|
Post by ThirdMan on Apr 11, 2017 14:47:40 GMT -8
SFU was often a turgid soap opera, just with more pretentious underpinnings.
|
|
Quiara
Grade School
Posts: 775
|
Post by Quiara on Apr 11, 2017 15:25:35 GMT -8
SFU was often a turgid soap opera, just with more pretentious underpinnings. So I'm watching a show that has many points to its credit, and yet for vast swaths of its runtime is largely a boring-ass soap opera with frequently out-of-place fantastical elements; the show is often considered to trail off course in its third and fourth seasons (neatly dovetailing with the arrival of the protagonist's son) before suddenly getting back to excellence sometime in its fifth and final season, capped off by what is regarded by many as one of the greatest finales in the history of television. Am I talking about Angel or Six Feet Under?
|
|
|
Post by ThirdMan on Apr 11, 2017 15:30:49 GMT -8
Oh yeah, there are similarities.
Funny thing is, I never watched the (supposedly lesser) third and fourth seasons of SFU, only watching the "good" ones. But I still found it to be a turgid soap opera at times during those seasons. Of all the acclaimed HBO dramas I've watched, it absolutely pulls up the rear.
|
|
Quiara
Grade School
Posts: 775
|
Post by Quiara on Apr 11, 2017 15:45:16 GMT -8
Oh man-- every episode has a (often shocking) death in it, it starts out as a morbid-hijinx-of-the-week show before growing into something more serialized... they are literally the same show what the hell.
Or maybe it's just a side effect of watching them back to back? For all I know I'll start drawing connections between Bunheads and Steins;Gate in a few months.
|
|
|
Post by Jeremy on Apr 12, 2017 17:35:25 GMT -8
|
|
|
Post by filibanfi on Apr 13, 2017 8:36:29 GMT -8
In the last few days, I finished the first season of the critically-acclaimed, depression-related, society scrutinizer... BoJack Horseman! Overall, it was good: an occasionally weak first part was followed by a series of very good episodes that left me wanting more. The jokes are great, especially for their continuity, and the characters are all different but equally interesting - bisede BoJack, who shines the most, for obvious reasons. The greatest achievement of the season was, of course, how well-handled the showing of all the insecurities and problems going on with BoJack has been. I'll have more to say once I'll have watched next season, too.
I originally planned to write about other two TV shows along with this, but I got distracted by the mostly disappointing 13 Reasons Why (someone with thoughts? Maybe 13 of them???), that I'll finish another time, and didn't have the time to continue them, too. I'm talking about two eight-episodes first seasons, both hugely appreciated, aired on different decades and that share, more or less, the same major reason for their success. And that's not all! I'm also regularly watching Horace and Pete and the fifth season of Veep, taking a momentary break from Shameless and One Day at a Time.
(Oh, I also happened to watch the pilot episode of The Magicians. Because I'm an idiot.)
Plus, there are The Americans, Riverdale (it's weird I'm still watching this show, but I - want to - see improvement in the future), Jane the Virgin (which is having an extremely irritating schedule this year), and the fresh new season of Better Call Saul - yes, I did finally bump The 100. And let's not even talk about what's arriving in the next days! ..... .... ... .. .
Actually, let's talk about it. The Leftovers is gaining too much excellent reviews for my heart to stop racing in the wait.
|
|
|
Post by Jeremy on Apr 13, 2017 8:56:47 GMT -8
I'm halfway through 13 Reasons Why. The show is interesting, has some great performances, and is overall one of the better teen-based dramas in recent years. Unfortunately, I'm currently in middle of (sigh) the typical mid-season slump that most streaming dramas succumb to.
I'll definitely write more once I finish the season.
Well, it's a safe bet that one of them is Twin Peaks. I'll have to sleep on the other.
|
|
|
Post by Incandescence 112 on Apr 13, 2017 18:24:05 GMT -8
In the last few days, I finished the first season of the critically-acclaimed, depression-related, society scrutinizer... BoJack Horseman! Overall, it was good: an occasionally weak first part was followed by a series of very good episodes that left me wanting more. The jokes are great, especially for their continuity, and the characters are all different but equally interesting - bisede BoJack, who shines the most, for obvious reasons. The greatest achievement of the season was, of course, how well-handled the showing of all the insecurities and problems going on with BoJack has been. I'll have more to say once I'll have watched next season, too. I originally planned to write about other two TV shows along with this, but I got distracted by the mostly disappointing 13 Reasons Why (someone with thoughts? Maybe 13 of them???), that I'll finish another time, and didn't have the time to continue them, too. I'm talking about two eight-episodes first seasons, both hugely appreciated, aired on different decades and that share, more or less, the same major reason for their success. And that's not all! I'm also regularly watching Horace and Pete and the fifth season of Veep, taking a momentary break from Shameless and One Day at a Time. (Oh, I also happened to watch the pilot episode of The Magicians. Because I'm an idiot.) Plus, there are The Americans, Riverdale (it's weird I'm still watching this show, but I - want to - see improvement in the future), Jane the Virgin (which is having an extremely irritating schedule this year), and the fresh new season of Better Call Saul - yes, I did finally bump The 100. And let's not even talk about what's arriving in the next days! ..... .... ... .. . Actually, let's talk about it. The Leftovers is gaining too much excellent reviews for my heart to stop racing in the wait. Nice! I did not like the first season of Bojack at all actually. The only great episodes in my opinion were "The Telescope" and "Downer Ending", which both blew me away, but the rest I barely found funny or involving. Thankfully it does exponentially improve in the 2nd and 3rd seasons. 13 Reasons Why had a very strong and compelling start that made me want to watch the whole series, immediately. However, that mid season slump that Jeremy mentioned only gets worse in my opinion, and by the end I felt very "meh" about the whole show. It eventually broke the realm of credibility for me.
