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Post by otherscott on Apr 24, 2020 5:30:18 GMT -8
Succession is a pretty tough sell, in a lot of ways an even tougher sell than Mad Men. At least with Mad Men the people in the show had some semblance of normalcy, the Succession characters seem programmed to be as obnoxious and unlikeable as possible.
I did come around to really liking the show, but it took a while and a lot of adapting. I still don't think the first episodes of the first season are particularly good, and really the first season as a whole is just okay. But it is buzzed about for a reason and when you see it start to come together and what they were aiming for it's really not that bad.
Some quick hits: I've fallen way behind on Better Things S4 but the first few episodes I watched were really on a roll. I did think S3 was a bit of a step down and this seems like a real return to form. Westworld has become too much of a plot engine this season, I miss the timeline craziness and weirdo philosophizing that most people did not particularly care for, but at least it hid the shallow characters. Now it's just become a meh science fiction story so far this season. Westworld knows how to nail a finale though. My Brilliant Friend is not as fresh as the first season but it still is a well made, well produced show. The Plot Against America was terrific in parts. The parts of the endeavour that were necessary in showing the way a country can subtly fall into fascism were well worth it. I wish the second half of the series was as insightful as the first. I am through 6 episodes of Better Call Saul and it kind of has been ticking along at the typical Better Call Saul quality, though I think it is supposed to take a leap over the next couple episodes. I wish Hulu was a thing in Canada. It's very annoying trying to track down where to find their shows.
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Post by Jeremy on Apr 24, 2020 10:35:27 GMT -8
I do miss out on a lot by not being regularly subscribed to HBO. (Only watching Succession through the network's decision to offer free programming to the public this month.) The new HBO Max service looks intriguing, though I fear my laptop will overheat if I use it to download any more streaming services.
I've heard that Succession improves as it goes, but these early episodes have been a struggle. Not quite Rome or Newsroom level-bad, but far from the network's best work.
And yeah, it sucks that Hulu isn't available internationally. The recent deal to start streaming FX shows the day after they air (doubtlessly spurred on by Disney, which now controls both FX and Hulu) is an ingenious move, although I'm not sure why some of the exclusive Hulu programming is being labeled under the FX banner. If Mrs. America is only available on Hulu, it's... not an FX drama.
In other news, Brooklyn Nine-Nine ended a short but very funny seventh season - the show has stayed fresh far longer than most sitcoms of its caliber, in part because its goofy nature allows the writers to work more exaggerated jokes and stories into the show without them feeling forced. The same compliments can't be heaped on Superstore, which just finished a drag of a fifth season that's probably the show's weakest thus far. (We didn't even get a proper finale, though that's obviously the fault of real-world events.) With the show poised to continue without America Ferrera - who got the faux-nale's only funny joke in an extended scene that lampooned corporate culture and affirmative action - it's probably time to scrub this series from my watchlist.
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Post by otherscott on Apr 28, 2020 17:50:28 GMT -8
Yeah FX also does not have any sort of a la carte service in Canada so it is equally frustrating. I have been buying individual seasons of Better Things for lack of other options, and I'll be doing the same with Fargo and Atlanta. The result is any new FX show really needs to get blow away reviews for me to sample it, and something like What We Do In The Shadows doesn't quite cut it even though it's something I'd love to watch.
On the other hand the show selection on Amazon Prime Canada is quickly becoming the best library out there. I have been able to catch up on the first three seasons of The Good Fight, a very good show, and am really excited to finally watch The Magicians, a show that I've always been interested in that it's been hard to get a hold of.
And I'm always willing to update you if something really amazing shows up on HBO, Jeremy. It's been a little bit of a slow start for the network this year so far. Bojack Horseman and Better Call Saul have rather easily been the two best things to air on any network so far so HBO has some catch up to do.
Succession tends to frustrate me a lot of the time in that it never seems to settle on how seriously to take its characters. I firmly am in the camp that it should take them seriously, and it does start to, because "look at these out of touch rich folk" isn't really a comedic gold mine, and I think that explains a lot of the struggles of the first season.
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Post by ThirdMan on Apr 28, 2020 18:49:58 GMT -8
Are you suggesting that Succession is only sufficiently successful?
