• Activity
  • Votes
  • Comments
  • New
  • All activity
  • Showing only topics in ~tv with the tag "discussion". Back to normal view / Search all groups
    1. Does anyone else find CBS News particularly stressful?

      I may be in the minority on Tildes who still watches cable news. My mom is the one who puts it on and I'll usually ignore/forget about it when I'm home alone, but I find it's a good way to keep...

      I may be in the minority on Tildes who still watches cable news. My mom is the one who puts it on and I'll usually ignore/forget about it when I'm home alone, but I find it's a good way to keep track of major headlines. Also, our usual choice of national news, ABC with David Muir, tends to end every broadcast with some feel-good story which is just... really appreciated in these times. (Though tonight they played a soundbite of Martin Luther King Jr.'s final Sunday sermon, and the choice of that particular soundbite feels very pointed.)

      A couple months ago YoutubeTV and Disney got into a contract disagreement though, so ABC was removed from the lineup for a bit. For a while we watched CBS News, and... Something about it just genuinely stressed me out. Of course the news is very stressful lately, but usually I can deal with it. At worst, I leave the room for certain stories that make me particularly angry.

      Something about CBS just left me really agitated and stressed though. I can't say what it was exactly, maybe the delivery, or a heavy focus on the worst parts of US politics? All I know is every night I was getting increasingly worked up, the way I only ever did with the most absolutely infuriating news stories, until we switched to NBC until ABC returned to air.

      This came to mind again after my mom put on CBS last night since ABC was starting late due to some sports program. It agitated me until I just snapped.

      So my question: does anyone else find CBS particularly stressful compared to other cable news? If so, does anyone have any ideas on why that is? And are there any regular watchers who've noticed a shift in tone? I never really watched CBS before, but I'm wondering if maybe it's somehow tied to Bari Weiss's influence given the stuff with 60 Minutes.

      22 votes
    2. Pluribus full season discussion

      Warning: this post may contain spoilers

      The first ep. got its own thread on Tildes and a decent discussion, I figured I'd try to get one going for whole season. Since it finished airing like 2 weeks ago.

      I binged S1 yesterday, and am very happy that I waited till all episodes were out, as the pace of the show is glacial and I would've likely lost interest were I not able to skip around a bit. That's one of my two major issues. The other being that I found Carol insufferable at moments in the show. I think it does a good job at humanizing her and explaining why she is the way she is. It's also important to note that a majority of the show plays out days after Carol's wife Helen dies and she's reeling from that loss, as well as losing everyone else too. For me this culminated in ep 6, when she has a conversation with another survivor after having uncovered that they process human corpses into protein powder, and she thinks it's a big reveal that everyone else already knows. She just wasn't told because she's made everyone not like her.

      That being said, the premise of this show is excellent and I love the questions it makes me ask and think about. The way it's shot is also fantastic. Yes, all of humanity is in a blissful state, but most of us would also die due to starvation, but there's no murder, no robbings, but it's also clear that this blissful state is more akin to being happy because you're on drugs, not "true happiness". I think this was most evident in the scene when the Peruvian girl turned willingly. Just before she does, she's shown with a lamb on her lap, which she likes and pets. The moment she turns, she just walks off, leaving the lamb behind. Obviously also all expressions of individualism are gone, this means all art, plus the question hasn't been properly answered on what exactly the Others do when they don't have someone around to make happy. I guess work together as a collective on sending the signal onto the next planet.

      I think the big answer is going to be when they hopefully break someone out of the hivemind in S2. I just hope that it won't be the season finale, but sooner. I dislike the trend of prestige television being at such a slow pace.

      What do you guys think? Both the smart writing and the pacing issues seem to be the main two things i see mentioned online. Anything else you liked or disliked? Any theories on where it'll go?

      50 votes
    3. Stranger Things finale discussion

      Warning: this post may contain spoilers

      So what did everyone think of the finale?

      Spoiler heavy below, beware!

      Personally I'm a little torn. Overall I would say the finale was just okay. This whole season has felt a little bit mid for me, but I've watched it since the beginning and wanted to see it end. I felt like they could have done a whole lot more with some characters, Dr. Kay, for example, just didn't really seem to do anything and she just kind of packed everything up and let all the kids go at the end. She was a pretty important character in El's backstory and she seemed to do nothing the whole season except drive around trying to chase them. It seemed like she was going to finally do something meaningful in the finale but nothing really materialized.

      Vecna's death was satisfying to me, with Will helping out in the end with his new "sorcerer" powers. The backstory we got for Vecna too, was interesting, and the fact he "chose" to cooperate with the Mind Flayer. I'm still not sure if he was actually corrupted and is made to believe it was his choice, or if he was as powerful as he claimed and truly chose to work with it. Either way, watching Joyce tell him that he "fucked with the wrong family" and then decapitate him was chefs kiss.

      As for El's "death", I'm not sure I am convinced she is actually alive. I looked back at the scene at the end after I had finished and didn't see any flickering on her, or any doors opening in the background. Maybe the sonic devices just don't pierce the veil between worlds. That being said though, it is interesting that some people have pointed out she doesn't have a nosebleed after talking with Mike or pushing him back.

