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Magicians is basically if Harry Potter was obsessed with Narnia and then discovered at Hogwarts that it was real, one of the kids was visiting him in his dreams, and Valdemort was actually an evil monster from there. Only in this version Harry didn't get brought to Hogwarts when he was 10, but instead made it to his twenties as a depressed and horribly socially broken loser, Ron is an rear end in a top hat because he's spent his whole life trying to keep voices out of his psychic head, and Hermione got rejected by Hogwarts and instead of going to a safety school she obsessively learned magic from any sketchy and dangerous person she finds in any back alley while Harry dodges her calls because he's bitter about being friend zoned. I'm actually rewatchng S1 now for some reason (it's solid background noise that I don't really care if I'm not paying attention to while I do other things) and even though it's still had trash it's much less bad binged and still sounds way better then the books. Mostly it sounds like the show just tightened up a lot of dragging, boring story plots and made the characters marginally less unlikable assholes.
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Jan 4, 2017 14:28
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| # ¿ Apr 27, 2024 02:11 |
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One of my favorite small tweaks of modern society is that at any given moment any person may be having an identity crisis wondering if a computer algorithm knows something about them they don't know.
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Jan 5, 2017 06:08
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Well, way to take the fun out of it and take it like a serious identity crisis. But I still like the idea that somewhere there's someone who takes just a moment too long wondering why Amazon thinks he likes gay movies so much. Personally I've had moments where my Netflix recommendations were filled with gory horrors or tween shows and I stopped and wondered how I'd been spending my down time. STAC Goat fucked around with this message at 06:19 on Jan 5, 2017 |
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Jan 5, 2017 06:16
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How'd South Park hold up over the years? I haven't watched it in at least a decade and I just signed up for some Hulu and notice they've got it. I probably won't bother since there's a bunch of other shows for me to binge before I cancel in a month or two but is it worth even putting on my watchlist? Hell, forget "hold up", was any of it any good? I haven't watched it since I was a douchey drunk kid who would embarrass current me so I have no idea if it was ever good.
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Jan 5, 2017 06:23
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It has to. I bought a $5 Christmas ornament for a show we're not supposed to talk about for a laugh and man, oh man has it done a number on my Amazon Recommendations formula. Toys, books, tv shows, kitchen ware. Amazon wants me to buy the gently caress out of this nerdy show's poo poo now.
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Jan 5, 2017 06:28
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You can watch Better Call Saul 100% fine without knowing a thing about Breaking Bad. You'll miss easter eggs for BB fans but that's it. All we're talking about is characters or other things from the Breaking Bad series showing up in Saul for a "oh, its _____!" reaction. But everything in the show and story stands on its own and most of it has next to nothing to do with Breaking Bad. The two shows honestly feel way too different to compare. BB is an adventure while Saul is a character study. I love both for different reasons.
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Jan 6, 2017 00:24
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This is DC/Wayne Tech so I assume its different from the Marvel show about insurance agents/clean up crews? That's a weird idea for both companies to want to make shows about.
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Jan 6, 2017 00:30
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Yeah, that's true. You can watch Better Call Saul on its own but if you have any intention to watch Breaking Bad you should see it first. Otherwise a lot of the stuff BB was trying to do with characters or stories will fail or be ruined because of the extra information you have from Saul.
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Jan 6, 2017 00:53
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I miss the Hulu queue. It was such a nice and simple way to see what was a new episode of a show I'm watching regularly and what was some show I had thrown on there to binge some time. Even a nice way to quickly sort it by what's expiring. If they'd just bring that thing back I'd probably regularly subscribe to it instead of signing up once every 3-6 months when I get a "free month" coupon of some kind.
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Jan 6, 2017 01:51
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I actually think most people in my life would be able to tell me who Cumberbatch is from The Hobbit or Strange or some other movie or just people making fun of his name and I'd be shocked if even one of them knew that he played Sherlock Holmes. Obviously I suspect there's a bit of a geography aspect here as I'm an American. I assume he and the show are more known in the UK.
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Jan 9, 2017 23:37
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Basically anything put out by USA, TBS, or TNT since they all followed the same basic formula from Monk to Suits.
