What are you watching? (television thread)

Walter said:
I'm watching Blacklist. I don't know why.

For me it's James Spader. I liked his work on Boston Legal and I still like his work on this show (oddly enough I didn't quite like him on Avengers 2).
 

Walter

Administrator
Staff member
m said:
For me it's James Spader. I liked his work on Boston Legal and I still like his work on this show (oddly enough I didn't quite like him on Avengers 2).

The procedural stuff is made more obnoxious because it's always couched in a constant state of urgency. Every episode it's the most ruthless villain ever, until next week. But yeah, Spader-Man is the reason to watch this.
 

Griffith

With the streak of a tear, Like morning dew
Ash vs. Evil Dead continued to delight in episode 2. This might be a case of perfect timing since I can't imagine this show being able to exist before the recent boutique television boom, and The Walking Dead in particular, because it blends horror, gore and irreverent comedy in a way you'll rarely, if ever, see on television (or successfully in movies). The closest comparisons I can think of are Buffy (comedy/horror) or True Blood (comedy/gore) but even those had dramatic elements and sex appeal this show doesn't even have the time of day for. This is more like if the cast of Seinfeld had chainsaws for hands and regularly engaged in bloodbaths between observations. It's great fun because it's not trying to be anything more.
 

Oburi

All praise Grail
Damn I really want to watch this. I don't have those channels though. I must find a way. Evil Dead is one of my favorite movies of all time. Hence ...

YCixpcB.jpg
 

Griffith

With the streak of a tear, Like morning dew
Oburi said:
Damn I really want to watch this. I don't have those channels though. I must find a way. Evil Dead is one of my favorite movies of all time. Hence ...

http://i.imgur.com/YCixpcB.jpg?1

Well, can't leave a true fan hangin' then; the first episode is streaming free courtesy of starz:

https://www.starz.com/originals/ashvsevildead/video/0481357cab164e38a5ca162c3a340a67
 
Griffith said:
Ash vs. Evil Dead continued to delight in episode 2. This might be a case of perfect timing since I can't imagine this show being able to exist before the recent boutique television boom, and The Walking Dead in particular, because it blends horror, gore and irreverent comedy in a way you'll rarely, if ever, see on television (or successfully in movies). The closest comparisons I can think of are Buffy (comedy/horror) or True Blood (comedy/gore) but even those had dramatic elements and sex appeal this show doesn't even have the time of day for. This is more like if the cast of Seinfeld had chainsaws for hands and regularly engaged in bloodbaths between observations. It's great fun because it's not trying to be anything more.

Yeah, so far so really good. My favorite scene this episode was at the dinner table, spoiler -
punching Suzy in the face got a loud chuckle outta me
, plus the Deep Purple love is cool to hear. I like the fact that it's something that's accessible to new fans and hits highs with fans of the movies. Surprised to see Mimi Rogers and quickly checked their IMDB page, spoiler -
Lucy Lawless
is credited for 10 episodes but she hasn't shown up yet. You're in for a treat Oburi.

5 episodes into the second season of Fargo and it's consistently good, building up.

Binge watched Aziz Ansari's new show on Netflix called Master Of None. It's similar to Louie in terms of having topics that are personal, real and relatable mixing it with bits of humor, sometimes dark and sad. There wasn't a point in the season where an episode felt filler or the quality dipped. Aziz is an aspiring Indian American actor in New York and you go through his dating life, his relationship with his parents who are the kind of burdened big sacrifices to come to America so their kids could have a better life, his on and off auditions, Indians on television (white actors picked to play Indian roles where there's an option for choosing an Indian actor or the issue of typecasting an Indian to do a heavy Indian accent) and a lot lot more, including a serious relationship with it's highs and lows, and a question/ situation by the end that got me thinking about life generally speaking and choices. It hits harder than regular comedy because like Louie, it's very grounded. If you got Netflix, give it a shot guys.
 
Oburi said:
Damn I really want to watch this. I don't have those channels though. I must find a way. Evil Dead is one of my favorite movies of all time. Hence ...

