Random TV Show Thoughts

[Doctor Cringelord]

^ I appreciate your comments about the show, as it helps teach me and learn. Also, if it matters, I am connecting what you're saying with how I felt about trans representation in films and TV in prior years (although it was been improving). So much of the focus was typically on how we put our cisgen families and acquaintances through the ringer by changing our own lives (anything from HBO's "Normal" to "The Danish Girl") -- it has only begun changing in the last few years OR it was totally making the trans character heroic in some way, glorifying them and not letting them simply be human.

I don't know if autism representation will keep developing, but I hope it's more of an unavoidable process as it was with trans narratives -- you kind of have to have society go through these clumsy and society-centric tales to start with, to eventually deepen and get to the more nuanced and helpful stuff because at least it shows people are taking baby steps and trying to understand, even if their understanding is pretty lousy at first. As empathy and knowledge deepen, perhaps the stories will deepen as well. Mainsteam society just can't get from 0 to 60mph very fast, it's a slow crawl much of the time, with a lot of false turns due to its inexperience with the matters in question.

I agree with the medium differences too. I think TV has more opportunity for nuance, film "feels bigger" but actually is a "shorter narrative form" than TV and forces early closure

that did occur to me, that part of this is just a very clumsy, long process to widespread awareness and/or acceptance. I do notice that every new series or film I see portraying autism (usually) does a slightly better job of portraying it than prior portrayals. I was kind of hard on it, but it did excel in some way that prior shows had not. I do appreciate that fictional representations are beginning to move away from the classic idiot savant rainman archetype. not every autistic is a brilliant genius who just happens to be socially awkward.

 

[Doctor Cringelord]

Lately my TV guilty pleasures have been Beyond Belief: Fact Or Fiction and Rules Of Engagement

 

[ceecee]

I've started watching Pam and Tommy. I never followed a lot of celebrity news so I had never been aware of the details behind their initial marriage and that tape. I did see bits and pieces of said sex tape during college and my ultimate reaction was a shrug. The footage is poorly shot and beneath amateur porn cinematography levels. It's a clumsy, awkward video, and the only reason it holds any interest is for its "performers"

Regarding the actual show, Rogan is especially schlubby here (odd considering the real life dude he is portraying was a tall, fairly strapping dude who had performed in multiple porn films), but it does serve the narrative and his character's arc of the little loser exacting revenge against the celebrity who mistreated him. It is shitty Anderson had to suffer though, since she got the brunt of shit while Tommy was celebrated.

Just a really solid cast of very colorful characters that could only be drawn from real life. Offerman is really convincing as a skeevy old adult film producer and director, and it's the first time I've really seen him play something more than a variation on his Parks and Rec character. I think he could be one of the great character actors of his generation. Sebastian Stan and Lily James are both excellent as Tommy and Pam, hamming it up and dominating any scene in which either or both appear. James especially nails the mannerisms, voice, and look of Anderson.

And it overall does a pretty good job (so far) of capturing the mood and feel of the mid 90s. It also showcases that phase when the internet was gaining popularity, yet was still new, unexplored, and heavily unregulated territory. The mid to late 90s really was a weird time to live

I'm mostly interested in watching this for Rogen but I agree with you about Nick Offerman.

I've seen the first two episodes of Winning Time on HBO. I agree 100% with Adam McKay casting John C. Riley vs Will Farrell (or anyone else for that matter) as Jerry Buss. I'm a pretty casual basketball fall but I think this is very good and entertaining so far.

 

[Totenkindly]

Forgive me for only ever seeing a few episodes of early Parks & Rec, but Offerman was really great as a visionary entrepreneur in Alex Garland's "DEVS" on Hulu, he was a positive but flawed character who was strangely emotional and yet phlegmatic all at once.

 

[Doctor Cringelord]

Vice Principals is a good show if you just want to watch a couple of ExTJs bumblefucking about from one mishap to the next. McBride is the ESTJ and Goggins is the ENTJ. I had so many principals that looked and spoke exactly like the McBride character growing up, minus a lot of the profanity

 

[Totenkindly]

Finished Umbrella Academy Season 2. Despite my complaints, the show is remarkably consistent and unapologetic in both its strengths and flaws:
- Quirky/Amusing (Pro)
- Unearned/Weak drama points (Con)
- Characters don't do the obvious things and/or have odd reactions, just to complicate the plot purposefully (Con)
- Glossy cinematography (Pro/Con)
- Show positions itself as cooler / more creative than its choices actually are [including musical selections] (Pro/Con)
- More or less solid B cast, with a few standouts (Page, Gallagher, Sheehan, Walsh) who unfortunately need better material to really shine

This all leads to a show that can be kind of enjoyable despite itself, especially when it focus more on the quirky aspects of the story and characters rather than trying to hit dramatic beats it doesn't earn and/or sometimes doesn't even seem to understand. (Best comparison I have is kids acting out grown-up storylines with their dolls -- they emulate these overt behaviors they've seen in adults but often miss the logical or emotional underpinnings that would justify it.) I wish more of the show was tonally like Hazel & Cha-Cha (S1) or The Handler (S2), who is tonally spot on.

