General Purpose US TV thread
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Trooper wrote:
JBR wrote:

Except he's actually younger than me. Arse.


What age is the rest of you?


His younger years are behind him.
I really enjoyed the first episode of season three of Only Murders.
I googled Anson Mount and JBR > Anson Mount imho.
MaliA wrote:
I really enjoyed the first episode of season three of Only Murders.

Ooh, has this been released now? Is the whole season up or are they releasing it weekly?
Mimi wrote:
MaliA wrote:
I really enjoyed the first episode of season three of Only Murders.

Ooh, has this been released now? Is the whole season up or are they releasing it weekly?


I didnt realise it was out either , however it looks like the first two episodes are available , and they are doing the rest weekly on Tuesdays (10 epsiodes total)
JBR wrote:
markg wrote:
Yeah it's absolutely beautiful telly. Anson Mount as the likeable starship captain straight from the jet age couldn't be more perfectly cast. Effects are top drawer and not really any tedious long-winded story arcs that you just can't give a fuck about.


Anson Mount is a stone-cold dude. Gives us all hope for how we might look when we're older.

Except he's actually younger than me. Arse.


He’s nine months older than me, and has awesome hair that I envy.
I've just watched episode seven of season 4 of Titans.

ZOMG Spoiler! Click here to view!
At the end of the episode three policemen attack and defeat Dick. In previous episodes he defeated about a dozen ninjas and in a different one he defeated some dark elves, but he can't defeat three policemen?


Not impressed with that writing to be honest.
Just watched the last but one episode of Riverdale.

I’ve always enjoyed it, but had it in the disposable fun category. This year it’s been outstanding, and really very meaningful and moving. I’m going to miss this a lot
Not sure i have the energy to go through another series of Titans :(
And now I’ve done the Riverdale finale. That was also excellent and definitely a highlight of my year’s viewing.
One episode in and Gen V hahaha fucking hell brilliant
I can't quite get over how crude this stuff is but yeah, it's good. I'm a little bit confused about how it fits in with the main show timeline wise but telling myself it doesn't matter because, well, it doesn't seem to matter.

My main criticism of The Boys is the frequency of the c bomb but my biggest laugh in gen v so far is one background character unexpectedly dropping it at another as the focus drifts off into the background. Even Helen chuckled, and she never does at that word.
ZOMG Spoiler! Click here to view!
How many more times can Amazon put erect penises on screen before Mary Whitehouse resurrects to burn it all down, though?

Seems to be a bit of an obsession for Bald Musk.
Also
ZOMG Spoiler! Click here to view!
specific - and weirdly standout, to me at least - callout to Riverdale when new-Sabrina's cousin is a major actor in it.
Gen V is good, I didn’t even know it existed until I saw it on BeeX but I’ve binged all 3 available and I’m loving it.

The Continental: From the World of John Wick however… very disappointing. It’s got a stellar 15 minutes and then … well, it’s just a bit shit after that. I don't understand how they haven’t understood in the slightest that people don’t watch John Wick for the fucking lore. The second episode has nothing in it. Nothing. It’s not even worth watching and it’s ONE HOUR AND TWENTY MINUTES LONG. I do however understand that literally speeding up the punches and kicks in the fight scenes is a good idea because it’s been done in cinema for decades but not like this. It’s so obvious and looks fucking stupid. With all the money being spent on this and they can’t get the basics right in the actual things people want to see in a John Wick .. erm, thing. I want shoot outs and faces shot. I also don’t want a car chase where you black out the screen very couple of seconds and skip a load of stuff. Hmmph, not impressed. This final episode better make my dick hard or I’m taking to the internet to complain.

Again.
I watched the first episode of The Continental and I thought it was really boring.

Like they took everything good about John Wick, and gave it to boring people. I thought I'd give the second episode a chance (I haven't yet) because sometimes a show takes an episode or two to get going.

The only reasonably good thing about it was that I could play the game: "Is that supposed to be a young version of X?"

I'll still probably watch the next episode (I don't always agree with the great Satsuma in the sky) but I'm not expecting much.
Satsuma wrote:
Gen V is good, I didn’t even know it existed until I saw it on BeeX but I’ve binged all 3 available and I’m loving it.

