General Television Thread 2023

[The Buscher]

On 20/08/2023 at 07:23, Benji said:

I vaguely recall watching Home Improvement as a kid and thinking it was funny. Alex is watching it at the moment and just - holy shit this is bad - even excusing the toxic masculinity and blatant negativity towards the women, it's not even actually funny outside of scenes with Wilson.

 

On 20/08/2023 at 08:17, damhausen said:

Yeah I watched an episode somewhat recently and it's so out-of-date 90s masculinity. Worst part might be the sensible guy, Al Borland, being a punchline. Like his presence is "haha look at this dweeb and his *logic*"

Easy to trace that attitude right through to the present.

 

On the subject of 90s/00s sitcoms that don't seem as funny now, my girlfriend was watching Everybody Loves Raymond the other day and while I can accept that insult humor was a big part of sitcoms at the time, it was just jarring to realize nearly every single joke in the show is an insult or someone getting made fun of.  I get why Robert having zero self esteem or confidence despite being 6'8" and a cop was meant to be funny to the audience at the time but now I just see a guy getting relentlessly bullied by his family in every episode.  It's actually sad.

[GhostMachine]

9 hours ago, K said:

Traitors AU Season 2 just started and they've replaced all the relatively normal people with former reality show contestants and annoying wannabe celebrities with vocal fry. it's really annoying. 

The first season of the US version had a mix of both. I assume season 2 will, as well. 

The winner was 

Spoiler

a former Survivor contestant

 

[K]

58 minutes ago, GhostMachine said:

The first season of the US version had a mix of both. I assume season 2 will, as well. 

The winner was 

  Hide contents

a former Survivor contestant

 

yeah, it was why I couldn't watch the US version. The Aus one has like three or four former reality shows, and a bunch of wannabes, mixed with a few normal people. Hopefully the normal people get some focus in later episodes.

[GhostMachine]

3 hours ago, K said:

yeah, it was why I couldn't watch the US version. The Aus one has like three or four former reality shows, and a bunch of wannabes, mixed with a few normal people. Hopefully the normal people get some focus in later episodes.

i watched either the UK or Aus version....I forget which....and thought it was pretty good. But they should either do all normal people are all celebrities, not a mix of both.

I also hate it when people from reality shows, like Big Brother and The Bachelor/Bachelorette appear on other shows that aren't on their original network. The Challenge especially, because most (not all) of the Big Brother contestants have been asses.

[Hobo]

No thanks.

[Benji]

Wait what? What is Nicholas Lyndhurst doing in the Tossed Salads and Scrambled Eggs Zone?

[Colly]

What a Rodney Plonker.

[Baddar]

21 hours ago, K said:

yeah, it was why I couldn't watch the US version. The Aus one has like three or four former reality shows, and a bunch of wannabes, mixed with a few normal people. Hopefully the normal people get some focus in later episodes.

I was a bit worried about the US version because of the reality show contestant thing, but it was really good actually. Host was great, too.

[ThrillhouseMAX]

Just caught the new episode of Heels. A handful of cool wrestler cameos in this one. I actually thoroughly enjoy this show, and season 2 has been pretty good so far. 

[GhostMachine]

After what happened in the finale, I hope there's no season 2 of STARS ON MARS, unless they make a few changes. 

[RPS]

I just finished Season 1 of the Bear.

Spoiler

The last 10 minutes of the show felt so tonally out of place with the rest of the show. It almost makes me not want to watch the rest of the show. Them finding loads of money to make a bunch of their problems go away was terrible. I'm going to stick around to see if it's worth it because I have to believe there is a reason for it. 

The rest of it was great. The Review was a master class in television. 

 

[Lineker]

 

[Ruki]

Watched the first episode of the One Piece Netflix series. Not bad! I like that they are playing into the cartoony-ness of it all.

[GoGo Yubari]

I'm three episodes in. I think they're doing as well as you can possibly expect anyone to do with a source material that hard to adapt to live action on multiple levels. The changes they've made to the story all make perfect sense to me as far as compromises to make or priorities to shift, and certain ways they've mixed little things up I think is pretty cool.

Spoiler

Having Zoro's introduction scene be the fight between him and Mr. 7 that's only mentioned as having happened sometime before the start of the series in the original is a really cool bit of storytelling that I think fits a) telling a more condensed story and b) giving a fun treat to fans of the original, kind of a "see? We know this canon really well" thing.

As far as what isn't there that I would have liked to this point, it's kind of a shame that the kids who hero-worship Usopp aren't there. Episode 4 is the back half of that storyline and a pretty big point of diversion between the original plot and the live action plot so I guess it's possible we could see them there, but it seems unlikely to me.

The cast is strong. Inaki Godoy has won me over to live-action Luffy in a big way, he nails that indefatigable optimism in a way that fits the tone of the series rather than going full-cartoon with it. In general seeing a live-action version of a character tends to throw me for a loop for a bit -- it feels a little like coming across a really good cosplayer at a con in most cases -- but I feel like the style stays consistent in a way I respect. Like it's not a cartoon, but you'd never mistake it for being anything but an adaptation of a fantastical comic/animated series.

Another thing on the way they're adapting it is...

Spoiler

It's interesting seeing them kind of reckoning with the fact that they can't really pull off what the original does with just having certain characters appear only when the plot needs them, so instead it feels like they've been finding ways to have certain characters (Coby, Garp, Buggy, Arlong) appear more throughout the season.

Garp is probably the character who feels the most different from his original version, but in a way I really like. Wonder if the way they're writing him and utilizing him in the plot is partially a way to sidestep Smoker since Netflix has some sort of mandate against characters smoking cigarettes/cigars now.

 

[Colly]

I was going to ask about this one, is it worth watching for someone who's never seen the cartoon and has no concept of anything bar "on a boat"?

[GoGo Yubari]

Unfortunately I think I'm way too entrenched in how it functions as an adaptation to really have a good answer. I feel like the right answer is probably "watch the first episode or two and if it's not doing anything for you by the end of that it's probably not for you." 

If I had to guess who'd get into it would probably be people who like MCU stuff but are up for something a little more earnest and fantastical?

[Lint]

Danny Masterson Sentenced to 30 Years to Life in Prison After Rape Conviction

[Benji]

Really quite enjoying The Rookie. It's nice for a show to follow beat cops rather than detectives, and even though there's overarching stories I like that they have mini stories and arrests throughout the episodes. I'd held off on watching it for a while so my Castle expectations died down and I'm glad I did.

[ThrillhouseMAX]

Weird that Topher Grace ended up being the only normal one out of the kids from That 70s Show

[Lint]

42 minutes ago, ThrillhouseMAX said:

Weird that Topher Grace ended up being the only normal one out of the kids from That 70s Show

What did Fez do?

Also, Laura Prepon was a Scientologist, but she's since left the cult

Laura Prepon on Motherhood, Sharing Her Truth and Her Decision to Leave Scientology