TV news and views

[Rendle]

Slow Horses is back in 2 or 3 days. The premise is great: what if James Bond fucked up and got forced to do paperwork and meaningless errands with all the other fuckups.

[Alpacx]

Slow Horses is back in 2 or 3 days. The premise is great: what if James Bond fucked up and got forced to do paperwork and meaningless errands with all the other fuckups.

That sounds good. Shame it's on Apple.

Got a recommendation along those lines: The Sandbaggers. Old Yorkshire TV show from the late 70s about a special operations section in MI6. It's a low budget production so it's more drama/political than actiony. It's on Prime.

[Polident]

The ads on Amazon video are ridiculous. I left an episode halfway off last night and tried picking it up. Minute long ad. It’s not when I left off so I hit 15 second rewind. Two minute ad. It somehow jumps back 20 minutes. Drag to where I was. 1:40 second ad. I give up. I don’t have context for why they’re suddenly in a strip club.

It’s a mystery why piracy is picking up majorly these days.

[Eric Cartman]

Slow Horses is back in 2 or 3 days. The premise is great: what if James Bond fucked up and got forced to do paperwork and meaningless errands with all the other fuckups.

That sounds good. Shame it's on Apple.

Got a recommendation along those lines: The Sandbaggers. Old Yorkshire TV show from the late 70s about a special operations section in MI6. It's a low budget production so it's more drama/political than actiony. It's on Prime.

It is much closer to The Sandbaggers than James Bond;

Watched the first season of Slow Horses which has somehow flown under my radar, which is weird because I fucking love spy shit, especially the gritty tradecraft based morally compromised realpolitik type shit, and goddamn this ticks alllllllllll of the boxes.

The spoiler free gist is Gary Oldman (EVERYONE!!!) is the boss of Slough House (the eponymous Slow Horses), a spook HQ for spooks who've really fucked up somewhere to do the shit details and be miserable until they get retired out / quit / maaaaaaaybe get rehabilitated back into the 'real' service and for various reasons are responsible for an op involving a muslim student who has been kidnapped by white supremacists who are going to behead him live on the internet in 24 hours time.

I stand by the above - they do shitty thankless jobs for government pay, and work out of a shitty grimy office, and are surpisingly competent when they need to be for a bunch of fuck ups in a career dead end.
The show has also been consistently excellent across the series, and makes a lot of use out of the slowly revealed character back stories, as well as events and repercussions from prior seasons. There is also a deeply cynical subtext that most of the security services problems are entirely self inflicted, because ultimately spooks are all a bunch of paranoid and untrustworthy manipulators. It's literally the job.

The fact the boss of slough house is Gary Oldman means it also nicely works as a pretty great double bill with the Gary Oldman reboot of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy. There's also more than a dash of Columbo, in the shabby disheveled mess of a man with a fucking razor blade mind who sees right through a whole bunch of bullshit.

The ads on Amazon video are ridiculous. I left an episode halfway off last night and tried picking it up. Minute long ad. It’s not when I left off so I hit 15 second rewind. Two minute ad. It somehow jumps back 20 minutes. Drag to where I was. 1:40 second ad. I give up. I don’t have context for why they’re suddenly in a strip club.

It’s a mystery why piracy is picking up majorly these days.

Netflix ads are even worse AND they have stuff they advertise you cant even watch if youre on the ad supported plan

Amazons worst crime is the volume levels between shows / films and adverts are fucked, with most ads at MAXIMUM VOLUME whn they kick in, which is hugely jarring.

On the upside, some stuff only front ends the ads, and about half way through you get a "Your film will continue uninteupted after the following adverts" which... is actually a small bit of sugar on the pill? I'm not sure old 90s thrillers like Copycat (pretty entertaining!) cost much to add, so passing the 'savings' on by reducing ads on certain titles is actually a decent compromise imo.

[Potato]

It's almost like they're intentionally making the ad-supported service irritatingly bad so people have no choice but to pay for the premium service...

[Snoopy]

The problem with TV Slow Horses is there's not enough Shirley and she's not psychotic enough like in the books. Speaking of there's a new book out this month.

