The TV shows you've seen recently thread.

[GreatSageEqualOfHeaven]

Tony

[HaughtyFrank]

Rings of Power finally got some action with episode 6

There's still some stuff where I wonder why the writers had it to write it this way when it could have been done simpler but it's fine overall.

[Tuckers Law]

Watched the first episode of that Stephan Moffat show Inside Man, and wow does it have his worst excesses on full display.  Convoluted situations with oh-so-fucking-clever characters, and then they went and combined it with some absolutely laughable direction.  It might be the worst thing of his that I’ve seen it’s so bad (I couldn’t even finish Sherlock season 4, so maybe that’s worse).

[GreatSageEqualOfHeaven]

Watched the first episode of that Stephan Moffat show Inside Man, and wow does it have his worst excesses on full display.  Convoluted situations with oh-so-fucking-clever characters, and then they went and combined it with some absolutely laughable direction.  It might be the worst thing of his that I’ve seen it’s so bad (I couldn’t even finish Sherlock season 4, so maybe that’s worse).

If you're hitting up the BBC dramas, The Responder is pretty good

[Madrun Badrun]

This week's Taskmaster was brilliant.  Also, a lot of the series are officially available on youtube for many regions https://www.youtube.com/Taskmaster/playlists



A classic task

[Bebpo]

Some of y'all watch Flanagan's The Midnight Club and let me know if it's worth re-subbing to Netflix for. Reviews are really mixed so can't tell if it's worth a watch. I'm fine with YA horror, as long as it's fun/good.

[HaughtyFrank]

I wasn't too excited by the first trailer but I like this one. Maybe I'll give it a watch after all

[Transhuman]

Some of y'all watch Flanagan's The Midnight Club and let me know if it's worth re-subbing to Netflix for. Reviews are really mixed so can't tell if it's worth a watch. I'm fine with YA horror, as long as it's fun/good.

You know I spoiled Midnight Mass for myself, so i'm actually going to watch Midnight Club to see if Mike Flanagan lives up to this hype he has. I'm up to episode 3, and although I hate horror as a genre, I like it so far. Firstly, the dialogue is top notch. The gallows humour written for Ruth Codd who plays Anya is one of the show's standout features. Imagine my surprise when I found out she has no previous acting experience, and was discovered on TikTok! I think this may be the one single time TikTok has added any value to my life. The central conceipt of the show is that it teases the existence of a supernatural prescence or forces, but at the same time, these terminal ill teens are taking morphene like tic tacs and dealing with the emotional turmoil of their impending deaths, so perhaps the horrifying nightmares aren't signs of the supernatual and are just regular mental anguish. The show also leaves open the idea that any supernatural signs or visions experienced by the characters are self-deceptions, for all the normal reasons that a dying person would want confirmation of an afterlife if they could get it some. I'm going to just watch it all now and tell you what I think at the end so gimme like 6-7 hours.

[GreatSageEqualOfHeaven]

Some of y'all watch Flanagan's The Midnight Club and let me know if it's worth re-subbing to Netflix for. Reviews are really mixed so can't tell if it's worth a watch. I'm fine with YA horror, as long as it's fun/good.

Theres a Del Toro anthology series dropping at the end of the month, so..... I'm gonna assume a months sub is worth it between the two of those plus anything else you may have missed that wasn't compelling enough on its own.

[Transhuman]

The Midnight Club was okay. There's no nudity, so if that's a dealbreaker for you, fair warning. Seems like a waste to not include nudity in a horror, though.

Anyway was ok. Apparently a season 2 is unconfirmed at this point which surprised me tbh. Kind of a no-brainer renew.

[Mupepe]

The Midnight Club is good. Less monologues because he found a different way to work them into his shows and it works pretty well. It has a formula that I could see getting old to some people but I enjoyed it thoroughly. It’s no Hill House but if you like Flanagan you’ll find something to like here I’m sure.

[Bebpo]

Sounds good. Yeah, will resub and watch that and the anthology show later in the month.

Meanwhile, woof at this weeks Rings of Power ep. The writing during this story transition was awful. They have 5 writers on this and no one can realize how dumb some of these plot transitions are?

Elrond and the Dwarves are easily the best part of the show. Harfoots second best. Rest is kind of messy with some great, some bad. Pretty curious to see what they do for the season finale since there's like zero build up to anything coming next ep but it's the season finale.

