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

[StevenK]

The Terror (Season 1)- I watched a couple episodes of this when it was originally airing and then just kind of lost interest for some reason. I have heard a couple people mention it positively since it's showed up on Netflix so I thought I'd give it another shot. I actually had no idea it was an anthology series and that the other season(s) are totally separate stories.

It's an interesting but extremely flawed show. It has an absolutely incredible cast, some outstanding performances and nice production values. (Aside from one thing in particular) The premise is also just really cool. The famous Franklin Expedition to find the Northwest Passage has a lot of potential for a horror story. It starts off really well and has excellent character development but it shows it's hand too early then bounces between a couple different types of horror and culminates in an unbelievably dumb mess that just does not work. I have to give props to the actor that played Hickey though, he is an amazingly despicable character but what they do with him in the last couple episodes is really, really dumb. Everything just goes completely off the rails and not in a satisfying or interesting way.

There is also some absolutely embarrassing CG for a certain element that for some reason they decide to introduce much earlier than they need to and then double down on by showing it a lot. It's honestly baffling why they would choose to do this and that it was approved at any step of the process.

Honestly I think it's still worth watching for the incredibly strong performances and unique setting but be aware that there are some serious issues. It's like some weird combination of Master & Commander, The Edge and Saint Maude.

I know exactly what you're talking about with this.

My thoughts were that the true elements of the story are interesting enough to not require any of the weird shit they threw in, but even taking that into account the captain makes it worth sticking with. Been a while since I saw it though.

 

[terry.330]

Daryl Dixon- I can only blame myself for watching this.

I'll start with the only positives:

1.) It's Daryl being Daryl.
2.) France is an interesting setting and they make good use of it.
3.) It's fairly well paced compared to other TWD stuff. He travels further in 6 episodes than they did in multiple seasons of TWD.

That's it, everything else ranges from bad to straight up terrible. I watched about half of TWD when it was airing and gave up on that after the Neagan arc, so I have no real interest in the universe. But for some reason I decided against my better judgement to check this out just based off wait... WTF? Why is Daryl in France? Turns out it's so they could blatantly copy Last Of Us and The Road. Except they forgot all the stuff that made those actual good stories but remembered all the stuff that made TWD an infuriating muddled slog.

Daryl somehow ended up on some sort of prison ship in Maine and ends up washed ashore on the southeastern coast of France with partial amnesia? Fuck off. Then he meets a nun who convinces him to escort a little gay autistic boy to the west coast. The nun and apparently a ton of other people are somehow convinced that this kid is the literal messiah who is going to somehow rebuild the world. Except the kid is even more useless than Carl ever was. Fuck off. Also some of the zombies now have acid for blood just like Xenomorphs. Fuck you. There's a mid level bad guy that turns into an ally, then a second mid level badder bad guy that turns into an ally. There's also a comically evil fascist woman that runs a revolutionary military organization that's trying to kill the boy so that he can't bring hope to a new world. Fuck off.

Oh yeah and literally everyone Daryl meets speaks english. Everyone. He even meets a group of kids that all speak english because they learned it from watching fucking Mork and Mindy on VHS that is powered by a bicycle generator like some shit out of Beyond Thunderdome or Fallout. Fucks sake.

Daryl, the nun and the kid stupidly meander their way across France in a donkey cart to a magical sanctuary castle on the west coast. It ends with Daryl having to make a decision wether to stay in France or go back to 'merica in what I can only describe as one of if no the dumbest cliffhanger endings ever. Obviously you know there was going to be a cliffhanger but not that the show was literally going to laugh in your face for having sat through all 6 episodes. Seriously, it's just insultingly bad. Almost like something out of a parody.

They had to have known people would see through all this half-baked nonsense so they intentionally stretch out how Daryl got there to trick you into watching. But when you finally get what little explanation they bother to provide you're already in too deep to quit. What really amazes me is that after I finished it I read some reviews to see if anyone else felt duped and to my surprise most of them were really positive. I suspect that says a lot about how low the bar is these days in regards to both the core audience and the content, also just how bad TWD seems to have gotten by the end and in it's other spinoffs.

The worst thing is a lot of the basic premise could have worked, Daryl doesn't feel to out of place in France and he's legitimately a good character. But there's so much stupidity and unoriginality it just goes nowhere and accomplishes nothing.

 

[jro]

Penguin is starting to feel like performative art over substance.

Just now on episode 7 S1 of From, first show in a while that's grabbed me.

 

[Taiso]

Daryl Dixon- I can only blame myself for watching this.

I'll start with the only positives:

1.) It's Daryl being Daryl.
2.) France is an interesting setting and they make good use of it.
3.) It's fairly well paced compared to other TWD stuff. He travels further in 6 episodes than they did in multiple seasons of TWD.

