What TV SHOWS are you watching?

A good story is what sells the project. Folks that harp on visual representation and diversity are just making low ball attacks. Was The Cosby Show just for black folks? No, EVERYONE watched it because it was a good show. Current casting trends try to pack in a huge list into the core 5 people EVERY show has and it looks and feels inauthentic and ridiculous.

Anyway, watching Feria:Cult of Light on netflix. Spanish show with MAJOR parallels to Archive 81. Like, either these shows are drawing from the same source, same workshop 5 years ago, or one of them DEFINITELY heard about the other. Still, it's pretty cool and supplements the slow burn plot with a really cool remote spanish mountain town environment and tons of gratuitous nudity and some really creepy body horror moments. There are some translation issues, even with both dubbing and subtitles on, or at least I hope so because the plot is maddeningly vague about stuff that it shouldn't be.

Anyway, 2 young sisters are under suspicion because the town thinks their parents orchestrated a masscult suicide. Adorable lizard cat demons ensure This show kinda wants to be Dark mixed a bit with Stranger Things and it gets nowhere close, but it is still fun and different from the usual english fare on netflix.

I tried The Chosen on netlfix for 2 eps but unlike Feria, it was just too damned slow and plodding, despite a somewhat similar vibe. You gotta bury that hook in deep if you want me to watch 2+ hours of some girl biking around town while sinister people just glare at her and a ragtag check the box team of kids try to solve the mystery with 4-6 more eps to go. Sorry Denmark or wherever it was.

For the guy starting The Expanse, congrats! Awesome show. If you've never read the books I recommend A. subtitles as dialogue clarity was NOT a priority on the show and B. there is probably a few "what the hell is going on" websites to guide you through the different factions and stuff if you feel overwhelmed. It's almost impossible to spoil the Expanse without a 30 minute lecture on what is even going on, so you can read background stuff with relative safety.

Started watching Pennyworth and really enjoying it. For those not aware, it is the story of how Alfred Pennyworth ends up working for Thomas Wayne. it takes place in an alternate Britain of the late 60s/early 70s where criminals are in gibbets and the stocks and there are televised hangings. Easily the darkest of Batman-adjacent properties. I think it is worth the time investment. there are 2 seasons, but not sure if there is a 3rd planned.

In reference to The Circle, the Brazilian and French versions are more enjoyable I think.

mtagge wrote: Decided to give the new Amazon series based on the popular D&D stream critical role a try. Legends of Vox Machina.

Since I don't want to be that guy that dumps on things that others may like let me try and be a bit more positive about the show. If you have watched Idiocracy and the scene where the main character is revived and he sees someone watching a show called "Ow, my ball!" and thought that would be a great show, Vox Machina is for you! It's chock full of D&D tropes (bard wants to bed everything and every song he does is about sex, anal beads, or such), tons of dick jokes, a running gag about ball punching, a little bit of plot, and a party that seems to be together because they all compliment each other's combat weaknesses. If I was in a board game or roleplaying group with the bard, barbarian, and rouge I'd find a new group. The other four seem to be alright.

I think the target audience is 15 year old males. I'm a bit peeved that this represents our hobby.

I’ve never watched Critical Role, but is this actually representative of their campaigns? Or did a producer think, “Let’s take this wildly popular thing and make it worse to make it even more popular.”?

Just finished watching Archive 81. The first 6 episodes were great. Very spooky, atmospheric, weird headfuck story, etc. Then it turned into a bad CW show for the last two episodes. Like watching bad episodes of Supernatural. Complete tonal shift. Totally shit the bed. Sad, but not unexpected I guess.

the_jake_1973 wrote: Started watching Pennyworth and really enjoying it. For those not aware, it is the story of how Alfred Pennyworth ends up working for Thomas Wayne. it takes place in an alternate Britain of the late 60s/early 70s where criminals are in gibbets and the stocks and there are televised hangings. Easily the darkest of Batman-adjacent properties. I think it is worth the time investment. there are 2 seasons, but not sure if there is a 3rd planned..

Pennyworth was remarkably enjoyable, especially as it was lifting stuff from the grungiest parts of 60s English culture. What made it work for me is that Jack Bannon appeared to be channelling all the Michael Caine characters from the 60s and 70s (the soldier in Zulu to Jack Carter to Alfie.)

The bits that didn't work for me was the appearances of the Waynes - it's the one Bat franchise show that didn't need any of the Bat franchise to work for me.

So is the idea of Pennyworth that HE gives Bruce Wayne the dark taste of vigilanting or something? I've always seen Alfred as a stabilizing "come back to the light" influence on Bruce rather than the facilitator of his brutal notion of justice.