YCixpcB.jpg

I dig it. As Grif already said you can watch it on Starz but for the new episode you might have to go with a site like primewire or couchtuner if you dont have access to Starz.
 

Griffith

With the streak of a tear, Like morning dew
IncantatioN said:
Yeah, so far so really good. My favorite scene this episode was at the dinner table, spoiler -
punching Suzy in the face got a loud chuckle outta me
, plus the Deep Purple love is cool to hear. I like the fact that it's something that's accessible to new fans and hits highs with fans of the movies.

Yeah, I learned an interesting factoid yesterday (though it's been out there for months); they didn't get the rights to Army of Darkness for this, so there won't be any references to it that aren't also in the other Dead movies. I don't think it's going to be an issue though, it's not really noticeable and just seemed like an artistic choice when Ash didn't cover it in his history (they still could have used the ending of Evil Dead II for example, but it's not really relevant to the modern day story like the events at the cabin). Judging from Bruce Campbell's explanation it indeed seemed like a choice not to procure it because that would have meant one more hand (Universal) in the cookie jar creatively/financially when it wasn't necessary.

IncantatioN said:
Surprised to see Mimi Rogers and quickly checked their IMDB page, spoiler -
Lucy Lawless
is credited for 10 episodes but she hasn't shown up yet.

Actually, she did appear briefly in episode 1, she was the woman in the diner, but she's hardly recognizable (and as Ash put it, lookin' gooood).

IncantatioN said:
5 episodes into the second season of Fargo and it's consistently good, building up.

Coincidentally,
Bruce Campbell
is showing up there too!

IncantatioN said:
Binge watched Aziz Ansari's new show on Netflix called Master Of None. It's similar to Louie in terms of having topics that are personal, real and relatable mixing it with bits of humor, sometimes dark and sad. There wasn't a point in the season where an episode felt filler or the quality dipped. Aziz is an aspiring Indian American actor in New York and you go through his dating life, his relationship with his parents who are the kind of burdened big sacrifices to come to America so their kids could have a better life, his on and off auditions, Indians on television (white actors picked to play Indian roles where there's an option for choosing an Indian actor or the issue of typecasting an Indian to do a heavy Indian accent) and a lot lot more, including a serious relationship with it's highs and lows, and a question/ situation by the end that got me thinking about life generally speaking and choices. It hits harder than regular comedy because like Louie, it's very grounded. If you got Netflix, give it a shot guys.

Looks and sounds great, but I haven't even seriously watched Louie yet... there's too many shows!
 
IncantatioN said:
Binge watched Aziz Ansari's new show on Netflix called Master Of None .... If you got Netflix, give it a shot guys.

I just learned this show existed the other day and what I read about it definitely caught my attention. It's now on my list, but I'm not sure when I'll get to it because:

Griffith said:
there's too many shows!

Indeed. The list of shows I follow/plan on watching consists of 42 shows, and I find it amazing that people in my social circle don't really watch many of them, though they watch other shows I don't. It feels like nowadays there really is something for everyone and in my opinion the quality of many of the shows is quite high (though of course there's also many crappy and mediocre shows).
 

Oburi

All praise Grail
Griffith said:
The wife and I finished our Sopranos run (second time for me, though I didn't see them all before). Anyway, it was better than I remembered, particularly the last few seasons, which weren't as great as the first few, but also not as as obnoxious as I originally thought either (I always thought the show was dragged down by the weight of it's own expectations, but I realize that problem was largely on our/my end and I likely suffered the frustration of release schedule syndrome I've so denounced with Berserk)

I've just took on this epic re-watch as well. Mostly because I'd never watched the whole series from start to finish before, and I'd actually only caught maybe two and half seasons overall during it's initial run. I was a little too young to fully grasp everything at that time so now seems like as good a time as any to really dig in and embrace The Sopranos in it's full glory. Even more exciting is I've never seen the final season. Of course I've heard a lot about it from... well everywhere, but I'm still very much in the dark about the ending, so I'm excited to experience that.
I'm just about to finish the first season and man, I'm really appreciating the ability to binge on such high quality and classic series (like this and The Wire before it) because when I sit down and start flipping through the channels for something good to watch every night after work, there's really nothing that compares. After a few minutes it's like, fuck it. I'm turning on the hboGO and reliving the glory days. I'm already wondering what it'll be after this. Oz perhaps?
 