      I still think Season 4 was probably my favorite season. I was on the edge of my seat, literally, through some parts of that season which shows don't often do for me. This season did have some moments, but it just didn't seem to capture the same feeling Season 4 did for me.

      I'm curious what everyone else thinks though.

      26 votes
    4. Hot take: 4:3 > 16:9

      It's been a while since I've watched an old TV show. We've had widescreen TVs in our houses for decades now. When HD and digital video came into the scene, it basically came hand in hand with the...

      It's been a while since I've watched an old TV show. We've had widescreen TVs in our houses for decades now. When HD and digital video came into the scene, it basically came hand in hand with the 16:9 aspect ratio. It was more cinematic. It was basically a mark of quality in and of itself.

      On a whim, I decided to watch Wolf's Rain, an original Bones anime that was produced in 4:3. I thought it would be difficult to adapt to the more narrow screen. I was thinking what I'd be missing out on by the missing part of the screen.

      In hindsight, those thoughts were pretty rediculous. The people who made the show knew they were going to target that aspect ratio, so they built the entire show around it. It's animation: every frame is literally a painting. The aspect ratio was never a limitation to the artist because it was effectively the same limitation any given piece of paper or canvas they would apply their art to.

      By no longer producing video in 4:3, we have lost something important to framing: verticality and angularity. 16:9 means there's a lot more room to the left and right than there is up and down, and because you have so much more horizontal view dutch angles tend to be extra disorienting. While Wolf's Rain doesn't use dutch angles very often, vertical framing is extremely common. One early episode has a particularly striking scene where a white wolf is running vertically up a cliff towards the moon. Other times it's used to show off the scale of large structures, which can better express a sense of dread or oppression. The show also often has circular framing; where characters and objects are arranged in a circle, which doesn't seem to work quite as well aesthetically on widescreen formats.

      Now that I've started thinking about this, I started to think about what a shame it is that we are actually losing some of our treasured 4:3 shows from the past. TV shows aren't terribly well archived in general outside of ultra-popular shows, and even then many old shows that were made for 4:3 have been bowdlerized into 16:9. Many shows have been stretched out or had their tops and bottoms deleted in order to fit into 16:9. Some shows were shot on film and had new scans done in order to use the parts that were originally designed to be cropped out. But because they are ruining the intent of the cinematographers, the addition is not necessarily a good one.

      But what do you think? I know this is probably not a popular opinion, but I'm sure that I'm not the only one who thinks this.

      34 votes
    5. [SOLVED] Anyone know of a site that tracks if a series is "done"?

      Done in quotes because sometimes shows get cancelled or otherwise abandoned and other times it has a final season or only had one season and was properly finished. Either way, same result. I don't...

      Done in quotes because sometimes shows get cancelled or otherwise abandoned and other times it has a final season or only had one season and was properly finished. Either way, same result.

      I don't have the patience or time to keep track of what series is having what new season come out at what point. I prefer to just wait for it all to be done and then watch in my own time. Even if it is one of the very few series I watch that isn't "done" I still don't do the weekly episode thing. I just wait for it all to come out and then watch as I please.

      That said, I have a backlog of series that are on my to-watch list, either suggested by friends or I saw a trailer that looked good, but they sit there at present because there's so much utter shit SEO spam websites that you can't get a clear answer if a new season is coming or a series is done or not.

      11 votes
    6. Netflix TV shows disappeared? It's because of VPN.

      Just a quick PSA, if anyone noticed massive amounts of shows disappeared from Netflix the past week or two. Apparently they're getting stricter with VPN detection, and blocking per region licensed...

      Just a quick PSA, if anyone noticed massive amounts of shows disappeared from Netflix the past week or two. Apparently they're getting stricter with VPN detection, and blocking per region licensed shows if we're on VPN.

      22 votes
    7. Andor discussion thread

      Warning: this post may contain spoilers

      Haven't seen a whole lot of discussion about this show on tildes. Not in weekly threads nor a main thread - so here is one!

      It's a 9/10 for me.

      I waited until all of season 2 was out before starting it. Realized I had forgotten almost everything since season 1 though, so rewatched that first. It turned into a binge of both seasons - I just could not stop! It has been probably 3 years since I was so glued to the screen and this engaged in a tv show (Euphoria season 1),

      I will skip an analysis or further review but every character was good. Every actor delivered. Just great all around. Season 2 (9.5/10) even better than season 1 (8.5/10).

      So anyways, discuss! More than happy to have my feelings about it validated lol, and also see other takes on it.

      47 votes
    8. Started watching Adolescence

      Its a heavy show but three episodes in, I'm loving the single shot approach that they took. Without cuts, it's all about the pace of the drama, the honesty of each beat and the quality of the...

      Its a heavy show but three episodes in, I'm loving the single shot approach that they took.

      Without cuts, it's all about the pace of the drama, the honesty of each beat and the quality of the performance. That, and I haven't seen a show tackle toxic masculinity in quite this way and I'm super here for it.

      Has anybody else seen it? What did you think?

      18 votes
    9. What are some examples of media that really captured lightning in a bottle?

      I've been feeling nostalgic and watching some old Top Gear recently. It has got me thinking about how remarkable the chemistry between the three hosts is and how the combination of those three,...

