T.V. shows you've been watching

[nightflameauto]

*Westworld spoilers*

@nightflameauto Yea, that's where I'm at in the middle of Season 2 right now. The characters are starting to seem dumb/incredulous to me, like how Dolores is enacting her liberty (revenge) by being arguably worse than the humans were since she realizes everyone is sentient and yet completely disregards it. Of course she keeps saying all of this is endeavoring for their freedom, as she wantonly murders anyone either human or engineered for practically no reason, with the little exchange with Maeve about it going completely over her head and seemingly aggravating her. I don't really know who to cheer for in this thing anymore, Bernard is the only central character I can think of which I give a crap about now. Maybe also Maeve since she seems like the chaotic good character currently. Hopkins got brained pretty much as soon as we realize he's not a complete villain, and I'm hoping he comes back somehow. It's kind of leaning into a purebred "everyone's a piece of shit and let's watch what they do to each other" type of series, which I really do not prefer at all when the resolution to it is placed and entire additional season down the road. I expect things to evolve and change as far as that goes, it has changed a lot so far at least and that has been a great element of things, but if it doesn't mix things up again I'll be pretty turned off by the time the end comes around.

The thing that keeps bugging me is how all the guns seem the same, yet are only lethal when shooting engineered bodies- but then alluvasudden when limitations on the engineered characters are removed anyone can lethally shoot anyone else. What the crap is that shit? Explaining that wouldn't have tanked the storyline or flow. We have automatons who are basically people, writers can't take two seconds to say something like the guns are discreetly modified and programmed to restrict bullet velocity when in the hands of a synthetic person or something? Seems lazy to not even address that at all. Maybe it comes up later, or maybe I'm the stupid one and missed when it was addressed previously. All that aside I totally see the "feature creep" starting with the storyline elements and hope it doesn't get too reckless with tying it all together eventually. Definitely an HBO ailment for sure.

Well, brace yourself. It slides much, much further into WTFery before it's done. Lots of moments where the semi-concious mind asks if the writers remembered what they were doing one moment to the next.

You do get to see Aaron Paul play a great whipping boy again. So look forward to that.

 

[SalsaWood]

Aaron Paul

Yep, season 3 I guess. Damn. I usually don't appreciate him at all, but I want to say I did see something somewhat recent that he did very well. Not well enough for me to remember, though. I'll stick it out in any case, even if it's just to drop in here and complain like I always do.

 

[nightflameauto]

Yep, season 3 I guess. Damn. I usually don't appreciate him at all, but I want to say I did see something somewhat recent that he did very well. Not well enough for me to remember, though. I'll stick it out in any case, even if it's just to drop in here and complain like I always do.

I'm an Aaron Paul Fanboy. They can do what they want with him and I'll eat it up.

Need for Speed was WAAAAAAAAAAAY better than it had any right at all to be. Mostly because Aaron.

 

[SalsaWood]

@nightflameauto He's not a bad actor, I think I just hate the fuckboi characters he gets cast for. Wish I could remember what I saw him in that I fully enjoyed, but at any rate I'll do my best to encounter his performance with new eyes.

 

[nightflameauto]

@nightflameauto He's not a bad actor, I think I just hate the fuckboi characters he gets cast for. Wish I could remember what I saw him in that I fully enjoyed, but at any rate I'll do my best to encounter his performance with new eyes.

My only gripe with Aaron Paul is El Camino: Supposedly a story about Jesse Pinkman, but really a story about Meth Damon sucking the air out of every scene he enters. Which really blows, because that actor (Meth Damon) is actually not all that terrible in other things he's in. But man, that particular Breaking Bad character was a nothing coated in nothing sauce coated in nothing berries and dusted with nothing sugar. The last thing we needed was another movie about that fluffy bit of dross.

Better Call Saul would have been 66% better if they would have given us more Jesse, and less Chuck, even if I do love Lenny and Squiggy, AND Spinal Tap.

That may be my best old man comment of the day, right there.

 

[BlackMastodon]

but if it doesn't mix things up again I'll be pretty turned off by the time the end comes around.

Oh, they're about to mix things up alright.

 

[KnightBrolaire]

*remembers the musical bit from later seasons*
god I hated Westworld after s2.

 

[spudmunkey]

The "The Women Who Was Fed By a Duck" episode of Roar. It was my first episode of the show, and it was a bit like watching the very first episode of Black Mirror (the pig-fucking politician episode) as your first episode.

 

[BlackMastodon]

*remembers the musical bit from later seasons*
god I hated Westworld after s2.

