What TV series are you watching at moment?

  On 12/12/2021 at 4:23 PM, J3FF3R00 said:

Currently watching Dopesick on Hulu, following a friend’s recommendation. Aside from Michael Keaton and the #2 FBI agent, this whole thing feels super loose. Something is fundamentally off in the direction or something but there are also numerous moments in it where the dialogue telegraphs the story pretty hard, as if they assume the viewing audience is completely stupid, kinda like  “Wait, let me get this straight. So what you’re telling is that Purdue Pharma knows Oxy is addictive???”… etc. It feels like a big long episode of Law & Order: SVU or something.

Other stuff that drives me nuts: michael stuhlbarg’s fake ass voice (I never care for him really) and Sarsgaard’s fake ass hair… plus, why is he sitting on a desk staring into space at the beginning of every scene?

I started watching this after seeing a few clips. I concur, it's not as good as it should be. some good core elements but lots of corny direction choices.

can't recall that scene, have to rewatch

Foundation - 

  On 12/18/2021 at 9:54 AM, usagi said:

I started watching this after seeing a few clips. I concur, it's not as good as it should be. some good core elements but lots of corny direction choices.

The Sackler agreement has been nullified, opening them up to a lot of new lawsuits, but it will also delay payments from the previous agreement, possibly forever.

https://www.npr.org/2021/12/16/1065046057/judge-overturns-settlement-that-protected-the-sackler-family-from-opioid-lawsuit

this just went from okay to to "shit just got real" in one episode. impressive

  On 12/21/2021 at 5:29 PM, Nebraska said:

this just went from okay to to "shit just got real" in one episode. impressive

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I've been holding off watching this as I binge watched DEXTER at the start of December. Good to know it's high quality!!!

Hawkeye wasn't half bad, better than some of the other MCU shows, and the finale didn't disappoint. Nice to see something upbeat during the holidays.

I don't get the high praise succession gets. Everything seems resolved through an accidental incident of some sort.

  On 12/24/2021 at 12:53 AM, GORDO said:

I don't get the high praise succession gets. Everything seems resolved through an accidental incident of some sort.

Are you kidding me? How?

  On 12/10/2021 at 3:10 PM, auxien said:

i’d watched S1 of Stranger Things back around when it came out, but just now watched S2 and half through S3 at the moment. both seasons have been decent, obv for what the show is, S3 seems to be at once a lot better and also a lot dumber in some key ways. but they’re quite good for a TV show which is really all you can ask for, i guess?

will need something more adult soon. isn’t there a good streaming service that does mysteries and stuff? i need some British detectives talking about murders over tea.

oh and the new season of Great British Bake-off was good fun. sorta feeling like they’re driving towards the end tho, the good contestants are walking in there already fucking pros basically

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I have a slightly dimmer view of Stranger Things. In my mind, S1 was a masterpiece: On one hand it was a 80's throwback banking on nostalgia but on the other it was something completely new. Like someone just decided to completely reinvent the genre and absolutely master it at the same time. I was mesmerized the whole time watching. It was brilliant.

Seasons 2 was decent, but you could tell they were kind of running out of steam. Season 3 was just dumb. And insultingly so. I hate it *so* *much*.

I'm watching Locke and Key now, and kind of feel like that's what later seasons of Stranger Things should have been. Like, someone told me the original idea for Stranger Things was to have a new mystery every season, completely unrelated to the last one, and a completely new cast. I'd say that they should have gone with that.

  On 12/24/2021 at 5:07 AM, ArtificialDisco said:

Are you kidding me? How?

Don't get me wrong the show is highly entertaining and captivating with good production value, but:

Logan quickly recovers from being mentally disabled just like that.

Kendall misses being present in a board vote (unable to force Roy out of the room and pressuring the other members) because weather.

A takeover loses Kendall's support because of a car accident.

A legal case that was supposedly a big threat is suddenly meaningless.

Everything that's built up and the source of tension throughout ends up being diffused by a chance event.

I keep thinking about that Pixar rule list for storytelling, one of them is "coincidences to get characters in trouble are great; coincidences to get them out of it are cheating.

dunno, maybe that's the point, that some people are just lucky and powerful but never do we see Roy being actually clever.

