The TV Series discussion thread

joxer said:

When it comes to Voyager, I disliked all episodes with Naomi Campbell. There was one with some holodeck character I plain hated - I usually point at it as the most horrible episode of all sci fi shows ever made.

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Naomi Wildman. Yes, awful child! I detested her. But less than that awful kid in The Next Generation, Wesley Crusher. Aaargh.

Early this year I rewatched Voyager and came away with a totally different impression than when it first aired. Initially, I kinda liked the show but disliked Janway. I think I was mad because Geneviève Bujold was originally slated to be the captain. She was one of my favs at the time. But she backed out of the project at the last minute. (the takes of Bujold compared to Mulgrew (some where on YouTube) clearly show Mulgrew was probably better for the show)

Now, I'm not so sure I would rate TNG over Voyager. TNG has far more classic episodes but also a ton of stinkers. But Voyager was pretty consistent and while it had no where near the number of classic episodes, Voyager did have a few and the stinker were far less.

BBC America re-runs both shows weekly and it seems for the most part the whole Voyager series is still watchable, I just cant say the same for TNG.

NOTE: Picard is still the captain I would want to serve for.

Voyager couldn't hold a candle against either the next generation, or Deep Space Nine. The cast was so weak in Voyager that I'm amazed it lasted as long as it did!

Darth Tagnan said:

Never got around to watching Voyager (beyond maybe 10-15 episodes in total) - so I'm trying to force my way through it right now.

It's not as bad as I remember it to be, but it certainly isn't TNG-level Trek.

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Yes, Voyager is so much better. Its probably the second best of all the Treks so far to date with a pre-Worf DS9 coming in close third.

Voyager can be divided into three eras:
Season 1
Season 2 and 3
Seasons 4-7

Season 1 was awful but it set the premise for the show well beyond the "Lost in Space" clichee - namely the forced merging of Federation and those who couldn't fit into it's self-deluded nature, The Maquis.

But they barely went anywhere with this and largely ignored it after the Sesca arc. Seasons 2 and 3 got bogged down as a soap opera but the cast were starting to find their place. Seasons 4-7 were about Seven of Nine and only about Janeway and Seven - two cast members that can't stand each other. Mulgrew harassed Jerry Ryan for her entire run on the show and in the wake of #metoo she had a point - but for four years? It was so bad Robert Beltran was calling her out publicly which didn't stop the staff from renewing his contract. However, Mulgrew and Ryan both seemed to have resolved their issues somewhat - enough to show up at conventions and even talk to each other for the fans benefit.

It will be interesting to see what happens with Start Trek now that Les Moonves is out at CBS. There's a possibility the Viacom merger is on now that he is out and the stupidity of the IP mess will be fixed.

Last month the wife and I caught the final season of House of Cards.

It was like the whole series wrapped into one season. It started off exciting with tons of promise of the intrigues and terrific acting coupled with some gratuitous stupidity for the sake shock value (reminding us Netflix wants to be HBO). Characters looked strangely familiar and they lampshaded some of the retreaded characters played by different actors.

Then it made no sense at all.

With episodes cut down from 13 to 8 the writers just hurried it to the ending and resolved any open threads haphazardly. The characters started getting omniscient and acting...out of character.

Gotta say, what started out good in season 8 ended up forgettable with a lot of unnecessary in between - just like the whole series.

As far as the Trek shows go I've liked them all in different seasons:
TNG: 1-2 meh, 3-5 awesome, 6-7 meh.
DS9: 1-2 meh, 3-5 ok, 6-7 great.
VOY: 1 ok, 2-4 great, 5-7 meh.
ENT: 1 ok, 2-3 meh, 4 awesome.
DIS: nope, we're talking about Star Trek shows here.

Eye said:

O, I really loved Seven and The Doctor. Strongly disliked Neelix though.

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Agreed on all counts, especially Neelix. I despise that character something fierce!

As for Trek, I think a lot of it has to do with when you watched which show - and under what circumstances.

For instance, I started watching Trek with TNG - and I immediately followed it up with DS9 and Voyager. So, by the time Voyager came around - I was pretty full up with the same episode paradigms over and over again.

Also, I greatly disliked Janeway (mostly, it's the actress playing her) - and I think it's partially because Picard is my second favorite Trek character, and Janeway always came off as a cheap copy of him.

I've mellowed a bit since then, and now I just find her annoying.

But I find most of the Voyager characters bland, and - as mentioned above - I positively loathe Neelix, for some reason.

Doctor, 7o9 and Paris are probably the only ones I actually like - even though I always found 7o9 a little silly because of that suit.

The purpose of her character was a little too on-the-nose for me, but - on the other hand - I think the writing saved her.

