What is the latest series you've been binging through?

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > TV IV > What is the latest series you've been binging through?

SimonChris: Apr 24, 2008; The Baron's daughter is missing, and you are the man to find her. No problem. With your inexhaustible arsenal of hard-boiled similes, there is nothing you can't handle.; Grimey Drawer

Chef Boyardeez Nuts posted:

I'll give it another shot

Give it until the third episode. It's an ensemble show and the obnoxious dude from the first two episodes isn't actually the main character.

From the third episode on, the show goes totally apeshit.

SimonChris fucked around with this message at 19:04 on Apr 23, 2020

# ¿ Apr 23, 2020 18:15

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# ¿ Apr 25, 2024 17:16

SimonChris: Apr 24, 2008; The Baron's daughter is missing, and you are the man to find her. No problem. With your inexhaustible arsenal of hard-boiled similes, there is nothing you can't handle.; Grimey Drawer

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

# ¿ May 14, 2020 14:46

SimonChris: Apr 24, 2008; The Baron's daughter is missing, and you are the man to find her. No problem. With your inexhaustible arsenal of hard-boiled similes, there is nothing you can't handle.; Grimey Drawer

Just finished Moonbeam City and I don't get what the bad reception was all about. Sure, the pilot was weak, but after that, it was pretty much awesome.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lsroqqvp2cc

It also has a very topical episode where the cops gently caress off to a convention, and the ghetto turns into a utopia in their absence. Sadly, Comedy Central is too cowardly to put that up on youtube.

SimonChris fucked around with this message at 18:36 on Jun 8, 2020

# ¿ Jun 8, 2020 18:10

SimonChris: Apr 24, 2008; The Baron's daughter is missing, and you are the man to find her. No problem. With your inexhaustible arsenal of hard-boiled similes, there is nothing you can't handle.; Grimey Drawer

I just binged through The OA, and that was extremely my poo poo; I love weird, pretentious stuff and season 2 became downright Lynchian at times. It's too bad there won't be a third season, but the ending works for me as a dark open-ended conclusion.

I imagine the pitch meeting went like this (season 1 spoilers):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=68NFI0R8TTc

# ¿ Sep 26, 2020 15:05

SimonChris: Apr 24, 2008; The Baron's daughter is missing, and you are the man to find her. No problem. With your inexhaustible arsenal of hard-boiled similes, there is nothing you can't handle.; Grimey Drawer

I just binged through "Unbelievable" on Netflix and that was absolutely riveting. I haven't been so angry at tv show characters since "When They See Us". If you like to get really angry, just to feel something, anything, I heartily recommend it.

Was there no discussion of this when it came out? If only it had a more searchable title...

# ¿ Oct 15, 2020 09:13

SimonChris: Apr 24, 2008; The Baron's daughter is missing, and you are the man to find her. No problem. With your inexhaustible arsenal of hard-boiled similes, there is nothing you can't handle.; Grimey Drawer

Solice Kirsk posted:

Been watching Downton Abbey. I don't know if I like it or not, but for some reason I just keep going. I'm on like the second episode of the second season. I'd say the story line I'm invested in the least is the Bates stuff.

Season 1 of Downtown Abbey is by far the best. It's all downhill from here, but you will keep watching until the bitter end because you have grown attached to the characters and want to see how they all end up.

# ¿ Oct 23, 2020 08:42

SimonChris: Apr 24, 2008; The Baron's daughter is missing, and you are the man to find her. No problem. With your inexhaustible arsenal of hard-boiled similes, there is nothing you can't handle.; Grimey Drawer

Solice Kirsk posted:

I'm at the end of season 2 of Downton Abbey and I can already see how silly things are going to get. It's basically turning into a really well costumed soap opera. Schlocky to the point where I physically roll my eyes at things that are happening. I actually kind of love it. There's an awful lot of seasons left to go though. I think I'm gonna eat some pot and watch the season 2 Christmas episode tonight.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b87E3kamWOg

My favorite part of Season 2 is the ridiculous time-skips that happen because they are trying to get through all of WW1 while still telling small-scale stories in the Abbey. It kinda reminds me of late Game of Thrones, where characters zoom across the continent while everyone else still acts like their scenes are occurring in close succession.

