Topic: The TV Show Thread

@Herculean yes the boat trip is sure to light some fire under the guests.. not to mention that there is some huge dramatic potential, assuming all the guests are on board and will be permeating one another’s spaces! Can’t wait

Finished the first season of that Goosebumps remake… reboot… thing? From the other year. Despite loving Goosebumps growing up and still trying to remain in horror circles online, I don’t remember ever hearing about this, and found it by accident during a bored afternoon scrolling through streaming services looking for something to do.

It is weird how much an ending matters sometimes. Especially when it is bad. And especially when a show has not just one bad ending, but two. The show is effectively 7 solidly paced episodes, with an eighth episode that rushes into a not well earned Hollywood ending, but an ending I suppose at least wraps up the show in some kind of conclusion. However, we then shift into a sort of two episode epilogue arc, which is fun for a while as it massively escalates things in bonkers directions, but it leads to the "true" ending which is just a massively anti-climactic cliff hanger which will never be resolved, as my understanding is season two is an entirely new story.

Mid way through this show, I would have said it has a bit of a “Goosebumps adaptation by the CW” energy to it, but I must confess, for as meme'd as the CW tropes / formula have become, I actually enjoyed a lot of those shows growing up, and so I was actually quite enjoying this, but with the way the final three episodes played out, I just feel like I massively wasted my time.

It is a shame too, as I think there is a lot to like here. I enjoyed the way Goosebump’s elements were integrated and woven into the wider story, plus, with it being aimed at a slightly older audience and the general upgrades to cinematic technologies over the decades, this show is able to deliver horror / set pieces the original show could only ever dream of, bringing it far closer to the darkest things your childhood brain could imagine while reading the books.

I also really liked the cast and characters. Justin Long playing the same vague cowardly dirtbag he plays in every horror thing he is in was an especial treat, but the core group (of adults in their 30s playing teenagers like in every American show) were all so likeable, I didn’t mind when it felt like the show ground to what was effectively a complete halt to explore some soap opera plotlines that didn’t really add much to the overall show.

But yeah, I dunno, just feels like a real tough recommendation to anyone know, given I now know this was going absolutely nowhere. Like why invest your time into something that doesn't respect that investment at all?

I was also going to give the second season a go, but knowing how this left me feeling, I'm not sure I wanna risk having my time wasted again.

whatching the last 3-4 episodes of Lost Season 1 on Netflix.

then going to be watching Man Called Horse movie on tubi this entire weekend. I think i kind of remembere seeing that movie when it came on HBO back then in the early 1980s.

@seinfeldfanatic Watching it the entire weekend? How long is that movie?!
I jest, of course
If it's the classic with Richard Harris from 1970, then I envy you. Haven't seen it in decades, so I'm interested to hear what you think of it and how it plays when viewed with 2025 sensibilities (some of those old classics do not hold up all that well)

@FuriousMachine well even though i barely remember the movie since i only saw bits and pieces of it when i was a kid in the early 1980s, i only sort of remember that ritual scene. the movie is like an hour and 55 minutes. long enough to count as a 2 hour movie.

and if someone that wasnt an 80s kid, that they were watching the movie now today, they would call it a white person's indian movie.

i remember a few years back where people were picking on Matt Damon's fantasy horror movie The Great Wall for whitewashing or having a white guy starring in an asian fantasy movie.

Like, really? prety sure that movie had alot of asian actors in it. Matt Damon and whatshisface pedro pascal they were like rogues from the Crusades war where they ran off to hide out by accident in China at the wrong time when the Chinese were dealing with those weird monsters

while i was watching half of Man Called Horse earlier, i started thinkign of the Dances With Movies which i wouldnt be surprised if Kevin Costner made his movie based off of Man Called Horse.

and Im surprised there was a third Man Called Horse which i just found out earlier today

earlier tonight i started rewatching Star Wars Mandalorian Season 1 for DVD. been awhile since i last saw it on some streaming site that you could watch new movies that were playing in theaters for free etc.