Well, the news finally hit -- I think they're releasing Season 3 in June 2022, but basically Vanya will be trans and come out as Viktor Hargreaves, handling the transition of Elliot Page. Not exactly sure how it plays out on screen, however the show is crazy enough it can be handled in a number of ways that would fit in terms of plotting... esp with the subplot of Season 2 related to Vanya's romantic inclinations.

 

[Totenkindly]

Moon Knight episode 2 was again pretty good. It was helped that it was directed by Aaron Moorhead & Justin Benson, who have put together a number of "indie horror" films that tend to be psychological and slightly sci-fi in nature. (i.e., they're into story, ideas, philosophical concepts, and tone.) They released Synchronic in 2019 (w. Anthony Mackie and Jamie Dornan), which got them more attention from mainstream since it showed up on streaming and RedBox.

Oscar Isaac is great at multiple rows, the action and peril seems more adult-oriented than kid-oriented, and it's just been a lot more interesting than most of the Marvel series that seem like light fluff like a regular TV network superhero show (most of which I see as B-rate).

 

[Doctor Cringelord]

did anyone watch The Thing About Pam yet? my wife is making me watch it but it's pretty entertaining.

 

[ceecee]

Vice Principals is a good show if you just want to watch a couple of ExTJs bumblefucking about from one mishap to the next. McBride is the ESTJ and Goggins is the ENTJ. I had so many principals that looked and spoke exactly like the McBride character growing up, minus a lot of the profanity

I loved it but my favorite scenes were with Goggins and Susan Park. They were so cringy, so uncomfortable and that house....

 

[Doctor Cringelord]

I loved it but my favorite scenes were with Goggins and Susan Park. They were so cringy, so uncomfortable and that house....

he plays sleazebags so well

 

[Totenkindly]

Moon Knight episode 2 was again pretty good. It was helped that it was directed by Aaron Moorhead & Justin Benson, who have put together a number of "indie horror" films that tend to be psychological and slightly sci-fi in nature. (i.e., they're into story, ideas, philosophical concepts, and tone.) They released Synchronic in 2019 (w. Anthony Mackie and Jamie Dornan), which got them more attention from mainstream since it showed up on streaming and RedBox.

Oscar Isaac is great at multiple rows, the action and peril seems more adult-oriented than kid-oriented, and it's just been a lot more interesting than most of the Marvel series that seem like light fluff like a regular TV network superhero show (most of which I see as B-rate).

Episode 5 of Moon Knight dropped this week -- the next to last episode. It serves a similar purpose to the WandaVision penultimate episode in that it's cathartic and fills in blank spaces in backstory so we understand what's been going on with the lead character.

Overall MK has been a step up in the MCU Disney+ shows because it hasn't really been cookie-cutter or followed expectations. It's also centered around multiple great performances by Oscar Isaac.

I have to say that the performances have been better than most of the Phase 4 Marvel show concepts; the Phase 4 plotting has mostly been a disappointment, and it's unclear why their quality is ho-hum aside from maybe trying out new directors and showrunners on these series. It's not really any better than the Netflix series, which had two of four series that were worth watching (Jessica Jones and Daredevil) and they still had their rough patches, whereas Iron Fist was not really great at all and Luke Cage was forgettable and I never finished it. (I also did not watch Punisher, although I've heard some favorable comments about it.)

• WandaVision: interesting concept, great acting, some real cathartic moments tying into emotional MCU history, inventive, finale was a little rote in spots
• Moon Knight: Great acting, actually darker / more severe than the rest that are mostly bland/toothless, some psychologically interesting storylines and emotional impact, but again kind of diffuses itself / doesn't entirely feel relevant.
• Loki: Decent acting by the two Loki's and by Kang, semi-interesting plot, but still not executed at A level + waste of a few good cast members (like Mbatha-Raw)
• Hawkeye: Deaf representation, decent acting by leads, but again dragged out, muddled plotting, just didn't amount to much by end -- a lot of the storylines dangled or led nowhere, and the series was either two episodes too long or would have benefited from 30 minute episodes.
• What If: I really just didn't enjoy much of this, it didn't really explore real "what if" questions, it was more just an excuse to tell one-off stories ("WHAT IF MCU BECAME ZOMBIES HA HA"). Maybe 2-3 episodes were worth the time, and a few were just bad.
• Falcon & Winter Soldier: Potentially great high concept and tried to deal with something important (race) but really muddled/confusing/flat execution, waste of well-known comic arcs and villains, contradictory character development, just a major disappointment to me, action sequences were mostly nothing to talk about either. please, no more. it even retcons the end of Endgame, with the feel-great moment of Sam getting the shield... suddenly he's turned it into the government instead and it feels like they wanted to walk things back to tell a made-up story. (Like all they had to do was instead make it so the gov WANTED it back and more that Sam didn't want to fight them on it, etc. Like, so much of this show could have been sensible with a ton of plotting tweaks or better execution.)

