General Television Thread 2021

[gunnar hendershow]

4 hours ago, FLiam said:

I love the fact they gave every person in the actual Office a character and a personality rather than having random extras in the background all the time too. Obviously they had more episodes to work with than the UK one, but some shows would use extras, it’s much better that they didn’t. Such great casting for all of them too.

Yeah, it's an incredible testament to the writers that they were able to manage to get something out of every person that "worked" there.

[Roster Depth Sicko No. 2]

On 02/04/2021 at 03:52, FLiam said:

On season seven of the Office and Ryan is low-key the best character. Wait, Kevin is.

No, Toby. Toby is the best. Or Creed. I don’t know, so many great characters that don’t really have big parts in the grand scheme of things.

Michael Scott is obviously wonderful and I imagine this show does dip in quality without him.

I recently binged the entire show, how the fuck do you like Toby?

Ryan is a complete asshole and I don't like him but I think he's a great character. His final line of the is one of my favourites given the full episode context.

Best side character is Stanley and I won't hear otherwise.

[FLiam]

25 minutes ago, Bad News Jericode said:

I recently binged the entire show, how the fuck do you like Toby?

Ryan is a complete asshole and I don't like him but I think he's a great character. His final line of the is one of my favourites given the full episode context.

Best side character is Stanley and I won't hear otherwise.

I don’t like him, his character is just so tragic and hilarious at the same time. 

Yes, Stanley is also great. I love the way they’ve kept up with him completing crosswords in meetings as well as Creed and Meredith constantly on Solitaire. 

[FLiam]

Not sure if it has been mentioned or not but Resident Alien has been a really good watch so far. It’s not ground-breaking or anything but is a real enjoyable watch. Alan Tudyk is great at playing weird awkward roles so is absolutely perfect for the main character. 

[St. Dubb]

Started watching Cobra Kai on a whim on Saturday despite not really being into the Karate Kid franchise.....

Finished season 1 last night. Man, what a fun ride. Loving every minute of it.

[9 to 5]

https://metro.co.uk/2021/04/08/the-crown-series-5-andrew-scott-approached-to-play-tony-blair-14376567/

Congratulations @metalman!

[METALMAN]

Don't tell anyone, but I'm actually going to be Gordon Brown

[GoGo Yubari]

On 07/03/2021 at 10:18, tristy said:

Bought an iPhone 12 Pro Max this week, so now I've got Apple TV+ for a year...

I binged Ted Lasso in a few hours. It's a perfectly fine show, but I don't get why everyone was going nuts for it. Sudeikis was great, of course, but I'm just kinda meh on the whole thing.

Mythic Quest is great, though. Tons of great talent in here - Charlotte Nicdao is the stand-out, you've got McElhenney, Danny Pudi, Ashly Burch (!!!!), David Hornsby, F. Murray Abraham, etc etc - and the "A Dark Quiet Death" episode is just fantastic.

I'm most of the way through Ted Lasso and I just finished "A Dark Quiet Death" and I more or less agree with this (particularly how good that episode was, holy shit). Was very much "I'll believe it when I see it" about the general talk that Mythic Quest was actually a good show, and now I do in fact believe it and wish I'd seen it earlier.

I completely get why Ted Lasso was a huge deal for people, though. 2020 was a year where I think there was a big desire for comfort zones in entertainment, and the big trend in sitcoms in the last couple years feels like it's sitcoms that are smartly-written and decidedly for adults that are still, at their core, warm-hearted (Schitt's Creek is an obvious one but to certain degrees I think Michael Schur's stuff fits in there too) and Ted Lasso is a natural continuation of that. For me it verges into being too nice and too warm-hearted, though, I think the first couple episodes nailed the balance really well but it starts feeling borderline-saccharine after a certain point, regardless of whether characters say "fuck" or not. It's extremely a Bill Lawrence show but I think, say, the setting of Scrubs allowed for some real fucking gut punches now and then and the threat of relegation or going through a divorce doesn't really equate.

[livid]

GoGo's heart = dead, cold confirmed! 

