TV Shows Thread

[Hertzian56]

Was just thinking it would be interesting to have an off topic about tv shows and/or films etc I've been watching a few of the alaska "reality" shows which I like mainly for the photography of such a pretty place but without having to endure the cold/bugs etc myself lol. The best most chill one I've watched is The Last Alaskans which only had 4 seasons and wasn't as staged drama as the other ones so didn't do as well/last as long. Very chill music and just everyday type of stuff on a trapline etc up there in the ANWR. Some of the characters are annoying like Bob the whiny simpleton(who passed away during the 2/3rd season of some sort of digestive ailment) but overall they're normal people up there. Gorgeous drone shots of a largely empty wilderness, some great moose and other animals.

 

Life Below Zero another one but it fits in the more staged category, always some "emergency" etc and the rambling about how every moment is a life/death situation is just nonsense and annoying after a while. Even a main "character", Sue, sued the production for getting injured during one of the staged emergencies with an snow machine, which happens several times over several seasons to pretty much all the characters. My favorite is a character called Glen who lives in a tiny cabin pt and his adventures which are low key, low tech chill.

 

Alaska The Last Frontier is ok but totally a staged thing with the basis being an extended family of homesteaders originally from switzerland around Homer, AK. Their homestead is less than 10 miles from a small town but they cry about  the usual life and death thing, ugh. Beautiful homestead right on the ocean has some amazing scenery etc

 

Alaskan Bush People is the most staged one of the lot but the family is definitely likable, but they are grifters and cult like as presented. I wouldn't want to do business with them, but wouldn't mind having a bbq/beers with them. The coastal alaska of early seasons is beautiful to see, I've watched up to around season 8 where they go to some artificial compound in Washington state which is landlocked and not very interesting at all, totally staged in every way.

[cucubits]

This reminded me of two aviation related shows I've been watching a lot: Flying Wild Alaska and Ice Pilots NWT.

This may sound silly but as much as I'd love to learn to fly one day, when I hear how early in the middle of the night these people need to get up to go flying, just makes me turn around in my bed and keep sleeping. Lol. I am most definitely not a morning person 🙂

[cucubits]

How do you guys feel about The Expanse?

 

I've been reading the books from before I even knew there's a TV show so I'm not sure how I feel about it.

Some of the characters for the show were very well chosen, they fit perfectly to what I had portrayed them in my head (Holden and Avasarala, maybe even Amos). If I had to choose, probably Miller was my favorite from the first book.

 

On the other hand, the books (starting from the 3rd I think) are getting a bit difficult to follow. You can tell that there are 2 separate authors as they jump from one chapter to another, from one random new character to another, timelines change - annoying to the point that sometimes I just skip chapters for newly introduced characters and just follow the usual ones. I feel I lose nothing from the story...

 

[aivxtla]

The Expanse is amazing (never read the books), the acting and attention to minute details (realistic physics). Overall I actually like it more than Game of Thrones, story/geopolitics wise, where I felt certain deaths and actions just seem to be written for shock effect / throw off readers/viewers rather than truly enhancing the story. Interestingly the authors of the Expanse actually were on set with George RR Martin when GOT was filming if I recall.

 

As for current shows:

Peacemaker has also been pretty amazing so far.

Can’t wait for the next season of The Boys.

Mandolorian is another I watch as well.

 

 

 

 

[cucubits]

I've finished pretty recently a re-watch of the whole Gilmore Girls series 😬

[Hertzian56]

On 1/25/2022 at 10:42 AM, cucubits said:

How do you guys feel about The Expanse?

 

I've been reading the books from before I even knew there's a TV show so I'm not sure how I feel about it.

Some of the characters for the show were very well chosen, they fit perfectly to what I had portrayed them in my head (Holden and Avasarala, maybe even Amos). If I had to choose, probably Miller was my favorite from the first book.

 

On the other hand, the books (starting from the 3rd I think) are getting a bit difficult to follow. You can tell that there are 2 separate authors as they jump from one chapter to another, from one random new character to another, timelines change - annoying to the point that sometimes I just skip chapters for newly introduced characters and just follow the usual ones. I feel I lose nothing from the story...

 

Haven't watched that but on the point of getting difficult to follow I felt that way when I was watching Game of Thrones season 3 or so back when it first came out and then trying to read the books released at that time. The books got super confusing and all over imo. I think he's released one more since then but not interested. I'm coming to the realization that GOT is just a weak derivative of Tolkien. Even the authors supposed name is a weak derivative, ie George RR Martin Vs J RR Tolkien. Of course the series goes way downhill after the end of season 5 or so.