Jawas in Star Wars are always weird but Favreau and Filoni made Jawas even weirder in the Mandolorian show

The missus and I went back to season 1 of The Wheel of Time in preparation for season 3 (we’re gonna watch season 2 before season 3 finishes it’s run too) and I actually enjoyed it more this time around.

I think I kinda struggled with much of the casting when it originally aired as some of my favourite characters from the book weird quite different in the show. I’m thinking that I must’ve come around to them now though as I was left feeling it a far stronger adaptation than is generally felt.

How Rosalind Pike hasn’t been nominated for any awards for her turn as Moiraine is beyond me… a masterclass in subtle stoicism and pitch-perfect to the character from the book. Looking forward to the next couple of seasons… and hopefully the viewing figures are strong enough to see some more seasons 🤞.

@graymamba I never read the books, so the casting was never an issue for me. I did struggle to get into it in s1, as there was a lot of lore and characters and backstory to process, but I enjoyed it and by the time S2 came around, I was eager for more. And, yeah, Rosamund Pike nails it as Moiraine. Fell in love with her when she was just a young lass in "Die Another Day" and she spellbinds me to this day.
Looking forward to seeing her in "Hallow Road", a psychological horror/thriller with her and Matthew Rhys in a car for most of the movie, which is reportedly quite good.
Back to WoT: Only seen the first episode of S3 so far, and it was fun to get reacquainted with the show Will definitely keep watching weekly in order to do my part to keep the show alive (rule of thumb with streamers: Watch as soon as you can, many only count eyeballs within the first couple of weeks of release when determining if a show is a success)

@FuriousMachine yeah maybe I’m the problem then 😬, we always wait for seasons to finish so that we can binge them… I just can’t watch one episode per week anymore, it just leaves me unsatisfied.

In regards to the show, yeah the dense lore and amount of characters from the off is a little impenetrable. I remember having to pause the show regularly to explain stuff to the missus when we first watched it at release. It’s one of those things that no one wants to get bogged down in exposition… but sometimes a bit of exposition is necessary and I think a viewer new to the series could’ve done with a tad more if I’m honest.

About Rosalind Pike… I never really noticed her much before. I think I saw her in one of the Cruise Jack Reacher films and obviously Gone Girl but I never paid her any particular attention. But her role in this just blew me away and then I obviously thought she was very good in Saltburn too… but I’d love her to get a nod for her portrayal of Moiraine. More than anything, to add a bit more credibility to the show for potential viewers to give it some consideration.

@graymamba hehehe, if it gets cancelled, I'll hold you personally responsible
Though, while Amazon also are quite axe-happy, they are willing to let a show find its footing sometimes before swinging the axe (unlike Netflix, who will eviscerate any show that isn't a huge success from the go) and they are reportedly seeing an increase in viewers season to season with WoT, so I think you can safely wait until you can binge it... for now
Me, I simply can't binge shows. More than two hours, three tops, of the same thing makes me restless, no matter how good that thing actually is. So I typically watch episodes in twos and have a couple shows going simultaneously (not watching them at the same time, you understand, but alternating between them). For example, right now I am alternating between "Severance", "Mythic Quest", "The Agency" and the first season of "The Leftovers", with "Wheel of Time" and "Daredevil: Born Again" being fresh additions (they will fill the spots vacated by "Severance" and "Mythic Quest" when they end this week).

And, absolutely, Rosamund Pike should definitely get award attention for her portrayal of Moiraine

@FuriousMachine Your TV scheduling is similar to my video game approach. Usually having 2 games and sometimes 3 concurrently where I will pop back and forth to keep from getting too bogged down. I think it helps to keep things feeling fresh. Sometimes I overextend myself though, and if I try to juggle too many games then inevitably one will suffer neglect and drop off.

However for TV shows I usually just do one at a time and if I intermix something it will be inserting a standalone movie every now and then to take a break from a long season. I have very limited TV time though, so that factors in.

Of those shows you’ve listed I’m interested in almost all of them. The only one not on my radar is The Agnecy. I think I’ll tackle Season 2 of Severance first and then maybe either WoT or The Leftovers. I never finished the original Daredevil series so I suspect I need to go back to that before trying the new one. I made it halfway through season 1 and then abandoned it for something else. It was growing a bit boring but I hear it picks up.