      I've been feeling nostalgic and watching some old Top Gear recently. It has got me thinking about how remarkable the chemistry between the three hosts is and how the combination of those three, the time that top gear ran, and the format they chose created such an incredibly successful and wide-reaching show. Despite many efforts no one has been able to make a car show to rival it.

      What are some other examples of this sort of phenomena? Where the right time, place, people and format come together to create something extraordinary? Doesn't have to be television necessarily, but given the example that spurred this question I figured this wasn't a bad place to post.

      31 votes
    10. Just rewatched “Brené Brown: Atlas of the Heart”, a five-episode series explaining thirty emotions

      My thoughts on the show An overarching theme of the show is that we aren’t very good at naming our emotions when we’re feeling them and that it’s important to learn the vocabulary for our emotions...

      My thoughts on the show

      An overarching theme of the show is that we aren’t very good at naming our emotions when we’re feeling them and that it’s important to learn the vocabulary for our emotions and call them by their right names.

      Call stress stress, not overwhelm. (Are you “in the weeds” or “blown”?)

      Call vulnerability vulnerability, not anxiety.

      Call awe and wonder awe and wonder.

      When we name what we’re feeling, we open up so much more agency and freedom to guide our lives in the direction we want them to go. Language is a portal.

      I found this show moving and illuminating when I first watched it in 2022 and it was moving and illuminating all over again when I rewatched it over the past few days.

      Awe and wonder are two of the emotions that stick out to me. These are not words I used regularly before watching the show. I use them now. I think I used to believe these emotions were nice to feel and a good part of life, but kind of like the icing on the cake. I have come to see them as necessary nutrients in the human emotional diet, more core and more central than I thought before.

      Maybe we can’t feel awe and wonder very often, but maybe like the elephants who walk long distances to lick the salt off cave walls, it’s something we need in our diet and should go out of our way to feel.

      I have a copy of Brené Brown’s book Atlas of the Heart, which the TV series is based on, and it mentioned that, among other things, experiences of awe and wonder make people more willing to cooperate with each other. Doesn’t that sound like something we need in this world?

      Where to watch

      Brené Brown: Atlas of the Heart is streaming on HBO Max in the U.S. and parts of Europe and Latin America, on Crave in Canada, on Binge in Australia, and on Sky in New Zealand.

      HBO Max: https://www.max.com/shows/brene-brown-atlas-of-the-heart/dfad262e-b764-4b92-ae63-72886f8a0d81

      Crave: https://www.crave.ca/en/tv-shows/brene-brown-atlas-of-the-heart

      List of countries and streaming services where the show is available: https://brenebrown.com/find-the-series-outside-of-the-us/

      JustWatch, a generally useful tool for this sort of thing: https://www.google.com/search?q=site%3Ajustwatch.com+Brené+Brown+Atlas+of+the+Heart

      13 votes
    11. Homeland leaves a lot to be desired - review

      Homeland - 5/10 First paragraph works as both the tldr as well as the beginning of the review. This show is all over the place. Some parts are really good, some parts are really bad, most parts...

      Homeland - 5/10

      First paragraph works as both the tldr as well as the beginning of the review.

      This show is all over the place. Some parts are really good, some parts are really bad, most parts are just meh. This show lends itself to be picked apart too easily. There are plot holes, convenient coincidences, contrived nonsense, and so often intelligent characters behaving like idiots over and over again which leaves you wanting to yell at the screen. So many eyeroll moments, cheesy stuff, questionable story writing, a lot of times that they tell, not show - it should be show, don't tell of course - and that classic trope that everything would have been solved if they just talked to each other, and another about just doing one single simple thing instead of getting distracted for dumb reasons. It is also pretty unrealistic despite trying to appear grounded. A lot of this show is too reminiscent of Jason Statham movies, if that makes sense. However I was entertained enough by it to keep watching, and it worked fine to pass the time when I was bored. Despite never really getting all that into the show as a whole, the good parts or episodes were worth the wait.

      Family drama in this show was not good. It was just kind of something you had to sit through to get to those good parts. Monica Baccarin was fine and Damian Lewis was incredible, but I really just didn't care all that much about their relationship nor their children. It's a show that is being sold as an action spy thriller, but too large a part of it is this sort of more or less regular drama. It reminds me of The Americans where you of course don't watch it for the family stuff with the children, but because they were super cool undercover Soviet spies. This type of show's biggest weakness is this stuff. It just acts as filler and drags things out unnecessarily. And this goes for the main character's family too. The relationship with the sister was alright, but when the main character gets a daughter? Just kind of felt like a waste of time.

      Most characters are pretty run-of-the-mill spy show stereotypes. Not great, not terrible. The main character, Carrie, was quite unique with a lot of depth, but she ends up going through way too many unbelievable situations. She and her tiny team, or even she all alone, saves the world half a dozen times. Her character at best decent, and that was only in the first few seasons. But then she goes completely down the drain and off the rails in season 4 and never recovered. I am probably in the minority with this opinion but I can't imagine most people see it this way since it's the star of a show that ran for 8 seasons so I guess take this opinion with a grain of salt.. but she just does not land for me after seasons 1-3.

