wheresthefbomb
Well-Known Member
I'm on Ep. 13 and shit is popping off. Definitely recommend if you haven't followed through already. It's also been a very effective refresher for my Middle East geography which is rusty to say the least.
T.V. shows you've been watching
- Thread starter pushpull7
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Watching the latest true detective (it's mid at best so far) with my wife but once it's done I'm gonna jump into this for sure.
Just got done with Baby Reindeer and I have never hated a character in media as much as I hated this main character. I was hoping he'd somehow die at the end of the show but I knew that wasn't the case. At some point I just watched in order to enjoy all the bad things that happened to him. He needed more bad things to happen.
They did the gratuitous fan service so well, too. One podcast I listen to brought up the example of how they never bother to explain caps as a currency and just show it in episode 2 without going into some hamfisted explanation of it. They did a fantastic job of "show, don't tell" which I always appreciate.
nightflameauto
Well-Known Member
We finished up "Our Universe" over my week off from work. I really dig how well put together this is. It'd probably be doubly good for somebody that hasn't spent their life thinking about the way things are connected, and trying to see the connections they never bother mentioning in school. There were times I wish the show would focus in a bit more on the details of certain parts I've only studied a bit here or there, but that's a personal preference thing and dictated by my own previous research. Very cool show by modern standards, and a great one for showing kids if you have them around to start to get them to see that studying all that useless shit in space may not be so useless after all.
Anybody got any recommendations on deeper dives for the Theia theory for the formation of the moon? That one still fascinates me.
Anybody got any recommendations on deeper dives for the Theia theory for the formation of the moon? That one still fascinates me.
wheresthefbomb
Well-Known Member
Outer Range. Cool premise, okay show. I'm on ep.6 and slowly becoming less interested.
MFB
Banned
Started watching "Modern Family" from the very beginning, I've probably already seen 1/3 of the show just here and there and from re-runs, but I'd say it's one of the last actually funny shows on TV in a while.
nightflameauto
Well-Known Member
We just did a full rewatch of Modern Family last year. What a terrific show. The ensemble cast was all great, even the kids. And that's not something you get with a lot of shows.
I think my favorites are when Mitchell gets up to some shit. Him sneaking a weed gummy for the theater then getting busted for it at the kids' party was great.
There were a few shows set up to take the mantle when they finally stopped, but most of them got killed. Outclassed was pretty rad, but only got a part of a season before being pandemicked into oblivion. The kids on that show pretty much made it, even if the Pie Fucker managed to be somewhat funny from time to time.
zappatton2
Well-Known Member
Watched Jon Stewart's latest Daily Show last night, really on point, sad I can't discuss it here anymore 
nightflameauto
Well-Known Member
Wait. We're *NOT* allowed to discuss corn now? Well, crap. There goes that essay I was working on.Watched Jon Stewart's latest Daily Show last night, really on point, sad I can't discuss it here anymore
Watched all the Bodkin episodes with wife. I wasn't impressed. We had a string of really solid TV series watching lately so it kinda paled in comparison. It was fine.
nightflameauto
Well-Known Member
Recommended palate cleanser if you have Netflix: Derry Girls
Comedic UK teen dramedy. Especially funny now that some of them have appeared in more serious series.
We've already watched it through three times. Hysterical, and reminds you that sometimes these streaming services stumble across good content by accident.
Fantastic series with hilarious writing and acting, can't recommend it enough.
Is that one a Netflix original or a BBC import that Netflix got the license for? There's a weird inconsistency with the Netflix + BBC partnerships but I swear I've seen a lot of BBC originals pop up (not GBBO on Canadian Netflix for some stupid fucking reason...).
nightflameauto
Well-Known Member
The quality of it hits me as BBC Original, Netflix licensed, but there are some that are sold in America as Netflix original, but BBC essentially does all the lift of writing, hiring, producing, etc. It may be one of those.
Louis Cypher
Well-Known Member
Derry Girls is a channel 4 produced series in the UK not the BBC. Channel 4 produces alot of fantastic comedy and drama shows too tbf
I also watched Bodkin and didn't really take to it. Apart from me being somewhat tired of English programs since those were the only options when I lived there, I didn't find that it resolved well. I do appreciate how those sorts of English mystery programs can draw out a story through almost strictly dialogue with few frills, but in many parts it was just too slow for me. The characters were good, realistic, and the overall atmosphere of the show was fine otherwise. I didn't appreciate not knowing what happened to some characters once the mystery had resolved and the show simply ended. It was just ok, not great.
I've started Westworld on a lark because it was supposed to be about cyborgs and Anthony Hopkins is in it. I'm about four episodes in currently and it seems kind of pedestrian (which is my recurring complaint with anything even barely categorized as sci-fi), but I'm enjoying the pace of things and the characters a lot so far. Philosophically it's compelling enough to keep me, and Hopkins is outstanding of course. I appreciate that it's not especially pulling punches in regard to human nature and consciousness, but if they start pulling magic out of a hat to make the narrative more captivating I'll probably dip out. I don't anticipate they will, it's been more or less pretty down to Earth so far.
I've started Westworld on a lark because it was supposed to be about cyborgs and Anthony Hopkins is in it. I'm about four episodes in currently and it seems kind of pedestrian (which is my recurring complaint with anything even barely categorized as sci-fi), but I'm enjoying the pace of things and the characters a lot so far. Philosophically it's compelling enough to keep me, and Hopkins is outstanding of course. I appreciate that it's not especially pulling punches in regard to human nature and consciousness, but if they start pulling magic out of a hat to make the narrative more captivating I'll probably dip out. I don't anticipate they will, it's been more or less pretty down to Earth so far.
Noisy Humbucker
Only obsesses over guitars when not playing them.
Finished Jack Ryan last week. I suppose it was entertaining overall, but they dumbed him down and buffed him up quite a bit, to the point where he was practically just a loose cannon hitman. My fondness for the first three movies does have me thinking I’ll finally check out the books once I’m done delving as far as I’d care to into the Dune series.
nightflameauto
Well-Known Member
Season one was pretty grounded, for a modern sci-fi. Season two went a little off the rails. By the time they wrapped up they were clearly reaching for the stars on the technological scale, without really having any clue what those stars may actually be. It got downright weird. But I don't really think magic played that big of a part in it. Just throwing tech on top of tech on top of more tech.
It very much suffers from HBOitis, much like Game of Thrones. Starts strong, weakens a bit in the middle, then just throws out the entire rulebook and says, "Fuck it. What show were we making again?" to round it out.
*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.
@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.
Demiurge
Well-Known Member
I liked Westworld a lot, and while it's a cop-out of sorts I'll admit that much of the enjoyment came with not trying to sweat the technology aspect of it too much. It's certainly not going to get better in that regard.