Yeah, after the Kiksuya episode about Akecheta in season 2 damn near brought me to tears, season 3 and 4 were a pretty big slap in the face. I'll also throw in that I think Aaron Paul is not a good actor and I don't know how he keeps getting roles. Almost every line delivery is super wooden and comes across like he is reading from a cue card. I think Maeve was the only interesting in character in the last 2 seasons and that's mostly because Thandiwe Newton rules.

 

[nightsprinter]

I don't know why specifically because I typically don't like the formula of the "new episode airing after nfl game" type network shows, but I got roped into watching season 1 of Evil (a CBS show that I'm sure aired after football) and it's weird because it's got that single thread of "somewhat interesting" that is just barely enough to keep watching it even though it's not very good and very TV-14.

 

[nightflameauto]

We're down to the finale of the American The Office. I don't much love the breakdown they did between Jim and Pam for the last season, but American shows always feel they need to deconstruct what people love about characters in the last season. That's been happening as long as I've been aware. At least they brought 'em back around for The Office.

Started Bodkin. It's got some good humor, but not a lot to hang your hat on outside of that. I guess we'll see where it goes.

 

[MFB]

Made it into season 3 of Modern Family, now is the point where they've officially aged Lily up even though she's still not speaking much; it's probably not as much as people immediately thought, she probably jumped a year or so, but it's tough to follow how much time would've passed during all of S1/S2.

 

[SalsaWood]

Finished Westworld this weekend. Season four was terrible. I didn't mind season three, it would have been a good gear change if the following season had delivered. Whole thing is pretty much downhill after Hopkins checks out. Kinda bummed we never really got retribution for the antagonists, and it very much gives it aspects of "everyone's a POS and let's watch what they do to each other" until the story just kind of tips over from its own precession more than coming to a fulfilling conclusion.

 

[nightflameauto]

Finished Westworld this weekend. Season four was terrible. I didn't mind season three, it would have been a good gear change if the following season had delivered. Whole thing is pretty much downhill after Hopkins checks out. Kinda bummed we never really got retribution for the antagonists, and it very much gives it aspects of "everyone's a POS and let's watch what they do to each other" until the story just kind of tips over from its own precession more than coming to a fulfilling conclusion.

It kinda feels like season 4 was a writer's room full of smoke and blow throwing concepts into the script but never bothering to develop them. Which is a bummer, considering all the stuff they had hanging out there that they could have developed into compelling stories.

 

[SalsaWood]

I'm just pissed Hale and Delores never got what they deserved, meanwhile Bernard carries the role of protagonist on his fucking back the entire series and gets the shortest end of all the sticks considering. Pretty much since season two I was just waiting for retribution, and it never comes, everything just gets stirred into one big bowl of disappointment.

 

[nightflameauto]

I'm just pissed Hale and Delores never got what they deserved, meanwhile Bernard carries the role of protagonist on his fucking back the entire series and gets the shortest end of all the sticks considering. Pretty much since season two I was just waiting for retribution, and it never comes, everything just gets stirred into one big bowl of disappointment.

There were more than a few scenes in that last season that felt very much like somebody just wanted to see hot chicks fuckin' shit up, and didn't much care about anything else. All they missed was the snickering twelve year old jokes like Game of Thrones.

"Cock. I like it."
"Yes. I'll bet you do."

And they say modern TV writers suck.

 

[zappatton2]

About half-way through the second season of the Pretty Little Liars "horror" series, and starting to feel like, until the killer actually manages to kill someone, the stakes seem particularly low. It just seems to be "classic horror-movie setup" followed by "persons gets away while masked psycho stands around like a chump".

Kinda just makes me wanna re-watch the first couple of seasons of the Scream TV series, which did "Slasher film as TV show" so much better.

 

[ArtDecade]

I just finished The Vikings. I liked Floki, the boat builder.

 

[KnightBrolaire]

About half-way through the second season of the Pretty Little Liars "horror" series, and starting to feel like, until the killer actually manages to kill someone, the stakes seem particularly low. It just seems to be "classic horror-movie setup" followed by "persons gets away while masked psycho stands around like a chump".

Kinda just makes me wanna re-watch the first couple of seasons of the Scream TV series, which did "Slasher film as TV show" so much better.

Scream and scream queens s1 did such a good job at being a slasher tv show.
I know what you did last summer tv show was stupid but fun as well

 

[zappatton2]

Scream and scream queens s1 did such a good job at being a slasher tv show.
I know what you did last summer tv show was stupid but fun as well

Agreed on all counts, ever though nobody's motives or actions made a lick of sense to me in the "I know what you did last summer" show, I still enjoyed it for what it was.