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Beer_Suitcase posted:Should I watch The Wire? My spouse is like 40 hours into 90 Day Fiancee and I want to get her hooked on something else. The Wire is my favorite dramatic show of all time. Give it six episodes, since it starts out as a real slow burn. By the time you watch episode 6, also called "The Wire," you'll either be hooked or it won't be for you. Also, watch it with the captions on, so you don't miss character names and key dialogue due to slang and Baltimore accents. I think that helps a lot.
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May 13, 2020 21:59
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People keep praising Season 2 of Justified but I don't get it*. I haven’t finished Season 3 but so far it's much better. Season 2 so far has been the weakest for me. Also watch The Wire just be aware it takes a while to get going. *this is just my opinion and a push for conversation. I know everyone doesn't like the same thing
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May 13, 2020 22:57
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I am in season 5 of Life Below Zero, a reality show/doc about living in Alaska. I guess they're up to season 13 now, so it's been on for awhile and I believe they are still following most of the same families. I find it pretty interesting, the people they follow are all people who know the environment. It's not dummies who are spending their first winter in the cold and trying to survive. The drama is pretty minimal which I like, they definitely try to make stuff out to be really dramatic. But I'm pretty sure the family that already has an entire shed of salmon they caught will survive if they miss a shot at getting a moose. The personalities are diverse. The grandma who lives on the north edge of Alaska is really melodramatic about everything and did you know she was attacked by a bear a few years ago? Because she constantly brings it up. There's a guy named Glenn who seems to have disappeared (as in maybe he didn't want to be filmed anymore, not that he died), he was super cool though and lives by himself so it was neat to see how he managed that. He also runs around naked a fair amount even when it's 40 below.
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May 13, 2020 23:59
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Gaunab posted:People keep praising Season 2 of Justified but I don't get it*. I haven’t finished Season 3 but so far it's much better. Season 2 so far has been the weakest for me. Also watch The Wire just be aware it takes a while to get going. Season 2’s plot isn’t anything special, imo, but the performances of Margo Martindale as Mags and Jeremy Davies as Dickie are just so goddamn good. Also it’s the first season where Olyphant really leans it what he wanted Raylan to be and the conflict with Arlo takes shape too. Add in Dewey crowe, Mr Duffy, and of course Walton Goggins and it is a hell of a season. Season2 is so good because it setup everything for the next 4 seasons.
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May 14, 2020 01:24
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I finished Dark Matter and I'm really glad I asked and was told that it got cancelled on a cliffhanger because being prepared for that made it sting a lot less. For example Alphas ending after two seasons on a cliffhanger actually irl upset me for a day or so when it happened because it was so sudden and unwarranted for such a good show. (The below spoilers are from Season 3, and all they are is describing the type of episode it was) For a pulpy sci-fi show with ridiculous action scenes, terrible "science" and probably - if you think about it more than you ever should, should your aim be to actually enjoy shows like this - more plot holes than it has gunshots, Dark Matter had some surprisingly good twists and great character moments. One of the highlights was their "A Character is Experiencing Groundhog Day and No-one Else Believes Them" episode that shows like these love to do. It was a funny and refreshing take on the concept that I think I can confidently say I've seen done literally more than ten times over the years in genre shows like this. Unfortunately, one of the low points was another cliche episode that's been overdone - The team visit 21st century Earth and have to adapt to our primitive lifestyle and strange culture. The episode was kinda boring and nothing really happened that advanced the plot or character arcs in any way. Well, nothing that couldn't have been done in a 3-minute scene with a bit of technobabble anyway. Waste of an episode. Well that's left me in the mood for similar shows. I've already seen Farscape which is the closest thing I can think of. I see Killjoys ended its run without being cancelled, how was that past the first season? And I also discovered Utopia Falls which has the same writer that did Dark Matter. Trailer for it looks loving terrible, but a very high concentration of comments under said trailer is people saying this is the worst trailer ever and it does the show no justice at all, so I'm going to give that a try as well and report back.  that does look bad though, fuuuck me.
