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

[EgonSpengler]

Evil and Orphan Black: Echoes both finished over the weekend. 'Thumbs up' to both, for the most part.

The ending of Evil did feel a little incomplete. I was warned in advance that they did that, and I don't know what would have felt like a more definitive conclusion, but I think I would've liked... I dunno... something. Other than that, though, I thought the season - and indeed the entire series - was a success, and one of the best things I watched this year.

I started watching Echoes for Krysten Ritter and Keeley Hawes, but I thought Amanda Fix and Rya Kihlstedt were both excellent. The season kind of shot itself in the foot right at the end, with the gratuitous death of a major character. I guess maybe I'm not supposed to understand what the purpose of that was, as it was the season-finale cliffhanger and I'm supposed to want to come back to find out, but nevertheless, I don't see what the point of that was. It makes me a little queasy, and if it isn't a super clever plot-twist, then it was just for shock value and I'm just left feeling a little queasy and it won't have been fun (ditto if the show doesn't get picked up for a 2nd season). If I hadn't just seen Victoria Neuman ripped in half on The Boys, maybe I could brush it off, but two points form a line.

 

[Syno]

Dark Matter - Joel Edgerton & Jennifer Connelly in a Blake Crouch sci-fi story. Just got renewed for a 2nd season, too.

I saw this mentioned on Reddit a few days back and I was about to be really excited that the show was saved. Then I found out it was just some random different show with the same name. Boo.

 

[lymond]

I don't know why I've not tried Dark Matter yet. It does look interesting and the user reviews are very solid. But what about Jennifer Connelly? She still looks great and keep in mind that she was in Once Upon A Time in America in the early '84 as a tween.

 

[Kyriakos]

I don't know why I've not tried Dark Matter yet. It does look interesting and the user reviews are very solid. But what about Jennifer Connelly? She still looks great and keep in mind that she was in Once Upon A Time in America in the early '84 as a tween.

I am not sure. The trailer for Dark Matter looks like Primer without the intelligent parts :S
I suppose it is worth trying, due to the cast- but Connelly already let me down in Snowpiercer.

 

[EgonSpengler]

I saw this mentioned on Reddit a few days back and I was about to be really excited that the show was saved. Then I found out it was just some random different show with the same name. Boo.

My current phone wallpaper

Spoiler :

 

[Birdjaguar]

My current phone wallpaper

Spoiler :

View attachment 701086

Uh...that is not an Apple phone. And why did you rate whoever that is as only 72 degrees hot?

 

[EgonSpengler]

Uh...that is not an Apple phone.

Why would it be?

And why did you rate whoever that is as only 72 degrees hot?

Is there an app for that? I'd try it, if it was free. She's definitely hotter than 72F. That's Melissa O'Neil, btw, in a screenshot from the other Dark Matter (2015). I was going to mention that series when I was talking about Canadian sci-fi earlier, but I decided to cut myself off at two, or risk sliding down the rabbit-hole. It looks like I don't have to tell @Synobun, but anyone else here who's looking for some space opera might want to give it a go. I didn't think it was on the level of Battlestar Galactica, but it was pretty good, and there isn't a whole lot to choose from, for that sort of series.

 

[Sommerswerd]

Why would it be?


Is there an app for that? I'd try it, if it was free. She's definitely hotter than 72F. That's Melissa O'Neil, btw, in a screenshot from the other Dark Matter (2015). I was going to mention that series when I was talking about Canadian sci-fi earlier, but I decided to cut myself off at two, or risk sliding down the rabbit-hole. It looks like I don't have to tell @Synobun, but anyone else here who's looking for some space opera might want to give it a go. I didn't think it was on the level of Battlestar Galactica, but it was pretty good, and there isn't a whole lot to choose from, for that sort of series.

That Dark Matter was superb, but as I've mentioned before, the catch is you have to commit to suffering through that first episode, but you can't skip it because it sets up the whole thing. If you can make it to the last 1 minute of the first episode you are in for a great show.

 

[Takhisis]

Continuing in my ST TOS rewatch

What brought this about?

 

[Smellincoffee]

What brought this about?

I realized it's been a long time since I watched a lot of Star Trek, especially TOS. I tend to re-watch favorite episodes of it, TNG, DS9, and VOY and ignore the rest -- again, especially TOS. I've also never watched most of TAS. Figured it might be an interesting long-term thing to take on, see how episodes have aged since I first watched them 20+ years ago. It helps that Lower Decks won't drop until October, and SNW won't be seen again until next year. Oof.

