The TV Series discussion thread

Originally Posted by danutz_plusplus
I heard about Homecoming in some interview with the creator of Mr. Robot, where he mentioned he was involved. I think I tried watching the first episode, and I'm not sure why I dropped it but I never got through it. Maybe it'll come back around some time in the future.

The first season is slow and doesn't have a lot of suspenseful episodes, so it may easily put someone off.

Originally Posted by Redglyph
The first season is slow and doesn't have a lot of suspenseful episodes, so it may easily put someone off.

Interesting enough Esmail only directed the first season. I guess going foward he's only writing and producing for it.

Originally Posted by danutz_plusplus
Interesting enough Esmail only directed the first season. I guess going foward he's only writing and producing for it.

Isn't that frequent in series? He hasn't directed all episodes in Mr Robot either.

I've always found that strange, but I'm not entirely familiar with the exact boundaries between the different roles. I suppose they try to keep some coherence, although I remember some episodes of Spooks for example (MI5 in US) that were very badly filmed on purpose - camera shaking and other ill-chosen "action" effects - with a specific director, while it was fine with others (they must have disagreed on that point).

Originally Posted by Redglyph
Isn't that frequent in series? He hasn't directed all episodes in Mr Robot either.

I've always found that strange, but I'm not entirely familiar with the exact boundaries between the different roles. I suppose they try to keep some coherence, although I remember some episodes of Spooks for example (MI5 in US) that were very badly filmed on purpose - camera shaking and other ill-chosen "action" effects - with a specific director, while it was fine with others (they must have disagreed on that point).

Generally, yeah, directors usually even change from episode to episode. Mr Robot was very different in that the creator directed 38 out of the 45 episodes, which is pretty much unheard of, from what I hear. But that also probably is what contributed to the consistency of the look/feel/story.

He's also credited with writing 24 of the episodes. Not sure what that means, if he's sole writer for those, and for the others he collaborated. But I do remember hearing that he pretty much had most of the script, or at least a draft, written for everything before they started shooting anything.

But regardless of how it all ended up with Mr. Robot, I think he said he's not doing that ever again, because of the workload he took on.

And what's even more impressive is when you realize this is his first significant project. He only has a short and a single movie on his imdb page before Mr Robot. And pretty much the same for writing credits. It's like he came out of nowhere with a passion project that he handled marvelously. And it's shocking that USA Network trusted him that much.

We have tried a couple of series recently on Paramount+ (have a free subscription):
- Guilty Party - what even IS this show about? I think you’re supposed to care about the main character who is fired for making up quotes and it is implied she was unfairly treated … then by episode 2 you see her engaging in all kinds of unethical stuff that tells you she was likely very fairly fired. And this isn’t really a ‘everyone is imperfect’ show, more like a hot mess that needed more edits.
- Mayor of Kingstown - stacked cast, seems like an intriguing plot … first episode is more about establishing tone (and a ‘shock twist’), but ends predictably. Will we watch another? Not sure, next morning was hard to remember what it was even about as it fades into yet another me-too show.

I was a bit out of ideas, so I restarted watching Better Call Saul to see if I can get to appreciate it. The main character is such a mix of success and failure at the same time…

Also reading back - we have definitely been consuming ‘comfort shows’ such as ‘Hart to Hart’ and others from the 70s/80s/90s … Echo the thought that these older shows were not meant to be consumed multiple episodes per night (we never do this anyway). Currently working through the 4th season of ‘Murder She Wrote’ which is a fun show - but there are definitely ‘didn’t they already do one of these’ moments, particularly since we tend to watch 1-2 episodes per week and have occasionally crossed seasons in the same week.

On the advice from a mate, she suggested I give the Marvelous Mrs. Maisel a try. Once I saw that it's set in 1958, I was immediately hooked! So far I've only viewed the pilot yet, after that fine hour, I will be watching more!

It appears that Peter Jackson has been doing his old magic thing with help from Paul McCartney. They have taken 57 hours of long-abandoned film footage shot over the first weeks of the band's final year together in 1969 and re-purposed it as 3 two-hour shows. The catch is it is only available on Disney+. Still I am enough of a fan to get one month's subscription. Will be available 25th to 27th November.

There is also "McCartney on the Beeb" which is showing on BBC2 on 20th November. This includes 3 programs. The first is a round-up of TV appearances post Beatles. The second is a 2018 gig at the Cavern Club. Finally Idris Elba interviewing Paul.

There is also a Radio Times podcast called "The Beatles: Get Back" available today. [radiotimes.com/podcasts]. Not up yet [11:52am GMT].

There is also a 4 minute trailer showing the quality of the film at https://www.radiotimes.com/tv/docume…-release-date/

Cool - I am interested in the Beatles thing but haven’t been paying attention to release dates on anything.

Man, I'd love to check out Jackson's thoughts on the Beatles, yet not enough to give Disney any of my funds. I'll see if I can at least check out the BBC version.

I'm a big enough Beatles fan to want to watch this. I don't have Disney+, but I, ah, will find a way.

My bigger concern is figuring out how my mom can watch it. I think she'll be quite interested.

Originally Posted by JFarrell71
I'm a big enough Beatles fan to want to watch this. I don't have Disney+, but I, ah, will find a way.

My bigger concern is figuring out how my mom can watch it. I think she'll be quite interested.

We get Disney+ ‘free’ with our Verizon mobile plan … otherwise would be in the same boat!

I'm going through the fourth series of Mr. Robot, and the episode I viewed last night is one of the highlights of the entire show. The fifth episode of the fourth series sees Darlene and Elliot working together and, man, when these two are focused, you don't want to be the focus of their collective ire!

And when they aren't, the times that the siblings are working against each other are the most painful episodes for me to watch.

There is also a 4 minute trailer showing the quality of the film at https://www.radiotimes.com/tv/docume…-release-date/

The podcast is there but the talk is hidden in the depths of episode 11. I gave up after a few minutes.

Watching the Office (US version) with the wife for the first time. Took me some time to warm up to the character of Michael Scott, but we quite like it now. We're in season 3 atm.

Originally Posted by wiretripped
Watching the Office (US version) with the wife for the first time. Took me some time to warm up to the character of Michael Scott, but we quite like it now. We're in season 3 atm.

Yeah, I feel like it kept going too long, but there's some very funny bits along the way.

Finished the first season of Foundation. I liked it a lot. Particularly the later episodes had me spellbound. The director hopes to do 80 episodes in total and I'm hoping Apple will let him do it.

Watched the first episode of Wheel of Time. Not sure yet what I think, but there is definite potential there. I note that The Great season 2 is out also. Really enjoyed season 1, so I'll eventually get around to that as well.

I watched the first episodes of The Wheel of Time too. It's promising and well directed, but once again it seems the series writer felt the need to shuffle the events and add unnecessary (even controversial) elements. It's been a long time since I've read the book so I'm not sure to what extent. I think the important bits are there anyway, and it's coherent.

There's a lot of action packed in those first episodes, but I think what they have to cover in the original story contains a lot too.