The TV Series discussion thread

Good timing, the last episodes should be released tomorrow at last. I've been looking forward to watching them!

Yes, they're slightly longer, that's nice. Not shocking for Europeans since our series are usually close to 1 hour per episode.

The last episode of Season 4 is 2-1/2 hours. :)
 
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The last episode of Season 4 is 2-1/2 hours. :)
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It's a positive byproduct of the "new TV" (non-network, watch it on your own time, no ads, etc) that episodes can be as long as they need to be instead of being throttled at ~22 minutes or ~41 minutes respectively for a half hour or hour program. You routinely see shows that can fluctuate between ~45 minutes to over an hour, depending on the episode. This is extreme even for that, but the principle is the exact same: you don't have to worry about fitting your show in between other shows, so it can be as long as you want it to be.

I'm looking forward to watching those tomorrow/Saturday. That month went by quickly for me.
 
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It's a positive byproduct of the "new TV" (non-network, watch it on your own time, no ads, etc) that episodes can be as long as they need to be instead of being throttled at ~22 minutes or ~41 minutes respectively for a half hour or hour program. You routinely see shows that can fluctuate between ~45 minutes to over an hour, depending on the episode. This is extreme even for that, but the principle is the exact same: you don't have to worry about fitting your show in between other shows, so it can be as long as you want it to be.

I'm looking forward to watching those tomorrow/Saturday. That month went by quickly for me.

Personally, I'd rather they stayed around an hour in length, and I don't like what they did with this season of Stranger things. Except for the occasional binge, I don't have a lot of time in my schedule for TV.

I have no idea how I'm going to watch that final episode. I'll probably have to break it up into two sittings, and that usually takes away from the experience since it's meant to be watched in one go. They could have made these last two episodes into 4 episodes and then the way they split the season would have made more sense imo.
 
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Personally, I'd rather they stayed around an hour in length, and I don't like what they did with this season of Stranger things. Except for the occasional binge, I don't have a lot of time in my schedule for TV.

I have no idea how I'm going to watch that final episode. I'll probably have to break it up into two sittings, and that usually takes away from the experience since it's meant to be watched in one go. They could have made these last two episodes into 4 episodes and then the way they split the season would have made more sense imo.

Fair point, and many viewers are probably used to the standard format and organize their life accordingly.

Should it really be watched in one go though? This show is a continuous story rather than individual episodes and it alternates between the parallel stories, so splitting it shouldn't make much of a difference hopefully, except at the very end. I often do that actually, sometimes even on purpose to avoid the usual cliffhanger between episodes.
 
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Should it really be watched in one go though? This show is a continuous story rather than individual episodes and it alternates between the parallel stories, so splitting it shouldn't make much of a difference hopefully, except at the very end. I often do that actually, sometimes even on purpose to avoid the usual cliffhanger between episodes.

It probably won't make a big difference except for a loss of momentum. I just don't see the point of making it 2-1/2 hours though, because, like you said, it's a continous story arc. I also still don't see the point of releasing these last two episodes a month later as well. I wonder if perhaps NetFlix wanted it that way. Maybe to kickstart viewership for July.
 
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It probably won't make a big difference except for a loss of momentum. I just don't see the point of making it 2-1/2 hours though, because, like you said, it's a continous story arc. I also still don't see the point of releasing these last two episodes a month later as well. I wonder if perhaps NetFlix wanted it that way. Maybe to kickstart viewership for July.

They shouldn't have put the last two episodes apart. I first thought this strange schedule and the longer episodes was a way to show the end of this series but apparently they planned a season 5. The delay is reportedly because they needed more time to finish and didn't want to delay the whole season since it was already late.
 
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I'm good with it. For me that's a shorter movie to watch later tonight, and a longer movie probably for Sunday afternoon.
 
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I found a pretty fun new tv series, which I'd been eyeing for some time, but never tried. The Kominsky Method, with Michael Douglas and Alan Arkin in some fun situations. It's laid back and makes me smile from time to time.

Yeah, my sister keeps telling me I need to watch that one. She thinks it's definitely worth a watch.
 
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I keep meaning to give the Kominsky Method a try, will do that one of these days!

I did watch the first episode of the Old Man last night, and though it approached the overall story either slowly or differently than the novel, the first hour was good. I'll be checking out some more likely during the weekend.
 
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That was a tremendous last four hours of Stranger Things. The best the series has ever been. There was one out of left field choice that I wasn't fully thrilled with, but that's quibbling. I thought episode 8 was great, and then episode 9 blew it out of the water.
 
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I just finished Episode 8, and I thought it was ok.

How Brenner died in such an underwhelming manner. I always thought he was a great villian, and he was one of my favorite characters since the first season. To have him get shot down by some no-name army grunt was just lame.
 
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Personally I found the last 2 episodes of Stranger Things were very good, in the same spirit as the previous ones after the story really started. Overall I liked the whole season and found it was a good improvement after seasons 2 and 3. But I still think that the psychological games with 11 and her classmates at the beginning are unnecessary and overdone.

I remain unconvinced about the Russian branch of the story, I was hoping a surprise at the end where it would all make it worth but no, that's not what I felt. At best it's a fun little distraction for the sake of variety, but it kills the rhythm now and then.

The finale and part in the alternate world is epic, IMO much more so than in previous seasons, even the first one.

The cliffhanger at the end is cruel. They completely departed from the usual pattern, they better not be late with the next season! ;)
 
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I saw a great episode of Orville the other night, maybe the fourth in the current season? The Union President and the leader of the Krill are returning to his homeworld to ratify a treaty, and Orville gets to play escort. Of course when they arrive, a populist has been elected to power and all heck breaks loss, in the end it appears that the Union has at least lost an ally, perhaps gained a new enemy. THIS is the kind of Orville stories I've missed, recently it seems they've focused more on characters than making a coherent tale, and that's usually a recipe for disaster. I hope more episodes like this one are on the menu.
 
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The latest episode of ST: SNW was pretty good. In fact, I think it was easily the best one so far, though that's not really saying much tbh.

They finally put some decent FX to work, and there was actually some real tension in parts. They need more episodes like that.
 
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I saw another decent episode of Orville last night, one where the Topa situation from earlier in the show was progressed. Not at all what I was expecting from the previous episode, yet well done, a great intermixing of both good story and character development.
 
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