What TV series are you watching at moment?

OK, so I have this thing where I like having a kind of dumb show on in the background while I write code or edit samples or something. Something juuust short of insulting my intelligence, like:

- Absolutely must have English language dialog, not dubbed
- Must be live-action, can't be animated
- Really even, predictable pacing
- More dialog-oriented than visual
- Enough exposition that I can completely ignore 5 minutes of the show and pick it right back up
- Preferably something sci-fi or horror... not too complex but just weird enough that shit has to be explained in dialog
- Not too funny

X-Files was right on the money for this, especially since I've seen almost all the episodes, but I've worn it kind of thin and now it puts me to sleep.
American Horror Story is also just about right, but occasionally it was a little too good and got distracting.
That one with Clair Danes as a CIA agent started a little too interesting but it turned just dumb enough after about 3 seasons.
I just "watched" I-Land this way and it was just about perfect, too bad there were only 8 episodes.

I tried Supernatural for a while but it was a little too distractingly stupid.
Some of the Marvel stuff seems like it might work, but it might be a little too stupid. And I don't want the algorithms thinking I'm a big Marvel fanboy.

I would appreciate any other recommendations for suitable material. In the meantime I'll just actually focus, I guess.

watched this recently and wtf.  big praise to tenacious defense attorneys. 

re: tales from the loop - very pretty kinda serene childlike things.. fables even.. also wtf the big sad! i liked it. 

  On 4/11/2020 at 5:50 PM, beer badger said:

Thanks for the heads up on Dark. That has totally missed my radar. Looks like my cup of tea.

i've watched it a few times. once intently and other times while doing other stuff like editing samples and shit. i love that show  for the mood, the music and i like all the characters. 

  On 4/15/2020 at 5:29 AM, ignatius said:

watched this recently and wtf.  big praise to tenacious defense attorneys. 

re: tales from the loop - very pretty kinda serene childlike things.. fables even.. also wtf the big sad! i liked it. 

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This is a good palate cleansers follow up to Tiger King

It's also one of best critiques of the drug war I've seen, showcases how much injustice is systematic in the US and often for really arbitrary and stubborn reasons. There's not a major conspiracy of maleficence or explicit oppression so much a plethora of bureaucrats, law enforcement agents, and contractors shrugging off legit reform efforts and investigations, and shamelessly covering up mistakes instead of fixing them. It's infuriating. The work the defense attorneys ended up doing to reveal and rectify this scandal without giving up is admirable.

  On 4/15/2020 at 5:17 AM, sweepstakes said:

OK, so I have this thing where I like having a kind of dumb show on in the background while I write code or edit samples or something. Something juuust short of insulting my intelligence, like:

I would appreciate any other recommendations for suitable material. In the meantime I'll just actually focus, I guess.

yeah i'm also looking for recommendations on shows to watch while i'm driving, if you guys can think of anything... thanks in advance!

  On 4/7/2020 at 1:12 AM, Tim_J said:

re-watching s01 of altered carbon to go straight to s02...

damn apart from all the cheesy looks and tropes, it's stupid as hell, or else it thinks we the viewers are stupid... i know nobody will remember this and definitely not gonna re-watch it but in the beginning of the 1st episode, they're all in a room with their new bodies watching and hologram giving them an introduction on how everything works, and he offers a cigarette to an old woman which looks at it with disgust... right after that they show those people meeting their parents, friends, etc, and some people are not happy with the new bodies they got... so, ends up that the old lady who doesn't like cigarettes, is a skin for a 6 years old girl... LOL wtf did they put a 6 years old girl on Alcatraz? why did they did the transfer of a 6 years old girl in the prison, why not getting the body outside and transfer it some other place...

another thing, so you go to prison and your sentence is like 200 years, but you're asleep?? wtf are you gonna learn in prison if you're asleep? LOL most people would pay for it... i would, to see this world in 200 years from now...

another thing, the big guy who pays him to investigate his murder, does an upload of his memory every 48 hours to a clone that's somewhere i don't recall where right now, but the thing is, if you're uploading the stuff to your empty clone, he ends up with a clone with his memory, duplicating himself... i don't think these guys really thought about the logistics of these little details at all...

