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Post by MrsLangdonAlger on Aug 5, 2024 10:06:07 GMT -5
Currently rewatching Six Feet Under (thank you pantsgoblin ) and it's just as sweet and sad and funny as I remembered.
Season one main characters ranking:
- The Fisher House: gorgeous, aptly old-fashioned and realistically lived-in
- Nathaniel Fisher: loveable cranky old ghost
- Ruth Fisher: everyone's mom with a secret wild side, but still fiercely moral and loyal. Also hilarious
- Nate Fisher: ohh, my heart
- David Fisher: kind of broken but coming into his own. He and Keith are my favorite couple. And again, hilarious
- Claire Fisher: beautiful, beautiful girl, so vulnerable under that armor
- Brenda Chenowith: BOOOOOO, although I confess this ranking may be based on her behavior in later seasons. Still, boo I say
I feel a bit bad not listing Federico here, but where would I place him? Between Claire and Brenda? He's too good for that. Billy, Keith, Nikolai, Hiram, Gabe, Bernard and Margaret Chenowith?! All amazing.
Looking forward to season two - things are gonna get juicy.
Billy is so well done and well played that he remains one of my most hated TV characters of all time.
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Floyd D Barber
AV Clubber
The Train I used to Drive (not me driving, though)
Posts: 7,608
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Post by Floyd D Barber on Aug 5, 2024 11:07:16 GMT -5
Currently rewatching Six Feet Under (thank you pantsgoblin ) and it's just as sweet and sad and funny as I remembered.
Season one main characters ranking:
- The Fisher House: gorgeous, aptly old-fashioned and realistically lived-in
- Nathaniel Fisher: loveable cranky old ghost
- Ruth Fisher: everyone's mom with a secret wild side, but still fiercely moral and loyal. Also hilarious
- Nate Fisher: ohh, my heart
- David Fisher: kind of broken but coming into his own. He and Keith are my favorite couple. And again, hilarious
- Claire Fisher: beautiful, beautiful girl, so vulnerable under that armor
- Brenda Chenowith: BOOOOOO, although I confess this ranking may be based on her behavior in later seasons. Still, boo I say
I feel a bit bad not listing Federico here, but where would I place him? Between Claire and Brenda? He's too good for that. Billy, Keith, Nikolai, Hiram, Gabe, Bernard and Margaret Chenowith?! All amazing.
Looking forward to season two - things are gonna get juicy.
Billy is so well done and well played that he remains one of my most hated TV characters of all time. The first time we see Billy, he's off his meds and crying getting a snack out of the fridge, and the last time we see him he is babbling at Brenda as she is dying, and he lives the crazy everywhere in between.
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Post by songstarliner on Aug 5, 2024 21:31:27 GMT -5
Billy is so well done and well played that he remains one of my most hated TV characters of all time. The first time we see Billy, he's off his meds and crying getting a snack out of the fridge, and the last time we see him he is babbling at Brenda as she is dying, and he lives the crazy everywhere in between. They handled a lot of things very well throughout the span of the show, but that last scene with Brenda and Billy was PERFECT. I laughed and laughed, which was a relief from the heartbreaking weeping. Again, great stuff.
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Post by DangOlJimmyITellYouWhat on Aug 5, 2024 22:15:52 GMT -5
Has anyone watched Orphan Black: Echoes? I sometimes have low tolerance for Krysten Ritter, and I definitely am not sure I believe she can live up to Tatiana Maslany.*
I mean that’s true of anyone tbh.*
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Post by President Hound on Aug 8, 2024 5:22:33 GMT -5
The Bear season 3: 6 episodes in. Its typical Bear quality, which is good but not great. Except for the the Tina centered episode. That one is the series peak.
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Post by Jean-Luc Lemur on Aug 8, 2024 14:46:10 GMT -5
The Bear season 3: 6 episodes in. Its typical Bear quality, which is good but not great. Except for the the Tina centered episode. That one is the series peak.
Agreed. When she reaches around to hold both Josh and Jimmy Junior’s butts at the performing arts school dance that’s basically the series high point for me.
