The TV Series discussion thread

See, that's the thing about Picard, he was way too smart to devolve into what that show turned him into. He would have been addressing things long before they got out of hand, as he always had vision and a tad of intuition, and had mates that he could question and lean on when things got rough. The current show people turned him into some awful parody that didn't even resemble the man that was on Next Generation. And yes, Kurtzman is a toxic cesspool that doesn't generate any original ideas, and simply coming into contact with him or any of his creations will lessen your world.

Has anyone watched 'Wanted'? Netflix just recommended it to me and I see it's 7.7 on IMDb, which is quite a good sign

Ignore paid/bot imdb scores and bot recommendations.
I didn't watch that one because Corwin didn't recommend it when I asked what aussie shows of the past decade are mustwatch before you die.

We just finished season 2 of “The Umbrella Academy” - one of seemingly very few shows all three of us (wife, myself, college senior son) can enjoy together. Found S2 to be even better than S1 … and the flow of things was basically built for binging (we can only ever do 2 episodes at a time).

Any Fauda watchers here (pretty decent show about the Israeli v Palestinian conflict)? I need to get started on season 2 but season 3 just aired in Israel and should be on Netflix later this year.

Just finished Season 4 of Vikings. I think I'll stop now. The quality has dropped this season, with the addition of less interesting characters and story points - in particular, Ragnar's sons are really annoying me and I can't get interested in their stories at all. I really enjoyed Seasons 1 - 3 and the first half of 4 was decent; even the second half had some bright spots. But time to stop I think.

Not sure where to go next. I've been meaning to watch Man in the High Castle for ages, maybe I'll finally give it a go.

Originally Posted by txa1265
We just finished season 2 of “The Umbrella Academy” - one of seemingly very few shows all three of us (wife, myself, college senior son) can enjoy together. Found S2 to be even better than S1 … and the flow of things was basically built for binging (we can only ever do 2 episodes at a time).

We preferred S1 which had more interesting side characters. Also didn't care for 7's sexual about-face, just pandering to the actress and to score LGBTQ points.

We didn't watch the same show then.
S2 is double as fun as S1 was. In S2 every character and their own story is batshit crazy.

The show is not LGBT exclusive, there is more of sjw in it (black lives matter?), but none of it was annoying. Not to me. They kept a minimum dose IMO and didn't preach.
Also, stuff like laughing on a dentist chair or 10 minutes of adoring the bottle I find hilarious. Maybe you didn't.

UA is perhaps the best comedy that came from Hollywood in this year. Again, IMO.

Originally Posted by Pongo
Not sure where to go next. I've been meaning to watch Man in the High Castle for ages, maybe I'll finally give it a go.

Still didn't watch the last season, can't find time for everything, but previous seasons are awsome. Especially the depiction of Kenpeitai atrocities - these are very hard to find on film.

Originally Posted by johnnyy
Any Fauda watchers here (pretty decent show about the Israeli v Palestinian conflict)?

Can't help you there, I refuse to watch drama/war/biography/history stuff as 99% of those I watched tried to bore me to death.

Been watching Better Call Saul - currently up to Season 3. It's thus far been ok but I feel it suffers from an odd 'problem'; the main character's story arc is boring and all I want is more Mike, Nacho, & Gus screen time!

Has anyone checked out Lovecraft Country yet? Wondering if it's any good.

No but I actually can as my plan for tonight got botched.
Lemme eat something first, just got home a few mins back and I'm starving.
Will return in an hour or so with a short, very short, impression on the first ep.
Note that I don't expect much thanks to sheer number of titles in recent years that used Lovecraft only as selling buzzword, delivering mostly garbage.

Doublepost!

Right…
First 15 minutes is a very good intro to the story, won't spoil anything.
And then…


Who the hell listens to this bullshit and who thought it's a good idea to put it as a music background in start of the past century setting?!
I almost turned off the episode because of that idiocy.

I didn't. The show redeemed itself right away by some nice swing and blues, thank god. Whichever god Lovecraft believed in.

The lead guy with suspicious army background (to me), his uncle doing the green book research (which means, yes, they'll have problems with racists on the road) and a slut pretending to be a saint travel to an area not on any map. What they stumble upon is more than they could have imagined.

It's a very good first episode. Could have been brilliant if wasn't tainted by that stupid music (luckily lasts short), too much of time wasted on racism (IMO the restaurant substory/filler should have been cut out) and finding the unmapped area thanks to sheer luck. Or unluck, depends on a point of view.

The episode is not the dark&gritty idiocy all the way. Some parts are, but there are also parts where people are just being people. And of course there is humor as human beings love humor. One joke for example:
Because it's JDR who asked about the show, I've burst in laughter instead of just grinning.

Anyway, past credits there are some scenes from upcoming episodes, and my, I wish the season was released wholly, like Netflix does. I'd binge it!

Highly recommended.
At least the first episode. Here's hope they won't ruin this promising show.

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A question for those who have HBO Asia available on their side.
Is this one any good (started yesterday):

Originally Posted by joxer
We didn't watch the same show then.
S2 is double as fun as S1 was. In S2 every character and their own story is batshit crazy.

The show is not LGBT exclusive, there is more of sjw in it (black lives matter?), but none of it was annoying. Not to me. They kept a minimum dose IMO and didn't preach.
Also, stuff like laughing on a dentist chair or 10 minutes of adoring the bottle I find hilarious. Maybe you didn't.

UA is perhaps the best comedy that came from Hollywood in this year. Again, IMO.

