The newest of the Venture Bros started this previous Sunday. Apparently it's been long enough that I took it off the DVR list so I didn't get it even accidentally recorded. I guess I should fix that.
The newest of the Venture Bros started this previous Sunday. Apparently it's been long enough that I took it off the DVR list so I didn't get it even accidentally recorded. I guess I should fix that.
The Good Place season 3 starts on NBC on September 27. If you haven’t seen the first 2 seasons, pleeeeeease do! They are definitely on Netflix and I’m pretty sure on Hulu. The episodes are short and the seasons are short, so it’s a quick binge. Perfect for Labor Day weekend.
The reason I got into it in the first place is that it has become a running joke at work that our workplace is very similar to the good place, what with the unlimited soft-serve and feeling like everyone around you is 1000 times better than you.
The Good Place season 3 starts on NBC on September 27.
I am quite excited for it to start again, it's so hilarious and yet smart and constantly new. With the billions of horrible sitcoms out there I had mostly written off TV comedy and then this show came along.
If Y'all aren't watching Killjoys, you're missing out on a great ass kicking sci-fi space opera. They are about 2/3rds through their 4th season with an already greenlit 5th and final season coming eventually. The story is way more complex an expansive than it appears going into the first season. While it builds an interesting universe and overall story arch, it's really the characters and many of the actors that make this show the way it is. Bigger than life, but with their own intricate personalities and complexities. The three main characters and couple secondary characters that have come into the fold are just a joy to watch bounce off each other. Hanna John-Camen as Dutch hits the perfect notes of badass assassin chick without feeling like she's a trope and really carries the series.
Season 4 started a bit weird and slow but around the middle it's paid off with some crazy fun episodes. There are few shows that can add a previous villain to the good guys without a heartfelt conversion and do it right, but I've begun to root for Delle Seyah Kendry despite her past.
Better Call Saul... I just flipped past until the last few episodes. Seems like it's more interesting as it becomes more contemporaneous with some of the later episodes of BB.
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Chained out, like a sitting duck just waiting for the fall _Cage the Elephant
In addition to watching The Good Place, I have been listening to The Good Place Podcast. It's hosted by Mark Evan Jackson (the actor that plays Shawn), and his guests are all the actors and writers and directors of the show.
It's a podcast about making a TV show, by the people who make the TV show, so it's incredibly up its own ass and way too inside baseball, unless you're into that sort of thing. Hilarious references to Los Angeles geography like "a lot of auditions happen in Santa Monica" Get it?!
Also they are very about how much they all love each other and love working together, it's enough to give you a tootheache.
That said! If you can get past all that, it is an excellent podcast and it has given me an greater appreciation of the show, which I am amazed was even possible.
Two of my favorite moments (out of billions):
Jackson asks Michael Schur (the show's creator), what specifically is his beef with Florida and Arizona. Schur's response is essentially, "You're kidding right? Do you know literally anything about Arizona and Florida? What's not to hate?"
Manny Jacitno (Jason) talks about working with Eugene Cordero (Pillboi) and how special it was to be doing a scene with another Filipino actor that had nothing to do with their being Filipino. Apparently that was a first for both of them.
I know it is no longer what-you-call fall, but I did first see this 8-episode show last autumn and seeing as it has been available in the US for just a week now (streaming), I though I would mention my current favourite show A Discovery of Witches. Supernatural romance/mystery y'all.
Watching season 3 of Santa Clarita Diet, and it is really, really funny. It's not because the script is that great, but Drew Barrymore and Timothy Olyphant are masters at selling it.
The other 2 leads (Liv Hewson and Skyler Gisondo) are pretty amazing, too. I don't think there are any bad series regulars.
I don't care whatever magic forumla voodoo Santa Clarita is doing. I couldn't explain it but for the longest time I just wasn't a fan of Timothy Olyphant. I turned around on him after making my way through Justified. I wouldn't have needed to be a fan for SCD. He's freaking hilarious. The chemistry with everyone on that show is simply fantastic. Obviously, crisp writing helps immensely. It could have or still might turn to the wrong side of that treacly, precocious balance, but for now it hits my funny bone and I love them for it. The only bad thing about it is that there's just not enough of it.
My memory is terrible, but I don't think I've mentioned The Umbrella Academy yet...
It's about a group of kids with powers raised by an eccentric Billionaire as a group of crime fighters.
