Good TV Shows

[Sandydragon]

Is it safe to mention Wheel of Time again here yet?

Yes, the first season was poor, dire once COVID hit, but the second was better, despite COVID issues. Season 3 though, is properly good TV

That’s on my list to watch. I gave up on Rings of Power which lost me mid way through the last season. I have higher hopes for wheel of time

[Mikey Brown]

Fortunately White Lotus appears to be back to the glorious highs of the first season, even though I did love the second too. Half way in but it’s fantastic so far.

Maybe it’s just following the dirge of Severance but I think this is about as good as modern tv gets.

Loved one and two, but struggled with this, mainly because of so many unlikeable characters and the sterotypical protrayal of Thais and Thailand. Got better in the last two episodes, so you have that to come!

Strange.

► Show Spoiler

Just finished it And had the complete opposite experience. I thought it was fantastic up until the final 2 episodes. The dramatic familial revelations, resurrections and shootouts felt completely unnecessary to me.

I still thought it was great overall but the ending was quite a let down I felt. The cast were pretty much entirely fantastic.

I’m curious what you disliked about the representation of Thai people/culture?

[Banquo]

Fortunately White Lotus appears to be back to the glorious highs of the first season, even though I did love the second too. Half way in but it’s fantastic so far.

Maybe it’s just following the dirge of Severance but I think this is about as good as modern tv gets.

Loved one and two, but struggled with this, mainly because of so many unlikeable characters and the sterotypical protrayal of Thais and Thailand. Got better in the last two episodes, so you have that to come!

Strange.

► Show Spoiler

Just finished it And had the complete opposite experience. I thought it was fantastic up until the final 2 episodes. The dramatic familial revelations, resurrections and shootouts felt completely unnecessary to me.

I still thought it was great overall but the ending was quite a let down I felt. The cast were pretty much entirely fantastic.

I’m curious what you disliked about the representation of Thai people/culture?

Not strange, just have different tastes. I thought the whole thing underwhelming, but enjoyed it a bit more when the pace picked up. I do tend to agree with your view on the wrap up tho.

The acting was superb, I agree, I just didn't like many of the characters. Not sure how to do the spoiler thing tbh

[Banquo]

► Show Spoiler

worked it out . I thought the Mook character was the classic stereotype of thai woman being defined by the success of her 'man' ie only interested in Gaitok if he was going to progress in life; the portrayal of Bangkok could have been from a comic book, as could the comedy russians/ The three women party from the states were awful imo and their ending utterly mad. So the pacing for me was too slow at the start, and the ending rubbish. But I enjoyed the last two more than the rest, but its relative

[Mikey Brown]

► Show Spoiler

worked it out . I thought the Mook character was the classic stereotype of thai woman being defined by the success of her 'man' ie only interested in Gaitok if he was going to progress in life; the portrayal of Bangkok could have been from a comic book, as could the comedy russians/ The three women party from the states were awful imo and their ending utterly mad. So the pacing for me was too slow at the start, and the ending rubbish. But I enjoyed the last two more than the rest, but its relative

Fair enough.

► Show Spoiler

I thought Mook made sense as a contrast to most of the other women we met, and the general Buddhist/pacifist element, but was really there to challenge Gaitok yet we didn’t get to see any of the repercussions of his choices in the end. That was why it fell down for me. It all felt rushed.

Bangkok was obviously absurd, but we only really saw it through the lens of Sam Rockwell’s character, who was obviously a caricature himself but not based on nothing. It would be interesting to see more of the ‘real’ world, but I suppose this show is about entitled westerners more than anything.

Funny too - I absolutely loved the girls and thought the dynamic of their friendship was played beautifully, but again had little payoff and they (along with Zion) seemed to have no reaction at all to seeing a murder/body right in front of them. There were so many moments like that in the last couple of episodes.

Anyway. I won’t list all the weird potholes that threw me off. It was fun overall. I hadn’t been too fond of 2 either until talking to someone else that had viewed it all completely differently.

