Finally getting around to Season 4 of Umbrella Academy and it's really good. I've enjoyed them all, but this one imo takes it up a notch. It has a bigger cast, yet still really manages to drill into and develop the characters even more. Lots of new intrigue and mysteries, the new Sparrow Academy is an interesting bunch to pit against the Umbrella's, more crazy time hijinks and apolalyptic scenarios. It's one of the best comic book shows out there. It manages the difficult task of being both goofy yet genuine at the same time. Not nearly as devastatingly dark and gory as The Boys, but with a gravitas you don't really get out of the Marvel family either. Hits a good mark.
My wife still watched Umbrella, and I catch parts here and there, but its just not for me whatsoever. I dropped out halfway through season one. I'm a Marvel guy, and fit better in my lane.
It's definitely different! i like Marvel quite a bit too, though some of the shows are hit and miss. Umbrella is a fun and different alternative. You definitely have to change expectations though. It has some gore and crazy violence at times, and can get pretty weird. I like the mystery aspect of them unravelling why the big event they are trying to stop is going to happen and then trying to change it. Convoluted as hell, but fun. The acting is also quite stellar.
I am also a Marvel guy, and I am a huge fan of Umbrella Academy. I really like the dysfunctional family dynamics of the show.
Yeah, all of the dark stuff is just not my cup of tea. And from what I watched a lot of the dialogue is just so bleak, sardonic, and confrontational. Like Tim Burton + Wes Anderson.
I finished watching the entire season of Andor, and its extremely well made. The acting, direction and production are all top notch, and it tells a very large story in an extremely detailed way. The 12-episode season is basically made up of four 3-episode arcs, each with more than two hours of screen time. So in a way its kind of like a four feature film set that tells one broad story. The show is very heavy, which is not typically my thing. It rarely has any levity at all, and it a serious drudge though hard situations. There are many various character arcs, some of which eventually collide, and others that do not or are left open. They are already working on a 12-episode season two that will lead directly into the events of Rogue One. The show isn't without its faults, as it continues the recent Star Wars problem of either assuming that every planet only has one small town where all of the population lives and/or that the Empire, 15 years after its creation, has an all encompassing control over every single small settlement on the billions of habitable planets in the galaxy, which I simply find hard to stomach. I keep thinking to myself why doesn't this character just go somewhere else, and its always left open, likely because its just easier to write that way. But I think that if they took the time to try and close loop holes and write a few lines of dialog here or there, it would help satisfy a lot of that. As it is, it keeps bugging me.
I finally got around to watching Dark on Netflix, a German show that has had rave reviews so has been on my watchlist for a while. It's very good, probably one of the best shows I've seen that deals with a time travel storyline. But...it''s also the most confusing show I've ever watched! You have to be 100% concentrating to even have a chance to try and follow it, and even then I still struggled to keep pace with what was going on. It has to be binged too, can't leave it for a few weeks and go back to watch the rest or you've no hope of being able to pick up the threads again. It has a satisfying ending though which, more or less, explains what was going on. Without that, I'd say don't bother, as you have to commit time to watching it and it would've been extremely frustrating. I'd read beforehand that the ending was landed and that was one of the reasons I stuck with it, even though my braincells were getting strained most of the way through!
I loved the 'Wool' series of books by Hugh Howey that came out a few years ago, and Apple TV has now made a TV show of them renamed Silo, which will be streaming from 5th May. Decent cast with Tim Robbins, Rebecca Ferguson and Iain Glen in it. Hopefully should be good and gets the full treatment of all the books over a few seasons.
Bluey Ok a 7 minute kid’s cartoon on D+ doesn’t seem to fit this thread’s normal fare, but this is a great TV show, not a great kid’s show but a great show. There are lots of reasons why people like the show and some of the most often mentioned are a positive father figure, genuine humor for adults and children, variation in storytelling, artistic style, the music and willingness to deal with heavy subject matter in tactful way. I will add some of my own reasons. 1) It’s Authentic with a capital A. The children act and talk like children. This is the first episode I watched, just choosing a random episode from the list. I have distinct memories of using very similar logic when I was playing games as a little kid. The architecture. I grew up in the city in which Bluey is set. All of the houses shown are genuine examples of houses of different eras in the city. The shops, libraries and schools are likewise genuine representations of actual buildings. The art style is somewhat stylized but the houses are based on genuine buildings. The only thing that’s a bit inauthentic is the geography in that things that in reality are far apart are treated as being close to Bluey’s home. The wildlife. You see all the birds, animals and bugs shown. Even more importantly you hear the sounds of the birds and animals even when they’re not shown and they are true to real life. The stories feel like real things that happened to real people. Anyone who has taken young kids to the movies will recognize this Often the stories are embellished and taken further than what started it, but you feel there is a genuine thing that happened behind the story. 2) It treats the military as a normal part of life. One of the grandads is an ex-soldier. One of the kids at school is an army brat. There are pictures on the wall of the house showing the grandad in his uniform and older black and white photos which I recognize as unit photos from WW1. It’s all treated as a normal part of life. So many shows treat the military as either heroic angelic beings or trained killers in our midst, so it is really refreshing to have the military treated as normal and unremarkable. In the episode ‘Army’ which gets a lot of praise for the way it depicts ADHD, I am reminded of my best friend when I was a young kid who was an army brat, and Rusty is a dead ringer for my friend. 3) There is no agenda. The focus of the show is kid’s play and how that is important for kids. There is no attempt to moralize or sermonize on deeper social issues. It’s so good to have a show you can watch and enjoy without being preached at.