      She is highly unlikable. She is one of the worst mothers I have ever seen in any show or movie. She is very neglectful and abusive mother, she is also a mass murderer who practically never repents or regrets what she has done, she disobeys orders constantly, mostly making things worse, she uses people all the time, and she has such a massive victim complex so 90% of the time she blames someone else for her often fatal fuckups - of which there are a lot. By far the biggest problem with all this is that it is quite clear that the creators of the show want the audience to sympathize with her and are trying to pass her off as the reluctant hero. She was never that good a character, nor do I think actor Claire Danes is very good in the role - just alright. However season 4 and onwards she just in no way works. Just impossible to root for, which is of course a big problem when it's the main character. She's not a cool antihero, it just became a chore to watch her scenes. The best summation is something Saul said to her in season 2: "You're the smartest and the dumbest fuckin' person I've ever known." Characters that are supposed to be intelligent who then do such truly dumb things.. characters are only as smart as their writers. So it's just bad writing.

      On a more positive note, there are a few characters I really liked: Astrid, Quinn, Saul, Max. Astrid was not in the show very much but she was great as the German spy counterpart in the BND. She just had a way about her and I felt the relationship she had with Quinn was quite interesting. She was a joy to watch, just like Quinn, played by Rupert Friend whom I recently saw in Hitman: Agent 47 which was an awful movie, so I was kind of nervous when he first appeared here in Homeland. Turns out though that he was just horribly miscast in the former because in this show, he is great! There's no nonsense with him, it's the "competency porn" feeling while watching him. Same goes for Saul and Max. Saul's actor Mandy Patinkin (who also played Inigo Montaya, couldn't believe it when I looked him up lol) steals most scenes he's in. He is great as the older, experienced spy, the mentor for our main character. His voice is both soothing and dramatic to listen to and even though half his face is invisible because of his huge beard, he still has such good expressions and body language that he really draws you in. As for Max, he was a very minor character to begin with but his role became bigger towards the final two seasons and like I said, it was a joy to watch him on screen and great that he was given more screentime.

      Not much of a joy however was all the nonsense that they had to implement in order to make the show work - they took the easy route to explain things away instead of actually implementing them well. For example they practically never have surveillance drones or satellites available, nor nightvision or thermal cameras, so they constantly lose track of people that they are following. Nor do they have much more than pistols most of the time. The agency does have these things available, and more, so it's just dumb that they pretend it doesn't exist in this show - some special ops guys had nightvision one time in one of the first seasons but I think season 7 was the first time a thermal camera was used and then we saw it maybe twice more. There are also often no contingency plans. Back-up being nonexistent 90% of the time, handwaved or ignored with a quick line or reason that wouldn't really make sense. Plus, everytime they needed to make something thrilling, they added a time constraint element to do it.

      Something I did like was the representation of mental illness. You really see the ugly side of Carrie's bipolar and even though I don't have it, and so can't actually speak to whether or not it's actually a good portrayal, it seemed good. I feel it's important to show regular people what it looks like, and I felt the same way with Max's neurodivergency - that he was quiet and forward added a lot to his character. He could have definitely just been the kind of techy nerd stereotype that is seen everywhere, but I'm glad they didn't go that route.

      And another great thing, I think the best even, was Damian Lewis. It was such a shame that he was written out but it does make sense that they couldn't do all that much with his character. I have only seen him in Band of Brothers, but he was one of the highlights in that show too, so it's not surprising that I liked him in this one too. The best scene of the show for me was the one where he is wearing the bomb vest in the bunker next to all the high ranking officers. The up close shot of his trembling and shivering face.. I have no idea how he was able to even do that. He has won awards which is well deserved.

      Bingewatching the show over about a month instead of watching it week to week across 8 years probably did not do this show any favours. I think maybe it's easier to see through the formula then. Better shows barely even have formulas, but this one certainly does, and I'm not a fan of it. Every single season has ways that they can't trust anyone anywhere. It's always this small team versus the world. That's not unique to this show but it stands out because it's often the same way they do it - they think they can't trust anyone, there's a mole, they're on their own because reasons, etc. In any case, the show was an alright use of my time but definitely not going to watch it again.

      Some kinda pointless nitpicks but I still wanted to post them lol
      • Despite them remaking it a couple of times, this show's intro is awful. Instantly skipped every time.

      • Carrie always has loose hair which anyone with long hair would know is impossible when you move around that much

      • I'm pretty sure that they had at least one writer who stuck with the show throughout its whole run. This same line that I don't think I've really heard it before this show appeared at least once, often multiple times, per episode: "[pronoun] did thing, [name] did". For example "He killed them, Brody did". This exact same line is used multiple times per episode throughout the series' entire run and it really sticks out, like I couldn't unhear/unsee it. I'm pretty sure there isn't even ever an instance where it's not obvious who they're talking about, like there's never a reason to say the last part, it just stuck out like a sore thumb and sounds so clunky every time.

      • Carrie constantly does this shiver with her chin and when you notice it you can't unsee it. It is whenever she in any way gets emotional and it's countless times every single episode

      • Aaand a ton of other tiny things I could criticize.

      Disorganized thoughts and notes taken while watching season by season

      Homeland season 1 - 6/10

      Had kind of stayed away from this show since judging the book by it's cover name, it reeked of patriotism and such. But I'm glad I started watching it.

