What TV SHOWS are you watching?

I am not really into "children in danger" as a theme, so TLOU in videogame and prestige TV format is not for me. I bet it's great! I hope you all enjoy it. I saw Pedro Pascal in an HBO(?) movie about weird moon mining or something and it was a similar theme, guy and teen run from/take on bad guys. He's great.

With my kid home from school, we decided to all watch PARKS & RECREATION. Great show, no notes.

I really enjoyed Parks and Rec, too. I frequently call large drinks “child sized” because of it. And my wife despises my Jean-Ralphio impression.

Still watching Gotham, but it feels like a chore at times. Half the cast is great, but the writers are forced to drag out every story arc to fill out a full season. I'm partway through season four. Harvey Bullock gets less screen time due to the expanded revolving cast, which means the show is less funny than it used to be.

Still watching Doom Patrol, though with diminished enthusiasm in season four, ever since minor villain Madame Rouge hijacked the show last season. Heard that the show was canceled today, though they will wrap up season four first. Sister show Titans was also canceled, which is good news because it was crap from end to end. There were some okay actors in the mix, but they were utterly dragged down by some of the worst tv writing that I have seen. I hate-watched it for three seasons and finally regretted the lost time and skipped this final season.

Thanks to a rude moron on Facebook, I simultaneously learned that there is a second season of Hunters on Amazon Prime and also how it ends. The ending is a big deal, so I can't possibly forget that information, but decided to watch season two anyway. But the Previously On intro to season two made me realize that I didn't remember season one well, so I decided to re-watch it first. Normally I would only struggle to remember a mediocre show, but I ended up hard-binging season one earlier this week, like 12 episodes in 4 days. Now I'm into season two and still enjoying it. Great cast, and sometimes even Al Pacino gets eclipsed. New cast member Jennifer Jason Leigh is great, and I just realized that I haven't seen her in anything since the '90s except for The Hateful Eight. I guess she was too edgy to age into the traditional mom roles available to middle-aged women, but she is great in Hunters.

Shellhead wrote: Still watching Gotham, but it feels like a chore at times. Half the cast is great, but the writers are forced to drag out every story arc to fill out a full season. I'm partway through season four. Harvey Bullock gets less screen time due to the expanded revolving cast, which means the show is less funny than it used to be.

GOTHAM would have been better served being on a premium cable channel with 10-12 episode seasons. Way too many filler eps, contrived villains that watered the show down at times.

I guess I'm getting old because I tried watching two "critically acclaimed" TV series (THE WHITE LOTUS and DEAD TO ME) and found them both to be unwatchable due to completely unsympathetic asshole characters, who constantly swear and talk about sex like they are middle schoolers trying to impress each other. Am I turning into my parents?

I disliked S3 of Doom Patrol so much I haven't bothered with S4. I think my head canon will end the series at the first episode of S3 which wraps things up well enough.

ChristopherMD wrote: I disliked S3 of Doom Patrol so much I haven't bothered with S4. I think my head canon will end the series at the first episode of S3 which wraps things up well enough.

I am still perplexed by the decision to make Madame Rouge a major ongoing character. Madame Rouge has a quirky and compelling presence that suits the style of the show, but her story got dragged out for a stupid number of episodes and ultimately led to nothing consequential except a permanently vengeful Rita Farr. The amnesia angle is actually boring because the viewers already know her backstory, so her own inability to remember simply leads to a flat deadend to any possible character development. I was hoping when season four started that the show would move on to some fresh ideas, but instead she is suddenly made team leader. It feels like maybe actress Michelle Gomez was second choice to play Rita Farr but then she managed to subsequently obtain extensive blackmail material against the entire writing room. If I ever re-watch this show, I will take your advice and stop with the first episode of season three. That said, the first episode of season four was funny at times.

