one that could most benefit from borrowing Arrow's budget if that ends.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Jack Burden on February 25, 2019, 02:06:46 pm
True Detective season 3 turned out pretty good, and the finale managed to elevate some of the shakier material that came before, but I have never wanted so badly to re-edit something myself.

I get that the way it jumped in time around was supposed to mirror the way Wayne was lost in his own memories, but sometimes it robbed moments of their power. For example, the scene where he and Roland reunite as old men would have meant so much more if we’d had a better picture at that point of what their friendship was like and why it ended. I don’t think I’d put it all in chronological order, but I’d move a lot of things around. Also, I’d spend less time following Tom around...Scoot McNairy was great as always, but Tom never clicked as a character until the very end.

Anyway, it was mostly pretty good. Mahershala Ali was on fire, but that’s no surprise. What I didn’t see coming was how amazing Stephen Dorff was...who knew he had those kind of chops? Carmen Ejogo was terrific too. Don’t think I’ve seen her in anything else, but she’s one to look for.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: sambair on February 25, 2019, 10:26:59 pm
Giving Deadwood another shot, I never got past season one before. I liked what I watched before, I just was in a period where I had way too much streaming stuff to watch.

Also watching through the Venture Brothers again before I watch the new season. The first season or two is a little rough, but seeing all of the characters and plot elements that are set up early on, and knowing how great VB eventually got me through.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Cleretic on March 06, 2019, 11:01:52 pm
-Arrow, yeah, needs to end. There's only so much you can wring out of it, and they've run out of that (and I'm still going through the archive, it goes on for several seasons after the point I'm at). They can take a cue from Iron Man in the MCU though, basically just make him the Crossover Guy; he's still good, he just doesn't really have the juice for more stories focused on him.
Cleretic, February 23, 2019, 06:29:11 pm

Well, shit. Sorry about being psychic without telling anybody, guys.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Ambious on March 07, 2019, 09:03:25 am
-Arrow, yeah, needs to end. There's only so much you can wring out of it, and they've run out of that (and I'm still going through the archive, it goes on for several seasons after the point I'm at). They can take a cue from Iron Man in the MCU though, basically just make him the Crossover Guy; he's still good, he just doesn't really have the juice for more stories focused on him.
Cleretic, February 23, 2019, 06:29:11 pm

Well, shit. Sorry about being psychic without telling anybody, guys.

Cleretic, March 06, 2019, 11:01:52 pm

To be honest, it was kinda obvious. There was really nowhere left for that show to go.
I anticipate Batwoman is gonna try to pick up the mantle and fail miserably because the stealth pilot in this year's crossover was frankly embarrassing.
They just need to hit that huge universe reset button when they do Infinite Crisis next year, leave just Flash and Supergirl and maybe Legends?
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: sambair on March 10, 2019, 06:35:22 pm
I stalled out watching Twin Peaks like 2 episodes before the end of season 2 a while back, so I'm adding that back on to the pile of stuff I'm watching. I keep hearing spoilers for stuff in the show I haven't gotten to yet, but stuff like "David Bowie is recast as a talking teapot" mean nothing out of context, so I still feel like the ending/prequel movie/new season are a total mystery.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Pigeon Pal on March 11, 2019, 01:09:42 pm
Just finished watching the first season of The Umbrella Academy with my roommates, and I gotta say I like it. I don't really know how to expand on that since I'm not big into comic books in general, though apparently the show isn't very much like the comics. The tone is...kinda weird? It whiplashes between wacky and fuckin' depressing almost every episode but still was pretty fun to watch. I'm really interested in seeing where it goes since it opens up with the apocalypse in the first season.

Also Klaus is kinda cool
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Mr. Hunky Academia on March 11, 2019, 04:17:36 pm
I stalled out watching Twin Peaks like 2 episodes before the end of season 2 a while back, so I'm adding that back on to the pile of stuff I'm watching. I keep hearing spoilers for stuff in the show I haven't gotten to yet, but stuff like "David Bowie is recast as a talking teapot" mean nothing out of context, so I still feel like the ending/prequel movie/new season are a total mystery.
sambair, March 10, 2019, 06:35:22 pm

The best part of Twin Peak post season 2 is that I can spoil any plot points and be pretty sure that I won't understand what that means myself.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Ambious on March 23, 2019, 11:33:01 am
Love, Death & Robots is just a lot of interesting and different animation techniques wasted on Reddit-level writing. Such a shame.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: FinchChunk on March 24, 2019, 04:44:15 am
Just found out another season of Mindhunter is coming, which is nice. The last scene with Holden left me wondering where they could convincingly go with him, a descent into madness might not be that good to watch but a full reset is a bit unbelievable, that said I'm happy to find out.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: chai tea latte on March 25, 2019, 12:07:37 pm
taking another crack at finishing Mad Men, halfway through the second season. it's good shit
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Agent (gobble, gobble) Coop on March 25, 2019, 01:00:53 pm
taking another crack at finishing Mad Men, halfway through the second season. it's good shit
chai tea latte, March 25, 2019, 12:07:37 pm
Honestly top ten all time for me
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Spenny on March 26, 2019, 12:03:12 am
Love, Death & Robots is just a lot of interesting and different animation techniques wasted on Reddit-level writing. Such a shame.
Ambious, March 23, 2019, 11:33:01 am

Some episodes are pretty good, but when it gets bad, it gets bad. "Three Robots" was painful.

