The TV Series discussion thread

I'm currently going through series two of Fringe, and ran into one of those semi-perfect episodes that seem to happen like, once in a blue moon. I'm talking about episodes like In the Pale Moonlight (DS9), Episode eight of series three of Twin Peaks, and a few others over the years. Now for the greatest impact, one usually must be familiar with the show/cast, or much can be lost or not fully understood/appreciated.

While I decry much of television and films for being lazy, when these perfect art forms succeed, they do so with sublime perfection. Heck, any form of art can hit this level, be it a book, painting, what have you. What truly amazes me is how rare they are, yet in the end, perhaps that's a blessing. Or we'd take them for granted.

The Fringe episode I speak of is entitled "White Tulip". Now, first of all let me make one thing clear: Peter Weller, for me, is simply a consummate actor. I can equally see him playing a dad in a cardigan, or a ruthless psycho slaying with utter abandon, he has incredible range. As mentioned above earlier, of course the more experience one has with the established characters and plot threads, the more impact this particular episode will have. I, for one, find it amazing.

It took me seven months, yet I finally completed BattleStar Galactica, the most recent iteration. I chugged through the original series two months prior, so now I've re-watched them all. Fine shows, even in this day and age, and far exceed most current drek that passes for television these days. Two shows that I foresee myself likely re-watching again in the future, perhaps in a decade or three.

I've been watching Attack on Titan and lots of 90s animated shows like Spiderman, Batman etc. Well worth a watch and you can see the inspiration for the Marvel movies that were fun.

Batman the animated series is pretty good. Last night I was looking for a new show to watch, at least something new to me, so I checked out the pilot episode of Line of Duty. Liked what I saw!

You need to watch the original Batman series from the 60's!! Now that was fun.

Originally Posted by Corwin
You need to watch the original Batman series from the 60's!! Now that was fun.

And a great source of memes :-)

I've watched and re-watched the original Batman show so many times that I've got quotes permanently locked in me brain. Listening to Adam West chew through dialogue alone is pure pleasure!

Originally Posted by Carnifex
I've watched and re-watched the original Batman show so many times that I've got quotes permanently locked in me brain. Listening to Adam West chew through dialogue alone is pure pleasure!

I think I've only ever seen the shark episode, or bits and pieces of it. Absolutely hilarious. Batman is "fighting" to get his foot out of the shark's mouth, while actually holding the plastic shark doll with his foot against the rope-ladder.

"Hand me down the shark repellant bat spray!" Cut to multiple canisters of Barracuda, Whale, Manta-Ray and Shark Repellant.

I may be mistake but I believe the shark episode was actually the movie attached to the show as well? In any case, it's a fine production and a true hallmark of television, they just don't make 'em that good anymore.

Originally Posted by Corwin
You need to watch the original Batman series from the 60's!! Now that was fun.

I have just been watching "Blinded - Those Who Kill" which is available on the iPlayer and is being broadcasted on BBC4. It's a Danish spoken police drama about the hunt for a serial killer. Here you know who the killer is and you are watching the police with their profiler creating theories about the killer. The theories evolve as new bits of evidence are discovered or old evidence is re-examined while slowly moving towards the inevitable confrontation. It seems to be about motivation and what drives some people across the line of acceptable behaviour - killing people is not seen as acceptable by most people.
I managed to stop myself after watching six episodes in a single day, saving the last two for next Sunday.
I always been a fan of these types of dramas including Wallander (the non-English version though that's ok). Mystery, motives and drama. If you like American cop show with lots of shooting then this is not for you.

I've not seen Blinded, I have watched Wallander and I liked that one a lot.

I watched Emerald City, a modern more mature take on The Wizard of Oz. It looked very promising with Dorothy being 20 years when a storm sent her to Oz. There are different takes on the scarecrow, the tin man and the lion as well. And the good news is that there are no songs and dances.
There are some good performances, but I found the writing to be inconsistent, making the actors and actrices do things that were out of character or just a weird thing to do. I understand that they did it to get the person at a certain place or situation, but there must have been more intelligent ways to do it.
There are also more storylines than just Dorothy’s, which isn’t a bad thing, but I think having a bit less of them would have made for a better story.
It was cancelled after one season. A season which ended with a cliff hanger. So, we never know how that is going to be resolved.
Although the show wasn’t bad, I don’t think I found it good enough to watch a second season if it would have been made. I see it scores a 7.2 on IMDB, but I wouldn’t give it more than a 6 for the effort of trying to make something different from an old story.

I've been watching Resident Alien, it's pretty good so far.

Originally Posted by Corwin
You need to watch the original Batman series from the 60's!! Now that was fun.

I remember seeing a few scenes of that and got really turned off, which is weird considering I generally like Batman.

Originally Posted by Cold
I remember seeing a few scenes of that and got really turned off, which is weird considering I generally like Batman.

It's not weird. The old tv series is very different from most modern portrayals of Batman. It has a level of campiness that isn't going to appeal to a lot of today's fans.

I remember things like BIFF!!! POWW!! WHAP!! flying across the screen. Good times.

The most intriguing thing to me about Batman is, that at his core, he's simply a detective. And a damn good one. I've not read the Batman comics in about twenty years now, I can only hope they've kept that the case. His martial prowess is fantastic, his mental aptitude phenomenal.

Originally Posted by JDR13
It's not weird. The old tv series is very different from most modern portrayals of Batman. It has a level of campiness that isn't going to appeal to a lot of today's fans.

I prefer the animated series over the 60's one, the campiness gets me a bit.

Season 2 of The Witcher is nearly finished.

https://www.pcgamer.com/witcher-seas…st-production/

The wife and I watched Unforgotten. All four seasons in a row. It is an excellent show with very good acting and story writing. It is one of the better shows on British TV in my opinion. I also like that, as often in British TV shows, the number of episodes per season is limited to 6, which prevents the story from dragging on.

Giving the ending of season 4, I was a bit surprised to learn that there will be a season 5. Not sure how that will work out, but I will be looking forward to it anyway.