[Banquo]

► Show Spoiler

worked it out . I thought the Mook character was the classic stereotype of thai woman being defined by the success of her 'man' ie only interested in Gaitok if he was going to progress in life; the portrayal of Bangkok could have been from a comic book, as could the comedy russians/ The three women party from the states were awful imo and their ending utterly mad. So the pacing for me was too slow at the start, and the ending rubbish. But I enjoyed the last two more than the rest, but its relative

Fair enough.

► Show Spoiler

I thought Mook made sense as a contrast to most of the other women we met, and the general Buddhist/pacifist element, but was really there to challenge Gaitok yet we didn’t get to see any of the repercussions of his choices in the end. That was why it fell down for me. It all felt rushed.

Bangkok was obviously absurd, but we only really saw it through the lens of Sam Rockwell’s character, who was obviously a caricature himself but not based on nothing. It would be interesting to see more of the ‘real’ world, but I suppose this show is about entitled westerners more than anything.

Funny too - I absolutely loved the girls and thought the dynamic of their friendship was played beautifully, but again had little payoff and they (along with Zion) seemed to have no reaction at all to seeing a murder/body right in front of them. There were so many moments like that in the last couple of episodes.

Anyway. I won’t list all the weird potholes that threw me off. It was fun overall. I hadn’t been too fond of 2 either until talking to someone else that had viewed it all completely differently.

thumbs up emoji

[Son of Mathonwy]

Just watched Severance and I’ll have to reevaluate The Bear as being the most obnoxious TV show I’ve ever seen. In addition to the terrible writing and self-aggrandising production style that it shares, this is also mind numbingly boring.

If you cut out all the forced dramatic pauses the series would be about 7 minutes long, and it would be far better for it. Much like the Substance actually, it said everything it had to say in the first 10% of the runtime.

The cast is incredible, and there are moments you feel these fantastic actors might be able to break free of the horrific script and direction, but the performances are so stilted and the lack of chemistry between key characters is painful. No amount of dramatic music can change that.

I haven’t got a clue how anyone felt the slightest bit of attachment to any of these characters or their motivations, which seemed to turn on a dime.

The Bear was at least fun, even though it was total shit, whereas this show is mostly just people whispering and wandering up and down the same empty corridors. There are some good ideas buried amongst all the shit, but that only makes it more frustrating to watch.

They did a reasonable job of at least tying up the season arc, then realised that meant the show would be over and simply have the main characters do a literal u-turn in order to allow for a season 3.

Absolutely fucking hated this. Awful, awful show.

Oh no, how can you think this? I have to disagree.

Severance is one of the best shows on TV at the moment. The first season was extremely good - hard to fault really. A really original story, great acting, design, pacing - just about the right number of episodes for the story being told. A very mysterious situation, slowly revealed, building to a great ending.

I thought it would be very, very difficult to continue at that level - the cliffhangers seemed to be about to cause the show to self-destruct - but they did a great job of getting the storylines going again. Season two is definitely not as good as one (and one episode - Cobel's return home - was a bit of a failure) but it's still really good TV. There's a big danger that the ultimate explanation(s) won't be very satisfactory but the ball hasn't been dropped yet (even if it looks a bit more wobbly).

Problems:

► Show Spoiler

I am having doubts that there can really be a coherent explanation for why Lumon is bothering to run a severed floor at all (eg since the workers at Data Refinement don't actually know what the numbers mean, why keep it a severed secret from the world?)

Similarly, the holding of Mark's wife and her multiple personalities requires a fantastic explanation.

It's implausible that the boss's daughter would be slumming it amongst the plebs (for such an extended time).

Since it is so important, the severed floor would be far more carefully monitored and guarded than it is - thus preventing the workers from getting up to any mischief.

In general, it seems that Lumon holds all the cards and has too much power over the innies for them to possibly defeat it.

