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

Cobra Kai - 10/10

Umm ... wow.

I started watching this because I figured it would be a decent little bit of 80s nostalgia to waste some time with for a little bit and then quickly forget about. What I got was an exceptionally well written show full of nuanced characters, great plot lines and engaging themes. It has enough nostalgia in it to do decent fan service, but not so much that it overtakes the new storylines or causes people who never saw the Karate Kid movie to really miss anything about what's going on. It was completely unexpected how good this show is and and I was not prepared to be this impressed.

Basically, it's a sequel to the Karate Kid movie, thirty years later with the same actors. The bully who Danny defeated in the tournament (Johnny) is the main character and his life has been pretty shit since then and he's still kind of living in the 80s, which was the last time that he was cool, but he reopens the old Cobra Kai dojo and helps a bunch of outcast kids learn self-confidence and how to defend himself, mainly focusing on one kid whom he takes on as his first student, who's dating Danny's daughter in a Romeo and Juliet type sub-plot. He doesn't do it well in many cases, since he's been a drunken bum for thirty years, but the journey he goes through while trying is just awesome to see. Danny is also in it and his life is a success and everything in going well, in stark contrast to what's happening with Johnny, but he still has some PTSD from the bullying he went through in high school and he doesn't want to see the Cobra Kai come back.

The conflicts between the two of them are done well in that neither of them is ever really the bad guy, but because they're two people trying to do good but the bullshit from their past funneled through very believable stubbornness and poor decisions keeps having them butt heads with each other and leads up to their two students facing off in the same tournament that they fought in all those years ago. It is an amazing continuation of the characters that's faithful to the originals and moves their story along in a very compelling way.

One of the best surprises I've seen in a long time and if you have a vaguely fond memory of having once seen the Karate Kid move a long while back, you will enjoy it a lot.
 
The trailer for Cobra Kai looked pretty good, I'm tempted to give it a watch.

The Five, 6/10; A Netflix 10 episode crime thriller set in the UK that started off very promising. Back in 1995, four friends are out playing in a park and the younger brother (Jesse) of one of the friends tags along. Jesse disappears and is never seen again and a serial killer confesses to Jesse's murder. 20 odd years later, Jesse's DNA shows up at the scene of a brutal murder. How could this be ? This sets in motion a tangled web of plots and situations. For the most part, the story line holds up but there are a few gaping holes you have to put aside. There are too many episodes as things are dragged rather slowly at times and the ending is a bit flat but pretty much wraps things up nicely.
 
The Boys

I rewatched season one in preparation for the upcoming release of season two. It is a very entertaining and very cynical take on superheroes in the modern age. Antony Starr as Homelander is exceptional and watching everyone around him in total fear of his sociopathy is tense and riveting. I hope they can keep up the quality in season two.
I decided to start watching this as well (mid-way Season One at this point). I like the concept, but there appears to be a sustainability problem with the concept, as in the unraveling of the plot would seem to have been an issue the entire time for the original corporate concept. Regardless, it is generally entertaining and Karl Urban is one of my favorite actors as he just seems to put on a character so well.
 
The Boys

I rewatched season one in preparation for the upcoming release of season two. It is a very entertaining and very cynical take on superheroes in the modern age. Antony Starr as Homelander is exceptional and watching everyone around him in total fear of his sociopathy is tense and riveting. I hope they can keep up the quality in season two.
I decided to start watching this as well (mid-way Season One at this point). I like the concept, but there appears to be a sustainability problem with the concept, as in the unraveling of the plot would seem to have been an issue the entire time for the original corporate concept. Regardless, it is generally entertaining and Karl Urban is one of my favorite actors as he just seems to put on a character so well.

I’ve watched the first couple of episodes of season two. I’ll be interested in your thoughts as you finish season one.
 