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moimoi
AV Clubber
Posts: 5,052
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Post by moimoi on Aug 9, 2024 18:11:02 GMT -5
The Bear season 3: 6 episodes in. Its typical Bear quality, which is good but not great. Except for the the Tina centered episode. That one is the series peak.
Agreed. When she reaches around to hold both Josh and Jimmy Junior’s butts at the performing arts school dance that’s basically the series high point for me.
I'm thinking there needs to be some sort of Bear/Bob's Burgers crossover, since they both take place in the food industry. At the very least, H. Jon Benjamin needs to do a cameo on The Bear.
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Post by songstarliner on Aug 10, 2024 8:30:17 GMT -5
Agreed. When she reaches around to hold both Josh and Jimmy Junior’s butts at the performing arts school dance that’s basically the series high point for me.
I'm thinking there needs to be some sort of Bear/Bob's Burgers crossover, since they both take place in the food industry. At the very least, H. Jon Benjamin needs to do a cameo on The Bear. H. Jon Benjamin in everything, please.
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Post by Pedantic Editor Type on Aug 14, 2024 9:02:52 GMT -5
After foundering around for awhile, we thought we'd watch Brooklyn 99 finally. Only .... it's not on Hulu anymore. It's now on Netflix and Peacock. Okay.
Well, we still had Hulu open and we don't have a current subscription to Peacock so we decided on a rewatch of LOST instead.
Pilot is still one hell of a ride, I'll tell you that. Briskly moving plot without feeling overstuffed.
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Post by Roy Batty's Pet Dove on Aug 14, 2024 12:09:10 GMT -5
After foundering around for awhile, we thought we'd watch Brooklyn 99 finally. Only .... it's not on Hulu anymore. It's now on Netflix and Peacock. Okay. Well, we still had Hulu open and we don't have a current subscription to Peacock so we decided on a rewatch of LOST instead. Pilot is still one hell of a ride, I'll tell you that. Briskly moving plot without feeling overstuffed. Did you know that Emily St. James and Noel Murray have a Lost critical companion book coming out soon?
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Post by Pedantic Editor Type on Aug 14, 2024 12:40:07 GMT -5
After foundering around for awhile, we thought we'd watch Brooklyn 99 finally. Only .... it's not on Hulu anymore. It's now on Netflix and Peacock. Okay. Well, we still had Hulu open and we don't have a current subscription to Peacock so we decided on a rewatch of LOST instead. Pilot is still one hell of a ride, I'll tell you that. Briskly moving plot without feeling overstuffed. Did you know that Emily St. James and Noel Murray have a Lost critical companion book coming out soon? I did! I'm planning to get it for TWBE for his birthday. Lost actually premiered the very same time his youngest brother was born, so we're well aware of the 20th anniversary
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Post by Desert Dweller on Aug 17, 2024 17:35:27 GMT -5
Season 2 of Amazon's "Rings of Power" is releasing at the end of the month. They have released a final trailer:
As I said here when Season 1 was airing, it was disappointing, but I didn't feel it was unsalvageable. The main problem was in the story framing, and the way they wanted to structure it like a mystery. They wrote a mystery box show, but Tolkien's stories are fundamentally not mysteries. Treating it as a mystery meant obscuring the identities of several characters, and hiding character motivations. This consequently messed up Tolkien's chronology (and I'm not talking about the time compression), and made it hard to determine why characters were doing things, and generally made it hard to care about what was happening at all.
These showrunners were quoted as saying they didn't want to do Tolkien's story because then book readers would know what was going to happen!
Um, guys? IT ISN'T A MYSTERY! (Also, wtf?)
Anyway, this trailer for Season 2 at least *seems* like they have maybe learned some lessons about this. They do seem to be back on track with actually telling Tolkien's story. This seems like it could be an upgrade. Hopefully. Maybe. (This would, of course, make most of season 1 totally pointless, but so be it.)
Please, please, please, please be better than season 1. Better writing here would improve SO MUCH about this show. There are some solid building blocks here. It has potential to be a good show. Please, please, please be better. Pretty please?