[benji]

Are you guys paying for Prime or watching the ad-only stuff that's also on there? I pay for Prime and use uBlock Origin Lite and never see the ads but I've only watched the Prime stuff so I don't know if the ad stuff (used to be called Freevee I think?) forces them at a higher level.

The only thing that's noticeable is sometimes there's a brief half-second pause but I'm not sure that's not in the video files themselves because many of them are where ad breaks would have been in the original show and I've seen that on cheaper quality produced DVD's before. I also don't know if that might also be moments where my connection is taken up by something else like Steam or whatever and it doesn't want to drop the quality once the cache runs out.

Only other video stuff I normally watch that has ads is YouTube and there the pause is at the start but that's a well known thing YouTube does to ad blockers. A guy I talk to online absolutely despises this but it's like two or three seconds and I once browsed the internet on 28k so my instincts were long ago hard coded to just waiting a few seconds on websites.

From the ethical standpoint of pirating content, feel like if you're paying for a service you should feel fine to block the ads. I know of the old debate about how VCR's were piracy because it allowed you to both watch the content whenever you wanted and also fast forward through the ads. When I hear about how other people are watching streaming content by just sitting in one place consuming whatever it feeds into their gullet endlessly like people used to (and probably still) do with broadcast/cable TV I'm like yeah, whatever, you're not going to make me feel like a pirate for doing this. You're losing fractions of a dollar from me like you have with my now decades of not entirely legal format transfers.  

I'm also an adherent of the self-serving Valve argument, considering how easy it is for someone with my knowledge to just pirate everything that could be, that you got me to pay at all is your win. I'm skeptical that this class of customer is ever the threat to profits it's portrayed as considering how small it would be compared to any fraction of normies just slightly changing their habits. I don't think Valve's experience is the main piece of evidence for this, YouTube is.

[Snoopy]

I stopped using sub services a long time ago. They're a waste of money. I pirate TV/movies first then buy the ones I liked.

[Polident]

It’s standard Amazon Prime. Usually watch on my old 2017 LG OLED or iPad Pro. For better or worse, the LG webos app is such laggy unusable shit the ads are shorter. Feeding 40 second ads instead of the 2 minute ones. I’m sure there’s a way to have a pihole block ad servers or whatever. On my iPad, where the quality is negligible, downloading videos bypasses the ads. No ads in Netflix yet at the 1080p tier but I really should cancel it.

At least watching Terminal List, the two ads types have been: alcohol and reeces peanut butter cups. Recently I was in a room with CNN on the TV. During one commercial break there were three glp1 fat loss drug ads. Synergy?

[DavidCroquet]

I like the bentcarrot.com ad 

his peanits crooked 

[Eric Cartman]

I have a firetv stick that I didnt jailbreak into an iptv access hub like apparently the entire fucking uk has ( ) to the extent that the YOU WOULDNT STEAL A CAR commercials now focus on STREAMING SHIT FOR FREE IS BASICALLY LETTING TERRORISTS INTO YOUR LIVING ROOM () so am a paying prime customer, but also use what they used to call freevee because its pretty fucking arbitrary what and where they decide to put shit and I care about the content not the platform.

[Snoopy]

I used to buy a lot of movies off Amazon until they started with the ad shit. I'm certain it's only a matter of time before they start putting adds into purchased content.

[Polident]

Terminal List was fun. There’s a moment halfway through where his buddy goes “can you operate? Okay then let’s go kill these fuckers.” It’s always a good bit. From Rolling Thunder to The Town.

An aside. Not terribly surprising to learn critics trashed it but normal folk were into it. It came out in 2022 when, well, everybody was retarded about everything the show is about. A testament to how there’s been a return to normalcy is the prequel series receiving standard middling reviews. Or maybe it’s just a better show and I’m reading into things. We’ll see!

[HeavenIsAPlaceOnEarth]

Terminal List was fun. There’s a moment halfway through where his buddy goes “can you operate? Okay then let’s go kill these fuckers.” It’s always a good bit. From Rolling Thunder to The Town.

