T.V. shows you've been watching

[nightflameauto]

Watching Mayans M.C. back to back after Sons of Anarchy really points out the shortcomings in Mayans.

In Sons of Anarchy you had characters that felt like people, thrown into circumstances that were sometimes way out there, but you always believed it because the characters were so rich you felt anchored to them.

In Mayans some cardboard cutouts get shoved around by a plot that's big and bombastic and really doesn't give a fuck. Oh, and neither do any of the characters.

While there was a lot of ribbing in Sons, Mayans tends to take that to the point where it doesn't seem like any character cares about any other character aside from the mom relationship, and the brother/father thing. Everything else is like, "Sure, love the club, but fuck you guys."

Case in point, somebody has a personal issue in Sons, club is like, "Go, watch their backs." Mayans? "Not our business." And shrug. And then they wonder why their guys don't give a shit back.

If not for the continuing greatness of Lincoln Potter being the most cartoon of villains and the bloodshed, Mayans would be a difficult watch.

We also are catching up on What we do in the Shadows. My god, that show always finds ways to cross the line hilariously. The Collin Robinson sharing the body orgy from the last one we watched was one of the grossest, weirdest sex scenes to ever be put to film. I loved his line earlier about, "As much as I'm into how fucked up it is, and I'm really into how fucked up it is, I just don't wanna hit that." I was laughing so hard during some of his lines I had to rewind to catch them again.

 

[thebeesknees22]

I've been watching Foundation. Outside of a few nitpicky things, it's probably one of my favorite sci-fi shows in recent years so far.

 

[Drew]

I've been watching Foundation. Outside of a few nitpicky things, it's probably one of my favorite sci-fi shows in recent years so far.

How's the second season compare to the first? The first was good... it just felt like a lot of unrelated storylines.

 

[thebeesknees22]

How's the second season compare to the first? The first was good... it just felt like a lot of unrelated storylines.

good! but there are a couple of new characters that drive me nuts, and need to be off'd. lol Neither one can act, and their characters are a bit insufferable.

It starts getting a little too crazy with the psychic stuff too that doesn't really seem to fit in this universe but....whatever I suppose. Other than that it's still good. The unrelated storylines somewhat start to merge, but there's probably a few seasons worth of stuff before they really start to converge.

 

[Bloody_Inferno]

Finished through all 8 episodes of Castlevania Nocturne. It's fantastic, though I have concerns.

Like first series before it, Nocturne takes broad liberties on the source material, and it all works, though it still keeps one foot firmly on the source so it knows when to hit the right beats: yeah I'll admit I'm not immune to fanservice myself.

I'm glad the creators chose Richter Belmont as the main protagonist. He's generally considered the more interesting of the lineage and giving him more nuance the same was as the first series did with Trevor is great fun. Though Richter tends to be overshadowed by both the supporting cast and the villains; the former show good chemistry with Richter while latter were always the show stealers in the first series and continuet he tradition here. Perhaps Edward Bleumel might not have the same oozing charisma as Richard Armitage but he's still doing a fine job here. While you will feel a Dracula shaped hole, the substitute in the name of Olrox is a memorable replacement and shows a brooding yet sympathetic presence throughout the story.

Perhaps my biggest gripe is the pacing. Nocturne takes its sweet time to reveal the main villain, that by the time she shows up and kicks all sorts of ass, it's almost the season finale. This is becoming a recurring trend in modern television where the show saves its best ideas into the final few episodes. Even all the action scenes in the first half hold back their fangs until the climactic final battle then leaving a cliffhanger for you to anticipate the next season. Ahsoka has the same problem in taking way too long to introduce Thrawn.

Castlevania Nocturne does feel undercooked at times, but then again I felt the same way with the original series' wonky 4 episode first season. And I suppose I can't really rib it too much since I still had a ton of fun in the 8 20 minute episodes it ran. I just wish it had sharper fangs like its predecessor.

 

[Guitarmiester]

I watched Telemarketers on HBO. What a journey that was. I'm surprised they tried going as far as they did. It was a losing battle from the start but really interesting to watch.

I'm also still midway through rewatching Twin Peaks season 3. I take long breaks between each episode knowing the next step is rewatching the entire series yet again. It'd be great if there was any info on whatever Lynch has been working on.

 

[Demiurge]

It'd be great if there was any info on whatever Lynch has been working on.

Supposedly, he has a project in the works called either "Unrecorded Night" or "Wisteria". Some Twin Peaks alum, including Mark Frost, were at some point posting pictures of wisteria on social media, so some (read: Twin Peaks Reddit) think that means more TP but that's too obvious, right?

 

[Louis Cypher]

Finally got round to watching Star Wars Visions s2. Just as beautifully made as the 1st series. Stunning animation along with stories that tell more and do more in 15/20 mins than Eps I/II/III & VIII & IX films & most of the live action tv shows do with massive budgets and hours of run time.

 

[zappatton2]

Watching the new season of Chucky, so far he's still killin' it! I always dug Chucky, even the dreaded "Seed of", so I'm invested.

 

[brector]

Enjoyed The Fall of the House of Usher, but I have enjoyed all of Mike Flanigan's stuff. Asoka was pretty good, but I feel it had some/a lot of issues with Thrawn

 

[KnightBrolaire]

I started up S1 of Joe Pickett and it's pretty good so far. Has the dude from Patriot and For All Mankind in it (Michael Dorman?) as the lead and he's great. Definitely not as gnarly as Yellowstone or anything Sheridan touches, but still entertaining.

