7
votes
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.
Bojack and The Good Place wrapped up and I couldn't be more satisfied with the endings. Bojack has always been such a surprisingly deep story without sacrificing quality laughs and originality. I'm not one to cry, but if I were, I think I'd be a sobbing mess.
A few weeks ago I started watching Moonlighting (1985).. and it feels like it only gets better. I know it'll go down in quality once Bruce Willis' career takes off, but I'm going to enjoy the heck out of it until then.
I also tucked into the essential/better episodes of Psych (2006). I hate the theme song almost as much as the theme from Enterprise, so I am thankful that I can skip it.
With those out of the way, The New Pope (2020) is easily the best show on TV right now. It's the second season of The Young Pope (2016). Aesthetically, everything is beautiful and perfect. I think HBO is doing one episode per week, but Sky is doing two -- so cool cats like me are already waiting for
episode 9--- no more waiting! It was released tonight and was a perfect finale! This year is three for three re: finales.I'm doing two essential episodes of Babylon 5 per day... but I really don't like this series. I'm doing the movies and main series in order, but I don't think I'll do the extra stuff.
At some point in the near future I'll start Giri/Haji (2019) --
It looks pretty good and has Kelly Macdonald (No Country for Old Men, Boardwalk Empire, State of Play (series), The Girl in the Café), who is always great.
Beyond this, Curb Your Enthusiasm (2000) and it is way tighter than the last few seasons. I love it. Avenue 5 looked like it might be alright, but I gave up on it. I don't like Josh Gad and it felt like they were reworking the same jokes over and over.
Some other series I'm going to go through in the near future:
Are there any new shows you’re looking forward to that are gonna replace The Good Place in terms of lighthearted comedy? I know of/have seen ones that’ve already come out (Schitt’s Creek, Parks and Rec, King of the Hill), but I’ve seen most of them and feel there’s a gap now.
Fresh Off the Boat and Speechless have been OK.
light comedies are hard to come by, truth be told. Brooklyn Nine Nine, AP Bio, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt -- not totally the same, but Bored to Death is definitely worth watching. That and Blunt Talk are both from Jonathan Ames and have some similar themes.
Here are some other shows you might be interested in. Not totally the same feel, but they're along the same lines... quick edit! I added a 'light scale' :)
full plots
* [Brooklyn Nine-Nine (2013, COMEDY, CRIME)](https://imdb.com/title/tt2467372) - Jake Peralta, an immature, but talented N.Y.P.D. detective in Brooklyn's 99th Precinct, comes into immediate conflict with his new commanding officer, the serious and stern Captain Ray Holt. * [A.P. Bio (2018, COMEDY)](https://imdb.com/title/tt6461726) - A former philosophy professor who takes a job teaching AP biology, uses his students to get back at the people in his life who have wronged him. * [Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt (2015, COMEDY, DRAMA)](https://imdb.com/title/tt3339966) - A woman is rescued from a doomsday cult and starts life over again in New York City. * [Bored to Death (2009, COMEDY, CRIME, DRAMA, MYSTERY, THRILLER)](https://imdb.com/title/tt1255913) - A well-meaning but struggling writer decides to lead a sort of double life by pretending to be a private detective using the methods he read about in old detective novels. * [Blunt Talk (2015, COMEDY)](https://imdb.com/title/tt4197508) - A British newscaster moves to Los Angeles with his alcoholic manservant and the baggage of several failed marriages to host a sanctimonious talk show. * [IT Crowd, The (2006, COMEDY)](https://imdb.com/title/tt0487831) - The comedic misadventures of Roy, Moss and their grifting supervisor Jen, a rag-tag team of IT support workers at a large corporation headed by a hotheaded yuppie. * [Garth Marenghi's Darkplace (2004, COMEDY, FANTASY, HORROR, SCI-FI)](https://imdb.com/title/tt0397150) - This parody series is an unearthed 80s horror/drama, complete with poor production values, awful dialogue and hilarious violence. The series is set in a Hospital in Romford, which is situated over the gates of Hell. * [On Becoming a God in Central Florida (2019, COMEDY)](https://imdb.com/title/tt6398232) - In 1992 Central Florida, a minimum-wage water park employee lies, schemes, and cons her way up the ranks of the cultish, multibillion-dollar pyramid scheme that drove her family to ruin. * [Review (2014, COMEDY)](https://imdb.com/title/tt2141913) - A critic takes aim at intense real-life experiences in lieu of food or cinema. Fair game includes divorce, anonymous sex, and all manner of criminal activity. * [Summer Heights High (2007, COMEDY, DRAMA, FAMILY, MUSICAL, ROMANCE)](https://imdb.com/title/tt0934320) - The life of a public school epitomized by disobedient student Jonah Takalua, self-absorbed private school exchange student Ja'mie King, and megalomaniac drama teacher Mr. G. * [Catastrophe (2015, COMEDY)](https://imdb.com/title/tt4374208) - American boy Rob gets Irish girl Sharon pregnant while they hook up for a week while on a business trip to London. * [Fleabag (2016, COMEDY, DRAMA)](https://imdb.com/title/tt5687612) - A comedy series adapted from the award-winning play about a young woman trying to cope with life in London whilst coming to terms with a recent tragedy. * [Moone Boy (2012, COMEDY)](https://imdb.com/title/tt2319283) - Martin Moone is a young boy who relies on the help of his imaginary friend Sean to deal with the quandaries of life in a wacky small-town Irish family circa 1990. * [Mozart in the Jungle (2014, COMEDY, DRAMA, MUSIC)](https://imdb.com/title/tt3502172) - Love, money, ambition and music intertwine in Mozart in the Jungle, a half hour comedic