The TV Series discussion thread

[danutz_plusplus]

Hungry for more, I see that another mini-series from Flanagan is apparently expected to release this year.

The Fall of the House of Usher (TV Mini Series 2023– ) - IMDb

The Fall of the House of Usher: Created by Mike Flanagan. With Willa Fitzgerald, Carla Gugino, Annabeth Gish, Zach Gilford. An unnamed narrator approaches the house of Usher on a "dull, dark, and soundless day." This house, the estate of his boyhood friend, Roderick Usher is gloomy and mysterious.

www.imdb.com

 

[JFarrell71]

Flanagan is one of those directors who cultivates his own set of actors who appear in lots of his projects. I'm always kind of fascinated by that. Gugino, Gish and Gilford have all worked with him before.

 

[danutz_plusplus]

Yeah, a few directors seem to do that a lot. I'm not sure how I feel about it. It definitely takes me out of the experience, at least the first couple of episodes, until I'm able to detach their identities from the previous movie/series. So, while I understand the practicality of it, it's not the best in terms of immersion, to see the actors and not the characters.

I started another mini-series on Netflix, which looks promising. Maniac, starring Jonah Hill and Emma Stone. Looks pretty intriguing and Hill seems like a solid actor as the main star.

 

[wiretripped]

For me personally, Bly Manor > Hill House > Midnight Mass, but I enjoyed all of them. I'll definitely be watching any other shows by the same director.

 

[Carnifex]

I polished off the fourth series of Cobra Kai last evening, wow, what a solid run these episodes were! Silver has the right sheer demonic presence, I mean just look what he did to Kreese, and then that cameo at the end....wow. Some people really can nail telly and, while this show isn't perfect, it's sure something I enjoy watching. I'm already keen to start on the fifth, though I'll likely put that off for a few days yet. Gotta keep up with Grimm and a few others!

 

[Carnifex]

Last night I fully caught up on Titans, the fourth series has been great, though I do lament how they treat Conner at times. In this outing, however, I do like how they leaned him towards the other parent, bringing forth his mental faculties for a change. With a space in my viewing now, I'll likely gravitate back to Good Fight, I recall pausing that one at an interesting point.

 

[danutz_plusplus]

I saw the third episode from The Last of Us. It was nice, but personally I would've probably preferred focusing on the main plot and not so much on some side characters. In the game they were given very much less screentime, and quite a bit differently than in the series.
But it was a nice flavorful episode. What I don't really get is the extremely positive reception I see on twitter. I'm either missing something or people are really getting themselves in a frenzy over this series.

 

[JFarrell71]

Yeah, a few directors seem to do that a lot. I'm not sure how I feel about it. It definitely takes me out of the experience, at least the first couple of episodes, until I'm able to detach their identities from the previous movie/series. So, while I understand the practicality of it, it's not the best in terms of immersion, to see the actors and not the characters.

Yeah, I can see that, but I don't think it usually bothers me. One of my favorite directors are the Coen Brothers, and there are a bunch of actors who appeared in several of their films (Frances McDormand, John Goodman, John Turturro, Steve Buscemi, etc) and each of their performances were very distinct and memorable to me.

 

[JDR13]

I saw the third episode from The Last of Us. It was nice, but personally I would've probably preferred focusing on the main plot and not so much on some side characters. In the game they were given very much less screentime, and quite a bit differently than in the series.
But it was a nice flavorful episode. What I don't really get is the extremely positive reception I see on twitter. I'm either missing something or people are really getting themselves in a frenzy over this series.

I don't think you're missing anything. I think it's average at best or at least since that first episode. As for the Twitter response, who knows? Perhaps a certain crowd getting excited over how woke it is?

Regarding last night's episode, there was only one scene that I found remotely interesting.

Spoiler

When Ellie discovered that infected trapped under the rubble but still alive.

 

[danutz_plusplus]

I don't think you're missing anything. I think it's average at best or at least since that first episode. As for the Twitter response, who knows? Perhaps a certain crowd getting excited over how woke it is?

Now that's way too negative for me. It's way above average. I'd put the episode at an 8 or 8.5. And the whole series at a 9.
But I can't say this recent episode is my favorite, as a lot of people are saying. That position is still reserved for the first episode.
I'm not overflowing with praise. In part because I'm too familiar with it, and it's hard for it to have emotional gut-punches.
So the most I can expect it to be technically solid, not to stray too much from the material and maybe have some nice strays like this one. But no stray will probably be anything too remarkable.

 

[Ripper]

I've been enjoying Welcome to Wrexham. Some of you might know that Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney took over Wrexham FC, and this is the documentary about how it's going. They've made themselves very popular with the fans, and they are keen to recognise that what they're doing could be seen as a couple of Hollywood millionaires coming over to play Ted Lasso, and to make it clear they don't take themselves seriously, but the club very seriously indeed.

I found the trailer amusing.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2g3m9p35cDo

 

[JDR13]

Now that's way too negative for me. It's way above average. I'd put the episode at an 8 or 8.5. And the whole series at a 9.
But I can't say this recent episode is my favorite, as a lot of people are saying. That position is still reserved for the first episode.
I'm not overflowing with praise. In part because I'm too familiar with it, and it's hard for it to have emotional gut-punches.
So the most I can expect it to be technically solid, not to stray too much from the material and maybe have some nice strays like this one. But no stray will probably be anything too remarkable.

