The TV Series discussion thread

Originally Posted by Zloth
News is out that Babylon 5 will be getting a reboot. Straczynski will be back at the helm, so I'm expecting it to be a good thing. If I don't see characters wearing outfits with pockets, I'll assume Straczynski is being blackmailed into putting his name on it.

I'm somewhat surprised tbh. I know it has a cult following, but I didn't think it was popular enough to revive after all these years.

After re-watching episode six, series two of Mr. Robot, I simply had to post to exclaim what an excellent hour of telly this is. This episode, more than any other, sums up the entire premise of the series, at least up to this point. The first fifteen minutes, shot in complete homage of a comedy show (complete with audience laugh reel) literally spells out the entire plot: to wit, if anything still had you confused at this point, almost every single answer is provided here. It's just stellar telly!

Personal highlight for me: Watching Darlene get punched unconscious not once, but twice via her mum. Now I'm usually against such violence, especially against women, yet….Darlene, man. Every so often, a person that truly deserves a beating catches one!

Originally Posted by Carnifex
Personal highlight for me: Watching Darlene get punched unconscious not once, but twice via her mum. Now I'm usually against such violence, especially against women, yet….Darlene, man. Every so often, a person that truly deserves a beating catches one!

Yeah, Darlene is probably one of my least favorite characters. She was annoying at first, but sorta grew on me. Then she sometimes has some great moments, but she's still able to pull off some cringe ones. The only one I like even less is probably Dom. She's usually so low-energy and depressed that sometimes I can't get if it's the actress of if that's the direction she received.

One the other side, a fantastic episodic character is Leon. Just a great and really likeable dude. Also, Irving. I recently saw him in Motherless Brooklyn and he looked very different, and for a few minutes I could not place him. He looked really familiar, but I could not place him. Until I looked him up on imdb.

Originally Posted by Zloth
News is out that Babylon 5 will be getting a reboot.

WTF
Heaps of great shows so outdated young audiences don't want to touch are practically begging for rework, why messing with the universally beloved scifi show that is still top notch?

What's even worse, it's going to be a CW production.
And you know how things work at CW.
Cheap sets and bad CGI, dumb script and dumber dialogues, soapification imminent after a couple of seasons, and all leads at age 17-19, not older so the show can go on and on till all actors are a retirement material.

If the show's first season sells, of course.
Sadly, I expect another Tomorrow People case.

Honestly I wish me being wrong.

Good lord, Joxer and I agreeing on something….is it already samhain??

It just feels wrong and spooky!! =p

Originally Posted by danutz_plusplus
Yeah, Darlene is probably one of my least favorite characters. She was annoying at first, but sorta grew on me. Then she sometimes has some great moments, but she's still able to pull off some cringe ones. The only one I like even less is probably Dom. She's usually so low-energy and depressed that sometimes I can't get if it's the actress of if that's the direction she received.

One the other side, a fantastic episodic character is Leon. Just a great and really likeable dude. Also, Irving. I recently saw him in Motherless Brooklyn and he looked very different, and for a few minutes I could not place him. He looked really familiar, but I could not place him. Until I looked him up on imdb.

Darlene is fine, but she can be narrow-minded sometimes. It's easy to be exasperated with her.

Leon is really cool in his style.

But I prefer Price, this guy is really living in another dimension. When Colby asks him "what do you do it for?" in S2E10… his answer is so insane! The contrast with his alter-ego in the fantasy world is striking, the other guy seems so lost, without any purpose.

Originally Posted by Redglyph
Darlene is fine, but she can be narrow-minded sometimes. It's easy to be exasperated with her.

I don't mean just that. I mean her whole character. She looks like she tries too hard to be cool, and it just comes off weird. Plus plenty of the slang or cursing she uses, just doesn't sound right to me. I guess I just don't buy her character sometimes. Not really sure why, but I've had an aversion to the way she plays her character from the get-go. She did grow on me over the course, but she sometimes still misses.

Or maybe that's the whole point. That she puts on a front, badly though. With the later mentions of her panic attacks. That was a bit weird that they made no mention until the later seasons? Or maybe I'm just not remembering.

Originally Posted by Redglyph
But I prefer Price, this guy is really living in another dimension. When Colby asks him "what do you do it for?" in S2E10… his answer is so insane! The contrast with his alter-ego in the fantasy world is striking, the other guy seems so lost, without any purpose.

Was that where he talks about always wanting to be the most powerful person in the room? That was a great scene. Price was underutilized imo and so was Whiterose, at least in the first two seasons. I hope they play a larger role in seasons 3 & 4. I really need to finish it.

Darlene from Mr. Robot grates on me similar to how I didn't care for Dexter's sister. I just cannot put my finger squarely on the reason, yet both characters never sat well with me, not sure if it was the actors or the roles.

Originally Posted by Carnifex
Darlene from Mr. Robot grates on me similar to how I didn't care for Dexter's sister. I just cannot put my finger squarely on the reason, yet both characters never sat well with me, not sure if it was the actors or the roles.

Yeah, I think I felt something similar about Debra. But I think Darlene is worst, somehow. Debra is more generic, but Darlene has lower lows.

In terms of what I've been watching lately, I started watching Sillicon Valley. This was something I watched a little bit of, years ago, and now that it's finished I want to get through it. It's sufficiently lighthearted and also plenty of fun in how it makes fun of the IT industry. And it does so in a way smarter way than the shitty Big Bang Theory. I mean, you can't really compare them, so I'm not even sure why I mentioned BBT. But, whatever.