[Tasty]

Meanwhile, woof at this weeks Rings of Power ep. The writing during this story transition was awful. They have 5 writers on this and no one can realize how dumb some of these plot transitions are?

Gonna give some insight into the writers' rooms on these things:

If there's 5 people and scene/plot transitions are really abrupt, it's because different parts of the script/season were assigned to different writers on the team. It's more common in drama, as in comedy you have people kinda "talking over each other" when banging out a single scene. Those are the two options you have if you move beyond a single writer, and it's up to the primary producer ("the money guy") who can delegate that decision to the showrunner.

On shows with strict quality control, the "compiled" scripts are then sent to the EP/someone higher on the production team to rewrite so everything is smooth and consistent. But just as often that ball gets dropped and it's easy to tell when it happens -- each writer will by definition have their own voice they're bringing to the table, and they should know the mythology and the world but sometimes it's easy to forget some (seemingly small) details. It's ultimately the responsibility of the showrunners to ensure it all makes sense in the end.

[Tasty]

NOT SPEAKING FROM EXPERIENCE just lots of research because I'm a wannabe screenwriter

[Tasty]

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/warner-bros-writers-directors-pipeline-programs-shut-down-1235239387/

Extremely disheartened to read this headline. I've applied for one of these before and was looking forward to applying again. This is the first WBD move I wholeheartedly denounce, and I believe this will tangibly hurt them long-term. These workshops have been going for 40 years, even through AT&T. This is an unfathomably bad idea.

[chronovore]

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/warner-bros-writers-directors-pipeline-programs-shut-down-1235239387/

Extremely disheartened to read this headline. I've applied for one of these before and was looking forward to applying again. This is the first WBD move I wholeheartedly denounce, and I believe this will tangibly hurt them long-term. These workshops have been going for 40 years, even through AT&T. This is an unfathomably bad idea.

https://deadline.com/2022/10/warner-bros-discovery-u-turn-on-closure-of-writers-directors-workshops-1235142842/

[Snoopycat_]

I liked that movie A League of their own so I put the new series on to see if it was any good. Nah. They've gone way overboard with the quirky cutesy bullshit. It's right from the start. 1 wacky funster is fine. An entire cast is too much. So I decided to finally watch Fleabag instead. 1st episode was pretty good. Olivia Coleman's character was funny as fuck.

[Sideshow Raheem]

The kids on the internet are right. The last episode of She-Hulk is all the things they complained about done very oddly. But not odd in an engaging way.

spoiler (click to show/hide)

Don't know why the Abomination risked jail time for speaking engagements. And the character Pug is reduced to being someone else's mouthpiece. As in, there's a scene where he's unable to interact with a group of people without Jen's paralegal feeding him dialogue. Plus She-Hulk meets her maker and he's named Kevin.

[close]

As disposable fare, She-Hulk was passable. Its lead actress is talented and expressive. I liked the premise, too, but most of the episodes were throwaway-to-poor.

[Madrun Badrun]

Ya I like it enough to watch -- think I'm up to episode 6 or something -- but the writing, especially the comedy, is very mediocre.  Wish they would have taken more risks with it. 

[chronovore]

In the final episode, they hang a lampshade on the fact that the show isn't sticking to any single genre. The resolution of the finale goes places established in the comic book, back in the day, and is more fourth-wall breaking than Deadpool has managed.

[Bebpo]

Haven't watched the She-Hulk finale yet, but just watched the Rings of Power finale and it was solid.

I think overall S1 of Rings is like a B/B-. It's kind of shaky, but not bad and still cool to get a LoTR high quality/high budget show. Some stuff is really good like the Dwarves and Elves, and some stuff less so. Definitely has its moments and it looks and sounds really nice and a lot of great performances.

If they can work on the writing quality for S2 and maybe get some slightly better directors, S2 could be great. Got 4 seasons to go, so plenty of room for improvement.


Also this makes me want to pick back up on reading Wheel of Time book #2 since WoT is such a 100% ripoff of LoTR and this show reminded me of WoT a bunch.

[Transhuman]

Slow Horses
Yellowjackets
Station Eleven
The Afterparty
Stranger Things
The Midnight Club
Better Call Saul
The Responder

So much Good tv within the last year to watch, and yet you watch the Bad tv

[Bebpo]

Ok, watched She-Hulk finale. That was good. Can't get on board with the dislike. Honestly this was the best TV show Marvel has done because it was just short and fun and not full of itself and boring. Felt more like the comics than most of this stuff.

