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Medullah
Aug 13, 2003

FEAR MY SHARK ROCKET IT REALLY SUCKS AND BLOWS

Chairman Capone posted:

My girlfriend is a huge fan of the US Office, but had never seen the original. With the US one leaving Netflix, I convinced her to watch the original on Amazon. I hadn't seen it for years, and while I liked it, I preferred Extras. Watching it again now, though, I loved it a lot more. I think having seen so much of the US Office with her (it was one of our go-to things to put on in the background) everyone being more worn-down and less cheery and happy about being stuck in an office with each more was more refeshing.

I think we're going to go through Extras next so I'll see if that holds up. I haven't watched any of it in years and I have to say, I suspect I may not like it as much as I remember.

That being said, I still think Office and Extras are the only Gervais things I've enjoyed. Well, I guess I did like The Ricky Gervais Show too.

A tangent, but Vudu and Itunes both have the whole Office US series for $30 right now if you want to preserve it.

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muscles like this!
Jan 17, 2005


It moved over to Peacock but you have to have a pay subscription for the entire series.

pentyne
Nov 7, 2012

muscles like this! posted:

It moved over to Peacock but you have to have a pay subscription for the entire series.

wtf?

Peacock, a pay subscription, has separate pay subscriptions for certain shows?

edit: Okay it looks like it's same as hulu was, pay $8 to unlock all the shows +no ads.

Given the state of streaming I was completely ready to believe that they are adding content $ tiers for their most popular stuff.

Azhais
Feb 5, 2007
Switchblade Switcharoo
What do you think it is, Disney+

muscles like this!
Jan 17, 2005


I meant that the first two seasons are free but you have to have a pay subscription for the rest.

STAC Goat
Mar 12, 2008

Watching you sleep.

Butt first, let's
check the feeds.

Does Disney+ have tiers? I just have the one and I haven't noticed anything locked.

Peacock has a free service with ads and then a pay service that has the really coveted stuff or the deeper seasons of stuff they can get you hooked on for free.

Mu Zeta
Oct 17, 2002

Me crush ass to dust

The only tier was Mulan though I think that's an experiment

Ugly In The Morning
Jul 1, 2010
Pillbug
I’ve been rewatching 30 rock this last week and I forgot how funny this show is. Every episode has at least one all-time greatest level moment.

Hughmoris
Apr 21, 2007
Let's go to the abyss!
Still working my way thru Superstore. On to season 3, and lol at the employee Sal being found in the drywall on the halloween episode.

Also, Dina has become marginally more likeable.

pentyne
Nov 7, 2012

Ugly In The Morning posted:

I’ve been rewatching 30 rock this last week and I forgot how funny this show is. Every episode has at least one all-time greatest level moment.

It's aged extremely well in a lot of parts, not so much in others.

Hughmoris
Apr 21, 2007
Let's go to the abyss!

Ugly In The Morning posted:

I’ve been rewatching 30 rock this last week and I forgot how funny this show is. Every episode has at least one all-time greatest level moment.

I've mentioned it before but I don't think there is another show that has more jokes per minute than 30 rock.

Just today I was rewatching the 'Apollo, Apollo' episode. Where Dennis shows off his new coffee business.

muscles like this!
Jan 17, 2005


Apparently if you want more Warrior you should make sure to watch it on HBO Max since Cinemax isn't planning on doing any more.

Sirotan
Oct 17, 2006

Sirotan is a seal.


Azhais posted:

The series is on peacock I think

Was all excited to start it but Peacock only has season 1 (of 6) available, which is totally lame.

Azhais
Feb 5, 2007
Switchblade Switcharoo

Sirotan posted:

Was all excited to start it but Peacock only has season 1 (of 6) available, which is totally lame.

Hmm, just searching on prime it appears to be on imdb TV, so free with ads. All 6 seasons seem to be there

Sirotan
Oct 17, 2006

Sirotan is a seal.


