What TV SHOWS are you watching?

n815e wrote: Fett wasn’t an especially good show, if it wasn’t for Mando I’m not sure it would have been worth watching.

The "Honest Trailers" episode about Book of Fett was funny; it pointed out the weird and creepy obsession Fett had with either taking baths himself, or encouraging others to take baths. (In Bacta tanks.)

jason10mm wrote: Mando S3 has gotten WIIIIEEEEERRRRDDD. That ep about the Imperial doc, WTF? It was fine as an atmospheric bit of narrative, I guess, almost like Andor, but what was the point? I'm guessing it was fodder for the Ahsoka show, and if so, LucasArts REALLY needs to stop shoehorning stuff for one show into the feed of a different show. Book of Fett taking a 2 ep break to have 2 eps of Mando stuck in was bad enough, especially if all you watch is Mando and the S2 to S3 jump made no sense without those 2 eps, but if Ahsoka spring boards off this Imp Doc stuff

While I agree with what you're saying, it's worth pointing out that the best episode of Boba Fett was the Mandalorian-focused one. Likewise, the best episode of The Mandalorian this season has been the Dr. Pershing-focused one. Go figure.

S3 of Mando has been a bit of a mess. I know everyone likes the big, heavily-serialized narratives these days, but I actually like the Mando "hang out" episodes where they talk to an NPC, get a quest, go fight a monster, maybe level up with some new gear. It's a pleasant throwback to the olden days of action TV shows that were all adventure-of-the-week.

This season though, it's not really doing the adventure-of-the-week ... but it's also not really doing an over-arcing narrative either. Stuff just kinda happens and then the episode ends. I thought the season-long goal was going to be Mando getting re-baptized on Mandalore, but he banged that out in two episodes. Okay. Soooo .... now what are we doing? What does he want, what are his goals, what's standing in his way? You know, all that basic storytelling protagonist shit. At this point, I couldn't answer any of those questions.

I feel like Bo-Katan is stealing away the focus of the show, and I'm actually fine with that because Katee Sackoff rules.

Boba Fett started off mildly interesting, then went full JarJar Binks when the fucking hipsters on Vespas showed up.

The most recent Mando episode had an interesting cameo by the actor who played JarJar, Ahmed Best. In Mando he got a decent role that at least won't have SW fans sending him death threats.

But Mando S3 now lives in the shadow of ANDOR, for better or worse.

I still think Boba Fett should have been two episodes of Mando not the other way around.

Joebot wrote: I feel like Bo-Katan is stealing away the focus of the show, and I'm actually fine with that because Katee Sackoff rules.

If Mando ends and a Bo Katan show begins, I just want them to cast as many BSG actors as possible for the giggles. I want Bo to end a speech with "It is the Way" and Eddie Olmos in heavy alien makeup to respond with "So say we alllllllllllllllll"

Succession. Still amazing.

The Bear is the best thing I have seen in a long while. It’s something of a less whimsical Ted Lasso at its core as these restaurant workers make each other better and move together past the suicide of a friend, but what most struck me was how adult it was. It never needed to stop and explain itself to me. The dream sequences are never shared with other characters and analyzed. It trusted the performances and editing and cinematography to control the mood. Just great stuff that is easy to recommend when it’s just eight 30-minute episodes.

Loved the Bear. CORNER!

I remember it getting a lot of buzz and finally watching it whilst ironing only to find I'd reached the last episode (which I saved for later.)

Such an excellent show and one of the most amazingly tense ones I'd seen. Great performances.

The final episode of season two of Pennyworth would have been a very satisfactory end to the show... until the final minutes, when they jumped ahead six months and then jumped the shark. I will give season three a chance, but I have doubts.

Lately HBO, has been doing an odd thing where it seems to inhibit binging of newer shows. In the past, there would have been a nearly seamless transition between the last episode of season two and the first episode of season three, but instead HBO acted like there wasn't a season three and instead showed me links to comparable shows. It has been doing this lately whenever I finish an episode of Doom Patrol. And also Perry Mason, but that's reasonable since they are only releasing one episode per week for the new season, so I am caught up as I end each episode.

Watched The Bear on Darthjojo's (and Nodens') recommendation and, for I think the first time on a TV recommendation here, really liked it. I enjoyed the fact that the characters were all regular humans with flaws and it really reminded me of working in a restaurant, with all the particular issues that that environment brings. (Learned to be a short order cook at the age of 12 in a local deli.)

(The birthday party with the Xanax was a particular treat for the reaction of Pete ("Hey. What is this? Nap time?") and Cicero ("I'm actually OK with it."), despite the plotting question of how that possibly would've happened.)

Pennyworth season 3 is starting well enough, though it jumped ahead another five years, to around 1977 or so. All the main characters look the exact same age, except Martha Wayne genuinely looks five years older, and Bet Sykes somehow looks younger. There was a jarring early scene involving a cyborg that played to my fear that this show was going to abruptly turn into another Gotham, but otherwise everything is staying fairly down to earth.

Perry Mason season 2 is very good. There is more focus on the personal lives of the main characters and less on the current big case. And a surprising amount of fallout from the previous season.

Watched the first two episodes of The English on Amazon. I'm a Western fan to begin with, even if the storyline seems kind of obvious. But the characters are all quite solid and there's good chemistry between the two leads. It's a BBC production, so there are only six episodes. Not sure if there will be any beyond that.

Also started watching Cyberpunk Edgerunners on Netflix. I'm not a huge anime fan, but I am a huge cyberpunk fan and I still favor the old school, William Gibson Sprawl-type stuff, which this totally is, since it's based on Cyberpunk 2077. It hasn't been mindblowing or anything, but it's been interesting.

Picard - The first season was okay but rough. I had stopped watching early in season two because it was garbage. Still haven't finished it and don't expect to. The third season ignores season two and most of season one (just one plot point from the end is used). S3 of Picard is somehow good and full of references/homages to Star Trek history. A non-DS9 show even acknowledged the Dominion War finally. And the finale is practically a Next Generation movie. I'll spoil the end of the first season below so you can skip to S3.