What TV SHOWS are you watching?

Columbob wrote:

The Expanse starts next monday night on SyFy/Space. Haven't read the books but I'm looking forward to it and hopes it's great.

www.syfy.com/theexpanse . Select 'Watch Episode 1'. If I linked it, it'd throw you right into the video. My take - I liked it. Word on the street is that they stuck pretty close to the novels. Some of the characters didn't look exactly like how I pictured them in the books, but that's the price you pay for adaptation.

River. What a fantastic cop show. I have a man-crush on Stellan Skarsgård, so maybe it's that, but I absolutely adore the show. Also watching the US version of Low Winter Sun, another cop show but about dirty cops covering up a murder.

A while back I said that I had watched a couple of episodes of The Leftovers, but it didn't grab me, as it seemed too vague and a bit depressing. But I kept hearing raves about the show from various film review podcasts and TV blogs I follow, especially about the second season that just ended. So I gave it another chance, and sure enough, that third episode was great and hooked me. At this point I'm halfway through season 2 and it is a pretty fascinating show.

The premise is that 2% of the world's population (140 million) suddenly disappeared on Oct. 14, 2012, and the show picks up two years later to show the aftermath of that. So there's a lot about loss and grief, which resonates pretty strongly for me as a widower, but there's also a lot about purpose and the contrast between rationality and faith. You would think this could be overtly religious and have allusions to the "rapture," and certainly there are factions and cults represented in this world who approach it from that view. But it is an HBO show and not the 700 Club or whatever, so it's really showing a more broad view of how a wide variety of people are dealing with this occurrence and its implications. There are spiritual and supernatural possibilities going on, but there's usually a balance of considering that they really aren't supernatural occurrences at all, which leaves some ambiguity and shows how we can perceive events through the lenses of our beliefs or predispositions. For example, at one point a character interacts repeatedly with a person who has died, so you can either think of that dead person as an actual ghost, or just a projection of that character's subconscious. One character has the power to remove people's pain just by hugging them, but it could just be a placebo effect. And so forth. That kind of thing is what seemed annoyingly vague to me at first, but now I appreciate it, as I have to invest something personally to my interpretation of what's happening.

There is a pretty strong similarity in tone/style/subject to Lost, which should be no surprise considering that Damon Lindelof is one of the main producers and writers. But apparently, he said early on that there will not be any answers given to the central mystery of the show (what happened to everyone on Oct. 14, 2012). I like that, because then it becomes all about the human drama and dynamics of the people dealing with it. And there are other mysteries on that human level which are intriguing enough, and which the show does seem to follow through with.

I still don't like it as much as the current season of Fargo, and I think it will be very polarizing as far as people appreciating it or not (I barely got to that point, myself), but there is a lot of interesting drama going on, and I'm very curious to see where it goes at this point.

Well I watched season 1 of The Flash all the way through.

It started strong. Likeable characters, some mystery, a good upbeat tone, and very comic booky, that is it didn't take itself too seriously. I really thought it had promise.

Then it started to nose dive. The main problem was just too many filler episodes where the main story arc was not advanced at all. Networks still feel the need to produce 20+ episodes and most of the time the story can't support that much content.

Spoilers ahead!

The extended length also led to some premises collapsing as well. Keeping Iris in the dark about Barry being the Flash well beyond plausibility being the main one. The forlorn love thing going on for an excrutiatingly long time. These ideas just wore out their welcome. Lots of things were lazy too. Why does Reverse Flash hate the Flash? Why doesn't Reverse Flash's super speed work? How does he steal life and appearance Doctor Wells? Because....uh.....just because.

And the conclusion just sucked. What a let down. Time Travel is the hardest sci-fi concept to pull off well. Not to be attempted by anyone less skilled than H G Wells or the guy who wrote the first Terminator. So Barry doesn't save his mom because his life would be altered and he would never become The Flash. But then, Iris's boyfriend offs himself which causes Reverse Flash to disappear as if he never existed so he could never have killed Barry's mom so the Flash would never be created. The same as if Barry had saved his mom, right. Except.....no. Flash still exists....why? Because.

Lame, lame, lame.

Fargo... Oy, looks like it's same thing as last year, where it was fantastic for most of the season, but then couldn't really stick the landing. Granted, there's one more episode, but this last one was really disappointing, so it's not looking good for the finale.

