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What is the last Television series you watched?


Jay

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Avenue 5 1x01 I Was Flying

 

Well that was, well, just not very good, was it?  Definitely a good premise, with a bunch of good actors.  Hugh Laurie was great as the captain, Zach Woods was great playing a guy finally very different from his Office/Silicon Valley persona, and I liked the engineer lady and the lady running Mission control.  Josh Gad was annoying though, and all the passengers were REALLY annoying.  And other than the general premise, the actual plot of this episode was pretty boring and really nothing new.  The tone was also all over the place, broad comedy mixed with satire mixed with serious sci-fi mixed with sitcom-y moments.. it's like the writers just through a bunch of stuff at the wall and will see what sticks as the season goes on or something.

 

We'll give it a few more episodes because I feel you can't judge any new show - ESPECIALLY comedies - from one episode, but man, this was a pretty limp first impression.  Absolutely NOTHING like Veep, at all.

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Curb Your Enthusiasm 10x01 Happy New Year!

 

Ahhh, now that's more like it!  I laughed HARD, MANY times throughout this episode!  Jeff being mistaken for Harvey Weinstein!  Larry wearing a MAGA hat to get rid of Phil Rosenthal!  Larry touching the breast of the waitress that thought he was ogling her!  Cheryl getting a face full of talcum powder!  Larry opening a rival to Mocha Joe's out of spite!  Richard Lewis and Leon were great too!  I enjoyed this premiere quite a bit!

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10 hours ago, Stefancos said:

 

How is Pilkington when he's doing something scripted?


Surprisingly effective!

 

It’s got a similar feel - ironically - to Gervais’ Afterlife.  

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4 episodes of HBO's The Night Of ... Have to disagree with Jay and Pubs. I had issues with the first episode but I'm gradually starting the like the show more and more. Strangely enough, the Blu-ray doesn't work on my regular Blu-ray player (it even switches off when I try to play it) so I have to use the PS3 which is still attached to my Samsung Plasma TV. I have forgotten how beautiful Plasma can be.

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Schitt's Creek 6x03 The Job Interview

 

Another wonderful and funny episode.  Everything with Alexis and Ted, especially Twyla's scenes were really great.  Steveie and David's job interview stuff was funny, but I kind of don't understand why she wants to go from owning a hotel to being a flight attendant... seems like a massive backwards step.  Or maybe it's only a backwards step money wise, and she just wants to travel?  Bob in his leather outfit was HILARIOUS!  But damn it's sad things didn't work out with his wife, especially since that plot point seemed to exist solely to get Roland an Jocelyn in as business partners with Johnny.  We'll see where that goes!

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Finished Broadchurch. Terrific! Will shortly be starting Homeland S4, also watching Twin Peaks (well, rewatching it after 25+ years), True Detective S1 and Westworld S1.

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The Good Place 4x12 Patty

 

That was overall pretty good.  I still feel like we're still in an extended denouement rather than approaching the climax, which is alright I guess.  Them arriving in the Good Place and liking it at first, then realizing there's a massive flaw, then fixing it was a nice enough plotline, but feels to me like sometihng that should have taken a third or a half of a season, not crammed entirely into one episode.


I think looking at the season as a whole, the loooooooong early part with them trying to fix Bret and the other humas should have been solved in 2 or 3 episodes instead of the excruciating 7, and then the great middle where they solve the afterlive should have been 4-5 episodes instead of just 2, and then this good place fixing should have been the next 3-4, and now we'd be going into the finale tomorrow night with a much better sense of balance than the herky jerky nature of the final season we got.  Hopefully the finale next week is so wonderful we end up forgetting about all this.

 

Lisa Kudrow was great as Patty, all the little easter eggs in the party were great, Jason with the go carts was great, Eleanor and Chidi at the end was really sweet.

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Modern Family 11x12 Dead on a Rival

 

Alex's career this season is all over the place and largely unexplained.  Manny is still the worst.  Josh Gad showing up an a tech guru was weird since he's plays a similar guy on Avenue 5 now too.  Lame episode.

 

Saturday Night Live 45x11 Adam Driver / Halsey

 

Opening politic sketch with Kate McKinnon as the devil was one of the best cold open sketches they've had in a while, especially since Jon Lovitz was actually pretty good.  Adam Driver was a good sport and did well, Weekend Update was pretty funny too.