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May 14, 2020 01:34
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Solaris 2.0 posted:Started with Deadwood and then the movie. Which was good/great. The characters and acting were amazing. George Hearst is an all time great villain and i couldn't get enough of Ian McShane as Al Swearengen, though it felt like every character was great. The general plot was really hard for me to follow, and I felt the payoffs were...not great. Still, an enjoyable ride and the movie was a great conclusion.
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May 14, 2020 03:35
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That reminds me I never watched the Deadwood movie and I just checked and I binged the series in June. I have no idea why its taken me a year to watch it.
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May 14, 2020 04:29
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Solaris 2.0 posted:I've been on a quarantine Timothy Olyphant binge watch spree. Once you're done with that I'd suggest Santa Clarita Diet as a nice comedic Olyphant palate cleanser.
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May 14, 2020 04:44
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I am vaguely interested about people calling The Wire a slow burn, or using words to that effect ... never on any forum before now have I heard it described that way and would not myself use those words to describe it. Is this because so many new shows focus on stimulus over depth?
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May 14, 2020 06:38
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Mr Ice Cream Glove posted:Now just release full prison song I was really hoping the finale would be just a 20+ minute music video.
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May 14, 2020 06:40
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wormil posted:I am vaguely interested about people calling The Wire a slow burn, or using words to that effect ... never on any forum before now have I heard it described that way and would not myself use those words to describe it. Is this because so many new shows focus on stimulus over depth? I think it's because with the first season it layers characters and plot up, on top of each other, over and over. You don't get any traditional resolution until the end of the season where things—from a storytelling perspective—come together. I remember being fascinated by the world when I first watched it, the people, the setting, the characterisation, the language, etc., but there was an "aha!" moment when the first season ended that made it all work in a traditional television way. It showed it could manage both, the sociological and the televisual storytelling. It's really well handled and why it roped so many people in, it showed it was relevant as a study of people and as a means of regular drama, but it made you wait for it, it wasn't punching you with it straight off. There was a delay on it that made it far richer.
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May 14, 2020 06:44
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Mrenda posted:I think it's because with the first season it layers characters and plot up, on top of each other, over and over. You don't get any traditional resolution until the end of the season where things—from a storytelling perspective—come together. I remember being fascinated by the world when I first watched it, the people, the setting, the characterisation, the language, etc., but there was an "aha!" moment when the first season ended that made it all work in a traditional television way. It showed it could manage both, the sociological and the televisual storytelling. It's really well handled and why it roped so many people in, it showed it was relevant as a study of people and as a means of regular drama, but it made you wait for it, it wasn't punching you with it straight off. There was a delay on it that made it far richer.
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May 14, 2020 07:39
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Solice Kirsk posted:I figure between watching that and starting to play Kingdom Come: Deliverance I should be able to kill 9 days off in a row. Probably gonna go through a ton of edibles too. With DLC I spent 224 hours on Kingdom Come. Henry is just such a decent person that it felt good to spend time in his head. DO: Spend time in the forests, take every opportunity to improve Henry's combat skills, learn lockpicking, steal everything, switch to a mace when your opponents start regularly wearing chain or plate.
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May 14, 2020 07:47
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Cactus posted:Well that's left me in the mood for similar shows. I've already seen Farscape which is the closest thing I can think of. I see Killjoys ended its run without being cancelled, how was that past the first season? And I also discovered Utopia Falls which has the same writer that did Dark Matter. Trailer for it looks loving terrible, but a very high concentration of comments under said trailer is people saying this is the worst trailer ever and it does the show no justice at all, so I'm going to give that a try as well and report back. Killjoys got really awesome. First season was pretty comparable to what I've seen of first season Dark Matter in quality, but after that it really found its groove of splashy fun and cast dynamics. It's got a whole lot of what people say they love about Firefly, apart from the "space western" aesthetic specifically.
