What TV SHOWS are you watching?

hotseatgames wrote: Finished Broadchurch season 2. It was better than season 1 and amazing to see the emotional destruction these characters go through.

Broadchurch season one was one of the most obnoxious series I've sat through. Everything was fine until the last episode, which was just maddening and insulting.

Eh, I'm dialing back my rage at the last Fargo episode, pending the finale. The crazy thing that happened was alluded to several times prior, so I can't say it was unexpected, and I'll wait to see the finale before judging the point and full impact of that. There are some ways that the finale can go that I think would redeem the whole thing. I still felt that last episode was a bit off, though, in terms of its style. I know we have other Fargo series lovers here... what did y'all think of that last one?

Finished off season 2 of The Leftovers. Pretty amazing season and series with some really bold choices that almost all paid off in interesting ways. I'm really glad I stuck with it, or rather came back to it after bailing. It was just renewed for a 3rd and final season. That should be the perfect length for this.

Speaking of Broadchurch, I watched the American version last year, and it was okay, but ended up being pretty disappointing. I would be interested to see the British season 2, and my understanding is that the American version was almost identical to that, especially in terms of the season 1 resolution. So presumably I could just start on the British season 2 without losing too much? I wouldn't be eager at all to watch the British season 1, just to catch up on that version. Can any of you speak to that?

I didn't see the American version, but no American version of a British show has ever been anywhere as good as the original so perhaps you should forget you saw it and just watch the real thing.

hotseatgames wrote: I didn't see the American version, but no American version of a British show has ever been anywhere as good as the original so perhaps you should forget you saw it and just watch the real thing.

Ha, I hear ya and agree, with the possible exception of The Office. But really, my issue is that I don't feel like it's likely to be worth the time to rewatch the British season 1, when the American one ended up being so similar. And I think the end resolution was exactly the same . So even though the execution was almost certainly better in the British version, it seems a waste of time to rewatch all of that, already knowing the resolution.

Here's a question about season 2... is it just an aftermath kind of thing, or is there also a new mystery? I think I'd be even more lost if it's just an aftermath thing, when I haven't known these specific characters (there were some characterization differences between the British/American versions).

Season 1 of the British Broadchurch was really good until the final episode, which made me feel like an idiot for sitting through all the previous. Just a terrible ending all around.

Finished Man in the High Castle. Story, Acting,writing was all good. However, I don't think I would have stuck with it if was on regular TV watching 1 episode a week. The pacing just seemed a little slow or off. Luckily, we live in Netflix generation where we can watch 10 straight episodes

^Friend has been raving about this to me, I'll have to check it out.

Ash vs. Evil Dead just keeps getting better and better. Whoever decided to send Ash on an ayahuasca trip is a fucking genius.

"Jacksonville, Florida...the city so nice they named it Jacksonville."

"Wait...I have two hands...I need two beers!"

Library finally got True Detective season 1, and I snatched it up right away. I avoided almost 100% of spoilers, after hearing mention of Carcosa and the King in Yellow. Even without that, my mythos detector might have gone off in the first episode, during one of Rust's creepy car conversations. That sort of existential nihilism fits smoothly with the philosophical underpinnings of Lovecraft's worldview.

Aside from that, both McConaughey and Harrelson are delivering amazing performances. The Louisiana setting is creepy and matches up with much of what I've seen while visiting family in Shreveport over the years. The music is strange and evocative, and the opening theme was already a favorite song of mine. I'm only two episodes in and I am loving this dark and disturbing show.

KingPut wrote: Finished Man in the High Castle. Story, Acting,writing was all good. However, I don't think I would have stuck with it if was on regular TV watching 1 episode a week. The pacing just seemed a little slow or off. Luckily, we live in Netflix generation where we can watch 10 straight episodes

Yes, I can't quite put my finger on why I didn't like it that much. It's weird because alt reality is right up my street. It was certainly slow and a bit of a contrived plot. Was wishing for an inter dimensional portal all the time to bump up the tension.

