What TV Shows Are You Watching? Series VI - Programmes of Power

[Ajidica]

All this proves is that Syn deserves a paddlin.

 

[EgonSpengler]

September 13.

Guardedly optimistic? Fingers crossed.

 

[Takhisis]

The first. I skipped ahead to season six, which was marginally better, but not enough to really bother with continuing to search for something good.

All this proves is that Syn deserves a paddlin.

Should be sentenced to tethering, I say.

 

[Synobun]

Manifest S3 is painfully bad. Into the bin it goes.

Time to rewatch Scrubs!!

 

[Valka D'Ur]

I just watched the premiere of the new Fantasy Island. It's not bad, certainly much better than the last remake that was attempted.

This one is a sequel to the original series, with the hostess, Elena Roarke, being the grand-niece of Mr. Roarke (there's a nice photo of Ricardo Montalban in one of the opening scenes).

 

[EgonSpengler]

Nielsen streaming viewership rankings, week of 7/12-7/18

Rank Provider Title #Eps Total Streaming Minutes (in millions)
1 NETFLIX VIRGIN RIVER 30 2,109
2 NETFLIX MANIFEST 29 1,294
3 DISNEY+ LOKI 6 1,011
4 NETFLIX GREYS ANATOMY 375 793
5 DISNEY+ COCOMELON 12 699
6 NETFLIX ATYPICAL 38 603
7 NETFLIX CRIMINAL MINDS 311 592
8 NETFLIX GUNPOWDER MILKSHAKE 1 543
9 DISNEY+ LUCA (2021) 1 521
10 NETFLIX NCIS 353 481

I haven't seen Virgin River, whatever that is. I've also never even heard of Cocomelon. Kids' show, maybe? I tried the first couple episodes of Manifest when it first aired and thought it was very unengaging. I liked Grey's Anatomy and Criminal Minds when they had Sandra Oh and Paget Brewster, respectively, but that feels like it was a lifetime ago. I liked Loki, but on the whole this list is completely mystifying to me.

---

I had to look it up. Sandra Oh left Grey's Anatomy in 2014. It looks like she made a guest appearance just this year. I might have to go find that.

Paget Brewster left Criminal Minds in 2012, and I remember going back to watch the episode that featured her character two years later, when one of her former colleagues was kidnapped and she returned to the team to help find her. But I see that Brewster returned to the series full-time 2016 and it looks like she's been there ever since. I see lots of other things on her IMDb page over that same span of time, so maybe she's just doing Criminal for the major network paycheck. Well, good for her, I guess..?

 

[tjs282]

I haven't seen Virgin River, whatever that is.

Chick-flick type romance/drama. I'd call it soap opera, but it hasn't gone on long enough (yet).

She's a big city city doctor who's fled from her big city doctorship for reasons, to work in a small-town practice with a boss who turns out to be a grumpy chauvinist (but with a heart of gold, naturally). He's an Iraq vet with PTSD and some dodgy army-buddies, who runs the town's only bar. Sparks fly...

My wife has watched all 4(?) seasons.

 

[The_J]

Oh, new season of Into The Night is coming in a month.
Not sure what it'll be about though. In S1 a bunch of random people was fleeing from deadly sun radiation in an airplane, while the rest of the world was dying. At the end of S1 they reach an underground bunker. So... the story which is in the name is in theory done... .

 

[Takhisis]

Wallander. It was high time that the vagaries of syndication deals put it back on the air as a rerun.

 

[Zardnaar]

Outer Banks on Netflix. It's kinda fun not great but watchable.

 

[EgonSpengler]

Chick-flick type romance/drama. I'd call it soap opera, but it hasn't gone on long enough (yet).

She's a big city city doctor who's fled from her big city doctorship for reasons, to work in a small-town practice with a boss who turns out to be a grumpy chauvinist (but with a heart of gold, naturally). He's an Iraq vet with PTSD and some dodgy army-buddies, who runs the town's only bar. Sparks fly...

My wife has watched all 4(?) seasons.

I watched the trailer. It looks like what you'd get if Northern Exposure were on Lifetime or the Hallmark Channel. Anne Heche did a show like this several years ago that wasn't bad*, and Shonda Rhimes took a swing at it** about 10 years ago, although hers was set in Central America instead of Alaska. Unless there's some clever twist on the formula that I'm not seeing, I'll probably take a pass on this one.


* Had to look it up: Men in Trees.
** Also had to look that one up: Off the Map. Hey, Martin Henderson was in that one, too. Guy gets around.

 

[Sofista]

I watched the trailer. It looks like what you'd get if Northern Exposure were on Lifetime or the Hallmark Channel. Anne Heche did a show like this several years ago that wasn't bad*, and Shonda Rhimes took a swing at it** about 10 years ago, although hers was set in Central America instead of Alaska. Unless there's some clever twist on the formula that I'm not seeing, I'll probably take a pass on this one.


* Had to look it up: Men in Trees.
** Also had to look that one up: Off the Map. Hey, Martin Henderson was in that one, too. Guy gets around.

Just reading about it, it sounds like Doc Hollywood. Which was rote, but not actively bad.

 

[El_Machinae]

V-Wars is a series where a novel disease creates uncontrollable vampiric behaviour. One of the discovers is fine, the other turns. A subplot is that they're former best friends and most of the story is the government being unable to contain a transmissible disease of this nature. Very few old tropes, which is pretty nice! And there's a First Nations character that is introduced as 'competent', and honestly I really enjoyed how he was able to give of that vibe. There was something about the mannerisms and body language that I think a director himself cannot encourage.

