What is the last Television series you watched?

[Jay 37,373]

Depends on the show.  I wouldn't change a thing about Breaking Bad, nor complain if Better Call Saul goes for 6 years as well.

 

Game of Thrones is fine at the 8 years it'll end at.

Westworld could end in 4.

 

Fargo could have stopped after 3, but I remain cautiously optimistic about this weird 1950s set 4th season starring Chris Rock coming in 2020.

True Detective should have been 1 and done.

[Quintus 5,399]

I remember hoping Better Call Saul would wrap itself last year, prior to seeing that season. But in the end I'm happy with where it's currently at, in hindsight. But I'd still have been happy with a Breaking Bad bridging back then had they done one.

[A24 4,345]

On 8/28/2018 at 4:06 PM, Cherry Pie That'll Kill Ya said:

Lost in Space (new one)

 

Wasn't bad,

 

I gave it a shot but gave up after 25 minutes or so. Completely uninteresting.

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

Better stick to 90's Star Trek, I'd say!

[A24 4,345]

I agree that Drax should stick to Star Trek and The Bold.

[Unlucky Bastard 7,782]

What about Stargate, Sliders, Seaquest, Macgyver, War of the Worlds and Freddy's Nightmares?

[A24 4,345]

Please, stop!

[Unlucky Bastard 7,782]

How about RoboCop: The Series? Married... With Children? Friday the 13th: The Series?

 

There's plenty of gold I watch.

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

7 hours ago, Alexcremers said:

I agree that Drax should stick to Star Trek and The Bold.

 

Jerry Drax really isn't a typical Trekkie. He can quote every single line of the movies. But he never talks about the show. The Roddenberian vision of a brighter future.

 

Jerry Drax just likes space movies.

[Unlucky Bastard 7,782]

44 minutes ago, Stefancos said:

 

Jerry Drax really isn't a typical Trekkie. He can quote every single line of the movies. But he never talks about the show. The Roddenberian vision of a brighter future.

 

Jerry Drax just likes space movies.

 

No, I just never talk about DS9, because I've never seen it, aside from the pilot episode when it first aired. And I vaguely remember an episode where Sisko was trapped with these farmer people and refused the water they offered him and voluntarily locked himself inside one of their sweat boxes in protest.

[Nick1Ø66 4,722]

Curb Your Enthusiasm

Season 9

 

Well what a disappointment that was.

 

Seinfeld is my favourite sitcom of all time, followed probably by Curb.  So this brand of humour is definitely my thing.  But Season 9 was an even bigger disappointment than Season 8, which wasn't that good. Overly long episodes (no sitcom should run almost 50 minutes) that weren't really funny, with the especially unfunny Fatwa storyline (which overstayed its welcome after the first episode) as an undercurrent.  The Hamilton stuff at the end was OK, but basically played as a re-run of the much superior "Seinfeld" storyline at the end of Season 7...which in retrospect probably should have been how the series closed out.

 

Lots of recycled jokes that anyone familiar with David's work has seen before, and new stuff that just didn't work. The Judge Judy bit in particular is the type of comedy Larry David used to mock. And the aged and frail looking comedians (Richard Lewis looks like walking death) dating hot young women is just distracting and creepy now. The Ted Danson/Cheryl storyline was undercooked and probably ill advised, and Larry's new girlfriend sort of fizzled out.

 

I don't mean to suggest that there weren't funny bits, there were. This is Larry David after all. But the laughs were fewer and somewhat lamer, and too familiar, when they came. Still better than most of what passes for comedy on TV, but a definite step down from the show in its prime.  

 

Sadly, Curb, one of the greatest of all time, is about done. And I never thought I’d say this, but LD’s schtick, genius though it was, is getting old. The only way I'd watch Season 10 is if it got stellar reviews, or they announced ahead of time that it was the last. 

 

4/10.

