What TV SHOWS are you watching?

I'm almost done with the Orville. Season 3 is a bit awkward and a dip in quality but overall I think I can heartily recommend it to star trek people. In many ways a more honest successor to TNG/DS9/Voyager than anything else, but with occassional dick jokes. Even if you don't enjoy the Mcfarlane comedy, it's still worth a watch---it does a really good job of just admitting that it's camp and embracing it, then moving on and doing what it wants. Not having to be perfectly realistic and do a ton of CGI at all times is quite freeing for the show.

Disgustipater wrote: I rewatched the entirety of Seinfeld. I remember watching this show as kid when it originally aired, though it became apparent it was mostly the last few seasons. Overall I really liked it and thought it was pretty funny. I think it really gets going in the third season and is pretty solid all the way through, though season nine is a small dip in quality. I was surprised at how many call backs and references there were to older episodes that are probably not as apparent when not bingeing it. I haven’t watched a proper sitcom in decades, so maybe this is standard practice?
As for the finale, I, like everyone else at the time, thought it was bad. Watching it now, I don’t think it is as awful as everyone felt it was. It’s not great, especially since it is partially a clip show, which is weird considering the two previous episodes were straight up clip shows that didn’t even bother with a framing story. But the finale drove home hard just how terrible these people actually are and I think overall it worked.

I've done this a couple of times over the years. I think it's held up pretty well which you wouldn't be able to say for a lot of sitcoms. The callbacks and running themes are great and really build things and make them seem like believable people, even if the plots often take them to unbelievable places. I don't think they were standard practice at all.

I remember watching the season finale at the time and thinking it was pretty good. Never got the criticism - my thought is always, well, what would you do? It's a good thematic end, good framing to have some previous characters re-appear, a pretty logical conclusion, things finally catch up with them.

Either the Levofloxacin or my anxiety kept me up until 3:00 a.m. watching terrible/awesome episodes of House. What a weird combination of toxicity, pop psychology and Telemundo-grade plot twists. As a certified a-hole who is probably on the spectrum, I find this show is kind of aspie-pornographic.

So I gave the first two episodes of Willow: The TV Show a spin and......it's not bad?

There is a LOT of modern YA stuff in the show, including a front and center tempestuous lesbian relationship but I think this show is targeting teens more than a "family show" vibe so it is what it is. My wife, a YUGE Willow fan, thinks there isn't much there for OG Willow fans in tone or feel. That'll last till the pixies show up I'm sure. But the lack of posh brit accents and lots of modern sounding dialogue and music certainly takes it out of a fantasy world and makes it feel more like a Xena/Hercules show without as much of the slapstick humor.

Still, the bones are strong. The characters are actually quite well written with natural, organic conflict and motivations rather than just "the plot says you need to do this" stuff popping up. Kit, the daughter of Sorscha and the absent Mad Martigan and heir apparent to her half of the kingdom, is a pretty damn cocky punk who gets quite a few setbacks in the 2 eps and shows some nice decisiveness to balance out her attitude. Her brother, the MacGuffin of the show, isn't much other than a dandy but he gets in -just- enough character to make him worth chasing. Kit's paramour has her own motivations and desires not completely wrapped around Kit, always nice to see from what could otherwise be a puppy dog sidekick. The Mad Martigan swashbuckler stand-in, the towering (over the admittedly diminutive cast) Boorman is still a bit half baked but provides most of the humor and charm.

Warwick himself is both the biggest revelation and the biggest disappointment. His delivery of what should have been some zingers is kinda flat, but damn, its nice to see him again and Willow is still the heart of the story, though the daughter character is sharing the load quite a bit as well. There is tragedy awaiting a reveal I'm sure, as flashbacks remind us that Willow had a wife and son as well, yet they are absent here. But watching Warwick creep around the set like an arthritic grandpa sucks a lot of the energy from his scenes when you pair it with how LOTR depicts their version of "the little people". Still, it allows for very casual interactions between the Pecks (for the life of me I am blanking on their species name) and humans that otherwise would be very difficult or expensive to pull off.

I'll leave off much about Elora because for some reason the show structures her character for a grand reveal that took quite a bit of heavy lifting to pull off, even though pretty much anyone watching the trailer can figure it out.

Johanna Walley as Sorscha does her best, serving kinda as evil stepmother and protective Queen simultaneously. I thought they carried through a lot of her film character, as she makes a lot of mistakes and is still dismissive as fuck about Willow.

Anyway, I'm on board for now. There is a lot of cringe but just enough fun. I'm hoping they loosen up and embrace the silliness of the Willow world. But I can already see the accursed YA love triangles forming between characters that could, as usual, work out their issues over a few beers were they rational adults but instead will probably plunge the realm into war when they feel jilted or neglected.

Willow — What he said. We watched the first episode last night and it has potential. It’s out of the gate in about 15 minutes, and the role reversal between the prince and the princess is amusing. There’s nothing subtle about it, and that surely was intended. It’s a refreshing change on the old trope.

