What TV SHOWS are you watching?

jason10mm wrote: I think the latter few eps are losing the razor focus of the first 5-6 eps. Blackthorne, for all his boorishness, was a strong hook for the show, particularly in his interactions with the STUNNING Anna Sawai. Word of a season 2 has me a bit worried as I'm not sure we will get more ep 1-6 versus just more of the meandering 7-8.

I thought Shogun started strong but MY GOD did it turn into a boring slog by the end of it. All the writers on these "prestige shows" think that by dragging the plot to a halt means that their shows are deep and introspective. Nope. It just means that they're boring as fuck.

The show's visual palette also got extremely dull and repetitive. Oh look, it's cloudy and raining and everything has a blue-gray filter. Neat.

Solid cast though, except for the dope playing Blackthorne. His character came across as an ignorant doofus in episode 1, and by the end of it, after all the shit he had seen and experienced ... he was still the exact same ignorant doofus. The guy had no range as an actor. Everybody else was great though, especially the actors playing Toranaga, Mariko, and Yabushige.

I am not optimisitc for a season 2 of SHOGUN. Without existing source material, showrunners will have to make shit up - and we've seen how that turns out ( GAME OF THRONES ) . And they'll be missing some of the better characters, namely Mariko and Yabushige.

The dreary color pallette is explained by the fact that they filmed in British Columbia - hence the constant rain and lush foliage.

D&D didn’t make up too much with GoT. Martin gave them outlines on what he planned for the books. They just rushed it and wrote it poorly because they wanted to go to the next thing.

n815e wrote: D&D didn’t make up too much with GoT. Martin gave them outlines on what he planned for the books. They just rushed it and wrote it poorly because they wanted to go to the next thing.

Yeah, I figure the broad strokes of seasons 7&8, minus the Gryphon and Lady Stoneheart and all that, were what GRRM was planning, and then when he saw how much of a wet fart those key ideas were, he has been in writing limbo ever since. I can't think of any other reason for why it's been what, 13 YEARS since the last novel?

jason10mm wrote:

n815e wrote: D&D didn’t make up too much with GoT. Martin gave them outlines on what he planned for the books. They just rushed it and wrote it poorly because they wanted to go to the next thing.

Yeah, I figure the broad strokes of seasons 7&8, minus the Gryphon and Lady Stoneheart and all that, were what GRRM was planning, and then when he saw how much of a wet fart those key ideas were, he has been in writing limbo ever since. I can't think of any other reason for why it's been what, 13 YEARS since the last novel?

GRRM writes sex scenes like someone who has never fucked on top of the covers before. Frank Herbert was guilty of this in the Dune novels he wrote after his divorce, too.

I'm 150 episodes of 1000+ into One Piece at my partner's behest. Unlike other anime that are tied to a manga release, the show compensates for having zero filler episodes by slowing the pace of the plot to a near crawl at times. It's kind of perfect viewing for miniature painting.

Watched several episodes of Evil, via Paramount+. The main characters are a team of investigators working for the Catholic Church to assess the validity of requests for exorcisms and claims of miracles. Comparisons with the X-Files are unavoidable, as the investigators consist of one true believer and two skeptics. I am enjoying the show so far and will continue watching.

Katja Herbers plays a psychologist who is struggling to raise four young daughters while her husband is busy working as a mountain guide on Everest. Still photos don't do justice to her charm, especially her compelling eyes. However, she smiles too easily and sometimes in inappropriate situations. You might recognize her from Westword. Mike Colter plays the true believer priest on the team, yet his calm rationality somehow grants him great credibility even in contrast to the two skeptics. You might recognize him from playing Luke Cage in Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, and the Defenders. Aasif Mandvi plays the tech guy member of the team.

The show operates on two levels. There is the relatively self-contained story of the week, which generally involves the team successfully debunking something. Then there is a longer story arc winding through each episode, featuring a satanic menace that is coming after each member of the team. This longer storyline resists easy resolution and is more interesting because it gets very personal for our lead characters. The Halloween episode was particularly powerful, as it posed a very creepy and direct threat to the four daughters of the psychologist. And unlike the X-Files, it appears that the writers of Evil know where they want to take this story, so it won't end in some vacant mystery box.