drama that looks at finding yourself and finding love while conquering New York City. A brash new maestro Rodrigo stirs up the New York Symphony as young oboist Hailey * [Wrong Mans, The (2013, COMEDY, CRIME, THRILLER)](https://imdb.com/title/tt2603596) - From actor/writer duo James Corden and Mathew Baynton, The Wrong Mans series centers on Sam Pinkett and Phil Bourne, office workers for Berkshire County Council, who have their menial ... * [Documentary Now! (2015, COMEDY)](https://imdb.com/title/tt4677934) - Documentary Now parodies the current obsession with documentaries. Season one features six different stories and stylistic approaches paying tribute to the doc format. * [Toast of London (2012, COMEDY)](https://imdb.com/title/tt2432604) - Steven Toast, an eccentric middle aged actor with a chequered past, spends more time dealing with his problems off stage than performing on it * [Wilfred (2011, COMEDY, DRAMA, MYSTERY)](https://imdb.com/title/tt1703925) - The story of a depressed man who inexplicably is the only one who can see his neighbor's dog as a full grown man in a dog suit. * [Wilfred (2007, COMEDY, DRAMA)](https://imdb.com/title/tt0899203) - A depressed man is the only one who can see his girlfriend's dog as a full-grown man in a dog suit. * [Crashing (2017, COMEDY)](https://imdb.com/title/tt5037914) - A New York comic is forced to make a new start for himself after his wife leaves him. * [Wellington Paranormal (2018, COMEDY, CRIME, FANTASY, HORROR, MYSTERY)](https://imdb.com/title/tt6109562) - Sergeant Maaka and Officers Minogue and O'Leary are members of the Wellington, New Zealand, police. Their job is to investigate paranormal phenomena. * [Family Tree (2013, COMEDY)](https://imdb.com/title/tt2340036) - Centers on 30-year-old Tom Chadwick who, after losing his job and his girlfriend, begins exploring his family heritage after inheriting a mysterious box from a great aunt he never met.Thanks a ton! This is a great list!
Happy to help! I forgot -- there's also an Australian version of Review that is the original. It's also great.
State of the Union is also good. It's ten minute episodes of a couple that meets up before marriage counseling. Pretty good.
I'm deeply gratified to know that a third season of Babylon Berlin will be released March 1. This is one of the best written, produced, and acted series I've seen in years, with a perfect combination of noir detective, historical, military, and political thriller genres. The 8.4 rating on IMDB is real, and I'm a squeeing fangirl for more of it.
Avenue 5 I'm really enjoying Avenue 5 and every episode so far has had a few standout funny moments.
Universal Credit - Inside the Welfare State has just started on the BBC. It will only be three episodes. It doesn't do a good job of explaining the background and purposes of the benefit other than in broadest brush strokes, and I don't think that's what's needed. The benefits system is enormously complicated and the BBC isn't doing its job of informing the public. I guess the program is better than nothing. It follows bureaucrats inside the DWP, workers in Job Centre Plus, and benefit claimants. It feels like to get that amount of access they had their hands tied a bit.
Losing It continues. The 3rd episode follows two people who are suicidal, and one person who's been under the care of services for a long time. Each episode is 45 minutes, so we get about 15 minutes per person. That's simply not long enough to tell their story and explain what's going on. We see someone who's made 10 attempts to end their life but who isn't being offered in-patient treatment. The only attempt to explain why is a clinician saying (as part of this person's appointment) "I don't think it's going to be therapeutically useful". There are really good reasons not to admit someone as an inpatient, and this was a missed opportunity to explain why and what's going on and what a better approach would be. The viewer is left with the impression that in-patient treatment is gold standard best option, and that it's not available because of under-funding of NHS. The NHS definitely is under-funded, but even if it had all the beds it needs this person probably wouldn't be admitted as an inpatient. What they actually need is better community treatment options, and those are not available, and the reason they're not available is under-funding.
My wife has gone sober recently and we started watching Mom per some people’s recommendation.
There’s a few, weird, out-of-touch, Boomer-ish jokes here and there, but for the most part it’s actually surprisingly good. I know nothing about her, but I’m glad to see Anna Faris still working her comedy chops, and Allison Janney makes for a great duo. The show gets pretty dark... a LOT (character deaths, rape, cancer) enough to the point that it’s not reliably going to be a good time every time, but it handles it all very well. And it’s not really until you go sober that you realize how few TV shows there are where the protagonist doesn’t drink.
I've been watching The Unicorn. It's a comedy which is surprising because it starts on the 1 year anniversary of Wade's wife's death from cancer. He's been raising his 2 middle-school-aged daughters by himself since her death. His friends, 2 couples that he and his wife used to hang out with, and who have kids about the same age as his daughters, think it's time he started dating again. He's not so sure. And as a middle-aged man who's been married for 20 years, he hasn't really dated in the modern age.
Normally, this wouldn't be a premise that interested me (having watched my father-in-law go through it after my spouse's mother passed away), but it stars Rob Corrdry and Omar Benson Miller who worked together on Ballers, which ended up being more fun than I expected. (The writing on Ballers is pretty weak, but it's dumb fun.) It turns out that The Unicorn is really funny! I highly recommend it.