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

They filmed We Are Marshall up the street and they got a bunch of people from town for extras. I went and did it, and I can see myself in a McConaughey movie now. I mention it to women all the time with some enhanced truths in the details. I should make a t-shirt "McConaughey got me laid" or something. I owe the man a lot.

Hey don't bother with season two. Since my opinion is the only one that matters and whatnot. It draws from a similar darkness (perverted rich people) but there is something missing. My expectations were high going in but it didn't do anything for me. Just a depressing thing to watch. Terrible music droning toward a resolution you can easily see coming from episode six of ten. The missing piece in season two may be the threat to reality itself, which McConaughey executed so well as the broken version of Rust. He's plays two vastly different people separated by a decade, and that is probably pretty hard to pull off.
I was waiting and waiting for this contractor to give me a quote on resurfacing an access road out in the middle of Nowhere, Ohio. He finally calls. I give him the coordinates. He calls me about an hour later and tells me he can't give a quote because Matthew McConaughey is filming on it.
Well he didn't just make that up.
Looking forward to White Boy Rick. I need to read the backstory on that one.
Season 2 of True Detective was a bummer. Not even holding it up to season 1, it was quite forgettable. Too bad. Not the first time HBO broke my heart.
 
out in the middle of Nowhere, Ohio

Yeah cheaper than filming in the city - so if the topography is the same they will go with the cheaper spot for some scenes. Huntington was just awarded 3mill for America's best community (with the highest overdose rate in America) so it isn't a Nowhere kind of place. Shitty, but definitely not a Nowhere.

because Matthew McConaughey is filming on it...

LOL! He didn't say a movie was being filmed on it, he said McConaughey is filming on it. The name excused any inconvenience you were caused, huh.

Not the first time HBO broke my heart

The cancellation of Girls was a heartbreaker. Some even say it was somehow symbolic. Dunno bout that part but I did love that show.
 
Fear The Walking Dead 4/10

Zombies aren't cool anymore. I don't know what happened but overnight I stopped wanting to see decaying corpses get shot in the head. Call me crazy but it seems pretty gross now that I think about it. The sadistic behavior is just too over the top for me. The Walking Dead's last season ended with a strong, female character seeing no other choice but kill herself inside a coffin. She went after the man, so dying while already inside a coffin turned out to be the most rational choice in the end. Nice and symbolic. The plight of females in the show is just stupid. Most popular show in the world and all that. As for Fear the Walking Dead, I think Alisha is hot. I wonder if she cooks well. She looks like a sturdy breeder. Nothing else to say about Fear The Walking Dead. Stupid and bound to fail. They're both going down real soon.
 
Manhattan
7/10

Drama about the scientists and their families working on the Manhattan Project. I never would have guessed there was so much intrigue, illicit sex and homosexuality in there, along with anachronistically progressive attitudes! In other words, don't expect to get a history or science lessons from this show, but on the bright side, it is quite entertaining and reasonably well made.
 
Fear The Walking Dead 4/10

Zombies aren't cool anymore. I don't know what happened but overnight I stopped wanting to see decaying corpses get shot in the head. Call me crazy but it seems pretty gross now that I think about it. The sadistic behavior is just too over the top for me. The Walking Dead's last season ended with a strong, female character seeing no other choice but kill herself inside a coffin. She went after the man, so dying while already inside a coffin turned out to be the most rational choice in the end. Nice and symbolic. The plight of females in the show is just stupid. Most popular show in the world and all that. As for Fear the Walking Dead, I think Alisha is hot. I wonder if she cooks well. She looks like a sturdy breeder. Nothing else to say about Fear The Walking Dead. Stupid and bound to fail. They're both going down real soon.

I think we all overdosed on zombies since TWD first came out. It was easily the best representation of the genre ever made, but nothing good stays that way forever. Eventually it runs its course.

FTWD has sucked from its first episode until the last one I watched (don't remember what it was).
 
American Gods

Season 1 is in the books and it was fucking stellar. Much better than the book, and you can't say that very often.

