Colossal TV Show thread

Postby **blackjack68** » Mon Aug 27, 2018 10:01 am

That is a concerning poster to me...the letters BBC and the look on that chimps face...

If you're saying what I think you're saying, I'm surprised the tiger's eyes aren't much wider and his teeth aren't clenched.

Postby **Dickie Dunn** » Mon Aug 27, 2018 10:57 am

Really enjoyed Dark Tourist on Netflix. Some episodes were a better than others and at times Farrier came off as kinda judgemental, but in general thought it provided a good look into some crazy people and places in the world, along with terrible vacation ideas.

Postby **nocera** » Mon Aug 27, 2018 11:14 am

Just finished Season 6 of Orange is the New Black...

*spoilers*

Pretty underwhelming season insofar that nothing happens...at all. And the whole thing is kind of a mess and they didn't leave themselves a lot of good outs it doesn't seem like. Time is a weird thing in this show. Season 5 was basically like a day and a half or something...Piper's sentence is like a year or whatever...but yet references keep getting made to today's news...and then they forcibly and hamhandedly accelerated right into the next soft reboot of this thing - immigration policy. This seems undesirable and too far outside of the show's trestles to be meaningfully supportable.

While the show has a loose grip on timing, it had no trouble accelerating character development far beyond the governor that they had put on low-level characters early on. For instance, Doggett, the indistinguishable, meth-addled Appalachian, had one IQ point for every tooth left in that lipless c*ck holster of hers in the early seasons...she suddenly morphs into this street-wise, prison escape artist who is now able to successfully make deals with high-end executives for cushy cell block placement after escaping from God damn prison...she even had a come-to-Jesus moment to put herself back in jail. I don't mind character development, certainly...but this bit character is suddenly punching three rungs above her weight class and it's not believable nor is it interesting.

The mysterious Blanca, who spoke almost no English in the first five seasons as I recall, has grown into a primary focal point while making English her primary language in season 6. While formerly closed-off and standoffish, Blanca becomes much more engaged and engaging. There was a lot of meat left on the bone for her based on her usage earlier in the series, so this development is both believable and likable...though, I do wish there was a little more mystery left to her. In typical OITNB fashion, a very likable character offers up a punch to the gut after a long lead-up. Instead of a success story, she's used as a pawn for a future storyline that, again, will probably end up being a desperate attempt to amplify soapbox grandstanding with a shotgun-style spread before the show ends up turning the gun on itself in season 7.

Speaking of social justice, the only remotely interesting plot mover...Taystee's trial. There's little doubt that this is the centerpiece of the table, yet, Taystee is an after-thought in her own legal battle. Instead, we see useless corporate attaboys (and girls) play grab ass with each other for, presumably, months (there's no clocks in here) while the show tears itself to shreds trying to decide if it wants to allow Caputo to be a) relevant and/or b) a hero. Meanwhile, the show is either unbelievably clever or remarkably lazy by having the ACLU (or whoever) step in for Taystee only to have them do absolutely nothing at all in the entire process...other than stand around and look mad or sad depending on the scene. I can't imagine a show that is trying to whiteknight its way through sociopolitical commentary would intentionally make such a cutting jab at an organization that is supposed to be its brother-in-arms like that, so let's go with lazy.

Nicky's performance gets a big plus from me, she's a fantastic character that just keeps on giving. The other new characters and character developments range from irrelevant to annoying mostly...the hideously-accented Madison might be a little too-on-the-nose for her own good, but psychologically, they nailed her character type. The bickering sisters have a tragic, yet unfulfilling and unengrossing (is that a word?) backstory that seemed like it was slapped together at 4:55 pm one Friday afternoon...in all, they did nothing to move the plot and I'm glad they kill themselves, respectively, at the end. If nothing else though, the casting of the show is so well done and psychological mapping of the characters is very strong.

That said, all we got was 13 hours of chitter chatter, grade school pranks, spotty acts of random-on-random violence, some wildly uneven character development and story progression and absolutely no hook for season 7...particularly noteworthy is that a show about a well-to-do, though highly annoying suburbanite going to prison, no longer has a well-to-do, though highly annoying suburbanite in prison any more. While I hope that she's out of the way because she sucks, it's obvious that the show doesn't have the discipline to keep itself on any kind of track and, barring some pleasant surprise, will likely collapse onto itself in the final season...

Just finished this last night and agree with everything you said. The writers lost this show a long time ago. Classic Jenji Kohan: fun premise with good (sometimes great) first few seasons that completely falls apart once it hits season 3. OITB has been treading water for a while now and it needs to recapture its identity or find a new one. Otherwise, put it out of its misery.