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Post by Jeremy on Apr 28, 2020 19:56:28 GMT -8
It baffles me that FX shows aren't streaming in Canada. You'd think that the network would do well to broaden its reach. Make it happen, Disney.
Haven't been wowed by too many shows either this year - I'll watch Better Call Saul and Better Things over the next couple of weeks, but not much else really grabbing me at this point, And between the pandemic stalling all TV production and the threat of a writers' strike likely to reach a head in the next couple of months, odds are that 2020 won't be as Peaky as previous Peak TV years.
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Post by ThirdMan on Apr 28, 2020 21:40:01 GMT -8
I've just got the regular FX channel and On Demand content as part of my cable package.
I've been watching random episodes of Comedians In Cars Getting Coffee on Netflix. It's certainly a preferable interview-type show to the crowdless late-night talk shows.
I tried watching some SNL At Home the other night, but just couldn't. It just doesn't work in this format, with the lame sketches landing with an even bigger thud.
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Post by Jeremy on Apr 29, 2020 9:28:00 GMT -8
I thought the first SNL at Home episode was pretty lame, but I actually enjoyed a number of sketches from this past weekend's episode. (The grocery commercial had me laughing pretty hard.) It probably helps that nearly the entire episode was pre-taped - as I've mentioned before, I find the prerecorded SNL sketches to typically be funnier than the live ones.
It's certainly not a format that can work in the long run, but I'll take the laughs I can get these days.
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Post by ThirdMan on Apr 29, 2020 14:38:26 GMT -8
I may have given up on SNL too early this past weekend. The Brad-Pitt-as-Fauci segment was alright, but I was instantly turned off by the Kenan-Thompson-centered sketch that followed. I find pretty much all of his characters to be the same.
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Post by Jeremy on Apr 29, 2020 19:45:24 GMT -8
I think Kenan's pretty funny, but he can get one-note after a while. That's probably a consequence of being on the show for 17 years.
Kate McKinnon remains the series MVP.
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Post by ThirdMan on Apr 29, 2020 23:40:29 GMT -8
Wow, I guess that makes him the longest-tenured cast member in the show's history. He's three years ahead of Darrell Hammond. I doubt anyone will ever catch him, especially if he hangs around for a few more years.
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Post by Jay on May 10, 2020 21:14:31 GMT -8
Huh. I hadn't expected to jump in with SNL commentary but I had a similar response to that particular episode in that my ma wanted to watch it for the Brad Pitt intro and we barely got anywhere in the following Kenan Thompson skit before we agreed to switch to something else. I'm dating myself but I feel like his overall comedic chops haven't advanced too much since All That and that the progression is natural but that he's plateaued early. I've watched a few episodes of Colbert and seen him revert more to his political persona, but have found that to be pleasant overall, and often with decent musical guests, whereas The Daily Show has flashes when something lands in Trevor Noah's wheelhouse but is otherwise tepid.
What I came here originally to note is that my ma and I have started watching Broadchurch, which obviously is going to be weird for me as someone well-versed in the more surreal and over-the-top granddaddy in Twin Peaks. We're only one episode deep, but I feel like some elements are good so far with the ensemble cast and the pang of the daily incidental stuff invading deeply private circumstances, such as father being asked to sign a petition or the young journo pushing it because he was rebuffed from the dream job. Otherwise, it's some stock stuff of "broody main character with A Past," "local investigator personally affected," and an array of HINTS. As I said, it will be interesting to watch a more sober and composed, prestige take on the genre, and my ma does kind of like crime procedurals so maybe it will work. British TV has a lower gore threshold anyway and that's generally a positive when viewing anything with family.
I would also add, in response to earlier beats, that my ma has been surreptitiously viewing Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist late in the evenings when she thinks I have my headphones on and I am embarrassed by proxy.
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Post by Jeremy on May 11, 2020 16:23:31 GMT -8
I agree that Kenan hasn't changed his comedy much since his Nickelodeon days, though I think that speaks more to his talents as a child actor. (Ditto Kel Mitchell, with whom he shared great chemistry.) Still, I generally find him funny on SNL, and it doesn't look like he'll be making his niche elsewhere. (He hasn't had a major film role since the flop that was Fat Albert.)