[Quintus 5,399]

And yet here I am, knee deep in Seinfeld S4, the "golden era" of this legendary sitcom, and whilst I am fairly entertained by it; I hardly ever find it audibly amusing - I barely ever laugh out loud over any of gags. It's just not all that funny, IMO. George is problematic: he's just a bit much, the neuroticism of his character a tad relentless, loud and tiresome for my taste. Mildly amusing is how my wife and I consider Seinfeld at this stage. It's just watchable. Conversely and collectively though, we ended up really laughing at the latest Curb.

[Jay 37,373]

Yea, Curb season 9 was probably the weakest season, but eh, it's still one of the best comedies being made today.  Compared to earlier seasons of itself, it may not be that great, but compared to the crap running on the american broadcast networks these days or even most streaming service original comedies... it's pretty dang good in comparison.

 

Leon Black still brings it

[Nick1Ø66 4,722]

Just now, Jay said:

Yea, Curb season 9 was probably the weakest season, but eh, it's still one of the best comedies being made today.  Compared to earlier seasons of itself, it may not be that great, but compared to the crap running on the american broadcast networks these days or even most streaming service original comedies... it's pretty dang good in comparison.

 

Leon Black still brings it

 

Nothing to disagree with here...and yeah, Leon just gets better and better.

 

3 minutes ago, Quintus said:

George is problematic: he's just a bit much, the neuroticism of his character a tad relentless, loud and tiresome for my taste. 

 

How can you love Larry David and not love George!?

[Unlucky Bastard 7,782]

Doesn't George remind you of someone else?

[Naïve Old Fart 9,552]

19 hours ago, Cherry Pie That'll Kill Ya said:

 ...I vaguely remember an episode where Sisko was trapped with these farmer people and refused the water they offered him and voluntarily locked himself inside one of their sweat boxes in protest.

What is this? DS9, or BRIDGE ON THE RIVER KWAI?

 

I remember that the second Drax was much better looking than the first one.

There was also an episode where Drax and someone else are in swimsuits, but you could see where the Speedo logo had been removed.

Oh, yeah; Nurse Ratched was in one of them, I think.

The rest is a blank.

[Quintus 5,399]

16 hours ago, Nick1066 said:

 

Nothing to disagree with here...and yeah, Leon just gets better and better.

 

 

How can you love Larry David and not love George!?

 

I honestly don't think they're all that similar. 

[Disco Stu 15,495]

I'll take George over "Larry David" any day.

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

Jason Alexander is a better actor that Larry David.

[Disco Stu 15,495]

Jason Alexander is a consummate performer!  He created an indelible character!

[Quintus 5,399]

Alexander is very good as George, no arguments from me there, but I just find him a bit too much at times. He's just relentless; it's like having a shouty Woody Allen on ecstacy for episode after episode.

 

For my taste Larry David's own caricature of himself is far more appealing and amusing to me. I also nearly always relate to the things he complains about - something I never do with George, who is basically a sad loser.

[A24 4,345]

39 minutes ago, Stefancos said:

Jason Alexander is a better actor that Larry David.

 

Isn't he like a real actor on stage?

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

Yes, he's a proper actor.

[Disco Stu 15,495]

[A24 4,345]

I know in the beginning of Seinfeld they wanted him to be a Woody Allen like character.  

[Disco Stu 15,495]

There are similarities, but Woody's stock character is much more tied to stereotypes of upper west side pseudo-intellectualism.

[Unlucky Bastard 7,782]

1 minute ago, Disco Stu said:

There are similarities, but Woody's stock character is much more tied to stereotypes of upper west side pseudo-intellectualism.

 

Ehhh I found more that Woody's characters he played were guys who were uncomfortable with their pretentious peers.

[A24 4,345]

He even had many lines that started with "What do you mean ...".  It can't be more Woody than that. But yes, Disco is right, George wasn't as the intellectual as many of Woody's characters. 

[Disco Stu 15,495]

6 minutes ago, Cherry Pie That'll Kill Ya said:

 

Ehhh I found more that Woody's characters he played were guys who were uncomfortable with their pretentious peers.

