What TV SHOWS are you watching?

Yeah, I've seen the first three of The Tourist. It's interesting for the characters, but the continual misdirections and cliffhangers are starting to wear on me. It's only six episodes, though, so I'll see it through.

DarthJoJo wrote: The fourth season of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel dropped. One and a half episodes in and I think I’m done.

Really a slow start this season, but it got some footing around episode four or five. I was very close to dropping it and my wife did, but one scene with Shy Baldwin caught her attention as I watched and we're back to thinking it's worth the time.

Between We Are Lady Parts and Girls5Eva, Peacock is probably worth a one month subscription. I’ve mentioned them before, but I think both stuck the landing. They’re just well observed, written, performed and produced comedies about music and women. Real nice pieces of entertainment with some emotional heft.

Pilot episodes for both are free. Check them out.

Finished Season 3 of The Expanse. I see what people mean about it being a good stopping point. Makes for a complete, satisfying story with room to go on but not much need. This is how I feel about the Buffy the Vampire Slayer show's first three seasons.

We'll continue, though may take a little break before doing so.

I watched the two seasons of Upload on Prime. An enjoyable show, decent acting. Pokes fun at a fair bit of near future/around the corner social scenarios and brings up some philosophical questions about a digital 'afterlife'.

I'm also rewatching Always Sunny in Philadelphia. Still funny.

Finished Peacemaker. Loved it. Better than most superhero stuff out there.

the_jake_1973 wrote: I watched the two seasons of Upload on Prime. An enjoyable show, decent acting. Pokes fun at a fair bit of near future/around the corner social scenarios and brings up some philosophical questions about a digital 'afterlife'.

Anyone who has worked in customer service gets an extra layer of comedy out of this one.

the_jake_1973 wrote: I watched the two seasons of Upload on Prime. An enjoyable show, decent acting. Pokes fun at a fair bit of near future/around the corner social scenarios and brings up some philosophical questions about a digital 'afterlife'.

I like Upload quite a bit, I just wish it could decide what it wants to be. It bounces around so much between romcom, digital tech quandaries, semi-sinister murder, and just ridiculous sappy workplace drama that it is hard to care about all of it. The distinct casting divide (virtually all uploaded are white, a majority of the anti-tech luddites are black, asians/hispanics rarely invited) adds some commentary about how the writers/casting team view wealth. I wish it dealt more deeply with the concept of digital consciousness given how they get manipulated, it's almost the teleporter dilemma on a grand scale but they often shy away from it. Having read a lot of Peter Hamilton who liberally uses a very similar upload life continuation concept in his books makes this a frustratingly shallow exploration of it.

Season 2 ends so abruptly as well, is this just half the season? Otherwise sustaining momentum through another 2 year wait is gonna be rough.

Andy Allo is a treasure though. And who knew the lesser Amell had some real acting chops?

jason10mm wrote: Having read a lot of Peter Hamilton who liberally uses a very similar upload life continuation concept in his books makes this a frustratingly shallow exploration of it.

It's a 30 minute sitcom.

It's not really the responsibility of the show to layout the discussion of the morality surrounding a digital afterlife, who has access to it, and how those that are there are constantly grifted for DLC. Those questions are more appropriate for the audience to ask themselves and possibly around whatever watercooler they decide to linger. The Ludds have a significant religious factor in their movement which tracks with what I expect would happen in the real world. What's the point of preaching for a Heaven when heaven can be whatever you want it to be? For the right price that is.

AppleTV has a show, Severance, about a workplace where when you go into the elevator your mind wipes and swaps between a personal or work life (the work life begins when you start your first day). Directed by none other than Ben Stiller. It's bizarre to say the least. Finished two episodes and I'm in for the full ride. I just don't know if I'd take that bargain. It's like putting your life in stasis for 45 hours a week, but no work stress or drama when you get home.

Interesting concept.
Wiping your mind seems a bit extreme though. But I guess "turning off your phone" and "bosses leaving their workforce alone after hours" is a bit too far fetched.

mtagge wrote: AppleTV has a show, Severance, about a workplace where when you go into the elevator your mind wipes and swaps between a personal or work life (the work life begins when you start your first day). .

Trailer looked good. Imagine a version of you that does nothing but work though, seems like a recipe for burnout.

I bet it will lead to lots of amoral business dealings sj ce you can just forget it entirely when you leave.

Wasn't this the premise of some old Ben Affleck movie? Based off a Philip k dick story or something?

the_jake_1973 wrote: It's not really the responsibility of the show to layout the discussion of the morality surrounding a digital afterlife, who has access to it, and how those that are there are constantly grifted for DLC. Those questions are more appropriate for the audience to ask themselves and possibly around whatever watercooler they decide to linger. The Ludds have a significant religious factor in their movement which tracks with what I expect would happen in the real world. What's the point of preaching for a Heaven when heaven can be whatever you want it to be? For the right price that is.

I dunno, the show is very serialized, not really structured like a sitcom, so it COULD focus on digital afterlife concepts but instead it hits on a few and then bounces around on a dozen other things, all of them equally superficial in scope.

Take the war vet character. Seems like he is living off his pension which must be pretty generous for him to afford Lakeview, even if he only gets the basic level. Is he basically the property of the government at this point? I feel like they want to show him recovering from PTSD in his behavior which is very juvenile compared to how he is described by his former subordinate, but the show just dances away from it every time they get close to an actual moment of real emotion. Is the upload process fundamentally flawed in capturing the whole person? Are the memories edited to make them more stable? How much influence do the "angels" have in crafting the digital persona. How gross of a violation of "human rights" is spying on Luke in the shower or releasing his "dreams" to the living?

There is an entire show just in exploring this side character, much less the two leads. If the writers could tame their ADHD I think they could take a breath and really pose some interesting questions and play out some possible answers.

As it is, the show is light fun but I at least keep tripping up on all the subsurface things they never explore.

But you are exploring them and putting forth more possibilities than writers would ever be able to script. For me, that is the better outcome. The show gives you some basic framework and then the discussion happens offline away from the show. It ultimately becomes secondary to actual conversations. Upload serves as the amuse bouche to broader conversations.

the_jake_1973 wrote: But you are exploring them and putting forth more possibilities than writers would ever be able to script. For me, that is the better outcome. The show gives you some basic framework and then the discussion happens offline away from the show. It ultimately becomes secondary to actual conversations. Upload serves as the amuse bouche to broader conversations.

Well, it's a potato/potatoe thing I guess. Upload has a sci-fi vernier, but since it doesn't really dive into any topic I wouldn't call it actual sci-fi. Take Black Mirror by contrast, which focuses each ep on one specific tech and walks it out to a (usually dark) path.

You could actually retheme the show as the uploads being guests at a luxury resort with Nathan being there on a technicality somehow keeping him beholden to Ingrid and 95% of the humor and plot would play out almost the exact same way.