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Post by Jeremy on Apr 29, 2022 13:47:26 GMT -8
The extended break between seasons - for pretty much every show on TV, except some of the animated series - has made it difficult to remember details of certain shows. I had this problem with Barry, which is now back after a break of nearly three years. Fortunately, NoHo Hank has us covered on that front.
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Quiara
Grade School
Posts: 775
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Post by Quiara on Apr 30, 2022 13:49:47 GMT -8
Jer, you know what show's second season I never thought was going to happen but apparently has just happened? Undone!! I'm very excited but I think I'll hold off on watching it for a bit, to avoid overloading on Bob Odenkirk series.
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Post by Jeremy on Apr 30, 2022 18:09:38 GMT -8
Yeah, they announced it shortly after Season One ended. I'll probably watch it over the next few days (was going to start it on Friday, but work intervened), since too much Bob Odenkirk is never enough.
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Post by Incandescence 112 on Apr 30, 2022 19:18:32 GMT -8
Speaking of Bob Odenkirk.....man, that was a hell of an episode of Better Call Saul, wasn't it? Spoilers, of course. This show seems to better itself year in, year out.
So bloody intense, and a terrific ending to Michael Mando's Nacho, who's done excellent work fleshing out what would've been a disposable, crazy henchman in Breaking Bad. Another example of Saul improving upon its predecessor the way Deep Space Nine improved on The Next Generation.
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Post by Jeremy on May 1, 2022 5:46:27 GMT -8
It's long been de rigueur to suggest that prequels by nature lack suspense, since they usually focus on characters with preordained outcomes and are thus restricted in the potential of their stories. Better Call Saul has really laid false this claim - despite us knowing a lot about which characters live or die, this series has done a great job generating suspense and leaving a lot of character arcs up in the air, without contradicting the continuity of Breaking Bad.
It also seems - perhaps by necessity - that the show is more planned out and coordinated in advance than its parent series (which, apart from Season Two, was largely written on the fly). So it may not feel as chaotic or edge-of-the-seat viewing, but could be more rewarding on rewatch.
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Quiara
Grade School
Posts: 775
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Post by Quiara on May 1, 2022 10:04:20 GMT -8
It's long been de rigueur to suggest that prequels by nature lack suspense, since they usually focus on characters with preordained outcomes and are thus restricted in the potential of their stories. Better Call Saul has really laid false this claim - despite us knowing a lot about which characters live or die, this series has done a great job generating suspense and leaving a lot of character arcs up in the air, without contradicting the continuity of Breaking Bad. It also seems - perhaps by necessity - that the show is more planned out and coordinated in advance than its parent series (which, apart from Season Two, was largely written on the fly). So it may not feel as chaotic or edge-of-the-seat viewing, but could be more rewarding on rewatch. A piece of writing that's always stuck with me - before I'd even watched BB! - was Scott's analysis of "Grilled" and how that episode managed to have credible tension, by having a scenario wherein there was drama even though the life-or-death stakes of "will Tuco cap Walt??" was obviously not possible.
I think about this when people ask, "how BCS can have any suspense or stakes when we know that Jimmy and Mike and Gus can't die!?" Because, you know, Walt and Jesse couldn't die (until they could) and the show got a lot of drama out of their situation. The solution on BCS is the same solution as on its prequel: you have auxiliary characters who *can* die, and the ones who can't can die *emotionally.* A bit of a weird concern, imo!
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Post by ThirdMan on May 1, 2022 11:49:53 GMT -8
Yeah, it's pretty reductive of people to suggest that the only way to create "suspense!" is via life-and-death scenarios. Emotional stakes, and characters' choices, can often be far more dramatically potent.
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Post by otherscott on May 2, 2022 4:52:17 GMT -8
Quiara remembers my reviews better than I do, apparently. But yes, there are many different types of tension, and often the "life or death" type has the least inherent tension because most shows are reluctant to go with the "death" route to anyone but fairly minor characters.
On a different subject, I wanted to note how much high quality TV is suddenly piling onto my to watch list in the last month or so. I just started Better Call Saul but I'll likely always be a week or so behind because I'm watching it with friends, and then added to the list of either anticipated shows or shows that I'm invested in later seasons of we have Raised by Wolves, My Brilliant Friend, Winning TIme, Minx, Barry, The Flight Attendant, Pachinko, Tokyo Vice, Better Things, Atlanta, Undone. I'm sure I'm missing some from that list as well.