We saved the second episode for tonight.

Ditto on everything Sag said.

My one gripe (well, maybe it's actually two) is that it seems pretty low-budget. There's nothing wrong with that by itself, but it makes it look worse compared to HotD and RoP. The other side effect is that the directing and/or fight choreography seems noticeably lacking. Again, it's fine, and okay for a Xena-type show, but feels really disappointing from Disney/Lucasfilm.

low-budget.

I think all these streaming services are starting to see budget pressures.

Netflix is famously scrambling and slashing all of its offerings.

While I was waiting for the last episode of the Peripheral to drop, I binged through the first season of Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency. I remember reading the books about 25 years ago and not liking them. I have to admit I came directly from The Hitchhikers' Guide to the Galaxy and probably expected a similar thing, which this isn't.
The show is a new favourite, though. It's a super weird fun romp with fast dialogue and a whole bunch of very memorable characters. The case starts with a couple of bodies that seem to have been killed by a shark in a hotel penthouse. Violent things happen constantly, as do unlikely coincidences. The tagline is 'Everything is connected', and everything actually is. If you liked 'Preacher' or the Al Yankovic Movie, you should try this one. It's also got Frodo as a bellhop. *chef's kiss*

The end of the Peripheral was ok? I mean, Cranberries' comment about the soap opera feel is on point, the plot sort of stopped moving forward, then Probably what Shellhead meant concerning Westworld. They did option the whole trilogy, so it seems safe to expect they aren't finished telling whatever story this has become, it isn't the one in the books anymore anyway. Terrific jobs by the actors, though.

Nodens wrote:
The end of the Peripheral was ok? I mean, Cranberries' comment about the soap opera feel is on point, the plot sort of stopped moving forward, then

Warning: Spoiler!

it ended, but nothing really came of it. Almost like they were holding back for season two.

Probably what Shellhead meant concerning Westworld. They did option the whole trilogy, so it seems safe to expect they aren't finished telling whatever story this has become, it isn't the one in the books anymore anyway. Terrific jobs by the actors, though.

Dirk Gently season one is so good. Prepare for heartbreak.

I stopped watching The Peripheral because I started rereading the book and feel like I understand the book a lot better now. I’ll watch the last two episodes soon.

So, minor mea culpa here. I realized that I'd probably been dozing off when I was watching Andor, since it usually came after my girlfriend was already asleep and I was looking for something to watch after we'd gotten through a couple episodes of whatever we're watching together. I couldn't understand why everyone was raving about it because I hadn't really been getting the full picture, quite literally. So I went back and watched the first two and then just watched episode three. And, of course, everyone is right. It's really well done and ep. 3 was a great example of how to tell more than one in depth story AND keep the pace going at lightning speed, all at the same time, which is a rare thing. I'm sold. Am going to watch the rest of it and am actively looking forward to it. The only significant flaw was them allowing Karn to live. This is a rebellion, man. You're already under a death sentence for a variety of things. Removing one more person who's seen and heard you can only be an advantage. Obviously, they can't get rid of Karn because he's a major element of the plot, but that's also a pretty large hole of motivation.

On the other hand, The Mandalorian, while interesting enough to keep watching, is still pretty average as far as things go. I am going to rewatch Rogue One after I get done with Andor, though, as I've only seen it once and don't really remember a whole lot about it. (Might have been falling asleep again. Jeebus, I'm getting old.)

Andor excels at three-episode long subplots.

Willow hit a MASSIVE wall with ep3. Like, WTF man?!? Continuity gaps all over the place, strange leaps through time and space, dark clouds and storms in one place and bright sun literally a hillside over. One pony towing a WAGON catching up to guys galloping on horseback? Strange anachronistic characters with like no apparent purpose other than to make one guy, acting under demonic possession, seem really really bad so he can be killed guiltlessly later on.

Still, had some bright spots, so I'll give it another ep. Dunno if this show was just edited down to the bone, heavily reshot later, or just suffered the general shitshow filming of covid projects, but it is pretty choppy in a way the producer pedigree shouldn't allow.

jason10mm wrote: Willow hit a MASSIVE wall with ep3. Like, WTF man?!?

Willow hit a wall in the first 15 minutes. We watched it with the boys as a potential to replace Andor and they gave up after the kiss and went back to watching Eureka. All we found out in the first 15 minutes was that both the prince and princess are aggressively sexually attracted to women.

The wife and I decided to give it a college try after they went to bed and gave the two release episodes a full chance. The pandering to diversity did take a break at that point, but the story holes began to overwhelm.


I'm totally for diversity, but the argument that studios are using it to preemptively deflect from legitimate criticism of poor writing is starting to gain serious ground with me.

mtagge wrote: but the argument that studios are using [diversity] to preemptively deflect from legitimate criticism of poor writing is starting to gain serious ground with me.

Where the fuck does that theory come from?