Friday's Favorite 100 Longform Video Media

[Silversong]

I wish I could watch Buffy. It was fun at first when it was monster of the week, but when Angel goes evil it triggered my PTSD and I was shaking until I needed to stop watching it.
Maybe I could watch people dryly critiquing it instead.

[Friday]

34. House of the Dragon



House of the Dragon is a show about politics and backstabbing and squabbling and how the pursuit of power is ultimately futile, empty, and self-destructive. I mean, even moreso than Game of Thrones.

HotD is like if GoT had every scene that happened not set in the Red Keep removed. It's all politics, all the time, except for a few scenes of Dragons and Dragons fighting each other. That isn't to say that the show is bad, but it's just a very particular slice of the GoT experience. It's very very very focused on court politics and the behind the scenes maneuvering of the families and people in power make to get even more power.

So, like, GoT is famous for "morally grey" characters.

Eh.

GoT has plenty of good guys and bad guys. Sure, it's got a lot that are somewhere in the middle, but like, Brienne of Tarth is a fucking Lawful Good Paladin. Joffrey is one evil dude. I don't think the show/books lack "good guys" or "bad guys." It may have more characters that cannot easily fall into either description, but I personally think that people went a little overboard when describing how morally grey GoT was. Yes, Tyrion and Jon Snow aren't perfect, and they ain't Paladins like Brienne is, but I mean, they're still good guys. The show/books are not entirely populated by shades of grey.

HotD might be, though.

Don't get me wrong. There are characters who are more good than bad, and vice versa. This isn't the Sopranos, I have people to root for. But yeah, it's gritty. I think if anything George doubled down on showing that "people are people, they are complex and the labels of "good" and "bad" are fantasies" and he mostly succeeds in demonstrating that.

So, who we got?

Emma D'Arcy as Rhaenyra Targaryen: The show is an ensemble cast, of course, but Rhaenyra is more the main character than anyone else ever was on GoT. She's played amazingly by D'Arcy, who shows a masterful command of how to portray both a capable intelligent Queen, with a balance of ruthlessness and compassion, and a very human, emotionally driven mother. Rhaenyra leans more toward good than her enemies, and I root for her, but she's no saint.

Milly Alcock as young Rhaenyra Targaryen: As good as D'Arcy is, they cannot compare to Alcock's portrayal of the same character as a teen in the early episodes. Alcock is electric in her role, bringing every scene she's in an energy and magnetism that only the truly gifted can produce. Her teenage mistakes are forgivable, but have long reaching consequences. I felt sad to see her go when D'Arcy took over the character.

Matt Smith as Daemon Targaryen: Daemon is... well. I started off hating him, then I sort of cooled on him, then I sort of liked him, then I sort of hated him again. Finally at the end of s2 I just don't know what to fucking feel anymore. I'll say this, Smith plays him well. He's a great character. A hero in his own mind, honestly. Is he Jamie Lannister 2.0? No, but he's the closest we're gonna get on the show. I'll say this: I'm more interested to see where this character goes in the next season than any other. He's a true wildcard.

Paddy Considine as King Viserys I Targaryen: Man, remember when I said Alcock was the best actor on the show like two seconds ago? Considine's final walk to his throne brought tears to my eyes. Viserys is a man slowly being torn apart by the very power he commands, and despite the audience knowing that everything has to go to shit and the family must be divided, Viserys does everything in his power to stop that from happening. A kind man, a wise man, and ultimately a man who failed in preventing a war.

Olivia Cooke as Alicent Hightower: Rhaenyra's childhood companion turned competitor for the Iron Throne. The mirror image of Rhaenyra, who has almost the exact same motivations for doing what she does as Rhaenyra does. The only thing that separates her from Rhaenyra, really, is the people who surround her are worse than the people who surround Rhaenyra. Not that Rhaenyra doesn't have some pretty shitty people on her side, not the least of which is Daemon.