"Suits" is my favorite so far.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Ambious on March 26, 2019, 06:57:56 am
Love, Death & Robots is just a lot of interesting and different animation techniques wasted on Reddit-level writing. Such a shame.
Ambious, March 23, 2019, 11:33:01 am

Some episodes are pretty good, but when it gets bad, it gets bad. "Three Robots" was painful.

"Suits" is my favorite so far.
Spenny, March 26, 2019, 12:03:12 am

Also apparently Netflix randomizes episode order for each person? I stopped watching after a few episodes, but maybe a different order would have paced it better for me?

ETA: Decided to give it another go. Watched "Good Hunting", the steampunk furry one, and actually really liked it? I also really liked the one with the sentient yogurt.
I didn't like "Suits". It felt like it was trying too hard - but I guess you could say that about all of them? I find it really hard to define what I like and don't like about this show. Some of it clicks really well, and some of it doesn't click at all.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Mr. Hunky Academia on March 26, 2019, 04:46:48 pm
Love, Death & Robots is just a lot of interesting and different animation techniques wasted on Reddit-level writing. Such a shame.
Ambious, March 23, 2019, 11:33:01 am

I have now powered through it and have some thoughts. However, instead of writing them down I'd rather just re-watch the animatrix instead.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Spenny on March 26, 2019, 10:54:34 pm
Finished it today, too. I think very selectively watching 3, maybe 4 of these total might make an enjoyable viewing experience. Unfortunately, there's a really disgusting amount of sexual violence.

I started writing more here, but I suddenly realized Mr Hunky is right. There's definitely thoughts in my head, but it just doesn't seem worth writing any of them down. I just wish there was a bigger market for animated content "for adults" but not necessarily meaning it's about robots that say "fuck" and a redneck getting his dick slopped by a trash monster.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Mr. Hunky Academia on March 29, 2019, 02:26:57 pm
Disappointed by the fact that the Barbapapa tv series didn't produce any fetish weirdos (other than me of course). Just look at this!

(https://i.imgur.com/oo84G43.jpg) 
(https://i.imgur.com/xYAEd3k.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/Jxo6O5i.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/TEA8SjG.jpg)
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Mix on March 29, 2019, 10:24:40 pm
"spotify premium now comes with hulu access so you have that now"
oh cool
"this means you now have access to basically an entire back archive of all of those HGTV house flip/home renovation shows you can watch at will"
oh no
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Wrought on April 19, 2019, 07:55:57 am
I'm watching Riverdale. I don't think I've ever seen anything that is so conceptually ridiculous be even MORE ridiculous in practice
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Dr. Buttplug on April 27, 2019, 03:40:15 pm
Got around to finishing Punisher Season 2 finally. It starts off real weak, completely lacking focus. Three or four plotlines intersect in an almost nonsensical manner and the action scenes are kind of dull at the midpoint. Fortunately they wrap everything up by the end and find a way to make it work. The last few episodes had some good shootouts. Ben Barnes made a stand out performance here and I hope this is a springboard for his career.

So if you want your Punisher fix and don't care about getting every little detail of plot maybe skip to episode 4 or 5.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Agent (gobble, gobble) Coop on April 30, 2019, 05:20:31 pm
Don't know if there's a sci-fi show better than ds9 won't be taking constructive criticism about this post
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: chai tea latte on April 30, 2019, 09:24:44 pm
Don't know if there's a sci-fi show better than ds9 won't be taking constructive criticism about this post
AgentCoop, April 30, 2019, 05:20:31 pm
this but Babylon 5
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Cleretic on May 12, 2019, 04:47:05 am
Tuca and Bertie is absolutely delightful, and everyone should watch it if only to encourage more female-written and female-focused shows like it. Apparently it's only the first or maybe second woman-helmed adult-focused cartoon that's actually gotten a full and well-publicized season, which is insane, but I can't think of a better standard-bearer if it manages to improve the genre.

Given that, though, it feels a little weird that the thing I'd most congratulate it for outside of that is how well they did the male lead. But I actually think that factors in a little more than first seems, because Speckle's role is very much what's typically a female role in other shows: The balanced, level-headed person that acts to tell the main characters that they're Wrong And Bad (basically, the wife character in... literally anything I can think of that has 'the wife character'). But they remember to make sure he's always got a pretty good point, and that he's a pretty fun character to have in a scene no matter what he's doing--mostly just by having the most fun they can with making him a really boring guy.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: chai tea latte on May 12, 2019, 10:32:34 am
Killing Eve is good as hell and I keep rubbing my grubby little gay hands all over it. Does it feel like it was made just for me? Can Sandra Oh do no wrong? Is it the best spy tv show I've seen in forever? Yes on all counts
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Carbon on May 12, 2019, 07:12:21 pm
I'm finding what we do in the shadows extremely funny
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: KingKalamari on May 15, 2019, 07:23:39 pm
Tuca and Bertie is absolutely delightful, and everyone should watch it if only to encourage more female-written and female-focused shows like it. Apparently it's only the first or maybe second woman-helmed adult-focused cartoon that's actually gotten a full and well-publicized season, which is insane, but I can't think of a better standard-bearer if it manages to improve the genre.

