What is the last Television series you watched?

[bollemanneke 3,342]

Just finished the 9th season of The BIg Bang Theory. I mostly still like the characters, though I don't support the way they're developing Sheldon. It's just so out-of-character for him to ask Amy to marry him, or to even love Amy. He's too self-centred for that and I doubt he understands love. At first the new brother-sister relationship between him and Penny also sort of bothered me, but now I think it's kind of sweet. Raj and his women antics are really annoying, though I love him when he's doing other stuff.

[Quintus 5,399]

I like where they're going with Sheldon actually, it's nice to see him finally develop in some social capacity. He has an arc.

 

Raj suddenly being a player is bullshit though. His relationship with the auburn haired girl was painfully awkward, those two had zero chemistry between them and the whole storyline was unbelievable. I actually felt embarrassed for the actress. The new blonde love interest fares better, thankfully. They wrote her an instantly more likeable character. 

 

I'm just relieved they didn't continue on with the closet gay narrative they were once intent on him being. 

 

 

[bollemanneke 3,342]

The thing that bothers me about the auburn-haired girl is that there was never any reason why he should suddenly want to break up with her. She was insane and all, but since when is he the choosy womaniser? He used to be so desperate I thought he'd settle for everyone. I'm also a little afraid that Howard being a dad will lead to even less non-relationship:related moments.

[Quintus 5,399]

About 5 episodes of Crazy Ex Girlfriend in the bag now and I'm still enjoying its sharp wit, cheesy warmth and insightful smarts. The infrequent songs one would have every right to think they would ruin it, but they're great! 

 

In the video below, the main character's employer is telling her why he loves his little daughter in a non creepy way, via song:

 

 

Straight out of South Park? This brand of humour is probably why I'm watching this show for chicks. 

 

[nightscape94 965]

Justified

 

Getting through season 5 right now.  Really good with sharp dialogue inspired by Elmore Leonard.  There are some moments where the seasonal story arcs feel a bit scripted/planned, but the main character Raylan Givens is really something.

 

[Quintus 5,399]

Tonight I'm going to give The Man in the High Castle a try. Only found out about it last night. 

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

Does Alex like it???

[Quintus 5,399]

[KK 3,307]

Pilot was sort of promising. But it's really 2nd tier stuff. Doesn't live up to the premise. Feels like a TV movie that outstays it's welcome.

[publicist 4,643]

Narcos S2

 

Doesn't reach S1's lofty heights but still has cracking individual scenes. Like many multi season-series, its virtues are also its undoing: there's a fine line between giving the characters and proceedings time to breathe and indulgent redundancies (how often do we need a shot of a character contemplating his fate while gazing thoughtfully out of a window, or like here, how many brutal mass killings to get that latin america was no fun to live in in the 80's and 90's?), but all things considered i loved the approach.

 

The laconic CIA agent throwing away cynical comments at not only the situation at hand but also US foreign policies gave it a certain Le Carré scope and they might have utilized this much more to condense the redundant parts of the decades-long cat and mouse game of Escobar vs. the colombian authorities to just these montage vignettes. Immense binge-watching factor here.

[A24 4,331]

I still have to start watching S2 of Narcos. 

[Quintus 5,399]

9 hours ago, KK said:

Pilot was sort of promising. But it's really 2nd tier stuff. Doesn't live up to the premise. Feels like a TV movie that outstays it's welcome.

 

Stranger Things is 2nd tier too. 

 

I've only watched the pilot and it was pure pulp. I wasn't expecting that. I suppose I'd assumed a TV show like this as made today would be gravely serious and probably rather grim. But it actually has more in common with Star Wars and Indiana Jones - Saturday morning serials. That took some readjustment from me, but I'd say I was just the right amount of intrigued when it finished. It's cheesy matinee (the dialogue is ham) and I'll watch the next one to see how it goes from there. Non committal is easy when the choice is so broad these days. 

 

Anyway, speaking of intrigue, the early twist in the story's setup was the precise moment I was ensnared for at least the remainder of the hour runtime. Because it suddenly made me go, hmmmmmm, I wasn't expecting that. Interesting... 

 

A quick Google summary is that Man in the High Castle is a what if story in which the Allies lost World War II and the US is under shared Japanese and Nazi rule. Straightforward sci-fi then, and what I was expecting as it started. But only 15 mins in and one of the lead character's is secretly and desperately given a small collection of film reels by her sister, who is part of, yes you guessed it, the resistance. She pleads with her uninvolved sister to watch them and keep them safe before legging it. So later in the next scene we see her alone and setting up an old (illegal) projector, sitting to watch whatever mystery lies on the film. What she is shown is an amateurishly edited montage of actual news footage of victory in Europe, including the fall of the Reich in Germany and the famous Japanese surrender on board the US battleship - all footage we're familiar with but which instantly turns the girl's idea of reality on its head.

 

It must be some sort of big cover up! 

 

So that was a rather brilliant idea I thought. It immediately subverted my expectations and that is why I'll give this show a chance. 

 

 

[Jay 37,346]

 

[Jay 37,346]

Is this basically visual ASMR?

 

Netflix just began airing Slow TV

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

Yes!

[A24 4,331]

For us Europeans, this is nothing new. In fact, like Bob Ross, it's older than ASMR. 

 

 

 

 

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

Indeed!

[Quintus 5,399]

Neil deGrasse Tyson in Cosmos has currently replaced David Attenborough's AMSR qualities for me. 

[Naïve Old Fart 9,515]

A bit late, I know, but I have just started watching HOUSE OF CARDS.

