Which television shows are you watching? β'

[rah]

The last part of this season got it back on track. Or at Least IMHO
My wife and I were both not pleased with the first dozen episodes this season. I recommend you go back and revisit the second half of the season,

 

[hobbsyoyo]

Season 5 of the Americans ended on a high note. The beginning of the season was too slow and there wasn't enough going on but things picked up at the end and it had a strong finish.

 

[civvver]

Season 5 of the Americans ended on a high note. The beginning of the season was too slow and there wasn't enough going on but things picked up at the end and it had a strong finish.

I thought it was kind of meh. I mean there was a ton of excitement leading up to the end like the last ~3 episodes. But the final one I was hoping for more. They kind of went out with a whimper. I think that was the point though.

 

[Ferocitus]

Season 5 of the Americans ended on a high note. The beginning of the season was too slow and there wasn't enough going on but things picked up at the end and it had a strong finish.

I liked how their training kicked in while Stan was telling them to get on
the ground. The way they seemed to ooze out their sentences, keeping things
calm, lying through their teeth about never killing anyone, not moving suddenly.
It's like they trapped Stan in a molasses of words and left him slumped against
a wall. He wasn't exactly pure as snow himself, so he had plenty of stuff to
mull over.

A very good, completely unexpected ending in that there were no explosions,
shoot-outs or wild car chases with fruit-barrows being trashed.

 

[hobbsyoyo]

Are you talking about S5 or S6?

 

[civvver]

oh crap you're a season behind lol. Season 6, my bad!

 

[EgonSpengler]

Heh. I forgot which season we were talking about, too. Ferocitus is talking about the series finale. Which I liked, incidentally. One thing that the final season nailed down for me is something that I'd been grappling with the entire time, and couldn't make up my mind about until the very end:

Spoiler :

I don't like Elizabeth. I did feel for her, though. The scene where they see Paige standing on the platform as the train leaves was very affecting, in no small part due to Keri Russell's performance.

 

[Cutlass]

6 episodes into Luke Cage. Enjoying it so far.

I'm liking Luke Cage. But I've really kind of come to dislike the actress who plays Mariah. I think the cast of the of the show is good. But I can't stand that woman. And I think it's more than that the character is unlikeable. It's that the actor is constantly overplaying the unlikablility of the character.

 

[yung.carl.jung]

I watched the entirety of Peep Show and it's still one of my favorite comedies ever.

 

[hobbsyoyo]

I started watching Ken Burns: Vietnam (now on Netflix) and my god it's so depressing. There were so many missed opportunities to resolve that situation peacefully and it's really tragic that we got involved simply because: Communism.

 

[Kyriakos]

Is there any decent new horror or scifi show? (not superhero crap)

 

[yung.carl.jung]

I started watching Ken Burns: Vietnam (now on Netflix) and my god it's so depressing. There were so many missed opportunities to resolve that situation peacefully and it's really tragic that we got involved simply because: Communism.

I visited the Gulf of Tonkin site where the false flag action happened, about two years ago. Saw some of the tunnels the Vietnamese were hiding in. It made me pretty miserable, luckily the Vietnamese are a very cheerful bunch so I just got ****** up on cheap Viet Whiskey and did some Karaoke with the boat crew, that helped.

Americans, much like Germans and Brits, really are a perfidious bunch. The more invested I get about geopolitics and the minute details of the cold war the more disgusted I get.

 

[Arakhor]

Wilfred Owen's famous poem Dulce et Decorum Est is all about the horrors of war.

 

[Kyriakos]

Wilfred Owen's famous poem Dulce de Decorum Est is all about the horrors of war.

I only know the Dulce et decorum est

 

[Arakhor]

I don't know what you're talking about.

 

[EgonSpengler]

I visited the Gulf of Tonkin site where the false flag action happened, about two years ago. Saw some of the tunnels the Vietnamese were hiding in. It made me pretty miserable, luckily the Vietnamese are a very cheerful bunch so I just got ****** up on cheap Viet Whiskey and did some Karaoke with the boat crew, that helped.

Americans, much like Germans and Brits, really are a perfidious bunch. The more invested I get about geopolitics and the minute details of the cold war the more disgusted I get.