SimonChris fucked around with this message at 08:27 on Oct 24, 2020

# ¿ Oct 24, 2020 08:24

SimonChris: Apr 24, 2008; The Baron's daughter is missing, and you are the man to find her. No problem. With your inexhaustible arsenal of hard-boiled similes, there is nothing you can't handle.; Grimey Drawer

nomapple posted:

Binged Succession s1 this week and loved it. Started ranking the characters from worst to least worst at the end of every episode, because most of them are loving awful. Perversely ended up rooting for some of them. Greg is obviously the best. The GC is an unsung great character too. The actress that plays Shiv has consistently great facial expressions as well. Planning to rip through S2 this week. Would probably have got through it faster if I hadn't been watching it with family. I can't remember the last time I enjoyed a show so much. It makes me want to go back and rewatch all the shows I've bailed on because I hated all the characters.

I think the show has a moderate amount of buzz, but seriously, why aren't more people talking about this show?? I found the thread and it's nowhere near as big as it should be.

https://twitter.com/Buncahn/status/1183446961023676416

You can save a lot of time by just watching this video instead.

SimonChris fucked around with this message at 08:31 on Nov 16, 2020

# ¿ Nov 16, 2020 08:28

SimonChris: Apr 24, 2008; The Baron's daughter is missing, and you are the man to find her. No problem. With your inexhaustible arsenal of hard-boiled similes, there is nothing you can't handle.; Grimey Drawer

Cactus posted:

Yeah. So she like takes a load of ketamine or whatever and becomes a grandmaster overnight by hallucinating chess pieces on the ceiling. Apart from one or two times as a child and that one time where the plot required it to happen I don't think we ever saw her lose a game. I loved the matches where you didn't actually get to see any chess being played at all. It's just *icy stare* move piece hammer the clock. *pensive face* move piece hammer the clock. *hmmmm face* move piece hammer the clock. *frowny face* move piece hammer the clock. Mate in 4, don't you see it yet? Had me in stitches, it was really well done. They actually figured out that the way to make chess interesting and exciting was to not show any chess at all. Priceless.

http://www.pippinbarr.com/games/itisasifyouwereplayingchess/

Reminds me of this classic chess simulator.

# ¿ Feb 5, 2021 20:18

SimonChris: Apr 24, 2008; The Baron's daughter is missing, and you are the man to find her. No problem. With your inexhaustible arsenal of hard-boiled similes, there is nothing you can't handle.; Grimey Drawer

Season 3 is like the Salieri of True Detective seasons. It is well made and well acted, but there is just nothing there. None of the cool stuff they tease go anywhere interesting, and the resolution is underwhelming. Season 2 was at least bad in an interesting way; no one ever talks about Season 3.

https://uproxx.com/tv/true-detective-roland-gay-amelia-killer/

I mean, the creator would even go on social media to refute fan speculation, just so that no one would get the wrong idea and think the show might be going somewhere interesting.

SimonChris fucked around with this message at 17:08 on Mar 27, 2021

# ¿ Mar 27, 2021 17:06

SimonChris: Apr 24, 2008; The Baron's daughter is missing, and you are the man to find her. No problem. With your inexhaustible arsenal of hard-boiled similes, there is nothing you can't handle.; Grimey Drawer

Sonderval posted:

Katla on Netflix, liked it a lot. Also liked the fact that when the Swedes and Icelanders need to talk they both switch to perfect English.

I was quite disappointed the show wasn't about this:

# ¿ Jun 20, 2021 21:58

SimonChris: Apr 24, 2008; The Baron's daughter is missing, and you are the man to find her. No problem. With your inexhaustible arsenal of hard-boiled similes, there is nothing you can't handle.; Grimey Drawer

I liked Devs in general, but having it end with the protagonist arbitrarily breaking determinism with no explanation was such a lame copout. How can we be free in a deterministic universe? Well, just make a different choice than the pre-determined one, duh.

