TV you've just watched

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vol.2
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Re: TV you've just watched

Post by vol.2 »

Just watched the sixth season of Community. It was a lot funnier than I would've expected, and it had a surprising amount of new ideas for a show so long into production and missing so many stars.

I think the big jolt of energy was from Keith David, who I had no idea joined the cast for the last season. It was also fun to the occasional cameos; I don't think I've seen Steve Guttenberg's face in 20 years. Also I can't forget Martin Mull; he's got a small role, but I love seeing him do character acting.
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Air Master Burst
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Re: TV you've just watched

Post by Air Master Burst »

Partner and I are just finishing up Breaking Bad for the first time, and wow.

The first two seasons are fantastic entertainment, although I'm pretty sure we both turned to each other a few times and agreed that this was the absolute goofiest "prestige" show we've ever seen. Partner was actually into meth themselves in a past life, so they've been having a blast pointing out how inaccurately the meth users are portrayed. That one episode with the ATM had them HOWLING!

I don't remember the last thing I watched that jumped the shark this badly, but this show completely disappears up its own asshole about halfway through season 3 (basically after Hank's shootout, although it was dragging a bit before too). I'm about 4 episodes from the end and it's SUCH a slog. Season 3 starts this awful habit of constant endless brooding stage-style monologues that all sound the same (allegorical story told haltingly with emphasis on "random" mundane details and the occasional bemused chuckle) regardless of how the character normally speaks. I'm pretty sure 70% of seasons 4 and 5 are just long reaction shots of various characters dissociating.

There's still a lot to enjoy, though! The main cast's acting is great across the board, the directing is usually solid (although the early seasons have some hilariously obvious breathing corpses because they insisted on too long of a take for the poor extras trying to hold their breath), the practical effects are great when something finally DOES happen, and anything involving Saul's crew of idiots or Badger and Skinny Pete discussing Babylon 5 is pure gold.

Random thoughts:

They really tried hard to soften Hank's character up in the later seasons, but he was such a typical bigoted asshole cop in the first couple it's impossible to ever root for him.

The hoops the directors had to jump through to try and make old man Mike seem like a tough badass were truly impressive, because it seems the actor could barely manage a light jog.

It's hilarious how badly this show gets Crash style everything-is-connected small world syndrome. I think this hit the point of no return somewhere around the plane crash and never looked back.

I'm not going in on the orange Mexico filter because I'm sure it's been memed to death already, but lol.
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SuperPang
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Re: TV you've just watched

Post by SuperPang »

Air Master Burst wrote: The hoops the directors had to jump through to try and make old man Mike seem like a tough badass were truly impressive, because it seems the actor could barely manage a light jog.
Just wait until you see Better Call Saul.
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BIL
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Re: TV you've just watched

Post by BIL »

Mike is Current Year Charles Bronson, if Chuck never dieded, and instead went on to film Death Wish XVIII: Hard Times II ~ My Walker I Just Beat A Man To Death With Is Actually Several Pipebombs. :cool: (directed by a similarly revenant Michael Winner - just without all the rape!)

You guys might love Better Call Saul, AMB! I cracked up at the same stuff from BB you mention, and BCS largely runs with that. Even the stuff re: DROGAS is more fun than BB's equivalents imo, mostly for sexy beast Lalo. :cool:
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Air Master Burst
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Re: TV you've just watched

Post by Air Master Burst »

BIL wrote:Mike is Current Year Charles Bronson, if Chuck never dieded
The difference is that Bronson was hard as a fucking rock for most of his life, while Jonathan Banks spent most of his looking like someone's boring accountant uncle.

Super looking forward to Better Call Saul, although if Breaking Bad doesn't stick the landing we might not bother with the movie.
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BIL
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Re: TV you've just watched

Post by BIL »

Hence "Current Year" :wink:

Sounds like you don't need to bother with El Camino; I liked it, but it's basically a couple episodes of the TV show, very much in turbo-brooding mode. Best feature, by far, was Robert Forster as Ed The Disappearer, who brings out a bit of that old S1/2 Jesse, to boot.
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Post by NYN »

Air Master Burst wrote:Random thoughts:

They really tried hard to soften Hank's character up in the later seasons, but he was such a typical bigoted asshole cop in the first couple it's impossible to ever root for him.
Huh. Wha happend? Soft? Hard? Was it Marie's tug-job, so his groundhog could see his shadow again? Or the everlasting comeback: "How many times do I have to tell you?! They're not rocks! They're MINERALS!!" sitcom-laughter Or that he is the only cuss-hole in the show who owns his actions, in regards to the Pinkman mauling?
I wonder.

