What's on the idiot box... Part 3

[Rosbjerg]

Old thread here.

 

 

 

I wonder what the people of Terminus want?

 

Well there was a lot of dead and skinned human carcases. Oh and they did have a BBQ going as well.

 

 

 

 

 

I wonder what the people of Terminus want?

 

Well there was a lot of dead and skinned human carcases. Oh and they did have a BBQ going as well.

 

 

Good point, there was that pile of bones.....you may be right there.

 

Hiro do you watch Mad Men?  If not watch season 1 and see if you like it

 

 

[Hiro Protagonist]

I don't watch it. Mad Men seems like a good show but I'm already watching quite a lot shows at the moment and won't be watching it. I already have a lot of TV shows (something like 200+) that I haven't seen put aside to watch at a later date, and most likely won't get around for some years. But at least I have a lot of entertainment to watch over the next decade.

 

I did recently catch up with Game of Thrones Season 4 over the weekend including watching the latest episode last night. Has been a terrific season. I'm now watching Black Sails at the moment.

[Oerwinde]

Just found out the guy who played Peter Gregory on Silicon Valley died 5 episodes into filming the series. that's a huge blow to the show, as he was definitely one of the better characters

[kgambit]

In no particular order:

 

The Americans - Season 1 - Awesome show about Russian sleeper agents in the US.  It's what Homeland could have been. Just finished Season 1 and can't wait for season 2.

 

Orphan Black -  Season 1 -   Clones!  How Tatiana Maslany can keep all those characters straight is amazing.   Finished Season 1 - season 2 should be out in a month or so.

 

True Blood - Season 6 - After watching the show jump the shark in Season 5, Season 6 got things back on track.  Definite improvement.  If season 6 had been as bad as season 5, I would have given up on the show completely.  

 

The Following Season 1 - James Purefoy is amazing as serial killer Joe Carroll.  Kevin Bacon is equally good as Ryan Hardy the FBI agent in pursuit of Carroll.    Outstanding show. 

[ManifestedISO]

Oh, yeah, baby, one more week until Scotty visits the 24th century in 1080p. 

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=60oK7L39cMc

[Hiro Protagonist]

 

The Americans - Season 1 - Awesome show about Russian sleeper agents in the US.  It's what Homeland could have been. Just finished Season 1 and can't wait for season 2.

 

Orphan Black -  Season 1 -   Clones!  How Tatiana Maslany can keep all those characters straight is amazing.   Finished Season 1 - season 2 should be out in a month or so.

 

 

I recently finished the second season of The Americans. Even better than the first.

 

Also, Orphan Black is a great show. I have all the episodes of Season 2 put aside except for the last which airs this Saturday coming. I'll start watching it in a couple of days.

[Hiro Protagonist]

Doctor Who Series 5, 6 and 7, 50th Anniversary and Christmas Special. Finally got around to finishing the Matt Smith run and have to say Steven Moffatt has ruined the series. He can do one off episodes, but as a show runner, ugh. Can't wait for him to be replaced. They need to get Russell T. Davies back, or someone similar.

 

A few problems I had with the Matt Smith run, all due to the bad writing. Spoilers!

 

 

 

Series 6 is where it started to get hard to watch and was a bit of a chore to get through. The whole Silence, River Song, Astronaut killing the Doctor at the Lake and everything in between storyline came across as a bit of a mess. I think the only episode I enjoyed was the one that wasn't part of the storyline with the Minotaur and prison.

 

Season 7 was also hard to get through as well. The western episode (A Town Called Mercy) was just plain terrible. Other episodes have been similarly mediocre. It did improve with the new companion though with Clara Oswald and the actress. A big improvement over Amy Pond. One of the things I didn't like was the Doctor dropping her off home after nearly episode. I mean wtf? And then the next episode he comes back to Earth and takes her off for an adventure. Just keep her aboard the TARDIS.

 

Also the Doctor's overuse of the sonic screwdriver and it's ability to do anything. Seriously, it can do anything! Destroy enemy guns and weapons, create magical barriers against enemy attacks. Scan and tell him that someone is 5 floors above him.  It's not a sonic screwdriver, it's a magical scanning wand! Harry Potter has been regenerated into Doctor Who. lol. And he pulls it out every five seconds even when it doesn't do anything. I really want to see episodes where the screwdriver takes a backseat and used sparingly. So much lazy writing.

 

And what's with all the prequels and minisodes in Series 7? Including the episodes, I count 24 all up. (And that's not including the 50th Anniversary, Christmas Special and its prequels)

 

And Steven Moffatt turned him into the horny Doctor. Matt Smith's doctor is kissing like there's no tomorrow. It's not needed. It was so much better when it was alluded to with David Tennant. Been a real pity, because Matt Smith seems to be a good Doctor but the material is really letting him down. There were flashes of brilliance in a sea of mediocrity. Really bad writing.

