What TV SHOWS are you watching?

I have now watched the first three episodes of Euphoria. I was initially curious when it debuted many months on HBO, because I liked Zendaya in the Spider-man movies. But it looked like it was strictly teen drama and I am so not interested in that kind of thing right now. Shortly before pandemic lockdown, my girlfriend expressed curiosity about Euphoria, so I mentally filed it away for future consideration. And now I am watching and can't easily look away.

If I was a parent, Euphoria could possibly trigger a decade of insomnia. It takes any typical tv teen drama idea and loads it down with extra sex, drugs, and/or violence. And if that was all Euphoria did, I would have dropped it after 15 minutes, tops. But Euphoria digs into these characters, exploring how they arrived at their dysfunctions until they are at least tolerable or even sympathetic characters. And the storytelling isn't just edgy, it is sometimes startling and experimental. There were times when mere attention to certain details made me anxious for the characters. For example, there was one scene where Zendaya's character was riding her bicycle in a heavy downpour, and the camera lingered just long enough on her feet frantically working the bike pedals that I became certain she was about to get hit by a car. I was wrong.

The cinematography is often lovely. None of the music is anything that I would ever have sought out, but it totally works for this show and is probably unfamiliar to me because I am 3x as old as these teen characters. Sometimes the characters are shocking in their honesty, and other times they are blind and delusional about their own dysfunctions.

The ending of the pilot episode blindsided me, to the point that I had to look up Hunter Schafer. She isn't especially pretty, but her character really stole her scenes, and then there was that shocking ending. Turns out that Hunter is even more interesting than the character she plays on the show.

In a way, Euphoria reminds me a lot of Mr. Robot. Both shows have an unreliable narrator with mental problems and daddy issues. Both shows deliver shocking revelations and plot twists,

I finally got around to Undone on Amazon. Some others have mentioned it already so I won't say much other than it is pretty fantastic. Nice to see San Antonio as well. And damn does it end on a cliffhanger!

jason10mm wrote: I finally got around to Undone on Amazon. Some others have mentioned it already so I won't say much other than it is pretty fantastic. Nice to see San Antonio as well. And damn does it end on a cliffhanger!

I think it is less of a cliffhanger and more of a leave it to the "reader's" imagination. Very sci-fi. Something that seems so rarely done because everything is changed by the studio's desire for more and more content/money. It's nice to see a show with a discreet ending.

I have now watched six episodes of Euphoria. The show perplexes me, because it is so far removed from my daily existence or normal interests, but I am somehow hooked anyway. I have a relentless tendency to analyze things, so I finally identified why I am enjoying this show about teenage girls. (And no, it isn't the girls.)

1. Origin stories. I've been a fan of comic book superheroes since roughly the time I became sentient, and superhero comics are big on origin stories. How did the hero get his powers, and why did he choose to use them for good? Same deal for the villains. Every episode of Euphoria has included an origin story for one or two of the characters, including both voiceover reminiscing and childhood scenes with younger lookalikes. These origins give the Euphoria characters surprising depth, and makes the viewer care about them, even the really awful ones.

2. Suspense. I like horror movies, though I am a bit snobby about it. I always prefer edge of the seat tension over splatterpunk carnage or hostel-torture-porn. And somehow Euphoria delivers considerable suspense, every episode. It's deliberate, sometimes subtle, and often effective. There was one episode where the story kept flipping back and forth between two scenes, without enough context to tell if the scenes were related. In one scene, a bunch of shirtless teenage boys are hanging out in a room and talking disrespectfully about women, while one of them is getting ready for a date. In the other scene, a teenage girl is riding her bike at night, and rolls up into the parking lot of a cheap motel. In the movie Psycho, you never actually see the knife in the same frame as the woman in the shower, but the rapid switching of the camera from knife to woman to knife tricks you into thinking that you saw her get stabbed. So I'm watching this kind of juxtaposition in Euphoria, anticipating that this teenage girl is about to get gangbanged by these shirtless guys. Instead, it turns out that she isn't the girl that the guys were talking about, and she is meeting somebody else at the motel. But I was on the edge of my seat the whole time.

