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

[marc]

I agree that the production and acting were top notch. But I had to give up after the 5th episode because it was so depressing...

Very true. After watching several episodes I just wanted to watch Captain America for a bit to balance it out.

 

[KeepTalking]

So I stuck it out until the end. To say that it doesn't get any happier is an understatement. On that note:

DC's Legends of Tomorrow

I was surprised that I liked the first episode. And the second. And the third.

It wasn't great, but it was surprisingly watchable.

Then around the 4th or 5th episode it was like they got mad at consistency or anything resembling intelligence and curb stomped them both. Sure, a show about time traveling D list superheroes isn't going to be a logical tour de force, so you have to be willing to overlook a lot of things. But what you don't have to overlook is complete stupidity. I could make a list, but I won't because the show isn't worth it.

3/10

I kept at this one a little longer, and I don't think they want you to overlook the stupidity. I'd almost describe it as "joyful stupidity" in the following seasons. At first they tried to take themselves seriously, but in season 2 and beyond gave into the fact that it is, as you say, a show about time traveling D list superheroes and the show borders on camp humor.

I agree completely, it is a show that revels in its own stupidity, and that makes it extremely fun to watch for me. The protagonists aren't even all superheroes, Captain Cold and Heatwave are quintessential Flash villains, who got roped into doing something good, and never really do anything heroic just for the sake of doing good. White Canary spent time as a villain as well, but becomes the leader of this misfit band of "heroes". I like how the intro even says "don't call us heroes, call us legends". Heatwave has actually become my favorite character on the show, always carrying a beer with him, and trying his best to not do the right thing. Even at that his character is beginning to show development, just at a much slower pace than the others because of his much rougher background that led him to a life of crime. Being responsible for the death of your parents can cause considerably psychological trauma after all. I have fun watching the show, and that is what really matters for me, but I can certainly see why some people are put off by it, it is neither your typical superhero faire, nor you typical sci-fi time travel faire, and they do get intentionally cheesy at times.

 

[Tom Sawyer]

Ya, the show is cheesy but enjoyable. I like the way they deal with various time travel issues, like when they accidentally scare George Lucas and have him run away from film school to go home, so Atom forgets everything he knows about science because Star Wars never got made and that's what got him into the field, so they had to drop everything and run after Lucas to get him back to reset the timeline properly.

 

[TSwizzle]

Killing Eve, 7/10: A BBC drama starring Sandra Oh as an MI5 officer on the trail of a political assassin who is female. I've watched four episodes and it's decent but there is nothing unique about the plot. Interesting locations and good acting so I will stick with it.

The last episode was a bit shit but overall it was decent.

 

[Jayjay]

So I stuck it out until the end. To say that it doesn't get any happier is an understatement. On that note:

DC's Legends of Tomorrow

I was surprised that I liked the first episode. And the second. And the third.

It wasn't great, but it was surprisingly watchable.

Then around the 4th or 5th episode it was like they got mad at consistency or anything resembling intelligence and curb stomped them both. Sure, a show about time traveling D list superheroes isn't going to be a logical tour de force, so you have to be willing to overlook a lot of things. But what you don't have to overlook is complete stupidity. I could make a list, but I won't because the show isn't worth it.

3/10

I kept at this one a little longer, and I don't think they want you to overlook the stupidity. I'd almost describe it as "joyful stupidity" in the following seasons. At first they tried to take themselves seriously, but in season 2 and beyond gave into the fact that it is, as you say, a show about time traveling D list superheroes and the show borders on camp humor.

I agree completely, it is a show that revels in its own stupidity, and that makes it extremely fun to watch for me. The protagonists aren't even all superheroes, Captain Cold and Heatwave are quintessential Flash villains, who got roped into doing something good, and never really do anything heroic just for the sake of doing good. White Canary spent time as a villain as well, but becomes the leader of this misfit band of "heroes". I like how the intro even says "don't call us heroes, call us legends". Heatwave has actually become my favorite character on the show, always carrying a beer with him, and trying his best to not do the right thing. Even at that his character is beginning to show development, just at a much slower pace than the others because of his much rougher background that led him to a life of crime. Being responsible for the death of your parents can cause considerably psychological trauma after all. I have fun watching the show, and that is what really matters for me, but I can certainly see why some people are put off by it, it is neither your typical superhero faire, nor you typical sci-fi time travel faire, and they do get intentionally cheesy at times.

I think "intentionally cheesy" is a copout for lazy writing. And while I liked Captain Cold and Heatwave, the former getting killed off left the latter hanging. He just doesn't have any good chemistry with the rest of the characters.

