Topic: The TV Show Thread

I’ve been rewatching Band of Brothers, forgot just how incredible it was. It’s probably the best war drama ever going by the sheer scale. You watch it and it feels like you’re actually watching a war and that there’s fighting happening off-screen. It’s just brilliant.

@nessisonett I have had that in my watch list for a while now. Thanks for the recommendation because I really need to take the plunge and start it. I watched The Pacific and I quite enjoyed that a couple years ago. Being an American I have particular interest in the Pacific theater of the war, but am also fascinated by the European front as well. I’ll move Band of Brothers up the list!

@nessisonett @Th3solution

I haven’t watched The Pacific (I do want to at some stage) but yes Band of Brothers is so good. It took a lot of arm twisting to get the missus to watch it but even she (who hates all things war and military) absolutely loved it.

Damien Lewis is something else.

@nessisonett it's a great show, I loved seeing loads of familiar faces in it that wouldn't have been familiar at the time it came out. It really could be sold as an all star cast even if it wasn't at release!

I just watched the first series of Not Going Out on iPlayer. Lee Mack is one of my favourite comedians so I've been planning to watch this for a long time but never got around to it. Glad I did but it didn't help me sleep much, it's really funny!

@RogerRoger nice! I dont normally go in for sitcoms because I find the laughter track really awkward, especially on British sitcoms where the humour is a lot dryer and less laugh out loud in places. That being said, I have watched and enjoyed loads of different sitcoms, I just meant I don't watch too many these days

I weren't sure how Lee Mack would translate to a scripted sort of thing because I like him more for his quick off the cuff remarks on would I lie to you. After a couple odd, the TV's laughing but I'm not moments in the first episode, it does get into the swing of things. I think that's true of any sitcom though because either the canned laughter gets put in or a sign lights up instructing the audience to laugh!

@nessisonett @RogerRoger Her series have been shorter than previous ones haven't they?

@RogerRoger yeah I agree. I think IT crowd was a live audience and I've seen a few later episodes and it's quite funny but I tried watching it from the beginning and the laughter was a bit too loud for me in that show. I'll probably get around to it some time because I do want to watch it

Yeah laugh tracks are the worst. And you don't know true laugh track hell until you've made the mistake of sitting down with the kids to watch some show on the Disney channel.

I forgot to mention that the guy who plays jay brown (Mitchell) in EastEnders was in the first series of not going out as a tiny child who kicks Lee Mack up the bum!

So, the reviews of the first 3 episodes of Wanda-Vision seem to imply it is Incredible! As much as I have missed my regular (prior to 2020) piece of MCU entertainment I’m gonna hold off from starting WV next Friday and wait for the whole season to be available and then binge it all in one day... can’t wait.

With all the talk, I decided to give Doctor Who a try. I had very little knowledge of the series and even when people talk about it on here I usually just skim lightly over the discussion, not really paying attention.

As I prepared to watch my first episode, I researched where to begin and I didn’t realize the series started back in the 1960’s. I decided it was reasonable to start at the first season of the modern (?) iteration, I think it was from 2005. (It starts with an episode entitled “Rose” and introduces this Rose character with the world being attacked by plastic... mostly in the form of mannequins).
Well, I didn’t particularly enjoy it at all, but I gave it one more chance to win me over and rolled on with episode 2 (they travel to the future to watch the destruction of the earth) and disliked it even more.

I guess it’s suppose to be campy and corny but I couldn’t quite tell if I should be taking this show seriously. It almost seem like a parody of Sci-Fi television. The special effects were comical, the script was quite harebrained, and the whole thing felt very “B-movie.” It wasn’t at all what I expected. I don’t think I will be returning to the series unless there is a better jumping in point where the quality is higher.

