What TV shows are you watching thread.

Chat about stuff other than Transformers.
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Hound
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Re: What TV shows are you watching thread.

Post by Hound »

I just finished watching DS9. It takes a couple of seasons to get good, as most Star Trek shows do, and then it's great up until the last season and then it goes off the rails and people start acting wildly out of character and do and say things that often make no sense.
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Skyquake87
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Re: What TV shows are you watching thread.

Post by Skyquake87 »

I was browsing through some old threads on here, and that lead me to pick up She-Ra Princess Of Power Season One: Volume One on DVD, so I suppose this should be in the DVD thread, but I'm watching it now and it's a TV show sooo….

I haven't properly seen She-Ra since it was originally broadcast. I've watched the opening 5-parter and it's really great! I like the premise of the Horde having nearly conquered Etheria and The Great Rebellion being anything but. Something I was unaware of (but makes complete sense), is that Adora was a Captain in Hordak's er, Horde and has to be turned to the light by Prince Adam steering her towards her destiny. It's a shame her allegiance to Hordak is played up as an enchantment by Shadow Weaver, but I understand why this was done (wouldn't do to have your hero start out as a bit of a shit in a kids; show).

I like that it's Glimmer and Bow who are the nucleus of the Great Rebellion - that wasn't something I was expecting - with Glimmer the one leading, strategizing and organising. It's a shame she looks set to fall into the role of sidekick by the end, as it's clear Adora/ She-Ra is being primed to take over the Rebellion as leader. Glimmer is cool.

The other big props I have to give is that cutesy comedy characters aren't irritating goofs like Orko.
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Re: What TV shows are you watching thread.

Post by Hound »

We started The Mandalorian last night. Watched the first 2 episodes. It was very good. Looking forward to watching the rest. We signed in to Disney+ for the first time and I spent a half hour watching classic Disney shorts. They're so good.
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Skyquake87
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Re: What TV shows are you watching thread.

Post by Skyquake87 »

I used to love all those old shorts, plus the stuff Warner Bros used to do (If I had to pick, Warner Bros. Cartoons were the ones I prefer). We used to have programming when I was younger that would run these in anthologies or just here and there between shows. Love 'em. Can't remember which studio it was, but I remember a really cool short based on the Blue Danube by Stauss.
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Re: What TV shows are you watching thread.

Post by Auntie Slag »

Twin Peaks (the original series). Its okay, I don't get why its heralded as one of the best things on TV ever, it's so flaky and dumb in places, with wooden acting from certain people. I feel like it's aged badly, and it commits that cardinal sin where a character orders food in a diner and then walks off without taking a bite or paying for it.

Kyle MacLachlan is great of course, and the story's got just enough to keep me watching (there's probably a huge amount going over my head and I never figure out the clues), but I wouldn't recommend it to anyone.
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Re: What TV shows are you watching thread.

Post by Warcry »

I think watching Twin Peaks nowadays would be like reading Frank Miller's Batman, playing Ocarina of Time or transforming Laser Rod Prime for the first time decades after they came out. It can be tough to see what's so special and revolutionary about them today if you weren't there and consuming them at the time they were produced. They've all been so influential on their genres that it's tough for a modern person looking back on them to see why they're so revolutionary. So much of what we see on TV nowadays and in the last couple decades takes so much from Twin Peaks (and, frankly, improves on it) that it's easy to write it off as just another serialized supernatural thriller. But in 1990 there was absolutely nothing like it.

I've never actually properly watched the series myself, though, for most of those same reasons. It's been remixed so many times by so many shows that I doubt I'd find it very gripping in 2020. But maybe one day I'll give it a shot.
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Re: What TV shows are you watching thread.

Post by Auntie Slag »

Yeah, I know what you mean. Its a bit like when you go back and watch old episodes of X-Files or really bad episodes of TNG and I'd wonder how anyone could've watched this... I also bought the new season of Twin Peaks made in 2017, maybe it'll fix my feelings about the old-fashionedness. At the moment I'm on episode 21 of the original series.
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Re: What TV shows are you watching thread.

Post by Denyer »

Yeah, it's like Sandman reads best when you're a teenager.

Twin Peaks is 90% mood piece and personally I think it's a good idea to stop watching at the point in series two where the initial main plot has been resolved. The rest increasingly wanders.

Might watch the new stuff eventually.
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Re: What TV shows are you watching thread.

Post by Skyquake87 »

I've been giving Batwoman a go on E4. It's a competent show. Some of the dialogue is a bit lifeless and exposition heavy. I don't actually know if I'm enjoying it, tbh. I'm 10 episodes in and still trying to make up my mind about it. It just feels like the latest in a long line of glossy, well produced shows but just doesn't have enough of a hook for me. Hmm.

Also been watching Harley Quinn (again, imported by E4) and it has the mad-cap energy of her comics, but is a bit annoying for constantly reminding you it's an adult cartoon by having everyone swear every other word. Sigh. Why do people think animation can't be adult without being sweary?
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Re: What TV shows are you watching thread.

Post by Denyer »

Seen some of Harley Quinn, a few eps into season 2 now, and haven't really noticed the swearing but not particularly taken with either the general level of ultra-violence or random killing off of mainstay characters that clearly underlines it as a separate universe.
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Re: What TV shows are you watching thread.

Post by HotdogDivebomb 2.0 »

I watched all five seasons of the Netflix She-Ra series last weekend. It's very good. I enjoyed it a lot.

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Skyquake87
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Re: What TV shows are you watching thread.

Post by Skyquake87 »

I think the swearing on Harley Quinn stands out so much because of Kaley Cuoco's distinctive voice. It's Penny! Swearing!

