I’m only 3 eps in & I dont even care how this ends or where it goes- Marvelous Mrs Maisel is the most perfect thing Amy Sherman Palladino has created & I love it so much
― Squeaky Fromage (VegemiteGrrl), Saturday, December 2, 2017 1:17 AM
I made it part of the way through the pilot a couple weeks ago anticipating the rest of the series becoming available, but I started cringing too hard when he was doing Newhart's Lincoln routine during the open mic. I'll come back to it soon.
― Ⓓⓡ. (Johnny Fever), Sunday, 3 December 2017 23:57 (six years ago) link
you’re supposed to cringe! he’s a schmuck!!
― Squeaky Fromage (VegemiteGrrl), Sunday, 3 December 2017 23:58 (six years ago) link
I don't weather cringey moments very well, though. I've never lasted an entire episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm.
― Ⓓⓡ. (Johnny Fever), Monday, 4 December 2017 00:16 (six years ago) link
It's also why I bailed on Enlightened, despite everyone telling me it was wonderful.
― Ⓓⓡ. (Johnny Fever), Monday, 4 December 2017 00:17 (six years ago) link
i feel you, enlightened was an almost-bail for me too early on!
― Squeaky Fromage (VegemiteGrrl), Monday, 4 December 2017 00:26 (six years ago) link
re: The Leftovers:* how disturbing/violent is it? * how depressing is it?want to watch it but trying to figure out if i'm up for it emotionally
― na (NA), Tuesday, 5 December 2017 21:44 (six years ago) link
ok I googled and every article about it is like "Why The Leftovers is the darkest, bleakest show on TV" so i guess that answers my question
― na (NA), Tuesday, 5 December 2017 22:24 (six years ago) link
It's actually hilarious, especially Season 3. And Ann Dowd is fantastic in it. You should watch it.
― grawlix (unperson), Tuesday, 5 December 2017 22:35 (six years ago) link
I can only think of two or three real moments of violence in the series, although one goes pretty far.
It's not depressing, but it is about depression. As unperson says, at times it's a comedy but is frequently very funny.
― Thomas Gabriel Fischer does not endorse (aldo), Tuesday, 5 December 2017 22:38 (six years ago) link
yeah it definitely walks a very fine line between depressing & uplifting ... it’s not really one or the other but a unique combination of both
― Squeaky Fromage (VegemiteGrrl), Tuesday, 5 December 2017 23:46 (six years ago) link
I thought the overall theme of The Leftovers was optimistic because there’s a bleak premise, people who are fighting against internal and external demons, and in the end they really keep continuing because of their bonds with each other. People even form new bonds and loves!idk, it’s a dystopia where some people end up in darkness but the main cast ends up deciding life is worth it
― mh, Tuesday, 5 December 2017 23:49 (six years ago) link
I guess it might be in the very slim genre of “cynically optimistic” shows
― mh, Tuesday, 5 December 2017 23:51 (six years ago) link
Should I watch the expanse season 2 next or rewatch enlightened?
― Chuck_Tatum, Wednesday, 6 December 2017 00:08 (six years ago) link
I watched 19 different TV shows that were airing this year which is unusually high for me. I'd say these were my favorites.
1. Twin Peaks ("event")2. Mindhunter3. Rick & Morty4. GLOW5. Big Little Lies (mini)6. Broadchurch
good not great: five came back, feud, penn & teller fool us, mst3k, veep, leftovers, doctor who, handmaid's tale, stranger things, curb your enthusiasm
bad: sherlock, game of thrones, star trek discovery
― Einstein, Bazinga, Sitar (abanana), Wednesday, 6 December 2017 01:02 (six years ago) link
so basically season 2 of search party is millennial crime & punishment
― Mordy, Wednesday, 6 December 2017 01:20 (six years ago) link
yep. and it's real good!
Here's my at the moment 9:1) Desus and Mero - i hate that i am watching vice tho2) Search Party3) SMILF - Last episode was an extended and explicit take on Run Lola Run... the balls on this show! Rosie O'Donnell is a revelation, which is not something I thought I'd say ever.4) At Home with Amy Sedaris - Pee Wee's Playhouse 20175) Colbert's Late Show monologues are somehow weirdly necessary6) PBS Newshour but boy it's unpleasant7) NBA8) Rosehaven - Best in small doses but enjoyable9) The Rundown with Robin Thede - Probably the best late night show on right now10) The Good Place - Back soon!
