The TV Series discussion thread

[Beren]

I finally finished The Shield tonight, what a ride. I see what you guys meant about the finale.

Seeing little Jackson lying in funerary repose on the bed, with that toy truck in his hands, what a heart breaker.

Pounder was born to play the Black Boss Lady / Reasonable Authority Figure. The face combined with the authoritative voice and the eyes that can stare down anyone. Vic could have physically overpowered her, but morally she totally curb-stomped him.

And love that death glare that Dutch gave him. For all the bullying that Vic did to Dutch, Dutch finally gets to tell Vic through the eyes that he came out a better man and human being than Vic ever was.

 

[Carnifex]

I've enjoyed Pounder since, what, her stint on LA Law maybe? She's always excellent. The Shield is one of those great shows that we were lucky to get.

I've watched the second episode of the new animated X-men series and it's getting even better, looks like they're going the distance on the whole Magneto-stepping-in-for-Xavier plotline. And thanks to Morph I even got to see Piotyr, if only for an instant!

 

[JDR13]

I saw the first episode of the 3 Body Problem. Looks pretty good and feels like a promising sci-fi story.

I just finished watching it a little while ago. Not sure what to think tbh. I found it mildly interesting, but it seems weirdly low-budget. I don't recognize any of the cast other than the 2 guys who were in Game of Thrones. I might check out another episode, but it didn't blow me away.

 

[Shagnak]

It's funny, I see that the 3 Body Problem book series also has an extra book in the same universe but written by someone else. Not as well received, apparently.

I didn't know that. Wikipedia says "originally a Chinese fanfic by Li Jun that was regularized by the original publisher Chongqing Press and series creator Cixin Li". Interesting.

The first three have the same author but different translators, which also matters.
Ken Liu (an established, award winning author in his own right, from America) translated two of the three in the trilogy, and did the better job, by all accounts.

 

[Redglyph]

I stopped watching Killing Eve at the beginning of the 4th season. It was fun so far, but the last season is a disaster. I don't know what happened, there.

So I watched the first two episodes of 3-Body Problem. The intrigue seems interesting, but everything related to science is appalling, which is very distracting. It's sad that, in a show strongly focused on science, they didn't even take an advisor or someone who would tell them that most of what they're saying in that domain is complete rubbish. Unless the books are also flawed in that regard, which I doubt it since the author has a scientific education.

It feels a little rushed, but I need to watch more before forming an opinion.

The first three have the same author but different translators, which also matters.
Ken Liu (an established, award winning author in his own right, from America) translated two of the three in the trilogy, and did the better job, by all accounts.

That can be annoying.

 

[Carnifex]

Nod, those first two series of Killing Eve were spectacular and then, at least for me, the quality took a dive into the deep and never to return end.

 

[daveyd]

Watched both seasons of Wheel of Time. I thought it was pretty entertaining. I haven't read the books so I can't compare but it was refreshing to see some fantasy with some Eastern inspiration instead of the usual more Western (Eurocentric) stuff. So yeah, pretty good, not mindblowing, but worth watching.

 

[Carnifex]

I watched the first Wheel of Time series, I thought it was ok, haven't checked out the second as of yet. The books I enjoyed up until I think it's the fifth one, they just lost me at that point. The first four were really good.

 

[Shagnak]

Nod, those first two series of Killing Eve were spectacular and then, at least for me, the quality took a dive into the deep and never to return end.

I felt the same. I thought it was brilliant, with good acting - especially Comer.
And then the plot became a bit dumb, some inexplicable things weren't explained satisfactorily, and so we stopped after season 3.
I understand 4 is the last season, so maybe we'll get around to watching it for the sake of completion, but the reviews I've seen indicate it was fairly disappointing.

 

[Carnifex]

Yeah, I watched the final series simply hoping it would improve over the third. No such luck. -xxx

 

[JDR13]

So I watched the first two episodes of 3-Body Problem. The intrigue seems interesting, but everything related to science is appalling, which is very distracting. It's sad that, in a show strongly focused on science, they didn't even take an advisor or someone who would tell them that most of what they're saying in that domain is complete rubbish. Unless the books are also flawed in that regard, which I doubt it since the author has a scientific education.

It feels a little rushed, but I need to watch more before forming an opinion.

