|
Post by ThirdMan on Jul 20, 2021 0:57:33 GMT -8
I watched the first half of Lupin months ago. I'll check out the second half eventually.
|
|
Quiara
Grade School
Posts: 775
|
Post by Quiara on Jul 20, 2021 8:29:07 GMT -8
Anyone watch Mare of Easttown? It was, uh, good, I guess, although to be blunt with you I think less about this show than the SNL Murder Durder parody of it. It was pretty disorienting realizing that half the cast were Brits putting on Philly accents. Good for Jean Smart, though.
Meanwhile, I've been slogging (Sloughing?) my way thru The Office, the Ricky Gervais one, and it's pretty good. There are a lot of obvious ways in which the show differs from its warmer and fuzzier American remake, but I think what really stands out to me about the shows is their divergent relationships to career competence. David Brent and Michael Scott both derive most of their self-worth from their lives of literal paper-pushing, and that self-ideation is what makes them more than pure buffoons. But while Brent's devotion to his crap job is what makes him pitiful, Scott's devotion to his crap job is supposed to make him likable.1 Gareth and Dwight have the same thing going on; the character of the pranks pulled on that character have a similar dynamic. Hell, even the theme songs hint at this binary here - "what does become of David Brent when he's finally stripped him of his ultimately hollow white-collar job and the illusion of power that comes with it?," Ricky Gervais asks us. Greg Daniels plays a jaunty li'l accordion tune.
1 Or at least, the audience reaction is that Michael's competence is praiseworthy - the writers seem to be aware that Michael's hustle on behalf of an industry that does not love him back is the ultimate expression of his naivete. If you've never read Venkatesh Rao's Gervais Principle you should - it 100% turned around my understanding of this show from "goofy workplace comedy" to "scathing satire of capitalist relations." For real.
|
|
|
Post by Jay on Jul 20, 2021 10:30:34 GMT -8
Good for Jean Smart, though. Evergreen comment
|
|
Quiara
Grade School
Posts: 775
|
Post by Quiara on Jul 20, 2021 11:45:15 GMT -8
Good for Jean Smart, though. Evergreen comment She's great, isn't she? I really should get around to Hacks.
|
|
|
Post by Jeremy on Jul 20, 2021 20:28:40 GMT -8
Hacks is hilarious - one of the funniest HBO shows to debut in years. And Jean Smart is great as the aging stand-up comic trying to stay in the ever-shifting spotlight. (Plus, the show features a running commentary on cancel culture that isn't obnoxious or preachy. Will wonders never cease...)
Mare of Easttown is pretty good as well, and I'm impressed at how the writers were able to craft a show that genuinely feels like it's based on a pulpy novel and yet somehow isn't. It could be an Emmy frontrunner due to its close proximity with the end of the season, although I expect Queen's Gambit (or perhaps a dark horse competitor) could provide formidable competition.
As for The Office, I maintain that US version > UK version. Gervais' show is of course groundbreaking and important, but I never quite found Brent to be a compelling lead. To my eye, Gervais' crowning achievement is Extras, which is probably the funniest Britcom I've ever seen. (The second season series is particularly ingenious, due to its biting meta-commentary on the American version of The Office, and on repackaged sitcoms in general.)
|
|
|
Post by otherscott on Jul 22, 2021 9:25:31 GMT -8
I thought Mare of Easttown was good, not great. There's nothing really original around it, it seems to have the exact same DNA as the dreary town atmosphere long form murder mysteries like Broadchurch (without the beach), and The Killing (without the rain and the botched ending to S1). I would have liked to see something a little more original, though as I've been very disappointed with the 2021 fare I've watched so far this is just about the best of it.
|
|
|
Post by Jeremy on Jul 22, 2021 19:13:07 GMT -8
I think there have been a few standout TV shows of 2021 so far (notably Hacks and Invincible), but it has indeed been a slow year as TV recovers from the pandemic and tries returning to normal production.
