Topic: The TV Show Thread

@KALofKRYPTON Have you seen The Leftovers? Justin Theroux is absolutely fantastic in that show, as is the show. Easily my favourite TV show I've ever seen. Carrie Coon is also an absolute treasure. Not to mention the cast has other great cast member such as Christopher Eccleston, Amy Brenneman, Regina King and Ann Dowd on top of that. Justin Theroux can be fairly stoic and subdued in that show as well, but he has his real standout moments when he's not. Definitely give this show a watch if you haven't already.

@Tjuz I watched a good chunk of the first season of Leftovers. Really didn't do it for me as a show, at all. I went and read a lot about the books and still felt like I didn't want to watch any more.

@beemo Yeah, S2 is a big improvement - I thought it would be after Danny's appearance in Luke Cage, very much a flag saying that they'd tried to sort his character out.
I think it'll be another season of Defenders after the next DareDevil and Punisher seasons.

I finished Maniac. What a thoroughly enjoyable watch! Highly - highly recommended!

@KALofKRYPTON The first season can be a bit hit or miss (although I enjoyed it a lot more upon rewatch) and only really gets consistently great with episode 8-10, although my favourite episode is episode 6. Season 2 and 3 are completely original, since the ending of S1 is also the ending of the book. They decided to move locations and introduce new characters, and that's when the show really hits it's stride. I actually quit The Leftovers after episode 3 when I first tried to watch it, but then someone convinced me and I absolutely fell in love. If you have the time, please give this show another chance and try to get to episode 8-10 of season 1! It's really extraordinary.

@Tjuz Checking on imdb, I think we actually finished season 1. Didn't bother going back.

@KALofKRYPTON That's too bad. I really hope you'll give it another shot at some point. The season 2 premiere should give you a good idea of how the show changes going forward (and also made me cry)!

@Tjuz Only The Iron Giant makes me cry.

@KALofKRYPTON I'm afraid I've never seen The Iron Giant, so I can't relate.

@Tjuz 😳

Definitely one to add to your list!

Been watching Jessica Jones and am almost halfway through. She's such a great, complex character. She actually reminds me of my sister (she's a people person too). Gotta say I'm really impressed with these Netflix Marvel shows. I like how dark they are and how they afford a character development the MCU films simply don't. Looking forward to watching the others.

@KALofKRYPTON @FullbringIchigo Thanks. That's what I thought might be the case. You've reminded me I need to watch Futurama. I haven't seen it in donkeys.

@mookysam Jessica Jones is great! It's the only Marvel Netflix show I've seen (and interests me), but I'd be surprised if any of the others beat it. The villain, as played by David Tennant, is such a great character and I loved every second of his antics. Krysten Ritter is also great with her portrayal of Jessica Jones. You could definitely already see shades of her with the Breaking Bad character. Very good casting. Season 2 is not as good as season 1, but I still enjoyed the first half. Enjoy it while it lasts!

@KratosMD Fair enough! I completely forgot about The Punisher. That's easily the other Marvel Netflix show I find most interesting, but from what I've seen I'm not convinced I'd personally enjoy it as much as I did Jessica Jones S1. Maybe I'll get around to giving it a shot eventually though!

Peaky Blinders does have it's great moments. I'm not sure what I think of it overall, but I sure do like it enough to keep watching it. The 4th season last year was the first I "watched live", and it's probably one of the better seasons. That said, I don't remember all that much from the first 2 so I could be underestimating the competition. What I can say however, is that the season 4 premiere had one of the best openings of any episode of any show I've ever seen. Incredibly well directed that was. Cilian Murphy and Helen McCrory are the highlights of the show (I really need to watch Penny Dreadful already), but it's an all around great ensemble. Glad to hear you're enjoying it! You've definitely got a hell of a ride ahead of you. Season 2/4 are the best seasons from my recollection, and 2 is the one which introduces Tom Hardy. Tom Hardy easily plays one of the best characters in the show, so you've got that to look forward to. Lots of great stuff in that show. Hope you enjoy!

@KratosMD Having been watching Black Butler I'm also in the mood for the setting. So one thing I'm not sure about, what kind of protagonist does it have? Hero, anti-hero, or villain?

@mookysam Luke Cage season 2 is the King of the Marvel Netflix crop - by quite a long way. Punisher is OK, but I really got tired of Jon Bernthall grunting.

@KratosMD @Tjuz I have a love/hate relationship with Peaky Blinders. The vast majority of the cast (aside from the couple of local lads) absolutely butcher the accents. Murphy is probably the best of the bunch in that regard, but he spent months drinking and hanging around in Birmingham as research before the first series.
Most of the non-local actors end up with some odd regional deviations considering they're all meant to be the same family or from the same place - and the production/direction is obviously angled towards being slightly clipped for the national audience.

When the boat guys who are meant to be from Wolverhampton show up (Series 2 I think) I wanted to set my TV on fire!

It's had it's ups and downs, the last series was great though.

I live a couple of miles from The Black Country Living Museum where a chunk of the external stuff is filmed - it's a regular day out actually, so that's quite nice.

@Jaz007 It's a post WWI drama based loosely on a pretty nasty real life crime gang. Lots of damaged, nasty characters with the main protagonist set up in the 'lovable rogue' archetype.

@KALofKRYPTON I'm a West Midlands boy (not Brummie or Black Country though!) and thought the accents were decent enough on the whole. Great casting for everyone though, especially Arthur. Sam Neill is also great and also does a good accent.

Although the latter series didn't hit the peaks of the first two, it's still a top show. The Nick Cave song for the intro is also perfectly chosen.

@Thrillho They're pretty bad really, especially early on where a couple of the younger local lads are clearly from Dudley.

I think Sam Neil is of Northern Irish decent actually.

Yeah, they use the song a lot!

After years of folk trying to get it picked up, the Wheel of Time TV show is slated for Amazon Prime.

I'm currently reading book 11 (of 14) of the series; it's going to be a very difficult thing to adapt, but if they get it right - it'll make Game of Thrones look like that Ewoks film!

@RogerRoger Yeah I saw. It gets slightly better looking every trailer, but still manages to look really cheap and miscast (apart from Jason Todd).

@RogerRoger Half-decent at best is probably right based on the trailers

@RogerRoger There's a review of episode 1 on iO9; well, I say review - it reads like a puff-piece - but mostly seems as expected.

@beemo I watched the first episode, didn't grip me particularly so didn't bother with any others.

Having finished going through Blake's 7 now, I've moved on to Space 1999. Unlike Blake's 7 - I did watch re-runs of Space 1999 as a kid and loved it.
Great watching it again, brilliant sets, model work and ingenious props - and the title theme is fire!