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3 hours ago, Jay said:

The Good Place 4x12 Patty

 

That was overall pretty good.  I still feel like we're still in an extended denouement rather than approaching the climax, which is alright I guess.  Them arriving in the Good Place and liking it at first, then realizing there's a massive flaw, then fixing it was a nice enough plotline, but feels to me like sometihng that should have taken a third or a half of a season, not crammed entirely into one episode.


I think looking at the season as a whole, the loooooooong early part with them trying to fix Bret and the other humas should have been solved in 2 or 3 episodes instead of the excruciating 7, and then the great middle where they solve the afterlive should have been 4-5 episodes instead of just 2, and then this good place fixing should have been the next 3-4, and now we'd be going into the finale tomorrow night with a much better sense of balance than the herky jerky nature of the final season we got.  Hopefully the finale next week is so wonderful we end up forgetting about all this.

 

Lisa Kudrow was great as Patty, all the little easter eggs in the party were great, Jason with the go carts was great, Eleanor and Chidi at the end was really sweet.

Agreed. 

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I think tomorrow night's finale is gonna be pretty sad!  We'll watch it Friday.


Parks and Rec finale was great so here's hoping they have a good one in store for us.

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Avenue 5 1x02 And Then He's Gonna Shoot Off...

 

This show's a total dud, barely funny at all.  What a massive disappointment after Veep.  If it gets a second season it's probably only because Iannucci negotiated for two up front, and if season 2 does't massively change the tone of this thing and maybe half the cast, that'll be it for sure.

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On 1/25/2020 at 12:34 AM, Quintus said:

Welcome back, old friend.

 

On 1/25/2020 at 5:03 AM, Koray Savas said:

I was about to say the same. Had to do a double take when I saw who posted!

 

Thank you both so much, me hearties! :wub: It's good to be back.

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Curb Your Enthusiasm 10x02 Side Sitting

 

Wow, that was a HUGE drop in quality from the season premiere, my goodness.  The season premiere was hilarious, and I laughed out loud HARD at least half a dozen times.  This episode I laughed out loud maybe once?

 

All the stuff with the painting of Susie was actually pretty funny, as was the lawyer grilling him about using his bathroom (that subplot seemed like it was building up to a better payoff though).  I also liked the date with Rita and the constant permission asking, etc, but it went on too long and again didn't seem to build to as big of a payoff as it should have.  The sexual harassment stuff being basically solved but then ruined by him side-sitting her because he had to make Ted Danson think he wasn't sleeping with Cheryl was too similar to previous Seinfeld and Curb plot resolutions.  Overall, kind of a meh this week!

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The Night Of

 

Well, I bought this blind on Blu-ray for 15 Euro and I'm that glad I did. It turned out to be very absorbing miniseries. Best thing about it are the performances of the ensemble cast (notably John Torturro and Riz Ahmed) and the beautiful photography (all prime lenses - no Ridley Scott telephoto zoom BS) by none other than Robert Elswit (There Will Be Blood, Punch-Drunk Love, Boogie Nights, ...). I'm hoping that Season 2 gets through. It's not yet certain, HBO wants it, but it all depends on Steven Zaillian. 8/10

 

The-Night-Of-3.jpg

 

 

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Steven Zaillian is busy making a new show for Showtime adapting all the Tom Ripley books (IE The Talented Mr. Ripley, Ripley's Game, etc) so I wouldn't expect anything more to come from The Night Of.  I'm sure John Turturro would love it but I doubt Zaillian or HBO are thinking about it

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The Witcher Season 1

 

I admire that the show stepped away (a little) from Game of Thrones-like politics and focused more on the fantasy and the magic. So this show is more like an expensive version of fantasy adventure shows like Hercules: The Legendary Journeys and Xena: Warrior Princess than GOT. I even liked the more "procedural" approach of some episodes, which was a nice refresher after GOT got complicated.

 

I guess the show did a good job on introducing the lore to a newcomer like myself (haven't played Wild Hunt yet, but I intend to, someday, lol), so by the end of the season I knew who those characters were, the political relationship between kingdoms, what is a Law of Surprise, etc.

 

However, the quality of the show could've achieved was marred by some bad dialogue, weird pacing, weird plot choices and the occasional shoddy CGI. And I don't think it was good the decision of dividing the series into 3 timelines for most of the season. It reminded me of Westworld S1, and by ep 3 or 4 I could've mostly identify when some events were taking place, but I guess casual viewers got confused (like a character dying on an episode, and then being alive and well on the next).

