Good TV Shows

[Which Tyler]

Not worth a thread of its own, and this seems the most appropriate place

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/ ... ef-chatgpt

‘It was as if my father were actually texting me’: grief in the age of AI
People are turning to chatbot impersonations of lost loved ones to help them grieve. Will AI help us live after we’re dead?
...

Has Black Mirror taught us nothing?
They did literally this episode in the second series!


​

[Son of Mathonwy]

Foundation is very good. It looks great and the storyline is quite unusual. The plot is not without some highly unlikely occurrences but the mature tone (presumably due to the source material) makes this well worth watching.

Just as the 2nd season is starting up I thought I'd revisit this.

Since watching season 1 I read the first 4 Foundation books.

They are awful, awful, awful. Awful. Awful characters, unexciting stories, not even a great idea. Not even good science. Asimov gives up on any attempt at scientific realism halfway through book 2 and the books are about psychic powers from then on. Jesus. These books give SF a bad name. If this was the only SF I'd read I'd look down on the genre too. And it's supposed to be a classic.

In light of this I'm more impressed with the show, since they've had to invent (or steal from other SF . . . which is less impressive I guess) most of the plot and characterisations. Particularly, everything about the emperor is new (and good . . . more like Dune than anything in Foundation). Not quite so sure about the revolutionary activity on the fringe worlds but it's also new. I reckon Foundation was considered unfilmable because the books are so bad. The show sidesteps that by ignoring the books after the first episode.

[Numbers]

The Bear series 2 on Disney, this continues to be excellent viewing.

[Mikey Brown]

I’ve only watched one episode but they’ve really gone nuts with the fun, snappy banter angle and the camera whipping back and forth between them. I don’t remember that feeling quite so contrived in the first series.

It’s still very watchable though.

[Numbers]

I’ve only watched one episode but they’ve really gone nuts with the fun, snappy banter angle and the camera whipping back and forth between them. I don’t remember that feeling quite so contrived in the first series.

It’s still very watchable though.

There's quite a few A-List cameos in this series, I really enjoyed it.

[Donny osmond]

I know I’m late to this but Ted Lasso season 1 really is some of the best tv to be made in a long time.

Also really enjoying Bad Sisters season 1, featuring a character who has to be one of the most hateful tv characters ever and really keeping you guessing about how and when and by whose hand he meets his fate. Really great TV.

[Which Tyler]

Also really enjoying Bad Sisters season 1, featuring a character who has to be one of the most hateful tv characters ever and really keeping you guessing about how and when and by whose hand he meets his fate. Really great TV.

Loved it.
Not sure why it needs a 2nd season though, nor what they can realistically do with it.

[Mikey Brown]

I’ve only watched one episode but they’ve really gone nuts with the fun, snappy banter angle and the camera whipping back and forth between them. I don’t remember that feeling quite so contrived in the first series.

It’s still very watchable though.

There's quite a few A-List cameos in this series, I really enjoyed it.

Just finished the season and err… wow.

[Son of Mathonwy]

I’ve only watched one episode but they’ve really gone nuts with the fun, snappy banter angle and the camera whipping back and forth between them. I don’t remember that feeling quite so contrived in the first series.

It’s still very watchable though.

There's quite a few A-List cameos in this series, I really enjoyed it.

Just finished the season and err… wow.

Just caught up with The Bear. I wouldn't have thought it was my kind of thing but I enjoyed it. Nice dialogue, nice soundtrack, nice mix of drama and comedy. By the end of season 2 though, I feel almost guilty, like I'm getting my kicks watching some bipolar guys scream and cry at each other. Sydney keeps the show together for me.

► Show Spoiler

Negatives (other than the OTT mental disorders on display): I still can't understand why (or even how) Mikey hides the money in the cans . . . except to give season 1 a deus ex machina ending. I don't like to see the respect given to the Sopranos-lite character casually saying he might have to break Carmy's legs. Carmy's angelic girlfriend arrives in the show like she teleports in from a different universe. And the whole contrived, trapped-in-fridge ending was poor.