I thought the book was a slog, and being such, I believe I tossed it at roughly page 400, which is more than fair for a tome with an expressionless, thoughtless blob for a main character and a story that promises much but never delivers.

It was as if the writers/adapters were able to make the TV series what the book was capable of being. Anyway, I'll probably rewatch this season at some point, probably at some unknown time in the future when the now unknown time before the next season starts.

I really need to watch series like I watched Breaking Bad. Ignore the entire enterprise until the final season and then watch the hell out of the whole thing over the course of a couple of months.
 
Right? Zombies had their seven year run. Witches are bound to take over but watch out for vamps because you just never know. I always root for pirates but they had one solid run (in my lifetime) and they haven't been back since. But they actually exist, so they do have that going for them. Maybe they're just not fantastical enough. I could get by on pirates forever hey they want to spend money on the zombies so gotta go with zombies for a while. Jack Sparrow let me down this year. Was hoping for a pirate wave but that seems impossible at that point.

Zombies satiate something deep inside. Do you agree? Sorry for jumping to this but do you agree that as the world changes people require a different distraction and a new monster? You pretty much said that already. Odd fact for you, serial killing goes down dramatically during times of war. It is time to turn down the gore when there is a lot of it in the news, right? Oh and the constant threat of actual societal collapse makes these zombie shows a little less fun to watch.

FTWD is weak. They're moving too quick, trying to fit too much in. Seven year curse gets them and here come the Goddamn witches again. Mutants are running strong and they are arguably the best option because they are flexible. Can't think of any other monster that can handle this kind of pressure for distraction, can you? A list of monsters would help.

Zombies, vampires and witches are always at war. Last year the superhumans did very well and I figure the witches will settle in with them for a solid seven years, followed by some aliens. Been anticipating a good alien run. Not this time though. I'd say aliens will be all the rage by 2025. Maybe sooner. These things overlap you'd agree, and but yes the zombie peak has definitely come and gone. The utter sexism pushed me away. Yes women still have to shave their armpits during a zombie apocalypse, and when they try to beat the obnoxious, sexist, male tyrant - they fail spectacularly. The witches wait patiently to heal those wounds.

The wave has already begun actually. You can clearly see that zombies aren't cool anymore. Magic is cool. Mutants are awesome. The balance is decent enough and I think it will serve people's needs well. I'm not a fan of the witches for personal reasons. Mutants are always cool by me, but ew not witches. Mass focus has definitely shifted. This counting by seven thing seems to work. Really it is just common sense.
 
Shameless Season 7

Just noticed its availability on Netflix last night. Watched the first episode. Wanted to watch more but is was bedtime.
This show is a wonderful piece of Americana. I love the characters.
I am a fan of William H. Macy and he does such a wonderful job as Frank.
At the end of season 6, friends and family were so sick of the patriarch, Frank that they tossed him off a bridge into the river. I won't spoil it for you. You'll have to tune in to see if Frank survived.
 
I always root for pirates but they had one solid run (in my lifetime) and they haven't been back since. But they actually exist, so they do have that going for them. Maybe they're just not fantastical enough. I could get by on pirates forever ... Jack Sparrow let me down this year. Was hoping for a pirate wave but that seems impossible at that point

Have you see Black Sails? It's fucking awful and never made it out of the first episode, but it's all about pirates.

Zombies satiate something deep inside. Do you agree? Sorry for jumping to this but do you agree that as the world changes people require a different distraction and a new monster? You pretty much said that already. Odd fact for you, serial killing goes down dramatically during times of war. It is time to turn down the gore when there is a lot of it in the news, right? Oh and the constant threat of actual societal collapse makes these zombie shows a little less fun to watch.

Zombies are just fun. They're the kind of monster that you can escape from and kill easily. That is, until the the Dawn of the Dead remake came out. I hated it at first, but upon multiple viewings I decided it was a solid zombie film.
 
Have you see Black Sails? It's fucking awful and never made it out of the first episode, but it's all about pirates.

