TV shows you're currently watching.

Mangy wrote:

I will probably start watching Ozark tonight, take a break for the return of Joe Bob Briggs' show, then knock the rest of it out over the weekend.

How will Ozark turn out? Will Laura Linney last through an entire 4 season series without smiling or telling a joke? Will someone turn a light on in their house? I can't wait to find out.

It really is absurd with the lighting on that show.

I’m hoping there is less of the son in these last episodes. Kid cannot act at all.

Also been watching Winning Time, but I’m two eps behind. Some great performances on there but some of the “Hit you over the head” direction of it gets to be a bit much.

Just finished the first ep of We Own This City. Definitely feels like I’m right back in The Wire land, especially with some welcome faces returning. Solid start, it’s a Simon show through and through (including some arguably TOO on-the-nose bits of dialogue). But overall I liked everything except Bernthal’s wild attempt at a Baltimore accent.

Molt Prime wrote:

Mangy wrote:

I will probably start watching Ozark tonight, take a break for the return of Joe Bob Briggs' show, then knock the rest of it out over the weekend.

How will Ozark turn out? Will Laura Linney last through an entire 4 season series without smiling or telling a joke? Will someone turn a light on in their house? I can't wait to find out.

It really is absurd with the lighting on that show.

I’m hoping there is less of the son in these last episodes. Kid cannot act at all.

Also been watching Winning Time, but I’m two eps behind. Some great performances on there but some of the “Hit you over the head” direction of it gets to be a bit much.

Finished the first episode of Ozark earlier. Good episode, and I would say this season so far has been the best, but it's still ultimately a pale imitation of the great stuff we've seen.

I'm caught up on Winning Time, and it's still entertaining as hell, and I still know it's BS, and the multimedia format still annoys me.

Stuff like when they freeze the show, then point out some actor looking like Jack Nicholson and plaster “Huge Lakers Fan” on the screen drives me nuts. I just don’t have the constitution for it.

Reilly has been great on it though.

Since I haven't posted here a while. I'm currently watching Superman & Lois (which is the best Arrowverse show to date), the Flash, Moon Knight, Walker (the reboot of the original Walker, Texas Ranger), Halo (loving it) and Star Trek: Picard. Of course will start watching Star Trek: Strange New Worlds next week which I can't wait while Picard wraps up his second season on the same day. Lol

Molt Prime wrote:

Stuff like when they freeze the show, then point out some actor looking like Jack Nicholson and plaster “Huge Lakers Fan” on the screen drives me nuts. I just don’t have the constitution for it.

Reilly has been great on it though.

All of those Adam McKay stylistic tics drive me nuts. Starting with THE BIG SHORT (well, actually starting with the closing credits of THE OTHER GUYS), he's morphed into a combination of Oliver Stone and Wikipedia, editing everything in a blender and adding snide footnotes to moments as much as he can. BLEUGH, I hate it.

Also, hi Star Treker, hope you don't mind if us Chewers move in

I just finished up TOKYO VICE, but between SAUL, ATLANTA, WE OWN THIS CITY and the new season of RUSSIAN DOLL my schedule has been pretty full.

I really need to get back to BETTER CALL SAUL. Not sure why I sputtered out on that one; I was digging season 1, but it just fell to the wayside. Never got to EL CAMINO either. I probably just need to set aside a few months for a BB rewatch and then the newer stuff.

I am still watching OUTER RANGE, the Josh Brolin show on Prime. Land disputes, a mysterious bottomless pit, a possibly extraterrestrial mineral, a singing cowboy, a shady corporation. Its YELLOWSTONE by way of LOST and TWIN PEAKS. Its throwing a lot at you, and I'm not sure what to make of it all just yet, but I'm enjoying it quite a bit.

The Offer -- based on Albert Ruddy's experience with producing The Godfather -- dropped its first three episodes on Paramount+ and it's worth it for Matthew Goode's Robert Evans alone. He's this oozy charmer who's full of bullshit and bluster but who's seen enough to be right most of the time. And they turn the Puzo/Coppola writing team into the comedy duo we didn't know we needed.

Yup BETTER CALL SAUL by a wide margin. Also watching nd enjoyiing OUTER RANGE. Haven't started the new season of BARRY yet, though I'm looking forward to getting into it.

Taking a bit of a TV break at the moment and catching up with movies instead.

That said, my wife & I are currently going through STRANGER THINGS with the kids as a lead-up to the S4 premiere.

I really need a push to keep going on with The Wire. First time watch and im about 2 episodes into season 2 and its just not doing it for me.

Just finished season 5 of Better Call Saul on Netflix and loved it. I probably won't watch the last season til it hits Netflix next year since I cut cable TV a while ago. So its gonna be hard to remain spoiler free.

