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I'm telling you guys, it's all poisoned margaritas. EVIL is the latest show by Robert and Michelle King (The Good Fight, The Good Wife, BrainDead, The Bite) and Rockne S O'Bannon (Farscape). It's basically what would happen if you took all the Scully episodes of The X-Files -- the ones that focus on the cryptic religious-y bits -- and blew them out into an entire show. And the show replicates The X-Files in other ways, blowing out the Scully/Mulder sceptic/believer dynamic to embrace various different positions and insanities, while also doing fun episodes that take down urban legends, tech companies, mass hysteria, Farmville... all while the cast slowly loses their mind thanks to being exposed to so many utterly insane kooks. Katja Herbers is utterly fantastic as Kristen, the psychiatric Scully character who's slowly embracing her own capacity for unexpected violence, and shares some smoking chemistry with Mike Colter (Marvel's Luke Cage, here playing the resident hot priest and believer) -- and in a departure from the formula, Aasif Mandvi plays Ben, a deeply sardonic sceptic that's beginning to develop PTSD and night terrors thanks to his exposure to fifteen different kinds of insanity. And there are a gaggle of children who act as the show's greek chorus -- I love how the show lets them basically operate as a single character a lot of the time, flowing in and out of scenes while chattering over each other. Michael Emerson also turns up as Leland, the utterly pathetic piece of poo poo villain who gets in everyone's way, and Andrea Martin's joined the show as a regular this year, playing an insane fire and brimstone nun who claims to see demons (and might very well do, while still being insane). I kinda love that they both seem to have the same glasses. And Chrstine Lahti / Kurt Fuller also support in more ambiguous side roles, as Kristen's Show's funny, trippy, surreal, scary, frustrating and clever and IMO there's nothing out there that's as flexible on tone or content from week to week, and manages the astonishing task of continually walking the line between presenting solutions that are supernatural, or just bizarre and atypical -- though, if you can't tell, it's 100% just everyone tripping off poisoned margaritas.  
Open Source Idiom fucked around with this message at 16:11 on Jul 8, 2022 |
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Jul 4, 2022 02:47
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The show is weird as hell but I appreciate how the last episode actually explained a mystery.
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Jul 4, 2022 02:55
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GreenNight posted:The show is weird as hell but I appreciate how the last episode actually explained a mystery. Didn't they explain the memes one as well this season?
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Jul 4, 2022 03:05
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That's true. Maybe they took that feedback to heart.
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Jul 4, 2022 03:24
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 Love this show and the third season so far, looking forward to watching the most recent episode tonight. Edit: Loved the episode, but then again I have a soft spot for demons.  Also, Kristen fury smash was fun. I'm sure that will have absolutely no repercussions in the future. Ninurta fucked around with this message at 04:42 on Jul 4, 2022 |
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Jul 4, 2022 03:24
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I remember watching the first(?) season and howling with laughter when Leland told one of his clients to sign up for Stormfront (or some other far-right message board, it was definitely one of the familiar ones). Absolutely demented thing to rip from the headlines and I'm glad the show appears to still be alive and kicking.
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Jul 4, 2022 05:56
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C-Euro posted:I remember watching the first(?) season and howling with laughter when Leland told one of his clients to sign up for Stormfront (or some other far-right message board, it was definitely one of the familiar ones). Absolutely demented thing to rip from the headlines and I'm glad the show appears to still be alive and kicking. I watched through this season last week, after giving up on it during the first season. The resolution to that plotline was absolutely hilarious. Leland spent weeks and quite a few resources on breeding that MRA shooter and then he just dies from an accidental weapon discharge. I also liked how in this season, Leland tries to creepily approach Lexis online and it looks like she's falling for it, but then her sister comes over and she's all like "Oh yeah, that's Leland. He's trying to fish for information about mom and he's really not subtle at all. But I'm just messing with that idiot and will figure out his plans. Wanna join?" Do the other three girls even have names? It's a little weird to me, that Kirsten went to a fertility clinic for the third of four children. Were they that desperate to have a third one without much delay and then the fourth one just popped out naturally afterwards? I still want to strangle the guy who decided it would be a good idea to have all four of them talk and scream simultaneously. cant cook creole bream fucked around with this message at 06:51 on Jul 4, 2022 |
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Jul 4, 2022 06:42
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The Kings produce absolutely wonderful deranged tv. Some of the most unhinged stuff but because it's aimed at your Hillary-voting aunt, people skip over it. This New Yorker profile is great https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2022/06/20/the-couple-behind-tvs-boldest-shows
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Jul 4, 2022 07:26
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I watched five episodes of the first season and don't really remember anything about it other than the obvious fact that I wasn't enjoying it enough to keep watching. Did it significantly change at some point, or did I see enough to know whether it's for me or not?
