What TV SHOWS are you watching?

We just went through Scrubs again.

mc wrote: I think that episode where Giles and buffy's mother revert to their teenage selves is in that series isn't that, that one is great.

Yep, that was also season three. This show is at times more humorous than most sitcoms, and that episode was one of the funny ones.

On the recommendation of a student I watched a few episodes of the Anime series Death Note on Netflix. Very interesting! I like the Faustian premise, but what is also very cool is that internal monologues of the main rivals walk us through chains of reasoning that will resonate with anyone who has played a game in which you play the player as much as the game. I hope the show holds up. I'm not sure if this quality is common in anime -- if it is, I'd be grateful for other recommendations if people have any.

The first season of Death Note is better than the second, but overall it's one of the better ones and the whole thing is worth watching.

Finished up American Horror Story: 1984 last night. I've been hate watching this show for YEARS and this was the first season since forever that lived up to season 1. It isn't particularly scary but it is such a fun send up of classic slasher flicks (HEAVILY riffing on Friday the 13th down to core story and scenes) that I can forgive it a lot. AHS has been lumbering under its recurring cast for a while with a bevy of actors that have turned scenery chewing overacting into a fine art (Kathy Bates, Jessica Lange, and Sarah Paulson, I'm looking at ya'll) . This time round all of those staples of the show are out, only Emma Roberts and Billy Lourde as a multi-season returnees (I think) with Leslie Grossman and Cody Fern coming back for round 2 as well. Anyway, this allowed the show to cast actors who fit the part and all the ludicrous accents and scene stealing is gone (with the exception of Lily Rabe and Dylan McDermott popping back in at times). The core cast is uniformly good and having fun, which fits the campy slasher theme quite well.

The budget is 80% music and it shows, almost the whole thing takes place in the same chunk of pine forest. But damn, if its gonna be music, the 80's is the best Fewer episodes help a lot as well, less filler.

Like all AHS arcs it forgets itself towards the end and ends up in a "ho-hum" finale rather than living up to the inital episode premise. I really wish these guys could stick the landing JUST ONCE instead of having so many tonal shifts that the first and last episodes feel like they are from different shows entirely. They REALLY lean into the weird AHS mythology about ghosts as well though it takes a while to get there.

I look forward to eventually seeing American Horror Story: 1984. I like but don't love AHS because they usually throw too many ingredients in the mix every season, and I agree that the tonal shifts often derail the show. For example, season 1 Murder House was often terrifying for the first 3/4 of the season, then shifted into the roommate melodrama of a bunch of ghosts unwillingly sharing the house. Also, I am fond of '80s music and, pre-pandemic, often attended a weekly '80s dance at a local venue.

In that case 1984 is right up your alley. I don't know what they did differently but it all gels together far better than usual. I think they could easily do this style of show for Nightmare on Elm Street and it would fit the AHS mythos well.

When I was posting about Buffy upthread, I forgot to mention something odd about the way it airs on Amazon Prime. There is a warning from Amazon in the corner of the screen at the start of each episode that it is rated for 14+ due to "Foul language, drug use, sexuality, moderate violence." For the life of me, I can't recall even one example of foul language. Drug use is also a big stretch. There was one episode where someone got kidnapped after getting knocked out with a chloroform-soaked rag, and another episode where someone was getting injected with muscle relaxants, but that's nothing like recreational use of illegal narcotics.

I'm convinced they try to add as many "warnings" as possible to INCREASE ratings. Netflix has no real ratings system anymore and it's virtually impossible to determine what content a show really has based on the PG, PG-13, MA thing. Those warning labels are about the only thing that hint at how mature a show might be.

I always like the warnings that look like this:

Language
Nudity
Sexual Situations
Smoking

Darn, was going to watch it until I found out there was smoking in it.

I like it when they get creative

Strong sci-fi sexuality
Graphic drug use
Extreme harsh language
Preposterous fantasy violence
Unacceptable boy's club behavior

And yet you never see warnings for;

Contains harsh truths about life
You will cry like a baby
Graphic bad cgi use

More Shetland, with season three being excellent.

I’m a little late to The Mandalorian party, but my wife and I death marched the second season over the weekend just so every possible social medium would stop spoiling everything.

I think the story-telling in the second season is a little weaker. The stand-alone structure is the same but feels a little silly as most episodes end with “Thanks for the help, now go here.” The shaggy connections worked before when the Mandalorian’s only goal was to survive. Now the stakes have been raised with the introduction of Gideon and the mission to find Baby Yoda’s home, but the storytelling hasn’t followed suit. Instead we’re getting hints at future seasons or spin-off series. The first season felt like a good role playing campaign. This season feels more like a mediocre video game.

Still fun. The set pieces are even better. Recurring characters feel lived-in rather than forced.

Stray thoughts:

I’m glad established alien species return rather than obsessively creating new ones even if my wife doesn’t fully appreciate me pointing out Quarrens, Aqualish, Mon Calamari, Gamorreans.

Who decided Sand People needed their reputations rehabilitated?

Tim Olyphant was so perfect in the first episode I have to believe he was a second pick for the lead.

I love Giancarlo Esposito same as anyone, but I don’t like his character. With the notable exceptions of Thrawn and Ysanne Isard, the Empire should be staffed entirely by English and German men. They look down on everyone who isn’t huMAN. They’re the Empire, not the Rainbow Coalition. I’ve heard Squadrons does the same thing, and it annoys me more than it should.

I recently started watching THE MANDALORIAN after mostly avoiding SW since 1999 when the PHANTOM MENACE broke my heart. I watched ROGUE ONE for a friend’s birthday and liked it pretty well but everything else has been whatever.

MANDALORIAN has surprisingly been pretty fun. It does resemble a bad CRPG in that it’s a series of side quests with occasional armor level-ups. But the characters are good, it captures the humor plus the lived-in, run-down feel of the universe. I’m up to S2E2 and still finding it enjoyable.

I think my issue with the main arcs is that the chosen one stereotype is just dumb. Back in the day The Force was hokey chop-socky mysticism but it was egalitarian enough that Kenobi offered to teach it to Solo. Ever since that it’s become more and more exclusive and about wink-wink-nudge-nudge genetic superiority.