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18 votes
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Two 'Good Omens' interviews: With writer Neil Gaiman, and with actors Michael Sheen and David Tennant
Neil Gaiman had one rule for the Good Omens adaptation: making Terry Pratchett happy The devil is in the detail of Amazon's long-awaited Good Omens
10 votes -
Which are the most remade BBC dramas?
4 votes -
Alternate scripts for Game of Thrones Season 8
4 votes -
The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance | Teaser
8 votes -
Death is just the beginning: The undead anxiety attack of ‘What We Do in the Shadows’
8 votes -
The last season of Game of Thrones feels so wrong because its storytelling style changed from sociological to psychological
23 votes -
Apply directly to the forehead: Lamenting the death of the truly weird TV ad
9 votes -
What Game of Thrones got wrong about firebombing
11 votes -
Long form visual storytelling - the best of TV
We've had a few threads recently criticising the direction of various shows cough Game of Thrones cough and @Amarok suggested a thread celebrating the good stuff on TV instead. Personally,...
We've had a few threads recently criticising the direction of various shows cough Game of Thrones cough and @Amarok suggested a thread celebrating the good stuff on TV instead. Personally, television is by far my favourite means of visual storytelling, a good TV show can go into the kind of depth and complexity that the more time-limited format of movies just can't touch.
A few of my favourite shows then, in no particular order:
House MD - recently rewatched this and it definitely stands the test of time. Sure, there are a few weak episodes here and there but on balance it's solid. Hugh Laurie absolutely nails the role of
Sherlock HolmesGreg House and the supporting cast are excellent too. It has one of my all-time favourite endings of all television shows, even knowing what was coming I still ended up a little moist of eye by the end. Also they grade the colour with increasing desaturation throughout season 8, almost to the point of it being monochrome - until the final scene is in glorious, bright colour and I love little touches like that. TV shouldn't just be actors reading lines, there is a whole medium to tell stories with (Game of Thrones also did this kind of thing well).Detectorists - BBC show about two metal detectorists. Gloriously paced, slow and gentle but insistent in telling it's tale, with really strong characters. Finishes beautifully, at just the right time. A gem of a show, it's very well written and nearly flawless throughout. Mackenzie Crook (writer, director) was offered more seasons but he declined because the show was finished and that takes guts to do but I love that he did. Also features Diana Rigg (Olenna Tyrell) who is never not brilliant.
Buffy The Vampire Slayer - I mean what can you even say about Buffy. Might have been the last show where my friends would meet up for a watch party every week, hanging out for hours discussing it and enjoying herbal cigarettes for the evening. Streaming is great and so convenient but in some ways I do miss TV being an event. There was someone very special about getting everyone together once a week to share in that world, and especially with Buffy because the characters were so close in age to me (I'm slightly younger than Alyson Hannigan and I had such a crush on Willow). Sure, it had it's wobbles (the entire Adam story arc, for example) but also some of the best TV moments of the 90s/early 2000s. Once More With Feeling and Hush are fan favourites for a reason.
Hannibal - Produced by Bryan Fuller, who is always good, but absolutely outdoes himself here, and Mads Mikkelson is terrifying in the titular role. Visually it's stunning, the plot is engaging and deeply disturbing, the characters well drawn and believable (Hannibal particularly so, which is all the more horrifying) and the sound design is absolutely astonishing. I bought a whole new sound system literally just for this show and it was totally worth it. Sound design is one of those things which you only notice when it's particularly bad or particularly good and Hannibal is definitely the latter. It's such a well-rounded piece of television, it uses colour and light and sound and all the tools in the TV maker's box. the ending is a little on the weak side but they got axed early - Bryan Fuller had five seasons planned but they only got three.
I could go on, but I won't because I'll go on for ages! Please add a couple of your favourite shows and maybe we can all find a few new things to watch.
20 votes -
Social media is the death of love: a GoT introspective
So, in a nutshell, the writing quality and character development declined a lot in the last season ... except I mostly didn't notice (or mind), until I started reading online about how much - and...
