Be Excellent To Each Other

Findus' foughts on US TV as of now:

Daredevil. I just finished watching S2. Enjoyed the first season but this season felt like a slog. The Punisher and very much the best things in it. Karen very much the most annoying thing in it. TBH, ditto the increasingly emo and self-important DD himself. Fighting was boring. Seen one fight with identikit ninjas you've seen them all - and there are a lot of identikit ninjas in this.

On reflection, I'm not sure why I kept watching. Just wanted to see where things are heading and get more of the antagonists

Arrested Development. I've been rewatching S1 - S3 and it somehow manages to improve with age. The gags still hit hard and fast and the attention to detail just makes you brim with happiness sometimes. Now I'm restarting S4, which I only managed a few episodes of previously. I didn't like the new longer format, the gags felt fewer and further between, it just didn't feel as funny. Hoping to prove myself wrong when I watch it again, as I'd love it to be great. Ep 1 wasn't great unfortunately, but I'm giving it the benefit of the doubt for exposition.

They are supposedly recutting season 4 to be told in a more linear chronological order for TV broadcast, and I think it might be an improvement.

New Preacher is good new Preacher

Second episode is out on Amazon...really enjoyed it, I found it much better than the first (which was pretty good).

How does it compare to the graphic novels? I have all of those and its a great read.

Downloaded the first 3 episodes but not watched any yet

Yes your right took me a while to get them all but have everything now.

I'm working my way through Season 2 but it's not setting my world on fire, to the extent that I don't find it very difficult to find something else to do instead of watching the next episode.

Shane also has the same problem that he did in TWD, namely that I think he's right and the main good guy is wrong.

So in TWD it was like 'Shut up Rick, Shane is completely right, stop being such a bleeding heart tossrag'.

And in Dardevil it's like 'Shut up Matt, Shane (sorry, Punisher) is completely right, stop being such a bleeding heart tossrag.'

And yes, DD is turning into a bit of an annoying dick and the fight sequences are becoming genuinely dull, one of them felt like it just went on forever.

The overall roster of characters is nowhere near as interesting as Season 1 either.

I'll probably finish Season 2 though, just because it's there and stuff.

It's very good but I worry it's being too obtuse and will lose viewers who aren't familiar with the comic. Because I know what's going on, I can't judge if the show is being intriguing or annoying, but I suspect it's a bit too close to the latter.

Having not read the comics we're both really enjoying it.

Yeah, I've not read them either. I'm sure I'm missing references to stuff, but that doesn't seem to matter.

I read the comic, only the once and a while ago, and I am struggling to entirely follow the TV show (but am enjoying it regardless).

So you think maybe it runs the risk of getting canned after 1 season?

Just finished narcos. That's some brilliant TV. Nearly gave up after a couple of episodes because I didn't like DEA man and Pablo wasnt doing it for me (after reading the essential book Killing Pablo). But i take that hesitation back. Brilliant TV show. If you don't watch it, you're wasting those pixels in your telly box.

Worth watching Elite Squad by the same director, and has the Pablo Escabar actor in it too.

Aquarius is back for season 2 today.

We got 4 episodes in, will have to start again or carry on where we left off if we can remember who is who.

It's an excellent way to brush up on your Spanish swearing.

That and the sequel are probably the only worthy action movies released this century. Those and Fury Road, of course.

Dear fucking Lord you are so horribly wrong I'm not even going to bother with a list.

Let me guess:

Expendables
Expendables 2
Expendables 3

Singham!

Well, d'uh.

Off the top of my head, these (handily alphabeticalled for you):
300
Ant Man
Batman Begins
Battle Royale
Black Dynamite
Crank
Crank 2
Deadpool
Dog Soldiers
Edge of Tomorrow
End of Watch
Gladiator
Guardians of the Galaxy
Hellboy
Inception
Inglourious Basterds
Iron Man
John Wick
Kick Ass
Kill Bill
Kingsmen
Layer Cake
Looper
Machete
Nice Guys
Ong-bak
RED
Serenity
Singham
Singham 2
Star Trak
Taken
The A-Team
The Avengers
The bourne Identity
The Fast and the Furious
The Man from Nowhere
The Man from UNCLE
The Raid
The Raid 2
The Revenant
The Transporter
Underworld
Watchmen
Zombieland

I guess some of them are hazy on the "action" genre, but some of them certainly aren't.

