Topic: The TV Show Thread

@PegasusActual93 fair enough, personally I much prefer the long form story-telling of modern tv shows over films (and that’s from a guy to graduated in film-making) but we all have our distinct likes and dislikes.

I’m in the UK so get my HBO stuff from Sky Atlantic and still think it’s probably the premier TV show provider. The various streaming platforms have shortened the gap considerably though.

@graymamba
I prefer long form storytelling too but many nights I just want to watch a single 2 hour or less movie instead of having to commit to another 10 hours of a tv show and I would assume many have the same sentiment. Some concepts or premises simply don't need to be more than a couple hours long. A couple of side notes, one thing I will definitely give Apple a lot of credit for over other streamers is that so far they are very good at not cancelling very many shows which is nice. That show you were talking about has already been renewed for example. Also isn't Sky's contract with HBO up next year?

@PegasusActual93 I dunno mate, but HBO shows will continue to air/stream in the UK in some capacity and I’ll continue to watch them. I currently subscribe to everything and have done for the last 5 years… so if their future deal isn’t with Sky Atlantic, Netflix, Disney+, Paramount+, Amazon Prime or Apple TV+, I’ll sign up with wherever their shows are aired/streamed.

Just finished s2 of Andor and while the early part of the season was a bit hit and miss with me, it got better and ended on a very strong note. The episode "Make it stop" is probably one of the finest 45 minutes of Star Wars I've ever seen; excellent stuff. All in all, I would say that "Andor" has been an extremely welcome addition to the Galaxy Far, Far Away.

@graymamba
Looked it up. HBO Max will launch in the UK this January.

@PegasusActual93 @graymamba

"Sky and Now TV subscribers will get free access to the new streaming service Max when it launches in 2026 as part of the agreement. Audiences in the UK and Ireland will be able to continue viewing popular American shows after Sky extended and expanded its deal with Warner Bros."

I would assume at some point HBO will sell broadcasting rights once more too. I can't imagine a world where all of their shows are online only in the UK, maybe just early on to get as many subs as possible. But either way, there is a bedding in period where Sky customers will still have access anyway, just through another method.

@Ravix
HBO Max is apparently launching in the UK this January, I really doubt it will launch with that show ready to go, it's June and the Harry Potter series as far as I am aware hasn't even started filming yet so I imagine it won't be released until probably late 2026 at the earliest. The current plan with the Harry Potter show is to release 7 seasons over a 10 year period like they did with the movies so that's roughly a year and a half between each season.

@PegasusActual93 if that is the case then we'll ignore that bit 🙈 I strayed into people discussing HP while looking up the latest UK Max info and they were linking the two, and so I thought "well, it makes sense" so added it without checking myself.

Got Disney+ again for Daredevil when it released (it was decent but needs the next season to make it one complete story) and I also watched both Rivals and A Thousand Blows. Rivals was brilliant, absolutely ridiculous but good fun and did a good job of portraying 80s sensibilities while having a more critical eye of things like sexism and anti Irish sentiment than would have been in the original book. A Thousand Blows also very very good, but another one we need to wait ages for another season.

On the back of finishing Outlaws, I got an itch to try to make my way back into the D+ Star Wars shows again, but got quickly overwhelmed when I tried to decide how to tackle them. I fell off a few years ago and haven’t watched anything since Andor season 1.

I should probably start with Andor Season 2, although I’ve forgotten most of what happened in Season 1. A YouTube recap should take care of that.

Otherwise, I’m staring at four more seasons of Clone Wars that I never got to, four seasons of Rebels, three seasons of Bad Batch, Tales of the Empire/Tales of the Jedi/Tales of the Underworld (not sure what these even are), and most of the live action series including Ashoka, Obi-Wan, Book of Boba Fett, The Acolyte, Skeleton Crew, and I think I still haven’t seen the last season of The Mandalorian (again, it’s been ages so I’ve completely forgotten what happened in the first 2 seasons). There may even be more shows I’m missing that I can’t think of right now. Trying to figure out the best approach is exhausting since there is so much carryover content.

One of the issues with the spiderweb of interconnectivity these stories and characters have is that it’s impenetrable for those who’ve not kept up. I really miss RogerRoger. Rog helped make a list for me of which shows and episodes to watch and which could be safely skipped, but there’s been a lot of shows added in the meantime. I’d really like an updated fast-track so that I get all the context of important characters and events before watching any of the latter content.

Pretty sure that Andor and The Acolyte are relatively independent of other shows, and maybe this Skeleton Crew show too. But I think all the others are really tied together. I suspect the lukewarm reception of many of these shows is partially due to the dependence they have on all the prior content, especially of the animated shows, and so when watched in a vacuum they don’t hit very well. So I’d like to avoid just randomly watching stuff without the context.

@Th3solution Definitely a lot, yes. Personally, I really liked "Rebels", but struggled with "Clone Wars". I also like "Ahsoka" a lot, mainly for two reasons: Rosario Dawson and the fact that we got live action versions of several characters from "Rebels". There may be many things happening in "Clone Wars" that may be relevant, but not having seen it myself, I never felt lost watching "Rebels" or "Ahsoka".