Usually when the quality of a tv show starts to slide, the decline never stops. The better people escape to other projects, and everybody else keeps going through the motions until conclusion or cancellation. But somehow Gotham has managed to improve season four. I can't quite place my finger on it, but the show is simply more enjoyable. There is a critical mass of quirky and memorable actors playing various villains in every episode, furiously scheming with and against each other, with stalwart Benjamin McKenzie holding the chaos together. Bruce Wayne is starting to do Batman-type stuff, though without the costume or utility belt. Donal Logue is getting a lot more scenes and seems to be having fun improvising his lines again. Example: "I'm going down to the Narrows to find her myself! Uh, as soon as I find my pants."

jeb wrote: I am not really into "children in danger" as a theme, so TLOU in videogame and prestige TV format is not for me. I bet it's great! I hope you all enjoy it. I saw Pedro Pascal in an HBO(?) movie about weird moon mining or something and it was a similar theme, guy and teen run from/take on bad guys. He's great.

I get that. I hate "children in danger" stories too. But for some reason, it's not bothering me in The Last of Us. Probably because it's pretty obvious the Ellie character has impenetrable Plot Armor.

The show isn't really doing anything new (especially if you've seen Children of Men), but it's extremely well executed, and that counts for a lot in my book. Great cast and astonishing cinematography. The shots of abandoned and overgrown cities are eerily beautiful. And Anna Torv!! Man, I haven't seen her in anything since Fringe, and now I kinda want to go back and rewatch Fringe.

I've never played the video game, so I'm coming into this with no expectations. I'm digging it so far.

Oh, as for Pedro Pascal, I've been rewatching Game of Thrones, and just last night I rewatched the episode "The Viper and the Mountain." SPLAT.

I might be lured in, but it still makes me sweaty.

Speaking of children in danger! I have been enjoying S3 of TRUE DETECTIVE. Mahershala Ali is staggering in this. Plays the same character in 1980s, 1990s and 2015. Very affecting.

jeb wrote: I might be lured in, but it still makes me sweaty.

Speaking of children in danger! I have been enjoying S3 of TRUE DETECTIVE. Mahershala Ali is staggering in this. Plays the same character in 1980s, 1990s and 2015. Very affecting.

I love season three of True Detective, especially Ali's performance. It's too bad that so many people ignored season three after the disappointing second season. And I am really looking forward to season four, which will feature Jody Foster searching for eight missing researchers in an arctic setting. There is a trailer up, but I haven't seen it yet.

Season two of Reservation Dogs is better than the first. Actors have settled into their roles, and it all just feels easier, more effortless. Glad it’s on TV.

Space Dandy is lower tier Shinichiro Watanabe, but when the oeuvre includes Cowboy Bebop, Samurai Champloo, Kids on the Slope, and Carole and Tuesday, lower tier is fine. It manages the magnificent trick of creating tension by making nothing matter. If the entire cast can get wiped out in one episode and return without comment in the next, you can’t assume anything ever.

Space Dandy has been on my "to watch" list forever and I keep forgetting about it. I am still trying to finish the last season of Fist of the North Star. That show amuses me, it's ridiculous and Kenshiro is a badass. He's unstoppable but that doesn't stop any number of idiots from thinking that THEY will be the one to take him down.

Shellhead wrote: I love season three of True Detective, especially Ali's performance. It's too bad that so many people ignored season three after the disappointing second season. And I am really looking forward to season four, which will feature Jody Foster searching for eight missing researchers in an arctic setting. There is a trailer up, but I haven't seen it yet.

I was OK with season three. Ali was definitely the best part about it, but there were parts that seemed kind of rote. Obviously, nothing will ever compare to the first season, which is the project that Pizzolatto nurtured for years before being able to unleash it on the public and then being asked to write on demand to a deadline, which led to the contemptible second season. I like the idea of the fourth one, in general, although the departure from one of the overarching themes of the series to date (corruption and how it's either handled or ignored) has me frowning a bit. I do like Jodie Foster's work most of the time, though, so I'm willing to try.

Joebot wrote: And Anna Torv!! Man, I haven't seen her in anything since Fringe, and now I kinda want to go back and rewatch Fringe.

She shows up in Mindhunter, which was an excellent show about the early days of the FBI "discovering" serial killers. I was really bummed they (Netflix) pulled the plug before the series finished its full planned run.

And speaking of True Detective (I stopped at S1), there's another excellent Netflix mini-series (just six episodes) called Unbelievable that is pretty riveting and well done. Based on a true story, for whatever that's worth.