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What are you watching?; Inspired by "What are you playing?"
Topic Started: Feb 14 2012, 12:12 AM (13,659 Views)
Asfan
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The Sanest Fisher
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DarkFlashlight
Nov 4 2012, 09:19 PM
Series 1 & 2 of Luther-This is a bit of a difficult show to review.  I kind of figure that no one's ever really paid attention to this and doesn't know what it's about.  It's basically a really dark and gritty detective drama and character study.  I liked series 2 more, because it seemed more cohesive with the cases spanning multiple episodes rather than the let's-solve-a-murder-in-40-minutes clich� that covered the first 2/3 of the first series (although there are only 6 episodes in the first (and four in the second)).  The problem with the second series is the disappointing absence of Alice Morgan, who is clearly the best and most interesting character.  She's basically your friendly neighborhood sociopath who flashes between trying to help you and trying to murder everyone you love.  I like her.
The first series had no real overarching plot other than some failed relationship ordeal that was never really that interesting.  The last two episodes are a total change of pace though, and no longer involve the standard cop formula, and I think that was the point all along.  They couldn't START with that, because it wouldn't have made sense.  The last two episodes are better, but still not the best.
Series two is dark as fuck.  I wish there was a video I could link of the office massacre, because that whole scene was HOLY WHAT THE FUCK level insanity.  It's essentially just a guy clubbing people to death with a hammer and spraying others in the face with acid for like three minutes.
It's an okay show, but it's a kind of slow burn and the main character struggles with likeability.

I intended on watching that when it came out, mainly because of Idris Elba, not gonna lie, but never got around to it. I could probably re-add it to the increasingly infinite list of shows I need to watch, but if it's just okay, then I prolly won't.
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DarkFlashlight
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it will take a toll
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There are only ten episodes, so it's not like it'd eat up a lot of your time. Maybe you'll be more interested in the relationship aspect than I was.
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Asfan
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Maybe, I guess, since I'm into that stuff.

Just finished up Band of Brothers. Early on, it wasn't exactly what I expected. The pilot was pretty much what I expected (more emphasis on the characters, who are real people, than everything else), but it veered away from that a little bit. The main focus for the next few episodes was more the historical events and battles and shifted the characters to the back-burners, so I wasn't as into those episodes. For the last four to five episodes though, it went back to the characters, so I was pleased with that since that's what I was most interested in. The last few episodes I especially felt were fantastic.

It was mostly good, and I certainly couldn't find too many flaws in it, except for one: I felt there were too many characters. I anticipated 4-5 main characters that the story focused on, but there were really probably 15-20. I was still learning names going into the finale and I do feel that it lessened the impact of what happened to those characters (be it death, injury, reactions to them, or something else entirely). Maybe they wanted to put blank faces on the screen so we could imagine everything they go through applying to all the others in WWII (also helped by their casting no-names, or former no-names who are now fairly famous, in almost every role). Still, for me that's not a good enough reason to have so many characters to the point where it's tough to remember who's who.

But yeah, if you're into the historical aspect of WWII, I'd absolutely recommend Band of Brothers. I'm not even into that stuff too much, but I found it at times to be pretty gripping. It can get super gory though (I still have images in my mind of this one guy shot in the throat by a machine gun trying to breathe, and you can see inside his neck and stuff and it's gross) if you don't like that. You also get to see a ton of people before they got their breakthrough roles, like Damian Lewis (mainest of the main characters) before Homeland, Simon Pegg before Shaun of the Dead, apparently Michael Fassbender was in it, but I didn't recognize it, Jimmy Fallon had a bit part (thank God), and some other people too. The only person in it that I know had a major role before was David Schwimmer, who played Ross in Friends (I don't know how big Donnie Wahlberg's role in The Sixth Sense was). So if you're a hipster, this is for you. But don't feel like you have to avoid it if you're not a hipster, because it really is a great miniseries and better than any other war movie/show I've seen. Not that I've seen many of them.
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Snowman
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Watched the first two seasons of BrBa... in eight days. I think I can catch up by summer 2013. :P
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DarkFlashlight
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If AMC ever reshows the first half of season 5. I recorded the reruns, but they stopped like three episodes from the end to start reruns in preparation for the third season of The Walking Dead. I'm sure they'll reair them before the new season starts, but it annoys me that they hung it like that.
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Snowman
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The first half of season 5 is on Netflix in Ireland and the UK, I think. My friend says it'll be on US Netflix by the end of the year.
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DarkFlashlight
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They usually put stuff on Netflix at the same time that the DVD comes out (for AMC shows), and I don't think they'd release a DVD halfway through the season.

