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The Official TV Thread

Anybody else here watch Halt and Catch Fire? AMC drama that was supposed to fill the gap of Mad Men. It's set in the 80s/90s and revolves around the rise of the personal computer. The first season was good, not great. But it really rose to greatness from the 2nd season and on. It's on its 4th and final season right now and looks to be doing a heck of a job coming up to the finish line. Terribly underrated show right now.
 
I know this is a bit old, but if anyone feels the need for some irreverence and subversive anime, hit up One-Punch Man.
 
CarltonTheBear said:
Anybody else here watch Halt and Catch Fire? AMC drama that was supposed to fill the gap of Mad Men. It's set in the 80s/90s and revolves around the rise of the personal computer. The first season was good, not great. But it really rose to greatness from the 2nd season and on. It's on its 4th and final season right now and looks to be doing a heck of a job coming up to the finish line. Terribly underrated show right now.
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I watched season 1 of it a couple of years back and enjoyed it. Amazon Prime have the rights to it here so I haven't had a chance to catch the latter seasons yet but it's near the top of my list
 
If anyone's looking for some solid laughs, I'd highly recommend both "American Vandal" and "Big Mouth" on Netflix.
 
Is anyone else watching Mindhunter?

Here's a video about David Fincher's oeuvre:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GfqD5WqChUY
 
herman said:
Is anyone else watching Mindhunter?

Here's a video about David Fincher's oeuvre:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GfqD5WqChUY
Click to expand...

Is it good? I like Jonathan Groff and I like Fincher but reviews haven't really made it sound amazing or anything.
 
CarltonTheBear said:
herman said:
Is anyone else watching Mindhunter?

Here's a video about David Fincher's oeuvre:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GfqD5WqChUY
Click to expand...

Is it good? I like Jonathan Groff and I like Fincher but reviews haven't really made it sound amazing or anything.
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Yeah, I'm curious as well.  My wife gave it a shot, and she didn't much like it.

But we often don't like the same stuff, so I'm also wondering if it's worth a trial?
 
I'm a huge fan of Zodiac which probably bodes well for liking this sort of thing from Fincher but generally speaking I find serial killers/the mental profiling of serial killers to be one of the most played out/least interesting things in entertainment so while I'll probably give it a shot at some point I haven't yet.
 
I like it so far (2 episodes in). It?s like a prequel to all those now standard crime procedurals that leverage criminal profiling. I enjoy watching the interpretation of that time period?s zeitgeist through the lens of those procedural tropes (and watching them get subverted by the very fact they don?t exist yet). It?s buddy cop comedy without the action and a more understated funny.
 
herman said:
I like it so far (2 episodes in). It?s like a prequel to all those now standard crime procedurals that leverage criminal profiling.
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Yeah, although it's funny in that it's a genre that includes lots of more mainstream standard procedurals but also more prestige-y stuff(Hannibal, Luther, Dexter to some extent).

Which again isn't necessarily a bad thing, but there is a ton of it out there.
 
Nik the Trik said:
Yeah, although it's funny in that it's a genre that includes lots of more mainstream standard procedurals but also more prestige-y stuff(Hannibal, Luther, Dexter to some extent).

Which again isn't necessarily a bad thing, but there is a ton of it out there.
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I'd like to blame Sherlock Holmes for this, because the formula extends beyond serial killing and into rote procedural drama with an abrasive savant chaperoned by a capable but exasperated partner.
 
herman said:
Nik the Trik said:
Yeah, although it's funny in that it's a genre that includes lots of more mainstream standard procedurals but also more prestige-y stuff(Hannibal, Luther, Dexter to some extent).

Which again isn't necessarily a bad thing, but there is a ton of it out there.
Click to expand...

I'd like to blame Sherlock Holmes for this, because the formula extends beyond serial killing and into rote procedural drama with an abrasive savant chaperoned by a capable but exasperated partner.
Click to expand...
Im really enjoying it. Its really captivating and it's a period in history that I don't really see much (late 70s). The aesthetic of the show is fantastic imo as well.
 
