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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.
We also watched the wrap up of season 2 of Ted Lasso. I loved it. I really like how they portray the different characters.
We started watching Foundation. We've watched 2 episodes so far. I'm mostly liking it. It varies from what I remember from the first book, in that it follows Harry and Gaal for a lot longer after the trial. In episode 2 they needed to show that one of the emperors is not a good person. They showed him do some violent things. This is a situation where I think they went too far in what they showed. It ended up being violence porn. I hope that doesn't become a theme like it did for Game of Thrones. They could have showed much less and gotten the point across just as well.
We also started watching a few shows on HGTV just to kill some time. First, the good: We like Good Bones and Home Town. Both of these shows are about taking existing homes and making them new again. In the case of Good Bones, they buy nearly condemned homes in their Indiana neighborhood for literally $5,000 to $50,000. In one episode they bought a former hoarder house that had caught fire. It still had all the hoarded stuff in it. It was kind of disturbing to see. But they tear 'em down to the studs, rebuild them, and make them look really nice. It's a mother/daughter team. In their case, they're trying to make affordable starter homes in a neglected area. They put about $100,000-$200,000 into them, then sell them for a profit. It's kind of amazing to see! Home Town is similar, in that it all takes place in one small town in Mississippi. In redoing these places, they try to keep the character of the original house while still making it new and nice. They've also done some work to make parts of their neighborhood nicer and easier to afford for lower-income families to move into.
Now the bad: It is disturbing how bad regular TV is. It's as bad as the web without an ad blocker. I have a DVR, so I can skip the commercials, but most of the rest of what's on HGTV is utter crap, too. Shows like Flip or Flop, where a husband and wife team buy properties, put $20,000-$50,000 into them, and sell them for a profit don't sound too awful on the face of it (could be interesting and have some useful tips for fixing up my own house), but they're both douchey people who don't even seem to like each other and want to impress their audience with their fancy sports cars rather than do anything entertaining, educational, or original. It's the kind of show where you root for stuff to go wrong for them.
But the other thing that's incredibly irritating about it is things like commercial breaks that are 5 minutes long and have a "preview" (aka 3 minute ad) for another show on the network. (You see people fixing up a house while fast-forwarding and stop, only to realize, no, it's just another ad.) Also, many of these shows have really fake tension because, while parts of fixing up or buying and selling a house are tense, the majority of it is lots of boring hard work. So before every commercial break, they show some manufactured tense moment. Then when they get back from a commercial, they replay the last minute from before the commercial. In all, there ends up being probably 16-17 minutes of actual show if you take out all the repeated stuff and ads. And if ads weren't annoying enough, they often have a large logo for a different show in the lower right corner for the entirety of the show you're currently watching. At first, I thought it was the name of the show we were watching, but it became clear that wasn't the case pretty quickly. (They also put the name of the current show in the upper right corner in a much smaller, lighter, harder-to-read font.) Then, when they aren't showing that, they have a large (like 1/4 of the screen or more) animated logo for their streaming service. Like are there people who would actually pay to watch most of this garbage? I mean, I'm technically paying for it by having cable, but that's just because there's no way to get the few channels we want without also getting this. (And like I say, there are 1 or 2 shows we like.) It boggles the mind. Suffice it to say that I won't be watching much more of this crap.
You know as someone coming from a place where commercials never interrupted TV shows growing up it's great to see especially Americans (I don't know if you are) wake up and realize just how awful adds and commercial breaks really are. It's mind boggling how anyone can even watch anything with add breaks.
Oh I definitely am! We've known for decades how awful they are. The problem is convincing the networks of that because that's how they make their money. I think the cord cutting is starting to affect cable and satellite providers, but whether that translates into affecting the networks is another issue. (I'd love to cut the cord, but my spouse wants to keep it around.)
I suspect, though, that streaming services will start sprouting commercials once cable is just about dead. One of the reasons I don't subscribe to Hulu is that I've heard they have some shows that have commercials even if you're on their top paid tier. That's a deal-breaker for me. Anything I'm paying directly for needs to be ad-free. (Yeah, I know there's product placement, still. It's annoying, but not as annoying as literally stopping the show to scream at me about something completely unrelated.)