An aside. Not terribly surprising to learn critics trashed it but normal folk were into it. It came out in 2022 when, well, everybody was retarded about everything the show is about. A testament to how there’s been a return to normalcy is the prequel series receiving standard middling reviews. Or maybe it’s just a better show and I’m reading into things. We’ll see!

Now watch The Terminal List: Dark Wolf, brother.

[Polident]

Terminal List was fun. There’s a moment halfway through where his buddy goes “can you operate? Okay then let’s go kill these fuckers.” It’s always a good bit. From Rolling Thunder to The Town.

An aside. Not terribly surprising to learn critics trashed it but normal folk were into it. It came out in 2022 when, well, everybody was retarded about everything the show is about. A testament to how there’s been a return to normalcy is the prequel series receiving standard middling reviews. Or maybe it’s just a better show and I’m reading into things. We’ll see!

Now watch The Terminal List: Dark Wolf, brother.

First two episodes were good. I was concerned it was gonna be “oops all GWOT” but it’s already on from that. Also, the rhodesian Thor makes everybody else look small.

[Snoopy]

My Mad Men journey continues. There were moments in the 1st season that I thought were excellent and kept me watching, like the bird shooting. So into the 2nd season and Betty has actually called him out on the thing that has bothered me the most. All his flings have been with a bunch of old hags. It doesn't make sense. So her saying WTF guy? was very satisfying

[killamajig]

This is my excuse to show off my Mad Men auction purchase from Harry Crane's office 




I couldn't afford Don's Rolex (I think it sold for over $100k)


I'm pretty sure this cost me under $300 with shipping and everything. Since Harry wasn't a popular character his stuff was cheaper. Lol

I think it looks pretty cool just as a decorative art piece.

[Polident]

Terminal List Dark Wolf is great but it’s even crazier than Terminal List. There, it felt there was an attempt at grounding it in true-ish seal capabilities. Dark Wolf is in more USA (the TV network) and Reacher territory.

My understanding is this is a whole series of books. Dark Wolf is original for TV and introduces characters that’ll be in the next season of the main show. Maybe this is the tone going forward.

[HeavenIsAPlaceOnEarth]

Dark Wolf is original for TV and introduces brothers that’ll be in the next season of the main show.

Fixed.

[Polident]

Alice in Borderlands season 3 is really bad.

Spoilers for it and Squid Game 3

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

Both have a pregnant lady whose unborn child is considered a participant in the games. Both end on an incredibly awkward setup for an American spin-off. And suddenly this season of Alice in Borderlands, you have a guy recruiting people by handing them a card.

Does Netflix have AI writing this shit nowadays?

[Eric Cartman]

I'm currently slowly making my way through Billions, which I never caught for whatever reason, and its pretty fucking great.

this shit falls off so hard and so fast

I assume it had a behind the scenes writers room / showrunner change after season 1, because it suffers from moron writers trying to write super smart characters and devolves into all kinds of stupid shit happening and characters acting outside of established traits so that DRAMA and PLOT can happen, then giving up on the good characters to start introducing self inserts who - like the writers theyre based on - are a lot less fucking interesting and charismatic.

e: its a lot like Suits which starts off super promising and compelling, and rapidly spirals into "Why are these FUCKING IDIOTS doing such IDIOTIC SHIT, and who are all these NEW IDIOTS the plot wants to spend so much fucking time with, because THEY SUCK"

[Alpacx]

I'm currently slowly making my way through Billions, which I never caught for whatever reason, and its pretty fucking great.

this shit falls off so hard and so fast

I assume it had a behind the scenes writers room / showrunner change after season 1, because it suffers from moron writers trying to write super smart characters and devolves into all kinds of stupid shit happening and characters acting outside of established traits so that DRAMA and PLOT can happen, then giving up on the good characters to start introducing self inserts who - like the writers theyre based on - are a lot less fucking interesting and charismatic.

e: its a lot like Suits which starts off super promising and compelling, and rapidly spirals into "Why are these FUCKING IDIOTS doing such IDIOTIC SHIT, and who are all these NEW IDIOTS the plot wants to spend so much fucking time with, because THEY SUCK"

I liked Billions a lot but yeah, the only way the writers showed "intelligence" was characters saying pop culture references like they're Bill Simmons.