      The season is a bit slow and has too much filler. It could have been probably 4 episodes shorter - yes some time with characters is lost, but it doesn't seem all that important to be honest. There are also a bunch of flashbacks which felt kind of like the CW show Arrow which safe to say is not a compliment.

      Overall a decent watch. The ending though.. the only plot device worse than memory loss is that it was all a dream. Brought my rating of the season down by a full point. Hopefully season 2 and on becomes better because I had been looking forward to 8 seasons of what I assumed to be a pretty high quality show.

      Homeland season 2 - 6/10

      They thankfully quickly moved on from that memory loss thing, and they upped the pace a lot which is much appreciated. Also, Rupert Friend and Seth Gilliam! Nice surprises.

      Still a lot of eyeroll moments. Just nonsensical stuff like nobody hearing a helicopter before it's like 50 meters over their heads but CIA apparently can't track a helicopter nor do they have a single satellite. Cliffhangers without fail every episode. A lot of like minute long establishing shots that add nothing. Constant arguments between agents where it's always two sides wanting to go in completely different directions which gets really old. 12-episode seasons ought to be a lot tighter than this.

      Carrie always assuming the worst. "He's dead!", "It's all over!", "We lost!", etc.. her character is not written very well to be honest.

      Cool detail I like is that you can hear Brody's breathing most of the time it's especially well done in scenes where tension needs to be created.

      Too many scenes of one agent storming ahead for little reason, not waiting for backup. Most egregious being when they look for Nazir in the penultimate episode. An FBI agent gets killed right behind Carrie, lying dead on the ground, and she - a former soldier, a highly experienced field agent - just walks up to take a look even though Nazir would obviously be right there. Just.. who are you kidding with this? Does anyone find this believable??

      Set up for season 3 seems cool. Lots of interesting ways it can go

      Homeland season 3 - 7/10

      Bald Damian Lewis looks so badass.

      Mental illness and psych ward stuff. She does a really great job - I mean I'm totally convinced that she does have that disorder. Twist about Carrie was nuts! Loved it. The following recruitment of the IRGC officer was a great storyline too.

      Schadenfreude when Quinn shot Carrie - what you get for always disobeying orders and going alone..

      Javadi storyline culminating in the assassination of Akbari was really well done.

      Killed the top general and got captured, then sentenced to death. Carrie then talks to Saul about Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch. I mean, fucking really? Again with the intelligent character acting super dumb.

      Can't believe they actually killed off Damian Lewis! I guess I have come not to expect too much from this show, so I thought there was going to be some kind of deus ex machina to save him or somesuch. But there wasn't, which was great. Good ending to season 3 and overall a stronger season than the first two.

      Season 4 - 4/10

      Weird change in Carrie's character. Went from literally always moaning about human rights and innocents to now being completely cynical about killing 40 innocent people at a wedding. Previous seasons she was on the verge of tears almost every episode, and now she's a coldblooded killer. Where did all this come from?

      I liked the storyline about Quinn breaking down.

      Quinn loves Carrie now. Since when..?

      What's with people constantly looking around but never seeing the person who is shadowing them? The person shadowing is almost always completely out in the open, just staring. You would instantly notice that when you look around all the time especially when checking for someone shadowing you!

      Carrie's source gets shot by terrorist holding Saul hostage, and then she wants to just bomb him anyway. Saul, who is her mentor. Again, just the wildest shit, completely out of character. She is written awfully this season.

      A bit too many plot holes about the Taliban prisoner exchange and the embassy attack. An unguarded tunnel, every soldier in the embassy deployed elsewhere - this would absolutely never happen. It's against the norm of any military in any country anywhere in literally all of history.

      Ending to the season felt pretty weak. Set up a huge twist in the penultimate episode, then addressing it with barely 2 scenes and the rest of it filler.

      Season 5 - 6/10

      Germany, nice!

      Miranda Otto!

      Storyline with Quinn recovering at Hussein's place was thrilling.

      Finding it very hard to root for Carrie ever since how much her character changed in season 4. Also, she found God. When the fuck did that happen???

      TV channels transmitting full terrorist messages and even the video of Quinn being exposed to the gas. Would never happen.

      Always somehow ending up as the underdog, lone agent or small team against giant threats. Cavalry goes somewhere else and star of the show saves the day - sorry, is this a 1990's cop show?

      The Laura and Numan storyline was pretty annoying. Very irritating characters.

      Season 6 - 7/10

      Again hard to root for Carrie. She's been kind of unlikable since season 4. Does dumb things over and over, feels bad, cries about it, and then we the audience are supposed to feel sorry for her. For example, she takes credit for saving Quinn even though she just happened to be the one that randomly happened upon him and the BND did the rest.

      Another example, Sekou is clearly inciting hatred and violence but Carrie is defending him - why do they portray it like Carrie is the good guy here? Because it's some free speech principle? Sekou is very much a terrorism sympathizer and we're supposed to root for him/Carrie? I don't think so.

      I like that there is a focus on high level politics - Elizabeth Marvel is great.

      Loved the Quinn storyline. The drama in Carrie's house with the 'hostage' situation, the stuff in the lake house with Astrid, then the sacrifice in New York. Sucks that he's written out - one of the best characters in the show.