Very beautiful show, though. Definitely worth a watch.

# ¿ Jul 12, 2021 14:02

SimonChris: Apr 24, 2008; The Baron's daughter is missing, and you are the man to find her. No problem. With your inexhaustible arsenal of hard-boiled similes, there is nothing you can't handle.; Grimey Drawer

While I like all of BCS, the first season was such a perfectly self-contained origin story for Saul Goodman that part of me wishes it had ended there. Having them roll back his final decision at the beginning of season 2 felt really jarring.

# ¿ Aug 4, 2021 16:19

SimonChris: Apr 24, 2008; The Baron's daughter is missing, and you are the man to find her. No problem. With your inexhaustible arsenal of hard-boiled similes, there is nothing you can't handle.; Grimey Drawer

Xealot posted:

I finished Station Eleven last night and ended up really liking it. Great performances, interesting world-building, and it leaned hard into its themes in a way I really respected.

A totally arbitrary thing that I usually hate in fiction is an extreme worship of Shakespeare as some end-all of human civilization, or as the pinnacle of achievement in art or writing. So, at first, the Traveling Symphony plot in 2040 went right up my rear end. I came around to it in the last episode, with the whole "Hamlet as family therapy" angle with Elizabeth and Tyler. That worked really well and kind of redeemed the whole thing. Though I still wish they did all kinds of material, being the last curators of performed narrative in their society: why not Sondheim, or Sophocles, or literally just anything? Star Wars or The Shining or The Shawshank Redemption? They could quite literally have performed whatever they wanted.

I also found some of the VO taken from Miranda's book to be needlessly cryptic and kind of pretentious, so Jeevan's exasperated, "this is so pretentious!" landed amazingly. I loved that character.

I really liked the part in the second episode where a guy auditions by doing the president's speech from Independence Day. I kinda wish they had gone somewhere with that.

# ¿ Jan 29, 2022 09:08

SimonChris: Apr 24, 2008; The Baron's daughter is missing, and you are the man to find her. No problem. With your inexhaustible arsenal of hard-boiled similes, there is nothing you can't handle.; Grimey Drawer

Oenis posted:

I bounced off hard on this show. Hated all the characters (I guess that was the point for most of them?) and you could see every plot twist from a mile away and then were just waiting for it to happen. I dunno if it phones in more unpredictable twists later, I didn't get that far, but what I saw wasn't good. The comedy was really grating too.

I just binged through season 1 of Upload, and I really liked how the characters that are initially presented as contemptible cardboard cutouts turn out to have hidden depth, while the more sympathic characters have severe character flaws. At the end, I was rooting for Ingrid and Byron more than the protagonists. There are some genuinely good subtle character moments.

# ¿ Mar 15, 2022 18:26

SimonChris: Apr 24, 2008; The Baron's daughter is missing, and you are the man to find her. No problem. With your inexhaustible arsenal of hard-boiled similes, there is nothing you can't handle.; Grimey Drawer

Armauk posted:

Her accent is spot on.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qaKZi6p6sxg

# ¿ Jun 4, 2022 15:25

SimonChris: Apr 24, 2008; The Baron's daughter is missing, and you are the man to find her. No problem. With your inexhaustible arsenal of hard-boiled similes, there is nothing you can't handle.; Grimey Drawer

I skipped straight from season 1 to 4 of Cobra Kai, so I could watch Terry Silver chew the scenery, and don't feel like I missed anything important. Season 4 was great, though; Terry Silver surpassed my expectations.

