What are you watching?

[mimekiller]

So Pheobs, just curious, were you aware of or did you enjoy the anti hero phase in TV that I would say started with The Shield on FX in 1999 followed quickly by the Sopranos and includes Breaking Bad and Boardwalk empire? Stuff like that?

[akiva]

Watched most of the Netflix show "Bodyguard." It's over the top in some ways, but a lot of fun. And they do tensionreally well.

[Phoebe]

Now watching The Game, which roughly speaking is about British spies during the Cold war, involved in various conflicts with Russians. I believe we rented this through Netflix or Amazon or something. I don't like what they're doing with some of the characters and it's a little absurd at times, but overall enjoyable and the husband likes it.

[El Jefe]

Umbrella Academy. And the longer it went, the more I regretted starting it. It gets more problematic as the season continues.

[mimekiller]

[El Jefe]

Finished up Umbrella Academy over the weekend. It's a C, bordering on a C-. Full disclose: The extent of my knowledge about the comic is that MCR's frontman, Gerard Way, made it. And it was called Umbrella Academy. So my thoughts on it go entirely off the series, with no idea how it compares to the source material. I'm putting anything spoiler related in invis fonts.

The pros
1. I've seen the show described as "Watchmen + Wes Anderson flicks." And that's not a bad way to go. The fusion of visual and audio, particularly in some of the big scenes or action sequences...yeah, that's right up there with Anderson's style. The first few episodes, in particular, do this very well.

2. There's a really solid handling of most (not all) of the powers in play. In particular, praise should go towards showing just how amazingly effective teleportation can be. Number Five's action sequences deserve to be shown to any potential X-Men project leads: "Seriously, that's how you do Nightcrawler." Allison's powers require a very specific trigger phrase is a nice little twist on a pretty bog standard power. Same goes for Diego's "curving" qualifier. And I dig the hell out of the dual aspects of Klaus' abilities. Even if the writers grossly underestimated just how damned effective "speaking with the dead" could be. But enough of that can be explained away with the "he was high" excuse.

3. Visuals across the board are pretty high. Interesting gothic structures, fascinating choices to put the knockoff X-mansion smack dab in the middle of the city, and more along those lines. Playing off the great white hunter vibe of Hargreaves also deserves some special recognition for the set designers. It's done incredibly well.

4. The cast is good, and many of them go above and beyond with some really ho-hum writing. It's not a real surprise that Feore or Page or Sheehan turn in strong performances. They've got a history of that. It's the lesser known names that stand out to me. Mary J Blige and Cameron Britton STEAL EVERY GODDAMN SCENE THEY ARE IN. Aidan Gallagher puts in the kind of performance you find from the young kids of Stranger Things, acting way over the level their ages would set as the bar. Tom Hopper might be the only real cast spot that doesn't really stand out, and I'm not really sure if that is actor or writing.

The cons
1.

2. Abusive relationships as a plot driver are always risky. Having approximately 80% of the relationships in the show be abusive is very, very risky. And unfortunately, the writers shouldn't have taken the risk. Because they didn't successfully find a path to walk through that material without hitting some of the pitfalls. To be more accurate, when the writers decided to walk through that minefield, they tossed aside the testing stick and stomped repeatedly in size 15 boots on every square inch of the minefield. Twice. Trope-alicious. Yum.

3. Mental health. I'm not even quite sure where to start with this. If you've made the decision that you're using TV mental health (rather than, you know, actual mental health science), that's not actually a problem. But you need to at least put the work in to dress up TVtropes entries, rather than copying them directly. Even a bastard of a grumpy, critical viewer like me isn't going to fault you for not truly understanding how DID works in reality (as an example). So we'll all agree to the conceits of the TV version of DID...provided you can dress it up with more effort than an episode of the week out of Law and Order clones. You don't. And that's super problematic, especially as it intersects with other problem areas listed below.