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Jul 5, 2022 06:37
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Tiggum posted:I watched five episodes of the first season and don't really remember anything about it other than the obvious fact that I wasn't enjoying it enough to keep watching. Did it significantly change at some point, or did I see enough to know whether it's for me or not? It becomes more bonkers and ambitious as it progresses. There's a handful of moments toward rthe end of the first season, particularly the very end of the last episode, that pushes the drama to another level. The second season is where it gets really good IMO.
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Jul 5, 2022 06:42
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I think that's enough to decide; the show has two modes and I think both are on display within the first five eps; it's a really weird show that straddles the line between horror and Scooby Doo, going from actually spooky unexplained events to haunted memes and it hasn't departed from the formula that much. Even now we aren't really sure if the supernatural is even real in their universe. edit: okay, well, I do agree it gets better, but it doesn't change. It just does everything you've seen but better and weirder as the writers get more comfortable.
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Jul 5, 2022 06:44
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GreenNight posted:That's true. Maybe they took that feedback to heart. This season Ben mutters something along the lines of "...and we rarely even figure out what's happening! We just drop it and move on!" and I thought that was great. I hated Leland at first and hoped he was a short-term villain, but I like his schemes more and more. It's always satisfying when he manages to cause a little bit of chaos and then his plans blow up in his face. Especially when the person to who he wormed his way into a confidant role gets tired of his poo poo. cant cook creole bream posted:Do the other three girls even have names? I think they have names, they're just... drat I don't know. The four children as one character (well, Lexi has gotten a more prominent role) is genius.
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Jul 6, 2022 14:41
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Argue posted:straddles the line between horror and Scooby Doo, This is a good description that gets to the heart of why I love this show: it uses the viewers' perceptions as a world building tool. It generally follows a procedural path: introduce monster -> understand monster -> confront monster -> defeat monster, etc and you can be pretty sure that pathing continues in the background even if they have more important things to show us. I love the girls both as a plot device and as a concept. They're directed to not let each other get a line out unchallenged and it really helps establish that having four girls running around would be chaos. I think they've got to start developing them more though or it's going to really conflict with the "preserve their spark" dream that Kristen has going on.
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Jul 6, 2022 14:56
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They started giving each of the girls an episode to themselves last season, e.g. the second eldest one took point on the It looks like they're setting up Lynne, the eldest, to do more this season as well. Plus she had that subplot in the memes ep.
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Jul 6, 2022 15:34
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It's a solid watch across the board. A+ trash television
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Jul 6, 2022 15:34
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My happiest moment was watching the dad tell grandma to gtfo.
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Jul 6, 2022 15:36
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Open Source Idiom posted:They started giving each of the girls an episode to themselves last season, e.g. the second eldest one took point on the The end of that episode ruled by the way. Just perfectly bleak capitalism.
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Jul 6, 2022 15:46
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Open Source Idiom posted:and Andrea Martin's joined the show as a regular this year, playing an insane fire and brimstone nun who claims to see demons (and might very well do, while still being insane). Why are you saying "claims" and "insane?" I'm not caught up on s3 yet, but from the early seasons I don't recall her being insane and I don't recall any doubt about whether she can see demons n poo poo? AFAIK she's one of the only people in that church who actually knows jack poo poo about the demonworld and has a little jesuspower. Did I just miss or dismiss hints she might just be nuts?
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Jul 6, 2022 16:07
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GreenNight posted:My happiest moment was watching the dad tell grandma to gtfo. I think they want to portray her as a take-no-prisoners evil woman, but she's just getting manipulated by Leland and Leland's boss. Which, I mean, we have plenty of people like that in real life, e.g. any of Trump's toadies; and like Trump's minions, she'll probably get thrown under the bus by Satan Co. at some point and have make some kind of an attempt at retribution/revenge. I was waiting to see how she'd come out on top of the "Okay, boomer" people but her evil plan was: bribe a YouTuber she happens to have some connection to, then exploit someone's food allergies. That's like Introduction to Villainy 101. Khanstant posted:Why are you saying "claims" and "insane?" I'm not caught up on s3 yet, but from the early seasons I don't recall her being insane and I don't recall any doubt about whether she can see demons n poo poo? AFAIK she's one of the only people in that church who actually knows jack poo poo about the demonworld and has a little jesuspower. Did I just miss or dismiss hints she might just be nuts? Like Argue said, it's not completely clear that the supernatural is real. Most things can be written off as paranoia, Inception-style planting of fears, urban legends, etc. Is she really seeing demons or are "demons" her way of viewing problems? Is Leland getting orders from a demon or is he just a sociopath who gets off on causing problems? Either way it's entertaining.
