Game of Thrones/TV thread

[Nakedmolerat]

Ozark has been renewed by Netflix for Season 2, and I can't wait. As long as Michael Bluth isn't revealed as a rapist tween now and then, the show has some promise. Season 1 was great. 

[glduck]

yeah i kind of liked S1, too. it was like a poor man's breaking bad was set in the terrifying backwoods of america. a few of the villains seemed like they were lifted straight out of justified (which isn't a bad thing). 

[Orange]

1 hour ago, glduck said:

yeah i kind of liked S1, too. it was like a poor man's breaking bad was set in the terrifying backwoods of america. a few of the villains seemed like they were lifted straight out of justified (which isn't a bad thing). 

Holy shit, THIS!  Didn't really realize why I was getting deja vu on the show until you said this.

Regardless, great show.  I love the way it breaks down money laundering without merely relying on montages and quick-cuts and glossing over details.  Totally engrossing.

[glduck]

man i don’t even like wrestling but i watched the crap out of the 30 for 30 on ric flair tonight. incredible how someone can hate themself so much that they wrestle into their 60s because they’re so afraid on no longer being able to be the persona they’ve created.

the end with his son just killed me.

[Orange]

Haven't watched it yet, but it almost sounds as if The Wrestler was modeled off of Flair.

[Mano]

Watched both seasons of Stranger Things this week, liked it a lot. I think I enjoyed all the nostalgic early 80's references as much as anything in the show.

[Orange]

Seems like every decent show now is a period drama of sorts.  Stranger Things, Mindhunter, and even the Ted Kaczinski Unabomber show (Manhunt) on Netflix, I think it's a combination of nostalgia, and also more drama in a television show where not everyone is staring at their phone.  Even Walking Dead is probably popular because society has been rinsed of all technology and it may as well be 1920.

[KUGRDON]

 Based on reviews in NYT, I set dvr to record Search Party and The Problem With Apu.  For those with Hulu, Future Man also was recommended.

[Scscsc89]

New shows I’m watching:

The Good Doctor

The Orville

[Scscsc89]

Big premiere today in our household:   The Big Hero 6 animated series

[glduck]

i am BORED, and when i'm bored i post mindless drivel on the internet. with no further ado, my top 10 shows of 2017:

1. the handmaiden's tale (hulu).the haindmaiden's tale was so good and so well done it makes the rest of the list, which feature some spectacular shows, null and void. i had not read the book so i went in not fully knowing what to expect, and this show mind-raped me. 

2. better call saul (amc). there's going to come a time when we look back at better call saul and recognize that it stands on its own along with some of the great shows of all-time and it just so happens to be a prequel to another of the great shows of all time. 

3. game of thrones (hbo). i don't know if this was structurally the third best show of 2017, or whatever, but it's the only show i actually made a point of watching live in 2017 and, having been with it since the beginning, i can't help but love the payoff fans are beginning to get. aside from stranger things, it's really the only must-watch show we have anymore.

4. the leftovers (hbo). whatever you do, don't quit this after a lackluster S1. S2 was great, and this thing went out with a bang in S3. 

5. bojack horseman (netflix). aside from probably handmaiden's tale, bojack was the most emotionally charged show of 2017 and, for the first time (this was S4), we're actually left with an uplifting conclusion to the season. you have to get through some truly gut-wrenching episodes involving his mother to get there -- holy fuck -- but bojack finally finding some family was a nice touch for a show about a horse who pushes everyone away.

6. godless (netflix). it's a show about an 1880s western town run by women! jeff daniels is a bad guy! a late, great addition to the list. 

7. stranger things (netflix). this, too, was not oh my gerd amazing, but like i said earlier after watching it all the characters so fucking fun it doesn't matter. it's still impossible not to digest the whole season in just a day or so, and that's good watchin'. 

8. orange is the new black (netflix). i enjoyed S1. it was different, and quirky, and well-written. it didn't make my top 10 or anything, but hey. there are good shows outside some asshole's top 10 list. i even liked S2. it had a good central villain, and the story flowed nicely. then S3 and S4 happened, and i very nearly forgot this show existed at all. but, ah... S5? where did this come from? all 13 episodes take place over a 24 hour period during a prison riot, and it was astonishingly decent. the producer's finally realized that the main character is probably the 7th or 8th most entertaining character on the show and pushed her waaaaaaay back, much to the benefit of the viewer. not bad!

