The TV Series discussion thread

Do they change writers for each new episode? How can it be so extremely inconsistent? I mean all shows have their inconsistencies, but this is a bit extreme.

If you are speaking about the Walking Dead, no, the writers are the same. When there is a quiet episode, or several in a row, you can be sure they are building up to something. The tragedies that unfolded in the most recent episode had been foreshadowed for months. If tv shows were more like books, I think they'd be better, you should always tell the complete story, you don't need explosions and constant action every darn second. The buildup can be totally complete and rewarding, when done right. The wedding in Martin's series comes to mind for me as one of the most recent examples of this very thing done extremely well.

Originally Posted by DArtagnan
So, you guys are saying I should catch up again?

I just made my peace with never going back to that crap!

You might actually like the direction of this season. With the prison going kaput, the characters are scattered about. Each episode follows a different "mini-group". Since the community is gone and each mini-group is isolated and assuming/realizing they might be the last ones standing, there's a fair bit of introspection going on. It's just not as preachy/overbearing this time around compared to when the group found Hershel's farm and Dale was pontificating all the time and Lorie was dripping imbalance.

Does it merit going back for you? I'd say they're closer right now to the type of stuff you enjoy. There's still plenty of gore, but that's not the focus of the episodes. It's more character driven right now. This most recent episode had a "HOLY FUCK!!!" moment better than anything they've done since season 2. I don't know that it would be as effective if you just watched the single episode (although it would still floor ya) so you might have to invest a fair bit of time catching up (which, as I've said, probably wouldn't be overly painful for ya) in order to fully appreciate the payoff.

I guess my answer to the question would be a big, fat "probably".

Hehe, great

I'll check it out, PROBABLY

I guess I'm not as sophisticated as the rest of you.

I never thought it got bad but I don't try to analyze it. I just enjoy it for what it is.

I haven't cared much for this season in general. Last week's episode was good, but that alone doesn't save the season for me. The final 2 episodes will have to be really good to offset how boring some of the others were.

my wife and I just finished binge watching Doc Martin. We're really starving now.

its funny with those British shows how few are made in one year. Heck, it throws you off. One would never think that show's been shot over 10 years.

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Person of Interest has been getting lazy this season. There's been some great moments, such as getting the heart ripped out of it in what can barely be called a spoiler now after all the publicity.

But the writing hasn't been tight, relying on coincidences when they have a clear "a wizard did it" device in The Machine. And the cheesecake is stupid. This show should be too smart for that.

One thing interesting about its becoming more cyberpunky.

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The Blacklist has been a terrific surprise. The soap opera at home might turn into something more interesting, but it should soon because that was getting on my nerves!

Revolution is making no sense! None of these people should be alive - they should have killed each other a long time ago. And its going to turn into the Hunger Games pretty quick here. The idiot tech guru has actually been interesting the last few episodes instead of being a whiny dweeb. I hope they can keep that up.

Mrs. Myrthos and I watched The Bridge (The original one) and have now started the second season. We both like the show a lot and found the acting very good.
Although I do not know any people with Asperger personally, to me Sofia Helin acts a character who is unable to make an emotional connection very well.

I also started watching the the first couple of episodes of the first season of Supernatural as I had it lying around for some time already. Does anyone know if this gets better over time? There are 9 seasons, so something must be good I guess.
At the moment I find it somewhat boring and am missing a decent story arc. The father being missing and Sam seeing his girlfriend burn, just like his mother all those years ago, is to far in the background to keep me engaged to the show. Besides that, the episodes are unrelated and are probably fillers leading up to something (I hope). Unless someone knows if this gets better, I'll divert my attention to one of those many other shows I still have to watch.

Originally Posted by Myrthos
Mrs. Myrthos and I watched The Bridge (The original one) and have now started the second season. We both like the show a lot and found the acting very good.
Although I do not know any people with Asperger personally, to me Sofia Helin acts a character who is unable to make an emotional connection very well.

If you think of characters like Sherlock Holmes and Spock - you'll find many strong similarities. They behave much like excessively rational people without social graces - and yet they're highly popular.

