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What is the last Television series you watched?


Jay

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4 episodes in on Stranger Things. Enjoying it but not as good as people were making it out to be. 

 

The "music" is absolutely awful. Sounds like they opened Garrage Band, selected an 80s sounding synth, put the arpeggios on, and held down one note. 

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On 11/18/2016 at 9:57 PM, Hawmy said:

Somewhere in the third season of Space Ghost Coast to Coast. I get the feeling that a lot of people on here wouldn't like it, but I do.

Ah that's a classic. Used to watch it late nights on Cartoon Network. 

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The Grand Tour (series 1, episode 1)

 

Starts with a prologue featuring Jeremy Clarkson in a grey and rainy England, audio of the radio broadcast announcing his termination of contract after decades of working for the BBC. He heads to sunny and bright America and is greeted by his rental car, the new Ford GT. He is then reunited with his two mates, driving even flasher cars and head out into the desert in a display of visual spectacle that, however brief makes the automotive visuals of even Mad Mad: Fury Road looks small and insignificant.

 

Top Gear is dead, long live The Grand Tour!

 

It's clear that Amazon has poured a lot of money into this, more than the BBC could ever have responsibly put into Top Gear, even though it was their biggest and most visual dazzling show.

Now bigger isnt always better. But with this format. It can actually work.

 

In 2002 Jeremy Clarkson and producer Andy Wilman did just that. Take an old car show that had been running since the 70's and made it bigger, faster, more exciting. More humorous. And judging from the first episode of this new show it seems they are doing that again.

 

Despite the new format The Grand Tour actually stays very close to the spirit of Top Gear, as much as they can legally. And Jezza, Hammo and Captain Slow have a little fun with the elements they can't use anymore. (no Stig, no Star In A Reasonably Priced Car)

 

For the most part this first episode actually just shows off the new format, the tent that will go all around the world. A new race track (in England) that seems harder and edgier than the Top Gear circuit. The main topic is actually a hold over from the last (proper) series of Top Gear. A speed challenge between the McLaren P1 and the Porsche 918, which was promised back then but didnt happen because of the fracas.

 

So despite this being an all-new show it feels reassuringly familiar. The 3 presenters do what they have been doing for well over a decade, and do it with a slight sense of reinvigorated energy and loads of confidence. Since this trio was the main reason why Top Gear became such a huge international hit (over 300 million viewers world wide) you can see why Amazon chose to bank this to promote their streaming service.

Also because of these three presenters, and the fact that quite a lot of the behind the scenes crew seems to have joined them on Amazon, The Grand Tour, despite being funded by an American conglomerate remains very British in it's feel.

 

Downsides?

Hard to say at this moment. Parts of it dragged a little. Probably because it's essentially a pilot and they spent a lot of time going through the new format.

The Stig was a brilliant creation which will be hard to replace. The American (their new racing driver) is a funny idea but I'm not sure if it really work.

But these are minor niggles so far.

 

I'll be tuning in next week!

 

 

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On 11/20/2016 at 3:13 PM, Bilbo Skywalker said:

4 episodes in on Stranger Things. Enjoying it but not as good as people were making it out to be. 

 

The "music" is absolutely awful. Sounds like they opened Garrage Band, selected an 80s sounding synth, put the arpeggios on, and held down one note. 

Indeed!

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Just now, Not Mr. Big said:

Indeed!

One episode left and I'm not sure I'd bother with the second season when it comes out. 

 

I ciuld just rewatch ET and the Goonies. 

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2 minutes ago, Bilbo Skywalker said:

One episode left and I'm not sure I'd bother with the second season when it comes out. 

 

I ciuld just rewatch ET and the Goonies. 

Same.  Pop culture has ruined the first season enough for me to skip the second season and any rewatchings altogether.  Plus the score is so awful that it gives the show an air of missed opportunity.

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1 hour ago, Not Mr. Big said:

Same.  Pop culture has ruined the first season enough for me to skip the second season and any rewatchings altogether.  Plus the score is so awful that it gives the show an air of missed opportunity.

The show could've featured a nice throwback score. Instead people seemed enamored by the minimalist diddlings. Great show, lost potential for a great score...

 

======================================================================================================================

I've just gone through Black Mirror - a series by Charlie Brooker.

The show offers a bleak albeit humorous outlook on the future and how new technologies lend a whole barrage of ethical questions and consequences concerning their use. It's an anthology show much in the same way and feel to The Twilight Zone, so each episode is self-contained but have the potential to exist in the same universe. I would say for the most part I "enjoyed" three seasons. I say enjoyed mostly because the episodes made me think of larger real-world questions and had some great stories, but some episodes were downright grim and terrifying, just an overbearing sense of dread that spirals you into crippling depression. Clint Mansell provided the score for an episode in the third season which was supportive of the episode, but nothing spectacular.

 

In some aspects, it works in a similar fashion to Doctor Who - some really interesting concepts which ultimately become more important than the story, which can either be a great thing, or something that really squanders re-watchability.

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So I just got Netflix after having a cable internet installed. So here's a question, why do YouTube videos in HD look better than than Netflix videos in HD?

 

I've found that the best YT vids look sharp, crystal clear and almost blu-ray quality.

 

But I watched the first episode of House of Cards and peaked at a few other shows, and I couldn't help noticing it wasn't quite as good as videos I've watched on YT. On Netflix, it looks lossy and compressed. I mean it's still watchable, but not ideal. I dunno.

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There could be two causes for that 

 

1. Your smart TV isn't a good Netflix player

2. Your cable provider is specifically throttling Netflix traffic 

 

The Netflix shows are filmed with high quality cameras and saved at high resolution (4K) and absolutely should look great -  they don't skimp on quality. 

