General Purpose US TV thread
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sdg wrote:
I've been watching Brooklyn 99 recently and really enjoying it. I'd always dismissed it before and I'm not sure why now, but maybe because the trailers on E4 made it seem quite silly immature humour.

Watched Schitt's Creek earlier in the year and loved it. I found the first few episodes very forgettable and stopped but then I read that it's worth sticking with past season one so I went back to it. Season one isn't anywhere near as good as the rest of it, I think because the main characters are pretty awful people so it's hard to care about them but it's worth persevering because then you get the joy of seeing them become who they are by the end of the series and lot's of brilliant comedy along the way. The only reason I trusted the reviews that said to persevere is because I remember a lot of people saying the same about Parks and Rec and I could never work up the enthusiasm to force myself to watch it but when I was up in the middle of the night feeding the baby last year I started sticking Parks and Rec on and ended up adoring it. Anytime I see any of it on TV now it immediately teleports me back to 3am, in a dark quiet house, with a content little baby in my arms and everything seeming right with the world despite everything that was happening outside :luv:


The bold pretty much nails it for Schitt's Creek. Most friends I recommend it to drop after the first few episodes because the characters are so odious and two-dimensional. It flourishes into a brilliant show, and the development of the characters and their place in the community is the heart of that. Thinking about it, I'm not sure how much could have been done to save the first season.
Yup, Raised by Wolves has disappeared up its own arse. Well that was disappointing.

Supernatural, characters doing stuff because they heard a voice in their head, ghosts, unexplained unnatural phenomena etc. Y’know, I really liked it when it was discovered why the children were getting sick due to the seeds in the food they were eating. Just a simple explanation from being on a foreign planet. Now it’s all chasing ghosts, talking to god or some other voice, and just a load of nonsense that’s far less interesting to me than the initial story about survivors on a foreign planet where kids are raised by a killer Android. It reminds me a lot of Lost. It’s also got a whole lot less interesting to watch too with a colour scheme that’s flat and dark: there’s a brown filter for the day and a blue filter at night and nothing else in between. I wouldn’t mind so much about the colour palette but the direction after Ridley Scott departed has become a lot less interesting and more of your typical TV series. The child actors are a bit hit and miss too at times. They’re mostly alright, but some scenes are a bit cringe.

I dunno, I wanted to find the next big thing to watch, but apparently this isn’t going to be it.
Satsuma wrote:
Yup, Raised by Wolves has disappeared up its own arse. Well that was disappointing.

Supernatural, characters doing stuff because they heard a voice in their head, ghosts, unexplained unnatural phenomena etc. Y’know, I really liked it when it was discovered why the children were getting sick due to the seeds in the food they were eating. Just a simple explanation from being on a foreign planet. Now it’s all chasing ghosts, talking to god or some other voice, and just a load of nonsense that’s far less interesting to me than the initial story about survivors on a foreign planet where kids are raised by a killer Android. It reminds me a lot of Lost. It’s also got a whole lot less interesting to watch too with a colour scheme that’s flat and dark: there’s a brown filter for the day and a blue filter at night and nothing else in between. I wouldn’t mind so much about the colour palette but the direction after Ridley Scott departed has become a lot less interesting and more of your typical TV series. The child actors are a bit hit and miss too at times. They’re mostly alright, but some scenes are a bit cringe.

I dunno, I wanted to find the next big thing to watch, but apparently this isn’t going to be it.


I was able to skip over that, mostly because I wrote it off as nonsense. But it does force it down your throat. For me, the problems were where it felt just like Prometheus - people doing things for no good reason. I forget what now, mind, so it had a huge effect. And yes, Campion - that accent he did (when it didn't slip) meant all I could see was someone fresh out of training. Oh, super accent. Jolly good!
The only moment I remember thinking that someone did something entirely out the blue was when the black teenager (dammit, I forget his name) suddenly fixed the Android and escaped with it. He hated Father, saw him and androids as no more than service droids due to being brought up, he tries to get Father killed and then suddenly he’s best mates and wants to run off with it? I don’t think so.

