What TV SHOWS are you watching?

ubarose wrote: I've been watching Kantaro: The Sweet Tooth Salaryman on Netflix.

It's about a guy who sneaks out of work to eat desserts. It is really hard to explain. It's calming, and silly, and surreal.

I watched the first 2 episodes. It really is the exact same show as Sunshine Sento Sake. Ditching work / self-indulgence must really be a taboo subject in their culture.

Man, that guy puts away the dessert.

Anybody watch Leaving Neverland?

Extremely disturbing but I couldn't stop watching. There's quite a bit of graphic detail that's a little much to hear. I don't know how you could watch this and see the tortured recounting of these two men and doubt Michael Jackson was a pedophile.

I’m about finished with season 1 of The Orville. I was hesitant to watch it because I find Seth Macfarlane to be mostly insufferable, so it was quite surprising that I’ve really enjoyed it.

In some ways, it is better Trek than Discovery. I really like that it is truly episodic, with no overarching end of the world plot to hang endless cliffhangers and “clues” on. So far there hasn’t been a great story,
But they’ve all been good with some clever twists. There’s one interesting one where a same-self alien couple are at odds over making their female child a male per custom- and Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer is a part of the argument. I like how old fashioned, familiar and oddly comforting the show is- it’s bright, optimistic, lighthearted, and I like all of the leads. Sometimes it’s actually funny when the jokes work.

But that is also the problem- the jokes. For ten minutes, you are watching a very earnest and largely successful attempt to duplicate the Trek formula. And then there’s a “dick” or “bitch” or another crude joke. Without the PG-13/R material, this would be the best family show on TV in years. The milder humor sometimes falls flat, usually when it leans on 20th/21st century touchpoints or rather unfunny recurring characters (like Norm Macdonald’s slime).

I’ve heard that Wizkids is making a Heroclix game of it. Can’t say that sounds very interesting.

Michael Barnes wrote: I’m about finished with season 1 of The Orville. I was hesitant to watch it because I find Seth Macfarlane to be mostly insufferable, so it was quite surprising that I’ve really enjoyed it.

I made it (barely) through the pilot episode, and that was as much Seth Macfarlane as I could stomach. Never watched any more of it.

I'm bouncing between a couple of different shows right now:

Season 3 of The Expanse -- this show has greatly improved as it's gone along. The showrunners have a much better sense of pacing and world-building. Sometimes Holden drives me crazy, but I suppose that's part of his character's charm.

Umbrella Academy -- only a couple of episodes into this one, but it's okay. Pretty typical "prestige drama" -- unlikable characters, messy relationships, big overarching mystery.

The Widow -- I admit, I only watched this because of my undying love for Kate Beckinsale. The pilot was okay. Not sure if I'll stick with it. I'll give it another episode or two.

He’s actually fine in it when he’s playing straight, but then when it’s jokey jokey time I’m like “OK, that’s the voice of that stupid fucking dog on Family Guy”.

JoJo's Bizarre Adventure is now on Netflix. I watched episode 1 to evaluate it for viewing by the kids...

I think I'll keep this one to myself.

I've also just finished Kantaro - Sweet Tooth Salaryman on Netflix. I take it back, this show is not just like Sunshine Sento Sake. There's a lot more to it, and overall I like it much better. Watching this show will absolutely make you want to eat a bunch of junk, so you've been warned.

Finished Umbrella Academy and man did that show go nowhere slowly. The twists were nonexistent, the characters one note (with one exception) and unlikeable to a bizarre degree. The ending was predictable from the very first.

I liked the art direction, and I thought the performers were generally good, some better, Robert Sheehan (Klaus) and Aidan Gallagher (#5), some enjoyable Mary J. Blige (Cha Cha), some worse, Ellen Paige (Vanya) and Tom Hooper (Luther). It certainly didn’t help that in the latter’s case the material they had to work with was simply bad, full of tired tropes and first-draft klunkiness that they couldn’t wrestle anything good out of.

I was smitten by the performance of Cameron Britton as Hazel. He brought a richness and depth to a performance that made everyone and everything around him look great. Mary J Blige couldn’t help but be carried by his performance, and the shmaltzy donut shop gal romance would have gone quickly south save for Britton’s soulful performance. The show didn’t deserve him but I’m glad they cast him.

In all, a mediocre show saved by some decent to great performances and a sheen of solid visuals. The show puts on a great front, which explains the praise Umbrella Academy gets, but is hollow at its core.

Classic “golden age” television.

I watched the BBC Pride and Prejudice series with my wife, which was great as always.

It desperately, desperately made me want to watch master and commander. So I might do that.

Gary Sax wrote: I watched the BBC Pride and Prejudice series with my wife, which was great as always.