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Jan 10, 2017 05:31
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As said, it's kind of unavoidable. Better Call Saul isn't set far enough back from Breaking Bad that you can ignore the "prequel" stuff entirely. It's been great seeing Jimmy and the man he was but at some point Saul has to present himself and Mike needs to become Gus' soldier or it kind of doesn't make sense. I mean, I'd love ten years of Jimmy but they wrote themselves into a corner with that premise unless they just say "gently caress Breaking Bad". Which I'd theoretically be fine with but you know a ton of nerds will be freaking out over.
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Jan 12, 2017 01:56
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I hear you and I basically agree, I'm just saying it's the inevitability of making your show "Better Call Saul" instead of some other new character named Jimmy. Saul may not have been a deeply invested cartel lawyer at the start of Breaking Bad but he was still a long ways off from where Jimmy is and he's going to have to get really dirty and work with some real dirtbags if that transition is going to work. As for Gus, he's theroetically way more important to Mike's story since he does need to become deeply invested in the criminal world pretty fast. It's pretty clear how that's going to happen but it's gotta happen and Gus has to be involved sooner or later. And of course Mike is important for Saul since hes the connection to the drugs. It sucks because they've created a really compelling character and cast that I'm more invested in at this stage than Gus or Saul. But it always kind of had to happen with the choices they made.
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Jan 12, 2017 04:59
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I gave up on it in Season 2 but everything I've heard says that once the show finally moved on past the original premise it rounded into a solid show. I find that believable since the flaw with it was always stringing out that one thing too long.
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Jan 13, 2017 10:08
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I'm 2 episodes into Series of Unfortunate Events and I'm not quite sure what I think of it. I find the style a bit jaunty and the episodes feel long in a bad way, which may come down to all the dense dialogue. I haven't felt the need to watch two episodes in a row yet, but I'm not feeling the need to stop watching either. The second episode roped me in a bit more since it seemed to go a little lighter on the Snicket/Warburton "turn away, this is terrible" stuff and give Olaf/NPH more to work with. It just seems like its going to take awhile for me to get through it instead of a 2-3 day binge. Which I suppose matches with some reading where I'll read for an hour or 2-3 and then just need to put it down and pick it up again tomorrow.
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Jan 17, 2017 13:19
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Yeah, I'm not bailing on it. There's enough there and people seem to like it enough that I'm willing to stick with it. I think my biggest hurdle is that the style of dialogue, especially from the kids, just feels kind of grating over the course of 8 hours instead of 2 like in a Wes Anderson movie. Which I think is part of the reason I'm feeling the need to pace out the episodes instead of binging. Like, I'm already kind of sick of the "in this case ______ means _______" thing that seems to have been used roughly 100 times in the first 2 episodes.
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Jan 17, 2017 13:33
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When I first started it and they kept hammering the "this is a terrible story, nothing good happens, there is no happy ending, turn back now" thing I actually momentarily paused and considered turning it off. But they were hitting it so hard that I decided not to take it too seriously. Plus it all seems to come from the Lemony Snickett character and he seems to be walking this line between narrator and actual character as he is mid investigation of the story so it seems like it leaves open the possibility that he just doesn't know how the story ends. He comes off to me as an unreliable narrator. At least that's how I'm justifying ignoring the opening theme every time I turn on an episode. And yeah, I didn't even know that random weird Jim Carrey movie was based on books. So I have no idea what to expect. STAC Goat fucked around with this message at 14:00 on Jan 17, 2017 |
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Jan 17, 2017 13:52
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So it turns out I binged Lemony Snickett after all and just finished. So final thoughts. I enjoyed it well enough but I feel like I should have taken the advice of the show itself every time it told me there was no happy ending and it would ruin my night. The mother and father double fakeout was especially bummeriffic. I feel like I need to dig up something uplifting before I go to bed because this really did ruin my evening. But then again, it promised exactly that repeatedly so...
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Jan 17, 2017 23:57
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I want to make a random joke about the state of The Good Place thread going forward but I just don't want to say anything that could possibly spoil anyone in any way. That was too good. lelandjs posted:Wait, what the gently caress has CNN been playing for the past year then?