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May 14, 2020 08:29
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Solaris 2.0 posted:Right now I am on Season 5 of Justified and oh man am I having so much fun with this show. Season 1 was by far the weakest, as it was clear the writers were not quite sure what kind of show they wanted it to be. But Season 2 was something special and I've been hooked since. Timothy Olyphant just nails it as Raylan Givens and the show is the perfect mix of drama but also knows when to have fun with itself and its characters. I can't wait to see how it all wraps up. I would never call Justified the best show ever made, but it's hard for me to come up with a show that was more consistently fun to watch. You're right that S1 was the weakest and Season 2 was probably the strongest - but drat near every episode of that show was good, solid fun.  Justified buddy
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May 14, 2020 08:33
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wormil posted:For me everything about The Wire feels authentic, the story, the setting, the characters that are often selfish, self destructive, and competitive but I disagree that it made you wait for a payoff to any degree different than other storytelling. I think what it lacks is that visceral quality that constantly stimulates your senses, for example Carnivale or Penny Dreadful that don't have the most succinct storylines but the characters and setting constantly bombard your senses. That style seems to be more and more common on streaming series. I'd compare it to some forms of literature, that tell two separate stories (although they're happening at the same time.) You can see the parallels between them, but it's only towards the end that you see, from the storytelling perspective, clearly and directly, them uniting. Intellectually we know there is the police and the gangs, that there is the titular wire, that these two distinct worlds have to be joined, but it's only towards the end of season one that the storytelling unifies them from its perspective: from a single (figurative) camera angle. One of the major aspects of The Wire was to be different from other police stories where a wire, investigation, recording, raid and arrest all happens within an hour of TV. It was supposed to be stretched out, showing the distance between the police and the gangs (and it's a major theme of the show, how they're parallels to each other, similar in a lot of ways but kept apart by sociologically causes.) The fact that the raids towards the end of season one, what should be (according to other police shows) a triumphant moment (already dragged out longer than other police shows) are actually a disappointment because the assignment wanted to build up a bigger, longer, further reaching case is an indication that this isn't a show about rise, peak and fall of traditional storytelling arcs—not within episodes—and season two shows it's not even true across multiple seasons with The Wire. The Wire takes most of a whole season before it points at its own name (The Wire) and shows you what it means, even if it's building up evidence for it all the way to that point.
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May 14, 2020 09:33
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Killer robot posted:Killjoys got really awesome. First season was pretty comparable to what I've seen of first season Dark Matter in quality, but after that it really found its groove of splashy fun and cast dynamics. It's got a whole lot of what people say they love about Firefly, apart from the "space western" aesthetic specifically. That's good to hear. They both came out the same year iir and I prefered Killjoy's 1st season to Dark Matter's. The only reason I fell of the 2nd season was that it was a year later and I'd forgotten who everyone was and what they were doing, even though I felt it was too soon to rewatch it all from the beginning. I'll watch it when I'm done with Utopia Falls... Utopia Falls... ah, what to make of this?? It's a YA novel in the form of a pop idol contest, basically, with clumsy political commentry. I'm only 4 eps in and I'm still not sure how I feel about it. It's cheesy as gently caress but whatever, it's a borderline musical so that comes with the territory - normally I hate those but the hip-hop/rap is not unagreable and completely different to what I'm used to listening to so I'm enjoying that aspect, for once. I'm just not sure how it wants me to feel about it, or what it's trying to say though, at this point. I don't know where it falls on the line between portrayal / depiction / condoning / condemning whatever it is showing me at any given moment. It shows a cool-seeming socialist society where everyone is diverse and equal, and everyone puts the needs of society before their own, yet it very soon starts unsubtly "subverting" that as though it's saying "wouldn't such a society be awful?" Only now it seems like it's starting to say actually this society isn't really like that and our characters are starting to find that out, so they're going to rebel to be more individualistic and mistrustful of the state? Maybe? One of the lines in the opening monologue setting the utopian scene is "nobody wants for jobs" which IMO isn't utopian, it's calvinistic, but I couldn't tell if that's the character showing how their propoganda has affected her worldview or if that is what the show itself thinks is supposed to be utopian, so that it can subvert it later on. And all this comes at a time and irl context where more and more people are realising that rugged individualism is part of what's wrecking the planet, and we're in a pandemic where defying authority and shutdown is decidedly antisocial and dangerous, so... socialism bad? I dunno, I'm probably either misunderstanding it because I haven't seen it all or maybe the writing is a bit all over the place or maybe I'm dumb or a mixture of all three, but I'm interested to see where it goes. It still has a whole six episodes to clear it all up. I also started Bosch and I'm really liking it - loving seeing the Wire actors in a police show again - but it's a 2-3 eps at a time kind of deal rather than a straight binge, so it'll be my ongoing background show that I use to take breaks in between other stuff.