Although the culture and folktales of the severed floor are interesting, I don't see how they can have arisen so quickly (since presumably?? severance is a fairly new technology).

[Mikey Brown]

Just watched Severance and I’ll have to reevaluate The Bear as being the most obnoxious TV show I’ve ever seen. In addition to the terrible writing and self-aggrandising production style that it shares, this is also mind numbingly boring.

If you cut out all the forced dramatic pauses the series would be about 7 minutes long, and it would be far better for it. Much like the Substance actually, it said everything it had to say in the first 10% of the runtime.

The cast is incredible, and there are moments you feel these fantastic actors might be able to break free of the horrific script and direction, but the performances are so stilted and the lack of chemistry between key characters is painful. No amount of dramatic music can change that.

I haven’t got a clue how anyone felt the slightest bit of attachment to any of these characters or their motivations, which seemed to turn on a dime.

The Bear was at least fun, even though it was total shit, whereas this show is mostly just people whispering and wandering up and down the same empty corridors. There are some good ideas buried amongst all the shit, but that only makes it more frustrating to watch.

They did a reasonable job of at least tying up the season arc, then realised that meant the show would be over and simply have the main characters do a literal u-turn in order to allow for a season 3.

Absolutely fucking hated this. Awful, awful show.

Oh no, how can you think this? I have to disagree.

Severance is one of the best shows on TV at the moment. The first season was extremely good - hard to fault really. A really original story, great acting, design, pacing - just about the right number of episodes for the story being told. A very mysterious situation, slowly revealed, building to a great ending.

I thought it would be very, very difficult to continue at that level - the cliffhangers seemed to be about to cause the show to self-destruct - but they did a great job of getting the storylines going again. Season two is definitely not as good as one (and one episode - Cobel's return home - was a bit of a failure) but it's still really good TV. There's a big danger that the ultimate explanation(s) won't be very satisfactory but the ball hasn't been dropped yet (even if it looks a bit more wobbly).

Problems:

► Show Spoiler

I am having doubts that there can really be a coherent explanation for why Lumon is bothering to run a severed floor at all (eg since the workers at Data Refinement don't actually know what the numbers mean, why keep it a severed secret from the world?)

Similarly, the holding of Mark's wife and her multiple personalities requires a fantastic explanation.

It's implausible that the boss's daughter would be slumming it amongst the plebs (for such an extended time).

Since it is so important, the severed floor would be far more carefully monitored and guarded than it is - thus preventing the workers from getting up to any mischief.

In general, it seems that Lumon holds all the cards and has too much power over the innies for them to possibly defeat it.

Although the culture and folktales of the severed floor are interesting, I don't see how they can have arisen so quickly (since presumably?? severance is a fairly new technology).

Well I don’t want to keep ragging on a show that you (and clearly lots of other people) love, but I just can’t see it at all. It had completely lost me by the end of the first series, but I thought I’d give this one a go given the praise I was seeing.

Maybe it’s one or two tonal things that mean not buying in to the show as a whole, but I was fully on board for the first few episodes of series 1 until it expanded its premise.

The stakes are raised so dramatically, with a cliffhanger (and accompanying dreadful music that builds to a stark cut, like a bad movie trailer) on virtually every scene, while the motivations of the characters seem to change every 5 minutes.

Some of the individual relationships, like John Turturro and Christopher Walken, were compelling in isolation but got lost in the sauce, for me. It’s like the show expanded far quicker than it could keep up with in terms of writing.

Perhaps you have to enjoy (or at least be able to see past) the way the show is shot/scripted/scored/edited to be able to accept the larger story and actually care what happens to any of the characters. I feel like it could have been a fantastic film or two.

[paddy no 11]

Katla on Netflix is good so far, only 3 episodes in, it's incredibly tense

[Son of Mathonwy]

Just watched Severance and I’ll have to reevaluate The Bear as being the most obnoxious TV show I’ve ever seen. In addition to the terrible writing and self-aggrandising production style that it shares, this is also mind numbingly boring.

