9
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.
I've been slowly watching a Netflix series that's old news for most people, but which I have found to be surprisingly good -- Orange is the New Black. I honestly didn't know what to expect from it, but I heard about it so many times that I finally gave in and decided to watch it.
I have to say, that it has far more depth than I expected, and if you watch it with social commentary in mind, it's a surprisingly good introduction to the problems of over-incarceration, privatized prisons, treatment of trans people, etc. I feel particularly bad for the characters of Susanne and Lolly, victims of a system that was not designed to handle their needs -- and a situation that I've seen occur in real life.
That is a good show indeed. It starts reasonably realistic (or at least credible), but gets progressively farsical with time. I much rather it remained realistic until the end.
I strongly suspect that they started to run out of ideas as I noticed the same thing. It still has some great moments, but it is becoming lighter fare as it goes along.
Aww, I miss hanging out with those ladies. How far along are you? I don't want to give any spoilers, but I remember thinking the show suffered from something I call Showtime disease which is when a show (often one that airs on the Showtime network like Dexter, Californication, Weeds, or Homeland) has great early seasons but then gets progressively worse. You might get to a point where you think it's getting worse, but it ends up having a pretty strong final season.
Interestingly enough there seem to be a trend of bringing back shows that suffered from exactly what you're talking about. The drop in quality are almost always because the original writers/directors aren't involved in the last seasons. Dexter is coming back and True Blood are in the making too with the intention of giving the show a proper ending. Although revitalizing old shows and movies is overused and heavily criticized right now (rightfully so) this particular way of doing it seems more interesting. Make a season or two to finish it off properly with the original cast and crew. At least on paper. I wonder if they ever do it with GoT. The reason the spin offs are taking so long is the huge backlash they received after the final seasons.
Yeah, both Weeds and Orange Is the New Black are produced by Jenji Kohan, and she has a tendency to do that with all of her programs.
Yeah, I have noticed that it becomes a bit more superficial as time goes on, but there are still strong moments interspersed. I have gotten the sense that they were struggling for ideas for a while -- which makes sense, it's hard to consistently put out great material on a tight schedule.
That new Masters of the Universe cartoon. I don't like it. If the idea was to make a show for adults, it's still pretty juvenile in my view. The show is full of obvious, on-the-nose life lessons.
The lines are uninspired, the story (elementary as it is...) feels rushed, vapid, weightless. The plot is just generic sword and sorcery. He-Man is nowhere to be seen, and so is Skeletor. They are supporting cast.
I'm all for strong female leads, but I didn't even remember Teela from the original cartoon. She's an entirely new character to me. So much has changed that I feel myself judging the show not as a nostalgic continuation, but rather as something entirely new. And the truth is that, without nostalgia, there's nothing very unique about this universe. He-Man was a silly cartoon designed to sell toys. We loved watching that ridiculously strong dude wield his sword, and have an action figure that did the same. That's about it. If my nostalgia is denied, I'd rather watch some anime, or the new season of Castlevania.
We're watching Ted Lasso and thoroughly enjoying the character growth we're seeing. Roy has moved on from playing to commentating on games, and it's hilarious. I think he's my favorite character on the show. Jamie's back and it was a tense start, but turned out well so far. Also, Sudeikis's "Led Tasso" was a pretty hilarious and accurate portrayal of every coach I ever had in junior high sports.
I don't know what to say about Home Before Dark. They finally tied last season's story to this season's, but it's such a contrived coincidence that it's hard to take seriously. The performances this last week were outstanding, though. It almost makes up for the plot problems.
We've started watching the HBO documentary series Small Town News: KVPM Pahrump. It's a documentary about a small TV station in Pahrump, Nevada, just outside of Las Vegas. At the start, they're a tiny broadcaster mainly broadcasting to the small communities outside of Las Vegas, but they've just bought a new antenna and rented spectrum to start broadcasting into Vegas, too. The business is a complete mess. It's run by a husband and wife team. The husband doesn't appear to actually do much of anything other than think up ideas that everyone else needs to implement. They have a terrible time keeping employees for very long because the work is so disorganized and I can't imagine it pays very well. They seem to recognize when they have talent, but don't seem to be able to keep it. Instead, the on-air talent does editing in their off-air time, for example. We've just gotten to the part where they're covering the 2020 US election. The owner is a Trump fan, but most of the employees are not. The employees are trying to remain neutral when on-air, but the owner is not. It's hilarious and horrifying to watch. It reminds me of a few small businesses I worked at in the past.
And finally, we're continuing to watch White Lotus. It's the best thing I've seen in a while. The rich assholes staying at the resort are starting to completely unravel, and the staff is losing their patience. I think the season finale is this week.
That show strikes a great balance between drama and comedy that I haven't really seen since the heyday of Louie. The way that the show manages to create hilarious moments through situations instead of witty dialogue is genius and a breath of fresh air coming off an era that emphasized the former in most comedy shows. I also have to mention that Steve Zahn's delivery of a few lines (worms/make them dance) was perfect. I love the show and I wish it could somehow be a full series.
Apparently it is going to be a series, but they're going to show a different resort each season. So it won't be the same people. Or at least, that's what I read recently. (Can't seem to find the article at the moment, though.)
I somehow totally missed 2017's Taboo. It's not top tier, but it is well paced, and Tom Hardy is fun (I like his emotive, non-verbal grunts). The native American/African magic/voodoo stuff I thought was a bit in poor taste, though. I was surprised to recognize Jessie Buckley (Lorna Delaney née Bow) who played Oraetta Mayflower in season 4 of Fargo (one of my favorite characters of recent memory) and was also in The Courier (which I also watched recently). I'm curious to see if they will produce the second two seasons of Taboo that were originally planned (it would be interesting to see the show's version of a gritty, nascent US esp. if it covers Delaney's party making their way from the Atlantic to the Pacific).
Marvel's What If...? started -- and its pretty good. The animation looks great.
Matt is still murdering at Jeopardy and Joe Buck HAS ONE LEVEL OF OUTPUT.
Hard Knocks also just started. This year we're in the Dallas Cowboys' training camp. If you have even the most mild interest in American football, this series is really enjoyable. Its neat to see how the individual teams are dealing with Covid, too.
edit!!! Lower Decks is back! I really like this series.