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

[marc]

Star Trek: Lower Decks 8/10

This is an animated comedy series set in the Star Trek universe, aboard the U.S.S. Cerritos. They are not one of the big front line ships, they get missions like second contact. And it doesn't focus on the officers in charge, highlighting instead some of the nameless ensigns that do the work on the ship. Two main characters are Brad Boimler - a completely by-the-book suck up who is looking to climb the ranks. He is tormented by Beckett Mariner - who believes in Starfleet's mission, but can't stand its bullshit and bureaucracy, so constantly breaks the rules and has been demoted many times for it.

The series is filled with references to all the Trek series (the characters hear all the gossip), including several references to the old animated series. Heck, they even included references to a character in a series that was never made, and the Spock Helmet - which was some toy helmet the toy company put Spock's name on, but had nothing to do with any series ever, until now. The first officer references the Kirk-Spock era as TOS, you know, 'those old scientists'. The season finale was amazingly serious and dramatic, putting it on par with any TNG finale, it was awesome! And it was still pretty damn funny at times. Looking forward to the next two seasons that have been greenlit.

 

[TSwizzle]

The Serpent, 8/10; A Netflix original eight part series about serial killer Charles Sobhraj, a charismatic conman operating in 1970s Bangkok. After the burnt bodies of Dutch tourists are discovered, a low level Dutch diplomat in Thailand starts to investigate. Without much to go on and little to no cooperation from local police he starts to suspect there is a serial killer preying on backpackers. Well filmed and acted with a lot of subtitles due to the main characters being French. Some episodes have good cliff hangers which is good for binge watching. Charles Sobhraj is a real life person and is still alive today. I think the series does have a fair bit of artistic license but the series is worth a watch.

 

[prideandfall]

mythic quest: raven's banquet: -2/10

i didn't think it was possible for a show that was ostensibly by and/or for the nerd crowd to suck more than marvel's MODOK, but wow was i wrong.
this steaming liquid turd is such a failure on multiple levels... it's ostensibly about a game company that is making an expansion for an MMO, but the show's creators made the predictable mistake of trying to make a niche subject into a broad appeal comedy - i won't write a thesis on this, but you understand how and why the big bang theory is in fact a complete sack of shit you'll know what i mean.
on top of that issue, every plot point is completely stupid because the show has no real understanding of how game development works, how MMOs work, how business works, or how human beings work.
this show wants to think it's the office meets silicon valley by way archer, but it tries to get there in most pathetic surface level way imaginable and fails utterly in every respect.

 

[Jayjay]

Removed.

 

[blastula]

Prisoners of War 6/10

This is the Israeli show that Homeland was based on. It's on Hulu. As the title suggests, it focuses on the prisoner experience much more than spy intrigue compared to Homeland. The first season is almost all about the trauma they (two guys) went through and the readjustment for them and their families after their release. The spy action comes mostly in the final episodes in season 1. The second and last season has more spy games than the first, it was actually made after Homeland started and so perhaps that influenced it some. It got way too maudlin at times the way some foreign dramas can (to this American's taste) while the action was executed competently.

 

[marc]

Godzilla Singular Point. 2/10

Anime series on Netflix. It feels like the writer wanted to do a sc-fi story about multi-dimensional time paradox, then wedged in Godzilla to sell the idea. Big G is hardly in it, and not relevant to the plot until the very end. Lots of mini-rodans, and a couple other smaller than normal monsters. Calls back to the original line of movies with classic sound effects and music. The main characters even have the Jet Jaguar robot, which is a big part of the story. But the little bit of nostalgia does not make up for the lack of G. As a long time Godzilla fan, I’d say skip it,

 

[Jayjay]

Louis Theroux: Shooting Joe Exotic
?/10

If you've watched Tiger King, you should check this out. It serves as a second opinion and a fitting afterword to the Netflix series, showing the characters in a slightly different light, and paints a particularly dim picture of the producers of the Netflix show. But I can't rate it, because it doesn't really stand alone on its own. If you haven't seen Tiger King or couldn't give a rats ass about who Joe Exotic is, then even if you are a fan of Theroux, there isn't anything interesting here to see.

