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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'm four episodes into Squid Game.
It's the biggest phenomenon among my students since Fortnite and Among Us, so I turned it on thinking it would be something aimed at kids/teens. You know, like The Hunger Games.
WOW WAS I WRONG.
I'm amazed at how many parents let their kids watch this. The age I teach would be borderline for this type of content, but I have a friend who told me his elementary school students now play Red Light/Green Light like they're on the show. We're talking eight-year-olds here. I don't think it's developmentally appropriate for them in the slightest.
Anyway, I'm not normally one for violence but I do enjoy severe, rules-based dystopian stories, so this is kind of up my alley. I didn't love it after episode 1, but the show's really smart sidestep in episode 2 is what kept me in it. Had they not done that, I probably wouldn't have kept watching it.
I will likely finish it up this weekend. I'm getting a COVID vaccine booster and I expect it to knock me on my ass, so catching up on TV and movies seems like it'll be in the cards.
If you're already going to be feeling like shit due to the booster, I would honestly suggest holding off on binging the rest of Squid Game under those circumstances... unless you're truly a masochist.
Sort of spoiler-ish emotionally speaking, but with no specifics
From my comment on the show from a few weeks ago:
IMO the show is a masterpiece, so still well worth watching when you're finally feeling up to it though.
Oh my god, I should have listened to you. I just watched through episode 6 (Gganbu) and I’m wrecked right now.
Yeah, I honestly wasn't exaggerating when I said that episode broke me down into a blubbering mess, and I had to take several days break afterwards before I felt recovered enough to resume watching again. And I was feeling perfectly fine before I watched it, so I can't even imagine how extra devastated it would have made me feel had I been physically sick beforehand.
The show is bloody relentless too though, so if you actually are still feeling sick from the booster please trust me this time when I tell you, you really should wait until you're feeling better before watching the final episodes... Unless you have the emotional resilience of a God, or something. ;)
I paused after that episode.
The booster hit me, but not too hard, and I’m mostly through it now. I’ll probably finish up the series next weekend, but I wouldn’t say I’m looking forward to it. I want the closure of finishing it out, but I know it’s going to suck to get there.
Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance might be a good inclusion to that list.
I don't know much about South Korea, but if you haven't heard of chaebols the wiki entry might give some context.
They're not necessarily all critiques of Capitalism, per se, but Park Chan-Wook's entire Vengeance trilogy (Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, Oldeuboi, Lady Vengeance) are all well worth watching.
And another SK film that Park Chan-Wook produced, Snowpiercer, (which actually is another critique of certain aspects of Capitalism) is also worth watching too.
p.s. The Platform is Spanish, not S.Korean or related to PCW, but pretty good as well.
Ah, thanks for the heads up! I'll almost certainly be in the mood for lighter fare, so that's very good to know.
NP. It's really hard to even warn people without spoiling anything, but I will say that the episode you're currently on is almost the perfect place to pause until you're feeling better.
p.s. On a more positive note, there are boatloads of Red Light/Green Light and Squid Game inspired memes, parodies, etc. being spread around right now, especially on YouTube, but even appearing in places like the Roblox and Minecraft mod communities... with more derivatives being churned out daily at this point. So the optimist in me hopes that encountering some of those kid-friendlier derivatives is why your friend's elementary students are playing the Red Light/Green Light game like they do in the show, and not because they have actually seen the show itself.
Ah, I didn’t know that. I sincerely hope it’s just from the memes!
Me too. But at this point the phenomena has spread far beyond the show itself, so I suspect that really is the case. E.g. MrBeast's $45,600 Squid Game Challenge! (in Minecraft), which has 26M views.
EDIT: Sorry, I just realized the MrBeast video has SPOILERS for the games in the show... so don't watch the whole thing unless you have finished the show. :P
The last episode of What We Do In The Shadows left me a bit shocked. Wasn't expecting that to happen.
Thanks for not spoiling it... and also for letting me know that the season is finished so I can finally start watching it now. :P
I think there’s one more episode left.
what a great wrap for the season!
Finally got the chance to watch the new season. That was a very unexpected twist at the end, and I loved the season overall, but...
