What TV SHOWS are you watching?

the_jake_1973 wrote: Riverdale is good in a 90210/Melrose Place way. Total camp, but I think having a little background in the Archie comics makes it a little more interesting. I'm not sure I would have been drawn to watch it if I wasn't familiar with Archie already.

We are still watching Sabrina, but I'm not sure how long it will hold my interest. The Queen of the Feast concept was interesting. The whole replacing "god' with 'Satan' in commonly used declarations is wearing thin. Sabrina's family is part of the Church of Night, which apparently only covers their little town. They make mention of a Church of Shadows as a different branch. I want to know if each branch needs a different name. How many variations of black,night,shadow,darkness, etc. can there be? How silly are the names of the last churches to be founded?

You can look at the Keyforge threads if you need inspiration for your church names.

I finished the first season of Poldark. In late 18th century a British soldier returns home after fighing in the American Revolution. Finds his father has died, his love engaged to his cousin, and his family estate completely neglected. The show largely focuses on the business of starting and staying in business with his family copper mine. While the character clearly prefers the company of the commoners over the nobility you see both sides. I appreciated the fact that a lot of people were starving made it a desparate and dangerous world even locally. Has a fifth and final season coming and I exepct to catch up to that.

On a lark I also watched the pilot for Seaquest DSV after finding it in HD. Basically an attempt to make Star Trek: The Next Generation underwater. Didn't realize Rockne O'Bannon (creator of Farscape) created it until seeing his name in the credits. Just knew that it was an event back in the day because Steven Spielberg produced with Roy Scheider in the water. TV shows from this time period were so different, mostly less pessimistic, than much of what we get today that they're kind of like comfort television even if they're B-shows.

Lol, I remember that SeaQuest show. I would love to be a fly on the wall of the writers meeting after the 3rd episode. « ...hey guys, we’re running out of ocean... »

ChristopherMD wrote: TV shows from this time period were so different, mostly less pessimistic, than much of what we get today that they're kind of like comfort television even if they're B-shows.

I think at least part if it is they tended to be much more episodic. Most things needed to be resolved in one episode and the arcs were a bit more gentle and less complicated. Producers probably used to worry about whittling down viewership to a core of people who never missed it if things got too complex. On demand means that's not a concern any more.

Of course, soaps were hugely popular, so there's that. But usually their arcs are still pretty simple and drawn out.

Speaking of which I was watching Sabrina - the episode which begins at the mine entrance - and suddenly felt like I was watching Passions. It's a feeling I don't think I can now shake.

I am watching 12 Monkeys, season one. The show is moderately good, except for two great things. First, it handles the time travel element well, better than what we usually get in time travel stories. Second, 12 Monkeys is great at posing and wrestling with ethical dilemmas. Science-fiction in general used to be great at working with interesting ethical dilemmas, and 12 Monkeys plays for high stakes. The pacing is decent, with an ongoing sense of sustained urgency that is periodically punctuated by savage action. A couple of the death scenes were even hard to watch, more for the emotional aspect than any actual gore. At this point, the show could easily be either a sequel or a prequel to the excellent movie from 20+ years ago, with time travel changes easily explaining the different appearance of certain key characters. If you liked the movie 12 Monkeys, you will probably like the tv 12 Monkeys just as much.

Two binges over the holiday weekend.

Strike Force on Cinemax. It is a fun covert ops show with plenty of gunfire and explosions. This new season sees a retooled Section 20 with 4 new operatives, 2 male/2 female. The women are definitely the better players in the show this time around and kick plenty of ass while saving the day.


Frontier dropped it's third season and it was a much more exciting season than 2. I think Momoa picks/produces projects based on how shitty the environment is that he gets to rampage through. I like historical fiction and this show seems to stay true to setting. I appreciate that they have indigenous representation on the production staff given the setting of the show. Watching the show always makes me want to stat a game of 1812.

I watched Penny Dreadful season one. It is an ambitious show, but the pacing is sometimes too slow for me. With a nod to Alan Moore, Penny Dreadful is the League of Extraordinarily Pompous Gentlemen, though following the movie more than the comic with the likes of Dorian Gray and thinly-veiled representations of Billy the Kid and Allan Quatermain. The acting is decent and the show really nails the look of Victorian England, but I don't have any great enthusiasm for continuing with season two.

