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Post by Jeremy on Feb 22, 2018 19:18:27 GMT -8
Well, they're both above-average workplace comedies, and they both seem to drag in third seasons. I guess the humor in Superstore just clicks with me more regularly.
Plus, it just got renewed for Season Four. That doesn't sound too significant, until you realize it'll be the first NBC sitcom to make four seasons since Community.
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Post by Jay on Feb 28, 2018 13:38:27 GMT -8
I don't know that I've watched a single episode of television since last report, but on the shortlist would be to note that The Tick reboot has new episodes.
"NEAT!"
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Post by Jeremy on Mar 1, 2018 7:10:39 GMT -8
Yeah, I've been watching the new episodes. It's a good series, and I like that Ben Edlund is trying something different with the character, but I dunno - I still miss the Warburton version.
In other TV news, the third-season premiere of UnREAL was promising. The episode has a lot of meta-commentary about how off-the-rails Season Two was, which suggests that the writers (and the new showrunner - why do they keep changing showrunners every season?) have learned from past mistakes. I guess we'll see.
And Atlanta returns tonight. So it looks like post-Olympics TV is of to a good start.
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Post by otherscott on Mar 1, 2018 7:48:50 GMT -8
Yeah, I've been watching the new episodes. It's a good series, and I like that Ben Edlund is trying something different with the character, but I dunno - I still miss the Warburton version. In other TV news, the third-season premiere of UnREAL was promising. The episode has a lot of meta-commentary about how off-the-rails Season Two was, which suggests that the writers (and the new showrunner - why do they keep changing showrunners every season?) have learned from past mistakes. I guess we'll see. And Atlanta returns tonight. So it looks like post-Olympics TV is of to a good start. Having not watched the second season of UnREAL (the reviews and my relative lack of TV time last year scared me off) I would be less than optimistic just because of meta-commentary suggests that they knew Season 2 was awry. That's different from knowing how to fix the show. I still think the loss of Marti Noxon was huge, as she's always been a person who's been able to balance wildly disparate tones, both on Buffy as well as UnREAL S1, I still have less confidence in the show without her. But hey, maybe I'll be proven wrong and forced to jump back in.
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Post by Jeremy on Mar 1, 2018 8:12:37 GMT -8
Well, the new showrunner (who has been a writer on the series since Season One) has repeatedly acknowledged the missteps of S2 in interviews. And given the amount of awful things we've heard about reality TV stars in the news since last season (sexual-harassment scandals, drug overdoses, becoming President, etc.), there's a lot of new material for the show to work with.
I'll let you know how it goes. I would have also preferred Marti Noxon return to the show, but she's busy making an HBO miniseries, and it's not like they're gonna be able to tear her away from that.
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Post by ThirdMan on Mar 1, 2018 16:50:19 GMT -8
Thank you for reminding me about Atlanta. I think I'd removed the "Series Record" feature for that show on my PVR because it kept recording old episodes during marathons, but now it's been reset.
I'm gonna be watching the return of Gotham tonight too, because in the past year-and-a-bit, it's really found its groove with the macabre humour. Ben Mackenzie remains merely an OK lead, but much of the supporting cast (Logue, Pertwee, Baccarin, Cory Michael Smith, Robin Taylor, Erin Richards, actress playing Sophia Falcone, Alexander Siddig) is very enjoyable, and the show's production values and cinematography remain top-drawer for network television. And they're using so many members of the Batman rogues gallery that will likely never get a whiff in feature films (Solomon Grundy, LOL). It's very silly, but Batman can be silly.
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Post by Jay on Mar 1, 2018 17:23:09 GMT -8
Either no one told me or I didn't notice or I forgot that David Fury is a writer for The Tick.
Also the first episode back is taking potshots at Legion.
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Post by ThirdMan on Mar 1, 2018 19:30:23 GMT -8
Why would they take shots at a show that's seen by so relatively few viewers? Anyways, I bet one of The Tick's writers was probably turned down for a writing gig on Hawley's show.