 

But very much trying to fit in with them too.  Think of Alvy in Annie Hall reading all those books about death or Sandy in Stardust Memories making his art films or the frustrated documentary filmmaker in Crimes and Misdemeanors who wants to make movies about philosophers.   The specifics vary from film to film of course and I think his character got less educated over the decades.

[Nick1Ø66 4,722]

This article sums up pretty well my feelings about Curb this past season...

 

Quote

 

But Curb wasn’t just the original; it was the best. There’s an exquisite agony about the finest episodes that stem from the suspicion that everything happening to Larry could probably happen to you on a particularly bad day. For all the conspicuous prosperity of the setting and the cameos from famous faces, the situations remain remarkably universal. Clearly wealth and success don’t preclude regular moments of social catastrophe.

 

But here’s the problem. Larry was usually if not right exactly, then at least wrong in a way that felt plausible if you were in possession of all the facts. The Larry David of Curb is an idiot, and a magnificently unlucky one too. He is hugged by a child seconds after he’s hidden a bottle of water down his trousers. He has a friend who won’t pay restaurant bills and a doctor who helps himself to drinks from his fridge. Larry is also an honest man, a man who’ll say what we’re all thinking. So when he told the son of a former kamikaze pilot that, by rights, he shouldn’t be alive, he hit the nail gloriously on the head.

 

 

Now it's all about having a Fatwa on your head and going on Judge Judy. Just stupid....again, if you've ever watched any of his interviews about creating Seinfeld, it's the kind of storyline that he and Jerry Seinfeld used to avoid and mock in other shows.  Larry's outlandish, but he's outlandish because he makes the everyday situations he finds himself in outlandish. Now everything has just gotten dialled up to 11, and in comedy bigger is almost never better.

 

Quote

 

Curb is now a slapstick-and-catchphrase sitcom. In the opening episode, there’s a moment where he simply throws his head back and bellows “prettay PRETTAY GOOD!” It’s a crass, foregrounded, overplayed moment that feels as if it’s escaped from a particularly lazy episode of Little Britain rather than one of the most innovative sitcoms of all time. Because Larry’s behaviour is now so consistently appalling, the gags are all obvious a mile off. The naturalistic, near-deadpan feel of early seasons has been replaced by a clunking, almost slapstick predictability – the emergence, in episode two, of a scantily clad prostitute just as Larry is Skyping a Muslim cleric felt more like Benny Hill than classic Curb.

 

 

 

[Quintus 5,399]

I mean, it was was not "peak Curb best of the best Larry David shenanigans" (nobody has ever said it was btw), but I liked it for what it was. I got plenty of laughs out of the last season; something most other so-called comedies fail to muster forth from me. And I certainly preferred it over the previous season, with Michael J. Fox and which ended with Larry running off into France. I remember thinking at the time that some of the humour there felt particularly awkward. But S10 I felt was amusing more often than not. It left me wanting another one. Compare it to Arrested Development's recent return, which made me want to end lives.

[KK 3,307]

I definitely agree with some of the points Nick made. When the episodes were coming out week-by-week, I did find Larry to be over-the-top, a caricature of his former self. But after some time, I was just playing some S9 episodes over a flight, and I was cracking up the whole time. Curb still provides a solid half hour of reliable comedy.

[Nick1Ø66 4,722]

I guess I also use to recognise the situations Larry got himself in, a lot, because it's how I feel a lot of the time, more than I care to admit...stuff like being annoyed that the person in front of you at the ice cream place who has to try every flavour before deciding she doesn't feel like ice cream.  I still get some of that, but not as much, and it's usually a bit he's done before.  My s/o doesn't even like me watching that show because she's afraid of it bringing out the LD in me.

 

Yeah, I know I'm being a little over critical. It's still loads better than any other comedy on TV (not that I watch that many). 

 

 

 

 

[Quintus 5,399]

End of the day this comedy series is in its tenth year. The fact that it's watchable at all (and actually better than just "watchable") is a fucking miracle.

 

Internet culture is just being unfair again, that's all. We're all used to (and guilty of) it to some extent.