Not to totally dismiss the BBC, I decided to try Sherlock instead to get my British show exposure. And I was very pleasantly surprised by it. The show was interesting, acting was wonderful and the premise intriguing Even if the first episode ended in a knockoff of The Princess Bride Vizzini-Westley ‘choose the poison to drink’ showdown of the wits.. I’ll definitely keep giving Sherlock more time as I already love the characters and the style of the storytelling.

If you liked Sherlock @Th3solution (Ugh ) then you might wanna try the 5th series of the modern run of Doctor Who, the first to feature Matt Smith's incarnation of the doctor, as Steven Moffat took over as the main showrunner whom also created Sherlock. (Seeing as the revival was well established to be a success by this point the effects are notably better with a bigger budget overal)

I would recommend giving the episode "Dalek" from that first series a shot before skipping over the rest as it's easily one of the best from that series with Eccleston.

The first series of the revival in particular is pretty campy... I quite like it though myself

@Th3solution

Sherlock is fantastic but don’t give up ‘just’ yet on Doctor Who (although I have in fairness). The David Tennant ‘run’ (basically the season after the one you began) is pretty much DW perfection. As a student of all things sci-fi, I have gone back and watched quite a few ‘classic’ runs... in particular a good few of the Tom Baker run which many established DW fans believe to be the best (the City of Death arc during Tom Baker’s reign is ****ing special if I’m honest) but for me (as an 80’s Star Wars-first fan, Dr Who fan a distant second) I gave Who a second go during the post millennium run and while Ecclestone never convinced me Tennant was a revelation. As much as I appreciate Baker as a voyeur from the future, Tennant is my quintessential Who. Give him a try.

@colonelkilgore @Foxy-Goddess-Scotchy So the episodes and seasons don’t necessarily build on one another? I’m not sure if Rose continues to be a central character. She seems a bit throw-away at the moment. Like just someone to stand in the background and scream most of the time. But if there is not real connection between the seasons, then I guess I could try Tennant’s or Smith’s versions. I think I got the gist of who The Doctor is (? a time and space traveling alien, the last of his kind, who incarnates in different human bodies ?) so hopefully that’s enough to understand what’s going on seasons later.

@Th3solution Rose is a huge part of the first Tennant season as well and she’s still my favourite companion by a long shot. I like the Ecclestone run because I was quite literally 4 or 5 when it first aired and it scared the living s**t out of me, especially The Empty Child which probably is a bit laughable now.

There are call backs, recurring villains and the likes @Th3solution... Typically you'll have series long arcs but it depends really especially with such a long running series. One of the episodes in the second series for example brings back a companion from Tom Baker's run (You can totally follow the episode though)

I'll also give my praise to Tennant. He's a fan favourite and definitely my favourite of the revival series. Though depending on the episode you still might find some of them a bit campy... 😄

-EDIT- Oops! @RogerRoger beat me to the punch and explained the show in a way more elegant way them my fairly tired self!

Ugh @nessisonett you had to remind me how young you are and how old I am with that comment 😂

It's... Pretty laughable but still a pretty good episode too!

@RogerRoger I loved the start of Matt Smith’s tenure but the River Song arc did my absolute head in and went a long way towards my eventual dissatisfaction with the whole show. I wasn’t sold on Peter Capaldi until the excellent finale two-parter when he was in that castle thingy. Then his final season was really quite good and I was sorry to see him leave when I felt the stories were getting into the swing of things.

@Foxy-Goddess-Scotchy Yeeeeah, I remember it being a big deal coming back because my dad had watched the Tom Baker episodes growing up! It’s scaring me a bit how long ago New Who actually started 😅

@Foxy-Goddess-Scotchy @RogerRoger @nessisonett @colonelkilgore Thanks for the input folks. I think the best plan might be to try “Dalek” first and if I seem to be warming up to the show’s concept and charm then I’ll skip to season two with Tennant. Maybe it will spur me to at least stick with it. Also, knowing that the initial season was extra quirky and things get better makes me curious to stay with it. Probably will do more Sherlock first though.