What TV SHOWS are you watching?

Managed to watch BRAND NEW CHERRY FLAVOR. Took a long time because my wife refused to watch it with me about halfway through episode one. So I had to wait until she was in bed or otherwise not watching.

I enjoyed it and thought it was very well done. Weird and unrelenting.

Don’t sleep on the other classic Doctors! Pertwee is ALMOST as good as Baker and some of the serials are every bit as good as the 4th Doctor best. There are some really solid 5th doctor series as well, especially Caves of the Androzani. 6th doctor…well, he’s “irascible” I guess? 8 suffered from a stripped down budget but there is some good writing and Ace is almost my favorite companion. There a couple of total stinkers in there though.

I liked all of the revival Doctors but the show just sort of lost its mooring, it got caught up in overly complicated bullshit. Matt Smith was the lowest point IMO, he got saddled with some of the worst writing. Capaldi too for that matter.

Michael Barnes wrote: Matt Smith was the lowest point IMO, he got saddled with some of the worst writing. Capaldi too for that matter.

He also got saddled with a train wreck for companions. When Jenna Coleman showed up the shows just jumped in quality. Don't know if it was her or other changes in the show that coincided.

I quit watching for a while at Matt Smith because the episodes were so bad. I pressed through with a finger on the FF button to get through to the next Doctor and suddenly . . . wow. Coleman and Smith just worked. Better chemistry, better lines, better delivery. The last season of Smith was excellent.

As for old Doctors, I pretty much prefer whichever one I watched most recently. Odd that. Colin Baker is weak as are all of the John Nathan Turner years. Davison was very good and the only actor from the early set to stay in the business. He's still on British TV shows now.

Ace was an excellent sidekick by the way. In many ways as proactive and effective as the Doctor. Loved that shit after 20 years of "Doctor, what is it?"

“Quiet, Jo!”

Here’s my Doctor Who takes I don’t share often.

Pertwee is the best classic Doctor.

Capaldi is my favorite Doctor of all.

The Eccleston and Tennant years are great but the tone is all over the place. Also the episodes tend to be really chaotic and loud. It sometimes feels like the dialogue is competing with the score.

Truthfully, what I love about Doctor Who is that there is very little consensus about the show. I know people who would mount a spirited defense for episodes that I think are trash. It feels like I’m watching a different show from other people sometimes.

Literally no Doctor Who opinion would surprise me.

Didn't know Smith got so much hate. He's not my favorite Doctor but he's in some of my favorite episodes. I liked Amy Pond but the show revolved around her plotlines too much. In some ways I think she'd have been a better Doctor. Smith's later stuff with Coleman was an improvement. Clara was the Impossible Girl but that whole puzzle was that she was just a regular companion. She had good chemistry with Capaldi but her character should have left when Smith did.

It really does depend on who you're talking to. I've gotten somewhat into the DW community over on Twitter, and I don't think you need to look hard to find someone who will say that any given iteration of the Doctor is their favorite. Even Colin Baker, the Jimmy Carter of Doctor Who.

For my own part, I always like the Moffat years more than the RTD years. I've relitigated way a lot elsewhere, but mostly I think it's an aesthetic thing. I also think both Smith and Capaldi had more compelling relationships with their respective companions.

I actually have liked Jodie Whittaker quite a bit in her interpretation, although the show hasn't helped her out very much I think. The most recent run has been at its best when it is more historical. The episodes with Rosa Parks, King James, Tesla, Lord Byron, and the Demons of the Punjab are all quite good I think. When the show has veered into more traditional sci-fi it's generally felt pretty rote, almost as if it's not interested in being that kind of show. It's also never really figured out how to engage with the show's mythology in a way that doesn't feel kind of pandering. But what do I know? I'm sure a ton of people have exactly the show they want now.

ChristopherMD wrote: She had good chemistry with Capaldi but her character should have left when Smith did.

The show has always used the existing companions to transition to the new Doctor. Provides continuity.

My wife randomly turned on Fleabag (Amazon Prime) and we burned through both seasons. I thought it was really good. In season 2, I absolutely loved the fact that I couldn't tell you why though.