Regarding Flash, I pushed myself through Season 1 but I just could not get over that shit eating grin his scientist sidekick has all the time. Totally spoiled it for me. Time twist plot was utter bollocks from beginning to end.

I started to watch River but got put off because I thought it was going to be more than about a grieving cop who can't let go. Pete, does it get better than the first episode?

Maybe I should just buckle down and watch The Arrow on Netflix. 3rd season has just gone up. Only problem is it's...err...shit. It's like watching Dallas with superheroes.

ThirstyMan wrote:

KingPut wrote: Finished Man in the High Castle. Story, Acting,writing was all good. However, I don't think I would have stuck with it if was on regular TV watching 1 episode a week. The pacing just seemed a little slow or off. Luckily, we live in Netflix generation where we can watch 10 straight episodes

Yes, I can't quite put my finger on why I didn't like it that much. It's weird because alt reality is right up my street. It was certainly slow and a bit of a contrived plot. Was wishing for an inter dimensional portal all the time to bump up the tension.

Agreed. I liked it enough to watch it through, and will continue for the next season, and occasionally loved it, but mostly it was just good and not great. Sometimes really wonderful scenes and characterizations, but sometimes really dumb and obvious, like the scene involving a walk on the ledge of a tall building.

Finished watching True Detective season 1. Will need to watch it again before it goes back to the library.

I've never liked McConaughy before, and yet I found myself really enjoying his grim and isolated cop character in this show. I've also never been an especially big fan of Woody Harrelson, but his extremely hypocritical character still had a certain likability. And both actors turned in the top performances of their careers. These were not necessarily deep characters, but both actors fleshed their characters out with understated yet completely credible performances. Taking into account the aging of the characters, they both effectively played three different roles, the '95, '02, and '12 versions of their characters.

As a detective story, True Detective was compelling, but not entirely fair. There were occasional leaps of logic that I felt were not entirely justified, and this certainly wasn't the kind of story that gave the viewer a chance at solving the mystery. Still, the presentation, through flashbacks alternating with present-day scenes, made for very effective story-telling.

The Carcosa element was a disappointment. I thrilled to the few scanty references to the King in Yellow and Carcosa, but there is a whole rich, evocative setting there that completely avoided aside from the name-dropping. I was hoping for at least a quote from the play. The show didn't even bother with the actual Yellow Sign, replacing it instead with a crude spiral. By the 5th episode or so, I gave up on the idea that there would be any supernatural or otherwise extraordinary elements to this show, but I was hoping for at least some hallucinations by Rust in the final episode. Surprisingly there were none, except for something that might have been a swirling dimensional portal to the real Carcosa.

Even so, I found True Detective to be a great story. Dark, disturbing, and yet somehow uplifting through the sheer quality of the story, the characters, and especially the performances of the stars. It's too bad that the reviews of season 2 are so poor, but it sounds like there will a season 3 anyway. With the anthology concept of the show, it is entirely possible that the show can recover with a strong third season.

You will be similarly disappointed to hear that the Son of Sam killer was not actually getting orders from a talking dog, Zodiac had nothing to do with astrology, and Manson's "Family" were not related. Sometimes crazy people base their shit on crazy things, or make stuff up.

Well in TD, it wasn't just the imaginings of some generic backwoods deep south murderer (shelf no. 52 in the Standard TV Trope Warehouse) but tied into the conspiracies of powerful, shadowy authority figures and the nexus of one of the main character's nihilistic philosophy. Ultimately it boiled down to the writer having grabbed* a bunch of disparate narratives to make a story out of. As a dramatic soufflé, they opened the oven door before it had baked.

I don't think that anyone was expecting Hastur to emerge through a portal from Yuggoth, though ironically that's the thing that came closest to maybe kind of actually happening.

*some have said, "stolen", and were (rightly as it turned out) skeptical of season 2 pulling it off.

Fargo season 2 finale was pretty solid, and made up somewhat for the weak previous episode. Altogether, the season was still a really great one.