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Current TV Boxset Addiction

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

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Richmond Clements

On a Breaking Bad rewatch. Just watched the first episode of season 2 and amazingly,[spoiler] this is when Walt makes the ricin![/spoiler]This is, what, two seasons before we [spoiler]meet Lydia[/spoiler]... man that's some forward planning...

ming

Quote from: Richmond Clements on 21 February, 2015, 09:49:49 AM
Three episodes in and Better Call Saul just keeps getting better.

Right there with you on that one.  Just watched the third episode last night and it's excellent; familiar but distinct enough to stand firmly on its own two feet.

Pass the cucumber water, will you?

:)


Also currently enjoying: Uncle.  Second season is a couple of episodes in and continues to tickle my funny bone.

radiator

Quote from: Satanist on 05 February, 2015, 04:14:36 PM
Quote from: Goaty on 05 February, 2015, 03:28:14 PM
All 5 seasons of Community just in Netflix, hadn't seen it yet, and some of you rating it good.

Watch first 3 series, forget the rest. Skip season 4. Watch season 5.

QuoteOn a Breaking Bad rewatch. Just watched the first episode of season 2 and amazingly, [spoiler]this is when Walt makes the ricin![/spoiler]This is, what, two seasons before we [spoiler]meet Lydia[/spoiler]... man that's some forward planning...

I think even the writers would freely admit that it was more 'leaving a dangling plot thread hanging then resolving it on the fly' than forward planning.

I've watched a bit of Saul. It's OK, but nowhere near as addictive or gripping as Breaking Bad so far.

Colin YNWA

Quote from: radiator on 25 February, 2015, 10:12:43 PM
QuoteOn a Breaking Bad rewatch. Just watched the first episode of season 2 and amazingly, [spoiler]this is when Walt makes the ricin![/spoiler]This is, what, two seasons before we [spoiler]meet Lydia[/spoiler]... man that's some forward planning...

I think even the writers would freely admit that it was more 'leaving a dangling plot thread hanging then resolving it on the fly' than forward planning.


Watching the interviews on the DVDs I watched BB from I was very surprised, assuming all this was very intricately put together, that even the bit with the big gun at the start of season 5 was thrown in with no knowledge of exactly how it would be used/resolved. The final use of said being determined during the course of the filming as episodes were finally written.

Either way you look at things, be it incredible foresight, or very neat tidying up as seems more likely. they did it very very well!

Fungus

Quote from: Colin_YNWA on 26 February, 2015, 09:10:09 AM
Either way you look at things, be it incredible foresight, or very neat tidying up as seems more likely. they did it very very well!

Well yes, but the thing about the ricin and guns is, you can imagine everyone in BB coming to a sticky end. Factoring in some poison (for a chemist) and gun action while tying up a drug-based crime drama doesn't sound like a huge stretch, more a head-start when writing the finish? Pleasinlgy neat, but not Earth-shattering.

If a leprechaun riding a zebra had been through the car-wash in episode 5 season 2, winked at camera, then proven to be pivotal to the whole series, then, well, bravo. Spoiler: [spoiler]that didn't happen[/spoiler].

Mattofthespurs

Picked up on The Walking Dead.

I watched the first season some time back but because I was very familiar with the comics and I found the series relentlessly grim (during a low part of my life) I stopped.

All 5 seasons (so far) popped up on Sky on demand so I plunged back in and have found it brilliant. I had to watch all the seasons before they took it off by 1st of March.

It's still grim but by God it's wonderful. Just finished season 5 episode 8 when [spoiler]Beth gets killed by the cop Dawn at the hospital.[/spoiler] Man, that almost made me cry! 6 foot 4 inch, 15 stone man nearly weeping at the television.

That's some good stuff right there in my opinion.

Magnetica

Just been watching Stargate SG1 seasons 9 and 10. It has taken me a number of years to do this since Channel 4 stopped showing it and as far as I know they never showed these final two seasons.

So did the show suffer when Mitchell replaced O'Neill? No not at all in my opinion.

I thought the concept of the Ori was great, but overall I think they could have made far more of it. I kept waiting for the big battle to come and it really never did [spoiler](apart from a bit of a shoot out at the end of season 9 / start of season 10 with some Ori mother ships.)[/spoiler]

Season 10 became really just a quest to [spoiler]find a technobabble way to beat the Ori. [/spoiler]I was expecting the last few episodes to focus on the war with the Ori's followers (a bit like the final 6 episodes of DS9 focussed on the war with the Dominion - and even that suffered from big battle taking place off screen syndrome) but[spoiler] it just didn't happen.[/spoiler]

Then it was wrapped up in the spin off movie The Ark of Truth which [spoiler]was again a quest to find a technobabble way to get the Ori's followers to stop believing which then had to re-introduce a previous foe (The Replicators) so that it could last the running time.[/spoiler]

I'm not saying it was bad, just that it could have been so much better and was in my opinion a bit of a wasted opportunity.

