What TV are you watching and how would you rate it? [Revive from FRDB]

[Shadowy Man]

Defenders 8/10

I liked it. After Iron Fist, I was worried that Defenders wouldn't be up to the standards of the other Marvel-Netflix shows, but measure up it did. They even managed to make Danny more interesting in that he's now guilt-ridden over what happened to K'un-Lun, although Colleen is still more interesting than he is.

I haven't started watching it yet, but plan to. But it's got Jessica Henwick in it, so I know it'll be at least an 8/10 regardless of anything else.

 

[Jayjay]

Eh, I thought it was mediocre. There were some nice revelations about the Hand and it did tie up some loose ends from the other series, but it added almost nothing to the main characters, the villains were uninspired, the plot made no sense, and the fight scenes were poorly done.

Looking forward to Punisher and Jessica Jones season 2. The recent announcement by Disney that it will start its own streaming service might mean that Netflix series are slowly phased out or at least moved to Disney channel, but it was a good run while it lasted.

 

[KeepTalking]

Eh, I thought it was mediocre. There were some nice revelations about the Hand and it did tie up some loose ends from the other series, but it added almost nothing to the main characters, the villains were uninspired, the plot made no sense, and the fight scenes were poorly done.

I just finished episode 5 last night, will probably finish the rest of it up over the weekend. I don't find the plot hard to follow, but I get what you are saying about the villains. Since a couple of them were brought over from Iron Fist, if you didn't like them then, you probably aren't going to like them now. The only fight scene I thought wasn't very well done so far is the one in the Chinese Restaurant, right when they become a team. Then again, I am one of the few who actually liked the fight scenes in Iron Fist, so I obviously know nothing

Looking forward to Punisher and Jessica Jones season 2. The recent announcement by Disney that it will start its own streaming service might mean that Netflix series are slowly phased out or at least moved to Disney channel, but it was a good run while it lasted.

Disney has already stated that they will not be changing anything with the Marvel Netflix series', and releases are scheduled through 2019 for all of them. Punisher season 1 is already in the can , and is coming out later this year. Daredevil season 3, Jessica Jones season 2, and Luke Cage season 2 are all scheduled for next year. I know Jessica Jones is already filming, and I think Daredevil is in production as well. For 2019, Iron Fist season 2, Defenders season 2, and Punisher season 2 are currently scheduled. Beyond that, who knows. I think a lot will ride on how well Punisher is received, but we will at least get two more years of these great shows.

 

[Jayjay]

Twin Peaks: The Return
10/10

I was a big fan of the original, though it was marred by low production values and other limitations of network tv back in the day. To this day, Twin peaks remains one of the most unique tv drama series ever made, and The Return is more of the same with better special effects and more artistic freedom. I could try to explain what it's about and fail miserably, but instead here is a representative clip:



I know, right? Who in their right mind wouldn't want to watch 18 hours of this?

 

[Harry Bosch]

Twin Peaks: The Return
10/10

I was a big fan of the original, though it was marred by low production values and other limitations of network tv back in the day. To this day, Twin peaks remains one of the most unique tv drama series ever made, and The Return is more of the same with better special effects and more artistic freedom. I could try to explain what it's about and fail miserably, but instead here is a representative clip:



I know, right? Who in their right mind wouldn't want to watch 18 hours of this?

I watched the first season and a half, and just couldn't stay with it. I wanted to finish season 2 and try season 3. But just gave up!

 

[Jayjay]

I watched the first season and a half, and just couldn't stay with it. I wanted to finish season 2 and try season 3. But just gave up!

Season two is the most uneven one and didn't really go anywhere. I suggest you skip to the last episode of season 2 and then move on to season 3.

 

[OLDMAN]

A new series call "Mr. Mercedes" from the Stephen King novel. David Kelly (Alley McBeal) flushes out he characters, which is usually the problem with King's books going to tv or the big screen. No spoilers here, so start streaming. Only four episodes so far...10/10

 

[Underseer]

Everyone and their mother is trying to start up their own streaming service to compete with Netflix, which means a lot of content is being pulled off of Netflix.

So if I want to watch the new Star Trek series, I gotta subscribe to the CBS streaming service. If I want to watch Cloak & Dagger, I have to subscribe to another streaming service. And on and on it goes.

