What TV Shows Are You Watching? The 9th Is - Excuse Me - A Damn Fine Cup Of Coffee

[Kyriakos]

Tbh, Severance shouldn't be called scifi. It is way too blatant a parody of something mundane (the work space) for the light scifi elements to overcome it.

 

[EgonSpengler]

Tbh, Severance shouldn't be called scifi. It is way too blatant a parody of something mundane (the work space) for the light scifi elements to overcome it.

One of the classic sci fi authors - Dick? Bradbury? I can't remember - once said that, in his opinion, science fiction introduced just one important change, one piece of technology or scientific advance, or one twist on history, and then played it straight after that. Anything more than that was, to him, fantasy. I'm paraphrasing, of course. I think it's a valid definition, but I've never been one for narrow genres. I'm more of a 'big tent' guy, and am happy to include things that, for example, just have a sci-fi setting but are mostly telling other types of stories. Star Wars is really hi-tech high fantasy; Blade Runner is 'hard-boiled detective' noir; Aliens is about the Vietnam War and a critique of corporate capitalism; and I still don't know wtf Brazil is.

 

[Kyriakos]

One of the classic sci fi authors - Dick? Bradbury? I can't remember - once said that, in his opinion, science fiction introduced just one important change, one piece of technology or scientific advance, or one twist on history, and then played it straight after that. Anything more than that was, to him, fantasy. I'm paraphrasing, of course. I think it's a valid definition, but I've never been one for narrow genres. I'm more of a 'big tent' guy, and am happy to include things that, for example, just have a sci-fi setting but are mostly telling other types of stories. Star Wars is really hi-tech high fantasy; Blade Runner is 'hard-boiled detective' noir; Aliens is about the Vietnam War; and I still don't know wtf Brazil is.

But unfortunately it is by now highly unlikely the show will present any scifi explanations. I'd personally wager they were, if anything, frightened by the show being received as scifi, which might be a main reason that 2 years later S2 isn't out
I'd certainly not call Star Wars any type of scifi.

 

[lymond]

Apple TV+ has become the go-to place for scifi, atm, imo, fyi, ymmv. Severance, Silo and For All Mankind are recommended to anyone with even a mild interest. I also liked Monarch. Shining Girls was almost great, but stumbled. I tried Invasion and Foundation, but they didn't grab me, for whatever reason. I didn't think they were bad, just not for me, I guess. Definitely worth having a go. I haven't seen Constellation yet, but it's on my list. Coming up on May 8 is Dark Matter with Joel Edgerton and Jennifer Connelly. It's nothing to do with the Canadian scifi series of the same name, which I also liked; this one is an adaptation of Blake Crouch's novel.

For non sci-fi on Apple, Slow Horses has been one of my favorite series over the last couple of years, and I really liked Lessons in Chemistry and The Changeling.

Apple doesn't have 1% of the catalogue of Netflix or MAX by sheer volume, but it really punches above its weight, imo. They recently raised their prices, though, which caused me to drop it before things like Constellation and Masters of the Air premiered, even though I'd been looking forward to them. I'm going to wait until they've piled up some more series before resubscribing. They're doing a series adaptation of Presumed Innocent, previously adapted as the 1990 Alan Pakula movie, with Jake Gyllenhaal in the Harrison Ford role. That'll be out in June. I also want to check out Manhunt, about the hunt for Jone Wilkes Booth after he assassinated Abraham Lincoln, which is currently airing.

Even acknowledging its limitations, The Expanse is one of my favorite series of all time. That's perpetually on my list of things I could rewatch at any moment.

There's no release dates yet for 2nd seasons of The Diplomat and Severance, but those might be my 2nd & 3rd most-anticipated returning shows, after Andor. There's a thread just for Severance over in the Entertainment section, but it's gone dormant while we wait. I'll probably rewatch season 1 in advance of season 2, once we have a date.