Asperger is one possible explanation for such behavior, and it's supposed to be the reason behind Sara's personality.

That said, I find it very admirable when people stick to the facts and what they perceive as truth, without the widespread disease of diplomacy and "politeness" entering the picture.

If you take a look at everyday interaction between people, you'll find so much of it is designed around avoiding short-term conflict or dissatisfaction - all but ignoring long-term well-being and, god forbid, saying things that are actually true regardless of the potential negative reaction.

The refreshing aspect of Sara is that she's female, and it's highly unusual to have women act in an unemotional and fully pragmatic manner on TV.

I think the reason Sofia Helin is so effective in that role is that she's very much the opposite in terms of her real personality. She's clearly a very warm and emotionally rich person - which gives her an obvious vulnerability that could otherwise have been very, very hard to see for the untrained eye. People with Asperger can be very hard to empathise with, because their emotional state doesn't show on their faces - which makes them seem abnormally cold and uncaring. This is not the case, but people are so used to rely on tone of voice, body language and facial expressions for this sort of thing.

Originally Posted by Myrthos
Mrs. Myrthos and I watched The Bridge (The original one) and have now started the second season.

What took you so long? It's a mustseebeforedying masterpiece!

Originally Posted by Myrthos
Supernatural… Does anyone know if this gets better over time? There are 9 seasons, so something must be good I guess.

Don't expect brains in that show, it's not really sci-fi/horror/thriller but is a light comedy with superb music.

It doesn't grow better, but also doesn't get worse and has a huge fanbase. That's why it has it's 9 seasons and 10th is incoming. Also they're preparing a spin-off show.

If you don't like anything in it from the start, you won't like the rest of it, so skip it. I'm still watching it because, as I've said, while it's not anything awsome, it's also not bad.

I tried getting back into TWD but I just can't. The writing is abysmal and I can't take it anymore. I'll just have to live without the few moments where it supposedly shines.

Hannibal, on the other hand, is not getting worse and it's still compelling in a strange sort of way. Also, it's an interesting show to compare to TWD, because they're both supposed to be disturbing - but TWD has thrown so much filler gore at our faces that we just don't care anymore. I remember the first season - where I was almost turning my face away from some of it, and I'm not the squeamish type - as I've seen all there is to see on film.

Even if I do think Hannibal is playing cheap with the gore on occasion, it still manages to inject enough psychological underpinning to make me very uncomfortable. I don't know if that should be a good or a bad thing, but at least it has an effect.

But that's not really what I like about it - and I wish they'd tone that down, because I actually think it cheapens the show. But that's not likely to happen - because the masses have latched on to that aspect as vital to its success, and I think that's an unfortunate mistake. The very best parts of it are the psychological parts and there's really no need to show so much gore to have a profound effect. They'll end up kicking their own ass to come up with new disturbing crap and before long, they'll go over the top and then it'll be down hill from there.

However, until that happens, I'm enjoying the acting and the dialogue. Some of it is quite prententious - much like the entire show is very much about looking good - but it still works because it's just intelligent enough to be plausible within the context of those extreme characters.

Also, I'm curious to see how they evolve the plot.

Better than TWD, that's for sure

My younger son is totally into Hannibal, and we've watched a few episodes together and he and my older son watch together now, but my wife and I can't seem to get hooked.

As you say, the writing, acting and production values really all contribute to an incredibly dark and sumptuous experience - and the over-the-top gore does tend to cheapen it. What we are stuck on is the 'Anthony Hopkins factor'. Hopkins as Hannibal (in the only movie in the series worth remembering) was scary, and charismatic … but also strangely likable and relatable. I don't find that to be true in this series, and it detracts greatly … am I missing something, do we just need to let go of the notion of like ability? What are your thoughts?

I definitely prefer the Hopkins take on the character.

I find that Mads' take is more or less about looking unemotional and he's still struggling to pronounce the words - though I suppose it's kinda "mysterious" to non-danes. To me, it's just jarring that such a profoundly smart person can't speak fluent English after having lived so long in America. To my ears, it's not a mysterious character - it's a character who's not comfortable or particularly competent when it comes to speaking English.

