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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 spouse and I watched the rest of seasons 1 and 2 of Cobra Kai. As mentioned, it's cheesy, but has some fun moments. (In particularly Johnny's 80's-style music-video dream of his neighbor is pretty hilarious.) It's not deep, but it's entertaining enough.
I continue to watch Lovecraft Country, despite it being fairly erratic and difficult to follow. It's not necessarily bad, but it feels like it could use a little better exposition. Watchmen was notorious for having a cryptic plot, but somehow it executed better. Maybe I just need to see how/if everything gets tied together in the end, but it's fallen from being the focus of my Sunday nights.
The Boys has started its second season and it's been delivering pretty well so far. The social commentary seem to hit the mark pretty well for these times, and I'm glad the second season has taken its own direction rather than just build off the first.
I'm wrapping up Netflix's Dark and I gotta say it's been extremely well put together. Everything from the casting to the wardrobe to the lighting have all been meticulously curated and it becomes more apparent as the show goes on. Still a bit of a mindfuck, but it is elegantly unraveling how interwoven it is over time. I'm exited to see the conclusion.
Archer is back. Same old antics with the same old characters. I'm not complaining, though, it makes great background television when I don't want to be too invested into paying attention.
I agree with you about Lovecraft Country - I think it has odd pacing on some episodes but the latest one seemed much less erratic.
Is Archer back to being normal? I seem to recall the last season ended with something akin to "it was all a dream."
Yeah, for the most part. The original office setting from earlier. The themed seasons are written off as coma dreams. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
To be honest, I like it’s original setting more anyways. It feels more like an anthology/sitcom, which helps with that “background tv” effect I mentioned before. Although it’s too soon to tell if they’re going to try and tie a story arc together, I’m sticking along for the ride regardless.
I've wanted to watch Dark, but have been afraid of having to watch children tortured or alluded to being tortured. If I'm sensitive to that, should I continue to give it a pass?
The “torture” isn’t really all that disturbing, be it on screen or conceptually. It’s neither violent nor sexual, if that’s what you’re worried about. It’s not even a focus of the plot for most of the series. I hadn’t even thought of it as torture until you used the word.
That being said, there are a few brief scenes with a dead body that’s missing it’s eyes (though shaped more like they’re wearing a night mask). I didn’t find it all that gruesome, but then again I’ve seen plenty worse in various movies so maybe I’m desensitized to it.
I would suggest giving it a try. The earlier plot involving the kids is shown as a missing persons search rather than some serial killer thriller.
Thank you! I'm going to start watching it tonight :)
I watched the doc about NASA’s Challenger shuttle accident in 1986 (Netflix). Pretty compelling story even if you already know the ending.
Great British Bake Off - It's back! Definitely a good quarantine show.
The Vow - I never knew much about the cult but remember hearing about Allison Mack being involved in a cult a while ago. An interesting look.
Lovecraft Country - It's a whirlwind and the latest episode I think is one of the only episodes that I liked because of the pacing was much better than the last few, though I did like the "A History of Violence" episode.
Challenger: The Final Flight - I knew most of the details surrounding the event but never knew much (with the exception of Christa) about the rest of the crew and their lives.
The first episode felt so good to have back. I like the new batch of contestants and Matt Lucas as co-presenter.
I was going to add this to my previous comment, but I figured it was worth a fresh one.
Ewan McGregor and his pal are back with the third installment of the Long Way series.
The first trip, Long Way Around, they rode motorbikes from London to New York City --- going East. The second, Long Way Down, they went Scotland to Cape Town. Now, they're doing, Long Way Up, the tip of Argentina to LA --- with all electric bikes (custom made by Harley) and custom utility vehicles made by Rivian. They also have a Sprinter with a massive solar panel on it, which is also neat.
They can do 100 miles per day with the bikes and more with the vehicles -- but the bikes are mostly going on their own, only meeting up with the crew at the borders.
Everything is pre-release... so there will be plenty of problems to solve, not unlike the first two series.
All in all, not the most exciting series, but it's interesting and totally enjoyable.
Its on Apple TV :)
Oh wow, I hadn't heard of Long Way Up before! I very much enjoyed the first two and found them very interesting indeed. No Apple TV for me so I guess I'll have to wait a few weeks before I inadvertently stumble upon it on my hard drive somehow...
Also, stopping at LA is a bit short, no?
Less than the others -- but this might account for the electric vehicles, age, prior injuries, etc.
