Main Menu

Current TV Boxset Addiction

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

Previous topic - Next topic

HdE

Because I got nagged by my old man, I picked up the first season of Agents of Shield in Tescos for him.

Sat and watched the first half dozen of these and... nope. Not feeling it.

It seems to be at its best when the show is moving its ongoing story elements forward. But there's an alarming propensity for filler and by-the-numbers TV plotting going on here. The acting is pretty dreadful right across the board, Clark Gregg aside, and I'm left struggling to work out who the show is actually for.

I mean, on the one hand, the show has some really grating, juvenile presentation. The music is over-the-top, and the fight scenes are pretty hammy. On the other, we have a few mild sex references and - oh yeah, an episode with my personal number one turn off - eyeball related violence. That appears to actually be developing into a plot point, with [spoiler]Hydra agents having eye implants[/spoiler] so it' an instant drop for me. I just can't watch a show that makes me want to literally physically throw up due to its content.

Really disappointing.

Check out my DA page! Point! Laugh!
http://hde2009.deviantart.com/

auxlen

Not so much an addiction but an 80s nostalgia trip. bought a load of 80s dvds.

Fall Guy: hasn't. aged well, but some laughs. my Mrs loved Lee majors and his truck but even she agreed it's not that good.

A team. Seasons 1-4 absolute heaven.

magnum PI: surprisingly good.

Chips: some good banter but again not so good.

I, Cosh

Just finished watching the Daredevil series and quite surprised not to see more chat about it anywhere.

Overall, I thought it was a pretty good stab at rehabilitating the character after a duff movie outing, but it's a real game of two halves. The first half dozen or so rattle along at a terrific pace and are a lot of fun but then we get five episodes of Matt sitting around picking his scabs while nobody talks to each other and hints are dropped of future plot strands. Which gets a bit wearing.

Some decent fight scenes for telly and I assume plenty references for the nerds: I'm no expert on Daredevil but I did smile when one of the first hoods he batters turned out to be Turk.

The biggest problem, for me, was Kingpin (not that anyone ever calls him that.) It's obviously a deliberate decision to play the villain in a different and distinctive manner so, on those terms, it's probably the best performance in the series. Unfortunately, I found it totally aggravating. I'm not sure I ever understood what his nefarious plan was either.

"This city needs me." "I am here to save my city."  Et cetera. Give it a rest lads and bring back Bullseye.
We never really die.

Famous Mortimer

Quote from: HdE on 02 May, 2015, 02:32:37 PM
Because I got nagged by my old man, I picked up the first season of Agents of Shield in Tescos for him.

Sat and watched the first half dozen of these and... nope. Not feeling it.
I ditched it halfway through season 1 and haven't regretted it. There was the much-vaunted Thor tie-in episode, which had them...cleaning up after the events of the movie. Such a cheat.

Anyway, I've been watching

Highlander: The Series
I'm quite surprised at how much I'm enjoying this. It's not quite as formulaic as I remember from the first time round, Adrian Paul is a great leading man and it's vastly superior to (similar-ish vintage) Hercules and Xena, which were miserable slogs to get through, most of the time.

Richmond Clements

QuoteGive it a rest lads and bring back Bullseye.

Buttonman will be along with that photo shortly...

The Enigmatic Dr X

Is Extant any good?

Downloaded the lot on Sky.

Also: 12 Monkeys is much, much, better than it has any right to be, and is the first TV programme since old school Who to even attempt to handle time travel properly. Which is does, and well.
Lock up your spoons!

I, Cosh

Quote from: Richmond Clements on 04 May, 2015, 06:35:30 PM
QuoteGive it a rest lads and bring back Bullseye.
Buttonman will be along with that photo shortly...
ActuaLOL.
We never really die.

Tiplodocus

Quote from: The Cosh on 03 May, 2015, 10:48:40 PM
Just finished watching the Daredevil series and quite surprised not to see more chat about it anywhere.

Overall, I thought it was a pretty good stab at rehabilitating the character after a duff movie outing, but it's a real game of two halves. The first half dozen or so rattle along at a terrific pace and are a lot of fun but then we get five episodes of Matt sitting around picking his scabs while nobody talks to each other and hints are dropped of future plot strands. Which gets a bit wearing.

Some decent fight scenes for telly and I assume plenty references for the nerds: I'm no expert on Daredevil but I did smile when one of the first hoods he batters turned out to be Turk.

The biggest problem, for me, was Kingpin (not that anyone ever calls him that.) It's obviously a deliberate decision to play the villain in a different and distinctive manner so, on those terms, it's probably the best performance in the series. Unfortunately, I found it totally aggravating. I'm not sure I ever understood what his nefarious plan was either.