I'd say She-Hulk and Shang-Chi are easily the best things Marvel has done in the years since Endgame.

[Tasty]

Slow Horses
Yellowjackets
Station Eleven
The Afterparty
Stranger Things
The Midnight Club
Better Call Saul
The Responder

So much Good tv within the last year to watch, and yet you watch the Bad tv

Mare of Easttown
Hacks
The White Lotus

[Pissy F Benny]

You fools need to watch We Own This City, the best TV series since the glory days imo.

[Potato]

The Bear and Better Call Saul are the two best shows I've watched this year

[Potato]

She-Hulk turned out alright. Really stuck it with a thematically consistent ending rather than just the usual MCU dumb shit.

[Cauliflower Of Love]

shang chi was trash

[HaughtyFrank]

She hulk finally got clever with the fourth wall breaking which I appreciated. Overall I'm still fairly disappointed with the show though. Said this before but writing almost every character besides Jen and her best friend as a complete asshole or bumbling idiot made the show way too cynical if not sometimes almost downright meanspirited.

[Potato]

Rings of Power has a satisfactory conclusion, but the whole first season felt like an extended prologue. Really feels like the show will begin proper in season 2 and that's not a compliment.

Overall it was...ok...I didn't hate it and I didn't love it. I'll keep watching because I like the source material and there's plenty of potential. The actors are good and the production is top quality.

Things I didn't like:

spoiler (click to show/hide)

• The whole subplot with the stupid sword hilt being the key to bringing down the dam wall. Very contrived McGuffin that wasn't even necessary.
• The whole mithrill legend about saving the elves. Unnecessary and more McGuffin nonsense. It makes the downfall of moria less about greed and more about a friend trying to save his friend. Silly.

[close]

[HaughtyFrank]

Andor is damn good. Perhaps the best Star Wars anything Disney has produced so far.

[Polident Hive]

Atlanta’s fourth and final season started weeks ago and I only learned about the other day. Two years then four years then four months between seasons??

Great so far.

[Beezy]

Yeah, they shot s3 and s4 back to back.

[Madrun Badrun]

[Snoopycat_]

Apart from BCS, Slow Horses and Severance have been the best shows this year. Everything else has been shite.

[GreatSageEqualOfHeaven]

the Doctor Who Goodbye 13 / Fuck Off Chibnall / RTD is coming back / Finally some good fucking Doctor Who / 100 Years of the BBC Too Damn On The Nose As Metaphor Once Beloved Cultural Icon Tarnished To Indifference By Egos And Politics Centennial Special is just an outright fucking mess.

I don't know if its a final 'fuck you then' from - easily - the worst fucking showrunner its literally ever had phoning in the laziest fanwank nostalgia bait stringing together unrelated Tik-Toks of individual "WOW WOULDNT THAT BE COOL?" moments and pretending that makes a 'story', or is he really is just that fucking bad as a storyteller, but fuck off chibnall, you've basically single handedly killed the franchise and also fucked over whatever weirdos actually liked your shit by deleting it all in advance for the next guy.

RTD singlehandedly saved Dr Who once, I dunno if he can do it again, but I literally can't see how it could get any worse.

If you've been a long term Dr Who fan and can ignore "NuWho" as exemplified in this special as a tale full of sound and fury, told by an idiot, signifying nothing being such a far cry from relying on the writing doing all the heavy lifting because the sfx were shite, theres a couple of nice character moments with old doctors and old companions. But you might as well just watch those on Youtube.

The rest of the things a fucking nonsensical trashfire.

Of all the recent scifi tv 'reboots' that have hurt to watch being made by people who clearly just don't fucking get what made the show special, Who hurts the most. This was vastly worse than the shitty american co-produced attempt with Paul McGann which at least had an actual story to tell. Ugh. Fuck you so much Chibnall.

[Tasty]

I guess they couldn't have brought back my preferred Doctor (Smith), he got that HBO money now.

Tennant basically forcing himself back to save the franchise he loves is sad on multiple levels.

[Transhuman]

I understand that it is a cultural touchstone or whatever but at this point it just reflects poorly on the country.

[GreatSageEqualOfHeaven]

I guess they couldn't have brought back my preferred Doctor (Smith), he got that HBO money now.