That's it, everything else ranges from bad to straight up terrible. I watched about half of TWD when it was airing and gave up on that after the Neagan arc, so I have no real interest in the universe. But for some reason I decided against my better judgement to check this out just based off wait... WTF? Why is Daryl in France? Turns out it's so they could blatantly copy Last Of Us and The Road. Except they forgot all the stuff that made those actual good stories but remembered all the stuff that made TWD an infuriating muddled slog.

Daryl somehow ended up on some sort of prison ship in Maine and ends up washed ashore on the southeastern coast of France with partial amnesia? Fuck off. Then he meets a nun who convinces him to escort a little gay autistic boy to the west coast. The nun and apparently a ton of other people are somehow convinced that this kid is the literal messiah who is going to somehow rebuild the world. Except the kid is even more useless than Carl ever was. Fuck off. Also some of the zombies now have acid for blood just like Xenomorphs. Fuck you. There's a mid level bad guy that turns into an ally, then a second mid level badder bad guy that turns into an ally. There's also a comically evil fascist woman that runs a revolutionary military organization that's trying to kill the boy so that he can't bring hope to a new world. Fuck off.

Oh yeah and literally everyone Daryl meets speaks english. Everyone. He even meets a group of kids that all speak english because they learned it from watching fucking Mork and Mindy on VHS that is powered by a bicycle generator like some shit out of Beyond Thunderdome or Fallout. Fucks sake.

Daryl, the nun and the kid stupidly meander their way across France in a donkey cart to a magical sanctuary castle on the west coast. It ends with Daryl having to make a decision wether to stay in France or go back to 'merica in what I can only describe as one of if no the dumbest cliffhanger endings ever. Obviously you know there was going to be a cliffhanger but not that the show was literally going to laugh in your face for having sat through all 6 episodes. Seriously, it's just insultingly bad. Almost like something out of a parody.

They had to have known people would see through all this half-baked nonsense so they intentionally stretch out how Daryl got there to trick you into watching. But when you finally get what little explanation they bother to provide you're already in too deep to quit. What really amazes me is that after I finished it I read some reviews to see if anyone else felt duped and to my surprise most of them were really positive. I suspect that says a lot about how low the bar is these days in regards to both the core audience and the content, also just how bad TWD seems to have gotten by the end and in it's other spinoffs.

The worst thing is a lot of the basic premise could have worked, Daryl doesn't feel to out of place in France and he's legitimately a good character. But there's so much stupidity and unoriginality it just goes nowhere and accomplishes nothing.

The Walking Dead is now the shambling zombie the characters in the show used to kill.

The TV show turned to shit when they killed Carl.

It's like adding a sex room to the blueprint for an orphanage. A deviation that not only was absolutely unnecessary but is wholly misguided and inappropriate.

The comic book was better by 20 miles.

 

[HornheaDD]

Penguin is starting to feel like performative art over substance.

Just now on episode 7 S1 of From, first show in a while that's grabbed me.

I still like Farrell's portrayal, but I agree with you. His mom finally called him "Oswald" instead of "Oz." Still goes by "Cobb" instead of Cobblepot which is weird. If you're going to make a show about one of the more stylized Batman rogues (and that's saying something) you need to embrace all aspects of the character, no matter how "goofy" it might feel in this day and age.

My wife is watching it with me and made the comment "this is basically The Sopranos, but set in Gotham and no James Gandolfini."

 

[Joey_Digital7]

I've been getting into the Robert Stack Unsolved Mysteries in youtube. The official episodes are finally in there

 

[Joey_Digital7]

lmao.. if you like shows like mentalist or whatever, you will probably not like Banshee, Spartacus, Black Sails, or anything else I really enjoy.

Or Psych because The Mentalist was a rip off of it. Psych even makes fun of it

 

[terry.330]

I've noticed there isn't a whole lot of Halloweeny type television for adults. It's mainly junk for kids outside of classic Treehouse Of Horror episodes and a few random Halloween themed episodes of sitcoms and other miscellaneous series.

So I pulled out the Friday The 13th TV Series and have been going through that. It's not a good show by any means, hell it doesn't even have anything to do with Friday The 13th. But it is a goofy, fun show that has a lot of spooky elements and 80's nostalgia. It's basically Warehouse 13 but instead of a secret government warehouse it's an antique shop in Canada. Every episode they have to retrieve a cursed item that was sold by the shop's previous owner and is now out in the world causing chaos of some sort. I'd say it's pretty overlooked and often gets dismissed because it has nothing to do with the franchise it's named after but once you get past that there's a lot to like and at times it actually pretty ambitious.

 

[famicommander]

I've noticed there isn't a whole lot of Halloweeny type television for adults. It's mainly junk for kids outside of classic Treehouse Of Horror episodes and a few random Halloween themed episodes of sitcoms and other miscellaneous series.

