What TV SHOWS are you watching?

I thought I would get caught up on Downton Abbey. My wife and I quit watching after season three, and kind of quit watching TV together. But then I read the reviews on Metacritic, and they look like:

Season one: 96
Season two: 85
Seasons three-five: 72

So maybe I'll just let it go.

I am now 3 episodes in to Making a Murderer and while enjoying it am very disappointed at the lack of tank tops for Steve Avery.

JonJacob wrote: I just finished season two of Silicone Valley.

That's actually the porn version, also great.

Season 2 of Fargo is better than season 1 JJ (at least in my opinion).

I think True Detective season 1 is better than both though.

I finished Jessica Jones recently - Fine, entertaining but not exceptional

Fargo Season 2 - As mentioned above, great.

Two episodes into The Man In The High Castle and enjoying it.

Season 2 of Fargo is NOT better than season 1, anyone claiming otherwise is a Communist, or at least a Sympathizer..

I watched W/ Bob and David on Netflix. There are some good bits in there, definitely worth a watch if you like those guys.

hotseatgames wrote: Season 2 of Fargo is NOT better than season 1, anyone claiming otherwise is a Communist, or at least a Sympathizer.

I will agree with you only because I would now consider them a tie. But that wasn't the case until the last couple of episodes. Season 2 was better until the end, mostly for having its own voice and being more of a unique experience. Season 1 was great, and I loved Billy Bob's character and performance, in particular, but it was so heavily leaning on the Coens work that it was almost like fan fiction. Really good fan fiction, mind you, but still... Season 2 certainly has homages and flavors of the Coens, but also felt much more original.

Joebot wrote:

Shellhead wrote: For all you non-writers out there, writing a novel takes as long as it fucking takes. Creativity should not be rushed.

Well, there's a difference between being a "writer" and being a "professional writer." Being a professional means you buckle down and do the work and hit your deadlines and meet your responsibility, just like anybody else in any other line of work. As Martin himself noted in that blog post, nobody bugged him to finish his first novel. But when you're talking about the sixth novel of a highly successful genre series? And you probably took a 7-figure advance to deliver that manuscript at a specified date?? All the romance of the starving artist goes out the window in the face of market demands. Be creative NOW, bitch.

And Martin knows this. He's been at this for decades, including writing for TV. I don't know why he's lost that drive. Age, gobs of fuck-you money, lack of interest, who the hell knows. I wish he'd been able to deliver his books on time. This is his story, and he should have had first dibs on being the one to tell it. It's a very unique situation. I can't think of any other adaption where the adaption actually caught up to and surpassed the original story.

The deadline is only an issue between the writer and the publisher. If the publisher is a newspaper and the writer has a daily column or specific news story to cover, than he damn well better meet his deadline. If the writer is writing a book, publishers (and sane readers) generally understand that it can take a long time to write a book. If the writer is writing for television, the deadline is extremely important, but there will be many writers involved who can pick up the slack if everything isn't on schedule.

If people are unhappy that Martin isn't keeping up with the show, then they somehow overlooked that Martin isn't writing the scripts for the show, and there have been more than a few deviations from the story told in the books. If people are unhappy that George isn't writing the books fast enough, they can fuck off and read something else, because books can take a really long time to write. I don't recall anybody giving Scott Lynch crap for how long it took him to follow up after the excellent Lies of Locke Lamora, particularly since the second book was well worth the wait. And it took Tolkien 11 years to write The Lord of the Rings trilogy, which is only slightly less time than it took Martin to write the first four books of his series, each of which is larger than the corresponding volumes of LotR.

Shellhead wrote: I don't recall anybody giving Scott Lynch crap for how long it took him to follow up after the excellent Lies of Locke Lamora, particularly since the second book was well worth the wait.

You probably mean the third one (Republic of Thieves), as the second one (Red Seas) came out a year or so after Lies. Still, each of Lynch's book tells more or less a complete story, even if there's an overarching plot over the 7-book series and lots of loose ends. Lynch has also been struggling with depression, something most fans can sympathize with.

