TV obsessions—come on, admit it!

Discussion of performing arts, including theatre, film, television, and music.
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Dave_LF
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Re: TV obsessions—come on, admit it!

Post by Dave_LF »

Any other Better Call Saul fans here?
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Re: TV obsessions—come on, admit it!

Post by Impenitent »

Has anyone seen Beforeigners?

Norwegian noir. People from different time periods suddenly start to pop up in the middle of the bay, and modern day Norway has to work out how to integrate these time refugees into the 21st century.

Also, to complicate things further, protagonists are mismatched pair senior detective Lars and new recruit Viking era sheildmaiden investigating some brutal murders (off-screen).

Excellent writing and acting, intriguing social commentary, all infused with delicious dry comedy. Subtitled.

Highly recommend. Only 2 seasons, alas.

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Re: TV obsessions—come on, admit it!

Post by Alatar »

Well Sandman is amazing. Drop everything and go watch it.


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Re: TV obsessions—come on, admit it!

Post by Snowdog »

Alatar wrote: Sun Aug 07, 2022 10:22 pm Well Sandman is amazing. Drop everything and go watch it.
My wife Kaz (Elora) made sure we were watching it. Finished the series today. Excellent TV!
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Re: TV obsessions—come on, admit it!

Post by Eldy »

I finally got around to watching the first episode of House of the Dragon. (Sadly, the DirecTV login that allowed me to watch the final season of GoT stopped working since I last used it to watch football, and I'm no longer on speaking terms with the relative it belongs to, but HBO Max offers the first episode as a free preview.) I really enjoyed it! I'm familiar with the source material, but I'm honestly not a big fan of Fire & Blood for reasons I've discussed previously and am too tired to rehash now. I didn't have strong expectations for HotD given how the second half of GoT went, but I did think there was a chance the adaptation could surpass its source material, and I'm pleased to assess the odds of that happening as better than ever after the first episode. There wasn't as much of Rhaenyra and Alicent's friendship as I expected from the amount of focus that got in most of the reviews and Discourse I read, but Matt Smith was an absolute delight. I wasn't really sold on him as Daemon Targaryen from the promo images, but seeing his performance in action, he is every bit the tremendous—and tremendously entertaining—asshole Daemon should be. I don't know when (or how) I'll get around to watching more, but I'm looking forward to doing so.

Hot take: HotD absolutely puts ROP to shame in the pacing department. The first episodes of each series are comparable in length, but so much more happens at the start of HotD. Yes, it has the benefit of its characters beginning in physical proximity, but it's not exactly a show with a small cast, or small ambitions. I don't know if the writers were able to keep this momentum going for the rest of the season, but at the outset, they make ROP look amateurish in this respect.
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Re: TV obsessions—come on, admit it!

Post by Eldy »

I watched the first three episodes of Andor (a coherent mini-arc in themselves) and I'm enjoying it so far, though if half the things I've heard about the show are true, I will like what's to come (even) better...

Hidden text.
...now that Cassian is in—or on his way to being part of—the Rebellion. I can't say Cassian Andor was a character I ever wanted to see a spin-off about, but I am a big fan of this grounded take on space fascism and space insurgency. It probably won't end up in the same tier as Lost Stars, my favorite part of Disney-era Star Wars in any medium, but it's off to an encouraging start.

It wasn't until nearly the end of Episode 3 that I realized why Cassian's mother looked so familiar: she's played by Fiona Shaw, who I know as Aunt Petunia from Harry Potter, though of course she's had a long and accomplished career outside of that. On the other hand, I haven't been able to unsee the cop's resemblance to Ben Shapiro since his first moment onscreen. :P
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Re: TV obsessions—come on, admit it!

Post by Frelga »

I heard really good things about Andor.

I need to finish watching Wandavision. It's a really original, well executed concept, in which the Wanda and Vision inhabit a reality based on the style of TV shows across the decades.
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Re: TV obsessions—come on, admit it!

Post by Eldy »

I haven't watched any of the MCU TV shows, but I've heard good things about Wandavision.

I'm seven episodes into Andor now—they're relatively short for a big-name drama series—and it's getting even better as it goes. The prissy corporo-fascist cop's Space Italian mother has the ring of truth about her (not just because she looks like my great-aunt), and is almost enough to make me feel sorry for him. :smilespin:

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Re: TV obsessions—come on, admit it!

Post by Inanna »

My mind keeps correcting Andor to Arnor and insisting it’s another Tolkien adjacent show
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Re: TV obsessions—come on, admit it!

Post by Eldy »

Clearly, Cassian's family are either secret Númenóreans or such big fans of Boolean logic that they made their surname AND/OR. :D
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Re: TV obsessions—come on, admit it!

Post by Inanna »

Aha - there you go!

And lol on the AND/OR. Oh god, those gates in college.
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Re: TV obsessions—come on, admit it!

Post by Frelga »

Eldy wrote: Fri Nov 11, 2022 8:49 pm Clearly, Cassian's family are either secret Númenóreans or such big fans of Boolean logic that they made their surname AND/OR. :D

Secret Númenóreans AND/OR big fans of Boolean logic. :D
If there was anything that depressed him more than his own cynicism, it was that quite often it still wasn't as cynical as real life.

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Re: TV obsessions—come on, admit it!

Post by Inanna »

'You just said "your getting shorter": you've obviously been drinking too much ent-draught and not enough Prim's.' - Jude
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Re: TV obsessions—come on, admit it!

Post by Eldy »

FWIW, Andor has Andy Serkis for a more direct Tolkien media connection, and he even gets to show his face! He gave one of the best supporting performances so far.
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Re: TV obsessions—come on, admit it!

Post by Frelga »

On that note.
Sam Reich, @samreich wrote: her: are you going to watch
your little conjuction show?
me: conjunction show?
her: if-but? yet-than?
me:
me: do you mean andor?
If there was anything that depressed him more than his own cynicism, it was that quite often it still wasn't as cynical as real life.

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Re: TV obsessions—come on, admit it!

Post by Eldy »

Watched the final two episodes of Conjunction Show tonight, and it cements my opinion that this is a great show in the making. My only cause for concern is that the original five season plan was reduced to two because the showrunner didn't want to spend a decade-plus working on it. Which, like, I can't blame the guy, but I dunno how that will work out in practice. We'll see in 2024, I guess!

I never actually did watch the rest of Hot D, but of the two major epic fantasy prequels of fall 2022 that I have finished, Andor easily schools ROP in my book. Which is not something I expected to say, given I don't think I'd ever heard of Andor until about three months ago. But I'm a sucker for gritty space insurgency and counterinsurgency intrigue, it seems. :P
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Re: TV obsessions—come on, admit it!

Post by Jude »

Anyone else watch "Behind Her Eyes" on Netflix?

I did not see that ending coming.
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Re: TV obsessions—come on, admit it!

Post by RoseMorninStar »

We don't get Netflix, but I read an excellent review and now I want to see it.
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Re: TV obsessions—come on, admit it!

Post by Dave_LF »

Jude wrote: Sun Apr 23, 2023 10:11 pm Anyone else watch "Behind Her Eyes" on Netflix?

I did not see that ending coming.
I did. I was starting to suspect as the end approached, but dismissed the thought as too wild to be correct.
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Re: TV obsessions—come on, admit it!

Post by Jude »

That's interesting. Exactly when did you start to suspect? (maybe put your answer in spoiler tags)

I've just reserved the book from my library.
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