There are more, of course. I can't list them all. All the actors are good. It will never live up to GoT at its peak seasons, of course, but if Season 7 and Season 8 of GoT left a bad taste in your mouth, then this show might be a pretty good mouthwash.

Unfortunately, HotD was hit with budget cuts in the second season, forcing them to cut the final two episodes that were planned to have brobdingnagian climatic Dragon fights. This means that season 2 sort of ends on a "wait a minute, mostly nothing actually really happened this whole season" feeling. I can only hope that they make up for this problem in season 3.

HotD is, at the end of the day, a story about how the pursuit of power will not only not make you happy, but actively destroy you. The Iron Throne poisons the one who sits on it. Power itself is poisonous. You think you're making yourself and your family safer, but in reality you are only painting a target on your back. It's an important lesson for us all. If you seek Power for its own ends, you will destroy yourself.

Do I recommend this show:
Hey, it's the opposite of Lonesome Dove!

I recommend this show to everyone who isn't Mongrel! Or rather, I recommend this show to anyone who was a GoT fan who wasn't just there for the titties and swordfights.

(this is based on my impression that you are not a brobdingnagian GoT fan, Mongrel. But maybe this show would be more to your liking? It is marginally less brutal in regards to the whole killing characters off thing.)

[Friday]

Oh, also, fuck Aemond.

[Büge]

This means that season 2 sort of ends on a "wait a minute, mostly nothing actually really happened this whole season" feeling.

Ah. The Desolation of Smaug.

This touches on a problem I've noticed with a lot of weekly streaming shows. Studios want them to be prestige drama, but oftentimes the concept behind the show won't have enough meat to it to support 10+ episodes, so they pad it out. Oftentimes this comes in the form of

1. Episodes will have a lot of puttering around for the first 45 minutes and then all the relevant plot happens in the last 15 minutes. Usually with a cliffhanger.
2. The story will stop dead in its tracks to have an episode with people talking in a room. Maybe it's a mystery. Maybe it's a courtroom episode. Whatever it is, it'll be budget-friendly.
3. The season will have a lot of puttering around for the first three to six episodes and then all the relevant plot happens in the last two episodes. Usually with a teaser for future seasons.

So if your show has to end early, it's going to look weirdly mediocre.

[Mongrel]

And most of them end early now because of the ridiculous desire to avoid paying actors higher wages from the 3rd season onward.

Which means that people are actually refusing to watch prestige shows until they last for more than a season or two.

Who could have possibly guessed there would be consequences?!

================

I don't really hate GoT, but yeah, it's been hard for me to get into. And knowing that the books will almost certainly never be finished, and the show's quality falls off a cliff is a huge lump of additional discouragement.

Like, I'll just watch the Tyrion highlight reel and probably get 70%-80% of what I want out of the show in 1/50th the time

[Thad]

And most of them end early now because of the ridiculous desire to avoid paying actors higher wages from the 3rd season onward.

I think it's after the third season, at least on Netflix, where they love canceling shows after three seasons (if they don't do it after one).

[Mongrel]

I think you're right, but an increasing number of those shows are getting good reviews and ratings yet being cancelled after two or even one season, and the creators have to write as if there's more seasons coming, and it's getting bad enough that people are memeing about it.

I have no idea what they're doing over at Netflix et al

[Upthorn]

I saw someone say that Netflix is following the Venture Capital model -- throw money at every project, and then cut losers off early because one success will pay for all the failures and then some...

Which is already borderline superstitious nonsense in the VC field, but is an even worse model in TV, where it actually takes a fair bit of time to even determine whether or not a thing is successful

[Thad]

And I've read that they're starting to notice that the novelty of dumping an entire series at once and expecting people to watch it in a weekend has the downside that nobody's talking about it anymore two weeks later.

To say nothing of shows like MST3K that don't fit within Netflix's metrics at all.