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May 14, 2020 09:46
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I just finished S6 of Bosch, and I’d call the series overall ‘dependable’. It looks nice, the acting is fine, the stories are fine and that’s about it. Easy to watch, nothing to get annoyed about.
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May 14, 2020 11:40
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Cactus posted:Utopia Falls... ah, what to make of this?? It's a YA novel in the form of a pop idol contest, basically, with clumsy political commentry. I'm only 4 eps in and I'm still not sure how I feel about it. It's cheesy as gently caress but whatever, it's a borderline musical so that comes with the territory - normally I hate those but the hip-hop/rap is not unagreable and completely different to what I'm used to listening to so I'm enjoying that aspect, for once. I had never heard of that, so I looked it up, and it got the lowest score Ive ever seen on a TV show in IMDB. That alone makes me curious about it Elias_Maluco fucked around with this message at 12:38 on May 14, 2020 |
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May 14, 2020 12:35
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Mrenda posted:The Wire takes most of a whole season before it points at its own name (The Wire) and shows you what it means, even if it's building up evidence for it all the way to that point. You motherfuckers are going to make me watch The Wire again.
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May 14, 2020 12:54
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Elias_Maluco posted:I had never heard of that, so I looked it up, and it got the lowest score Ive ever seen on a TV show in IMDB. That alone makes me curious about it It's got enough there plot-wise in terms of mysteries that I'm intrigued enough to watch to the end but it's kinda poo poo. I've seen enough now to see for sure what it's doing and the dialogue is so on the nose. Each scene has a Theme, and each character in the scene speaks their position in the Political/Sociological Debate that encapsulates that Theme. And the themes themselves are mostly fine but the way it's written it's difficult to determine at first what the show is trying to say is a good thing and what it thinks is bad. That said it's not as bad as the worst thing I've seen which had this style of dialogue - The Secret Life of an American Teenager. Yeah that was way worse. Can't wait to start Killjoys in a couple of hours. That is going to seem like Shakespear after this...
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May 14, 2020 13:42
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sticklefifer posted:I was a bit historically nitpicky with the movie because they didn't touch upon the fact that Deadwood burned to the ground and also had a massive flood, and both were well before Al Swearengen supposedly died. I imagine both would be pretty difficult to shoot unless they really upped the budget, but it would've been fun to see how those would've affected the town. Deadwood really dropped the ball by not including Al Swearengen's law-abiding identical twin brother, Lemuel Swearengen. I mean, the script basically writes itself: When Al Swearengen is put out of commission by kidney stones, kind, mild-mannered Lemuel must learn to act like a badass, to convince people that Al is still in charge. Ian McShane gets to show off his acting chops by playing a different character trying to play Al. Hire me, HBO! Edit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qVLQKrx4uu4. Apparently, there was a lovely Deadwood movie, not affiliated with the show, starring low-budget Charles Bronson ("Bronzi". Seriously?), and including Swearengen's twin brother. SimonChris fucked around with this message at 15:32 on May 14, 2020 |
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May 14, 2020 14:46
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Cactus posted:I'll watch it when I'm done with Utopia Falls... I'm surprised this show even got mentioned in this thread. My SO's brother and a friend are both part of the main cast. I've tried watching it to give support, but it's pretty terrible so I stopped lol. Anyway, I've started The Americans so far and it's really good. Really not sure why I didn't watch this until now but at least I'll have a lot more seasons to go through.