The Continental: From the World of John Wick however… very disappointing. It’s got a stellar 15 minutes and then … well, it’s just a bit shit after that. I don't understand how they haven’t understood in the slightest that people don’t watch John Wick for the fucking lore. The second episode has nothing in it. Nothing. It’s not even worth watching and it’s ONE HOUR AND TWENTY MINUTES LONG. I do however understand that literally speeding up the punches and kicks in the fight scenes is a good idea because it’s been done in cinema for decades but not like this. It’s so obvious and looks fucking stupid. With all the money being spent on this and they can’t get the basics right in the actual things people want to see in a John Wick .. erm, thing. I want shoot outs and faces shot. I also don’t want a car chase where you black out the screen very couple of seconds and skip a load of stuff. Hmmph, not impressed. This final episode better make my dick hard or I’m taking to the internet to complain.

Again.


(Edit: Continental) I'll give it a go. I liked the first, though wasn't quite sure what it was, so perhaps it hasn't got there. But then, I am watching Ahsoka and Invasion, so I'm apparently a glutton for punishment.

Next week: Loki, Lupin, Our Flag Means Death S2. Much more promising.
So, new Frasier.

I was going to stay away until the series was complete then watch the lot if the reviews were ok, but eventually curiosity and idleness got the better of me and I subscribed to yet another streaming service to watch.

Four episodes in and here's my general impression:

It's .... ok. Just don't see it as a continuation of the original but rather a show in its own right. New Frasier is to Frasier what old Frasier was to Cheers: one character carried over but now in a different stage of life, with a different style and more intrusive callbacks (I like them but do they appeal to casual viewers?*)

The opening scene is utterly painful with way too much exposition (and I'm not sure what happens to the old logo was entirely appropriate given the show's history) but get through that and the setting is slowly established just without the panache of the original.

Frasier is noticeably older (albeit slowing turning into Youtube's Tom Scott) and his Chicago years have clearly changed him. We see a brief bit of his unseen life but not much else other than the info-dump at the start. Obviously showbusiness was very financially successful for him, and whilst he still has the pretensions we know and love, without his brother there he doesn't appear to be using them competitively. Kelsey Grammer still dominates the screen after all these years.
I don't care for his apartment. The old place, despite it's odd shape, looked like somewhere Frasier would live and we'd like to visit. His Boston flat just feels like a set.

I was worried that they were just going to make Freddy into a straight copy of Martin. The similarities are there from the start, and the relationship between him and his dad is just as fraught and he has his grandfather's way of pushing Frasier to the edge. Yet the age difference between them means the dynamic is different - Freddy is still a young man and clearly wants to get out his father's shadow. He does have his father's intelligence and clearly picked up some of his pretensions and is trying to live them down. Given the central tension in the show is now Father-Son rather than Son-Father, I think that in order to differentiate this show from its predecessor, I'm going to refer to it as Freddy from now on.

Nicolas Lyndhurst's Dr Cornwall is an absolute delight, stealing every scene he's in. His lazy alcoholic academic is a great contrast to Frasier who wants to succeed in his new field. He simply doesn't care and I love it.

I don't think David (Niles and Daphne's son) is fully established yet. He just appears in scenes and is a bit annoying without much substance. It's also not clear what the previous relationship with his cousin was like, and he doesn't really add much to the ensemble. But then, I guess I too was awkward and irritating at 19.

The others in the cast are perfectly fine, and I'm interested in how the Eve storyline develops.

I wouldn't say Freddy is the best thing I've watched in the year I met The Bear, but neither was I switching off in anger. Every time I've sat down to watch an episode I've laughed and been moderately entertained for half an hour or so, then got on with stuff and forgot most of what happened. I'll definitely watch it to the end but unless things change I don't think I'll treasure it as much as the original. Wish they'd dump the laughtrack however.

The rest is spoilered as it relates to various elements of the first four episodes.