  On 12/24/2021 at 5:24 AM, ArtificialDisco said:

I have a slightly dimmer view of Stranger Things. In my mind, S1 was a masterpiece: On one hand it was a 80's throwback banking on nostalgia but on the other it was something completely new. Like someone just decided to completely reinvent the genre and absolutely master it at the same time. I was mesmerized the whole time watching. It was brilliant.

Seasons 2 was decent, but you could tell they were kind of running out of steam. Season 3 was just dumb. And insultingly so. I hate it *so* *much*.

I'm watching Locke and Key now, and kind of feel like that's what later seasons of Stranger Things should have been. Like, someone told me the original idea for Stranger Things was to have a new mystery every season, completely unrelated to the last one, and a completely new cast. I'd say that they should have gone with that.

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i've heard some good about Locke and Key, maybe have to give it a try.

re: ST, i didn't love S1 of it quite as much as you maybe, but it was definitely very good. to me S3 captured a bit of that back but pushed a bit more extreme, playing super heavily on those 80s tropes, but using the schlocky sci-fi/horror as one of those. and because of that it knew it was being dumb and ran with it, but made it work in cute and fun way. i think that married that silliness of a lot of that decade's media with what was already working for the show. imo that was what made it a lot better than S2, where they seemed ashamed to play it up and were trying to be too straight about most of the show. i can get why it might not work for everyone tho, i think they sorta tipped their hand enough to clue me in on the joke i guess, idk. anyway, looking forward to S4, assuming it'll just drop one day in the next few months.

  On 12/24/2021 at 4:18 PM, auxien said:

i've heard some good about Locke and Key, maybe have to give it a try.

  On 12/24/2021 at 4:08 PM, GORDO said:

Don't get me wrong the show is highly entertaining and captivating with good production value, but:

Logan quickly recovers from being mentally disabled just like that.

Kendall misses being present in a board vote (unable to force Roy out of the room and pressuring the other members) because weather.

A takeover loses Kendall's support because of a car accident.

A legal case that was supposedly a big threat is suddenly meaningless.

Everything that's built up and the source of tension throughout ends up being diffused by a chance event.

I keep thinking about that Pixar rule list for storytelling, one of them is "coincidences to get characters in trouble are great; coincidences to get them out of it are cheating.

dunno, maybe that's the point, that some people are just lucky and powerful but never do we see Roy being actually clever.

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Ok, fair points. I thought the helicopter bit was indeed a little contrived... But I also had the feeling that it was actually a bit of string-pulling by Logan. The car accident was actually Kendall being a reckless drug addict - something like this was bound to happen eventually. You're talking about the one where the waiter dies, right (ooops, huge spoiler... obviously)? 

The legal threat - was that cruises? It's been haunting the family for all three seasons now.

Wheel of Time is pretty poor overall. It’s also weird to see an Amazon show that looks like a SyFy or BBC America original. 

Instantly hooked on this show (HBO). Super silly and clever. Fun characters. I highly doubt that the American version is going to be anywhere near as good. 

^^^
I didn’t like Stranger Things at all. I barely made it through the first season. It was too derivative for me, on the level I found it a bit insulting. Been there done that and got the T-shirt decades ago. I understand I’m in the minority

Started Season 2 of The Mandalorian yesterday and almost finished it yesterday. Perfect Boxing Day fare. 

New season of the Witcher is pretty entertaining and less of a mess than the first season.

Doing a binge on these bc they’re on Peacock for free, it’s just as good as the intro, classic Gerry Anderson, terrible dialogue, polyester and 70s hair, and the best ship designs next to Star Wars. I remember my cousin had the ship that was like 3 feet long. We had the Hot Wheels versions.

Not a series but I’m watching a couple of these

  On 12/27/2021 at 10:59 PM, Rubin Farr said:

Doing a binge on these bc they’re on Peacock for free, it’s just as good as the intro, classic Gerry Anderson, terrible dialogue, polyester and 70s hair, and the best ship designs next to Star Wars.

thanks for the heads up. barbara bain was once- that dame

this was fantastic

Midnight Mass -