I wasn't that amused but humour is subjective. I preferred the multiple mystery elements of S1: how did Father really die? what was he up to? How did the apocalypse happen? What happened to 5? Why was 1 on the moon? What are 7's powers? etc. S2 only had the 2nd apocalypse. Also secondary characters.. I miss Cha-cha,Hazel and the donut lady, Bobo and Robo-mom.
Re: lesbian 7, it's not that I have an issue with LGBTQ characters or storylines in general, I'm fine with them incorporated into the story. My beef was that to my knowledge, short-term memory loss does not induce a change in sexual preference and that this change was made for political reasons.

Man, chill. It's a fantasy (superheroes of a sort) show, not neuroscience documentary. And besides, she ain't normal homo sapiens but Ciri wannabe who can go nuclear any minute now.

Another doublepost because it's another show.

Posted before about certain aussie crime gems that happen in outback, there were two movies and miniseries:
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2236054/ - Mystery Road (2013)
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4911996/ - Goldstone (2016)
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7298596/ - Mystery Road (TV Series 2018- )
Exotic and exciting, that's proper two words to describe all three.

And I thought that's it, but somehow, series got season 2 with 6 more episodes.
First 5 episodes are again great. But the 6th… Ouch. A few amateurish mistakes almost ruined it.
Still, I have to recommend it. Everything.

Unless you know about better australian outback crimes titles. I searched, asked, begged… Found none this good.

Originally Posted by joxer
Still didn't watch the last season, can't find time for everything, but previous seasons are awsome. Especially the depiction of Kenpeitai atrocities - these are very hard to find on film.

I watched episode 1 last night and really enjoyed it. Good script, well acted, interesting concept. I actually read the book a few years back and enjoyed it, but I don't remember it well enough to say how similar they are. I wouldn't be annoyed about changes anyway. Looking forward to the rest of it.

This season of Yellowstone has been pretty good, I'm up to the fourth episode and it has really been taking everything up a notch. That back story about Beth and Jamie's animosity…..just wow. I don't even have the words for it, kudos to Beth because I would have slayed the bastard myself had he done that to me.

Brideshead Revisited (1981)

Wow, what a show that was. An 11 part adaptation of the book of the same name. First and last parts are 1.5 hours, all the middle episodes are about 50 mins each.

This show got 20million viewers at its peak in the UK and was one of those series that got notoriety around the world, the thing that put Jeremy Irons on the map all those years ago.

One of those Country House series like Downton Abbey crossed with Charles Dickens and Jane Austin. The music is superb, the locations are wonderful and the reel of actors is jaw dropping, including, but not limited to, Laurence Olivier himself, John Gielgud, Diana Quick & so many more.

The first 6 or 7 episodes are some of the best television its possible to make, but the series does drop a gear for the last few episodes. Currently 8.5/10 on IMDB. Which is amazing because not a lot actually happens each episode, it's mostly romantic aesthetics and feelz. So not necessarily one for the life-inexperienced folk.

What's even weirder is that the first 6 or 7 episodes are mostly about a homosexual romance, and it's only when this aspect tapers off that the show starts to lose a bit of its focus. Mainly because the romance is done so absolutely perfectly by both Jeremy Irons and Anthony Andrews.

And before anyone starts wailing about it being some kind of PC pandering SJW thing, it wasn't even made by the BBC and the book it's working from was published in 1945! when the topic wasn't even discussed in any form of light company. As such, there are no sex scenes and we are even free to imagine they never even had sex if we want and imagine instead just a very close bromance. "of course they did"… "but we don't know that" kind of argument.

What happens from episode 7 onwards is that the plot suddenly changes from this gay/bromance love story into a dissertation on the Roman Catholic religion. While still being great tele, it just doesn't ooze the feelz like that first half's does.

That first half also has the best locations as well as we spin around from Oxford, to the country house, to Venice, to Paris and to North Africa, London, South America, while the last few episodes just concentrate on the country house.

I don't usually watch homo-fiction on tele because it usually defaults to uber-camp and stereotypes and while there is a character like that in this, even that one side character is absolutely superb. I had no idea it would even have so much gay in it when I started watching, I thought it was just going to be a country house thing with your usual cads and trainee debutants, so I was doubly surprised how much more than that it was.

8/10



Fun fact: The guy who plays 'Bridey', Andrew's brother, is the guy who played Arthur Dent in the radio and TV series of Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, so I kept imagining him as Arthur Dent for his first few appearances. Had I watched them in a different order I suspect I would have imagined Arthur Dent as being Bridey as Simon Jones is so perfectly Bridey

https://deadline.com/2020/08/altered…ns-1203023456/
As you may see there, Netflix cancelled Altered Carbon.
I hated the first season and then refused to watch the second, but some people loved the show… Info so you don't put hopes up.

Originally Posted by lackblogger
Brideshead Revisited (1981)

I watched this a few years ago. I'd never read the book. I thought it was good right up to the final episode, which I really didn't enjoy. That last episode was dull, it really dragged on, and it's messaging simplistic and heavy handed; it felt out of place given all the interesting character development and story that preceded it. Some of the earlier episodes were great though - fun, inventive, subtle and character driven. I agree that it starts going downhill when it introduces religion and starts dissecting it, but it was only the very last episode that really annoyed me.

Originally Posted by joxer
As you may see there, Netflix cancelled Altered Carbon.

I thought the first season was pretty hit and miss, pretty much on an episode level - eh the episode where he had to resist torture was gripping and well scripted, but some of the others were poor. I think I enjoyed it overall, just about, but I haven't got round to season 2 yet.