Looking at what is left for the Phase 4 TV, I'm only really interested in Guardians Christmas special and She-Hulk. Maybe the rest will surprise me, but with the pattern so far... probably not.

Frankly, after having watched all these, there's very few characters I care about. It all feels like typical network TV superhero shows, which tend to be dramatically "B" quality. A lot of these shows also are far too long for the content they contain. Doing six 50 minute episodes isn't really justified after the fact, when it feels like half the material is filler and/or just confused or deadens the dramatic arcs or adds unnecessary plot redundancies or complications.

 

[Doctor Cringelord]

I want a show about how Samuel Clemens “became” Mark Twain, but with lots of creative liberties. Sam starts out a poor, beaten down English teacher at a high school, despite being a brilliant writer. His wife Skylar doesn’t even give him birthday nookie. After being diagnosed with imminent death syndrome and deciding he has nothing to lose, he embarks on the path to building a publishing empire. He cooks breakfast for Sam Jr. He invents modern satire, wit, and puts a hit out on the cartel responsible for his brother in law and DEA hotshot Abe Lincoln’s death and he kills the night king too. As his Star rises, he must work for fur trading magnate and publisher Nathaniel Fring, eventually facing off for control of all publishing east of the Mississippi

years after the finale ends, fans will still be debating ad infinitum the moment Sam became Twain

 

[Doctor Cringelord]

Oh and I just started Better Call Saul. Chuck is a twat, Howard is a douche. Only a whitebread dorkwad like that would nickname someone Charlie Hustle. It sounds like the kind of nickname people found clever in the 1940s. Mike is awesome.

 

[Doctor Cringelord]

the fake british accent Jimmy uses to answer business calls is the same voice Odenkirk used on Mr Show for the crazy infomercial man and Terry Twillstein. It's funny because I can't help thinking about the Ronnie Dobbs sketches every time I hear Jimmy answer his cell phone.

 

[Totenkindly]

the fake british accent Jimmy uses to answer business calls is the same voice Odenkirk used on Mr Show for the crazy infomercial man and Terry Twillstein. It's funny because I can't help thinking about the Ronnie Dobbs sketches every time I hear Jimmy answer his cell phone.

begosh and begorrrah, his Irish accent is sooooooooooooo awful.

Oh and I just started Better Call Saul. Chuck is a twat, Howard is a douche. Only a whitebread dorkwad like that would nickname someone Charlie Hustle. It sounds like the kind of nickname people found clever in the 1940s. Mike is awesome.

Give some of the characters a season, they get more nuanced. Not saying you're wrong, just saying it's less obvious.

 

[Julius_Van_Der_Beak]

the fake british accent Jimmy uses to answer business calls is the same voice Odenkirk used on Mr Show for the crazy infomercial man and Terry Twillstein. It's funny because I can't help thinking about the Ronnie Dobbs sketches every time I hear Jimmy answer his cell phone.

Dobbs was the best drunk. I am glad I never stopped believing in him. He got out there and did what he was born to do, and in so doing, inspired all of us.

 

[Totenkindly]

The actual thread for the show is here, it doesn't need to all go into Random TV:

Better Call Saul (spoilers)

Just opening this thread and noting that this series releases this Sunday, February 8th, on AMC. Looks like they're also doing the "back to back" thing too of releasing the next episode for 24 hours following the current one, before it airs the next week. My FIOS DVR picked up episode #2 airing...

www.typologycentral.com

Just don't read the earlier stuff. I think the most recent stuff is hidden by the spoiler button though.

 

[Doctor Cringelord]

The actual thread for the show is here, it doesn't need to all go into Random TV:

Better Call Saul (spoilers)

Just opening this thread and noting that this series releases this Sunday, February 8th, on AMC. Looks like they're also doing the "back to back" thing too of releasing the next episode for 24 hours following the current one, before it airs the next week. My FIOS DVR picked up episode #2 airing...

www.typologycentral.com

Just don't read the earlier stuff. I think the most recent stuff is hidden by the spoiler button though.

i can't take any chances. I have already accidentally stumbled upon a few spoilers (not via that thread), but I am being extra careful. I will just wait to talk about it until I finally finish the show and everyone else has already moved on and are no longer interested in talking about it

 

[Totenkindly]

i can't take any chances. I have already accidentally stumbled upon a few spoilers (not via that thread), but I am being extra careful. I will just wait to talk about it until I finally finish the show and everyone else has already moved on and are no longer interested in talking about it

I am going to watch s6e4 tonight. Only 9 more to go after that!

 

[Doctor Cringelord]

i don’t care if BCS makes me hate Walt. Walt was based and went out like a boss. Ride or die.