Television! Teacher, mother, secret lover: The TV Test Thread renewed

[Reply #160 on:]

I know everyone's already seen it, but black mirror is phenomenal. And Jane the virgin is pretty entertaining as well

Dude I've never heard of black mirror, whats it about?

TOTPD ~(._.)~ \(`-`)/ ~(`_`)~ _(*~0)_

[Reply #161 on:]

Haven't watched much TV this year. That'll change when Rick and Morty resumes.

And BoJack Horseman... though I'm not sure when season four is supposed to arrive.

[Reply #162 on:]

I know everyone's already seen it...

Actually... that would be a "no".  No Black Mirror.  No Orphan Black.  No Orange is the New Black.

Though what little I've heard about Black Mirror sounds intriguing.

Also, welcome back to the land of the nerds, artists, and other assorted non-conformists

Haven't watched much TV this year. That'll change when Rick and Morty resumes.

Rick and Morty is just brilliant.

[Reply #163 on:]

Black Mirror is most easily described as a modern day The Twilight Zone with the emphasis on exploring technology.

It's an anthology series with each episode being completely stand-alone and the vast majority of episodes (though not all) being full-blown science fiction. The show tends to be very dark and bleak, but even that is something it toys with. It's incredibly well-written and one of the best things currently being produced for television.

There's no excuse for not checking it out. It's all on Netflix and, although there have been three seasons (with a 4th to follow), there's only 13 episodes so far.

[Reply #164 on:]

There's no excuse for not checking it out. It's all on Netflix...

I run Firefox on Linux and access the internet over a DSL line that averages ~2.5mbit on a good day?

But seriously, thanks for the inspiration.  I think it's possible to use Netflix on Firefox if I change my user-agent string to make it seem as though I'm running Chrome on Windows.

[Reply #165 on:]

Thanks for the info Cyber, I'll definitely have to check it out

[Reply #166 on:]

The first episode of Black Mirror is particularly unnerving, even at the time it was produced, it's also hilarious, and also very inappropriate for small children.

[Reply #167 on:]

Then you should probably stop watching it. But seriously, I'd like to check it out now, if its anything sci-fi related it should tie me over until the next season of Stranger Things comes out

[Reply #168 on:]

Winna was clearly saying that he likes the show, so why should he stop watching?

[Reply #169 on:]

Because it's very inappropriate for small children.

Source:  I am a small children.

[Reply #170 on:]

^^ Sorry Josh, guess I shouldve made that reference towards you.

[Reply #171 on:]

I get a +5 crit bonus when facing single entities.

[Reply #172 on:]

I saw the first few episodes of Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt.

Not bad.

[Reply #173 on:]

I've watched basically every episode of Blacklist. Last couple episodes of the last season on Netflix are pretty shitty though, so I never finished it.

[Reply #174 on:]

I saw the first few episodes of Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt.

Not bad.

Finished it now. Quite enjoyed it! It's got a really charming and positive vibe to it, which is different to the kind of stuff I normally watch. Kimmy's child-like joyfulness is just adorable.

The running joke about the apartment being a tugboat was my favourite. Run Lillian!

I thought Titus was a bit annoying by the end though. He's got his moments but is just so pathetic and miserable.

[Reply #175 on:]

Glad you found a good show!

[Reply #176 on:]

Apparently Matt Groening is making a new show for streaming on Netflix, Disenchantment?

[Reply #177 on:]

A "medieval adult fantasy"?  Hmmm...

To Cornwood!

[Reply #178 on:]

I read about it on NME and it certainly sounds interesting. I thought there might be more talk of it on here, a new Groening animation is a pretty big deal. Looking forward to it.

[Reply #179 on:]

Fuck yeah.

I can't wait.

[Reply #180 on:]

Just sat through The Defenders, in two sittings.

It's alright. The novelty of seeing these characters finally interact is satisfying, but it suffers from having average action scenes and boring villains. Signourney Weaver looked like she was only there for the paycheck and couldn't wait to leave. That said, it's much better than Luke Cage and Iron Fist, and the pacing is way better than any of the previous Marvel shows since it's only eight episodes. It still has a bit of a slow start, but by around episode three it finds its stride.

Iron Fist himself is still a bit of an annoying little bitch but he works much better in the team dynamic than by himself or when he's with Colleen. And his hair is less stupid now.

The best part of the show is Matt and Jess. They mix together so well and it never gets old seeing their vastly different perspectives and attitudes unfold. Jessica's fighting abilities seem to be really inconsistent but I love her sass. And I'm still not convinced that Charlie Cox isn't blind IRL since he pulls it off so convincingly.

And holy shiiiiiiiiit Elektra is hot.

