New TV Shows Out Right Now

"Clark Kent wrote:

I just finished Dark. Holy ****ing ****. This show is amazing... Given the subject matter, plot, and the fact it's a foreign TV show, it can be confusing at times. It's not for people with short attention spans, that's for sure. But if you want a challenge, know that DARK delivers every episode.

And I agree, the Stranger Things comparisons are ridiculous. There's the tiniest thread of similarity, but they're different animals entirely. I love Dark. I'm really hoping Netflix gives it a second season. It truly is the best thing I've seen from them so far (and I love Stranger Things). I put it on par with True Detective (season 1, of course). Which is really a better comparison, IMO.

p.s. Tell me more about Trapped... we have similar taste in TV shows, and I've never heard of it before. Your recommendation has me curious.

Trapped is up there with all the great scenery rich crime/mystery/dramas that look and feel like The Killing, Broadchurch, The Missing, Happy Valley, and Top of the Lake. Little slower paced like those but incredibly well done. You can actually watch the trailer w/o it giving anything away.

Glad you enjoyed Dark. I thought it was f***ing brilliant in every possible regard. Total show for the senses. Can't wait for season 2 which I believe they said is renewed.

Hey did you ever get into Startup? That's a bagful of guilty pleasure fun.

I'm interested in the upcoming AP Bio, on NBC. Patton Oswalt is always terrific, and I liked Glen Howerton on The Mindy Project.

"Unlucky 13 wrote:

I'm interested in the upcoming AP Bio, on NBC. Patton Oswalt is always terrific, and I liked Glen Howerton on The Mindy Project.

Did you ever see the movie Patton? Great flick!

"ToddPhin wrote:

Did you ever see the movie Patton? Great flick!

Sadly, yes. Watched it in history class in HS. Not my cup of tea.

"ToddPhin wrote:

How many episodes does it take to get into Mad Men?

Yes...

May have to watch all 7 seasons. :shifty:

Netflix sci-fi series Altered Carbon starts this Friday, 2nd Feb. I've not read any of the books it's based on, but they're meant to be really good, so quite looking forward to checking the show out.

"Claymore95 wrote:

Netflix sci-fi series Altered Carbon starts this Friday, 2nd Feb. I've not read any of the books it's based on, but they're meant to be really good, so quite looking forward to checking the show out.

It looks really cool. If I had Netflix id certainly be checking it out.

"Dol-Fan Dupree wrote:

Watched episode 1 of Black Lightning. It is much more "adult" than the other CW super hero shows. Well, as adult you can get with a guy dressed in a lightning suit.

While it is not perfect by any means, it is probably the best pilot episode of the CW TV Superhero shows. It has a very Luke Cage feel, and minus the lightning suit would feel at home on Netflix. Unlike Arrow, people got shot and there was blood.

I hope it can keep up the quality the whole 13 episodes.

Speaking of Luke Cage, I think they started filming in like August for Season 2 but can’t seem to find a release date anywhere :confused2:

I know they’re keeping the same director and cast which is good.

Finally getting around to watching Mad Men...... after having binged Good Girls Revolt the previous 3 days. I would say that anyone who enjoyed Mad Men would probably also very much enjoy Good Girls Revolt. It's a like a cross between Mad Men and The Newsroom. It's about female employees at News of the Week magazine trying to power through discrimination and sexism. Very well done. Strong acting. You really get attached to at least 2 of the 3 main protagonists.

"ToddPhin wrote:

Finally getting around to watching Mad Men...... after having binged Good Girls Revolt the previous 3 days. I would say that anyone who enjoyed Mad Men would probably also very much enjoy Good Girls Revolt. It's a like a cross between Mad Men and The Newsroom. It's about female employees at News of the Week magazine trying to power through discrimination and sexism. Very well done. Strong acting. You really get attached to at least 2 of the 3 main protagonists.

Yeah...but are they hot?

:chuckle:

"danmarino wrote:

Yeah...but are they hot?

:chuckle:

yes. That's partly why you get attached to 2 of 'em.