Final episode spoiler
I really didn't like what happened to Guillermo. I despise the "will they or won't they" TV trope, so that getting dragged out for yet another season is incredibly disappointing. I was really hoping it would end with Guillermo finally getting his wish, so the show could move on from the somewhat tired, lying master + overeager/gullible familiar, relationship dynamic.
cc: @cloud_loud
Final episode spoiler
I think it might lead to an interesting dynamic. For, I assume, at least a few episodes of the fourth season, we’ll have Guillermo paired off with Nadja. I think they’re a couple that we never got to see interact that often, so that might lead to some interesting things. Though, I didn’t love Laszlo and Colin’s re-pairing as I feel like we’ve had enough of that this season, and was disappointed that that’s what we’re going to get.
It also feels like Kristen Schaal is gonna have a minimized presence in the upcoming season, which is a shame because I think she was a highlight from this season. And I wish we got a better sense of her obsession with Guillermo.
I’m kind of hoping this show ends at Season 5, or even ending next Season would be kind of cool. I don’t care for long-running shows. I’ve always preferred British shows for that reason. 2-3 series with 6 episodes a series. The exception being Doctor Who of course.
I wouldn't be surprised if Guillermo turns out to be an energy vampire this entire time. :)
Codependent relationship vampire? :P
Inside Job is sort of like Lower Decks but for the deep state... and its pretty great.
Late edit: I'm also watching Dopsick. It's all about the opioid epidemic and comes with a really strong cast. The series isn't perfect, but its pretty good. They released three episodes up front, which helped a lot.
Also, Wu-Tang: An American Saga wrapped its second season tonight and I love every part of it. Some of it is a little corny, but its still the main show I was looking forward to each week.
What would you compare Inside Job to? It's been toeing my watchlist but it's not in it quite yet.
For me, it's if the lead writer and showrunner of Gravity Falls tried their hands at Futurama, except instead of the future, the workplace comedy is around cryptids, conspiracies, and the people who really run the world. It is kinda limited by current events from being super on point, but it's more focused on the characters relationships and antics then trying to map out how every conspiracy theory fits in with one another.
I've watched the first episode /cc @tomf
I'm convinced. I didn't realize this was Hirsch's new show, that's all you had to say! And Christian Slater voicing the dad?! Awesome.
It's great so far and with lots of potential. I will continue watching Monday with a friend who I know will love it.
yessss! I had no idea that Hirsch was such a go-to for this stuff. I'm gonna keep an eye on him. Everything he's done is pretty great. :)
Oh wow, okay, really sold now.
The first episode sets it up perfectly. Its remarkable how they connect every conspiracy theory. I wouldn't be surprised if the writers room had a lot of red string.
Like moocow1452 said, its sort of like Futurama with the setup with a mix of Rick and Morty, Lower Decks, Gravity Falls, etc. Its fun. :)
Sold. Will watch the first one this week.
nice! I hope it lives up to the mild hype :)
I'm not a huge anime fan (although Dragonball and DBZ were favorites of mine in middle/highschool), but the premise behind Dr Stone fascinated me so much that I had to watch it. It's on HBO Max, but not the dubbed version unfortunately. I'm not great at giving TV shows 100% of my attention, but you kind of have to when you're watching something with subtitles.
I'm really enjoying the show so far. It's a little corny and unrealistic, but I give it a pass. The basic premise is that everyone on earth turns to stone all at once. Nature reclaims the planet for thousands of years until the first person, Senku, wakes up. Senku is a scientifically-minded genius who decides he's going to re-build society by leapfrogging technology until it gets back to where it was when everyone turned to stone. He spends his first 6 months awake trying to figure out why everyone turned to stone and how to reverse it. The first season basically goes from there. I don't want to spoil any details, but what drew me to the show was that he uses natural materials to reinvent modern technology. Earlier this year, the YT channel How To Make Everything (which actually does a very similar thing) made a few videos inspired by the anime and that's how the show got on my radar. If this at all sounds interesting to you, check out the HTME videos first it gives a decent rundown of the show and what you can expect from it.
Doctor Who is back. Aired the first of a six part miniseries, and it through a whole lot into the air all at once. We'll see if it lands, but it feels very Doctor Who right now, which is more than I can say about the first two seasons.
Edit: Also saw the first episode of Star Trek: Prodigy, feels a little like if Space Cases was pitched today, with the alien ship from the other side of the galaxy being a Federation vessel, a complete unknown in this area of space.