Topic: The TV Show Thread

@colonelkilgore Thought i was going proper mental, as when I searched for it all I got was this dodgy looking one back in the day! 🤣

@zupertramp @JohnnyShoulder yeah major brain-fart to be fair 😅… but The Stand was pretty good if anyone is looking for some King.

@RogerRoger Looks absolutely awesome. Not all of it (or any?) is going to be canon so the studios have been able to let their creativity run wild, which I think shows in that trailer!

@RogerRoger I'd forgotten Frasier was originally a Cheers thing until you just mentioned it. As far as spinoffs go, that's impressive. But then I never really watched either so that could be why I barely associate the two.

@RogerRoger Cheers was a little too before my time. Caught bits of it when my parents would watch but I remember very little. And Frasier always seemed a little too high brow for my unrefined, uncultured younger self. I'd probably appreciate it more now but then maybe my perception of the show's brand of humor is way off.

Read a review of The Chair a few moments ago that made me want to watch. Anyone given that a try?

@zupertramp I watched the first three episodes last night.

It was okay. Some of the characters are great though and Sandra Oh is just brilliant at these sort of semi-comedic roles.

Only six episodes altogether though so not the longest series either.

@Thrillho yeah I was mostly interested for Sandra Oh for the reasons you say but that alone didn't sell me. (I didn't much like that assassin show though she was great) Knowing that it's only 6 episodes helps, even if it's only okay. I kinda like these shows with limited episode runs because even if they aren't the greatest at least you didn't have to waste too much time on them.

@RogerRoger yeah I've always thought maybe I should revisit it. Or visit it, rather? My wife, who is a touch older, has always spoken highly of the show when it has come up but honestly it's just one of those shows I forget exists for whatever reason.

I guess it's on Hulu over here. Might have to try it should I resubscribe.

@zupertramp Killing Eve’s another show that’s the victim of its own success. It’s the same issue as The Handmaid’s Tale in that all danger is gone as the show is too popular for them to end it. Which defeats the purpose and in fact kinda gives the wrong impression. They just end up killing all the good supporting characters and turn the show into misery porn. Another problem with Killing Eve is that they continued it with much much worse showrunners than the original and it shows. Phoebe Waller-Bridge seems to have inspired several copycat writers like Emerald Fennel who basically come across like a poor imitation.

Oh and while Killing Eve is indeed finishing after Season 4, it should have been done after one. It ended on a brilliant open-ended finale and not everything had to be resolved.

@nessisonett Yes Killing Eve! I couldn't remember for the life of me and didn't want to search. It started out compelling enough and humorous in the early part of season 1 but there seemed to be less and less funny as it went along and it became far less compelling as many of the characters' actions became more and more absurd (or at least not gradual enough to be very believable). It just became hard for me to care for either main character after a while so that by the end of that first season I didn't see the point anymore.

Also, while being a show about a killer and the agent who is hunting her, the overt, almost torturous violence seemed a little out of place to me. Like half the time I couldn't tell what the show was going for exactly, Out of Sight or Inglourious Basterds. Maybe both I guess.

Ok this Cowboy Bebop live-action show is looking very very swish.

Just wrapped up Godless on Netflix. One of the best shows I've seen in a while, limited series 7 episode western. Highly recommend for those that might not have seen it already!

@nessisonett not bad but always a bit wary with live adaptions of anime.

So I used to be a huge TV show fanatic back in the day when I was discovering services like Netflix. But lately, I feel like Netflix doesn't have much left to offer me. Either I've already watched most of the good stuff on there or their popular shows have just been discontinued. For example, House of Cards, Orange is the New Black and all the Marvel shows that Disney now have the rights to. Point is, I'm just not that into TV shows as before because Netflix doesn't have good offerings for me anymore.

So I thought, why not try other services instead? I gave Disney+ a go earlier this year and watched through the two seasons of The Mandalorian and it was good. But I just don't like Disney stuff in general, not to mention that most stuff on there are movies and I want to be immersed in engrossing TV shows instead.

The other service that I'm really interested in trying out now is HBO (Max/Nordic whatever you want to call it). I have never watched Game of Thrones. All throughout my upper secondary school days, my classmates would constantly rave about that show and I was even listening to podcasts from that period where people were gushing about it as well. There's so much praise for GoT but I never watched it because I didn't have HBO. Not to mention other TV shows like True Detective and Westworld that I've also heard a lot of good stuff about. There's also this documentary about Chernobyl that's supposedly good, and I've heard bits and pieces about The Sopranos and Band of Brothers. I know nothing about these shows and I feel like if I give HBO a shot that I'll be able to revitalise my interest in TV shows once more.

So I'm just wondering, does anyone here have HBO and think it has a lot of good TV shows and is worth subscribing to if I've never seen anything that's on there? Because I obviously don't want to subscribe only for Game of Thrones, I want to keep watching tons of great series on there. If possible, I'd love to hear some of your recommendations on shows to watch there.

@LtSarge You sound like me. Netflix has cancelled everything good whilst still greenlighting past-its-prime Stranger Things and endless Kissing Booth sequels. Disney+ is basically just movies (mostly for kids) and only a couple tv shows, aside from older content which is also mostly for kids.

HBO, on the other hand, I'd say that's where it's at. I just recently re-binged The Sopranos. I think the first season of True Detective is the finest bit of television I've ever seen. (With that in mind you should probably watch the second season first, then the first and third)
GoT just seems like a rape fantasy compilation with dragons but I've never seen it so idk, maybe I've a skewed perception of it. Either way you can't take a step without someone praising it so probably worth a try if you're interested. Westworld is mostly good and you can't go wrong with Band of Brothers so yeah, I'd say it's your best bet streaming wise.

In any case I'm pretty sure they have a trial period too, correct?

@LtSarge Game of Thrones starts good and then gets bad. Like really really really bad. And yeah, @zupertramp has basically described it as a rape fantasy with dragons and that’s relatively accurate, despite having its good moments. HBO Max isn’t over here but we have a similar channel with all the HBO content and you’d be getting quality TV like The Sopranos, Band of Brothers etc.

@LtSarge Listen to @nessisonett about Game of Thrones. If you start watching it be prepared to face a total nose dive in quality towards the final 3 seasons (Season 5 is still decent but there are signs the writing is getting worse, it just has moments of redemption).

The Chernobyl TV show you mentioned is fantastic, definitely worth watching.

Theres a few good things on Amazon Prime as well, such as The Boys and more recently Invincible (animated series).

@zupertramp @nessisonett Apparently they do not have a free trial, but I don't mind at least paying for the first month just to see how it is.

Well, I'll keep my expectations for Game of Thrones relatively leveled then! But considering how much praise it's received, it has to have some appeal at the very least. I do know that the later seasons aren't as good as the first ones, but hey there are 8 seasons so there's a lot to watch before I get to the later parts.

But yeah, I think that I'll give it a go for a month and see what I think about it. I'm just so deprived of content to watch right now. YouTube is meh, Netflix is meh, so I need something that will keep me entertained for the foreseeable future.

@NedStarksGhost Would you say that it's worth watching GoT only for the first 5 seasons and then stop there?

@LtSarge It had so much praise as the first 4 seasons are very good. It's definitely worth watching if not just to experience the same thing everyone else did!

I was a bit quick to post, just seen your post to me — watch it all, you may not feel the same as others. It still has some cool moments in the later seasons but the quality is definitely worse.