Am currently up to "The Conscience of the KIng", one of my favorites. Before this was "The Menagerie", a brilliant re-use of "The Cage". Before that was "Dagger of the Mind", which was good, and "Corbomite Manuever", which was fine. That kid always gives me the creeps.

 

[Arakhor]

There are some genuinely good TOS episodes (and some stinkers of course), but a lot of them are showing their age now. My favourites include Errand of Mercy, All Our Yesterdays and Mirror, Mirror.

 

[Yeekim]

Watched Guy Ritchie's Gentlemen.
Pretty OK first season.

 

[EgonSpengler]

In the 1990s there were 3 great cop shows on US television that followed in the footsteps of Steven Bochco and David Milch's Hill Street Blues (1981): First was Dick Wolf's Law & Order in 1990; then in 1993, Bochco & Milch did their follow-up, NYPD Blue, and former Baltimore Sun reporter and true-crime author David Simon gifted us with Homicide: Life on the Street. If you've seen Simon's The Wire but not Homicide, you shouldn't think of the latter as the inferior version just because it was first. It was a network show, so it was constrained in ways The Wire wasn't, but it's still David Simon, one of our best screenwriters.

One thing I noticed immediately about this new rerelease is that it's been remastered in the modern 16:9 aspect ratio. Originally, it was in the old 4:3 aspect ratio of 20th-Century television. In the last few years, I've gone back to revisit some older shows, and I was surprised to find how irritating that old square screen was. Not here. I don't know how they did it, but so far it looks great. The cast, script and direction are all phenomenal. I've only watched the first episode so far, I think for the first time. Back in '93, I heard about the show after it had been going for some weeks, so I jumped in part-way through the first season. Back then, there was no going back to see episodes you missed, so it wasn't uncommon to have to jump aboard a moving train with a show that people were talking about. While the first ep has some of the traits of pilot episodes of old, it's remarkable how comfortable the cast and script feel. It feels like you're watching a show that has already found its stride and is already in its 2nd or 3rd season.

I want to say just enough to get everyone with any interest in cop shows to watch it, so I'll end by noting that this is where the late Andre Braugher became a star. As I say, the whole cast is great and the writing is exceptional, but if you only watched the show for his performance(s), you wouldn't regret it. His Det. Frank Pembleton is one of my favorite television characters of all time.

(I suppose it needn't be said, but I'll say anyway that I also recommend Hill Street Blues, NYPD Blue, and those early seasons of Law & Order. It was later revealed that Law & Order and Homicide exist within the same 'television universe' - they were produced by and aired on the same network, and had compatible characters, stories and styles - and the two shows did a handful of crossover episodes. In particular, Richard Belzer's character Det. John Munch and Jerry Orbach's Det. Lenny Briscoe had great chemistry. After Homicide completed its run, Belzer's Det. Munch relocated to New York and became a fixture of the L&O franchise. Controversially, Det. Munch also appeared in an episode of The X-Files, but while I also loved that show, I rejected the notion that it was in the same 'shared universe' with Homicide and Law & Order, and I still do.)

---

‘Homicide’ Is One of the Best TV Shows Ever. And It Is Finally Streaming

For years, the foundational cop drama, based on the book by David Simon (“The Wire”), languished in DVD-only purgatory. No longer.

www.nytimes.com

One of the best shows of the ’90s is finally available to stream

Prepare to meet a very different Andre Braugher

www.polygon.com

https://www.npr.org/2024/08/19/nx-s1-5078728/homicide-life-on-the-street-nbc-peacock-streaming

Homicide: Life on the Street: the show that led to the golden age of TV

The excellent and underappreciated crime drama series is finally making its streaming debut in the US on Peacock and deserves to reach a wide audience

www.theguardian.com

---

EDIT: Sorry, I can't restrain myself. Wikipedia compiled a partial list of guest-stars who appeared in at least 1 episode of Homicide: Steve Allen, Lewis Black, Wilford Brimley, Steve Burns, Steve Buscemi, Bruce Campbell, Joan Chen, Vincent D'Onofrio, Jeffrey Donovan, Tate Donovan, Charles Durning, Charles S. Dutton, Richard Edson, Kathryn Erbe, Edie Falco, Peter Gallagher, Paul Giamatti, John Glover, Moses Gunn, Luis Guzmán, Jake Gyllenhaal, Marcia Gay Harden, Neil Patrick Harris, Pat Hingle, James Earl Jones, Terry Kinney, Bruno Kirby, Tony LoBianco, Julianna Margulies, Jena Malone, Anne Meara, Christopher Meloni, David Morse, Terry O'Quinn, Joe Perry, Chris Rock, J. K. Simmons, Fisher Stevens, Jerry Stiller, Eric Stoltz, Tony Todd, Lily Tomlin, Kate Walsh, Isaiah Washington, John Waters, Robin Williams, Dean Winters, Elijah Wood, and Alfre Woodard.