Aazealh said:
Bojack Horseman is great. As is The Expanse.

Been meaning to watch The Expanse but wasn't sure of how good it was. I'll surely hit it up now.

I binge watched Netflix's Making a Murderer over the past two nights thanks to some jet lag. It's appalling and infuriating, whether it was seeing the level of incompetence of the judicial system in Wisconsin or the extent someone can be dishonest and how far that can go ... you're left wondering whether this was fiction or real. Some of it may feel played out but it's overall engrossing. It's 10 episodes, recommended.
 
Just finished watching three seasons of Vikings. I absolutely loved it. There's aspects of it that I loved even more than something like Game of Thrones (which I love).

Lagertha and Ragnar are probably two of my favorite characters ever now. Lagertha being the most badass (and sexiest) female character on TV right now. Can't wait for it to come back soon.

Also, just caught up with the newest season of Shameless. Not as escalating shitshow as the previous seasons. This one just feels 'real(ish)' which I assume is the point.

Next is The Expanse. Watched the first episode and it certainly sold me. My roommates have been flipping shit over it, so a binge watch is necessary in the near future for sure.
 
I not too long ago finished binge watching GoT, and I must say: It deserves all of the praise and recognition it gets. Brilliant cast and overall amazing show, through and through... and I hear the books are even better!
 
Marathoned The Expanse over the long weekend and dug it a lot. First first episode was very busy in terms of laying out where Earth, Mars, the belters were at that point of the story and I'd watched it when it had come out, it was late or I over-ate and just dozed off mid-episode. So I never got to pick it up again and a busy work schedule-travel happened. So I'm glad there was favorable mention of the show here because it's one of those must-watches for sci-fi lovers - complex story, good effects, well produced. I have a bunch of questions but one I couldn't wrap my head around was (spoiler ahead) -
if the OPA are generally considered as a bad bunch of people from Earth's perspective, Tycho still allowed someone as notoriously infamous as Fred Johnson to build them that super-space-station? Unrelated, I like how there's some tension between Avasarala and Errinwright.
I'm gonna re-watch the show at a more even pace in a few weeks, time permitting.

m said:
Indeed. The list of shows I follow/plan on watching consists of 42 shows...

Curious to know what you got lined up sir!

EDIT:

Love (Netflix) - quick watch and thoroughly enjoyed it. There are moments you're shaking your head as an audience "Why would she/ he do or say that?!" in a "Oh no this isn't gonna end well" kinda way. Gus's a nice guy who works in Hollywood as a tutor to a child star on the set of a TV show. But, he's also an
asshole by the end of the season who kinda plays the victim of people taking advantage of his niceness and so forth
. Then there's Mickey who's struggling with addiction, a total babe and their paths cross. I got to see a little bit of LA because of the backgrop :guts:

Togetherness - Season 2 is currently airing, every Sunday night. I recently checked out this show upon a friends recommendation and I couldn't put it down. I'm a fan of Mark Duplass' past work and this might be his best. And I may not do as good a job as describing what makes the show good, so regardless of my post watch 1 episode and try it out yeah! It was one of those shows I was cussing my friend out at 3 or 4 AM as I came to the end of the first season because it basically toyed with my emotions.

Quick summary of how the show starts - it opens with a couple who are kind of set in their ways being married for 10 years, the husband is too proper and quirky and has a set way of having sex, it's the same every time and it's something the wife admits to her sister that she can't get into anymore but she's afraid to tell him for it might hurt him. That's just one of the things she's admitting to. On the other hand, the husbands best friend (struggling out of work actor) just got evicted from his home and he's offered to stay a night on the couch before he sets out to wherever his parents are. You can sense the friends fondness of the sister when he decides to stay a little longer because she convinces him she'll help him lose weight so he can get bigger/ main roles in the show business vs the fat guy typecast. Last night's episode had references to Dune :guts:
 
Recently finished watching Stranger Things on Netflix. I'd seen a lot of talk about it on my feed and to be honest I thought it was some show about UFO mysteries like a documentary of sorts. So when I saw the first episode, I was mildly surprised this wasn't a documentary but an actual TV show. And, it's pretty good. Gives you just about enough info to move to the next episode. Halfway through I kinda guessed where it was going and the execution was well done. If you like science fiction, board games (D&D) mixed in with horror, this's right up your alley.

