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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.
I finished up The Bear. Some lazy-ass writing along side some stellar writing. I hate that EVERY conversation is some deep introspection bullshit like the last fifteen minutes of every Star Trek: Discovery episode. People can have a normal chit chat... but not in this world. These people speak to each other like they aren't with each other all day, every day.
Also, I really like Will Poulter, but every scene he has has him barfing up some one-liner wisdom like he's a goddamn fortune cookie. Its cheap and they overplayed it.
The overall theme of the season is good, but I wish they had simply stopped while they were ahead.
That is some harsh criticism!
well, yeah. its true, though. 'how are you?' 'i'm good' 'ok, but HOW ARE YOU?' <cries> -- every so often is fine, but a few episodes had them jumping around to different variations of this same conversation with the core cast.
I still enjoyed the season.
I said that mostly because I have watched Discovery :P
haha. you know this to be true! the universe is ending…but wait — engineering has to resolve their interpersonal issues before the mushroom arm guy can get them out of there.
it’s okay once in a while, but every episode with every major crew member is too much.
maybe save the universe first
Murderbot is pretty fun. I don't know the book, so I have nothing to be hung up about. It's good, lighthearted fun. And the episodes are about 25 minutes long, which is a blessing.
I am a fellow noob to this IP and I have to say, I enjoy the look of the opening credits more than the actual show. This 100% should've been animated. It's fine but not impressive.
That is an interesting take. For some reason, I'm not that into animation anymore. Except for something that is, by its nature, very cartoony. So I am okay with that being live action.
I think visually, the opening credits are a lot more distinctive and interesting than the cinematography of the show. Everything takes place in bright, even lighting. The sets are extremely bare bones. It looks very cheap and workmanlike.
Yes. I don't really expect 30-minute comedies to have film-grade production design. That is a valid point but I am okay with it.
I'm also enjoying Murderbot. Live action is working for me. I did read the books but its fun to watch the show match the story.
Interesting. I've mostly heard complaints from book people about too many changes.
Book person here, (I love them), and I think the show is a great adaptation. I'm behind an episode right now, but it's done a great job of getting the spirit when it's had to change things for the medium and trying to do a page to screen, shot for shot perfect match wouldn't work
A reasonable book-reader? 😮
I joke, but you are rare in accepting that changes have to be made to accommodate a different medium.
I'll finish this season, but it won't be top of my list in the future when I'm binging Apple TV+ content during a one month subscription.
Lol I mean I have complaints... But the other option is not seeing it adapted, and this was not by any means so bad I'd rather have nothing.
I was introduced last week to Guy Mont Spelling Bee, an Austrialian comedy panel show, and it's pretty great. I've enjoyed a lot of British panel shows, and this is very much in the same vein, but with a different set of comedians and an excellent vibe. I would definitely recommend it to anyone into shows like Would I Lie To You or 8 out of 10 Cats does Countdown.
Aaron Chen is fantastic! I'll have to check out the NZ one, as I've finished up the Australian version.
I started watching Mare of Easttown this past week. It stars Kate Winslet as a rather prickly and unlikable detective in a small town, and there's only seven total episodes. I really like it so far - I don't anticipate it's going to have a happy ending, but the unfolding is the story and introduction of the characters so far is really good. I think it's going to be less murder-focused and more town- and character-focused, which I think makes for a more interesting show, especially when the characters aren't outrageous and bombastic (side-eyeing Fargo...).
Reacher (2022–)
★★★☆☆
I like Reacher quite a bit.
I think series 1 is the best of the bunch so far, but 3 is almost as good. The third series actually introduces a character who is an actual giant - Oliver Richters is almost 30cm taller than Ritchson, so it's interesting to have someone that can physically dominate the Reacher character sharing the screen.
In my opinion, all the series are done fairly well, and are good adaptations of decent books. I think it's one of the best shows that Amazon has done.
Edit: and one of the low-key quite good things about Reacher is that each series so far is self contained, because they are based on specific books, and the loose ends are tied up. Even if it gets unceremoniously cancelled, like the Wheel of Time, it can just be "done" at the end of any of the series. So if you feel like you don't want to watch series 2 or 3, then that's fine; they don't really continue the story of series 1, it's just a different story with Reacher also in it.
I watched 3 different things this week.
One was Light and Magic season 2 on Disney+. In this season, they talk about what ILM has done since Return of the Jedi. It's pretty good but it's a little too promotional, which is how all shows are on Disney. Since it was done in house, it's most talks about how great and talented everyone is. I'm not looking for drama per se, but Lucas has made some decisions that a lot of people don't like. They do discuss the dissatisfaction with Jar Jar, but mostly from a perspective that the fans were wrong and we shouldn't make Ahmed Best feel bad. It did make me want to watch the Pirates of the Caribbean movies again for the effects. I don't think I've seen the 3rd.