So, in a nutshell, the writing quality and character development declined a lot in the last season ... except I mostly didn't notice (or mind), until I started reading online about how much - and why - everyone else hated the last season.
I got as far as S08 Ep03 (the White Walker battle) without reading any online commentary, critiques, etc. On my own, I did feel some characters' activities/behaviors were a bit 'off', but I still loved the episode overall (except literally too dark, hard to see some scenes).
Then a friend commented on some disappointing thing in the episode, and how 'everyone' was bitching about it. I started reading online ... and that's when I started seeing the flaws in the last season.
Granted, even if I had stayed offline, just watched it myself, there probably still would have been things that pissed me off ... Euron's magical dragon ambush, the whole Missandei capture/murder thing, and Dany embracing the Dark Side. I can't imagine I would have overlooked those.
But, by reading everyone else's gripes online, watching bitter youtube reviews, etc., the last 3 episodes sucked a lot more for me, because I saw all the flaws, many of which I would have missed.
So, to sum up, I blame all y'all for ruining GoT for me.
Thoughts?
23 votes -
Star Trek: Picard | Teaser
21 votes -
David Milch’s third act
4 votes -
Emilia Clarke on the final episode of “Game of Thrones,” meeting Beyoncé, and the fate of Daenerys Targaryen
7 votes -
Black Mirror Season 5 - Individual episode trailers
The first trailer was released last week, but now they've released three more - one for each individual episode in the season: Striking Vipers: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ssr40U3-do0...
The first trailer was released last week, but now they've released three more - one for each individual episode in the season:
- Striking Vipers: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ssr40U3-do0
- Smithereens: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2SybklT8k1k
- Rachel, Jack and Ashley Too: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-qIlCo9yqpY
9 votes -
The race is on to make the next ‘Game of Thrones’
10 votes -
Westworld III | HBO 2020
15 votes -
Let's give Game of Thrones characters their own theme songs
The series is done! Let's have a bit of fun with it now that it's over. Choose characters from the show and assign them a popular song based on their story arc, characteristics, or whatever else...
The series is done! Let's have a bit of fun with it now that it's over.
Choose characters from the show and assign them a popular song based on their story arc, characteristics, or whatever else you feel like highlighting.
Example:
- Daenerys gets Bon Jovi's "You Give Love a Bad Name" because she's grappling with the fact that Jon gives love a bad name (namely, Targaryen). Oh, and she's also shot through the heart.
Be serious or be cheeky--whatever floats your boat as we sail to find out what's west of Westeros.
7 votes -
Game of Thrones petition: 500,000 demand series eight remake
29 votes -
Broken Bread S1E1 "Transformation" [~27 Minutes]
3 votes -
An interview with Game of Thrones' supervising sound editor about how bird sounds are chosen for the show
5 votes -
Psychiatry, racism, and the birth of ‘Sesame Street’
7 votes -
Data shows “Game of Thrones” is taking a historic critical nosedive
20 votes -
Clumsy gods: ‘Catch-22’ brings the subversive humor—and horror—of the book to Hulu
7 votes -
Black Mirror | Season 5 official trailer
24 votes -
Disney assumes full control of Hulu in deal with Comcast
21 votes -
What ruined Hanna-Barbera?
6 votes -
Game of Thrones Season 8 Episode 5 discussion thread
Previous threads: S08E04 S08E03 S08E02 S08E01
27 votes -
Is weird the new brilliant?
7 votes -
King of the Hill fan edit: Peggy's Song
5 votes -
The politics of Dr. Horrible's Sing-along Blog
12 votes -
Game of Thrones S8E04 explained
6 votes -
Watchmen | Official teaser
11 votes -
Review: "Chambers" Season One
3 votes -
Game of Thrones Season 8 Episode 4 discussion thread
Previous threads: S08E03 S08E02 S08E01
29 votes -
How Game of Thrones ruined its most important episode
20 votes -
YouTube renews Cobra Kai for season three, makes all shows free
11 votes -
Netflix’s Tuca & Bertie is a surreal celebration of friendship
4 votes -
Veronica Mars | Season 4 official teaser
4 votes -
Recommendation: BoJack Horseman (2014—)
My previous recommendations: Person of Interest Psych So, I just finished binging all five seasons, and I think I can safely recommend this series to an audience that enjoys adult humor and series...