Azhais posted:

Hmm, just searching on prime it appears to be on imdb TV, so free with ads. All 6 seasons seem to be there

Huh, weird. I did a search earlier and Amazon was telling me it was available on something called CONtv for $4.99/mo extra. If I look at results via Google I still see this, but if I search for it directly through Amazon, I see it available on imdb TV.

Azhais
Feb 5, 2007
Switchblade Switcharoo

Sirotan posted:

Huh, weird. I did a search earlier and Amazon was telling me it was available on something called CONtv for $4.99/mo extra. If I look at results via Google I still see this, but if I search for it directly through Amazon, I see it available on imdb TV.

I saw the contv thing too the first time I looked :iiam:

TV Zombie
Sep 6, 2011

Burying all the trauma from past nights
Burying my anger in the past

Started watching Taskmaster based on some talk on these threads before and Series 7 is really dysfunctional in terms of some of the cast members ribbing the Taskmaster and the banter with each other.

Watermelon Daiquiri
Jul 10, 2010
I TRIED TO BAIT THE TXPOL THREAD WITH THE WORLD'S WORST POSSIBLE TAKE AND ALL I GOT WAS THIS STUPID AVATAR.
When was Acaster again? I loved his entire run.

Escobarbarian
Jun 18, 2004


Grimey Drawer
Acaster is 7. Looking forward to that season then! Watching 6 right now, the one I said was my least favourite so far, and it’s the one with Liza Tarbuck, Russell Howard, Tim Vine, Alice Levine who is very pretty no matter how much people in the discord shout at me for saying this!!!!!!!! and Asim Chaudhry.

oh jay
Oct 15, 2012

Escobarbarian posted:

Acaster is 7. Looking forward to that season then! Watching 6 right now, the one I said was my least favourite so far, and it’s the one with Liza Tarbuck, Russell Howard, Tim Vine, Alice Levine who is very pretty no matter how much people in the discord shout at me for saying this!!!!!!!! and Asim Chaudhry.

tfw Alice Levine will never call you her little ferret.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w3K81-RpfZw

Watermelon Daiquiri
Jul 10, 2010
I TRIED TO BAIT THE TXPOL THREAD WITH THE WORLD'S WORST POSSIBLE TAKE AND ALL I GOT WAS THIS STUPID AVATAR.

oh jay posted:

tfw Alice Levine will never call you her little ferret.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w3K81-RpfZw

i wonder if she has a cameo so I can make a video of her saying 'ugh fine, I guess you are my little pogchamp. Come here.' for esc

Kingtheninja
Jul 29, 2004

"You're the best looking guy here."
My wife and I started with season 4 and we're loving the show (it's the one with Noel fielding).

TV Zombie
Sep 6, 2011

Burying all the trauma from past nights
Burying my anger in the past

Watermelon Daiquiri posted:

When was Acaster again? I loved his entire run.

Him attempting the circle task was genuinely hilarious.

exquisite tea
Apr 21, 2007

Carly shook her glass, willing the ice to melt. "You still haven't told me what the mission is."

She leaned forward. "We are going to assassinate the bad men of Hollywood."


I finished The Queen's Gambit. While I liked watching it, I think it could have been a lot better. I felt like I never really knew Beth Harmon as a character or what we were supposed to think of her. I kept waiting for the story to present some kind of unifying theme that would make her motivations and personality relateable, but instead the script just kind of generated cliched melodramatic situations instead of drawing a direct throughline between character, dialogue, and actions. She's an orphan, okay. She's addicted to drugs and booze, yup. She wants to beat the best chess player in Russia, fine. What about all this makes her tick, though? How does this goal help her to resolve the inner pain she's held onto all her life? I felt like the script kind of assumed that if it just kept echoing the refrain of Beth Harmon's lovely childhood, that it alone would do the work of good character writing for the rest of the story. That would be my critique of The Queen's Gambit as a whole; it seems like it wanted to trade in a lot of dramatic imagery around women's rights, civil unrest, and the Cold War in the 1960s, but never really brought it all together into a cohesive thesis. Anya-Taylor Joy is of course a great actress, but I don't think she was given enough to do here. The supporting cast outside of Jolene all felt pretty weak.

