TV news and views

[Snoopy]

I watched it years ago. I thought I’d give it another go since Walton’s in it. It’s been fun spotting actors from The Wire and other cop shows.

[Eric Cartman]

Also underrated forest whittaker guest starring and stealing the season.

My head canon is that The Shield is a direct sequel to The Commish after a messy divorce

[Eric Cartman]

I was gonna link this in the 'free longform content viewing thread', but it got nuked from YouTube, but before it was I was greatly enjoying Guy Montgomerys Guy Mont Spelling Bee while I had access, and it doesn't appear to be legally available in the UK

e:
sample taster

[benji]

Rewatching Deadwood, intend to actually finish it this time especially now that the movie is out (and has been for five years lmao), and I forgot how Calamity Jane has such a way with words.

[Potato]

Deadwood

[Potato]

Just marathoned the first 7 episodes of Murderbot.

My initial fears were out to rest pretty quickly and, aside from the Preservation Aux people being exceptionally stupid, it's been a great adaptation. 

Highly recommended.

[Besticus Maximus]

Rewatching Deadwood, intend to actually finish it this time especially now that the movie is out (and has been for five years lmao), and I forgot how Calamity Jane has such a way with words.

I am on a rewatch with my missus (never seen it). We paused at the end of season 1. A genuine masterpiece, though I know it kinda goes downhill from here.

It's amazing that Timothy Olyphant is so bad when everyone else is so good.

[benji]

Even though he's comparatively pretty bad in it, Bullock is still like proto-Raylan.

[Besticus Maximus]

Well I finally binged through the entirety of the Rehearsal. I didn't really get Nathan Fielder until the Curse but he's won me over now, he's an absolute lunatic.

[Snoopy]

Uncle Baby Billy asking for 2 million dollars and an 8 ball

[Eric Cartman]

Just marathoned the first 7 episodes of Murderbot.

My initial fears were out to rest pretty quickly and, aside from the Preservation Aux people being exceptionally stupid, it's been a great adaptation. 

Highly recommended.

I've watched the first 4 or 5? episodes and basically went in blind, but its a fun show - I don't know how accurate to the source material it is, but the main character being stuck with a bunch of hippy-dippy anti-corporate types who are constantly wanting to include him in things like affirmation ceremonies while he just wants to clock off and continue binge watching his sci fi show is VERY RELATABLE.

Im assuming the show within a show has a payoff later on, as holy shit the guest star cameos they have doing not-star-trek

[Cauliflower Of Love]

The Bear is like if you wanted to convert your insecurities into fantastical cummeries, and then you feel bad about it.

Ironheart, in 2/3 thirds (as always) fantastic, fuck all you racists bitches.

Masterchef still hilarious on all fronts.

[Polident]

Squid Game 3 came out and it may be me but there’s a lack of energy around it. Dunno if season 2 fizzled out or what.

[Potato]

The Bear is like if you wanted to convert your insecurities into fantastical cummeries, and then you feel bad about it.

Ironheart, in 2/3 thirds (as always) fantastic, fuck all you racists bitches.

Masterchef still hilarious on all fronts.

I still haven't got around to watching s3 of The Bear. It's emotionally taxing and I haven't been in the right mood.

Squid Game 3 came out and it may be me but there’s a lack of energy around it. Dunno if season 2 fizzled out or what.

Apparently s2 was trash. Don't know. Haven't watched it.

[Cauliflower Of Love]

s3 is ok it was ok

s4 fucks

[Potato]

I guess I'm just going to have to do the work on s3

[Cauliflower Of Love]

It's good just power through

[Eric Cartman]

Squidgame S2 was good, but it was also extremely obviously just the first half of an actual S2 - to the point that the first episode of S3 (all I've watched so far) is literally part 2 of the season finale 2 parter, which is fine(?) for an episodic structured tv show kind of deal, but kind of shitty when its episodic due to format not content and fairly obviously stretched out to two seasons to maintain subs longer than the month of content drop.

I'll finish it up and post thoughts, but I'd have rather watched the whole thing when it should have released, and Sandman is coming out next week which I'd rather watch first
The first season was fairly good, and the stuff I wasn't a big fan of could stil have worked as part of the 'bigger picture', but they've already said season 2 is the final season which is crazy given what they've covered so far and what's still left to cover, and not only that this season also includes a fucking spin off miniseries within it, so.... yeah, I wanna see whats what.
My prewatch supposition is them saying Gaimain getting cancelled has nothing to do with this season being the last is pure horseshit, but maybe they do satisfactorily ~30 comic books worth of content in a 10 episode Netlfix season after taking a previous 10 to cover about 8.

The Bear S3 was mostly good, but it was spinning its wheels quite a fucking lot and I'm not super hyped for S4 as a result - if they don't start getting back to some plot things happening in favour of 'just vibes', I'm not sticking around for a hypothetical S5.

[simiansmarts]

There's this really funny cartoon I've been watching about this family of yellow-skinned people called the Simpsons, not sure if anyone has heard of it. I'm on season 7 right now.

