Topic: The TV Show Thread

@Bad-MuthaAdebisi: Which is one of the reasons I like Legends so much.

@dryrain: If you have Hulu you can watch it there.

@Tasuki: unfortunately I couldn't make it past the second episode of legends, just too many pants characters from the flash, maybe I'll go back to it because the Flash has improved a lot since season 1, Supergirl well, hated the Pilot, perhaps at some point that'll also get a second chance.

So Supergirl will be moving to the CW next season which only makes sense since the other Arrowverse shows are there. Hopefully this means more crossovers.

@tasuki I was going through the renewed cancelled list. Its that time of year where you get your hopes up for a show returning or dashed because its cancelled. A lot of shows I enjoy got renewed which is great news and some I never started watching like Agent Carter got cancelled. The biggest disappointment of any first season show I have watched that got cancelled was Almost Human. Really loved the show and had good mix of characters and humour. Was so surprised when it got canned and then not picked up by either prime or Netflix the show had good potential.

So question for everyone what show that only ran for one season would have like to get renewed?

Yeah I was sad to hear Agent Carter got cancelled as I enjoyed that one alot more then Agents of Shield. But this season they didn't do a good job of promoting it. By the time I found out about it it was already half way through the season and I just decided to wait till it comes to Netflix so I can see it from the beginning. Oh well I am hoping that maybe Nexfix will pick it up and just have it as a Netflix series like Daredevil or Jessica Jones.

@ShadowofSparta round of applause for your xfiles thread. Copy and paste it here bro.

@themcnoisy: Haha thanks mc. Here goes

This is a somewhat random topic, I know, but as I've been re-watching the X-Files (why? I don't know, just decided to re-watch every season), I have become increasingly frustrated with Scully's skepticism to any of Mulder's claims. In season 7 now, and after a few episodes, it's really beginning to bug me. I love Scully as a person, she's kind, warm, funny, smart and guarded in a way that just makes her more likeable. So I kept trying to convince myself that she's just being a good, rational scientist. But is she really? Why are my intuitions telling me she isn't? As such, I set about trying to ground my intuitions to words.

The Good Scientist
Whilst there is some variation in textbooks, it may be generally accepted that there are several key principles to the scientific method:
1) Systematic empiricism: observations organised in a systematic manner
2) Theories must be testable and falsifiable
3) Reproducibility: can be verified independently by others in an objective manner
4) Parsimony: simplest, most natural explanations must be favoured
5) Lack of absolutes or certainty in science
I think my intuitions stem from (5). Scully generally adheres to Inference to the Best explanation (IBE- something a lot of scientists adhere to, not many pseudoscientists). This is best described by Charles Sanders Pierce:
"Facts cannot be explained by a hypothesis more extraordinary than the facts themselves, and among various hypothesis, the least extraordinary must be adopted"
On any single instance of an extraordinary phenomenon, it's perfectly reasonable to adopt a simple hypothesis. If a pig flies into the window of my room on the third floor, it's probably better to assume it was hurled there rather taking on the assumption that it developed the ability to fly after escaping from a secret government facility that was attempting to create a race of super pigs, led by a mad scientist secretly being mind-controlled by a mutant pig named Dave in a plot to overthrow pig farmers everywhere. The problem is, Scully doesn't just face a single instance. Over 7 seasons, she's at least been present to over 140 instances in which the simplest explanation wasn't adequate. Yet she never budges on her skeptical stance, citing it as scientific. But, like many forget, science is not absolute. No good scientist claims to have accessed a universal, necessary truth. Evolution is 99.9% certain, for there are no certainties. Scientists produce models of the world, models that are open to refinement and modification. To therefore be unwilling to accept an alternate possibility despite a large amount of evidence to the contrary is bad science. Good scientists have a healthy amount skepticism but a willingness to change depending on evidence. All scientists are aware of the pessimistic meta-induction from the history of science. Knowledge collapses as often as it accumulates (history provides as with numerous examples of false beliefs we held- e.g aether).As the literary critic Henry Levine so eloquently put it:
"The habit of equating one's age with the apogee of civilization, one's town with the hub of the universe, one's horizons with the limits of human awareness, is paradoxically widespread"

But is she just being rational?

