General Television Thread

[Mx. Canadian Destroyer]

I am seeing conflicted reports about whether it's cancelled now or after next season.

[Bobfoc]

It seemed as though it would only have one more run anyway, so perhaps it won't make a difference.

[Mx. Canadian Destroyer]

I am a bit conflicted. I would love House of Cards with just Claire, but they'd have to write him off in some way.

[Bobfoc]

I think I have the opposite view in that Claire doesn't greatly interest me, whereas Kevin Spacey as Frank Underwood is the only real reason I still watch. Robin Wright is great, but it's the inconsistent writing of her character that puts me off. It's a problem with the show in general, with all the fluff that pads out the interesting moments diluting some of the potentially interesting characters.

[Skummy]

The new Takeshi's Castle is shit. The games themselves are fine, more or less a straight rehash of the original, but the UK broadcast is dreadful. Jonathan Ross sounds bored out of his mind on the voiceover, and the script is nothing but tired, forced pop culture references. It just lacks any charm whatsoever.

It takes a real effort to take something like Takeshi's Castle and make me find it boring, but they managed it.

[Benjamin]

There are now reports that there is going to be a House of Cards spin-off starring Michael Kelly (the guy who plays Stamper).

This is huge. Considering what a revolutionary show House of Cards was, being the first Netflix original series and basically the show that just about created the habit of binge-watching, to have it end due to this is shocking to me. It was going to end, anyway, but I'm glad they cancelled it after what has come out about Spacey. Can't ever see the man in the same light again, especially after his bullshit of an apology.

[livid]

They're apparently developing multiple spinoffs with ideas for both Stamper and Claire in the mix. I guess that's fine because I would have a slight interest in a Doug Stamper series but why not just move on? Surely they could be using that cash on something else?

[Bobfoc]

I really think House of Cards should have finished by now. I always thought they'd have four series of thirteen episodes, i.e. four suits for a pack of 52 cards, and even that would have been excessive for my liking. The entirety of the original UK series was twelve episodes, and that allowed it to tell the story it needed to tell and get out. The US model seems to pride itself on the much-lauded "binge-watching" phenomenon, and so it makes each series about twice as long as it needs to be.

[Benji]

Gifted and The Deuce - worth watching or should I just delete them from my planner? I have way too much to watch now TV is back and I'm trying to figure out what can get the axe.

[livid]

I haven't seen The Deuce yet but I've heard good things. The Gifted is pretty good, not super compelling yet but it's been good. 

[Mx. Canadian Destroyer]

Me, Myself and I has been cancelled. Eh, it wasn't the best tv show I've ever watched but I really liked it. 

Anybody watching Ghosted? I am really enjoying it so far. Adam Scott and Craig Robinson play off each other really well.

[Benjamin]

4 hours ago, Benji said:

Gifted and The Deuce - worth watching or should I just delete them from my planner? I have way too much to watch now TV is back and I'm trying to figure out what can get the axe.

Do not drop the Deuce. It is absolutely excellent TV. A couple of stumbles here and there, but other than that it's a fascinating and different look at a time and place that people have simply turned into caricature. Plus it was created by the guy who made both Treme and the Wire, so he has a pretty stellar resume to back it up.

The Gifted is okay so far, it has some annoying TV kids at times, but they're still growing and building their world and I've seen enough to have hope that it'll be fun.

If you have it on your queue, drop Inhumans. Fucking waste of time.

2 hours ago, Ms. Canadian Destroyer said:

Me, Myself and I has been cancelled. Eh, it wasn't the best tv show I've ever watched but I really liked it. 

Anybody watching Ghosted? I am really enjoying it so far. Adam Scott and Craig Robinson play off each other really well.

I really, really like Ghosted. It's fit into that comfy spot for me that shows like Last Man on Earth and Fresh Off the Boat have. Perfect awesome casual comedy.

[Monkey D. Lars]

Those bits were Augustus Hills talks to you in the Oz are getting funnier each time. 

[Jimmy]

So pleased that the first episode of Alias Grace is excellent, totally captures the spirit of the book, while adapting to feel filmic. 

[Benji]

Well I'm saving Deuce and Gifted for watching down the line then thanks @Benjamin. Dropped Legends of Tomorrow because it has never particularly entertained me but I was watching out of faith to the Flarrow universe, but since I dropped Arrow and LoT doesn't look like...

Spoiler

... Wentworth Miller (IE: The best part) is coming back permanently...

... then I may as well drop it. Not a bad show particularly (though it had its moments), but certainly not good enough to keep watching.

Opted not to go with season two of Channel Zero either. First season started off okay but fell off a bit, so not really any reason to invest again.

[GhostMachine]

On 10/31/2017 at 07:13, Skummy said:

The new Takeshi's Castle is shit. The games themselves are fine, more or less a straight rehash of the original, but the UK broadcast is dreadful. Jonathan Ross sounds bored out of his mind on the voiceover, and the script is nothing but tired, forced pop culture references. It just lacks any charm whatsoever.

It takes a real effort to take something like Takeshi's Castle and make me find it boring, but they managed it.

If they have Jonathan Ross doing it, it's pretty much guaranteed to be shit. Not a fan of him at all.

 

[Benjamin]

Finished Gunpowder, the BBC One miniseries about the Gunpowder Treason Plot. It was good, not great, a lot of unnecessary moments and scenes that could have been used to better explore the characters, but it was an enjoyable three hours. Kit Harrington was a lot better than anything he's done in Game of Thrones, and Tom Cullen, Liv Tyler and Peter Mullan were all really solid. Biggest props should go to Mark Gatiss as Robert Cecil and Shaun Dooley as William Wade, though, they were incredible. 

[GhostMachine]

I'm hoping BBC America airs Gunpowder, but I'm not holding my breath.

[Benjamin]

HBO is going to air it.

[Skummy]

This is probably an unpopular opinion, but I'm really not feeling Blue Planet 2. It's obviously visually stunning, and there have been some interesting bits and pieces (the fish breaking open a clam in episode one!), but overall it just feels really unstructured and unfocused. "Look at this fish, now look at this fish, now Attenborough's going to talk about how there might be water on the moons of Saturn for some reason".