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Jan 20, 2017 17:47
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Mu Zeta, that's a super obvious spoiler without even clicking on it. You don't want it spoiled. Honestly, it loses all impact if you don't watch it, know the characters, and know the things that happened. You're just reading the last page of the book with no context.
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Jan 21, 2017 00:19
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I still buy DVDs and Blu Rays but its basically down to movies that I know I'll want to see a bunch of times or are part of some kind of collection. Plus you can get DVDs crazy cheap these days if you're just bored and seeing what's on sale on Amazon or in a bargain bin. I rather drop $5 or $10 to own that movie than to expand my Netflix to the DVD option and then deal with the mail stuff if I decide I want to rewatch something. But man, I hate all those TV shows I bought on DVD years ago and now just serve no purpose because they're all on one streaming service or another. Especially those super expensive HBO ones. I love you Wire, but you're just a big waste of money staring me in the face. But also I'm an old fart and I just last year held my breath and threw out like 3 garbage bags of VHS tapes. For some reason I hoarding those things for like a decade after I had a working VCR and it was a weird pain/relief to tossing them out finally.
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Jan 23, 2017 03:21
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Its funny, for like 3 or 4 years I was watching everything on my computer or iPad and then a year ago I got a decent TV second hand from someone and a chromecast and now I can't bear watching something on those devices. Like, if I can't just cast the thing from my phone I get all bent out of shape and grumble while I hit all of 3 buttons to cast it from my laptop.
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Jan 23, 2017 03:28
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Man, and let me tell you about the streaming services like HBO Go that don't have automatic play for the next episode so when an episode is over I have to reach all the way over to the side table for my phone, go back 2 or 3 steps to find the next episode, and then start it manually. Such a horrific inconvenience. And then when that's over I have to do it again! Like, "first world problems" is one obvious, shameful thing but I'm old enough to remember a time I never followed a TV show unless each week I remembered to set the VCR Plus, put in a tape with room, and make sure it wasn't so used that things would be unwatchable. And yet stupid lazy poo poo like this actually bothers me sometimes. STAC Goat fucked around with this message at 03:59 on Jan 23, 2017 |
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Jan 23, 2017 03:57
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Medullah posted:Hahaha I'm with you. I recorded every episode of Buffy and South Park on VHS, rewatched them countless times and had printed labels for each "volume". My HBO viewing was like a museum of media. I watched Oz and Sopranos by diligently setting my VCR timer ever Sunday and printing out labels to put on my tapes that I'd even break the tab on. For some bizarre reason I held onto these tapes until a year ago when I purged all my VHS, even though I've rewatched Sopranos a couple of times over the last few years on HBO Go and Amazon Prime. (I tried with Oz but that one doesn't exactly hold up, sadly.) I started doing the same with The Wire but then I made the commitment and bought the DVD sets and they sit on my shelf taunting me to this day. And now I don't even bother DVRing Game of Thrones because I just stream that thing when it starts and I'm waiting to binge Young Pope like I did when Westworld finished. I also once had a film professor who once had us watch a season of Sopranos in class weirdly on Laserdisc. So like... I'm just a beta max away from a BINGO, I think. STAC Goat fucked around with this message at 04:25 on Jan 23, 2017 |
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Jan 23, 2017 04:22
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I watched Outsiders and its pretty good. A bit of a Justified feel with the hill folk living their own life with a criminal tint and a bit of a S1 Sons of Anarchy feel with the Shakespearean family power drama at the heart of it (and Ryan Hurst doing as good a job as he did with Opie). I wouldn't call it great or must watch TV or anything but its definitely something I'd say is worth a watch if you're looking for something different. I'd love to see S1 pop up on a streaming service so I can binge it before S2 since I only watched it the once last year. To be honest I don't remember a lot to say about it besides broad notes and the feeling that I enjoyed it. And yeah, don't watch Sons of Anarchy. Its a colossal tease of a good show that turns into one of the worst shows I've ever seen and Ryan Hurst is pretty much one of the few redeeming parts of it. So just watch Outsiders where he plays a pretty similar character. edit: Oh hey, apparently its on Hulu and I'm currently subscribed to that. So there you go with my next binge after I finish my questionable binge of Zoo. STAC Goat fucked around with this message at 04:46 on Jan 23, 2017 |
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Jan 23, 2017 04:38
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Rhyno posted:Zoo was so terrible that I found myself really enjoying it. Its like... its really, really objectively bad... but I can't seem to tear myself away from it because I feel like at any moment they might just introduce a talking bear or something.