I can't speak about Brits and Germans, but many Americans are poorly educated, even about our own history. I wonder, if I went to the shopping mall at lunch today and polled people, how many would even know what 'the Gulf of Tonkin incident' was? I wonder if they'd know United Fruit Company? (But I'll bet some of them have shopped at a Banana Republic staffed by Latin American immigrants, with no sense of irony.) How many would know who Mohammad Mossadegh was? How many know who the Dulles brothers were? They probably know where Dulles International Airport is, but nothing about who it's name for. It's only somewhat our fault, we're deliberately mis-educated much of the time. When I was going to elementary and high school - in a wealthy, Northeastern, liberal town, with a well-funded school system - I don't think I was taught much about that stuff. A bit about the Vietnam War. Nothing about Iran, even while the revolution and hostage crisis was happening. I knew bupkes about the Dulles brothers until I went looking for a book about them, but I'm a nerd with a lot of free time. I'm not sure our schools have gotten better in the last 30 years. Anecdotally, it sounds like they've gotten worse.

 

[Arakhor]

Europeans do have considerably more history to ignore, of course.

 

[EgonSpengler]

Back to television, I finished Luke Cage. The end of season 2 left me with mixed feelings. On the whole, I liked it, and in some respects season 2 was stronger than season 1. 13 episodes was probably still too many, although there wasn't any single episode that I thought needed to be flushed. I liked Mariah, Bushmaster, and Tilda, I really liked Misty, and I'm even more bummed out now about Reg Cathey (he passed away shortly after filming wrapped). Cheo Hodari Coker said they needed to cast someone with the gravitas to look up at Mike Colter and say "Sit down, boy", and Cathey delivered. I wanted to see more Ron Cephas Jones, but I always want to see more Ron Cephas Jones. Somebody needs to get that dude a full-time gig (on a show that I'll watch, I guess I don't need to say).

Luke Cage trivia: The guy who plays Cockroach is married to the woman who plays Misty. Dorian and Simone Missick.

Then I started season 2 of GLOW. Man, I love this show. I love these women. I want to hang out with these women. I know Alison Brie and Betty Gilpin have done stuff, but I think this is the first show of theirs that I've watched. Marc Maron I know from his standup and his podcast, but again, I think this is the first acting role of his I've seen (although, by all accounts, he's basically playing a version of himself ). I want to hang out with him, too, but maybe he can leave the coke at home.

In between, I also started Reverie. It's your basic, competent, major-network, soft-sci-fi thriller. Dreamscape: The Series, sort of, if you remember that movie. It's fine. If you want... er, I mean, like ... Sarah Shahi as much as I do, then it's probably worth an hour of your time. I feel like she's better than this, but a girl's gotta get paid, I guess. Dennis Haysbert, Sendhil Ramamurthy, and Kathryn Morris play exactly the characters you expect them to play. It does what it say on the tin, as the Brits might say.

The Expanse. If you know, then you know. If you don't, you're missing the best science fiction show since Battlestar Galactica 2004, so get on that.

 

[Synobun]

I finished Lie To Me. Good show as long as you recognize it for the pop-sci it is. My two endeavors into its fandom left me leaving unimpressed with people actually taking the 'science' in the show seriously. Curious why it only got three seasons.

I started Once Upon A Time and then remembered that I don't know fairy tales and don't like fairy tales, so bailed on that after 5 minutes.

Then I started TURN. Finished two episodes so far. I am not sure how to feel about it. It hasn't been very interesting thus far but it's an AMC show. Their shows either have really good pilots (that then devolve into middling shows) or terrible pilots (that then evolve into okay shows). I'll probably give it a couple more episodes before deciding if it's worth continuing.

 

[yung.carl.jung]

I cannot watch shows anymore. Whenever I start it feels like too much of a commitment, it feels like I get little out of it aside from turning my brain off for a few hours, it feels like almost all shows that are hugely popular nowadays completely and utterly lack substance.

In the end, I just go back to watching proper movies, because a movie feels whole. It feels like a singular experience, like you've actually done something. If a movie is too long I watch a documentary, or part of a documentary, or a short film.

Any recommendations for this feel? The last tv shows I really enjoyed were the Twin Peaks rerun, Stranger Things.. The Wire?

I'll prolly just end up re-watching Twilight Zone anyway.