Topic: The TV Show Thread

This looks like it could be good.

Watched Rampant last week as well and it was pretty good. Actually liked it better than Train to Busan.

So my partner and I decided to alternate seasons of 24 with seasons of The Good Wife, because the former isn't entirely his thing and the latter isn't entirely mine; must admit, though, that I'm enjoying his choice far more than he's enjoying mine!

And I can understand that. It's been years since I watched 24 and if I'm honest, there's been quite a lot about it which never used to bother me, but bothers the heck out of me now. On a base level, I still adore it, for the performances and the characters and the music, but there have been some story beats or random moments which haven't sat well with me at all; either I'd forgotten them, or my ignorance allowed me to just accept them as part of a television show. I guess people change.

We're a decent chunk into Day Two now and I seem to recall the earlier seasons being slightly more edgy and leaning on disturbing and realistic atmosphere, rather than the twist-riddled comic book action-adventure show it later became. Looking forward to those moments and happy to have something else breaking it up for now.

Obviously, when I'm back home during the week, it's Batman: The Animated Series all the way.

Just finished watching season 2 of Castlevania on Netflix. What a great series, really enjoyed it. I remember after watching the 1st season, I thought it was just good, not amazing. But with what’s transpired in season 2, I now understand that the 1st was really more world building and establishing the characters. My lordy, the 7th episode of s2 was jaw droppingly good!! Can’t wait to see what develops in the inevitable s3! Anyone else been watching this?

@KratosMD Well it's obviously the big D getting ready for their own streaming service. Which sucks. I just hope previous seasons will stay on Netflix long enough for me to watch everything lol.

It's been a few weeks since I've watched this, but I don't think I've seen any mention of it in here. The Haunting of Hill House is must watch TV. I generally avoid horror like the plague, since I'm quite easily scared and psychologically affected by that kind of content, but a friend pushed me to try it out and I have no regrets. Once you get used to the atmosphere of the show, it's very manageable. Underneath it all is a great study of family trauma and character relationships, with some incredibly well thought out and earned twists throughout the show. The acting and writing is top notch, and there's some fantastic cinematography going on in it. Episode 6 is also a directing highlight of the year, as it mostly consists of one-take scenes. It's a very well done show in all aspects, and easily the best new show of 2018 so far. Nothing even comes close.

In short, watch The Haunting of Hill House. You will not regret it.

@RogerRoger I'm glad you're enjoying The Good Wife! I personally haven't watched it, but I am up to date on it's spinoff The Good Fight, which is fantastic. It aired it's second season this year and is my favourite returning show of 2018 so far. Definitely watch that after you finish The Good Wife. The Kings are great writers, and I can't believe how jampacked these shows are with fantastic guest actors. Maybe one day I'll pull the trigger on The Good Wife too, but I'll try out Braindead first. Only because it's 1 seaaon vs. The Good Wife's 6!!!

@KratosMD Whaaaat?! I really enjoyed these Marvel shows and just finished season two of Daredevil yesterday. I already have Netflix, Amazon and Now TV so adding Disney to the mix is getting a bit ridiculous!

@KratosMD I can almost guarantee Jessica Jones will be next. With Disney owning Marvel and them launching their own streaming service in a year or two it's inevitable. It just makes sense business wise why pay someone else for something you can do yourself. In the coming years we will probably see alot of shows and movies leaving Netflix due to rights owners creating their own channels, and when that happens Netflix will probably become it's own channel of its own. Full of Netflix original shows and movies.

@mookysam Yeah it's beginning to get a bit crazy but with more and more people cutting the cord more and more of those channels and companies that relied on cable and satellite companies need to find an alternative way get their stuff into our homes. Quite frankly I like the idea of paying individually for each channel then one big cable subscription package that costs hundreds and hundreds of dollars a month and half the channels I don't want but are forced to get. Right now I subscribe to WWE, Hulu and Netflix. During the football season I sub to the NFL ticket so I can get every game. The rest of the year I don't have a need for sports channels so I don't have to worry about having them as part of a package.

I like think so many streaming services is gonna end badly. They can’t all get people’s money, and I think the more specific they get, the more likely they are to lose people. I’m doubtful about Disney, Netflix starts to lose it’s appeal without everything being there. I think they’re gonna cut the pie too many ways and realize it doesn’t work eventually.

@KratosMD Yeah like I said it sucks. I'm not writing off Disney's streaming service yet, as we know hardly anything about it, but if it has the content i think i doubt i subscribe.

I tend to rotate which streaming service I sub to anyway, so I will wait and see before totally dismissing Disney+.

@Tjuz A few of us have watched The Haunting of Hill House, might be worth reading back a few pages to see our thoughts if you are intrested. I wasnt immediately blown away by it but it has grown on me after watching a couple more episodes.

@Tjuz Didn't even know The Good Wife had a spin-off, but it's got seven seasons, not six, so it's an even bigger undertaking if you ever do decide to start watching!

We're about to start Season Three later this evening. Really looking forward to it.

@Tasuki I guess it depends on the quality of the content. If it's particularly compelling and has a broad range it might be something I'd consider getting. Satellite television is quite expensive here if you have everything, so streaming has always been brilliant value in comparison.

