What TV SHOWS are you watching?

Jean Claude Van Johnson --

Man, is this a good show. And no, I don't think it got a second season. But it really nails what it's trying to do and I loved every minute of it. It's a show where 3/4 of the way through an episode you're asking yourself, "how the heck did we end up here? This is so bizarre." Van Damme is really good in it too. It casts his entire acting career in a different light, a refreshing one, and uses it to further the plot.



The White Lotus --

I'm not sure I'm finding it intriguing. There's only one character I give a damn about and she's due to die pretty soon if the first ten minutes of episode 1 are to be believed. I think that's sort of the point.

This show is just soooo HBO. It's a show you watch for sunk costs reasons, and I can't say I'd care all that much if they just started with a whole new slate of characters and began again. But yeah, I'm watching it, because the family wants to, and because, well, I may as well continue so I can see who did it, even though I really don't care very much about anyone I'm looking at. That's HBO. Shows about damaged people you hope you never have to meet in person.

I totally agree about White Lotus. I stopped watching because I'm tired of all these shows where I hate nearly every character. I don't think it's just HBO; it seems to be in the zeitgeist these days that successful shows are about terrible people and/or general misery. Walking Dead. Handmaid's Tale. Game of Thrones. The list goes on. I think that's why Ted Lasso has been such a wonderful bolt out of the blue.

I barely watch TV so I guess I haven’t gotten saturated by it yet.

While I don't generally go in for the YA television fare, Outer Banks has been pretty decent. Season 2 just dropped on Netflix. The actors trend towards normal looking teens rather than the traditional CW cover models. There are some unbelievable plot elements, but overall the writing and story is decent. I'm hoping a Season 3 happens, but as it is Netflix, anything beyond 2 seasons seems uncertain.

Disgustipater wrote: I barely watch TV so I guess I haven’t gotten saturated by it yet.

I am fully aware that I am a minority opinion on the subject. HBO is still in business for a reason.

I have a girlfriend-sized chasm in my life right now, so I have been watching more tv lately, aside from the 10 days when I was hosting an old friend in town for a visit. Some of it has been a continuation of shows that I was already slowly binging, like Doom Patrol, Rick & Morty, and How I Met Your Mother. Last week, I started watching two more shows. I am also trying to do some online dating, but I'm probably not ready yet plus the pandemic has really slowed down activity at both sites.

Thanks to the Big Bang Theory, I have always had a negative opinion of Kaley Cuoco, who seems to be the earthbound avatar of vapidity and basicness. But I can't help noticing that she is doing a great job voice acting the title character of the Harley Quinn cartoon on HBO Max. Harley is best known as the Joker's villainous girlfriend (though not in the new Suicide Squad movie), but this cartoon starts out with their breakup, and subsequent episodes address relatable issues like getting over an abusive ex and re-connecting with your own identity after an intense relationship. The show is pretty funny, and R-rated for language and cartoon violence. Firefly veteran Alan Tudyk voices a variety of villains, Seinfeld veteran Jason Alexander plays a recurring character, and even Tom Hollander plays the part of Alfred the Butler. Harley's crew of 3rd-rate villains can be grating at times, but her new bestie Poison Ivy helps ground all the zany antics.

Many years ago, I was in a relationship with a woman who shared my enthusiasm (at that time) for reality tv shows. Our favorite was Temptation Island, an outrageous show about committed couples resisting or giving into temptation from a sizeable group of really attractive single folks. HBO Max has now served up a worthy successor (if you go for this kind of thing) in the form of FBOY Island. This show plays out somewhat like a traitor game along the lines of Werewolf, only combined with dating at a tropical resort. The F stands for what you might guess, as an f-boy is a young guy who is looking for one-night stands instead of a serious relationship. So this show features three attractive 20-something women who are all looking for a serious relationship with a quality guy, plus 24 handsome bachelors. Of those 24, 12 are f-boys and 12 are "nice guys" who are looking for a long-term relationship, but all 24 are presenting themselves as nice guys. Though the exact win conditions have not been spelled out yet, winning contestants will win $100,000 each. I'm guessing that each woman will need to pick a guy by the final episode, and will win if they picked a nice guy. I'm also guessing that those three guys picked will also win the money, regardless of whether or not they are nice guys.