[aivxtla]

I’m not sure GoT is much like Tolkiens work. GoT is more of geopolitics wrapped in fantasy, and actually taking inspiration from the War of Roses era of England. Also deals with things like myth/legends vs reality and how stories/history can be distorted over time and by whose telling them, there’s a lot of layers you’re missing in GoT. I personally like it a lot better than Lord of the Rings which seemed relatively more black and white when it came to characters and concepts of good and evil. Also George R.R. Martin is his actual name not a “supposed” one lol. Just a coincidence in regards to the middle initial…

[Hertzian56]

I doubt the name is purely coincidence, it's most likely fan service, remember you're talking about a TV writer and all that that means. Yes it does take inspiration from aspects of history no doubt, the dog eat dog ruthlessness which most likely happened in certain places and times. GOT was written with TV n mind by a TV writer. The books are ok but get really convoluted and messy after the first 2 or so. The TV show and the books do the same thing, fall apart after starting off well. Even after all this time the books are not complete. Yes Tolkien definitely doesn't have the mafia level vendettas/conspiracies that's for sure. It got pretty senseless and for the sake of sake after a while in the show.

[cucubits]

GoT was something strange for me. I usually like these style shows/movies/games but for some reason I just couldn't get into it. I like zombies, dark ages, dragons, etc... I don't know why GoT didn't draw me in.

We watched the whole series not long ago and by we, I mean my wife watched and I was more focused on my laptop and just moved my eyes to the TV when I felt there are b00bs going to be seen or when I heard some strange noises...

[aivxtla]

The first Book was released in 1996 and Benihoff didn’t reach out to JRR with an idea for a show till like 2006  by which time 4 books were out, so not sure I’d call him a TV writer. Plus the show does deviate from the books. While others did approach him as well he didn’t consider the books even filmable at one time due the scope as it likely would be watered down too much.

[Prototime]

Couldn't get into GOT myself. I'm interested in seeing how Amazon's "Rings of Power" Lord of the Rings prequel show turns out. I massively enjoy Lord of the Rings, the books and the movies. I hope the show mostly respects the source material, and that it doesn't try to GOT-ify Tolkien's work. We'll see...

[Custom90gt]

I've been watching the Witcher season 2 finally.  I think it's great, but I've always been a fan of the games and I enjoyed season 1. 

I enjoyed the GoT series though, I didn't really even mind the last season, maybe I'm just a simple person, lol. 

[Hertzian56]

On 1/29/2022 at 3:19 AM, aivxtla said:

The first Book was released in 1996 and Benihoff didn’t reach out to JRR with an idea for a show till like 2006  by which time 4 books were out, so not sure I’d call him a TV writer. Plus the show does deviate from the books. While others did approach him as well he didn’t consider the books even filmable at one time due the scope as it likely would be watered down too much.

Armageddon Rag into a film. The film adaptation did not happen, but they stayed in touch, and when DeGuere became the producer for the revival of The Twilight Zone, Martin was offered a job as a writer. Working for television paid a lot better than writing literature, so he decided to move to Hollywood to seek a new career.^[14][40][41] At first he worked as staff writer for the show, and then as an executive story consultant. After the CBS series was cancelled, Martin migrated over to the already-underway satirical science fiction series Max Headroom. He worked on scripts and created the show's "Ped Xing" character. However, before his scripts could go into production, the ABC show was cancelled in the middle of its second season. Martin was hired as a writer-producer on the new dramatic fantasy series Beauty and the Beast; in 1989, he became the show's co-supervising producer and wrote 14 of its episodes.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_R._R._Martin

 

Yeah I read the books around s3 of the tv show I'm aware they deviate.

[aivxtla]

1 hour ago, Custom90gt said:

I enjoyed the GoT series though, I didn't really even mind the last season, maybe I'm just a simple person, lol. 

Then definitely take a look at the Expanse! I personally liked it much better. 

 

Never played any of the Witcher games but I do love the show.

[serpro69]

The Expanse is great, such a pity it ended.

Witcher is also very nice, season 2 was even better than first IMO.

Also watched The Wheel of Time recently and it was such a horrendous experience. I wish I could unwatch all of it...

[Hertzian56]

Delving back into Malcolm in the Middle, nice to have something that's a bit more family friendly/wholesome rather than the dark violent weird shows that seem to grow like weeds now. I guess that's why so many people watch TVLand and other classics channels almost exclusively.

[aivxtla]

On 2/3/2022 at 2:44 AM, serpro69 said:

The Expanse is great, such a pity it ended.

Witcher is also very nice, season 2 was even better than first IMO.

