What TV SHOWS are you watching?

Finished Archive 81. It ended ok, I think the thought that they needed an open ending for a sequel robbed them of a real dramatic conclusion. The "big bad' never really manifests so the entire thing in retrospect loses a lot of menace. I did like a lot of the occult stuff in that they not only had all the trappings of a Call of Cthulhu adventure (lots of item fetch quests) but the misunderstanding, telephone game of intent and purpose fading with each ritual iteration meant the layered story kept relevancy in each period since the audience was successfully (perhaps TOO successfully as a contained experience) kept in the dark with the characters.

Still, like a lot of these types of shows the leads have to doggedly insist on interjecting themselves into situations that places them at peril as the cyclical nature of the story gives them ample opportunities to nope out with relatively little consequence.

I think I would watch a sequel but I think this show would have been served better with a more horrific ending for the players and picking up with another story next season that only tangentially works in these characters. But if they have good ideas for a I'm down with it.

The guys from It's Always Sunny started a podcast about the show and I'm getting a kick out of it. It's a good balance of them pointing stuff out about the show and just generally ribbing each other.

I thought Euphoria looked stupid in the trailers for the first season and even though I've never seen it, it continues to annoy. I read a Pitchfork (!) article recently about how the teen characters' taste in rap is all wrong because the show creator is a 37 year-old white guy; I just read another newsbit about Sydney Sweeney (of White Lotus fame) complaining that her nudity in the show is distracting from her acting ability.



I just hate hate hate the whole thing and I don't know why it's gotten so under my skin. Maybe I went to the wrong high school.

I actually really liked the first season of Euphoria. I didn't see any trailers and only knew that Zendaya was in it, so I was blindsided by what the show was going to be about. It's primarily about teenage girls, but each of them are dealing with different problems, and the show goes into serious depth with each main character, effectively giving each an origin story as detailed as any superhero origin. Sydney might have a point, because the first thing I remember about her is nude scene and her large breasts. It probably isn't your kind of show, and it definitely wasn't my kind of show, except that it was really good and I always appreciate quality.

Even if somebody is totally not into a drama about teenage girls, I highly recommend the standalone special episode "Rue" that was made in between season one and season two due to the pandemic. It is a very humble episode, taking place entirely at a diner (and the parking lot), and only three characters get speaking parts. More importantly, it is the most real discussion of drug addiction that I have ever encountered in my life, and I was in a serious relationship with an addict back in the '90s. All they do is talk, and I was completely enthralled.

That Rue episode is amazing and one of the best pieces of tv ever made

If you missed it last summer, Apple TV has a great 8-part docuseries "1971: The Year That Music Changed Everything" that is worth watching. The mission statement of the doc is in the title (that music contributed to the culture of 1971 in large ways.) It has the usual documentary fodder for that time-frame (Kent State, Nixon, post-Beatles Lennon, What's Going On, Altamont, Concert For Bangladesh, Fear & Loathing In Las Vegas, fat Jim Morrison) but was done under the auspices of Universal Music Group, so it uses 100% licensed archival footage with no cutaways, thus resulting in an incredibly immersive experience of the times.

It should hit the sweet-spot for the many middle-aged white guys of TWBG.

I think you can safely say senior citizen white guys of TWBG.

Making my way through the last season of Ozark on Netflix. It's well done, but it is not an enjoyable show. There's really no one to cheer for here. I'm mainly watching because I've come this far.

Yeah, Ozark is something I'm watching out of obligation and a desire for closure more than love; it reminds me of how I felt about Dexter towards the end. I think the character arcs in broad strokes are fine and I don't mind everyone being somewhat unlikable but the writing seems really inconsistent and the motivation for these characters is inscrutable. I think the series started out with a very strong 1st season and has kind of meandered around since then. I'm glad it's ending soon.

I'm mainly just holding out hope that old lady Snell catches a shotgun to the face.

Agree with sornars here. I really liked most of the first season, but the final episode left me with something of a "suspension of disbelief destroyed" feeling re: the Snells. We got two or three episodes into the second season and then just let it drift off. It felt like the writers lost touch with the otherwise solid character foundation that they'd laid and weird stuff was just happening because it would be "SHOCKING!" to propel people to the next episode.

Just finished season 3 of The Circle US on Netflix.

Normally I am not one for reality shows like this, but I do have a very soft spot for The Circle. For those who don't know, The Circle is like a standard knock-out reality show with contestants voting one another out until one remains. But it's gimmick is that everyone is alone in different apartments in the same building and interacting with one another though text based social media, so the contestants don't really know who anyone else is, and very often contestants are completely lying and catfishing who they say they are.

I think what makes this interesting viewing and a cut above a standard reality show is because due to everyone being alone and not in the same room as the other people, they will talk out loud to themselves the thoughts on how a conversation is progressing with other people (presumably the producers force them to talk their thoughts out loud because no one does that normally). I think this gives quite an interesting insight into the psychology of social interactions, how people can perceive the same event very differently, how people can explain their goals for a conversation, and how they can either interpret things differently or the same as what the other person intends. It is always amusing when one person finishes a chat and says to themselves "That went well" and the other person is just going "What a jerk".

A couple of different trains of thought have been simmering on my mental back burner for a while. (How do you like my mixed metaphors?) The idea that representation in entertainment is important, especially as our society becomes more diverse. And the thought that I really like Euphoria even though I can't possibly be the target audience for the show. And finally these thoughts converged.

I have never required my favorite fictional characters to resemble me. How shallow that would be. For example, one of my first favorite superheroes was the Black Panther, and I assure all of you that I am not any sort of African royalty. I'm not even black at all, but Luke Cage was another one of my early favorites. Some would say that it is a sign of my white heterosexual male privilege that I don't require representation, because my sort is already over-represented in most media. But I think that it would be very small-minded for anybody to only love fictional characters that matched their race/gender/preference/religion/politics/zodiac sign/whatever.

I dig Euphoria even though I am not a teenage girl or transgirl, because the show goes into enough depth that we get past the shallow differences between us all, and gets down to the core humanity that we all share. At one point, one Euphoria character wondered if there was a more powerful feeling than love, and another character responded "loss," and I felt that one all the way down to my bones. There is great music in every genre, and likewise a tv show can be great regardless of the subject matter.

Decided to give the new Amazon series based on the popular D&D stream critical role a try. Legends of Vox Machina.

Since I don't want to be that guy that dumps on things that others may like let me try and be a bit more positive about the show. If you have watched Idiocracy and the scene where the main character is revived and he sees someone watching a show called "Ow, my ball!" and thought that would be a great show, Vox Machina is for you! It's chock full of D&D tropes (bard wants to bed everything and every song he does is about sex, anal beads, or such), tons of dick jokes, a running gag about ball punching, a little bit of plot, and a party that seems to be together because they all compliment each other's combat weaknesses. If I was in a board game or roleplaying group with the bard, barbarian, and rouge I'd find a new group. The other four seem to be alright.

I think the target audience is 15 year old males. I'm a bit peeved that this represents our hobby.

We started watching The Expanse. Even started up a Prime Video trial to do it. Really liking it so far!

Speaking of reality shows, I was looking at an old tweet the other day where I proposed GOOSE HOUSE. It's a bunch of people in a house, but they keep adding geese to the house as well. Last person to leave gets the prize.

I must admit the last couple of episodes of Ozark really got the story going, and I was excited to see the conclusion. Then I finished episode 7 last night only to realize that they are breaking up the last season into two parts.

The cliff, it is hanging. And for how long?