I didn’t think much of the kids running off with Mother either. She murders next to everyone they’ve ever known and now they follow her around because, I don’t know, she’s pregnant. Even better they shield her from bullets by the wife of the nutcase (I’ve forgot all their names already haven’t I?) when they run into her. Like, wasn’t she holding you against your will and murdering humans just yesterday?

Hmmm, actually a few moments then.
The colonists, for me - little they did made sense at the time, though I'll admit to entirely forgetting specifics (it seemed like they had come all that way, on purpose, but without the foggiest idea what they were doing to do).
Watched Wandavision first two episodes. Seems alright and I’m reasonably interested to see where it’s going.

Willy rating: still flaccid but warmed up a bit

EDIT: but how long are the sodding credits!? Not that I’ll watch them but it was surprising to boot something up for 29 minutes and have 4 minutes of credits.
It’s intriguing, but I think it needs to be available all together.
Yeah, definitely not something I'll be keeping Disney+ for.
Dr Zoidberg wrote:
It’s intriguing, but I think it needs to be available all together.

:this:
I get that they need to set the scene, but that makes it slow going when you're waiting for the next episode to drop.
Any Star Trek fans in here?

I watched the first episode of Lower Decks which is on Amazon Prime. It's a Star Trek cartoon but it's funny and not serious in the slightest. A real departure from normal trek.

I like it. It's fast, funny and clever all at the same time.
Yes! I liked it a lot - in fact, so much that I was going to use the quiz question "Name two of the three Star Trek series released last year" but decided that it was mostly a way to find out if anyone else had watched Lower Decks. And now I know!
Yep, it’s great. It feels the most Star Trek-y of all the recent output.
There's a lot of Star Trek isn't there? Almost too much to keep up with if you ask me.
NEEEEERRRRRRDSSSSSSS
TheVision wrote:
There's a lot of Star Trek isn't there? Almost too much to keep up with if you ask me.


Strange New Worlds is the one I’m looking forward to.

And more of The Orville.
I'm on the last few episodes of a Voyager rewatch. I did watch it back in the day but only the first couple of seasons.

Since I started, it's been very up and down with my enjoyment of the individual episodes.

Overall though, I like it.
Oddly enough I acquired every* episode of every* Star Trek the other day for my Plex server. It’s never really been something that interested me enough to watch seriously but I remember seeing good eps of TNG as a kid, and my brother was obsessed with DS9.

* as far as I know, natch
I’m rewatching DS9 at the moment. It’s still brilliant.
There is a lot of it, but you can trim that down quite a bit.

https://medium.com/maxistentialism-blog ... acde591fd2
I never got on with DS9 the first time round but I've heard nothing but good about it. I probably should have watched that before Voyager... Oh well.

I think I want to go back to the original series next though.
Riverdale is back for series 5 and it's still just as ridiculous as ever.
Dr Zoidberg wrote:
Riverdale is back for series 5 and it's still just as ridiculous as ever.


<Twitches>
Wandavision

ZOMG Spoiler! Click here to view!
Please please PLEASE let Kat Dennings be Max Black now she’s in the Hex!!!
Ted Lasso is filling a Schitt's Creek shaped hole in the Fop house, in terms of nourishing, feel-good (but also, y'know, funny) comedy.

Need more happy places at the moment.
MaliA wrote:
Dr Zoidberg wrote:
Riverdale is back for series 5 and it's still just as ridiculous as ever.


<Twitches>


And they've now done a time jump. so at least the characters are now as old as they look.
Still good fun though
We've been watching Star Trek: Picard over the past week or two.

There's a lot of thinly veiled references to Elite: Dangerous (or Elite in general) in that show. Guessing the writers are a fan.
We've just recently finished watching Avatar: The Last Airbender with the kids. What a fantastic show that is. Fun and exciting with great action, but also possessing a solid moral core and able to discuss issues without being preachy and obvious.