So I pulled out the Friday The 13th TV Series and have been going through that. It's not a good show by any means, hell it doesn't even have anything to do with Friday The 13th. But it is a goofy, fun show that has a lot of spooky elements and 80's nostalgia. It's basically Warehouse 13 but instead of a secret government warehouse it's an antique shop in Canada. Every episode they have to retrieve a cursed item that was sold by the shop's previous owner and is now out in the world causing chaos of some sort. I'd say it's pretty overlooked and often gets dismissed because it has nothing to do with the franchise it's named after but once you get past that there's a lot to like and at times it actually pretty ambitious.

X-Files, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, What We Do in the Shadows, Wynonna Earp, The Magicians?

Anthologies like Twilight Zone, Monsters, Tales from the Crypt, Tales from the Dark Side, the Outer Limits?

 

[terry.330]

X-Files, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, What We Do in the Shadows, Wynonna Earp, The Magicians?

Anthologies like Twilight Zone, Monsters, Tales from the Crypt, Tales from the Dark Side, the Outer Limits?

Not going to nitpick your suggestions but mainly I just wanted to recommend something most people haven't seen.

 

[Average Joe]

Channel Zero never gets talked about much and I dig that one.

 

[terry.330]

How come nobody told me the Chucky TV series was so awesome? I'm halfway through season 2 and shit is getting absolutely nuts. It's so incredibly meta and self aware, it's really refreshing. It also might be the most woke show I've ever seen, seriously. They do woke right though, it really acknowledges how silly most things have gotten recently while still being earnest. The lore is also crazy as hell as they touch on all the movies and characters and bring back as much as they can and then some. Tons of references to other movies, TV and pop culture as well.

Special shoutout to Jennifer Tilly because she is really all in on her role in this and seems to be up for pretty much anything. Also props for still doing so much animatronic and puppet work. I'd probably put this on par with Ash Vs. Evil Dead as far a modern horror comedy shows go.

It's not perfect, it seems aimed at a slightly younger audience so there's a lot of teen romance and drama, especially in the first season. Thankfully there's enough humor, violence and straight up ridiculous shit that it never gets too bogged down. The lead actor is terrible though and routinely out acted by the entire rest of the cast.

 

[jro]

Fuck Netflix.

Paul/Tyson was one of the worst things I've ever seen, and Cobra Kai has turned into a fucking bullshit cash grab at this point.

Canceled, and I still have both Paramount and MGM as I am pretty forgiving.

Fuck Netflix.

edit Sam on CK is still, 5 years later, like a little squirrel on ice skates in fight scenes. Stop giving her screen time.

Edit again, in a more positive light, Teacup was really good. It did the exact opposite of, say, From, and actually let the audience in on what was happening pretty quickly. 8 episodes in 4 weeks, plot laid pretty clear with some obvious stakes going forward and several nasty kills already, I don't think the showrunners were assured a second season but if that's what it takes to make a decent show now I guess I'm cool with that.

 

[Lagduf]

Star Trek: Lower Decks is the best Star Trek since TNG and it’s a shame this is the last season. Been a lot of fun so far this season.

 

[Taiso]

I've really been enjoying LIKE A DRAGON: YAKUZA on Amazon Prime. It's a little all over the place and it doesn't have any of the wacky aspects that make the video games so endearing but as an adaptation for normies to consume, it's fairly competent. It's not all that action heavy and is more of a straight Japanese mafia story. They've managed to elevate the core ideas of the first game into a respectable crime drama. Again, the plot is a little complicated due to the flash backs as narrative context for present events but I think would have liked this as a novelty Japanese TV show brought stateside even if I didn't like the games.

 

[terry.330]

Started Penguin and yeah it's basically The Sopranos in Gotham. Not bad though, just not all that original.

I've also been watching She Wolf Of London (aka Love And Curses), it's a British American co-production from 89/90 that ran for 2 seasons (more like one and half). It's a supernatural mystery with some light romance and humor. A female college student from the US goes to England to study under an occult expert at Cambridge. While camping in the countryside she's attacked by a werewolf then her and the professor team up to figure out how to reverse her curse. This leads them to even more supernatural and occult mysteries and of course fall in love. It's kind of a cross between The Friday The 13th TV Series, Buffy and The X-Files..

The first season's production value is pretty good and it definitely feels very British with a lot of gothic atmosphere. The two leads have good chemistry and the humor and romance never get in the way of the supernatural stuff. Unfortunately for the second season production was moved to LA along with the setting. It's way goofier and cheaper but also pretty funny. It pales in comparison to the first season but it's still enjoyable.

It's been pretty much completely forgotten but I think it's worth checking out if you're a retro horror fan.