 

_/

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its not to a clone. its to an alien tech powered backup database somewhere. and that first scene wasnt in a prison. it was in a resleeving facility. so the girl might have been a victim of anything.  so you got those two bits confused.

im with you on getting blasted 200 years into the future though. that would be class.

started watching locke and key yesterday and got pretty disappointed, the plot is kind of okayish but the execution was pretty dull... everything is handed to you in a silver platter... costume and set design were also pretty bland... by the second episode i stopped paying attention and started watching cat videos on instagram... then i looked back again and...

that arouse my interest again so i guess i'm gonna give it another try...

  On 4/15/2020 at 4:54 PM, pcock said:

its not to a clone. its to an alien tech powered backup database somewhere. 

it's no alien backup database, it's sent trough his privately owned satellite directly to Psychasec Labs where he has is clones... they did the backups straight to clones, his wife was there and gave him a kiss right when he woke up, kovacs asks to see the that footage and even asks why is it so short and the answer was, we don't want to violate our users privacy or something between those lines... then he's back to whatever sleepy state he was in... they DID NOT do the uploads straight to stacks, which would be the more logical thing to do, or even to hard drives or something...anyway the show totally ignores that arc and ends up being about his sister...

  Quote

KOVACS:
So your clients needlecast directly
into the clones here in the building...

  Quote

KOVACS:
You were here the night
your husband resleeved?

BANCROFT'S WIFE:
Yes. When Laurens travels for business,
I like to meet him when he casts back.

KOVACS:
When was this footage taken?

GUY:
Six hours before Mr. Bancroft was killed.

BANCROFT:
I know I'm watching myself, but it feels
as if I'm watching a stranger.

KOVACS:
And then you needlecast back here.

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  On 4/15/2020 at 4:54 PM, pcock said:

it was in a resleeving facility. so the girl might have been a victim of anything.

yes it was in prison!!! the hologram is giving them a lecture orientation quoted below and the girl in an old woman's sleeve is watching it next to kovacs... lol this is such a major fuck up...

You may notice you are no longer in the body you arrived in. Now that you have paid your debt to society, you have been resleeved from our available inventory of prisoners.

  Quote

Welcome to Alcatraz.
You've successfully completed 
your prison sentence
You may notice you are no longer
in the body you arrived in
Now that you have paid your debt
to society, you have been resleeved
from our available inventory of prisoners.
You may feel confused or strange.
After all you're not supposed to be here.
Disorientation, visual and auditory hallucinations,
and even low-grade amnesia are normal.
But don't worry. This orientation
will answer all of your questions.
This is a cortical stack.
As Protectorate citizens,
we each have one implanted
when we are one year old.
Inside is pure human mind,
coded and stored as DHF:
Digital Human Freight.
Your consciousness can be downloaded
into any stack, in any sleeve.
You can even needlecast in minutes to
a sleeve anywhere in the Settled Worlds.
A sleeve is replaceable.
But if your stack is destroyed, you die.
There's no coming back from real death.

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  Quote

In the present, about 250 years later, Takeshi Kovacs is resleeved into the body of a strong white male in Alcatraz Prison. Many others were also resleeved with bodies that day after serving their criminal sentences. Takeshi learns he was resleeved into a military grade neurachem with combat muscle memory. However, the bodies of other resleeved persons were from leftover inmates and prisoners or whatever bodies were on hand, causing confusion, as one little girl was resleeved in the body of an old lady.

  On 4/15/2020 at 5:17 AM, sweepstakes said:

OK, so I have this thing where I like having a kind of dumb show on in the background while I write code or edit samples or something. Something juuust short of insulting my intelligence, like:

- Absolutely must have English language dialog, not dubbed
- Must be live-action, can't be animated
- Really even, predictable pacing
- More dialog-oriented than visual
- Enough exposition that I can completely ignore 5 minutes of the show and pick it right back up
- Preferably something sci-fi or horror... not too complex but just weird enough that shit has to be explained in dialog
- Not too funny

X-Files was right on the money for this, especially since I've seen almost all the episodes, but I've worn it kind of thin and now it puts me to sleep.
American Horror Story is also just about right, but occasionally it was a little too good and got distracting.
That one with Clair Danes as a CIA agent started a little too interesting but it turned just dumb enough after about 3 seasons.
I just "watched" I-Land this way and it was just about perfect, too bad there were only 8 episodes.