 

But, aside from that, I guess the poor dialogues and CGI actually contributed for the show to have a trashy, kitschy charm, which made it more sympathetic to me. This is like just a funny fantasy trash show with boobs, asses and sex scenes (but, curiously, no genitals). It's different from GOT which was always trying to be "grim, dark, realistic" and fit into the pEaK tV (argh) mould.

 

The score is good, worked fine on the show and it's more bold and interesting the Djawadi's very shy work on the first seasons of Thrones.

 

3.5/5

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We've seen every episode, yes.

 

It started out great then got worse and worse and worse as the years went on, it's absolutely terrible now

 

 

 

 

 

On 4/18/2013 at 4:37 PM, Jay said:

We also finished Homeland Season 1. Wow. This is a GREAT show. First, some spoiler free thoughts: I still maintain that the first 4 episodes are the best the series has ever been. After that, the middle 4 took a bit of a dive, as a lot had now been revealed and there was less "Oh, wow!" every week, and less "I GOTTA see the next episode NOW!" factor. Though, the cabin episode was excellent. Then, the final 4 episodes stepped up the quality again, with some great twists and turns and one HELL of a season finale. Wow! I left season 1 very thankful I could go right into Season 2 and not have to wait, a sign of a good show. By the end of the first season, I had placed this show as my #2 best show, right after Breaking Bad.

Now some spoiler-ized thoughts DONT READ IF YOU HAVENT SEEN ALL OF SEASON 1 OF HOMELAND!!!

 

 

Spoiler

As I was saying, in the first 4 episodes when when Carrie had survelliance on Brody in his home, and you had no idea what was going on, or what his allegiances are... that was the best. The middle 4 episodes lost something, but looking back they were necessary to build the building blocks for the final 4 episodes. The show manages to surprise this veteran TV viewer for sure - I didn't see it coming that Carrie would just flat out tell Brody what she knew, and that he would admit to it all immediately! The final 4 episodes ended the season strongly. The reveal that Brody had grown found of Abu Nazir's son and that he was really only mad at the Vice President for ordering the drone strike that killed him - and not against the USA in general - was a good one, as was the reveal that Walker was still alive and working for Nazir. Carrie getting seriously injured and figuring it all out while recovering was handled brilliantly, and Brody getting the VP running mate gig and being asked to wear the vest was a great story turn. The finale was just a GREAT season finale... the entire time he was in the bunker was just SO INTENSE! I liked that his daughter was the one to calm him down.

And then the denouement, with Brody killing Walker, but telling Nazir he's now in an even greater position to hurt the VP... wow. Does he mean it, or was he just saving his own ass? Good cliffhanger! And the final scene, where Carrie finally realizes that Brody said Isa's name in the cabin, just before she gets shock treatment.... ... wow. What an ending!

And I like that they left some loose threads to end the season... namely

1. Who is the mole in the CIA?
2. Who passed the blade to the guard that got captured who committed suicide?

Good stuff.

 

 

On 4/23/2013 at 11:09 AM, Jay said:

Homeland season 2 dropped off a bit from the brilliance of season 1

 

On 9/4/2013 at 12:08 AM, Jay said:

For me, Season 1 of Homeland was amazing, and a sign of the next great television show. Then Season 2 was a huge, huge dive off the cliff - it started out fine, but got sillier and sillier until it almost reached a breaking point, before finally being saved by an explosive (heh) season finale that put it back on track as POTENTIALLY being the great show it's first season showed it could be.

 

On 1/8/2014 at 11:39 AM, Jay said:

Homeland Season 3

Overall a huge improvement over Season 2. Never had a bad episode, though one of the one towards the end of the season came close. Luckily they righted the ship after that and the season ended strong. In fact, it felt like it could have been a series finale, everything got wrapped up so nicely. Curious to see what direction they will go in Season 4..... I guess another brand new bad guy will pop out of nowhere again. They still haven't said who the mole in the CIA is after 3 full seasons!

 

On 12/23/2014 at 4:09 PM, Jay said:

Homeland 4x12 Long Time Coming

Well, that was terrible. Long, drawn out, boring ending to a mediocre season. At least up until this point the show would bring in some great action scenes to keep us on our toes. Did anything of real importance happen here? The Quint/Carrie romance is something I doubt any viewer wants, and it feels as forced as the Linden/Holder romance that ended Season 4 of The Killing.

