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

The Sopranos, season 4, 9/10; Thanks to free HBO last weekend I got to record season 4 of The Sopranos which I saw back in the day, almost 20 years ago. It is excellent and stands the test of time pretty well. It can be extremely dark but actually has quite a few lighter moments and farce than what I remember from my original viewing. I do wonder if the Italian-American stereotypes depicted is a bit over the top. I don't know maybe it is accurate from what I have seen of Jersey Shore it can't be too much of an exaggeration. The acting performances are excellent and the cast works really well.
 
Marvel’s “What if?”

Damn…. All the Disney+ series have been great, and this is no exception. Like the comics, a number of the stories have been tragic, last week’s was funny, but this week’s episode! Can’t wait for the finale next week.

Spoilers:


This week’s episode was what if Ultraman had won. He devastates the earth, then when Thanos shows up Ultraman kills him and takes the infinity stones. He goes on to wipe out most life in the universe… but then notices other universes, and the Watcher himself. Even the Watcher is freaking out when Ulton comes for him!

[YOUTUBE]https://youtu.be/4Mu48cTqXwM[/YOUTUBE]


 
Squid Game on Netflix. 8/10 Most in Korean with English subtitles. Good character development that holds you through to the end. One season 9 episodes. Worth a watch.
 
Bridgerton - 2/10

Sort of like Pride and Prejudice if Jane Austin were a meth head who couldn't write. Beautiful set design and costumes and they knocked it out of the park for the visuals of a period piece, Really shallow and two dimensional characters and a whole bunch of sub-plots that just meander off to nowhere and get forgotten with the only upside of that being that there isn't anyone in the show whom you care about, so you don't care that their story arcs aren't going anywhere.

The main plot revolves around two people, one is a young lady who wants a bunch of suitors for marriage and then this duke who doesn't want to get bugged for marriage, so they pretend to be dating so that she'll look more valuable and he won't get bugged by annoying mothers quite so much. Naturally, they immediately fall in love. Not because of any compatible personalities or life goals or anything, but just because they're two good looking people in a room together - you'd be forgiven if you thought you missed an episode when they're suddenly soulmates instead of buddies. Then that plotline ends about halfway through the season and the rest is a conflict over the dumbest fucking "obstacle" that you've ever seen and the way the writers decided to try and resolve that conflict was by rape. Seriously. Not the "bad" rape, apparently, but the good rape where you're the hero because you raped somebody and they're the bad guy because they were somewhat put out about their forcing you to rape them until they get over it quickly and move on. That was literally the plot of an episode. I am not exaggerating even slightly. Then all the conflict ends and they live happily ever after and there's a Gossip Girl ending which makes the ending of Gossip Girl look well written.

It's really dumb and if you're in the mood for a period piece, re-watch Downton Abbey.
 
Smokey and the Bandit
1/10
Boring. If you want a good automobile/transportation/courier movie look up the original Gone in 60 seconds its on YouTube, They can't make a movie like that anymore, maybe in India or Russia maybe they could get away with it.
 
Recently watched Evil on Netflix, and there's a lot of good stuff in there. It's a great discussion on the subject.

Also, now watching Squid Game. It's a very interesting discussion on Game Theory.
 
Saturday Night Live --- which I have followed since it started --- has become a chore to watch. I'm tired of every single cast member at this point. Except for this season's newbies, we've seen these performers, most of them, far longer than we see most sitcom casts. We know their range, we've seen their impersonation specialties. I always imagine that the producers want to go a few more seasons and get to 50, but they're already out of oxygen and limping toward that finish line (it's four years away.) At least Leslie Jones is gone.
 
Saturday Night Live --- which I have followed since it started --- has become a chore to watch. I'm tired of every single cast member at this point. Except for this season's newbies, we've seen these performers, most of them, far longer than we see most sitcom casts. We know their range, we've seen their impersonation specialties. I always imagine that the producers want to go a few more seasons and get to 50, but they're already out of oxygen and limping toward that finish line (it's four years away.) At least Leslie Jones is gone.

Pete Davidson is still funny.
 
The Sopranos, season 4, 9/10; Thanks to free HBO last weekend I got to record season 4 of The Sopranos which I saw back in the day, almost 20 years ago. It is excellent and stands the test of time pretty well. It can be extremely dark but actually has quite a few lighter moments and farce than what I remember from my original viewing. I do wonder if the Italian-American stereotypes depicted is a bit over the top. I don't know maybe it is accurate from what I have seen of Jersey Shore it can't be too much of an exaggeration. The acting performances are excellent and the cast works really well.