But yeah, as much as I loved the show (binged it all in a day), I also get that response too. I was extremely skeptical for basically the same reasons you pointed out with the Pandemic and all and I guess it just deafened the hype enough that it was hard not to be like "you know what? It is fucking great!"

Mythic Quest definitely was a lot more under the radar (quarantine episode notwithstanding) so I think it was easier to buy in at the ground floor, so to speak. 

[GoGo Yubari]

Yeah, it was a weird process for me and the show because on the first couple episodes I was like "oh, I better not try to binge it all in one day, gotta let this stretch out" and somewhere around episode 6 or so I went the exact other way. I'm very much glad it's for the people it's for since I don't think it's bad, I just think it might not be what I want. Gonna finish it regardless, though, wouldn't be surprised if I give season 2 a shot as well.

[Lint]

Watching The Might Ducks: Game Changers, I am really surprised at how involved Emilio Estevez is.  I thought he'd just be a glorified cameo in the first and maybe last episode, but he's been really involved in every episode so far

[Colly]

I've not seen it yet and now I really want to.

[DFF]

Line of Duty is just so damn good.

[Lint]

This makes me miss Lynne Thigpen

[Roster Depth Sicko No. 2]

On 11/04/2021 at 23:24, DFF said:

Line of Duty is just so damn good.

Really good episode. After a rocky fifth season they've really gotten back on track this year.

[JasonM]

So I have been watching 'For All Mankind', an alt-history show on Apple+ about how the space race never ended after the Soviets put the first man on the moon that made Nixon go a bit crazy in trying to one up the USSR, and the Soviets using their actual success to fuel their continuing quest into space.

It's one of those shows that's inherently kinda hokey from the outset, but it's the first show in a long time that has made me feel genuine dread for a future that isn't even real. It's like a slow slide where something really bad is going to happen (to humanity, rather than one side or the other).

On the other hand, it has some diabolically bad interpersonal drama going on that drags down the entire episode whenever it's on screen.

But the whole space race, fight for the moon, and the USA being presented as being absolute crazy cowboys is gripping and tense, especially as the cold war slowly keeps getting hotter.

Also where in Season 1 (Nixon era) the USA were generally seen as the good guys and the USSR at best being this looming threat in the unknown, Season 2 (Reagan era) basically has the USA becoming increasingly paranoid and unhinged.

It's one of those shows that's not good on any real point, but it still manages to got me hooked and watching every week to see how far it goes.

(Then again, it's a Ron D. Moore show, so it will go off the rails sooner rather than later)

[Jimmy]

I'm finally catching up on it. I've just finished the first two seasons, and by the start of the third, the budget has clearly jumped up nicely. I thought the second was a marked improvement on the first & am looking forward to digging into the show everyone's been hyping and I've been lazily putting off. 

[Lint]

Hank Azaria apologises ‘to every Indian person’ for voicing Apu in The Simpsons

This is a really good read. 
 

Quote

 

“I was speaking at my son’s school, I was talking to the Indian kids there because I wanted to get their input,” he said. “[There was] a 17-year-old, he’s never even seen The Simpsons but knows what Apu means. It’s practically a slur at this point.”

Azaria said he “read, spoke to people who knew a lot about racism, spoke to lots of Indian people and went to seminars. I realised I have had a date with destiny with this thing for 31 years.”

 

 

[Owen]

Kim's Convenience finished yesterday. Just watched the last episode. I miss it already. Same with Superstore.

[tristy]

On 14/04/2021 at 22:37, Owen said:

Kim's Convenience finished yesterday. Just watched the last episode. I miss it already. Same with Superstore.

I started Kim's Convenience a few months ago, but couldn't really get into it. I like it, but for whatever reason nothing compels me to keep watching it after a few episodes. It's a show where I'll probably binge a few, then put it down for awhile, and come back to it. I think I'm still on the first season. I miss Superstore like crazy already, though.

I'm on the first episode of Can't Get You Out Of My Head. I love stuff like this. I'm already planning on digging into Adam Curtis' previous documentaries eventually.

EDIT: @GoGo Yubari Just got an alert that an 11th episode for S1 of Mythic Quest was added, three weeks before the new season starts. What a weird, random surprise!

Edited April 16, 2021 by tristy