The TV and Streaming Thread: Where is Ricky Gervais when you need him???

[Amentep]

13 minutes ago, majestic said:

I haven't watched the episode yet, but read the spoiler. I expected nothing, and yet, I was still disappointed. Unbelievable.

I haven't watched the episode yet (or the first season of Picard), but read the spoiler and my first thought was...

Spoiler

Not having seen it, I don't know if this is the tact they take, but since the Borg are always supposed to adapt to their situation and overcome it and if they keep going up against Starfleet and losing (which they have), then they're going to have to question why they can't adapt to overcome and progress.  That in turn would lead the Borg to change their tactics.  If they can't beat Starfleet in their traditional method, then perhaps the adaption they need is to ... make an alliance with the people they haven't ever been able to completely assimilate into the collective? 

I'm making an assumption that the current Borg Queen is not Krieg's Borg Queen AND the assumption that they don't specifically say "yeah, we borg assimilated stuff from the beginning 'cause we were lonely and stuff...  " as that borks (borgs?) my theory. 

So with those assumptions made, the new Borg Queen's loneliness could easily be a key part of the Borg's attempt to a different kind of adaption that will lead to asimilation.  She now has a mission to join the Borg with Starfleet by presenting a sympathetic 'head of state' that the Federation would respond to and be more willing to help.  And thus the Borg are able to assimilate Starfleet in a different way, through an alliance rather than force.

That's assuming that its not a Q thing, anyhow, since I know Q is around.

But not having seen it, perhaps I'm more charitable without context.

[Lexx]

That would have been better writing than what they actually did with the Borg.

[Chairchucker]

The latest season of LEGO Masters Australia recently started, so I've been watching that. It's almost the only reason for free to air TV to exist, imo.

[Amentep]

39 minutes ago, Lexx said:

That would have been better writing than what they actually did with the Borg.

I still like my pre-release Star Trek Into Darkness theory better than the actual movie, too. I probably think too much about these things. 

[ShadySands]

3 hours ago, Amentep said:

I still like my pre-release Star Trek Into Darkness theory better than the actual movie, too. I probably think too much about these things. 

You definitely put more thought into it than the writers do

[majestic]

9 hours ago, kirottu said:

Picard season 2 episode 9

  Reveal hidden contents

Borg being evil was only because Borg Queen was lonely. Jurati showed her the power of friendship and now she's good.

I just can't anymore. 

Now that I've watched the episode, it does remind me a little of the Voyager episode Unity. Except they way they got there was just... yeah. Bad TV show is bad.

[Keyrock]

Brisco County - EP10 Showdown

Brisco returns home where, in the abscence of his deceased father, a ruthless businessman and his posse is terrorizing the area.

This is a Brisco and Bowler side quest episode. It's mostly action and drama with a lot less shenanigans than usual, plus some romance thrown in as Brisco reunites with an old flame. It's a solid but unremarkable episode that would have benefited from a more charismatic villain.

 

[Calax]

This is old, but on the tubes of You. There's a channel called DangerTV that has a bunch of old border shows. The one I've been watching is called CustomsUK where it's about people coming through customs, it's BBC. Although the channel also has probably the most hilariously dramatized show I've ever seen... Canadian Border Security. It's a show about people crossing into Canada, but it's got all the drama of american reality tv... with absolutely no stakes.

[InsaneCommander]

3 hours ago, majestic said:

Now that I've watched the episode, it does remind me a little of the Voyager episode Unity. Except they way they got there was just... yeah. Bad TV show is bad.

This episode was even worse:
 

Spoiler

- Rios stands up to run from the Borg, turns his back to them and is shot

- The Borg soldiers were "the best" from the army or something, had Borg tech and still couldn't do s*** against the good guys

- Lots of people died, but luckily none of them had any descendents or influence at all in history, because they are gonna still save the future. What a coincidence!*

- Soong offers Picard a chance to surrender because "he is an unknown element". What? He knew he had to kill Picard and he had the advantage, why make that offer?

 

*Well, RLM did mention the interbreeding so maybe this actually makes sense?

 

[Lexx]

I recently started watching The Rookie with Nathan Fillion. At first I thought it's actually pretty nice and even binged a couple episodes. But at around half of season 1, I suddenly started to realize that ... it is kinda meh.

First there is always something big going on in every episode. Even when a woman cop goes to the hospital for a blood test, because she got accidentally stung with a heroin needle (of course), she goes to the bathroom and right away stumbles over a visitor trying to kill a patient. Like, there was no reason at all for this scene to exist, but here we are. It's like there can't be 10 minutes in the show without a police officer preventing some crime.

However, what's the most wild about all of this is that ... they shoot so few people. Instead of just gunning criminals down, they run & tackle even criminals with a knife. This is probably what kills the show the most for me, especially since we have stories like this coming out of america pretty much every week.

tl;dr - feels like a weakly written propaganda piece. No idea if I can keep watching that.