# ¿ Sep 12, 2022 11:51

SimonChris: Apr 24, 2008; The Baron's daughter is missing, and you are the man to find her. No problem. With your inexhaustible arsenal of hard-boiled similes, there is nothing you can't handle.; Grimey Drawer

Your Gay Uncle posted:

I've only watched the first episode but so far the new Interview With A Vampire kicks rear end. I dated a goth girl in high school so I'm vaguely familiar with the story and saw the movie a few times over the years, so I'm not someone who's going to get mad about things they changed. Your mileage may vary.

They mention going to a gay bar in the 80s/90s, so I wonder if they'll go into how the AIDS epidemic affected vampires

There is an episode of the British vampire show Ultraviolet* where the protagonists raid an evil vampire research facility, excepting them to be doing some evil vampire poo poo, an it turns out that the vampires were trying to cure AIDS. Vampires hate bloodborne diseases!

* No relation to the movie.

# ¿ Oct 8, 2022 20:04

SimonChris: Apr 24, 2008; The Baron's daughter is missing, and you are the man to find her. No problem. With your inexhaustible arsenal of hard-boiled similes, there is nothing you can't handle.; Grimey Drawer

Klaaz posted:

I can't really watch shows in which I dislike the main character like in Girls. Same goes for Vikings. Ragnar is such a lousy selfobsessed oval office which make me lose the will to watch the entire show untill the end, eventhough it's an overall good show

Never watch Gomorrah. I just watched the first season, and that has to be some kind of record for least sympathetic protagonists ever. Extremely well made but hard to watch when I am yearning for everyone to die horribly.

# ¿ Dec 3, 2022 17:17

SimonChris: Apr 24, 2008; The Baron's daughter is missing, and you are the man to find her. No problem. With your inexhaustible arsenal of hard-boiled similes, there is nothing you can't handle.; Grimey Drawer

mystes posted:

Incidentally, my biggest problem with the book was that it starts with a part set in the past that I had a ton of trouble getting into but after that it picked up. I haven't had that much trouble as a result of names but actually I've been listening to it as an audiobook so I guess the person doing different voices helps me keep track of people so the names don't really matter as much.

Apparently, that was changed in the translation. In the Chinese original, the section set during the Cultural Revolution happens in the middle of the novel. While the author claims that this was to avoid attention from Chinese censors, I kind of feel that the plot would work better that way. Starting with the past section means that there is no tension to the later investigation since we already know who is behind everything. It would have been cool to start in medias res with the mysterious phenomena and then flash back later.

# ¿ Feb 5, 2023 16:28

SimonChris: Apr 24, 2008; The Baron's daughter is missing, and you are the man to find her. No problem. With your inexhaustible arsenal of hard-boiled similes, there is nothing you can't handle.; Grimey Drawer

Your Gay Uncle posted:

Just started Billions and pretty much the first scene is Maggie Siff as a dominatrix pissing on Paul Giamatti. I thought this show was a out stock brokers or some shitI hope it maintains this level of weirdness

Yeah, Billions is a surprisingly weird show, in a good way. It is about rear end in a top hat hedge fund managers and also Paul Giamatti's depraved, hardcore BDSM lifestyle. I would like to have been a fly on the wall at that pitch meeting.

# ¿ Feb 12, 2023 10:31

SimonChris: Apr 24, 2008; The Baron's daughter is missing, and you are the man to find her. No problem. With your inexhaustible arsenal of hard-boiled similes, there is nothing you can't handle.; Grimey Drawer

Escobarbarian posted:

Yeah I agree, I never had an issue with �God did it� because they were pushing it so hard as a possibility for basically the entire show. I think it mainly just angered hard sci-fi fans but that�s only a hunch

The problem with "a wizard did it" isn't the existence of wizards. I am pretty sure most of the people who take issue with "god did it" would have exactly the same issue if it was "super advanced aliens did it" or "Q did it" or similar sci-fi bullshit. The head-angels specifically say at the end that the being in question doesn't like being called "God", so for all we know it really is just some kind of Q analogue teaching humanity a lesson.