Raised by Wolves - 2/10

it's another modern day ridley scott thing, so all the tropes are there: distant world, future tech, isolated groups with limited supplies, so it's basically a frontier western but with sci-fi gadgets.
also present is every idiotic cliche you can imagine from a religious person writing fiction trying to boogeyman atheists: preaching monologues about about 'faith destroyed humanity and so the only path forward is to worship Atheism' and how the black sheep underdog in the show is the one who questions atheism and yearns to find religious fundamentalism.

anyways i didn't make it through the first episode because this show is fucking atrocious. i suppose if you enjoy pretentious pseudo-spiritual claptrap it's probably fine, but i personally loathed it.
 
Curb Your Enthusiasm Season 10
Just watched it this week. I've watched a couple episodes twice. My first reaction was that it was a weak season overall, and I didn't imagine I'd return to it and find real gold. But I'm starting to. I think I'll eventually rate it as good but nowhere near the top. There are no priceless, stand-alone scenes in the season, like Larry in the stalled ski lift with the ultra-Orthodox Rachel Heineman (Season 5), or the "pre-gay" kid's entrance in season 8, or that jaw-dropping episode in season 7 called 'The Bare Midriff' which has the line "Did you spray on Jesus?" and the infamous belly fat sight gag.
 
Cobra Kai - 10/10

Umm ... wow.

I started watching this because I figured it would be a decent little bit of 80s nostalgia to waste some time with for a little bit and then quickly forget about. What I got was an exceptionally well written show full of nuanced characters, great plot lines and engaging themes. It has enough nostalgia in it to do decent fan service, but not so much that it overtakes the new storylines or causes people who never saw the Karate Kid movie to really miss anything about what's going on. It was completely unexpected how good this show is and and I was not prepared to be this impressed.

Basically, it's a sequel to the Karate Kid movie, thirty years later with the same actors. The bully who Danny defeated in the tournament (Johnny) is the main character and his life has been pretty shit since then and he's still kind of living in the 80s, which was the last time that he was cool, but he reopens the old Cobra Kai dojo and helps a bunch of outcast kids learn self-confidence and how to defend himself, mainly focusing on one kid whom he takes on as his first student, who's dating Danny's daughter in a Romeo and Juliet type sub-plot. He doesn't do it well in many cases, since he's been a drunken bum for thirty years, but the journey he goes through while trying is just awesome to see. Danny is also in it and his life is a success and everything in going well, in stark contrast to what's happening with Johnny, but he still has some PTSD from the bullying he went through in high school and he doesn't want to see the Cobra Kai come back.

The conflicts between the two of them are done well in that neither of them is ever really the bad guy, but because they're two people trying to do good but the bullshit from their past funneled through very believable stubbornness and poor decisions keeps having them butt heads with each other and leads up to their two students facing off in the same tournament that they fought in all those years ago. It is an amazing continuation of the characters that's faithful to the originals and moves their story along in a very compelling way.

One of the best surprises I've seen in a long time and if you have a vaguely fond memory of having once seen the Karate Kid move a long while back, you will enjoy it a lot.

Dude: really love Cobra Kai! Thanks for the recommendation. We're on season 1, episode 6.
 
Ted Lasso.

Done by Bill Lawrence, the guy who did Spin City and Scrubs. It's my substitute for The Good Place now that show is over. It's not hilarious, but there are some clever jokes. What it does have is a hell of a lot of heart. It's just a nice feel good show and I'm hooked.
 
The Boys

I rewatched season one in preparation for the upcoming release of season two. It is a very entertaining and very cynical take on superheroes in the modern age. Antony Starr as Homelander is exceptional and watching everyone around him in total fear of his sociopathy is tense and riveting. I hope they can keep up the quality in season two.
I decided to start watching this as well (mid-way Season One at this point). I like the concept, but there appears to be a sustainability problem with the concept, as in the unraveling of the plot would seem to have been an issue the entire time for the original corporate concept. Regardless, it is generally entertaining and Karl Urban is one of my favorite actors as he just seems to put on a character so well.

I’ve watched the first couple of episodes of season two. I’ll be interested in your thoughts as you finish season one.


A few months back a friend of mine recommended this series and I regret not immediately taking his advice. I'm only a few episodes into season one and am hooked.
 
Duncan Trussel's Midnight Gospel.