      Dar Adal's actor is starting to grate on me a little bit - he's not very convincing. And the character is a bit too comically evil this season.

      Loved that Javadi was back

      Love more screentime for Max

      Political conspiracy and the spy game stuff is almost all of it great

      Season 7 - 4/10

      Worst season yet. It had all the right ingredients to make for a great story, but the way they get from A to B was just not pulled off very well. So many instances where I was sitting there like "this is not how [thing] works". It's still an entertaining show, but that's only because of a select few characters that I really enjoyed when they're on screen - and because the spectacle was still pretty cool. But most of the side plots and especially Carrie's family drama? Bored out of my mind. I didn't care about any of the characters involved and, again, I'm not able to root for the one character that the creators are clearly trying to make me sympathize with.

      Season 8 - 4/10

      Seemed like it would be an improvement over season 7 in the beginning of the season, but too many manufactured twists later and it became more of the same. It's a back to basics in a war zone, which also is not a good thing because they reused a lot of plot points from other seasons - down to the exact same things happening to the same characters!

      President dies in a very predictable way. He travels by helicopter to visit a frontline military base, using only two helicopters. Even when he travels in the safest countries in the world, there will be a lot more security than that.. and he would not sit in a helicopter that hadn't undergone thorough maintenance and double and tripple checks. Idiotic writing.

      Several out of character moments and even arcs. The Russian agent behaves completely differently from season 7. The Taliban leader is also almost entirely different from when we saw him last.

      Carrie is on trial/accused of a dozen things, among them many counts of murders, several counts of being a terrorist accomplice, and even a traitor double agent. Is she taken into custody? Ankle monitor? Shadowed? Nope! Just allowed to roam free and continue to betray her country (that part does prevent a war, but literally nobody knew at the time what she was doing)

      Saul's sister who he has seen once in 15 years holds his deepest secret? And Carrie just guesses this? No. And the very final scene.. an American defector would not in a million years be able to have access to top secret knowledge about Russian missile systems. A very unsatisfying ending to this show.

      Would love to hear anyone's thoughts about either the show or what I have written here!

      14 votes
    12. Scavengers Reign (2023) - Best sci-fi I have seen in years, aside from Dune

      "Scavengers Reign" eluded me when it released last year, but I was made aware of it after MAX canceled the show in May (Netflix has since picked it up but may or may not put in for more, is how I...

      "Scavengers Reign" eluded me when it released last year, but I was made aware of it after MAX canceled the show in May (Netflix has since picked it up but may or may not put in for more, is how I understand the situation).

      The trailer has been posted here but I wanted to check in and see how everyone else felt about it (keep it spoiler free!). Personally I was enthralled all the way through. It has such an interesting blend of Miyazaki-esque "creature-y" world building with more meditative displays of nature and the violence and balance that is integral to it. If that sounds at all interesting I would suggest watching the first of twelve episodes, you will probably know if you are interested or not after it's over.

      Here's hoping Netflix green lights more, assuming the creators want to continue. It really could stand as-is with where they left it.

      38 votes
    13. Is TV advertising still relevant? Does anybody under 60 even watch traditional TV anymore?

      I saw a video about the failure of a product, and they mentioned TV advertising, which got me to wondering… do people still even watch traditional TV anymore? It seems to me that everybody that I...

      I saw a video about the failure of a product, and they mentioned TV advertising, which got me to wondering… do people still even watch traditional TV anymore? It seems to me that everybody that I can think of that isn’t 70 or older just streams everything. How is the old business plan still operating?

      36 votes
    14. How would you rewrite the ending of a show that had an unsatisfying finale, or imagine an ending to a show that was canceled prematurely?

      Recently I've been rewatching GIRLS for the umpteenth time. When the series finale originally aired, it was a mini “Game of Thrones finale” situation. Fans were largely disappointed by the final...

      Recently I've been rewatching GIRLS for the umpteenth time. When the series finale originally aired, it was a mini “Game of Thrones finale” situation. Fans were largely disappointed by the final episode, many disliking season 6 in general. It's one of my favorite shows, but usually when I rewatch it I either skip the very last episode, or I skip the entire final season, instead pretending that the season 5 finale was the ending of the show.

      The finale of GIRLS hit a lot of marks for controversial finales. A few beloved characters were largely missing from the final episode/season or didn't get closure that people expected. The ending for the main character seemed to come out of nowhere (magically landing a dream job after struggling with employment the whole show,) and her overall arch didn't seem to align with her personality or anything that had happened up to that point. No one really got a happy ending, and the overall message or theme of the show seemed unclear, since many of the characters experienced very little growth over the course of the show, or they did actually experience some growth that was ignored when their conclusions were written.

      I thought it might be fun to see if any of you have similar thoughts about any TV shows that didn't end the way you expected, or what you imagine would happen in fantastic shows that never even got an ending due to being canceled early. A few examples that come to mind:

      • The obvious - How would you salvage the disaster conclusion of GoT? (I've seen so many takes online that manage to make it more satisfying.)
      • I haven't seen Dexter, but I've heard that the ending was unsatisfying and clashed with what people expected from the main character.
      • How could HIMYM have ended if the whole show wasn't instantly tranformed into a bait and switch with the finale?
      • What would've happened with the characters on Freaks and Geeks, had that amazing show been allowed to continue for another season or two?