Pat Rothfuss is reaching GRRM lengths however, for some of the same reasons I suppose. Fingers in too many pies. What's been frustrating for some fans is that the publisher said that the entire trilogy was already written and the following books would be promptly published, 1 per year. Name of the Wind came out in 2007 and it's not sure if book 3 will be published this year.

hotseatgames wrote: Season 2 of Fargo is NOT better than season 1, anyone claiming otherwise is a Communist, or at least a Sympathizer..

I watched W/ Bob and David on Netflix. There are some good bits in there, definitely worth a watch if you like those guys.

Characters are way better in season 2. The police are more likeable, the Native American is awesome, the mom is a much more compelling boss, etc.

Billy Bob is the only person I find more interesting in season 1.

As mentioned above, season 1 also felt like it leaned much harder on the Coens work, mimicking storylines a bit too sincerely. Season two I had no idea what was going to happen.

I also found specific scenes in season 2 much more memorable than season 1. Driving with the guy through the windshield, the motel ending, Todd/Matt Damon lookalike in the garage, the cabin, etc.

Season 1 was good stuff but season 2 felt much more wild and entertaining. It moved at a much better pace as well.

Columbob wrote: Pat Rothfuss is reaching GRRM lengths however, for some of the same reasons I suppose. Fingers in too many pies. What's been frustrating for some fans is that the publisher said that the entire trilogy was already written and the following books would be promptly published, 1 per year. Name of the Wind came out in 2007 and it's not sure if book 3 will be published this year.

Yeah, good call, I forgot about Pat Rothfuss. I know he's taken a lot of grief from fans over the years. Personally, I thought "Name of the WInd" was the most boring, derivative piece of shit I've read since "Sword of Shannara."

Anyway, I finally finished watching Spartacus last night. GODDAMMIT. What a great finale. I sorta knew how it was all going to shake out, but it was still brutal and gut-wrenching to watch. I feel like that show is so underrated. You kind of have to muscle through the first 3 or 4 episodes, but then it really takes off. Very unique, and always entertaining.

They been showing season one of Spartacus on encore tv. Man that was some good TV once that season settles in. A soap opera with beheadings. I enjoyed the original actor who WAS Spartacus. I didn't feel the second guy filled the shoes or delivered as much gravitas to the role. Shame that dude got cancer and lost the role he was born to play.

Finished the first season of Ash vs Evil Dead. They did a fantastic job with this. Never knew what to expect and was never disappointed.

Mad Dog wrote: Finished the first season of Ash vs Evil Dead. They did a fantastic job with this. Never knew what to expect and was never disappointed.

A lot better than it has any right to be. I'm a huge fan of the show and not a huge Evil Dead (or Bruce Campbell) fan per se.

Hello,

I'm sure I've gushed all over this forum before about Star Wars: Rebels but I'm going to do a little more of it. I guess what follows could be spoilerish but not too much.

I just saw a scene where there are two Inquisitors (evil Jedi) and they are just beating up on our heroes. Then appearing in silhouette as she exits from a space ship is Ahsoka Tano. She proceeds to fight the two baddies by herself while our two heroes make their escape. The fight is exciting as hell as she shows what a full on Jedi can do but then mid-action she stops swinging her light saber, drops to her knees and a look of peace comes over her face as she drops into a meditative state. One of the evil Jedi rush in to finish her off when Ahsoka slaps her hands together on the hilt of the evil jedi's blade and whips it out of the Inquisitor's hands leaving the evil Jedi helpless and defeated.

It was such an unexpected moment that I would never have seen coming and yet EXACTLY what a Jedi would do that I about leapt off the couch and cheered.

It's moments like that...just those few seconds though they happen rather frequently...that push this show over the top.

So I was a HUGE fan of Robert (or Rab, I guess) Florence's board game review series, Downtime Town. No hands in front of the camera, editing that suggested someone gave a shit, focus on the experience of playing game rather than a half-assed attempt at a rules explanation...the PERFECT way to review games, video or otherwise. I knew that he went on to do a show for BBC called Burnistoun, which was tough to watch here in the states, but is now on Netflix.

Watched the first episode last night and loved most of it. It's sketch comedy, most of it really bizarre and nonsensical, but there's some stuff that had me in tears. I'll be the first to admit that I had to turn the subtitles on, but my ear was adjusting by the end of the episode. If you liked Downtime Town and Rab's sense of humor, it's certainly worth watching. This bit about a voice recognition system in an elevator KILLED me.