I wonder if we will see "Aunt May, District Attorney", or "Martha Kent, ex-Special Forces" if this trend of embiggening parental figures continues. Maybe it already has in the comics.

In this show, I think the dark parts of Bruce's psyche are possibly a familial trait.

Future Alfred would still that type of role for Bruce, but only because of what he has done in the past. He already knows what is down the dark path.

I would have watched a show with zero Waynes in it if it was just Alfie and his mates.

Someone mentioned it on Twitter, so yesterday I headed over to the Internet Archive and started watching Max Headroom, the proto-cyberpunk series from 1985. Although I would have been a fiend for it at the time I didn't watch it when it aired (I didn't watch a lot of TV as a kid, as it meant being in the family room). And I somehow never watched it afterwards. I'm only through the first episode but it's a hoot, full of wonderful OTT performances and a lot of interesting views of "20 minutes into the future".

archive.org/details/@tajones2328?query=max

Legomancer wrote: Someone mentioned it on Twitter, so yesterday I headed over to the Internet Archive and started watching Max Headroom, the proto-cyberpunk series from 1985. Although I would have been a fiend for it at the time I didn't watch it when it aired (I didn't watch a lot of TV as a kid, as it meant being in the family room). And I somehow never watched it afterwards. I'm only through the first episode but it's a hoot, full of wonderful OTT performances and a lot of interesting views of "20 minutes into the future".

archive.org/details/@tajones2328?query=max

I loved Max headroom back in the day. It's yet another show that I'm nervous to rewatch because I don't know how well it would hold up. Then again, the rapid fire nature of Max might be the standard for today.

Reacher - haven't seen it because it isn't out yet. But if you read the books (I have) and had a problem with the physicality that Tom Cruise bought to the movie role (he's short), then you might be in luck. The guy looks like he fills a doorway, and not just side to side like yours truly does.

Personally, I thought Tom Cruise did fine in the Reacher movies, but there was always a little disconnect from the books. "That's guy's supposed to be huge."

I am re-watching Game of Thrones. The quality of the writing declines a little in season five, and even more in season six. I am currently watching the Battle of the Bastards, and it is even more stupid than I remembered. Possibly the low point of the series, aside from maybe a certain notorious scene in the penultimate episode that drags on and on until every viewer is laughing in disbelief at the show.

You reminded me of how completely pointless and endless Ramsey torturing Theon played out in the later TV series run. The Reek storyline is slightly boring in the books too but on screen it's everything about the series at its worst.

@Shellhead - rewatching GoT with the Mother-in-Law, and we just finished S6 E10, so we're at the same place you are, maybe a little ahead of you. You can see in S6 the holes starting to appear. Maybe Benioff and Weiss can get Septa Unella to follow them around and do that "Shame" thing.

Gary Sax wrote: You reminded me of how completely pointless and endless Ramsey torturing Theon played out in the later TV series run. The Reek storyline is slightly boring in the books too but on screen it's everything about the series at its worst.

One of the big differences between book and show is that in the books we see the result of what Ramsay has done, while in the show we get to see the actual torture. And for me that is so much more interesting, especially since Theon has basically been reduced to the antithesis of what he wanted to be and has to find his way back to a self.

mtagge wrote: Decided to give the new Amazon series based on the popular D&D stream critical role a try. Legends of Vox Machina.

Since I don't want to be that guy that dumps on things that others may like let me try and be a bit more positive about the show. If you have watched Idiocracy and the scene where the main character is revived and he sees someone watching a show called "Ow, my ball!" and thought that would be a great show, Vox Machina is for you! It's chock full of D&D tropes (bard wants to bed everything and every song he does is about sex, anal beads, or such), tons of dick jokes, a running gag about ball punching, a little bit of plot, and a party that seems to be together because they all compliment each other's combat weaknesses. If I was in a board game or roleplaying group with the bard, barbarian, and rouge I'd find a new group. The other four seem to be alright.

I think the target audience is 15 year old males. I'm a bit peeved that this represents our hobby.

I watched the 1st episode & it was straight up terrible! It was like they got an 8-year-old boy and an 80-year-old man in a focus group and asked each guy what they found funny. The whole thing is total cringe, and worse: It's physically uncomfortable to watch. Like, the smash cuts, and quick edits, and blaring sound & digital effects, I was exhausted, and not in a good way. Total garbage. Which surprised me, I thought Critical Role was super popular stuff, not lame dick jokes and characters dropping f-bombs every other word like pre-teens in an online Call Of Duty spree.

Grade: F-