      I intended to write about how I would want my example show to have ended, but honestly I'm stumped. Writing is hard! Especially if you don't have the luxury of planning the ending ahead of time, which I imagine was the issue for the writers of many of the classic "controversial finales." I'll probably add a comment about it after I come up with something.

      51 votes
    15. Ahsoka - S01E04 Discussion

      Spoilers for Ahsoka Season 1, Episodes 1-4; but also Star Wars Rebels & Clone Wars, or really any Star Wars (including Mando/Book of Boba) is fair game. I kept the title vague but I really want to...

      Spoilers for Ahsoka Season 1, Episodes 1-4; but also Star Wars Rebels & Clone Wars, or really any Star Wars (including Mando/Book of Boba) is fair game.

      I kept the title vague but I really want to discuss the World Between Worlds.

      For those unfamiliar that is where Ahsoka found herself at the end of episode 4. For those familiar (again, Rebels spoilers) it is a special Force place that can view and, in at least one instance, interact with the past. By all accounts it also has some echos of the future.

      It's not technically "time travel" but it will potentially be viewed as such and have a similarly long lasting affect on the Star Wars universe.

      Do you think the World Between Worlds is a good idea? What story do you want to see told? What story do you think will be told?

      13 votes
    16. Futurama Season 8 Episode 2 discussion

      This thread may contain spoilers. I thought it was pretty good! Better than the last episode, we were pleasantly surprised here at house Godzilla. We actually watched the older episode where Kif...

      This thread may contain spoilers.

      I thought it was pretty good! Better than the last episode, we were pleasantly surprised here at house Godzilla. We actually watched the older episode where Kif gets pregnant the night before, so we were very curious to see how Amy would handle everything. Feels were had.

      What were your thoughts? Let your voice be heard!

      24 votes
    17. Have you watched the The Bear? If so, what did you think?

      Premise - TL;DW - A young chef from the fine dining world comes home to Chicago to run his family sandwich shop after a heartbreaking death in his family. A world away from what he's used to,...

      Premise - TL;DW -

      A young chef from the fine dining world comes home to Chicago to run his family sandwich shop after a heartbreaking death in his family. A world away from what he's used to, Carmy must balance the soul-crushing realities of small business ownership, his strong-willed and recalcitrant kitchen staff and his strained familial relationships.

      With season 2 being released this past weekend I wanted to see if anyone on Tildes was watching it. Right now, I think it might be my favorite show. There is no hamfisted comedy. The dialog seems shockingly/surprisingly human. It has stakes, but its not overwhelming or action-packed cheese.

      The whole context of the show is surprisingly fresh, a lot of the characters have flaws but good even realistic redemption or growth. I think one of the most surprising things (for me at-least) is the lack of a love interest, I can't recall the last time a show didn't have one. I could go on and gush about this show some more, but I wanted to see if anyone here watched it.

      If not, give it a chance. I think you might like it.

      44 votes
    18. TeenNick is only airing Henry Danger (I am not exaggerating)

      So, this is something I discovered last night that is just blowing my mind: for most of the past year, the channel TeenNick is showing only Henry Danger. I cannot emphasize how literal I am being...

      So, this is something I discovered last night that is just blowing my mind: for most of the past year, the channel TeenNick is showing only Henry Danger.

      I cannot emphasize how literal I am being with that. Usually "a channel is only showing X" is an exaggeration, but for once, no. As far as I can tell, 99% of TeenNick's programming has been Henry Danger or its spin-off, Danger Force, for the past year. At most, there are brief "respites" where it will have a block with another show. For example, from July 27 to 31, it aired Zoey 101 from 11 PM to 1 AM. Two hours late at night, and then back to Henry Danger. Similar story with some new Nickelodeon show called Erin & Aaron: it showed periodically starting on April 22, and was apparently last aired on July 4.

      Otherwise? Most days are JUST Henry Danger. Even Wikipedia lists Henry Danger and Danger Force as the only current shows. (Along with Nick News, which apparently only airs once a month.)

      This is just honestly stunning to me. For those unfamiliar with TeenNick, it's a sub-channel of Nickelodeon. As far as I can remember, it pretty much never had original programming, but would air reruns of mostly live-action shows from Nickelodeon (either older finished shows or currently airing), some older Nickelodeon cartoons (Hey Arnold and Rugrats), or shows picked up through syndication (namely Degrassi, and more recently America's Funniest Home Videos and Wipeout for some reason...?).

      What I'm saying is there is no reason for them to ONLY air this one, single show. It can't be blamed on any production issues, since it primarily airs reruns. TeenNick SHOULD have access to all the other shows from Nickelodeon's library, so it can't be a licensing issue either. As stated earlier, it aired episodes of a show that premiered this year on Nickelodeon. And Henry Danger is fairly recent, ending in 2020, so I don't know if it's a matter of residuals.