[Mikey Brown]

I found the dialogue and the soundtrack absolutely excruciating. I’m so confused how people are gushing over this.

I feel like the first season was good (?) but I was left kind of speechless at this one. Clearly it compelled me to keep watching, but I don’t think in the spirit the creators had intended.

[Son of Mathonwy]

Just finished watching sombre-tastic German time travel drama Dark.

It's quite a piece of work. I enjoyed it although it's a bit of a slog (perhaps would have been better to wrap it up in two seasons) and there aren't too many jokes (to be clear, there are no jokes). A little bit heavy on long silences and stares but as a story it's quite a construction. Impressive.

► Show Spoiler

In the end I don't think the show ever explains why several kids were kidnapped, experimented on, killed, and dumped in different times, even though this is the driver of much of the plot, especially early on. But I really loved the time loops, Elizabeth being Charlotte's mother and daughter etc. Even if its only justification was that it just had to happen.

[Son of Mathonwy]

Secret Invasion has a big name cast but it's really not very good.

[Puja]

Secret Invasion has a big name cast but it's really not very good.

Oh, it's utterly terrible. I started watching it and was bored and annoyed at the same time, so I gave up, but then algorithms showed me ads with Olivia Colman's character doing fun things, so I went back in and I really wish I hadn't bothered.

Shitty underlying message of "Look out, refugees are secretly violent infiltrators!", combined with people being stupid and doing things for plot-reasons, combined with everyone talking about how great/terrifying/intimidating Nick Fury is while he did very little to nothing of note, combined with an incredibly bizarre plot about proving that Russia aren't warmongers that really, really should've been reshot and transferred to some other nation after real world events overtook it.

It also feels like Marvel have no idea what to do with the real world now that they've had The Blip. Like, the whole premise of the MCU back when it started was that it was the real world, with a few exceptional people in it - kinda like an urban fantasy. And they had the thing where they were copying from the vibe of the Nolan Batman films of trying to make the powers at least vaguely adjacent to the real world rules, rather than just being an out-and-out fantasy world.

And it's gradually drifted further and further away from that as they've added in more heroes and more powersets and more rulechanges. And now they've got this epochal, world-defining event in half the population vanishing and then returning 5 years later and they can't work out if they even want to address it and its massive logic-holes. Like, this world should be drastically different to our one. Magic is openly a thing, aliens are openly a thing, physics is drastically different, as is technology, half of the population went through a massive trauma for 5 years and the other half went through a massive trauma on discovering that the world had been going for 5 years without them. But they're still trying to film shows which are set in the current world.

Ms Marvel, She-Hulk, Guardians of the Galaxy just pretty much ignored that it happened and had a normal world without anyone being traumatised, which I'm fine with. Whereas this piece of shit tried to have the Blip be a character motivation, but only for one person, and still have it that politics and spycraft and technology and even political movements like alt-right and sovereign citizen militias map exactly onto our world.

tl;dr - don't bother watching, even if you're a fan of Marvel stuff.

Puja

[Mikey Brown]

Secret Invasion has a big name cast but it's really not very good.

I mean this is a pretty good general rule to follow with film and TV at the moment. The bigger and more star-studded the ensemble cast, the less anyone seems to have paid any attention to the writing.

[Son of Mathonwy]

Secret Invasion has a big name cast but it's really not very good.

Oh, it's utterly terrible. I started watching it and was bored and annoyed at the same time, so I gave up, but then algorithms showed me ads with Olivia Colman's character doing fun things, so I went back in and I really wish I hadn't bothered.

Shitty underlying message of "Look out, refugees are secretly violent infiltrators!", combined with people being stupid and doing things for plot-reasons, combined with everyone talking about how great/terrifying/intimidating Nick Fury is while he did very little to nothing of note, combined with an incredibly bizarre plot about proving that Russia aren't warmongers that really, really should've been reshot and transferred to some other nation after real world events overtook it.

It also feels like Marvel have no idea what to do with the real world now that they've had The Blip. Like, the whole premise of the MCU back when it started was that it was the real world, with a few exceptional people in it - kinda like an urban fantasy. And they had the thing where they were copying from the vibe of the Nolan Batman films of trying to make the powers at least vaguely adjacent to the real world rules, rather than just being an out-and-out fantasy world.

