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

CJW said:
Tales From the Loop on Amazon Prime

Maybe 7 out of 10. Sci-Fi series with most episodes being self contained stories focused on the people who live and work around an underground research facility called The Loop in Mercer Ohio. I thought it would be Amazon's answer to Stranger Things, but it wasn't like the netflix show at all. There's only some tangential overarching connection between episodes, though several of the characters recur in about half the episodes. There's weirdness all around the town, like wandering robots and a mysterious stream and a malfunctioning tractor that just hovers in mid air and rusty pieces of junk that happen to have some odd purpose. The show focuses on the human element and pretty much ignores most of the weirdness. There is no Lost or Twin Peaks or even West World-type effort being made to solve the mystery with new clues revealed like peeling back an onion. Not all episodes resonate, but several were first rate explorations of some quality of our humanity.

The main problem I have with the show though is a complete lack of temporal context. The time frame is supposed to be late 70's/Early 80s (with flash backs and forwards) but there is no mention of contemporaneous events and the show seems rather unrealistically self contained. For such an experimental research facility that is bending reality itself, I would have expected at least a strong military presence as this was still the cold war, and the military uses of this technology could have been profound.
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That's a good review. I thought that Tales from the Loop was a great show. I liked it much better than Stranger Things. It's well acted and odd - aspects that I love in a TV show.
 
Harry Bosch said:
CJW said:
Tales From the Loop on Amazon Prime

Maybe 7 out of 10. Sci-Fi series with most episodes being self contained stories focused on the people who live and work around an underground research facility called The Loop in Mercer Ohio. I thought it would be Amazon's answer to Stranger Things, but it wasn't like the netflix show at all. There's only some tangential overarching connection between episodes, though several of the characters recur in about half the episodes. There's weirdness all around the town, like wandering robots and a mysterious stream and a malfunctioning tractor that just hovers in mid air and rusty pieces of junk that happen to have some odd purpose. The show focuses on the human element and pretty much ignores most of the weirdness. There is no Lost or Twin Peaks or even West World-type effort being made to solve the mystery with new clues revealed like peeling back an onion. Not all episodes resonate, but several were first rate explorations of some quality of our humanity.

The main problem I have with the show though is a complete lack of temporal context. The time frame is supposed to be late 70's/Early 80s (with flash backs and forwards) but there is no mention of contemporaneous events and the show seems rather unrealistically self contained. For such an experimental research facility that is bending reality itself, I would have expected at least a strong military presence as this was still the cold war, and the military uses of this technology could have been profound.
Click to expand...

That's a good review. I thought that Tales from the Loop was a great show. I liked it much better than Stranger Things. It's well acted and odd - aspects that I love in a TV show.
Click to expand...
I've also seen it compared more to Black Mirror, rather than Stranger things - Having only seen the first 3 Black mirror episodes, I think that's an apt comparison, but Tales has more much more heart and empathy. I would definitely watch a second season.
 
Perry Mason on HBO

8/10. Watched the first episode of the new HBO series Perry Mason. It’s very noir, which I like, so I plan to continue watching as the series develops

It’s supposed to be the back story for the Fifties/Sixties TV series, and it’s set in the early years of the Depression like Gardner’s novels (which I’ve never read), but other than a few names it seems completely unrelated. Mason is not a lawyer, or even in law school, but a struggling private eye scraping a few dollars here and there on surveillance cases (jumping in with a camera and catching a couple in flagrante delicto).. The secretary, Della Street, looks to be the same age as her Fifties counterpart. The first episode puts Mason into a high profile case which sets up the series. Very gritty tone. Nudity, violence, language, etc.
 
The Stranger, 7/10; A British thriller that starts off really well and sucks you in. A successful lawyer is confronted by a "stranger" who insinuates that his wife is hiding something from him, a fake pregnancy and get his sons DNA checked as maybe they are not his. This encounter is just the start of a series of interconnected plots that start off really well but become wearisome as things progress. The first plot is good but some of the later plot lines become labored and not very believable. It stars Siobhan Finneran who starred in Rita, Sue and Bob Too.

Little Boy Blue, 8/10; A British crime drama based on a true story. Stars Stephen Graham as a detective investigating the shooting of eleven year old schoolboy Rhys Jones in Liverpool, England. The "Little Boy Blue" is because Rhys was an avid Everton supporter. It's a tragic story but well told and highlights the dedication of the police force in their investigation under difficult conditions.
 
CJW said:
Harry Bosch said:
CJW said:
Tales From the Loop on Amazon Prime

Maybe 7 out of 10. Sci-Fi series with most episodes being self contained stories focused on the people who live and work around an underground research facility called The Loop in Mercer Ohio. I thought it would be Amazon's answer to Stranger Things, but it wasn't like the netflix show at all. There's only some tangential overarching connection between episodes, though several of the characters recur in about half the episodes. There's weirdness all around the town, like wandering robots and a mysterious stream and a malfunctioning tractor that just hovers in mid air and rusty pieces of junk that happen to have some odd purpose. The show focuses on the human element and pretty much ignores most of the weirdness. There is no Lost or Twin Peaks or even West World-type effort being made to solve the mystery with new clues revealed like peeling back an onion. Not all episodes resonate, but several were first rate explorations of some quality of our humanity.