Here's the thing: I'm willing to juggle one or two streaming subscriptions. Two maximum. More than that is just more than I want to deal with. Even though there are a ton of shows coming up on these new streaming services that I am genuinely interested in, I'm probably just going to not watch the shows because I don't feel like juggling a large number of subscriptions with a large number of content providers.

How much of the rest of the population is like me? Is it possible that all of these new streaming services are doomed to failure even if they have good content?

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

Daredevil - I recently started this. It is interesting, though a bit much to believe. I can handle the seeing while being blind part. It is the being able to beat the shit out of everyone easily like he is River Tam. Yeah, he gets tired or feels hurt, but that doesn't stop him at all... at least not yet. I'm only through seeing the first two episodes and it is intriguing but seriously, you have a Russian mob holed up in some place and no one has a gun?! I'll give it more time, but I need the battle things to fall down in a realm of being more believable.

 

[Tom Sawyer]

The Mist - 9 / 10

Netflix show based on the Stephen King novel about an evil mist which drops over a town and has monsters in it. Standard apocalypse type show with survivors holed up here and there and the regular King bit where each character is secretly crazier than the next.

Quite well done.

 

[bilby]

Everyone and their mother is trying to start up their own streaming service to compete with Netflix, which means a lot of content is being pulled off of Netflix.

So if I want to watch the new Star Trek series, I gotta subscribe to the CBS streaming service. If I want to watch Cloak & Dagger, I have to subscribe to another streaming service. And on and on it goes.

Here's the thing: I'm willing to juggle one or two streaming subscriptions. Two maximum. More than that is just more than I want to deal with. Even though there are a ton of shows coming up on these new streaming services that I am genuinely interested in, I'm probably just going to not watch the shows because I don't feel like juggling a large number of subscriptions with a large number of content providers.

How much of the rest of the population is like me? Is it possible that all of these new streaming services are doomed to failure even if they have good content?

I'm old, and see TV as light entertainment. I watch re-runs of shows from the 1990s (and earlier) as much as I watch new content; and I won't actively seek out new shows to watch - if they are getting rave reviews from reviewers I trust (including some here), AND they are broadcast on a cable channel I already pay for, then I will maybe take a look.

If all the good content were to move to streaming services, I would either wait for them to be repeated on a channel I already get; or (more likely) stop bothering with TV except for news, sport and the occasional documentary. I reckon I could happily live without the cable, if only the NRL was all available on free-to-air.

Netflix et al could be fantastic, but I just cannot be bothered to find out - I couldn't ever watch as much as 0.1% of the TV already supplied to my home, and see no point in buying more. I'm happier reading a book anyway most of the time.

 

[rousseau]

Everyone and their mother is trying to start up their own streaming service to compete with Netflix, which means a lot of content is being pulled off of Netflix.

So if I want to watch the new Star Trek series, I gotta subscribe to the CBS streaming service. If I want to watch Cloak & Dagger, I have to subscribe to another streaming service. And on and on it goes.

Here's the thing: I'm willing to juggle one or two streaming subscriptions. Two maximum. More than that is just more than I want to deal with. Even though there are a ton of shows coming up on these new streaming services that I am genuinely interested in, I'm probably just going to not watch the shows because I don't feel like juggling a large number of subscriptions with a large number of content providers.

How much of the rest of the population is like me? Is it possible that all of these new streaming services are doomed to failure even if they have good content?

I'm old, and see TV as light entertainment. I watch re-runs of shows from the 1990s (and earlier) as much as I watch new content; and I won't actively seek out new shows to watch - if they are getting rave reviews from reviewers I trust (including some here), AND they are broadcast on a cable channel I already pay for, then I will maybe take a look.

If all the good content were to move to streaming services, I would either wait for them to be repeated on a channel I already get; or (more likely) stop bothering with TV except for news, sport and the occasional documentary. I reckon I could happily live without the cable, if only the NRL was all available on free-to-air.

Netflix et al could be fantastic, but I just cannot be bothered to find out - I couldn't ever watch as much as 0.1% of the TV already supplied to my home, and see no point in buying more. I'm happier reading a book anyway most of the time.

If you're happy reading books, Netflix probably wouldn't do much for you.

