Finished _Dark_ yesterday. I really liked it but it was hard to follow who was who when it started jumping time.

after meaning to watch Black Mirror for some time, finally got around to it in past week. Probably halfway thru (White Christmas was the last episode we watched), and enjoying the hell out of it though it is almost always disturbing as hell

Just started. Bleak.

we just binged season 1 (season 2 starts next month), totally hooked

wife still sick, so we started binging this, and it's forkin' hilarious!



It may be just me, but I can't think of a person more (seemingly) charming/affable/less offensive than Kristen Bell, even in commercials with her jackass husband

The Tick is back for another season!

I've watched a lot of late night on YouTube lately. Kimmel and Meyers are my favorites. Kimmel is a stronger solo performer than Meyers, but Meyers does great stuff with his staff (especially Amber Ruffin--I think she could handle a talk show of her own). Fallon is the funniest in sketches but less so in stand-up or conversation. Colbert is great technically--I love the way he works the camera--but his schtick leaves me cold.

All that for an excuse to show something from Kimmel's show this week. Since ABC doesn't have the Olympics, he's been doing the YouLympics--videos from YouTube presented as though they were from the Olympics. It's a great (and cheap!) premise. All eight are funny: Here are two that really cracked me up. As ABC's Wide World Of Sports used to say:

The Agony of Victory...



...The Ecstasy of Defeat.

Timing is everything: I just started on Season 1 of Jessica Jones and am enjoying it greatly despite the fact that it's not really in my sweet spot. I had just commented to my wife that it was really great how the producers/directed made NYC a part of the story so seamlessly, w/out "arty" montages and the like or by forcing it on viewers by emphasizing the background too much, but rather, just by setting scenes in various well chosen parts of the city and letting the city filter through the scenes. About 3 minutes later, Jessica appears in costume advertising "hoagies." The next time a New Yorker says "hoagie" for "hero," "sub" or sandwich will be the first. Obviously a minor glitch but having just made that comment about the city and its role in the show, it stood out like a 6 foot long, ummmm, hoagie.

there are too many good shows on to keep up.

i am partially to mostly done with these series:

The Americans
Mr Robot
Vikings
Oz
Master Of None
Altered Carbon
Weeds (left it by the wayside somewhere in season 2, years ago)
Orphan Black
Easy
Orange Is The New Black



and probably a few more. ain't nobody got time for that.

Beebs wrote:

Just started. Bleak.

This is pretty terrible. There's a few good performances, interesting characters and moments of good dialogue, then all of a sudden it's community theater level acting and melodramatic nonsense. Then they throw in something horrifically shocking to western it up. I'm pushing through just because I was two episodes from the end before the real eye rolling started.

Finished Jessica Jones and enjoyed it. I'll probably watch season 2, but not in real time.

Although I enjoyed it, I gotta say it was way too long, maybe by as much as 3 or 4 episodes, which is a lot in a 13 show season. My diagnosis is that the plot was too thin to stretch as far as it needed to in order for the auteurs to explore all the issues, questions and relationships they wanted to.

Gotta say I was totally surprised after the end when the trailer for Luke Cage came on. I have no idea he got his own show. The trailer drained me of any potential interest I might have had in watching, it was flat out awful.

Speaking of the ending, it was kind of anti-climactic, but I'm not sure there was much else they could have done. It's one clear way that less stretching would have made for less disappointment because one wouldn't feel quite so invested in the "payoff" of the denouement.

I don't think I had previously heard of the actress playing Tricia (Rachel something) which, shall we say, surprises me. But as beautiful as she is, there's no doubt that it was Jessica that supplied the show's considerable heat and it was great to see a "nonclassic" Hollywood woman fill that role (not that she's not beautiful, too, just in a different less assembly line way).

watched the debut episode of McMafia this week, definitely intrigued enough to keep watching

watched all but the last 2 episodes of this. Way better than it has a right to be, due to some quality acting (Michael Shannon elevates anything that has his involvement). Been pretty obsessed with this since it happened- lived just down the road in Austin when this went down and was pretty riveted. It started the day after my birthday- remember waking up hungover that Sunday morning and watching the local news reports of the raid- and it ended on my mother's birthday

Fun fact: Waco has at least 3 actors from Boardwalk Empire

The Shadow Line (Amazon Prime/BBC)

What a waste of 8 hours of my life, to say nothing of the ten bucks.

I don't mind complex, confusing plots that leave me hanging for a while when there's good acting, interesting questions/issues being explored and a payoff that is intellectually and emotionally satisfying. In retrospect, knowing all the answers (well, many of them; some big ones remain unclear, at least to me), the "pay off" was a total anti-climactic letdown that did not provide any closure and made what came before either extremely implausible or to an even greater extent pointless. I hate plot twists just for the sake of having plot twists, i.e. not because they're grounded in any logic, even just the internal logic of the script. This story had a couple that were just out of left field. Yeah, they were surprising, but what difference does that make if they don't make sense? Feh.

I joined in while my wife was watching Blackish the other night so I'm not sure exactly where I picked it up, but I thought it was pretty funny. The too obvious parallels to the cosby show are a bit awkward sometimes, even if that's part of the point, but on the whole pretty well done and very funny.