 

[Taiso]

Watched the first two episodes of part 2 of Cobra Kai S06 before coming in to work. Will watch the rest of it tonight.

This series is getting more mileage than it has any right to.

It may be the most perfect TV series ever created according to its designed intention.

So much fun.

 

[Ralfakick]

I started watching Interior Chinatown on Hulu. I’m two episodes in and I’m enjoying it so far.

 

[Taiso]

Finished up part 2 of Cobra Kai S06 about ten minutes ago.

The final episode is so fucking ridiculous but I love how this series wholeheartedly embraces its own mission statement. It doesn't give any fucks about showing restraint. Karate brawls can, and do, happen at the drop of a hat and it's so absurd that it really can't be rationalized except in that they seeded the plot well enough that you can easily shrug and go with it because of all of the honest sentiment behind its storytelling. There is no way Kreese could smuggle his knife into a worldwide martial arts tournament but goddammit, he wants to kill someone with it so here we are and it's awesome.

I love this show. It's too bad it's coming to an end but I am confident that it will be a satisfying conclusion.

 

[terry.330]

Finished up Penguin and I enjoyed it quite a bit. It connected to The Batman nicely, the performances and writing were all very strong. At times it does feel like it's trying too hard or being a little self indulgent but I think the characters have enough depth to back it up in the end. I'm not sure if they're going to do another season or if it's a setup to the next movie but as a character study I think it was a great way to establish the character. I also hope we see some more of Sophia, I really liked her.

Also say what you want about Collin Ferrell showboating or it being an acting exercise but he really did do an outstanding job.

 

[Lagduf]

@HornheaDD INVINCIBLE Season 3 February 6. Three episodes on 2/6 followed by an episode weekly with no mod-season break.

Reacher Season 3 also on Feb 20.

GG Amazon.

 

[HornheaDD]

@HornheaDD INVINCIBLE Season 3 February 6. Three episodes on 2/6 followed by an episode weekly with no mod-season break.

Reacher Season 3 also on Feb 20.

GG Amazon.

Saw the trailer just now. Looks pretty good. I was never a fan of the "serious" suit, I prefer the blue/yellow/black, but he eventually does come back to it so its not a huge deal.

I like the sort of hint of that scene with Oliver and the Mauler twins.

You gotta love Walton Goggins. When he was first announced to play Cecil Steadman I was like - that guy? I like him but hes to young to play Cecil. Nope. Dude kills at it. Everyone they've cast so far with the exception of The Immortal are perfect voice actors. Even Seth Rogan as Allen lol


SEVERANCE:

Wife and I are going through the first season again in prep for season 2 in January. What a stupidly great show. Picking up on all kinds of little bits and hints in the season that we didn't last time we watched. Deffo excited to watch Season 2.

 

[Taiso]

Currently watching The Saints on Fox Nation (roomie is a dyed in the wool Republican so she has a sub) with the roomie.

It is remarkably good. Better than I should have expected from any Fox documentary series.

Scorsese's guiding hand on this production is evident. The quality of the scripts and the acting and direction of the dramatized sequences is some of the best of its type in this subgenre that I've ever seen. Every episode's dramatizations are so good that I want entire TV shows for each of them. He is such a master of the craft that even when not directing, a production benefits tremendously from his influence.

I find the 'discussion' segments at the end of each episode, with a panel of experts elaborating on the subject at hand, to be less compelling but they're not bad.

So far, they've covered Joan of Arc, John the Baptist, Sebastian and Maximilian Kolbe.

I did an AI search for some details on the production and Google gave me this:

Martin Scorsese is involved in Martin Scorsese Presents: The Saints as an executive producer and narrator of the eight-part docudrama series:

• Development
  Scorsese has been interested in the saints since he was a child growing up in New York City in the 1940s and 50s. He found solace in St. Patrick's Old Cathedral, where he attended elementary school and was surrounded by Catholic iconography.
  
  
• Production
  Scorsese developed the series, which was created by Matti Leshem and written by Kent Jones. Scorsese also provided guidance on the scripts through lengthy discussions about theology with Jones.
  
  
• Narration
  Scorsese narrates the stories in the series, which are told with historical context and vivid details.
  
  
• Content
  The series features naturalistic reenactments of the saints' lives, along with historical footage and photos. Each episode ends with a panel discussion led by Jesuit Father James Martin, poet and author Mary Karr, and Georgetown fellow Paul Elie.
  
  
• Themes
  The series emphasizes that saints were human, flawed, and imperfect, which heightens their great sacrifices and gestures of compassion.

The series is suitable for an adult audience due to its content and context, which includes graphic violence and gory details of war.

 

[HellioN]

I watched season two of Arcane and liked it.
Think the first season was better though.