What Homeland needed to do this season was give us a reason to come back next year, after the show took such a downfall from the heights it had in Season 1. Season 3 got close, and cleared the slate for the quasi-reboot nature of a Season 4. About halfway through this finale episode, it seemed like they might be setting up a big storyline for Season 5 (like Saul and Carrie will have to team up to take out bad guys who have deep connections to US Gov't from the inside or something). But instead we got... Carrie working on her mommy issues and Quint going off on a suicide mission? Bleh.

Will anyone be bothering with Season 5?

 

On 3/23/2015 at 7:42 AM, Jay said:

Homeland season four tricks you into thinking they are back in their glory days, then continually drops the ball and has a lame ending.

 

On 4/5/2015 at 8:21 PM, Jay said:

Homeland S4 ended up being a waste of time

 

On 12/28/2015 at 12:47 PM, Jay said:

Homeland Season 5

 

Nope, no good.  While not as awful as the terrible Season 3, it never had anything as exciting as the embassy seige from Season 4 let alone came anywhere near the heights o the high points of Season 1 or 2.  The finale was a particular let down, they once again try to make Quinn be an important character (sorry, I just never liked him) and even bring back that letter he wrote at the end of the last season that I had certainly completely forgotten about.  It's so lame how the show has basically not even handled Carrie being a mom (she has the kid now for like the first episode of each new season before sending it away).  I did like that she tried to get back with her German BF guy and he shot her down, that was actually well done and realistic.  But then what was up with her turning down a chance to be back in the CIA and her weird offer from the rich billionaire guy?  

 

Showtime's already renewed this for a Season 6 but does anyone still watching really care if it gets cancelled at this point?  It's so far past its prime, you can't even remember the good times any more.

 

On 4/17/2017 at 12:09 PM, Jay said:

Homeland Season 6

 

A very meh season to what has turned out to be a very meh show.  All potential shown in the first 2 seasons has been squashed and squandered repeatedly as the years have gone on.  This season killed off yet more characters and featured an incomprehensible plot about trying to discredit the new POTUSA for reasons that are never really explained.  The only thing good is the balls the show had to make this new POTUSA the new villain in the final 2 minutes of the season... but even that is way too little, way too late.  There's no reason to watch this show!

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Yes, the first 3 seasons tell "the Brody story" and then it goes off in a totally different direction after that.

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I'm up to Season 2 now. Carrie is fuckin' nuts but I like her taste in music. I can only imagine where this show will go after Season 3 (I saw that Brody is only in it for three seasons). Claire Danes has really committed herself to it in the last decade because she hasn't done much else since it started.

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I watched the new Ted Bundy series on Prime. It's the classic story of mild-mannered, attractive and bright guy murdering a shitload of women and ultimately being revealed as a master manipulator. There are interviews with a lot of the people who knew him or were involved in the case and some fairly creepy and sad recounting of events. I found it watchable enough to binge the entire thing in one sitting, but was put off by various social justice bits regarding women's rights. Looking at the reviews, a lot of people were. It just takes you out of the thing on a tangent at points. I think people read way too much into the judge's parting comments to Bundy at his sentencing and the lady's comments on it here seemed to miss the point entirely.

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97717.jpg

 

Amazon's Goliath in its 3rd season incarnation. I fully admit that, like Bosch, another Amazon noir gumshoe series of the crime/investigative variety, i just started it because i dug the head actor. But this twisty mystery, complete with indian magic, a Chinatown chip on its shoulder and a great Dennis Quaid, at times feels positively Lynchian. It never completely goes off the rails of its ripped-from-the-headlines case, and adds too much that a good screenplay would cut to pad out the running time but it certainly is eminently watchable.

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Image may contain: 6 people, people standing and text

 

The Good Place 4x13 Whenever You're Ready

 

spoiler-free, safe to read:

 

A wonderful finale to a wonderful and unusual american network sitcom.  With all the plot out of the way, the entire finale is devoted to giving wonderful endings to the characters we've grown to love over the years, and everyone of them was well-earned and felt right.  On top of all that, there was nice very interesting camera work and cool new locations too!


If I could complain about anything, it might be that it isn't particularly FUNNY, but I suppose they wisely realized that wasn't the biggest priority here at the end game.  It wasn't unfunny per say, but I don't think a reflection on the absolutely funniest moments the show ever had would contain anything from the finale.

 


Basically, despite the first half of the final season bordering on being a waste of time, the final stretch of episodes and the finale in particular more than make up for it, and left me with a good taste in my mouth for the finale season as well as the series as a whole.