I'm the same way, I spend almost all of my free time reading and rarely watch TV or movies anymore (unless it's sports). I've browsed around Netflix and have found very little that does it for me. I gotta think that a lot of popular video these days is just kinda meh.

Actually, recently I've started watching a little more TV, but via Youtube, and I manage to find a lot of old free documentaries, sports, and interesting user videos on there. Stuff that most people don't want to watch, but I quite enjoy.

 

[Ford]

Everyone and their mother is trying to start up their own streaming service to compete with Netflix, which means a lot of content is being pulled off of Netflix.

So if I want to watch the new Star Trek series, I gotta subscribe to the CBS streaming service. If I want to watch Cloak & Dagger, I have to subscribe to another streaming service. And on and on it goes.

Here's the thing: I'm willing to juggle one or two streaming subscriptions. Two maximum. More than that is just more than I want to deal with. Even though there are a ton of shows coming up on these new streaming services that I am genuinely interested in, I'm probably just going to not watch the shows because I don't feel like juggling a large number of subscriptions with a large number of content providers.

How much of the rest of the population is like me? Is it possible that all of these new streaming services are doomed to failure even if they have good content?

Something about the invisible hand of the free market might actually be appropriate here. How many services will the market bear? If your average Joe viewer is spending $100 a month for cable or satellite, would they be willing to replace that one service with ten standalone services at $10 a month each? Will that work out to be a better value for Joe?

I'm happy with an antenna, Netflix, and Amazon because it is so much cheaper than cable/satellite and I don't need 50 sports channels and 300 shopping channels. Then again, I'm not the average consumer.

As far as CBS and the other legacy networks go, they have to do this, or they'll wither and die. Content is moving to streaming, and they either peddle their wares to a service like Netflix or distribute their content directly to consumers via their own. They need to get that 10 bucks from Joe, since they don't know how many services the market will bear and they'd better be one of the survivors. We've long since established the fact that people will pay for television, and we know how much they'll pay. What remains to be seen is if they'll pay each channel individually.

It'll be interesting to see how this plays out. What Netflix did is nearly as earth-shattering as the breakup of the telephone company in the US. Suddenly there were a lot of regional companies again, then wireless came along and the proliferation of providers exploded, and eventually buyouts and competition whittled it back down to where we have a few huge providers. Netflix didn't entirely break the back of satellite and cable, but they were the proverbial straw to the camel. I think we're going to see cable and satellite fall away in favor of a la carte services, and while there will be a proliferation of things like CBS All Access for awhile, eventually it will be whittled back down to a few halo services owned by large media conglomerates that buy and distribute content.

 

[DrZoidberg]

Everyone and their mother is trying to start up their own streaming service to compete with Netflix, which means a lot of content is being pulled off of Netflix.

So if I want to watch the new Star Trek series, I gotta subscribe to the CBS streaming service. If I want to watch Cloak & Dagger, I have to subscribe to another streaming service. And on and on it goes.

Here's the thing: I'm willing to juggle one or two streaming subscriptions. Two maximum. More than that is just more than I want to deal with. Even though there are a ton of shows coming up on these new streaming services that I am genuinely interested in, I'm probably just going to not watch the shows because I don't feel like juggling a large number of subscriptions with a large number of content providers.

How much of the rest of the population is like me? Is it possible that all of these new streaming services are doomed to failure even if they have good content?

I took the decision early, as an act of defiance, until They create create an open source system/open platform system that allows films to be streamed (and paid for) regardless of service, I'm going to continue to download everything off Pirate Bay. Fuck them and their stupid greed. And it's not the content provider, nor the producers fault. This is all marketing. And lawyers. Fuck 'em.

Yes, I'm aware that it will probably just result to less media being made. But I just refuse to participate in anything that limits what I can watch where. I am willing to subscribe to one service. If that one service doesn't have everything, all of them can go and fuck themselves. There's zero technological threshold to implement this.

End of angry rant

 

[Sarpedon]

Hmm, you could go in with some friends, each getting a different streaming service, and have weekly tv parties at each other's houses. That might be fun and economical.

 

[TSwizzle]

Ozark, 5/10; A Netflix original series starring Jason Bateman as a financial adviser in company that also launders money for a big Mexican drug cartel. The head honcho at the drug cartel suspects (but doesn't know) that the financial firm is skimming money off him and confronts the staff. He basically kills all of the staff except Bateman's character on the understanding that he has to set up shop in Missouri and launder even more money for the cartel. I'm only two episodes in and it's OK. It's a bit far fetched and unrealistic at times but I can't resist Bateman, I pretty much like anything he does.