The continued rise of blockbuster TV has also led to a handful of shows sucking up a lot of cultural oxygen (notably the Marvel shows like WandaVision and Loki), making it tougher for lesser-known quality series to gain a foothold. Right now, the best way for a new TV show to get attention is to either be part of a large established brand like the MCU, or be woke enough that critics will be inspired to write lengthy political thinkpieces about it. The rest of us have to count the days till the return of Ted Lasso.
|
|
|
Post by Jay on Aug 21, 2021 8:55:57 GMT -8
Before heading back to my PhD program, I watched the first three seasons of Peaky Blinders with my ma and I'm not sure I have ever encountered a program that tried to survive and thrive on the powers of the slow squad walk and soundtrack alone. To be fair, the soundtrack is good if themed-- S1 was Nick Cave, S2 was PJ Harvey, and S3, surprisingly, was Radiohead-- and they manage to pick largely B-tracks or non-singles with the exception of the show's theme. The raucous blues rock that fills the role of background music keeps pace with the speed and violence of the show, even if violates the dictum that for period pieces, you must go no later than period music. And the squad walks are played up and even the girls get to do it eventually. I don't mind tropes if they're a little bit self-aware and fun.
Though a bunch of bad stuff eventually happens to him in series continuity, not to be confused with before it, I somewhat struggle at moments with Thomas Shelby being a bit of a Marty Sue and always having a solution or way around the problem that mostly gets him out of it, a plan which will be revealed in the course of the viewing but in no way hinted at prior to the climactic events. His development, and really much of the show, is choppy and he goes from a largely celibate PTSD suffered to having romantic relationships with most of the pretty young thing on the cast. It's hard to tell how much time elapses between episodes but it's hinted to be quite a bit and each season jumps ahead two years.
Alfred provides some character as the unhinged enforcer of the brothers and his own struggles and attempts at development are probably the second strongest after Thomas, or third after Thomas and the delightful Polly, but the show is not especially great in that department. Three seasons on, I would struggle to describe John or Finn among the brothers, and whatever role or place they could have in the show appears to be going to Michael, whose intensity is at odds with the rather idyllic depiction of his home life when Polly reconnected with him.
It's quite watchable although the level of intensity makes me okay with it in one episode doses. It's more measured with it's sex and violence than The Americans at least.
|
|
|
Post by Incandescence 112 on Aug 27, 2021 7:05:52 GMT -8
So, two comedy shows I used to enjoy quite a bit have been going down the drain lately. Let's start with the Harmon one.
Rick and Morty's 4th season was a bit rocky, trying to put the genie back in the bottle after a wildly experimental (and successful) third season. But this 5th one has been something else. The show's always had its duds, but this season ran five "Get Schwifty"s or "Interdimensional Cable 2"s right in a row, completely devoid of actual characterization and interesting sci-fi ideas. On the upside, the first two episodes were great, and the most recent one actually got into character stuff again. If the finale's great it'll be an even split.
Brooklyn Nine-Nine was basically just killed by 2020. There's no other way to say it. The fact that its writers want to address difficult subject matter is admirable, but I think Season 8 has showed how it's just not really that kind of show--much too twee for that. It's too heavy handed to say anything truly insightful. The show's always been at its best when it loosens up and doesn't take itself too seriously. It's a real shame it's sputtering to its conclusion.
|
|
|
Post by ThirdMan on Aug 27, 2021 12:48:46 GMT -8
Most Rick and Morty episodes are so jam-packed with self-aware dialogue and sarcastic reversals, and so convoluted plot-wise, that I have a difficult time evaluating them in the moment. That turkey episode was bizarre even by this show's ridiculous standards. That said, I've never really looked for meaningful characterization from the show, and really only responded to it based on how quick and overtly clever it can be with its dialogue. So I haven't noticed any significant drop in quality for the majority of its run, but chances are I probably wouldn't notice unless they slowed the pacing down significantly to allow me to keep up. It's a strange show, in that way.