I also watched and enjoyed "The Mandalorian" and, to a lesser degree, "The Book of Boba Fett" (I didn't hate it like many others did, but there were times that only my love for Ming-Na Wen kept me coming back). "Boba..." is essentially "The Mandalorian" s2.5, though, as Mando takes over halfway through and picks up where S2 left off. So, would recommend watching "Boba.." if you plan on watching Mando S3. Dawson's version of Ahsoka Tano appears in one Mando episode, but it is not required viewing in order to watch "Ahsoka", unless my memory completely betrays me.

I would start with "Rebels", though, and if you enjoy it, then that's good and if not, then just move on to something else

"The Acolyte" was completely separate from these others, being set long before any of them, and I thought it was quite poor, to be honest. "Skeleton Crew" also seems separate, but I've yet to see more than the first two episodes, which didn't exactly bowl me over. I do plan on continuing in the near future, though.

Whatever you end up choosing, the important thing is that you're enjoying it

@Th3solution Oh, and I completely forgot: "Andor" S2 is probably the best SW I've seen, so that should be a priority, in my opinion. Not reliant on anything other than S1, though a familiarity with the characters in the OG trilogy and the prequels is a plus, of course

@Th3solution I feel your pain, I’m on S2 of The Bad Batch after finishing Rebels and enjoying it but missing Rog’s explanations and knowledge of canon.

Gutted to hear about Jonathan Joss, his characters in King of the Hill and Parks and Rec were super funny. To be killed in a homophobic shooting after being harassed for months shows how far the world still has to go and why pride month really is necessary.

@Th3solution I rewatched Andor s1 a few months ago, and it's pretty bingeable if you want to set up S2. It is still top quality, and a second watch works as all the tension that builds works nicely when you kind of know what's coming too. tbh Ep 3(?) hit me in the feels pretty decently. It's a great representation of a building discontent of a grassroots rebellion on a local scale that kind of bubbling rage at injustice and people coming together to protect their own. And obviously the Sirkis episodes are still absolutely fantastic. The real human feeling of oppression vs rebellion is the thing they get the most right in the show, to me.

I keep almost starting S2, but I think tonight might be the night.

Mandalorian I liked, but it kind of varies in quality, and tbh the actual Mandalorian parts make my eyes roll the most, it is almost comparable to TLoU in that way, when its Pedro and Child, a journey, a goal it's great. When it's some silly cult it's less great and more geared towards younger audiences.

When it's most like a Western is it's real peak. And there was a darker element in the Boba Fett spin off, I believe, that they couldn't have in Mando itself, so one of the better moments is within the other show. Despite the overall show being a bit pointless.

Ahsoka is decent and ties in with Mando to an extent, and the animated shows, clone wars, Anakin, Vader etc, I believe.

I didn't mind the Obi wan show. Although it's all a bit of a blur with Ahsoka, and that other show that got cancelled. None really stood out tremendously.

Andor should be your priority, I think.

@Th3solution
The Tales of series are all pretty good, its an anthology that works fine in standalone as long as you have at least a basic knowledge of each era of Star Wars and the episodes are all less than 15 minutes so it's very easy to binge an entire season. So that would be a good starting point if you want to tick some boxes.

@PegasusActual93 @Ravix @FuriousMachine Thanks for the advice and encouragement. That helps with some general guidelines.

@nessisonett Honestly, part of my difficulty with getting my Star Wars mojo back is not having Rog to cheerlead the effort. I have a smidge of melancholy when I turn on Clone Wars as I can’t help but think about RR.

@Th3solution It was especially helpful with Clone Wars, considering how segmented that series feels.

@Th3solution I've long fallen off the Marvel and Star Wars wagon. If I ever do sub to Disney+ the only shows I'd watch from those two franchises would be Andor and finish off Wandavision.

@JohnnyShoulder I did a better job at keeping up with the Marvel output, but also eventually fell off those too. They really seemed to slow down with both the TV and movie releases after phase four, so I don’t feel as far behind.

The last Marvel TV show I watched was Loki season 2 and the last movie was GotG 3. Despite that being two years ago, there’s only like two TV shows and two movies before I would be caught up. They’ve exercised more restraint after 2023, as opposed to 2021-2022 when there was a deluge of TV shows dropping in the Marvel world. Star Wars on the other hand has continued to pump out content through the various animated and live action forms.

I quite enjoyed Andor season 1, so I’m toying with whether to rewatch it or just watch a YouTube recap before season 2. As far as WandaVision, it’s probably the best Marvel TV show so far, but it’s very much a product of its time in the hoopla of the MCU, so I wonder if it would stand up watching it long after Endgame. The narrative for the show is very much dependent on where it’s nestled between Endgame and some of the phase 4 movies like Dr Strange and the Multiverse of Madness and SM No Way Home. Of course you don’t have to have seen those latter movies to enjoy WandaVision, but you kind of need to have seen WandaVision to fully appreciate those movies, especially Dr Strange 2, if my memory serves.

@Th3solution I watched the second Dr Strange movie before Wandavision and didn't feel I had missed out on much or that anything had not made sense.

Maybe that will become me clear once I've seen all of Wandavision. Whenever that is.

The last marvel movie I saw was Deadpool v Wolverine which I thought was great. Before that was probably Morbius or The Eternals, which all I say is that I was not as impressed with and found a bit boring to watch.