Edited to add: Also, it would really help if they would stop trying to make Galadriel the main character. The trailer does at least seem like they've elevated Celebrimbor's importance. But... wow, this really should have Elrond and Gil-Galad as the main characters. Normally I have no patience for trolls and misogynists who complain about "corporations trying to make it woke!" but seriously, Galadriel is not the main character. (I'm fine with them elevating Miriel's role in Númenor, however.)
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Post by Desert Dweller on Aug 18, 2024 18:44:04 GMT -5
^^^ To follow up on the above re: "Rings of Power", there was a clip presented on the Tonight Show a couple days ago that I saw on my Twitter feed. This clip is very encouraging because it shows Sauron playing mind games with characters, and reveals that he's playing both sides against each other.
This is highly encouraging, because it removes the mystery box framework of Season 1, where character motivations and actions were hidden. Here, they're just outright showing you that Sauron is pulling all the strings.
Please, please, let this mean that they will just tell the damn story and remove the Mystery Box element. My quibbles with the changes in Tolkien lore pale in comparison to how much I HATED the mystery box framework.
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Post by The Sensational She-Hulk on Aug 19, 2024 11:51:38 GMT -5
My friends gave me their Peacock login, and as soon as I finish American Horror Story 1984 and Double Feature, I plan to dive into Poker Face and Girls5eva. I finished AHS Hotel yesterday and liked it well enough, though I would have enjoyed it more as a series of stories/vignettes set in the Cortez throughout its history. I got through most of the first episode of 1984 before my internet went out because of a thunderstorm, but man, it's kind of weird hearing them say "fuck" basically just because they can, now. To be fair, I also have this problem with latter-day Always Sunny.
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Post by Pedantic Editor Type on Aug 19, 2024 12:50:36 GMT -5
My friends gave me their Peacock login, and as soon as I finish American Horror Story 1984 and Double Feature, I plan to dive into Poker Face and Girls5eva. I finished AHS Hotel yesterday and liked it well enough, though I would have enjoyed it more as a series of stories/vignettes set in the Cortez throughout its history. I got through most of the first episode of 1984 before my internet went out because of a thunderstorm, but man, it's kind of weird hearing them say "fuck" basically just because they can, now. To be fair, I also have this problem with latter-day Always Sunny. JSYK, I think all of Girls5Eva is on Netflix now, including the newest season, which they produced. You should also watch We Are Ladyparts. (And Poker Face is great.)
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Post by The Sensational She-Hulk on Aug 19, 2024 13:32:29 GMT -5
JSYK, I think all of Girls5Eva is on Netflix now, including the newest season, which they produced. You should also watch We Are Ladyparts. (And Poker Face is great.) Thanks! I got rid of Netflix over a year ago because I was tired of paying for something with like two shows I like. I might pick it back up again if they ever put out the sequel to The Old Guard, which is a movie, but the one thing I really want from them.
I am very annoyed to have learned just now that Amazon Prime canceled My Lady Jane, especially now that I finished the book it's based on. There's still half the story to go!
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Post by chalkdevil 😈 on Aug 19, 2024 14:35:49 GMT -5
The Decameron Netflix's satirical show about a group of wealthy nobles hiding out from the plague in an Italian villa and the handful of servants who are still alive to care for them. To start with, I know very little about the source material, the time period and setting, or the black plague - but it's likely if those things are super important to you, probably having characters in these settings with very modern sensibilities and speech patterns along with the occasional pop songs, is likely going to be a problem. For me, it was fine. I really dug the show. It's obviously got big COVID lockdown vibes, along with a bunch of class critics - I mean, nothing revolutionary but it has some teeth. I liked a lot of the performers already and they were great here. The ones I didn't know, I liked after watching the show. Besides the cast, the show is also filmed on location in a period accurate location and it looks great and makes it feel a little more real. It's also a limited series so it has an ending, which is my favorite thing in media right now. Endings. Just complete stories with no expectation that they have to continue in perpetuity to drive shareholder revenue.
Anyway, I very much enjoyed the show as a silly satire with some heart.
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Post by songstarliner on Aug 19, 2024 23:37:25 GMT -5
Six Feet Under Season 3 MVP Catherine O'hara.