Edited April 30, 2022 by Lexx

[Amentep]

1 hour ago, Lexx said:

However, what's the most wild about all of this is that ... they shoot so few people. Instead of just gunning criminals down, they run & tackle even criminals with a knife. This is probably what kills the show the most for me, especially since we have stories like this coming out of america pretty much every week.

Never seen the show, but you have to remember that while the US had 1054 fatal* officer involved shootings in 2021, that was for a population of ~332 million. 

When you factor in LA's population, LAPD would statistically only account for 9 of those. So odds are high Fillion's character wouldn't be shooting and killing people left-and-right.

*couldn't find the number that included non-fatal shootings with officers, so the number of people shot would be higher.

[Lexx]

Yeah, I was thinking about that as well. But it's still such a crass dissonance. The tv show kinda presents a perfect world police where everyone is an expert and it's just so weird if you compare that to the stuff we constantly hear about.

Maybe I should give The Shield a re-watch, for a taste of the other side of it.

Edited April 30, 2022 by Lexx

[Gfted1]

I have a guilty pleasure, Magnum P.I., and my wife and I laugh at the body count on that show. Just last night three people died and Thomas Magnum (P.I.) himself could easily be considered a serial killer. Its all good though because he only kills bad guys so he never has to answer to the law.  

[Lexx]

This is what I like about Justified, by the way. The show looks like Raylan would constantly shoot people, but his actual body count is pretty low compared to other police shows. Also, whenever he actually shot someone, it had serious consequences with internal investigation and so on.

Edited April 30, 2022 by Lexx

[Gromnir]

2 hours ago, Amentep said:

 

*couldn't find the number that included non-fatal shootings with officers, so the number of people shot would be higher.

is not what you wanted, but is relevant even so. 

https://ucr.fbi.gov/crime-in-the-u.s/2019/crime-in-the-u.s.-2019/tables/table-29/table-29.xls

in excess o' 10 million reported police arrests made in the US in 2019. ~500k o' those were suspects of violent crimes. 

is not shown in the chart, but according to other sources such as wapo which attempts to track, the number of lethal police shootings o' unarmed suspects is a relative consistent ~300 per year over the past pre-covid decade. is not a statistic to be proud of, but considering the number o' armed cops making arrests every year, the number o' lethal shootings is in fact representing an extreme rarity.

have also not watched the show in question, but whatever dissonance lexx and others suffer is in part 'cause o' largely misleading portrayals in other tv shows and 'cause o' media distortions. an inability o' many to separate fact from fiction is a problem.

also, speaking more direct to your query:

https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/02/08/a-closer-look-at-police-officers-who-have-fired-their-weapon-on-duty/

"In fact, only about a quarter (27%) of all officers say they have ever fired their service weapon while on the job, according to a separate Pew Research Center survey conducted by the National Police Research Platform."

am admitted surprised the urban v. rural aspect were less less dramatic skewed towards urban police weapon discharges.

HA! Good Fun!

ps please note the fbi stats need be taken with a potential heart stopping quantity of salt. state and local law enforcement report at their discretion and 'ccording to their own standards. the numbers the fbi releases regarding national crime stats and the like is valuable and is a decent starting point but it is always important to keep in mind the voluntary and inconsistent quality o' the reporting by state and local authorities.  

@Lexxthinking justified is more in line with his expectations is part o' the real disconnect. the entire marshal service averages 22 lethal shooting per year, which is actual quite high for law enforcement given marshal service numbers and as such has been the subject o' fed review on multiple occasions. raylen givens, in season one, killed eight people. am gonna guess givens averaged +4 lethal shootings per year, but is only a guess. 

 

 

Edited April 30, 2022 by Gromnir

[Lexx]

I'm not saying Justified is more "real" - it was referring more to the character of Raylan within the show. If I remember right, he is the only (or one of the only ones?) in the marshal service group who has killed someone.

[Gromnir]

am not sure what is the point from lexx regarding raylen. marshal givens represents a cartoony old western notion o' US law enforcement and is nothing 'bout his portrayal which we would use as an example to explain dissonance with a show wherein people is not being killed frequent. tim gutterson, rachel brooks (multiple killings each) and at least a couple unnamed marshals shot and killed suspects in justified, but that is kinda a distraction as they ain't protagonists.

Spoiler

btw, a ms. brooks killing occurred in the chadwick boseman episode, which we has mentioned is one o' our least favorite justified installments. one o' the few episodes in which ms. brooks is getting serious screen time and it involved her killing a suspect, and the future king o' wakanda no less. flex were a horrible character. terrible writing.

speaking o' cartoony westerns, that subject has also been addressed previous on these boards. old western towns, with a small handful o' exceptions, enforced draconian gun control regulations which kept towns relative safe even by modern standards. however, there were a couple o' examples which lived up to the lawless western town mythology, but those were notable exceptions and their existence were fleeting, their names forgotten by all but the most serious history geek. regardless, the not so free and wild west is far removed from the reality in part 'cause o' folks not being able to separate reality from fiction. 

HA! Good Fun!

 

Edited April 30, 2022 by Gromnir

[Lexx]

The point from Lexx about Raylan was that he liked the show because it shows Raylan shooting other people actually causes others around him to react to it and not just calling it a thuesday.