We rewatch that a couple of times at least every year. It’s the gold standard of a perfectly cast, perfectly acted, perfectly written adaptation. There’s no cliff hangers or ungainly imperilment added in to the mix, just excellent characterisation and a brilliant understanding of the source work.
The supporting cast are given equal care and room as the two major principles which is also great. I wish more shows were made like that.

Interesting to read Roland’s comments immediately beforehand on Umbrella Academy which is pretty much the polar opposite: only the major characters get any focus, casting is iffy, performances uneven, little or no metaphor or meaning, clunky cliffhangers acting as bait, and no central purpose other than “some things happen for your eyes”.

My wife and I were searching around for junk to watch and The Order was settled on since it looked like it was going to be hilariously bad.

We are midway through the series and I was pleasantly surprised by it. Although very much in the vein of a brainless CW show, there is pretty natural dialog for the main players. The 'adults' get the typical treatment, the school chancellor is notably bad. The opposing forces are werewolves and blood mages.

It is less soap opera than The Magicians which I am thankful for, but firmly in the junk food category.

I would equate it to the sour licorice laces. the flavor is good, but they stick to the teeth too much.

Was direly ill this weekend, so spent a lot of time watching Netflix and stumbled upon this docu-series called Cricket Fever. It covers one season of the Mumbai Indians in the Indian Premier League; the most prestigious (most $) cricket league in the world. It's only 8 episodes with each of them being 30-40 minutes, so it's a quick watch. I knew not much about cricket and next to nothing about Indian sporting culture, so it was interesting to see things from a totally new perspective. The one flaw is that they don't stop to explain anything about the game, so I did a lot of pausing and looking up stuff on Wikipedia (T20, overs, etc.)

Gary Sax wrote: I watched the BBC Pride and Prejudice series with my wife, which was great as always.

It desperately, desperately made me want to watch master and commander. So I might do that.

If you watch Master and Commander, you should also watch season one of The Terror, for an interesting contrast. Master and Commander was good, but Captain Aubrey is so absurdly competent that he is practically a Mary Sue.

I have been avoiding The Orville because I feel that Seth MacFarlane is hopelessly trapped in the year 1980 by some traumatic event in his past. But I heard that season 1 wasn't terrible, and season two has been even better. Might give it a try sometime.

Since I have Amazon Prime and a big ass new tv, I decided to give The Expanse another try, starting with the very first episode, even though I have previously watched all of season one. I still have a problem with the sound mix in the early episodes. I appreciate the realistic approach, but feel that a show lets me down if I have trouble hearing or understanding main characters. The sound evens out after the first few episodes, and I was able to better appreciate a rich setting that represents a plausible future for the human race. The Expanse falls short in any comparison with Game of Thrones, but stands nicely on its own with three converging storylines. I am particularly fond of the cynical detective Joe Miller. The science-fiction elements are generally based on solid speculation.

Shellhead wrote: I have been avoiding The Orville because I feel that Seth MacFarlane is hopelessly trapped in the year 1980 by some traumatic event in his past. But I heard that season 1 wasn't terrible, and season two has been even better. Might give it a try sometime.

I gave up on Orville on episode 3 (I think) where the same-sex couple talks gender reassignment for their kid. It was a step into bold, bold subject matter . . . a step that every show on television seems obligated to take at some point in their run, and halfway through that episode it became apparent that Orville was not doing a particularly good job of carrying it out.

I don't want to sound like a fuddy-duddy, but seriously, don't take on your official "we're trendy and socially aware" episode unless you've created an environment that can carry it.

RolandHemisphere wrote: Finished Umbrella Academy and man did that show go nowhere slowly. The twists were nonexistent, the characters one note (with one exception) and unlikeable to a bizarre degree. The ending was predictable from the very first.

I liked the art direction, and I thought the performers were generally good, some better, Robert Sheehan (Klaus) and Aidan Gallagher (#5), some enjoyable Mary J. Blige (Cha Cha), some worse, Ellen Paige (Vanya) and Tom Hooper (Luther).

I'll just mention that Aidan Gallagher was 14 when Umbrella Academy was filmed, playing an old man in a boy's body, and was a commanding presence with the other actors. When a 9th grader is showing you how it's done you need to give him props. He could put his name in for an Emmy if he wanted and might draw some attention.

Shellhead wrote:

Gary Sax wrote: I watched the BBC Pride and Prejudice series with my wife, which was great as always.

It desperately, desperately made me want to watch master and commander. So I might do that.

If you watch Master and Commander, you should also watch season one of The Terror, for an interesting contrast. Master and Commander was good, but Captain Aubrey is so absurdly competent that he is practically a Mary Sue.

FWIW, the first season of Horatio Hornblower is better than Master and Commander.