General Purpose US TV thread

Curiosity · **Posted:** Wed Feb 15, 2017 12:17

Grim... wrote:

Curiosity wrote:

Plus, are there any shows made without a British lead actor these days?

Blacklist.

Racist

DavPaz · **Joined:** 27th Jun, 2008 **Posts:** 38458

I've got a feeling I've asked this before.... but never mind.

I've got a memory from my youth about a made-for-tv movie, which was almost certainly a pilot episode for a show that didn't get picked up. The hero was a (scientist, lab tech, delivery boy, random passerbuy, deliberate lab rat?) guy who was exposed to something that made him able to absorb superpowers from sunlight.

He had three 'phases'. The first was Green. Small exposure to sunlight gave him enhanced mental acuity. Longer exposure bumped him up to Yellow which enhanced his physical strength and agility. If he stayed in the sun for too long he would advance to Red, where he would be super strong, fast and clever, but he would smoke from the ears (no, really) and suffer immense pain.

I remember all of this from one watch-through, but no details of the plot, cast or even the name of the show. Can anyone confirm that this is a real thing and not a fever dream of mine?

devilman · **Posted:** Wed Feb 15, 2017 12:38

DavPaz wrote:

I've got a feeling I've asked this before.... but never mind.

I've got a memory from my youth about a made-for-tv movie, which was almost certainly a pilot episode for a show that didn't get picked up. The hero was a (scientist, lab tech, delivery boy, random passerbuy, deliberate lab rat?) guy who was exposed to something that made him able to absorb superpowers from sunlight.

He had three 'phases'. The first was Green. Small exposure to sunlight gave him enhanced mental acuity. Longer exposure bumped him up to Yellow which enhanced his physical strength and agility. If he stayed in the sun for too long he would advance to Red, where he would be super strong, fast and clever, but he would smoke from the ears (no, really) and suffer immense pain.

I remember all of this from one watch-through, but no details of the plot, cast or even the name of the show. Can anyone confirm that this is a real thing and not a fever dream of mine?

Northstar?

DavPaz · **Joined:** 27th Jun, 2008 **Posts:** 38458

You absolute diamond. That's the one. I'm so watching that on my lunch break.

How did you find it so quickly?

devilman · **Posted:** Wed Feb 15, 2017 12:42

I googled 'sun powers anyone remember film' and one of the matches was some bike forum where someone asked the same question.

DavPaz · **Joined:** 27th Jun, 2008 **Posts:** 38458

Google. Is. Magic

Thanks Gaywood!

And Devilman, natch

Satsuma · **Joined:** 20th Apr, 2008 **Posts:** 14356

I was sick of 2 Broke Girls. Still laughed my goddamn ass off at episode 16.

One word: burlesque.

Grim... · **Posted:** Wed Feb 15, 2017 20:28

Cras · **Joined:** 30th Mar, 2008 **Posts:** 49232

There's way too much Sophie doing burlesque.

Satsuma · **Joined:** 20th Apr, 2008 **Posts:** 14356

There was more!? I was spent after Caroline did her dance.

Hearthly · **Joined:** 11th May, 2008 **Posts:** 13382

I made a start on 'MAKING A MURDERER' on Netflix a few nights ago, currently six episodes in so still four to go.

I've been absolutely gripped by it, and I don't know how it ends either - (as a documentary it'll simply follow the tale to wherever it ended of course) - as I don't remember any details of the case when it originally occurred (or even being aware of it), and whilst I'd heard quite a bit about how good the documentary was supposed to be, I've avoided any real information about it. (More by accident than design.)

The temptation to just Wiki the shit out of it is incredibly strong, but I'm forcing myself to follow the story through the documentary as it unwinds.

But as it stands, I genuinely don't know if he did it or not.

myp · **Posted:** Sat Feb 18, 2017 13:07

It's good up to about episode 7 and then the last three are a bit of a let down.

Kern · **Posted:** Sun Feb 19, 2017 14:44

Some nice Sunday reading for you. Here's a blog post on 'Dirty Feed' looking at differences between the final version of the Frasier pilot and the original script. I've seen this episode many, many times and don't think I'll ever tire of it, especially not the Lupe Valez joke that I've used on occasion as advice for myself and others. I'm really looking forward to revisiting this episode once I've worked my way through the five or so seasons I've got left to watch of its origin story (spoiler: I don't think it's aged well and I'm not sure I can take much more of Carla).