ZOMG Spoiler! Click here to view!
So much emotional weight is put on the Fenway dirt in episode 2, to have it carelessly thrown away as a tag at the end is deeply unsatisfying and undermines everything that was placed on it. It should have stayed as a symbol of the reconcilation between the two.

I don't find the whole idea of "look, firefighters can be clever too" to be either funny or original, just patronising. You can get laughs without relying on this insulting trope. If Freddy's crew are playing the KACL role of the crazy workmates I hope they get treated with more respect then just simple blue-collar/white-collar snobbery.

David's behaviour in the classroom in episode 3 is felt utterly out of place, even for someone as undeveloped as him.

Also, I never thought I'd say this but bloody hell Frederick Crane is hot! Would totally buy that calendar for the orphans.


As an aside, since Paramount+ includes the whole of Freddy's precursor shows, I have been dabbling with Cheers. I've tried to watch it several times but it all feels dated now. In particular, Sam's behaviour towards women really gets uncomfortable. But episodes with Frasier in, especially with regards to his relationship to Diane and Lilith, are always a highlight and worth catching for back story (enjoy reconciling what we see of Frasier's mum to how she is remembered!). Indeed, what we now have is the story of a character in three major stages of life (young adulthood; middle age; old age) mapping out, in some quirky way, our own journeys. People change, friends come and go, everything changes, often without us noticing. But the good doctor is there for us, still listening.

* they were there in the original, but often you'd have to look for them. Speaking of which, the best Cheers/Frasier reunion episode is the one where Woody comes back; a funny and touching look at adult friendships and moving on.
Loki S2 is good, I am enjoying it, but I'm still not 100% sure I get all of what's going on and Loki seems too keen and eager to be a goody and rush round to save the day instead of being charming and witty and devious and only in it for himself - it's like Loki isn't really 'Loki' enough.

I like Owen Wilson, and the 'buddy-cop' styling of the series is appealing but also, the size/scale of the drama just keeps getting bigger and bigger. They aren't just trying to solve a mystery, or save a city, not even the entire world or galaxy this time, but all of every time line everrrrrrrrr. I'm interested and engaged with the tension of them fixing the borked machine but it's not due to the actual consequences of it not getting resolved because I'm not really invested in the other timelines and whatnot.
I’ve been watching old episodes of 2 Broke Girls on Prime and I’m convinced it was actually one of the best written sitcoms we’ve had for years.

You’re guaranteed at least one genuine big laugh for each episode.

You can’t say that with The fucking Big Bang Theory reruns…
Kern wrote:
So, new Frasier.
ZOMG Spoiler! Click here to view!
I was going to stay away until the series was complete then watch the lot if the reviews were ok, but eventually curiosity and idleness got the better of me and I subscribed to yet another streaming service to watch.

Four episodes in and here's my general impression:

It's .... ok. Just don't see it as a continuation of the original but rather a show in its own right. New Frasier is to Frasier what old Frasier was to Cheers: one character carried over but now in a different stage of life, with a different style and more intrusive callbacks (I like them but do they appeal to casual viewers?*)

The opening scene is utterly painful with way too much exposition (and I'm not sure what happens to the old logo was entirely appropriate given the show's history) but get through that and the setting is slowly established just without the panache of the original.

Frasier is noticeably older (albeit slowing turning into Youtube's Tom Scott) and his Chicago years have clearly changed him. We see a brief bit of his unseen life but not much else other than the info-dump at the start. Obviously showbusiness was very financially successful for him, and whilst he still has the pretensions we know and love, without his brother there he doesn't appear to be using them competitively. Kelsey Grammer still dominates the screen after all these years.
I don't care for his apartment. The old place, despite it's odd shape, looked like somewhere Frasier would live and we'd like to visit. His Boston flat just feels like a set.

I was worried that they were just going to make Freddy into a straight copy of Martin. The similarities are there from the start, and the relationship between him and his dad is just as fraught and he has his grandfather's way of pushing Frasier to the edge. Yet the age difference between them means the dynamic is different - Freddy is still a young man and clearly wants to get out his father's shadow. He does have his father's intelligence and clearly picked up some of his pretensions and is trying to live them down. Given the central tension in the show is now Father-Son rather than Son-Father, I think that in order to differentiate this show from its predecessor, I'm going to refer to it as Freddy from now on.