One thing I definitely won't complain about though is the chess itself. The positions, attacks and strategy that all the characters use do a great job of reflecting the dramatic tension of the moment. In fact I wish they could have brought more of the actual games into the action itself because they're really good at telling the story of what's happening in Beth's life.

Davros1
Jul 19, 2007

You've got to admit, you are kind of implausible



https://twitter.com/ProspectRose/status/1344992713515675654?s=20

IRQ
Sep 9, 2001

SUCK A DICK, DUMBSHITS!

exquisite tea posted:

I finished The Queen's Gambit. While I liked watching it, I think it could have been a lot better. I felt like I never really knew Beth Harmon as a character or what we were supposed to think of her. I kept waiting for the story to present some kind of unifying theme that would make her motivations and personality relateable, but instead the script just kind of generated cliched melodramatic situations instead of drawing a direct throughline between character, dialogue, and actions. She's an orphan, okay. She's addicted to drugs and booze, yup. She wants to beat the best chess player in Russia, fine. What about all this makes her tick, though? How does this goal help her to resolve the inner pain she's held onto all her life? I felt like the script kind of assumed that if it just kept echoing the refrain of Beth Harmon's lovely childhood, that it alone would do the work of good character writing for the rest of the story. That would be my critique of The Queen's Gambit as a whole; it seems like it wanted to trade in a lot of dramatic imagery around women's rights, civil unrest, and the Cold War in the 1960s, but never really brought it all together into a cohesive thesis. Anya-Taylor Joy is of course a great actress, but I don't think she was given enough to do here. The supporting cast outside of Jolene all felt pretty weak.

I just watched the last episode last night and I feel broadly the same I think. It was well made, but it just had nothing to say, like not even really as any character development for Beth at all. They almost get there at times, but then everyone forgives her with no effort or growth required of her. It wasn't really about gender issues, mental illness, the cold war, substance abuse, etc either because while that's all there, it doesn't serve to do anything but drive the plot along to the next grand dramatic moment. Beth just never learns or has to change. They even halfway call that out, but Kansas reporter guy shows up out of nowhere, and then Benny spends 6.3 million dollars calling Moscow all night (with every chess dork in the us in his kitchen) to help her anyway after "you told me to gently caress off and you'd rather go be a drunk than be with me.

Maybe the book was better? I still enjoyed it, but it was hollow.

muscles like this!
Jan 17, 2005


Vincent D'Onofrio sure commits to s2 of Xavier: Renegade Angel.

Escobarbarian
Jun 18, 2004


Grimey Drawer
I think one of the reasons Taskmaster s6 is the worst one so far is because Greg’s obvious crush on Liza Tarbuck is ruining his objectivity even more than usual

Azhais
Feb 5, 2007
Switchblade Switcharoo

Escobarbarian posted:

I think one of the reasons Taskmaster s6 is the worst one so far is because Greg’s obvious crush on Liza Tarbuck is ruining his objectivity even more than usual

season 6 had the worst tasks and a bunch of contestants who weren't trying very hard (you always end up with the one person there to make a fool of themselves comedically, but it seems like most of the in 6 were of that mold)

I just finished 7 which I thought was much better, tho they did strip Alex a little too often

Watermelon Daiquiri
Jul 10, 2010
I TRIED TO BAIT THE TXPOL THREAD WITH THE WORLD'S WORST POSSIBLE TAKE AND ALL I GOT WAS THIS STUPID AVATAR.
The cuddle task was legit good tho



And the Alex-coming-out-a-vagina one

Bruceski
Aug 21, 2007

Live, laugh, kupo!