It seems other people are reading all kinds of acting mastery into his take on the character, but I just can't see it. He does have a few cute subtle facial expressions - but they don't strike me as a nuanced performance. More like a wooden and dull performance - though his face is a very powerful tool in itself. Maybe that's why it still works - because he kinda looks like an evil psychopath and he always did.

Also, while he's much taller than Hopkins - I find that when Hopkins was at his best, he was much more frightening. There was something about his "stillness" that was truly unsettling - where Mads doesn't quite seem to have that power. Maybe that's just me though.

His motivation eludes me - other than simply being monstrously evil and satanic - which is not the sort of evil I find plausible or interesting. It's not something that exists in real life - so that takes it down a notch.

But as a sort of "morbid fairy tale" it's compelling, and I'm finding Will Graham easy to empathise with, even if his empathy is ridiculously over-the-top. I mean, he's solving the most intricate puzzles left and right by magically becoming the killers. Super silly, if you stop to think about it.

Most of the supporting cast is strong as well.

It's sort of a guilty pleasure for me, because I'm finding all the "fine art" to be quite the bullshit act - it's just oddly pleasant to experience.

Again, the writing is strong and the production values are superb. It's much more superficial to me than most people seem to think, but it still works. I'm not quite sure why - and I'm far from convinced it can keep me hooked.

But it would be dishonest to say it's not entertaining and I'm actually quite glued to the screen when I'm watching it.

So it's doing something right.

I think the best way to describe the kind of experience it is, would be that it's sort of like a beautiful nightmare. You know it's very far from reality and you know nothing like it could ever happen - but it still has an impact.

Thanks so much - every bit of that explanation made sense, connected with me, and was very helpful. I think I will try again this week with a different perspective … and if it just results in hanging out with my boys for an extra hour, that isn't such a bad thing either

Originally Posted by txa1265
Thanks so much - every bit of that explanation made sense, connected with me, and was very helpful. I think I will try again this week with a different perspective … and if it just results in hanging out with my boys for an extra hour, that isn't such a bad thing either

Glad to be of help

Sometimes, these things just work or don't work based on individual preferences. I can easily understand some people being turned off or finding it silly.

In fact, I almost gave up during the very first episode - because of two things. The first thing was Will's utterly implausible way of "recreating" the first crime scene and the second thing was Mads' accent and wooden take on one of my favorite characters.

To some extent, both are still very much true - but I guess I've gotten used to it and the sheer beauty of the show is enough to keep me going.

Also, I happen to find the female love interest very, very attractive indeed

If you can get some enjoyment out of it, I guess that's cool.

When I read "Hannibal", I always think of this Hannibal first, of course …

Originally Posted by Alrik Fassbauer
When I read "Hannibal", I always think of this Hannibal first, of course …

Hehe, exactly. I always think of elephants and the alps. Only when I looked it up I realized.

Watching true detective now, thanks to some recommendations here, and enjoying it.

Found a copy of Threshold a couple days ago, so I've been working thru that. I really enjoyed the series back in the day, and I'm actually enjoying it a good bit this time around as well. Looking forward to getting to the last episodes, since those didn't get aired on TV.

I remember several series that came out that year, as the networks all tried to steal a piece of the X-Files craze. I watched Invasion and Surface back then, too. All 3 shows had good points and bad points, and all 3 got the axe before they had much chance to get their feet set.

I finally joined the rest of my friends and am watching Breaking Bad. It's pretty good so far, i'm on like ep. 4

Originally Posted by JDR13
I haven't cared much for this season in general. Last week's episode was good, but that alone doesn't save the season for me. The final 2 episodes will have to be really good to offset how boring some of the others were.

I wanted to hang myself during the awful Darrel/Beth "Still" episode, worst one yet. Theyve been pretty hit and miss lately, and I have to say that I uttered an audible "thank f-n god" when Glen and Maggie re-united. Not that I cared whether they ever laid eyes on each other again, i was just so damn tired of it. Both of them annoyed the hell out of me during that whole quest w/ their behavior, it certainly wasnt the best acting either.

Still, thankfully there's been lots of zombie kill fun, and the Talking Dead afterwards is always worth a few chuckles