The Rookie is a tv show in which the same 6 police officers heroically prevent crime every 5 minutes, which makes it feel like propaganda.

[kanisatha]

2 hours ago, Gfted1 said:

I have a guilty pleasure, Magnum P.I., and my wife and I laugh at the body count on that show. Just last night three people died and Thomas Magnum (P.I.) himself could easily be considered a serial killer. Its all good though because he only kills bad guys so he never has to answer to the law.  

The current show or the old one?

If the current one, it's my favorite network drama too. And nothing guilty about it. It's the only hour-long show on the networks I now watch, and I love it!!

[Gromnir]

24 minutes ago, Lexx said:

The point from Lexx about Raylan was that he liked the show because it shows Raylan shooting other people actually causes others around him to react to it and not just calling it a thuesday.

 

eight killings from raylen in season one, covering multiple events. eight. the hand wave approach to some kinda review o' his actions is what you find noteworthy? okie dokie.

and US cops, by and large, non-heroic prevent crime all the time. is mostly gonna be extreme mundane stuff. be visible in a neighborhood is an effective crime deterrent, but is hardly episodic tv material. real cop thursdays is gonna be other than dramatic, which we suspect most folks would not need explained 'cause is reality and not a tv show. duh. 

again, ain't seen the show you reference, but recall you focused on the shootings in your post. 

5 hours ago, Lexx said:

However, what's the most wild about all of this is that ... they shoot so few people.

am gonna guess have a cop show where few people is shot is probable one o' the few things accurate 'bout the show, 'cause is freaking tv and we expect unrealistic drama. in a tv show 'bout cops there is gonna be police doing either heroic or villain if you want drama, but absence o' wild west shootings and frequent lethal encounters is not a reason to experience dissonance. 

confusing tv and reality.

HA! Good Fun!

ps again, you focused on shootings, which is why Gromnir did so. we has mentioned many times how we see as a flaw that cop training all too often involves casual violence which translates to many cop encounters turning unnecessarily adversarial and brutal. if you fail attitude test or engage in contempt of cop, is a good chance you suffer. shouldn't be that way. however, the shootings is actually exceptions as 'posed to a norm or commonplace. people is too focused on the shootings, so they ignore the bigger problems.

Edited April 30, 2022 by Gromnir

[ShadySands]

I feel like all cop shows are mostly propaganda and unrealistic. Just like most westerns are about as realistic of a portrayal of their time as a Knight's Tale is of the middle ages.

[Hurlshort]

1 hour ago, ShadySands said:

I feel like all cop shows are mostly propaganda and unrealistic. Just like most westerns are about as realistic of a portrayal of their time as a Knight's Tale is of the middle ages.

Except Reno 911. That is a documentary.

 

Edited April 30, 2022 by Hurlsnot

[Calax]

17 minutes ago, Hurlsnot said:

Except Reno 911. That is a documentary.

 

And Brooklyn 99 (actually one of the reasons they stopped making shows was because they got nervous about the portrayal of Police in the media post George Floyd).

 

The thing that struck me on Cops! (when it was on network tv not Fox Nation) was that they'd start a traffic stop in early afternoon, and by the time everything is said and done there's 15 cops and it's pitch black outside.

[Zoraptor]

11 hours ago, Lexx said:

Yeah, I was thinking about that as well. But it's still such a crass dissonance. The tv show kinda presents a perfect world police where everyone is an expert and it's just so weird if you compare that to the stuff we constantly hear about.

There are two factors at work there- you only tend to hear about police work when it goes wrong. That's especially true if it involves a foreign police force, when it generally has to go spectacularly wrong to get attention.

Second, yeah, police forces have considerable influence in how they're portrayed on TV. Even here* back in the 90s we had a police commissioner order a halt to cooperation with a TV production because it wasn't showing police in a good light (for bonus points, the show was actually a satire sketch show whose biggest crime against police was depicting them as being mildly stupid and utterly humourless; go figure). To this day you still get a massively disproportionate number of plainclothes officers portrayed on NZ TV so that the Commissioner can't pull the cars or uniforms if he doesn't like how they're portrayed.

*where police totally don't frame people for murder** or lie about the circumstances they shoot people in, never happened once. Or at least when we do it doesn't make it out of the country.

**personal favourite, the Police Commissioner going to the funeral of a bent cop (Bruce Hutton) because... one incident of framing someone for murder doesn't outweigh all the good he did as a police officer. To be fair, that was back in the bad old days of, uh hmm, 2013, when a bit of light framing people for murder was still tolerated no doubt things have changed in the intervening 9 years.

[Gfted1]

On 4/30/2022 at 8:30 AM, kanisatha said:

The current show or the old one?

If the current one, it's my favorite network drama too. And nothing guilty about it. It's the only hour-long show on the networks I now watch, and I love it!!

Tbh, both. I came up watching the original and the current one is must-watch tv for me (Ill even watch it live vs. waiting for it to record on the DVR so I can skip the commercials). NuHiggins is pretty easy on the eyes too.

Theyre about to ship, teehee.