The TV Series discussion thread

So, lest you think I'm bitching about this, not at all. I think it's rather flattering. There's no question of "plagiarism" when you work for them it's work-for-hire, so they own it anyway.

Yeah that's part of the contract you sign when you work for a company. All your work belongs to them. It's not fair but it is what it is, and probably will never change.

If you don't want to wait until the 27th, you can check out the first 8 minutes of Season 4 of Stranger Thngs.



I hope this is indicative of what the season is going to be like. It feels like a return to the vibe of the first season which I thought was great.

I was really angry when I wrote that last night, it hit me on a visceral level that someone who is no longer alive and able to defend herself would have her works abused/used in such a manner.

And it still smacks of thievery to me. In some ways this show, should they continue business like this, may be far worse/insidious than ST or Discard are.

In not-so-angry news, I watched the first episode of Night Sky last night, a new show with Spacek/Simmons in the leads. I thought the pilot was pretty good and will be checking out the next episode soon.

The current Mayans series has been on/off for me. They had some sleeper episodes in which not much was happening, yet now it looks like there might be a real confrontation coming up between Mayans/SamCro. Of course the brothers in the San Pedro Mayan chapter despise Happy, so they are quite gung-ho about instigating something, and now that SamCro basically assassinated one of their members, stuff might be close to getting real nasty.

Originally Posted by Carnifex
The current Mayans series has been on/off for me. They had some sleeper episodes in which not much was happening, yet now it looks like there might be a real confrontation coming up between Mayans/SamCro. Of course the brothers in the San Pedro Mayan chapter despise Happy, so they are quite gung-ho about instigating something, and now that SamCro basically assassinated one of their members, stuff might be close to getting real nasty.

I tried to watch Mayans. I should have known better from my time with Sons of Anarchy. I watch plenty of shows with criminal/villainous characters, but these shows are among the few that I feel are actively wanting us to celebrate garbage humans as noble heroes. Far too misogynistic for me as well. Women are portrayed with more nuance and thoughtfulness in The Last Kingdom, for god's sake, and that's set hundreds of years ago.

Hahaha yes indeed, sometimes to most fun I have with these shows is by praying for certain characters to meet with a very nasty demise! I got pulled into Mayans because the idea of having a basic street villain with an eidetic memory really flies against the norm and made me rather curious, not to mention coming from the same folks that gave us Samcro.

I've been keeping my entertainment going well telly-wise these days with Bosch: Legacy, Good Omens, and Night Sky in frequent rotation. I've not finished with any of them yet, though I'd say all three are worth checking out.

Watched the first 3 episodes of Stranger Things Season 4. It's not doing much for me so far. Hopefully it gets better, but I think I might have been expecting too much.

It seems a little less silly than Season 3 was, but I'm finding it somewhat boring. Maybe it's just a slow start.

Finished Ozark. What a depressing ending that was. Almost nobody got what they deserved.

Originally Posted by Myrthos
Finished Ozark. What a depressing ending that was. Almost nobody got what they deserved.

I agree, it was a sad ending. But somehow not really unexpected.

I'm not sure there will be a season 5 after that, but one never knows.

After episode 4 of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, I can say that for me it's the best Trek since Voyager.

While I generally don't dislike Discovery and Picard, both feel more like spinoffs (well, that's what Picard is anyway), reinterpretations or fanfiction. Orville was great, and although it didn't bear the name, it was essentially classic Trek. Enterprise was somewhere in between, but too close to our own time for me, relatively speaking.

ST: SNW feels like TOS/TNG/DS9/VOY, but properly modernized. Mostly serialized with focus on a Sci-Fi adventure of the week. Likeable characters. No relationship overload. No endless emotional drama where characters spend half their screen time mourning over drama that happened in other episodes.

I agree that Star Trek: Strange New Worlds is the best of the newest Trek, yet, well, that still doesn't say much. I'm rather fuming about how they disrespected Fontana in the third episode, unless some quiet deal was made on the off-side, which I guess is possible. I'd be very curious to read what any of her living relatives might think about the matter.

Now, if we could only get the characters to behave like they're actually part of a military organization….ya know, things like respect, responsibility, discipline, etc. We'll see how it goes.

Enterprise took a long time to hit a good stride, and was cut down right on the cusp of doing so, in my opinion. That final series was pretty top notch stuff.

I watched Rise of Empires: Ottoman, it's nicely done and recount a part of history I know nothing about (yet).

And I started watching Shadow and Bone, which follows the classic "people yielding magic must be segregated because they almost ended the world" and "I thought I was nobody and now I have to save the world" patterns. But it seems creative enough and mixed with different plots to make it attractive and interesting.

Originally Posted by Redglyph
I agree, it was a sad ending. But somehow not really unexpected.

I'm not sure there will be a season 5 after that, but one never knows.

Ozark is definitely finished.

I'm still going strong on The Last Kingdom. I'm halfway through season 4 and finding it as addicting as ever. I'll find time to watch Stranger Things season 4 soon.

Next week The Boys and Orville (finally) come out, and I'm looking forward to both of those, especially the former.

Originally Posted by Myrthos
Finished Ozark. What a depressing ending that was. Almost nobody got what they deserved.

I thought most of the characters got what they deserved throughout the series.

I liked the ending, but I can understand why some people wouldn't.

I liked Ozark right up until the final scene, which I thought was pretty pathetic.
Aside from that, it's some of the best TV I've seen.

Originally Posted by Shagnak
I liked Ozark right up until the final scene, which I thought was pretty pathetic.
Aside from that, it's some of the best TV I've seen.

You must have despised the ending of The Sopranos.

Originally Posted by JDR13
You must have despised the ending of The Sopranos.

Yes, yes, I did
And that's also one of my favourite series ever.

I'm still flabbergasted that anyone couldn't see the end of Sopranos coming. It was quite perfect, me thinks.

Hint hint…..if you think Tony walked alive out of that restaurant, you were not paying attention. -p

I've been keeping track of Blacklist, this most recent series has been really hit or miss. They have some decent episodes, like Marvin being behind what happened to Keen, and some real head-scratchers….androids as prostituting murderers. I mean, the vane really swings with this show!

Originally Posted by Carnifex
I'm still flabbergasted that anyone couldn't see the end of Sopranos coming. It was quite perfect, me thinks.

Hint hint…..if you think Tony walked alive out of that restaurant, you were not paying attention. -p

That's hardly the point - yes , you'd assume that was what happened - but a personal investment in a series as long as that deserves some sort of payoff. Even seeing a gun drawn on him and the expression on his face as fate finally catches up with him would have sufficed.

I've liked plenty of movies with more ambiguous endings than that, but sometimes it's more irritating than artful, especially in a long TV series when you want to see series long machinations come to a head.

Sopranos, Bloodlines, Ozark, (and others) deserved better. It didn't stop any of them from still being pretty awesome though. Maybe sometimes if the journey is good enough…