Given that, though, it feels a little weird that the thing I'd most congratulate it for outside of that is how well they did the male lead. But I actually think that factors in a little more than first seems, because Speckle's role is very much what's typically a female role in other shows: The balanced, level-headed person that acts to tell the main characters that they're Wrong And Bad (basically, the wife character in... literally anything I can think of that has 'the wife character'). But they remember to make sure he's always got a pretty good point, and that he's a pretty fun character to have in a scene no matter what he's doing--mostly just by having the most fun they can with making him a really boring guy.
Cleretic, May 12, 2019, 04:47:05 am

Did someone just mention Speckle?

(https://i.imgur.com/r7TO4QG.jpg)

Tuca and Bertie is an absolute delight and I want every single movement every character makes turned into a looping animated GIF.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: KingKalamari on May 17, 2019, 07:16:12 pm
So the new Ducktales reboot just did a huge tribute episode to Darkwing Duck and, as Darkwing was one of the first shows I ever gave a shit about, I am giddy as a five year old. Sadly they have not yet explored the white hot sexual tension between Darkwing and Negaduck that was apparently in the original.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: chai tea latte on May 31, 2019, 08:19:20 pm
S2 killing eve

I can't decide if I want to be Villanelle or marry her
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: ClaraTinSoldier on June 01, 2019, 12:14:43 am
So the new Ducktales reboot just did a huge tribute episode to Darkwing Duck and, as Darkwing was one of the first shows I ever gave a shit about, I am giddy as a five year old. Sadly they have not yet explored the white hot sexual tension between Darkwing and Negaduck that was apparently in the original.
KingKalamari, May 17, 2019, 07:16:12 pm

You're in for a treat. That ep, like every ep of the new ducktales is fucking phenomenal.

S2 killing eve

I can't decide if I want to be Villanelle or marry her
chai tea latte, May 31, 2019, 08:19:20 pm

Marry her. If you're Villainelle, Vilainelle can't step on you.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Wrought on June 01, 2019, 09:12:51 pm
Finally watching the office and I can't stop thinking about how much better this would have been if they were allowed to swear.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: chai tea latte on June 07, 2019, 02:34:07 pm
I'm really tired of people saying the lesbian show with a lesbian who has sex with women every episode but not the one woman everyone wants her to is "queerbaiting". Jesus Christ did none of you live through the past two decades or what? I don't get it. You just can't tell the difference between getting everything you want and a total clamjam/cockblock
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: ClaraTinSoldier on June 07, 2019, 10:57:50 pm
What show is this? Gentleman  Jack?
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: GirlKisser420 on June 08, 2019, 10:07:24 pm
Jesus Christ did none of you live through the past two decades or what?
chai tea latte, June 07, 2019, 02:34:07 pm

they didnt
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Cleretic on June 20, 2019, 08:45:20 am
One of the best parts of Aggretsuko's first season is when Director Ton challenges Retsuko to karaoke and brings out an entirely different genre of music to the metal you get once per episode.

Without spoiling it, the show's creators absolutely recognized how good that scene was and why, and doubled down on it in the second season. It's great.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: sambair on June 25, 2019, 07:44:40 pm
Watching Aeon Flux for the first time as an adult, watched all the shorts and currently halfway through the season of full-length episodes. It holds up amazingly well, like it might be one of the best sci-fi cartoons I've seen. Very few shows have as much faith in their audience.

Big content warning that not only is the entire thing Peter Chung animating his fetishes, he's straight-up inventing new ones.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Cleretic on August 15, 2019, 06:10:41 am
The Rocko's Modern Life reboot special is a self-sustaining time loop, by being about all the complaints that online idiots would go on to make about the reboot special.

It's great. For the record, it doesn't require you to know or remember much of the original show (anything that is important gets explained in the special), but there's some fun extra references if you do.


Also, I've been watching Evangelion for essentially the first time, since I only saw it as a kid in weird disparate grabs on Adult Swim that I wasn't supposed to be watching. It's a really interesting watch, the show hasn't really been affected positively or negatively by cultural osmosis and references, although I think I really would've liked knowing beforehand just how much of it is holding on still, near-silent images. You can tell they were saving literally all of their budget, even from the word go, for the Eva scenes.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: chai tea latte on August 19, 2019, 11:50:15 am
I tried watching the first ep of the Netflix Sabrina show, which was pitched to me as 'Riverdale for ex-Catholics and goths', but all I could focus on was that Sabrina is played by the actress who was Sally Draper and it's like, i know your fictional tv childhood was weird but would it really make you fictionally act out like this as a teenager?

Very distracting. I'll try another ep some time but I don't think I'll ever get over this
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: chai tea latte on August 26, 2019, 01:25:11 am
New good eats good
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: ClaraTinSoldier on August 28, 2019, 03:40:35 am
I saw everyone getting all whipped up about the end of veronica mars, so I figured I'd watch the show. Fun seeing A-listers before they were famous and listening to shitty early 2000s music. It's ok. I can understand why people were so hot for it when there was nothing but worse procedurals on. Lotta jokes about prison rape.

In one episode, the school has a carnival. Look what it's got:

https://pasteboard.co/IuL3nyr.png (https://pasteboard.co/IuL3nyr.png)

Snakes in the ballpit!

(how do you make an image embedded in the post? the img tag doesn't work)
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: beelzeboob on September 03, 2019, 08:51:44 pm
Finished catching up on the latest season of She Ra. Still absolutely loving this show. Excited to see where Entrapta's story ends up at this point, as well as Scorpia's. Watching Catra dig herself a progressively deeper hole is interesting since her goal has shifted from "winning" to "making everyone feel as low as she does," which is harder the lower she stoops. It's fun. I like this show. Crossing my fingers for season 4.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: EYE OF ZA on September 04, 2019, 12:44:10 am
Russian Doll is a series on Netflix about Groundhog Day shenanigans, and it's pretty good. I was worried it was going to feel too clever for its own good, like when people try to ape Quentin Tarantino, but it never got too shaggy, and I wound up going from casually checking it out to blowing through the whole thing.