The Rational Scientist
I think Scully's adherence to IBE is mostly an adherence to Induction. Induction is the general idea that, as Hume put it
"Instances of which we have had no experience must resemble those of which we have, and the course of nature continues always uniformly the same"
However, there are philosophical problems with induction. Unlike deduction, an example of good reasoning that guarantees a conclusion, induction offers no guarantee. Just because it may have rained on every Thursday that fell on the 21st of January throughout the history of the world, does not mean it will happen the next time. And, unlike deduction, induction cannot be justified without employing some degree of circularity (the future will resemble the past because the future has always resembled the past). Despite its drawbacks, induction is a form of reasoning employed everyday by some of the greatest minds on Earth, despite its vulnerability to being wrong. This is because induction is a good form of reasoning if and only if it is seen as an instance of IBE (Gilbert Harman, The Inference to The Best Explanation, 1965). Scully seems to faithfully stick to induction, rather than adopting IBE, which would allow someone to adopt a different hypothesis after 140 instances of contradiction. But maybe she is sticking to IBE and I'm misunderstanding. Does this make her Rational?

Miracles
Hume thought that "no testimony was sufficient to establish a miracle, unless the testimony were of such a kind that its falsehood would be more miraculous than the fact it endeavours to establish." No matter how reliable and trustworthy a person is, if they tell you of some miraculous and extraordinary event that contravenes the laws of nature, Hume would admonish you for believing it. He believed there was no reason to believe any testimony of miracles. So, whenever Mulder claims to have seen something extraordinary, Scully is within reason allowed to give his claims no ground. This actually plays out in probability theory too. If you take Scully to be a Bayesian (which she is as she cites statistics fequently), the probability of a miracle occurring is still very low even if you account for testimony from a source of incredible reliability. BUT Bayesianism allows you to adopt a new probability of a miracle occurring if YOU are provided with evidence of the miracle. Now, the show was very careful (to the point of destroying credibility) to make sure that whenever Mulder saw something amazing, Scully was conveniently doing something else so she wasn't exposed to direct evidence, only testimony. But there were enough occasions where Scully saw something extraordinary yet did not adjust her prior probability of the miracle/event occurring to suggest that she wasn't applying the Bayesian concept of probability accurately. She rejected the testimony but ignored evidence. She may seem to come round to the idea towards the end of an episode, only to conveniently forget it an episode later, discarding evidence she had been privy to. Thus, logic cannot be used as an excuse for her skepticism.

tl;dr: I don't think science or logic can be adequately used to defend Scully's skepticism
I'm probably wrong and thinking about this too much

@ShadowofSparta: I haven't watched xfiles for yonks but I had a good argument about the series a few years back. The reason the characters are like that is due to what the show is really about and how shows flesh out. Xfiles core is about the lengths governments and individuals will go to conceal the truth, we as a viewer want to find the truth. Mulder and Scully show both sides of us the viewer - the person who believes anything and the person who believes nothing. This is the key tenant in the script writing, as to how we find out what's going on. If Scully started taking mulders versions of events or events that happened around her as fact then they wouldn't have the chemistry for an emotional buy in. Scullys Catholicism is used to good effect in a few shows as a method of switching that tenant. So Mulder becomes the none believer. To be fair I last watched an episode (the rain guy were rain follows him) about 8-9 years ago. I'm feeling old.

@themcnoisy: Yeah, you're right, it certainly works as a theme and they do spin in it a few times when it comes to religious issues with Mulder being skeptical but it bugs me sometimes haha. It's a thing I have with the miscommunication that occurs between scientists and the public (like those morning shows that parade newly released studies that prove chocolate helps alleviate headache or something). I still love the show but its one of those things where the mechanics of story-telling stretch it's believability. It's the problem of balancing a mythos show and monster-of-the-week episdoes. I think I should treat it more as Scully representing Scully rather than scientists in general. Sweet response

Did anybody watch the new Top Gear? I thought Chris Evans was awkward to watch, like watching your Dad present it. Matt looked a natural and still has that 'Joey Tribbiani' coolness.

@apostateMage not watched it yet but will catch it at some point. Thats surpising as Chris has a lot of experience with shows and TV. I am not a big fan of Matt so not sure I will take to the new format. Looking forward to seeing the original team on Prime though see what antics they get upto.