[Friday]

I will say that when I watched through the show, I didn't know about any budget cuts or that two episodes had been pruned. I only found out afterward.

I will say that it didn't really bother me all that much. I felt a little let down that a ton of build up had happened but with no climatic confrontation, but I figured they were just saving that bit for the next season.

I mentioned the cuts in my review because I hear that a lot of people were really let down by season 2, but it wasn't that bad in my opinion. Season 1 was better, for sure, but season 2 is good also.

If you were interested in watching the show, don't let the cuts dissuade you. It's still a really good show with good characters, acting, and plot.

EDIT: while you were...

And I've read that they're starting to notice that the novelty of dumping an entire series at once and expecting people to watch it in a weekend has the downside that nobody's talking about it anymore two weeks later.

Yeah, this is actually a thing that I don't like. My friends have now become acclimated to just straight up binging shit, so if I don't want to watch stuff by myself I have to binge with them. I actually dislike getting everything in three days. I enjoy talking about the show with friends, speculating and giving theories, discussing the characters and what you think they'll do next, etc. You know, the "Watercooler" effect.

It's fun! I like socializing and talking about stuff! I honestly think that streaming services should release on a weekly schedule.

[Thad]

Most of them do.

Because most of them are companies with a background in traditional TV.

[Friday]

33. Derry Girls

I'm gonna skip the video this time, because I guess Derry Girls has no OP, and also I don't want to link you any scenes, because this is a comedy show and I don't want to ruin any jokes.

So, first off: Watch this show with Subtitles on. Unless you are JD, you will not be able to understand otherwise, the accent is very real.

Derry Girls is about a group of Catholic schoolgirls set in Northern Ireland in the 90s. Sounds like a recipe for Trouble!

Okay, sorry, that was terrible.

Created and written by Lisa McGee, that premiered on 4 January 2018 on Channel 4[4] and ran for three series. The channel's most successful comedy since Father Ted, the series was inspired by McGee's own experiences growing up in Derry, Northern Ireland, in the 1990s, during the final years of the Troubles.

So, despite the setting, this show is mostly an absurdist comedy. It's very very funny, and not in the usual way because everyone is so very Irish. All the characters and actors are good, but the stand out is Sister George Michael, played by Siobhán McSweeney. Acid tongued and completely unfazeable, Sister Michael stares down the idiocy the surrounds her with such supreme contempt and dauntless, scathing indifference that I have to hand it her, she may actually be the most "that type" of character in history. She's fucking hysterical.

Speaking of, the show is really, really funny. Like, remember when I was talking about Arrested Development and I said that the show was really clever and witty in a way that impresses you even if that one particular joke doesn't land? Derry Girls combines that with raw grit and Irish razorwire. The show is at once both incredibly witty and incredibly brutal, even mean. I assume it's an Irish thing, but man, whatever it is, it's fucking hilarious.

I haven't yet seen the final third season, but season 1 and 2 were A+. There's not much of a plot to discuss, really. It's absurdist slice of life. I guess the "events" of the show kick off when James Maguire (Dylan Llewellyn) returns to Ireland after having grown up in London. In concern for his safety, due to anti-English sentiment, he is allowed to attend the all girls Catholic School with his cousin. He ends up the butt-monkey of the group of teens, but eventually is accepted into the group as "one of the girls."

The hyucks do occasionally get interrupted by Real Life rearing its ugly head. The Troubles were, to the people in Ireland, not some distant problem but a very near and present ongoing disruption (and danger) to their lives. The show does actually show archived footage of the 1995 visit by President Clinton and Hillary, and some other stuff as well.

Not much more to discuss here, at least for a girl from California. It offers a glimpse into a time and place that will forever remain strange and foreign to me. Mostly I'm just there to watch Sister Michael blithely eviscerate people with her barbed tongue-lashings.