 

There were a lot of other things, but I'll finish for now.

 

 

 

Onto Orphan Black Season 2 now.

[ManifestedISO]

So I'm watching Justice League the cartoon and my finely-tuned video game voice-actor attenuator noticed Wonder Woman is the same as several female characters in Skyrim. I also heard FemShep in there somewhere ...

[Zoraptor]

They need to get Russell T. Davies back, or someone similar.

Oh gods no. One more of his 'power of love saves the universe' deus ex machina and farting aliens and I'll... be mildly annoyed and post about it years later on an internet forum. Doesn't help that I was nowhere near as enamoured of Tennant's doctor (or Rose) as most of the internet.

 

Moffatt's problem's are the same in Who as in Sherlock. His writing starts out seeming subtle and nuanced, with a plan, but ends up looking an incoherent mess once you've seen enough episodes- and that feeling travels back through time to effect episodes I previously liked as well. Too much 'this is going to be awesome', not enough actual awesome. While he was certainly the logical replacement for Davies in retrospect he was far better as a writer than as a show runner. I actually still like his run better than Davies overall, but it has left a feeling that it could have- and should have- been a lot better than it turned out.

[Hiro Protagonist]

I'm the opposite in that I liked the first 4 seasons with Eccleston and Tennant. I found S1-4 to be fairly consistent, with some notable high points. Sure there was the occasional stupid episode, but overall it was miles better than what we've seen with Moffat's Seasons 5-7. And as you've said, one of Moffat's problems is that he's planning something and it ends up as an incoherent mess. That's not good at all. There has been some shockers with Moffat.

 

I was viewing some Eccleston / Tennant and there's been an occasional episode where not once did he use the Sonic Screwdriver or used it sparingly. Instead with Moffat, it's become a magical wand and the Doctor is now a Wizard. It's rare that you see him without it, waving it around. The Doctor just waves the screwdriver, destroys enemy weapons, creates magical barriers and fixes everything and that's just lazy writing. A couple of forums I go to pretty much says the same thing. Moffat has 'muffed' it and there's been an overall decline since S1-4. With Moffat, there was the occasional good episode every now and then, but spoiled by the bad writing overall. There were more memorable episodes with the RTD seasons imo.

[Oerwinde]

I'm with Hiro. Moffat also managed to make River and the Weeping Angels boring by the end of Matt Smith's run. Moffat's ru has some good stuff, The Pandorica episodes I liked, along with the one where Amy was stuck in the faster timestream, but overall I liked the tone and storytelling of the RTD episodes better. I also really liked Torchwood (though Miracle Day was like 6 episodes too long)

[Zoraptor]

Trouble with RTD's run is that if I look at the episode list from those years practically every episode I like is written by... Stephen Moffat. RTD had some good ideas as well as Moffat did but... hmm. Best way I can put it is that while some of Moffat's ideas seem confusingly resolved/ not resolved/ just confusing in retrospect RTD's ideas went south in a rapid and utterly linear fashion. For example, Derek Jacobi as The Master is a brilliant idea, and that was brilliantly played even if the base premise of the episode was moronic (and largely cribbed from Blake's 7). John Simm being smug, ok, chewing scenery and being shouty, not so much. And the denouement, everybody thinking of The Doctor fixing everything was one hundred billionty percent worse than anything that has ever been on TV, ever. Just cringeworthy.

 

Might be a slight exaggeration on the last sentence, but that whole arc just about sums up my feelings towards RTD's run perfectly, promise followed very rapidly by disappointment. Having said that, RTD's involvement did include Children of Earth which was very, very good.

[AGX-17]

I'm with Hiro. Moffat also managed to make River and the Weeping Angels boring by the end of Matt Smith's run. Moffat's ru has some good stuff, The Pandorica episodes I liked, along with the one where Amy was stuck in the faster timestream, but overall I liked the tone and storytelling of the RTD episodes better. I also really liked Torchwood (though Miracle Day was like 6 episodes too long)

 

Torchwood is Davies (hence everyone being ludicrously bi.)

 

Weeping Angels in Blink: Classic, legitimately scary; WA in Matt Smith era: too stupid even to be funny, these plot twists have anal origins (OH EMM GEE NOW THEY LIVE IN YOUR EYEBALLS SO YOU CAN'T OPEN YOUR EYES. ZANY INVERSION OF EXISTING FORMULA, HIJINKS ENSUE!) Those stupid statues should have stayed permanently glaring at each other after the Tennant TARDIS departed. I liked Matt Smith a lot as the Doctor, but the writing in the Moffat era is decidedly lower quality when it's not Neil Gaiman writing The Doctor's Wife (highest point of Smith/Moffat era. Moffat/Smith. Whatever. TARDIS is mai waifu, as they say on the interbutts.)