Originally Posted by JDR13
Was that where he talks about always wanting to be the most powerful person in the room? That was a great scene. Price was underutilized imo and so was Whiterose, at least in the first two seasons. I hope they play a larger role in seasons 3 & 4. I really need to finish it.

That's the scene, makes me wonder if there are people like that in reality. And I wouldn't be too surprised if there were.

Price is about as present in seasons 3-4, I'd say, perhaps longer in a few episodes and not at all in some others. Whiterose is more often involved though.

I thought you didn't like Mr Robot too much?

Originally Posted by danutz_plusplus
I don't mean just that. I mean her whole character. She looks like she tries too hard to be cool, and it just comes off weird. Plus plenty of the slang or cursing she uses, just doesn't sound right to me. I guess I just don't buy her character sometimes. Not really sure why, but I've had an aversion to the way she plays her character from the get-go. She did grow on me over the course, but she sometimes still misses.

Or maybe that's the whole point. That she puts on a front, badly though. With the later mentions of her panic attacks. That was a bit weird that they made no mention until the later seasons? Or maybe I'm just not remembering.

I see what you mean. I put that on the role she has to play, the total outlaw who still has a strong sense of family and "clan". Not that I like the style very much but it didn't strike me as odd.

Except I would have expected her to be more frank with Elliot and his condition. She obviously knows it from the start but uses it at his expense.

I don't think she had panic attacks earlier either.

Originally Posted by Redglyph
That's the scene, makes me wonder if there are people like that in reality. And I wouldn't be too surprised if there were.

Price is about as present in seasons 3-4, I'd say, perhaps longer in a few episodes and not at all in some others. Whiterose is more often involved though.

I thought you didn't like Mr Robot too much?

I enjoyed it well enough, but I wasn't blown away by it. I think it's one of those shows where a lot of people either love it or hate it. I fall squarely in the middle. I only stopped watching it because I got caught up doing other things.

Interesting bit of news (NBC News)

'Bridgerton' tops Netflix's list of most watched TV shows ever, while 'Extraction' leads among movies
Ted Sarandos, Netflix’s co-CEO, released Netflix’s latest list of its most popular TV shows and movies at the Code Conference in Beverly Hills, California.

Netflix said on Monday that the first season of “Bridgerton” was its most watched TV series ever, with 82 million subscribers tuning in for at least two minutes in its first 28 days on the service.

Ted Sarandos, Netflix’s co-CEO, released Netflix’s latest list of its most-popular TV shows and movies while speaking at the Code Conference in Beverly Hills, California. Sarandos showed a slide that included the top 10 in each category.

“Bridgerton,” a period piece about 19th century British royalty produced by Shonda Rhimes, premiered in December. French series “Lupin: Part 1″ and season one of “The Witcher,” a fantasy series starring Henry Cavill, tied for second on the list, with 76 million accounts.

Among movies, the action film “Extraction” earned the No. 1 spot. The film about a captured CIA agent was watched by 99 million accounts in the first 28 days, Netflix said.

“Bird Box,” a post-apocalyptic horror film, and the action-comedy “Spenser Confidential” were the second- and third-most popular films, according to the company.
[. . .]

I tried a new comedy show, at least I think it's supposed to be a comedy, Loudermilk. It reminds me a lot of Fleabag, full of deplorable characters and some funny bits. I like the lead guy a lot as an actor, so for now I'll stick with it, you gotta have some laughs these days and SNL hasn't scratched that itch for almost two decades, now.

It's not a film, but yesterday I spent nearly 4 hours in a row with my partner watching the 3 first nearly film-long episodes of a newish sci-fi show called Foundation that's just being aired on AppleTV. I'm sure some may have already heard about it, but to us it was a surprise and we both loved it to the point that we and can't wait to watch more.

The plot so far is quite compelling and the FX are pretty nicely done. I don't know what budget they had, but looks and feels really good in general, full-fledged spaceship combat sequences included.

Originally Posted by Nereida
It's not a film, but yesterday I spent nearly 4 hours in a row with my partner watching the 3 first nearly film-long episodes of a newish sci-fi show called Foundation that's just being aired on AppleTV. I'm sure some may have already heard about it, but to us it was a surprise and we both loved it to the point that we and can't wait to watch more.

The plot so far is quite compelling and the FX are pretty nicely done. I don't know what budget they had, but looks and feels really good in general, full-fledged spaceship combat sequences included.

If it was a surprise for you I assume that you are too young to know the books?

Originally Posted by bkrueger
If it was a surprise for you I assume that you are too young to know the books?

Probably, or just went under the radar. I didn't expect to enjoy it so much for sure!

Oops, I should have posted about Foundation here instead on the movie thread.

My bad!

TL;DR - enjoying Foundation a lot, it's being aired on AppleTV for those who wanna have a look, new episode every Friday. Probably this is not news to a lot of people, but there it is!

Originally Posted by Nereida
It's not a film, but yesterday I spent nearly 4 hours in a row with my partner watching the 3 first nearly film-long episodes of a newish sci-fi show called Foundation that's just being aired on AppleTV. I'm sure some may have already heard about it, but to us it was a surprise and we both loved it to the point that we and can't wait to watch more.

The plot so far is quite compelling and the FX are pretty nicely done. I don't know what budget they had, but looks and feels really good in general, full-fledged spaceship combat sequences included.

I re-read the first book in August, so I definitely spent time with the first episode comparing one to the other. Changes I was mixed about, but the depth allowed by the series over what was essentially the 'introduction' in the book … pretty cool. Weill definitely keep up with it.