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Post by Jeremy on Jun 25, 2023 18:30:51 GMT -8
Haven't seen The Diplomat yet - just picked my Netflix subscription back up, and I'm starting to work through some of the stuff I've missed. Currently in middle of Beef (interesting show, though too reliant on overdramatic episode-ending cliffhangers); I'll probably check out The Diplomat after that.
Oh yes, and I recently (and regrettably) watched A History of the World Part II - much as I love Mel Brooks and applaud the way he continues to work age 96, the show was deeply unfunny, with sketches that felt like discarded bits from an old Comedy Central series. The cast did not help - the combined work of Nick Kroll, Ike Barinholtz, and Wanda Sykes opened a new dimension of pure comedy cringe. I'm sorry, I just needed to get that off my chest.
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Quiara
Grade School
Posts: 775
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Post by Quiara on Jun 26, 2023 4:24:15 GMT -8
Oh yes, and I recently (and regrettably) watched A History of the World Part II - much as I love Mel Brooks and applaud the way he continues to work age 96, the show was deeply unfunny, with sketches that felt like discarded bits from an old Comedy Central series. The cast did not help - the combined work of Nick Kroll, Ike Barinholtz, and Wanda Sykes opened a new dimension of pure comedy cringe. I'm sorry, I just needed to get that off my chest. Now this we can agree on - what a waste of a cast! So many talented people, often perfectly cast as historical figures (Timothy Simons as Abe Lincoln!!), all in the service of Crank Yankers-tier gags about flatulence. There are some funny bits, I'll admit. Like when they just have a random Curb pastiche with Larry David and JB Smoove - that was great, because it reminded me of a show that was actually funny! But I just gave up halfway through. The jokes felt pretty stupid too - I figured there'd be more, like, historical in-jokes?
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Post by Jeremy on Jun 26, 2023 5:46:44 GMT -8
I think the Curb sketch was the only segment that genuinely made me laugh. Although then it made me sad, because it reminded me I could be watching Curb instead. Most of the other jokes felt very forced and obvious, with a heavy overreliance on anachronism - I don't even think the original 1981 movie was that good, but at least it had some style and inventiveness.
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Quiara
Grade School
Posts: 775
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Post by Quiara on Jul 20, 2023 12:34:25 GMT -8
I'm a bit late to the party here, but I've been charmed by the (ending on its own terms apparently) Mindy Kaling-produced Never Have I Ever as of late. I'm not going to pretend it's a super deep show, although it's not frivolous either, necessarily - just kind of a light, enjoyable comedy where you like the characters enough to overlook the obvious plot machinations and oh-whoopsie-i-have-two-boyfriends-at-once-tee-hee-hee-whatever-will-I-do scenarios that crop up from time to time. And sometimes the show kinda stumbles in subtle ways on the representation front despite it trying really really hard not to, e.g., holy crap is her rival a walking Jewish neb stereotype!!
And like, in this season, there's a sort of contrived subplot where our protagonist Devi - who wants to go to Princeton more than anything! - gets deferred because her bestie who applied mostly on a whim got the early acceptance slot there. So Devi accuses her bestie of "stealing her spot" at an Ivy, the one she worked so hard for!! And um, no one comes out and says this, but the friend in question is black? Which is awkward in our current flashpoint moment about affirmative action, but in particular it's very very awkward for Mindy Kaling to create a TV show about how it's so hard for overachieving Indians to get into elite secondary educational institutions, and how the standards are lower for black applicants, given her family history on that matter. Am I being uncharitable? A little bit. After all, Devi is very explicitly kind of an antihero - but she's antiheroic in a fun way, usually, not in a racial resentment way. Feels weird for the show to sort of almost go there without making the subtext text, is my thought.
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Quiara
Grade School
Posts: 775
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Post by Quiara on Aug 12, 2023 18:03:39 GMT -8
What would jumping the shark look like, in the case of What We Do in the Shadows? The show is so lovably dopey at its best that it's a fun thought exercise to imagine what plotline, if any, would strain credibility on this show. I mention this because I think this was a question that the writers' room trying to answer this season. But, like, "Nandor goes to space with a GoPro" can't register as an insane flight of fancy in the context of a show where a recurring gag is dueling for ownership of a cursed witch's hat made of foreskin, right?
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Post by ThirdMan on Aug 14, 2023 11:26:15 GMT -8
I'm really enjoying this season of WWDiTS. Guillermo as an almost-vampire has provided an effective comedic throughline. As for a potential "jump-the-shark" moment, I don't think it's positioned for that, so much, as simply some viewers growing overly familiar with the characters, and not finding them as funny anymore, regardless of the actual quality of the writing (which I would argue has been quite consistent across its entire run).