Van Helsing rage-vampires (that act a lot like rage zombies) suddenly conquer the world and grind it into a post-apocalypse setting. And this is the story of a plucky band of survivors that are protecting a mystery woman. The first season was its own fun. Later on, there's a supernatural theme that peeks its way into a setting that tried to be 'naturalistic'.

 

[EgonSpengler]

V-Wars is a series where a novel disease creates uncontrollable vampiric behaviour. One of the discovers is fine, the other turns. A subplot is that they're former best friends and most of the story is the government being unable to contain a transmissible disease of this nature. Very few old tropes, which is pretty nice! And there's a First Nations character that is introduced as 'competent', and honestly I really enjoyed how he was able to give of that vibe. There was something about the mannerisms and body language that I think a director himself cannot encourage.

Van Helsing rage-vampires (that act a lot like rage zombies) suddenly conquer the world and grind it into a post-apocalypse setting. And this is the story of a plucky band of survivors that are protecting a mystery woman. The first season was its own fun. Later on, there's a supernatural theme that peeks its way into a setting that tried to be 'naturalistic'.

I was a huge fan of vampire stuff, for like 25 years, but by the time these two shows came around I was kind of burned out. I liked the first season of Van Helsing, so if I was going to go back to either of these, it'd probably be that one.

 

[tjs282]

Can't remember where I was at in my last actual status-update, but I'm (still) chugging through Stranger Things S3 (really leaning into the 80s crappy action-movie tropes this time, with an Ahnold look-alike and comically evil Russians...), Supergirl S3 (think I'm nearly done with this one), Community S3 (which really grew on me, plus Alison Brie), Kim's Convenience (likewise; just started S2) and Violet Evergarden.

In the past week I have also watched the first epsiode(s) each of After Life S1 (aka Ricky Gervais doing his usual misanthropy-as-comedy, justified by his character being a grieving widower; the trailer showed pretty much all the best zingers) and One Day At A Time S1 (never saw the original series, but this reboot has been attracting my attention for a while now; looks justified) on my own time.

Also watched the first 2 eps of The Blacklist S1 with the wife. James Spader is obviously having fun as an apparently omniscient Lecter-lite, but do any of the other characters actually ever learn that they can't trust this obviously-untrustworthy-character...?

 

[EgonSpengler]

I've struggled with television lately. Not sure why. It's not like there's nothing good available. I've watched a few episodes of Titans and the season premier of Stargirl. Also a few episodes of Station 19, 'cause, hey, hot firefighters. They're all fine shows for what they are, and you can probably tell whether or not you'll like them with just a glance. They're all exactly what they appear to be, which I suppose is admirable, in a way.

EDIT: Although the season premier of Stargirl had perhaps the best line of the Summer: "Don't tell me what it's for, I don't need to know. Sometimes a man just needs to build a robot."

Also watched the first 2 eps of The Blacklist S1 with the wife. James Spader is obviously having fun as an apparently omniscient Lecter-lite, but do any of the other characters actually ever learn that they can't trust this obviously-untrustworthy-character...?

I gave that show a shot, but it didn't grab me.

Not really a super-spoiler, but a mild spoiler, I guess.

Spoiler :

He was her father, right? You could see it coming from a mile away. I remember a review that made me laugh said something like, "At this point, it's so obvious that he's her father, he can't really be her father anymore. Maybe he's her mother?" That would've been awesome.

There was another show with essentially the same premise, with Michael Sheen in the James Spader role. Can't remember the name. It also didn't excite me, but if you're into this sort of thing it might be worth a look.

 

[Sofista]

Not really a super-spoiler, but a mild spoiler, I guess.

Spoiler :

He was her father, right? You could see it coming from a mile away. I remember a review that made me laugh said something like, "At this point, it's so obvious that he's her father, he can't really be her father anymore. Maybe he's her mother?" That would've been awesome.

The Blacklist:

Spoiler :

Nope, he definitely wasn't. The show toyed with revealing him as the mother... but killed off the female protagonist before committing to an answer, which at this point could never come.

 

[shadowplay]

In the past week I have also watched the first epsiode(s) each of After Life S1 (aka Ricky Gervais doing his usual misanthropy-as-comedy, justified by his character being a grieving widower; the trailer showed pretty much all the best zingers

I watched the first season of After Life as well, and while it had it's funny moments, as any Ricky Gervais production will, overall I was dissatisfied with it's portrayal of chronic depression... in particular, the way they wrapped up the season by having everyone rally around him and support him really annoyed me, as it's the precise opposite of what happens to depressed people in real life (most people avoid you or cut you out of their life, they do NOT rally around you).

I didn't bother with the additional seasons after that.

 

[El_Machinae]

I was a huge fan of vampire stuff, for like 25 years, but by the time these two shows came around I was kind of burned out. I liked the first season of Van Helsing, so if I was going to go back to either of these, it'd probably be that one.

The vampire stuff from our youth had ancient lineages sipping blood from wineglasses while secretly pulling the strings of human society. Both v-wars and van helsing have a variant of vampire that's reminiscent of rage-zombies.

V-wars works to become political, since the vampires eventually gain more ability to interact with normal humans socially.

 

[Lemon Merchant]

I just read that season 9 of the Blacklist has been given the green light.

Spoiler :

I wonder how they are going to get on without the female protagonist? Liz Keen was kind of a rather important sort for the show, and she will leave a bit of a hole in it. Perhaps Red Reddington will grow his vagina back? Is he really her mother? Everything I saw on the last episode made it look like he was (holy major surgery, Batman). That is definitely a successful disguise attempt if it's true.

The best part about the show is watching James Spader chew the scenery. He is beautifully over the top, and IMHO, he has created one of television's more iconic characters.

But that's just me. YMMV.