The other thing is that for people who can't afford subscriptions to these services, advertiser-supported content allows them to enjoy the content, as well. (To me, that's kind of like saying, "You can watch this show if you stop to smoke a cigarette half-way through it." But I really dislike ads, so I may be overreacting.)
Yeah, it's been pretty evident that after the streaming services took over people over there woke up and realized the intrusion of add breaks.
If history has taught me anything it is that this will happen and it saddens and infuriates me. I've heard about Hulu and the arrogance alone in their decision to have add breaks while still having a paid subscription is disgusting. We actually have a streaming service in my country where you can choose adds for a lower monthly fee. It's not and will never be relevant for me but it's an alternative that at least give you a choice. I don't like to use the word "hate" because it's a very powerful word but I genuinely hate adds.
I think there is also the factor of the quality of the ads presented on TV being so much poorer as well. It has been many years since I sat through a commercial TV break so when I was at my parent's house watching TV with them it was interesting to see the shift that had taken place. Most of the ads were for prescription meds, local lawyers or for cars dealerships with the occasional fast food restaurant thrown in. And none of the ads were inspiring or clever or well shot. It was monotonous and depressing and made me realize how removed I was from what I used to consider the normal viewing experience.
Oh, cool! I had no idea! Thank you for the heads-up!
I just finished Squid Games on Netflix yesterday. It is dark and moving and gut wrenching and violent and amazing. A group of desperate people are recruited to play a series of games with the last person winning a large cash prize. You get to know several different players. Somewhat of a twist ending but nothing unbelievable. Highly recommend.
Apple TV+ Foundation seems to be off to a good start. It is on my weekly watch schedule.
Only Murders in the Building is so good. It's so funny and well written.
I've also been watching 11.22.63. I remember being obsessed with the trailer when it first came out, I was a senior in high school. I didn't have Hulu back then so I ultimately didn't watch it. But it's pretty good so far. Though it is visually flat. I think a show like this needed more visual flair, something like The Shape of Water. I also wish someone other than James Franco was the lead.
Just finished Rome an hour ago. Binged both seasons in 3 days - so needless to say, it was quite good! Season 1 was almost perfect but I thought season 2 really lacked in a lot of ways, which is understandable from what I've heard about them wanting to try to wrap things up as they knew it would not get more seasons. I'm very happy to have finally watched it though, it had been on my list for many years.
My girlfriend is addicted to Young Sheldon. Amusing comedy, rarely funny. Highly predictable. Comfort food. Not groundbreaking television, but not nearly as bad as some responses make it seem. You should probably forget about the Jim Parsons character, since infant Sheldon is merely inspired by the previous. That is probably a good thing since adult Sheldon is, well, an asshole. They go for an endearing family comedy with a heavy emphasis on the family instead. Single camera setup, no live audience. Recommended if you dream with a cute nerd son, or have strong parental instincts in general.
Chuck Lorre really knows how to make money...
I've been sort of neutral toward Only Murders in the Building -- but this last episode was absolutely amazing. The story itself is picking up and its finding its rhythm, but this specific episode stands out.
Scenes from a Marriage got me into an Oscar Isaac kick. I caught him in The Card Counter (movie from Paul Schrader), which was pretty good if you like Schrader.
I watched the new season premiere of The Rookie, and I have to say that I think I'll finally stop watching it. I was on the edge due to the previous over-the-top elements and the meh previous season, but just due to how ridiculous it has gotten, it finally tipped one way. Not to say that I dislike ridiculous things, but when the premise is that a middle-aged guy changes careers and becomes a cop, something like
The Rookie S04E01
contacting a CIA operative to get three police officers smuggled into and out of Guatemala to save someone that was *kidnapped by a cartel boss and is being held hostage in a fortress*On the other hand, I'm getting super hyped for Vikings: Valhalla solely due to the fact that a friend has a part in it.