[Reply #181 on:]

I think the Dark Tower was okay.  I can see why critics gave it negative feedback, but I think it was pretty okay.  It's somewhat unfortunate, since they were clearly trying to set up a series of movies, and the material deserves that.  It'll be up to audiences to decide if it takes off as a franchise, and honestly, with this, I think it could take off well.

This was okay though.  I won't say whether I've seen it or not.

[Reply #182 on:]

Just sat through The Defenders, in two sittings.

Hey, same here! I agree that just doing an eight-episode series was a huge pacing improvement over, say, Jessica Jones, and it also made for more fast-paced, digestible, fun.

it suffers from having average action scenes and boring villains. Signourney Weaver looked like she was only there for the paycheck and couldn't wait to leave.

I think I disagree with this slightly, at least for certain action scenes. Like, I really loved the end of episode 3 when the four of them finally got together and did some ass-kickin'--easily one of my favorite fights across the Netflix Marvel series. But, as I've noted elsewhere, I'm kind of meh on action scenes in general so my barometer for such things is probably a little off and my taste need not be trusted.

As for the Big Bad: I may just be blinded by my love of all things Sigourney Weaver, but I got the same vibe from her that I did from Vincent D'Onofrio in Daredevil (who I didn't think was phoning it in by any means)--sinister precisely because of how low-key he was 90% of the time. But I could see how that might read as boredom on the actress's part.

To be fair, a lot of the stuff with The Hand and eternal life and such was pretty ridiculous/heavy-handed from a writing standpoint, and there were a few instances (the scene between Alexandra and Elektra at the cemetery, in particular) where I felt like Weaver was having a hard time selling the material. I guess I'm willing to blame the writing (which was not quite as strong as the writing in Jessica Jones or Luke Cage, and more on-par with the occasionally melodramatic self-seriousness of Daredevil...and, I would assume, Iron Fist, which I never bothered watching) more than the acting in that case.
 

That said, it's much better than Luke Cage and Iron Fist

I haven't seen Iron Fist, like I said, but I daresay this is my favorite entry, period, besides Jessica Jones and possibly the first season of Daredevil. Really, watching this show made me realize that I would watch the hell out of anything with Jessica, Luke, and Claire--and they already made that show, and it was called the first season of Jessica Jones, and it was awesome. 

Iron Fist himself is still a bit of an annoying little bitch but he works much better in the team dynamic than by himself or when he's with Colleen.

Heh, I appreciated the show's willingness to sort of lampshade Danny's general shittiness, like when Colleen (who I mostly enjoyed) told Claire (who I love) that Danny pretty much tells anyone who will listen that he is the fucking Iron Fist.

In general I thought the show did a nice job of finding a tonal balance between the ceaseless snark of Jessica and Luke and the excruciating earnestness of Danny and Matt. My biggest complaint about Daredevil, in general, is how seemingly in love the show is with its own Depth and Importance (especially when it comes to Matt's Catholicism, and its impact on his crime-fighting ethos), and while The Defenders really is a show that's more about Matt than any of the other three, I thought the writing here was more self-aware than in his own series and therefore prevented him from becoming a holier-than-thou martyr* who behaves in stupidly self-sacrificing ways.

Show spoiler

Even though he literally appears to sacrifice himself for the whole city in the finale...and I would have respected the show a lot more if they'd just killed him off, though I understand from a commercial standpoint why they didn't.

I think, like you mention, a lot of that has to do with the interplay between Jessica and Matt: he humanizes her and enables her to show some vulnerability, while she allows him to poke fun at the stereotypes (dead dad, Catholic guilt) that largely make up his character.

*To be fair, all of these characters have a bit of a martyrdom complex, but I appreciate the ways in which Jessica's and Luke's hang-ups are more informed by gender and race and therefore offer a nice twist on the usual White Man Must Save Humanity formula.

[Reply #183 on:]

I'm about halfway through The Defenders, it's fun and I completely agree that the pacing is better, but it suffers from some of the same writing and acting flaws that Luke Cage and Iron Fist (and parts of Daredevil season 2) had, which is a shame. It seems like they were able to get such talented writers and showrunners for Daredevil season one and Jessica Jones and then decided the franchise would turn out fine from there no matter what?