      The only reason I can think of is that they want to push people to get Paramount+. Except even with that logic, this channel is currently a waste of money. Henry Danger has a total of 128 half-hour episodes (though I think some are part of a one-hour special, so Wikipedia counts 121 episodes...?), so that's basically 5 days' worth of content before airing the same thing again. That's not enough to justify a dedicated channel—not for viewers or advertisers.

      From a cursory internet search, they average 66,000 viewers, with a peak of 99,000 on January 1, 2023. I can't imagine that would appeal to advertisers. I feel like the costs of running the channel outweigh any potential profits. This feels like it's just a money sink.

      I just... I can't wrap my head around it. What the heck??

      Anyone have any thoughts on this? Or just want to join me in boggling over this weirdness? This feels like it could be a symptom of cable's overall degradation (I've seen people comparing it to Cartoon Network's limited programming in recent years), but... It almost feels like this channel is being sabotaged? Deliberately set up for failure and closure? Just, I can't wrap my head around a year-long nonstop "marathon".

      56 votes
    19. Star Trek: Strange New Worlds S02E09 - "Subspace Rhapsody" Episode Discussion

      So, this was the big "musical episode" they hyped up for a few weeks. As not the biggest musical fan in the world (they can be fun to go see on occasion), this episode was a resounding "meh" for...

      So, this was the big "musical episode" they hyped up for a few weeks. As not the biggest musical fan in the world (they can be fun to go see on occasion), this episode was a resounding "meh" for me. It was basically just a novelty. The hip-hop Klingons were the funniest part though, wasn't expecting that...

      32 votes
    20. What happened to the light crime-comedy genre of the 2010s?

      Burn Notice, White Collar, Chuck, Psych... List probably goes on. Suits fits the mold in my head tonally (at least the earlier seasons), though less about action. Nowadays even the comedies are...

      Burn Notice, White Collar, Chuck, Psych... List probably goes on. Suits fits the mold in my head tonally (at least the earlier seasons), though less about action.

      Nowadays even the comedies are turning into serious drama than light pick-me-ups. So... let's talk about that? What happened? Do you miss them?

      48 votes
    21. The Witcher (Season 3)

      The final three episodes have dropped from the third season of Netflix' The Witcher adaptation - also marking the final appearance of series lead Henry Cavill. So I reckon it may be ripe for some...

      The final three episodes have dropped from the third season of Netflix' The Witcher adaptation - also marking the final appearance of series lead Henry Cavill. So I reckon it may be ripe for some discussion (assuming sufficient interest exists amongst the community here).

      So, despite previous misgivings after a baffling second season and disappointingly bland third seasons thus far, I jumped straight into this finale out of respect for the very fine turn by Mr Cavill throughout. For context, earlier in the day I finished off the third book, Baptism of Fire, during my current re-read so I'm well ahead on plot and had text fresh in head. In S3's favour, indeed, the show runner's claims of hewing closer to the books is actually quite fair. In broad strokes, they have captured every major plot point, and generally in the correct order. But that's also the problem in some respects - the writers are evidently only focused on doing a pure plot adaptation. The book chapters, for reference, are quite long - roughly 50 pages apiece - with only 7-10 of them per novel, and often feature a juxtaposition of several perspectives throughout (a feat Sapkowski becomes ever more skillful at over time). But the key thing that's lost in translation is that each chapter generally has a clear idea or thematic element that ties everything together, i.e., Sapkowski always has something he wants to say, an idea he wants to get across, some comment on war, family, human nature, etc., and this gives an extra richness that underpins the plot elements driving everything forward. Not only that, Sapkowski quite enjoys playing off traditional Fantasy / mythological tropes and conventions and this humour has been completely shed by the show writers - likely an intentional move given what has emerged about their purported disdain for the source material.

      In short, I feel the writers are adapting the plot without an understanding of what makes the Witcher stand apart from the sea of other fantasy fiction, and, as a consequence, all of their original additions only wind up a detriment to the storytelling. Nevertheless, it was genuinely nice to see a few certain scenes on screen.

      15 votes
    22. Futurama Season 8 Episode 1 discussion

      The first episode of the new season is out! What do you think of it? I thought it was pretty okay. It was too self - referential for me. It kept making too many "we're back" jokes but they kind of...

      The first episode of the new season is out! What do you think of it?

      I thought it was pretty okay. It was too self - referential for me. It kept making too many "we're back" jokes but they kind of did that the last time they were cancelled and brought back. They eased off those kind of jokes eventually the last time it happened.

      I was worried about how they would handle references to more modern things as "Attack of the killer App" was really painful to watch. But it seems like they handled it pretty decently.

      I'm slow, but it took me a while to realise that Scary Mirror as a replacement for Scary Door was a jab at Black Mirror.

      I didn't think the episode was very funny, but it wasn't bad either. What was good about it shows promise, so I'm hopeful.

      39 votes
    23. Star Trek: Strange New Worlds S02E05 - "Charades" Episode Discussion

      How did you guys feel about this one? There were some funny moments, like T'Pring's dad being shot down by the mom whenever he was enjoying himself. Not a fan of all the teen romance movie stuff...

      How did you guys feel about this one? There were some funny moments, like T'Pring's dad being shot down by the mom whenever he was enjoying himself. Not a fan of all the teen romance movie stuff that's in the newer Trek shows though.

      23 votes