About half of them aren't really action movies in my mind, and a few of them are shite, but there's plenty I agree with.

I'm not really agreeing that Inglorious Basterds, Looper, Inception, Kill Bill, Battle Royale or Machete are action movies. Having some action scenes don't really turn a movie into an action movie. And BTW, Inception would be even better without those forced in action sequences.

And some of the stuff you mentioned, like The Raid (a 90min long boring videogame cutscene) and Guardians of the Galaxy (let's not go into this, i know most people online really like this) are among the worst movies i've ever seen. Taken started really stupid, but when i started looking at it as if it was a comedy, i kind of enjoyed it.

But yes, i have to add Ong-Bak to my really short list of good action movies. That one was glorious.

I found funny that you wrote "star trak" because that's really how my mom says it. Her english is not very good.

And have you watched the Elite Squad movies?

You really think that Guardians of The Galaxy is one of the worst films you've ever seen?

I can no longer trust your judgment on anything.

Back in the 90s two friends of mine used to go to the local video store and ask for the worst movie around. And they would pass by my house, that was close to the store, to watch the movies. I've seen some terrible stuff, but most was amusing. These are the kind of movies that nowadays are done ironically by Syfy.

GotG is competently made and acted, but mind-numbingly boring. It just feels so "made-by-committee" to appeal to the maximum number of people that felt completely soulless. The next day i watched Robocroc on TV, and even though shit movies aren't what they used to be, it still was more enjoyable than GotG.

Wife and I started watching Banshee this week.

Seems like fun, though the main thing we've noticed is that it contains a shit-ton of people who look like other famous people.

It's fucking brilliant. It's superviolent with titties everywhere.

I started watching the Preacher last night. After 3 episodes, I like it so far! Very entertaining.

Help! What shows are everyone watching right now? We seem to have hit something of a drought. Following Preacher and GOT but is there owt else going on at the minute we might have missed?

Is Billions any good?

Wasn't really grabbed by the trailers but I guess it might be worth a look.

Ray Donovan just started back, and Mr Robot is back soon.

I'm also watching a number of great shows on Netflix: Orphan Black, iZombie, Daredevil, Bojack Horseman, Love.

Silicon Valley? Orphan Black?

Billions is just about OK. Far from essential.

Veep and Silicon valley are both solid comedies about to end their 5th and 3rd seasons respectively.

Penny Dreadful just finished, and whilst it drags in parts, it's a great trashy gothic horror tale, mashing up characters from a variety of classic horror literature into several overlapping stories. It's drags a little in parts but overall I enjoyed it. It's well acted a looks like it was pretty expensive to make at times (probably why it ended so abruptly).

Edit: new HBO comedy in a couple of weeks. Vice Principals. Might be good.

Orange is the New Black just got a new series, and season 8 of Archer has just finished (and 9 and 10 are confirmed).

Archer season 7 just turned up on netflix....result.

That's my evening sorted.

Ta for the recommendations by the way. Seems there's just not that much on at the minute though, summer I guess.

We started iZombie a couple of nights ago. I've been pleasantly surprised by it.

We started watching Brain Dead on Amazon. Not sure about it yet, it's meant to be a satire but it feels a little clumsy. Seems passable just taken as a comedy sc-fi thing, though.

We did about three episodes and haven't gone back. it's a bit monster of the week, but yes, its much better than the synopsis makes out.

The 1992 Peter Jackson film is much better.*

*than anything

Plot kicks in pretty soon. Most of the characters are amazing.

Shady Plots!

The guy zombie reminds me of Spike from Buffy.

Yup. We christened him NuSpike.

Oh good grief, I missed that one!

Yeah I love iZombie. It works because the wring out plenty of comedy from the premise by playing it totally straight, all the cast are great (super handsome love interest gets some great lines, and delivers them excellently), and the villain/antihero the later introduce (Blain) is really fucking good.

I will say that each series ends with a two parter that doesn't have a monster of the week, and every time it makes me wish they'd more frequently jettison the format, because those two-parters are always amazing. The main arc is enough to carry it, and they waste a lot of time with formulaic episodes.

I haven't watched it yet because zombies shouldn't be able to solve crime!