After reading an article about some of the changes from the book, I'm not sure I'll bother watching any more of it. They apparently changed a *lot*. Names, locations, even the gender of one of the main characters. The typical Netflix bullshit.

 

[JFarrell71]

Another episode of Shogun, another brilliant scene (the "tea house" scene)

 

[danutz_plusplus]

After reading an article about some of the changes from the book, I'm not sure I'll bother watching any more of it. They apparently changed a *lot*. Names, locations, even the gender of one of the main characters. The typical Netflix bullshit.

I saw part of the review and tweets from a booktuber I follow, that has read and loved the books, and he says the series is good and faithful, to some degree. And that he had no issues with the changes. I'm gonna watch it, definitely, but I'm gonna wait until season 2 most probably. I heard season 2 should wrap it up, according to how much is left from the books, if I understood correctly.

His review (I only watched the first 10 or so minutes, due to not wanting spoilers):

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8zsNCbFD5_Y

This is the same guy that made a 4h30min guide to the book/universe, which I didn't watch due to spoilers but take it as proof he's a fan:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IrCxmDl2o84

 

[Redglyph]

After reading an article about some of the changes from the book, I'm not sure I'll bother watching any more of it. They apparently changed a *lot*. Names, locations, even the gender of one of the main characters. The typical Netflix bullshit.

I didn't read the book, but after seeing what has been done with Silo and reading the author's comments about it, I came to understand and accept the process a little more. It's not possible to convey all the narrative and internal thoughts with artefacts when it's a significant part of the written story, so they have to make a lot of changes to make up for it.

If you're not bothered by the occasional bad science in the TV series, it's worth a try.

 

[Redglyph]

I saw part of the review and tweets from a booktuber I follow, that has read and loved the books, and he says the series is good and faithful, to some degree. And that he had no issues with the changes. I'm gonna watch it, definitely, but I'm gonna wait until season 2 most probably. I heard season 2 should wrap it up, according to how much is left from the books, if I understood correctly.

I started watching the first video, but it contains major spoilers very quickly, or at least major hints at what we're about to see, so I stopped after 3 minutes. I'll watch it after the series.

It's reassuring that he confirms the series follows the books.

Apparently, they reshuffled the narrative by also including parts of books 2 & 3 into the first season, which is exactly what they did with The Expanse.

 

[txa1265]

Nod, those first two series of Killing Eve were spectacular and then, at least for me, the quality took a dive into the deep and never to return end.

Good thing about being late to some of these series is hearing about when they become garbage. Wife already lost interest by end of S2 so we stopped, and apparently that was the right choice!

 

[JDR13]

I'm gonna watch it, definitely, but I'm gonna wait until season 2 most probably. I heard season 2 should wrap it up, according to how much is left from the books, if I understood correctly.

I wouldn't take a second season for granted. It was apparently very expensive to produce (around 20 million per episode), and another season hasn't been green-lighted yet.

I think it's one of those situations where they needed it to be an overwhelming success, and that doesn't seem to be the case.

 

[JDR13]

I didn't read the book, but after seeing what has been done with Silo and reading the author's comments about it, I came to understand and accept the process a little more. It's not possible to convey all the narrative and internal thoughts with artefacts when it's a significant part of the written story, so they have to make a lot of changes to make up for it.

Sure, I don't expect a TV series to be a word for word translation of a book. That said, some of the changes in 3 Body Problem go way beyond being necessary to adapt it for television. I can only surmise that it was an attempt to make it more appealing to the Netflix demographic.

After further thought, I'll probably give it another shot. However, I'm going to think of it as its own thing rather than being based on those books.

 

[Redglyph]

After further thought, I'll probably give it another shot. However, I'm going to think of it as its own thing rather than being based on those books.

That's what I did for Silo (retroactively because I read the books later), which also felt like it had only a little in common with the original novel.

Cixin Liu was consulted for the show, but I don't know to what extent. From what I understand, authors can emit their opinion but there's no obligation from the director to take anything into account. It must be a strange experience for the authors when they must adapt a novel.

 

[Carnifex]

That third series of Spooks, wow. Simply wow. Every episode well worth watching and that last one, oy vey. I honestly thought Tom might make a return yet that didn't happen. Instead, well, yikes. I'm still processing all that went down for those ten episodes, I'll continue to digest a bit before starting the fourth run.