I've read and seen good things about it. My kids are old enough that they don't want to watch "kids" programs any longer, so we missed out on it in our house, but I still follow a lot of parents accounts on social media, so I see people posting about it.
Turn it on for yourself then, it’s genuinely entertaining TV. There are a couple of episodes that carry a real emotional gut punch for parents, but I think you have to watch a number of normal episodes to get a handle on the characters for the emotional episodes to have impact.
Binged Netflix's new series Night Agent. Netflix can be hit or miss, but this was a definite hit for me. Kind of a political spy/crime/caper type thriller. The action wasn't too overwrought or complicated, the situations seemed decently plausible and thought through vs. just having the hero blast his way through everything. Less focus on action/shooting as opposed to the intrigue and gamesmanship. Overall, it was just a fairly fun watch.
Yeah, I enjoyed it a lot. Surprisingly, we seem to be in the minority, though. I watched it in a weekend. Now I'm watching Rabbit Hole, which I think is fantastic. I'm waiting for a couple of more episodes of From to drop before I binge it.
I enjoyed Rabbit Hole too. It did sometimes go down the route of "lets throw another twist in, we've not had one for a while", but overall it was a fun watch. I've just finished watching the second season of Slow Horses on Apple TV+, although it's been out for a while. Can thoroughly recommend it if you like British spy shows. Gary Oldman, who I think is a great actor, is superb in this one too. There's a third season on it's way, and a fourth season also greenlit, so plenty of episodes to watch or look forward too.
I started watching The Diplomat on Netflix, and it's a lot better than I thought a show about the US Ambassador in London would be. Keri Russell is no Woody Johnson thankfully. It's a little far-fetched, but then it has to be to be entertaining. I'm sure a show that just showed the actual day-to-day duties of an ambassador wouldn't really hold the attention. Rufus Sewell is very good too as Russell's character's husband, an ex-ambassador himself and more than just a little bit of a pain in the neck to Russell in her new role in London. Well worth watching, and renewed for a second season already.
I watched the first couple of episodes of Citadel on Prime recently, and got vibes of Mission Impossible, even if not in the same class. I did think it might be a fun watch though. However, I watched the 3rd episode this past week and I'm now ready to give up on it! Amazon have clearly chucked a tonne of money at it, but the storyline is ridiculous and the action scenes are so over the top they've moved past entertaining in a fun way to just being laughable. Richard Madden's American accent is all over the place (his Scottish accent creeps in all the time), and I wonder what an actor of the calibre of Stanley Tucci is doing agreeing to appear in such tosh. I don't give up easily on shows, and can be entertained even if the show isn't going to win any awards but, even if I'll probably give this another episode or two just to see if it improves, I don't hold out much hope.
I really enjoyed the first season of Poker Face, starring Natasha Lyonne. It's very much in the vein of a homage to 70's/80's shows, Colombo in particular, but it's a great, fun show in it's own right with a whole host of familiar names (Nick Nolte, Adrian Brody, Ron Perlman and many others) appearing in guest roles each week. Lyonne is becoming one of my favourite actresses, as she was good in Russian Doll as well. Not your average looking or standard cookie-cutter Hollywood actress, and it's good to see someone who's a little different making a name for themselves.
Pui Pui Molcar. 2 minutes of Japanese surrealism available on Amazon Prime. Better experienced than described. season 1 is much better than season 2 where they try to have everything part of an overarching plot. The basic premise is Guinea Pigs have evolved into cars - then it gets weird..
I just restarted my Apple+ subscription so I can watch Silo as I loved the books (Silo trilogy of Wool, Shift and Dust by Hugh Howey) when I read them a decade or so ago. It's a post-apocalyptic show set in an underground silo of 144 levels, where 10,000 people live but know nothing of their, or the world's, history past the last 140 years, and can't go outside as they can see a wasteland through screens which is deadly to go out into. I'm giving nothing away to say that people start to doubt what they're told about their history and what outside is really like. Part sci-fi, part mystery, part police procedural, it's been made really well with a great cast and is worth watching. I don't remember exactly how it all ends from the books, although I do know some of the twists in the story and I'm looking forward to watching more of it. It's been renewed for a 2nd season and is getting great reviews, so sounds promising that they'll keep going long enough to be able to bring all 3 books to the screen.
