@Pizzamorg Well, I'm not at all surprised to read your final thoughts on Evil! Sounds like it went out as it lived: a somewhat incoherent mess that stays entertaining for the most part. Not particularly the most glamorous reaction to come out of it, so I'll probably leave it to the wayside. I enjoyed reading your thoughts on the show, though! Thanks for posting and letting me relive that show a little bit along with your first watch. Been a while. What's up next for you?
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@Ravix Yeah, subscribing for just a month to watch whatever you want to within that time is probably the best way to go about it. I don't have the diligence to do that it seems, so my bank account is being raided by services I didn't use all that often monthly. I really should do something about that! But then again, I have a lifetime 50% off HBO Max that I would lose if I decide to unsubscribe... I guess for as long as it stays at 4 bucks a month, there's worse things. Even Amazon Prime is still just a fiver a month. My Hayu subscription is more expensive than that! That's the keeper, though. I'm sorry, but I need access to my Real Housewives. There's just no other way!
As for horror, I have to enthusiastically second The Haunting of Hill House on Netflix. It's the show that was my gateway from going to ''no horror for me'' to the horror-obsessed person I have become today. Incredible show throughout! The sixth episode remains an absolute masterclass in production values especially, and who could ever forget that big twist... I hope that's enough teasing for you to get off your arse and buy the Blu-Ray right now!
And in terms of other horror shows, there's a few I'd highly recommend. Bates Motel is a great one with tour de force performances from both Vera Farmiga and Freddie Highmore. It's a prequel to Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho, which yes, will eventually collide with the film and tell the story just that little bit differently. If you're a fan of Chucky at all, I can also highly recommend the TV series. It's a fan's fever dream, but equally worth watching if you are into slashers that don't take themselves seriously at all. I have no choice but to recommend Interview with the Vampire, which maybe is less horror than gothic, but is one of the best shows to grace my television is recent years. I'll take any chance to shill for it! Penny Dreadful is incredible, but again not fully in the horror genre and more gothic vibes. Lots of horror characters you might have already enjoyed previously with unique takes on their characters, however! Finally, I'll recommend Servant. That's a more polarising pick that seems hate or love for many, but I fell squarely in the second camp. The vibes and cinematography of that show are immaculate.
@Tjuz Giving Haven a go next, this all sort of started with me looking for more shows like Widow's Bay, and The Outsider and Evil turned out to be nothing like it, whereas Haven really is big Widow's Bay energy, set in one of those rural, fishing, new England towns the world forgot full of secrets.
Its been a jarring watch thus far (I am only four episodes in), coming off of three modern, premium, feeling shows and going back to 2010s cable telly, you realise just how differently these shows are shot, lit, paced, even how dialogue is written and performed. It almost feels like a fake show that would be on one of the kids laptops in Evil, rather than a real show.
That being said, after the endless, exhausting, song and dance of Evil, watching a show where people witness a supernatural event and accept its a supernatural event rather than spending a season thinking about whether it is a metaphor for collective trauma or whatever is just really refreshing.
@Pizzamorg Haha, I can imagine the lack of cynicism in its events is refreshing when compared to Evil. I had been interested in Haven previously as well, but I let it slip me by. By now it feels too long ago to consider going back to it with all the modern TV coming out! Have you ever watched Fringe? I'm going to assume that you have since you've been on the look-out for these types of shows and I imagine it'd have been one of the first results, but if not, I'd highly recommend that one.
I watched Fringe years and years ago I think. I remember really not liking season one, but was convinced to keep going and did end up finishing it in the end. I sort of don't remember anything about it or if I even liked it to be honest š I vaguely remember having an insane crush on the alternate Olivia in her very obvious red wig and that is about it š
renewing my Hulu/Hulu Live today to get back into watching a few things on PBS, MTV, TCM for awhile in August.
as for shows on my watchlist for Hulu i need to get back into watching
Season 5 of 24
Lost Season 2
Home Improvement season 3
still binging through Bob's Burgers season 3. tempted to watch the movie before i jump into Season 4.
My opinion, the Bob's Burgers movie is its own thing doesnt really matter where during the seasons to watch it anyway
Finished watching season 2 of Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan on Prime Video. Another great season, although not as good as the first one. I feel like there were much more action and battles in the first season compared to the second one. Nevertheless, I still enjoyed it a lot.
It was very interesting to see Venezuela as the setting for this season, considering what happened earlier this year. Although this season came out in 2019 and even though it didn't predict exactly the things that would happen this year, it still paints a clear picture of how valuable and important the country is to the US. Even in the first episode, you'll immediately understand the importance of the country. The setting alone made the season very interesting to watch.
Looking forward to watching the third season, as apparently it will be about an attempt to resurrect the Soviet Union. I have to admit, the premises for these seasons are genuinely really interesting.
