@mneeley490 posted:Season 3 did start getting goofy, but I've enjoyed other show that have had a bad season.
Well Games of Thrones is a case in point.
Mrs. America
Fantastic performances by all the leads, and every episode is fast paced and engaging. My biggest criticism: it tries to pack too much into the 9 episodes and consequently the nuance is often lost and most of the characters aren’t as fully realized as they could be, simply because they aren’t given enough screen time.
The new Perry Mason starring Matthew Rhys better be awesome.
Just finished Billions Season 3, really enjoying this show so far.
Started watching The Spy, an Israeli espionage drama based on a true story. Created by Gideon Raff who previously did Prisoners of War, the Israeli series that the first seasons of Homeland were based on. Starring Sacha Baron Cohen and Noah Emmerich.
Gave up after 3 episodes. It should have come in yellow packaging and been called "No Name Spy Series". It had every silly spy trope imaginable.
Sneaking out of a party to scale the outside wall of the building, and breaking into the host's 3rd floor office to take microfilm photos of documents, and nearly getting caught when someone gets suspicious and checks the office.
Nervously sweating it out at the Syrian border because the border guards are examining your suitcases and you don't want them to find the "spy gear" you've stashed inside the housing of an electric mixmaster*, so you come up with the idea of telling the guy in charge that you have porn magazines in your suitcase and it would be SO embarrassing if anyone saw them, and of course you both laugh at that and he stops the search and lets you go.
Ugh.
Noah Emmerich's bad Israeli accent also didn't help.
* Of course it's never explained why a supposedly successful Syrian businessman has an electric mixer in his suitcase.
@sunnylea57 posted:Started watching The Spy, an Israeli espionage drama based on a true story. Created by Gideon Raff who previously did Prisoners of War, the Israeli series that the first seasons of Homeland were based on. Starring Sacha Baron Cohen and Noah Emmerich.
Gave up after 3 episodes. It should have come in yellow packaging and been called "No Name Spy Series". It had every silly spy trope imaginable.
Sneaking out of a party to scale the outside wall of the building, and breaking into the host's 3rd floor office to take microfilm photos of documents, and nearly getting caught when someone gets suspicious and checks the office.
Nervously sweating it out at the Syrian border because the border guards are examining your suitcases and you don't want them to find the "spy gear" you've stashed inside the housing of an electric mixmaster*, so you come up with the idea of telling the guy in charge that you have porn magazines in your suitcase and it would be SO embarrassing if anyone saw them, and of course you both laugh at that and he stops the search and lets you go.
Ugh.
Noah Emmerich's bad Israeli accent also didn't help.
* Of course it's never explained why a supposedly successful Syrian businessman has an electric mixer in his suitcase.
@sunnylea57 posted:Started watching The Spy, an Israeli espionage drama based on a true story. Created by Gideon Raff who previously did Prisoners of War, the Israeli series that the first seasons of Homeland were based on. Starring Sacha Baron Cohen and Noah Emmerich.
Gave up after 3 episodes. It should have come in yellow packaging and been called "No Name Spy Series". It had every silly spy trope imaginable.
Sneaking out of a party to scale the outside wall of the building, and breaking into the host's 3rd floor office to take microfilm photos of documents, and nearly getting caught when someone gets suspicious and checks the office.
Nervously sweating it out at the Syrian border because the border guards are examining your suitcases and you don't want them to find the "spy gear" you've stashed inside the housing of an electric mixmaster*, so you come up with the idea of telling the guy in charge that you have porn magazines in your suitcase and it would be SO embarrassing if anyone saw them, and of course you both laugh at that and he stops the search and lets you go.
Ugh.
Noah Emmerich's bad Israeli accent also didn't help.
* Of course it's never explained why a supposedly successful Syrian businessman has an electric mixer in his suitcase.
Interesting. I too tried and couldn’t connect. This genre is right up my alley but didn’t work for some reason.
@sunnylea57 posted:Started watching The Spy...Gave up after 3 episodes. It should have come in yellow packaging and been called "No Name Spy Series". It had every silly spy trope imaginable.
I too gave up in the middle of the second or third episode.
