Topic: The TV Show Thread

Michelle Gomez was HILARIOUS as Missy. I really miss that iteration of the The Master.

Has the current run with Jodie Whittaker improved at all? I watched the new run of the show religiously for years from Eccleston up through halfway into her first season. I barely managed to survive the terrible last season or two of Capaldi's run (such a shame, because I loved the concept of his doctor), but as of last season, the show became practically unrecognizable to me, like all of the fun was sucked out of it.

Not a fan of JW's performance, but if the writing were decent, I could look past it. I miss Doctor Who being good.

@Ralizah I'd say that Jodie Whittaker's second season in Doctor Who is about the same as her first, maybe just very slightly more tolerable. If you weren't keen on the first season then you're unlikely to feel any different about the latest season.

I've watched all of her episodes, but overall haven't been too fond of them.

In a hypothetical world where COVID19 dictates that I be locked up for 2 weeks unable to leave home and I actually finish all my gaming and other Netflix, Amazon Prime, and movie backlog.... wait what I am saying? This will never happen. Anyways, in such a fantasy world, which if any of the DC/Arrowverse shows should I watch? I’m a complete noob on that world. Watched a couple seasons of Arrow and got bored of it a couple years ago. Or would it be better to watch all the Marvel shows. Similarly I watched the first half of season one of Daredevil and it just didn’t hold my attention. Are there even any good superhero TV series out there that don’t become complete garbage after the first few episodes?

@Th3solution
If Arrow bored you, then the majority of the Arrowverse leans the same way. The Flash is pretty good for the first few seasons, as is Supergirl - but the formulaic nature bogs them down a touch. Conversely, Legends of Tomorrow is hot garbage, but becomes increasingly entertaining hot garbage once Arthur Darvill leaves from season 3 onward and the production really leans in to absurdity.
Swamp Thing was great.
Titans is trash, but looks nice and remains oddly compelling somehow (car crash effect possibly).
Black Lightning starts OK but gets quite good, haven't got to see any of season 3 yet.
Doom Patrol is great by all accounts.
Batwoman is awful.

As for Marvel, the second season of Luke Cage is absolute dynamite! The first is OK too, but that second!!
Daredevil varies wildly - lots (and lots) of meandering.
Iron Fist starts terribly. Second season was pretty great though.
Jessica Jones started well, but diminishing returns.
Defenders was OK - but don't bother if you haven't watched the rest of the Netflix stuff.
Punisher is quite good, but I can't stand Bernthall's grunting!
Agent Carter was apparently great, but I never watched any of it
Agents of SHIELD is like Torchwood, but worse.

Obviously, your mileage for all of this may well depend on your familiarity with the characters.

@KALofKRYPTON Yeah, my exposure to DC is limited to the major cinema outings, knowledge over the years of the basic major characters of The Justice League, and whatever I got from playing Injustice and Injustice 2.

I guess I have FOMO about the CW shows, but it seems like I’m not missing all that much. It seems like a large time investment that I just don’t feel inclined to put out.

@KALofKRYPTON @RogerRoger yeah none of the "expanded" stuff is canon in Doctor Who although some elements of it may be used in episodes (such as meeting Mary Shelley which had already happened in the Big Finish Audio Dramas)

but basically like with Star Trek and yes like it always was with Star Wars too (before Disney took over and wanted to make a multimedia franchise out of it) only the stuff on screen, ala the show and the film is "true canon"

@FullbringIchigo Apart from the Shadows of the Empire run for Star Wars I think. That was canon, but I'm not sure if it is anymore. Probably not.

@KALofKRYPTON i'm still unsure on that one actually but if it was or wasn't is a mute point because it isn't canon now, although the ship, the Outrider is because you can see it in A New Hope leaving Mos Eisley

https://uk.ign.com/articles/2015/04/30/shadows-of-the-empires...

@Th3solution The Netflix Marvel series has some really great and memorable villains.

@RogerRoger I’d forgotten about Gotham. Good to know that it’s worth a gander. Looks like it’s available on Netflix too, so that helps. Is it “finished”? Or are more seasons forthcoming?

@Th3solution Gotham is done now, no new seasons incomng

@Th3solution I can wholeheartedly recommend Watchmen, Doom Patrol and the animated Harley Quinn series for DC TV shows. Each of them has only one season so far, so they're easy watches. Watchmen is basically TV perfection, and one of the best single seasons of TV from last year. Doom Patrol is campy, silly fun that is incredibly consistent throughout all of its 15 episodes. Harley Quinn is fantastic if you enjoy her character, and there's lots of cameos from other DC characters throughout the show. Really, if you want quality DC shows, you shouldn't be looking at the CW ones. Sad but true.