I am still not sure if the Whiteman character redeemed himself at the end. If it could be possible. From zero to top hole, what a pinhead. Still, impressive how they would go to such lenghts, to sour any audience on this creep. The 'merican Nightmare in the flesh.
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Re: TV you've just watched

Post by GaijinPunch »

That one episode with the ATM had them HOWLING!
Fun fact: The actor that played Spooge (the character who met his demise with said ATM) is actually kind of a weeb and speaks really fucking good Japanese.
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Air Master Burst
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Re: TV you've just watched

Post by Air Master Burst »

Just finished up the finale, and the big finish was so poorly directed I can't even.
Spoiler
Walt managing to shoot himself with the trunk gun was fine in theory, but he was down on the floor and when they did the slow pan across the aftermath there were VERY CLEARLY NO BULLET HOLES DOWN THERE!
Otherwise it was more of the same slow, grim slog of fantastically acted brooding. This show used to be FUN! Remember Danny Trejo and the turtle? I want that show back! At least Badger and Skinny Pete got one last scene in, I hope they show up more in Better Call Saul.
BIL wrote:Best feature, by far, was Robert Forster as Ed The Disappearer, who brings out a bit of that old S1/2 Jesse, to boot.
He was fun in his Breaking Bad episode, although his fee of 125k is laughably small.
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Re: TV you've just watched

Post by xxx1993 »

Watched the Power Rangers special Once and Always. Thuy Trang and Jason David Frank would have been proud.
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vol.2
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Re: TV you've just watched

Post by vol.2 »

Watched Russian Doll on Netflix.

It was alright, but maybe not as good as the reviews made it out to be. It's basically the movie Groundhog Day set in a fictionalized NYC, but with a couple added elements that feel lifted from a STTNG episode. The characterizations are well done, and they remind me of what NY used to feel like and that made me kind of sad. So I guess it did something right. Then again, it's supposed to be contemporary, and it feels like it's existing in the past, so that's a little weird too; it's forced nostalgia or something. The last few episodes are also kind of weak; I think they ran out of gas or ideas, or both.
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SuicideShow
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Re: TV you've just watched

Post by SuicideShow »

I'm watching The X-Files at the moment.
So far i'm at Season S09E04.
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Air Master Burst
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Re: TV you've just watched

Post by Air Master Burst »

Barry pulled the same shit as Breaking Bad and disappeared up its own asshole. The moment it jumped the shark was the start of season 3 when:
Spoiler
The old army buddy Barry saved during his big backstory incident shows up as the fucking FBI agent who just HAPPENS to coincidentally be the guy assigned to investigate the murders he's responsible for. This small world shit was hard enough to believe in fucking Albequerque; but in LOS ANGELES?
Kind of a shame, I really enjoyed the first couple seasons (it hit closer to home than expected in places). For season 3 they basically just gave up on the whole "second chances" theme in favor of an overarching "mentally disabled combat veterans are a bunch of violent psychopaths" stereotype that is incredibly disappointing. Now in season 4, it seems like they realized that was fucked up and are leaning instead into "actually he might just be autistic," but somehow that's even MORE insulting.

Apparently prestige TV is really hard to write consistently. Please, PLEASE let my precious Yellowjackets stick the landing!
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Air Master Burst
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Re: TV you've just watched

Post by Air Master Burst »

So, Otter Dynasty on HBO Max.

Holy fucking shit these otters are fucking hardcore!

So basically they show nature footage of Singapore otters with scripted voice-overs telling a VERY DRAMATIC account of a three-way war between three otter kingdoms. It alternates deathly serious first-person narration between two otter queens and jumping jesus on a pogo stick are they fucking badasses. All the children have names like Alfie and Sylvie, and the mother queens say the most ruthless shit about, like, how worthless one of them is for getting too fat to make a jump or some shit. They get even nastier when talking about each other (the one killed the other's former queen mom and all her siblings and she's spawned a revenge army of children soldiers in exile, so yeah), with the exiled princess repeatedly going off about how soft the other queen's children are for being raised spoiled.

Meanwhile they repeatedly show all of these otters interacting with humans and, like, eating McDonalds scraps and shit. They make turtles and birds out to be spies. It's fucking wild!
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Re: TV you've just watched

Post by GaijinPunch »

Watched Barry and Succession all the way through. I enjoyed Barry this season... it lost a lot of humor, but I've been following Bill Hader on the podcast circuit where he talks quite a bit about the direction it took. Don't agree w/ Air Master Burst's take, but to each their own. I love that Hader has continually questioned people who shat on the Sally character (that had her own issues) when compared to Barry who "killed people -- and was not a good guy". There will never be a Noho Hank again, sadly. One of a kind character.