They're one of the easier ones to get free trials for. Best Buy has 3 months right now. https://www.bestbuy.com/site/apple-...ning-subscribers-only/6484512.p?skuId=6484512
Sad that Amazons Jack Ryan is in its final season. I haven’t read all the books, but the ones I have it’s followed reasonably close…
The Bear on Disney+ (well, it is over here, think it's on FX or something in the US?). Really enjoyed it and binged both seasons in just over a week. A famous Michelin star chef, with issues of course, is left his brother's sandwich shop in Chicago after he committed suicide. Some tremendous performances by the cast, with several being nominated for Emmy's. I wasn't sure if they'd be able to keep the quality up for the second season or would run out of steam but, if anything, the second season is even better than the first.
I was sad to see it end too, the last season was just as good as the previous ones so there could've still been life in it. I read that there's plans for a spinoff featuring Chavez from the last season, but not sure if that'll reach the same level as the original.
I have a lot of catching up to do. I'm about to queue up Foundation, From, Ahsoka, and Invasion. I still have to finish up a bunch of other shows and now it's football season. You'd think I would learn by now to budget my time better.
I just finished the live-action One Piece and I was very impressed. It is its own thing while still being faithful to the original anime/manga. The acting is great, the chemistry of the characters is really good, and the set/costume design is excellent. Is it perfect? No. However, it was a very entertaining show with some really good parts in it. I would give it a 7.5 out of 10. Which is a great score considering what it has to live up to in my head.
That's good to hear that someone got it right. I know there are a lot of shows like that which end up really disappointing people who love the source material. Its one anime series that I have almost zero exposure to.
I watched Secret Invasion and the third season of The Witcher, and was honestly disappointed in both.
To be honest I didn't think they could. Though the creator had full veto powers and creative control. The showrunner is a mega fan of One Piece and the main actors at least are all huge fans of One Piece. Plus having a really big budget also helped. Though it does feel like they have to make many cuts due to budget as well.
Secret Invasion was terrible, one of the worst Marvel TV series or films so far. I watched the first couple of episodes of The Witcher 3rd season, but I've not gone back to watch the rest yet...which says it all.
Currently watching Mr & Mrs Smith on Prime, based on the Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie movie. I can't decide whether I like it or not, some parts I'm enjoying but then nothing happens for ages and my attention starts to wander. Plus, so far, it's not really explained what's happening with regards to the overall Mr & Mrs Smith programme or what their missions are for, even a hint would help. Possibly it explains more as the season goes on.
Secret Invasion wasn't what I want to watch at all at least. Had it not been MCU, I would never have given it my time at all. Sadly, The Witcher's third season doesn't really get better as it goes along. They spend a lot of time on things that are either uninteresting or weird, and far less on actually moving the plot forward in meaningful ways, and I don't like the direction that they took some of the characters. At the end, there's a major shift in focus and even though I'm familiar with the game and books, I'm really not sure where they're going with it. Can't say I'm holding it against Henry for leaving the project, dissapointing as that is. The show runner seems like they don't really care about the source material and want to do something that's different, or even something that fans dislike, which seems insane.
Just finished the 1st season and thoroughly enjoyed it. Great acting and a really good plot. Can’t wait for season 2.
I watched the first season of Percy Jackson on Disney+, and would label it as acceptable. For a show who's main star is a kid, my worry was that the acting could be an issue, but it never really was. The young leads all did a good job, as did most of the rotating cast of adults who played supporting and antagonistic roles throughout the season. But unfortunately the whole show felt kinda cheap and surface in most ways - plot, dialog, sets, production quality, etc. On the level of a cable show from 10-20 years ago that had 20+ episodes for five plus seasons, except this is a short series made by Disney. When they first talked about these kinds of shows on the streaming service, the expectation was that they would be shorter, but with the quality at least close to blockbuster movies. But that has absolutely not been the case the last few years.
I’m about mid-way through season 2 of “The 100”. I hadn’t really heard anything about it and started an episode on a whim while bored. I liked it and kept watching. It’s pretty good. Really dark at times, which I like, and lots of action. The acting is good, plot is really good, and so far my wife and I have been watching at least one episode a night, most nights 2 or more. If you’re into sci-fi I recommend it.
I started it a few years ago when I first got Netflix and realized after about three episodes that it was absolutely not for me. I don't watch things that are dark though, so it's for the best I didn't get very far.
I've been watching 3 Body Problem on Netflix this week, only 1 episode left to watch but have enjoyed it so far. I've not read the Chinese sci-fi books that it's based on, but seemingly it's fairly faithful to them apart from changing a lot of the characters and locations from Chinese/China. Visually very good, and an engaging storyline, although I have felt this first season has been rushed a little as it's raced along to the last episode. Benedict Wong, who played Wong in Doctor Strange and other MCU films/shows, is good in it as a world weary detective investigating strange deaths/suicides of prominent scientists. I never actually realised he was an English actor, and thought he was doing a good job with the accent in the show! There's a few Game of Thrones alumni that appear in the show, which makes sense seeing as it's an adaptation of the novels by the same people that brought GoT to the small screen. Thankfully the 3 Body trilogy books were finished, so hopefully they don't make as much of a mess of completing the show as they did GoT seeing as they have the full source material this time...
I've seen a lot of praise for it very recently, but had never heard of it until about two weeks ago. I'll have to look into it more.