@RogerRoger I'm glad I was able to make you aware of the spinoff! It truly is fantastic, but if you want to remain completely unspoiled I would advise against looking up the premise. I've heard some people say that it's even better than The Good Wife, but obviously that's hearsay and I can't exactly verify it myself. It's available on CBS All Access in the US, but since you're in the UK I have no idea how you would even access it. It's on a local streaming service in the Netherlands, but that's of no use to you either. Hopefully by the time you finish The Good Wife it'll have popped up somewhere!

I don't really have plans either when watching TV shows. Just a long, long list of shows I eventually want to get to but realistically never will. Definitely more of a spur of the moment thing for me as well. I finished The Sinner S02, Bojack Horseman S04 & S05, Castle Rock S01, Sorry For Your Loss S01, The Kominsky Method S01, Get Shorty S02 and Better Call Saul S04 mid-last month, but I haven't watched anything since then. Currently, I'm trying to play games again! I'm terrible at balancing hobbies!

Funny you mentioned The Newsroom. I watched the first two episodes of that a couple of years ago, and really enjoyed it. I was also watching with someone else, but they couldn't get into it so the show just kind of went away. I've been meaning to get back into it for some time now, but at this point I don't know if I ever will. Glad you really enjoyed it, though! Just makes me want to give it another shot all the more. Not to mention that it has some fantastic guest stars as well like Constance Zimmer, Aya Cash and Jimmi Simpson. I don't know what they're like in the show, but they're people I've really enjoyed elsewhere!

I don't really know what to recommend to you. I'm honestly quite awful at recommendations, unless there's such obvious ones as The Expanse and The Good Fight. I've started The Orville recently, which is supposed to be a Star Trek-lite show. Maybe you woul enjoy that, although I have to say the quality isn't exactly through the roof. Enjoyable enough for me to eventually finish it, though. You might want to take a look at Counterpart, which is a sci-fi show starring J.K. Simmons about alternate realities. That was really well done, and J.K. Simmons killed it (I even awarded him the best actor prize in my personal version of the Emmys!). Person of Interest could maybe be of interest to you. Starts out fairly procedural, and is a mix of action/sci-fi. It's about a machine which is able to monitor people to find crimes before they happen, and the the team behind the machine only receives their social security number. They don't know whether said person is the victim or the perpetrator, and it's their job to find out and stop the crime before it happens. A very likable cast of characters with some top notch writing. I gets more serialised as well from S3 onwards, so it's definitely worth it to push through if you enjoy the show but get somewhat tired of it's case-of-the-week format. Definitely one of my favourite shows. Hope there's something you might enjoy in there! It's what I can recommend off the top of my head.

@Tjuz It's okay, I think I saw it on Amazon Prime, which is where we're watching The Good Wife. Just the logo and two characters I didn't recognise, and one I did, which made me smile.

The only show I recognise from your list is Better Call Saul, and that's because I've got Netflix and they keep trying to make me watch it; I know it's a spin-off from Breaking Bad, though, and I'm never watching that show, so I'm good. Otherwise I don't think I've ever heard of any of those other shows! Sorry!

If you ever can catch up with The Newsroom, do. It's phenomenal. The entire cast is a dream and it's just got such weight to it. Some incredible moments in there! Not quite as good as The West Wing, but definitely has its roots in the kind of story structure and storytelling methodology, with some bits refined and others tweaked to fit the new setting and characters. Amazing show. Loved every episode.

And thanks for your recommendations! Those are all shows I have heard of, and been interested in watching someday, so you did great. Well, except Counterpoint, but I love J.K. Simmons so I'm definitely interested in that now! I really hope he returns as Commissioner Gordon in the DC films someday.

@RogerRoger Why would you never watch Breaking Bad?

@JohnnyShoulder Personal moral reasons, mostly. I tend to like things with heroes.

Not looked back in the thread for a little while, but just in case anyone hasn't seen the latest teaser for the CW heroes Elseworlds crossover - go find it!!

I cannot put in to words just how much I loved the JWS 90's Flash TV show (and Smallville - for shame lol); Berlanti & co really pushing the fan-service to new levels!

@RogerRoger Glad Christine Baranski's thumbnail appearance made you smile! She and Audra McDonald (a season 2 addition) are the best parts of the show. I definitely want to try out The Good Wife, if I can ever get over how long it is, just for Christine Baranski.

I definitely will have to continue The Newsroom at some point. Maybe in February once the whole 2018 TV hype has died down and I can watch that without feeling like I'm missing out on something more currently culturally relevant!

Just finished up Netflix's reboot of Lost in Space. A bit slow at times, but an otherwise great watch. If you have any interest in sci-fi add this to your list.

@RR529 Funnily enough, I have just finished Lost in Space too. It was quite good and a little different from the original. The way it ended (no spoilers) does appear to set the 2nd series up for something more akin to the original series.

So did anyone watch Doctor Who last night, what did you think, for me it was the best of series 11 BUT it still wasn't a great episode

series 11 has been pretty boring overall in terms of it's writing but Resolution was a step in the right direction although the whole Ryan and his dad plot dragged a bit but if the next series in 2020 doesn't improve i can see the BBC dropping both Chibnall and Whittaker and trying with a new Doctor and showrunner

Danny John-Jules would make a good Doctor