Another thing I watched was "The Unique Engineering of the P-38 Lightning" on Nebula. I liked this very much. Lots of archival footage and some computer graphics that were actually very helpful because they showed how the turbochargers work and compared them to other superchargers and turbochargers. In general I like Nebula a lot.
Finally, I watched a show about The Occult on Kanopy. It is one of the "Great Courses" that they have.
Background about Kanopy: I get this for free through my public library. Shows cost a certain number of tickets. I get 15 tickets each month and can spend them to watch various things. A few years ago "The Great Courses" did not cost tickets, but now they do, usually about 5 tickets for a week. Generally a movie will cost 3-5 tickets depending how new it is.
Kanopy has a pretty good selection of small indie things and international movies, and a lot of television from BBC. There are also popular movies, usually a few years old. In general the content is slightly "high brow" but not always.
The Occult show was pretty interesting. Like other great courses, it's mostly a guy sitting in a room talking about the topic, interspersed with some images about the topic. It's pretty low budget but I like it when things are a bit underproduced. When I used to watch The History Channel, one of my pet peeves was that the documentaries were generally overproduced with all kinds of distracting visual effects just because they assume the audience has a tiny attention span.
My TV du jour is Taskmaster Series 19. I think the current cast - Fatiha El-Ghorri, Jason Mantzoukas, Mathew Baynton, Rosie Ramsey, and Stevie Martin - is one of my all time favourites. Fatiha just doesn't give a fuck about the tasks, and has an almost obnoxious flirtation with Greg going on, Jason is delightfully unhinged at all times, Mathew has had his balls out at least 5 times accidentally, Rosie always seems like a disaster is close on the heels of Mathew for series lead somehow, and Stevie is also delightfully unhinged in a way that is almost perfectly different from but complementary to Jason.
I've also been listening to some of the Podcast interviews the cast is doing with Ed Gamble, and it seems like this bunch are just friends now, which is nice, and that's at least partially because of Jason. He is unhinged, but in a very friendly way. He'll torpedo his score for a laugh every single time but as soon as he's on a team task, he clearly wants to do well for his teammate.
Often when something gets to series 19 it tends to lose steam, but I've also seen the leaked list for Series 20, and it's also phenomenal, and the show doesn't seem like it's slowing down at all.
Series 20 cast discussion - not official list, but could be huge spoilers! BEWARE
The discussion online seems to indicate that S20 will have Ania Magliano, Maisie Adam. Phil Ellis, Reece Shearsmith, and Sanjeev Bhaskar. What an insanely good lineup if that's the case! Sanjeev and Maisie are both people that I've been hoping to see on the show. I'm mostly familiar with Ania because someone sent me this video to mock me for signing my emails with "Cheers", but she's quite funny.
Starting watching 12 Monkeys Season 1. The show blends time travel, mystery, and apocalyptic drama in a way that’s both intellectually engaging and emotionally intense. I love how the show constantly challenges your perception of cause and effect while slowly unraveling a deep, layered story. The characters feel grounded and complex, and every episode feels like a puzzle piece clicking into place. Though, there is some usual tv tropes that are heavily used here.
Picked up Legend of Zang Hai, a Chinese period drama which gives me the impression the budget could rival some of HBO's more costly productions. The costuming and set are absolutely epic and the acting is excellent. However, 2 episodes in and I'm so far unimpressed by the writing, namely the amateur politics and lack of action or at least comedic relief. It seems to have a lot of tropes that are recycled in C-dramas, such as the male lead who is perfect and annoyingly seems to have all the answers all the time, and I've read there's yet again more romanticism of abuse towards the female lead. That being said, I will keep watching for now. In a broad sense, I am excited to be witnessing the coming-of-age of Chinese TV; in my opinion, it is only a matter of time before we get a worldwide blockbuster hit, as their productions are just that good. In my opinion, the only thing Chinese producers are missing is market research on the "western" world to tap back into the days of Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, Ip Man, House of Flying Daggers, etc. Maybe it speaks volumes that they aren't doing that; they don't need the US market anymore.
Other than that, a few weeks ago I stalled on the aforementioned Murderbot. I like sci-fi and I'll probably give it a few more episodes, but I feel like I've seen this story before.
About to start season 4 of Babylon 5 (first run-through). Loving it so far! I know vaguely that the production was plagued with problems, but from what I have seen in the first three seasons, I feel B5 didn't shy away from political commentary that was critical of the US and its allies like Star Trek did. That, at least, is refreshing; I hate it when you can tell the network's lawyers and marketing team bulldozed plots because it wasn't going to be palpable enough for general public consumption. Here is to hoping the rest of the show isn't as bad as I've heard in this regard.
Babylon 5 is excellent, and to be honest, if you dig into the real life drama surrounding B5 and DS9. You will find another fascinating story, a story that has had ramifications on sci-fi ever since.
Doctor Who
Random notes.