Television

wokeupnew said:
Someone convince me on the Witcher, I watched the first episode but was bored by it. Felt like it wanted to be Game of Thrones too much. Does it get better?
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I think it does get better. Try episode 2. If you don't like that one you probably won't love the rest. That one injects a little humor and introduces the best character which makes up for the boorish pilot. The pilot was also the only episode that made me overtly think of GoT epsecially when

The queen's suicide blocking mirrored Tommen's so closely.

If you're still confused at episode 2, but like it, it's worth pushing on. Once all the disparate thread connect midseason it actually becomes a pretty simple story with clearer morals and heroes, which I think is a major relief after the non-story and antiheroes of GoT. The show still has some boring patches and can be a bit of an uneven ride but I think it's heading in the right direction.
 
So there's a pretty trashy new reality show on Netflix called The Circle. Yes, I know it's the American version of the UK series, but I haven't seen the original. Anyway...it's a handful of people living in apartments in the same building. But they never see each other and only communicate online via their profiles. Sounds dumb? Yeah it kinda is. Boring? Surprisingly not. I'm already super into it. It's the right kind of dumb tv that I like.
 
wokeupnew said:
Someone convince me on the Witcher, I watched the first episode but was bored by it. Felt like it wanted to be Game of Thrones too much. Does it get better?
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I think it gets better after episode 2 but my husband wasn't willing to stick with it so I will be watching this one by myself. I like it, but it reminds me a lot of a really old school fantasy novel--cheese and all. If you can't stand stereotypical fantasy tropes, you are going to hate this series.
Gavaxeman said:
Vienna Blood is very good for anyone who likes a Holmes and Watson style period detective show
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Where can I watch this one?
 
nolalady said:
I think it gets better after episode 2 but my husband wasn't willing to stick with it so I will be watching this one by myself. I like it, but it reminds me a lot of a really old school fantasy novel--cheese and all. If you can't stand stereotypical fantasy tropes, you are going to hate this series.

Where can I watch this one?
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Was on the bbc just before Xmas ... don’t know if you can get the iplayer ...
 
TheWitcher is not the best fantasy story of all time, but it’s fun, the fighting is believable while impressive, it’s fun (Jaskier is absolutely amazing) and most of all, the casting is so diverse and it’s honestly refreshing. Fantasy is not just white dudes (even if the lead is the whitest dude there is, I know).
 
Succession has officially lost the interest of my wife, so I'll be continuing alone. That being said, I'm reaching the point where another "wow, look! Terrible, rich white people" show just does nothing for me, so not sure if I'll last either.

Speaking of terrible, rich white people, my wife is finally watching Mad Men.

Speaking again of terrible (not as rich) white people, I'm also watching The League to bond with my little brother. All of my frat bro culture nightmares wrapped up in a show about fantasy football.
 
Djxfactor511 said:
Succession has officially lost the interest of my wife, so I'll be continuing alone. That being said, I'm reaching the point where another "wow, look! Terrible, rich white people" show just does nothing for me, so not sure if I'll last either.

Speaking of terrible, rich white people, my wife is finally watching Mad Men.
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Where are you in Succession? I stopped around mid-season 1 for pretty much the same reason. I got back to it weeks later, and I found the second half of S1 and all of S2 to be really close to exceptional.

Yay Mad Men! I finished a re-watch a couple months ago and quite possibly loved it even more the second time through.
 
ranbalam said:
Where are you in Succession? I stopped around mid-season 1 for pretty much the same reason. I got back to it weeks later, and I found the second half of S1 and all of S2 to be really close to exceptional.

Yay Mad Men! I finished a re-watch a couple months ago and quite possibly loved it even more the second time through.
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Yeah, I'm mid-S1 as well. I'll keep trucking on.

Same re: Mad Men - This is my first re-watch and I'm already picking up on things I missed the first go round. Easily top 3 show ever for me. I'm surprised I haven't re-watched it earlier.
 
Djxfactor511 said:
Succession has officially lost the interest of my wife, so I'll be continuing alone. That being said, I'm reaching the point where another "wow, look! Terrible, rich white people" show just does nothing for me, so not sure if I'll last either.

Speaking of terrible, rich white people, my wife is finally watching Mad Men.

Speaking again of terrible (not as rich) white people, I'm also watching The League to bond with my little brother. All of my frat bro culture nightmares wrapped up in a show about fantasy football.
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Djxfactor511 said:
Yeah, I'm mid-S1 as well. I'll keep trucking on.

Same re: Mad Men - This is my first re-watch and I'm already picking up on things I missed the first go round. Easily top 3 show ever for me. I'm surprised I haven't re-watched it earlier.
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What made her lose interest?

I would agree with my pal, @ranbalam . Each season builds to the last episode. "Yeah, duh, teeeee, all shows do that." Well, sure, I agree with you. But the build in Sucession feels way more on the DL. And you really don't recognize the build up until the actual last episode of the season and how the writers pulled one over on you. I would say give it until the end of S1. And if you feel the same, yeah, the show isn't for you. But if you don't continue through S2, you will miss 3 of the most perfectly written and acted episodes to round out a season ever.
 