Every season has its high points. I don't know if the cake destruction in S6 counts as "good" but it was definitely memorable.

AARD VARKMAN
May 17, 1993
I'm sad that James Acaster didn't give Alex a nice warm hello on one of the final tasks.

TV Zombie
Sep 6, 2011

Burying all the trauma from past nights
Burying my anger in the past

TheAardvark posted:

I'm sad that James Acaster didn't give Alex a nice warm hello on one of the final tasks.

He’s been quite mean to Alex throughout the series. I wonder if this treatment is deserved or not.

feedmyleg
Dec 25, 2004
I really wish they'd bring back To Tell the Truth with some good comics/personalities as panelists. It's a way better format than Would I Lie to You.

WILTY has that riff on it where the person knows a panelist, but it's not as fun as challenging the contestants being grilled about their own identity.

feedmyleg fucked around with this message at 22:31 on Jan 3, 2021

Watermelon Daiquiri
Jul 10, 2010
I TRIED TO BAIT THE TXPOL THREAD WITH THE WORLD'S WORST POSSIBLE TAKE AND ALL I GOT WAS THIS STUPID AVATAR.
honestly, I kinda wish they'd nix the mystery guest for most shows and bring back the 'celebrity did/had/was something wacky' thing

Kingtheninja
Jul 29, 2004

"You're the best looking guy here."
I'm watching taskmaster season 4 and it's amazing. How do other seasons compare, and any good seasons I should follow it up with (on YouTube)?

EL BROMANCE
Jun 10, 2006

COWABUNGA DUDES!
🥷🐢😬



All of Taskmaster is good, some is just more good than others. I do like s7 the most, I think, personally.

AARD VARKMAN
May 17, 1993
I somehow managed to never hear that Warrior was from the same guy as Banshee and it took like.. 3 minutes to just know, oh, this has to be by the Banshee people.

CAPTAIN CAPSLOCK
Sep 11, 2001



TheAardvark posted:

I somehow managed to never hear that Warrior was from the same guy as Banshee and it took like.. 3 minutes to just know, oh, this has to be by the Banshee people.

Hell yea! Show is good too.

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Bruceski
Aug 21, 2007

Live, laugh, kupo!

All Taskmaster opinions are mine alone:
S1 is the beginning, I don't think anyone stands out but it's got the "just some comedian friends hanging out" rough aesthetic.
S2 has some really strong "I like to watch these guys struggle" contestants. Katherine Ryan's style sometimes grates but Richard Osman glides through everything smugly as he always does and Joe Wilkinson's fun on a show whose content reins him in (he's hilarious on 8 out of 10 Cats Does Countdown but half of that's "I can't believe he's doing this shtick on TV"). Also has one of the most heartbreaking moments of the show.
S3 is weird. Al Murray just spends a lot of money to plow through things, he's the heel of the cast without actually being entertaining about it.
S4 is my all-star season. Everyone here is spectacular in ways that play off each other well.
S5 has more great folks. Mark Watson and Nish Kumar are more folks it's great to see struggle.
S6 is a low point. Not bad, just doesn't reach the heights of other seasons. Tim Vine is doing... something completely out of step which is amusing if that works for you but the dissonance is kinda the point. It's weird.
S7 would be worth it just for Rhod Gilbert trolling the Taskmaster. A lot of the career British comedians in the circles that appear on the show have a familiarity with each other but Rhod and Greg are old old buddies and it shows by how bizarrely cruel Rhod is. Everyone else this season is great too and I'd put it second to season 4 in my personal ranking.
S8/S9 haven't seen yet. S8's just started on the Youtube channel, not enough to have an opinion.
S10 due to Covid they were filming without an audience (I think there was one over Zoom or something?) and everything feels very intimate. Johnny Vegas is my standout here but everyone gets their well-earned time in the spotlight.

I'd say 4, 7, 2, 5 and 10 are my top recs.

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