The main problem I have with the show though is a complete lack of temporal context. The time frame is supposed to be late 70's/Early 80s (with flash backs and forwards) but there is no mention of contemporaneous events and the show seems rather unrealistically self contained. For such an experimental research facility that is bending reality itself, I would have expected at least a strong military presence as this was still the cold war, and the military uses of this technology could have been profound.
Click to expand...

That's a good review. I thought that Tales from the Loop was a great show. I liked it much better than Stranger Things. It's well acted and odd - aspects that I love in a TV show.
Click to expand...
I've also seen it compared more to Black Mirror, rather than Stranger things - Having only seen the first 3 Black mirror episodes, I think that's an apt comparison, but Tales has more much more heart and empathy. I would definitely watch a second season.
Click to expand...

If you liked Tales from the Loop, I'd also recommend DEVS. Great show. Very well acted. Cool plot that kept me guessing.
 
The Bay, 9/10; A six episode British crime thriller set in the dreary seaside town of Morecambe Bay, England. The story starts off with the disappearance of teenage brother and sister. The story follows the investigation through the family liaison officer, Lisa Armstrong. The story is well written and well acted with plot lines being believable.
 
Watchmen HBO Series 8 of 10

Just finished Watchmen - Found it entirely engaging from the get-go. I really enjoyed what they did with Laurie Blake's character in particular, even though I think they didn't know what to do with her for the last two episodes. Trent Reznor's score was fantastic as well.
 
I just finished season one of the animated Star Wars series The Clone Wars. I had read very strong praise for the series but the first season was ho hum. I may continue just to see if it gets better and merits the accolades but so far I’m not seeing it.
 
Doom Patrol - 5/10 (as a superhero comic adaptation), 3/10 (as art in general relative to what the medium of television is capable of)

so if superhero shows are your bag, this is good. if they're not, this offer absolutely nothing of value.
if you're into it, this show is basically the boys crossed with the tick - it has a gritty dark tone and is violent, but is also nonstop wacky humor and silly shit and jokes.
the show pulls it off well so the contrast is never jarring, it was a pleasant watch all the way through.

the plot and characters and details are utterly irrelevant, every single aspect of this show is extremely cliche and derivative. if you'd ever even heard of the superhero genre you already know the plot.
the joys come from the actors and the quirks. brendan fraser being a nonstop swearing rage machine is amusing as hell. as always, alan tudyk proves himself to be an absolute national treasure just by his existence.
 
It would sure be nice if people would say where they are watching these tv shows from.
 
ZiprHead said:
It would sure be nice if people would say where they are watching these tv shows from.
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if only there was some kind of universal service you could use where you could enter literally anything in the english language and it would tell you all about it.
they could give it some kind of really easy name so nobody could ever possibly forget it.

hm.... moogle? perhaps boogle. loogle rolls off the tongue pretty nicely.

well maybe someday someone will be clever enough to invent that.
 
Dead To Me, Season 1, 7/10; Netflix series starring Christina Applegate as a widow and mother of two young boys struggling with the hit and run accident that killed her husband. Starts off very slow in the first episode but I'm glad I stuck with it as it improved. The plot revolves around the friendship between Jen (the widow) and Judy the other main character. They meet at a bereavement counseling session and as things go along, Judy is not being honest about who she is or her motives for striking up the friendship. Piece by piece, things start to fall into place for one and unravel for the other. One season was probably enough but it looks like it will stretch into three seasons.
 
Penny Dreadful - City of Angels 6/10 - On Showtime.

I never watched any of the other Penny Dreadful seasons, but this one seemed intriguing. LA in 1939 is caught in a war between the supernatural entities of Magda and Santa Muerte - though It's mostly Magda doing all the warring and Santa Muerte looking the other way. Stylish Noir where the focus in on the Vega family, and Tiago Vega the first Chicano detective on the LA force. Magda (Natalie Dormer playing several manifestations of the spiritual Magda) is trying to start a race war by playing Chicanos, whites, Jews and Nazis all off each other, using the premise of the nascent expansion of LA's freeway system through the barrio.

The performances are generally enjoyable including Nathan Lanes as Vega's hard boiled Jewish partner. The story falters in spots, and some of the actions taking by the characters were off-putting. Like

Lane's decision to execute the Cal Tech student

.

Also the attempts to show the modern day parallels are a bit too heavy handed for my tastes

"It's not a highway - It's a Wall!"



Probably will watch a second season
 
Dirty John, 8/10; An eight part series stars Eric Bana and Connie Britton in the dramatization of the John Meehan story/podcast. John Meehan is a liar, cheat and conman who preys on vulnerable women. He cons his way into the heart of Debra Newell, a successful but vulnerable, four times divorced middle aged woman. The climax of the story is quite remarkable considering it is true. The acting is good and the most of the episodes are very well done. Well worth a watch.
 
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