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Jul 6, 2022 16:37
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Ohhhh haha, well uhh put me in the camp that discarded that dichotomy during 2. I genuinely thought they were done with that whole premise and it's just demons is real now. If this is still meant to be an open question, there are like endless scenes I'd have to write off as delusional hallucinations or unreliable filmaking? Though I guess it's still a mix like X-files, where aliens were definitely real (but not actually very interesting) and idk some of the monster and experimental poo poo was real, but mostly ghosts and spiritual stuff was fake. Except here I think the ghosts/demons and spiritual stuff is real and the other stuff might just be resulting from demonic efforts. Honestly even if the show came out and said at this point none of the demon stuff was real, I wouldn't buy it, even reshooting pivotal scenes to show the real mundane mental health issues at play I would just assume are part of some demon curse put on somebody to doubt themselves.
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Jul 6, 2022 17:01
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So, what are Leland and his buddies planning to do with Andy? Just using this mountain trip as a way to off him in order to hurt Kristen seems inefficient and honestly kinda lame. My guess is they're planning to set up some extreme survival situation where he is forced to consume the corpse of a demon for sustenance in order to corrupt him. Andy is a cool dude.
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Jul 6, 2022 17:14
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quote:Paramount+ has handed out a quick fourth season renewal order for Robert and Michelle King’s darkly comedic supernatural investigative series “Evil”.
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Jul 6, 2022 19:15
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cant cook creole bream posted:So, what are Leland and his buddies planning to do with Andy? Just using this mountain trip as a way to off him in order to hurt Kristen seems inefficient and honestly kinda lame. My understanding is that it's all about setting up Kristen and David to be in a precarious situation to give in to their temptations and ruin/recruit two influential players. Kristen's already teetering on the edge after murdering that dude and beating people up in the grocery store and deciding she shouldn't feel any guilt for it. Which also sets up interesting themes about what "good" and "evil" is and how that plays into a society where "good" maybe (probably) means women should be subservient to men. Maybe grandma's right, and good/evil is bullshit that patronizing men like the ones who run the catholic church use to suppress women's power, like when Kristen has to apologize for standing up for herself, and firebrand nun is getting pushed out of the church for accusing a bishop of evil. Anyway, if you get Kristen to totally give up on her traditional moral compass that's a huge get for the satan squad, and if you get David to give up on fighting temptation and violate his vows so much that he can no longer see himself as a priest, that's also a huge blow since he's got the whole "touched by an angel" thing going on. Regardless of whether that's real or not, his belief makes him a powerful potential enemy to Leland and co. Corrupt them both and you take out the team of people that's been investigating demonic activity, all while worming your way into the catholic church a little deeper. Also it's probably worthwhile to corrupt them merely for corruption's sake.
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Jul 6, 2022 23:44
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Speaking of dropped and then suddenly restarted plotlines, I'm waiting for the continuation of the sleep paralysis demon / Ben's girlfriend plots (which are... probably? connected). But I guess it's Doctor Boggs' turn to experience them this season. Or is it ~~~*extreme transference*~~~ Khanstant posted:Why are you saying "claims" and "insane?" I'm not caught up on s3 yet, but from the early seasons I don't recall her being insane and I don't recall any doubt about whether she can see demons n poo poo? AFAIK she's one of the only people in that church who actually knows jack poo poo about the demonworld and has a little jesuspower. Did I just miss or dismiss hints she might just be nuts? They play this up way more in the third season, but I'm starting to get the sense that she's both nuts and she's right. The the second season finale she, independently, sees an identical demon to the one from David's vision, but she's also a hardcore fundie Christian with possible schizophrenia. Of course, a lot of David's visions are just his brain metabolising LSD, so they're not reliable either. XboxPants posted:Anyway, if you get Kristen to totally give up on her traditional moral compass that's a huge get for the satan squad, and if you get David to give up on fighting temptation and violate his vows so much that he can no longer see himself as a priest, that's also a huge blow since he's got the whole "touched by an angel" thing going on. Regardless of whether that's real or not, his belief makes him a powerful potential enemy to Leland and co. Corrupt them both and you take out the team of people that's been investigating demonic activity, all while worming your way into the catholic church a little deeper. There's also Ben, who acts as the reliable bellwether against believing loving anything that rolls up on their doorstep -- I like that, unlike The X-Files, Ben is allowed to be right far more frequently that Scully ever was. He's slowly developing PTSD from various different things he's seen, to the point where he (I assume) saw that toilet eyeball and blamed it on some random hallucination rather than a motherfucking toilet eyeball. They've also implied that Ben is involved in some shady poo poo though, and that he was involved in genetic experiments on kids (like perhaps Lexis?) So perhaps corruption isn't necessary in his case.
