Your Ten Favorite Shows Currently on Television

Olusoga is a must follow Twitter. Every day wingnuts and racists pile in on him, but he‘s unfailingly calm and simply smashes their arguments to pieces.

xp Yeah meant the Post, soz

The Times is probably LibDem

...eh?

Yeah my bad, shouldve let the q open for a britisher

The Times is hecka Tory but they’re barely a paper at all anymore as far ad I can tell

in a completely and highly unlikely turn of events, the new HBO Max Looney Tunes Cartoons are... really good! Or at least the first ep is. Diggin in now.
Those of you with comic knowledge will be surprised to hear that the story editor and lead writer is Johnny "Prison Planet" Ryan.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CBgYJ6yDM2U/

Okay, this is amaaaaaazing
“I been vacuuming th’ whiiiiiino...”
“Street gum! My favorite fruit!”

Anyone see the first episode of I’ll Be Gone in the Dark? I confess watched it just to hear Aimee Mann’s cover of Leonard Cohen’s “Avalanche” (which serves as the theme song), which I couldn’t find anywhere to hear online, and ended up getting into it. I like that it is nearly as much about Michelle McNamara’s relationship to a) her subject matter, and b) Patton Oswalt as it is about the actual case, and I’m really hoping it retains this balance as the series goes on. I also know very little about this case (as it seems was the case with most people before her book got out there), so I have the added bonus of not completely knowing where the “plot” is going.

I havent watched yet - I plan to though.

My thing is that I wasn’t a huge fan of the book. The selling point that so much of it is about her as well as the case turned out to be not really my thing, even though I knew what I was getting when I went in. It’s weird. I was a fan of her blog when she was writing it, she is a great writer .... but once GSK was caught, and I was reading her book, her obsession narrative felt almost ~too~ self-involved. idk. I feel that with so many of the survivors still out in the world & so much attention on the case now, it turns out that I would much rather hear their stories than hers.

Also it always bugged me that she renamed him. Dunno why.

fun conversation with Harvey Guillén, Guillermo on WWDitShadows and the casting crew
https://www.vulture.com/article/guillermo-what-we-do-in-the-shadows-harvey-guillen.html

guillermo buillermo

and here's what's on a month later:

I May Destroy You (HBO) - two eps in and it is excellent. partner is really triggered by it tho'; may have to watch on my own.
Looney Tunes Cartoons (HBO)
Desus and Mero (Showtime)
Close Enough (HBO)
House Through Time (BBC 2)
Film Review (BBC)
Rosehaven (ABC aussie)
Patriot Act (Netflix)

on deck: Salisbury Poisonings, P-Valley, Endeavor, Portrait Artist of the Year

I May Destroy You is v v good

I'm really enjoying I'll Be Gone in the Dark, but it's often really, really rough going - especially the photos of original crime scenes and survivor interviews. I'm actually glad to be watching these week by week, I fear a binge watch would depress me completely. It's weird to read the scathing reviews I see on places like IMDB, I guess a lot of folks expected it to be a straight EAR/ONS doc? Given the source material, I think it's done really well.

I don't mind that Michelle "renamed" him, to be honest. EAR/ONS is super clunky and I think GSK has two advantages - 1) it underscores the fact that the guy evolved to a full blown serial killer and, 2) eliminates the implication of EAR and ONS being two distinct entities.

I'm still liking it as well. A chunk of this latest episode was devoted to Michelle's escalating anxiety as she scrambles to finish the book, which mirrors my current reality a little too closely for comfort. That said, in addition to everything else it is, this show is as perceptive about the writing process as any fiction or documentary I've ever seen.

the third and final season of Corporate (best comedy on TV) is out next week

oh shit!!!! like, all at once?

seems a waste they didn't get to do a COVID season

i've been binging through several series just lately.

Search Party - s3 is by far the dumbest but this is fine, if stupid, low stakes television
The Salisbury Poisonings - Chernobyl-lite
Escape at Dannemora - one of the best filmed and written and acted series I've seen in years; unabashedly stanning this
Corporate - binged the first two seasons and it holds up well; first episode of season three is high-quality
Watchmen - Gave up after four episodes: Damon Lindelof's Watchmen
TJ and Dave: The Series - Fucking awesome and highly recommended even if you hate improv - https://vimeo.com/ondemand/tjanddave/164310287

I May Destroy You is vital television but i'm limiting myself to only two episodes a night

Mrs America is really good so far but I’m too lazy to start a thread. The cast is fantastic and Blanchett is genuinely chilling as Schlafly and her singlemindedness. I wouldn’t say it was a sympathetic portrayal of Schlafly, per se, but the show is very honest about the qualities and flaws of these historic people. Oh and Steinem otm in her conversation with Friedan at the end of the 4th episode. On a purely shallow note, the costumes are gorgeous.