I do think that him secretly writing a science fiction novel was a stroke of brilliance in an otherwise drab and boring cartoon. I'd like to see an episode down the line that explores it further... maybe set in the world of Rory's scifi imagination.

 

[DrZoidberg]

The Rain

It's a Scandinavian attempt to make a Walking Dead. This time there's a deadly virus in the rain. It's not very good. I think it's funny that it's based in Denmark and Sweden, which is fun if you live here. Otherwise, not so much. The problem is the writing. They could have spent a lot more time making the characters more interesting.

 

[Underseer]

The Rain

It's a Scandinavian attempt to make a Walking Dead. This time there's a deadly virus in the rain. It's not very good. I think it's funny that it's based in Denmark and Sweden, which is fun if you live here. Otherwise, not so much. The problem is the writing. They could have spent a lot more time making the characters more interesting.

The best Scandinavian post-apocalyptic story in my opinion is the webcomic Stand Still, Stay Silent:

http://www.sssscomic.com/comic.php?page=1

 

[Opoponax]

The Rain

It's a Scandinavian attempt to make a Walking Dead. This time there's a deadly virus in the rain. It's not very good. I think it's funny that it's based in Denmark and Sweden, which is fun if you live here. Otherwise, not so much. The problem is the writing. They could have spent a lot more time making the characters more interesting.

I started watching this too, and same as you, came away disappointed for a wide variety of reasons. It's just not good.

Anyway...

Legion

What was initially a really great show came to a screeching, artsy, self-important, confusing, insufferable, excessive halt. I haven't watched the last episode of the season yet though. Maybe it finally gets the fuck over itself and moves forward.

 

[Underseer]

The Rain

It's a Scandinavian attempt to make a Walking Dead. This time there's a deadly virus in the rain. It's not very good. I think it's funny that it's based in Denmark and Sweden, which is fun if you live here. Otherwise, not so much. The problem is the writing. They could have spent a lot more time making the characters more interesting.

I started watching this too, and same as you, came away disappointed for a wide variety of reasons. It's just not good.

Anyway...

Legion

What was initially a really great show came to a screeching, artsy, self-important, confusing, insufferable, excessive halt. I haven't watched the last episode of the season yet though. Maybe it finally gets the fuck over itself and moves forward.

The protagonist is a white male. Doesn't that automatically make it good?

Anyway, that was kind of my reaction from the first episode of season 2. The rest of the season has been piling up on my DVR. I'll get around to watching the rest of it one of these days.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

Rocky and Bullwinkle (Amazon reboot) - I was so excited to see Amazon rebooted Rocky and Bullwinkle. I saw the initial rating score and was curious. Then after the first 5 or so minutes, I turned it off. I was so disappointed to see Amazon rescripted some Nick program and put moose and squirrel in it. I’ll probably need to restart it, but the feel was not of the original show, not remotely.

1 of 4

 

[Opoponax]

Rocky and Bullwinkle (Amazon reboot) - I was so excited to see Amazon rebooted Rocky and Bullwinkle. I saw the initial rating score and was curious. Then after the first 5 or so minutes, I turned it off. I was so disappointed to see Amazon rescripted some Nick program and put moose and squirrel in it. I’ll probably need to restart it, but the feel was not of the original show, not remotely.

1 of 4

That's disappointing. As I was reading your post, my right hand was already drifting up to click over to Amazon to start watching. Then it dropped back to the keyboard to assist in writing this post.

 

[Underseer]

Cloak & Dagger

Only 2 episodes so far, but it's better than I was expecting. They both preserved and reversed the "opposite side of the tracks" thing to avoid racial implications from the original origin story. Tandy starts out well-to-do as a young child, but by the time she's a teenager, her mom is living in a trailer, she's living in an abandoned church, and they're both abusing drugs. Tyrone starts out poor, but by the time he's a teenager he's attending a fancy private school. So Tyrone and Tandy are still from the opposite sides of the tracks, but both reversed positions, which I found to be kind of an interesting take.

They're taking their sweet ass time setting things up, so I'm guessing the whole first season will serve as the origin story.

They no longer got their powers from Roxxon testing synthetic drugs on them. This time, it was some unspecified science experiment on an offshore rig and the two protagonists happened to be near it when[ent]hellip[/ent] eh. I shouldn't explore it. It's no longer based on drug experiments, but Roxxon (the standard Marvel standin for evil corporations) is still responsible.

It's way too early to give an overall rating, but so far the production values seem quite high.

Trigger Warning
The protagonists are a white female and an African-American male, which means there is no white male protagonist, which automatically makes this a terrible TV show in the eyes of our more fragile forum members. Don't bother watching this if you're the sort who thinks that men are the "real victims" of #metoo, white people are the "real victims" of racism, or if you are in the habit of using "both sides" arguments to make Nazis seem less bad.