It was pretty good. Adian Gallagher gives an amazing performance as Number 5, especially as he's only 15 and more than holding his own with a cast full of adults. The lovely Ellen Page gives a very reserved performance with good reason and Mary J Blige is so fucking good I didn't even realise it was Mary J Blige
I'd recommend it, but wouldn't say you HAVE to rush out and binge it all immediately (like Russian Doll for instance). It's just been confirmed for a second season, which is cool.
Umbrella Academy was pretty good, if a little... odd. My 15-year-old absolutely loved it. Not that that is saying much.
Posting this again, as A Discovery of Witches is getting properly aired on AMC and BBC America starting this coming Sunday. Later on it will be up against Game of Thrones, but the American fans assure me that is not a problem because "who watches that anyway?"
Quote:
Originally Posted by Miisa
I know it is no longer what-you-call fall, but I did first see this 8-episode show last autumn and seeing as it has been available in the US for just a week now (streaming), I though I would mention my current favourite show A Discovery of Witches. Supernatural romance/mystery y'all.
I started "Cold Feet" (a British comedy/drama/soap that reminds me of "Thirtysomethings") a couple of weeks ago, and got hooked. Nearly at the end of the 5th series (final season before they came back some 10 years later for a return run--that's next.)
I don't even know what to say about Barry. It's unlike anything else. He's not really a hero or an anti-hero, but he's not just some guy either. He's too real, like painfully real, but at the same time the story is way over-the-top fantastical, and it's an unsettling combination. Season 1 was great, and season 2 has been excellent out the gate.
What We Do in the Shadows on FX
A fantasy-horror sitcom spun off from the movie of the same name, created by Jemaine Clement and Taika Waititi of Flight of the Concords fame. The style and humor are pretty much the same as the movie, and I agree with those who say it actually fits better in a 22-minute sitcom format than it did in a full-length feature.
I can't cope with Matt Berry's casting, though, since he's essentially Jemaine Clement's doppelganger. It was already hard enough to keep them straight before this!
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Last edited by Ensign Steve; 04-11-2019 at 09:09 PM.
Reason: Also, this was the 420th reply in this thrad. :stoner:
I think I figured out the deal and why it breaks my heart so much.
More than anything, Barry is a people-pleaser, and the people around him (first Marines, then criminals) are very pleased by his killing abilities. He's like those Michael Vick dogs, who fought each other not because they wanted to hurt the other dog, but because they wanted to please their masters.
Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan - the Amazon series with John Krasinski.
Jack Ryan is the boyscout CIA analyst who wants to save America from the next bin Ladin, but has to struggle against the "pragmatic" approach of his CIA bosses.
Krasinski is a strapping hunk of a man in this, and I think he's well cast for the part. I wouldn't watch it with a critical eye to US policies in the middle east, because it's a CIA procedural at its heart. It does make a stab at giving the main characters, good and bad, some dimension.
We're also watching Killing Eve, with Sandra Oh as Eve Polastri who is a MI-6 agent, and was either born in the UK or is from there or something, but she has an American accent for some reason?
Anyway, it's a great show with like killing and sociopathy and such. Apparently I'm into that right now. Or else the whole world is.
I binged the Tick season 2, it was excellent!
It's exactly what a lot of parody, satire and light hearted comedies lack, and that's both a love for and understanding of what they are parodying. A great example of this is a new tech nerd character EdgeLord. "I'm Edgelord, I walk between the raindrops." Is both such a perfect parody of post-matrix cyberpunk geeks with long hair, matrix style coat and glasses and yet he isn't the joke. He's not somehow bumbling or inept or a reddit troll, nor are things like the matrix mentioned. He's an over the top caricature but he's never treated with contempt. The same goes for all the other characters as well, we get intruduced to a hardass military fighting general type character, but he's not testosterone fueled idiot nor is he the bad guy just cause he's military even though he does have a blackhole heart, he's still reasonable with personal motivations and conflicts. In some ways I want to compare it to the Good Place because similarly it finds comedy in word play, situations and subverted expectations rather then anger or fear.
Also watching with subtittles amusingly added to the comedy because having important musical cues written on the screen just feels like something this type of show would do.
It ends with a few cliff hanger/story-hooks (dramatic music) that work quite well giving room for future season 3 stories while also allowing the season to stand on its own. It's a bit strange watching competent writers write decent work that has many short and long story arcs running concurrently in a manner that doesn't require a multi-season deal to work effectively. Strange of course because it's so uncommon on normal tv!