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TV Tuesdays Free Talk
Have you watched any TV shows recently you want to discuss? Any shows you want to recommend or are hyped about? Feel free to discuss anything here.
Please just try to provide fair warning of spoilers if you can.
The Penguin on HBO.
It is so good. It reminds you of Sopranos on multiple occasion. Gotham city looks very gotham-y.
Colin Farrell, Cristin Milioti are just fabulous in their character. For the first first episode I couldn't stop thinking about her role in HIMYM but that changed in second episode. you can't even recognize who is playing penguin.
It deserves your time.
I watched a short anime series (8 episodes) called Blue Eyed Samurai on Netflix. It is a revenge tale that follow a half-white, half-Japanese person in a time when Japan has closed its borders to outsiders, and non-Japanese/white people are despised. Definitely for adults: plenty of nudity, sex, and gory violence.
Anime is not my usual thing, so there is probably context I am missing, but I enjoyed it quite a bit. It developed a range of marginalized characters in an interesting and believable way and the story arc was gripping and believable. I think my chief complaint was that the fighting was very "they get their ass handed to them until they get angry/otherwise properly motivated, then they shake off their grievous wounds and are unstoppable". But everything was visually striking. I'm looking forward to another season.
I also quite liked BES. From a technical standpoint, just about everything is operating at a really high level - writing, animation, score, VO, fight choreography, etc. But I did settle on the same critique as you. Also, one or two details were just too incongruous to continue suspending my disbelief. The biggest one would have to be Fowler straddling our MC in their fight, with a probable 70+ pound advantage, bashing their face in, with barely a bloodied nose, much less a broken jaw... I was just like, alright.
I'm curious as to how we each arrive at the line where something breaks your immersion, because practically any samurai legend exaggerates their feats, and I really tried to reconcile it as the show retelling a legend, but... come on.
In The Wheel of Time, they use the expression "as sure as peaches are poison". I always thought this functioned as a reminder that even though this is a world very similar to our world, it's not the same world.
I think I have something similar whenever I encounter those moments that we both described in BES. "Oh, in this universe, someone can recover from a wound like that and still be an unstoppable fighter." It still breaks the immersion, as you say, but it's like there's one part of me that is thinking "there's no way", and another part of me is just enjoying the heck out of fight after fight after fight.
I'm an engineer, and the way my brain works is to analyze everything, all the time. I can't just drive somewhere without thinking about how to optimize the route or choose the best lane or whatever. I don't know if you have a similar experience, but there are times when I wish I could turn it off and just naively enjoy something without pondering all these details.
Mother's milk in a cup! I don't remember that peaches one from WoT but I get what you mean. I loved all those expressions, but I'd never thought about their intent as devices to reinforce the difference between our world and theirs. Makes sense.
I should have probably been an engineer, as my mind is quite similar. However, a comment on this video (which I agree and disagree with in possible equal measure, in terms of how successful they say BES is at writing Mizu, especially concerning principle #4) makes the point that the show does so much well in developing its story and NOT falling into overworn tropes that it should have earned grace from its viewers to overlook the inconsistencies. And I think I can settle there.
Slow Horses season four was pretty good. 7-8/10. It still has some downsides for me, like some seemingly major plot holes and things that just don't make sense to me (a chase scene with the bad guy simply walking 100 meters ahead, and several agents are sprinting at high speed and they don't immediately catch up to him???). They are keeping it funny and exciting though, and I'm a huge fan of how quick their output is even though the seasons are short. 8-10 months between seasons really stands out in these times where so many shows go 2+ years between seasons which is a trend that really needs to stop. So yeah, very happy that they are already renewed for 2 more seasons!
Rings of Power season two is still a solid 7/10 for me, but I feel like it was a step down from season one. It's probably the most beautiful current show, everything from set design to costuming to cinematography to CGI is really being nailed. But the writing... oh man, sometimes it just makes your toes curl. For example the origin of Gandalf's name. Who asked for that!? And if anybody did, I'm sure they didn't ask for "Grand Elf" to be the explanation. That was just... so bad. And another scene is with Sauron and Galadriel where he says "join me and we can heal this world" and she says "heal yourself!" and it was just... ugh. And Pharazon somehow turns the eagle arriving at the ceremony into his own gain? That anyone in attendance fell for that, or actually thought it was for him and not for the queen was just kind of unbelievable. Anyway those are just some of the most egregious things from this season that didn't land for me, but again, I still overall like it a lot and I think it helped with my enjoyment this time around that I knew from season one to adjust my expectations.
Just binged Undone over the past two days, having gotten @tomf's recommendation more than a year ago , and I'm glad I finally did. Despite some gripes, it's a really interesting, unique twist on the familiar time-travel premise. The first season was very strong; the second, maybe not so much... with less focus on Alma's psyche, it gradually became more of a generic sci-fi time-travel tale. Honestly though, it's a very difficult task to wrap up these kinds of stories neatly and satisfyingly, and I think they ultimately pulled it off. So, I'd say it's a solid 7.5-8/10, but I'd recommend it higher than that simply for offering something different.
Also, tom, you haven't steered me wrong yet, I love it!
it’s really great, right? i liked how a lot of the animation was like liquid. I’m really drawn to quiet works like this and Scavenger’s Reign.
But yeah, I’m 100% with you on S01 being stronger. it felt laser focused where S02 felt more explorative — which didn’t always land.
I can’t imagine this story being done without the rotoscoping.
I'm usually not a reality TV guy, but Culinary Class Wars has been on my mind this week. It's really good! Only difficulty is that I don't speak Korean so I have to actively watch it, but the food is so so pretty that I don't mind too much. But I've actually learned a bit while watching and the judge's personality is very fun. The editing is very Asian (obviously) but it's not overly overly dramatic.
The first episode, the girl that made dumplings caused me to go out and buy ingredients for dumplings too AHHH
I'm so glad Lower Decks is back and has kept its fine form.
Also, tonight's episode of Buffy was School Hard, which is a great title for a great episode that really advanced everything.