Agreed. I didn't see Sopranos while it was on the air because I didn't, and still don't, get HBO. But I would hear about it in the lounge at work, the day after each episode aired. I knew that there was a long scene where a gangster got dismembered in a bathtub (when Tony kills Ralphie) because that was much discussed at the time. After I retired, I rented the discs one by one at Blockbuster and saw the entire series. Then I bought the complete series box set (although the discs are cheaply made, and now some of them skip or stall, so I have bought a few seasons worth to fill in the gaps.)
Here are some more reasons to see The Sopranos:
1- Some truly bizarre situations and wild humor -- as in, the Pine Barrens episode, but also in random moments of dialogue. There's one late night conversation between two of the lower level hoods when they are so tired they forget what they're talking about. There's a conversation in a car between Tony and a couple of his underlings when one of them thinks Tony just said that Gary Cooper was gay.
2- Special effects for grotesque events. The guy who hangs himself in his basement because Tony has driven him into debt does it so realistically it's hard to watch. When Adriana pukes on the conference table in the presence of the FBI agents, it's a real gusher. Tony kicking the guy who was trash-talking Meadow is another stomach-clencher.
3- This is a show that covers all the age groups. Old age is covered extensively -- from Tony's mother in assisted living to Junior's descent into doddering old age. But there are also plot lines that follow adolescents in crisis -- from AJ's delinquency, drug use, and depression to the effeminate teenage boy whose conflict with his uncle over manliness comes late in the series. All kinds of health crises crowd in on the characters -- lots of hospital scenes, including a subplot that follows one character through cancer to his final breath.
4- The writers never come out and tell you how much the wives know about their husbands' crimes, but there is enough shown to make you wonder about it, especially in Carmela's case. She clearly knows that she's living the high life because her man is a mobster. There's that wonderful little scene where she invites all her gal pals over to watch classic movies, and the movie starts with the FBI warning, which they stare at glumly.
 
The Closer, Dave Chapelle, 8/10; Streaming on Netflix. Chapelle's final special had some manufactured controversy surrounding his views on transgender. I say manufactured as unless you are paying attention to the perpetually offended industrial complex you would be hard pushed to find anything controversial in his show. Chapelle put on a very clever and very funny show. He does spend about 30 minutes on the transgender stuff which was quite funny but was something very personal to his own experiences.
 
You, Season 1, 6/10; Streaming on Netflix. A bookstore manager, Joe becomes obsessed with an encounter with a female shopper, Beck and stalks her and gets into her life via chance encounters he manufactures. Joe's obsession pushes him to extremes and he ends up kidnapping and then murdering Beck's lover, Benji. Things escalate as Beck's friend Peach becomes suspicious and extremely jealous of Joe. It's not a particularly engrossing show and much of it is pretty dull but it has a few interesting moments.
 
Inside job (Netflix) 8/10

in a world where most conspiracy theories are true, Regan is a brilliant scientist working for the organization that either perpetrated or covered up most of them. Her latest project is developing a robot to replace the president. Her father is one of the organization’s founders until he was forced out, and he has no problem spilling secrets and blackmailing them for petty revenge. And thanks to his shitty parenting Regan is emotionally stunted and socially repressed, so her promotion to a leadership position is going to go just fine right?

overall a pretty fun show. Great cast of weirdos, and set up for a second season. I liked how with just about every conspiracy theory being true, they still mock flat earthers for their stupidity. (Regan’s father started up that theory just because he wanted to fuck with people)
 
Colin in Black and White

Series about Colin Kaepernick, focusing on his teen years in trying to get into football as a quarterback, intermixed with his experiences of racism and some history. Now I don't give a flying fuck about sports, but found this series to be very interesting. Like how he was adopted by white parents, and while they were good parents they could be clueless about some of the discrimination going on around him, and even their own prejudices at times. On history they mentioned the first black athlete offered a place in major league baseball, but on the condition he pretend he was white (he was very light skinned) He turned it down and became an artist instead.

I'd say this series is a must-watch, but of course the people who most need to see it will never watch it.
 
Maid, 8/10; Streaming on Netflix this 10 episode series is about a young mother who leaves her abusive partner. She is broke, homeless and everything seems stacked against her as she struggles to find accommodation and financial support. In desperation she takes a job with a housecleaning agency for crap money and horrible conditions. Very well acted and great storylines about the struggles of women who are the victims of domestic abuse.
 