Meanwhile, Apple TV+ is basically trying to single-handedly bring back the mid-budget thriller/ psychological horror that has disappeared from the movie theaters in recent years, but as 6-8 hour TV shows with potential for more seasons. Severance is legitimately a great first season, I expressed some reservations with it slowing down a little in the middle episodes but it more than made up for it in the last few episodes. Slow Horses is some of the most fun I've had binging a TV show. I've also started watching Shining Girls because sometimes when a service gets on a roll with their original content you have to ride it and it fits in that same mystery/ thriller/ horror mode as well.
Anyways after a couple of lean years for top top level shows, TV seems like it's back!
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Post by Jeremy on May 2, 2022 15:37:11 GMT -8
On a different subject, I wanted to note how much high quality TV is suddenly piling onto my to watch list in the last month or so. I just started Better Call Saul but I'll likely always be a week or so behind because I'm watching it with friends, and then added to the list of either anticipated shows or shows that I'm invested in later seasons of we have Raised by Wolves, My Brilliant Friend, Winning TIme, Minx, Barry, The Flight Attendant, Pachinko, Tokyo Vice, Better Things, Atlanta, Undone. I'm sure I'm missing some from that list as well. The period from late March to early June is often the best time of the year for great television - as I've mentioned before, it's the heart of Emmy season, and every network and streaming service is in overdrive trying to submit their best work at the last minute. (A wasted effort for all the shows that are going to lose to Succession, but whatever.) Still, even by typical standards, it does feel like a lot is happening in TV right now - maybe because we got used to a slightly slower pace in the last two years. Also, I notice that a certain major streaming service is completely missing from your list of shows, which is amusing for reasons you will understand tomorrow (assuming I don't get lazy).
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Post by otherscott on May 2, 2022 17:30:08 GMT -8
There's two major services missing from the list I think. One isn't technically available in Canada but at this point most of their stuff is filtering in through Disney Plus, so I would have access to it. There's a few options on said service that could have made the list, and if word of mouth is strong enough I could see myself watching something like Under the Banner of Heaven later on.
The fun thing for me is this could be the service you are talking about, and the reason you find it amusing is that said article is praising the service. I guess I'll find out, assuming you don't get lazy.
Mostly I do think it's the pandemic backlog finally getting cleared out. We haven't gotten seasons of many of these shows since 2019. We went 4 years without a season of Atlanta which is a ridiculous amount of hiatus for a show. When we last saw Atlanta before this year, The Americans was still on.
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Post by Jeremy on May 2, 2022 19:50:15 GMT -8
Atlanta was always intended to have a long break between Seasons 2 and 3, but it then had the misfortune of scheduling filming to start in March 2020. And now Season 4 is set to premiere in a few months, so we'll be getting twenty episodes in 2022; that's some wild scheduling whiplash.
(I guess "amusing" may be the wrong word; it's certainly "appropriate" by some stretch.)
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Post by ThirdMan on May 3, 2022 1:29:52 GMT -8
Speaking of Atlanta, how are we feeling about the episodes this season that are centered entirely around guest characters? I've enjoyed most of them well enough, but the most recent one didn't really do it for me. I'd say pretty much all of them are a bit more heavy-handed than the show is when Earn and Alfred are front-and-center, though.
That said, the self-deprecating episode descriptions this year are pretty funny. I can't recall if Glover and Co. did that during the first two seasons.
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Post by Jeremy on May 3, 2022 5:22:15 GMT -8
I thought the season premiere was pretty good; very bold of the series to return after four years with an episode that had nothing to do with the main characters, and an effectively disarming horror story besides. Was less enamored by the Justin Bartha episode - a few good moments, but far less funny and more didactic than the show's usual record, with a weak after-school special ending. Haven't seen the most recent one yet.
The episode descriptions are amusing, but a little full of themselves, as though the series has grown familiar with some of the criticisms that "normie" viewers lob at it and wants to get out in front of them each week.
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Post by otherscott on May 3, 2022 5:32:47 GMT -8
Unfortunately, in the year of our Lord 2022 FX Canada STILL doesn't have an a la carte streaming service, so I haven't watched any of Atlanta yet. Not sure if I'll bite the bullet and pay for the season or wait for it to show up on Disney Plus whenever that happens.
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Post by ThirdMan on May 3, 2022 11:42:27 GMT -8
Unfortunately, in the year of our Lord 2022 FX Canada STILL doesn't have an a la carte streaming service, so I haven't watched any of Atlanta yet. Not sure if I'll bite the bullet and pay for the season or wait for it to show up on Disney Plus whenever that happens. I guess you have to have FX in a cable package in order to have access to FX Now, huh? Anyways, given the lofty praise the series has received, I'm not sure how it's gonna fully live up to that, whenever you eventually get around to it. Should be interesting. So, Disney Plus gets access to the FX/FXX catalogue a few years after a show airs, because they own 20th Century Fox? Do they have Fargo? Because I notice Netflix in Canada still has it.
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