@ApostateMage: I watched it but was somewhat disappointed in it overall. I liked the change up for the 'Star in a Car' but I had hoped for a change in format - something to distance itself and try a new direction but it was too similar to the previous series. Chris Evans was trying to be Clarkson but on 'something' - bouncing around a bit much. Matt was OK but only the 2 of them seemed to miss the chemistry of the trilogy. Its only the first show, so will see how it goes...

I would like to watch the original teams show but not subscribing to Amazon just for that...

@BAMozzy: Subscribe to Amazon for Bosch and Transparent. Great shows

@ShadowofSparta: Still not worth it...

There haven't really been any live action shows recently that have caught my eye other than CNN's the Eighties, but it's not on at I time where I can easily catch it, and they currently only have one episode in the On Demand section.

Now that it's been cancelled, I wouldn't mind Netflix picking up the two seasons of Marvel's Agent Carter that have been made, as I'd like to give it a go.

Outside of that, I've been pretty much watching anime exclusively (which I've been discussing in the anime thread). Just finished up a rewatch of one of my favorite anime of all time, Eureka 7.

@shadowofsparta yeah Bosch is a seiously good show along with Red Oaks, Mozart in the Jungle, Mr Robot, Halt and catch Fire and a few others. I still think they have a long way to go to match Netflix though for prodction of original series. They do have some good series from other networks though. Its a shame they green lighted the new Chris cater show after the pilot then cancelled it before it started such a shame.

@MAMozzy wait till later in the year until they release all the shows and do the free trial for 28 days and then cancel.

@dryrain: I think I used my free trial a few years ago to get some orders upgraded to priority next day delivery. I already pay a LOT per month on TV - Licence, SkyQ with Movies and Sport (HD and multi-room included) but has a great on-demand service - I also have a BTSport subscription - so not lacking things to watch. Coupled with the cost of BTInfinite/Phone, my monthly 'entertainment' costs are already at a premium. Add in annual subscriptions like PS+ and Gold, as well as general household bills (gas, electricity, water etc), I can't really justify streaming services. I would like to watch shows on Netflix (Daredevil, iZombie etc) too and these appeal more than Amazons - I just hope they get a UK broadcast on one of the 'many' potential channels...

Started to watch Powers a few weeks ago and I am enjoying the show I like the darkness of it. God knows why it has taken so long to come to the UK and why is it being shown on TV first and not through the PSN store? What makes it all the more crazy is that you can watch the first 3 episodes of series 2 on PSN but they have only shown 3 episodes on the TV so far.....

Watched the final few episodes of The Flash really enjoyed this season and thought it was as good as the first maybe even better. Good development of characters and the comedy is well placed. Loved the speed force episode probably my favourite of the whole season. The final episode has left me wandering what the implications of Barry's actions will be so can not wait until the next series begins.

Really looking forward to Outcast or is it Outlast starts next week been hyped for this show for a while lets hope it lives up to everything it could be.

@BAMozzy yeah the different packages can soon add up. I have sky movies but thinking of cancelling it as never watch them and always rent through lovefilm. I get the BT sports for £5 as part of my broadband deal. I did not understand why izombie did not get shown on a TV channel here seems like a popular show. Now its on Netflix so no chance anyone else can pick it up. A lot of the sky channels I never watch even though I have the full package. Its mainly sky living, sky one, syfy, watch, fox, AMC and sky atlantic plus some of the sports channels. Its expensive for what I actually watch.

Well I finally finished all of the CW Arrowverse shows and I have to say I love them. I can't wait for next season after that ending to Flash Flashpoint OMG!!!! .

I felt that Arrow's final was very anticlimactic but then again I felt this whole season of Arrow was weak except for Black Canary death .

Supergirl's was good for a first season and looking forward to next season on the CW.

Flash as stated before loved it.

But by far my favorite was DC Legends of Tomorrow. I loved the twist they did at the end and the set up for next season, which will go well with Flash. I think by far Legends is turning into my favorite of the shows, and Mick (Heatwave) is easily my favorite character of the show.

This is going to be a long summer.

I just watched the cross over supergirl/flash very enjoyable episode. Gave up on Arrow can not see me watching the next season.

There are a few good shows just starting The Preacher and Outlast both good first episodes. Hopefully the rest of the series is just as good. Looking forward to season two of Dark Matter as well.