All this talk about series, how network TV Sucks, and how hard it is to find quality shows, and some excellent shows that fly under the radar, I need a comprehensive review of all the series I need to see.
For good entertainment, I would be willing to buy DVD sets. But I've recently picked up HBOGO by kiping it from my parents, and recently got Netflix and Amazon Prime.
Here is a listing of shows that I currently own or have seen all the episodes of. If it isn't on the list, just assume I haven't seen it.
Spoiler!
Great Shows – Must See
Game of Thrones
Mad Men
Longmire
Burn Notice
House
Spartacus
House of Cards
Justified
True Detective
Breaking Bad
The Assets
The Wire
Sherlock (BBC)
The Americans
The Walking Dead
Deadwood
Netflix: Daredevil
Jack Taylor
Luther
Bosch
Good shows
Travelers
Ozark
The Leftovers
Conviction
Medici
The Last Kingdom
Firefly
Dollhouse
The Good Wife
Hell on Wheels
Big Bang Theory
Falling Skies
Suits
White Collar
Agents of SHIELD
Arrow
Boss
Rome
Orange is the New Black
Orphan Black
The Knick
Goliath (Amazon)
Iron Fist
Show Me a Hero
Hell on Wheels
Shooter
Mediocre
Robin Hood (BBC)
Vikings
How I met your Mother
Scrubs
Chuck
That 70's Show
Top Gear
Graceland
Hung (HBO)
Gotham
Conviction
Crap Camelot
Top Shot
Defiance
Legends of Tomorrow
Here is a listing of shows that I'm currently watching
Spoiler!
Great
Good
Boardwalk Empire
Westworld
Mediocre
Crap
Here is a listing of shows on my list to watch (mostly due to this thread)
Spoiler!
The Sopranos
24
Fargo (missed getting it on the DVR :-) )
Band of Brothers
The Pacific
The Comeback
6 Feet Under
John Adams
Battlestar Glactica
Friday Night Lights
I work a fuckton, so it is hard for me catch a series while it is on to get it on the DVR, but I recognize the entertainment value and am willing to go after the Must See shows. Accordingly, I'm not necessarily looking for anything that is still running. I'm up for watching stuff that has run its course.
So what say you, Planet? Which shows should I see?
Originally Posted by Coochie liquor:
Anyone else watching Chambers on Netflix? I really like it, but what a twisty, turning, mind fuck. Can’t wait to see how they end it! I would def recommend it!
Let us know how it finishes. Was thinking about binging that one this weekend. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Discuss Thrower:
Full disclosure: Kumail Nanjiani, in my opinion, is a gigantic douche.
That being said: he wasn't the problem with that episode.
Spoiler!
How everything played out in the show felt like vintage Sterling-era Twilight Zone but with current-day cinematography... except for the vulgarity and the repeated coda of the Comedian's bit slagging on the Second Amendment which just came off like a ham-fisted and tone-deaf attempt at social critique that Sterling was fond of in the 60s.
But.. given how the Comedian came off through the course of the episode it almost seems like the audience is supposed to dislike the anti-2A diatribe... and that was kind of a bizarre musing. Given the front man for this TZ revival and casting two minorities of the same (I am assuming) ethnicity as the dramatic leads, I find it hard to believe the show didn't intend to undermine an anti-2A narrative.
Anyway, the main thrust of the episode is a morality play that has an implication to the widest possible general audience ("How willing would you be to hurt other people to gain success for yourself?") but it comes off flat because, through really no fault of Kumail nor the actress portraying his girlfriend, there isn't anything shown to us that makes us care about the consequences of the Comedian's actions.. and we're not really explained the in-narrative importance of the high-profile guest actor even though the plot is directly kicked off by said character.
I guess I'll give the next episodes a try until I cancel CBS All Access once Discovery concludes for the year but I thought the TZ revival pilot missed the mark. 4/10.
Ive been really curious about this. Feels like they'll have some challenges differentiating from black mirror, which has much more license to push the envelope. How do the two compare? [Reply]
Pretty sure I've mentioned this before, but I'm not gonna look it up...
Killing Eve on BBC America just finished its second season, and it's one of the best shows on TV. Only 8 eps/season, so it's not hard to get caught up. I DVR'd and watched the entire second season in one sitting, in fact. It's worth it. [Reply]
Originally Posted by chiefzilla1501:
Ive been really curious about this. Feels like they'll have some challenges differentiating from black mirror, which has much more license to push the envelope. How do the two compare?
Twilight Zone has been quite disappointing, punctuated by it having the name of an iconic show and co-existing with the superior Black Mirror.
It tries to be timely, but the result is everything being on the nose and resentful.
Cliches like broad brush and sledgehammer come to mind with each episode. Every time there is a chance for the narrative to be nuanced, it goes broad and explicit. And every SJW Soy-boy stereotype is tackled in turn.
And lest people think it's just the subject matter that is irksome, I assure that it's more HOW it's about things more than what it's about. Except for the types who would applaud the message no matter how poorly handled out of a sense of moral obligation to cheerlead, even the people who would otherwise be receptive to the messages of the show have plenty of gripes about the heavy-handed reductive nature of the narratives.
Perhaps the best way to hammer home the deficiencies of the show, it almost plays like if a RW creator wrote a satire of LW narratives to make fun of the faux earnestness and the painting in primary colors. [Reply]
Originally Posted by keg in kc:
Pretty sure I've mentioned this before, but I'm not gonna look it up...
Killing Eve on BBC America just finished its second season, and it's one of the best shows on TV. Only 8 eps/season, so it's not hard to get caught up. I DVR'd and watched the entire second season in one sitting, in fact. It's worth it.
Killing Eve is more a mood than a saga. The narrative doesn't make a ton of sense. If you storyboarded it, you would wonder what you had. But the imagery and the soundtrack combine for moments of eye-popping wonder that keeps drawing you in.
Kind of like a catchy song where the lyrics are nonsense, but you love to listen to it over and over anyway because it sparks your own imagination.
Basically, and I guess these are technically spoilers, but the show isn't about what happens so much as the spectacle, so don't let being spoiled deter you;
Eve is a wonk in the system of British Intelligence who starts to piece together the actions of a mysterious contract killer. Higher ups in BritInt set her up with an off-the-books team to track this killer down.
Villanelle is this killer who is a beautiful sociopath and chameleon who can infiltrate any situation through guile and good looks. They show her engaging in several cinematic kills of 'shadow elites' and generic uber-rich baddies, eventually revealing that she is contracted by a shadowy international cabal that identifies people in society that society would be better off without.
Eve and her team get obsessive about identifying, tracking and finding her to bring her to justice. Only Eve's obsession turned to a quasi-fascination and a sense of empathy for Villanelle's history, and the higher-ups who have commissioned them ostensibly for justice/law enforcement appear to have their own nefarious purposes, perhaps in competition or even collaboration with the cabal that is contracting this assassin.
So it's all this cat and mouse through exotic locales and corridors of power where the mystery is what the cat will do when it actually catches the mouse, and why the cat is supposed to be chasing the mouse to begin with.
But the strength is the acting, and the mood, and the imagery and the music, . . . much more than figuring out the actual narrative, which plays pretty fast and loose, and can drive you a little batty if you try to overthink it.
If one were to try to encapsulate it in the most accessible way, think of James Bond adapted for mostly female leads, where the good guys are a little infatuated with the bad guys and bad guy is definitely bad but also very enthralling and fascinating. Except with basic detective work instead of all the Bond gadgets and stunts. [Reply]