TheVision · **Posted:** Sun Feb 19, 2017 15:29

I'm still watching Vikings as I've got to season 3.

I have many problems with it though. One of the main characters has just taken 2 arrows to the back and has fallen off a castle wall. In the next scene which appears to be a couple of days after, he seems fine! Lying down, but fine!

I know there's problems with killing off main characters but don't make them invincible! One of the other characters got trampled by a horse a few episodes ago and yet here he is, no ill effects at all.

Curiosity · **Posted:** Mon Feb 20, 2017 0:07

If you were worried that the second episode of Legion might start making sense or follow a linear narrative, you can rest at ease. It's as delightfully batshit as the first episode, but even creepier.

Speaking of narratives that veer from the linear, I finished Dirk Gently tonight and it was really entertaining. First few episodes seemed a bit long, but once it hit its stride it was really good and with an excellent cast. Season 2 is coming later this year, so yay.

LewieP · **Joined:** 29th Apr, 2008 **Posts:** 7600

I've got up to DS9 on my watching through Star Trek and wow it might be the best one. It's way more overtly political than the rest, and I think some of the stories they probably wouldn't have gotten away with had it been made today.

Hearthly · **Joined:** 11th May, 2008 **Posts:** 13382

I finished MAKING A MURDERER the other day and didn't feel there was any drop-off in quality in the last three episodes.

Questions remain! I'll spoiler-tag this as even though it's a documentary and all a matter of public record, if you don't know how it all pans out I'd say there's some merit in going into it blind.

ZOMG Spoiler! Click here to view!

So did Steven Avery kill Teresa Halbach? If he didn't, then who did, and who had the motive to?

The police were dodgy as fuck, there's no doubt about that, and Avery's lawyers proved that Lenk had either lied under oath the first time, or was lying under oath the second time, as to what time he'd arrived at the salvage yard on the day Teresa's car was found. (i.e. Did he have the opportunity to plant Avery's blood in the car?)

If I were putting my amateur detective hat on, I'd think there was something fishy with Teresa's family (I didn't like the brother at all) and her ex-boyfriend.

To my eye, they were most certainly well beyond 'reasonable doubt' as to Avery having murdered Teresa so he shouldn't have been convicted on that basis alone.

I thought his lawyers were superb, Dean Strang in particular.

Also, something that has happened after the documentary was made is Brendan Dassey having had his conviction overturned. I'm amazed he was convicted, the behaviour of the police and his shitheel of a court appointed lawyer (the first one, before he was thrown off the case) was utterly appalling.

Overall, a shocking watch.

MrChris · **Joined:** 1st Apr, 2008 **Posts:** 30498

LewieP wrote:

I've got up to DS9 on my watching through Star Trek and wow it might be the best one. It's way more overtly political than the rest, and I think some of the stories they probably wouldn't have gotten away with had it been made today.

DS9 is objectively the best ST series by a country mile.

Doctor Glyndwr · **Joined:** 30th Mar, 2008 **Posts:** 32619

MrChris wrote:

DS9 is objectively the best ST series by a country mile.

If only for when Bald Goatee Hardass Sisko gets the Defiant and the whole show goes into overdrive.

Curiosity · **Posted:** Mon Feb 20, 2017 12:41

I didn't see much of the later series, but the Young Me thought the first couple was far inferior to TNG (an opinion that seemed to be the prevalent one at the time).

Mr Dave · **Posted:** Mon Feb 20, 2017 12:58

Curiosity wrote:

I didn't see much of the later series, but the Young Me thought the first couple was far inferior to TNG (an opinion that seemed to be the prevalent one at the time).

It was a bit plodding in the early series.

But at least there were no transforming spoons

Zardoz · **Posted:** Mon Feb 20, 2017 13:00

TheVision wrote:

I'm still watching Vikings as I've got to season 3.

I have many problems with it though. One of the main characters has just taken 2 arrows to the back and has fallen off a castle wall. In the next scene which appears to be a couple of days after, he seems fine! Lying down, but fine!

I know there's problems with killing off main characters but don't make them invincible! One of the other characters got trampled by a horse a few episodes ago and yet here he is, no ill effects at all.

Don't worry. All the main characters die.

By Bongo-bongo.

TheVision · **Posted:** Mon Feb 20, 2017 15:48

Zardoz wrote:

TheVision wrote:

I'm still watching Vikings as I've got to season 3.