[KK 3,307]

Agreed. Curb used to be about Larry suffering the hypocrisies of everyday social conventions and decorum.

 

Now, it's mostly about a rich guy dealing with rich-guy problems, with some variations of former bits thrown in there. Still funny though.

 

19 minutes ago, Quintus said:

Compare it to Arrested Development's recent return, which made me want to end lives.

 

 

AD's fifth season was awful. Everyone involved is clearly only a shadow of their former selves.

 

I did rewatch the fourth season recently though, and it fares a lot better than it used to. It has genuinely funny bits and ideas, and the comic timing is leagues ahead of the new season, though very much behind its former glory days. I can appreciate the balls they had with what they were trying to do. Which is more than can be said about season 5.

 

Oh, and the original cut of the season 4 serves the premise better than the new "remix" they put out.

[Quintus 5,399]

I can't sugar coat it I'm afraid, season 4 is genuinely one of the worst things I've ever watched.

[Koray Savas 2,251]

9 hours ago, Quintus said:

 

I honestly don't think they're all that similar. 

Larry David would disagree with you!

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

I know that George is a neurotic loser. I thought Larry was never really that. 

 

Perhaps George is Larry David as he sees himself?

[Quintus 5,399]

5 hours ago, Koray Savas said:

Larry David would disagree with you!

 

I know, I've heard about this loads of times and it is what I was expecting. But now that I've watched both shows I don't consider the George to be much like Larry at all. Honestly, when Seinfeld complains about something, that's when I hear Larry David.

[Quintus 5,399]

I've been reading online about which season of Seinfeld is considered to be the very best and S4 comes up time and time again. The one which starts in LA, and included some pretty funny episodes before they got back to Jerry's apartment again. Trouble is, we're currently about halfway through the season now, and it's just not funny. We barely ever laugh if at all! Episode after episode it's just a resounding "meh" from myself and my viewing partner. So I'm thinking we'll probably call it a day after this season, which will also allow me to cancel my Amazon streaming account. Disappointed!

 

Last night we actually ended up watching a repeat of an Alan Partridge special, 'Scissored Isle', after Seinfeld, just to give us some actual reliable laughs. Tears were streaming down our faces by the time it ended 👍

[Unlucky Bastard 7,782]

Jesus you're a tough crowd.

[Sweeping Strings 2,363]

I was away on holiday from 26th - 31st August, so missed the first 2 episodes of Jed 'Line Of Duty' Mercurio's new BBC drama Bodyguard ... caught up with the first ep on iPlayer last night, and if the remaining 5 are up to the same standard I suspect I'm in for a treat. Absolutely superb.  

[Naïve Old Fart 9,552]

21 minutes ago, Quintus said:

 

Last night we actually ended up watching a repeat of an Alan Partridge special, 'Scissored Isle', after Seinfeld, just to give us some actual reliable laughs. Tears were streaming down our faces by the time it ended 👍

Is that the one that has the song, called (I think) EVERYONE'S A BIT OF A CUNT?

[Quintus 5,399]

No wasn't that The Trip? Sorry I can't remember.

[Unlucky Bastard 7,782]

I've watched Seinfeld and never laughed at it but I still thought it was hilarious.

[A24 4,345]

6 minutes ago, Cherry Pie That'll Kill Ya said:

I've watched Seinfeld and never laughed at it but I still thought it was hilarious.

 

I didn't laugh at it but I laughed with it.

[Quintus 5,399]

Here you go:

 

 

[Unlucky Bastard 7,782]

4 minutes ago, Alexcremers said:

 

I didn't laugh at it but I laughed with it.

 

You know what I mean.

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

8 minutes ago, Alexcremers said:

 

I didn't laugh at it but I laughed with it.

 

Seinfeld was never the kinda show where you get invested in the characters. I laughed at them.

[A24 4,345]

4 minutes ago, Stefancos said:

 

Seinfeld was never the kinda show where you get invested in the characters. I laughed at them.

 

Speak for yourself, Friends fan. I laughed with them.