Wow! Smart, sassy, funny, and intelligent... and that's just the first ten minutes! Oh, and a psychopathic dog-killer. I can't wait for episode two 

[Jay 37,346]

We've seen all four seasons.  The quality drops significantly after Season 2.

[Naïve Old Fart 9,515]

Oh, dear  Is it still worth watching?

[Jay 37,346]

Absolutely

[Naïve Old Fart 9,515]

That's alright, then 

[Disco Stu 15,495]

I finally sat down to watch Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell this week.

 

I'm a huge fan of the book, it's probably my favorite novel published this century.  The miniseries is probably about as good an adaptation as you could reasonably hope for of what is essentially an unadaptable book.  Some really good performances and memorable effects.

[Quintus 5,399]

4 hours ago, Jay said:

We've seen all four seasons.  The quality drops significantly after Season 2.

 

Thor's gonna unfriend you for this. 

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

That's like saying the last season of The Thick Of It isnt as good!

[Jay 37,346]

It's simply more compelling to watch Frank Underwood

 

trying to become president

than

 

being President

 

 

Also, I'm not a fan that literally every season, they

kill off a major Season 1 character

[KK 3,307]

What I miss most is how much Frank confides in and toys with the audience (breaking the fourth wall). That was virtually non-existent in the 3rd season and reduced to superficial comments here and there in the 4th season.

[Jay 37,346]

Yea, that too.

Beau Willimon left the show after Season 4; I wonder what the new showrunners will do next year

[Naïve Old Fart 9,515]

Just watched HOC S1 E2. That Underwood bitch just fired her partner of 10 years. Bitch! This is getting good 

[Jay 37,346]

Oh you ain't seen nothin' yet!  Plenty of backstabbing to come

[Quintus 5,399]

The Man in the High Castle episode 2 was better than the first! 

[bollemanneke 3,342]

I just finished The Simpsons, season 8. It's still my favourite season, mostly because of the nanny episode, but what's really bothering me this time is how they seem to be doggedly determined to end every single episode on a 'this episode never happened' note. It's always the same problem: good set-ups that are quickly discarded/badly handled towards the ending. Especially The beginning of season 9 suffers form this problem: suddenly principal Skinner isn't Skinner anymore, but they literally end the episode by stating that no one can ever mention the storyline again. What have they got against evolution?

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

It's a cartoon!

[Wojo 2,453]

If the Simpsons was more serialized, shouldn't Bart be a father of his own by now? It's similar to South Park. You just tell funny stories with these characters frozen in time. That's the advantage that animation permits. 

[Naïve Old Fart 9,515]

Frank has just blotted his copy book by shagging Zoe Barnes. 

Man, this is gonna be good!

[Marian Schedenig 8,191]

Caught up with Black Sails Am I glad I gave this another chance! It takes a long time to get going (nearly the whole first season), but once it did, it quickly turned out to be the best pirate thing I've seen since Monkey Island and Polanski's Pirates. Though of course much more serious and gritty than those.

[bollemanneke 3,342]

I don't mind the frozen-in-time thing in the Simpsons. For obvious reasons, you have to keep Bart a little child. But it's just stupid to set up a storyline and then totally abandon it. Consider:

- Marge is stressed out and needs a nanny. Ending: Marge suddenly loves her stress, bye-bye nanny.

- Skinner is someone else. Ending: no one gives a shit anymore.

- Sideshow Bob becomes a better man. Ending: No one cares, we'll imprison him for the hell of it.

That's just lame story-telling.

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

That's how TV was back in those days though

[Wojo 2,453]

Well at least when they killed Flanders' wife, she stayed dead. When Lisa became vocally vegetarian, she kept up the fight. 

[BloodBoal 7,538]

[bollemanneke 3,342]

Yeah well Maud's death wasn't that great either, what did she do?

[Quintus 5,399]

I'm definitely going to give Black Sails a try. That, and Vikings. 

[Naïve Old Fart 9,515]

Now Underwood's just gone down on Zoe Barnes.

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

Spoilers!

[Naïve Old Fart 9,515]

The only thing he spoiled was her knickers.

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

Does she die? Like Natty in the original show?

[Marian Schedenig 8,191]

1 hour ago, Quintus said:

I'm definitely going to give Black Sails a try. That, and Vikings. 

 

Vikings is high on my list, but I'm not diving into yet another series straight away.

4 hours ago, BloodBoal said:

 

So, how about that awesome "Holy fuck!" moment in the season 1 finale?

 

I didn't like it at the time. It turned Flint from a flawed but sympathetic character to a seemingly irredeemable one. One of the strengths of the excellent second season was that it managed to remedy that.

 

4 hours ago, BloodBoal said:

The season 2 finale wasn't so bad either (though one major event happened way earlier in the show than I thought it would

  Reveal hidden contents

(John Silver losing his leg. Didn't expect this to happen as soon as season 2!))

 

That reminds me I still haven't watched Season 3... Might fix that soon!

 

One of the series most positively powerful moments for me was the

Flint/Thomas Hamilton revelation

in season 2.

 

The season 3 finale has its share of cool bits. Including one that I'd been waiting for for quite a while.

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

In honour of Star Trek's birthday I watched The Way Of The Warrior. the season 4 opener of Deep Space Nine, which functions more or less as a second pilot for the show.

Really an excellent script/story based on the universal idea of paranoia, and how it makes people and especially governments behave.

Sisko is finally bald, there are the usual excellent character scenes and Worf makes a fine addition to this motley crew of misfits.

 

[Quintus 5,399]

I said I wasn't going to start another new show either, or at least not until I'd gotten up to date with the current ongoing ones we're already working through, but Man in the High Castle has turned out to be another pain in the arse commitment since after 4 episodes I'm bloody loving it.