Tennant basically forcing himself back to save the franchise he loves is sad on multiple levels.

I mean... the BBC sold Dr Who off to a third party production company, so if its successful they'll literally have that HBO money.

This was its last hurrah as a BBC thing, and was literally supposed to be part of the centennial celebrations to remind people why the BBC is important and still relevant and that the Reithian ideals of entertaining but also informing still have a place in todays media landscape.

[Polident Hive]

I keep an ear to the happenings of Dr Who as an old New fan. Really, from Eccleston to partway into Smith’s. What’s surprising about the recent runs is nobody had a honeymoon period with the show runners. When Moffat replaced RTD, people were excited. Moffat wrote some fan favorite episodes. People eventually turned on him, likely a mix of how Sherlock went, too. But never heard a single person bat for this Chibnall. Looped around to RTD as savior again. With fan favorite Doctor coming back to re-introduce lapsed fans. Shit, it worked on me. I’ll check it out next year.

[Tuckers Law]

I’m not falling for the BBC’s tricks, I don’t want their free candy and I’m not getting in their van.

[Madrun Badrun]

https://www.thewrap.com/bad-crimes-netflix-adult-animated-show-canceled/

[Tasty]

I guess they couldn't have brought back my preferred Doctor (Smith), he got that HBO money now.

Tennant basically forcing himself back to save the franchise he loves is sad on multiple levels.

I mean... the BBC sold Dr Who off to a third party production company, so if its successful they'll literally have that HBO money.

This was its last hurrah as a BBC thing, and was literally supposed to be part of the centennial celebrations to remind people why the BBC is important and still relevant and that the Reithian ideals of entertaining but also informing still have a place in todays media landscape.

Wait... BBC sold Dr. Who?

[GreatSageEqualOfHeaven]

Wait... BBC sold Dr. Who?

The BBC get first simul-broadcast rights, Bad Wolf get global in perpetuity streaming rights, physical sales, and all merchandising, spin offs etc.

And my bad, its not HBO moneys. Its Disney+ Moneys.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/2022/doctor-who-bbc-and-disney-branded-television

spoiler (click to show/hide)

The BBC and Disney Branded Television - two giants of entertainment - have come together to transform Doctor Who into a global franchise for UK audiences and the rest of the world.

Under a shared creative vision, they will deliver this quintessentially British show to future generations on an unprecedented scale with Disney+ as the exclusive home for new seasons of Doctor Who outside the UK and Ireland. The announcement – which was made this morning by the next Doctor Who, Ncuti Gatwa, during an appearance on Live with Kelly and Ryan - begins a new collaboration between BBC and Disney Branded Television.

Both partners have aligned under returning showrunner Russell T Davies' bold vision, who takes control of the TARDIS in 2023. He was responsible for Doctor Who's revival in 2005 and is credited with propelling the show into one of TV's biggest hits.

The new episodes will premiere on the BBC and Disney+ beginning in late 2023 for fans all over the world.

The show will be produced in Wales by Bad Wolf with BBC Studios Production.

Russell T Davies says:

"I love this show, and this is the best of both worlds – with the vision and joy of the BBC and Disney+ together we can launch the TARDIS all around the planet, reaching a new generation of fans while keeping our traditional home firmly on the BBC in the UK."

Charlotte Moore, BBC's Chief Content Officer says:

"We are thrilled to announce this exciting global partnership with Disney who are the perfect partners to bring this very British show to the rest of the world.  Russell T Davies' vision for Doctor Who has always been out of this world and we are committed to ensuring that audiences across the globe get the opportunity to enjoy the Doctor's epic adventures with the scale and ambition that they deserve.  Joining forces with Disney will elevate the show to even greater heights and reach new audiences so it's an extremely exciting time for fans in the UK and across the world."

Alisa Bowen, President, Disney+ says:

"We're excited by the opportunity to bring new seasons of this beloved franchise exclusively to Disney+ and introduce the show to the next generation of audiences in more than 150 markets around the world. The series is a perfect addition to our ever-growing catalog of global content that continues to make Disney+ the home for exceptional storytelling."

Ayo Davis, President, Disney Branded Television says:

"Doctor Who has captivated the imaginations of families around the world for the past six decades. We are so excited about this collaboration with the BBC, and the opportunity to bring this iconic franchise – and Russell T Davies' brilliant vision – to life for a huge new global audience. Grab your sonic screwdrivers and prepare to travel through time and space!"