Postby **blackjack68** » Mon Aug 27, 2018 11:17 am

Just finished Season 6 of Orange is the New Black...

*spoilers*

Pretty underwhelming season insofar that nothing happens...at all. And the whole thing is kind of a mess and they didn't leave themselves a lot of good outs it doesn't seem like. Time is a weird thing in this show. Season 5 was basically like a day and a half or something...Piper's sentence is like a year or whatever...but yet references keep getting made to today's news...and then they forcibly and hamhandedly accelerated right into the next soft reboot of this thing - immigration policy. This seems undesirable and too far outside of the show's trestles to be meaningfully supportable.

While the show has a loose grip on timing, it had no trouble accelerating character development far beyond the governor that they had put on low-level characters early on. For instance, Doggett, the indistinguishable, meth-addled Appalachian, had one IQ point for every tooth left in that lipless c*ck holster of hers in the early seasons...she suddenly morphs into this street-wise, prison escape artist who is now able to successfully make deals with high-end executives for cushy cell block placement after escaping from God damn prison...she even had a come-to-Jesus moment to put herself back in jail. I don't mind character development, certainly...but this bit character is suddenly punching three rungs above her weight class and it's not believable nor is it interesting.

The mysterious Blanca, who spoke almost no English in the first five seasons as I recall, has grown into a primary focal point while making English her primary language in season 6. While formerly closed-off and standoffish, Blanca becomes much more engaged and engaging. There was a lot of meat left on the bone for her based on her usage earlier in the series, so this development is both believable and likable...though, I do wish there was a little more mystery left to her. In typical OITNB fashion, a very likable character offers up a punch to the gut after a long lead-up. Instead of a success story, she's used as a pawn for a future storyline that, again, will probably end up being a desperate attempt to amplify soapbox grandstanding with a shotgun-style spread before the show ends up turning the gun on itself in season 7.

Speaking of social justice, the only remotely interesting plot mover...Taystee's trial. There's little doubt that this is the centerpiece of the table, yet, Taystee is an after-thought in her own legal battle. Instead, we see useless corporate attaboys (and girls) play grab ass with each other for, presumably, months (there's no clocks in here) while the show tears itself to shreds trying to decide if it wants to allow Caputo to be a) relevant and/or b) a hero. Meanwhile, the show is either unbelievably clever or remarkably lazy by having the ACLU (or whoever) step in for Taystee only to have them do absolutely nothing at all in the entire process...other than stand around and look mad or sad depending on the scene. I can't imagine a show that is trying to whiteknight its way through sociopolitical commentary would intentionally make such a cutting jab at an organization that is supposed to be its brother-in-arms like that, so let's go with lazy.

Nicky's performance gets a big plus from me, she's a fantastic character that just keeps on giving. The other new characters and character developments range from irrelevant to annoying mostly...the hideously-accented Madison might be a little too-on-the-nose for her own good, but psychologically, they nailed her character type. The bickering sisters have a tragic, yet unfulfilling and unengrossing (is that a word?) backstory that seemed like it was slapped together at 4:55 pm one Friday afternoon...in all, they did nothing to move the plot and I'm glad they kill themselves, respectively, at the end. If nothing else though, the casting of the show is so well done and psychological mapping of the characters is very strong.

That said, all we got was 13 hours of chitter chatter, grade school pranks, spotty acts of random-on-random violence, some wildly uneven character development and story progression and absolutely no hook for season 7...particularly noteworthy is that a show about a well-to-do, though highly annoying suburbanite going to prison, no longer has a well-to-do, though highly annoying suburbanite in prison any more. While I hope that she's out of the way because she sucks, it's obvious that the show doesn't have the discipline to keep itself on any kind of track and, barring some pleasant surprise, will likely collapse onto itself in the final season...

Just finished this last night and agree with everything you said. The writers lost this show a long time ago. Classic Jenji Kohan: fun premise with good (sometimes great) first few seasons that completely falls apart once it hits season 3. OITB has been treading water for a while now and it needs to recapture its identity or find a new one. Otherwise, put it out of its misery.

Postby **count2infinity** » Mon Aug 27, 2018 11:24 am

All they needed was a forensic examiner to figure out what happened to the dead guard, and boom. Series over.

YouTube · Postby **mikey** » Mon Aug 27, 2018 11:55 am

Yeah, season 3 was horrific. Then it rebounds a bit...and then season 6 was just...well, we all know...

Postby **shafnutz05** » Mon Aug 27, 2018 12:34 pm

Said it before, but Ali is one of my absolute favorite actors. Can't wait. And I didn't even watch S2.