Yeah, it's a prequel set 20 years before Treasure Island. Season 1 didn't get off to a great start, but it did pick up a bit later on.
 
GLOW

9/10

Just binged the whole first season. Alison Brie, Marc Maron, 80's women's wrestling. What's not to like? My only disappointment was that I had to wait so long for an 80's style training montage.
 
At the moment I'm plowing through some old episodes of one of my favorite shows from the 90s:

Highlander.

Duncan MacLeod is the cousin of the character in the cult classic film. Immortal, and locked in a battle with other immortals in search of "the prize." He's a "good" immortal, but still stuck in a game where he has to kill other immortals to survive...most often by decapitating them with his vaguely Japanese sword. Like the movie, there are flashbacks to various points in his 400 year long life. In almost every episode, Duncan has to face off against an immortal that he's got some centuries old beef with, and it always ends with him taking "the quickening" from his opponent.

At the beginning of every show, there's that glorious Queen song from the movie sound track..."here we are, born to be kings! We're the princes of the universe!!!"


And it does not hold up well. It isn't bad, and it is arguably better than all the movie sequels, but very dated. Highlander is a prime example of "we can't afford to film anywhere but Vancouver but we need to pretend it isn't Vancouver." The music (apart from the Queen song) is painfully low budget. The acting? Well I often wondered why the people on this show didn't go onto greater success, and now I know. The episode I'm watching now features Sheena Easton as a guest star, and she'd frankly as good as any of the regular cast.

I'd rate it "I shouldn't be watching this, but I'll probably stick it out for a few more episodes before I stop pummeling my fond memories with the reality of this show."
 
Black sales, series 3.....the dialogue, all the characters sound like philosophy majors and appear to have the strategic skills of five star generals, hookers, madams, tinkers, tailors, pirates, one and all.
 
Better Call Saul, season 3. It's OK but it gets mired down dealing with Chuck's condition of being hypersensitive to electricity. The only interesting story line is the drug distribution with the familiar characters from Breaking Bad but the series doesn't deal with it an awful lot.
 
Have you seen Black Sails? It's fucking awful and never made it out of the first episode, but it's all about pirates.

Zombies satiate something deep inside. Do you agree? Sorry for jumping to this but do you agree that as the world changes people require a different distraction and a new monster? You pretty much said that already. Odd fact for you, serial killing goes down dramatically during times of war. It is time to turn down the gore when there is a lot of it in the news, right? Oh and the constant threat of actual societal collapse makes these zombie shows a little less fun to watch.

Zombies are just fun. They're the kind of monster that you can escape from and kill easily. That is, until the the Dawn of the Dead remake came out. I hated it at first, but upon multiple viewings I decided it was a solid zombie film.

Yeah Dawn of the Dead (2004) was a game changer. Kill the baby before it bites you. They went there. Kill the baby.

Just a quick word about TWD. The sexist undertones weaved into the what became world's most popular series built slowly. Teach the woman how to shoot. Save the woman. Pat the woman on the head. Kill mom. Pat the woman on the head for not dying. Just look at the flowers, woman. Look at the flowers. Murder. Murder the child. All female personas depicted as weak, in that they are constantly praised for being so strong. Never quite matching up. This most recent season was a sad circus. Go after the bad man. Take the shot and hit a baseball bat (totally impossible). Miss a SIMPLE fucking shot on a very close roof. Oh, and don't forget to die a noble death inside a fucking coffin. Get saved by the male hero. Who is left soaked in blood, deliriously murmuring "we won", while the bad man escapes to organize a new attack? Sorry TWD, you suck now. Nobody cares. Your bullshit is transparent and stale. There are better ways to mind-rape 16 million people on Sunday. MUCH better ways, which don't require staying up past noon. Why wait til 9pm when you can worship rising death and the apocalypse before noon