It's apparently been renewed for a season two though, which is baffling. It's a well-contained story and the ending felt so perfect that just the fact that they're going to try to continue it is disappointing. Maybe they'll try to do another story with a similar premise?
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Mix on September 04, 2019, 06:24:35 pm
wow some of the stuff in early stargate sg-1 has aged horrendously, huh
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Shell Game on October 08, 2019, 12:29:09 am
Ganymede pointed out that people could get me to watch American Horror Story but they couldn't get me to watch Jojo's Bizarre Adventure.

Look. I only watch bad things with groups of people so we can hate them together. Otherwise I don't really watch TV. I don't even own a cable/subscription.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Macho Masc Sangy Savage on October 08, 2019, 02:29:02 pm
Ganymede pointed out that people could get me to watch American Horror Story but they couldn't get me to watch Jojo's Bizarre Adventure.

Look. I only watch bad things with groups of people so we can hate them together. Otherwise I don't really watch TV. I don't even own a cable/subscription.
Shell Game, October 08, 2019, 12:29:09 am

Kinda same? I've got a huge backlog of really good shows and movies to watch, some of them even downloaded and ready to go and... I dunno, shit's hard or something.

It's incredibly dumb.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: moooo566 (taylor's version) on October 16, 2019, 01:59:55 pm
This is the least original take in the universe but I finished The Office (US) today and that was certainly an adventure that I didn't expect to affect me as much as it appraently has.

Also holy shit it's joke dense, I can't think of anything much that crams them in that well.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Macho Masc Sangy Savage on October 16, 2019, 09:00:40 pm
So a few friends and I have been hanging out every Wednesday this October to watch really stupid ghost/cryptid hunter shows, and we stumbled upon Mountain Monsters. Holy shit what perfect distillation of these shows. It's 100% faked, complete with terrible shakey video, finding fake poop and markings, everything. It's just fun to see a series just lean right into the bullshit.

Someone summed it up really well with this: It's Scooby Doo, but the monsters always win
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Mix on October 18, 2019, 04:11:34 am
why did i wait so long to watch venture brothers, holy fuck
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Agent (gobble, gobble) Coop on October 18, 2019, 08:17:19 am
why did i wait so long to watch venture brothers, holy fuck
Mix, October 18, 2019, 04:11:34 am
It just gets better and better
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: chai tea latte on November 26, 2019, 07:26:05 pm
What's good and airing
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Adam Bozarth on November 27, 2019, 09:33:37 am
I’ve been watching “Watchmen” and it is fine, and likeable enough on it a own. But there was a turn in the last episode I watched. It’s revealed that Ozymandius, after detonating the Squid Bomb, videotaped himself explaining his entire plan to Robert Redford, whom he gets elected president 8 years later in 1993. This character is supposed to be so smart that he uses 100% of his brain.   And so many people I know talk about how great it is, but jeepers that is bad writing.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: KingKalamari on November 27, 2019, 09:41:53 am
What's good and airing
chai tea latte, November 26, 2019, 07:26:05 pm

If you're not already watching it: The Good Place. Better hurry though: It's 5 episodes away from the series finale!
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: chai tea latte on November 28, 2019, 01:15:49 am
What's good and airing
chai tea latte, November 26, 2019, 07:26:05 pm

If you're not already watching it: The Good Place. Better hurry though: It's 5 episodes away from the series finale!
KingKalamari, November 27, 2019, 09:41:53 am
am watching but you reminded me to catch up on s4 so thank you dude!!
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: KingKalamari on December 06, 2019, 02:15:38 pm
I've been catching up on that new(ish) She-Ra show on Netflix while I've been drawing the past week. How is Scorpia such a wonderful sweetheart?
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Angora Gomorrah on December 06, 2019, 03:07:56 pm
The show I'm Sorry is pretty hilarious. I've been rewatching that and BoJack Horseman.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Adam Bozarth on December 08, 2019, 01:18:31 am
I have some comedy friends who work on Netflix’s “Astronomy Club,” but I am not recommending it because of that. There is a sketch in the fourth episode about rolling up men in a carpet and stomping them with high heels that will definitely make anyone reading this post laugh their ass off.

Also, please please please watch Katt Williams: Substitute Teacher, the cold open sketch of the second episode.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: chai tea latte on December 08, 2019, 02:33:37 am
i'm very excited for S4 of The Expanse to come out next week (amazon is doing an all-ten-episodes-at-once thing). Big ups to S4 of The Good Place, which wrapped itself up cleanly and elegantly and retained its status as one of the best tv shows ever.
Jeopardy! has been very good these past couple weeks. Lots of 3 day champs. Good stuff.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Ugly In The Morning on December 21, 2019, 07:28:13 am
I made it through two episodes of The Witcher before I had to bail, holy crap that show is slow. Also, really grey/brown and boring to look at.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Agent (gobble, gobble) Coop on December 22, 2019, 10:04:25 am
Cool im gonna watch netflix witcher now
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Ugly In The Morning on December 27, 2019, 10:02:30 pm
Cool im gonna watch netflix witcher now
Agent Coop Time!, December 22, 2019, 10:04:25 am
What did you think of it?
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Agent (gobble, gobble) Coop on December 28, 2019, 11:06:55 am
Not bad
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: moooo566 (taylor's version) on January 05, 2020, 07:49:12 am
I loved the Witcher. It's everything I wanted from a TV show and, as a massive fan of the games, everything I wanted from a Witcher adaptation.