It's the new Rick and Morty. It's an attempt to have a show about genuinely deep subjects and discuss them in pretty fearless straight forward way. While animating it, making it trippy as fuck, and funny. I haven't tried watching this on drugs. But I will. I think it'll go well with psychadelics.

It's a lot about the big questions in life. Life, death, meaning of life.

It's awesome. Best show on TV right now.

Duncan Trussel also has a podcast, with a very similar feel. My suspicion is that he's taken some of his podcast episodes and then just created a story around the discussion and then had an animator animating them. Because that's how it feels. I don't mind. It's working for me.
 
Finished Season One of The Boys. Feels a lot like the Republican Party between 2012 and 2020.

Season Two should continue being interesting.
 
Away : Netflix. Not sure about this....they pick an international team to go to Mars.(3 yr trip) For some reason they pick women with husbands and children at home....so there you go. Problems at home and aboard leave a soap opera feel. I guess they couldn't find single young people on the planet. But it is interesting. End of season one. 6/10
 
Away : Netflix. Not sure about this....they pick an international team to go to Mars.(3 yr trip) For some reason they pick women with husbands and children at home....so there you go. Problems at home and aboard leave a soap opera feel. I guess they couldn't find single young people on the planet. But it is interesting. End of season one. 6/10

That was kind of tough to watch. But I wanted to see if they would make it. I was thinking, is this the best the world has to offer for a trip to Mars? Unprofessional and emotional. I don't think it's much of a spoiler to divulge everyone cries, I think in just about every episode. Crybaby astronauts.


If you haven't seen Stateless, it's worth a watch.
 
Finished Season One of The Boys. Feels a lot like the Republican Party between 2012 and 2020.

Season Two should continue being interesting.

Finished season one today. I liked it a lot. Mindless fun for the most part.


I mean, the supes are are all (almost) unkillable, while the normal people (including the titular Boys) are just fragile meat sacks, so the show really struggled to make it a fair fight. I also thought Homelander's real weakness is that he's stupid, but that went away at the end. And that ending...oh, boy.

 
Finished Season One of The Boys. Feels a lot like the Republican Party between 2012 and 2020.

Season Two should continue being interesting.


I admit, I like what they're doing with the whole "new episode on Friday" thing, but...


Having the new hero Stormfront be a literal Nazi is a bit too on the nose.

 
Safe, 8/10; A Netflix original eight part series starring Michael C Hall as Tom Delaney. A crime drama from author Harlan Coben set in a city in England. The plot revolves around the main character's (Tom) teenage daughter going missing after a house party in a gated community. Tom sets off to track down his daughter along with his romantic interest who happens to be a detective in the local police. During the course of the hunt some dark secrets from the past start to surface. The plot lines work pretty well and keep the suspense going with few distractions. Very enjoyable.

White Gold, season 2, 9/10; Available on Netflix this comedy series, set in the mid 80s follows the misadventures of Vincent Swan, (played by Ed Westwick) the head salesman of double glazing firm Cachet Windows. It is typical British humor filled with fantastic 1980s music from Depeche Mode, New Order, ABC, The Cure etc. The music is worth a watch alone but the comedy is pretty funny.
 
Star Trek: Discovery (season 3)

10 minutes into the first episode of season 3. What a fucking dumpster fire. It doesn't seem like the show runners learned anything from the mistakes of the first two seasons.
 
Star Trek: Discovery (season 3)

10 minutes into the first episode of season 3. What a fucking dumpster fire. It doesn't seem like the show runners learned anything from the mistakes of the first two seasons.

Yep. Lower Decks is pretty horrific as well.
 
The Queen's Gambit. 9/10 For me this is what TV should be....a fresh idea that is well crafted. A lot is said without words in this stylish mini-series. Maybe the key to series is to have an end in sight from the beginning. Do yourselves a favor and don't read about it, just watch it..now!
 
The Queen's Gambit. 9/10 For me this is what TV should be....a fresh idea that is well crafted. A lot is said without words in this stylish mini-series. Maybe the key to series is to have an end in sight from the beginning. Do yourselves a favor and don't read about it, just watch it..now!

Agreed. I'm loving the series. It's on Netflix.
 
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