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Current TV Boxset Addiction

Started by radiator, 20 November, 2012, 02:23:29 PM

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Professor Bear

It slows down a bit around the robbery thing, but stick with it and there's some cracking stuff in the latter seasons, particularly Glenn Close and Forest Whittaker's turns as antagonists to the team - the latter turning in such a mad performance that his character was transplanted whole into an episode of Family Guy.

Been watching CSI seasons steadily for the last couple of years as a fallback distraction for when I'm working on something and don't have any current tv to bung on, and while I cannot bring myself to say it is good, it is still well-made nonsense that's got its schtick down pat pretty early to the point that despite being conservative in its outlook it still manages to take the odd pop at itself and play around with its own formulaic plots now and then, a particular high point being Fur And Loathing (in Las Vegas), a murder mystery based within the furry community.  Seeing as I watch them in order, I eventually had to start watching the spin-off CSI: Miami, which despite recently being the first of the franchises to be cancelled is arguably the best of the three because it hinges entirely on a committed central performance from David Caruso as a hysterically deadpan Mary Sue version of the gruff tv cop that makes the show largely bulletproof in a way LV and NY aren't in their playing things super-straight (though both have recently introduced their own Mary Sue leads in Sela Ward and Ted Danson).  The earliest episodes (especially the originating backdoor pilot) give Caruso some range and elbow room and he's clearly aiming for nuance and potential backstory, but about a dozen episodes in and he's twigged that he needs to go full-on Judge Dredd with the one-liners, silly voice and sunglasses to match what surrounds him, particularly Khandie Alexander's utterly dreadful turn as the show's regular coroner (I saw Treme before I saw CSI: Miami so her acting in the latter was a genuine shock).  All the same, it's a bit of a surprise that this wooden performance that everyone's been taking the piss out of for years has actually been cannily-calculated artifice.

Dandontdare

Quote from: The Cosh on 27 February, 2013, 12:31:36 AM
I have a theory about Starbuck's new-found need for love anyway. One which I could easily validate through Google or which anyone who's seen the whole thing could easily prove or disprove but I'm happy to wait and see.

Without spoiling things, there remained several unanswered questions about Starbuck, which I found quite frustrating. However, I am in the minority in that I actually liked the conclusion to BSG!


radiator

Finally made a start on Mad Men. It's pretty good stuff, but I can't quite shake the feeling that its a bit pleased with itself and style over substance - or 'period (drama) porn'. A bit too much fetishising of the (admittedly sumptuous) set dressing, and indulging in "isn't the past CRAZY? Things were DIFFERENT then!" nods to the audience, a bit too little plot.

Hawkmumbler

Episode 27 of Shojo Kakumei Utena last night...did one of the main characters just give birth to King Ghidorah? :lol:

I, Cosh

Quote from: Tiplodocus on 27 February, 2013, 01:12:46 PM
Quote from: The Cosh on 27 February, 2013, 12:31:36 AM
Viewers of BSG through Lovefilm should be aware that the final episode of the second series appears to be a heavily edited version of the original extended finale.
Not sure which version I'll have on my DVD box sets but if it's the loner one, I'm happy to let you borrow it.
Thanks Tips. I managed to source an alternative copy and was fairly taken aback at the number of important plot beats cut out of the first version I saw.

Watched the first four episodes of the third series last night. Other than an excess of manly hugging I reckon this is the best yet.
We never really die.

Frank

Quote from: radiator on 04 March, 2013, 12:34:26 PM
Finally made a start on Mad Men. It's pretty good stuff, but I can't quite shake the feeling that its a bit pleased with itself and style over substance - or 'period (drama) porn'. A bit too much fetishising of the (admittedly sumptuous) set dressing, and indulging in "isn't the past CRAZY? Things were DIFFERENT then!" nods to the audience, a bit too little plot.

Plot isn't really Mad Men's thing; folk get married and divorced and have babies, but the show's more interested in psychological realism than any of that. The period setting's an interesting hook to hold the viewers' interest while the show and the characters are bedding in, but I sometimes wonder why they bothered, since the motivations and neuroses of the characters are so universal and timeless.

I think that it might be easier for the audience to accept the way characters' actions are constrained by their personal relationships and personal histories if there's also the additional distance provided by the context of a time with different social mores - nobody likes to be told that they're a prisoner of the limitations imposed upon them by their friends, their intimate relationships, and by the fears, wants and needs of their five year old selves.


radiator

I actually find it quite refreshing that the most dramatic thing to happen eleven eps in is that one character had a heart attack, as most dramas - especially US series which have to fill dozens of episodes a season - usually fairly quickly descend into increasingly cliched and unrealistic narrative twists, such as the 'character A is pregnant, but doesn't know if the father is character B or C' - an especially lazy plot device that pretty much every series or sitcom eventually wheels out as soon as they start to run out of ideas and is a particular pet hate of mine!

Enjoying it very much, but I do wonder how it will sustain itself for four more seasons...

My Game of Thrones Season 2 Blu Rays arrived the other day, so planning a complete marathon of all episodes to date ahead of the Season 3 premiere later this month. Hopefully I'll like s2 a bit more this time round as i was a bit disappointed by it when it originally ran last year.

Judge Olde

Quote from: radiator on 06 March, 2013, 05:59:27 PM
My Game of Thrones Season 2 Blu Rays arrived the other day, so planning a complete marathon of all episodes to date ahead of the Season 3 premiere later this month. Hopefully I'll like s2 a bit more this time round as i was a bit disappointed by it when it originally ran last year.

I felt the same way, gave me the nudge I needed to start reading the books.

radiator

I think I was disappointed precisely because I was reading the book as I was watching the series, so I noticed every single change they had made, often for the worse.

Professor Bear

Whitechapel, which I sought out on the assumption it was the prequel series to Ripper Street as I recalled hearing about it years ago, but it's actually a modern-day riff on the Jack the Ripper murders rather than a period drama, and appeared on another channel entirely.  It is a dreadful, braindead offering of a show where characters actually come right out and state their motivations in words like they've started reading the scene descriptions in the script rather than say the awful, awful words, and to be honest I can't blame them.  I won't lie, as utterly awful as this was, I am genuinely intrigued by the plot for the sequel series which sounds identical to an episode of Lois And Clark: The New Adventures Of Superman, but with clones of the Krays on the rampage rather than a clone of Al Capone, and another in the plus column is no Teri Hatcher.

Tiplodocus

Finally started on HOMELAND.  It was good but it "ain't all that". Maybe there was too much hype or I've seen too much in the adverts.  I'll give it another couple of episodes and hope it perks up.
Be excellent to each other. And party on!

Richmond Clements

Just finished season one of Breaking Bad. I am assured by all that it gets better than this, but I sure as hell cannot see how!

JOE SOAP

Quote from: Richmond Clements on 10 March, 2013, 11:56:55 PM
Just finished season one of Breaking Bad. I am assured by all that it gets better than this, but I sure as hell cannot see how!


Heh, heh.



Hawkmumbler


radiator

Quote from: Hawkmonger on 11 March, 2013, 08:15:40 AM
Still not seen Breaking Bad... :-[

Just watch it. Seriously.

I've been hassling a friend to do the same - he always says "Oh, I don't have the time". No. Once you've seen the first episode, you will make time!  :D