That said, not a new take but absolutely 100% fuck netflix's "the thing finished 2 seconds ago? trailer time!" bullshit.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: I Liked That Joke on January 19, 2020, 12:49:27 am
Does anyone else watch the Magicians? I didn't really like the first season at the time (it got super dark), but it's kind of the perfect genre show for me. Stylish, clever, fun, creative and dark enough to keep the stakes high. Like Buffy without all the Buffy, ya know?
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Agent (gobble, gobble) Coop on January 28, 2020, 10:17:10 pm
Damn next gen is so good for watching after work im gonna throw the comforter in the heater
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: KingKalamari on January 30, 2020, 12:33:34 am
I've been enjoying The Witcher thus far but have to say that the way they've chosen to present the chronology of the three main character's stories is confusing to say the least. I'm familiar enough with the series to know that Yennifer, Ciri and Geralt's stories are all going to dovetail into one another at some point, but was sort of thrown for a loop at the end of episode IV when I realized all the Geralt plots have been happening in-story years before the plots involving Ciri, and I'm curious if that's something casual viewers with no clue about the source material will pick up on.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Agent (gobble, gobble) Coop on February 09, 2020, 11:36:06 pm
The romulans turned Geordie into a sleeper assassin
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Agent (gobble, gobble) Coop on March 22, 2020, 10:22:25 pm
Quarantine Sopranos Rewatch
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Blandest on March 23, 2020, 05:31:09 am
The romulans turned Geordie into a sleeper assassin
Agent Coop Time!, February 09, 2020, 11:36:06 pm
For a show about the death, and subsequent discovery of a lost family, of Data there had been a significant lack of Gordie this Picard season.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Mix on March 23, 2020, 06:06:33 am
damn did i really fucking marathon five seasons of project runway in the past week
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: chai tea latte on March 23, 2020, 01:24:27 pm
damn did i really fucking marathon five seasons of project runway in the past week
Mix, March 23, 2020, 06:06:33 am
hell yes king
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Great Joe on March 23, 2020, 07:02:12 pm
You know, Frasier is pretty good.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Agent (gobble, gobble) Coop on March 30, 2020, 12:03:55 am
Quarantine Sopranos Rewatch
Agent Coop Time!, March 22, 2020, 10:22:25 pm
Damn the sad tale of Bobby Baccala always gets me. "That's Karen's last ziti," etc. This show does it all
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: lazzer grardaion? on March 30, 2020, 02:53:43 pm
ShoutFactory has their own streaming service, and they currently have a billion seasons of Super Sentai (a.k.a. Japanese Power Rangers).

Some weird and wonderful shit goes down, and it's fun to see how much it changed while getting butchered and repackaged to work as an American show with American actors.

My personal favorite is Jetman. In episode 3, a dude gets sucked into a kitchen faucet, which then proceeds to spew blood.

Also there's a ramen monster:

(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CsCIK2KWcAArcoh?format=jpg)


http://www.shoutfactorytv.com/series/super-sentai-jetman
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Agent (gobble, gobble) Coop on May 07, 2020, 07:14:15 pm
I think about Weyoun 6 a lot
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Frank West on May 25, 2020, 02:31:37 pm
 Devs is a really good show, if you're the sort of person who doesn't mind the occasional several-minute long, portentous pan across a mostly static scene. I don't think it sticks the landing and I'm trying not to blame it too hard for that because I like the rest of it a lot.

Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: sambair on June 15, 2020, 02:27:22 pm
Despite just getting back into Netflix, I started watching a playlist of VHS rips of Shasta McNasty. I don't even know where to begin with it. It's a sitcom about a rap/rock band starring Jake Busey and it's every bit as idiotic as you'd imagine. There's an episode centered around "Win Ben Stein's Money". And another episode guest starring Verne Troyer. I still have like 15 to go, somehow this got an entire season.

After that, I have a playlist of Cavemen to watch, but I've heard from multiple people that that show secretly rules.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Wrought on June 20, 2020, 08:33:31 pm
Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts is easily the best children's cartoon I've ever watched. It's concise at 10 episodes per season and 2 seasons currently out, but the show just came out January this year and has already had a second season, so I'm sure there'll be more soon.

I really think it beats out every other fantasy adventure cartoon I've ever seen. The soundtrack is fantastic, the artstyle is transcendent and uses both 2d and 3d animation really effectively, the characters are multidimensional (also there's really great black and queer representation and they don't treat it like a big deal), and the world is...oh my god, the world.

I watched one four minute clip and it compelled me to watch the first episode. I binged the entire first season in a day. I'll nsfw it for extremely minor spoilers (the segment in the clip is at around episode 3), but if you like any modern fantasy adventure cartoons, you would be remiss not to watch this.