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Post by Prole Hole on Aug 20, 2024 4:01:22 GMT -5
Started rewatching Lower Decks S1 with my fella since he's never seen it before and now that we've blown through all of TNG and are into S2 of DS9 and Voyager he feels ready for it. And while it is still great, I'd forgotten how janky bits of that first season are. Tandi and Rutherford barely even interact with the other characters for the first three-quarters of the series and it occasionally dips into being just a touch too frantic. But the Big Star Trek Heart is all there and it really does stand up - it's a delightful show.
Badgey still isn't funny, though.
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Post by Desert Dweller on Aug 29, 2024 18:45:07 GMT -5
I played the first three episodes of Rings of Power Season 2 while I was working today. Obviously, this wasn't a close watch. I didn't even have the closed-captioning on so I would be less tempted to watch closely. I'll rewatch tonight when I can pay more attention.
So far though, they have dropped *most* of the mystery box framework, which is deeply appreciated. There is no need to make any of this a mystery when this is a prequel and we all know how it ends. They have also clarified some stuff from season 1, which was also nice.
It seems they have finally settled on telling Tolkien's real story, which is: Sauron mindfucks everyone into doing his bidding and nearly obliterates them all. So far, the episodes were much more interesting when they were focusing on that story. I like that they are making Sauron look much more powerful now. The goal of this show should be to make Sauron look as smart and powerful as possible so that it justifies why everyone in LOTR is so terrified of him.
Moving on, dear God, I really wish they would just dump the Hobbit characters. This part of the story is SO BORING. None of this is Tolkien. Blech. I was MUCH more annoyed by these scenes in these episodes than I was last season. This is a waste of time!
The Númenor story.... sigh. They just have to compress 1000 years of time into, like, 8 episodes between Seasons 1 and 2. Compressing this timeline means it loses a lot of complexity. These are the characters I'm actually interested in, but it appears the showrunners don't have enough time to tell what happens to them pre-Sauron. Hey, maybe they could cut the Hobbits to make room for this? Maybe??
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Post by Mrs David Tennant on Aug 30, 2024 19:10:29 GMT -5
I'm watching Kevin Can F*** Himself and it is not what I expected!
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Post by Desert Dweller on Sept 1, 2024 14:32:34 GMT -5
I did actually do that focused watch of the first three episodes of Season 2 of Rings of Power. I think my above assessment is still correct. The show is actually good when it is focused on Sauron manipulating everyone. Charlie Vickers and Charles Edwards are crushing it in those scenes. Now that there is no mystery, Vickers is getting to actually play his character. This is wonderful. Really looking forward to the rest of the Sauron/Celebrimbor story now. I'm so glad that the show is actually getting this (mostly) correct.
The rest of the stories are a mixed bag so far. I still don't understand anything happening with the other Elf story, Gil-Galad, Galadriel, Elrond, etc. Pretty much nothing over there makes any sense to me. It may be a case where I just know too much of the Tolkien lore, that I can't follow the show's non-Tolkien story here. I keep expecting them to do things that the characters actually do, but then this never happens. It is frustrating.
They spend the first two episodes arguing over whether they should actually use these Rings, which Sauron clearly wanted them to do. And for some reason Elrond is the only character saying, "Hey, maybe we shouldn't do what Sauron wanted us to do?" I'm unsure if the showrunners actually understand the distinction between the Elven rings and the others. Basically this all seems to exist to get Elrond and Galadriel arguing with each other. And honestly, Galadriel spent the entirety of Season 1 getting massively deceived by Sauron, so I'm not sure why anyone is listening to her now. They gave Elrond a great line about this: "You gave him everything he wanted and then thanked him for it."
The Dwarf storyline now seems folded into the Sauron story, so that is fine. The Dwarf characters may still be the best ones in the show. The show seems to be doing the Dwarf Third Age story here in the Second Age. Not sure if I like this or not. I guess it works thematically.
The Númenor story is just a mess. They are trying to fit so much story into way too few episodes. So, it all comes across as faintly ridiculous. Like, "Why did this thing just happen?" And the answer is, "We need that to happen to move the plot forward". Forget that it makes no sense for the characters. This was always the danger with the extreme time compression happening. So, hey, I guess we'll just make all the Númenórean characters look like idiots. That's fine. Well, Elendil doesn't look like an idiot, but they're still writing him as a peripheral character. Which is extremely odd. Shrug.