3. Quality. A long time ago, I realized that genres could be a trap in music, leaving you listen to low quality music in your favorite genres instead of experiencing great music in unfamiliar genres. And of course this applies to all kinds of entertainment, like books, or comics, or movies. Teen drama is not one of my favorite genres, but Euphoria is very well crafted. The actors were allowed to help shape their characters. The clothes and makeup are very fashion-forward, and three of the main characters are played by actors with extensive modeling experience. I'm totally unfamiliar with nearly 100% of the music on the show, which likely means that it is music that teenage girls were actually listening to in 2019. The cinematography is nice, and sometimes even great: there was a gorgeous moment when two characters in Halloween costumes plunged into a swimming pool at night, and the camera follows them and the resulting alchemy of water, shadows, and flowing hair/clothes is art in motion. Another time, two students are trying to sort out a misunderstanding in a dark classroom while a movie is playing. The innocent student in this misunderstanding is briefly framed by the moving camera so that the light of the projector becomes a halo upon his brow.

mtagge wrote:

jason10mm wrote: I finally got around to Undone on Amazon. Some others have mentioned it already so I won't say much other than it is pretty fantastic. Nice to see San Antonio as well. And damn does it end on a cliffhanger!

I think it is less of a cliffhanger and more of a leave it to the "reader's" imagination. Very sci-fi. Something that seems so rarely done because everything is changed by the studio's desire for more and more content/money. It's nice to see a show with a discreet ending.

While I agree that I didn't NEED to know, the fact that the show ends with the main character just seconds away from getting her (and our) confirmation is the very definition of a cliffhanger (does the hero climb up for fall....tune in next week!) to me. Doesn't detract from the show, and knowing there is a second season coming kinda suggests what is really going on.

I wonder if that art style is expensive. It allows what seems to be a low budget show to seamlessly integrate trippy visuals so I'd like to see it explored in more genres if it is economical. Are the actors even in the same scene or are they composition in later? It seems very covid friendly!

The Righteous Gemstones - Not as good as I feel it could be, but I wouldn't say its bad either. John Goodman feels underutilized and I was expecting more social commentary on the church's greed but its just a dysfunctional family drama with dick jokes.

Creepshow - Only recently found out they did a Creepshow TV show last year. Watched the first couple episodes which are 2 stories each and it's just like the old movies. So far I recommend if you like Tales from the Crypt type shows.

What platform is Creepshow on?

I just discovered that season 5 of Luther is on Prime, so I started that last night. It's good stuff, as usual. I do think the writers go overboard with their murderers. It's always some bizarre psychosis and hyper violent presentation. I think the violence is a bit over the top, personally.

Shudder subscription streaming for horror stuff. I watched it on the high seas.

My spouse started watching that knife and sword forging show.

We're almost through adventure time. Later seasons are much more serialized. Still consistently creative.

Gary Sax wrote: My spouse started watching that knife and sword forging show.

Forged In Fire. One of my boys watches it with me all the time. I think they record about nine episodes per week, because we fall behind even when we binge watch.

My boy is 17, and one of his buddies asked for an anvil for Christmas. His dad thought he was insane, but he pounds metal as a hobby. His ma is a big-animal vet so it isn't completely out of character. But how many 17 year olds decide to pick up smithing as a hobby.

My boy joked we should sneak in and steal his anvil one night as a joke. I told him to think it through for a bit. "Oh yeah, guess that's hard to do."

By the way, if you haven't gone after Killing Eve give it a go. On occasion it is frikkin' hilarious.

Avatar the Last Airbender is absolutely wonderful. I'm only at the end of the first season, but it quickly shot up to an all-time great for me. I like the subtle continuities that show up in different episodes, even when they aren't important or emphasized.

The Queen is also very good, and I'm also at the end of the first season. I appreciate that even though these characters couldn't be farther from everyday people's experience, they manage to make the drama quite personal and relatable to just about anybody. It makes for good recent history lessons as well.

Finished season 2 of Happy (on netflix IIRC) which is just a trippy weird depressing grim fantastic show. Cant really even put it into words other than "that's fu@#@#@@#ked up!" is a common response.

Started The Order on netflix. It has all the YA trappings I hate but damned if they dont duck and weave around all of the usual pitfalls of that genre and deliver a fast paced, internally logically consistent, emo free, minimal box check supernatural show that treads that line if not taking itself too seriously just right. Only a few eps in but I have high hopes after the bitter disappointments of "Locke and Key" and "October Faction".