On Silo: I just picked up the 3rd novel, Dust (2013). I haven't started it yet, but the Apple series has a ton of material to work with. To my memory, the first season of the show covers half of the first book, maybe not even that much. The whole first section of the show, with David Oyelowo and Rashida Jones, is the prologue of the first book.

I get Apple+ for free through T-mobile, so check your mobile carrier for any benies like that one. Yeah, to add onto Egon, Expanse is def on of my fave shows too. I thought the production was actually relatively good considering where it started from. Monarch and Lessons in Chemistry are def worth checking out too.

 

[EgonSpengler]

But unfortunately it is by now highly unlikely the show will present any scifi explanations. I'd personally wager they were, if anything, frightened by the show being received as scifi, which might be a main reason that 2 years later S2 isn't out

I dunno, I think Severance starts with one wild assertion and then tries to go where it would plausibly go. Of course there's still a ton that's a mystery, by design. If they pull a Lost and never answer most of the questions they've raised, I'll probably be mad. I always thought J.J. Abrams' whole "mystery box" thing was a load of bollocks. To his credit, I think he's admitted as much in recent years, but still, the damage was done, he couldn't un-ring that bell. Funnily enough, the first Abrams project I got into, Alias (2001) really fired my engines by barreling ahead with a daring and a velocity that no other show had done, even going so far as to blow up its own premise fairly early on (2nd season, iirc, is when Sydney brought down SD-6). But in that same show, you could see him playing with the 'mystery box' idea, in the Rambaldi Artifacts. I was a little bit aggravated by that non-stroryline, but I could roll with it, in the understanding that they were MacGuffins. I've never liked MacGuffins, but that storytelling concept goes back a long way, so I don't waste a lot of energy over them - like flashbacks and expository voiceovers, if they're handled well, then they're not so annoying, still a bit of a crutch, but okay. But Abrams' "mystery box" thing was just taking it much too far. If that's what Severance does, I'll probably have to call it exciting but ultimately frustrating, like Shining Girls and True Detective.

 

[lymond]

Yeah, Severance is what I consider to be closer to pure Sci-fi.

 

[Kyriakos]

I dunno, I think Severance starts with one wild assertion and then tries to go where it would plausibly go. Of course there's still a ton that's a mystery, by design. If they pull a Lost and never answer most of the questions they've raised, I'll probably be mad. I always thought J.J. Abrams' whole "mystery box" thing was a load of bollocks. To his credit, I think he's admitted as much in recent years, but still, the damage was done, he couldn't un-ring that bell. Funnily enough, the first Abrams project I got into, Alias (2001) really fired my engines by barreling ahead with a daring and a velocity that no other show had done, even going so far as to blow up its own premise fairly early on (2nd season, iirc, is when Sydney brought down SD-6). But in that same show, you could see him playing with the 'mystery box' idea, in the Rambaldi Artifacts. I was a little bit aggravated by that non-stroryline, but I could roll with it, in the understanding that they were MacGuffins. I've never liked MacGuffins, but that storytelling concept goes back a long way, so I don't waste a lot of energy over them - like flashbacks and expository voiceovers, if they're handled well, then they're not so annoying, still a bit of a crutch, but okay. But Abrams' "mystery box" thing was just taking it much too far. If that's what Severance does, I'll probably have to call it exciting but ultimately frustrating, like Shining Girls and True Detective.

I am almost certain this will be a Lost. Not even a West World s2-

 

[EgonSpengler]

I never watched Westworld. Great cast, though.

 

[lymond]

I never watched Westworld. Great cast, though.

I watched a coupla episodes back in the first season, but could not really get into it, even though I love Thandiwe. For some reason, I don't get into stories about sentient robots - I have trouble connecting with it.

 

[Kyriakos]

The similarity is that WW s1 also was not prepared for the fan theories being massively more interesting that what ended up being the show. Which is why s2 collapsed fast, and later seasons were (afaik) mocked.
Severance quite likely did not set up to be a mystery scifi show, but was picked up as such - maybe because no one in their right mind would think this was fine as a show if it was simply a metaphorical way to present life in the office - and yet the show runners themselves said that this was their idea.