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Jan 23, 2017 05:32
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Rhyno posted:I really thought talking animals was where the show was going! Such a bummer. Is season two up for streaming yet? Yeah, I'm watching it on Netflix. Its super duper nuts compared to S1. I can't believe there's going to be a S3 and I can't wait to finish this and wonder how much stupider it can get. Its a weird kind of enjoyment for me, because I'm not a "hatewatcher". But this show is just loving so weirdly stupid.
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Jan 23, 2017 05:51
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I'd be lying if I said I gave it much thought, but yeah, when I saw the ads for that one my first thought was that its either gotta be heavily contrived and scripted/tipped off or else it shouldn't be that hard to get away from a couple of reality show goobers. Like I guess if you set up playing fields and a kind of "find them before they reach their goal point/find the flag" each round/episode. That sounds expensive and complicated and I don't imagine that's this.
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Jan 23, 2017 06:27
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Season 2 of Zoo has to be the craziest, stupidest, batshittiest thing I've ever seen on TV. Like, S1 of Zoo is dumb but it mostly sticks to a basic premise that's pretty silly but straight forward and acceptable by my "fine, I'll accept one impossible idea" general rule of thumb with fantasy/horror/sci-fi. But then S2 is just like this pile of zany additions and nonsense one after another along with like every other TV cliche, trope, or thing that drives goons insane. And then the setup for S3? Dear God, S3 of Zoo may now be most anticipated TV show of 2017 because the setup is just freaking silly as gently caress and I don't think I would have possibly gotten there after watching the Zoo pilot a week ago. Zoo. Man. If you want to watch something that really goes out of its way to be extraordinarily bad, watch Zoo.
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Jan 24, 2017 01:08
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Magicians is trash but it's perfectly digestible trash. The basic idea of "like Harry Potter or Narnia but everyone's a drugged out rear end in a top hat" would be a little more fun if everyone wasnt such a genuine rear end in a top hat. Channel Zero: Candle Cove was a flawed but very creepy short little series. At six episodes the very well done tone and eeriness helps to carry it without having enough time to grow old while the sketchy plot stuff moves fast enough to not really give you time to get annoyed. It seems like it could be the horror anthology I wanted American Horror Story to be. Killjoys is a totally enjoyable episode of the week/metaplot show but it feels a little dated to me somehow. Like it feels like a Sci-Fi version of a USA show from 5 or 10 years ago when even they seem to have moved past that to tighter serial stories. But it's fine if youre OK with that and don't mind something that feels like it would have had a huge following if it has come out the same time as Firefly or something.