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Jul 7, 2022 00:49
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…..should I be paying more attention when I watch this? David’s body makes LSD? The funny third lead may have performed experiments on one of Kirsten’s kids? Ba-huh?
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Jul 7, 2022 06:09
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Escobarbarian posted:…..should I be paying more attention when I watch this? David’s body makes LSD? The funny third lead may have performed experiments on one of Kirsten’s kids? Ba-huh? Should is questionable since it genuinely is pretty trashy, but you definitely can, there's plenty to pick up on if you're there for it. Actually can someone give an overview of the demonic fertilization thing? That was a while ago and filled in cryptically over the course of a number of episodes and I can't quite remember what was going on.
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Jul 7, 2022 06:20
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Escobarbarian posted:…..should I be paying more attention when I watch this? David’s body makes LSD? The funny third lead may have performed experiments on one of Kirsten’s kids? Ba-huh? David uses LSD to prompt visions, and long term use of the drug causes an effect similar to acid flashbacks, which could account for his persistent visions. Ben's history of genetic engineering (I think they implied kids were involved, but it's been a long while) popped up in season 2. The connection to Lexis is my own assumption. That said, this is just my read on the ambiguities. I could be dumb and wrong, it has been known.
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Jul 7, 2022 09:35
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On second ep of s3 and I'm betting this secret friends of the church org david is caught up in is just a demon distraction to keep him away from looking into the xfiles stuff. edit: nvm it was a long con to get a fresh hundo
Khanstant fucked around with this message at 04:28 on Jul 8, 2022 |
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Jul 8, 2022 04:17
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Oh yay, there is a thread for this now, I love this show. The best episode is the one where Kristen gets drunk and flirts with a nun. Open Source Idiom posted:Didn't they explain the memes one as well this season? I don't think that one has really gotten fully explained yet. Seems highly likely Sheryl's new job is going to be tied to into it later.
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Jul 8, 2022 08:04
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recommended images for the op
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Jul 8, 2022 08:09
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Watched a few eps and it's cute and all, but I don't feel like continuing. X-Files (or Millenium which this is closer to) had a real vibe, while this is just a police procedural for moms, except it's church instead of police. I don't know how to say it, needed some more 'spice' I guess. And I'm not saying it has to be grimdark apocalyptic poo poo or something either, just didn't work for me Michael Emerson is very good in this though.
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Jul 8, 2022 11:00
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Show only gets wilder but I feel you. The King’s whole deal is “mom procedurals except really good and sometimes super weird” basically.
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Jul 8, 2022 11:11
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grate deceiver posted:Watched a few eps and it's cute and all, but I don't feel like continuing. X-Files (or Millenium which this is closer to) had a real vibe, while this is just a police procedural for moms, except it's church instead of police. I don't know how to say it, needed some more 'spice' I guess. And I'm not saying it has to be grimdark apocalyptic poo poo or something either, just didn't work for me Yeah, those first few episodes are not good (probably because the show's tone is so far outside what the Kings have done before), it does get better around episode 7, but it never stops having mom bait.
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Jul 8, 2022 11:33
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Hmm, does anyone maybe have an example of a particularly good or "wild" ep? I'm fine with skipping around seasons
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Jul 8, 2022 12:45
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grate deceiver posted:Hmm, does anyone maybe have an example of a particularly good or "wild" ep? I'm fine with skipping around seasons S02E04 - E Is for Elevator. Good episode all around. Minor spoilers Yes, Ben has spent the last few episodes before this been haunted by a BDSM granny demon.
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Jul 8, 2022 14:43
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Snooze Cruise posted:recommended images for the op Added, despite the shameful lack of margaritas-in-a-can. Excited that they might be bringing back Grace this season.
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Jul 8, 2022 16:12
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I feel like if nothing in Rose390 hooks you nothing in later seasons is going to sell you on the show more.
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Jul 8, 2022 17:01
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grate deceiver posted:Hmm, does anyone maybe have an example of a particularly good or "wild" ep? I'm fine with skipping around seasons Season 1 Episode 10: "7 Swans a Singin'" is pretty stand alone and has the closest feeling to an X-files monster of the week episode in the first season. It also hits all the things that the Kings are interested in like weird parody songs, low scale drug use and irresponsible female relatives.
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Jul 9, 2022 04:07
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Thanks for the recommends, watched a couple but I think it's just not for me. I can see why people like it, and it's surely good for a mom show, but there's still something missing. And again, best part of the elevator one was Michael Emerson getting "exorcised".
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Jul 9, 2022 14:56
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grate deceiver posted:Hmm, does anyone maybe have an example of a particularly good or "wild" ep? I'm fine with skipping around seasons the episode where the kids become obsessed with a posessed pair of VR goggles will tell you if you should bother watching or not
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Jul 9, 2022 15:30
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