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Post by Jeremy on Mar 1, 2018 19:56:23 GMT -8
Was there a Legion reference? I must have missed (or forgotten) it. I also don't think David Fury would have been rejected as a Legion writer, given his penchant for weird and kooky shows. It's very silly, but Batman can be silly. What are you talking about? What could possibly be silly about this?
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Post by Jay on Mar 2, 2018 6:43:57 GMT -8
It was a very quick snipe. In the seventh episode, Arthur is in his cell talking to Dr. Karamazov in the adjacent one. Ms. Lint stumbles on the little chat and Arthur's immediate defense is (paraphrased): "I was talking... to my childhood dog, Queenie... I'm off my meds! I'm an unreliable narrator!"
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Post by Jay on Mar 3, 2018 22:11:01 GMT -8
I finished watching The Tick just now, so here are a couple of quick reactions:
* I only engaged with the Waburton one in fits and starts (I have it available to stream, I'll get to it soon), but I think that my initial reaction was "I want the cartoon back," so it will be different to watch it now that I'm merely curious. One thing that I will voice in appreciation of the new series is that, if we had another variation on American Maid / Captain Liberty and Batmanuel / Die Fledermaus, I don't think I would have been satisfied with going back to that well again. I'm glad that there's an attempt to do something different here, or at least access a different set of informing tropes (Superian, etc).
* I wonder if timing might also play into the failure of the first live-action series. The animated series came at a time when the airwaves were filled with X-Men and Spider-Man, Batman: TAS, Superman, and Justice League, along with lesser incarnations of Fantastic Four and Iron Man, all of which I can claim to have watched at some point or another. By the time the first live-action version rolled around, comic adaptations had fallen out of vogue. Now that we're well into a revival, particularly of live-action superhero fare, often of the gritty, realist sort, it only makes sense for The Tick to emerge once more as a means of counterbalancing that. I wouldn't be surprised if the continued muddle of The Tick's origin story remains a thematic focus for a while, given the media's fondness for telling and retelling those tales. Tick will probably go on thinking that he's a robot or a dog (scratches down on notepad: "Idea: Robot dog?"), but it will continue to be a red herring, played for varying levels of seriousness.
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Post by Jeremy on Mar 4, 2018 6:50:14 GMT -8
Yeah, the Warburton series didn't premiere at the best time for superheroes - DC cartoons had been shuffled off to cable, while Marvel Animation was recovering from bankruptcy. Smallville premiered the same season, and went on to become a bona fide success, but it wasn't a "traditional" superhero series, which probably helped it court a wider audience. It wasn't until the first Spider-Man film debuted that superheroes began to work as onscreen hits.
It also didn't help that Fox didn't really know how to market the show - no one could figure out if it was kid-friendly or more attuned to the Family Guy base. Still, I do think it's a decently entertaining series, and the cast (particularly Nestor Carbonell) is a lot of fun.
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Post by Jay on Mar 4, 2018 9:23:09 GMT -8
Fox not knowing how to market or adequately set up a fledgling show for success? How deliciously absurd!
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Post by ThirdMan on Mar 7, 2018 19:52:23 GMT -8
I've had the Season 1 DVD set of Big Little Lies sitting on my shelf for just over a week, and it's due back at my public library next Tuesday. I guess I'd better get on it. I suppose I'm a little resistant to it because it sort of seems like critics went nuts over it partly because, "Oh boy, look at all these fancy movie stars doing TV."
Also, last week's X-Files episode was pretty terrific. A nearly-silent episode about the dangers of our overreliance on technology, it evokes The Twilight Zone and, based on critics' comments, Black Mirror. A really neat formalist experiment. Yum-yum.
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Post by otherscott on Mar 8, 2018 8:15:48 GMT -8
Big Little Lies is good but not great. I think the acting absolutely lives up to the stars in it, they all came to play.
That said it never feels like a story that particularly needed to be told.
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