I tried Supernatural for a while but it was a little too distractingly stupid.
Some of the Marvel stuff seems like it might work, but it might be a little too stupid. And I don't want the algorithms thinking I'm a big Marvel fanboy.

I would appreciate any other recommendations for suitable material. In the meantime I'll just actually focus, I guess.

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The Outsider.

  On 4/15/2020 at 5:17 AM, sweepstakes said:

OK, so I have this thing where I like having a kind of dumb show on in the background while I write code or edit samples or something. Something juuust short of insulting my intelligence, like:

- Absolutely must have English language dialog, not dubbed
- Must be live-action, can't be animated
- Really even, predictable pacing
- More dialog-oriented than visual
- Enough exposition that I can completely ignore 5 minutes of the show and pick it right back up
- Preferably something sci-fi or horror... not too complex but just weird enough that shit has to be explained in dialog
- Not too funny

X-Files was right on the money for this, especially since I've seen almost all the episodes, but I've worn it kind of thin and now it puts me to sleep.
American Horror Story is also just about right, but occasionally it was a little too good and got distracting.
That one with Clair Danes as a CIA agent started a little too interesting but it turned just dumb enough after about 3 seasons.
I just "watched" I-Land this way and it was just about perfect, too bad there were only 8 episodes.

I tried Supernatural for a while but it was a little too distractingly stupid.
Some of the Marvel stuff seems like it might work, but it might be a little too stupid. And I don't want the algorithms thinking I'm a big Marvel fanboy.

I would appreciate any other recommendations for suitable material. In the meantime I'll just actually focus, I guess.

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The Strain maybe? The Walking Dead? Penny Dreadful? Altered Carbon is too visual I guess? Misfits probably too funny. Also, Heroes is not exactly fresh, but might fit the bill. Or what about Lost?

the twilight zone

edit: i mean, it's a good show to watch while coding and/or editing samples...

  On 4/15/2020 at 5:17 AM, sweepstakes said:

OK, so I have this thing where I like having a kind of dumb show on in the background while I write code or edit samples or something. Something juuust short of insulting my intelligence, like:

- Absolutely must have English language dialog, not dubbed
- Must be live-action, can't be animated
- Really even, predictable pacing
- More dialog-oriented than visual
- Enough exposition that I can completely ignore 5 minutes of the show and pick it right back up
- Preferably something sci-fi or horror... not too complex but just weird enough that shit has to be explained in dialog
- Not too funny

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Roswell, either original or new

Torchwood

Red Dwarf

Avenue 5

Hyperdrive

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More broad:

Old Hawaii Five-O episodes

Old Law & Order

Any British detective show

Last of the Summer Wine

Detectorists

King of the Hill

Bob's Burgers

Pysch

Office (US) reruns - we watched this with our newborns when they were getting up every few hours to feed. It was perfect for keeping us awake but not waking us up too much so we could doze off again.

Discovery channel "reality tv" from the 00s/early 10s - Alaska State Troopers, Deadliest Catch, Ice Truckers, Dirty Jobs. These, or at least the early seasons, had quasi-reality tv editing and music but with a foot in legit, unscripted documentary content. They are easy to follow, interesting, and unpretentious. 

Bravo's Below Deck - this is a strange one, has the editing style and post-filming one on one interviews of stereotypical reality shows but it's actually a legit 'behind the scenes' documentary about luxury yacht crews. So the cast, while sometimes a bit fame oriented, are actual workers in the profession.

HD TV Househunters shows - particularly the international or beach ones.

RuPaul's Drag Race

Chopped (cooking competition show)

Nailed It - silly baking competition show with incompetent amateurs

Bravo Housewives (any) - queen bitch of dumb shows, it's often on when I work at home and despite indirectly watching it I can always follow the drama fairly well. They have these weirdly popular followings among comedians and random actors including an unofficial spinoff podcast called "Watch What Crappens Live" spoofing Bravo's actual talk show "Watch What Happens Live"

Any of those True Crime shows, Datelines, etc. - I find them morbid but oddly relaxing to watch

///

Docs that aren't too heavy:

Any older nick broomfield or louis theroux doc

How it's Made

Any recent Nat Geo docs 

Discovery channel doc Wings - my asperger-y ass watched these as a kid in the 90s, most were made in the 80s and 90s and each focus one one aircraft. Dry commentary and steady pacing and lot's of interesting in-depth info about the tech itself.