I'm trying to think of what happened in a positive light, but whew, it's hard. And I'm not just referring to the big crazy thing that happened near the end (if you saw it, you know what I mean). The whole premise leading up to that seemed kind of weak, even before that point. The big event was a bold choice, no doubt, and certainly had been hinted at all season, but it was another fish tornado.

hotseatgames wrote: Finished Broadchurch season 2. It was better than season 1 and amazing to see the emotional destruction these characters go through.

Broadchurch season one was one of the most obnoxious series I've sat through. Everything was fine until the last episode, which was just maddening and insulting.

Eh, I'm dialing back my rage at the last Fargo episode, pending the finale. The crazy thing that happened was alluded to several times prior, so I can't say it was unexpected, and I'll wait to see the finale before judging the point and full impact of that. There are some ways that the finale can go that I think would redeem the whole thing. I still felt that last episode was a bit off, though, in terms of its style. I know we have other Fargo series lovers here... what did y'all think of that last one?

Finished off season 2 of The Leftovers. Pretty amazing season and series with some really bold choices that almost all paid off in interesting ways. I'm really glad I stuck with it, or rather came back to it after bailing. It was just renewed for a 3rd and final season. That should be the perfect length for this.

Speaking of Broadchurch, I watched the American version last year, and it was okay, but ended up being pretty disappointing. I would be interested to see the British season 2, and my understanding is that the American version was almost identical to that, especially in terms of the season 1 resolution. So presumably I could just start on the British season 2 without losing too much? I wouldn't be eager at all to watch the British season 1, just to catch up on that version. Can any of you speak to that?

I didn't see the American version, but no American version of a British show has ever been anywhere as good as the original so perhaps you should forget you saw it and just watch the real thing.

hotseatgames wrote: I didn't see the American version, but no American version of a British show has ever been anywhere as good as the original so perhaps you should forget you saw it and just watch the real thing.

Ha, I hear ya and agree, with the possible exception of The Office. But really, my issue is that I don't feel like it's likely to be worth the time to rewatch the British season 1, when the American one ended up being so similar. And I think the end resolution was exactly the same . So even though the execution was almost certainly better in the British version, it seems a waste of time to rewatch all of that, already knowing the resolution.

Here's a question about season 2... is it just an aftermath kind of thing, or is there also a new mystery? I think I'd be even more lost if it's just an aftermath thing, when I haven't known these specific characters (there were some characterization differences between the British/American versions).

Season 1 of the British Broadchurch was really good until the final episode, which made me feel like an idiot for sitting through all the previous. Just a terrible ending all around.

Finished Man in the High Castle. Story, Acting,writing was all good. However, I don't think I would have stuck with it if was on regular TV watching 1 episode a week. The pacing just seemed a little slow or off. Luckily, we live in Netflix generation where we can watch 10 straight episodes

^Friend has been raving about this to me, I'll have to check it out.

Ash vs. Evil Dead just keeps getting better and better. Whoever decided to send Ash on an ayahuasca trip is a fucking genius.

"Jacksonville, Florida...the city so nice they named it Jacksonville."

"Wait...I have two hands...I need two beers!"

Library finally got True Detective season 1, and I snatched it up right away. I avoided almost 100% of spoilers, after hearing mention of Carcosa and the King in Yellow. Even without that, my mythos detector might have gone off in the first episode, during one of Rust's creepy car conversations. That sort of existential nihilism fits smoothly with the philosophical underpinnings of Lovecraft's worldview.

Aside from that, both McConaughey and Harrelson are delivering amazing performances. The Louisiana setting is creepy and matches up with much of what I've seen while visiting family in Shreveport over the years. The music is strange and evocative, and the opening theme was already a favorite song of mine. I'm only two episodes in and I am loving this dark and disturbing show.

KingPut wrote: Finished Man in the High Castle. Story, Acting,writing was all good. However, I don't think I would have stuck with it if was on regular TV watching 1 episode a week. The pacing just seemed a little slow or off. Luckily, we live in Netflix generation where we can watch 10 straight episodes

Yes, I can't quite put my finger on why I didn't like it that much. It's weird because alt reality is right up my street. It was certainly slow and a bit of a contrived plot. Was wishing for an inter dimensional portal all the time to bump up the tension.

Regarding Flash, I pushed myself through Season 1 but I just could not get over that shit eating grin his scientist sidekick has all the time. Totally spoiled it for me. Time twist plot was utter bollocks from beginning to end.

I started to watch River but got put off because I thought it was going to be more than about a grieving cop who can't let go. Pete, does it get better than the first episode?

Maybe I should just buckle down and watch The Arrow on Netflix. 3rd season has just gone up. Only problem is it's...err...shit. It's like watching Dallas with superheroes.