 

Try using a computer in your house to stream a Netflix show and see how it compares to your Smart TV output. 

 

Also try googling your cable provider to see if they're known for throttling Netflix

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8 hours ago, Jay said:

There could be two causes for that 

 

1. Your smart TV isn't a good Netflix player

2. Your cable provider is specifically throttling Netflix traffic 

 

The Netflix shows are filmed with high quality cameras and saved at high resolution (4K) and absolutely should look great -  they don't skimp on quality. 

 

Try using a computer in your house to stream a Netflix show and see how it compares to your Smart TV output. 

 

Also try googling your cable provider to see if they're known for throttling Netflix

 

My ISP Telstra, has a huge stake in Foxtel, our leading cable TV provider. So there's probably some kind of agenda going on there. Because the Netflix quality we get doesn't measure up to the HD cable TV quality we get either.

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Tried the pilot of Netflix's The Crown. Zimmer and crew's bass-pumping, horn-blaring theme/score is a strange choice for a show like this... :blink:

 

Black Mirror S03E06 Hated In The Nation

 

A worthy finale to a very strong season overall. It's an inventive police procedural-style take on The Birdsdesigned for the times we live in. This is some fine television.

 

 

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There's a new chief villain in this year's Walking Dead and I can't f*****g stand the sight of him. Literally the single most annoying character I've seen on tv during this "golden age" period we are otherwise enjoying, and the fact that the same actor played The Comedian in Watchmen means he's probably ruined that film for me forever. I think I'm going to have to retire this one at long last, or at least sit it out until Rick (annoying character number 2) or Daryl has dispatched "Negan", as is oh surely bound to happen eventually. The excruciating feeling of going through the motions getting to that point will be too much for me to bear without resisting the urge to put my fist through the screen first. TV wasn't meant to be this arduous, life's too short. 

 

How about a nice easy sitcom for a change! 

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Bojack Horseman.  All of it.  The entire fucking show.

 

There are very, very few tv shows, films, or even books that hit me that hard.  Sometimes, you finish a movie and say "wow, I feel like shit now."

 

And then there's the Requiem for a Dream/House of Sand and Fog level of "I'm just going to stare blankly at the screen for the next few hours."  Bojack Horseman joins that pantheon, and, remarkably, does it while still being alarmingly successful as a comedy as well.  Quite a few jokes easily rank among the best-executed I've seen in any medium.  It's a show that takes the Scrubs technique of emotional manipulation and then attaches it to a rocket ship...one of those SpaceX rocket ships that can go up and then come back down, but also crash fairly often.  Without spoiling exact details, there's a new endpoint on the scale of "how heartbreaking is it, on a scale from vaguely sad to RFAD?" and that is the penultimate episode of any Bojack season.  S1E11 - Downer Ending.  (That's not a spoiler, it's the episode title).  S2E11 - Well, Bojack's hit a new low.  S3E11 - That's Too Much, Man! (Again, episode title, but seriously - that's too much, man.)

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Been meaning to give that a whirl for a little while now, or ever since noticing it mentioned here and then having Netflix spam it on their front page every time I switch it on. I think it's going to be one I must try alone though, which is why I haven't gotten around to it yet. Plus the animation style doesn't naturally appeal to me, but I can probably get past that if the content itself is superior. 

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Don't let the animation style fool you Lee. It's really a powerful piece of work. The first few episodes mislead you with its crass jokes before it begins to reveal its darker heart. Each season pushes the boundaries farther than the last, but as Gnome pointed out, it balances all the gloom out with some genuinely hilarious, and well thought out humour. This is real Golden Age stuff.

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I thought I watch Roman Empire: Reign Of Blood on Netflix, but there are constantly historians talking in between the scenes. I stopped watching. If I want to see a docu, I want it without dramatized film scenes. Or vice versa.

 

Netflix-estocolmo-roman-empire-la-cocina

 

Alex

 

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That's what has put me off it too and I didnt bother watching it once I found out it was a mix. I was expecting a Rome style tv show but it turned out to be a docu-drama.

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51 minutes ago, Bilbo Skywalker said:

I was expecting a Rome style tv show but it turned out to be a docu-drama.

 

Me too!

 

48 minutes ago, Stefancos said:

Docu-drama?

 

Urgh...

 

Indeed!

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Finally got to finish my From the Earth to the Moon boxset, episodes covering Apollo's 14-17. Initially I was not a fan of the final episode but it's changed since then. Maddening that we as a race haven't been back or beyond since. At least that was a feeling that arose during the 'interviews' interspersing the episode and then, the playing of Kennedy's Rice University speech over the images of the landing sites of 11-12, 14-17.

 

Brilliant, right down to Pete Conrad.

 

 

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2 hours ago, Quintus said:

Plus a split-second of Silicon Valley, which I think remained brilliant so far (I know you thought it dropped off a little). 

 

The saviours of winter, indeed.

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Why not simply watch the 75 second video and see for yourself? 

 

There were a lot of new shows in there, with some big actors. 

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19 hours ago, Jay said:

Why not simply watch the 75 second video and see for yourself? 

 

There were a lot of new shows in there, with some big actors. 

 

The trailer's flashiness doesn't make me any wiser. It doesn't fill my heart with anticipation! I was hoping that someone heard of some really promising good news and was willing to share it with us.

 

Alexandre

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I've been watching the Flash recently. This show is sooo cheesy. I love it. I feel like I'm watching the classic Batman. It's obviously not the exact same, but the campiness of the show is fun. It's fun to watch, just to listen to the terrible science explanations and the really bad one liners. 

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