Then again, I only ever watched a few episodes with her - as I had given up on it.

I'm still pushing through and I'm in second season. I think I've liked one or two episodes, so far, but have yet to see one that stands out in any way.

Of course, after Discovery - anything Trek from the 90s can seem brilliant and heartfelt.

Back to watching Mr. Mercedes. It gets better and better with each new ep - enjoyably creepy high-IQ, high body count twisted momma's boy villain, likable supporting characters, and sparse but well done eerie and effective horror-crime moments. The only character I don't really like is Mary Louise Parker's though that could be due to the fact that the actress has gotten obvious work done and laser peels on her face and now has a mouth that is wide like a reptile's and I'm always half-expecting her tongue to shoot out and catch flies or her body to completely change color in an instant as her eyeballs swivel 180 degrees in her head to see what's behind her. It's okay though, I'm thinking she's being groomed to be tragically killed off at the end of the first season then I won't have to look at her anymore.

I've read the Mercedes books and saw the first season of the television version, and I much preferred the novels. Way too much of some good details didn't make it to the television show, and I suspect that would also be the case for the second season. They aren't my favourite King stories, but they are well worth the read.

Carnifex said:

I've read the Mercedes books and saw the first season of the television version, and I much preferred the novels. Way too much of some good details didn't make it to the television show, and I suspect that would also be the case for the second season. They aren't my favourite King stories, but they are well worth the read.

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I guess I'm fortunate then that I never read the original King stories/novels to compare. I wonder if King based the character of Mr. Mercedes on that nut that massacred theatergoers at the Batman movie. It feels closest to that asshole's story.

I think the first novel came out maybe two years after that incident, so I'm sure it was at least influenced by the tragedy. I remember thinking the same thing about fifty pages into the book.

Lemme be hopeful everyone bingewatched korean gems I've suggested so it's time for another worth watching, right? Well… Don't have time nor inspiration, bad work day. So this time, an "avoidware"!

City Hunter got 8.3 on imdb and 8.6 on mydramalist, must be awsome, right?



No.

It does start great. South Korea pulls a mission on North Korea but revealing it publically is not safe any more. It can have numerous bad consequences. To cover it up, they kill all of their own soldiers - dead mouth don't speak. One of soldiers survives and prepares a revenge on those who ordered it.

As expected in Korean shows, government officials are corrupted, every character is somehow connected to each other and there is plenty of romance and soapy melodrama going on. This one tries to upgrade the game by adding crime, action and thriller elements into it and makes the first half of the show is very interesting. Worth some 7-8 score.

Second half of the show, everything breaks apart. Previous "chemistry" between some characters disappears, acting drops down the toilet, the story becomes annoying and predictable, action and thrills get set aside to give enough time to unbelievable dialogues that drag and drag and drag. If I wanted to watch stalling boredom, I'd subscribe on twitch, right?

I have absolutely no idea how this mediocrity got so popular. There are so many better korean shows out there so if I stepped on a turd, you don't have to.
Watch only if you don't have anything else.

I just went to Amazon to pre-order Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency and… WHAT? Cancelled? No season three?? Only a quarter million viewers!? Come on GB, you can't muster up more than that to watch such a great show?? Pah. Brexit's too good for them.

Trek: Watched tNG a lot. Watched DS9 some and liked the Odo/Quark chemistry but otherwise… meh. Watched Voyager up until the dreaded Warp 11 episode. After that I was done. It was just getting worse and Babylon 5 was making Trek look really pathetic by that point.

Watched 1.5 episode of Counterpart. Unfortunately i already get a shallow feeling from this. The trailer was a bit intriguing "this seems different, i wonder how they will use that" and then it's just "meh". It's an interesting idea but it's also directly played out in the most generic way ever, it feels like you've already seen it.

The boring grey scenery certainly doesn't help (i know what they're going for there but ehh.. no.)

Struggling to stay interested in Voyager.

Tried "Nightflyers" - which is essentially a stretched-out Event Horizon - only without a single compelling character.

But it's rather well produced, at least.

I remember quite enjoying the small book that Nightflyers came from, but as for the telly show I gave up after three episodes. When I keep reaching for book when the show is on, I eventually get the message!

Watched S1 of Channel Zero. Decent horror, kind of drags, which it was shorter.

Season 3 of Travelers starts today.

The season 2 ender sure put everything in a mess. Curious to see if the writers can logically pull it off. I'll watch, because the show does have its moments, but my suspension of belief glasses are in hand.

Well, I know what I'll be finishing, now:

Me: I gave up on Nightflyers after the third episode.

Beth: Pity, that. You quit before the Radiohead music showed up.

Me: Guess what I'll be watching tonight?!?!