The concept might have fallen flat, except that the production team did a great job of vetting the contestants. Two of the women are stunning, and all three look amazing in a bikini. Half the guys are built like weightlifters, and the other half look like male models. Some are charming, and some are clearly not used to serious competition. One of the guys is snitching on the other bros. Two similar guys named Jarred nearly came to blows over the same woman, until she gave them both a stern rebuke. Another guy named two specific dudes who already have girlfriends back home. At the end of each episode, each woman selects a guy to be eliminated. Then each eliminated guy reveals if he was an f-boy or a nice guy. The moderator (who I have nicknamed Sarah Jessica Faker) says "f-bye" to the eliminated f-boys. The ejected nice guys get a limo ride to another nearby resort on a beach. The ejected f-boys wait for a shuttle bus ride at a bus stop, and are exiled to a crude, wooden stockade ("LimBro") on that same beach. Three episodes in, the women have ejected 5 f-boys and 4 nice guys. The traitor element is fun, and the show has only tipped off viewers to a couple of the unrevealed f-boys so far.

I've been watching House MD for some time now. It's a fun show though we are clearly beyond the point at which the title character becomes a parody of himself.

I think the setup is great. The idea of taking Sherlock Holmes and making him a doctor is great and the characters are interesting, versatile and well-nuanced. The two flaws, as I see it, are that House is too often written as an asshole instead of the Byronic character he was meant to be. The second is that the medical mysteries are rushed through, which it look like House and his team are blindy trying whatever comes to mind instead of reflecting on the possibilities for a while. But it was fun.

We are now in season 5. House has devolved into an asshole and the series has this weird issue where both the original cast and the new one coexist. It's still fun but they are large enough issues to bring the show down. The medical mystery aspect has been removed, now House mostly yells about how he's right and things roll from that.

I watched the season 1 finale (there are 8 episodes) of Kevin can Fuck Himself. The story did not go in the direction that I particularly expected, but overall I'm left feeling that the show is average, with a unique hook that doesn't really elevate it much.

Would I watch more, assuming they make more? Perhaps.

I am in the same boat. I have just enough interest to watch 2-3 more episodes, but am not certain of staying with it for the long haul.

I finished my third re-watch of The Good Place. I'm not a big fan of sitcoms in general and rarely stick with them beyond season one but this became a comfort show.

I finished The White Lotus. It went downhill in a boring way after I posted about last time. Ah well.

We’re watching The Heart Guy out of Australia, which is quirky, light, and fun. Fair warning, no machine guns. But it always manages a smile. A playboy heart surgeon is forced to be a GP in his backwater hometown. Nothing overdramatic. We watch it after our Irish show about refugees being forced into the sex trade in Dublin and getting murdered. Lightens the mood before bedtime.

Had to look that up because I'd never heard of it - because it's called Doctor Doctor here. I've never watched it but it was filmed a country mile or so from my place.

I finished the run of Schitt's Creek. Fantastic series and it ended well. Easily a top 10 all time show for me. I'm still not a fan of Chris Elliott and he was the weakest link on the show I think.

Schitts Creek is one of those "I just don't get it" shows for me. The wife avidly consumed it though.

Started in on Marvel's What If... with the boy. He was kinda confused on the premise but halfway through the trailer he was 1000% on board with the idea.

It is a weekly drop so only the first ep is out so far. It has that cell shaded look like Netflix's "Dragon Prince" but seems to have a higher frame rate than a lot of other animated shows these days so it feels high budget. This ep is about Agent Carter getting the super soldier serum instead of Steve Rogers. Not really a narrative stretch as events play out pretty much the same but there is some good lovecraft in there and if this show is doing a mini build towards an alternative Infinity War type thing then this is a good first step.

Some moaning on the interwebs about Carter going full late stage Cap right out of the gate but most of that is just the hyper pace of animation, plus if the super soldier serum is a multiplier drug, well, Carter started off as a MUCH more capable human than Rogers so it kinda makes sense. Rogers does basically the same 0-100 mph thing in another way on the show as well.

Very interested to see what else they got, hard to say from the trailer other than a killmonger/Tony Stark team up and T'challa as Starlord (mistaken identity by Yondu, maybe Ego slid into Queen Ramonda's DMs back in the day?) and naturally...zombies.

This is very tuned for kids, obviously. It doesn't require mastery of the MCU to enjoy but it certainly helps.