We have very different rating systems if you think it's a 9/10. For me, something has to be really great to be a 9 on a scale of 1-10. There are probably around 10 or so shows I've seen in my entire life that I would rate that high, and TLoU isn't in that tier.

Not saying I don't think it's good. It is, but I think the hype it's getting has a lot to do with how much fans loved the game and the fact that it's a video game to TV adaption that isn't terrible like we were accustomed to.

 

[danutz_plusplus]

We have very different rating systems if you think it's a 9/10. For me, something has to be really great to be a 9 on a scale of 1-10. There are probably around 10 or so shows I've seen in my entire life that I would rate that high, and TLoU isn't in that tier.

Not saying I don't think it's good. It is, but I think the hype it's getting has a lot to do with how much fans loved the game and the fact that it's a video game to TV adaption that isn't terrible like we were accustomed to.

I can't really judge it as just a tv show, separate from the game. So I'm basically merging the score of the game with the tv show, as long as they keep being faithful, with solid acting and solid production values.
It only feels fair to me, since I don't think it would be honest to take it down a few points just because I'm not really getting as many or as powerful emotional strokes, as I did in the game, since I'm so familiar with it.
But it's doing its best so far to at least keep up with the game and not ruin anything, and even flesh out certain areas.

At least so far, technically it's very solid, the acting and characters are great and very faithful to the game. My only significant minuses are the fact that I'm just too familiar with what's happening.
But even so, moments like the most heartbreaking one in episode one still got me to tears, even after having seen that scene in the game for I don't know how many times. So, that's what I'm hoping, that they still have moments like that.

In other updates, I'm onto ep 5 of Maniac. Pretty interesting stuff. It's got strong Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind vibes, and also has an interesting view onto the future of humanity. I find hilarious, the idea of instead of paying for certain small stuff (like buying a train ticket, or a meal, etc) you have the option to basically have a walking advertising person talk your ear off about whatever the company he's advertising for. A funny dystopic view of the future.

 

[bjon045]

We have very different rating systems if you think it's a 9/10. For me, something has to be really great to be a 9 on a scale of 1-10. There are probably around 10 or so shows I've seen in my entire life that I would rate that high, and TLoU isn't in that tier.

Not saying I don't think it's good. It is, but I think the hype it's getting has a lot to do with how much fans loved the game and the fact that it's a video game to TV adaption that isn't terrible like we were accustomed to.

I think I score similar to you. Whether it be a video game, book or movie, a 9 is something incredibly special and it sits right at the far end of the bell curve for me. I might encounter one 9 a year if I am lucky. I reserve 10's for life changing type events. A 10 is a TV series that would have basically no flaws and I don't think I can think of a single TV series that I could apply that to the entire run except for maybe Band of Brothers and that's only because it had such a short run. There are a few seaons I can think of that would earn a 10 - seasons 4&5 of Star Trek TNG, season 1 of Game of Thrones and I remember a season of the Wire that was pretty unbeatable. There is a more but I can't easily rattle off a list. Games that would make a 10 for me would be things like Planescape Torment, BG2 and Ultima 7 (and a handful more). It's pretty rare that I can't think of something that could be improved - a 10 is perfection.

In these Woke times we live in something can get a 7-8 score by the media/critics by just having a diverse cast with a female lead and story that covers one of the current on-trend agenda's. Quality doesn't seem to matter as much as it used to - although of course there are still some really good shows/movies/games being created as well luckily. These days I find I have to use altenative media (like this site) to get decent recommendations so I don't get flooded with lots of mediocre content masquerading as a 7 or 8.

 

[danutz_plusplus]

removed

 

[Hastar]

You guys are very jaded. Episode 3 is going to win major awards next year. Mark it down, you heard it here first. The acting was incredible and you have two actors at the top of their game.
People like to shit on things because they perceive it as woke. It was just a damn good story.

 

[Carnifex]

I caught episode three of Last of Us last night and I completely enjoyed it. Certainly not what I was expecting and I know piss-all about the game, have never played it and likely never will, yet I know good tell/film when I see it, and that was over a solid hour of great stuff. I'm still irked that one of the actors is out yet, based on the three episodes I've seen to date, I'm sticking with it.

 

[Carnifex]

I'm keeping up with Good Fight, caught episode seven of series five last night, and I'm enjoying the current subjects, most notably that wacky judge played so well by Mandy Patinkin. I've enjoyed him since Ragtime and Yentl, seeing him on the screen always brings joy. I do, however, miss some of the other cast that seem to have been written out of the show for this series, not sure why yet I hope they're back later in some form.

 

[JDR13]

Into Season 3 of Preacher now. I'm not sure why I didn't finish this series the first time around. It's really great.

 

[Hastar]

Into Season 3 of Preacher now. I'm not sure why I didn't finish this series the first time around. It's really great.

I enjoyed it up until the last season. Ran out of steam for me. How many seasons were there?