"This city needs me." "I am here to save my city."  Et cetera. Give it a rest lads and bring back Bullseye.

Agree with this. While it was at first refreshing to see a hero who isn't back on his feet two minutes after been beaten to within an inch of his life, it actually meant fuck all happened for about four episodes.

I thought his final costume was too fussy and the climactic fight with Kingpin was anti.
Be excellent to each other. And party on!

Definitely Not Mister Pops

Quote from: Tiplodocus on 04 May, 2015, 11:19:12 PM

I thought his final costume was too fussy...


Yeah, too many straps and rivets and bolts. Looked like something from a DC show. Nowhere near as cool as his Ninja Cowl and Matt Black Trakkies.

I think the series suffered from being released all at once. It was designed to be binged on. If you chose to ration it out, it suffered from a drop in pace, just before the last act, which was just a wee bit too neat. Interesting take on Kingpin.

I think the first half of the series stands out because it is quite possibly the best live action origin story ever. Through a series of flashbacks which culminate to [spoiler]Stick's[/spoiler] appearance, I got to understand who Matt was and what he could do.

This show just had the same problem all Movie Origin Stories have: What do you do once you've established the hero? This show didn't have the budget to show a massive gas/lazer attack from the top of a skyscraper.

I think Foggy might be my favourite character in the MCU.
You may quote me on that.

Definitely Not Mister Pops

Quote from: King Pops on 05 May, 2015, 03:55:00 AM

I think the series suffered from being released all at once...


Too slow for the edit:

If they had released this show 1 week at a time, the entire internet would be ablaze after the end of the  second episode.

The problem I found, was that it was difficult to talk about with work colleagues. some had binged it all, some had binged a large portion, but most had just watched snywhere between 2 and 6 episodes.

The "watercooler moments" were lost.
You may quote me on that.

Theblazeuk

Possibly because I watched this in pieces rather than at once with the last 2 episodes as one sitting but I enjoyed it and felt it was a fine ending, not reaching the heights of the series but with enough threads hanging and enough closed off to do justice. I like the costume too, more than the generic 'man in the mask' look. And Fisk fight was good enough for me.

Definitely Not Mister Pops

#971
W1A

This is like a British version of Community, except it's David Tennant in the role of Abed, making a documentary about his quirky friends, but instead of being set in in bizarre, surreal Community College, it's presented in the even weirder environs of the BBC.
You may quote me on that.

radiator

I've just discovered that my cable subscription entitles me to free use of that Simpsons World App/service - basically I can stream every single episode of The Simpsons, any time I want. Amazing.

So it looks like I'm about to embark on an epic binge-watch of the show's glory days (seasons 2-10). Despite having seen these episodes so many times, it occurs to me that I've probably never seen them either in decent quality, or uncut - ISTR, though I wasn't aware at the time, that the eps that used to run on terrestrial TV and Sky had a lot of the edgier material cut out of them for pre-watershed broadcast.

I'd also be interested to check out some of the more popular recent episodes. It seems like the hardcore fans say "Actually, it's got really good again" every time a new season airs. I don't believe them of course, but maybe it's time to put that to the test.

Professor Bear

I still watch the Simpsons, and if I'm being honest, while not actually dreadful, it's at best middling and inoffensive comedy with the odd good-to-great joke.  I think what would have helped it immensely at some point in the last 10 years was if it shifted focus from Homer's being an epic dumbass every week onto other characters like Marge or Lisa, much as the show did in its early years when it shifted focus away from weekly episodes about Bart being an asshole.

radiator

I find it hard to believe The Simpsons ever got objectively bad - I'm sure the newer episodes have very funny bits and they seem to have a lot of fans that still love the show - but for me personally, I love those old episodes so much that I just find it very hard to watch the modern ones. I think certain fans have such an attachment to these characters as they were in their prime that here just seems to be something intrinsically wrong about, for instance, retconning the timeline so that Homer and Marge met in the 90s.

I also flinch a little when I see those desperate attempts the show occasionally makes to be relevant and down with the kids, like Lisa Simpson singing a Kesha song, a Family Guy crossover, the Simpsons doing the Harlem Shake, or a whole episode built around an extended Lady Gaga cameo. Feels like the kind of shameless populist bandwagon-jumping that the original show used to viciously rip the piss out of.

Those early seasons though - just wow. Some of the greatest comedy writing/performance ever. There's gags that still make me howl with laughter twenty years later, having heard them dozens of times.