I attempted to watch several episodes of Mad Men at different points. Boring as Hell and I can't understand the draw. Nothing ever, ever happened. But I know that some people like that.

i surprisingly enjoyed Happy! (on SyFy). Thought it was a funny and wacky with its dark sense of humor.
its not your average show. its based on a graphic novel and one of the creators wrote/directed Crank

Christopher Meloni is a drunk former cop turned hitman who befriends his kidnapped daughter imaginary friend, a blue unicorn(Patton Oswald) on a mission to find her.

"Aqua4Ever04 wrote:

I've been binge watching It's Always Sunny, Howerton is easily the best part of that show (one of the greatest of all time, IMO).

Speaking of comedies, Crashing on HBO is really good.

I've only seen a handful of episodes of Sunny, but the show must have had some connection to The Mindy Project (which I did watch while it was on Fox), because there were a bunch of actors that were on both shows.

Only somewhat new, but since I was laid up for 3 days with a terrible stomach virus this weekend, I watched the last 7 episodes of the new Star Trek on CBS all access. REally thought the plot twists, acting and writing was top notch - one of the best single seasons from a sci-fi series I've seen in a long time.

Not really about one show in particular, but I've had a gripe about reality shows for a long time. Of course, many of them are total trash, but my wife likes to watch a few where people with actual talent face off in a competition - cooking, making clothes, ect, and they can be impressive in what they're able to do in a short time.

My issue is the format that they're always set up. One person wins and gets a special prize, a bunch don't win but stay on the show, and the one who's deemed to have been the worst that week is kicked off. The problem is that sometimes that one week is a horrible indication of how good or bad the people actually are at their work. With one of the cooking shows my wife is watching, a guy finished first in about 3/4 weeks, was clearly great at it, but then finished last when they had a weird thing that they had to do one week, and was booted. Makes no sense. And a lot of the time, people who aren't very good just kind of stick around because they finish in the bottom few but aren't the worst any given week.

My preference would be that no one gets kicked off for the first third of the season or so. Give them points based on how they finish the challenge instead. For example, if there are eleven contestants, first place gets 10 points, second 9, and so on down to the bottom. After five episodes, then start eliminating people, and at that point have the people at the bottom be the ones in danger every week. This would keep the most talented people on the show for the longest time, which cannot be a bad thing, and would also still give the others a big incentive to win and up their point total to get away from the danger zone. And the people who get kicked off early would all have earned it.

Then the last third of the season or so, when it gets down to four or five people left, everyone is in danger and can get kicked off for a bad week.

"Aqua4Ever04 wrote:

I've been binge watching It's Always Sunny, Howerton is easily the best part of that show (one of the greatest of all time, IMO).

Speaking of comedies, Crashing on HBO is really good.

I haven't really liked Season 2 of Crashing. It doesn't have the same linear buildup of Season 1 with his wife. I didn't see the episode this past week though, maybe I'm missing something.

Not sure if it's been discussed already but Vice Principals was absolutely hilarious all the way through. Great two season miniseries with a coherent linear storyline that turns into a whodunit halfway through. If you like Eastbound and Down you'll like this.

Altered Carbon.

What a stupid piece of crap. So, so, so, so awful.

Terrible acting. The main guy, the cop, the sister, the revolution leader and the police chief, all put on a clinic for some of the worst acting I've ever seen attached to a budget like that. Whether it was rote and monotone like the main guy, or the wrong inflections at the wrong times like the cop to the classically bad acting of the sister, whose performance was Tommy Wiseau-ian, the casting director should be run out of town. The resistance leader though...sigh...I'll give her credit, she pulled off a performance that was one note but also bat shit crazy. That's not a positive as she did it by saying every line and making every movement as if she was on the cusp of snapping into a Tom Cruise-esque Oprah appearance. Even solid actors, like James Purefoy, autpiloted their characters through this terrible script with less effort given to their day's work then a Walmart bathroom cleaner.

The writing was in a word...dumb. The concept is actually good but the approach taken to building the world, moving the plot along and building to the climax are just wrought with cliches, deus ex machinas, inconsistent character motivations, unearned plot twists, an over reliance on nudity/sex and an overlong torture scene or two. In a world where they try to keep it grounded enough to have multiple technology versus religion debates, they have a living AI hotel that not only a cross between Alfred and Batman's super computer, but it also plays poker with other living AI hotels and living AI brothels.

I mean my god.