Nicolas Lyndhurst's Dr Cornwall is an absolute delight, stealing every scene he's in. His lazy alcoholic academic is a great contrast to Frasier who wants to succeed in his new field. He simply doesn't care and I love it.

I don't think David (Niles and Daphne's son) is fully established yet. He just appears in scenes and is a bit annoying without much substance. It's also not clear what the previous relationship with his cousin was like, and he doesn't really add much to the ensemble. But then, I guess I too was awkward and irritating at 19.

The others in the cast are perfectly fine, and I'm interested in how the Eve storyline develops.

I wouldn't say Freddy is the best thing I've watched in the year I met The Bear, but neither was I switching off in anger. Every time I've sat down to watch an episode I've laughed and been moderately entertained for half an hour or so, then got on with stuff and forgot most of what happened. I'll definitely watch it to the end but unless things change I don't think I'll treasure it as much as the original. Wish they'd dump the laughtrack however.

The rest is spoilered as it relates to various elements of the first four episodes.

ZOMG Spoiler! Click here to view!
So much emotional weight is put on the Fenway dirt in episode 2, to have it carelessly thrown away as a tag at the end is deeply unsatisfying and undermines everything that was placed on it. It should have stayed as a symbol of the reconcilation between the two.

I don't find the whole idea of "look, firefighters can be clever too" to be either funny or original, just patronising. You can get laughs without relying on this insulting trope. If Freddy's crew are playing the KACL role of the crazy workmates I hope they get treated with more respect then just simple blue-collar/white-collar snobbery.

David's behaviour in the classroom in episode 3 is felt utterly out of place, even for someone as undeveloped as him.

Also, I never thought I'd say this but bloody hell Frederick Crane is hot! Would totally buy that calendar for the orphans.


As an aside, since Paramount+ includes the whole of Freddy's precursor shows, I have been dabbling with Cheers. I've tried to watch it several times but it all feels dated now. In particular, Sam's behaviour towards women really gets uncomfortable. But episodes with Frasier in, especially with regards to his relationship to Diane and Lilith, are always a highlight and worth catching for back story (enjoy reconciling what we see of Frasier's mum to how she is remembered!). Indeed, what we now have is the story of a character in three major stages of life (young adulthood; middle age; old age) mapping out, in some quirky way, our own journeys. People change, friends come and go, everything changes, often without us noticing. But the good doctor is there for us, still listening.

* they were there in the original, but often you'd have to look for them. Speaking of which, the best Cheers/Frasier reunion episode is the one where Woody comes back; a funny and touching look at adult friendships and moving on.


(Extra spoiler purely for brevity.) Interesting thoughts, and having watched the first I couldn't really see that much in it - contrived, exposition-heavy, and Lyndhurst doing the posh English accent that might be natural to him, but also is suited to the US market and I'm not up for it. But... episode 2 made me laugh, enough that I some of the time didn't even notice the laughter track. So it's working, and I'll be sticking with it.
Gen V is every bit as good as The Boys.
Zardoz wrote:
Gen V is every bit as good as The Boys.


YES!
Satsuma wrote:
I’ve been watching old episodes of 2 Broke Girls on Prime and I’m convinced it was actually one of the best written sitcoms we’ve had for years.

You'll change your mind at some point in season 2.
Grim... wrote:
Satsuma wrote:
I’ve been watching old episodes of 2 Broke Girls on Prime and I’m convinced it was actually one of the best written sitcoms we’ve had for years.

You'll change your mind at some point in season 2.


I’m at s03e18 and I'm steadfast in my opinion. There’s at least one decent laugh per episode. I reckon seasons 5 & 6 are a dumpster fire but I can’t remember why.
I think S03 was when it went from bad to really bad. At some point in season 5 (i think) it just utterly lost the plot.