I have many problems with it though. One of the main characters has just taken 2 arrows to the back and has fallen off a castle wall. In the next scene which appears to be a couple of days after, he seems fine! Lying down, but fine!

I know there's problems with killing off main characters but don't make them invincible! One of the other characters got trampled by a horse a few episodes ago and yet here he is, no ill effects at all.

Don't worry. All the main characters die.

By Bongo-bongo.

I hope they do. Just last night the main character was spitting up and pissing blood but I already know that he'll be around next season as he's on the cover advertising it on Amazon Prime.

I honestly don't know why I'm watching it.. The programme is starting to annoy me.

Satsuma · **Joined:** 20th Apr, 2008 **Posts:** 14356

Episode 1 of 24 Legacy wasn't awful but it was very close. I'm not sure I'll bother with another.

MaliA · **Posted:** Thu Feb 23, 2017 10:17

Curiosity wrote:

TheVision wrote:

I watched the first episode of Santa Clarita Diet last night and thought it was fantastic. Can't wait to watch the rest of the series.

Yes.

Timothy Elephants made me laugh a lot.

He's superb in it. Absolutely brilliant. I love it. Abd Drew Barrymore is laugh out loud funny.

Everyone should watch this.

markg · **Joined:** 30th Mar, 2008 **Posts:** 16557

It's ok, ending was a bit of a damp squid.

devilman · **Posted:** Thu Feb 23, 2017 10:25

markg wrote:

It's ok, ending was a bit of a damp squid.

I can see where Grim got the talking octopus idea for his story now.

Cras · **Joined:** 30th Mar, 2008 **Posts:** 49232

MaliA wrote:

Curiosity wrote:

TheVision wrote:

I watched the first episode of Santa Clarita Diet last night and thought it was fantastic. Can't wait to watch the rest of the series.

Yes.

Timothy Elephants made me laugh a lot.

He's superb in it. Absolutely brilliant. I love it. Abd Drew Barrymore is laugh out loud funny.

Everyone should watch this.

I liked it, but I think Barrymore is the worst thing about it.

GazChap · **Posted:** Thu Feb 23, 2017 10:44

\

markg wrote:

It's ok, ending was a bit of a damp squid.

...

LewieP · **Joined:** 29th Apr, 2008 **Posts:** 7600

Timothy Elephant is great in a small role in The Grinder.

MaliA · **Posted:** Thu Feb 23, 2017 11:54

Cras wrote:

MaliA wrote:

Curiosity wrote:

TheVision wrote:

I watched the first episode of Santa Clarita Diet last night and thought it was fantastic. Can't wait to watch the rest of the series.

Yes.

Timothy Elephants made me laugh a lot.

He's superb in it. Absolutely brilliant. I love it. Abd Drew Barrymore is laugh out loud funny.

Everyone should watch this.

I liked it, but I think Barrymore is the worst thing about it.

Hooooo, boy.

TheVision · **Posted:** Thu Feb 23, 2017 12:07

I'm now on season 4 of Vikings. I'm enjoying this season even less.

So far we've seen:-
1) lots of decisions being made that make no sense whatsoever including someone ordering a massive slaughter of his own people
2) An incredibly dull bit where one of the characters lived in the woods for a bit
3) Someone learning to speak another language in what seemed like a weekend
4) Some nice scenery
5) Lots of filler shots of said scenery
6) A Chinese slave who is no longer a slave but is able to prepare mind altering drugs from plants and things which I imagine wouldn’t be indigenous to where the Vikings live
7) Someone from Hollyoaks scoring on the Craster scale

So yeah, Vikings. Watch it if you like that sort of thing.

zaphod79 · **Joined:** 16th Apr, 2008 **Posts:** 14487

Curiosity wrote:

If you were worried that the second episode of Legion might start making sense or follow a linear narrative, you can rest at ease. It's as delightfully batshit as the first episode, but even creepier.

And if you can believe it episode three is even more batshit and definitely more creepy !

Bamba · **Joined:** 25th Jul, 2010 **Posts:** 11128

I've only watched the first episode of Legion thus far but thoroughly enjoyed it and am glad to hear it gets no more sensible as it goes on. Who'd have thought Fox would make a decent use of the Xmen license and it would be a TV show based on an incredibly obscure character? Bonkers.

Related: there was a relatively short running Legion comics series a wee while back and it was brilliant if anyone's looking for something to pick up. It was also very funny/weird and the way his multiple powers were represented was very well done.