Really enjoying Winning Time too. The cast is great and all McKays quirky aesthetics dont bother me

Doing a Stargate Universe rewatch. I couldn't care less about most things Stargate, but this show...was terrific. Shame it only lasted two seasons.

Recently watched (or re-watched)

Severance
Our Flag Means Death
Narcos (petered out after second season... again)
The Last Kingdom
Billions

I dug out my Larry Sanders collection earlier this week and have started revisiting those. I'd forgotten how much I enjoyed those, and reminds me I need to revisit Shandling's underrated What Planet Are You From? sometime soon!

Larry Sanders was the first old show I went back and rewatched when Pandemic first hit. Had a blast with it. It's such a great snapshot of 90's comedy between everyone who shows up on it.

Finished up Season 5 of Snowfall. Wild end of the season. Gonna be a long wait for it to come back to wrap it all up.

Also finished Ozark. It ended fine, more or less.

Yesterday I just finished up with Peacemaker and Killing Eve season 1.

Peacemaker clearly doesn't need any further endorsements, it's hilarious, viloent and incredibly warm hearted.

Killing Eve is wonderful. Phoebe Waller-Bridge writes amazing characters, especially female ones, with an enormous amount of wit. The acting is phenomenal, the plot has a few gut-wrenching twists and turns, and the action set pieces work surprisingly well for something that is clearly focussed on character interactions and dialogue. I'm no doubt really late to the party on this one, but if you haven't seen it, give it a go.

Molt Prime wrote:

Also finished Ozark. It ended fine, more or less.

I was underwhelmed.

Felt like a season finale, not a series finale.

If there's an oral history of Ozark, the title should be Fine, More or Less.

The finale was a bit of a wet noodle. Like most of the rest of the show, it's filled with twists for the sake of twists with the showrunners hoping the quality cast will sell them. (They often did!)

In terms of Netflix dramas, at least it was better than House of Cards!

I'm on the third episode of SEVERANCE and holy goddamn shit this show. Wow.

SLOW HORSES is effing great. Oldman is so damned good in this playing a foul, grumpy boss.

Also, the wife and I really enjoyed MOON KNIGHT. Great acting and a different story compared to the norm. I love seeing any sort of mythology played for real so I had a lot of fun with this.

Welp we finished Archive 81. Spoilers for Archive 81. What the actual hell, Archive 81?!! I understand ending a season on a cliffhanger, but Netflix cancelled the show, so they didn't know if there'd be a season 2 and they ended season 1 on a total cliffhanger??? It's outrageous.

Otherwise, it was fantastic show. Interesting characters, a great mystery, loved the hook of the videotapes playing weakening the barriers between the dimensions. Amazing that it was only 8 episodes, it felt like a lot more. We may have to run down the original podcast to find out if poor Dan ever gets home.

Jones wrote:

Welp we finished Archive 81.  Spoilers for Archive 81.  What the actual hell, Archive 81?!!  I understand ending a season on a cliffhanger, but Netflix cancelled the show, so they didn't know if there'd be a season 2 and they ended season 1 on a total cliffhanger???  It's outrageous.

Otherwise, it was fantastic show.  Interesting characters, a great mystery, loved the hook of the videotapes playing weakening the barriers between the dimensions.  Amazing that it was only 8 episodes, it felt like a lot more.  We may have to run down the original podcast to find out if poor Dan ever gets home.

This show was terrific. This is the upside to Netflix's consistent and frankly exhausting barrage of new content and original programming - occasionally, via the law of averages, they hit the bullseye with something thats really good and really weird like ARCHIVE 81. Its a bummer there won't be more, but I'm just happy stuff like this exists in the first place. Same can be said of BRAND NEW CHERRY FLAVOR.

Finished SEVERANCE last night and damn that was the perfect cliffhanger.

Season 2 should be a banger.

Wife and I watched the first two episodes of THE PENTAVERATE on Netflix. It's...well, it entirely depends on what you think of Mike Myers' brand of comedy. It's like the last twentyish years of television humor hadn't happened and you're watching something from the 90s. It's not not funny; but it is entirely juvenile. I can say that everyone is having fun, especially Keegan Michael Key (there's even a Key & Peele joke that Key himself winks at, so that's the level of humor we're talking about).

Lots of dick jokes and Canadian stereotypes. The definition of 'YMMV'. At six thirty minute episodes, however, easy enough to see through to the end.

Still digging The Offer. This episode focused mostly on casting Brando, and again they went with an actor who's doing less an impersonation and more an evocation. I've been enjoying this a lot and they haven't even started shooting the movie yet.