Such a great cast though. Giamatti vs Lewis was great, Maggie Siff and Condola Rashad are smoke shows, the guy playing Wags was hilarious.

I stopped watching after Lewis left the show. Didn't see the point without the two big characters dueling.

[Potato]

Watching King and Conqueror. 

Was billed as a successor to Game of Thrones, but the script is a little hokey, the action lacking and the casting very questionable. 

Still, it's watchable.

[Potato]

Got through 4 episodes of King and Conqueror and it's clear they blew their whole budget on Nikolai Costa-Waldau.

They skip over every single battle, there's never more than a handful of people on screen and the whole thing stinks of student production. 

It's weird, the enemy's in screen play out like the show is targeted at people who know the William the Conqueror history, but the whole script treats the historical events like they're fantasy. It so badly wants to be Game of Thrones, but also Vikings. The final scene is episode 4 was just laughable. 

The dei casting is also just way too much on the nose to be bearable too.

I'm done.

[Eric Cartman]

Finished off Upload which was unceremoniously sent off onto Prime to fulfill contractual obligations with a 4 episode season that fairly satisfactorily wrapped up all existing plot threads while still doing a new thing.

I assume there must be some crazy behind the scenes fuckery based on how its been handled, but its a decent enough watch, has some sharp observational commentary bits here and there - especially about corporate bullshit - has a decently internally consistent sci-fi universe, and a fully realised plot that wraps things up at the end (it's crazy that this is a notable plus in the modern streaming era where shit seems to get cancelled if it doesn't hit x demographucs opening weekend but is intended to be bulk Content for an indefinite ongoing future).

If you like Greg Daniels stuff, you'll probably like this

[benji]

[benji]

Watching The Good Place (through two seasons so far) and my main complaints would be:
1. I probably expected too much from the twists from other people talking about this show, they're all pretty obvious. I assume because Michael Schur isn't bad enough to not set them up.
2. I can see why they did but the second season just skipping over all the reboots and also not explaining if memories could be restored sort of undermined the angles the consequences a lot of this could have meant along with the consequences of not being able to do it anymore. Especially considering that with what appears to be for the third season we've lost memories again. Combining this with the earlier point, part of the underwhelming nature of the twists is how much they actually seem to not explore many of the possibilities that the universe is raising only to ignore because it's necessary for the arc conclusions.
3. There's this awful musical cue that constantly comes up for "emotional" moments and I despise it more than any musical cues in anything outside of Sherlock. Especially as it appears to be coming in more and more well before the moments actually begin.
4. I really don't understand the central premise of teaching academic moral philosophy to these idiots.   My Name is Earl probably did this better and in a far more intellectual way even while pretending to be built around a simple version of karma.
5. Janet might be the best character? Then Eleanor. (My head canon is that Michael is really just Ted Danson. Not to be confused with Ted Dan Son.)

[Alpacx]

Watching The Good Place (through two seasons so far) and my main complaints would be:
5. Janet might be the best character? Then Eleanor. (My head canon is that Michael is really just Ted Danson. Not to be confused with Ted Dan Son.)

6.Jameela Jamil was some perfect casting. I don't know if she can act because that seems to be exactly what she is in real life.

[Eric Cartman]

I really don't understand the central premise of teaching academic moral philosophy to these idiots.  

The in-universe reason, is it was specifically chosen to be the thing that would actively piss off eleanor the most.
The meta reason is obviously he wanted to write a sitcom exploring philosophy.

I don't think anything post season 1 is supposed to be 'a twist', its just regular season cliffhangers / resolutions. It also drifts into cosy drama rather than sitcom, but eh, its at least watchable to the end.

Best character is horny 80s corporate raider cokehead

[filler]

been watching alien earth


I enjoy some of the story elements, but the retarded cyborg kids are dumb af