4. You're in the entertainment industry for fuck's sake. How the fuck do you not understand how addiction works? Even worse...HOW THE FUCK DO YOU NOT KNOW HOW DRUGS WORK?! Find a goddamn junkie friend. We're fucking everywhere. And we'll gladly talk for small amounts of money, so that writers can look really damn smart.

5. So the kids are born in 1989. And while hard dates are never exactly thrown around with any regularity, I'll be generous and say the kids are only 21. (They're definitely older than that.) So that puts us at 2010 as a minimum. And I even understand that this is an alternate timeline since some signature American events occurred differently. But yeah...fuck your bullshit technology. If you're going to make payphones crop up everywhere, have virtually no handheld digital tech (phones, media players, etc), then you need to actually take the time to explain WHY that's the case. Lacking GPS makes things a lot easier. I get that. And I can live with that. Just make sure to tell me why it isn't there. You don't just get to handwave this absolutely massive technological change without any further details.

6. Welcome back to the 80's level of cinema sexism! Or maybe even Silver Age comics level of male-centricity. Not sure which, but take your pick. Most of the metaplot of this show is entirely built around a handful of female characters, regardless of what the dudebros want to think. At its core, it's a tale of mothers and sisters. Just about everything else is reaction to the metaplot around the female characters. Unfortunately, when it comes to actually driving the plot forward, that trend ends. It becomes dudebro central everywhere. Even in moments that should be entirely pushed forward on the actions of female characters, the writers go out of their way to put a dude on screen and make sure he completely steps all the fuck over the female character's agency. And here's the sad part. This could have been used really effectively to show just how dudebro-y leadership doesn't work. It could have made some pretty pointed statements towards media in general, and comics specifically. It doesn't. At all. It does continue to do this, over and over, in increasing amounts as the season goes on. By the time you get to the end, the male characters are literally Mad Men'ing the starring female leads (who are at the center of the entire metaplot) on screen. "I've got this great plan!" "So, nobody's got a plan? Nobody? Really? Nobody at all? Oh well. Charge, I guess?" Invisible woman puns don't really work when they're that blatant and repeated.

7. This one is probably a bit more personal than it should be, but whatever. It's my post. The whole "the medicine is holding me back!" storyline? How about we kill that thing dead forever, m'kay? Let's stop encouraging people to avoid the science of brain chemistry, and how they'll be way better off without the meds. Let's go put that trope in the graveyard alongside "evil psychiatrist" and "women get uncontrollable powers" tropes. But good news! You didn't manage to hit the trifecta in this show! Good on you!

[Stan]

That's too bad about Umbrella Academy. I'm only 20 minutes into the first episode and it seemed promising. I think I'll put it on hold for all the other things I haven't watched.

Finished Travelers. Good but the ending is unexpected. Spoiler commentary:

Watched a couple of French shows on Netflix. Call My Agent is about actors and agents and soapy fun. Great characters and acting. The whole thing is only 18 eps so it's not a life long commitment. I'm half way through A Very Secret Service, about secret agents in the 60s while France was losing most of its colonies. Absurd bureaucracy and deadpan humor.

[WillyGilligan]

Legion season 2 really makes me wonder how psychedelic the show is going to get before the screen just flat out hands me some LSD. I'm kind of disappointed that season 3 is going to be the last, but that also means that they are going to resolve the thing. This concept is one that really shouldn't be dragged out, even if I love the confusion I'm in.

[WillyGilligan]

Watching Umbrella Academy now. I kind of see some of what you're talking about Jeff, but I'm also seeing different context around some of it. I'd probably want to talk more about it after I see how it all ends up. I dig the way the early fight scenes turn into music videos.

Midway through, I think the story's main point is that Professor X in a slightly more realistic setting would be a monster. Train kids to be child soldiers because they have super powers, and conducting half-baked experiments because there really is no body of knowledge to draw on when developing curriculum for "Johnny Can't Control His Ice Powers". And there is no supervision or regulation on any of it. It's a bit like the postmodern take on Back to the Future that turned into Rick and Morty.