 

[EgonSpengler]

I watched a coupla episodes back in the first season, but could not really get into it, even though I love Thandiwe. For some reason, I don't get into stories about sentient robots - I have trouble connecting with it.

I don't have a problem with any of the tired cliches, per se. But using one of them does mean the story has to impress me in some other way. I've seen so many stories about sentient robots - so many - that the idea just makes me yawn. If someone had told me The Last of Us was a zombie show, I'd never have watched it, but I'm glad I wasn't introduced to the show that way, because it was one of my favorite shows of recent years. A proper 'elevator pitch' for that show should not include the word 'zombie.' It's like trying to sell me on a new show because it's a police procedural set in New York City; if that's one of the show's selling-points, it's clearly not worth watching.

All of which is to say, Westworld might be a perfectly good show, unless it really is just about robots that become self-aware, in which case, no thanks.

EDIT: When I say "just about robots that become self-aware", I don't simply mean the premise, or even the plot. I mean, 'what is it that makes this show interesting, entertaining, or compelling?'

 

[EgonSpengler]

The similarity is that WW s1 also was not prepared for the fan theories being massively more interesting that what ended up being the show. Which is why s2 collapsed fast, and later seasons were (afaik) mocked.
Severance quite likely did not set up to be a mystery scifi show, but was picked up as such - maybe because no one in their right mind would think this was fine as a show if it was simply a metaphorical way to present life in the office - and yet the show runners themselves said that this was their idea.

Yeah, that's worrying.

 

[warpus]

Tbh, Severance shouldn't be called scifi. It is way too blatant a parody of something mundane (the work space) for the light scifi elements to overcome it.

The beautiful thing about sci-fi is that it can be combined with other genres, like comedy, satire, action, drama, suspense, thriller, a family themed movie, horror, romance.. A good story will be about the characters first and foremost and will use various genre tropes for the backdrop.

You could easily say that Alien shouldn't be called scifi, because it's a horror. But why can't it be both? It seems that it is.

 

[EgonSpengler]

The beautiful thing about sci-fi is that it can be combined with other genres, like comedy, satire, action, drama, suspense, thriller, a family themed movie, horror, romance.. A good story will be about the characters first and foremost and will use various genre tropes for the backdrop.

You could easily say that Alien shouldn't be called scifi, because it's a horror. But why can't it be both? It seems that it is.

Yes, I agree. In fact, all genres can be combined into interesting alloys. Some of them have become so common and so successful, they're basically their own genres now. Comedy seems to be most commonly blended: Rom-coms, action-comedies, horror-comedies and 'dramedies' are whole genres in themselves. Other combinations are rarer (horror-romance? family-thriller?), but I bet we could find some examples of strange bedfellows working well together. I've heard that Poor Things is good and Lisa Frankenstein is not, but I'm curious to see both, if only because they seem to be mashing up things that don't get mashed up a lot.

 

[Arakhor]

How would you describe the TLOU show then, Egon?

 

[Birdjaguar]

I've heard that Poor Things is good

I loved it.

 

[EgonSpengler]

How would you describe the TLOU show then, Egon?

The elevator pitch: It's True Grit with a sci-fi spin and a lot of tension. It has some of the best writing and performances of last year, and if it doesn't make you tear up a few times, you seriously might need therapy.


If I had more time than that to encourage someone who's thinking about watching it, I would say that Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsay are a fantastic "odd couple." Both of them are now on my list of People to Watch Out For. It was written by Craig Mazin, who also wrote Chernobyl (and if you haven't seen that, you ought to - it's also on HBO & MAX). It was nominated for 5 Emmy Awards - Best Drama, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Directing, and Best Writing - and 24 Creative Arts Emmys, of which it won 5, including both Guest Actor & Guest Actress, and Special Visual Effects. It won the Screen Actors Guild Award for Best Actor and Best Stunt Ensemble (I mention that mainly because the SAG Awards are one of the few to recognize stunt performers). It's one of the best shows of last year, in pretty much every way.