Seconding the recommendation to watch the first two series, which were both great. But that's a bit disappointing to hear the new series is an Apple TV+ exclusive. It's probably easy enough for most people to take Apple up on their current 7 day free trial offer and quickly tear through all the episodes in that time, and I still have a few months left on the 1-year, insanely cheap deal I managed to snag a while ago... but until Apple TV+ actually starts producing more shows and original movies, it's reeeeeeally not worth subscribing to monthly yet right now, IMO.
Regardless, thanks for making me aware of this, tomf!
man, the first three episodes were so good. This sort of trip will give the industry some good data to build off of, too.
re: Apple TV -- yeah.. I liked The Morning Show, but there isn't a lot there to warrant a subscription. Tehran has some mixed but mostly good early reviews (with some Homeland alum, too.)
Watched the first episode last night. That's really awesome what Harley-Davidson and Rivian have done for them, especially the engineers at Harley who volunteered their own free time to build the bikes. Rivian building 12,000 miles of charging stations for them is also insane, and must have cost a fortune.
Edit: Ep2 - LOL, what a disastrous first day. Those hotel owners were heroes for trying so hard to help them though.
Edit2: Aw crap, I didn't realize the entire series wasn't released yet. Next episode Oct 2. Boooo! Oh well. Excited to see the rest once it does finally come out.
what a range of emotion!
It really felt like everything was going to be a breeze... then they got going. The charging stations are not what I expected. I'm not sure what I expected -- but more than what we've seen.
That hotel owner's kid has coolest look, right?
All in all, Pretty amazing how everything came together so quickly. Good on the Harley folks for putting in time like that... but also weird that they couldn't work the project into their normal schedule.
TBH, that's pretty much exactly what I expected them to look like for the more remote locations, especially considering timeframe they had to work with (only 12 weeks, IIRC). I even expected them to partner up with local businesses that would allow them to place them on their property like they did. I only imagine they will try to make them look more like "legit public infrastructure" (e.g. Tesla supercharger stations) in the major population centers much further north.
Yeah, that kid was all smiles and pure charisma, and clearly has a pretty slick fashion sense. I dig the traditional Patagonian beret too. One of my neighbors at my last apartment was from Argentina, used to work as a gaucho before coming to Canada, and had one.
Yeah, especially since from a PR persepctive you would think the company would be all-in on supporting the ideas being promoted by the show, like Rivian clearly is... but Harley isn't exactly known for it's smart business decisions either, so... E.g. See: How Harley-Davidson Killed Itself
Though to be fair, Harley doesn't look like they're nearly as close to production ready with their electric bike as Rivian is with their electric trucks. So I guess it doesn't really make too much sense for them to have their entire team of engineers and mechanics, who are supposed to be getting that prototype ready for mass-market, drop that work on a dime just to put together two totally new touring variants for an Apple TV travel show.
This Harley video is nuts. I had no idea they were doing this. Harleys definitely seem like Dad-bikes.
I hadn't heard of Rivian before. I can't believe they got everything together so quickly. The vehicles have a nice look.
All in all, I'm exited for this season. That self sustaining group that was pulling most of their electricity off of the river was neat.
We just discovered NCIS on Netflix yesterday ... and boy is it as ridiculous, and fun, as I remember it being.
EDIT: re-discovered, I should say.
My parents love all the NCIS shows too, and they're decent enough light entertainment IMO... but every time someone mentions the show I can't help but think of this ridiculous scene: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=msX4oAXpvUE
Before I even watch this (which of course, you'll just have to trust me), I'm going to guess you've shared the keyboard-sharing scene.
Update: YES YES I CALLED IT! :P
Yes, it's absolutely ridiculous.
The Third Day seems promising. It has a Wicker Man feel to it. I don't want to spoil anything -- but definitely check out the first two episodes.
I love Jude Law.
quick edit: I don't know how I missed it, but there's a second season of Cosmos that's already aired in some places.
What?! Is it on Fox? I'd love to watch it!
yeah! I guess it aired on NatGeo in April, but it'll be on Fox starting tonight! I don't know how this slipped under the radar.
I've been watching so much Only Connect. I think I'll do a thread on it… it's insanely addictive and fantastic to see those teams.
The crossworders that's the team led by the husband of the winner from the earlier seasons right? Crazy shit.
Ancient Alumni is my favourite team for the current season I'm watching, but as a fan of escape rooms I was rooting for the escapologists last season and they delivered!
I started watching Raised by Wolves. Not that we have a dearth of sci-fi TV, but I am enjoying it mostly. It’s better than Tales from the Loop at least. It’s not half as good as Devs, though. I like most of the characters, though, esp. Mother. I don’t really like the current plot line for Ambrose, though. I’m hoping the show will explore the planet and its ecology in more depth, but the character-driven plots are interesting enough for now.