Loved it. 899 bananas
An easy 1000G too
myp wrote:
An easy 1000G too

If you're into that sort of thing *cough, cough*
DavPaz wrote:
myp wrote:
An easy 1000G too

If you're into that sort of thing *cough, cough*

I am reformed. Haven’t given a shit about that tedious bollocks since about 2012.
We've just got to the episodes of Designated Survivor with Michael J Fox. :luv:
We started watching The Expanse. We'd never heard of but it was compared favourably to BSG which was a big favourite in this house so we thought we'd give it a try. Six episodes in so far and really enjoying it, delighted to find out we have a few series to watch!
The Expanse is excellent...Amos is a tremendous character.

On another note I was pointed towards a HBOMax series called 30 Coins (so call your corrupt uncle) as I read an article where the writer of the series said he was inspired to write the series by the Call of Cthulhu campaign "Masks of Nyarlathotep". It's a Spanish production and is a cross between The Omen and Lovecraft Country. It's been a blast and special mention should be made of Elena the lady vet...oh my word, she is my new crush. Only 8 episodes as well so it's not a huge time sink.

Oh I’ll take a look at that, ta!
So Wandavision got shit at the end then. It turned into a generic Marvel movie for the final episode and [EDIT: the series also] included my least favourite storytelling devices - if it ain’t a dream sequence your character is walking through it’s walking through their memories. Boring shit. I understand their relevance but all they had to do was compile those memories in flashbacks throughout the episodes. God, flashbacks have been done so much better and respect the viewers. This cliched bollocks is just the most tired way of exploring someone’s motivations and backstory. I basically switched off for an entire episode. It didn’t help that the two main baddies are dreadful. I enjoyed how Agatha was introduced as a baddie, and I like the actor too, but her performance in the final episodes are just yawnsome. And who really gives a shit about “the army” in these superhero films. They rush in, immediately get disarmed, and just stand about until everyone else is finished with their bits of the stories. The main bad army guy is basically disabled during a minor T-Bone collision. If you’re not going to do anything interesting with Duh Armaghhh then don’t have them steam in with guns just to sit there and look stupid. And they did Kat Denning dirty in those final episodes too as she takes like 3 episodes to drive into town just to have a single stupid scene. And she didn’t turn into 2 Broke Girls. It’s a fucking sitcom people. They basically just ditched the sitcoms in those final episodes too which was disappointing, cause they could have had some fun with that. And I really dislike how they’re bringing back the dead characters. You remove all stakes when your characters just come back from the dead for future movies and series.

Overall: started strong, got a bit shit. It was alright though.
Do you even have emotions
Satsuma wrote:
So Wandavision got shit at the end then. It turned into a generic Marvel movie for the final episode and included my least favourite storytelling devices - if it ain’t a dream sequence your character is walking through it’s walking through their memories. Boring shit. I understand their relevance but all they had to do was compile those memories in flashbacks throughout the episodes. God, flashbacks have been done so much better and respect the viewers. This cliched bollocks is just the most tired way of exploring someone’s motivations and backstory. I basically switched off for an entire episode. It didn’t help that the two main baddies are dreadful. I enjoyed how Agatha was introduced as a baddie, and I like the actor too, but her performance in the final episodes are just yawnsome. And who really gives a shit about “the army” in these superhero films. They rush in, immediately get disarmed, and just stand about until everyone else is finished with their bits of the stories. The main bad army guy is basically disabled during a minor T-Bone collision. If you’re not going to do anything interesting with Duh Armaghhh then don’t have them steam in with guns just to sit there and look stupid. And they did Kat Denning dirty in those final episodes too as she takes like 3 episodes to drive into town just to have a single stupid scene. And she didn’t turn into 2 Broke Girls. It’s a fucking sitcom people. They basically just ditched the sitcoms in those final episodes too which was disappointing, cause they could have had some fun with that. And I really dislike how they’re bringing back the dead characters. You remove all stakes when your characters just come back from the dead for future movies and series.

Overall: started strong, got a bit shit. It was alright though.


I think you are broken :P

Which Char is back from the dead?
Yeah, the series peaked around episode 4 and the last episode was certainly the weakest of the lot.

I kinda felt like they were using it a bridge to the next Marvel phase ultimately.
Last episode was fine. The Office-style mockumentary episode was the weakest, mainly because they didn’t know how to do that style very well.