NSFW content. Click to show.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: ClaraTinSoldier on July 01, 2020, 04:29:33 am
Does anyone else watch the Magicians? I didn't really like the first season at the time (it got super dark), but it's kind of the perfect genre show for me. Stylish, clever, fun, creative and dark enough to keep the stakes high. Like Buffy without all the Buffy, ya know?
I Liked That Joke, January 19, 2020, 12:49:27 am

I've seen through season 4. It's a very watchable trash show. I strongly dislike its heavy reliance on gratuitous sexual violence as a way of generating cheap drama/backstory but other than that it's got some good queer rep so I'm glad it did so well. Buffy without the buffy is a great logline for it.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Blandest on July 01, 2020, 04:46:44 pm
Does anyone else watch the Magicians? I didn't really like the first season at the time (it got super dark), but it's kind of the perfect genre show for me. Stylish, clever, fun, creative and dark enough to keep the stakes high. Like Buffy without all the Buffy, ya know?
I Liked That Joke, January 19, 2020, 12:49:27 am

I've seen through season 4. It's a very watchable trash show. I strongly dislike its heavy reliance on gratuitous sexual violence as a way of generating cheap drama/backstory but other than that it's got some good queer rep so I'm glad it did so well. Buffy without the buffy is a great logline for it.
ClaraTinSoldier, July 01, 2020, 04:29:33 am
It's unfortunate that only the teleporting guy and the main gay man who is friends with that mean lady are the only likeable characters.

Yes I could have looked up their names but I didn't sorry.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: moooo566 (taylor's version) on September 20, 2020, 01:34:49 pm
I'm going through The Good Place again and for a place where dead people go there sure aren't many old people around.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Tipsy Almond on September 25, 2020, 01:18:22 pm
Been chewing through Tigtone on Amazon. They captured the Chaotic Lawful Murder Hobo trope very well.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: moooo566 (taylor's version) on October 16, 2020, 02:24:15 pm
Arrested Development sure does take a nosedive and a half.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: sambair on November 12, 2020, 09:16:32 pm
Duckman is a criminally underrated animated sitcom, and Dweezil Zappa is a fucking amazing voice actor.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Agent (gobble, gobble) Coop on December 10, 2020, 09:21:27 pm
Random WKUK episodes
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Mr. Hunky Academia on February 16, 2021, 05:43:27 pm
Watching Gomorrah and never been as tempted to start smoking again as I am right now.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: KingKalamari on March 08, 2021, 04:30:25 pm
I just want to take a moment to let everyone know how invested I am in the Disney cartoon Amphibia. It's got a bunch of staff that previously worked on Gravity Falls and is really fun.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Lumbermouth on March 13, 2021, 10:17:26 am
God I love The Rockford Files. Glad that my parents got Peacock to watch soccer.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Agent (gobble, gobble) Coop on May 11, 2021, 02:12:51 pm
I've been watching The Jinx again, what a slimy despicable guy
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Agent (gobble, gobble) Coop on May 27, 2021, 12:36:00 pm
If you like Necroticism: Descanting The Insalubrious, you'll love The Knick
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: auaurorau on June 01, 2021, 12:55:00 am
I've been watching Furuhata Ninzaburō and it's a real riot. Satisfies the columbo need inside me.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Macho Masc Sangy Savage on July 24, 2021, 01:23:30 pm
Watching the Sasquatch Hulu documentary and this first episode has spent more air time on cannabis then it has on bigfoot

EDIT: it's been about two episodes since they mentioned Sasquatch - its actually about this murder at a cannabis farm at Spy Rock and the war on drugs CAMP operations. Not an unwelcome change and a hell of a way to trick Hulu into funding your doc, but I'm curious to see if, when, and how Sasquatch comes back into this

EDIT 2: Ooooooh it's doc about a cannabis operation owner/kingpin with the nickname of bigfoot Gary. Truly the perfect doc to watch my first time being high lol
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Great Joe on July 24, 2021, 02:08:58 pm
Ya know what, Columbo is pretty dang good.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: chai tea latte on September 29, 2021, 05:58:49 pm
do you remember like a year ago when Apple said oh we're going to film an adaptation of Asimov's Foundation novels in Ireland, the famously completely unfilmable thing? Well, they filmed it, and the first two episodes are out, and they are very good.
(https://ychef.files.bbci.co.uk/1600x900/p09whdrk.webp)
The cast is enormous, the directors appear to want to take things slow (in an article I skimmed, one of them said something about having pitched an eight season 'show bible' of 10 eps per season (https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20210920-foundation-the-unfilmable-sci-fi-epic-now-on-our-screens)), and the footage is beautiful and alien. Lane from Mad Men plays the doctor Hari Seldon, and spanish actress Lou Llobell plays a modern version of the books' original viewpoint character, Gaal Dornick.

This is where I have to take a moment. In the original novels, Gaal Dornick is a white man. Salvor Hardin, the Warden of Terminus, was also written as a white man. Both were conceived of and written 75 years ago, when the audience for science fiction was even more white, male, and hostile to nonwhite and nonmale fans than it is now. I saw and skimmed an advance review of the first two episodes which essentially argued that the adaptation suffers for including more women and people of colour. I think this is nonsense.

Director David A Goyer says this:
[Asimov] wasn't writing about the distant future. He was writing a post-World War Two environment. He was talking about Nazi Germany. He was talking about being a Jew who had emigrated from Russia. He was talking about the old empires of Europe collapsing and the ascendancy of America. The first thing I said to the Asimov Estate is that Asimov crafted Foundation to be a mirror so I need to write about what's happening now. I need to write about Brexit, MeToo, the ascent of nationalism again. I need to write about climate change.