|
|
|
Post by Zarnium on Apr 13, 2017 20:49:20 GMT -8
(Oh, I also happened to watch the pilot episode of The Magicians. Because I'm an idiot.) I went into the Magicians pilot thinking it would be " Harry Potter, but with gritty adult realism and without the cutesy trappings." Turns out it was just " Harry Potter."
|
|
|
Post by filibanfi on Apr 14, 2017 4:41:18 GMT -8
Yeah, I've heard a lot of praise for the first episodes of 13 Reasons Why, but for many it didn't live up to that level with the subsequent installments - even if the last ones seem to be more polarizing. The fact is: I only watched the first Two Tapes - meaning just four episodes. And I wasn't that impressed, nonetheless. Everyone seems to agree that the show is off to a great start, but I found it to be... OK, I guess. Part of what bugged me is how messy all the Hannah talking often became, to the point when she sounded more like an external narrator than the actual person whose tapes we're listening. Making appear Hannah as a big part of the show, despite being dead, was probably the writers' intent, but it was made in some kind of weird way. The actors are fine, the series overall wasn't bad at all, but felt too much focused on the cool teen-drama-typical mystery rather than on more serious themes regarding the suicide. I will definitely finish it, though, but I'll let some time - and the major enthusiasm spread all over the Internet in these days - go by. Nice! I did not like the first season of Bojack at all actually. The only great episodes in my opinion were "The Telescope" and "Downer Ending", which both blew me away, but the rest I barely found funny or involving. Thankfully it does exponentially improve in the 2nd and 3rd seasons. "The Telescope" was probably the first episode that left me thinking about it even after having finished it. It was excellent - and so was "Downer Ending", which did a better job digging into BoJack's mind, but felt a little less powerful as an episode as a whole. Well, I found pretty perfectly on-point the finale, too, and, for that matter, is the Christmas special following it to see or is it disconnected from the other storylines and therefore skippable? I went into the Magicians pilot thinking it would be " Harry Potter, but with gritty adult realism and without the cutesy trappings." Turns out it was just " Harry Potter." I experienced the same. I'm going to at least watch some other episodes just because I've read a lot of very good things about it and The Expanse, this year. I mean, if I recall correctly, at least two critics said it was reaching Buffy heights.
|
|
|
Post by Jeremy on Apr 14, 2017 5:15:19 GMT -8
Oh, it definitely explores some serious themes about suicide. The mystery is important to draw viewers into the early episodes. If the show began primarily focusing on teen suicide straight out of the gate, no one would watch past the first episode.
In any case, I think this will probably be the last 13-episode streaming drama I watch for a very long time. Apart from OitNB, of course.
The Christmas special has no bearing on the series as a whole. But you should still watch it. It's hilarious.
|
|
|
Post by filibanfi on Apr 14, 2017 5:42:26 GMT -8
Oh, it definitely explores some serious themes about suicide. The mystery is important to draw viewers into the early episodes. If the show began primarily focusing on teen suicide straight out of the gate, no one would watch past the first episode. In any case, I think this will probably be the last 13-episode streaming drama I watch for a very long time. Apart from OitNB, of course. I was confident that part of the show would have come out eventually - also because you don't make a show on this subject without taking a serious look at it. I hope I'll be able to like these episodes more than I already did, once I'll get back to them. The next 13-episode streaming drama I'm going to watch is... House of Cards?! Amusing.
|
|
|
Post by Zarnium on Apr 14, 2017 8:25:11 GMT -8
QUICK BOJACK HORSEMAN PSA for any future viewers: The Christmas special is not listed with the rest of the show on Netflix. It has its own listing as "Bojack Horseman Christmas Special: Sabrina's Christmas Wish." I didn't realize this until a few days after I finished season 3, and I figured it was a DVD-only extra or something since it wasn't with the rest of the show.
|
|
|
Post by ThirdMan on Apr 15, 2017 12:46:52 GMT -8
It's funny how the reviews of well-liked shows often go up from year-to-year (witness the third season reviews of The Leftovers). Some of that can be down to a show genuinely getting better as it goes along, but some of it is the critics who didn't like a particular show in its first season no longer writing reviews of the later seasons, and being replaced by those who are big fans. Still, it's tricky when some shows just offer up a premiere for review, while others release virtually the entire season to critics.
I don't have HBO, so I'll probably have to wait for a library DVD for The Leftovers. Alan Sepinwall doesn't think the show is ideal for binges, because it's so emotionally-exhausting, but if one doesn't have the station, that's usually the way it ends up going.
|
|
|
Post by Jeremy on Apr 15, 2017 20:07:00 GMT -8
I don't usually trust Metacritic with shows post-S1, for all the reasons you listed. Not that it usually matters - by the end of a show's first season, I can usually decide for myself if it's worth continuing.
I'll probably also wait until the final season of The Leftovers makes it to DVD. Frankly, it's not especially high on my "need to watch" list.
|
|