New Dave Chappelle on Netflix. Also available on You Tube. Searing and timely. Worth a watch.
PH
@purplehaze posted:New Dave Chappelle on Netflix. Also available on You Tube. Searing and timely. Worth a watch.
PH
Yep. Watched it last night. Not really funny. But... wow.
@winetarelli posted:The new Perry Mason starring Matthew Rhys better be awesome.
I'm sure it'll be at least as good as the new Magnum, P.I.
@mneeley490 posted:I'm sure it'll be at least as good as the new Magnum, P.I.
Well... given the previews, cast, producers, etc, it doesn’t seem to be a contest, there.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=rNATvJMPZaA
"Quiz" -- 30pts. 3 part mini-series on the "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?" scandal in England in the 90s. It's simply horribly manipulative.
The show opens with a scene in a courtroom between the two sets of defendants they're at tells you the slant the show is going to take, then it settles down into the creation of the actual quiz show itself. I found a lot of this interesting and I always seem to like things that Michael Sheen is in. The show then spends about an hour setting up strawmen which it's going to knock down in the final third episode. Besides having to believe, because of situations we see, the view point of the major and his wife. They are practically the definition of unreliable narrators. In addition, you have a number of ridiculous characters on the "bad guys" side including an absolutely impossible to believe, clueless lawyer for Celador. It just stacks the deck so hard.
Hey, if it's fiction, makeup any tale you want, but don't give me a fantasy version of actual occurrences.
@The Old Man posted:"Quiz" -- 30pts. 3 part mini-series on the "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?" scandal in England in the 90s. It's simply horribly manipulative.
I didn't think it was as bad as you did, but it was certainly disappointing coming from Stephen Frears.
Bill Maher just went for 6 minutes 35 seconds without saying anything while his two guests talked. I believe that is a record.
"Perry Mason" -- ten minutes, click. Overproduced. Trying too hard.
Two episodes into Giri / Haji on Netflix. I like it so far.
PH
@purplehaze posted:Two episodes into Giri / Haji on Netflix. I like it so far.
PH
I had high hopes for this, but it just didn’t grab us. We moved onto other things after 3 episodes.
We really enjoyed the first season of Occupied (Okkupert). The second season isn’t quite as good, but still better than most series. We may have trouble finding S3, as it isn’t on Netflix here.
@sunnylea57 posted:I had high hopes for this, but it just didn’t grab us.
Now through E:4 and am losing interest. I'll give it a couple more episodes before I bail.
PH
Perry Mason- Best new TV show. Starts slow but very well made and after 2 episodes I was hooked. And episode 3 was the best yet.
Warrior Nun- One episode in. Silly. Escapism. Working.
Trying the Alienist again - only made it through a couple episodes the first time. Loved the books
@winetarelli posted:Perry Mason- Best new TV show. Starts slow but very well made and after 2 episodes I was hooked. And episode 3 was the best yet.
Warrior Nun- One episode in. Silly. Escapism. Working.
Update on Warrior Nun. Not particularly good. But binge-able escapism if you've exhausted other options.
@jcocktosten posted:Trying the Alienist again - only made it through a couple episodes the first time. Loved the books
Same here. Just finished season one for the second time last night and enjoyed it more this time around. Will give season two a try now when it kicks off in a couple weeks.
@winetarelli posted:Perry Mason- Best new TV show. Starts slow but very well made and after 2 episodes I was hooked. And episode 3 was the best yet.
Agreed-- it's really good. We thought first episode was already good, given that it's just setting the foundation for lots of anticipated plot twists to come. Haven't watched one since.
Being home a lot-- certainly more than any of the last 15 years-- and watching more TV than usual, we find ourselves in a bit of a quandary. We've gotten used to binge-watching any series that we've liked for the last couple of months. We think we may have lost the patience to wait for weekly episodes to air. We're debating whether to hold off on Perry Mason until the end of the season, or try to suffer through the breaks in continuity. First World Inter-Epidemic Problem.
And I hope that's as bad as it gets for any of us.