Plethora of BOC / BBC / Thames TV documentaries from the 70s and 80s on youtube. I posted about Resan on the YT thread. 14 hour long doc about nuclear weapons, cold war, etc. and civilians and communities who have had to grapple with nuclear proliferation directly in the past or indirectly in the 1980s when it was filmed. It's one loose narrative or interviews and shots, like 5-10 minute segments stitched together.

is american horror story that good? i remember watching the first seasons when it came out but didn't keep up with it cause it was extremely silly as most horror stuff nowadays... what changed? it's been 10 seasons already, is it worth to catch up? is it canonical?

Latest episode of Better Call Saul: Holy shit is this getting intense!

^ yes. the last 2 episodes have had that BB level of intensity. really good writing. and the actress playing Kim is just killin' it with her performance. she went from being slightly annoying in the earlier seasons to a total bad ass.

can't wait to see how this all wraps up! although it's going to suck knowing we're probably going to get a major cliffhanger after next episode, followed by a year or longer wait...

  On 4/15/2020 at 8:46 PM, Tim_J said:

is american horror story that good? i remember watching the first seasons when it came out but didn't keep up with it cause it was extremely silly as most horror stuff nowadays... what changed? it's been 10 seasons already, is it worth to catch up? is it canonical?

It has not fundamentally changed. It's still silly but it knows it's silly. I only watched a few of the seasons, pretty much at random. I enjoyed the last one but I don't feel a burning need to watch any of the others at the moment.

Hmmm I must be honest I struggled with the first episode of Dark (struggled as in not switching it off!) I will persevere though. I could feel the grumpy cynic in me itching to condemn it, but I'll stick with it for a few more episodes.

*spoiler*

I've watched all but the last 2 episodes of Tiger King. Once I got over the hilarious absurdity of it all, it started to make my flesh crawl. The whole thing is a like a real life horror story. Everybody in it is a reptile, and that's everybody. The whole environment and people make my stomach churn to be honest. No word of a lie I actually woke up last night 3 times from nightmares with that freaks facing (JE) leering at me! Fuck that, I don't actually know if I can finish it to be honest, that's how disturbing I find it. The episode when one of his husbands shoots himself in the head, the freakshow funeral and then the new husband? It's just sickening, and probably as much as I need to watch. I might finish it off in a few months time but I don't need another night of dreaming about that creepy cunt. Even the feeding of those Tigers with all that food from the garbage bins at Wallmart just makes me feel ill and depressed.

  On 4/15/2020 at 5:00 PM, Tim_J said:

started watching locke and key yesterday and got pretty disappointed, the plot is kind of okayish but the execution was pretty dull... everything is handed to you in a silver platter... costume and set design were also pretty bland... by the second episode i stopped paying attention and started watching cat videos on instagram... then i looked back again and...

  Reveal hidden contents

the kid was using the key on himself...

that arouse my interest again so i guess i'm gonna give it another try...

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wait what? this is actually petty cool, episode 3 is where it's at... that escher vapor wave mall is bonkers, now i'm hooked!

  On 4/16/2020 at 5:50 PM, Nebraska said:

 

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lol punky brewster. wonder who the target audience is now. kids or people who watched it as a kid, coming back to stare at the milf she turned into.

Forgot about What We Do in the Shadows tv series. Time to get into that. Loved the movie. 

  On 4/16/2020 at 7:24 PM, chameleonday said:

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Man I loved that show, until maybe Season 4, maybe 5...can't remember. I keep thinking I should revisit it, but the last 3 seasons or so it just becomes silly. Maybe one day....

Twin Peaks 3. I would judge on episode. The whole thing was kind of ok. Some episodes were amazing. Sound design was great.  Lacked the typical Lynch oomph for me.