My previous recommendations:
So, I just finished binging all five seasons, and I think I can safely recommend this series to an audience that enjoys adult humor and series that juggle between the very funny and very serious.
BoJack Horseman is a series that starts slow and doesn't really seem to truly find itself until Season 3. I personally didn't enjoy the first half of Season 1 at all (got very bored). The second half of Season 1 got me to keep watching purely on the humor and the gags, which pretty consistently increase in quality as the show continues.
I especially got drawn in on all the "animal" gags. The series at some point early on becomes very comfortable going all out on visual&storytelling gags based on the animal playing them (BJH is an otherwise-normal universe where a significant part of the population is half-animal half-human). The humor is pretty high quality, I would easily compare it to the humor in Arrested Development (early seasons).
It is a series that makes fun of itself, without relying too much on gimmicks or breaking the fourth wall too much. With that said, Seasons 3 and 4 introduce more experimental episodes (including an entirely mute one, similar to the excellent Hush from Buffy, as well as another that only consists of a beautiful entire 22 minute monologue). None of them bored me. I was always extremely impressed with the execution and the quality.What really gets me to recommend this series is its later seasons. Seasons 3 and 4 are of exceptionally high quality and the show becomes… very dark. But not without losing its humor. BoJack Horseman made me cry three times. I'm not talking about tearing up, I'm talking about the full waterworks like I've done only a couple of times in my entire adult life.
It's a show that punches you in the gut not by having grand romantic storylines; not by having heroic moments with epic music; not sympathetically by having manly characters tear up; not even by killing off beloved characters like Game of Thrones. It's a show that hits you because it's too fucking real.In many ways, I would say that I enjoyed BJH for similar reasons that I enjoyed early GoT: It's unforgiving to its characters. But I don't want this to put anyone off from watching; it's a unique series to which I have a very hard time finding parallels. Its humor sits between Arrested Development, Futurama and Rick & Morty and is very much its own thing. Very reminiscent of Adult Swim.
BoJack Horseman is available on Netflix. Come for the gags, stay for your own reasons.
24 votes -
Game of Thrones cinematographer: It’s not me, it’s your TV settings
13 votes -
Release of '13 Reasons Why' associated with increase in youth suicide rates
18 votes -
The remarkable story of a woman who preserved over thirty years of TV history
11 votes -
Netflix’s wonderful Street Food focuses on the human aspect of ordinary food
6 votes -
Catch-22 | Official trailer
6 votes -
Puffer - Free TV (major networks only) as part of a Stanford research project
Not sure how long this will last, but here is legal, free, live TV. This may or may not work outside of the US, not sure. Requires creating an account, but no email needed....
Not sure how long this will last, but here is legal, free, live TV.
This may or may not work outside of the US, not sure.
Requires creating an account, but no email needed.
8 votes -
Game of Thrones Season 8 Episode 2 discussion thread
Previous discussion: S08E01
31 votes -
Jeopardy! legend Ken Jennings on James Holzhauer: 'It's absolutely insane'
9 votes -
How 'liberal' late-night talk shows became a comedy sinkhole
11 votes -
Game of Thrones Season 8 Episode 1 discussion thread
Wanted to start a discussion for us GoT fans and give our thoughts on how the first episode played out and what we expect to come. Please delete if unnecessary/unwanted. This is a spoiler zone so...
Wanted to start a discussion for us GoT fans and give our thoughts on how the first episode played out and what we expect to come. Please delete if unnecessary/unwanted. This is a spoiler zone so you've been warned
38 votes