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Jan 24, 2017 16:27
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IRQ posted:Killjoys is definitely more like a 90s sci-fi show than most recent stuff in that it doesn't take itself deadly serious all the time. I don't know if I'd describe it that way as its pretty dark and melodramatic with very, very few light moments. But yeah, in some way I can't really put my finger on it feels like a "90s sci-fi show" like you said. Its like they focused first on the characters and more "fun" aspects and the plot is secondary. Where a lot of the modern sci-fi/genre shows feel plot and theme driven. bull3964 posted:Syfy runs all of their shows without breaks, it's nothing new. SyFy also seems to have this really wild schedule where some of its shows are 13 episodes and some are shorter and some are minis and they kind of air on no consistent schedule or time. Like you can count on Magicians to be on each Monday night or whatever but then there's no guarantee that when its over a new show will replace it or that its companion show on Monday night will have the same number of episodes or that when they're both done that the next batch of shows will air on Monday rather than Friday. As a casual viewer its a little hard to keep track of when or where I should be looking out for new or returning SyFy shows. STAC Goat fucked around with this message at 17:07 on Jan 24, 2017 |
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Jan 24, 2017 17:03
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Stupid double post... sorry
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Jan 24, 2017 17:07
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lol lol lol I actually don't watch TV live very much. Just a few shows I'm really into. Mostly I just DVR shows and then binge them when they're done. I've got Incorporated and Taboo collecting right now, for example, and I'll decide whether to watch them or not in a month or two when I see they've stopped recording and are starting to just take up space. But like with most networks I can just say "ok, its September, lets see what's on" but with SyFy I have no idea when they debut their new shows that I might be interested in watching/collecting. And I don't regularly subscribe to Hulu or some app that just queue's shows. edit: To clarify, I don't watch ANYTHING live except sports and news. But some shows I watch week-to-week on my DVR or streaming, some shows I collect and then binge when their season is over, and some I just catch randomly on Netflix or Amazon. STAC Goat fucked around with this message at 17:21 on Jan 24, 2017 |
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Jan 24, 2017 17:15
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bull3964 posted:Pretty much. I made my point unclear, I guess. Its not that I need to know when Episode 3 of X airs. Duh. The DVR does that once I set a season pass. Its that if it wasn't for this thread I'd have no idea when a new show like Incorporated is debuting and obviously I don't have a DVR pass set for a show I don't know is on TV. So a lot of the time I miss my chance to record the first few episodes and only realize a show is airing midway through its season. That's true for shows on any network as I tend to jump into a lot of shows in or before S2, but SyFy annoys me for some reason because I can never find any consistent scheduling or streaming from them. Like I'm still waiting to find Expanse S1 anywhere (including period cable box searches to see if SyFy plans to marathon it at anytime) and I have no idea how they expect to pick up new viewers when they take 12 Monkeys S1 off Hulu right as S2 is beginning and then take S2 off Hulu right as it ends but put S1 back up.
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Jan 24, 2017 17:29
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I didn't know Expanse popped up on Amazon Prime. Thanks. 12 Monkeys S2 was definitely on Hulu while it was airing as I was just queuing all the episodes with the intention on binging both seasons when they were done. But then as soon as it was over it was gone. It was weird, but it also happened at the time Hulu ditched its Hulu/Hulu+ divide and just went full paid so I have no idea how much of it was that.
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Jan 24, 2017 17:55
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That makes sense. Yeah, I never watched any of them, I just had them on my queue waiting to binge and then they either all disappeared from it or the Hulu changover happened and the queue disappeared and I couldn't find them again.
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Jan 24, 2017 18:06
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The only thing that shocks me about the Archie TV show is that every episode doesn't have a Josie and the Pussycats song that they're selling on iTunes. Or does it? I haven't actually watched. Although I probably will when Sabrina the Teenage Witch shows up. But seriously, we've had a Sabrina TV show and a Josie movie so why are we so shocked that they finally got around to an Archie show? They had to get around to it eventually.
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Jan 27, 2017 19:56
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lelandjs posted:The comic doesn't seem like it would support a series, which I guess is why they went... well, I've only seen the preview, so I can't really comment, but why they did whatever you'd call what they did. I mean, its just a comic book about teenagers in love triangles. Its the rough basis for half of CW's shows historically. Really, its the perfect marriage between CW's two favorite things - Comics and Teen Melodrama. Jughead should be CW's spirit animal. I assume. I also have never watched the show nor read the comic.
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Jan 27, 2017 21:01
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I kind of want to give Riverdale a chance but I keep seeing clips or catching lines at other people's homes (oddly, a lot of people I know seem to be giving it a shot and I seem to be around when they are) and every time I do I'm just so embarrassed by it I can't watch.
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Feb 2, 2017 19:54
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| # ¿ Apr 27, 2024 02:11 |
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I enjoyed Mr. Robot S1 so I'm cool. Also, I have no problem admitting that I'm totally fine with nonsense if its really entertaining. Not everything I watch is nonsense but I'd be a liar if I claimed I don't happily watch plenty of nonsense. And anyone who doesn't say the same is probably a pretentious liar.
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Feb 6, 2017 22:27
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