As far as Marvel on TV goes, they have a bit of a lesser presence there for now. I really enjoy Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., more so than I've probably enjoyed any of the movies. A really fun cast of characters, although season 1 can be rocky at the start. It's definitely a bit more of a generic procedural show at the start. If you really want to watch something that's totally out there, watch Legion. Legion is incredible. It's easily the best thing to have come out of Marvel, whether it's TV or film. It can be an acquired taste however, but if you enjoy some style over substance here and there, you're guaranteed to have a good time. As mentioned before, Jessica Jones S1 is also fantastic, but you can ignore the following seasons. Luckily the first season isn't open-ended, so it'll be satisfactory on its own.

@Th3solution I got all the way the final seasons of the Marvel TV stuff.... and just lost interest.

I agree with @Tjuz, Legion however is the best thing they've done by far, however it is totally bonkers and you have to pay quite close attention otherwise most of it will go over your head.

I thought Titans was really good and can't wait till get to the 2nd season.

Currently watching The Umbrella Academy (which is neither DC or Marvel). I'm a bit undecieded as seems to be meandering a bit.

And if you have not seen The Boys, you absoulety have to. Best superhero tv series by a long margin.

@Th3solution I'd say the arrowverse would be hard to binge because it's not as serialised as the marvel netflix. There are overarching stories but they are normally in the background of meta of the week episodes which largely retread the same ground as the previous episodes. That being said I do love the arrowverse and I invested early on in it so it has been easier to watch over 8 years. I did manage to binge the heavily episodic smallville a few years back despite my perceived decline in its quality after season 5.

I'd largely agree with @kalofkrypton on his points (though I would be kinder to the arrowverse).

The best seasons of marvel netflix have been Jessica Jones season 1, daredevil 1 2 and 3, Luke cage 2 and punisher 1 and 2. I do love both seasons of iron fist despite all the hate for it. It has a strong supporting cast in my opinion. I think the worse season Ive watched was Jessica Jones season 2 but I still loved watching it because I love the character as played by Kristen Ritter.

I'd reccomend marvels runaways too, that is a really fun sci fi show with a great theme tune.

Also fox's legion was wicked and the gifted was pretty good, a bit like an updated early 2000s YA show like dark angel or something. Not sure what it was about it, but I enjoyed it nonetheless

@ralphdibny I second Runaways as hilarious schlocky fun. I've been way into the comics since I was a kid and seeing the characters on TV was great because they're really niche. The show got cut down right in its prime though, the last season started getting seriously good and then Disney+ meant everything else was cancelled. At least the comics were revived as a result of the show getting big and they can keep going!

@nessisonett I'm really looking forward to runaways season 3, just got to make it through cloak and dagger season 2 first as I'm sure the crossover takes place after that

@RogerRoger I only watched the first 5 or so episodes of Gotham but I didn't really rate it that much. Not sure if it was just too cheesy but played too straight for a modern show. Jada pinket Smith hammed it up loads in the episodes I saw.

Many times I've really wanted to watch it because of the cast and characters introduced like Alexander siddig (DS9) as ras Al gul and Michael cerveres (fringe) as professor pyg but every time I've seen a random episode on TV, the style and script etc has been fairly similar to the early episodes I've watched and it's put me off.

I'll probably and hopefully give it a fair shake some day when I have some more time though and there is a lull in my media consumption!

I watched Gotham pretty religiously with my brother-in-law until it ended. The show was an extremely entertaining trainwreck.

@RogerRoger fair enough, don't worry I don't think it can be over sold because I've seen bits of it already. It'll get watched one day as I do plan to watch all the DC live action shows that have been made. I think the only ones I haven't seen from beginning to end are Batman 66, wonder woman 77 (I watched an episode but I struggled with it) and the 90s flash. Oh also birds of prey, lucifer, human target and the JL TV movie.

I'd also like to watch clone wars one day because the the stuff with maul and his brother sounds really cool but likewise with Gotham, I watched that first 3 episodes as a movie thing in the cinema and thought it was rubbish at the time so I never ended up getting round to it.

Probably easy to draw the comparison of Gotham to smallville based on the title and premise of the shows but I really enjoyed early smallville. I think it was because it was basically X files but set in a school. It had the monster of the week episodes with an overarching mystery. It only became ridiculous after season 5 when it ditched that format and introduced the quasi justice League which was just a bunch of kids in hoodies and Tom welling became so big and muscly that he couldn't make any facial expressions. I know it sounds silly but he just reminded me of a big cow toward the end because he was so big and just stood there a lot. I need to go back and watch it again sometime, I have alot of nostalgia for the channel 4 double bill of enterprise and smallville in the early 2000s!

I mostly enjoyed the first two seasons of Gotham, though the first half of season 2 dragged on a bit. But as season 3 was never shown on TV in the UK (seasons 1 and 2 were shown on Channel 5 then E4 showed season 4), I never did watch anything after season 2.

Maybe one day I might get back into it.