Do I recommend this show:
The humor can get a little mean at times. I genuinely felt bad for James and wished people would stop bullying him. But the show is so fucking funny otherwise that I'll tolerate a little mean humor. It's nothing too bad, and it is part of the charm of the sarcastic, sardonic style that permeates both the show and the culture.

[Friday]

32. King of the Hill



When I was still a kid and young teen watching The Simpsons, King of the Hill was, to me, the "less funny, boring Simpsons." Back then, I'd watch the show because there was nothing else to watch, and honestly I didn't laugh very often. The Simpsons more zany, absurdist humor was 13 year old Friday's jam.

Then I got older. Now I think KotH is a masterpiece on par with The Simpsons or Futurama. It just takes a bit more of a developed mind to really appreciate. Or maybe that was just me.

Ah, what to talk about when it comes to King of the Hill? I could talk about how it's a popular show in Japan, maybe, about how the Japanese watch KotH the same way we watch Japanese Anime, how they view it as a window into American (well, Texan) culture. I could talk about Mike Judge and his style and other works, we could discuss how Office Space and King of the Hill share that understated, low-key humor, almost the "anti-zany" to most brand of jokes.

We could talk about the best bits, the most famous lines. My personal favorite is when Hank comes out of his house to go somewhere, and sees that Dale has put a "I <3 New York" bumper sticker on his truck. He leans over to peel it off, says "Damn it, Dale" as he crumples it and throws it away. As he gets into his truck and drives away, Dale slides out from under the chassis and replaces the sticker with another identical one.

We could talk about the satire, the bite. Hank is coded as a conservative, and frequently finds himself at odds with the actual reality of the world. Luckily, Hank has a brain and can change, and usually ends up learning something valuable. Honestly, Hank strikes me as the type of good natured guy who would have abandoned the GOP is a post-Trump world.

We could talk about Bobby. Oh, could we talk about Bobby. Bobby Hill is perhaps the best character on the show (it's tough, there are a lot of great characters, including Hank) and represents every conservative, traditionally masculine father's worth nightmare: Bobby is a weirdo. He's not feminine, exactly, but he doesn't really give a shit about the masculine bullshit that Hank and society care so deeply about. Instead, Bobby is his own man. Boy. He ain't right.

We could talk about the examination of the Man, the study of the masculine. King of the Hill's leading man, Hank, is a mix of both positive and toxic masculine traits. The show does a good job at casting them in those lights, too. Hank is saddled with the expectations that society forces on a man though his own father, but I think what makes him lovable is that his more positive masculine traits always win the day. Hank may actually be one of the best realistic depictions of a "good man" ever put to media. He's not perfect, and he frequently does and says things that are pretty fucked up by today's standards, but he also embodies the positive side of masculinity. If Buffy is a good show to study from a feminist standpoint, then KotH might be the mirror image in that regard.

We could talk about Dale, who is a redpill MRA conspiracy nutjob back when all of those things were funny and even endearing rather than terrifying. Dale is a good foil for Hank, because whenever Hank notices that he and Dale have anything in common, he's smart enough to know to back off from that particular belief or behavior.

In the end, King of the Hill is a perfect slice of distilled Americana. Sure, it's Americana from the 90s, but it's surprisingly held up well even by today's standards.

Do I recommend this show:
Let me try to explain. I have a good show. I tip it over. Now, is it still there?

[Büge]

and then there was the time Hank met the Silver Surfer

[Thad]

When I was still a kid and young teen watching The Simpsons, King of the Hill was, to me, the "less funny, boring Simpsons." Back then, I'd watch the show because there was nothing else to watch, and honestly I didn't laugh very often. The Simpsons more zany, absurdist humor was 13 year old Friday's jam.

Then I got older. Now I think KotH is a masterpiece on par with The Simpsons or Futurama. It just takes a bit more of a developed mind to really appreciate. Or maybe that was just me.