 

[bleubird]

Binged on "Hunters" on Amazon for the last few days. Alternate history story about Nazi hunting in 1977. Al Pacino was good.

8/10

 

[DrZoidberg]

Louis Theroux: Shooting Joe Exotic
?/10

If you've watched Tiger King, you should check this out. It serves as a second opinion and a fitting afterword to the Netflix series, showing the characters in a slightly different light, and paints a particularly dim picture of the producers of the Netflix show. But I can't rate it, because it doesn't really stand alone on its own. If you haven't seen Tiger King or couldn't give a rats ass about who Joe Exotic is, then even if you are a fan of Theroux, there isn't anything interesting here to see.

I saw Tiger King. My impression right from the start was the story was too good to be true. No shit a lot was left out.

 

[WAB]

Angel, Buffy the Squirrel Slayer, Super-Unnatural, Silly Violent TV Program:

I've been watching 90's and early 2000's TV shows on Hulu and Netflix.

Well, I saw fighting and blood and hurting and slamming and pain and death and gymnastical jumping about and silly dialogue and ridiculous over-acting and foolish alpha male bravado and other terribly silly things...

 

[Ford]

Two of my favorite shows from the late 70s are on Tubi now. Battlestar Galactica, and Buck Rogers. The former was worthy of a gritty reboot, and I'd love it if someone would do a modern version of the latter. Just with less spandex...

[YOUTUBE]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xLzYr9dlFWs[/YOUTUBE]

 

[Harry Bosch]

Two of my favorite shows from the late 70s are on Tubi now. Battlestar Galactica, and Buck Rogers. The former was worthy of a gritty reboot, and I'd love it if someone would do a modern version of the latter. Just with less spandex...

[YOUTUBE]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xLzYr9dlFWs[/YOUTUBE]

Yea, I really loved Battlestar Galactica. Couldn't believe when it was cancelled! The reboot was great

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

Two of my favorite shows from the late 70s are on Tubi now. Battlestar Galactica, and Buck Rogers. The former was worthy of a gritty reboot, and I'd love it if someone would do a modern version of the latter. Just with less spandex...

[YOUTUBE]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xLzYr9dlFWs[/YOUTUBE]

Yea, I really loved Battlestar Galactica. Couldn't believe when it was cancelled! The reboot until the writers strike was great

FIFY

 

[DrZoidberg]

SEASON 5 OF RICK AND MORTY!!!

BIATCHES

It was worth the wait. Pure gold as usual. Mr. Nimbus is my new favourite character.

 

[FwL]

I'd love it if someone would do a modern version of the latter. Just with less spandex...

Erin Grey in spandex was the only reason I ever watched Buck Rogers.

 

[Ford]

I'd love it if someone would do a modern version of the latter. Just with less spandex...

Erin Grey in spandex was the only reason I ever watched Buck Rogers.

Oh come on. There were so many other good reasons! Like...um...Pamela Hensley in a bikini. Markie Post in spandex. Uh...other guest stars in spandex!

Okay, seriously...back in the day I read the source material for Buck Rogers. Philip Francis Nowlan's "Armageddon 2419." Pulp science fiction, but it had some interesting stuff in there. For example, the evil empire (the Hans) had a society where people would get all their information and entertainment in big, flat screens in their homes. Not only that, but they could use those screens to order any number of products, have them delivered to their door, and the money would be electronically withdrawn from their accounts. What a crazy view of how the future would be, huh?

 

[TV and credit cards]

Schmigadoon

I had no intention of watching so much as one episode of this, whatever it is. But it came down to this or getting up and being productive so I gave it a try. It's really not so bad. Only three episodes so far but I'll give it a provisional 7/10. I can say it's the second best musical I've ever seen.