Also, a corporation is portrayed as being less than perfect and virtuous despite the Magic Of The Free Market, which could also trigger some people.​

 

[Goodchild]

Super stoked at the news today that Netflix picked up Lucifer.

Sent from my SM-G930P using Tapatalk

 

[Jayjay]

Timeless (season 2)
5/10

Timeless is a series that almost got canceled, but somehow pulled through to second season due to fan demand. But maybe it shouldn't have. The premise of the series is that there is a time machine, that's in the hands of an evil conspiracy called Rittenhouse that affects history to its own benefit, and the rag tag team of heroes are using another time machine to foil their plots. In season 1 this was switched around by having Rittenhouse actually controlling the protagonists, while the "villain" they were chasing was actually fighting Rittenhouse. Now they are all in the same team, everybody's on the level who's a good guy and who's a bad guy, ... and that's kind of boring. At least in the first season, there were revelations and plot twists due to the fact that during the series it slowly dawned on the protagonists that maybe there were playing for the wrong team. Now all that's gone, and every episode follows a same, very predictable formula.

Another thing about the show is that the time periods where the heroes travel always highlight some female or black american, lesser known historical figure in a positive light. Sure it's not entirely realistic, but in season one it was possible to overlook that because at least in my opinion there's no harm in propping up minorities instead of showing the bleak reality of what it was like to be a woman or a black person in 19th and early 20th century America. It's light entertainment, after all, and if viewers can learn about the impact some women might have had in history, what's the harm? But in season 2 they cranked this up as well. All but two episodes in the season are about some african american or a female character that for some reason is presented not only as one of the most influential people in American history, also as a personal hero to at least one of the main protagonists. And the justification why Rittenhouse would want them out of the way breaks any illusion of immersion the viewer might have had. For example, they are targeting blues musician Robert Johnson because apparently if it wasn't for a record he made in 1936, there wouldn't have been a counter-culture of 1960s or withdrawal from Vietnam. Say what? And another example is a short speech made by suffragette Alice Paul in 1919, without which women wouldn't have vote in 2018, or so the series would have us believe. And for some reason the evil conspiracy also goes back to civil war trying to make the South win by specifically targeting Harriett Tubman, whose role in freeing slaves was obviously fine, but role in ending the actual war less crucial. It all just comes off as an education show, than an exciting time travel show. The time travel is just a plot device to preach and build up heroic but ultimately unhistorical characterizations of certain minority historical figures. Oh and one of the episodes that does not do this involves around lesbianism of one of the main characters in 1980s so that qualifies as just as preachy as the rest.

Did I learn something new from the series? Sure. In season one the episode about Katherine Johnson, before the movie "Hidden Figures" came out, for example. But the overall storyline of the show is idiotic. The conspiracy to rule the world makes absolutely nonsensical decisions and is portrayed as ideologically anti-women and a racist organization, even if some of their members are women and black, and how they intend to rule the world by murdering off black blues musicians and race car drivers is utterly contrived. Add to that stupid cliches about people having visions of future that sometimes come true and sometimes don't with no rhyme or reason, and you got yourself a total flop. I wish there were more time travel shows that took the time travel part seriously and actually tried to make it internally consistent. Right now, you're better off watching Travelers or 12 Monkeys than this piece of garbage that should be put to rest (and hopefully is).

 

[James Brown]

Timeless (season 2)
5/10

Timeless is a series that almost got canceled, but somehow pulled through to second season due to fan demand. But maybe it shouldn't have. The premise of the series is that there is a time machine, that's in the hands of an evil conspiracy called Rittenhouse that affects history to its own benefit, and the rag tag team of heroes are using another time machine to foil their plots. In season 1 this was switched around by having Rittenhouse actually controlling the protagonists, while the "villain" they were chasing was actually fighting Rittenhouse. Now they are all in the same team, everybody's on the level who's a good guy and who's a bad guy, ... and that's kind of boring. At least in the first season, there were revelations and plot twists due to the fact that during the series it slowly dawned on the protagonists that maybe there were playing for the wrong team. Now all that's gone, and every episode follows a same, very predictable formula.

