What TV SHOWS are you watching?

ChristopherMD wrote: Just never visit Cabot Cove, Maine.

Current kill count:
Fletcher: 264
Marple: 32

Trust you ‘muricans to go big as always.

We like our murders like we like our portion sizes.

I'm two episodes into Narcos Mexico season 3. I am enjoying it a great deal. The Narcos series has always had a very high level of quality, and the acting is great.

dysjunct wrote: We like our murders like we like our portion sizes.

"Lethal"

hotseatgames wrote: I'm two episodes into Narcos Mexico season 3. I am enjoying it a great deal. The Narcos series has always had a very high level of quality, and the acting is great.

I am 3 episodes in on NARCOS MEXICO Season 3. Like the origina NARCOS MEXICO, it suffers a bit in that the third season lacks a central villain figure. In Mexico it was Escobar and in Mexico it was Felix Gallardo . So the story is a bit more fragmented. By the third episode I am starting to see the central plot come along as it sees the rise of El Chapo.

One strength is that like the very early HBO series the cast ( at least to me ) is totally unknown so that you focus on the characters, not the actors.

The wife has me watching Shadow and Bone on netflix. This is pure YA tawdry trash nonsense but it has enough kernels of proper fantasy and fun characters (primarily the "B-Team" heist gang, inexplicably NOT the focus of this entire show) to be worth a watch until The Witcher comes out next month or Wheel of Time next week.

It has nice production values drawing more from early Russia/prussia 1900s than the usual medievalish england but most everyone is absolutely mauling their high british accents or the occasional slavic somethingorother.

jason10mm wrote: The wife has me watching Shadow and Bone on netflix. This is pure YA tawdry trash nonsense but it has enough kernels of proper fantasy and fun characters (primarily the "B-Team" heist gang, inexplicably NOT the focus of this entire show) to be worth a watch until The Witcher comes out next month or Wheel of Time next week.

It has nice production values drawing more from early Russia/prussia 1900s than the usual medievalish england but most everyone is absolutely mauling their high british accents or the occasional slavic somethingorother.

I made it through Shadow and Bone, but it was only through sheer willpower. I had no familiarity with the books the show is based on. I'd never even heard of them before. But "pure YA tawdry trash nonsense" is exactly right. I would also add "boring, poorly-realized world-building that reuses a bunch of tired old fantasy tropes." Chosen One prophecy? Yeah, we got that. Love triangle where the protagonist has to choose between the "nice guy" and the "bad boy?" Sure, we got that too. The fact that the characters wear Russian hats and carry rifles is not "world-building." That's "set decoration" and does very little to differentiate this property from a thousand other (better written) fantasy worlds.

Now, that being said ... the gang of thieves were super fun, and honestly the only reason I managed to stick around through the whole season. All the other plot lines are plodding garbage. But those three actors were clearly having a blast, and they stole the whole show.

In regards to Wheel of Time ... I'm very curious to see how that show turns out. Not curious enough to actually subscribe to Amazon Prime so I can watch it (fuck you, Jeff Bezos), but curious nonetheless. I grew to hate those books. Well, the few that I managed to suffer through anyway. I really wonder if the showrunners can sift through the thousands of pages of crap, and craft a coherent, propulsive narrative out of it. Seems possible, but unlikely.

Yeah, I'm expecting WoT to be a hot mess but so long as there are lines of hot chicks throwing themselves at Rand, braid tugging, and cataclysmic boss fights I'm good.

S&B is doing something right because my wife melts everytime sun blast girl and soldier dolt boy get together. I appreciated the ridonkulously busty heat(? not sure what her power is) witch seducing the russian guy while trying desperately to keep a pg-13 rating. But the overall plot is straight from pre-teen "I've never heard of this plot; ancient evil guy passes himself off as a good guy.....wooooow and the girl is a naïve chosen one who doesn't want power right up till the point someone else takes it from her?" horseshit.

I'm watching guys use belt fed machine guns, high explosives, and folks who can throw fire with their hands yet bat things in the mist are a problem?

I subscribe to Amazon Prime, but The Wheel of Time is a hard pass unless I see some amazing reviews. I read the first book 20 years ago, only because a couple of friendly acquaintances urged me to try it. I thought that it was terrible. Jordan was unable to write young characters well, as he apparently didn't understand the difference between a kid and a complete moron. The story was utterly generic and predictable. The pseudo-nazgul villains near the end seemed somewhat cool, but I felt zero desire to try book two. Word of mouth about the later books seemed to indicate an uncreative writer who was getting paid by the word, to point where multiple books barely advanced the story. It actually offends me that The Wheel of Time series is getting a show when so many better works remain ignored.

I'm actually not all that sure WHAT epic fantasy works I want to see adapted, as most of them seemed doomed to fail, either production wise or in final execution. Really, LOTR and seasons 1-4 of GoT are the only really strong ones, The Witcher a possible third. Do I want to see the Black Company onscreen, or the warrows of McKiernan's books in a direct LOTR inspired quest, Elric's square peg hammered into a 16:9 hole, or Covenant regaining his sense of feeling right in time to commit an unspeakable atrocity and then go on to a long heroic journey?

Actually, Covenant might be the best hope, as that character feels a lot like what is en vogue these days as a cynical, kinda hopeless guy wracked with guilt just trying to keep head above water in a world that is absolutely inexplicable to him with astounding imagery.

Another go at Barsoom would be cool, though my preference for strict adherence to costuming would definitely limit the appeal

Dragonlance of course would be the GOAT, as I think it could hit on all levels, the main themes would survive some trimming of the books, and the emotional beats across the series would be CRUSHING to see visualized on screen. I'm trying to remember if I ever saw the animated movie. Anyway, I think you could adapt it with more modern casting sensibilities without wrecking it, WOTC doesn't seem to be doing much with it these days.

I don't want to cry after the deaths of Flint and Sturm again. lol

Elric would be great to see on screen. Dare I dream to think some of the other of the Eternal Champion series could be adapted.

I think the Abercrombie books are ripe for movie adaptation. Jason Momoa could play a decent Logen Ninefingers.

Dragonlance is an excellent answer. I think that could make a great TV show. It's got a big sprawling cast, lots of action, lots of inter-personal conflict. All the stuff that modern prestige dramas look for. The original trilogy holds up pretty well. I read it to my son a few years back, and was terrified that it was going to be trash that didn't hold up to my cynical adult eye, but I was pleasantly surprised. The world is fairly generic, but there's real heart in the characters. Who's your dream cast? Dwayne Johnson as Caramon? Timothy Olyphant as Tanis? And what about Raistlin??? The whole show loves or dies based on that particular casting decision.

I'd love to see somebody take a real shot at The Dark Tower. There's so much cool, crazy shit in there (before it largely falls apart in book 6). I never saw the Idris Elba movie. It looked awful.

I made it through Book 6 of Wheel of Time. then stopped. The show would have to be pretty damn good to make me watch it. True Detective S1 or The Wire levels of good.

And books to bring to the screen: N. K. Jemisin's Broken Earth trilogy. The series won back to back to back Hugos, well-deserved. None of this Wheel of Time horseshit.

I would cast Olyphant at Sturm I think. Tanis always struck me as a mopey, emo kid. Tom Holland for Tasselhoff.

I tried reading the novels to my wife, but I think they have lost some of the magic that they had from when I was younger.