The Official Good Television Thread

[Vegard Pompey]

I think Cig got caught by some troll, last part of his post was saying Marty's father in law couldn't be the Yellow King because he only appeared in one episode lol Cig is a sucker,

How does that make the OP a troll? He was probably responding to an actual theory going around at the time, speculation within the fanbase was crazy leading up to the finale.

 

[rms]

Oh, didn't notice the date...that's some different context on that post, then

 

[CiG]

I just said it was pretty convincing, not that I'm 100% sold on the theory ya dumbbell. There are also other posts by people made after they'd seen the whole thing with similarly interesting points. It's just interesting to read is all, no need to be autistic about it.

 

[Einherjar86]

Mixed feelings on S4, still reflecting on it. So much promise in its setup and environmental themes, which was a nice echo of Rust's comment in S1 about pipeline slicing up the land like a jigsaw... "whole place is gonna be underwater in thirty years." Then S4 didn't quite deliver on the goods, although I appreciate the environmental justice focus on pollution, mining, and Indigenous displacement. Just felt like they could have done a lot more. Two things:

-I'd have loved more about the ice caves and the organisms, but that's the SF nerd in me. Tell me about the fossilized creature in the ice! Go whole hog into speculative narrative, c'mon...
-and on a similar note, I would have appreciated S4 more if it owned its horror leanings. Instead, it reverted into the same ambiguity that S1 did in relation to its horror elements, but without the same narrative cohesion.

Ultimately, the S4 finale felt kinder and more politically thoughtful than S1, which does not necessarily make good art. Even before S4 aired, I've also been thinking more about how truly S1 was a quietly conservative piece of storytelling--which doesn't necessarily make bad art. Of all the seasons, S1 and S4 make the most sense next to one another; they share an imperfect symmetry (which is kind of a contradiction, I realize). I appreciated a lot of what S4 did, even as it did so unevenly and sometimes artlessly.

I sincerely hope they don't make another season.

 

[CiG]

I sincerely hope they don't make another season.

Officially renewed for a fifth season with the same showrunner.

 

[Einherjar86]

I saw the news probably five minutes after posting that, no joke.

 

[Slammed]

I just finished watching Obliterated. Fucking stupidly funny show about blowing up Vegas with a nuke. C Thomas Howell deserves an Emmy (or something) for his amazing acting, in the first 4 episodes especially.

 

[Vegard Pompey]

First two episodes of Shogun were solid. Long-time fan of Hiroyuki Sanada as a character actor so it's nice to see the manager of the Osaka Continental get to headline a big-budget historical epic.

I have some issues with the presentation though. I found the cinematography very distracting with its aggressive depth-of-field effects, vignetting and fisheye perspectives, the color grading felt very washed out and unnatural and to top it all off you have a droning, synth-laden soundtrack that sounds like epic trailer music. Why would you get Atticus Ross to score a 17th century period piece...? It comes across as very contemporary and feels like the wrong aesthetic entirely for a Sengoku-era drama. But it bothered me more in the first episode than the second, and I liked everything else about it.

 

[Slammed]

Watched Hijack recently. Mildly interesting adventure on a plane. Each episode is an hour of the 8 hour flight, it's not quite real time but it's set up that way. There is a few obvious holes in the series but otherwise it's not bad.

Also watched Changing Ends, Alan Carr's take on his childhood and figuring out he wasn't the same as most other boys. Had some really great moments, no point watching it if you're a fan of Alan and his work but well worth it for a fan.

 

[Vegard Pompey]

I thought Hijack started out very watchable, but a minimum of one colossally stupid thing happened each episode and it was pretty much in hatewatch territory for me by the end.

 

[Slammed]

Guess it depends how much reality you want in a dramatic tv show

 

[no country for old wainds]

First two episodes of Shogun were solid. Long-time fan of Hiroyuki Sanada as a character actor so it's nice to see the manager of the Osaka Continental get to headline a big-budget historical epic.

I have some issues with the presentation though. I found the cinematography very distracting with its aggressive depth-of-field effects, vignetting and fisheye perspectives, the color grading felt very washed out and unnatural and to top it all off you have a droning, synth-laden soundtrack that sounds like epic trailer music. Why would you get Atticus Ross to score a 17th century period piece...? It comes across as very contemporary and feels like the wrong aesthetic entirely for a Sengoku-era drama. But it bothered me more in the first episode than the second, and I liked everything else about it.

is it based on the clavell book? loved that as a kid

 

[Vegard Pompey]

Yup!

 

[Vegard Pompey]

Last night I finally restarted The Walking Dead from season 1.

Damn you've been binging this hard. What do you think?

 

[no country for old wainds]

jesus, there's been four more seasons since the one i tapped out during lol

 

[Vegard Pompey]

I think the writing picked up again after s08. One of the biggest gut-punch moments from the comic is allowed to play out organically without the foreshadowing/cliffhanger shtick they normally do to milk the big moments for all they're worth, and it's actually rather bone-chilling.

Unfortunately the production gets fucked over pretty bad by covid around the same time, so it's kind of a wash. Never finished s11.

 

[CiG]

I gotta say, considering several years ago I tried to rewatch it and tapped out inside of season 1, I'm genuinely surprised how much I love the show, even though at times it feels like it's just going through the motions. Especially after the prison arc. Once the stuff with The Whisperers started it got pretty exciting again.

I've not watched much of anything else though, way behind on so much because I was determined to catch up to all these new spin-offs. Still gotta watch Fear!

It's been fun, I don't regret it.

 

[Vegard Pompey]

Glad you like it. I get annoyed with people shitting on it incessantly because it's such an easy target, but it also has positive qualities that get overlooked in all the "hurr durr soap opera for men! lmao is that show still on?" bleating.

The show was a rollercoaster of quality for me, with my investment peaking around seasons 4-5 which was also around when I got into the comics. The Negan cliffhanger leading into a two-season bungling of the Saviors arc was the absolute nadir and I dropped the show for a while. I know he's a big name who's passionate about the source material and lobbied for the part, but JDM as Negan just doesn't work for me. Too old, too skinny, not imposing or larger-than-life enough for the role. He's much more suited to the reformed Negan of the post-Saviors seasons, in my opinion. (My dream fancast for Negan is Jon Hamm, and seeing him play a villain in Fargo s05 kinda confirmed he'd have been perfect.)

Season 9 started off very weak with Andrew Lincoln's exit handled awfully but the writing improved afterward. The Whisperer arc had promise but it felt like Covid restrictions precluded them from shooting big action setpieces, so it felt anticlimactic. I seem to recall one mid-season finale that built toward a big siege and they just... skipped past it.

Season 11 thoughts:

Spoiler

At the start of S11, the show felt invigorated. Lauren Cohan (<3) is back and so are action setpieces. The Reapers were pretty intimidating and I honestly wish they had been the final antagonists of the series instead of just another stop on the way. They even brought in one of my favorite character actors, Kripparian Ritchie Coster to play their leader, and at one point he gets to utter three of the most badass words I've ever heard in television:

Spoiler

"Prepare the hwacha."

I lost interest again when that arc ended so anticlimactically. I was also aggravated that they kept announcing spinoffs featuring this and that character before the show had even ended, at least pretend this is a survival horror series ffs. I should probably finish the season sometime to see how it all wraps up.

 

[CiG]

The Reapers were pretty intimidating and I honestly wish they had been the final antagonists of the series instead of just another stop on the way.

Vague spoilers in there bud, I stopped reading after this sentence.

 

[Vegard Pompey]

Ah sorry, I misread that you were done with S11. Edited out the spoilers.