@FuriousMachine I used to be like you and have a load of shows ongoing at the same time. But I only watch one TV show at time now, and I rarely binge something over the space of a few days. About the only time I did was when I started with Game of Thrones and was way behind and needed to catch up.

@Th3solution It's a bit funny, I absolutely cannot have concurrent video games going unless they are very different games. If they are too similar I will continually have to re-learn button combinations and such. So, I typically focus on one game at the time and play that until I'm properly done with it, either by finishing it or feeling otherwise satisfied (or bored) with it.

"The Agency" is a bit of a strange one. I find myself reluctant to pick it up, but when I finally do I am absolutely riveted to it. Some shows are like that for me, I keep forgetting that I actually like them and have to "force" myself to watch them.

I don't think the Netflix "Daredevil" show is required viewing for "Born Again", at least not as far as I've seen, but it will probably give a little bit more context. I am personally not a huge fan of the direction the Netflix shows took, they seemed to be almost ashamed of the source material, but I absolutely loved most of the casting, so I'm a bit torn with "Born Again". On the one hand, I want the characters and actors intact, but I'd like to see clean slate in terms of story. Whether or not the Netflix shows turn out to be 100% canon or whether they are a multiverse thing where things are similar but not 100% the same remains to be seen, I guess.

"Severance" season 2 started very strong, but has tapered off a bit towards the end, in my opinion. Hopefully they will bring it back with the season finale. Also, an entire episode dedicated to Dichen Lachman's character was not wrong

@JohnnyShoulder I try not to juggle too many. The current count (six) is not representative, as it's that high mainly because three of them are about to end their seasons and two of them just started.
I don't have any hard and fast rules, but I will actively limit things if I start to feel like it's becoming overwhelming.

@FuriousMachine I used have a different one for each weekday, as weekends are film nights!

@JohnnyShoulder Sundays are typically "stay in and watch shows and movies" day, so I can conceivably watch two episodes of two or three shows and a movie or two on a Sunday, though I will more often than not sacrifice a movie in order to get in a couple of hours with a book and some comics. Weeknights will more often than not be spent playing games or working on a hobby coding project. Also, reading, if the book I'm reading has its claws in me, which happens every now and then.

Finished s1 of Paradise this weekend, and holy crabapple was that show good! One of the best new shows I've seen in a few years, I would say. The penultimate episode was intense AF and packed a very satisfying emotional punch for me. Incredibly good!

I'm also very happy with the season finales of both Severance and Mythic Quest as well, with the latter bringing a lot of heart and setting up some interesting changes for a potential fifth season (poor Jo! 🤣)

Will wrap up The Leftovers and maybe The Agency before starting anything new but the Kevin Bacon demon hunting show The Bondsman is a strong candidate when it drops on Prime later this week

We finished season 2 of Mayor of Kingstown last night and thought it was pretty great. A step up from season 1, while season 1 had a better crescendo. I don’t hear many people talking about this show but if anyone’s looking for something ‘dark & gritty’ (don’t hear that much anymore 😏), it should fill that void.

@FuriousMachine I was looking for a new show to get obsessed with after Severance and so I tried The Leftovers since it’s so oft mentioned here and elsewhere. I’m having a hard time seeing why it’s so well liked. After a couple episodes I think I’m going to jump off. The concept seems to have some potential, but it’s moving so slow, it hasn’t endeared me to any of the characters (most of them I find annoying), the dialogue and acting is just a little too ‘soap opera’ for me. I don’t mind a little cheese and hyperbole sometimes but it feels at odds with the setting they are trying to establish.

It was fun to see a young ‘Mama’ (Qualley) to get me hyped for Death Standing 2 though! 😅

Anyway, not to dump on everyone’s enjoyment, as clearly I’m the outlier here. I’m just surprised I haven’t heard anyone else who didn’t particularly like it. Perhaps I’m missing something? I’m not even sure I could be convinced to stick with it, but… does it get better?