The TV Series discussion thread

I'd be fine with simply a new ship, a new crew - and a decent cast.

The concept of Trek is infinite. Just have them explore space and encounter shit.

As long as you can come up with a few ideas - great acting and writing will take care of the rest.

But please, please, please keep "dark and gritty" - not to mention faux woke progressive values out of it.

Trek is supposed to be way beyond that sort of human stupidity.

dark worked with DS9 and Voyager.

My concept would work because it would blow everything up and the ever increasing uber technology that prevents new stories from being realistic would go away - and you wouldn't have to do that by going to a lame prequel or lame alternate lens flare universe and altering the concepts of existing episodes.

Now, Voyager and DS9 both tried to pull it back, create conflicts and problems but future writers wrote off the difficulties like they were never there.

I wouldn't call Voyager dark.

DS9 went dark here and there - but under extraordinary pressure like the Dominion war, I think it's ok.

Still, TNG is far superior to both, in my opinion.

Then again, I'm a fan of what Roddenberry was trying to do.

Found what I was looking for (start at 33th minute then play for 3 minutes)



He's now there to have fun. If you're not, well, I guess you should go try other shows.
Picard is great.

Nothing seems earned on the new Star Trek shows, it took me some time to put my finger on what bothers me about them and that's a huge part of it. It's like stuff just happens, often purely at random with little thought or work done to achieve those results. I've no tolerance for laziness.

Now, Better Call Saul, that's a show that is nuanced, you get to see entire processes play out, and the results. This is the best show that I'm currently watching by far, even better than the first series because some of these characters are actually likable, where in Breaking Bad all of those folk were basically scum.

Episode 9 of Outsider had a pretty cool ending

Only one left to go. If they don't mess this up - I would have to rate it almost as high as True Detective.

In fact, it does just the kind of thing I secretly hoped True Detective would do….

Don't care about Woody Harrelson stuff and am not watching those. I'll skip Venom 2 too.

Outsider is a show where episodes aren't self contained stories. It's not a procedural.
Because of that, I'm waiting till it ends before watching it although I've seen prescreening reviews based on first 4 episodes that say those 4 eps are awsome.

Yes, some shows I've expected to be procedural and then started watching... And then waiting for a week till next episode... These are rare.

Watched the first two episodes of Dispatches from Elsewhere. It felt a bit like a Neil Gaiman work, although it's not clear it's going anywhere besides a Tranny romance. I might keep watching though since it includes Sally Field.

I've heard good things about Outsider, haven't checked it out as of yet but it's on my list.

Whelp. I'm in the middle of season 2 of Altered Carbon. Sadly the second season is based on the third book. I hated the third book. Of note, some of the character revelation are laid out pretty bare early in the season so there is not the sense of suspense that was in the book. Oh well, the show is eye candy and the acting is good and I'm usually in, on all sci fi stuff. High Praise???????

Now that's something I really look forward to:

'The Last of Us' Series in the Works at HBO From 'Chernobyl' Creator Craig Mazin, Neil Druckmann

The game is great. I only pray the series lives up to it!

Started watching The Outsider yesterday, and it hooked me right away. I just finished the 5th episode.

I thought the first two episodes were a lot more intriguing than the three I've watched since, but I'm looking forward to see where this goes.

Really into The Outsider as well. Starts as your normal detective story and then adds a super natural element that makes things very interesting. If you liked True Detective season 1 then you’ll probably like this.

I've watched the first 8 episodes now, and it does remind me of True Detective in a lot of ways. Particularly in the cinematography (especially some of the overhead views) as well as the overall atmosphere. That said, I don't think it's quite on the same level as the first season of TD.

Blood & Treasure

I recently finished watching “Blood & Treasure” which is an action adventure drama. It is set in 2019 though there are flash backs to much earlier periods. The latter are identified by the programme makers to make it very easy to understand the “when”.

I would say that this is a fun TV series in that there are no political messages (something that is too often part of anything coming out of North America), there is a love story, betrayal, violence and twists in the story. The actors are photogenetic in the main. Strong female co-star.

