The Official Good Television Thread

i'm gonna try to finish that this weekend, as well as watch the new norm special of course. i'm back on my tv shit and want to catch up with the last couple years. in terms of newish shows, currently on my watchlist are severance, yellowjackets, the midnight mass, the north water, invincible, ted lasso, s2 of the terror. any other high priority recs?

I think you've got the essentials listed. Only heard bad things about The Terror s2, let me know if it's secretly good.
 
You have a point about Vaughn, he used True Detective to switch his comedy career into a drama career, but the rest? McConaughey has been doing stuff like this consistently and Dorff was more or less just a bit washed up.
 
Name one fucking role McConaughey did that was like Rust lol I think it even came out at the time that Nic liked McConaughey for one role he did like 20 years ago in a minor part

Could even add McAdams and Klitsch here. TD as a stepping stone series
 
Vince Vaughn, dorff, foster... McConaughey used this show to land Buick commercials for a decade.

Lincoln dude, c'mon... ;) Honestly, I'll always remember this because I had my students fucking watch these in a course I taught on road narratives.



so fucking ridiculous....

McConaughey has been doing stuff like this consistently and Dorff was more or less just a bit washed up.

Name one fucking role McConaughey did that was like Rust lol I think it even came out at the time that Nic liked McConaughey for one role he did like 20 years ago in a minor part

It was certainly part of MM's "serious" turn, and I think you could say that TD was the linchpin in the transformation. It solidified popular culture's sense of him as a dramatic actor, largely because of the show's insane and unexpected popularity that first season.

Mud and Dallas Buyers Club were both pre-TD, but neither skyrocketed him to the status of a cultural icon like the character of Rust Cohle.
 
Been binging Mythic Quest, a new series written by some of the Always Sunny guys and starring Rob McElhenney. It's workplace comedy about the developers of a massively successful, fictional MMO. The commentary on the gaming industry is pretty normie-level but the cast is terrific. ~2 episodes per season break from the usual sitcom format and go somewhere unexpected and usually dramatic. S01 had a coronavirus episode that was an emotional roller-coaster and S02 had a 70's flashback episode that was basically a love letter to science fiction literature of that era and featured Isaac Asimov in a supporting role.

Wouldn't call it a must-watch but it is supremely watchable and I am excited to see where it goes in the upcoming seasons (already renewed for a third and fourth.)
 
  • Like
Reactions: CiG
Wouldn't call it a must-watch but it is supremely watchable

I agree, not a must watch and after multiple episodes I found myself wondering if I could be bothered but for some reason I always did and enjoyed both series.
 
Name one fucking role McConaughey did that was like Rust lol I think it even came out at the time that Nic liked McConaughey for one role he did like 20 years ago in a minor part

You're acting like until True Detective he did fucking slapstick comedy. The Lincoln Lawyer, Dallas Buyers Club, Mud, Killer Joe, Interstellar the same year as True Detective. He's done a lot of darker more character driven stuff.
 
That sex scene in episode 4...

View attachment 31249

Gave me Videodrome flashbacks. I dug it. :D


You're acting like until True Detective he did fucking slapstick comedy. The Lincoln Lawyer, Dallas Buyers Club, Mud, Killer Joe, Interstellar the same year as True Detective. He's done a lot of darker more character driven stuff.

This is all true, but I’ll grant rms that TD was probably the role that clinched the deal. Neither Mud nor DBC made cultural waves like TD did. And I’ll take a risk and say that Lincoln Lawyer wasn’t actually that serious of a shift for MM. To me, it felt like him doing his usual thing but in a dramatic narrative.
 
My point is that there really wasn't a shift to begin with. I didn't bother name-dropping his 90's roles but he's been dipping in and out of this stuff for forever.

True Detective was a TV show so it just hit more eyes is all. Calling it a reformation is silly.
 
My point is that there really wasn't a shift to begin with. I didn't bother name-dropping his 90's roles but he's been dipping in and out of this stuff for forever.

True Detective was a TV show so it just hit more eyes is all. Calling it a reformation is silly.

Yes, that's fair. TD probably solidified the idea of a reformation in the eyes of a viewing public, but wasn't MM's initial move toward more dramatic roles.

I do still think it's fair to say there's a notable shift away from rom-com tropes in his overall filmography, and TD is part of that shift.
 
This is ridiculous, the mother fucker has been a sex symbol dude for decades. His natural stinkie hippie ass has been everywhere. God damn sweet home Alabama. He did magic Mike two years before TD. Fools gold. Failure to launch. Fucking Sahara. How to lose a guy in 10 days. The wedding planner..and you're gonna say what, because he did Frailty this isn't a shift?! God damn bologna
 
If anything True Detective was the culmination of a trajectory, and since then he's kind of avoided similar material. So actually it's fucking backwards. If it's a reformation, it should logically follow that he's done more dark material since True Detective, not less.
 
And I'll end it this dumbass opinion you have by telling you to look up what role they wanted McConaughey for and which one he had to audition for
 
If anything True Detective was the culmination of a trajectory

Not sure I agree with this. I see no discernible trajectory that leads from How to Lose a Guy to True Detective.

I think it's fair to say there's a noticeable shift that begins to occur a few years before TD and continues with several films after that. TD is probably the most culturally familiar entry in that shift.

It may not have been a conscious decision on MM's part (no way to know that), but it certainly looks like a shift. I think that's a pretty easy argument to make.
 
Since True Detective he's done 3 fucking CGI animated movies, a Guy Ritchie comedy and The Beach Bum. Such a reformation!

rms keeps referencing Dazed and Confused as if that's all he did in the 1990's, ignoring roles in films like Lone Star, Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation, A Time to Kill etc. There's a consistent streak of playing both darker and safer roles.

Not sure I agree with this. I see no discernible trajectory that leads from How to Lose a Guy to True Detective.

This is dumb af. I see a trajectory from films like U-571 and Frailty from around the same time as your example. This all builds up into his darker 2010's stuff, of which you yourself point out True Detective is wedged within.

The fact that Matthew was supposed to play Marty but insisted he play Rust instead shows that HE was pursuing darker roles, which falls in line with what he'd been doing years prior (ie it was a conscious decision by him).

rms somehow thinks that's a point in his favour lmfao. But you guys can keep pretending he was just a romcom retard right up until True Detective rebirthed him like a phoenix I suppose.
 
Your leapfrogging over a ten year gap you fucktard. And in the 90s he wasn't shit, him sucking a dick to get a role in a shitty Texas chainsaw movie?? That's your evidence?? You fuck lol I didn't even mention dazed and confused once. Making shit up.
 
The fact that Matthew was supposed to play Marty but insisted he play Rust instead shows that HE was pursuing darker roles, which falls in line with what he'd been doing years prior (ie it was a conscious decision by him).
so the studio wanted him for the stereotype role and he wanted different..............wonder how that's relevant to this discussion.......

Fucking shouldn't bother after you actually recommended that piece of shit oldboy remake