 

The show isn't perfect, isn't consistently great from start to finish, but still comes highly recommended.  53 22 minute episodes is well worth it, especially compared against all comedies that came out in the 2010s.

 

 

SPOILERS!!!

 

Spoiler

It was so fitting that Jason was the first to realize he was ready to move on, and that it was playing the perfect game of Madden that got him there.  It was also perfect that he didn't really leave when you thought he did, so he got to spend a thousand years as a monk and we got to him for more than just the first part of the episode.

 

Tahani finishing a giant list and still feeling incomplete and realizing she wants to be an afterlife architect was a great ending for her.  Also the reconciliation with her sister and their parents was very touching.

 

The entire Chidi and Eleanor storyline was fantastic. Chidi realizing he's ready but staying for Eleanor, who can admit she doesn't want to be alone was so effective, as was her letting him go - and him just immediately walking through the gate, not having to think on the bench, was perfect.  Eleanor helping Mindy and then Michael before leaving was wonderful.  Michael's ending being a real human was the perfect final scene.


That leaves Janet, and I guess it fits that she is the only character that doesn't really get an ending, thought I did find it interesting that she was more emotional when saying goodbye to Michael than the Jason.

 

All the cameos were great! Nick Offerman, Mary Steenbergen, ascended DERRICK, everyone important got something to do.

 

For me this ranks pretty highly among the best series finale there are (most series don't have great final episode when you really think about it).

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Finished the first three seasons of Homeland. That finale was brutal. But it could have ended there and every arc would have been satisfyingly complete. So I'm curious to see how they gas this along from Seasons 4 to 7, and there's an 8th premiering!

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I just can't face the long drudge of utter mediocrity before I'd potentially get to the better stuff towards the end, if it does indeed come at all. The Good Place could have ended after its second season, and it'd be nothing but a fond memory. Instead, it crashed and burned like Arrested Development. 

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10 hours ago, Þekþiþm said:

Finished the first three seasons of Homeland. That finale was brutal. But it could have ended there and every arc would have been satisfyingly complete. So I'm curious to see how they gas this along from Seasons 4 to 7, and there's an 8th premiering!

 

There's almost nothing to enjoy in seasons 4-7, and they ruin the character of Quinn along the way.  You can find better ways to pass your time.  IMO.

 

 

4 hours ago, Quintus said:

I just can't face the long drudge of utter mediocrity before I'd potentially get to the better stuff towards the end, if it does indeed come at all. The Good Place could have ended after its second season, and it'd be nothing but a fond memory. Instead, it crashed and burned like Arrested Development. 

 

The final run of episodes is so strong it makes getting through the mediocre ones worth it.  I mean, they are only 21:30 long each, it's not gonna eat up a lot of your free time or anything

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3 minutes ago, Jay said:

 

There's almost nothing to enjoy in seasons 4-7, and they ruin the character of Quinn along the way.  You can find better ways to pass your time.  IMO.

 

Now Carrie's seducing this poor Pakistani kid. Wtf

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angles-in-america-03-1280.jpg

 

Angels in America

 

After years of singing praise of the score, I finally decided to check out the film(s?). It's remarkable that long before the days of TV's "Golden Age", that art of this scale and ambition was even being attempted on television. It is gorgeously brought to life by Kushner's words, Nichol's lavish visualization and a mostly fantastic cast. The two leads are a little heavy handed in their delivery, but Pacino and Wright really shine here. Some occasionally hokey effects and indulgent sentimentalism aside (a sign of the times, maybe), it's poignant stuff. And Newman's score is a real treat, although criminally under-mixed.

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All true, but what needs to be singled out is Nichols' deft wit, or at least how he chose to direct some important character scenes (in a kind of sardonic, snappy way) that probably would have become much more cumbersome with other directors du jour. 

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Had another one of those pleasing discovery moments again yesterday. Ended up getting into a new show with the kids in the afternoon, Creeped Out is sort of the Children's BBC equivalent of Goosebumps (meets Tales of the Unexpected) and it was soooo good! 

 

Cautionary tales for children are often so poorly done on TV, but this had a whiff of Roald Dahl about it, and it was devious good fun. My kids were glued.

 

Forget the terrible acting and bargain-basement production values you remember from those old RL Stine episodes; Creeped Out has some cracking little performances and it looks like your typical modern BBC programme, economically put together and fresh as they come.

 

KleDdhs.jpg

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