Rebecca Glashow, CEO, Global Distribution, BBC Studios says:

"We're delighted to join forces with a partner who shares our vision and ambition for one of the most iconic shows in British TV history. This is great news for everyone who loves Doctor Who, and for all the new fans we will reach through this powerful partnership."

Jane Tranter & Julie Gardner, Executive Producers and Co-founders, Bad Wolf, says:

"For Doctor Who to have the backing of two of the most innovative and respected media organizations in the world is a testament to the unique drive and vision at the heart of this show.  Bad Wolf are beyond delighted to be once again working with the genius that is Russell T Davies and, with the exciting new partnership between the BBC and Disney, we can together reach to even greater heights, producing from Wolf Studios Wales ambitious stories through time and space for audiences across the globe."

Notes to Editors

The new episodes of Doctor Who will return to screens in November 2023 to coincide with the 60th anniversary and will premiere exclusively on the BBC for the UK and Ireland. David Tennant will play the Fourteenth Doctor for three specials, before Ncuti Gatwa takes over the role as the Fifteenth Doctor over the festive season.
Today a new Doctor Who logo was also unveiled for the new era.

[close]

[Phoenix Dark]

What do you think about the new 2023 Dr. Who. 

[Madrun Badrun]

[Polident Hive]

https://twitter.com/DiscussingFilm/status/1585025861128196096

…what?

[Tasty]

Wat

[chronovore]

Amazon Prime’s THE PERIPHERAL is really good.

[Cauliflower Of Love]

So apparently ep 7 of the bear was a single 17 min shot. The one where they get online orders.

No wonder that episode is so fucking great.

[GreatSageEqualOfHeaven]

What do you think about the new 2023 Dr. Who. 

I genuinely hope its really good on the level of someone that likes decent scifi as a consumer, but also I hope its extremely successful so people can start asking difficult questions on why something so culturally British and that was previously publicly owned is suddenly making large amounts of money in film and toy sales for fucking Disney and why all that possible revenue was literally given away for pennies on the pound and who exactly made money personally selling off those public assets dirt cheap.

And hopefully those questions keep the hyenas away from vivisecting Channel 4 for a bit longer.

[Potato]

So apparently ep 7 of the bear was a single 17 min shot. The one where they get online orders.

No wonder that episode is so fucking great.

Yep. I noticed that about 3/4 of the way through it when I was wondering why I was so exhausted and anxious. So fucking intense.

[MMaRsu]

[Madrun Badrun]

https://www.reddit.com/r/taskmaster/comments/yepcjz/dara_becoming_increasingly_annoyed_with_his_team/

was a very great task.  Very Whose-liney.

[Polident Hive]

https://twitter.com/AmazonStudios/status/1585686365592686594

Amazon has the dad / airport book-to-tv pipeline locked down.

[chronovore]

Aldis Hodge is consistently good. Happy he’ll be headlining a show.

[GreatSageEqualOfHeaven]

I only know him from Leverage, but most of the Leverage cast were always pretty good (with the exception of the main guy who got #metooed out of the reboot anyway).

I also enjoyed the 90s Morgan Freeman Alex Cross films (Kiss The Girls and Along Came A Spider) but the newer titular film was boring.


Sort of an aside, I wonder if theres much cross-business pay offs filming prolific authors for Amazon; "Did you like watching REACHER? Here are a fucking TON of JACK REACHER novels!"

[james]

Signed up for another year of HBO Max. My subscription expired in August. The 40% off promo ends Monday FYI.

Even though they cut a lot of content, theres still plenty of solid stuff like the GOAT Nancy Drew

[Tasty]

I don't think they've cut any content I can name off the top of my head, except Infinity Train. And only because they advertised that on the front of Max for weeks last year.

[james]

I don't think they've cut any content I can name off the top of my head, except Infinity Train. And only because they advertised that on the front of Max for weeks last year.

https://www.cinemablend.com/streaming-news/all-the-hbo-max-original-movies-and-shows-that-have-been-removed-from-the-platform

I had "An American Pickle" on my "watch eventually, maybe" list

Also I would watch whatever Warner crap was going to the movie theaters and now thats gone too. Thats how I got to watch Godzilla, Wonder Woman, and other high budget shit