[Eric Cartman]

[Cauliflower Of Love]

Sacha Baron Cohen playing the devil on iron heart has to be one of the greatest castings.

[Polident]

Second episode of Squid Game s3 is pretty good and something I felt missing from season 2. But I can’t believe the B plot is still

Spoiler:  (click to show)(click to hide)

the dumbass cop on the boat. 

[Eric Cartman]

Sandman is coming out next week which I'd rather watch first

How did they fuck this up so badly?
I guess the fact its already cancelled takes some of the edge off, and maybe an actual fan of the source material will take another shot in 20 years time

[Eric Cartman]

The Studio episode 4

Spoiler:  (click to show)(click to hide)

great “forget it. It’s Chinatown.” joke

I just watched the whole series of this, and its pretty, pretty, pretty good.

There's a whole episode about is their upcoming Kool-Aid movie racist, which is very on the nose.
Right down to what their reddit controversy actually ends up being.

[Eric Cartman]

Squid Game 2: Electric Boogaloo was pretty good... if you didn't watch it because season 2 reviews were mixed, its because Season 2 wasn't a Season 2, so you can watch the actual Season 2 now. I don't think the guy wanted to make a sequel, but Netflix is its own squid game so he washed his hands of it as best he could. You will probably be able to guess exactly how it ends before the final game even starts.
Also, there is

Spoiler:  (click to show)(click to hide)

a weird ass cameo setting up the upcoming SQUID GAME USA! by DAVID FINCHER ( ) which doesn't make any sense even in the shows internal logic, because that fucking throw a square at another square on the floor and try and flip it game doesnt even exist outside of Korea AFAIK - shoulda been shooting craps or something

Murderbot overall, thumbs up, very good, seems the show within a show was just stunt casting cameos for a bit after all

I also really enjoyed Station 11 which is a very obviously adapted from a book show with its time jumps, multiple character focus, and fairly contrived conveniences (surefire signs of 'based on the novel by' origins) but a really, really entertaining and thoughtful little post apocalytic drama about a travelling theatre troupe in a post pandemic society. Its good!

Also interestingly, both Murderbot and Station 11 are Paramount TV shows that I guess they sold to other streaming channels rather than putting on their own streaming channel which I continue to not give a fuck about?
Weird decision, was it lack of faith in their own streamer, or lack of faith in these shows moving the needle in subscribers despite both being very high qulity little SciFi shows.
Maybe they want to build hype on a season 1 then dickmove it onto paramount+ exclusivity? Maybe they're still figuring out if its more cost effective to just become an Amazon or Netflix content producer instead, like Sony? It's weird is all.


I'll post impression of Sandman if I can be fucked when they finish the season of, but I am big mad at how full retard the first half went, and have zero faith they'll stick the landing.

[Cauliflower Of Love]

Legion X might be the best marvel production

[simiansmarts]

I saw the season premiere of South Park, pretty damn good. The Paramount settlement jokes were on-point. 
 

[benji]

I wonder how many takes the action part of this took, although there is a clear cut:


Show's better than anticipated even if it has a lot of CBS procedural elements still, it has a remarkably thoughtful balance between the episode plot and overarching ones. Most shows tend to ignore the latter except for minor moments at the start and end of episodes with real events only happening in the season premiere and finales. Broadcast network shows often especially suffer from this and create the impression that everybody takes a multi-month break from the dangerous conspiracy plots then cram everything into a couple days that resolve nicely and completely with no lingering effects. CBS's shows have often seemed especially bad at that, so this one avoiding it is welcome. The main issue is the dialogue recounting everything, even happens for the episode-only plots like you forgot the stuff you saw half an hour ago. I've seen some people say it's basically a Batman show and yeah, pretty much. Even develops a Bat Family.

I can't decide if the part where they hook a bunch of fat PS3's together to create a supercomputer is serious or one of the many winks at the tropes being employed. Actually, I'm less skeptical of the idea of networking all the Cell's together than I am with using liquid nitrogen to cool them as if the cases would handle that.  

If you have Amazon Prime you can stream all the seasons for free on there.

Speaking of which, something else you can stream for free on there if unrelenting horror doesn't frighten you? Garth Marenghi's Darkplace.

[chronovore]

I loved Person of Interest. Never made the Batman connection, because Finch is the detective and Cazaviel's character is the physical component.

[Polident]

Finished Squid Game 2.5.

Ran out of gas early on but kept going. The characters who remained for the final games were boring.

Spoiler:  (click to show)(click to hide)

Cop on the boat spends two seasons doing nothing. Ends up exactly where he was at the end of the first season.

The setup for the spin off was really dumb. Apparently the main guy was going to survive and it made a little more sense for him to witness it. There’s the bit in Fight Club where he starts witnessing the clubs in other cities. Him realizing this shit is bigger than Korea? That works. The guy running it in Korea seeing his co-worker is…okay?