I believe that the stuff described in this quote has been sensibly inserted into the stories that Goyer is trying to tell. There is a major new element not from the original novels which occupies centre stage; the Galactic Empire's ruler. In the books, the last strong ruler is Cleon II, a clear homage to Emperor Justinian in character. In the show, Cleon I made a decision to institute something called the "Genetic Empire", where three clones of Cleon I, "decanted in different decades", represent the eternal Galactic Empire in an eternal ruler. When they are born, Cleons in the show are referred to as Dawn. They mature into an adult Day, and a wise elderly Dusk. The idea of geriatric rulers terrified that they can never, must never be replaced by anyone different is a mature theme handled well in the TV show, and I am excited to watch Cleons XI, XII, and XIII fall.
(https://ychef.files.bbci.co.uk/1600x900/p09whdpv.webp)

Less ably handled is the treatment of climate change, which gets a throwaway line justifying a character's fierceness and unwillingness to compromise. This is good but suffers from being slightly jarring, because it comes right after, or before, I forget which, a long paraphrase from the novels themselves, written by Asimov's more able hand.

Lastly, the most important question you may still have: is it still all just one character talking to a second character for a while? thank God, yes it mostly still is. There are some set pieces, in particular a TRULY incredible one 75% of the way through the first episode, which I think are more illustrative of the scale and decadence of the Empire than dialogue could convey. So far I am VERY into this and will be considering it appointment viewing in my household.

Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: chai tea latte on October 02, 2021, 12:39:26 am
the third ep (out today / Fridays) is also good.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: duz on October 05, 2021, 12:23:53 pm
Foundation has been good so far.  I hope they can keep it up and also that they don't take a multiyear break between seasons like Westworld has been.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Victor Laszlo on October 09, 2021, 04:34:59 pm
I really enjoyed Ted Lasso.  I don't usually enjoy the water cooler shows and I resisted watching for a long time but it hooked me.  Season one was better than season two but both were good.  Not as perfect as the hype would have you believe but it's very enjoyable.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: chai tea latte on October 23, 2021, 07:56:36 pm
do you remember like a year ago when Apple said oh we're going to film an adaptation of Asimov's Foundation novels in Ireland, the famously completely unfilmable thing? Well, they filmed it, and the first two episodes are out, and they are very good.
chai tea latte, September 29, 2021, 05:58:49 pm
Update:
E3: Also very good.
E4: Also very good.
E5: dogshit. a baby's first sketch of a religious society that hates science, without depth, nuance, or any message to impart. the takeaway of episode 5 of the show is 'if you are religious, you are stupid.'
E6: incredibly good. A mature, nuanced story about imperial religion and the double bind of Empire and faith. absolutely shocking that it came after E5; they feel like two entirely different TV shows.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Victor Laszlo on December 15, 2021, 11:08:02 am
"In and Of Itself" is really really good and you should watch it.  Hulu has a free trial so sign up and watch it.  It's really fucking good.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: chai tea latte on February 01, 2022, 07:50:59 pm
The Great Pottery Throw-Down has been pitched more and more, recently, as 'the successor to Great British Bakeoff". The format is the same, but in terms of spiritual successor as a mass media phenomenon, it has not yet gotten there. This all changed with the current season (S5), which is posting absolutely record viewership numbers and is farm more popular internationally than seasons 1-4.

Instead of reviewing the show, or waxing lyrical about the fact that I also work with ceramics and am a potter, and the incredible depth and genuine challenge posed in each episode, I want to discuss seasons 1-4 comparatively so that you know which ones to care about.

S1 of the show was really good. The hosts are Kate Malone, a ceramics artist, and Keith Brymer-Jones, a production potter and one of the blokiest blokes to ever bloke on television. the kiln man / studio technician (off-camera Ceramics Guy) is Rich Miller. The TV host is Sara Cox, a famous British drivetime radio host for the BBC.

Kate, Keith, and Rich are some of the strongest hosts in Bakeoff style television. Kate is strong, Keith is delicate, and Rich is an educator for the lay TV audience. S1 is very good.

In S2, the staff remains the same. The quality of the competitors, unfortunately, drops slightly. They selected more 'hand-builders' than in S1, a form of pottery that is disconnected from the throwing, pottery wheel based methods that every challenge is based on. As a result, you can tell who the first four people to be eliminated will be; the edit makes abundantly clear that they don't even deserve to be here. An episode 2/3 hand-building challenge could have changed that; instead, the first third of the season acts as a dumb joke for any potter watching.

In S3, Sara Cox is replaced as TV Host by Mel Sykes, who succeeded well in the TV Host role on Bakeoff. Unfortunately, as I'll discuss in a second, I hate this one. The quality of the competitors is excellent, the challenges are great, and Keith is at his zenith as 'bloke who cries on television when he sees art'. In either s2 or s3 Kate is replaced as host , presumably because she was too expensive to keep booking.

(Keith is an emotional man who truly loves pottery. In recent seasons, his existing tendency to be moved - to the point of tears - when he sees ceramics he admires has become, sort of, the 'Paul Hollywood handshake', the acknowledgement for the viewing audience at home that a technical skill has been truly well presented to a technical judge. I feel that S4 was the worst for the edit room selecting every single clip where he is moved to this extent; it felt almost like self-parody to me. I'm glad to see that S5 is less obnoxious on this front.)