Still Watching I Guess - Full Frontal, Curb
Need to try again with more focus: Girlfriend Experience (not with my girlfriend in the room apparently), American Gods, Stranger Things 2, Ken Burns' Vietnam
I suppose i should try again but don't know why: The Deuce, Twin Peaks
Fondly recently remembered: Nathan for You, Rick and Morty, One Mississippi, Better Things (mixed feelings there), Baroness Von Sketch (got kinda burned out at the end), Great British Baking Show, Difficult People, Insecure, Love You More pilot (this shit needs to go to series immediately)
Gave up: Broad City (empty calories now), You're the Worst (yeah nothing there for me), NFL (i'm out at least until the playoffs i guess), Big Little Lies (thought this was terrible!), Top of the Lake: China Girl (surprisingly straight garbage), Back (very mean!), TRL (this might be the worst thing on television right now), Runaways (made it three episodes... why so much focus on the adults? and wtf with the scratch soundtrack; maybe the worst music direction i've ever seen on a television show and the scripting isn't much better)
Coming up shortly: Happy!, Top Chef, Marvelous Miss Maisel
Where the fuck is: High Maintenance?
― Chocolate-covered gummy bears? Not ruling those lil' guys out. (ulysses), Wednesday, 6 December 2017 04:49 (six years ago) link
High Maintenance was renewed for a second HBO season, which is set to premiere January 19, 2018.[6][7]
― johnny crunch, Wednesday, 6 December 2017 11:59 (six years ago) link
Marvelous Mrs Maisel needs to parachute into that list somewhere v high up imo
I am loving it so much. The staging alone is just so ambitious and bravura. Long takes. Foreground and background dialogue overlapping and intersecting. It feels like a piece of theater, even a musical at times. There is however something at the heart of it that is really bothering me and it's painful as shit because I am a massive fan, and that is that we are supposed to believe that the main character is magically great at stand-up with no practice. It's the keystone of the plot but it's manifestly impossible. Famously impossible. It does it do a disservice to the hard-gigging milieu that A S-P valorizes. Like someone who's never picked up a guitar suddenly deciding to play like Jimi Hendrix. If that was your plot, the sudden Hendrix, you could explain that it was magical realism or something, and your actor could pretend to play while you dubbed in actual great guitar playing on the soundtrack. But they can't do that here. They have to get Rachel Brosnahan to actually be great, as great as Lenny Bruce. Which she just isn't. It turns out that impersonating a great comedian is essentially impossible. Even when you get the voice and the cadence right, like the guy playing Lenny Bruce, the rhythms and the energy and the ineffableness of it only comes from years and years of playing rooms. The show's Lenny is a cuddly version of the real thing, the edges sanded off. Less a seething mass of upper-addled bottled lightning and more a whimsical sweetie. I mean the show is a sweet show, so maybe that's why.
I keep trying to make excuses for this - like maybe Alex Borstein's hardened, seen-it-all pro is so taken with this complete amateur because she's never seen a women do filthy material before?
― illegal economic migration (Tracer Hand), Wednesday, 6 December 2017 12:24 (six years ago) link
I mean, yeah yeah, suspension of disbelief, but I laughed more at Rupert Pupkin
― illegal economic migration (Tracer Hand), Wednesday, 6 December 2017 12:25 (six years ago) link
glad to hear on high maintenance.
i have a #11 for that list: The President Show, which is much better than you'd expect
― Chocolate-covered gummy bears? Not ruling those lil' guys out. (ulysses), Wednesday, 6 December 2017 15:30 (six years ago) link
watched the pilot of the leftovers, liked it a lot, my wife liked it too despite the disappearing baby/shot dog combo within the first five minutes. it was weird seeing mark's boss from peep show in a big dramatic role.
― na (NA), Wednesday, 6 December 2017 15:39 (six years ago) link
It feels like a piece of theater, even a musical at times
yeah what i love about mrs maisel most so far is how much of the sensibility of bunheads carried over re: this stuff
― flamenco drop (BradNelson), Wednesday, 6 December 2017 15:52 (six years ago) link
― Chocolate-covered gummy bears? Not ruling those lil' guys out. (ulysses), Wednesday, December 6, 2017 8:30 AM (twenty-two minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
i took an improv class taught by the guy who plays trump, it's exactly as good as i expected (he's brilliant) if... a little hard to watch regularly
― flamenco drop (BradNelson), Wednesday, 6 December 2017 15:54 (six years ago) link
anyway here are my top shows of the year
1. twin peaks2. riverdale
the end
― flamenco drop (BradNelson), Wednesday, 6 December 2017 15:55 (six years ago) link
kantaro the sweet tooth salaryman is my new number one. only watching one a night so that it lasts longer.
i'm also enjoying Marcella, a brit crime show that has Apollo from Battlestar in it in his native Britisher! i don't think i even knew he was British. it's nice to see him. it also has my fave actress from W1A in it. Marcella is by the Swedish guy who did The Bridge.
― scott seward, Wednesday, 6 December 2017 16:09 (six years ago) link
I tried w/ Marcella but couldn't get beyond the first couple
beyond Twin Peaks, Leftovers, and American Vandal, not a big TV year for me.
― Simon H., Wednesday, 6 December 2017 16:19 (six years ago) link
Twin Peaks, Nathan For You, Decker, Desus and Mero, Vice Principals, the final mini-season of Review. Still seeing Game of Thrones through to the end. That's it, I think, besides the NBA.
