BEST TV Shows to watch... CURRENTLY...

[wataru330]

Hacks
-HBO Max
I really like the Joan Rivers-esque lead actress in this (my favorite Designing Woman from Designing Women); the gen Z co-star grinds my gears. Maybe I just hate gen Z people in general.

Svengoolie
-MeTV

October has been a bumper-crop of Sven-tastic episodes and specials, for Spooktober. The kids and I look forward to this every Saturday.

 

[terry.330]

Finished Cabinet of Curiosities and aside from one episode it was pretty great all the way through. The episode by Panos Cosmatos (director of Mandy) was easily the highlight. Really just a fantastically made and fun episode. Peter Weller doing superhuman amounts of space coke with Eric Andre is good stuff.

Tried watching Blockbuster and turned it off in less than 5 minutes. Absolute garbage, possibly one of the most instantly grating and annoying shows I've ever seen. Everything about it is awful.

 

[HornheaDD]

Poirot

I have to be honest I've only read one Agatha Christie book and it was in high school, so I dont even remember which one it was. Id heard of but never watched the Suchet Poirot series but my mom and aunts were huge fans. I've always been easily irritated with the French accent (yes yes I know, he's Belgian) so I didn't want to watch it on PBS when I was a kid either. I just wrote it off.

But a few months ago we watched the Branagh version of Death on the Nile and I ended up liking the character (and his portrayal of the character). My sister asked me to download the Poirot series for her recently so I upon checking the quality of the first episode, I found myself really enjoying it and watched the whole way through instead of a quick skim. It was really enjoyable, and quite funny in parts. I like his almost snide remarks and facial expressions in reactions to different people.

I'll deffo keep watching.

 

[terry.330]

The Suchet Poirot stuff is all really good. I have a hard time taking anyone else in the role seriously after watching him for so long.

I can't stand the Branagh stuff, it's not so much him as it is the movies themselves. I haven't been able to get through a single one. They are almost Baz Luhrmann level gaudy camp nonsense. I mean there are full on musical numbers for christ sake. That shit is not Poirot.

 

[SouthtownKid]

Tried watching Blockbuster and turned it off in less than 5 minutes.

Netflix making a Blockbuster series is like if Momčilo Krajišnik made a romintic comedy about Bosnian Muslims.

 

[terry.330]

Finally got around to watching House of Dragons past the first few episodes and it's like a totally different show.

This past week I've been re-watching Freaks and Geeks. It's been at least a decade since I first saw it. It still holds up pretty well, lots of relatable stuff from many different perspectives to create a full picture of those years. Great cast regardless of whether or not I like the actors, for this they're all perfectly cast. While the show's nothing very deep it hits in the same way John Hughes stuff does when he was at his best. I think FnG is far more relatable than any of Hughes stuff though, it's not just oblivious spoiled rich kids moping.

 

[terry.330]

Reign Supreme- Netflix series about the evolution of hip-hop in France, it specifically follows the founding of NTM and DJ Dee Nasty. The beginning part is quite interesting as it's the early days and everyone is still trying to figure out everything. As a fan of hip-hop culture it's cool to see it's influence in France at the time but that's about it. There's too much soap opera level drama focusing on the guys personal lives and behind the scenes bullshit. One character in particular and the actor playing him is so incredibly ignorant, arrogant and unpleasant it's impossible to root for him. It's also an extremely limited view of the scene in France at the time and completely ignores a ton of stuff that was already happening. Overall if you're a hardcore old school hip-hop fan it's worth a watch but I couldn't recommend it to a normal viewer.

 

[terry.330]

Guardians of the Galaxy Christmas Special- Moderately entertaining. The sexy bug chick and Drax were great as the leads but Chris Pratt really did not want to be there and it was apparent. I also suspect that Michael Rooker was not willing to come in for all the makeup for the 2 wrap around scenes he was in. Cute premise that barely managed to last the 45 minute run time. Also too much music, I know James Gunn is big on using music but this was bad.

