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

Tom Sawyer said:
The 100 - 6/10The first season is pretty good but then the second season starts to take a much darker twist on things and is excellent. I'm in the third season now and they've tried to keep the dark twist thing going, but it seems more forced and isn't matching up to the second one. Still worth watching, though
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because there's a babe in every subgroup.
 
Tom Sawyer said:
Humans - 9/10

This is a show about a world where there are a bunch of synthetic, human looking androids created to help out with various tasks. While making them, their creator also secretly made a few of them who have true AI consciousness and this is the story about a family who inadvertently got one of those who'd had her memory wiped instead of a regular android - and then hijinks ensue.

I was expecting a generic sci-fi show, but was surprised about how good the program actually was. They do a lot with the questions of what it means to be alive and deal with issues like "what if your sexbot is a really a person whom you're raping?". They bring up matters like how regular humans are impacted by these androids, from the uneducated workers who have already been replaced and become irrelevant and are raging against the machines to the teenager who was thinking of becoming a doctor but doesn't know why she should bother to spend seven years studying for it when the androids a few versions down the line would be able to learn all of those skills in seven seconds.

The deep and compelling stories are accompanied by well written characters and good plots. All in all, one of the best shows that's come along in a while.
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I enjoyed that series as well. Looking forward to second season, though we won't get it until 2017 :(
 
Tom Sawyer said:
The 100 - 6/10

A century or so after a nuclear war made the planet uninhabitable, the (supposed) last survivors of humanity are living on a space station waiting for the radiation to clear so that they can go back down to the ground. They exile 100 of their most attractive and intelligent young people to Earth for minor crimes (because that's really the best way to ensure the continuity of the species) and they find that the place is actually inhabitable and discover that there are tribes of other people living down there. Then hijinks ensure.

The first season is pretty good but then the second season starts to take a much darker twist on things and is excellent. I'm in the third season now and they've tried to keep the dark twist thing going, but it seems more forced and isn't matching up to the second one. Still worth watching, though.
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I thought the show had jumped the shark early in the 3rd season, but they turned it around and the ending was every bit as "what the fuck happens next?" as the previous two.
 
Ford said:
I thought the show had jumped the shark early in the 3rd season, but they turned it around and the ending was every bit as "what the fuck happens next?" as the previous two.
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As I'm only watching this on Netflix, I'm still waiting for Season 3. But I have enjoyed it so far.
 
Ford said:
Underseer said:
The Chronicles of Shannara 7/10

The source material is serviceable fantasy story. Honestly, the most interesting thing about it is the setting: it's set in a post-post apocalyptic Earth. The show has really high production values, which helps gloss over the mediocre source material.
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I'm halfway through the first season, and I'm mostly disappointed.

The original novel only hinted at the fact that it was set in, as you say, a post-post-apocalyptic Earth. It was sword-and-sorcery foremost, and then if you read carefully you could piece together that the "Chaos Wars" were really a nuclear holocaust. This series hits you over the head with it from the get-go.

And while I understand MTV's reasoning for using the second novel as the basis for their show - the story of the kids of the people who saved the world appeals to their demo - it seems jarring to me. They picked up the story in the middle.

Finally, while we may disagree about the mediocrity of the source material, this show is less than mediocre. Oh, the production values are high, and the actors are all young and pretty, but overall it is pretty shallow.
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Finished the series today. I stand by my assessment. Pretty, but also pretty shallow. If I remember the books correctly, the Elvin enclave was in the western part of the Four Lands, but in this show everything is within a half day's horse ride from everything else. Apparently you can ride from the Pacific Northwest to New York in a very short time?
 
I have not turned the television on for a few days and I rate the programing of a blank television screen and a quiet house at midnight to be excellent. ;)
 
unbreakable kimmy schmidt - 8/10

this show is so much more adorable, endearing, delightful, cute, perverse, sweet, genuinely funny, and all around awesome than it (or any show even remotely close to this show's premise) has any right to be.
normally my cynicism would be vaguely enraged by something this positive and joyful, but it's so sincere in its execution with juuuust enough bite and perversion lurking around the edges to where i can't help but like it.
it reminds me a lot of Community in its overall feel, though it's not an ensemble affair like that was - but the slight sense of child-like wonder about everything is there along with the absurdism.

one of those "i am genuinely shocked at how good this is" moments for me when i finally got around to tossing a few episodes on last night.
 
I was really into Penny Dreadful in the first season. I still watch it because Eva Green is beautiful. Her wardrobe is incredible. All of the outfits are spot on, and the sets must cost a lot of money to create. I love the way they portray that period. Some scenes are just monumental. They put in a lot of work to give that show the mystical doom vibe which I love in shows.
 
Dalton's acting has improved since he grew his beard.
 
Ford said:
Ford said:
I'm halfway through the first season, and I'm mostly disappointed.

The original novel only hinted at the fact that it was set in, as you say, a post-post-apocalyptic Earth. It was sword-and-sorcery foremost, and then if you read carefully you could piece together that the "Chaos Wars" were really a nuclear holocaust. This series hits you over the head with it from the get-go.

And while I understand MTV's reasoning for using the second novel as the basis for their show - the story of the kids of the people who saved the world appeals to their demo - it seems jarring to me. They picked up the story in the middle.

