TV Series On The Television

[Thad]

Conservatives seem a little hazy on what "communism" means.

[KingRoyal]

I just finished watching The Terror (2018), one of the best TV series I've ever seen. Based upon Dan Simmons' novel of the same name, recounting the ill-fated John Franklin expedition to find the northwest passage, The Terror follows the crews of the H.M.S. Terror and the H.M.S. Erebus as they battle to stay alive in the arctic, encountering strange horrors along the way.

The show is gorgeously shot with a ethereal score by Marcus Fjellström, but the absolute standout is the cast who all bring incredible layers of depth and humanity to the characters, even some who might at first just seem to be background or incidental to the story. Being about a doomed expedition means the show can get very bleak, but it's tempered by a real complexity to the characters, who can show warmth, tenderness, jealousy, hatred, curiosity and kindness even towards the bitter end.

[mharr]

Any thoughts here on The Nevers? (Victorian Steampunk Misfits) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8697870

It's a Joss Whedon vehicle so immediate skepticism there, but apparently he buggered off halfway through production so maybe there's hope for the long term. Online reviews are mostly attacking the author personally or the show / publisher's perceived political signaling so that's a useless warzone.

[KingRoyal]

Trailer for Netflix's adaptation of Jeff Lemire's Sweet Tooth

[Newbie]

So two years later we're actually getting around to watching Letterkenny, and fuck me, we're fucking DYIN'

I'm taken aback by how much we're enjoying this. The segment in which Wayne references the Florida State sports team nearly killed me. I constantly feel like I need to slow down the playback or rewatch bits because of how poorly I follow a lot of the slang, but we keep rolling anyway.

[Thad]

Good Omens season 2 is coming, based on the plot Gaiman and Pratchett hammered out back in 1989 but never got around to turning into a book.

[Mothra]

Finally caught up on Harley Quinn. That show is excellent. Really didn't expect much from the trailers, but it's very funny, has a wild assortment of extremely well-done gay, lesbian, bi characters, the action is fun, and I actually liked the story a lot. Oh, and the voice cast is stellar.

Hard to think of something to compare it to... Harley and Ivy have this really familiar dynamic that I think just reminds me of some people I know in real life. It manages to pull off the Venture Bros trick of taking its absurd universe seriously without making it less absurd, letting its characters live their lives without forcing a formula on them. It embraces how batshit it is and lives in that space.

Happy to hear it's getting at season 3.

[Mothra]

I just finished watching The Terror (2018), one of the best TV series I've ever seen.

Absolutely loved this. Amazing cast, great production work, and it's a naval drama. That's all I need in this crazy bitch of a world.

[KingRoyal]

Looks pretty accurate to the comics, sneaks some Y imagery in there, overall looks like it could be pretty good. Interesting to see how they update a story created in the Bush years to a post-Trump America. And I hope they keep the Ben Franklin/Marquis de Sade anti-suicide therapy scene.

[mharr]

This is one of those screw-all-foreigners youtube uploads, can we have some more context clues?

[KingRoyal]

It's the Y the Last Man tv adaptations

[Thad]

I watched the first episode of Foundation and it was fucking great.

Like, I was concerned, watching the trailers, that they were going to go all pyew-pyew lasers with it, but...it's not that at all. It's managed to preserve the cerebral, high-concept SF angle of the original stories, while shoring up their weaknesses -- viz, that they're dry AF and super-white and -male.

The TV series -- at least, the first episode -- threads the needle. It keeps what was good about the original Foundation stories, while shoring up the narrative and character weaknesses, and introducing a more diverse cast.

Color me impressed. Foundation is a damned hard series to adapt (at least, the OT) but I think they cracked the code.

[mharr]

Visiting friends atm, just looked at Netflix in its natural environment of Sky TV for the first time.

Default categories include Action, Drama, Comedy, Anime and... Black People. Not Black American History or BLM specifically, just a big old digital ghetto for any show with excess melanin.

What the Actual Fuck.

[Newbie]

Is it possibly inspired by the way "Black People Twitter" is the preferred self-identification of a large collection of Black voices on Twitter? I have just enough context to see possibilities in which this category name was actually chosen by other Black people, it was chosen by clueless-but-well-meaning white folks, or it was chosen by oblivious-and-offensive white folks, but not enough to be able to distinguish which scenerio would be correct.

[Mongrel]

Is it possibly inspired by the way "Black People Twitter" is the preferred self-identification of a large collection of Black voices on Twitter? I have just enough context to see possibilities in which this category name was actually chosen by other Black people, it was chosen by clueless-but-well-meaning white folks, or it was chosen by oblivious-and-offensive white folks, but not enough to be able to distinguish which scenerio would be correct.

SkyTV used to be owned by Rupert Murdoch until he sold it to Comcast.

Also... Britain.

[beatbandito]

We all agree we've abandoned the streaming thread for this on all shows, right?

Doom Patrol Season 3 so far is pretty weak, some of my least favorite episodes of the series so far. I don't want to get into it too in depth since it's only 3 episodes so far, but I think I may have disliked the first episode more than the pilot, and does a much worse and more obvious job of returning us to the norm of the series. And the last episode of the three-episode premiere not only ruins the strong cliffhanger of the second episode, but does it in order to copilot a new series.

Hoping for an upswing. This has been my favorite currently airing series since the initial premiere.

[Thad]

After years of waiting for Jon Stewart's new show, I'd begun to wonder if there was still something unique he could bring to the table. With not just Noah's Daily Show but political news shows fronted by former Daily Show cast members (Colbert, Bee, not to mention the canceled shows headlined by Wilmore, Klepper, Wolf, Minhaj, and Cenac), or people who weren't on The Daily Show but were influenced by it (Meyers), is there still something Stewart brings to the table that those others don't?

Judging by the first episode of The Problem with Jon Stewart, yeah. Because right off the bat, he's continuing on with the advocacy he started for the 9/11 first responders. This episode focuses on vets from Iraq and Afghanistan who are suffering health problems from working and living next to garbage burn pits, and who are being denied healthcare by the VA.

So yeah, I think that answers the question of what Stewart's got that the others don't. He spent his years off TV on public advocacy, and he's brought that back with him.

[Mothra]

Watching The X-Files in its entirety for the first time, with some friends. I recall an episode here and there from my childhood, but I've never seriously sat down and give it a go.

Really loving it. Like Friday mentioned, the mythology eps tend to be a lot less great than the standalone ones, but, in all eps, the dynamic between Mulder and Sculler is a real delight.

Favorite so far is the Loch Ness monster one, specifically for the great scene with the two of them on the lake, clinging to a rock, just talking about shit.

[Friday]

oh yeah. That scene is fucking amazing. They brought in Darin Morgan to write it (even though he only wrote this scene, I think, for this episode) and it just rules.

All his eps are my favorites. Like, all. Have you seen season 10 yet?

[Thad]

oh yeah. That scene is fucking amazing. They brought in Darin Morgan to write it (even though he only wrote this scene, I think, for this episode) and it just rules.

It's the first one I saw. And yeah, that was the scene that really stuck with me and got me interested in watching regularly.