For the record, Iron Fist was not good...but am I the only person in the entire world who thought Luke Cage was at least marginally worse? I went into Luke Cage wanting to love it because the cast was excellent and it was a great opportunity for a different tone from the other series, and I thought they wasted both the cast and that opportunity on goofy mediocrity and a horribly boring storyline. Yes, the Hand stuff in Iron Fist was more ridiculous, but I honestly found that storyline as well as the various character arcs to be slightly more intriguing. And don't get me wrong, there was some hideously bad acting in Iron Fist as well, but it had some standouts...Ward Meecham started off as the most one-note obnoxious character in possibly any of the shows, but somehow by the end turned out to be the most compelling and relateable character of all, and I chalk a lot of that up to his acting in the back half of the season. On the other hand, in Luke Cage any character that seemed like they had potential to be interesting at the start just got more boring as the season went on.

[Reply #184 on:]

Is GoT garbage now?

[Reply #185 on:]

I think I disagree with this slightly, at least for certain action scenes. Like, I really loved the end of episode 3 when the four of them finally got together and did some ass-kickin'--easily one of my favorite fights across the Netflix Marvel series. But, as I've noted elsewhere, I'm kind of meh on action scenes in general so my barometer for such things is probably a little off and my taste need not be trusted.

I would definitely say that that particular scene was the best fight in Defenders, but that's more due to the fact that it's the first time all four of them appear on-screen together. And, the scene is well lit. The very first scene of the first episode where Danny and Colleen fight Elektra in the sewer was a huge strain on the eyes, and not just because it was dark as fuck. The camerawork is the biggest issue, I think. There are so many quick cuts it's almost like they're trying to out Jason Bourne anyone else who undertakes this miserable practice (alright, it's not THAT bad, but it does make the action dull and a bit confusing to follow).

The more annoying part is that basically every fight scene is like this. Sometimes there's some creative bits that make use of Jessica's strength and Luke's durablity (such as Danny using him as cover from machine guns. That was sick.) but otherwise they feel sort of repetitive. The swordfighting scenes are a bit better, I thought, so there's that. The choreography isn't all there but it's easier to follow.

I don't really know what happened. Iron Fist has the same problem. Luke Cage and Jessica Jones have totally different fighting styles so they barely even count for this discussion. But what happened to the people who worked on Daredevil? That had some of the best action scenes I've scene on TV, and it even had a scene or two where it has literally zero cuts the entire way, while still looking awesome. That's what Defenders needed. That and less magical bullshit.

All that said, I really hopeful for The Punisher series, since he was easily the best part of Daredevil S2.

[Reply #186 on:]

For the record, Iron Fist was not good...but am I the only person in the entire world who thought Luke Cage was at least marginally worse? I went into Luke Cage wanting to love it because the cast was excellent and it was a great opportunity for a different tone from the other series, and I thought they wasted both the cast and that opportunity on goofy mediocrity and a horribly boring storyline. Yes, the Hand stuff in Iron Fist was more ridiculous, but I honestly found that storyline as well as the various character arcs to be slightly more intriguing. And don't get me wrong, there was some hideously bad acting in Iron Fist as well, but it had some standouts...Ward Meecham started off as the most one-note obnoxious character in possibly any of the shows, but somehow by the end turned out to be the most compelling and relateable character of all, and I chalk a lot of that up to his acting in the back half of the season. On the other hand, in Luke Cage any character that seemed like they had potential to be interesting at the start just got more boring as the season went on.

I could get on board with this. I thought the first several episodes of Luke Cage were great, but it definitely did get super boring as it went on (I want to say the shift occurred after

Show spoiler

Cottonmouth's death

, but it may have been a little bit earlier or a little bit later than that) and most of the characters not named Luke, Claire, or Mariah were either less-than-compelling (I'd put Misty, who I liked at some points and not others, in this category) or straight-up impossible to get attached to (like Shades). We may differ on which characters we liked and which we didn't, Josh (or maybe we're simpatico, what do I know), but I definitely agree with your overall premise that the show had a lot of early promise that was not delivered on at all as the episodes piled up.

[Reply #187 on:]

I came up with a new plan.  It's better than the plan I came up with which cannot be repeated because of how dangerous it is, and also it would get batman banned in all western nations.

Anyways, this new plan is pretty good:

We repeatedly call Sam Raimi and ask when the Hercules and Xena movie is coming out.  With enough people calling Sam Raimi, he will have no choice but to release the Hercules and Xena movie.  Perhaps kidnapping people he is fond of will also expedite this process.

[Reply #188 on:]

Honestly even as someone who didn't ever really watch it as a kid and perceived it as pretty overly campy, it would probably be cool to see Lucy Lawless play Xena again in something. She can clearly still kick ass as demonstrated in Ash Vs. Evil Dead.

[Reply #189 on:]

"Hercules and Xena movie confirmed." - JoshTheater (8/28/17 11:43 CST)

How is Ash vs. The Evil Dead?

