Topic: The TV Show Thread

@JohnnyShoulder @LtSarge I never bothered with Bly Manor as my sisters all said it was rubbish in comparison to Hill House.

Just finished watching season 2 of Supergirl. I have already watched season 1 and most of 2 from years ago so I've been catching up on this show by rewatching those episodes and finally watching the episodes that I haven't seen. It's so weird to be watching this show again after so long, but I like it. Although it's strange to be watching something other than Game of Thrones, which has dominated my life the past month. I feel like everything I'll watch from here on out won't feel as good as GoT, and Supergirl in particular is a great example of a show that doesn't have the best writing. The protagonist just isn't that likeable, she's so reckless and after every episode where she learns to do the "right thing", she then proceeds in the next episode to continue behaving recklessly. It's like she doesn't have any character development whatsoever and they're having her act this way for plot convenience.

The craziest part was easily one of the recent episodes I just watched. An alien race has invaded earth and what does the president of the United States do? She flies in to the warzone in order to confront the aliens instead of sending their military forces at them. Yeah, because that's what the actual president would do: when we're being invaded by an alien race who wants to kill us, Joe Biden is going to fly in on Air Force One and stop them. Like holy crap, this show is so dumb sometimes.

I also don't like that so far, we haven't seen that many villains. One reason why I love shows like Arrow and The Flash is because of all the villains, especially in the case of The Flash. For example, Reverse Flash, Zoom, Savitar, The Thinker, Gorilla Grodd, Captain Cold and so on. So far we've barely seen any villains like that in Supergirl, they're mostly just generic characters. It was rather promising in the first season when they started out with Livewire, but since then we've only seen basic alien villains who aren't memorable at all. I'm really hoping things will improve in season 3.

@LtSarge Supergirl starts out a bit slow and dodgy but it actually gets quite comforting when you compare it to the doom and gloom of Arrow and eventually The Flash’s season long grim arcs.

@nessisonett Yeah that's the impression I've been getting as well. Although The Flash is more light-hearted than Arrow, Supergirl is definitely the most comforting show out of those three. I just wish there were more cool things going on that involved iconic villains since I love learning more about the Marvel/DC universes.

The Many Saints Of Newark.

A prequel to one of the greatest TV series of all time and I can't wait.

I really can't, ya know.

I watched the first episode of Y: The Last Man there on Disney+. Honestly not a bad start at all albeit massively depressing. I’ve read the graphic novels though so it was interesting seeing the very subtle differences. Worth noting that the first issue of the comics was in 2002 and such an apocalyptic event taking place this year instead would be totally different. The casting’s fantastic and they got the tone dead on. It’ll be fun to see this one pan out, let’s just hope they adapt the whole thing.

Anyone braved the new Star Wars: Visions yet? ( @RogerRoger , et al.)
I noticed it dropped onto Disney+ yesterday but probably won’t have time until this weekend to try it out. Each episode is quite short — like 15-20 min., so it’ll be reasonable to binge the whole season in a couple of sittings.

@velio84 I’ve not read the book, but the hype they’ve been creating for the show for the last couple years has me curious. I just read IGN’s glowing review of the first two episodes and I think I might just have to move it toward the top of my list. I’ve barely spent much free time on TV over the last year and so I have quite a lot of shows to watch, but this might be one of the first. The comparison of a Sci-Fi Game of Thrones sounds pretty awesome.

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I did get a chance to watch the first two episodes of Star Wars: Visions and I have mixed feelings. The first episode ended up being really good. The anime style character design and interaction felt right at home with that story. There were new characters that were familiar yet novel. The full-motion animation was a little at odds with the anime visuals at first, but I got used to it and in the end I’d say it looks quite beautifully animated. The traveling samurai storyline fits well with the Star Wars universe since Lucas apparently was inspired by Kurisawa’s films.

The second episode was much less impressive. In fact I found it pretty dull. I had no connection to the main characters, although it was really great to see some of the iconic Star Wars characters show up in an anime style rendering. But the storyline was just kind of… weird.

I’ll have to watch the remaining episodes later this weekend but as a Star Wars fan, I am intrigued.

@RogerRoger I’m with you. I’m probably going to start Foundation soon since the hype is huge and the early response is overwhelmingly positive. My Apple TV+ sub runs out soon and I had planned to just let it elapse because I’m just hardly having the time to use it, so I want to try to get all of Foundation in before I cancel. Which, I have no idea how long they are going to be dropping episodes.

I plan to mix in some movies and drama in to counter all the Sci-Fi, if I can. But I think SW Visions and What If… will fit in nicely as a “2-3 episode every so often” break between the heavier stuff and the football season which I am sampling from time to time.