We'll see.
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Snowman
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Yeah, I thought for all shows they waited until the DVD. That's why I was confused when my friend said that it'd be on Netflix, but then I Googled it and it said Netflix would have it "exclusively" in the UK and Ireland. Didn't see any info on the US stuff, but I didn't look very much. Either way, I'll still expect AMC to have a marathon.
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Romanticide
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Just finished season three of Treme. This was supposed to be the end of the series, but there's really no way they could have ended the story like this. There wasn't a single event that said to me, "okay, this character's story is definitely over." David Simon and company will need the extra five episodes they have to bring some closure to the story.

The season's themes were pretty obvious: Crime and corruption. You couldn't watch season two without seeing (to some extent) where they would take these storylines in season three. There are fewer murders in this season than last season, but they matter a lot less than the cover-up going on in Homicide and the friction between Terry and said Homicide department.

As far as corruption goes, the big story there is NOAH, which as far as I can gather was dedicated to restoring houses ruined by the flood. However, many of the houses had little to no work done on them, and then wound up on a demolition list anyway. Seems quite fucked to me.

I don't think any of these angles are concluded at all, which would have left some pretty decent-sized plot holes in the story. I have my guesses as to how these stories will end, but I guess I have to wait and see.

This being New Orleans, music is always a theme, and between the many live performances, the major musical theme here seems to be musicians realizing their limitations. Everyone who isn't already an established star in their genre, or on their way to becoming one, is made to realize what their weaknesses as a musician are. Some characters handle this better than others.

Did not come to care about the new character, L.P. Everett, in the least. All I really know about him after ten episodes is, "he likes metal and he came from California to investigate the cover-up in the NOPD". I guess I can gather that this sort of injustice bothers him, but what drives his character? At least with Nelson you get the sense that he loves the city, regardless of his moral and ethical shortcomings. I don't get that same sense from Everett here. The only time he was half interesting was when he went to shows with Sofia, and that got ruined when he betrayed her trust. Oops.

Also, no Super Bowl. Perhaps they haven't gotten that far in time yet, but you can't have a New Orleans show set in post-Katrina times and ignore the Super Bowl and its effect on the city. I know the NFL is draconian where its copyright is concerned (we know copyright is beyond broken, right?), but forcing Simon and company to neglect it completely it would be a bit much even for them.

I feel like this season's scope finally got a bit too wide. There were a lot of characters as it was, and introducing one that I don't give a flying fuck about did not help matters. Relegating two of my favorites (Sofia and Annie) to uninteresting storylines didn't help, either. That said, this season still had plenty of great moments. It's not on the same level of meh as something like season five of The Wire, but I don't think it's as great as season four of the same show, or even the second season of Treme.

Also, Khandi Alexander (as LaDonna) getting no awards consideration for three seasons of great acting is criminal. I'm not surprised because the establishment doesn't seem to like Simon's shows much, but it still sucks because her character is acted amazingly well.
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Snowman
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THE WALKING DEAD. WHY IS LAD NEVER ON THE CHAT ANYMORE? WE HAVE THINGS TO DISCUSS.
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Romanticide
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Snowman
Dec 3 2012, 01:54 PM
THE WALKING DEAD. WHY IS LAD NEVER ON THE CHAT ANYMORE? WE HAVE THINGS TO DISCUSS.

I THINK HE HAS THIS "LIFE" THING. DON'T ASK ME WHAT THAT IS, BECAUSE IDFK.
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Snowman
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Just watched Arrow's mid-season finale. The last few episodes have all been very good, IMO. As for other shows... Still in the middle of season 3 of BrBa at the moment. Have to take a break for those movies I have to watch. But last night, around midnight, I knew I wasn't going to stay up long enough for a whole movie and I didn't want to stay up all night watching BrBa so I watched the first episode of Star Trek (TOS) season 2. The first thing I noticed was that the music (both the theme music and just background music used in the episode) seemed very different from season 1. I don't know why they changed it like that, but I thought it was good. The episode I watched was probably better than most Star Trek episodes I've seen so far, but definitely not the best. The best one so far IMO is still The City on the Edge of Forever.
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Asfan
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What I am no longer watching (until next year): Dexter and Homeland. So here are my thoughts on them.

Dexter: 10000000000000x better than last season. At least most of the season was very good. It teetered off near the end, but none of it was ever too boring (if it wasn't of the highest quality), which it was almost all of last season. Especially in the finale, there were a few things I didn't quite buy. Very important things. But still, it was at least an improvement over last season. Earlier on in the season, I did think it would be a permanent improvement since it was almost as good as the first couple of seasons, but even though it didn't quite last the whole season, I'm still happy. After last season, I'd lost pretty much all hope for this show. I only stuck around because I'd watched so much and wanted to see where it would go since it would only last a couple more seasons, so in that regard, this was a success. Still, once it did get back to awesome stuff, it was a disappointment to see it go back to just "pretty good."