[Reply #190 on:]

If you like deathnote, there's a live action version.  Just sayin'

[Reply #191 on:]

Ash Vs. Evil Dead is great, if you like the Evil Dead trilogy then you will probably like it a lot.

[Reply #192 on:]

That's good to hear.  I've been really cautious about watching it.

[Reply #193 on:]

I don't know where to put this.


https://agoodmovietowatch.com

[Reply #194 on:]

Really happy that Nathan for you is back, since it's one of the smartest shows currently on tv

[Reply #195 on:]

David Letterman has a new talk/interview show on Netflix, My Next Guest Needs No Introduction with David Letterman. I didn't know this was coming until the first episode dropped a couple days ago. I wasn't a huge fan of David Letterman on the Late Show (both the Late Show and the Tonight Show were famously stale with little effort put into them since I was a young child), but I do respect what he has done for the industry over the decades.

I am happy to see that David Letterman does a great job setting up his own style and format in this show, rather than following the safe yet successful format that's been on broadcast TV since Johnny Carson. (That format is perfectly fine, and I like it, but not every show needs to follow that same format.) The conversations seem genuine (since he is really invested in interviewing his guest). He has one guest per episode, so they can really go in depth and exchange stories and ideas. The interview is intercut with interesting off-stage segments and audio-visual interludes.

One other aspect that I really like is that for once Netflix is not forcing a show to pump out all of its episodes at once. I understand that this is an effective strategy for them as a company, but not everybody watches entire seasons of a show in one sitting and not every show needs to wrap up production before the first episode streams. I quite like the idea that the creators of a show can react to the public's response early in the season.

The first episode features former President Barack Obama in his first interview since he left office almost a year ago. As always, President Obama is thoughtful, eloquent, and funny. I'd definitely recommend watching it.

[Reply #196 on:]

I just finished season 2 of Jessica Jones.

It's not anywhere near as good as the first season, which was basically carried by David Tennant, but it's still pretty good. Most of the show was quite enjoyable... but it suffers from the same problems as all the other Marvel Netflix shows: they're too. Fucking. Long.

The season is 13 episodes but it could have easily been told in half of that. The pacing feels fine at the beginning but by around episode 5 it starts being stretched thin. Despite the exhaustion, I was enjoying what was actually happening on-screen. The final couple of episodes were really disappointing though. Everybody suddenly becomes idiots and make incredibly poor decisions, and the entire climax just felt so half-assed.

Show spoiler

-I didn't mind the side-plot with Trish getting back into drugs, but it started getting annoying near the end. Also, her mother is one of the most unlikable characters ever.

-Jessica suddenly becoming a fugitive (willingly) and joining her mum was so out-of-character and painful to watch, not to mention how abruptly and stupidly that arc ended. How did Trish manage to get out of a hospital when she could barely walk and somehow catch up to Jess (who was nowhere near her)?

-The action was much better than in the first season. There wasn't much of it but it was well-done.

-Malcolm is cool. Honestly, pretty much all the supporting characters are cool. I didn't really care for the hobo-lady but I liked how that arc concluded.

This post might come across as a bit on the negative side but I still enjoyed it a fair bit. Season 1 is my favourite of Marvel's Netflix shows so it was disappointing to see the drop in quality.

For me, it's Jessica Jones S1 > Daredevil S1 > Punisher > Daredevil S2 > Jessica Jones S2 > Defenders > Luke Cage > Iron Fist

EDIT: Reading back through this thread, I just realised that I never left a review for The Punisher. Spoiler: I loved it.

[Reply #197 on:]

I'm one of those people who gets hooked on a few different shows at a given time then quickly moves on to the next one. I've slowly been making my way through Arrested Development and Parks and Rec. I've also gotten everyone I know hooked on The Goldbergs (definitely recommend, BTW). Right now the list of "Netflix shows I need to see" is a mile or so long, but the next show in the queue is Altered Carbon-- it has such an interesting premise.

The current show I want to see but physically can't due to the lack of cable is The Alienist, mainly because of Luke Evans but eye candy aside, it seems like a very interesting watch. I'm a huge fan of historical and supernatural genres so it's perfect.

[Reply #198 on:]

Anyone watching Final Space on TBS? I know, TBS is not known for their amazing original programs, but I can honestly say I have not been this excited about a new show since Futurama. 6 episodes have aired so far, and you can find streams of them easily. I just figured I'd seek out my fellow nerds on PEEL since no one i know watches the show!

[Reply #199 on:]

Thanks for the heads-up, dude.

* * Tachy checks his cable listings * *

And it's not only listed, but the already-aired eps are available on streaming cable. Annnd the premier episode is available through March 3^rd—so I guess that I'd better watch it sometime in the next three hours

* * Tachy dials in Final Space * *