Edited June 23, 2014 by AGX-17

[Hiro Protagonist]

Finished Season 2 of Orphan Black. All I can say is wow. Started off okay and not really sure where it was going but after a couple of episodes, I was hooked back into the orphan Black universe. Tatiana Maslany just blows my mind with all the characters she's playing.

 

One of my favourite clones now is (Huge Spoiler):

 

 

 

Helena. The singing in the car on the road trip. I love how she pronounces "my babies"... man she's hilarious, even while murdering (which sounds a little disturbing saying that  ).. So many funny moments with her.

 

 

 

Allison was great.

 

Allison confesses to a killing to Vic in rehab, then presents him with knitted gloves with a finger missing. LMAO. The stuff with Vic in the rehab was hilarious too.

 

 

 

So many funny moments in this series and the comedy wasn't overdone. It was just perfect. And the finale.  Bring on Season 3! 

[Amentep]

Problem with the weeping angels is they should never have brought them back.  Like every villain, the more you see them the less interesting they are and they don't really stand up to repeated viewings in the way the "army" villains (Daleks, Cybermen) can.

 

I liked Eccleston and early Tennant (despite RTD's really terrible attempts to inject family drama in the show) but by the end of his run, Tennant wasn't interesting and the stories just felt weak (I pretty much dislike most of the specials, for example, most of which were poorly executed even if the base idea was solid).

 

Moffat era has had some dud stories (A Town Called Mercy may be the worst episode of the new series), but I've liked the characters enough to forgive those.  But again part of his problem is relying on the Angels (and creatures with similar hooks to the Angels) and how poorly they fare in repeated use.  It'd be like Pertwee facing the Daemons every third episode and the Chronovores every fifth.

 

And yes the sonic screwdriver is more of a "get out of jail free" card now than it was when they destroyed it in the 1980s precisely because it became the solution to too many problems.

Edited June 23, 2014 by Amentep

[Hiro Protagonist]

Continuum Season 3. Enjoyed this season but it seemed to be introducing new story lines and not tying up the previous seasons. Overall, I enjoyed it and the finale twist was awesome. Then I read the below news story and can understand why they're introducing new storylines.

 

CONTINUUM CANCEL/RENEW UPDATES

Creator Simon Barry has 7-10 seasons in mind to tell the full Continuum story, while Rachel Nichols confirms story plans for Season 4 are already underway, pre-renewal.

http://seriable.com/continuum-cancelled-renewed-season-4/#ixzz35TGQDrxQ

 

7-10 seasons?!! Holy crap. We're not even halfway through the story. 

[Labadal]

I'm currently watching breaking Bad season 2.

 

This had me burst out laughing for like 5 minutes.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R0HBd_fjfbY

[Hiro Protagonist]

Just watched the pilot episode of The Flash. I'm really going to enjoy this show. Great start to the season. Can see who will be the big bad for the season. But anyone who's watched Arrow would probably know anyway. I already knew when I was watching Arrow so it's no surprise but still very happy. And OMG at that ending with the newspaper. I nearly squealed.  

[Gfted1]

Huh, the pilot episode flew under my radar somehow. Ill have to watch it On Demand when I get home.

[Oerwinde]

Did it actually air or is it the one that was leaked online? Saw the newspaper, fueled speculation that the billionaire high tech vigilante that is going to be in season 3 of Arrow will be batman rather than Blue Beetle as was initially assumed. Personally I'd rather Blue Beetle.

[Amentep]

It was leaked online and - as far as I know - removed to copyright heaven.

[Gfted1]

Wiki says the official premier is scheduled for 7 Oct. Ill forget again by then.

[ManifestedISO]

Evidently the CW gave out copies of the pilot to press at the Long Beach Comic Expo almost a month ago. 

 

http://instagram.com/p/ow_ab7iPdr/

[Hiro Protagonist]

Yep, I watched the promo of the Flash.

 

Crusoe. Watched this over the last couple of days. A bit silly in parts but still okay overall. 

[Raithe]

Heh. Apparently the network is shooting down John Constantine smoking on the show..

 

 

 

Not bad, NBC — not bad at all. Casting John Constantine as a British guy who dresses like John Constantine? Pretty ballsy of you, and by "pretty ballsy" I mean "unusually competent." Unfortunately, producer David S. Goyer has said that Constantine's trademark chain-smoking may not make it to to the TV show, as networks are loathe to show such a disgusting, socially unacceptable practice. In unrelated news, Law & Order SVU once had an episode about a 12-year-old accused of raping and murdering a cancer patient. I don't think anyone smoked though, thank goodness!