Maid, 8/10; Streaming on Netflix this 10 episode series is about a young mother who leaves her abusive partner. She is broke, homeless and everything seems stacked against her as she struggles to find accommodation and financial support. In desperation she takes a job with a housecleaning agency for crap money and horrible conditions. Very well acted and great storylines about the struggles of women who are the victims of domestic abuse.
Good review. Uplifting show or depressing? I'm not into depressing!
 
Maid, 8/10; Streaming on Netflix this 10 episode series is about a young mother who leaves her abusive partner. She is broke, homeless and everything seems stacked against her as she struggles to find accommodation and financial support. In desperation she takes a job with a housecleaning agency for crap money and horrible conditions. Very well acted and great storylines about the struggles of women who are the victims of domestic abuse.
Good review. Uplifting show or depressing? I'm not into depressing!

It's neither really which makes it pretty good to watch. If it had ended being uplifting, it's a bog standard Hollywood Happy Ending but it's not that. It ends in hope I would say, light at the end of the tunnel, things are starting to get better because it can't get much worse.
 
Foundation - Season 1.

I...honestly don't know how to rate this show.

So the show is loosely based on the Foundation series by Isaac Asimov and I do mean loosely. Basically the premise of the books is once the human civilization reaches as certain size its future can be predicted with pseudo-statistics called "psychohistory". A mathematician named Hari Seldon has used psychohistory to predict the Fall of the Empire and a possible 30,000 year dark age. This dark age can be reduced to 1,000 years if appropriate steps are taken.

That's the basic premise and beyond that the show deviates greatly from the source material. There are characters who share the same names as those in the books who perform very different roles and the McGuffin of the series, known as Seldon Crises, are completely repurposed. It also incorporates some parts of Asimov's other well known body of books The Robot Series and an interesting concept on achieving stability through dynastic rule. The presentation and production is quite excellent but I've never placed much stock in that - shows like B5 and Blakes 7 still appeal to me despite their age clearly showing.

It's biggest failing however is its pacing which is fucking terrible. The first couple of episodes fall into "watching this feels like a second job" territory and I was conflicted with how far they deviated from the books and how well they presented new material. I think they nailed the subtle entropy of the Empire so credit where it is due. I'm sure a lot of people have seen Game of Thrones and to be honest I wasn't a fan of how strictly they followed the first book in season 1. But this show isn't like the TV show 12 Monkeys either, which I quite enjoyed and became its own thing independent of the movie it was based upon.

So I don't what say about this show. I personally will watch season 2 but if you don't like shows doing their own thing and not follow what the books did this show will be frustrating as fuck for you. I don't even know what to say to people who haven't read the books - I'm too much of a fanboy to even view the show from their perspective.

I guess I'm hoping that season 1 of this show will with hindsight turn out to be like The Expanse, Babylon 5 or Farscape where the early episodes were not the best but necessary for worldbuilding.
 
Invasion Season 1

Maybe a 7/10 so far. They are dribbling it out slowly. On episode eight and they are just starting to divulge what has invaded. Hopefully there is something more than just your standard off-the-rack evil aliens at play here.

Japanese subtitles keep dropping out on my android TV. Have to watch it on the mac. Why did I buy a standup desk?
 
Marcella, Season 1, 6/10; British crime drama streaming on Netflix. Stars the delightful Anna Friel as a London detective investigating a cold case serial killer murder. Marcella has a weird condition that makes her black out and do odd, sometime violent things. It's absurd the way this plays in the plot but I hung in there and watch the full ten episodes. An overly convoluted plot with any number of shifty characters that could be involved. And as always in these crime series, the main character is fighting her own personal demons plus incompetent superiors that dismiss her theories out of hand. Ten episodes is too many, it really only needs six at the most.
 
Midnight Mass -- 8/10 Netflix, miniseries, 7 hours total.
A supernatural horror story that takes place in a small U.S. island community.
Great dialog and plot. It's an interesting use of a horror genre that's been used over and over again.
A couple of the lead characters quote the bible to justify some rather heinous acts. If it were a movie, it would probably be rated PG-13 (It's not very gory).
One thing that I didn't pick-up on until the last couple of episodes:
The story apparently takes place in a 'universe' where no one has heard of vampires. In fact the V-word isn't mentioned at all. This helps explain why the local Catholic priest thought that the initial signs of vampirism were God's work, e.g. It healed the lame, and made the elderly young and healthy again
 
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