What TV SHOWS are you watching?

Netflix should be tried for the crime of cancelling Santa Clarita Diet. And that cliffhanger.... a dick move if there ever was one.

Have I mentioned The Detour yet? Frikkin' hilarious! Jason Jones and Samantha Bee doing the writing.

We're halfway through season 2.

hotseatgames wrote: Netflix should be tried for the crime of cancelling Santa Clarita Diet. And that cliffhanger.... a dick move if there ever was one.

Shit, I just watched that last night. That sucks.

hotseatgames wrote: Netflix should be tried for the crime of cancelling Santa Clarita Diet. And that cliffhanger.... a dick move if there ever was one.

Agreed One of the few Netflix series which would have been fine to keep going, and then nothing.

I feel like I'm in the middle of the 2007 writers strike again, with such abrupt cancellations.

Weird things happening at Netflix. I have a couple writer friends who do screenplays and teleplays and a few months ago they were telling me to get back at it because Netflix was buying everything pitched to them, in an attempt to stay ahead of Amazon and Hulu and all the new streaming services (NBC, CBS, DC Comics, etc.), who were also buying. But then the rift between the guild and major agencies opened up and now there's all kinds of turbulence in the market. Some of the streamers may be giving into market forces (they can only buy so much) or they may be reacting in anticipation of another major action by the guild.

We seem to be heading towards a series trend that caps at three seasons. By all estimations I am reading from some folks more in tune than I regarding the industry. Which kinda makes sense. I'm not seeing many of their original series go beyond that.

I recall Charlie mentioning that they likely have many more seasons of the OA planned. If this sort of precedence is anything to go by, we may get just one more, if that.

[Edit]
On a slightly related topic, about a month ago a pretty major lawsuit regarding streaming and licensing was won against Fox by the actors if Bones. I need to find the article again, but this could have far reaching effects on such services for years. Possibly replicating interruptions that we saw during 2007 as legal issues and contracts get redefined.

So I'm watching the end of Season 3 of The Expanse and reading the first book at the same time. Usually someone will say "the book is better" but in this case I have to say "the book is the same thing" because, damn, they're an exact match. The show doesn't deviate, and as best I can tell doesn't cut material either. I've never seen that happen before. I have to give the nod to the TV show since its visuals are so good.

Please let me know when the season for Game of Thrones is over. This thread will go back to normal shortly after that.

Sagrilarus wrote: So I'm watching the end of Season 3 of The Expanse and reading the first book at the same time. Usually someone will say "the book is better" but in this case I have to say "the book is the same thing" because, damn, they're an exact match. The show doesn't deviate, and as best I can tell doesn't cut material either. I've never seen that happen before. I have to give the nod to the TV show since its visuals are so good.

Yeah, this is very much a neck and neck for me. I think the show's central cast interacts better than the book, so the ensemble works better, but the books have a much better treatment of culture and worldbuilding. Unlike GoT, I think this is one of those cases where both works are equally as good and mostly treading the same thematic territory.

Also, I get that it's his character, but Holden's sanctimonious douchery in the books just wears super thin and I enjoy the character itself better in the show.

Gary Sax wrote: Also, I get that it's his character, but Holden's sanctimonious douchery in the books just wears super thin and I enjoy the character itself better in the show.

Interesting as I'm the opposite. I slightly dislike nearly every casting choice for the Roci crew except for Naomi. Alex is OK I suppose.

In terms of the others, Avarsarala is the only other character whose portrayal I really dig. Hate all of the U.N. people, hate the Maos, thought Miller was just alright, even not the biggest fan of Bobbie Draper.

This all may be an issue of reading the books first though.

Charlest wrote,

Interesting as I'm the opposite. I slightly dislike nearly every casting choice for the Roci crew except for Naomi. Alex is OK I suppose.

Yup! I like Naomi a lot, and Alex is fine, but the Holden dude is getting worse as his abs get bulgier (zero G P90X, I guess!), in a twisted Portrait of Dorian Gray kind of spell. Aghdashloo is a ham, and she can be spellbinding when she isn’t making me lol. They even make our old pal Lane from Mad Men a belting Belter ham. (The Belter patois is so inconsistent and ridiculously unlocatable as to be camp, swerving from Die Antwoord’s Ninja to the Lucky Charms’ leprechaun, and I can’t blame any of the actors for fucking it up). Battlestar had its ham too, sure, but Mary McDonnell (and sometimes Olmos, when he wasn’t leaning so hard into the gravel) elevated that shit.

(The Expanse)

I don't see anything that is in the book that isn't in the show to date, and vice versa. Granted I'm only halfway through the first book, the equivalent of maybe four episodes into season 1.

I'm going to continue with the book, but at some point I may just decide that it's more or less just watching reruns.

As for Holden's abs, yeah, but an actor like him might be doing other stuff in the off-season and needs to keep his street value up. They could hide his abs I suppose.

The accent that Alex uses is identical to the accent the guy reading the audiobook uses. Could be the same guy. I think the guy playing Amos is much better than the character is painted in the book (at least so far) so that's a net win as far as I'm concerned.

We've kicked the cast of The Expanse around on here before. Naomi is very good, Alex is good, Amos grows on you, and Holden is f'in nails on a chalkboard. The show really needs one of those soap opera announcer voice-overs. "The part of James Holden will now be played by Carrot Top." I don't really have a problem with anyone else - for me they're all fair to middling.

@Gary - Part of the novels' themes is the growth of Holden, from sanctimonious "I'm always right" prick, to usually right, sometimes engages brain before mouth.

Sagrilarus wrote: (The Expanse)
I'm going to continue with the book, but at some point I may just decide that it's more or less just watching reruns.

As for Holden's abs, yeah, but an actor like him might be doing other stuff in the off-season and needs to keep his street value up. They could hide his abs I suppose.

The accent that Alex uses is identical to the accent the guy reading the audiobook uses. Could be the same guy. I think the guy playing Amos is much better than the character is painted in the book (at least so far) so that's a net win as far as I'm concerned.

The series is supposed to be nine books long, and the authors have just finished book eight. I think they're well worth reading.

I always thought of Amos as being in his 40's, and kind of grizzled. I have socks older than the show Amos. But he's not bad.

Sagrilarus wrote: (The Expanse)

I don't see anything that is in the book that isn't in the show to date, and vice versa. Granted I'm only halfway through the first book, the equivalent of maybe four episodes into season 1.

I'm going to continue with the book, but at some point I may just decide that it's more or less just watching reruns.

As for Holden's abs, yeah, but an actor like him might be doing other stuff in the off-season and needs to keep his street value up. They could hide his abs I suppose.

The accent that Alex uses is identical to the accent the guy reading the audiobook uses. Could be the same guy. I think the guy playing Amos is much better than the character is painted in the book (at least so far) so that's a net win as far as I'm concerned.

I don't think when people say they prefer the book to a show or movie it's because of missing content or storylines usually. Rather, the key difference is in interpreting the events with the leeway given to the medium of writing. Since I'm formulating a vision in my head, I'm using cues from the author to get a fuzzy view, and then filling all of those gaps with my own artistic vision. It's like upscaling from low to high definition, but it actually works.

Video does all of that for you, with the downside of restrictive budgets and actors with limitations. Plus, they're asking me to throw out or ignore my own upscaling for their own take.