[El Jefe]

Yeah, that Professor X angle is definitely there. Then again, Professor X always was a monster. Going well back into the mid-Claremont run that's always been a background storyline. When Cable and New Mutants/X-Force were introduced, that was one of the stronger philosophical discussions of the franchise (after the initial civil rights angles): the debate of open hand vs closed fist, and how both could easily protect or harm.

Edit: I don't know what a Rick or a Morty are, so I'll exit stage left.

[Phoebe]

I have begun a rebellion against House by watching Hart of Dixie, so now we have Competing Doctor Shows. Evil Genius really, it is. She is a good doctor in a really, really bad show, and the beauty of it is, there is no objective criterion whatsoever upon which House can be considered good while Hart of Dixie is judged worse. Really, try it.

[akiva]

We just started watching "Better Call Saul." About 6 episodes in, it's really good.

I knew Bob Odenkirk from Mr Show and his comedy; I'm still surprised at how good of a dramatic actor he is.

[WillyGilligan]

I've really gotten into watching professionals analyze how pop culture portrays their work. Better Call Saul got a decent grade from this guy.

[mimekiller]

Leaving Neverland part 1
Hot damn this is some disturbing and just awful shit. I can't believe the moms of both kids agreed to sit on camera and kind of gloss over how they essentially bought some nice trips with the innocence of their children. BOTH parts came out last night but 2 hours of intense detail about child abuse was about all I can handle. Not even sure WHAT can be said in part 2 but I guess I will find out.

Also we should give that doctor that murked MJ a pardon and a ticker tape parade eh

[Phoebe]

Half my acquaintance group is watching game of thrones and I wish I was watching game of thrones because Peter Dinklage is hottttttt. Yes I am objectifying him shamelessly but hopefully he will never know. Anyway I'm glad I'm not watching game of thrones because bah is that a waste of my time! But don't give any spoilers about it because eventually it will happen and then I will not want to know.

[El Jefe]

I've been hate-watching the Iron Throne Soap Opera for about two weeks now, while dealing with the fallout of a life-altering (and very nearly lethal) medical emergency in the household. It's an amazing show to hate-watch. It has a crapload of great actors in it. It manages to not overwhelm you, by having only about three to four characters worth following (and also aren't completely worthless as human beings), and everybody else you completely hate with the energy of 1,000,000 suns and the entirety of your soul essence.

That's it. That's the only good things about it. I'm legitimately never going to understand why anybody digs this show. It's not even good for a soap opera. That's a really hard arena to fail hard in, but goddamn it, the writers are determined to fail SPECTACULARLY in that fashion.

Edit: I guess I should note that I don't honestly know the books, or care to to try again on them. I made it through maybe half of book 1, and the writing was more painful than Robert Jordan's awfulness, so I bailed.

[Bonefish]

Considering the source material is basically crib notes of world history, crammed together and jumbled, with a dash of dragons mixed in, why the high hopes?

[mimekiller]

Made it through the grim and often drudgery but still somewhat fun Titans and now thrilled as punch I did so because the second show in the DC universe Doom Patrol is not only the best superhero show on tv but it might be the best piece of scripted televsion this year. Fantastic performances, great comedy, great action, and goat farts.

Don't sleep on this series

[Phoebe]

[mimekiller]

For some reason Hauze/Phebos psychologically torturing themselves with GOT always makes me laugh. Just stop thinking about it ya goofs, it would be like me tearing my hair out about Big Bang Theory, yea to me it would be like a slow drip of mercury in my ear drum as nerd blackface mince and mug to canned laughter but ya know, I know that already so I don't watch it.


I echo the sentiments in this article. the newest sketch comedy show on Netflix is a must watch. Filled with such EARNEST DESPERATION which to me is one of the funniest things in the world. haha

https://tv.avclub.com/tim-robinson-s-hi ... 1834343943