Topic: The TV Show Thread

@JohnnyShoulder I'm guessing that'll be season five with Hamm (unless I've missed him in the ones I've watched!). I've heard good things about it and can't wait to watch it, but I've just watched S3 and S4 pretty much back-to-back so I might hold off just for now

@graymamba @Thrillho Yeah it seems to be the consensus that it's the weakest of the lot, although that's only a slight criticism when you consider the quality of the rest. My expectations were low, which probably helped. I certainly think that the 'slow' comment is valid, it does meander a bit. I love a slow burn, so that's probably why I enjoyed it more than most. The tie-in to season 2 knocked me reeling - episode 9 was an amazing bit of TV and I'm still processing it!

@FuriousMachine Get on season 2 of Fargo if you get chance, it's awesome!

@Hapless yeah I was pleasantly surprised by it myself. Will deffo be watching the second season.

@Gremio108 Will absolutely get on it now that I have an active Max subscription again, but I may re-watch s1 first. I understand the following seasons are mostly stand-alone, but I really enjoyed the first season when I saw it, so a refresh is probably highly welcome anyway

I am catching up on Friendly Neighbourhood Spidey, and man I was so wrong on this show. I still think the animation is weird at times, and some fight scenes feel like they are 0.75 speed slower than they should be (plus, I feel like the whole show has this weirdly low frame rate feel I don’t notice in other animation styles). But the weaving of strongly acted interpersonal drama, with enough sociopolitical elements to add texture without feeling preachy and a level of violence that can go beyond what a typical Saturday morning cartoon is allowed to get away with, just makes for an enjoyable watch.

I really hope it inspires more tweener cartoons, cause right now it feels like we have comedy cartoons for adults or action cartoons for small children and almost nothing in that in between space until well basically this.

As much as I enjoyed shows like Earth’s Mightiest Heroes or the Avatar universe of stuff, as examples, knowing you can basically show no visible injury whatsoever really drains tension out of fight scenes. There is a moment in the show where Spidey fights villain that beats him half to death, and it would have had zero impact if they could rip his costume and that was it. I still remember people’s necks getting broken in the second season of Ben 10 as I guess a strangely violent way to get around censorship, as it allowed them to kill people on screen but in a way that was bloodless. Sadly, few shows are as creative as that or are allowed to get away with it.

Know a lot of people who enjoyed the first season of Andor. Didn't realise there was another season in the works, but I'm not exactly paying much attention to Star Wars news recently.

Arcane Season 1
Just finished up on Season 1. Never played League Of Legends, so all is new to me. Can see why it is ranked as one of the best TV show adaptation of a videogame series in terms of animation, world-building, story, and characters. Damn, the characters! All of the main cast are complex as hell. Only two things that disappointed me.

1. The 3rd act. It wasn't as good as the first two, and went along the tropes of rushing through to wrap things up. The only real highlight of that Mel character arc. The character design for her is one of the best ever. The 3rd act would've been better handled if got either more episodes or longer episodes (as in 1hr or so long each).

2. Some of the music was odd during fight scenes. Didn't suit it one bit, especially during the 3rd act.

Very highly recommended if haven't seen this TV show yet and be able to
9 / 10

@SingleStooge Glad you liked it! Quite few on here have been raving about Arcane, me included, so you're in good company
Which reminds me, I need to pull the trigger on the second season soon. Consensus seems to be that it's not as good as the first season, so I've been a bit hesitant to start it (also, and I'm weird like this, I know that once it's done it's over, so I sort of keep putting that inevitability off )

@FuriousMachine @Gremio108 @JohnnyShoulder @graymamba

Fargo is certainly superb. I am also a tad weird with it, though. Season one is the essence of Fargo, distilled. Season 2 is a new flavour but very much a triumph, I love the 70s setting, and everyone in it is incredibly watchable. I couldn't get in to Season 3, despite David Thewlis being disgustingly engaging, just wasn't at a great time for getting into a proper drama I think. Season 4, I just wasn't really in the mood for after not finishing s3 and I cant convince myself to go back and watch it even though I quite liked the nods to Raising Arizona early on, but I will put an effort in at some point based off being told recently it is worth it, and seeing the comments here. But season 5 won me back around and it was back to being pretty peak Fargo.