Finished season one of Haven. I wish I could have more to say again than āeh, it was alrightā butā¦ eh, it was alright. Very much from a different era of TV production than a lot of the stuff I have watched lately, it feels sort of cheap, amateurish, rushed and slapped together but it is another show that isnāt offensively bad and goes down easy when I am eating my tea, so I sorta canāt quit it.
I will say, for the most part everything introduced in the show has mostly all made sense within its internal rules, but there is still a lot of messiness around the edges that clearly shows they hadnāt got a fully nailed vision down when they started shooting.
I was pleasantly surprised that at least one major thread (the cracks) was actually resolved within the one season, rather than dragged out across multiple (even if him blowing himself up looked insanely *****, and the whole scene was goofy in the context of the gun he brought) and the way the season rolls around full circle to create a twist and hook to go into the next season is pretty fun.
As I said in the opening part, the production qualities on this remain pretty rough throughout, but some of the stuff like the wonky ADR get better over time, and I am not sure if it is the writers becoming more comfortable, the actors becoming more comfortable or a combination of the two, but the stiff, awkwardness, of the early episodes does eventually given way to more warmer, genuine, feeling chemistry, even if that slightly artificial old school cable made for TV feel never quite disappears.
Overall, Season One is probably sorta best described as kinda scrappy, but in a way that sorta works out in the end as being sorta charming. Maybe some of that is just 2010s cable reality, I am far too removed to say, but the roughness is there regardless, never so much it becomes unbearable, but functioning like that stone in your shoe that always ends up under the sensitive bit of your toe.
It invites you into its specific kind of Americana filled with mystery, then barely holds on as this one tiny town floods with murders, secrets and supernatural events that break almost all credulity that so much can remain buried here, but I canāt deny that I slowly started to warm to these characters, and I realised I was invested enough as the finale lead me into various twists and turns to want to come back for another serving.
@Ravix That I can apologise for, wholeheartedly, though no assurances it won't happen again š
I reached a similar point like you and have been slowly rebuilding a physical film collection again for around 3 or 4 years. We still have sky with the bundled streamers as the kids tend to be impulsive so provides plenty of variety for them. Tv is where I struggle, I watch around 2 or 3 shows a year these days, perhaps I need more shows on disc.
I don't think my horror taste actually constitutes that label haha, I love things like the The Lighthouse, anything Ari Aster does,, and of course David Lynch. My sleep has been rotten this week so I'm attempting to make brain go, go on the train. If more float into my noggin from the ether later I'll pop you a mention in the movie thread.
@Pizzamorg It's an easy trap and probably one those companies rely on, I just wish more shows made it to Blu-Ray. I'll add your recs to my list, though time is in depressingly short supply at the moment, so haven't been keeping up with anything since Widow's Bay.
Finished watching season 3 and also season 4 (final season) of Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan on Prime Video. Absolutely phenomenal show! These last two seasons have definitely made this show one of my favourite TV shows of all time. In fact, I actually applauded on the last episode, which I rarely do. The only other times I did that was when I finished watching the Hannibal TV show with Mads Mikkelsen and Game of Thrones.
When I first watched season 1, I was pulled in by the plot. Over the course of the show, not only was the plot gripping for each season, but one aspect made me enjoy the show even more: the characters. In the first season, you have Jack Ryan and his boss. In the second season, both of them return while we're introduced to Ryan's new boss. In the third season, all three return while another new main character is added and the same thing happens in the fourth season. I just LOVE when TV shows introduce new characters each season and add them to the main cast. By the end of the final season, you have this group of awesome, likeable and badass characters, each bringing a different kind of personality to the table: the hero, the badass, the comic relief and so on.
As I've mentioned before, the production value of this show is just staggering. Each episode is like watching a movie, it's all killer no filler. The plot is constantly moving forward and there's always something exciting going on. The show truly respects your time. One thing I constantly notice with shows I've watched recently, such as The Boys and The Walking Dead, is that they always have moments where the characters talk to each other for what feels like an eternity and barely anything happens in the episode. This never happens in Jack Ryan and it's just refreshing to see.
Season 3 is easily my favourite one of the four seasons because of the high stakes. However, each season is memorable in its own right. Middle East, Venezuela, Europe and Myanmar, the settings were just so compelling. I enjoy learning more about politics and geopolitics for that matter, so this show really captivated me in that regard as well.
All in all, absolutely exceptional action thriller that is very enjoyable and well worth your time. If you also enjoy shows like Homeland, then there's no question about it: you just have to see this show!
Looking forward to watching the recently released movie Ghost War that's also part of this series tomorrow.
Just started Spider-Noir. It stars Nic Cage as an alternative retired Spider-Man turned gumshoe, set in the 1930s which always makes for an entertaining backdrop.