I remember many of these, but there are several that I don't. Likely people who weren't famous yet, so their appearance on this show didn't stick in my head. That's happened to me a few different times, where I go back and rewatch an old show, and suddenly I notice actors who I've come to like since then (Jennifer Lawrence in an episode of Medium; Betty Gilpin in an episode of Fringe). Gyllenhaal, Malone and Wood must've literally been children when they were in Homicide.

 

[Kyriakos]

Sam Neil is 76. Pretty impressive that he looks like this

 

[lymond]

The first 3 epis of season 2 of LOTR: Rings of Power now out on Amazon Prime

 

[Clubber Lang]

Today is Judgement Day...

​

TERMINATOR: ZERO Anime Series Hits Netflix Amid Highly Positive First Reviews​

If you weren't planning to check out Netflix's Terminator: Zero anime series, you may reconsider after having a read through these first reviews...​

"Three billion human lives ended on August 29, 1997. The survivors of the nuclear fire called the war Judgment Day..."
Despite decent reviews, the last Terminator movie, Dark Fate, was the latest instalment in the franchise to underperform at the box office, and it will probably be a very long time before we see the war against the machines continue on the big screen (though it's worth noting that James Cameron did recently reveal that he is planning to return to the franchise for a mysterious new project).
While the saga may be taking a (possibly permanent) break in live-action, a new 8-episode Netflix anime series titled Terminator Zero is now streaming.

The project takes the classic sci-fi franchise in a completely new direction by moving the story to Tokyo, Japan, and, for the first time, shifting away from Sarah and John Connor, who have (together or separately) featured in all previous Terminator movies.
It's unusual for the streamer to debut new content on a Thursday, but August 29 is Judgment Day, after all!

The first reviews are now in, and while a few critics weren't completely won over by the anime, the majority were full of praise for what sounds like an intriguing new take on the story.

No Rotten Tomatoes score yet, but have a read through the initial round of reviews at the links below,

I binged all 8 eps of #TerminatorZero to write this @GamesRadar review and I’m glad I did because this is the Terminator I fell in love with as a kid. I love how @mattsontomlin and the team pay homage to the classics while still forging a brand new path https://t.co/Vgo7JVoTid
— David Opie (@DavidOpie) August 29, 2024

TERMINATOR ZERO is an action-packed, thrilling story that hits the gas from the word "GO" and never stops. It takes classic Terminator themes, explores them more profoundly, and packs a considerable punch! I adored the world-building and animation in this. Bravo, @mattsontomlin! pic.twitter.com/pEvMXAezKN
— Adam Hlaváč (@adamhlavac) August 29, 2024

Terminator Zero showcases the best within the Terminator franchise and explores elements that have never truly been touched before.

Mattson Tomlin delivers a whole new direction for the Terminator franchise to follow and delivers it with stylistic flair.

This is the best… pic.twitter.com/bLR81TmLkF
— Chris #VENOMANIACS (@LuminousDagger)

 

[Clubber Lang]

Atwell voices Croft -

More than 25 years after her first appearance, Lara Croft (voiced by Hayley Atwell) continues to explore ancient mysteries and uncover lost truths across breathtaking and dangerous destinations.

 

[lymond]

^^^Def watchin' Term: Zero and that

Tim Olyphant, Ann Down, and Rosario Dawson are Term: Zero voice actors!

...and who doesn't love Hayley!

 

[Takhisis]

Wikipedia compiled a partial list of guest-stars who appeared in at least 1 episode of Homicide:

Heh. The same can be said for Law and Order, which is, as far as I know, the only work in which Isabelle Huppert and Sharon Stone have appeared together.

 

[Kyriakos]

Plot-wise the Sam Neil show (Apples Νever Fall) might as well have been the Young and the Restless