Topic: The TV Show Thread

@FuriousMachine hope you enjoy 🍻

Only now watched the first episode of The Last of Us season 2, and it was a hard watch. I really love the source material, so I didn't like them taking liberties with some of the things I though made the second game good. Dropping the non-linear narrative is one of them.

The writing seems to have taken a hit too. Many of the new characterizations and added dialogue lines were pretty bad. The story is dumbed down, and also way less elegant.

At least Pascal is still very good as Joel, every shot looks amazing and the gameplay is very well translated to the small screen.

I took a punt on a show called 'Ballard' on Prime yesterday evening. I remember thinking there was a bit of cheesy dialogue in the first episode and whether to stick with it but so glad I did. I ended up binging it and finishing it a little while ago. I don't recall getting that invested in a 'cop' show in a long time. I hope they keep it going, it's apparently #1 on Prime UK so that's a good sign.
I thought I recognised Titus Welliver as a cop, so of course discovered it is a spin of a show Bosch. Thankfully that is also on Prime so I've added that to my watchlist and will get started on that soon.

@BearsEatBeets Glad you liked it! Welliver nails it as Bosch and hopefully you'll enjoy the other seasons as well (there are 7 seasons of "Bosch", followed by 3 seasons of "Bosch: Legacy", which then leads directly into "Ballard").
I'm a bit of a fan, having read all the books (well, I'm reading the newest right now) and I feel they did a really good job adapting them.

@FuriousMachine You definitely give yourself a great starting point when you base a show of a good book series. I'm aware of the author by name but have not actually read any of his work. I really need to get back into reading. I used to read a book pretty regularly but haven't in a while now despite my book backlog being in double digits.
Anyway it's pretty hot this evening so will probably skip any gaming, plus there's not much tennis now so I will make a start on Bosch shortly.

@BearsEatBeets Absolutely! The Harry Bosch book universe also includes books about Terry McCaleb (retired FBI agent, portrayed by Clint Eastwood in the movie "Blood Work"), Jack McEvoy (a crime reporter), Mickey Haller (aka The Lincoln Lawyer, portrayed by Matthew McConaughey in the movie and
Manuel Garcia-Rulfo in the Netflix series) in addition to Bosch and Ballard. There are currently 40 books in all, counting the upcoming Lincoln Lawyer novel. I've had a great time reading them all; I consider them quite light reading (some would term them "beach reads") but quite entertaining.

It's not too sweltering here in Norway yet, but it's supposed to get warmer in the next few days. Still, chill enough for me to finish up "Uncharted: Lost Legacy" tonight, I think.

Enjoy Bosch and should you at any point get back into reading again, I would love to hear more about it over in the books thread, if you're so inclined

I have now finished all 7 seasons of Bosch and 3 season of Bosch: Legacy. Suffice to say with the speed with which I have consumed them that I thoroughly enjoyed them. The final season of Legacy felt a bit rushed but otherwise I thought they were really well written and shot. I would definitely recommend for any fans of detective/cop shows of the gritty side.
I'll certainly be on the look out for some of those books now @FuriousMachine. 'Beach reads' are probably my level, I've read all the Reacher books and many Grisham ones. (Not re-started with reading yet though).

@BearsEatBeets So happy you liked them! I agree on s3 of "Legacy", felt like they weren't given the episode count they needed to let the story breathe. I do hope Welliver will be more of a regular in Ballard going forward (if there is a forward for the series... seems to have been a hit, though, so I'm optimistic). After all, they work pretty closely together in the books, but I see that they don't want Bosch to steal Ballard's thunder either. It's a fine line to walk, I guess.

A little heads up re.: the novels, though. The first few felt a bit "samey", but Connelly quickly gets his sea legs and they get better and better (for the most part, of course.. with almost 40 novels, some are going to be better than others). I recommend reading the "expanded universe" novels as well as the Bosch novels; the Lincoln Lawyer novels and Terry McCaleb novels are really good. A good list can be found at this link

@BearsEatBeets
It is indeed a great series(s) with good characters.
Yes the last season did feel rushed especially when compared to the seasons which always had a slow approach to the main story being unfolded. The last episode especially felt like it was breakneck speed to wrap it up whilst also leaving it open to future spinoffs, which is indeed the case.

@FuriousMachine Thanks for the list.
@CaptD It certainly felt like the makers possibly got a bit too focused on setting up the spin-off but it was still an enjoyable watch. Having watched Ballard before the original show may also have affected how I viewed that season. I'm optimistic it seemed to do well enough that we will get more of Ballard.

Just finished binging the whole first season of Stick on AppleTV+ and really enjoyed it. I’ve always been a sucker for a good sport film or tv show. As with the most of them, it does follow an age-old formula somewhat… but it does so with grace and charm.

I’d forgot how much I loved Owen Wilson in his laid-back pomp… I remember now. As good as he’s ever been.