I really hate the Hobbit/Wizard story. Not even a brief scene with Ciaran Hinds could rescue this for me. This is still operating in the mystery box format. Blech. They're still teasing the audience, "Ooh, who are these mysterious wizards?" They are baiting the audience into thinking it is Gandalf. If that is true, then this story is unsalvageable for me. It's already extremely disconnected to the rest of the show. It's all really boring.
So, I would probably grade Season 1 as a C. So far, Season 2 is getting a B-.
MVPs through 3 episodes are Charlie Vickers and Charles Edwards
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LazBro
Prolific Poster
Posts: 10,178
Member is Online
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Post by LazBro on Sept 2, 2024 14:37:19 GMT -5
Started rewatching Lower Decks S1 with my fella since he's never seen it before and now that we've blown through all of TNG and are into S2 of DS9 and Voyager he feels ready for it. And while it is still great, I'd forgotten how janky bits of that first season are. Tandi and Rutherford barely even interact with the other characters for the first three-quarters of the series and it occasionally dips into being just a touch too frantic. But the Big Star Trek Heart is all there and it really does stand up - it's a delightful show. Badgey still isn't funny, though. I half-wanted to drop it, because Mariner is just. so. MUCH. those first few episodes. But I'm glad I stuck around, obviously.
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ABz B👹anaz
Grandfathered In
This country is (now less of) a shitshow.
Posts: 1,933
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Post by ABz B👹anaz on Sept 2, 2024 15:29:51 GMT -5
Finished watching Evil last night. Fun show overall, weird but mostly pretty entertaining. Andrea Martin was particularly great.
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Post by Ben Grimm on Sept 2, 2024 19:21:53 GMT -5
Kaos
We watched the whole thing over the long weekend and really enjoyed it. Fantastic cast, great representation, really compelling plot with a lot of humor. Highly recommended.
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Post by MrsLangdonAlger on Sept 3, 2024 15:09:18 GMT -5
KaosWe watched the whole thing over the long weekend and really enjoyed it. Fantastic cast, great representation, really compelling plot with a lot of humor. Highly recommended. I had a lot of fun with it as well. I know there's some plastic surgery there, but damn Mazar hasn't aged a day.
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Post by Ben Grimm on Sept 3, 2024 15:19:48 GMT -5
KaosWe watched the whole thing over the long weekend and really enjoyed it. Fantastic cast, great representation, really compelling plot with a lot of humor. Highly recommended. I had a lot of fun with it as well. I know there's some plastic surgery there, but damn Mazar hasn't aged a day. I was kind of shocked to realize that she's 60. It makes sense, given how long she's been around, but still.
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Post by chalkdevil 😈 on Sept 9, 2024 16:45:37 GMT -5
KaosWe watched the whole thing over the long weekend and really enjoyed it. Fantastic cast, great representation, really compelling plot with a lot of humor. Highly recommended. I embraced Kaos as well and enjoyed it. Someone remind me this show existed 2 years from now if this thing ever gets a second season. Also, this had a good performance from Leila Farzad, who I also just saw give a good performance in The Decameron. I'd never seen her in anything before but now, 2 good turns in a row.
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moimoi
AV Clubber
Posts: 5,052
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Post by moimoi on Sept 10, 2024 19:41:13 GMT -5
It took me 4 seasons to realize that "Brazos" is a parody of "Kojak" on Only Murders in the Building.
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Post by DangOlJimmyITellYouWhat on Sept 11, 2024 21:59:01 GMT -5
I watched almost two seasons of Northern Exposure, and eh, it’s just not quite my jam. I think I’d watched an episode here and there when it first aired, but nothing more. I don’t DISlike it, as a whole, I just..am not interested in Fleischman, and mostly I’m not all that invested in the denizens of Cecily. I think I want it to be weirder? I can see how parts would have been more unusual in the 90s, but now it’s pretty normal.
Also it’s really episodic, which yeah is pretty normal for the 90s, but I strongly prefer shows with story arcs. With non-sitcoms, it’s harder to keep my attention if there’s not arcs.
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