Another thing about the show is that the time periods where the heroes travel always highlight some female or black american, lesser known historical figure in a positive light. Sure it's not entirely realistic, but in season one it was possible to overlook that because at least in my opinion there's no harm in propping up minorities instead of showing the bleak reality of what it was like to be a woman or a black person in 19th and early 20th century America. It's light entertainment, after all, and if viewers can learn about the impact some women might have had in history, what's the harm? But in season 2 they cranked this up as well. All but two episodes in the season are about some african american or a female character that for some reason is presented not only as one of the most influential people in American history, also as a personal hero to at least one of the main protagonists. And the justification why Rittenhouse would want them out of the way breaks any illusion of immersion the viewer might have had. For example, they are targeting blues musician Robert Johnson because apparently if it wasn't for a record he made in 1936, there wouldn't have been a counter-culture of 1960s or withdrawal from Vietnam. Say what? And another example is a short speech made by suffragette Alice Paul in 1919, without which women wouldn't have vote in 2018, or so the series would have us believe. And for some reason the evil conspiracy also goes back to civil war trying to make the South win by specifically targeting Harriett Tubman, whose role in freeing slaves was obviously fine, but role in ending the actual war less crucial. It all just comes off as an education show, than an exciting time travel show. The time travel is just a plot device to preach and build up heroic but ultimately unhistorical characterizations of certain minority historical figures. Oh and one of the episodes that does not do this involves around lesbianism of one of the main characters in 1980s so that qualifies as just as preachy as the rest.

Did I learn something new from the series? Sure. In season one the episode about Katherine Johnson, before the movie "Hidden Figures" came out, for example. But the overall storyline of the show is idiotic. The conspiracy to rule the world makes absolutely nonsensical decisions and is portrayed as ideologically anti-women and a racist organization, even if some of their members are women and black, and how they intend to rule the world by murdering off black blues musicians and race car drivers is utterly contrived. Add to that stupid cliches about people having visions of future that sometimes come true and sometimes don't with no rhyme or reason, and you got yourself a total flop. I wish there were more time travel shows that took the time travel part seriously and actually tried to make it internally consistent. Right now, you're better off watching Travelers or 12 Monkeys than this piece of garbage that should be put to rest (and hopefully is).

I felt the same way mid-way through the first season. It made me pine for a remake of Quantum Leap.

 

[Goodchild]

Watched the first episode of Cloak & Dagger, it was very very engaging and kept us glued to it through the show. Looking forward to catching up on the next few episodes tomorrow.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

Lost in Space (Three episodes in) - I'm kind of having a hard time making it through this. It feels like work at times. I understand they want to establish characters and what not, but the challenges seem to be cliche. Going to try to give it a few more episodes.

Sense8 (Just one episode in) - Way too early to tell.

Jessica Jones (About half way through Season 2) - Doing a good job of staying in between the lines. Though Trish's character is getting grating.

I felt the same way mid-way through the first season. It made me pine for a remake of Quantum Leap.

...The Incredible Hulk, Touched By An Angel, Highway to Heaven.

 

[Opoponax]

The Ranch

Okay, I'm not actually watching it, but suffered through three episodes with my Trump loving sister.

Good god what an unfunny piece of shit this is. And there are some talented actors in it: Sam Elliot, Elisha Cuthbert, and while a lot of people don't like Ashton Kutcher, I think he's capable. It's obviously targeted toward a conservative audience and attempts to be self-deprecating at times, but in three episodes I didn't laugh once. And not because it was conservative show; hell, if something's funny, it's funny. But this was formulaic and you could guess the punchlines halfway through the sentence that was setting the punchline up.

Pathetic/10

 

[Ford]

Lost in Space (Three episodes in) - I'm kind of having a hard time making it through this. It feels like work at times. I understand they want to establish characters and what not, but the challenges seem to be cliche. Going to try to give it a few more episodes.

I stuck with it, and think it paid off. The show is slow, but the characters really do have depth. The Robinson family members were just the sort of problem solvers you'd want to have on a mission like that, but even with all their preparation they wound up being in over their heads. Bonus points for using the theme music from the 3rd season of the original series.

 

[Underseer]

Two episodes in to season 2 of Luke Cage.

So far they are focusing more on the human relationships and less on the action stuff, which is an improvement over the first season.

Misty Knight is the first African-American female superhero, but I think she might be the first or at least one of the earliest amputee superheroes, and although this is following the story from the comic book, the cops are treating Misty differently because of her arm.

What's new is that it looks like the writers did actual research into the issues faced by amputees and how people treat amputees. In fact, they do just about everything right in dealing with a disability such that I almost had to wonder if the writers also watched this video:



Misty is really getting her own story arc. Not enough to eclipse the main story or even the antagonists' stories, but it's still much more than we're used to seeing from a subplot in one of these Marvel-Netflix shows. I'm loving it.

We saw on-set production photos released by Netflix to promote the show, so we all know that Misty is eventually going to get the robot arm she's famous for in the comic books. She's finally going to become a full-blown hero in her own right.