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May 14, 2020 16:10
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wormil posted:I am vaguely interested about people calling The Wire a slow burn, or using words to that effect ... never on any forum before now have I heard it described that way and would not myself use those words to describe it. Is this because so many new shows focus on stimulus over depth? Aside from the long explanations, David Simon loves to drag out character and story development as long as possible. It worked for The Wire. It really didn't work at all for Treme. Pretty much every season of The Wire throws you into a new situation (Police/Drugs, Union Leadership Corruption, Political Corruption, Systemic Education Failure, Media Corruption) and then slowly brings you up to speed on the issue as the season progresses. The difference is the real slow burn is season 1 because it's an introduction to the characters which exist in almost all of the rest of the seasons. So season one is a slow burn and the rest the only slow burn is the overarching theme. Honestly I think his best work is Generation Kill precisely because he had source material to work off of and a short timeframe to just get poo poo done. I'm not trying to give a hot take here, I just freaking love GK. Some of the Wire has not aged well for me as my personal political beliefs have changed over the years but overall it's still an excellent show that takes some time to invest in at first.
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May 14, 2020 16:14
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Yeah, The Wire is one of my favourite shows ever, my only complaints are a few things like the "serial killer" which felt like a really out of place plot point at the time.
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May 14, 2020 16:17
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The Wire is excellent. It nails realism so hard that everything else feels like cartoons for months. Constellation I posted:Yeah, The Wire is one of my favourite shows ever, my only complaints are a few things like the "serial killer" which felt like a really out of place plot point at the time. It's excellent as media commentary, though. And also funny. I found that whole plot fine tremendously entertaining.
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May 14, 2020 16:28
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Are there any other shows that have as many named characters (around 30) that would go on to play at least moderately significant roles over the lifespan of the show in the first episode as The Wire? Even big ensemble cast shows like Lost had significantly less. The only thing I could think of was maybe some Soap Operas, but I suspect even they don't dump that many new faces on you in the first episode.
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May 14, 2020 16:37
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Gravy Jones posted:Are there any other shows that have as many named characters (around 30) that would go on to play at least moderately significant roles over the lifespan of the show in the first episode as The Wire? Even big ensemble cast shows like Lost had significantly less. The only thing I could think of was maybe some Soap Operas, but I suspect even they don't dump that many new faces on you in the first episode. Only Deadwood and Game of Thrones come close.
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May 15, 2020 01:18
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I watched Normal People on Hulu. I never read the book or anything but the performances in this were really excellent and it had some of the best, non creepy, sex scenes I've seen in a prestige TV show and the leads have great chemistry. I found the decisions the characters make and the plot to be a little frustrating but I would still recommend it.