@JohnnyShoulder Well it's just like you speculated a couple of weeks ago, Marvel shows are now being removed from HBO Nordic, without any warning might I add. I just looked through my watchlist and noticed that a show was missing and it was Marvel's Inhumans. Although it doesn't seem like it was a good show so it's not a huge loss, but I still have two other Marvel shows, Cloak & Dagger as well as Runaways, that I haven't watched yet and I don't want to rush through them before they're most likely removed as well.

But man this really sucks. First they started cancelling Marvel shows like Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage and Iron Fist on Netflix, and now they're removing shows from HBO. I wouldn't mind this if Disney had more variety in terms of different shows on their service, but it's primarily Disney, Marvel and Star Wars stuff and that doesn't interest me so much.

Finished Midnight Mass last night… and I liked it quite a bit. There were a few nit-picks etc. but overall a real solid horror mini-series. Hamish Linklater is phenomenal as the priest.

@LtSarge Oh really? But naughty for the shows to dissappear just like that.

I feel the same way as you with D+, I've kinda gone off Marvel and Star Wars recently. It would be good to have on the side for a few months, but it would never be my main streaming service as there is not enough variation for me. Mind you, I've not really looked to see what shows they have on offer. But I think I would like to give Apple TV+ a go first before, as there are a few shows which has piqued my interest. And you get a free sub with PS Plus.

@colonelkilgore his performance over the series is just that. Midnight Mass is instantly my favourite of the Flanaverse right now. I don't think I'll be ready for a rewatch anytime soon but I'll be excited for when I do.

@BowTiesAreCool so I agree actually. My missus thought I was crazy for suggesting I was considering placing it above The Haunting of Hill House (which I did love] but I really like the depiction of vampirism juxtaposed with that old-time religion-vibe.

Being a Star Wars and Marvel fan, Disney+ is a must have. I probably spend as much or more time on it as i do on Netflix. I’d say D+, Netflix, and HBO Max are top tier for me. I can live without Amazon Prime, AppleTV+, Hulu, Paramount+, etc.

Been enjoying What If...? Quite a bit, yesterday's episode was great stuff. Haven't quite finished Visions yet but personally haven't got anything to complain about, it's fun and interesting to see different takes. Nothing mind blowing, some really cool episodes and settings, fun action.

I agree with what others have said about the content drops and corporations just constantly vying for your attention. It's partly why I've stopped binge watching stuff, and am not rushing to watch shows when others are discussing it and asking me "have you seen (insert new show here)?!"

Just trying to chill out with content exposure, and not rush to things as much.

@RogerRoger Any interest to try Foundation or Mythic Quest? Two shows that seem deeply rooted in, for lack of a better term, nerd culture.

@RogerRoger Mythic Quest is a show which apparently takes place in a video game developer studio (of a popular MMO if I’m not mistaken). On its surface that sounds like exactly the show we Push Squires would love. But I think it’s had fairly middling reviews. So I haven’t watched any of it yet.

I think you’re correct about Apple TV+, it’s sort of in its infancy, compared to its counterparts. The quality seems more variable from what I’m reading too. I’m a poor judge of the content though since I haven’t watched many things on it yet. I keep saying I’m going to try See, Mythic Quest, For All Mankind, Ted Lasso, Servant, and now Foundation, but it’s just not gonna happen. I’m glad to hear Ted Lasso lives up to the hype so I’ll try a few episodes of that before my free trial ends in a month or two.

I think the service hasn’t really marketed itself very well either. I mean, this is Apple! One of the biggest marketing machines on earth! How can they not be selling us on these shows? You’ve got big names like M. Night, Stephen King, Tom Hanks, Samuel L. Jackson, Jennifer Anniston, Jason Mamoa, … and you can’t sell me on anything you’ve got going except a show with a guy named Sudeikis whose name I never knew before? This is the company that lures me into paying $1000 for a phone every two years and they can’t make me compelled to watch their stuff even when they give it away.

The app for Apple TV+ (On my phone) is poorly designed also. Sure, the lines are pretty and it has that Apple cleanness to it, but it’s almost unusable. Netflix, HBO, and Disney have a tried and true app design — easy to navigate, easy to find something to catch your eye, and easy to search if you know what you want (or even get easy suggestions if they don’t have it on their service). Why is the Apple TV+ content hidden behind a bunch of garbage and icons for content that isn’t even on their service. It’s a mess.

Got another mail from HBO about the HBO Max upgrade and apparently, I'm getting a whole slew of new content on the service AND paying less every month. The current monthly fee is €11 and later this month it'll be €9, which isn't that huge of a price cut but in long-term it's very welcoming to see. On top of this, they'll also be offering a yearly subscription price where you can pay €70 for 12 months, which gives you 4 months for free. While I don't see myself taking advantage of that offer anytime soon because I'm never sure how much I'm going to use a service, it's definitely nice to have that option in case I change my mind in the future.

HBO is seriously the service that just keeps on giving. More content for less money, it honestly doesn't get better than that.