That said, S3 is 'the brexit season', and I hate it. The show moved from the BBC to Channel Four, and stopped casting people of colour in favour of instead casting 'european ethnics'; the show gets a LOT whiter this season and a LOT more brexit-ish, in ways that I think hinder far more than they help the thesis of the show, or the idea of pottery television.

S4 (2020) has excellent contestants. Their technical skills are solid. Mel Sykes couldn't be part of the cast and crew bubble required by COVID-19, and is replaced by Siobhán McSweeney, whom you may remember as 'Sister Michael' from TV comedy Derry Girls. S4 also sees Rich Miller promoted to Keith's foil as second judge, and replaced by a new 'kiln girl', Rose Schmits, a trans woman who does not pass as cis. In my opinion, S4's casting (Rich, who is black, becoming a host - and he's GREAT at it; Rose as "kiln girl" in a deliberate attempt to piss off transphobes) repudiates the 'brexit season' of S3.

S5, currently airing, may be the best season yet. You owe it to yourself, if you like this sort of show, to check this one out. Comedian Ellie Taylor replaces Siobhán, and she's good. Keith is there. Rich is there. Rose is there. The show finally is willing to pay for the correct hosting team, and they've found it.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Antivehicular on February 01, 2022, 09:28:21 pm
The Great Pottery Throw-Down has been pitched more and more, recently, as 'the successor to Great British Bakeoff".
chai tea latte, February 01, 2022, 07:50:59 pm
Yo, this sounds killer and I'm gonna look into it. We loved Bakeoff and I love pottery.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Tipsy Almond on April 17, 2022, 12:06:48 pm
I've decided to watch the entirety of Sesame Street from the beginning. It's trippy as all hell. The early versions of Big Bird, Bert and Ernie, Oscar, etc. are pretty different from their modern designs, so it feels like I'm watching an alternate universe.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: thelizzerd on April 18, 2022, 06:33:30 pm
I really liked our flag means death. It makes me want to make an even better pirate costume this year for halloween. I've dressed as a pirate for halloween 4 halloweens and 2 parties in the past 10 years.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Victor Laszlo on June 23, 2022, 12:30:55 pm
Everyone who said I should watch ‘Barry’ over the last few years could have saved a lot of time and energy by just telling me Stephen Root was in it.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: Antivehicular on September 30, 2022, 04:56:41 pm
Shout-out again to Chai for recommending The Great Pottery Throwdown. We just finished S4 and are two episodes into S1, and it's just delightful (and continually awe-inspiring -- I did just enough ceramics work in school to realize that these challenges are hard). We'll probably keep running the series in order even if S3 has problems.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: chai tea latte on October 28, 2023, 09:28:04 pm
Scavenger's Reign (Max, 2023) - really enjoying this so far. Airs weekly on thursdays. A sci-fi modern cartoon about the surviving passengers of a crash-landed ship on a strange alien planet. A studio ghibli style emphasis on the strange rhythms and movements of the animal world, paired with a Cronenberg style body-horror-guts-and-viscera approach to those aforementioned strange life-cycles. The animation is wonderful and the images are astonishing and beautiful and horrifying. Ghibli by way of Junji Ito. LOTS of guts and viscera. Robots. Viscera. A tentative 4 stars while the rest of the season comes out.

EDIT: the series ends strongly! if you like sci fi horror if you like ghibli and guts you GOTTA see this. 4 stars because almost all of the voice acting is TERRIBLE. They should redub it.
Adventure Time: Fionna and Cake: goddamn. this rules, man. The Better Call Saul to Adventure Time's Breaking Bad. 4.5 stars. Watch the entire season in one night, i think it's probably better that way.
Title: TV we've been watching lately
Post by: chai tea latte on January 18, 2024, 11:59:06 pm
severance - really incredible stuff. 5 stars

survivor s45 - really really good! survivor is one of the best tv shows ever and remains constantly relevant and thrilling. COVID made them change the format of the show (40+ years in!) and the new format is very good! there's three islands, people go more places and more different places, there's wonderful political gaming, the new season continues a return to form. 4.5 stars

vigil s1 - i love rose leslie (game of thrones, downton abbey, tv's the good fight (a the good wife spinoff), vin diesel (boo!) vanity project the last witchhunter) and submarine movies (manly men bound by strict codes of honour who are on suicide courses they are powerless to prevent; the men all-but-kiss) and this is that in a prestige BBC drama , but it's also more than that! a man dies on a british nuclear submarine (politically controversial today!) and the scottish police (rose😍 and tv's suranne jones) get to investigate. it turns out to be a murder and then there turns out to be POLITICAL INTRIGUE and suranne jones is TRAPPED UNDERSEA while she INVESTIGATES A MURDER. and she and rose leslie are ex-lovers and rose is worried on shore but feels weird about it. haven't seen s2 yet. 4 stars

the great pottery throwdown s6 - throwdown is back!!! bloke who cries at art keith brymer-jones and s1's "kiln man" Rich Miller are the judges in the best successor to the success of Bakeoff. they're joined again by host Siobhán Mcsweeney (Derry Girls' Sister Michael) and "kiln girl" Rose Schmits, a potter who followed me back on tumblr (!), and who seems very nice. Siobhán was absent in S5 because of an injury or something? and they had this great other host but now she's back. but she's a better fit for the show now so my issues with her are moot. and this cast is very strong. Some great illustrators, everyone seems to be real artists. There's a christmas special (famous british actors, and unlike last year's, they gave these ones a series of pottery lessons before they filmed the special). 5 stars