@seaquam posted:Being home a lot-- certainly more than any of the last 15 years-- and watching more TV than usual, we find ourselves in a bit of a quandary. We've gotten used to binge-watching any series that we've liked for the last couple of months. We think we may have lost the patience to wait for weekly episodes to air. We're debating whether to hold off on Perry Mason until the end of the season, or try to suffer through the breaks in continuity. First World Inter-Epidemic Problem.
And I hope that's as bad as it gets for any of us.
When faced with this problem I've always just waited and watched the next episode when it's aired. It breaks up the bingeing a little, and if I've forgotten any of the last episode I'll just watch the last 5 minutes or so and get back up to speed.
PH
@purplehaze posted:When faced with this problem I've always just waited and watched the next episode when it's aired. It breaks up the bingeing a little, and if I've forgotten any of the last episode I'll just watch the last 5 minutes or so and get back up to speed.
PH
Yes. And they normally do a re-cap. It’s funny. I’ve also gotten used to bingeing, but I’m finding this refreshing. There is something nice about having to wait a week to look forward to the next installment. Especially right now, the concept of ‘looking forward to something happening next week’ is nice.
@winetarelli posted:@purplehaze posted:When faced with this problem I've always just waited and watched the next episode when it's aired. It breaks up the bingeing a little, and if I've forgotten any of the last episode I'll just watch the last 5 minutes or so and get back up to speed.
PH
Yes. And they normally do a re-cap. It’s funny. I’ve also gotten used to bingeing, but I’m finding this refreshing. There is something nice about having to wait a week to look forward to the next installment. Especially right now, the concept of ‘looking forward to something happening next week’ is nice.
I think that’s cuz you guys are old and have learned patience.
I’m much younger. I’m pretty sure I’m part of the immediate gratification generation. We don’t wanna wait, mate!
Enjoying season 5 of Better Call Saul.
Mr. Robot - definitely not for everybody and has its slow moments but Rami Malek is very talented. If anyone is a computer geek (which I am not) all the coding and hacking is apparently legit.
Mandolorian
Perry Mason is firing on all cylinders, imo.
"ZeroZeroZero" If all cocaine transactions were this hard there never be any around.
Another one of streaming's favorite motifs is the world of drug dealing. This one is incredibly shot around the world with intense action and with unexpected talented acting.
@winetarelli posted:Perry Mason is firing on all cylinders, imo.
Have heard numerous people say this. I may need to jump in...
@wine+art posted:Have heard numerous people say this. I may need to jump in...
And one person replied with the opposite.
@wine+art posted:Have heard numerous people say this. I may need to jump in...
We stuck with it for 2 episodes. Just didn’t do it for us. We both thought it was a shallow pastiche of other, better noir, with not much depth of character or emotional weight, and also needlessly nihilistic.
@sunnylea57 posted:We stuck with it for 2 episodes. Just didn’t do it for us. We both thought it was a shallow pastiche of other, better noir, with not much depth of character or emotional weight, and also needlessly nihilistic.
“Needlessly!”
How can you say “needlessly?”
@sunnylea57 posted:We stuck with it for 2 episodes. Just didn’t do it for us. We both thought it was a shallow pastiche of other, better noir, with not much depth of character or emotional weight, and also needlessly nihilistic.
It just tries so hard to create a world of noir that it becomes almost a parody of the genre.
@seaquam posted:“Needlessly!”
How can you say “needlessly?”
I have nothing against nihilism, but in this case the word "needlessly" is correct. It's part of the show's piling on for effect.
I have found every episode to be better than its predecessor. FWIW.
But, to each his own. I'm aware that Janet Maslin is in my camp, if that convinces whether or not to try it.
While very different in many ways, it does have a stylized feel similar to Boardwalk Empire. (And the primary director was also a major director of that show.) But I don't find it distracting at all.
@winetarelli posted:While very different in many ways, it does have a stylized feel similar to Boardwalk Empire. (And the primary director was also a major director of that show.) But I don't find it distracting at all.
I couldn't get through more than three episodes of Boardwalk Empire for the same reason as this show--just trying too hard to create atmosphere.
"I'm aware that Janet Maslin is in my camp, if that convinces whether or not to try it"
Does nothing for me. I agree with this summary in Variety, "Too much of this show, a punishing eight installments, feels like yet another iteration of what we’ve seen already, elsewhere and often superior."