Just started watching Tales From The Loop on Prime. Two eps in and enjoying it. Nice weird sci-fi tales loosely connected to each other.

@ HotdogDivebomb 2.0 - thank you for your message :)
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Skyquake87
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Re: What TV shows are you watching thread.

Post by Skyquake87 »

Woo! I've been watching TV stuffs like a modern.

So, I got through Preacher season 3 and am plodding through Season 4 just to get to the end now. I think overall, this show has just missed the mark entirely. I've never felt that the Jessie, Tulip and Cass have much of a relationship or care about each other. All the plot points from the comics are there, but done in a sort of pefunctory fashion. It's like the old Eric Morcambe gag of playing all the right notes, just not necessarily in the right order.

Unlike the other Prime adaption of another Ennis work: The Boys. Which in it's second season has tapped into Trumpian mores of the use of social media to advance an agenda which is in no-ones best interests. Whereas the comics (from what I've read so far) are a bit soulless, this gives us more fleshed out characters and a lot more heart. Really enjoyed it.

Quite enjoying Stargirl, which is full of Golden Age bunkum which it reveals in and celebrates. I like that. It's a bright and breezy show and I think I'd sum it up by sauing it's perky.

...I'm sure I never used to watch this much comic book stuff on TV.

On the normal telly, caught The Sister on ITV a ghost story but not a ghost story, but it was. For a wee four-parter, it was pretty good, although Russell Tovey mumbling his way through his dialogue meant I kept reaching for the volume like an old person.

Been watching Strictly Come Dancing to see Bill Bailey killing it (loved his Tango to 'Enter Sandman'), clearly to the annoyance of the programme makers who I think were expecting him to be another Ed Balls type.

What Else... oh, more Prime shows...

The Tick Season 1. I loved the old show with Patrick Warburton in it, it was glorious fun. This is good, but a little bit straighter with the laughs being a bit subtler. Sefanowicz is well cast as the big blue lug and the cast are all likeable. I think my favourite is the villain lady with the lint problem. She's great.

Truth Seekers - nice to see Pegg and Frost return to TV with this neat little show about amateur paranormal investigators. It has Julian Barrat in it too (the funny one from The Mighty Boosh) who is great in everything.

I've also picked up a copy of the old Tripods tv show. Stands up surprisingly well, considering it's age and the old-school BBC acting style of received pronunciation. The effect shots are decent and the sort of thing that probably made Nathan-Turner jealous when working on Who at the time. I'm halfway through the first series and enjoying it. Just a bit of a shame that I'm watching knowing they never finished the series off.
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Re: What TV shows are you watching thread.

Post by ganon578 »

Finished watching season 2's of both The Mandolorian and Cobra Kai.

I like them both for different reasons. Mando is just a nice SW show that hits all the marks. Made me enjoy SW again after the ho-hum-ness of the sequel trilogy.

Cobra Kai has been a fun ride, since I've enjoyed the first two movies as a kid. The first half of S2 is a bit of a drag, then picks up. Johnny is surely my favorite character on the show. Looking forward to S3 in a couple days.

I still need to catch up on S2 of The Boys as well, but haven't had the time!
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Hound
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Re: What TV shows are you watching thread.

Post by Hound »

Yeah, The Mandolorian has been a delight. I'm stumped about where they go next but season 2 has so many great moments that I'm fully confident that whatever it is will be just as great.
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Re: What TV shows are you watching thread.

Post by Sades »

WANDAVISION
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Re: What TV shows are you watching thread.

Post by Hound »

Aside from Wandavision, which has been great so far, I've been watching a lot of 70s children programming, and when I say that I mean classic Doctor Who and Kamen Rider.

I'm one more story away from finishing season 11 of Who and seeing the end of the Pertwee era. It's been pretty good and dominated by The Master, who I was really looking forward to seeing the early episodes of. I thought an entire season of episodes with him as the villain was going to be about it but he's in a whole bunch of episodes from the next season as well. It was also nice to see the Daleks back in the show after a long hiatus. Unless I'm misremembering there was nothing with the Cybermen this whole run either which I thought was weird after they so dominated Throughton's era of the show.

I initially wasn't very fond of Jo Grant after Liz Shaw, because Liz worked so well with Pertwee's Doctor, but by the time she left I felt that she was a very good companion indeed. Sarah Jane has been great but I kinda knew she would be as she's kind of legendary as Doctor Who companions go. Presumably she will be completely caught off guard and suspicious when the Doctor regenerates into Tom Baker as most companions who transition to a new Doctor are and it got me thinking. Why does the Doctor never seem to prepare his (friends?) for this eventuality? Surely he knows they are not going to react well initially. Why not give them a heads up?

That said I've simultaneously been watching Kamen Rider and am on the Kamen Rider X season and it has been... Well, frankly, it's been pretty much the same as any of the old tokusatsu I've watched up to this point. It's all very formulaic and "monster of the week". There is almost no variation of story from one episode to the next. I'm finding it's better to put it on while I play Pokemon or something else. While it is subtitled and I don't understand Japanese necessarily I don't find it requires all of my attention anyways. It's more about seeing what the monster is going to be episode to episode and what absurd plan the bad guys are hatching that keeps me watching than seeing every interaction that the characters are having. I wouldn't call it good but it is interesting, at least for me.

I've been sort of switching between Kamen Rider and Sentai for quite a few years now and will probably start a Sentai after this. I initially was trying to watch the shows in production order but gave up on that and bounced around a little but am thinking I should try to get through these older shows and get to the easier to watch/more interesting later shows.
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