I also finished Spec Ops: Lioness and it was good for the most part, but I have some issues with the whole "stronk woman beats up equally capable guys" bullshit. I'm not denying there are some exceptionally tough and well trained women out there that can beat up dudes, but generally speaking they're not winning that fight by outmuscling the guys. I think other shows have handled this issue better (Alias, The Americans, Nikita) by simply having the women fight smarter rather than trying to outmuscle the guys. The fight scenes in the show are great for the most part but I just found that aspect jarring as someone that's done martial arts most of their life. It's pretty uncommon for the smaller person to overtake the bigger person irl, especially if both have training. Zoe Saldana's character is far more interesting than the girl playing the embedded asset tbh. Nicole Kidman is in the show but kind of pops in as the head honcho here and there. She's underdeveloped as a character in the first season tbh. I've seen some people shitting on the show as a piece of conservative propaganda (same as Terminal List apparently?) but I just took it as an entertaining spy/military thriller. There is definitely a jingoistic subtext to the show, but that also goes hand in hand with any government organization. It's especially prevalent in the military, so I don't think it's an unrealistic depiction in the show. The "bad guys" were humanized enough to be interesting (well maybe not the main bad guy, but some of the side bad guys), but definitely not to the extent of say, a show like Homeland did.

 

[spudmunkey]

Servant, co-executive produced and show-run by M. Night Shyamalan.

No. A few interesting scenes and concepts, but a dragged-out, jumbled mess with a terribly unsatisfying ending.

 

[nightflameauto]

Servant, co-executive produced and show-run by M. Night Shyamalan.

No. A few interesting scenes and concepts, but a dragged-out, jumbled mess with a terribly unsatisfying ending.

M.Night created a dragged-out, jumbled mess with a terribly unsatisfying ending? And this was a surprise?

I think at this point that this is specifically why Hollywood hires him over and over. He creates absolute shit, and the muckety-mucks get to pretend that everybody's just too stupid to understand the brilliance.

 

[Drew]

Finished The Wheel of Time Season 2, and am now working on The Witcher Season 3. WoT Season 2 Episode 1 was awful, so bad that I gave myself one more episode before bailing on the show... but thankfully it did turn around, and season 2 ended up actually being fairly good. Witcher Season 3 was kind of the inverse - Episode 1 was great, but we're halfway through and it's gotten spottier. Without Henry Cavil (and honestly one of the best things about this show is just how well he plays a supportive father figure to Ciri) I don't know if I'll stick with it after this season.

 

[MFB]

Decided to restart "The Man in High Castle" after failing to make it thru episode one some years back, pretty sure I started it after a long day at work and just fell asleep like, 15 mins in. Successfully didn't have that happen this time, and was genuinely surprised at how it went, so curious to see where it keeps going; although I picked a bad time to start a new series since I go on vacation in a week.

 

[nightflameauto]

Finished The Wheel of Time Season 2, and am now working on The Witcher Season 3. WoT Season 2 Episode 1 was awful, so bad that I gave myself one more episode before bailing on the show... but thankfully it did turn around, and season 2 ended up actually being fairly good. Witcher Season 3 was kind of the inverse - Episode 1 was great, but we're halfway through and it's gotten spottier. Without Henry Cavil (and honestly one of the best things about this show is just how well he plays a supportive father figure to Ciri) I don't know if I'll stick with it after this season.

Witcher Season 3? We managed about two episodes and a little more before we hit the eject button. Even with the battles, which admittedly are pretty epic, it's so chaotic that there's no real coherence there. Like, somebody's wandering through the woods, then suddenly there's sixty people, twenty goblins, a hundred other entities all fighting, then we're back to like two people chit-chatting nonchalantly. It honestly felt like they gave the writers room something to increase ADHD along with some angel dust or something. Big WTF from the previous seasons.

The Man in the High Castle we've watched twice. Once as it was coming out, so stretched out, and once we powered through it in like a month. Great show. I keep meaning to grab the book, but keep ending up lost in my other reading lists.

 

[Drew]

Witcher Season 3? We managed about two episodes and a little more before we hit the eject button. Even with the battles, which admittedly are pretty epic, it's so chaotic that there's no real coherence there. Like, somebody's wandering through the woods, then suddenly there's sixty people, twenty goblins, a hundred other entities all fighting, then we're back to like two people chit-chatting nonchalantly. It honestly felt like they gave the writers room something to increase ADHD along with some angel dust or something. Big WTF from the previous seasons.

Even 2 was veering in that way a little... Honestly, captions help, because it's a little easier to tell who's who, and there's evidently a lot of political intrigue going on... which is tough, when it's characters you've only seen here and there in the first two seasons and you don't necessarily know who the fuck they are.

 

[nightflameauto]

Even 2 was veering in that way a little... Honestly, captions help, because it's a little easier to tell who's who, and there's evidently a lot of political intrigue going on... which is tough, when it's characters you've only seen here and there in the first two seasons and you don't necessarily know who the fuck they are.

*TOKES* *COUGHS* Bro. Like, you can't see it bro. It's deep, man. Deep.

 

[zappatton2]

Just finished the Fall of the House of Usher, really enjoyed it. I used to read Poe when I was younger, and this was sort of an inspired take, that drew in various works of Poe in each episode. Very interesting morality tale involving the one family worse than the Bluths. Though I admit the Simpsons may have ruined the whole "nevermore" thing for me, lol.

 

[imalrightjack]

Quite enjoying House of Usher, although wasn't convinced early on.