Finished season 1 and it comes together quite nicely. It does have the Breaking Bad vibe to it as events taking place force the main character to get ever deeper into bad situations. I'll give it an 8/10.

White Gold, 7/10; A Netflix original that follows the adventures of a double glazing salesman in 1980s England, Essex of course. It has an excellent 80s soundtrack, rapid fire banter between characters and is fast paced. The main character, Vincent is a cocky wide boy that narrates throughout and often breaks the "fourth wall" which I quite like.

 

[Opoponax]

The Mist - 9 / 10

Netflix show based on the Stephen King novel about an evil mist which drops over a town and has monsters in it. Standard apocalypse type show with survivors holed up here and there and the regular King bit where each character is secretly crazier than the next.

Quite well done.

I good-naturedly and heartily disagree.

I found it to be an unwatchable hunk of shit. The special effects were terrible (retarded CGI fog--what's up with that?), the characters were lame, and not a single Lovecraftian monster was to be found. Not one!

But whatever. At least someone liked it.

 

[Opoponax]

Something about the invisible hand of the free market might actually be appropriate here. How many services will the market bear? If your average Joe viewer is spending $100 a month for cable or satellite, would they be willing to replace that one service with ten standalone services at $10 a month each? Will that work out to be a better value for Joe?

I'm happy with an antenna, Netflix, and Amazon because it is so much cheaper than cable/satellite and I don't need 50 sports channels and 300 shopping channels. Then again, I'm not the average consumer.

I had nothing but Hulu, Amazon Prime, and Netflix for over a year and a half and I never ran out of stuff to watch. Not only that, combined, all three were less than $40 a month. So it can be done as long as one has a fast and reliable internet connection.

The only reason I have regular TV now is because it came with the place I moved to.

The biggest disadvantage is the lack of the ability to watch sports. But if one doesn't care about that, or is willing to go to a bar, then it's no big deal. Otherwise, most of the best TV shows make it onto services like HULU.

Oh, also, live news. I missed that. But not so much that I wouldn't give up DirecTV over it if I actually had to pay for it.

 

[OLDMAN]

Something about the invisible hand of the free market might actually be appropriate here. How many services will the market bear? If your average Joe viewer is spending $100 a month for cable or satellite, would they be willing to replace that one service with ten standalone services at $10 a month each? Will that work out to be a better value for Joe?

I'm happy with an antenna, Netflix, and Amazon because it is so much cheaper than cable/satellite and I don't need 50 sports channels and 300 shopping channels. Then again, I'm not the average consumer.

I had nothing but Hulu, Amazon Prime, and Netflix for over a year and a half and I never ran out of stuff to watch. Not only that, combined, all three were less than $40 a month. So it can be done as long as one has a fast and reliable internet connection.

The only reason I have regular TV now is because it came with the place I moved to.

The biggest disadvantage is the lack of the ability to watch sports. But if one doesn't care about that, or is willing to go to a bar, then it's no big deal. Otherwise, most of the best TV shows make it onto services like HULU.

Oh, also, live news. I missed that. But not so much that I wouldn't give up DirecTV over it if I actually had to pay for it.

We went to a motel on night and didn't take our streaming box...what a load of crap and endless commercials. Needless to say we didn't watch tv.

 

[Jayjay]

The Mist - 9 / 10

Netflix show based on the Stephen King novel about an evil mist which drops over a town and has monsters in it. Standard apocalypse type show with survivors holed up here and there and the regular King bit where each character is secretly crazier than the next.

Quite well done.

I good-naturedly and heartily disagree.

I found it to be an unwatchable hunk of shit. The special effects were terrible (retarded CGI fog--what's up with that?), the characters were lame, and not a single Lovecraftian monster was to be found. Not one!

But whatever. At least someone liked it.

My major disappointement was also the lack of lovecraftian monsters, like in the movie. I can understand that they're trying to do something different, but it's a lost opportunity, and the whole situation makes very little sense, and I'm pretty sure that it won't wrap up after the first season and is going to end in a cliffhanger (I've still got one episode to go).