Also why in the fuck did this come out so early? If you're going to make something this Christmasy you have to release it closer to the holiday.

 

[HornheaDD]

Guardians of the Galaxy Christmas Special- Moderately entertaining. The sexy bug chick and Drax were great as the leads but Chris Pratt really did not want to be there and it was apparent. I also suspect that Michael Rooker was not willing to come in for all the makeup for the 2 wrap around scenes he was in. Cute premise that barely managed to last the 45 minute run time. Also too much music, I know James Gunn is big on using music but this was bad.

Also why in the fuck did this come out so early? If you're going to make something this Christmasy you have to release it closer to the holiday.

Agreed on all counts. You could actually see Pratt not happy. And what was with the $2 budget on the Groot suit?

But what do you mean early? Shit man, it's Nov 25, Im surprised they waited this long to air it. Most 'tards out there that cant wait for christmas start decorating like August 15th and start humming Wings' Christmas Time in early October.

 

[terry.330]

Goodnight Oppy- Feature length documentary on the Mars rovers and how the Opportunity rover managed to last 15 years when it was only designed for 90 days. Overly long and extremely sappy which was surprising. I expected a fairly straight forward doc about the rovers and their teams but this was definitely more of an emotional piece about the team. It almost felt like one of those overly dramatic sports documentaries except made by nerds.

 

[LoneSage]

what was with the $2 budget on the Groot suit?

Wasn't a suit, all CGI.

 

[HornheaDD]

Wasn't a suit, all CGI.

I find that highly dubious.

 

[pixeljunkie]

I haven't seen the Guardians Xmas Special yet...but do we think Gunn sort of intentionally injected some badness into this? He's a dick in the best way possible. I assumed this was a meta-spoof of the Star Wars Xmas special which is horrid, hence it's cult status. Jussayin' He's clearly great at what he does and hearing things like "shitty Groot suit", etc...makes me think he did this on purpose.

I am clearly late to the party, but just discovered this, really wish it had gotten picked up as the pilot was great.

 

[HornheaDD]

Yeah it's pretty blatant that this is supposed to evoke memories of those goofy Holiday specials like the SW one where random celebs pop up to say hi or sing a song, etc.

 

[terry.330]

I haven't seen the Guardians Xmas Special yet...but do we think Gunn sort of intentionally injected some badness into this? He's a dick in the best way possible. I assumed this was a meta-spoof of the Star Wars Xmas special which is horrid, hence it's cult status. Jussayin' He's clearly great at what he does and hearing things like "shitty Groot suit", etc...makes me think he did this on purpose.

Not to the extent that you are probably imagining. A lot of it just seemed rushed and awkward but not in an intentionally fun way. Like DD said it's definitely a callback to older TV specials but it's not over the top, it's legitimately a very sincere and sappy Christmas special and it's worse off for it.

Groot looks terrible, like they pulled the CG model out of their ass at the last minute and it's unfinished.

 

[terry.330]

Wednesday- I know I'm not the intended audience but oh boy is this bad. They turned the Addams Family into a shitty Harry Potter knockoff. I will say that it's better than I expected and a big step up from Burtons past 20 years of garishly ugly misfires but it's still terrible. Total girl power wokeness with a superficial goth coating that comes at the expense of any semblance of good writing. It's all convenience for the sake of avoiding having to write any character development and most of all make Wednesday the typical jack of all trades perfect female that studios are so keen on these days.

The Addams Family works because they are strange people surrounded by normal society, if you put them in some sort of fantasy setting like Harry Potter it just doesn't work. I will say the casting is great, Jenna Ortega is perfect and all of the other main cast is pretty great as well it's just too bad they're stuck in generic fantasy YA tween dreck. If this was little less pandering it could have been pretty good. Again I'm not the intended audience, I'm sure tons on 13 year old girls with black lipstick love it and honestly they could be watching much worse things so whatever.