"Fin D wrote:

Altered Carbon.

What a stupid piece of crap. So, so, so, so awful.

Terrible acting. The main guy, the cop, the sister, the revolution leader and the police chief, all put on a clinic for some of the worst acting I've ever seen attached to a budget like that. Whether it was rote and monotone like the main guy, or the wrong inflections at the wrong times like the cop to the classically bad acting of the sister, whose performance was Tommy Wiseau-ian, the casting director should be run out of town. The resistance leader though...sigh...I'll give her credit, she pulled off a performance that was one note but also bat **** crazy. That's not a positive as she did it by saying every line and making every movement as if she was on the cusp of snapping into a Tom Cruise-esque Oprah appearance. Even solid actors, like James Purefoy, autpiloted their characters through this terrible script with less effort given to their day's work then a Walmart bathroom cleaner.

The writing was in a word...dumb. The concept is actually good but the approach taken to building the world, moving the plot along and building to the climax are just wrought with cliches, deus ex machinas, inconsistent character motivations, unearned plot twists, an over reliance on nudity/sex and an overlong torture scene or two. In a world where they try to keep it grounded enough to have multiple technology versus religion debates, they have a living AI hotel that not only a cross between Alfred and Batman's super computer, but it also plays poker with other living AI hotels and living AI brothels.

I mean my god.

I loved it! I thought it was the right kind of stupid to be entertaining. It was like a higher budget CWTV show.

"Fin D wrote:

Altered Carbon.

What a stupid piece of crap. So, so, so, so awful.

Terrible acting. The main guy, the cop, the sister, the revolution leader and the police chief, all put on a clinic for some of the worst acting I've ever seen attached to a budget like that. Whether it was rote and monotone like the main guy, or the wrong inflections at the wrong times like the cop to the classically bad acting of the sister, whose performance was Tommy Wiseau-ian, the casting director should be run out of town. The resistance leader though...sigh...I'll give her credit, she pulled off a performance that was one note but also bat **** crazy. That's not a positive as she did it by saying every line and making every movement as if she was on the cusp of snapping into a Tom Cruise-esque Oprah appearance. Even solid actors, like James Purefoy, autpiloted their characters through this terrible script with less effort given to their day's work then a Walmart bathroom cleaner.

The writing was in a word...dumb. The concept is actually good but the approach taken to building the world, moving the plot along and building to the climax are just wrought with cliches, deus ex machinas, inconsistent character motivations, unearned plot twists, an over reliance on nudity/sex and an overlong torture scene or two. In a world where they try to keep it grounded enough to have multiple technology versus religion debates, they have a living AI hotel that not only a cross between Alfred and Batman's super computer, but it also plays poker with other living AI hotels and living AI brothels.

I mean my god.

Thats too bad. I was looking forward to eventually seeing it. I'm not familiar with most of the cast, but Dichen Lachman, who plays Reileen, has been a supporting actress on Agents of Shield and Dollhouse, and did an ok job on those, so I was curious to see how she would be in a larger role. It looked really cool, but sometimes things are all flash and no substance.

"Unlucky 13 wrote:

Thats too bad. I was looking forward to eventually seeing it. I'm not familiar with most of the cast, but Dichen Lachman, who plays Reileen, has been a supporting actress on Agents of Shield and Dollhouse, and did an ok job on those, so I was curious to see how she would be in a larger role. It looked really cool, but sometimes things are all flash and no substance.

I thought she was fine. No one is winning an Emmy on that show. Plus, she looks great naked.

"Dol-Fan Dupree wrote:

I thought she was fine. No one is winning an Emmy on that show. Plus, she looks great naked.

LOL! She's not my type. When they would refer to her over and over as this amazing beauty on Dollhouse, I would just shrug.

"Dol-Fan Dupree wrote:

I loved it! I thought it was the right kind of stupid to be entertaining. It was like a higher budget CWTV show.

I still think you need help for defending Gotham...soooooooooooo....I guess my opinion hasn't changed on that.:tongue:

"Fin D wrote:

I still think you need help for defending Gotham...soooooooooooo....I guess my opinion hasn't changed on that.:tongue:

I have never defended Gotham. I hate watched that show. Altered Carbon is about 1.5 million times better than Gotham.