Finally, while we may disagree about the mediocrity of the source material, this show is less than mediocre. Oh, the production values are high, and the actors are all young and pretty, but overall it is pretty shallow.
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Finished the series today. I stand by my assessment. Pretty, but also pretty shallow. If I remember the books correctly, the Elvin enclave was in the western part of the Four Lands, but in this show everything is within a half day's horse ride from everything else. Apparently you can ride from the Pacific Northwest to New York in a very short time?
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Honestly, I can't say. I read those books a long time ago, and I don't really remember details like that. Mostly, I just remember that the setting (post-post apocalyptic America) was more interesting than the characters or the story.
 
What do you mean? They put it right in the opening credits!
 
Yeah, his beard is the weight of Mina I suppose. When the Dracula satan spells and whatnot wear off, he will shave it. He plays a dark and sad character much better with a beard though. BTW Why the hell is Frankenstein's first creation an emo poet?
 
Stranger Things
9/10

Goonies meets Poltergeist, with plenty of 80s nostalgia and references to spare. Even some of the characters are clearly cast and made to look like some of 1980s actors. I binged it almost overnight on Netflix.
 
Jayjay said:
Stranger Things
9/10

Goonies meets Poltergeist, with plenty of 80s nostalgia and references to spare. Even some of the characters are clearly cast and made to look like some of 1980s actors. I binged it almost overnight on Netflix.
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Beat me to it, but I give it a lower rating.

Yes, lots of 80s nostalgia, but it's way too much. After the first episode, it's like, we get it--this is totally happening in the early 1980s. And the problem with that is that it causes me to notice references that don't fit the time frame. For example, we didn't say "chill" back then. Also, The Bangles song, Hazy Shade of Winter didn't come out until around late 1985. And noticing stupid, irrelevant shit like that takes me out of the story.

And yes, it has a very Spielbergian feel to it. But I think of it more as E.T. meets Super 8 in that the kids are into D&D but there's a terrifying monster. Either way, Spielberg's influence is all over this.

It's also reminiscent of Stephen King's Fire Starter.

This leads me to the next point about this show. Up until now, neither you or I have bothered to discuss what it's actually about. That says something about the problems it has. So here's the cut and paste synopsis:

When Joyce's 12-year-old son, Will, goes missing, she launches a terrifying investigation into his disappearance with local authorities. As they search for answers, they unravel a series of extraordinary mysteries involving secret government experiments, unnerving supernatural forces, and a very unusual little girl.
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All of that said/complained about, it's a pretty good show that keeps you watching. There's lots of turns, suspense, and intrigue that's rare in a TV show or big budget movie (TV is really starting to kick the shit out of the movies btw).

7/10
 
stranger things: 7.5 (maybe an 8)/10

i saw this as pretty much being an 80s fantasy/sci-fi homage project, because pretty much every single aspect of it from the characters to the plot to the locations to EVERYTHING is a grab-bag of other movies and TV shows.
put the goonies, ET, akira, silent hill, and a pot pourri of every 80s thriller and john hughes movie and you have this show... but, it was well done and with obvious love for the source material - the show looks great (aside from a few spots where they used CGI instead of practical and i thought that was really unnecessary) and i liked how it ended on the darker bittersweet note that movies from the 80s often did instead of the 'everyone goes into a dance number' way movies end these days.
 
Durarara X2
8/10

Like the first one, the show is quirky, the characters are insane, and very little of it makes any damn sense. I grinned through almost the whole thing! :D

Somewhere out there is an essay on the internet explaining all the symbols and showing how there was an actual coherent point being made. I don't want to read that analysis. It's more fun when it all feels like nonsense.
 
Colonel Sanders said:
It's also reminiscent of Stephen King's Fire Starter.
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There's even a part where a character says "read any Stephen King?" I was like, come on, you're going to directly reference what the show was inspired by? At least be subtle about it. Also, there was one time a character said "Who are you working for? NSA?" Hasn't that line been done to death already? Still I enjoyed it despite those cliches, and some others. I did kind of like that the bully kid (the little one) was more of a piece of shit than your regular school bully, for example.
 
Phew! Made it. After 2 months, I finally watched the 95th and last episode of Three Kingdoms last night. Engrossing from start to finish, it's 70+ hours of my life that I don't at all mind not getting back. The last third of the series could have tailed off (as the book does to a certain extent)after the deaths of the main characters (Cao Cao and Liu Bei), but the Sima Yi-Zhuge Liang rivalry kept it fresh all the way through.

I still don't see Sima Yi as the top villain, though. That title must go to Cao Cao, despite being less of an out-and-out bad guy than he is in the book. Sima Yi's a schemer, no doubt, but sometimes he just gets lucky - the sudden rainstorm at Shangfang Valley being the prime example.He also loses a lot of the comic nature he starts with, once he becomes an official and has to take things more seriously. For me, the funniest character was Cao Zhen, hammed up brilliantly by the actor portraying him; it's almost a pity he was only in a couple of episodes.

When I started watching, I gave this 12½/10 after the first few episodes. No change there. I'd recommend it to anybody with the time to watch it.
 
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