Succession ironically was pretty complex but as everyone is a cunt in that show, you never know how they're going to change from minute to minute. So, not super surprised w/ how things turned out. Hard not to watch that show at any scene and say, "why not just take your billion dollars and chill the fuck out for your remaining 50 years?" But yeah, amazing writing and acting as well.

The switch to Max was fucking ridiculous. The old app was better. In that regard I'm highly confused.
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Air Master Burst
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Re: TV you've just watched

Post by Air Master Burst »

GaijinPunch wrote:There will never be a Noho Hank again, sadly. One of a kind character.
The goofy mobsters in Barry reminded me a lot of the russian crime family in Delocated. You'd probably enjoy it!

ETA: Glenn Fleshler plays basically the same character in both shows.
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Re: TV you've just watched

Post by MOSQUITO FIGHTER »

Just finished the Mike Tyson series on Hulu. I thought it was really well done.
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GaijinPunch
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Re: TV you've just watched

Post by GaijinPunch »

Air Master Burst wrote:
GaijinPunch wrote:There will never be a Noho Hank again, sadly. One of a kind character.
The goofy mobsters in Barry reminded me a lot of the russian crime family in Delocated. You'd probably enjoy it!
I'll check it out... got quite a queue right now though - real life be fucking me. Yellow Jackets is on there, but no Showtime ATM.
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Re: TV you've just watched

Post by BryanM »

Did anyone enjoy the new season of Black Mirror? I read the synopses, and nothing really got me interested. It's like they're out of ideas and went "eh throw some vampires and wizards in there" like a Jason X-style flagging horror franchise.

I did really like that the player's avatar in one is basically the "pool's closed" guy, though.

Was there ever one based on bioelectricity? The system our body uses to organize its shape, the primary current research avenue of regenerating limbs? There's a whole well of ideas to explore there, about fixing body defects, beauty, turning yourself into a kitty for fun, and of course I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream body horror type stuff.

The show's been a great well for memes about current events. Fifteen Million Merits is basically a utopian outcome, the natural inevitable extrapolation of current society and its terminal values.
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Re: TV you've just watched

Post by neorichieb1971 »

I binged black mirror s6.

There seems to be this running theme where Netflix is in the shows and called "Streamberry", at least in ep1 and ep2.

I noticed that one episode was like American Werewolf in London and there were other bits and pieces that seem borrowed from other places. Also the futureistic tech theme seems to have lost its place as the primary driver of the show. S6 plays out more like some kind of Twiglight zone season.

S4 was my favourite overall. So use that as some kind of guidance of which ones I like the most. I'd give S6 about a 7/10 at best. In S6 the most annoying episode being the one in space, since I predicted the whole plotline ahead of time from about 10 mins in. My favourite was probably Ep2, since it felt quite refreshing in a way and the ending was unpredictable.


In other news...

No escape - Paramount plus

Bunch of kids get on boat, find a fortune.. more to it than that.. Most of it filmed in the Philippines so I watched it for that reason as I married to the country. Don't know where its going yet.. But it seems to jump around a bit in the story.. You could say there is a lot bad luck in this story..lol.


Colony - Netflix (but I believe its going to be dropped)

OMG.. its ok and I'm almost done with all 3 seasons. The main family I can't stand. Its that type of family that gets help where they can find it, then blow that place up, then when their children aren't impacted they thank God, then they get in a pickle, drop another family under the bus.. their own family gets saved, they thank God again.. hugs and kisses. I call this the Fast and Furious story board. Where millions can die as long as nobody in their friends or family die its all OK, get the wine glasses out.

Basic plotline is that Aliens take over the world, use humans as a labor force for the end needs. More to it than that. S1 is like cops and robbers in V. S2 is like unravelling some Alien mysteries. S3 is trying to survive outside of the colonies. Main characters get a bit of plot protection.

Another 7 from me.
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Re: TV you've just watched

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Whitehouse Plumbers.

