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Current TV Boxset Addiction

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

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pictsy

I finished the first season of SG1 and am part way through the second.  I was actually surprised how many threads were established so early on.

There is this interesting conflict in tone with the show.  There is a strong anti-authoritarian text in the writing that, given it's about a military unit, does come across as slightly anti-military.  It also, because it's about a military unit, supports the myth in media that surrounds the military.  I remembered it being a lot more pro-military than it actually is.  This makes SGU all the more weird for me.

Anyway, I almost made it seem like the show is clever.  It's not.  It's pretty dumb.  You have to suspend you disbelief really hard and abruptly as a few elements (like people not from Earth speaking their own language and not English) are just thrown away for the sake of the format.  It never entirely goes away, but I guess once you're on board it doesn't matter.

So the show is dumb, but it's also fun.  It's silly sci-fi and it's not entirely doing it with a straight face either.  The highlights are some of the single episode non-arc stories.  It's all kinda what I remember it being.  I don't know whether I'll watch the entirety of the show as I remember it getting really bad at the end.

wedgeski

Once it [spoiler]bounces the Goa'ould as the main villains[/spoiler], it starts simply writing to formula, but new cast members keep it fresh. We recently finished a complete re-watch and the final seasons (and TV movies) are better than I remembered.

TordelBack

Mare of Easttown. Best cop thing I've watched in ages, a very contemporary smalltown Cagney & Lacey, without Cagney. Helps that its long episodes are being doled out weekly, there's a lot of misery to digest.

(As a complete aside, even after all these years I remain astonished at the scale of houses depicted in US TV, even where the characters are specifically established as working-class poor barely surviving).

TordelBack

#3018
Intergalactic. Nu-Who does Blakes-7 with unnecessary swearing. I've seen worse, will watch more as it comes out. Nothing here that would out of place in tea-time telly except for an f-word thrown in every 5 minutes. You have to wonder.

Video technical peeps, what is the deal with the style of lighting and/or recording medium that makes current UK SF shows look exactly like Casualty? A lot of love and time has obviously gone into the sets and backdrops here, but the way they're filmed/lit somehow transforms them into, well, sets.

Hawkmumbler

Breaking Bad

I'm like 10 years late to this one and as such have absolutely nothing to add that hasn't been said already.
Yeah. Great show. Except for Season 5, man I don't know what it was (besides the massive downgrade in antagonist quality) that just made it all a bit meh, especially coming off of the anxiety inducing Season 4, the finale of which has shot its way into my favourite episodes list.

pictsy

I think that the first two seasons of Breaking Bad were the strongest.  Seasons 3 and 4 just dragged on for me, so Season 5 ended up being a relief.  Mainly because it just ended it all conclusively.  It was a good show that I'll probably never watch a second time.

Funt Solo

Love the first 22 seconds of "Wormhole X-Treme - Behind The Scenes", from episode 100 of SG1.

++ A-Z ++  coma ++

pictsy

Quote from: Funt Solo on 17 May, 2021, 03:26:22 AM
Love the first 22 seconds of "Wormhole X-Treme - Behind The Scenes", from episode 100 of SG1.

Yeah :)

I do like this about SG1.  That they'd poke fun at themselves.

The Legendary Shark


IIrc, that episode was based on a real conspiracy theory that SG:1 was made to cover up the fact that the Air Force had real star gates - so anyone trying to blow the whistle could be easily dismissed as a sci-fi addled loon.

I can feel a rewatch coming on myself - I actually still have all the discs from that fortnightly magazine. In fact, I might rip 'em all to my external hd and then give 'em away to a good home. Take a while, though...

[move]~~~^~~~~~~~[/move]




Proudhuff

Quote from: TordelBack on 11 May, 2021, 10:25:27 AM

(As a complete aside, even after all these years I remain astonished at the scale of houses depicted in US TV, even where the characters are specifically established as working-class poor barely surviving).

This ^^^
DDT did a job on me

TordelBack

Quote from: TordelBack on 11 May, 2021, 10:25:27 AM
Mare of Easttown. Best cop thing I've watched in ages, a very contemporary smalltown Cagney & Lacey, without Cagney. Helps that its long episodes are being doled out weekly, there's a lot of misery to digest.

Finished this this evening, and just to update: it was completely satisfying. Maybe a bit too long a running time, and very understated by the standards of massacre/bloodbath that are de rigeur for cop drama these days, but that time is so well spent developing the minutiae of the community setting,  and you do get one good shock and a really solid twist. Like I say, it's just complete in every respect.

Really hope they do more of this, both Winslet and the entire cast are superb.

Radbacker

Sweet Tooth on the Netflix.
Based on a comic I haven't read so can't judge it as an adaptation but on its own pretty good.  Like a lot of Netflix shows it looks good and is acted pretty well.  I'm not sure if the comic has the same concept behind it or it's been updated due to Covid-19 but very timely comment on pandemics and what some people will do to survive, up to episode 3 and there is a pretty disturbing scene in there at a survivors day party when someone starts showing symptoms of the sickness.
I love Sweet Tooth and the child actor that plays him is great but also interested in the other stories that are playing out.  Recommend you give it a watch you'll know after 2 eps if you want to keep going.

CU Radbacker

repoman

Went through all three seasons of Loudermilk.  It's a fairly dark comedy series about addiction.  Really enjoyed it.

Colin YNWA

Quote from: Radbacker on 08 June, 2021, 03:52:51 AM
Sweet Tooth on the Netflix.
Based on a comic I haven't read so can't judge it as an adaptation but on its own pretty good. 

For those that haven't I can highly recommend the comics - though I imagine the floppies are going for silly money now - they are superb.

radiator

Quote from: Proudhuff on 17 May, 2021, 12:17:09 PM
Quote from: TordelBack on 11 May, 2021, 10:25:27 AM

(As a complete aside, even after all these years I remain astonished at the scale of houses depicted in US TV, even where the characters are specifically established as working-class poor barely surviving).

This ^^^

As someone who lives here, I still find it weird that you can be considered poor/working class and still own a huge house that has acres of land and multiple vehicles (including cartoonishly huge pickup trucks & RVs and even boats).

I imagine debt has a lot to do with it, but still.