Watching on Prime and I have the option to watch in colour or B&W but the art direction and use of colour is so good that I think I will pass on B&W.
Just started my annual two weeks house-sitting for my brother which means access to the premium TV channels that I don't usually subscribe to and first thing on the list was Pluribus - three episodes in, completely hooked. Love Vince Gilligans's style, love the premise, still bemused as to how Rhea Seehorn never won an Emmy for BCS. The one negative is having to skip that ****ing ****ing son of a ***** Ted Lasso trailer every time I boot the Apple TV app or start an episode. I hate that show so much that just seeing snippets from the promo ruffles my disposition to the degree that I often need a nice lie down and a cup of tea to recover.
Finished watching season 1 of The Man in the High Castle on Prime Video. I watched the first half years ago but I dropped the show for some reason. I decided to rewatch all those episodes, which was worth it because I had forgotten so much.
This show is just so interesting. I love history, but alternative history is even more interesting. In this case, what if Germany and Japan won WW2. Seeing USA divided between Germany and Japan, as well as seeing the different cultures in each part of the country, is so freaking interesting to me. It's a setting I haven't seen explored in media.
I like how grounded the show is, but over time you realise that there are some supernatural elements at work. And the season finale was just awesome, so many huge things happened, not to mention the final scene. Very cool stuff, I'm looking forward to starting up season 2 tomorrow!
@LtSarge check out Wolfenstein then! (The New Order is all you need, really - itās excellent. I didnāt think much of The New Colossus, but a lot of it is set in the States to be fair)
@kyleforrester87 I forgot about that series while I was writing that post. I have experienced Wolfenstein: The New Order (as well as The Old Blood) in terms of video games, but never seen a movie or TV show with that setting. I haven't played The New Colossus yet, but yeah considering it takes place in the US I might just have to give it a go soon. Thanks for reminding me!
Finished Season 1 of the excellent Pluribus - I particularly appreciated the way Gilligan and company subverted or satirised the tropes of the 50's Aliens-as-Communist allegory invasion movies in a way that was consistently amusing but never obvious - although I'm not sure how well the premise as a whole will hold up across multiple seasons. That said, more Rhea Seehorn can never be a bad thing. Next I'm on to either Silo (although I hear the new episodes are pretty ropey) or Season 3 of House of the Dragon.
Finished season two of Haven. I wish I could again have more to say again than āeh, it was alrightā butā¦ eh, it was alright. Again.
With the passage of time, naturally things get better, things get worse. The longer the story goes, the more holes are created as old ideas clearly once intended to be one and done are repackaged, repurposed into something bigger and they just hope you wonāt dwell on the contradictions this creates.
But with time also comes actors growing more comfortable in their roles, writers growing more comfortable with this world (and the characters operating within it) and with it, the audience grows to start genuinely really enjoying those core cast of characters.
One thing I liked is season one largely set the baseline for what a lot of these characters are, and then season two gave these characters opportunities to break out beyond those baselines, usually always for great effect.
But on the opposite end of that, the reason I feel less positive about this, and actually found the season sorta boring at times, is while the characters grow and move, the show around them still in season two feels like it is trying to find the baseline for everything else.
The killer hook twist at the end of season one gave them a lot of momentum going into season 2, but this storyline is swiftly dropped, and everyone just seems to forget about it. The show seems to go from there back into seemingly trying to work out what exactly this show even is, which makes the whole thing feel like it comes to a lurching halt randomly like a quarter through the season, shifting gears into an isolated and considerably less interesting, show.
They introduce a loveā¦ square? Of sorts, it really adds nothing but cheapens the show and is largely dropped by the end of the season. Just the writers chucking darts, I guess.
We go back to making sure a self-contained case of the week is shoehorned into every episode, as they try and move the serialised bits forwards around it. And as a result, we continue to wonder how this small American town can have like 500 murder victims (in like what, a few months? I canāt work out what timeframe this show is even operating on) and still be allowed to operate like a mostly normal town. The show does seem like it's starting to find itself within the last few episodes of the season, but it's a direction that feels like it largely came out of nowhere and also took far too long to get there.
As a production, the show still feels sort of cheap, amateurish, rushed and slapped together. Theyāve added heaps and heaps of post processing to the image for season two to I guess make it feel more filmic and less flat, but I actually think it just compounds the naffness? It is also the first time I remember noticing so sharply when a show basically parks the bus to conserve resources for the finale, as back to back episodes in the back third operate as largely meaningless of the week stories in single locations, yet both also house character deaths that are some of the most powerful driving forces of the whole season.
Overall, Season Two probably is better than season one, mostly because spending more time in this world with these characters naturally makes me warmer to it all, but I do wish more of the roughness was sanded out, in some ways even more roughness is introduced by Season Two. But hell, we made it this far, I guess Iāll see you at the end of season 3.
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