What a waste of a season. I only liked 2 or 3 episodes, one of them being the best in the whole series(How Zeke Got Religion). I guess they made this season at the same time with Secret Level since you can feel the mediocrity in both seasons. Do better next time. Also, f**k that RHCP episode; I want to see something new instead of a music clip.
2.5/5

This wasn't as good as S01 but it saved itself with last couple of episodes. I couldn't believe what I was watching in first episodes and didn't care anything. But with Ghorman pilot things started to click even though not until the episode 6th. 8,9,10,11,12 were great flow and made me felt like S01 again with episode 10th being the highlight for me. Last minutes of the season was chills, literal chills when I went "That's where we met Andor in the movie!". Just like Diego Luna himself said: I will never watch the Rogue One in the same way... Best thing happened to SW since Disney take over. I will follow what Tony Gilroy does next.
4/5

I didn't know a lot about the game series other than basic premise and Sweet Tooth. This was enjoyable. World building was good too. Dynamic between leads was fun to watch. Sweet Tooth was great! I liked that it didn't hold back in terms of +18 stuff overall. It could use a bit more car action and the last car war could have been much better but I am optimistic about new season. Better than both Arcane and The Last of Us when it comes to game adaptions. Flashbacks were really nice. I even wanted a Twisted Metal game in the vein of this series instead of just car action.
3.5/5

It really started fun and felt like it will be better than other series like What If...? and Invincible etc. But after the first 2-3 episodes it lost that spark in my eyes. Even though I didn't get bored and enjoyed it to some level, unfortunately it all was shallow in the end. Nina was really wasted and dissapointing since I thought she was going to do something big in the finale with water etc. Doctor Phosphorus was awesome to watch and Alan Tudyk fit so well. I really hated Frankenstein. Another thing to add is I liked that characters are not "redeemed" and they are really evil instead of the Suicide Squad version of "well, actually they are not so bad people".
Hope next season will be much better. Overall, it's good to see +18 stuff from this side of the comicbook media. Also, James Gunn is not funny and he never will be with his pretentious and unnecessarily long dialogues.
3.5/5

Great comeback from one of my favourite series ever! It's one of the best seasons of the whole series even though technically it's standalone. I ***** LOVED Debra in this, she was so much fun. Dexter's inner thoughts are still a delight to experience and made me smile nearly everytime.
Story, progression, antagonist, side characters; all were well written. Using podcast like this was genius. Setting felt different and good change. While Harrison's actor did a good job; I didn't like the character much. Especially when I thought things going to be okay for dad&son until he betrays the Dexter. I really like Angela being a good cop too.
My biggest complaint and the reason I am not giving 4.5 or 5 to this is "wheal mark" topic. It didn't feel like something Dexter would forget/not cover etc. That and "titanium screws" was a bit stretch too but that didn't bother me as much as "wheal mark" topic. Lowered my overall impression and soured me a bit, I really wanted for it to be "gone" when first mentioned and not causing all of this. I didn't like the ending much too.
Now on to the Original Sin before Resurrection!
4/5

binging through Batman Animated Series Season 1 and Superman Animated Series Season 1 on HBO Max

then jump back into binging through the Kids in the Hall show on Tubi. kind of forgot what episode i last watched though

@Scottyy Thanks for posting your thoughts about Love, Death + Robots, I was considering purchasing but now I won't after reading your review. Consider myself forewarned and forearmed. But, did you watch Heavy Metal as well, the film that supposedly inspired it? Would you say that was any good?

@BlAcK_Sw0rDsMaN

I have never seen it, sorry. Btw, I recommend L,D&R S01-03. S01 has good episodes overall, for S02 I recommend 3rd, 4th, 6th episodes. For S03 2nd, 4th, 5th, 8th, 9th episodes.

You know what, if you have time you can watch all 3 seasons entirely, you will enjoy mostly. S04 is awful like I said.

@Scottyy Ok, I'll check out the first three seasons then, btw you might like Heavy Metal if it is genuinely the inspiration for L,D&R, if you enjoyed some of the episodes, as you say.

@BlAcK_Sw0rDsMaN

Thanks, I checked it out on the wikipedia. Looks interesting and I didn't know about it before you mentioned.

I never got around to seeing Arcane: League of Legends s2 on Netflix, but I loved the first one and I understand the second one is good (though not as good, apparently), so I still went ahead and pre-ordered the s2 4K Steelbook from Amazon.com to go with my other one. It drops October 28th and is not region locked (the 4K, that is. I have no idea about the Blu-Ray version).

Has anyone seen Samurai Jack? I was thinking of buying the complete box set and binge watching the show. I only saw a few episodes as a teenager and don't remember if it's any good?

I just finished Untamed on Netflix and between that and Dept Q, Netflix has had a strong crime drama game recently. To me, the key to a great crime drama is more down to strong characters than the case itself, and in this regard I feel both delivered in spades.
I'm usually quite harsh on Netflix, so I thought it only fair to give them a shout out when they do well. Neither of them has been cancelled yet, either, so that's a plus! (though only "Untamed" has received a new season order, so "Dept Q" may still get the chop).