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Current TV Boxset Addiction

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

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Colin YNWA

Black Sails Season 3 keeps up the thrilling work of Season 2. It probably doesn't quite have the standout moments of Season 2 but its consistently great, compelling nonsense. It reminds me so much of the wonderful Rome in being great big, gloriously plotted historical meladrama. Its as big as the stories of the real folks this tale is based so loosely on.

Have to say often the big flash bang whoop final episodes normally don't quite live up to the one's that create the final push to those grande finales, as with Season 2. Here though by gosh the climatic action pieces are quite fantastically framed so that the gritty glossy violence is all the more impactful.

Just wonderful telly and I'm back to force of will to watch some other stuff ahead of diving into Season 4.

Oh and they got rid of the 3 episode wounds - wayhey and replaced them with 2 episode wounds BBBBBBOOOOOOOOOOOOO!  Its the only down side to this show.

Bolt-01

I've just discovered that Ash vs the Evil Dead is on Netflix - I'll be adding that to my watch list!

Tiplodocus

FRASIER... I was recently toying with idea of using a FRASIER script at our local am dram club. On the page, they read incredibly dull and dry which is a testament to the performances and the writer's knowing how valuable those performances are!
Be excellent to each other. And party on!

repoman

Quote from: Bolt-01 on 21 May, 2020, 10:57:40 AM
I've just discovered that Ash vs the Evil Dead is on Netflix - I'll be adding that to my watch list!

The second series of that was one of the very best seasons of anything ever.

Oddly though I've still not watched the third.  I did one episode and wasn't feeling it.  I need to sort that out.

von Boom

Brooklyn Nine Nine. I was hesitant about this because I couldn't fathom how a US show would handle a murder a week and be funny. Fortunately, it's not really about murder and the crimes they seem to concentrate on are mainly non-violent. Not laugh out loud funny, but fairly humorous all the same.

Professor Bear

Bojack The Horseman on Netflix - a show in which everyone is trying to be a nihilist for one reason or other, except the universe in which the show takes place is not random enough for that because every bad decision a character makes comes back on them.  This is a common combination of tropes to be found in most adult animated sitcoms, but where BH differs is in its refusal to reward its characters for good behavior, so self-improvement is something they undertake not for karmic reward but because they are unhappy all of the time, and the rewards - if any - are a long time coming.
It starts out as a standard crude adult cartoon, not without laughs for the first season or so before it starts to really take off, but once it does, it's amazing tv - and if for some reason Nina Simone's Stars doesn't already move you, there's a running theme in the show's final seasons that will make the song stick with you forever.

Solar Opposites - the Rick & Morty man's other animated sitcom.  Heavily influenced by Invader Zim and The Neighbors, it's mostly a greatest hits compilation of R&M, but more traditional in its structure and ambition.  Not great, and the crudity makes it feel like an amateur animation you stumbled across on Youtube, but if you liked Rick & Morty this might fill a hole between episodes.

Mardroid

Godless

I found this rather slow paced at the start, but it turned out to be rather good.

There was a [spoiler]character death at the end which rather shocked me. Not so much the fact they were killed off, but just how quickly and easily it happened. I expected that if that character died at all, it would be in a heroic way tracking several of the enemy work them, particularly as he had s couple of heroic moments earlier, but it wasn't to be. [/spoiler] I didn't much like that but kudos for [spoiler]subverting my expectations[/spoiler].

If you like a slow burn Western is recommend this.

Jim_Campbell

Quote from: Mardroid on 22 May, 2020, 06:12:16 PM
Godless

I found this rather slow paced at the start, but it turned out to be rather good.


As I said many, many pages back, this is maybe my favourite western this side of Unforgiven. I think I need to re-watch, TBH.
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pictsy

I've been rewatching The Clone Wars.  I prefer Rebels.

It's definitely better than the prequel movies.  The first I watched it I viewed in between Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith and it was shocking to see a decent characterisation of Anakin descend into petulant entitled whining in the last of those terrible films.  The early seasons of the show, however, have a lot of stupid in them and are kinda ropey.  Pretty much all the stories I found tiresome are in the first three seasons.  It does get better, especially towards the end.  Although I am now approaching the new seasons that I haven't seen before.

Mardroid

The new season 7 on Disney+ is great.

Without spoiling too much, the last episodes run during the same time period as Revenge of the Sith and are highly recommended viewing. The soundtrack during those episodes is excellent moody synthetic stuff- more akin to Bladerunner than Star Wars, but it works very well in context.

pictsy

I have seen the first two episodes of season 7 now and the thing I noticed most was the visual quality improving.  The episodes were ok.  A little silly, but I don't mind it being a little silly.

Bad City Blue

BANSHEE now on Sky Atlantic to download

Fantastically violent series. Comparable to Spartacus for good story, blood, sex and swearing

Writer of SENTINEL, the best little indie out there

Tiplodocus

Two episodes in to WHITE LINES on Netflix and quite enjoying. Never been to Ibiza but did have some right good times in Manchester in the 80s and 90s and this nails some of that. There's a simple central mystery that everybody seems invested in (But not in an overwrought, convoluted Harlan Coben way) and some dark humour and good performances.

Plus I've stood at the very bar in the spaghetti western saloon in Almeria where the series opens.
Be excellent to each other. And party on!

Apestrife

Quote from: pictsy on 24 May, 2020, 04:34:12 PM
I have seen the first two episodes of season 7 now and the thing I noticed most was the visual quality improving.  The episodes were ok.  A little silly, but I don't mind it being a little silly.

Should be mentioned. The middle arc s07e5-8 isnt everyones' favorite. Dont let it put you off from watching episodes 9 - 12.

radiator

#2474
Quote from: Greg M. on 18 May, 2020, 01:43:12 PM
Frasier is one of my favourite US tv shows, and there's certainly no season without highlights, though 10 is definitely the least strong - some of that's down to the death of show co-creator David Angell in the 911 attacks. But it absolutely rallies with the final season, when its best writer, Joe Keenan, returns and pens the Patrick Stewart episode. Even at its weakest, Frasier is pleasant tv, and you still feel you're hanging out with some people you're very fond of. Something simple, like Grammer's amazing enunciation, can be a joy - watch out for any time he says the word 'nude'. But at its best - stuff like The Matchmaker, The Impossible Dream, Out With Dad, Moon Dance, The Ski Lodge or The Candidate - you've got episodes that can go toe to toe with the best any sitcom's ever offered.

Frasier is very good and the central cast is just phenomenally good - and its apparently really popular with the generation who weren't even born when it was on, which I find odd and strangely charming.

I can only imagine how hard it must be to balance the writing of characters like Frasier and Niles, who could so easily come off as obnoxious and unlikable and somehow make them not only bearable but lovable.

Recently watched a bit of Killing Eve. I really enjoyed the initial couple of episodes and it's a really well put together and well cast show, but I immediately wondered how they would be able to keep the central premise going without the show getting very silly and contrived.... and the answer is that it does get very silly and contrived very quickly so I ended up tuning out quite quickly. It reminded me a bit of Ozark in how its a show that seems way more interested in creating shocking watercooler moments than creating a believable, relatable world or interesting characters.

The character of Vilanelle just doesn't work for me either - you can tell she's intended to be this sassy antihero you're apparently supposed to root for, but I just found her exploits quite tiresome and her quips fairly eye-roll inducing after a while. Great antiheroes generally have a bit of complexity and ambiguity to them so that even when they do something abhorrent we can feel conflicted about it - it's much harder to relate to a character that is completely single-minded and cartoonishly amoral.