 

[marc]

What We Do In The Shadows 7/10

It is so stupid, but funny, that it draws you in and keep watching. I missed part of the pilot so I don't know the full setup, but it is filmed kind of like a documentary crew following a group of vampires in Staten Island. They are weird and quite a bit out of touch. One of them is an 'energy vampire' who is not affected by sunlight, and feeds off of emotions of frustration and boredom which he is very good at inflicting on others. And there is the human familiar, a servant who hopes to be turned into a vampire as a reward for his long service, but is pretty much taken for granted. Quite an impressive list of guest stars have appeared in it as well. Season three is supposed to be out in september, can't wait to see it after how season two ended.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

Loki

So finished Episode Six of Loki which starts off where Endgame leaves him, a benefactor of an angry stairs maddened Hulk. It shares a bit with Wandavision in that it has its own timeline style, setting feels like the 60s/70s. A bunch of twists and turns. The trouble I have with Loki is he just rarely ever grows. Being the God of Mischief in several movies, I start getting a Game of Thrones feel that "I shouldn't get too comfortable" with this character, because the head is likely to fall off, or in Loki's case, you just keep waiting for the inevitable. As a series, it feels bit under the other two series which had viable completions where as Loki appears to continue. There is good humor here and there (especially there... and when you get to it, you'll know what I'm talk about). Very enjoyable.

3.5 of 4

 

[Harry Bosch]

For All Mankind! Love the show. 10/10. Just finished season 1. One of my favorite shows of all time. It's on Apple TV

 

[WAB]

(I've done this before, but after watching a lot of TV for months, I have to do it again.)

Anyway, I saw this show, and there were some really cool people in it, I mean people who could beat the crap out of anybody! There was this dude, he was awesome! He beat the living daylights out of this one guy, and then beat the crap out of another guy, and it didn't hurt his hand at all! He was pounding them! And then, there was this other scene, where these guys were in an alley, and they had guns, but this other guy, he came in and beat the living shit out of both of them! He kept hitting them in the face, whack, whack, for like a minute! He must have pounded them twenty times! And the dudes never bled! Or raised their arms to protect themselves! It's like, they just kept taking it and taking it and taking it, without bleeding!

Holy Christ what entertainment!

**Sorry, I'm just completely sick of the violence on TV...

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

(I've done this before, but after watching a lot of TV for months, I have to do it again.)

Anyway, I saw this show, and there were some really cool people in it, I mean people who could beat the crap out of anybody! There was this dude, he was awesome! He beat the living daylights out of this one guy, and then beat the crap out of another guy, and it didn't hurt his hand at all! He was pounding them! And then, there was this other scene, where these guys were in an alley, and they had guns, but this other guy, he came in and beat the living shit out of both of them! He kept hitting them in the face, whack, whack, for like a minute! He must have pounded them twenty times! And the dudes never bled! Or raised their arms to protect themselves! It's like, they just kept taking it and taking it and taking it, without bleeding!

Holy Christ what entertainment!

**Sorry, I'm just completely sick of the violence on TV...

Reminds me of Daredevil. The guy who is haunted by Catholicism dogma and refuses to kill people, but will bludgeon his enemies with seriously intense brain trauma.

 

[Goodchild]

My wife was channel surfing the other day and landed on an episode of Little House on the Prairie, which captured our attention. Now I'm pretty much obsessed with the show. I only watched bits and pieces of it when it originally aired so now we're watching it from the start since our cable package, fortunately, includes Peacock.

I don't know exactly what it is about the show, but something about it is absolutely appealing today. It might be the fact that it's so much more "wholesome" than modern TV fare, it might be a longing for the simpler, though difficult, times it portrays.

 

[WAB]

My wife was channel surfing the other day and landed on an episode of Little House on the Prairie, which captured our attention. Now I'm pretty much obsessed with the show. I only watched bits and pieces of it when it originally aired so now we're watching it from the start since our cable package, fortunately, includes Peacock.

I don't know exactly what it is about the show, but something about it is absolutely appealing today. It might be the fact that it's so much more "wholesome" than modern TV fare, it might be a longing for the simpler, though difficult, times it portrays.

It could come down to the fact that no-one ever has a damn cellphone.