The action takes place all around the world. An antiquities expert teams up with an art thief to catch a terrorist who funds his attacks using stolen artifacts is how IMDB describes it. This is only part of the story there is much more.

If you like fun action drama which does not tax your brain too much then this is worth a look. There are 13 episodes with a duration of 38 to 45 minutes each. A 2nd season has been given the go ahead. I will probably watch the 2nd season. 1st season isn't a must buy but a maybe.

Okay here goes

Spencer Confidential;
Netflix Spencer for Hire reboot with Mark Wahlberg. I loved the TV show and how they fine tuned the theme song each year. Hawk (Avery Brooks: pre deep space 9) was great and with that show I had a soft spot for Boston. The Netflix Movie reboot had far more humor than the TV show but not too much. We liked it in our house and want more.

Altered Carbon: Second season
The book was horrible almost approaching experimental fiction. Short bits of coherent narrative attached to a rambling almost stream of conscience writing. Big disappointment from the first two books. So the TV show was a lot more coherent (at least for me), than the book. But did it make for a good viewing? I don't know. I was just happy to see it laid out plainly, so I now feel I got my moneys worth for the book. High Praise??????

Netflix. I am Not Okay with This: Season one
High school girl slowly discovers she has a super power and gets all angsty about it.
The eight episode season ends with her finally using her power. The show is way too drawn out and it might be good to see 2 or 3 seasons together but right now I feel I wasted my time.
NOTE: Netflix did a similar/recent series called Raising Dion that dealt with a little kid with a superpower. It too was drawn out but unlike "Im not okay…:, the acting was horrendous and story telling worse.

Freaks: Netflix movie
On a similar theme. This too deals with a little girl that has a superpower. Her father is hiding her from the world. And of course the little girl wants to know what is out there. Unlike the two aforementioned mini series, this needed about another hour or two to tell the complete story. Right now it is pretty clear the movie was a pilot. Still . . . it was good. Acting was great, story was tight with a couple nice twists. I doubt they will come back to this story but I'm okay with the kinda cliff hanger.
NOTE: There was a similar movie like this in 2016 that dealt with a little boy who had superpowers and the father was trying to hide the boy. Called Midnight Special. Adam Driver played a scientist and the movie had nice visual ending.

Dajjer said:

Okay here goes

NOTE: There was a similar movie like this in 2016 that dealt with a little boy who had superpowers and the father was trying to hide the boy. Called Midnight Special. Adam Driver played a scientist and the movie had nice visual ending.

Click to expand...

I vaguely remember going to see this at the cinema in early 2016. I also recall that I liked what I saw but the details are very fuzzy. At the moment it is available as part of the Amazon Prime package in the UK. It was a film that got good marks from the critics and people who saw it but it wasn't a box office success. Strange.

Thanks for the reminder.

Finished The Outsider. It was above average but fell short of being anything special imo.

Going to start watching Season 2 of Westworld in anticipation of the third season which begins in about a week.

Westworld

I am both lucky and unlucky with my access to TV series. At the moment Syfy Uk is showing the 1st two seasons of Westworld with the final two episodes being screened tonight. It is a brilliant show and more than a worthy successor to the film. Love the way they use the flash backs to help you undertand what is actually going on and why. It seems we are all influenced by our past though I know many would wish it not so. Delores, William, Man in Black - the list of quality performances seems to go on and on.

The unlucky bit is that I will probably have to wait 3 or 4 years before I see the 3rd season, though I must admit that the thought of buying the DVDs is very tempting. Even then it probably means waiting until later this year or next year for season 3.

I'm beginning to believe that Better Call Saul is basically spoiling any and all other television for me. I find myself re-watching episodes of this show rather than watching new things, even. The last episode was superb, and I'm constantly wondering what will happen with Kim through all this, I suspect she's not going to have a happy ending. This show knows how to tell a complete story, progress or failure is earned and plays out before the viewer so you know exactly what's going on, and what stakes are on the line.