What are you watching?

[buckett]

[mimekiller]

It's hard to compare so far because season one was a show that was spun out of my dreamscapes, a 10 hour master and commander with supernatural monster horror stuff.

This FEELS different of course but I hope the payoff and horror are as fun as S01

[Phoebe]

Fauda. It's interesting but imo profoundly skewed, and I'm not sure watching it with a critical eye is sufficient when the realities portrayed are so little understood by me.

[Tahlvin]

The Punisher series on Netflix.

[Phoebe]

The Good Place, which wears on me because each episode has a few adorable and clever moments, but at least twenty minutes of "jokes" that are basically rehashing the same idiotic character tropes for the main characters that we have already heard 567203948795867 times. I want to like this show, I really do, but they need better writing. It's like, they have that one idea each time, and it's not a bad idea, but my God please hire some people who care nothing whatsoever for concepts and are more into slapstick, bad puns, and silliness; or who might actually develop the characters.


And then, its total opposite on the screen: Fauda.
I think we are deep into season 2? I can't give spoilers so will wt some of this, but the show is simultaneously amazing and disturbing. A person watching it could absorb many fantastic misconceptions about typical life in Palestine, and that's a problem given the gravity of the subject matter. They seem to be trying to present all the characters as morally complex, yet it's always crystal clear who the "bad" character is, so that makes it almost worse than if it were cookie-cutter - in this sea of gray, some are "clearly" ultra-bad, which somehow excuses the gray or wicked of the others. It is a truism of the show that torture is effective; the only question is how to properly get to a particular person with leverage, and although the audience is supposed to conclude that this torture is regretted and bad, it's also necessary, justified, and the people who perpetrate it are fully redeemable. The bad guys are also presented as simultaneously weak/craven and very powerful and dangerous, which I know is typical bad guy trope, but it's also very bad political conflict presentation. The other issue I have with the show is that Palestinian characters who are the most purely innocent end up dying, and part of the way their true innocence is shown is in their unusual willingness to trust the most dangerous Israeli anti-terrorism operatives. On the other hand, the show is very real in other respects and always thought-provoking. In one situation they show two boys of similar age, and whether intentionally or not, it forces the viewer to reflect on how this conflict on both sides affects children, and how adults on both sides are breaking moral boundaries they pretend they are setting with children. I think it might be unintentional and we are supposed to conclude that what the terrorists are doing to the kid on their side is worse, but it's not, so at least from viewer perspective you are forced to think about many things.

[El Jefe]

The Good Place, because almost everything Phoebe just said is completely wrong. It's goddamn amazing, and is the best writing a Schur show has pulled off yet. And that's even more impressive. Season 3 is absolute madness.

Finished off season 6 of Agents of Shield. Once again, seeing a network show with a season long story arc get reduced from the 22-ish episode format means the quality gets even better. Someday, maybe the network exes will figure that out as well, and stop trying to make every show Law and Order. It's a good season from them, and sets up an ending quite nicely next season. I'll be sad to see this cast go, even though the show had a rough first two seasons.

[Mike]

The Good Place is lovely and I am greatly enjoying it.

I have finished all of Steven Universe and it is one of the best shows I have ever watched. Apparently there is a movie now, which I won't see until I can rent it cheaply. And another season is coming, and while I can't imagine what the hell they'll do with it, I will watch it eagerly.

[Tahlvin]

Making my way through The Flash on Netflix. I'm about halfway through the first season and liking it so far!

[akiva]

[Phoebe]

But where did I lie about the Good Place?
It does wear on me! Each episode does have clever and adorable moments!
Plus at least twenty minutes of "jokes" that are basically rehashing the same idiotic character tropes for the main characters that we have already heard 567203948795867 times.
I'm willing to test my theory with a stopwatch.
I want to like this show, I really do. I'm trying. But...

Blake Bortles! Dumb people! Jacksonville Asian drug dealers! Nerds! Nerds with tummyaches! Jacksonville Arizona philosophy socialites! Ughhhhh it's like watching the less-wrong, positive version of the same problem-type that afflicts The Big Bang Theory. Oh ha ha, nerds, so funny with their funny nerd ways!

Edited: sorry about failing to include the white text! Thought it was there but no.

[Mike]

Wait! I just watched another episode and really enjoyed it! I don't know what I'm doing wrong! I know you're trying to explain why my enjoyment of a thing is objectively incorrect, but I'm just not getting it. Help me!

On an unrelated note, my brother hates all shows about lawyers. And my friend Joel who is a parole officer hates all shows about law enforcement. Medical professionals say they can't watch hospital dramas.

[mimekiller]

re-watched Justified and it still holds up as an amazing slice of deep south noir. Its now one of my life goals to shoot someone and slide their gun away from their hand with my shoe. Power move.

[Phoebe]

[Phoebe]

How many people on a weekly basis tell me how much I will enjoy The Good Place? How many? They all enjoy it so very much, and since I'm "a good person", let's suppose the same enjoyment they get out of this incredibly deep and intellectually stimulating show is the type of enjoyment they get from me. So I'm asking myself each time someone thinks I'm going to enjoy this show, how big is that chunk of Venn diagram where enjoyment and fascination and meaning produced by this show intersects with enjoyment etc produced by me, and what exactly populates that space? Why isn't that a nearly-blank space?

There's another really important question I have for those who love the show: what's your running count on the number of philosophers they have mentioned who aren't dead white men?

[Mike]

For the record, I never would have imagined that you would like this show, and I can't imagine why others would, except for the most superficial of reasons.

[mimekiller]

LMAO, Pheobe I eagerly await your hot take, GOOD PLACE name drops to many white folks hahahahahahahahahahahahahha

Oh and I guess I never thought to keep count, sounds like a fun way to engage with a TV show tho!

[El Jefe]

Oh, I get it now. Phoebe thinks philosophy is a thing that matters and isn't mostly a load of bullshit.

Yeah, that would make it hard to enjoy. Plus, I don't know any philosophers that aren't dead, old white men. But we've clearly seen in the previous line that I have a very in-depth and nuanced view towards philosophy.

Jokes aside, I barely know you, but there's no way I would recommend the Good Place to you. Your friends done you wrong.

I still think it's the best written of Schur's stuff, and that's hard for me to say, because I love Parks and Rec at a near unhealthy level. Also, the cast is amazing. Plus, it's easier for me to enjoy Jason, because I live in a town full of Jason's. Just, you know, not with the Jaguars stuff. Because, seriously, fuck the Jaguars.

[Phoebe]

[Mike]

How many episodes have you watched? Just out of curiosity.

Because I don't think you should watch more, but your hidden question is answered pretty thoroughly through the course of the show.

I just finished season 3 last night, and I adored it.

[buckett]