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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 watch GassyMexican on Twitch. he runs a "Star Trek Saturday" stream, which is a Twitch/Amazon watch party of which ever Star Trek series he's on. He just started Deep Space 9 after months of hiatus on this after finishing "Star Trek: The Next Generation." Interestingly, it started from watching "Star Trek: The Next Generation" which is a comfort show of his, and it led me to watch around the last half of TNG, which helped sort of endear me to the franchise. We, in the chat, spend a bunch of time in sort of an MST3K-type state joking about the show, but it's also incredibly interesting to me, at least, as somebody who never experienced these Star Trek series.
The weird thing is, I find the Star Trek original media to be absolutely fascinating to watch. The way they handled the social issues of the day is interesting, through the lens of Roddenberry-influenced media (Gene Roddenberry had his issues in his immediate relationships, but seemed to want to explore what could be argued as the best for humanity, despite his own issues). It's sort of a microscope back into what more progressive minds of the era hoped would happen in the future in everything from sociology to science (when Scotty isn't time traveling and creating transparent aluminum ceramic paradoxes). I've read retrofutiristic books from the 50s, but it's fascinating to see what the 90s thought the 2400s would look like.
With regards to DS9, it is very episodic, but its thematic explorations so far have been fascinating. A few of the episodes rang true some 25 years after they came out, even, dealing with issues of socialization in education and epi/pandemic containment. I feel these hit a little too close to home in 2020, despite coming out when I was 3 years old. If you've read news articles from the Spanish Flu epidemic, you may also see how similar ideas may resonate over less than 30 years from writing to reception.
Funny you should say that about DS9; later in its run, it becomes one of the pioneers of arc based television. Not sure how far in you are, but it finds its legs around season 3, and you're in for a real treat after that.
It might have actually been that the first two seasons were very episodic.
They definitely were. Ditching that for story arcs was DS9's growing the beard moment.
We finished up Schitt's Creek. We really liked the ending.
We got caught up on Resident Alien. I like where it's going. I'm glad someone finally looked in the freakin' freezer!
I also realized this week that we missed an entire season of Black Lightning, so we're catching up with that. Sure, it's cheesy, but I think I like it better than other super hero shows because it seems more contained. Most of what they do on the show is about protecting their community rather than saving the entire world or universe. It feels much more relatable in that way, at least to me.
I’ve been watching the expanse lately and I’m hooked, I’ve barely been able to watch anything else. Whenever I get around to it I want to watch the DOTA show on Netflix, I watched the first episode and it was a really good show as well. There’s so much to watch right now, I want to eventually watch Falcon and the winter soldier.
Invincible started up and its AWESOME! The first three episodes were posted, so if you're going to check them out, give all three a shot.
Each episode has a post-credit sequence. The first bit of credits is really short, though.
I'm so happy to see a new breed of superhero shows out these days.
I decided to stick with Dr Oz's two weeks as Jeopardy host. Everything he says sounds evil -- even this answer re: Thanos.
I guess he was close friends with Trebek, so the producers thought he would be a natural for the spot. And all shit-science aside, I wouldn't really care if he was a good host, but he isn't. Last night's Final Jeopardy had a question that would have benefitted from a little more context like they typically do, but he just left it as is.
FJ
>Horrified by the 1964 movie musical from her work, she okayed a U.K. stage version as long as "no Americans" were involved > >*Who is Travers?*A little note regarding Mary Poppins would have been nice.
I've also started watching Adventure Time, which is good. I loved Midnight Gospel and I heard this was somewhat similar, but not as deep. I really like -- its cute and the short episodes make for an easy watch.
I couldn't get into the Midnight Gospel despite being a huge AT fan (I found both as an adult). I don't think I'm into the same stuff Duncan Trussell, the major vehicle for the show, is. I may just lack the experience with psychedelics he has (my experience: none). However, I found AT got much deeper both in lore and conceptual exploration as it ran. I found they ran with childish gags until precisely the moment they wore out. I'm not ashamed to admit that the fart at the end of every episode earlier in its run was just funny enough to offset the tension the episode may have caused, because there are a lot of episodes that left some interesting questions in the air.
Look into the inspiration of many episodes of Adventure time, and you'll find some of the mid to later-run episodes go surprisingly deep, even if they wound up doing it as a cover for some sort of canonical shortcoming. This actually caused them to be censored in countries ranging from Norway to Australia, particularly their handling of some character's existential crises and surprisingly mature themes from ego death to actual death to possible lesbian relationships. IMO, it was oddly a show that got better after the creator left, but I don't think it would've been any worse under Ward himself, just thematically different. I also wouldn't be surprised to find out Pendleton Ward was very into psychedelics, or at least metaphysics, after most of the episodes that came out when he was a showrunner. After Adventure Time, The Midnight Gospel makes sense.
I wasn't into MG for the first episode and was really into the aesthetic for most of it -- then mid season it just hit the right notes.
Adventure Time is pretty great. I'm excited to get in deep. I don't know what took me so long. I guess I figured it would just be cutesy without substance, but I was totally wrong. I wish someone had presented it like you did. People screaming 'mathematical!' doesn't capture it.
Here's the thing that trips me out: My analysis is based on two things: What the creators/writers have explicitly confessed to, or intentionally shallow readings of the show. I've seen too many analyses of kids cartoons that read too much into a show, but I'd swear AT wears its controversial themes on its sleeves, despite my intentionally conservative analyses of the show. This also leads me to completely understand various nations' censorship of the show. I would be genuinely uncomfortable explaining the notion of ego death, taken from a direct Lemongrab quote, to a 10 or even 16 year old child, even with my extensive experience thinking about the topic. And the same sort of holds true for many themes the show explores.
jeez. You weren't wrong about the censorship -- https://adventuretime.fandom.com/wiki/Censorship_of_Adventure_Time
That's crazy. Seems a bit much in most cases.