Postby **nocera** » Mon Aug 27, 2018 12:36 pm

Said it before, but Ali is one of my absolute favorite actors. Can't wait. And I didn't even watch S2.

That's a good thing. S2 is trash and apparently the creator is making S3 more like the first season.

Postby **the wicked child** » Mon Aug 27, 2018 4:33 pm

I'll give S3 a chance... Shouldn't be that hard to improve over S2... What a waste of time that was.

Postby **eddy** » Mon Aug 27, 2018 4:39 pm

I'll give S3 a chance... Shouldn't be that hard to improve over S2... What a waste of time that was.

It had some ideas, but was such a mess. I guess that's what happens when the 1st is a success and they want you to crank out another. Hopefully time off will make this successful. Seems like they were making the 2nd season up as they were filming

Postby **AuthorTony** » Mon Aug 27, 2018 4:45 pm

I'm trying to keep my expectations in check, but that looks pretty damn good. I'm excited.

Postby **Gabe** » Mon Aug 27, 2018 4:47 pm

We finished OITNB last night as well and totally agree.

Postby **shafnutz05** » Mon Aug 27, 2018 6:12 pm

Storybots is a great show man. The last one I watched was one explaining how the body fights off viruses. It did it in the style of the cold viruses attacking the white blood cells behind a wall (Helms Deep), and then a macrophage appears at the top of the hill a la Gandalf

It is a kid's show but highly recommend for all of yinz parents. A ton of celebrity cameos too... The last one also had Ed Norton.

Postby **nocera** » Tue Aug 28, 2018 9:53 am

Remember when Weeds left Majestic and the whole show went to ****? The riot is OITNB's leaving Majestic.

Postby **count2infinity** » Fri Aug 31, 2018 8:27 am

Ozark, Season 2 released today.

Postby **eddy** » Fri Aug 31, 2018 8:34 am

Jack Ryan?

Postby **Silentom** » Fri Aug 31, 2018 8:36 am

Been watching It's Always Sunny again. The Jihad Tape in season 2 is one of my favorite scenes.

Postby **blackjack68** » Fri Aug 31, 2018 10:24 am

Been watching It's Always Sunny again. The Jihad Tape in season 2 is one of my favorite scenes.

Season 13 starts next week!

Postby **iamjs** » Fri Aug 31, 2018 10:41 am

Not that it's much of a surprise, but they announced this week that the upcoming season of Mr Robot would be the final season.

Based on how they ended the last one, I don't think you can really go further than another season.

Postby **dodint** » Fri Aug 31, 2018 10:45 am

I completely lost touch with it near the beginning of season 2. Just fell off.

Postby **LITT** » Fri Aug 31, 2018 2:50 pm

Jack Ryan?

Curious on the reception. Haven’t started yet

Postby **Freddy Rumsen** » Fri Aug 31, 2018 4:01 pm

New season of Ozark out as well.

Postby **blackjack68** » Fri Aug 31, 2018 4:16 pm

Yellowstone was good. Sometimes over the top for drama sake, but I will watch season 2

Postby **tjand72** » Sat Sep 01, 2018 12:18 am

I"m about half-way through Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee, and I have found that my preconceptions about Jerry Seinfeld have been confirmed - he's very much pretentious and mean-spirited towards and about those that aren't like him. In his mind, there is nothing more noble than being a comedian. I find his guests enjoyable, but the show would be just as entertaining without him.

He strikes me as the friend that is fun to be around so long as he's your friend. You rag on a few eccentric people when you're together, probably unnecessarily, but he could just a easily rag on you - and not in a "joking" way. It would not be unexpected for him to make a disparaging comment about a homeless person that he passed on the street.

I'm just not a fan, and now I know why.

After watching more episodes, my opinion has worsened. In an episode with Bill Maher, Bill Maher basically called out Seinfeld for being a jerk. I think that it takes a lot for me to take Bill Maher's side in that respect.

Then, a few episodes after, he gives airtime to Colleen Ballinger, aka "Miranda Sings", who is a YouTube "star" that shouldn't be given the time of day. While I don't fully enjoy every episode of Comedians, I had to force this one down. I don't think for a second that he took this seriously, but it was still unnerving. Absolutely terrible with zero redeeming qualities (the episode, not the show as a whole).

I just skipped the last half of the show to find out that his next guest is Larry David. What a consistent show.

Postby **eddy** » Sat Sep 01, 2018 9:21 am

Jack Ryan?
Curious on the reception. Haven’t started yet

Watched the first 3 episodes, it's good. It takes itself very seriously and sometimes that's not great, but it seems to be getting better as it goes.