What TV SHOWS are you watching?

My clutch is watching GoT and The Americans, the latter of which has turned out to be quite fun. We're nearly caught up with the series after some recent binging. We watch House of Cards as well, but it's between seasons. Now and again we catch a Rick Steve's travel thing when we are musing about future European vacations. I'd like to see a good weed show. Strain Hunters could be good if Arjan wasn't such a self-promoting douchebag. But getting a grasp on the trajectory of weed would be fun if done well. Some of the Vice shows have been alright in that regard.

boothwah wrote:

metalface13 wrote:

Mr. White wrote: This show is a case where the American version is actually better than the British original.

Whoa ... whoa ... whoa ... those are strong words there.

I would agree. Don't get me wrong - UK Office was a fun romp, once through - but I really have no desire to revisit those characters again - Once was new and shocking, but it doesn't hold up for me, second go through. If the US office were only the first 6...then maybe I go the other way. I think a lot of the appeal of the US version was how many of the ensemble characters they were able to bring to the front and develop because of the longevity - I mean yay for the Jim/Pam/Michael/Dwight stuff - but the rise and fall of Ryan, all of Creed's stuff, Meredith, Robert California, Erin, Andy, Stanley, Gabe and OMG KEVIN, etc .

I wish Kevin had gotten a spin off show.

Ahhh found the gif I was looking for.

Detectorists. S1 on Netflix now. Offbeat Brit comedy starring some quirky guys as treasure hunters with metal detectors. Could just as easily been about wargamers.

Not Sure wrote:

iguanaDitty wrote:

hotseatgames wrote: Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell is a really cool BBC show about two magic users in the 1800's. I've never seen a more gorgeous show with the exception of Downton Abbey, and this show is more engaging than that one.

Ooh I've been looking forward to this one. Tried to read the book ages ago and kinda bogged down in the unrelenting period drama-ness of it, which I find slightly more palatable in video form.

Total opposite for me on the book, I really enjoyed it. The unrelenting footnotes were a feature for me, not a distraction.

I'll definitely have to check this out, I had no idea it existed until this thread.

(but I think your experience with the book is more typical. Most of my friends abandoned it quite quickly.)

I'm about 350 pages into it. I bought it years ago and have been reading it off and on for nine months. I don't trust that Raven king one bit.

AMC has their pilot of Preacher up on iTunes for free, so I checked it out tonight. I have never read the comic and went in knowing absolutely nothing about the story and characters. It is a well produced genre show, and a couple of the characters--including the titular preacher, Jesse Custer--are memorable and solid.

After that first hour I did get the impression that the show suffers from everybody's-an-asshole syndrome, which bores me more now than it used to. At this point I can't imagine ever watching something like Casino or Goodfellas again even though I recognize how well made they are. And I used to get a kick out of that type of movie!

However, my main criticism is that the tone is wildly uneven. I think I get what they're going for: some absurdity mixed in with the heavier stuff. But the show swings from an offbeat, quirky scene involving, say, an unfortunate cow and a comically pancaked vampire to a serious heart-to-heart conversation in a darkened car interior between two characters who clearly have a lot of history. I think that what they intend with these tonal swings is something like what Twin Peaks accomplished, but instead it feels more like when Gremlins screeched to a halt for Phoebe Cates to recount her family's horrifying Christmas story. Tone is such a delicate thing in drama, and it's easy to mess it up.

That said, it's just the pilot. How many shows end up miles better after the first dozen episodes or so, as the showrunners, writers, and actors work their way through them? The lead actor does a great job, most of the others are good or better, and the show clearly has a lot of imagination and heart. Earnestness goes a long way with me, even earnest post-modern horror comic adaptations.

Speaking of which, there's one more thing to be thankful for about Preacher: at least it's not an adaptation of a Mark Millar comic. Non-Millar adaptations are becoming more and more rare, aren't they?

jason10mm wrote:

quozl wrote: I just started the old Battlestar Galactica series. It's really interesting what they did in 1978.