Also, obligatory

We started watching 'the good doctor' and are about 4 eps in. It seems quite warm-hearted and nice, but not too sickly-sweet. It is not too deep nor challenging viewing.
Just finally got round to episode 3 of The Continental (or as I saw in a review - What if John Wick, but boring?). Wow; not even during Invasion have I asked a TV series to get on with it so often. They could cut a quarter of it and you wouldn't notice (except there would be less standing still, and it'd be less dull).
I quite liked Continental.

I really liked Fall of the House of Usher, which was great.
I thought I'd had enough Continental, but then was a bit "oh" when I realised it was only 3 episodes long.

Started Usher last night, got half an ep in before Helen fell asleep. I'm quite enjoying it so far.
Didn’t enjoy it half as much as the Hauntings & Midnight Mass. Shame really as I loved those.
I really appreciated the craft of it, and the weaving in of the Poe stuff, but as a show the episodic nature of it hurt rather than helped, imo.

I enjoyed it, but preferred his other stuff.
We watched a great show called ‘The Patient’ over about three or four nights. I think there are ten episodes from 20-40 minutes. It stars Steve Carell as a psychotherapist and he’s wonderful in it. It’s definitely not a comedy, more of a psychological drama, I suppose. I do t want to say too much about it as I reckon it’s best to just go in blind, but I think it was great TV. On Disney+ if you have it and well worth a watch.
Turns out that 2 Broke Girls nose dives at season 4. But! There’s still some good stuff even into season 6. When Sophie’s water breaks is fucking hilarious. And when Randy steps on a nail and sprays blood into Caroline’s face. And when Han’s estate agent wants Han to do butt stuff.

What’s best is how Sophie and Oleg’s accents change from season 1 to 2, mind.
Obliterated (netflix) is way better than it should be. And funnier.
MaliA wrote:
Obliterated (netflix) is way better than it should be. And funnier.


I'm halfway through. It's awful, but in a good way. Grim... would love it.
Trooper wrote:
MaliA wrote:
Obliterated (netflix) is way better than it should be. And funnier.

I'm halfway through. It's awful, but in a good way. Grim... would love it.

I shall try it now.
It's awful.

I love it.
Probably the wrong thread for this, but not a good bit of news.

It looks like even if you have only just paid for Prime video, having paid for ad-free viewing, they’re going to pop ads I to your content if you don’t pay the extra fee:

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/news/ ... ds-charge/

They must have prepared for this somehow as surely otherwise that’d be a huge legal mess. They’ve probably not advertised it as ‘ad free’ for the past 12 months or something, but it seems to have upset a lot of folk.
Yep, I cancelled Prime this morning.
This will probably be the end of prime in this house too. I already stopped using Amazon music, and I despise the ongoing UX horror show in video. Next day delivery with zero effort will be a difficult habit to break though.

Disney hasn't shown us anything new for ages either.
The Brothers Sun is great. Good drama, plenty of hong-kong style action and intensely silly!
BikNorton wrote:
The Brothers Sun is great. Good drama, plenty of hong-kong style action and intensely silly!


Yeah, it's a riot. Love it.
Go to your Amazon Prime and hit up Below Deck. Yes, I am late to the party, but just finished series one and it's absolutely bananas great. It's about people that work on the yachts that people that aren't quite rich enough to own but can rent them I stead, and their hijinx as the guests holiday.
Remember when we used to do the lockdown Tuesday night quiz? I remember chatting with JBR and Malc after one of these and seem to remember saying that I'd rewatch The Shield. Well, I've finally got around to it.

When it was new, I missed out on the last two seasons for some reason. I've made up for that now and have just finished watching the lot. I really enjoyed it again! Very entertaining.
We never finished it either, watched a few seasons back when it was on channel 5 I think. In fact wasn't Breaking Bad first shown on there over here too? Don't think I even know what they show on there now.
I'm still working my way through it! Been stuck in the 6th series/season for ages. But I'll get round to it.
I need to watch it, as I never got past season 1 when it came out.

I don't think it's available on any of the streaming services I have though...
I had to download it in the end.

Yeah, really good series and the ending was almost perfect. Like most things like this, there was a lot of talking and messing about to get there but yeah, I'm glad I went back to it.
Just caught up on the last two season of Jack Ryan. I really enjoy the shows, I think I have read a few books.. not sure.
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