So anyone who is yet to do so, get on series 2 and 5 ASAP. I could easily watch season 2 again at any time, the casting is pretty much perfect and it is such a strong entry. And, as all good Fargo's should be, it is immensely quotable and just silly enough to make you think "wait is this even a drama, oh... yes it is"

Having finished off season 1 of Homicide: Life on the Streets, the missus and I have gone back to For All Mankind for season 3.

Homicide: Life on the Streets - season 1 was good. It’s obviously aged and while certainly reminiscent of The Wire it… at least this far in, does not have the narrative majesty of what David Simon went on to do. We’re going to stick with it and do a season here and there. Hoping that the later seasons will get closer to what I’m looking for.

For All Mankind - season 3 is also good, closing in on very good but not up there with seasons 1 and 2. The climax of season 2 was just so good that I think it’s having a knock-on effect in terms of a more subdued audience reaction this time around.

@graymamba
Don't have Apple anymore so never watched For All Mankind but I really like Silo and if you haven't that one is a much watch. Between All Mankind, Silo and that upcoming Murderbot show, it seems Apple TVs big thing for some reason is to make prestige scifi shows with Swedish actors in the lead role

@PegasusActual93 yeah a strange little coincidence that 🤔. Yeah I’m up to date on Silo but didn’t really connect with season 2 the way that I did with season 1… will still tune in for next season though. Haven’t seen anything of Murderbot yet but I’ll look in to it.

I started season 3 of True Detective. Season 1 is one of my all time fave shows. I doubt this will be as good, and I'm already getting a wierd vibe from it.

@JohnnyShoulder
The Star Trek movies had what was called the odd number rule where the odd number movies were inferior and the even numbered ones were the good ones. True Detective seems to have the opposite curse where the odd numbered seasons (1,3) are the good ones while the even numbered seasons (2,4) suck. We shall see if the upcoming season 5 keeps that trend going.

@PegasusActual93 I hear season 4 is a bit divisive. I probably won't get to that for awhile yet.

Poor Michelle Trachtenberg. I know she got maligned in Buffy and the character wasn’t exactly brilliant but she also spoke out about Joss Whedon alongside Charisma Carpenter so the set clearly wasn’t a fun place for those actresses to be. EuroTrip is also an absolute guilty pleasure.

Been dabbling in the Big Finish Doctor Who stories again since we got a release date for the next series. Got to Flip-Flop which is one of the most remembered stories cause you can play either disc first or second and it works both ways, which was cool in 2003. Unfortunately the story itself is quite literally the Great Replacement conspiracy theory. Apparently the guy who wrote it said in an interview in like 2010 that he was being ironic by parroting those viewpoints but it’s aged horribly cause it’s played entirely straight and it’s also just a very hard thing to make jokes land about. Like I’d trust maybe Chris Morris or Frankie Boyle to create satire about racist conspiracy theories about refugees but clearly not this bloke who’s just accidentally made Steve Bannon does Doctor Who. If there was ever a ‘right wing Doctor Who’ this would be it. Funnily enough the closest we’ve got to this was a Jodie Whittaker one where she defends Space Amazon, the show’s always been ‘woke’ and I was surprised just how many pro-Miner Strike episodes there were back in the day when I watched the original series.

Just started Paradise and, one… the first ep was class and two… it’s frikkin’ Dan Fogelman! The missus and I were huge This is Us fans (come at me 😉) and this is so different, yet so familiar. Really excited to see where this goes.

binging through Lost Season 1 on Netflix and Robot Chicken Season 5/6 on Hulu

@seinfeldfanatic I miss Robot Chicken...

@FuriousMachine
Robot Chickens most recent episodes were in 2022 and it hasn't been cancelled so hypothetically its still running to this day.