As to SG1 overall - yes I liked it, but for me it was always secondary to Star Trek (especially TNG and DS9). It was remarkable consistent in quality  - always about 6-7 out of ten in my opinion*. For me it never hit the heights that Trek did (e.g. Q Who, Best of Both Worlds, Dominion war) but there was never a really terrible episode either.


* the fantastic episode "200" apart.

Colin YNWA

Quote from: Colin_YNWA on 20 January, 2015, 08:23:26 AM
Well its not an addiction yet but since it was lent to me by my boss our next endeavour is The West Wing. Watched the first episode and while it certainly had some nice moments all I can say is I do hope it gets better! After all the praise I've heard of it I suspect it will?

Quite egoistical to quote yourself but wanted to say having finished Season one, all 22 episodes it certainly does. At times its a bit cute, a little idealised (though it does try to balance this) and the music is God awful but its a bloomin' trimpuh and very funny at times. Beautifully drawn characters who always seem to be pulled back from being over earnst and too polished. Great stuff.

That cliffhanger though my gosh that would have been cruel in real time! Need to get hold of season 2 asap!

Magnetica

Yes the West Wing was one of my favourites. Definitely worth persevering with in my opinion, even if at times I didn't necessarily follow all the political goings on.

Mattofthespurs

Caught up with the Walking Dead now after doing 3 and a half seasons in 3 weeks.

Sucks being on 1 episode a week now.

TordelBack

#880
Well, that's the Buffy rewatch finished after more than a year of high-quality fun.  The final season was a very different beast than I had remembered, with a lot more going on and Caleb and the Scythe and all that stuff tucked into just 4 episodes at the end (in my memory, that was at least half the season).  I felt the writing slumped badly in the penultimate two episodes, with a lot of dutiful pairings and sparkle-free speeches, but it rallied marvelously for the (somewhat rushed) finale.  There's a lot of stuff I still don't understand, such as why any of the Slayerette stuff was necessary if Spike was just going to zap the baddies anyway, how the ubervamps became vulnerable to ordinary folk with swords, what 'Joyce's' message to Dawn was actually about, why the First just apparently slunk off at the end, and why Kennedy doesn't appear to be on the getaway bus but Willow isn't fussed.  Maybe I'll have to watch it again!  That said, the completeness of the tale in the end was impressive: involving Faith so thoroughly, and using the full rogues' gallery of the Master, the Mayor, Adam, Glory etc. as the faces of the First made for a very satisfying last outing.

While I'll never forgive Whedon for needlessly killing Wash Anya, at least I knew it was coming and so savoured my time with her.  Why Emma Caulfield didn't go on to world-dominating stardom is a mystery to me, she's been just luminous in this since her first scene, frequently overshadowing the also-excellent SMG.

The thing that really clicked for me this time through was Buffy and Spike's relationship, which by the end seemed genuinely plausible and complex, and actually gave both characters a very welcome depth.

Onwards with the rest of Angel!

Link Prime

Quote from: Tordelback on 03 March, 2015, 04:35:50 PM
Onwards with the rest of Angel!

With the unexpected (but not unwanted) return of Spike for season 5!

TordelBack

Quote from: Link Prime on 03 March, 2015, 04:39:57 PM
Quote from: Tordelback on 03 March, 2015, 04:35:50 PM
Onwards with the rest of Angel!

With the unexpected (but not unwanted) return of Spike for season 5!

Don't remind me!  If ever a character's story was fully told by the time he went out on a blaze of glory, it was Spike's.  Still, now I've warmed to Angel in general maybe I won't mind his reappearance so much this time. 

I, Cosh

Quote from: Tordelback on 03 March, 2015, 04:35:50 PM
The thing that really clicked for me this time through was Buffy and Spike's relationship, which by the end seemed genuinely plausible and complex, and actually gave both characters a very welcome depth.
If the old insomnia's playing up you can try and track back through this thread for my changing thoughts on that. I didn't like it at all at first, but it gradually makes sense in parts although ultimate does seem partly about setting him up for the ultimate sacrifice. I was also surprised about the relatively small role of Caleb in it.

Despite a relatively weak last series and as much as I love The Wire and whatnot, there's never going to be a better series than Buffy, is there?
We never really die.

Definitely Not Mister Pops

Any fans of Parks and Recreation?

The last season has been perfect, absolutely spot on.

I shall miss Ron Swanson.
You may quote me on that.