Teeeee said:
What made her lose interest?

I would agree with my pal, @ranbalam . Each season builds to the last episode. "Yeah, duh, teeeee, all shows do that." Well, sure, I agree with you. But the build in Sucession feels way more on the DL. And you really don't recognize the build up until the actual last episode of the season and how the writers pulled one over on you. I would say give it until the end of S1. And if you feel the same, yeah, the show isn't for you. But if you don't continue through S2, you will miss 3 of the most perfectly written and acted episodes to round out a season ever.
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I think she just found it boring. It takes a really special drama to get her hooked, especially one taking place in the modern, real world revolving around corporate life. She's never been interested in that before. Give her a fantasy based drama though and she's all in.
 
LeeVing said:
Time to start this up from the beginning...
View attachment 28727


It seems that people had some issues with the 4K disc in this set. I don't have any way to see if mine is affected yet. But I do plan on going 4K sometime this year.
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Oh man, that's huge.

I already own the limited series and gold box and Criterion Fire Walk With Me. But looking at that massive set has me envious.
 
Bennnnn said:
Oh man, that's huge.

I already own the limited series and gold box and Criterion Fire Walk With Me. But looking at that massive set has me envious.
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The Criterion FWWM was included in the Entire Mystery box set, so I didn't get a stand alone copy of that...but I've kept all the other releases I've purchased over the years.

Those first 2 Artisan DVD sets include commentaries that were never ported over to any of the other releases. It's been a long time since I've listened to those, but I can't get rid of them for this reason.

The top left disc is a copy of the pilot from China - as this was the only way to get it back in ~2000. Since the pilot was owned by Warner Bros. but the series was from Paramount/Universal, the Artisan Season 1 set didn't have the pilot.

This is also the aired US version - not the European version.

This disc became obsolete when the Gold Box was released.

20200108_143048 (2).jpg

I also had the VHS set way back in the day...but have no idea where/when I got rid of that.


This is a great blog post about the history of the series on home media up to the release of the Gold Box.

 
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Probably a bit out of left field for this thread as it isn't related to a current show, but, back in December, I started watching The Mary Tyler Moore Show on Hulu. It's kind of brutal because my "free" Hulu plan through Spotify Premium has commercials, but it has been really interesting to go back and watch that show from the beginning. I remember reruns of it being on a lot when I was a little kid, but I didn't really pay attention at that age. I wouldn't have gotten most of it then anyway.

I just started season 3 this week, and they actually had an episode early in that season that pretty directly touched on what we now call "Alternative Facts". Another episode focused on the wage gap. It has been fascinating to watch this show that began in 1970 through the lens of where we are culturally in 2020. I'm not sure if I'm more on the side of praising how prescient the show was, or if I'm landing on the side of damning how little we have seemingly progressed since the show was on 50 or so years ago.

Most of the jokes still work. Not all...but most. I'm really blown away by how the show kind of arrived fully intact. Some shows take a season or so to establish themselves (Seinfeld & Parks and Rec come to mind). These characters were all fully developed from the word go, and I now understand why they are all so beloved. I also think it is super cool how Mary Tyler Moore allowed all of the other characters get the good lines. There's a very good reason that Valerie Harper's Rhoda got her own show. As did Ed Asner's Lou Grant. And Cloris Leachman's Phyllis. And then there's Ted Knight providing the blueprint for Will Ferrell's Ron Burgundy. Just a fantastic cast up and down...and Betty White hasn't even shown up yet!
 
LeSamourai said:
It's really amazing, considering all it influenced over the years and just how much weird TV has been made since, how incredibly weird Twin Peaks still feels.
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Totally. Even if Season 3 didn't push the envelope and just continued the S1 and S1 tone it still would have stood out even against contemporary prestige TV. I was really hoping S3 would usher in an era of really fucking weird TV but it seems to have been an unrepeatable scenario.
 
Checked out both the Doctor Who Series 12 episodes and Netflix / BBC's Dracula recently. This made for an interesting comparison since Dracula is show runner Steven Moffat's first project since leaving Doctor Who in 2017.

I think Chibnall's Doctor Who is off to a good start. Although I liked last series' approach of using the Buffy formula of master of the week with an overarching big bad, I just found the big bad to be boring and generic. By
bringing back the Master, with such great casting I think they will have tweaked the formula for the better.
I'm not a mega fan of the show so I don't know if these tweaks were why it paused for so long, but whatever the case it's good to have a fun and light show in the weekly diet. My only real complaint about series 11 and 12 is just petty — the approach to photography and color grading is just so soft and flat it kills some of the enjoyment of the show. The look worked for the dour seaside vibe of Broadchurch but it feels too tame for an upbeat sci-fi show.

Dracula is just ridiculous, usually in a good way, sometimes in a bad one. The show is so brazen with its reinvention and twists on the formula, much more than Sherlock or Moffat's run on Who. In this way it's sort of above critique for any deviations from Stoker's novel. If you have 4.5 hours to kill and want a campy sexed-up twist on a classic story with the Moffat writing it's worth a watch.
 
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