It's hardly an original observation, but King of the Hill is one of the least cartoonish cartoons I've ever seen. Really the only thing I can think of that it did that couldn't be done in a live-action sitcom is run for thirteen years without any of the characters aging. (Except Joseph that one time.) Hell, it's less cartoonish than some of the live-action shows on this list. Scrubs is more cartoonish than King of the Hill.

I'd say one of the downsides is that there are rarely brobdingnagian changes or major character growth -- and sometimes when there is a brobdingnagian change it just disappears without explanation. (DeeDee and Good Hank vanish off the face of the Earth about halfway through the series and nobody acknowledges their existence again until after Cotton dies. There's a season finale where Bill starts a relationship with Kahn's mother and it implies it's going to be an ongoing thing, but then it's never mentioned again.)

The one character who gets a good and satisfying arc is Luanne. She's the only one who gets to grow up. She starts out as a scared kid, barely out of high school, whose home life has just fallen apart and who finds herself living with an uncle who feels an obligation to her but not necessarily a kinship. But over time she gets closer to Hank and Peggy, they become real parents to her in a way that her biological parents aren't capable of being, they give her the support she needs to finally leave the nest and take care of herself. She realizes beauty school isn't for her, goes to community college, realizes that's not for her either, starts her own business with Bill, gets married, and has a kid.

(Oh also at one point her boyfriend blows up and then he comes back as an angel, which is the only time the show veers into magical realism.)

I wonder what the new show will do with Luanne, since Brittany Murphy is no longer with us (and neither is Tom Petty, who played her husband Lucky). I'd sure like to see her again, find out what she's been up to.

The new series apparently takes place 9 years after TOS, so that's some brobdingnagian changes to start with, anyway.

[Mongrel]

[Büge]

The new series apparently takes place 9 years after TOS, so that's some brobdingnagian changes to start with, anyway.

I hope it shows Bobby on his journey to becoming a therapist.

[Thad]

The new series apparently takes place 9 years after TOS, so that's some brobdingnagian changes to start with, anyway.

I hope it shows Bobby on his journey to becoming a therapist.

*reaction image of heady-lidded guy saying "Jesus Christ"*

Seriously though apparently Bobby has continued pursuing his interest in cooking and become a chef.

Via Cracked, Grey DeLisle posted this image (which AFAIK is the first we've seen of the new series) on Twitter and then took it down because she wasn't supposed to do that:

“Chef Bobby Hill has loved food his whole life,” Bobby’s bio reads. “From weeknights around the dinner table eating his mom’s ‘Spa-Peggy and Meatballs,’ to overindulging in lutefisk at church potlucks, to celebrations with family and friends at Luly’s Cafeteria, food and the people it’s enjoyed with are the foundation for his best memories. In fact, his career as a robata chef was inspired by his most cherished memory of all — weekends spent grilling with his dad.

“A self-taught chef and one of the youngest contestants on King of the Grill, Chef Hill believes ‘good food can solve any problem.’ He draws on the influences of his childhood by combining classic Texas dishes with flavors from around the world. With Robata Chane, Chef Hill hopes to honor the art of Japanese robata and the German heritage of the Texas Hill Country while pushing culinary boundaries through his innovative fusion dishes.”

As fans in the King of the Hill subreddit pointed out, the revival writers have already planted the seeds for conflict between Bobby and Hank in this bio — the Japanese cooking method of robatayaki, often shortened to robata, is a technique similar to barbecue where the chef exclusively cooks the food over hot charcoal, the most filthy and unholy of barbecue fuels.

It's nice to see he doesn't have any lingering trauma associated with Japanese restaurants after what happened to his grandpa.

[Mongrel]

It's nice to see he doesn't have any lingering trauma associated with Japanese restaurants after what happened to his grandpa.

Be really funny if that's why he tried out cooking in a Japanese style in the first place.

[Thad]

I'm sure he developed a taste for it on the family trip to Japan.

Maybe he went back there to learn the technique before starting his own restaurant, spent some time visiting Uncle Junichiro.