I'm 5 episodes into the new Netflix show, The 8 Show. This South Korean drama is set up as a sort of fictional reality show in which 8 contestants are cooped up together in a facility made up of a common area and their individual apartments that are all stacked vertically with a "dumbwaiter" style elevator connecting them that only goes down.

Each minute they stay in this place, they make more money. The game ends immediately if anyone dies. Drama ensues when the contestants discover that the floor of your apartment determines how much money you make each minute, and on top of that, the top floor also is in charge of all of the food and water. The lady who has the 8th floor is a real bitch and I am hoping she gets her comeuppance.

It's a bit of a mix between Squid Game and a horrendous film called The Platform; basically a social experiment of what happens when a group is forced to interact, but they are not on equal footing in terms of power.

It is not must see tv, but I am intrigued by it enough to stick it out.

Ended up finishing The 8 Show. The highest praise I can give it is that it surprised me.

I also must warn you that it gets a bit A Clockwork Orange with some torture stuff, and it's not comfortable.

Another familiar face on Evil is Clark Johnson, who played Detective Meldrick Lewis on Homicide and editor Augustus Haynes on The Wire. Here he is playing a recurring role as a Catholic exorcist. The first time I saw him, I recognized him but immediately doubted myself because his Philly accent was gone.

The third season of Derry Girls has its moments (few) but is a lot less funny and tensely written than the first two, so I started two new shows that are both very interesting. Still in the middle of the first season with both, so no final verdict yet.

J.K. Simmons stars in Counterpart, which mainly is a spy thriller in Berlin. He is up against himself from another dimension where everybody also exists but they seem to live in a post-pandemic totalitarian regime over there and don't have cellphones, but more skyscrapers and gave us the HIV cure. Now they want to take over our dimension? The scheme unfolds very slowly. Lots of philosophical undercurrent and family drama. It's kind of a slow burn and I very much enjoy seeing Berlin filmed by competent people and the cold war vibe a good spy story needs.

The plot of Undone is even more out there. Bob Odenkirk unlocked the secret of reality-altering time travel and died. Now he is back to haunt his daughter. Brilliant idea to use of rotoscoping for the whole thing, it works so well and enhances the fact that there are about a dozen fleshed-out relatable characters.

Undone is wonderful.

Nodens wrote: The plot of Undone is even more out there. Bob Odenkirk unlocked the secret of reality-altering time travel and died. Now he is back to haunt his daughter. Brilliant idea to use of rotoscoping for the whole thing, it works so well and enhances the fact that there are about a dozen fleshed-out relatable characters.

Is there a second season of this?

The wife has binged the entirety of Bridgerton in a week. Definitely NOT my kinda show but from the bits I've seen, how in THE HELL has this cast, on their own time after hours, not made a Pride and Prejudice and Zombies special feature? It's ALL THERE, the costumes, the sets, you just need some silly zombie make-up and play it straight!

And, and I say this in all seriousness, I wouldn't be adverse to waist coats, high collar jackets, scarves, and top hats making a comeback, 'cause damn, that can look SHARP. Though why the men are all wearing about 5 layers of wool while the women are all in that same thin unflattering gown style is beyond me, clearly one group of actors is boiling or freezing on set

jason10mm wrote:

Nodens wrote: The plot of Undone is even more out there. Bob Odenkirk unlocked the secret of reality-altering time travel and died. Now he is back to haunt his daughter. Brilliant idea to use of rotoscoping for the whole thing, it works so well and enhances the fact that there are about a dozen fleshed-out relatable characters.

Is there a second season of this?

There is indeed! "Aired" in 2022. I remember watching both seasons back to back on Prime and really enjoying it.

Outer Range - I'm not a fan of mystery box shows. Just tell me the premise and let's get going. I mainly checked this out because of Josh Brolin. He's a good actor and he's good in this. The first season kind of exemplifies one of the annoyances of the mystery box format. Any time two characters are having a conversation, just when it starts to get interesting, one of them will walk away for no fucking reason. Over and over again through season one. Fortunately, season two the mystery of what the big hole in the ground is has been resolved, more or less, so people talk more normally. Spoiler: I'll stick with it if they make more but it's not a must-watch.