The basic premise is kind of a Western, a "Lone Wolf & Cub"-type story about The Gruff Middle-Aged Gunslinger escorting The Precocious Kid across The Dangerous Countryside. They develop a kind of father-daughter relationship that's very touching in places, and it hits on some morally-ambiguous decision-making. The hero of the story has done some questionable things in his past, and you can sorta see why the bad guys do what they do, even if you think they've gone too far. There are a couple of great villains, and multiple compelling supporting characters, each with their own interesting and/or satisfying arcs. And it has maybe the single-best episode of television in years, probably one of the best single episodes of all time. The one episode would be watchable, by itself, as a short film, if for some reason you couldn't watch the entire series (it could be used in a filmmaking or storytelling class, for example).

The cautionary note I would add is that it's a little bit scary and/or disturbing. Personally, I thought that was a strength. The writers really effectively established the stakes, and the jeopardy the protagonists are in. But some people might not have a high tolerance for tension or horror. Like some people just dislike roller-coasters, for exactly the same reason other people love them. The setting is a post-apocalypse; specifically, it's after a disease outbreak that decimated humanity, which was a total coincidence. It didn't intend to be a parable about, or to capitalize on, the COVID pandemic, that was just bad timing, but the setting is grim and dirty and depressing. Even Anna Torv looks like Hell, which is saying something. (Although I've heard at least one woman say that Pedro Pascal kinda did it for her in this, so ymmv.) There are a couple of jump-scares, a couple of gross-out moments, and 3 or 4 really tragic and/or disturbing deaths, including of children and of characters we get attached to. I wouldn't recommend it to children at all, or to adults who really cannot handle horror-style monsters or high tension. I can think of at least three scenes where an adult is actively trying to murder a kid.

Also, you'll probably hear, so I might as well tell you now, it's based on a video game. Try to put that out of your mind. But if you can't put that out of your mind, know that it's almost single-handedly changing the Hollywood paradigm on adapting video games. It's too soon to tell, but it may have done for video game adaptations what The Dark Knight (2008) did for comic-book superhero adaptations.


Random observation: Pedro Pascal is making a career out of the sci-fi Western with a "Lone Wolf & Cub" story. The Last of Us, The Mandalorian, and the indie movie Prospect (2018). I liked all of them. Just sayin'.

 

[Birdjaguar]

The basic premise is kind of a Western, a "Lone Wolf & Cub"-

What a great series of movies!

 

[Arakhor]

The elevator pitch: It's True Grit with a sci-fi spin and a lot of tension. It has some of the best writing and performances of last year, and if it doesn't make you tear up a few times, you seriously might need therapy.

I've considered watching it for Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey, but I'm very squeamish about blood and disease and stuff, plus (you know) the whole horror thing, so I haven't tried.

 

[EgonSpengler]

Purely by coincidence, this was published yesterday.

Apple TV+ Is the Best Streamer Out There. So Why Is No One Watching?

Despite great programming, Apple TV+'s ratings continue to lag.

consequence.net

In one of his recent newsletters, Matt Belloni of Puck News reported on the February viewership ratings for Apple TV+, and they aren’t great: Nielsen’s monthly Gauge report of streaming viewership shows Apple at 0.29% of total viewership.

To be fair, Apple TV+ does not have the back catalog of its competitors. But what Apple TV+ lacks in size it makes up for in quality. I say this as someone whose days of binging aren’t what they once were. With my work days usually averaging 12 hours per, along with the commitments of being the dad of a small kid, I am left with about 75 minutes max of time each day to watch something before I pop a melatonin and pass out. Increasingly, I have found myself gravitating towards Apple TV+’s programming.

The Gauge

Navigate the TV landscape with precision. Examine audience viewing behaviors across key TV delivery platforms in a monthly macroanalysis.

www.nielsen.com

Nielsen chart of viewing platforms' and streaming services' audience shares (U.S. only).

Spoiler :