What is it like marathoning that show? IIRC about 20% of each ep was recycled space war footage, which I loved as a kid but must really drag when watching eps close together.

Nah, it's more like 30 seconds of each episode. Not a big deal at all.

My wife and I really enjoyed The Muppets, but I see it wasn't picked up for a second season. I figure it would have been a hit riding off the success of the reboot film and with the show filmed in that pseudo-documentary Office style.

Anyone else watch it? Any ideas why it failed to find a larger audience?

Mr. White wrote: My wife and I really enjoyed The Muppets, but I see it wasn't picked up for a second season. I figure it would have been a hit riding off the success of the reboot film and with the show filmed in that pseudo-documentary Office style.

Anyone else watch it? Any ideas why it failed to find a larger audience?

I liked it, too. I think it was just a bit too edgy for some kids (or for some parents to want their kids to watch), and maybe not quite edgy enough to pull in more adults.

ABC cancelled The Muppets, Agent Carter and The Grinder... all among the best shows on the main networks. The Grinder was quite funny, but I don't know that the premise could have survived too much longer, anyway. I loved the series finale closing shot, though. Perfect.

Agent Carter might live again on Netflix. Here's hoping.

Finished season two of Sons of Anarchy. Had mixed feelings about this season. Henry Rollins is one of my heroes, but he plays a loathsome white supremacist. He brought great intensity to the role, which I expected, but somehow also a certain pathetic quality that I didn't wish to see. I suppose I should just respect his acting ability, but he delivered his lines with an unsettling conviction. Otherwise, I enjoyed this season more than I expected, and more than the first season. Although I have been warned that the next is bad and even the final season is just okay, I think that I will plunge onward for now.

That suggestion for the Detectorist was perfect. Great show! Right on, it could be about any niche hobby.

About Henry Rollins, has anyone seen that movie 'He Never Died' that's on Netflix? Any good?

@Shellhead: Yes, SoA Season 3 will take points off your IQ, and make you hate Hollywood even more than the end of Season 2 does. IMO, S4 and S5 are okay S6 is mediocre, and S7 is f'in awful.

RobertB wrote: @Shellhead: Yes, SoA Season 3 will take points off your IQ, and make you hate Hollywood even more than the end of Season 2 does. IMO, S4 and S5 are okay S6 is mediocre, and S7 is f'in awful.

Fully agree. S3 is when I began to have serious doubts about Sutter as a showrunner. I think he kind of listened to critics and came back around for next couple seasons, but then success really went to his head and he did whatever the fuck he wanted to. S7 is painful to watch .

Now that he's failed spectacularly with The Bastard Executioner, maybe he'll start listening to people.

After mostly enjoying SoA (for those two seasons, though we stuck through all seven) we watched all of The Shield. Which has some great characters and actors but was flawed from the start having the protagonist be a murdering scumbag, which he seemed to keep trying to write around for the rest of the show. Both shows also suffer badly from scheming characters hand-waving and fast-talking some fiction to explain really obvious shenanigans. Signs I think of a bad writer boxing himself in all the times and having to plant many pianos in bushes to get out of plot corners.

Speaking of THE SHIELD and SOA, Walton Goggins ( Shane Vendrel on THE SHIELD and Venus Van Damme on SOA ) is starring in an HBO comedy called VICE PRINCIPALS coming out later this summer. I normally don't do comedies, but I'll give him the benefit of the doubt and give it a look.

He also starred in JUSTIFIED, which is a rare series that held up well throughout its entire run, with a slight slip up in the fifth season due to a weakly cast main villain.

Mr. White wrote: That suggestion for the Detectorist was perfect. Great show! Right on, it could be about any niche hobby.

About Henry Rollins, has anyone seen that movie 'He Never Died' that's on Netflix? Any good?

Forget 'He Never Died', watched it a few days ago. Instantly forgettable. Utter drek.