Homeland: Whew. This season was pretty crazy. It was all over the place. As in you could never tell where the story would go since it went wherever it wanted to. Some people likened it to 24, be it a good or bad comparison (usually when they say that, they just mean it's a popcorn show- exciting but not necessarily believable). Maybe it's because I've seen so much of 24 and other shows that stretch reality (Dexter being another in its later seasons, as I just said above), but there were very few situations where I went, "Okay, that's not really possible." It was certainly way different from last season. I mean, personally, I found season 1 to be pretty fast-paced (some people thought it was a slow-burner, which I find to be pretty funny- watch The Wire or something and then say that was slow), but this season went crazy. And it leaves me genuinely curious about the direction of the show. Maybe even nervous. [spoiler=SPOILER GUYS DON'T READ IF YOU DON'T WANT TO KNOW ABOUT THE FINALE]Will they keep Brody off? That's what would probably make the most sense, at least for a season or two. But how can they keep him off? The whole show was built around him and Carrie. Lewis and Danes might have the best chemistry of any two lead actors on television (not counting Jon Hamm and Christina Hendricks since their scenes are so few and far between). They could keep him on as a separate side-story, but his interactions with Carrie really are the best part of the show.[/spoiler] But every time I've been nervous about this show before and every time it works out well. In fact, I think the show turned out better than it would have if it went the way I wanted it to go last season. So these writers have earned my trust, but I'm still intrigued to see how this will work out now, and not necessarily in a good way. Hopefully they keep it rolling well.
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Romanticide
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The Wire is positively fast compared to Treme or even Mad Men, at least IMO. >.>

I probably need to watch Homeland before next season. Been hearing not-so-good things about this season, but it's only two seasons, so it wouldn't be a huge waste of time to watch that series. Not that I'll get Showtime for one show, but it'd be easy enough to keep up with it anyway.


That said, forgot to post about Firefly/Serenity. I could make two separate posts because Serenity is a movie, but I find it fairly hard to separate the two.

I suppose it's technically a sci-fi show, but the emphasis is obviously on the characters. When I think sci-fi, I'm thinking more like Star Trek and less like this. *shrug* If you don't like the characters, you're not going to like the show. It's that simple.

I had heard that Joss Whedon has a reputation for writing strong women (gaming needs more of this), and at least based on Firefly, it's hard to disagree with that. You don't see "damsel in distress" storylines and the resultant tropes, Inara/the other women are treated as more than eye candy for male audiences, the women aboard Serenity have more than stereotypical female duties, etc.

But yeah. Outside of that I loved almost every character. Jayne isn't written to be likable, and I surely didn't like him, but even he has his moments. Loved the rest of the cast, but I would say that Kaylee and River are my favorites. I tend to sympathize with people who are fucked up in some way or another, and that definitely applies to most of these characters. I also rather enjoyed the interaction between the crew, which was peppered with sarcasm and cynicism.

On the topic of characters, every villain outside of Saffron (I *guess* you could argue Early, too) is essentially cardboard. Speaking of Saffron, this is a far different character from Joan in Mad Men. Anyway. I get that the focus is on the crew, but if River is so important to the Alliance, you'd think there would be a re-occurring villain in that storyline. It basically seems to be "whoever is interested in her this episode", which doesn't exactly inspire much emotion for her pursuers.

The plot obviously suffered because the show lasted only one season. There are plenty of things that needed explaining, many of which concern River and what the fuck *really* went on at the Academy, but given the limitations of fourteen episodes and a movie, I'd say they did the best they could to give us some sort of explanation. I also would have liked more backstory on the crew, but again, what can you do?

So yeah, after seeing how good Firefly was, I guess I'll try Dollhouse, but that's not something I'm going to watch soon. Idk about Buffy; it's just fucking *long*. I'd probably tackle that alongside other shows, assuming I want to watch that.
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BigMac
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I had the same issue with Buffy before I started watching it. I was like "Seven seasons? And each season is over 20 episodes? No, fuck that." I knew a lot of people thought it was great, and I probably would have gotten to it eventually regardless, but eventually I broke down after seeing Firefly and Avengers and started watching it. I made it almost through season 3 in the span of less than a month before Netflix decided to hate me. It may be different for you, but Buffy starts sucking you in by season 2, and it's hard to stop.
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