Anyways, moving on to shows that actually got some notable Emmy noms this year (and to heck with all the folks who haven't at least given Matt Berry some recognition for his work), I'm getting caught up on all the recent HBO shows that have been praised these past few years. Finished Barry Season 4 (solid, but not quite as good as Season 3), The Last of Us (solid, and I'm intrigued as to how they'll handle the morally-challenging subject matter of the second video game, when they get to it), and The White Lotus (fun, exotic, and well-acted, a bit uneven in its dialogue, and Jennifer Coolidge is a bit exhausting over this many hours).
Just finished the Season 2 premiere of Succession. I'm not gonna say I care deeply about the characters or anything, and it's not really that visually-interesting (those random zooms do nothing for me), but the cast is entertaining, and I can get fairly engrossed in a series filled with smart-ass-holes who occasionally show brief glimpses of empathy, humility and nobility amidst all the petty backstabbing. I could see it being too coarse for some viewers (lots of profanity and explicit sex-talk), but I'll have no trouble barreling through its ~40 hours of content before my Crave membership runs out. Maybe not an All-Time-Classic TV series, but certainly a good one.
I also got a free month of Amazon Prime when I made an online purchase, and have a handful of movies I plan to watch on that service. Are there any shows I should check out from the past few years that I may have overlooked? I don't think I'm gonna do The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, but I'm considering Man In the High Castle, if I have time to work my way through it after I finish with Succession.
I'd like to check out Severance on Apple-Plus, but there don't appear to be any other series on that streaming service that I'm interested in (virtually everyone here has said that Ted Lasso was a one-season wonder, and the plot of the show really doesn't interest me), and I'd probably like to hear how it manages a second season before I jump in.
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Post by Jeremy on Aug 15, 2023 5:52:23 GMT -8
I'd say that Guillermo's latest vampire-ish shift is potential shark-jumping territory - it's a concept that's been teased since the very beginning of the show and has now been made manifest. And for a show like WWDitS, which is so reliant on a larger status quo (to the point that Colin Robinson's death is just turned into a season-long resurrection), substantial changes can be a problem. But the writing is still pretty funny, and I'll give it some time to see where the season heads with the new development. I also got a free month of Amazon Prime when I made an online purchase, and have a handful of movies I plan to watch on that service. Are there any shows I should check out from the past few years that I may have overlooked? I don't think I'm gonna do The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, but I'm considering Man In the High Castle, if I have time to work my way through it after I finish with Succession. Been years since I watched Man in the High Castle (I stopped early in Season Two). It's an okay show, but the main characters are kind of dull and the show suffers from the standard narrative bloat that afflicts a lot of ten-hour streaming dramas. Outside of The Boys and Invincible, not much of Amazon's current output has really clicked with me. (Though I haven't checked out some of their recent debuts.) Mrs. Maisel is fun for its first two or three seasons, but at a certain point I lost track of all the quirky side characters and stopped caring. Apple TV+ has a healthy variety of good shows beyond Severance (which may not get a second season for a while, due to the ongoing strikes) - Mythic Quest, For All Mankind, The Afterparty. It's not the largest or broadest streaming service, but it has one of the better hit-to-flop ratios in terms of content quality. Currently, the streaming service I'm watching the most is Hulu, which has a lot of great summer programming - WWDitS, Reservation Dogs, The Bear, Solar Opposites, plus the revivals of Justified and Futurama. The cross-branding with FX has turned out to be an excellent move.
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Post by ThirdMan on Aug 15, 2023 9:43:48 GMT -8
Yeah, I'll have to give Reservation Dogs another look, when I have Disney-Plus again. Re: Justified, I never got around to watching the original series, and would probably want to do so before indulging the revival (which I could watch any time right now on FX). I've been in the same boat with Twin Peaks for years.
Been keeping up with Harley Quinn on Adult Swim. Man, the villains are mostly idiots, as one would expect, but the so-called heroes (Nightwing, (Damien) Robin, and Batgirl) are typically portrayed as arguably even more shallow. Not that I'm complaining, as it's just parody, and it's not like they didn't establish this all from the outset with the show's silly depiction of Commissioner Gordon, but man, Nightwing's most firmly-established trait is his sculpted ass. Heh.
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Post by Jeremy on Aug 15, 2023 16:34:29 GMT -8
I think you could pretty easily watch the new Justified without having ever seen the original - outside of Olyphant, the cast and setting are entirely new*. Though I suppose it's less compelling if you don't have any prior familiarity with the main character.
I've got mixed feelings on the last couple of seasons of Harley Quinn - feels like the show's attempts to transition Harley from villain to anti-heroine to almost-hero have been kind of clunky, and the dynamic between Harley and the Bat-Family hasn't been as funny as that of Harley and her old gang. And as with The Boys, the show's political satire has grown less clever and inspired with each passing season. Still worth a few laughs each week.