Building off the maternal TV topic, my mom and I started watching Mrs. America. I'm liking it quite a bit so far - it has a spectacular cast (expect a lot of competition between the actresses in the Miniseries category), and features an impressively layered look at the battle over the ERA of the 1970s. Phyllis Schlafly, who in most hands would probably be written as a one-note caricature, is given a good deal of depth, and the show puts us in her shoes as often as it does the various (interesting and in their own ways flawed) feminists who fought against her. The show's messaging can be a little on the nose in spots (the head directors are the same two who helmed the unsubtle Captain Marvel), but it's worked well into the story. Although it's produced by FX for Hulu, the series feels more in-step with old-fashioned AMC dramas - makes sense, as creator Dahvi Waller previously wrote for both Mad Men and Halt and Catch Fire.
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Post by Incandescence 112 on May 11, 2020 17:54:40 GMT -8
Huh. I hadn't expected to jump in with SNL commentary but I had a similar response to that particular episode in that my ma wanted to watch it for the Brad Pitt intro and we barely got anywhere in the following Kenan Thompson skit before we agreed to switch to something else. I'm dating myself but I feel like his overall comedic chops haven't advanced too much since All That and that the progression is natural but that he's plateaued early. I've watched a few episodes of Colbert and seen him revert more to his political persona, but have found that to be pleasant overall, and often with decent musical guests, whereas The Daily Show has flashes when something lands in Trevor Noah's wheelhouse but is otherwise tepid.
What I came here originally to note is that my ma and I have started watching Broadchurch, which obviously is going to be weird for me as someone well-versed in the more surreal and over-the-top granddaddy in Twin Peaks. We're only one episode deep, but I feel like some elements are good so far with the ensemble cast and the pang of the daily incidental stuff invading deeply private circumstances, such as father being asked to sign a petition or the young journo pushing it because he was rebuffed from the dream job. Otherwise, it's some stock stuff of "broody main character with A Past," "local investigator personally affected," and an array of HINTS. As I said, it will be interesting to watch a more sober and composed, prestige take on the genre, and my ma does kind of like crime procedurals so maybe it will work. British TV has a lower gore threshold anyway and that's generally a positive when viewing anything with family.
I would also add, in response to earlier beats, that my ma has been surreptitiously viewing Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist late in the evenings when she thinks I have my headphones on and I am embarrassed by proxy.
I've seen all 3 seasons of Broadchurch, and it is definitely a fairly middling crime drama elevated by stellar performances from Tennant and Coleman (Coleman would've made a fabulous 13th Doctor for the record). I can't think of anything equivalent to Twin Peaks, since it's a singular achievement in tv history, but the best crime drama I've seen is definitely the original Danish version of The Killing. Not surreal, but still very much worth watching. Come to think of it, the closest I can think of to a show like Twin Peaks is Gravity Falls. Which is much, much lighter.
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Post by Jeremy on May 12, 2020 17:49:21 GMT -8
Gravity Falls could get pretty dark at times - especially considering its (supposed) target audience. And yeah, it was is intentionally modeled after Twin Peaks - hence why they got Kyle McLachlan for the finale.
In other TV news, Fox released their fall schedule - and, well, they're making do with what they got. The primetime lineup is heavy on live sports (which they expect to resume by September) and animated series like The Simpsons and Family Guy (since cartoon characters don't need to quarantine). Beyond that, they've got a couple of dramas that were filmed last year and held off till the fall season, as well as acquired programming like LA's Finest, which already aired its first season on Spectrum this past summer. But beyond that, all their regular programming is on hiatus, for obvious reasons. (Curious to see how the other broadcast networks handle things - none of the others have the animation backlog that Fox does.)
Insane how I spent the last several months speculating about the looming threat of a 2020 writers' strike, and now we're getting a taste of what that would look like without an actual strike.
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Post by Jay on May 16, 2020 20:00:54 GMT -8
While I'm not terribly surprised, my ma was not enchanted by Broadchurch. Or two episodes in, it had not succeeded in charming her. As an alternative, via cable streaming, we have dipped into an old favorite of hers, Doc Martin, after having watched the TV movie introducing the character who in turn was only superficially like the character in the series. My ma likes fish-out-of-water stories involving doctors (Northern Exposure was another favorite). It is what it is, but I can't say that Broadchurch made an especially strong impression on me to begin with.
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