― Chris L, Wednesday, 6 December 2017 16:20 (six years ago) link
NFY and Review finales were great too of course. Also excited for the Errol Morris miniseries on MKULTRA.
― Simon H., Wednesday, 6 December 2017 16:20 (six years ago) link
It's funny how amidst all the talk of "Peak TV" I look at all these end-of-year lists and it's far more circumscribed than even music or film. I feel like every top 10 list has some combination of the same 20 shows. this thread is one of the very few places where I've found any real deviation.
― evol j, Wednesday, 6 December 2017 16:48 (six years ago) link
well, there's still a lot fewer TV shows than movies, and fewer issues of access as to who can see what when
― Simon H., Wednesday, 6 December 2017 16:50 (six years ago) link
i just cant find anything i want to watch! water water everywhere etc
― fuiud, mac (rip van wanko), Wednesday, 6 December 2017 16:50 (six years ago) link
(but that's just based on synopses I read, meaningless really. you've gotta give stuff a try i suppose)
― fuiud, mac (rip van wanko), Wednesday, 6 December 2017 16:51 (six years ago) link
if you have netflix, watch Kantaro.
― scott seward, Wednesday, 6 December 2017 17:00 (six years ago) link
also, if Godless is considered a t.v. show, that makes my top ten now. i will replace Chef & My Fridge with Godless. i would love more Godless. don't know if they are planning to do that though.
― scott seward, Wednesday, 6 December 2017 17:01 (six years ago) link
which reminds me that i need to watch season 2 of Frontier. i might be the only person here who likes that one. i'm just a jason momoa fur-trapping kinda guy.
― scott seward, Wednesday, 6 December 2017 17:03 (six years ago) link
Runaways isn't bad per se but when the fuck are these kids going to run away?
― Embalming is a flirty business (DJP), Wednesday, 6 December 2017 18:47 (six years ago) link
runaways is weird because it feels like something an 8 year old kid wrote and directed but its probably not the best show to watch if you are an 8 year old kid.
― scott seward, Wednesday, 6 December 2017 18:54 (six years ago) link
Parts of it are really, really good. They did capture some of what made the comic book work so well but then added so much fluff and padding onto it that all of my goodwill is starting to slip and I just want them to get on with the big showdown against their parents.
― Embalming is a flirty business (DJP), Wednesday, 6 December 2017 19:00 (six years ago) link
i managed three episodes and then bailed. focusing on the grown ups was such a bad idea. the awkward flirting between chase/gert, the schoolroom sequences with alex trying to get the group back together and the GANGSTA DIALOGUE at the construction site was all so painfully tin eared.
I'm late to Desus and Mero but it looks like that has a growing critical consensus here as well? When it works, it's great but they sometimes stray into bullshit that makes it difficult to not fast forward through. Monday had an extended MST3K-style narration of lions fucking that went on for what felt like five minutes.
― Chocolate-covered gummy bears? Not ruling those lil' guys out. (ulysses), Wednesday, 6 December 2017 19:18 (six years ago) link
DJP otm
― mh, Wednesday, 6 December 2017 19:20 (six years ago) link
Any top 10 list of shows of the year surely has to include Legion
― groovypanda, Wednesday, 6 December 2017 20:04 (six years ago) link
even this year I could safely make a top 30 without it
― Simon H., Wednesday, 6 December 2017 20:05 (six years ago) link
i think i may be over noah hawley tbh
― Chocolate-covered gummy bears? Not ruling those lil' guys out. (ulysses), Wednesday, 6 December 2017 20:13 (six years ago) link
yeah I didn't even bother w/ Fargo s3 despite the presence of Carrie Coon
― Simon H., Wednesday, 6 December 2017 20:15 (six years ago) link
she was great on it! but the "look at me i am a very talky inscrutably evil bad guy"/"look at me i am the silent heavy" schtick has finally turned into a formula.hawley's also something of a sadist about extended uncomfortable takes that are meant to inspire fight or flight and i don't need that right now.
― Chocolate-covered gummy bears? Not ruling those lil' guys out. (ulysses), Wednesday, 6 December 2017 20:25 (six years ago) link
Legion was great. Can't wait for season 2.
― DJI, Wednesday, 6 December 2017 20:25 (six years ago) link
re: extended uncomfortable takes, I think the ASL on this season of Mr. Robot has to be around two minutes.
― Simon H., Wednesday, 6 December 2017 20:27 (six years ago) link
Legion was RAD RAD RAD
― Squeaky Fromage (VegemiteGrrl), Wednesday, 6 December 2017 21:18 (six years ago) link
my top 10+ a few more for this yearLegionDirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency MindhunterMarvelous Mrs MaiselThe Good PlaceWestworldThe DeuceLeftoversRiverdaleGLOWGothamAmerican GodsBig Little Lies
― Squeaky Fromage (VegemiteGrrl), Wednesday, 6 December 2017 21:25 (six years ago) link
I need to check out American Gods
― Embalming is a flirty business (DJP), Wednesday, 6 December 2017 21:31 (six years ago) link