Going in, I had no idea what the show was about. While I knew they were distinct shows, for some reason, in my head I've always lumped it together with Marvelous Ms Maisel. They appear to be completely dissimilar.

Fleabag is so good in that horrible people sort of way. You're the Worst is still the gold standard to me for shows like that.

Around here we've started on Reservation Dogs which is native teenagers struggling on a reservation in Oklahoma. It's got Taika Waititi as an executive producer though, so there's a lot of laughs coming out of some pretty shitty situations. Definitely punching up, not down.

Reservation Dogs is pretty legit, a lot of truth to it (well, maybe not the spitting at shapeshifter stuff...). Love the rural health clinic, been in one of those for a stretch and that's about right. I hope the res cop gets a direct Longmire reference, he was great in that show.

Michael Barnes wrote: Don’t sleep on the other classic Doctors! Pertwee is ALMOST as good as Baker and some of the serials are every bit as good as the 4th Doctor best. There are some really solid 5th doctor series as well, especially Caves of the Androzani. 6th doctor…well, he’s “irascible” I guess? 8 suffered from a stripped down budget but there is some good writing and Ace is almost my favorite companion. There a couple of total stinkers in there though.

I liked all of the revival Doctors but the show just sort of lost its mooring, it got caught up in overly complicated bullshit. Matt Smith was the lowest point IMO, he got saddled with some of the worst writing. Capaldi too for that matter.

Capaldi was the one of the better Doctors simply handicapped by terrible scripts. It was like they were not even trying.

Sagrilarus wrote:

Michael Barnes wrote: Matt Smith was the lowest point IMO, he got saddled with some of the worst writing. Capaldi too for that matter.

He also got saddled with a train wreck for companions. When Jenna Coleman showed up the shows just jumped in quality. Don't know if it was her or other changes in the show that coincided.

I quit watching for a while at Matt Smith because the episodes were so bad. I pressed through with a finger on the FF button to get through to the next Doctor and suddenly . . . wow. Coleman and Smith just worked. Better chemistry, better lines, better delivery. The last season of Smith was excellent.

As for old Doctors, I pretty much prefer whichever one I watched most recently. Odd that. Colin Baker is weak as are all of the John Nathan Turner years. Davison was very good and the only actor from the early set to stay in the business. He's still on British TV shows now.

Ace was an excellent sidekick by the way. In many ways as proactive and effective as the Doctor. Loved that shit after 20 years of "Doctor, what is it?"

Smith was okay, better than the 6th, but I lost interest when it became less and less Doctor Who and more The Amy Pond Show with Special Guest Doctor Who.

Sagrilarus wrote:

Michael Barnes wrote: Matt Smith was the lowest point IMO, he got saddled with some of the worst writing. Capaldi too for that matter.

He also got saddled with a train wreck for companions. When Jenna Coleman showed up the shows just jumped in quality. Don't know if it was her or other changes in the show that coincided.

I quit watching for a while at Matt Smith because the episodes were so bad. I pressed through with a finger on the FF button to get through to the next Doctor and suddenly . . . wow. Coleman and Smith just worked. Better chemistry, better lines, better delivery. The last season of Smith was excellent.

As for old Doctors, I pretty much prefer whichever one I watched most recently. Odd that. Colin Baker is weak as are all of the John Nathan Turner years. Davison was very good and the only actor from the early set to stay in the business. He's still on British TV shows now.

Ace was an excellent sidekick by the way. In many ways as proactive and effective as the Doctor. Loved that shit after 20 years of "Doctor, what is it?"

He was in Law & Order: UK as the head of the Crown Prosecutors' Service. He was great.

I have tried Doctor Who a couple of times over the years and bounced off it both times. It's like the poster child for shouty exposition, which is the polar opposite of show-don't-tell. A friend got me to watch a couple of Tom Baker episodes back around 1980, and it was a shabby affair of fin foil props and a zany, bug-eyed, capering fool of a hero. Many years later, a different friend loaned me a season from David Tennant's run. Bigger budget, better production values, same shouty exposition. I gave up after three episodes. Just not my cuppa.