If you cut out all the forced dramatic pauses the series would be about 7 minutes long, and it would be far better for it. Much like the Substance actually, it said everything it had to say in the first 10% of the runtime.

The cast is incredible, and there are moments you feel these fantastic actors might be able to break free of the horrific script and direction, but the performances are so stilted and the lack of chemistry between key characters is painful. No amount of dramatic music can change that.

I haven’t got a clue how anyone felt the slightest bit of attachment to any of these characters or their motivations, which seemed to turn on a dime.

The Bear was at least fun, even though it was total shit, whereas this show is mostly just people whispering and wandering up and down the same empty corridors. There are some good ideas buried amongst all the shit, but that only makes it more frustrating to watch.

They did a reasonable job of at least tying up the season arc, then realised that meant the show would be over and simply have the main characters do a literal u-turn in order to allow for a season 3.

Absolutely fucking hated this. Awful, awful show.

Oh no, how can you think this? I have to disagree.

Severance is one of the best shows on TV at the moment. The first season was extremely good - hard to fault really. A really original story, great acting, design, pacing - just about the right number of episodes for the story being told. A very mysterious situation, slowly revealed, building to a great ending.

I thought it would be very, very difficult to continue at that level - the cliffhangers seemed to be about to cause the show to self-destruct - but they did a great job of getting the storylines going again. Season two is definitely not as good as one (and one episode - Cobel's return home - was a bit of a failure) but it's still really good TV. There's a big danger that the ultimate explanation(s) won't be very satisfactory but the ball hasn't been dropped yet (even if it looks a bit more wobbly).

Problems:

► Show Spoiler

I am having doubts that there can really be a coherent explanation for why Lumon is bothering to run a severed floor at all (eg since the workers at Data Refinement don't actually know what the numbers mean, why keep it a severed secret from the world?)

Similarly, the holding of Mark's wife and her multiple personalities requires a fantastic explanation.

It's implausible that the boss's daughter would be slumming it amongst the plebs (for such an extended time).

Since it is so important, the severed floor would be far more carefully monitored and guarded than it is - thus preventing the workers from getting up to any mischief.

In general, it seems that Lumon holds all the cards and has too much power over the innies for them to possibly defeat it.

Although the culture and folktales of the severed floor are interesting, I don't see how they can have arisen so quickly (since presumably?? severance is a fairly new technology).

Well I don’t want to keep ragging on a show that you (and clearly lots of other people) love, but I just can’t see it at all. It had completely lost me by the end of the first series, but I thought I’d give this one a go given the praise I was seeing.

Maybe it’s one or two tonal things that mean not buying in to the show as a whole, but I was fully on board for the first few episodes of series 1 until it expanded its premise.

The stakes are raised so dramatically, with a cliffhanger (and accompanying dreadful music that builds to a stark cut, like a bad movie trailer) on virtually every scene, while the motivations of the characters seem to change every 5 minutes.

Some of the individual relationships, like John Turturro and Christopher Walken, were compelling in isolation but got lost in the sauce, for me. It’s like the show expanded far quicker than it could keep up with in terms of writing.

Perhaps you have to enjoy (or at least be able to see past) the way the show is shot/scripted/scored/edited to be able to accept the larger story and actually care what happens to any of the characters. I feel like it could have been a fantastic film or two.

No worries. If you didn't like season one, season two was never going to hit the mark. Personally, I like the look of the show, and the music, and certainly the ideas, which are the most original anywhere at the moment IMO (only 3 Body Problem comes close). Season 2 does have a bit of filler and would have better for losing a couple of episodes. And I have doubts that season 3 can maintain the standard (although I thought the same last time).

[Son of Mathonwy]

Katla on Netflix is good so far, only 3 episodes in, it's incredibly tense

The Icelandic show? Yeah, it's good. Love the scandi-scifi.