This long gap before the one-hour finale has been very strange as well.
ETA: I just skimmed over the synopses of this season's episodes, and looking back, I'm generally fine with most of them. Liked the hellspawn creatures who only derived pleasure from pain and discomfort, and how far the writers pushed that premise. The Go-Tron robot thing was perhaps too nerdy for my tastes, but was pretty rigidly focused on Rick's obsessive-compulsiveness, taken to the nth degree. Morty being obsessed with Planetina in another episode seemed very true-to-character, and keeping with the show's central motifs. Really only the turkey one seemed weird-for-the-sake-of-being-weird. And obviously I'm always down for some Eternal Sunshine riffs, as that's one of my all-time favourite films. So, yeah, I think I'm probably enjoying this season about as much as any of the previous ones, to the best of my recollection.
|
|
|
Post by Jeremy on Aug 27, 2021 13:41:38 GMT -8
I'm more or less on the same page as J.C. here. I think this season of Rick and Morty has been fine overall (although it is just me, or is the show pressing more into crude and shock humor territory than before? I didn't think that was possible). It's probably never going to be as fresh or as innovative as it was in those early seasons, but it's consistently entertaining and reliably funny, if a bit less so as the episodes and seasons pile up. (And there are plenty more on the way.)
The season premiere of Brooklyn Nine-Nine was generally awful, combining trademark goofball comedy with serious political commentary, with predictably painful results. The writers are trying to please the fans who want the show to get more serious and those who want the same ol' screwball comedy as always, and the result is a formless and unsatisfying mishmash. Subsequent episodes have been a little better, but the show flatlines every time it tries to get introspective.
On a similar note, the new season of The Good Fight was a pretty fascinating trainwreck (as opposed to the last two Good Wife seasons, which were just a boring trainwreck). The writers try to comment on every political and social issue of the last 18 months, while still telling a coherent and vaguely believable story over 10 episodes, with at least one potentially "OMG" moment per episode. The show hits rock bottom with an arc centering on Mandy Patinkin as the screwiest judge in America, and his kangaroo court (literally, I think there's someone dressed as a kangaroo at one point) wears thin after the first two episodes. Not a dull show by any stretch, but the writers are clearly running on fumes by now, more concerned with spectacle than substance. Sad to see a spinoff of a once-excellent network series go the American Horror Story route.
So um, this has not been a great year for television! Fingers crossed for a good fall season.
|
|
|
Post by Jeremy on Sept 3, 2021 14:46:29 GMT -8
The fall season is almost upon us. Some shows I'm looking forward to (even as I acknowledge my need to catch up on a lot of summer stuff):
ACS: Impeachment - Okay, this looks kind of cheesy and hammy (a very non-kosher combo), but I had low expectations for the OJ Simpson season (didn't watch Versace), and it was surprisingly good. A Hollywood series about the Clinton impeachment can go any which way, but I expect it will at least be an interesting ride.
Hawkeye - Been a mixed bag for Marvel shows this year, but Hawkeye seems promising, since it's apparently modeled in part on the Matt Fraction/David Aja Hawkeye series (which, as I think I've mentioned before, is one of the greatest comic book runs of the past decade). At the very least, we're finally getting the MCU debut of Pizza Dog.
Chucky - This will probably be bad. I will at least watch the first episode to confirm, as I do for every R-rated show with a kid-friendly center.
Ragdoll - This could potentially be another exploitative mystery-thriller series (detectives hunting a psycho serial killer), but it's from some of the same writers behind Killing Eve, so I assume it'll be worth watching at least one season.
Foundation - Early buzz for this is quite good; it's a high-profile sci-fi show from the guy who made the underrated Terminator: The Sarah Conner Chronicles. (Also that David Goyer guy who used to be a thing.)