It’s definitely setting up a Scarlet Witch film though, which is fine by me.
Started Treme at the weekend. Not sure why it's taken us so long to get round to it, but suspect a fear of challenge in one's evening's entertainments played a part.

And it seems it's just what I needed at the moment. Layer upon layer of characters and storylines. Sometimes not much happens - life just happens - but it makes for excellent TV. The sense of place and people coming together and picking their way through the tragedy is quite something. And the music is incredible, naturally.

I think I'm maybe just enjoying the opportunity to watch something entirely character-driven, rather than plot-driven, for a change.
myp wrote:
Last episode was fine. The Office-style mockumentary episode was the weakest, mainly because they didn’t know how to do that style very well.

It’s definitely setting up a Scarlet Witch film though, which is fine by me.

I've heard she's going to have a big role in the next Doctor Strange movie
Basically I disagree strongly with everything Sat said about Wandavision. It’s genuinely like we watched two entirely different shows, because the things he said in his post didn’t happen in the one I watched. Bonkers.
I gave up half way through episode one but then gave it another chance as my daughter said it gets good. Glad I did as I enjoyed it. I think the first couple of episodes we're misjudged and could have lost them a lot of watchers.
Zardoz wrote:
I gave up half way through episode one but then gave it another chance as my daughter said it gets good. Glad I did as I enjoyed it. I think the first couple of episodes we're misjudged and could have lost them a lot of watchers.

They could've thrown in a smidge of outside-the-hex world in to the earlier episodes to keep casuals more interested, for sure.
KovacsC wrote:

Which Char is back from the dead?


Do you even know what show I was talking about?
Satsuma wrote:
KovacsC wrote:

Which Char is back from the dead?


Do you even know what show I was talking about?


Yes. Wandavision.

I presume switching back on a robot is bringing back from the dead now?
KovacsC wrote:
Satsuma wrote:
KovacsC wrote:

Which Char is back from the dead?


Do you even know what show I was talking about?


Yes. Wandavision.


You’ve got your answer then.

Hint: it’s not Wanda.
myp wrote:
Last episode was fine. The Office-style mockumentary episode was the weakest, mainly because they didn’t know how to do that style very well.



Office credits, but the sitcom they did was Modern Family, which they totally nailed I thought.
Satsuma wrote:
KovacsC wrote:
Satsuma wrote:
KovacsC wrote:

Which Char is back from the dead?


Do you even know what show I was talking about?


Yes. Wandavision.


You’ve got your answer then.

Hint: it’s not Wanda.


Vision was never alive. He was an AI, in a body made by Ultron. They just found a way to switch it back on..

This is not new, as he was destroyed in IW and Thanos brought him back, then took the mindstone.
KovacsC wrote:
Vision was never alive. He was an AI, in a body made by Ultron.


I would argue that Vision was alive and born from the Mind Stone. His personality was a mixture of the Jarvis AI, Tony Stark and Banner's engrams and whatever Ultron plugged in there. The spark that woke him up was the lightning strike from Mjolnir. He was defo alive.

ZOMG Spoiler! Click here to view!
The new White Vision? Maybe not. He has the memories and mid of Vision, but not Mind Stone portion. Could you argue that ScarletVision gave him a 'soul'? Maybe??
KovacsC wrote:
Satsuma wrote:
KovacsC wrote:
Satsuma wrote:
KovacsC wrote:

Which Char is back from the dead?


Do you even know what show I was talking about?


Yes. Wandavision.


You’ve got your answer then.

Hint: it’s not Wanda.


Vision was never alive. He was an AI, in a body made by Ultron. They just found a way to switch it back on..

This is not new, as he was destroyed in IW and Thanos brought him back, then took the mindstone.


It's a bit more than that, because they could switch the robot on, but he wasn't Old Vision. But then Old Vision, now a product of SW, can transfer over all his memories. I suppose they could do some clever "New Vision doesn't know this because SW didn't, so her version of OV couldn't know it". But I reckon it'll just be some 'she recreated him, which recreated his memories' stuff.

I'm fine with it, because it was lovely, but it is just a complicated "dead! No! Not!"
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