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May 15, 2020 19:05
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Accretionist posted:The Wire is excellent. It nails realism so hard that everything else feels like cartoons for months. Yeah I lolled when McNulty said "We have to kill again!" and also at each of the other characters reactions when they eventuallly found out what was going on. It was the most sit-commy the show ever got but hey, I'll take a bit of pulpy comic relief at that point after four seasons of bleak realism. e: oh yeah finished Utopia Falls lol. The twist I was suspecting came to pass: It's hip-hop glee meets Hunger Games meets The Village. It's one of those shows that I know is bad, I really do know it, but I kind of weirdly like anyway. I'll probably watch it more if it gets another season  because I love poo poo tv apparently.Finished S1 of Bosch. My only thought on that - other than it was pretty good - is why does his daughter look more like she's the daughter of the policewoman he was boning than her actual mother Nina Myers? Cactus fucked around with this message at 21:06 on May 15, 2020 |
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May 15, 2020 20:44
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mcmagic posted:I watched Normal People on Hulu. I never read the book or anything but the performances in this were really excellent and it had some of the best, non creepy, sex scenes I've seen in a prestige TV show and the leads have great chemistry. I found the decisions the characters make and the plot to be a little frustrating but I would still recommend it. How shallow were the characters? I read the book and the characters never really showed any doubt about themselves or their scenario. There were doubts aplenty about the other people in varying situations, that they had about each other, but there was rarely the kind of depth where they thought, "Maybe it is I who am in the wrong?" with doubts about planned paths, situations, or especially their own mind. It made them seem far too certain and robotically confident.
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May 16, 2020 02:38
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ZeroZeroZero is 10 hours of Miami Vice film era Michael Mann. Sounds horrible to most everyone but I'm ok with it.
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May 16, 2020 04:23
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Decided to do The Good Place next and the actress that plays Janet is genius. Never have I seen anyone able to do the  face so expertly or deliver absolutely bonkers lines with such a straight face. God only knows how many takes some of those scenes must have taken because I've been creasing up.
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May 16, 2020 05:14
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Mrenda posted:How shallow were the characters? I read the book and the characters never really showed any doubt about themselves or their scenario. There were doubts aplenty about the other people in varying situations, that they had about each other, but there was rarely the kind of depth where they thought, "Maybe it is I who am in the wrong?" with doubts about planned paths, situations, or especially their own mind. It made them seem far too certain and robotically confident. I didn't really think they were shallow. They were just really really dumb kids who make their lives needlessly hard. At least thats how I ended up thinking about it at the end of the series.
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May 16, 2020 14:30
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Cactus posted:Decided to do The Good Place next and the actress that plays Janet is genius. Never have I seen anyone able to do the I've genuinely never heard a single negative critique of Janet, they nailed the casting
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May 16, 2020 14:45
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And she can turn on a dime flawlessly to portray Bad Place Janet. D'Arcy Corden is a treasure.
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May 16, 2020 18:15
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Solice Kirsk posted:Once you're done with that I'd suggest Santa Clarita Diet as a nice comedic Olyphant palate cleanser. I tried that show and couldn't get past the 3rd episode for some reason, even though I love Drew Barrymore. Now that we're caught up on our backlog of network shows, should my wife and I watch Upload or Little Fires Everywhere first? I love both Greg Daniels shows and Kerry Washington from Scandal, so please make my decision for me, internet strangers. Also, I've been on the fence about starting Difficult People for a while. Would it be worth my time? BigBallChunkyTime fucked around with this message at 18:35 on May 16, 2020 |
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May 16, 2020 18:32
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I watched The Great. Pretty entertaining. I guess Nicholas Hoult is going to play the same rear end in a top hat he played in The Favourate all the time from now on?
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May 16, 2020 22:25
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Travelers was way more engaging and intelligent than I would have expected from a random Netflix show.
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May 16, 2020 23:38
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BigBallChunkyTime posted:Now that we're caught up on our backlog of network shows, should my wife and I watch Upload or Little Fires Everywhere first? I love both Greg Daniels shows and Kerry Washington from Scandal, so please make my decision for me, internet strangers. Upload is wonderful. I didn't care for Little Fires Everywhere, but I'm definitely not the target audience for it. Kerry Washington was excellent in it, but most of the characters are very difficult to like, especially Reese Witherspoon, who is the absolute worst -- a proto-"Karen" type. It feels like "misery porn" at times, and also campy, overwrought melodrama at other moments, sometimes even in the same scene.
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May 17, 2020 05:14
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