And Just Like That - Again, this will probably be bad, though I expect it can't be worse than Sex and the City 2. And perhaps not having Samantha around will make the show... less NSFW?
Green Eggs and Ham: The Second Serving - Can't believe we have to wait till November for the best show of 2021. But I'm the patient type.
|
|
|
Post by Incandescence 112 on Sept 17, 2021 6:34:11 GMT -8
Well, for all my disappointment with the final season of Brooklyn Nine-Nine, I have to say that the finale was terrific. Unlike so many other sitcom finales, it put jokes first and foremost and nailed the emotional moments. The show overall is very solid, and it remained that way to the end. The problem with this final season was that it was killed by 2020, not the usual 'running out of steam' fatigue you usually see.
Favorite episodes, "Halloween" (1x06), "The Bet" (1x13), "Tactical Village" (1x19), "Charges and Specs" (1x22), "The Jimmy Jab Games" (2x03), "Halloween II" (2x04), "Road Trip" (2x09), "Payback" (2x13), "Captain Peralta" (2x18), "Halloween III" (3x05), "Ava" (3x08), "Yippie Kayak" (3x10), "Bureau" (3x22), "Greg and Larry" (3x23), "Halloween IV" (4x05), "Moo Moo" (4x16), "Cop Con" (4x17), "HalloVeen" (5x04), "99" (5x09), "Game Night" (5x10), "Safe House" (5x12), "The Box" (5x14), "Jake and Amy" (5x22), "Honeymoon" (6x01), "The Crime Scene" (6x06), "Cinco De Mayo" (6x16), "Suicide Squad" (6x18), "Captain Kim" (7x02), "Valloweaster" (7x11), and "The Last Day" (8x09-8x10). So yeah--the show is filled with very good to great episodes. My favorite out of those would be "The Box", which is just one of the best comedy episodes ever. "OH DAMN!"
The only poor pre-S8 episodes that really stick out to me are "The Night Shift", with its pointless crossover with New Girl, "Return to Skyfire" with its awkward pacing and recycled jokes, and the three Gina S6 episodes: "The Tattler", "Four Movements", and "Return of the King". The writers lean into Gina being an awful person and we're supposed to sympathize with her. A misfire.
|
|
|
Post by Jeremy on Sept 19, 2021 7:02:53 GMT -8
I thought the finale was good, though the way that the annual heist episodes try to keep topping their predecessors with endless twists and turns has worn thin over the years. And in my curmudgeonly years, I'm no longer as enthralled by finales that keep interrupting the story for callbacks and cameos that are simply there because, well, it's the Big Ending.
Still, I laughed a few times, more than I have at most of this season. And the interpersonal material between the main characters was generally handled well.
The show was never one of my all-time favorites, but it had some strong episodes (particularly from Seasons 4 through 6). Still, even beyond the impact of real-world events, it was starting to exaggerate the comedy past the point of character logic, and build entire episodes based on one-off jokes (e.g. centering an entire episode around the Boyle family). So it was probably the right time for the series to bow out.
|
|
|
Post by ThirdMan on Sept 19, 2021 12:48:55 GMT -8
Watched the third season of Sex Education in the last two days. I think this was the best season the show has thus far produced. It gets a bit heavy-handed in how it uses the new headmaster of the school (she goes from relatively progressive to virtual dictator in short order), and much like the previous seasons, the penultimate-episode set-piece is really far-fetched (in terms of how organized the students are). That said, this is a show with a large ensemble where virtually every lead and supporting character (teens and middle-aged adults) is rendered with a good deal of dimension and warmth. Characters that may have started out as basic archetypes have developed well beyond that over time. It's a fairly traditional teen soap in some ways, but the acting is strong across-the-board, and the writing is thoughtful and fairly intelligent. Yes, there are still some over-the-top sex-based gags scattered here and there, but the emphasis is very much on characterization, and I found a lot of the season to be quite touching. It's a very easy watch, especially with only eight episodes per season.
|
|