And it's gradually drifted further and further away from that as they've added in more heroes and more powersets and more rulechanges. And now they've got this epochal, world-defining event in half the population vanishing and then returning 5 years later and they can't work out if they even want to address it and its massive logic-holes. Like, this world should be drastically different to our one. Magic is openly a thing, aliens are openly a thing, physics is drastically different, as is technology, half of the population went through a massive trauma for 5 years and the other half went through a massive trauma on discovering that the world had been going for 5 years without them. But they're still trying to film shows which are set in the current world.

Ms Marvel, She-Hulk, Guardians of the Galaxy just pretty much ignored that it happened and had a normal world without anyone being traumatised, which I'm fine with. Whereas this piece of shit tried to have the Blip be a character motivation, but only for one person, and still have it that politics and spycraft and technology and even political movements like alt-right and sovereign citizen militias map exactly onto our world.

tl;dr - don't bother watching, even if you're a fan of Marvel stuff.

Puja

I just about got to the end because it was so short. Jesus, the flaws, I could write a thesis on them.

The usual, humanity faces extinction but we won't call the Avengers (et al) and the Avengers are totally unaware of the threat (because they're between movies, presumably).

Why risk collecting the actual 'harvest' when any vial of liquid would have done or even none at all given the showdown just required 'Fury' to walk into the old power station and beat the crap out of Gravik?

The Americans know there are shape changing aliens out there but do nothing to check their people for infiltrators.

The US president doesn't seem concerned about the consequences of launching a strike on Russian soil.

Fury has wilfully spent years in space, out of contact with his wife. Please don't then claim he has any interest in the relationship.

I could go on.

Not worth anyone's time.

[monkey]

Just finished watching sombre-tastic German time travel drama Dark.

It's quite a piece of work. I enjoyed it although it's a bit of a slog (perhaps would have been better to wrap it up in two seasons) and there aren't too many jokes (to be clear, there are no jokes). A little bit heavy on long silences and stares but as a story it's quite a construction. Impressive.

► Show Spoiler

In the end I don't think the show ever explains why several kids were kidnapped, experimented on, killed, and dumped in different times, even though this is the driver of much of the plot, especially early on. But I really loved the time loops, Elizabeth being Charlotte's mother and daughter etc. Even if its only justification was that it just had to happen.

Yeah, I thought it was very good too. I actually rest he’d it in its entirety recently and actually enjoyed it even more on the second viewing.

[Son of Mathonwy]

Let The Right One In is good. It's quite modest in scope, expanding from the movies just enough to justify its existence as a series. What is does, it does well (ignoring one thing that's a bit too coincidental).

[Puja]

I've just finished watching Heartstopper on Netflix and it was seriously the loveliest piece of television I have ever had the pleasure to watch.

It's a teen romance story featuring the most adorable LGBTQ babbies, with the main couple being gay nerd Charlie and what he thinks is his hopeless crush on cool, popular, rugby-playing Nick. While Nick's just really excited about his new close male friend who he really likes in a very platonic friendship definitely not romantic way cause he's liked girls before and that means he's "straight".

I kept being really nervous watching it, expecting the other shoe to drop and something horrible happen to the characters - I was waiting for a parent be really homophobic, or the trans girl going to her new school to get horribly misgendered and bullied, or the "straight" guy to say something horribly bigoted by mistake, and none of it ever happened. I mean there was drama and obstacles and some villainy (because we need a story), but none of the usual tropes of "bad things must happen to the gays" came out. It was just nice. Nice people got good things and the adorable baby gays mostly got together and it was all utterly lovely. It took me a long time to trust that it wasn't going to have horrible things, cause I'm so used to torturing the queers being a trope.

I really, really needed a bit of fiction where nice people got nice things and everyone lived in a better world than the shitheap that we currently have. Go watch it if you too need cheering up.

Puja

The second season of this has now arrived and it continues to be both lovely and entertaining. Well worth a watch!