Now I am partway through Dark Matter season one. It is a moderately good show, though clearly inspired by Firefly. The basic concept is that six people wake up in a spaceship with amnesia. Not even knowing their own names, they initially use numbers, based on who woke up from cryo-sleep first.

With respect to Firefly, the characters match up personality-wise like this:

One: Simon
Two: Mal/Inara
Three: Jayne/Herb Tarlek of WKRP
Four: an unfortunate stock stereotype of an inscrutable asian who spends most of his free time practicing with swords or sai.
Five: Kaylee/River
Six: Shepherd Book without the bible

The plots are reasonably good, but the dialogue and the acting is just okay. Dark Matter is strictly optional viewing.

Fair warning that Dark Matter got cancelled and ends on a cliffhanger.

Shellhead wrote: I watched Penny Dreadful season one. It is an ambitious show, but the pacing is sometimes too slow for me. With a nod to Alan Moore, Penny Dreadful is the League of Extraordinarily Pompous Gentlemen, though following the movie more than the comic with the likes of Dorian Gray and thinly-veiled representations of Billy the Kid and Allan Quatermain. The acting is decent and the show really nails the look of Victorian England, but I don't have any great enthusiasm for continuing with season two.

Now I am partway through Dark Matter season one. It is a moderately good show, though clearly inspired by Firefly. The basic concept is that six people wake up in a spaceship with amnesia. Not even knowing their own names, they initially use numbers, based on who woke up from cryo-sleep first.

With respect to Firefly, the characters match up personality-wise like this:

One: Simon
Two: Mal/Inara
Three: Jayne/Herb Tarlek of WKRP
Four: an unfortunate stock stereotype of an inscrutable asian who spends most of his free time practicing with swords or sai.
Five: Kaylee/River
Six: Shepherd Book without the bible

The plots are reasonably good, but the dialogue and the acting is just okay. Dark Matter is strictly optional viewing.

I'll mention that the actors that play Malcolm Reynolds and Two are cast as a love interest in this season's The Rookie. Can't help but think they had a conversation about it.

WTF is going on, my kids just got really into the British Baking Show too. I like it more than the other cook-off shows...it’s friendlier and less YES CHEF. The bakers fuck their pies up and just kind of go with it, I like that.

We watched all of She-Ra. I am glad that sexist man-babies and diversity hating “fans” are so angry. It’s great and the inclusiveness is wonderful. Only complaint is that Hordak Isnt as ridiculous and doesn’t have Skeletor to totally clown out. Hordak is my favorite He-Man/She-Ra character.

Watched about 20 minutes of Homecoming- nope.

Michael Barnes wrote:

WTF is going on, my kids just got really into the British Baking Show too. I like it more than the other cook-off shows...it’s friendlier and less YES CHEF. The bakers fuck their pies up and just kind of go with it, I like that.

My daughter was back from college long enough to take over the remote, and got us watching that. Like you said, it's friendlier. I also get a kick when they explain what caused their effort to go belly up. "You oiled the pan, didn't you? That's why the angel food cake fell out of the pan too early and the cake went flat."

Michael Barnes wrote: WTF is going on, my kids just got really into the British Baking Show too. I like it more than the other cook-off shows...it’s friendlier and less YES CHEF. The bakers fuck their pies up and just kind of go with it, I like that.

I'm mostly done with TV shows but for some reason I like that one.

I think it's because they are all very polite and supportive to each other. You know, how people used to act towards each other before they all because narcissistic, self-absorbed pricks.

Most of the shows that I've watched in the past are like that: Face-Off, That Jim Henson Puppet Making Show, shit like that. People are being creative rather than trying to tear each other down.

Scott Rogers wrote: I'm mostly done with TV shows but for some reason I like that one.

Try some more tv shows. We are currently living in a golden age of television. With the long-form story-telling of a good tv show, you can get real character development, and the stories can be told at whatever pace suits the story. Movies now strike me as a very stunted form of entertainment, with a frantic need to tell a complete story in just 120 minutes of so, unless the studio decides the property is worth trilogy treatment. Also, many modern movies are derivative of previously created properties, like comic books, previous movies, or tv shows.

Thanks to whoever suggested Babylon Berlin a while back. It's pretty great. Above all else, a look into where fascism springs from. Without (so far at least) any Nazis. It's hard to watch without that in mind which I think is part of the point - I.e., where will all these characters be in 5,10, and then 15 years?