Also watched The Wheel of Time recently and it was such a horrendous experience. I wish I could unwatch all of it...

Aside from the cost I think another key reason is there is time jump of like 30 years in the books, so they'd either have to recast, or age the current charcters digitally. Was good ending though and a nice place to to do so, timeline wise.

On 2/3/2022 at 11:21 AM, Hertzian56 said:

Delving back into Malcolm in the Middle, nice to have something that's a bit more family friendly/wholesome rather than the dark violent weird shows that seem to grow like weeds now. I guess that's why so many people watch TVLand and other classics channels almost exclusively.

Lot of options though these days between dark and light, even in terms of new shows. This thread could be a great way to discover some, if we get more input.

[serpro69]

Been watching Boba Fett. Not as great as Mandalorian, but still good.

Spoiler

And the fact that they brought Mandalorian back as a side character was nice and surprising.

 

Also saw the first episode of season 2 of Resident Alien, and it seems like it will be as good as the first season.

[Hertzian56]

On 2/5/2022 at 1:29 PM, aivxtla said:

Aside from the cost I think another key reason is there is time jump of like 30 years in the books, so they'd either have to recast, or age the current charcters digitally. Was good ending though and a nice place to to do so, timeline wise.

Lot of options though these days between dark and light, even in terms of new shows. This thread could be a great way to discover some, if we get more input.

Yeah I have also been rewatching the Sopranos on the other side lol

[Mr. Fox]

I don't watch lots of TV, maybe 1 or 2 hours in the evening and a couple of hours on Newsmax on weekends. At other times I tend to binge watch. My wife and I enjoy action series and good sci-fi shows. We only do streaming on Roku, no cable or OTA. While the list could be much, much longer. Off the top of my head some of our favorites that come to mind have been:

• Yellowstone
• 1883
• Longmire
• Into the Badlands
• Virgin River
• The Sinner
• Hannah
• Blacklist
• Jack Ryan
• The Americans
• Grimm
• Gotham
• Justified
• Wu Assassins
• Lost in Space (remake)
• The Mandalorian
• Supernatural
• The Originals
• Legacies
• Vampire Diaries
• Van Helsing
• Wynonna Earp
• Sabrina
• Netflix Marvel Series (Jessica Jones, Iron Fist, Arrow, The Flash, Daredevil, Punisher, etc.)
• Travelers
• Ragnarok
• Sweet Tooth
• Another Life

Looking forward to starting this one in the near future...

 

[Hertzian56]

Idk going back to series I watched to death is interesting because I notice things more rather than just being entertained since I already know the basic story. With Malcolm it comes through as not that great a lot of the time, I mean there is clever writing but the acting seems to be way over the top almost shrieking which kind of grinds on me now. After season 3 it seems to just recycle a lot of stuff and plays itself out, riding the popularity gravy train and there are 7 seasons total, I don't think I can make it through all of that. It's a weird hysterical/bully mother worship thing, buffoon father, scam oriented kids etc You can see the formulaic aspects of the oldest kids adventures outside the main setting, they are clever and funny a lot of the time but it just keeps repeating in new settings every season or so. But I guess most shows rarely end at their best in terms of story.

[cucubits]

We developed a strange habit of re-watching all Star Treks over and over again. We get through TNG, we move on to DS9 (as we speak) then Voyager and by the time we're done, we start over with TNG. I like the original series too but I usually watch that alone, my wife's more into the others mentioned. We're doing this at the rate of about 3-4 episodes per evening. For some reason this never gets boring or less interesting, even though we've seen all episodes many times by now.

 

🖖

 

 

[Reciever]

Stopped watching GoT after season 1, never went back to it, no real interest to do so either.

 

I really enjoyed Elementary, but I forgot about Witcher season 2. Will probably watch that soon.... Or tonight lol

[ratchetnclank]

On 2/3/2022 at 4:21 PM, Hertzian56 said:

Delving back into Malcolm in the Middle, nice to have something that's a bit more family friendly/wholesome rather than the dark violent weird shows that seem to grow like weeds now. I guess that's why so many people watch TVLand and other classics channels almost exclusively.

I loved Malcom in the middle. I think now that I'm a lot older than when I originally watched it Lois seems less neurotic and appreciate why she acts like she does. Hal is awesome too. 

 

Such a good show.

[Hertzian56]

On a road trip so I had some stuff on my note 4/A01 ready to go. Watched some of my fav southparks like little crimestoppers, red mans greed, free hat, trapper keeper, such a hilarious show, pretty gross in a lot of places though kind of made me stop after s10 or so. Some fav king of the hill episodes too, a couple of archer favs. quick lite stuff.