Anybody else notice that 80's cartoon super villians lacked the ability to plan and the motivation to see their plan through?

Take Skeletor in He-Man for example.  I can only imagine what his planning sessions must have been like.

Skeletor:  ..... and then the boulder falls on He-Man and that is the end of him.

Beast-Man:  What's plan B boss?

Skeletor:  Plan B?  There's no plan B.  We follow Plan A.  Plan A is sound.  It's all we need.

Beast-Man:  Yeah but boss, it's He-Man.  He's in a group called the "Masters of the Universe".  I'm not sure a boulder is going to do it.

Skeletor:  Listen your name is Beast-Man.  Beast is literally in your name.

Beast-Man:  Yeah, so?

Skeletor:  So I need less Beast-Man, and more Beast-Mode when it comes to Plan A okay?  We can knock this plan out of the park.

Beast-Man:  I see what you did there.

Skeletor:  It's called effective leadership.  Start picking up tips and some day, you can run your own group to take down He-Man, and all you will need is a good Plan A.

And then, you know what would happen?  The boulder would miss or He-Man would catch it, and they were all like "Oh No!!! The plan has failed, run away!!!!"  And then the next week they would have an entirely new plan.  I mean at least look at the previous plan and maybe build on it.  One boulder didn't work, why not try two?  Maybe a boulder with sticks in it? 

And then you have a villain like Megatron.  The Decepticons would be at some plant they converted over to making energon cubes, and the Autobots would show up.  First off, the statement/question "The Autobots!!!! Where did they come from?" would get uttered.  Really?  You couldn't see the plumes of dust billowing over the desert as they "rolled out" to meet you?  Maybe setup a lookout or something.  You have freakin' transforming planes at your disposal.  Then the Autobots would blow up one of the energon cubes, and Megatron would lose his nerve and start yelling "One of the energon cubes was destroyed!!!! RETREAT!!!".  Like I get that you have to have a certain level of perfectionism to get to the level of leader of a evil militant group from another planet trying to occupy earth, but maybe institute a percent error in your plan or something.  You know, draw some inspiration from the quote "Perfection is unattainable, but through striving for perfection, excellence is achieved", or a hanging cat picture that says "Hang in there". 

No wonder our generation has trouble with seeing things through.  Q3 report due?  Just dodge it.  It'll go away.  Can't meet all of your monthly goals?  Just go home.   
 
I started the Punisher a couple of days ago and I'm now about halfway through.

At first, I thought it'd be troubling with gun violence in the real world being what it is, and Marvel's Netflix division struggling in its last couple of forays.

So far...
It strikes a similar vibe as Daredevil 1 and Jessica Jones: a character study of how people work (or not work) through past trauma through their training and purpose. Punisher, so far, is the least comic book-y of the group and I'm enjoying it as a deeper, funnier(!) version of John Wick. The acting (from the principals) is probably some of the best I've seen from Marvel Netflix and it's plainly obvious from the first few moments that a lot more work went into the research and understanding of the mechanics involved to treat this respectfully than some of the more recent entries (*ahem* Iron Fist).

They still have time to ruin it all in the back half, a la Luke Cage, but this is promising, so far.
 
Eh, this is probably one I'm a little too close to to be entirely objective. The Punisher books, specifically the ones written by Garth Ennis, are some of my very favourite comics of all time. As a result it's been pretty disappointing seeing attempt after attempt to take those specific books and try to mould them into something fit for mass consumption. The Daredevil series already tried to do that with one of my absolute favourite Punisher stories(The Punisher and a tied-up Daredevil on the roof) but took what was a very interesting examination of the kind of grief-driven obsession that drives Frank Castle as a character by forcing a more traditional hero to see things his way and turned it into a pretty bog standard case of the hero saving the day in the nick of time.

So I tried with the new series but it's the same old thing. They want to take the neat things Ennis did, the characters he created and some of the stories he set-up, and ignore any of the larger themes of what he did and just turn the character into a rehashed Charles Bronson type.
 
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