Series seven was fun, wasn't it. It was a nice escape from the politics of our actual reality, as the 7th season of the world's most popular show ran through November and March. Shocking political events took some fun out of the show, and frankly made me mad enough to see AMC for the cheap bastards they have always been. Fuck their zombies. Fuck their cloaked prejudices. We get it... women are symptomatic of powerlessness when zombies are on the loose. Naturally this is a WIDELY contemplated message, and it is not "entertaining" unless you're an evil asshole. What are archetypes? I read the word all the time, and I think it applies to this. Remember TWD was the most popular show in the world, and that does mean a lot. Commercial slots are just intermissions for the true advertisement. Viewers are exposed to something far sicker than kill mom because she is going to eat you. That alone is terrible and worth attacking but TWD has layers of bullshit that do not to end. I draw the line at picking on females. Kill the baby is a bad one but God Damn it gets so much worse.

A fun TWD episode aired November 13, 2016: The grieving survivors struggle to come to terms with life under Negan's rule. Feeling powerless, Rick informs the survivors that he is no longer in charge and that they must learn to live by Negan's terms.

Black sales, series 3.....the dialogue, all the characters

If you're into poetic pirates the first season is really good. I didn't understand the plot past season one. Lot of prostitutes. Prostitutes on pirate island run thangs. Good pirate show but not too good after episode 13 or so. They did put a lot into the photography and the money was well spent but they killed all hope when they introduced Blackbeard in season 3. Though it wasn't Black Sails that caused another failed run for pirates. Jack Sparrow is a fucking clown. He killed all hope from 2003 to 2011. Steady garbage, making pirates look like total bitches. Johnny Depp thinks he is supposed to be cool again? Nah, he hasn't been cool since the 80's. The Charlie Chaplin of pirates can kiss my fucking ass, because this is 2017. He had a long pirate run but he failed, so how about some real pirates now? Sadly there are none on the horizon but don't lose hope. Maybe Johnny Depp will stop being an asshole someday.

Black Sails has a decent vibe. It needs no plot to be awesome, but wow it does have a plot. Some pretty awesome camera work too man. I recommend the first season because the ocean is pretty. It is worth watching just for that. The plot is a little too demanding and the implausible schemes do ruin the beautiful scenes but I give it 8/10 because the series is in a small class. Movies don't have any cool pirates lately so you'd say Black Sails is the best pirate stuff around.
 
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GLOW

9/10

Just binged the whole first season. Alison Brie, Marc Maron, 80's women's wrestling. What's not to like? My only disappointment was that I had to wait so long for an 80's style training montage.

Just started watching this. I'm 4 episodes in and it's pretty good so far.

7/10
 
The Mist

New series on Spike based on the Stephen King Novella.

It's okay. To be honest though, if it wasn't The Mist, I'd probably be a little less generous. That is, I want this show to be good so I'm cutting it some slack.

The Bad: I guess I took it as a given that filmmakers had mastered the ability to utilize cameras in scenes with heavy fog. I also took it as a given, having seen many cheesy local bands in my life, that fog machines are cheap and dry ice plentiful. I may have to rethink that because whoever is in charge of this has decided that a horribly artificial CGI fog was the way to go in this series. There's no getting around just how shitty it looks.

Second, the show is full of stereotypes, e.g., bigoted jocks and cops abound. There's a dad who hates his gay son. Do people like this exist in real life? Sure. But it doesn't make for nuanced or creative entertainment when we see the same unintelligent portrayals that we've seen in countless other bad productions.

Third, there is the usual litany of utterly stupid things that people do. Does anyone drive a car at high speed where's about 5' visibility? Nobody does that. Or, if they did, an accident is predictable? People in this show do that. Guess what happens. Oh, there's a super annoying junkie character and I hope she dies. This means she's a staple and will never die.

The Good: the main family characters; the father, mother, and daughter are all good. It's like there's a separate writing team for them that really knows what it's doing, while someone else was charged with the specific task of hiring bad writers for the rest of the shows.

Second, the show doesn't totally suck and is just okay enough to keep watching. But shows like this seem to eventually lose even that before driving off into a fog at 50 miles per hour, crashing into a moose, making for something you really don't want to look at.

5/10
 
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