I think modern film and TV programs are plagued by an over-reliance on cellphones. I've been watching 24, with Keifer Sutherland. I'd wager more than half the dialogue happens on the phone.

 

[Shadowy Man]

It could come down to the fact that no-one ever has a cellphone.

I think modern film and TV programs are plagued by an over-reliance on cellphones. I've been watching 24, with Keifer Sutherland. I'd wager more than half the dialogue happens on the phone.

I once thought about how many episodes of Seinfeld just couldn’t exist if they had had cell phones.

 

[Jayjay]

My wife was channel surfing the other day and landed on an episode of Little House on the Prairie, which captured our attention. Now I'm pretty much obsessed with the show. I only watched bits and pieces of it when it originally aired so now we're watching it from the start since our cable package, fortunately, includes Peacock.

I don't know exactly what it is about the show, but something about it is absolutely appealing today. It might be the fact that it's so much more "wholesome" than modern TV fare, it might be a longing for the simpler, though difficult, times it portrays.

It could come down to the fact that no-one ever has a damn cellphone.

I think modern film and TV programs are plagued by an over-reliance on cellphones. I've been watching 24, with Keifer Sutherland. I'd wager more than half the dialogue happens on the phone.

That's an odd example of "modern film and TV". The air date of the first episode of 24 is closer to the last episode of Little House on the Prairie, than it is to today. And the use of cell phones is crucial for the concept, what else is Jack Bauer going to do when driving the traffic-free streets of Los Angeles from terrorist A to terrorist B? If there is a show where phones are used justifiably, it's 24.

What really grinds my gears is that now the lazy network tv writers have given up on phones entirely. The characters just have invisible ear pieces that they use to talk to each other.

 

[Swammerdami]

I'd never heard of American Crime Story until Stephen Colbert interviewed one of the stars recently. I decided to start Season 1 without even knowing what the crime story would be.

It was O.J. Simpson's murder trial. When that trial was carried live on U.S. TV, I was isolated in rural Thailand raising a baby and building a house. But eventually I did read 3 or 4 books about the trial.

The acting in ACS Season 1 is excellent; the story is riveting. I've not finished, but I'm very afraid O.J. will be acquitted. Watching the show infuriates me! I feel like Johnny Cochrane should be disbarred. (How much of the story is true? Did Johnny Cochrane really whisper "nigger" at the black prosecutor during an argument?) How in tarnation did the DA permit the defense to doctor up Simpson's home (with photos of Cochrane's children!?!) and parade the jurors through it?

The ease with which jurors were gulled was disheartening: I thought of posting these remarks in one of the Political threads.

 

[ZiprHead]

Probably be better in History now that so much time has passed.

 

[TV and credit cards]

Countdown Inspiration 4 Mission to Space
Netflix

Watching and waiting.

 

[Playball40]

My wife was channel surfing the other day and landed on an episode of Little House on the Prairie, which captured our attention. Now I'm pretty much obsessed with the show. I only watched bits and pieces of it when it originally aired so now we're watching it from the start since our cable package, fortunately, includes Peacock.

I don't know exactly what it is about the show, but something about it is absolutely appealing today. It might be the fact that it's so much more "wholesome" than modern TV fare, it might be a longing for the simpler, though difficult, times it portrays.

I love LH as a child.

 

[TSwizzle]

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.

 

[marc]

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:

Show

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]

 

[OLDMAN]

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.

 

[Tom Sawyer]

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.

 

[none]

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.

 

[Jarhyn]

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.

 

[ideologyhunter]

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.

 

[Jayjay]

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.

 

[ideologyhunter]

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.

 

[TSwizzle]

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.

 

[TSwizzle]

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.

 

[marc]

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)

 

[marc]

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.

 

[TSwizzle]

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.

 

[Harry Bosch]

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!

 

[TSwizzle]

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.

 

[Patooka]

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.

 

[TV and credit cards]

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?

 

[TSwizzle]

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.

 

[couch_sloth]

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:

Spoiler

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