Puja

[Mikey Brown]

Is this the gay agenda that Mr. Shapiro has been warning me about?

[Puja]

Is this the gay agenda that Mr. Shapiro has been warning me about?

Yes - that show is **absolutely** the gay agenda, boiled down to its essence.

Puja

[Son of Mathonwy]

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, is IMO the best ST since the original. This is partly because it unashamedly follows the formula, but also because the characters are well-written and the cast bring warmth and humour to roles. This is in total contrast to the humourless ST: Discovery, which spawned this spin-off.

Season 2 of Strange New Worlds maintains the quality. If I'm finding fault I'd say it veers a little too far into humour - 3 out of 10 episodes are non-serious - comedy or musical. All well done but when there's that much of it it gets harder to take the serious stuff seriously.

[Son of Mathonwy]

The Big Door Prize is okay. It's likeable, well written and cast, but doesn't really achieve that much. The stakes never get high enough and it's only mildly amusing.

► Show Spoiler

At the end I thought it was going to wrap up amiably. And it did. And then they tagged on a cliffhanger that looked like it was written 5 minutes before shooting. Weird. It was nice enough but does not need a second season.

[Which Tyler]

Has anyone been watching The Winter King?
Based on Bernard Cornwell's best work (IMO) - but the trailer looked a bit shit.
Consequently, I've been holding off - can anyone report back on whether it's decent or not?

Nasty feeling they've just gone for a swords-and-sandals show but with Saxons instead of Vikings, and maybe lifted a few names from Cornwell, but none of the characters or commentary that made the books great.

[Son of Mathonwy]

Has anyone been watching The Winter King?
Based on Bernard Cornwell's best work (IMO) - but the trailer looked a bit shit.
Consequently, I've been holding off - can anyone report back on whether it's decent or not?

Nasty feeling they've just gone for a swords-and-sandals show but with Saxons instead of Vikings, and maybe lifted a few names from Cornwell, but none of the characters or commentary that made the books great.

I'm holding off too. I think I will try it eventually but don't feel drawn to it. Is Iain De Caestecker the shortest king ever? (Other than Charles III?)

[Son of Mathonwy]

Foundation is very good. It looks great and the storyline is quite unusual. The plot is not without some highly unlikely occurrences but the mature tone (presumably due to the source material) makes this well worth watching.

Just as the 2nd season is starting up I thought I'd revisit this.

Since watching season 1 I read the first 4 Foundation books.

They are awful, awful, awful. Awful. Awful characters, unexciting stories, not even a great idea. Not even good science. Asimov gives up on any attempt at scientific realism halfway through book 2 and the books are about psychic powers from then on. Jesus. These books give SF a bad name. If this was the only SF I'd read I'd look down on the genre too. And it's supposed to be a classic.

In light of this I'm more impressed with the show, since they've had to invent (or steal from other SF . . . which is less impressive I guess) most of the plot and characterisations. Particularly, everything about the emperor is new (and good . . . more like Dune than anything in Foundation). Not quite so sure about the revolutionary activity on the fringe worlds but it's also new. I reckon Foundation was considered unfilmable because the books are so bad. The show sidesteps that by ignoring the books after the first episode.

The second season of Foundation is better than the first. They clearly had a bit of a rethink and ditched a few of the storylines they'd been working on and introduced some new ones (mostly nothing to do with the books). It's a bit sketchy in places and certainly takes things from an unusual angle (compared with most TV SF), but overall it's very good.

► Show Spoiler

Wisely, they dropped the Anacreon and Thespis storyline and perhaps less wisely, the Luminist plotline. But the developments on Trantor make up for this. The Imperial fleet is too sparsely manned (or characterized), so it feels a little thin compared with more familiar SF. Gaal, Salvor and Hari's adventures are okay but are completely separate from the rest of the plot (but then so was Daenerys's in GOT so that's alright for an epic). The one thing I have a real problem with though, is Gaal's prophetic ability. I can see they wanted to use this to foreshadow the Mule and generally drive the plot but predestinarian is so completely at odds with the concept of psychohistory that it damages the entire show.