We started watching Grace & Frankie and, 2 episodes in, it's one of the best sitcoms in recent memory. Very, very funny and Lily Tomlin is of course fantastic. But it was Jane Fonda who had what must be one of the greatest lines in sitcom history when she said "If anybody is going to sit on Ryan Gosling's face it's gonna be me." I know it doesn't mean anything out of context, but remember it if u do watch.

beantownbubba wrote:I joined in while my wife was watching Blackish the other night so I'm not sure exactly where I picked it up, but I thought it was pretty funny. The too obvious parallels to the cosby show are a bit awkward sometimes, even if that's part of the point, but on the whole pretty well done and very funny.

Were you watching the two new episodes last night? Good stuff. As I have said before, we are big fans of this show, it is consistently pert near excellent. Such a great ensemble, I think every character is well-developed and hilarious with the exception of Dre, who is ostensibly the *star* of the show. I find him to be the weak link far more often than not

Forgot to say that one of the bonuses on Grace & Frankie is that it turns out that Brooklyn Decker can actually act. She's not gonna win an oscar anytime soon, but she does a nice job.

beantownbubba wrote:
We started watching Grace & Frankie and, 2 episodes in, it's one of the best sitcoms in recent memory. Very, very funny and Lily Tomlin is of course fantastic. But it was Jane Fonda who had what must be one of the greatest lines in sitcom history when she said "If anybody is going to sit on Ryan Gosling's face it's gonna be me." I know it doesn't mean anything out of context, but remember it if u do watch.

Randi's been watching this show lately too. She loves it. I've only watched a few scenes and let's just say I'm not as enthralled with Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin as you, lol.

As for me, I've been working my way through The Wire since Christmas. It's my first time watching it and I'm currently half way thru the final season. Really enjoying it, it's as good as everyone says.

Clams wrote: Randi's been watching this show lately too. She loves it. I've only watched a few scenes and let's just say I'm not as enthralled with Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin as you, lol.

As for me, I've been working my way through The Wire since Christmas. It's my first time watching it and I'm currently half way thru the final season. Really enjoying it, it's as good as everyone says.

Find the 2 or 3 short scenes in the first episode that relate to the Ryan Gosling quote then tell me what u think about Jane. As for Lily, you have to enjoy her complete over the top acting for what it is - if you're looking for a nuanced performance, look elsewhere. Also don't forget my comments are based on 2 episodes; I have no idea what the show's staying power may or may not be.

Oh yeah, the Wire is IT. Only surprised that your just getting to it now, but that also makes me a little jealous that you're getting your eyes opened for the first time.

beantownbubba wrote:Oh yeah, the Wire is IT. Only surprised that your just getting to it now, but that also makes me a little jealous that you're getting your eyes opened for the first time.

The final season of The Americans starts tonight, can't wait.

everyone needs to see Wild Wild Country immediately. what a fascinating, incredible story. i vaguely recall some details about it when i was growing up. this is well done.

tinnitus photography wrote:everyone needs to see Wild Wild Country immediately. what a fascinating, incredible story. i vaguely recall some details about it when i was growing up. this is well done.

Story checks out. I'm three episodes deep. Fascinating.

cortez the killer wrote:

tinnitus photography wrote:everyone needs to see Wild Wild Country immediately. what a fascinating, incredible story. i vaguely recall some details about it when i was growing up. this is well done.

Story checks out. I'm three episodes deep. Fascinating.

You guys beat me to it! We watched first three episodes last night and are totally hooked. I remember a lot of this from when it happened

Years ago I watched a couple of seasons of Sons of Anarchy, but I got distracted and stopped. Recently I am in the process of rewatching and am amazed by how good the show is. I wish the theme music would play every time I walk into a room!!!

Amber is Ready For Prime Time and has been for a while, but the other acting writers on the show are pretty good, too. This bit with Amber and Ally is consistently good, but this time around, they took it to another level:

Beaverdam wrote:Years ago I watched a couple of seasons of Sons of Anarchy, but I got distracted and stopped. Recently I am in the process of rewatching and am amazed by how good the show is. I wish the theme music would play every time I walk into a room!!!

It gets ridiculous by the end.

Smitty wrote:

Beaverdam wrote:Years ago I watched a couple of seasons of Sons of Anarchy, but I got distracted and stopped. Recently I am in the process of rewatching and am amazed by how good the show is. I wish the theme music would play every time I walk into a room!!!

It gets ridiculous by the end.

I didn't want to be the killjoy but since u broke the ice, yep, absolutely agree. First couple of seasons: top notch. Third season (as I recall): transitional but still worth watching. Fourth season: Shark jumped. I could be off by a season, don't recall exactly. I know which plot made me throw up my hands but I don't want to spoil anything by being that specific.

Slowly making my way through the first season. In general I enjoy it but I'm not sure that all the story lines will be worth their effort in the end.

It ain't no Wire. But I'll see where it goes.

Beebs wrote:

Slowly making my way through the first season. In general I enjoy it but I'm not sure that all the story lines will be worth their effort in the end.

It ain't no Wire. But I'll see where it goes.

I think you'll find that you like it more as you go along. It's not as good as the Wire but the storylines you talk about do play out, some in surprising ways. I came to it late in the third season as Lurleen had been watching it before I did (of course) but then I went back and caught up on what I missed. I think I'm going to a start to finish reviewing at some point. I really do think it's one of the better shows of the last decade.