[paddy no 11]

Katla on Netflix is good so far, only 3 episodes in, it's incredibly tense

The Icelandic show? Yeah, it's good. Love the scandi-scifi.

Yup, that's one, good to know it stays good so

Was on holiday in Iceland/vik 2 weeks ago so enjoying it all the more for that

[Son of Mathonwy]

Katla on Netflix is good so far, only 3 episodes in, it's incredibly tense

The Icelandic show? Yeah, it's good. Love the scandi-scifi.

Yup, that's one, good to know it stays good so

Was on holiday in Iceland/vik 2 weeks ago so enjoying it all the more for that

Unfortunately Bjork doesn't show up but otherwise I enjoyed it.

[Numbers]

I've been watching Landman on Paramount, quite enjoyable also Black Snow which is good.

[Banquo]

I've been watching Landman on Paramount, quite enjoyable also Black Snow which is good.

Landman was great, also enjoying Mobland

[Numbers]

I've been watching Landman on Paramount, quite enjoyable also Black Snow which is good.

Landman was great, also enjoying Mobland

Yeah, I'm watching Mobland too, it's good other than Pierce Brosnan's Irish accent which is appalling considering he's Irish.

[Banquo]

I've been watching Landman on Paramount, quite enjoyable also Black Snow which is good.

Landman was great, also enjoying Mobland

Yeah, I'm watching Mobland too, it's good other than Pierce Brosnan's Irish accent which is appalling considering he's Irish.

weird isn't it. or maybe that is his actual accent now, mutated by americana? Tom Hardy's character is great.

[Son of Mathonwy]

The current (and possibly last??) season of Doctor Who is halfway through, and it's noticeably better than the last one. All the episodes are at least as good as the best of last season (IMO 'Dot and Bubble'), albeit not a high bar. New companion Belinda is unremarkable but likeable and believable (perhaps because she's not presented as brilliant every 5 minutes) and Varada Sethu acts well.

The Robot Revolution: the worst episode. Childish designs, plot holes and the line 'planet of the incels' crowbarred in without much justification. I hope some explanation is in the pipeline for the plot mysteries but with Russell T Davies we may just be left hanging.

Lux: this would have fitted in best with the previous season but because of the good production work was enjoyable. Extremely light (see what I did there?) on plot - essentially RTD thought what if the villain was a carton character? that's it, story done, no more work needed. More work would have been appreciated. Lux (the character) was well designed and realized but that was it really. And the resolution just made no sense, even in a story where pretty much anything could happen.

The Well: the best 15th Doctor episode so far, by some distance: in fact, a good episode of Doctor Who. Not without its faults but a solid sci-fi mystery/monster story. Yes, the monster's MO is a bit too fiddly and complex, and the link to an old episode doesn't really add anything but most of what we see is high quality. Sethu is very good in this.

Lucky Day: I didn't really enjoy this one although I can't pick too many holes in the story. But its just a Ruby Sunday and Unit story, and that makes it really tedious. About 10 minutes in I was reaching for the tablet to read something more interesting. Yeah, it did liven up but I just find Ruby boring. I don't know if she's badly acted or badly written but she doesn't work for me here. The resolution is very predictable, it must be said.

[Numbers]

There's a new series of Love, Death and Robots on Netflix, the Close Encounters of the Mini Kind episode is very good.

[Puja]

The current (and possibly last??) season of Doctor Who is halfway through, and it's noticeably better than the last one. All the episodes are at least as good as the best of last season (IMO 'Dot and Bubble'), albeit not a high bar. New companion Belinda is unremarkable but likeable and believable (perhaps because she's not presented as brilliant every 5 minutes) and Varada Sethu acts well.

The Robot Revolution: the worst episode. Childish designs, plot holes and the line 'planet of the incels' crowbarred in without much justification. I hope some explanation is in the pipeline for the plot mysteries but with Russell T Davies we may just be left hanging.

