What TV SHOWS are you watching?

Almost finished season 2 of Marco Polo which is solid.

I'm enjoying the miserableness of the Walking Dead current season thus far (seriously). I'd love to see an animated gif with Negan asking "What's your name" and it cut to Tom Hanks and the Skeletons "David S. Pumpkins".

Black Barney wrote: Is there any other big fans of THE WEST WING here? I'm asking cuz I'm trying to remember a specific moment and it's driving me crazy trying to dig it up.

I remember at one point Charlie keeps something from the President cuz he doesn't want to reveal something about his past (that he worked with some huge racist). This racist guy enters the White House and starts giving Charlie a hard time, the President keeps asking Charlie about it who won't say anything and I THINK at one point Charlie is at risk of losing his job (or quitting). Finally, President Bartlet figures it out and humiliates the racist guy in front of Charlie and is all proud of himself for figuring it out. Thus freeing Charlie from having to tell the President himself that this other guy had this awful past.

It might be the thing about Ambassador Cochran in Season One but i rewatched that today and it just didn't feel epic enough of a moment. I thought I remembered a similar situation but with far more gravitas.

anyway, if any fan knows this show well and this rings a bell, help out a troubled Black Barney who is racking (wracking?) his brain trying to remember

I'm voting for the Cochran thing. The other Charlie/race thing is that the shooter was trying to kill Charlie, not the president, and Charlie felt really guilty about that.
www.reddit.com/r/thewestwing/comments/1s...lie_and_ken_cochran/

Even though the show is sometimes terrible, The Last Man on Earth has some great moments. Todd and Melissa doing Shawshank Redemption role playing. I'm on the third season.

I just watched my first episode of Black Mirror tonight, and I loathed almost everything about it. It's the episode about the kidnapped princess and an unconventional ransom demand.

The premise is plausible, at least until we learn the identity of the perpetrator(s). But the moral confusion and shortsightedness of the British authorities as depicted in the episode is extreme, and subsequent events become just plain old unbelievable. Late in the episode the show goes into one of those slow-mo, mopey musical montage sequences where we're supposed to recognize just how incredibly profound the story's events are. But the production made me feel nothing for any of the characters. And as for lessons? The only thing we actually learned is that many people will indulge their prurient interests and come to regret it later. Whoa man, that's deep. It was cool to see Frankenstein's Monster as the Prime Minister though! I'm going to give it another episode to see if they'll put some science fiction and/or thought into this thinking man's science fiction show that I've heard so much about.


Meanwhile, watching old Star Trek TOS episodes in high definition continues to be a hoot. Growing up I watched them all out of order, so watching them in the right sequence is making me appreciate just how many recurring minor characters there actually are. And there are little details here and there that I missed the first umpteen times I watched these episodes. Like, Sulu's a botanist, for crying out loud! Who knew? That has come up in two episodes so far in the first season. And reading the computer log entries for various planets and personalities thanks to the high-definition is neat too.

Checked out Avatar: the Last Airbender Book 1 (Water) from the library. I had binged on it it on my own on Amazon Prime or Netflix a few years ago, but I'm happily watching it again with some new people. It's such a great show! I like Korra too, but this series is just so much fun.

I remember that Colby really liked it too, and I wouldn't be surprised if the water tribe helped (sub)consciously influence the Tundra Orcs in Summoner Wars.

Binge-watched seasons 5 and 6 of Sons of Anarchy. Still enjoying the show, despite the ridiculous plot twists. I think that the scripts are solid, and the key actors are talented enough to sell the most outrageous scenes of the show. The regular callbacks to previous storylines really helps to give this show a strong sense of continuity that also helps maintain some degree of credibility to the stories. Given the premise of the show (Biker Gang Hamlet), I was very surprised by one casualty in season six, though in all fairness, the show certainly was building towards that development. Somehow I was kidding myself for a long time that at least some of the Sons were more like anti-heroes than villains, but by mid-season six, that illusion was dispelled. Too much blood on everybody's hands, and many of those deaths were pure murder and not self-defense.

Jexik wrote: Checked out Avatar: the Last Airbender Book 1 (Water) from the library. I had binged on it it on my own on Amazon Prime or Netflix a few years ago, but I'm happily watching it again with some new people. It's such a great show! I like Korra too, but this series is just so much fun.

I remember that Colby really liked it too, and I wouldn't be surprised if the water tribe helped (sub)consciously influence the Tundra Orcs in Summoner Wars.

my new g/f is a huge fan of this and told me I have to watch at least one full season of it with her. I'm really glad to hear that it might not be a miserable experience. i only have the movie to base it after and I will never sit through that abortion of a film again

Feelitmon wrote: I just watched my first episode of Black Mirror tonight, and I loathed almost everything about it. It's the episode about the kidnapped princess and an unconventional ransom demand.

The premise is plausible, at least until we learn the identity of the perpetrator(s). But the moral confusion and shortsightedness of the British authorities as depicted in the episode is extreme, and subsequent events become just plain old unbelievable. Late in the episode the show goes into one of those slow-mo, mopey musical montage sequences where we're supposed to recognize just how incredibly profound the story's events are. But the production made me feel nothing for any of the characters. And as for lessons? The only thing we actually learned is that many people will indulge their prurient interests and come to regret it later. Whoa man, that's deep. It was cool to see Frankenstein's Monster as the Prime Minister though! I'm going to give it another episode to see if they'll put some science fiction and/or thought into this thinking man's science fiction show that I've heard so much about.

That episode is dreadful, and the worst thing possible to put out as a first. If you watch anything else, I'd recommend the White Christmas special, and then San Junipero if you want something less horrific.

JEM wrote:

Feelitmon wrote: I just watched my first episode of Black Mirror tonight, and I loathed almost everything about it. It's the episode about the kidnapped princess and an unconventional ransom demand.

That episode is dreadful, and the worst thing possible to put out as a first. If you watch anything else, I'd recommend the White Christmas special, and then San Junipero if you want something less horrific.

Last night I watched the second episode (15 Million Merits, I think it was called) and it was a huge improvement! A proper dystopia, some neat tech, and great "what would you do" moments. I'm glad to hear that the first episode is such an outlier. What a weird decision to lead with that one.

I just finished off the last season of Brooklyn 99. Not a great show but after a long day it is so damned easy to watch. It just washes over me. I actually enjoy it a lot and think the cast is very talented. I wouldn't call it a sit com, I'm more tempted to think of it as an ensemble comedy. The main difference being that the comedy doesn't come from the situations as much as it does just this wacky mix of characters. In a sit com, say the Honeymooners, you could read a script and think 'oh boy, Ralph thinks he won the lottery, this is going to be hilarious. In an ensemble comedy the situation isn't that funny. But the characters and scripts are. I don't see much true situation comedy anymore.

So I started watching a couple of other things. One is The Gentlemen's Guide to Knife Fighting, which can be brilliantly funny at times. It's an Australian sketch comedy show that didn't last very long but what's out there is pretty interesting and occasionally hilarious.

Like this 3 minute short here which had me imitating his speaking style for a couple of days and certainly made me cry with laughter at least once.



While simultaneously watching Dark Matter. Which absolutely sucks but has a cool premise. I say sucks... but I'm going to finish that first season anyway because there were just enough interesting moments to get me through it and keep me watching but much like The 100 I don't think it's actually well done. It's just that sometimes I want a sci-fi show and there isn't much else that I haven't seen.

I just finished the second season of the British comedy Spy . It is sort of wacky and absurd, and good to watch while grading. I could see the show improving, but just learned that there will be no third season. Sad emoticon.