Grim... · **Posted:** Thu Feb 23, 2017 23:04

Satsuma wrote:

I was sick of 2 Broke Girls. Still laughed my goddamn ass off at episode 16.

One word: burlesque.

She was corpsing rather hard during her routine, but the girl can dance!

Doctor Glyndwr · **Joined:** 30th Mar, 2008 **Posts:** 32619

The Expanse S2 is nailbiting. It's so tense, and the gap between episodes so painful, that I may have to read the books to reduce waiting time.

MrChris · **Joined:** 1st Apr, 2008 **Posts:** 30498

Really? I thought it had lost something in this series. And it's not very closely following the books by the way (although that's not a bad thing).

Bamba · **Joined:** 25th Jul, 2010 **Posts:** 11128

I just read the plot summary of that and it put me in mind of the excellent comics series The Fuse:

https://imagecomics.com/comics/series/the-fuse

Cras · **Joined:** 30th Mar, 2008 **Posts:** 49232

MrChris wrote:

Really? I thought it had lost something in this series. And it's not very closely following the books by the way (although that's not a bad thing).

It lost the approach of spending most of a series doing very little, certainly.

Can't believe it's only on ep5, that felt like a series finale.

Sir Taxalot · **Joined:** 5th Apr, 2008 **Posts:** 4668

It's hammy, and cheesy, and seems a bit too forced, but I'm finding the Lethal Weapon TV series quite enjoyable even if I'm not quite sure why.

It seems to be more that the sum of its parts, turning out to be kind-of fun and easy watching.

Doctor Glyndwr · **Joined:** 30th Mar, 2008 **Posts:** 32619

Cras wrote:

Can't believe it's only on ep5, that felt like a series finale.

I think that's because

ZOMG Spoiler! Click here to view!

I cautiously peeked at a plot summary and the show just reached the end of the first book.

TheVision · **Posted:** Mon Feb 27, 2017 11:08

Season 4 of Vikings is spilt into two parts for reasons known only to the producers of the program. I’m half way through the season and I’m still not really enjoying it.

The main character went away for 12 years in last nights episodes. This was shown in four scenes. The first scene saw his lose a battle. The second scene saw his wife and son talk about how they hadn’t seen him in 12 years. The next scene saw all his sons talk about how they hadn’t seen him for 12 years and the final scene, saw him come back!

Rubbish. They could have dragged that out for ages but instead, had him vanish then come back in the same episode… Not looking any older than when he left.

Curiosity · **Posted:** Mon Feb 27, 2017 11:33

These Vikings recaps are the new Hearthly Watches The Walkind Dead.

TheVision · **Posted:** Mon Feb 27, 2017 11:47

I knew I'd read something like that on this forum and had an idea it was Hearthly but couldn't remember the program. Thanks for reminding me.

I shall continue to watch Vikings and don't worry, I'll let you all know exactly what I think of it.

Sir Taxalot · **Joined:** 5th Apr, 2008 **Posts:** 4668

Is... is that you, praisebot?

Hearthly · **Joined:** 11th May, 2008 **Posts:** 13382

I have watched the first four episodes of Santa Clarita Diet and it's excellent.

I'm not really familiar with Timothy Olyphant but he's fantastic in it, in fact the whole cast is splendid and I don't think there's anything wrong with Drew Barrymore in it either, as was previously suggested in this thread by someone who is very much mistaken.

At under 30 minutes the episodes are tightly edited and agreeably compact, which is a nice change after the endless flabbiness of NICK CAGE, where I often felt 10-20 minutes of an episode could easily be excised, or indeed, for one episode at the arse end of the season where LITERALLY NOTHING HAPPENED, an entire episode could have been lost and the series would have been better for it.

Anyway, I am enjoying Santa Clarita Diet, it's making me both laugh and squirm in equal measures (the gore is really quite squishy and crunchy), and bonus points for use of the word 'cuntstick'.

Zardoz · **Posted:** Tue Feb 28, 2017 10:33

Yeah, I started watching that recently. Really good so far.

TheVision · **Posted:** Tue Feb 28, 2017 11:06

Better than Vikings.

LewieP · **Joined:** 29th Apr, 2008 **Posts:** 7600

If you're not familiar with Elephant, you need to watch Justified.

markg · **Joined:** 30th Mar, 2008 **Posts:** 16557

But don't watch Die Hard 4.

Be Excellent To Each Other

General Purpose US TV thread

Who is online