9. american vandal (netflix). this is a true-crime spoof about a mystery centered around a high school and who drew a bunch of dicks on several teacher's cars. it sounds insanely stupid but it might have been the funniest thing i watched in 2017, and it was so much more engrossing than it had any right to be. i was more tied up in who drew the dicks than i ever was in making a murderer.

10. punisher (netflix). another laaaaaate addition to the list, the punisher is one of the best marvel netflix shows to date and nobody is more surprised than me, a guy who generally doesn't like the punisher or the actor who plays him. watch it before disney takes all their stuff off netflix and creates their own streaming service. 

[Mano]

Are you not a fan of Fargo, or have you not seen it yet?

[glduck]

i'm way behind. i watched, and greatly enjoyed, S1, but i still need to see S2 and S3. 

[Mano]

52 minutes ago, glduck said:

i am BORED, and when i'm bored i post mindless drivel on the internet. with no further ado, my top 10 shows of 2017:

1. the handmaiden's tale (hulu).the haindmaiden's tale was so good and so well done it makes the rest of the list, which feature some spectacular shows, null and void. i had not read the book so i went in not fully knowing what to expect, and this show mind-raped me. 

2. better call saul (amc). there's going to come a time when we look back at better call saul and recognize that it stands on its own along with some of the great shows of all-time and it just so happens to be a prequel to another of the great shows of all time. 

3. game of thrones (hbo). i don't know if this was structurally the third best show of 2017, or whatever, but it's the only show i actually made a point of watching live in 2017 and, having been with it since the beginning, i can't help but love the payoff fans are beginning to get. aside from stranger things, it's really the only must-watch show we have anymore.

4. the leftovers (hbo). whatever you do, don't quit this after a lackluster S1. S2 was great, and this thing went out with a bang in S3. 

5. bojack horseman (netflix). aside from probably handmaiden's tale, bojack was the most emotionally charged show of 2017 and, for the first time (this was S4), we're actually left with an uplifting conclusion to the season. you have to get through some truly gut-wrenching episodes involving his mother to get there -- holy fuck -- but bojack finally finding some family was a nice touch for a show about a horse who pushes everyone away.

6. godless (netflix). it's a show about an 1880s western town run by women! jeff daniels is a bad guy! a late, great addition to the list. 

7. stranger things (netflix). this, too, was not oh my gerd amazing, but like i said earlier after watching it all the characters so fucking fun it doesn't matter. it's still impossible not to digest the whole season in just a day or so, and that's good watchin'. 

8. orange is the new black (netflix). i enjoyed S1. it was different, and quirky, and well-written. it didn't make my top 10 or anything, but hey. there are good shows outside some asshole's top 10 list. i even liked S2. it had a good central villain, and the story flowed nicely. then S3 and S4 happened, and i very nearly forgot this show existed at all. but, ah... S5? where did this come from? all 13 episodes take place over a 24 hour period during a prison riot, and it was astonishingly decent. the producer's finally realized that the main character is probably the 7th or 8th most entertaining character on the show and pushed her waaaaaaay back, much to the benefit of the viewer. not bad!

9. american vandal (netflix). this is a true-crime spoof about a mystery centered around a high school and who drew a bunch of dicks on several teacher's cars. it sounds insanely stupid but it might have been the funniest thing i watched in 2017, and it was so much more engrossing than it had any right to be. i was more tied up in who drew the dicks than i ever was in making a murderer.

10. punisher (netflix). another laaaaaate addition to the list, the punisher is one of the best marvel netflix shows to date and nobody is more surprised than me, a guy who generally doesn't like the punisher or the actor who plays him. watch it before disney takes all their stuff off netflix and creates their own streaming service. 

I have watched Better Call Saul, GOT, Stranger Things and Punisher and thoroughly  enjoyed all of them, so I will assume you have good taste and try to see some of the others on your list.

As I said above, Fargo also great, each season has had its own quirky charm. Also enjoying this season of Mr. Robot, like it much better than season 2.

[Scscsc89]

Season 2 killed my interest in orange is the new black.  Not sure I could go back.

[Orange]

18 hours ago, Mano said:

I have watched Better Call Saul, GOT, Stranger Things and Punisher and thoroughly  enjoyed all of them, so I will assume you have good taste and try to see some of the others on your list.

As I said above, Fargo also great, each season has had its own quirky charm. Also enjoying this season of Mr. Robot, like it much better than season 2.

Fargo is fucking AMAZING and worthy of a top 3 on the list (and I'm confident gl will agree if he catches up).

