Television

Bennnnn said:
Finished The Sopranos! What a whirlwind. I watched it faster than I thought I would. Once I got its feeling down, I just didn't want to stop watching it. And ultimately I think the ending totally sticks the landing - which is not something I thought before I started. I always knew what the exact ending was, but I had no context for it. And I didn't know how to watch the show and what sorts of themes it was really playing around with. Now that I had all the context and lead-up, the final scene works so well in highlighting the point of death just being always hanging over us and how life gets ripped away. In that sense, I think the cut to black move is pretty great. The show ends sort of like how it always was, no gigantic payoff or major cliffhangers. Just business as usual mostly. It's not at all the same, but it does remind me of Atlanta's finale and how it was sort of the anti-finale. Nothing major happened, it just stuck so true to itself that it works as an ending.

In general, I think I get why the show is so acclaimed. As I said earlier, it really reminded me of Mad Men. And now I realize Mad Men basically took a lot of the template of how The Sopranos structured their episodes and did a very similar thing. Personally, I still prefer Mad Men over The Sopranos. But I'd love to do a rewatch of The Sopranos already and I just finished it.

And now I'm doing a rewatch of Mad Men. Just feels right.
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I know I already mentioned the book Sopranos Sessions, but wow, I just finished the David Chase interviews section of the book...just fantastic insight into the show and the ending. You can tell Chase likes/respects the guys interviewing him, it comes off as natural and transparent.
An excellent book recommendation. (from @TenderLovingKiller® I believe.)
 
Indymisanthrope said:
If you're looking for something on a similar wavelength as Ted Lasso with just a smidge less overwhelming positivity, I'd recommend checking it out.
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This is almost word for word how the bartender at our local brewery described it last night...we asked if he was watching anything good so he mentioned Shrinking. I think we'll check it out.
 
Only Murders in the Building is a lot of fun, deserves all the praise and the main 3 actors are delightful together. It was silly, but still serious, lots of very goofy, funny side characters. It was the most similar show to Pushing Daisies out of anything that I've seen before. It's hard to nail that whimisicalness that Pushing Daisies had without being too cheesy.

Also the fact that it fits each episode into 30-40 minutes is a perfect amount of time. Not everything needs to be an hour plus.

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wokeupnew said:
Only Murders in the Building is a lot of fun, deserves all the praise and the main 3 actors are delightful together. It was silly, but still serious, lots of very goofy, funny side characters. It was the most similar show to Pushing Daisies out of anything that I've seen before. It's hard to nail that whimisicalness that Pushing Daisies had without being too cheesy.

Also the fact that it fits each episode into 30-40 minutes is a perfect amount of time. Not everything needs to be an hour plus.

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Only Murders is terrific. Seeing Steve Martin and Martin Short together again, and in fine form, is an absolute joy, and I think they and Selena Gomez have great chemistry.

There's a moment at the end of the first season that feels like the purest early-Steve-Martin gag we've gotten in years.
 
ranbalam said:
I know I already mentioned the book Sopranos Sessions, but wow, I just finished the David Chase interviews section of the book...just fantastic insight into the show and the ending. You can tell Chase likes/respects the guys interviewing him, it comes off as natural and transparent.
An excellent book recommendation. (from @TenderLovingKiller® I believe.)
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Yeah, Sepinwall and Zoller-Seltz are two of my favorite TV critics and really love the media, I think that connects with creators like Chase.

If you enjoy The Soprano Seesions I would also recommend picking up a copy of this before your next Mad Men rewatch…
C339DEC0-C940-48EC-9BA1-4B735008EBEE.jpegMad Man Carousel is a fantastic episode guide Zoller-Seltz released.
 
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Indymisanthrope said:
Seeing Steve Martin act while Martin Short just does his thing, is delightful. I used to think Short was obnoxious but recently someone was talking about what a genius he was as Jiminy Glick, which I thought was insufferable back in the day. But I went back and watched some clips and they're actually hysterical. I guess back then I didn't get that he was basically doing proto-Between Two Ferns. Anyway, suddenly I have a giant soft spot for him that I didn't have in the past.
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Yeah, his humor has grown on me over the years, it makes me wonder if I should attempt to rewatch Clifford, the 1994 comedy where Short plays the role of a small super annoying child and Charles Grodin play the part of the supper annoyed adult. I remember watching it on VHS as a kid and absolutely HATED it. I am wondering now if that was kind of the point.
 
Indymisanthrope said:
Nothing about Shrinking on Apple looked good to me. I'm not really a Segel fan, and Harrison Ford doing comedy is a dicey proposition. Add in "from the creator of Scrubs" and it could easily be an overdose of cartoony pathos.

But you know what? After a couple of early episodes that feel a little creaky with a "yes, I've seen attempts at shows like this before" feeling, it suddenly just clicks in and becomes a really enjoyable watch. Ford (honestly, how in the hell did they convince him to do this?) is doing better work than I've seen from him in a long time. The show is warm, kindhearted, funny without always going for a dumb punchline, and most importantly it doesn't overstay its welcome. I've seen five episodes, I think, and will probably suggest rewatching it with my wife because I think she'll love it.

If you're looking for something on a similar wavelength as Ted Lasso with just a smidge less overwhelming positivity, I'd recommend checking it out.
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Shrinking is pretty good! It occasionally stumbles BUT there are some pretty great highs. And they’re establishing a fun, comfy rapport amongst the main characters that I think is hard to do. And the theme song by Ben Gibbard is dope.
 
TenderLovingKiller® said:
Yeah, Sepinwall and Zoller-Seltz are two of my favorite TV critics and really love the media, I think that connects with creators like Chase.

If you enjoy The Soprano Seesions I would also recommend picking up a copy of this before your next Mad Men rewatch…
View attachment 167959Mad Man Carousel is a fantastic episode guide Zoller-Seltz released.
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I had a copy of that, but I have no idea where it is. I wanted to do the same thing and read along as I watched this go around. Might just have to buy the ebook version
 
Has anyone else started Hello Tomorrow! on Apple TV? I am 2 episodes in and kind of loving it so far. Definitely intrigued enough to see it through. I don't want to give too much away, but I think it's the perfect amount of weird for me.
 
Watched the Pilot episode of Superstore and what the hell was that? It had no substance, no backstory, just goofy characters going through seemingly unconnected scenes. It’s like they crammed a season’s worth of ideas into a single episode. Does it get better?
 
wokeupnew said:
Watched the Pilot episode of Superstore and what the hell was that? It had no substance, no backstory, just goofy characters going through seemingly unconnected scenes. It’s like they crammed a season’s worth of ideas into a single episode. Does it get better?
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Nope. It's mostly the same, exaggerated retail satary with no set story.

I mean, there was one episode that revolved around someone slicing their finger off working in the deli, they put it in some kind of container / cold food to preserve it so the finger can get reattached, but then of course someone puts said container out for sale. Then they can't find it and then it gets returned because someone found a finger in their food.

That was the whole episode with a bunch of random unrelated side skits. But that theme of the finger just kept coming up.

It's funny for people who worked retail and want mindless humor.
 
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