Fifth Avenue Forum

Boardwalk Empire was brilliant for 2 seasons then meh for the rest of its run (aside from a couple individual episodes that were excellent).

Quality of the overall piece aside, it did give us Richard Harrow (who is a top 5 TV character for me), and also the glorious insanity of Paz de la Huerta. It also seems to have been the normalization vector of, erm, 'family fun' which has pervaded adult entertainment for the last 10 years. Not that I monitor that.

I want to try that but I was pretty turned off by how bad Vice Principals was.

Gemstones is far superior to Vice Principals. I don't think I bothered watching the second half of Vice Principals.

This is a great scene from Mad Men. One of my favorites in recent TV, right up with the flashback scene at the end of Halt and Catch Fire IMO

It's from season 5's finale iirc. Not sure if it's a spoiler or not. Just perfect use of sets, production design, music.

I'm wondering if mad men was best watched as a weekly episode rather than a binge?

yeah it was just consistently solid but never that exciting. it took me a long while to "binge" it

One of my favorites in recent TV, right up with the flashback scene at the end of Halt and Catch Fire IMO

Had to go back and rewatch it just now. Really dusty in here, again.

Boardwalk Empire was brilliant for 2 seasons then meh for the rest of its run (aside from a couple individual episodes that were excellent).

I loved the show, but I agree with this. It's a shame Michael Pitt was such a bastard to work with. He was fantastic as Jimmy and you could tell they hadn't planned for a show without his character.

Boardwalk Empire was brilliant for 2 seasons then meh for the rest of its run (aside from a couple individual episodes that were excellent).

Quality of the overall piece aside, it did give us Richard Harrow (who is a top 5 TV character for me), and also the glorious insanity of Paz de la Huerta. It also seems to have been the normalization vector of, erm, 'family fun' which has pervaded adult entertainment for the last 10 years. Not that I monitor that.

I would consider season 3 to be brilliant as well (Gyp is one of my favorite tv antagonists) but after that it drops pretty mightily. I just stopped watching in the middle of season 4


my biggest issue with most tv shows is I don't want to see characters do the same things over and over for 4+ seasons. Mad Men didn't need to be 7 seasons, Sopranos didn't need to be 6 seasons, Walking Dead didn't need to be more than 3 seasons, etc

the only shows where I was emotionally invested past a fourth season were The Wire (unfortunately the fifth season was the worst), Breaking Bad (same thing as the Wire), Game of Thrones (turned into one of the worst endings of alltime) and Better Call Saul (to be determined)

I really respect shows that don't overstay their welcomes which is why I have a big soft spot for Spartacus and Mr. Robot. They're entertaining and they try to end as swiftly as possible


ultimately this is why I prefer to watch movies which are in and out in 1.5-4 hours. The LOTR movies are long for movies but they're only as long, combined, as one season of any tv show

Deadwood

Deadwood had no flaws.

Some people disliked the theatre troop. But Jack was awesome

I’ve only seen the first episode but now that I’ve been to the real town of Deadwood, I should probably rewatch

and only 36 episodes? nice

and only 36 episodes? nice

you won't be saying that at the end

better to leave a party early than to stay too late

it's not a party unless you do something that scares ya!

The 5th season of Breaking Bad contains 2 of the finest hours of television ever committed to media, including perhaps the best overall.

Also, my Aussie actor friend that I mentioned can't go home because of COVID is Liam McIntyre. I shall inform him of your high regard, Ween. His Twitch handle is MrSpartyPants, and he loves it when people tell him it's also Mrs Party Pants.

The replacement Spartacus?

man I really admire Liam. He was put in an impossible spot replacing Andy but really came into his own as his tenure progressed


Im jelly that you know him personally


edit: and yeah he was the replacement. For those that don’t know, the original Spartacus, Andy Whitfield, received a cancer diagnosis after the first season of filming, so they made a prequel season. Andy eventually passed away and was replaced by Liam in the second season. **** cancer

The 5th season of Breaking Bad contains 2 of the finest hours of television ever committed to media, including perhaps the best overall.

Regarding BB, you sometimes forget the emotions you went through the first time you watched it. The rollercoaster of rooting for Walt, then rooting for Jesse and against Walt. Thinking Skylar is a dodint then feeling a bit happy when she joined with Walt then getting pissed at Walt and feeling sympathy for Skylar.

I'm stuck on S2 of my rewatch as it just doesn't have the magic it first had. I see it on my Netflix cue and instead click on Knight Rider (which, btw, is a fun rewatch of a childhood favorite).

Haha, the first time I watched BB I regarded Skylar as the villain.

That's the great thing about anti-heroes. In any story that doesn't focus on them they'd be outright and unquestioned bad guys. But we cheer the end of The Godfather as Michael has like a dozen people murdered surrounding his nephew's baptism.

Absolutely. Anna Gunn crushed her role, but I freaking hated her in the show. Yet, she was doing exactly what I hope any other woman would do in a real world situation.

Peacemaker's first three episodes are out. Really enjoyed the first episode, didn't expect to laugh much, but it is James Gunn...so it was fun.

I was perusing HBO Max yesterday and noped right past that one. I just do not enjoy watching him act.

Cena is typically a disaster, but he's really good as Peacemaker. Exaggerated, dry, humorless personality that fits his limited acting abilities perfectly.

Absolutely. Anna Gunn crushed her role, but I freaking hated her in the show. Yet, she was doing exactly what I hope any other woman would do in a real world situation.

That's great writing. You as the viewer were actively rooting against morality.

Yep, I've always said BB is the best written show I've ever seen