*One weird exception - Paul Calderon, an actor who had a small role as a detective in Out of Sight some 25 years ago, plays the same character here. The Elmore Leonard Cinematic Universe is alive and well.
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Post by ThirdMan on Aug 15, 2023 19:24:18 GMT -8
Despite it receiving shockingly good reviews from TV critics during much of its run, I've never really expected any sort of brilliance out of the Harley Quinn TV series. I just watch it to see how far they can push the boundaries (with explicitness and parody) with the characters in the DC universe, and how over-the-top it can get. As I'd been dipping in and out of watching some old Justice League episodes on Netflix for the first time in the last few months, it's an interesting contrast, as JL is so earnest and dry, for the most part. It seems like a middle-ground, tonally, between the two shows would be the ideal balance.
But yeah, Harley trying to be a full-on hero doesn't seem like it could be the long-term plan, if the series plans to go another couple of seasons. Keeping her and Ivy physically apart for so long doesn't seem ideal. Still, I think some of the corporate satire of the Legion of Doom (I think that's what it's called), with Ivy, is pretty funny.
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Post by Jeremy on Aug 16, 2023 4:46:21 GMT -8
Despite it receiving shockingly good reviews from TV critics during much of its run Again, not to be the grumpy old conservative in the room, but is it really shocking that a show in which a lesbian supervillain comes to terms with her sexuality and takes a literal baseball bat to the patriarchy, while side characters refer to Batman as "walking white privilege," is getting good reviews? Particularly as many of the critics who review the show tend to come from very nerdy websites that routinely publish "11 References You Missed in the Latest Harley Quinn Episode (#7 Will Scandalize You)" articles. It's kind of an unbeatable combo of politics and DC fanservice. it is interesting to contrast it with other DC cartoons, though. I've been watching the new My Adventures with Superman show (the first animated series centered exclusively on Superman in 23 years), and it's every bit as bright and earnest as Harley Quinn is crass and cynical. The show leans quite heavily into "Big Blue Boy Scout" territory - the Superman here (voiced by Jack Quaid from The Boys) is younger than in previous shows, and his relationship with Lois (who, as the title suggests, is effectively a costar on the series) feels like budding puppy love. I don't really care for the anime-influenced visual style, which exaggerates a lot of visual jokes beyond the point of necessity, and thus far the storylines aren't particularly engrossing. But it's enjoyable enough. And I have no idea why this show is on Adult Swim; the tone is very kid-friendly and in fact less dark and adult than most of the DCAU.
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Post by ThirdMan on Aug 16, 2023 10:01:30 GMT -8
Oh, I wasn't surprised that Harley Quinn got good reviews (on account of its LGBTQ content and whatnot), but I thought its frivolity and crassness would keep it from, say, getting above 90 on Metacritic That much enthusiasm was still a bit surprising to me.
Anyways, the old Justice League show was decent enough, but a) they really nerfed Superman's relative power in it in order to balance out the team, and b) the music is kind of generic/bad, as it's clearly produced on a cheap synthesizer (didn't Batman: The Animated Series actually have an orchestral score?).
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Post by Jeremy on Aug 16, 2023 17:23:08 GMT -8
Yeah, Superman was not well-served in the first season of Justice League. He's knocked out pretty quickly in many battles (unfortunate example of the Worf Effect), he looks about ten years too old compared to STAS, and George Newbern hadn't yet found the right cadence in replacing Tim Daly. Thankfully, the show largely corrected these issues in the second season (which is a notably better season of TV overall).
It's been a long while since I watched the show, although I do occasionally revisit an old episode. I rewatched "Legends" a few years back - what a terrific episode that is. The ending still makes me cry a few non-nerdy tears.
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Post by Jeremy on Aug 27, 2023 18:03:23 GMT -8
Been keeping up with Harley Quinn on Adult Swim. Man, the villains are mostly idiots, as one would expect, but the so-called heroes (Nightwing, (Damien) Robin, and Batgirl) are typically portrayed as arguably even more shallow. Not that I'm complaining, as it's just parody, and it's not like they didn't establish this all from the outset with the show's silly depiction of Commissioner Gordon, but man, Nightwing's most firmly-established trait is his sculpted ass. Heh. Boy, this aged well, didn't it? (I was going to make this comment at least a week ago, but then I learned that Canada airs Harley Quinn a week after the US does, so I felt it would make more sense to hold off. I am nothing if not accommodating to international TV schedules.) (Also, RIP Arleen Sorkin, the OG Harley Quinn.)
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Post by ThirdMan on Aug 28, 2023 7:32:38 GMT -8
Adult Swim in Canada airs the new Harley Quinn episodes on Sunday nights, three days after the original American broadcasts (on Thursdays). Anyways, are you referring to future Robin, who's trying to collect all of the old supervillains, and still speaks like a teenager? Or the previous episode (which I can barely recall)?
And, indeed. RIP Arleen Sorkin.
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