Dannemora is really good, and almost exactly the right length. still shocked that Stiller directed it.

Arquette, Dano, del Toro and the husband (don't have his name handy) all great in it.

Anybody watching Lovecraft Country? The trailers look exciting, but I haven't had anyone recommend it to me.

It doesn't premiere for two more weeks. I liked the book a lot but am wary of the show.

I've been watching season 1 of Hannibal and enjoying it - kinda - but I think I might be done. I'm nine episodes deep now and having read summaries on Wikipedia, I'm definitely not watching seasons 2 or 3.

hannibal s2 is like....one of the best things ever

agreed completely

oh youve got to finish hannibal

yeah i can't think of a show that would be served worse by wiki plot summaries than hannibal.

Hannibal is top ten all time, full stop.

Search Party - s3 is by far the dumbest but this is fine, if stupid, low stakes television

aw man, worse even than s2? I was really disappointed by s2 (s1 was so good!) but was debating giving s3 a shot anyway...

i loved s2 though it was very different. a much darker show than s1.

yeah, search party has unfortunately chosen to chuck all the larger and more interesting existential themes from s1 out the window. I think it's still worth watching for casting (cole escola!) and just for shits and giggles but keep your expectations low.

Everyone is Dannemora is impossibly good but Patricia Arquette as Tilly and Eric Lange as Lyle were painfully effective. The weight and the jaw prosthetics!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kjoKJllxneE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hvrVGiA0ePc

don't

tell

AAAANNNYYYYYBOOODYYYYYY

Sweet, didn't know there was a TJ & Dave improv series. Thanks for the heads up, forks, and I second your recommendation. They do improv for people who think they hate improv.

@ulysses THAT was Lyle?! holy shit. he was also great in a tricky role as the sympathetically inept detective on Unbelievable

the 'stache and makeup and the extra pounds do a lot of the heavy lifting, but still, goddamn.

Can I start Hannibal at S02E01?

I'd watch the s1 finale first maybe but I am notorious about not being a purist when it comes to skipping seasons. hannibal s1 is mostly very good tho tbh

need to start from the beginning imo. I loved Hannibal S1 & S2. S3 was even more stylized and it had a narcotic quality that was hard to get into at first.

but I ended up liking it, and the ending was...

the abstract extremes of the first half of s3 are my favorite parts of the whole show

season one gets referred back to pretty often, you should watch it

Sweet, didn't know there was a TJ & Dave improv series. Thanks for the heads up, forks, and I second your recommendation. They do improv for people who think they hate improv.

― Why does this relates to Yoda? (Old Lunch), Monday, July 27, 2020 6:57 PM bookmarkflaglink

had no fucking idea this was the Sonic commercial dudes

season three is as i’ve said on the hannibal thread is as beautiful and immersive an aesthetic experience as they come, each episode like prism built out of dreams and memories. i don’t see much of a decline in quality from the first half to the second but i know ppl are less thrilled with the red dragon stuff

well i think i know what show i'll start on next

I didn't see a decline in S3 but overall it was so extremely morose, it was hard to take at first. I really loved the ending, hope there is some future for the series

I gave Corporate a shot, seems somewhat like Silicon Valley meets Office Space. (Also a script that seems kind of like it was written by Reddit dudes.)

In that vein I've been watching Silicon Valley again, it's mostly solid but some hasn't aged too well. TJ Miller sporting his "I know HTML (How To Meet Ladies)" t-shirt, a fair bit of sexist humor, the stereotypical woman of color prostitute...

Simon: Lol, i loooooooved that episode end. My partner and i have taken to calling each other "Lyle" when we catch each other in particular dumb moves.

OL: the TJ & Dave series is eight 50 minute improv sessions; they're basically all great. If you knock those out, there's a documentary called "Trust Us, This Is All Made Up" that offers another hour plus some process notes with the two of them by interview. I saw them live at Town Hall some years back and it was not the greatest set. It's a game of chance!

Neanderthal: One of the weird things about the modern world is that the "sonic guys" are both comic geniuses.

Rip: Hannibal is a fine wine to be savored; I wouldn't leave out anything tbh.

Viborg: Corporate occasionally wallows in its own jaded dipshittery but it's always self aware and doesn't really punch down. I like it a lot and respect its unwillingness to try to be likeable.

yes I appreciate how deliberately not appealing or charming the main Corporate guys are

and I just watched the s3 premiere of Corporate and it was delightful. amazed that despite being years late they were still, AFAIK, the first to use the nightmarish youtube algorithmic "children's videos" as fodder for dark laughs