Good but I want to go down a rabbit hole to see how accurate it was (or wasn't). Big fan of Woody and Trudeaux.
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Re: TV you've just watched

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Ah yes, my life is complete. Image New contestant "GOOD DEED DAVE" used Hambubger's Gambit on Chris Hansen's new show! For my less depraved friends, this is when you claim you couldn't possibly have been caught in the commission of a sex crime... because your dick doesn't work. Image DUDE LMAO :shock:

AINT NO WOMAN IN THE WORLD THAT CAN GIVE ME A HARD-ON Image

Upon mine own grave: NOBODY does junkfood ritual humiliation TV like Burgerland. Image Utter nihilistic destruction is what I want to see (■`w´■)
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Re: TV you've just watched

Post by neorichieb1971 »

Silo -

Imagine Zion in Matrix, but nobody knows whats outside and has no basic understanding of what life was like before everyone was couped up in a Silo. 10000 inhabitants, 140 years of living in an underground bunker. Items that predate the bunker/silo are called relics and are illegal. But some relics might unlock the reason they are there and why they cannot go outside.

Silo is one of my favourite shows of recent memory. I love a good mystery and this delivers. 10 eps so far.

Folk i've recommended it to have enjoyed it as well. Its a good 8.5/10.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt14688458/



Hijack -

A plane from Dubai to London gets hijacked. My friend plays an extra in a non talking part so I watched it to see him in it. Its quite good, but so far nothing has happened that hasn't been done in any other hijack movie. Its a weekly episode thing and 3 are out so far, I watched 2 so far. Recommended if you like hijack type shows. Also on apple. Apple seem to have some good shows lately.
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Re: TV you've just watched

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neorichieb1971 wrote:Apple seem to have some good shows lately.
I remember enjoying "Home Before Dark" but can highly recommend "The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey"
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Re: TV you've just watched

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Veronica Mars season 4 (2019).

I had no idea this existed. Aimed toward a more grown-up audience, the father/daughter banter is just as good as in the original series.
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vol.2
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Re: TV you've just watched

Post by vol.2 »

emphatic wrote:Veronica Mars season 4 (2019).

I had no idea this existed. Aimed toward a more grown-up audience, the father/daughter banter is just as good as in the original series.
Neither did I. Remember liking the series, but I would probably have to rewatch it at this point to know what the hell was going on.
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Re: TV you've just watched

Post by To Far Away Times »

Been watching a bit of Star Trek DS9. I'm surprised how good it is. The quality seems to pick up right where Star Trek TNG left off. No early season struggles and the casting is on point. It could never match the TNG cast because that's an impossible standard, but they did a great job with the characters. I also like that there's a little bit more of a continuing story while still having self contained episodes. They definitely tried to build off the strengths of the later seasons of TNG.
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Re: TV you've just watched

Post by Necronopticous »

neorichieb1971 wrote:Silo -

Imagine Zion in Matrix, but nobody knows whats outside and has no basic understanding of what life was like before everyone was couped up in a Silo. 10000 inhabitants, 140 years of living in an underground bunker. Items that predate the bunker/silo are called relics and are illegal. But some relics might unlock the reason they are there and why they cannot go outside.

Silo is one of my favourite shows of recent memory. I love a good mystery and this delivers. 10 eps so far.

Folk i've recommended it to have enjoyed it as well. Its a good 8.5/10.
I loved the book trilogy this is based on! Enjoyed the first season of this adaptation, and there is a lot of cool shit to come. Without spoiling anything, I will just say that I have seen a lot of concern from viewers that this is going to turn into a Lost type situation where they just keep making shit up and never answering any of the questions in a satisfying way, and I can at least 100% confirm that is not the case. I hope more people discover the show! Looks like they are already working on S2, but I would be heartbroken if it gets cancelled before they can finish the story.
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Post by NYN »

Arrived at True Detective Season 2, Ep1. Aware that the peepholes dismissed this somehow after the "brilliant" Season1. As long as it isn't a re-hash of the former, including the flaws, I remain open. Produce own flaws, please. Messed-up and true human beings right there, the horror. The Drunk, The Frigid, and the Impotent. Aah, the Golden Ages are supposedly over, them say. Right over there!
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Re: TV you've just watched

Post by cj iwakura »

vol.2 wrote: Sun Apr 23, 2023 2:58 am Watched Russian Doll on Netflix.

It was alright, but maybe not as good as the reviews made it out to be. It's basically the movie Groundhog Day set in a fictionalized NYC, but with a couple added elements that feel lifted from a STTNG episode. The characterizations are well done, and they remind me of what NY used to feel like and that made me kind of sad. So I guess it did something right. Then again, it's supposed to be contemporary, and it feels like it's existing in the past, so that's a little weird too; it's forced nostalgia or something. The last few episodes are also kind of weak; I think they ran out of gas or ideas, or both.
That was how I felt. Nothing special overall, but Natasha Lyonne basically carries it on her back.
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