S4 of Silicon Valley was great with the exception of the last episode.

Also in the middle of Orphan Black that a friend recommended and it's decent at best. S1 was fun because there's all that mystery learning where or how things are laid out but once you've gone past it, the story kinda dies down a bit but I've continued to watch S3 to view it from a technical side because the show's about clones and curious how they film those clones all together in one scene. Some scenes don't have the usual "lets show the actor's back" kinda thing.

And finally, 2 episodes into the new season of Mr. Robot. So far so good. They were filming a scene 'round the corner from my workplace and I stuck on for 5 mins to watch the filming. I enjoyed S1 a lot when it came out last year and I'm trying to watch this with low expectations. This reminds me ... at a July 4th BBQ, I was in the company of an acquaintance who did props for the show and her friend who did props for S2 of Daredevil who talked about the Punisher, his gun and all that jazz. The fella was discussing it with a Punisher fan (friend I was with) and it was a fun, interesting conversation to listen to. He showed us a video of the kind of rail-gun that Arnold had in T2, cool stuff.
 

Scorpio

Courtesy of Grail's doodling.
I just finished watching the Amazon pilot for Jean-Claude Van Johnson. Hopefully it gets picked up because it was a lot of fun and I felt like there is a lot of potential there. It was full of zany ideas, humor, and nice small touches.
 
...I've been really enjoying 2 series based off of books/films currently HBOs Westworld and FOXs Exorcist series. The casting in Westworld has been spot on just as much as the main/subplot is. With Exorcist I was expecting another series loosely connected to its namesake like Friday the 13th or poltergeist the legacy were but man has the show been such a welcome surprise. Like Westworld the casting of the characters has been great and the main/subplot has been ruthless in its buildup and execution. If you're watching Exorcist the series you'll know what I'm talking about.
 
Has anybody been following Westworld ? Pretty amazing tv show, i was hooked from episode one. I would love to discuss some of the theories with you guys.
 

Aazealh

Administrator
Staff member
Joe Chip said:
Has anybody been following Westworld ? Pretty amazing tv show, i was hooked from episode one. I would love to discuss some of the theories with you guys.

Puella and I have watched the entirety of season one. As an appreciator of the original movie (never read the novel), I'm pretty pleased with how this reboot turned out.
 

Griffith

With the streak of a tear, Like morning dew
Joe Chip said:
Has anybody been following Westworld ? Pretty amazing tv show, i was hooked from episode one. I would love to discuss some of the theories with you guys.
Aazealh said:
Puella and I have watched the entirety of season one. As an appreciator of the original movie (never read the novel), I'm pretty pleased with how this reboot turned out.

I didn't think there was a novel, but just the screenplay written and directed for film by Crichton? :???:

Anyway, yeah, despite seeming super pretentious to start it wisely was more down to earth and pretty good that way throughout, and didn't cheat the audience with it's intrigues...
well, except the part where it subverted our expectations by dangling those "bigger mysteries" only to ultimate come back around to what we expected in the first place, but with gratification delayed for season 2; if they'd told us up front no robot uprising until season 2 we'd have revolted. :ganishka:

I thought they did a good job paying things off, like they came out and had a stance on most of the questions they posed instead of leaving it up to us or just folding it into another mystery. I appreciated Ford's takes throughout for this reason, even when he was being evil. Of course, the danger here is the writers really have freedom to BS at any time. Anybody can be a secret robot, or a robot following programming, or be brought back as a robot, or as their real human counterpart because the one that died was a robot, etc, but hopefully the show won't fall into that or at will at least have fun while doing so.
 
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