 

[SouthtownKid]

Wednesday- I know I'm not the intended audience but oh boy is this bad. They turned the Addams Family into a shitty Harry Potter knockoff. I will say that it's better than I expected and a big step up from Burtons past 20 years of garishly ugly misfires but it's still terrible. Total girl power wokeness with a superficial goth coating that comes at the expense of any semblance of good writing. It's all convenience for the sake of avoiding having to write any character development and most of all make Wednesday the typical jack of all trades perfect female that studios are so keen on these days.

The Addams Family works because they are strange people surrounded by normal society, if you put them in some sort of fantasy setting like Harry Potter it just doesn't work. I will say the casting is great, Jenna Ortega is perfect and all of the other main cast is pretty great as well it's just too bad they're stuck in generic fantasy YA tween dreck. If this was little less pandering it could have been pretty good. Again I'm not the intended audience, I'm sure tons on 13 year old girls with black lipstick love it and honestly they could be watching much worse things so whatever.

Eh, I like a lot of Burton's misfires. What they lack in coherent tone or narrative structure (like the all over the place Dark Shadows), they more than make up for in atmosphere. For me, anyway.

But yeah, we watched the first couple episodes of Wednesday, and it's pretty much low rent Harry Potter garbage. But it makes sense, because while some of the episodes are directed by Burton, it's not his show. The show runners are the two guys who did Smallville, and this is on about the same level as that.

 

[terry.330]

The show runners are the two guys who did Smallville, and this is on about the same level as that.

That explains a lot.

 

[HornheaDD]

Watched the first ep of the new Willow.

Meh.

"Hey let's hire a bunch of idiots who can't act for shit, and get one of the ugliest fucking girls and guys on the planet to play leads. Also, just so we can say we included everything under the sun to not get cancel-cultured, let's make the two below average looking girls gay. Let's also overtly telegraph the answer to the 'big mystery' of what happened to the baby from the first movie.
Oh, and lets not show the TITULAR CHARACTER until the last 5 minutes."


Just watch the original movie.

 

[Lagduf]

It’s like this past decade has been nothing but cash grab relaunches of older franchises.

Well, that and Marvel lol.

 

[Xavier]

I just recently finished watching the Amazon Kids in the Hall.
Trumpers like to call everything a nothingburger.
The show was a nothingburger hold the funny.

While I was there though I watched Death Comes to town and binged it, funniest shit known to man, highly recommended!

 

[SouthtownKid]

Let's also overtly telegraph the answer to the 'big mystery'

That's every show these days.

 

[Tron]

Watched the first ep of the new Willow.

Meh.

"Hey let's hire a bunch of idiots who can't act for shit, and get one of the ugliest fucking girls and guys on the planet to play leads. Also, just so we can say we included everything under the sun to not get cancel-cultured, let's make the two below average looking girls gay. Let's also overtly telegraph the answer to the 'big mystery' of what happened to the baby from the first movie.
Oh, and lets not show the TITULAR CHARACTER until the last 5 minutes."


Just watch the original movie.

In other words disney sure likes to lose money

 

[terry.330]

Fire of Love- Feature length documentary from National Geographic about a married team of French volcanologists who for over 20 years studied active volcanoes but more specifically ones as they erupted and got closer than anyone else. Which unsurprisingly is what ultimately killed them in 1991 at a site in Japan. They exhaustively documented these expeditions and this is almost entirely comprised of footage they shot over the years. It's absolutely stunning stuff.

Unfortunately this has some of the worst narration I've ever heard. It's extremely pretentious, romanticized and totally lacking in actual information. Just a bunch of fluffy romantic twaddle delivered by a woman who sounds like a parody of the type you hear on NPR. Despite that the footage is good enough I'd still recommend it but you can probably just mute it as almost all the useful information is subtitled and the narration is that bad.

 

[LoneSage]

Rick and Morty season 6 is over. It is depressing that the show's brilliance and creativity is over.

I can get what they were trying to do. It reminded me of Venture Bros season 4 in how much they changed so many dynamics and grew the characters, but unlike VB I don't see myself ever coming around to this season.

I don't care about TV in general so this is a bummer to lose interest in something I liked.