Lux: this would have fitted in best with the previous season but because of the good production work was enjoyable. Extremely light (see what I did there?) on plot - essentially RTD thought what if the villain was a carton character? that's it, story done, no more work needed. More work would have been appreciated. Lux (the character) was well designed and realized but that was it really. And the resolution just made no sense, even in a story where pretty much anything could happen.

The Well: the best 15th Doctor episode so far, by some distance: in fact, a good episode of Doctor Who. Not without its faults but a solid sci-fi mystery/monster story. Yes, the monster's MO is a bit too fiddly and complex, and the link to an old episode doesn't really add anything but most of what we see is high quality. Sethu is very good in this.

Lucky Day: I didn't really enjoy this one although I can't pick too many holes in the story. But its just a Ruby Sunday and Unit story, and that makes it really tedious. About 10 minutes in I was reaching for the tablet to read something more interesting. Yeah, it did liven up but I just find Ruby boring. I don't know if she's badly acted or badly written but she doesn't work for me here. The resolution is very predictable, it must be said.

I'm now more caught up on the latest season (one episode behind) and have found it a return to form too. The Story and The Engine was good as well, although I am wryly amused that the episode based in Nigeria where the Doctor actually talks about his skin colour is one of the best reviewed, while rated lowest on the public vote on IMDB. Internet people

Lucky Day wasn't my favourite for a couple of reasons. Firstly, the villain was terrifying in terms of being a very real, current issue of influencers and conspiracy theories and weaponised lies, and I really didn't enjoy the reveal scene of him being hateful and smug and confident. It was well done and well acted - he perfectly delivered the "What if the Dunning-Kruger effect was a person" attitude of Tucker Carlson et al - but I see enough of those people wrecking the world in real life and it hit too close to home. Then they went and spoiled it by making him cartoonishly evil. Plus, it was a really weird take to have the moral of the story be, "You are wrong to question powerful secretive organisations because they do know better than you." It was unsurprisingly the same writer as the shitty DefinitelyNotAmazon episode, where the shitty moral was, "Automation is bad because people like working terrible jobs in shit conditions, so a happy ending is for rich corporations to provide more minimum wage jobs and get richer, instead of using the gains from automation to institute luxury gay space communism like in Star Trek".

Also, I'm very much with you that I find Ruby to be incredibly bland and uninteresting, both in terms of characterisation and acting - it's like they typed "Doctor Who young woman companion" into a generative AI and called it job done. It's been a problem for a while - starry-eyed companions simpering about "Oh, Doctor, this is magical" and being overwhelmed by how lovely exploring is, and not paying any attention to the fact that being menaced and imperilled regularly should be quite upsetting and scary. It worked with Rose because she was so young and working minimum wage drudge that she hated, so going backpacking made sense, but the dial's been getting turned up more and more: Clara, Bill, Yaz to a certain extent (hard to tell cause the writing was so shit), then Ruby - companions where if you ask, "Why are you getting in the box again?" there wouldn't really be an answer beyond a moon-faced, "Because I want to see the stars!" Giving Ruby PTSD afterwards just made it worse - you can't retroactively write in that actually it was as traumatic as it felt like it should have been, but we kept going anyway!

Belinda Chandra is far more interesting, as she starts from the novel perspective of not wanting any of this shit. The best bit of the Robot Revolution was her standing him up when he was doing the sales pitch and saying, "Did you say that to her [the prospective companion who died] too?" I like the fact that she's doing this under sufferance and also that she doesn't worship at the Doctor's feet because he's just so goshdarned great. Quite apart from anything else, it'll make it easier when the actor wants to do somehting else, cause they won't have to work out why someone whose main characterisation is they just looooooooved being a companion because it's *so* *wonderful*, abruptly no longer wants to (the two options appear to be death or some bland mush about people needing you, followed by joining UNIT cause you're pining after your glory days).

Puja