God existing and inspiring people with visions is perfectly fine. People take issue with the blatant divine intervention towards the end, where "God" starts doing stuff like resurrecting Starbuck, teleporting her back and forth across the universe and buying her a brand new Viper. That sort of stuff makes everything else feel less meaningful since "God" could presumably have done all of that from the beginning. Starbuck being able to return in a brand new Viper was presented as a mystery that made her suspicious, only for her to disappear into thin air with no comments at all. It's just lazy writing. None of this has anything to do with people not liking religion.

# ¿ Mar 9, 2023 13:33

SimonChris: Apr 24, 2008; The Baron's daughter is missing, and you are the man to find her. No problem. With your inexhaustible arsenal of hard-boiled similes, there is nothing you can't handle.; Grimey Drawer

I finally made it all the way through Gomorrah, and drat was that some bleak poo poo. Five seasons straight without a single shred of joy or human decency. Every time I wanted to stop watching, they would pull some crazy poo poo, so I just had to see what would happen next.

Incredible show, but I am not sure I can really recommend it to anyone.

SimonChris fucked around with this message at 14:16 on Mar 19, 2023

# ¿ Mar 19, 2023 12:56

SimonChris: Apr 24, 2008; The Baron's daughter is missing, and you are the man to find her. No problem. With your inexhaustible arsenal of hard-boiled similes, there is nothing you can't handle.; Grimey Drawer

I just want through Black Bird, and that was absolutely riveting. Like Mindhunters if they spent an entire season interviewing a single serial killer.

Then I looked up the true story afterwards, and it turns out that all of the most ridiculous plot contrivances actually happened. Like, Larry Hall showing a big map of all of the victim's graves to the protagonist, only for the latter to immediately be sent into solitary confinement while his FBI handlers are on vacation and having to try to reconstruct the map from memory.

# ¿ Apr 1, 2023 09:21

SimonChris: Apr 24, 2008; The Baron's daughter is missing, and you are the man to find her. No problem. With your inexhaustible arsenal of hard-boiled similes, there is nothing you can't handle.; Grimey Drawer

huh posted:

Is there a Devs thread that I missed? I love everything Garland and this was no exception. I can't believe I only just got on to it. Did anyone actually watch it?

https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3916642

# ¿ Apr 2, 2023 21:28

SimonChris: Apr 24, 2008; The Baron's daughter is missing, and you are the man to find her. No problem. With your inexhaustible arsenal of hard-boiled similes, there is nothing you can't handle.; Grimey Drawer

huh posted:

Oh wow thank you. I even searched for it!

"Devs site:forums.somethingawful.com" worked for me

. I've found this to be a much more effective way to find old threads than using the forum search function.

# ¿ Apr 2, 2023 21:58

SimonChris: Apr 24, 2008; The Baron's daughter is missing, and you are the man to find her. No problem. With your inexhaustible arsenal of hard-boiled similes, there is nothing you can't handle.; Grimey Drawer

Steve Yun posted:

Can I just skip season 2? 3 Is worth watching yeah?

Don't skip season 2; it's worth watching for all the ridiculously over-the-top faux-noir dialogue:

The last one inspired me to make this video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jHn0B7R8li8

Season 3 is good, but it is good in the same way that a lot of other shows are great if you know what I mean. For all the flaws of season 2, there is nothing else quite like it.

SimonChris fucked around with this message at 22:12 on Apr 25, 2023

# ¿ Apr 25, 2023 22:05

SimonChris: Apr 24, 2008; The Baron's daughter is missing, and you are the man to find her. No problem. With your inexhaustible arsenal of hard-boiled similes, there is nothing you can't handle.; Grimey Drawer

Just a few more I forgot:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wift4FuvvYk

The dialogue is so florid that "vinceposting" - the act of writing fake lines for Vince Vaughn's character - became a meme on 4chan for a while. You have to respect a script with a style distinct enough that parodies are instantly recognizable.

SimonChris fucked around with this message at 22:49 on Apr 25, 2023

# ¿ Apr 25, 2023 22:42