The Americans is also just top-notch television.  Legion, AHS, etc....FX has knocked it cleanly out of the park.  

The Walking Dead used to be way up there for me.  The past 2 seasons, however, have been dogshit.  It's sad, they're really on the verge of ruining what was once, in my mind, one of the top 2 shows in TV history (the other being Breaking Bad).

  

[glduck]

i really did dig fargo S1, i need to get back on the train.

similarly, i also loved the first two seasons of the americans, but something happened during S3 and i never finished it. i'm so far behind now i think i'm just going to wait until the whole thing is wrapped up and binge it all.

i still haven't seen legion, which is weird for me because i'm usually all over that comic stuff. i saw S1 of AHS but never went beyond it. 

i feel the same way about the walking dead. it's not even that i don't find negan to be an intriguing and charismatic character... i just got to a point where i could no longer do it. it was right around when they introduced that guy with a pet tiger. 

[Orange]

4 hours ago, glduck said:

i really did dig fargo S1, i need to get back on the train.

similarly, i also loved the first two seasons of the americans, but something happened during S3 and i never finished it. i'm so far behind now i think i'm just going to wait until the whole thing is wrapped up and binge it all.

i still haven't seen legion, which is weird for me because i'm usually all over that comic stuff. i saw S1 of AHS but never went beyond it. 

i feel the same way about the walking dead. it's not even that i don't find negan to be an intriguing and charismatic character... i just got to a point where i could no longer do it. it was right around when they introduced that guy with a pet tiger. 

This.  What could be a better corollary to "jumping the shark" than "introducing a pet tiger"?

And as if it wasn't bad enough that they introduced the tiger, but then he goes into fucking battle, like this is goddamned He-Man. 

 

Worst of all (SPOILER ALERT)

 

...

 

 

Fucking walkers eat him.  Fuck you, Walking Dead.

[RogueDuck]

I’d like Punisher a lot more if they’d chose a actor who better embodies what the punisher is suppose to look like.  Frank Castle is supposed to be a bad ass who’s 6’3 230 not some little guy who’s 5’9 170lbs.  

[glduck]

i was going to do a top 10 movies of the year, but you know -- i don't think i've seen ten movies this year, and those that i did actually take time to see in the cinema are comic movies. i've really fallen behind the curve. for movies i HAVE seen:

1. coco. god damnit pixar you geniuses you.

2. dunkirk. some of the criticism of this movie stemmed from direct comparisons to other war classics, but fuck that. most things are going to pail to tora! tora! tora! when you've watched and loved that movie for 40 years. dunkirk was awesome. shut up.

3. get out. proof that good word of mouth is still a powerful tool. everybody loved this movie, which prompted me to see it, and i loved it too. lot of controversy right now about how the award circuit is labeling this a comedy, which it certainly is not. but it's also not a strict horror movie. whatever it is, it's good.

4. lost city of z. jax teller in the jungle! a surprising addition to the top 5. forget king arthur, charlie hunnam can actually act if you give him the right role. and this was it, apparently. a soldier takes on an expedition into the amazon for the crown, which becomes a life-long obsession. great, great ending.

5. john wick 2. the john wick hype train is real. once a decade or so keanu revives his career with something awesome. the john wick franchise is the current thing. 

6. logan. so i saw this in the theatre and really enjoyed it. a few months later, i catch about 10 minutes of the far-inferior wolverine 2 ("the wolverine") on cable, at the exact moment where logan and that japanese girl are talking about how wolverine is destined to die "with his heart in his hand." cue me purchasing "logan" a few weeks after that, re-watching it, and (spoiler) seeing logan die while his daughter is by his side holding is hand. **charlie brown scream**

7. the big sick. another little-movie-that-could that i only saw because twitter isn't *only* for loud-mouthed nazis, it's also to push great little indie films into the lives of people who may otherwise not know they exist. 

8. thor: ragnorok. funniest movie of the year? maybe! best of the thor franchise.

9. wonder woman. this was good, don't get me wrong, but probably not *as* good as people are saying. ares the god of war just did not work for me, and it really was paint-by-numbers, but regardless it was SO MUCH BETTER than every other DCU movie i think it gets a pass for a lot of those things. it certainly had its moments. 

10. spider-man: homecoming. another solid movie that was probably praised just a little too much. i think it would have been better if they didn't try to tie everything together -- did vulture HAVE to be the father of spider-man's girlfriend? eh. big improvement over the "amazing" films, though. 

ok apparently i did see ten movies this year.