What TV SHOWS are you watching?

Disgustipater wrote: How does a laser gun jam?

Lasers generate a lot of heat, so they have heat sinks that rotate through to dissipate the excess. Clearly this mechanism is what jammed. (Just making that up.)

MANDALORIAN ended on a high note and I’m all in for s3.

Actually, I thought Star Wars blasters worked off creating a plasma like discharge from a cartridge filled with some sort of gaseous compound, which is why a shot moves and acts more like a physical thing (able to be force stopped or deflected by lightsaber) than a light wave.......I'll see myself out now

I've been watching Mortimer and Whitehouse Gone Fishing, and it's just the right vibe. It's two old british comedians traveling around fishing and shooting the shit. I saw a review that called it ambient comedy, which was a turn of phrase I enjoy. One of them is a complete fishing noob, one of them knows fishing pretty well, they talk about their heart problems and crack wise about stuff, they visit picturesque British locales and occasionally catch a fish... It's just super chill and enjoyable. It's on YouTube, check it out.

Have you seen "The Trip?" I haven't seen Mortimer and Whitehouse, but am getting a bit of a similar vibe from the description.

Imagine The Trip but wayyyyyy more chill, and with a lot more idyllic british rivers and lakes.

Gone Fishing also feels more natural and genuine, it's just Mortimer and Whitehouse hanging out together doing something they would be doing even if there wasn't a camera on them, whereas The Trip is partly scripted and Brydon and Coogan are playing caricatures of themselves.

I don't know if it's geo-locked on YouTube but would recommend looking for Bob Mortimer's appearances on a show called Would I Lie to You? for more of his gently surreal stories.

Bob Mortimer on WILTY is peak television.

Started watching SHTISEL, an Israeli drama about an orthodox family in Jerusalem. Notable in that it doesn’t rely on (IMO overdone) tropes of religion v. secularism, tradition v. modernity; instead it’s about interesting characters, who just happen to be religious, and their challenges.

dysjunct wrote: Started watching SHTISEL, an Israeli drama about an orthodox family in Jerusalem. Notable in that it doesn’t rely on (IMO overdone) tropes of religion v. secularism, tradition v. modernity; instead it’s about interesting characters, who just happen to be religious, and their challenges.

Wow, say that title three times fast Where is this show?

Sadly, I wish more western writers would learn that lesson. I'm working through Raised by Wolves on HBOmax and it feels like the exact opposite of what you are describing

It's yet another show that spends millions of dollars on fancy sci-fi window dressing but can't seem to hire a single scientist to look over the script that just wants to set up and knock down poorly constructed strawmen.

My kids are on their second or third run through Netflix's Hilda which is a totally charming and endlessly inventive comic based cartoon set in fantasy/70s(?) scandinavia. Highly recommend this one, even if you don't have kids. It relies a bit too heavily on the "I'm gonna be fearless and nice and things will just work themselves out" character attitude but the scooby gang that develops around the titular Hilda does a good job expressing the thoughts of the viewer when she can't. Second season just dropped and amps everything up. My kid has a few of the comics this show is based on and it is a very close adaptation, including the fantastic art style (someone could make a wonderful kids CG/RPG based on this IP) though I think the show must have far outpaced the comics by now.

It’s on Netflix.

Recently intensified my binge of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel. I have been alternating episodes of each, to properly appreciate the occasional crossovers between the two shows. I am nearly finished with Buffy season 5 and Angel season 2.

Season five is my least favorite season of Buffy, because roughly half the ensemble cast detracts from the show. I vaguely remembered disliking Riley, but he is actually very likeable but often emasculated to ensure that Buffy remains the primary hero. And then he gets a lousy story arc in season five that leads to an undignified exit. The existence of Dawn in season five is a neat plot twist, but the character is intentionally designed to be annoying. Xander has gradually become almost intolerable, more jerk than funny guy now. Anya is intentionally designed to be somewhat awful, though actress Emma Caulfield often displays excellent comedic timing. Tara is really, really nice, which unfortunately makes her somewhat uninteresting. Spike is occasionally cool but generally the butt of way too many jokes. His story arc is becoming interesting, but is weighted down by the excessive torrent of abuse he receives. The overall Glory story arc is not great, but Glory herself is an amusing villain who seems to be based somewhat on Brittany Spears.

Season two of Angel is better than I remembered, ranging from mediocre to somewhat compelling. There are some great moments when Angel goes pretty dark in his obsessive vendetta against Wolfram & Hart. The Darla storyline is better than I remembered, but she eventually overstays her welcome by several episodes. Cordelia is barely tolerable, Wesley is still the comic relief guy, and it's disappointing how easily and quickly Gunn abandons his old crew without sufficient justification in the story. Some of the lawyers at Wolfram & Hart get a lot of attention this season, and they are more interesting than most villains in the Buffyverse. The best episode of the season is when Wesley impersonates Angel, while Angel is meeting with a life coach/guru type. Another episode had the outstanding concept of the vampire equivalent of a multi-level marketing scheme.

The best episode of Buffy season five is defintely The Body. A beloved cast member dies of natural causes. For non-regular viewers, there is a sweet flashback that helps establish why everybody misses this character so much. Compared to all other Buffy episodes and most tv shows in general, this is a slow, quiet episode and yet not at all boring. The silent moments are short but powerful. The dialogue is awkward and realistic, and the cameras angles are at times uncomfortably wrong. Like when the paramedic tells Buffy that the person is dead, the camera angle is over Buffy's shoulder, but tops out with the paramedic's mouth, to emphasize the impact of his words and Buffy's tunnel vision at that moment. The overall effect is a powerful but moving episode that is very relatable.

I'm long overdue a Buffy rewatch, I don't think I've seen many/if any episodes since they originally aired.

I'm due a Firefly rewatch as well, I was a MASSIVE browncoat type back in the day, I'm curious if there is any magic still there. Having seen Avengers/Avengers AOU so much lately really highlights the Whedon ability to juggle ensemble casts with a deft (and occasionally heavy) hand.

I love Firefly, but I was eventually able to watch it again with some critical detachment. And it didn't quite hold up as well under that level of scrutiny. For example, there is a scene with the local sheriff in The Train Job that is maybe a 90 second conversation, but it somehow feels more like ten tedious minutes long. The pilot episode had some pacing issues, enough that I can see why the network decided to not air it before the first episode. And so on. But the ensemble cast is wonderful, the dialogue is good, and the overall show holds up well. I've read some about where the writers were going to take the show in later episodes, and it didn't seem great on paper. Then again, shows often take a season or two to really come together, and it sucks that Fox never gave Firefly that chance.

Hilda was okay but i found that "fearless -> work out" schtick quite galling after a few episodes, she was just a bit too annoying and one dimensional. In contrast to the comics, which I felt had a lot more subtlety and there was a bit more to her and her relationships - a lot more left unsaid, too. My kids LOVED the comics, and I thought they were great too, but we were all a bit disappointed with the show.

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Buffy Season 5, that's some good analysis, I think. There are lots of moments in it I quite like - the singing episode, for eg - but I can't really disagree with what you're saying Shellhead. And yeah the Body is excellent.

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Finally got around to watching the end of 12 Monkeys the TV series. It didn't help it had been a few years that I watched the penultimate season and couldn't really be arsed catching up again so spent a fair bit of time confused but not really caring that much. Still - ended fairly satisfactorily, I think.

I also got around to watching the last season of Agents of SHIELD recently and thought it was.... interesting.... that both of them did a "jaunt through the decades" type thing for the final season.