New TV Season 2017-18

IIRC I found the pilot of Major Crimes to be so laughably bad I jumped ship right then and there and never watched another minute.

That's the Mary McDonnell one right?

If so, definitely the one I'm thinking of.

Yes, that's the one. Can't remember the pilot of Major Crimes specifically, but I like that the show addressed specifically the issues with Brenda blatantly breaking so many rules and laws to close cases by changing the focus from closing cases to following rules.

Some of the Rusty stuff can be heavy handed, but they really improved his story over the course of the show.

By the way, Better Things should be getting so much more attention than it does. One the one hand, Louis CK's involvement is kind of a bummer now. On the other, it makes the show even more necessary.

The first season is pretty great. Butt feels like they really hit their stride in the second season, trusting the viewers to fill in the blanks. Many scenes have no dialogue, some episodes, or even scenes, just end without any resolution, yet that very fact says so much more. It has quietly become one of my wife's and my favorite shows ever. It just kind of sneaks up on you.

Rolling Stone: 20 Best TV Shows of 2017

14. 'Better Things' (FX)
"The worst part about divorce is being asked about it all the time," Pamela Adlon says in the revelatory second season of her scathing comedy. "I mean, it's amazing how nobody minds bringing it up – like I wanna talk about it? I'm fighting moment to moment just to feel normal." Better Things is a fight where you want to be on her side, even if normal is nowhere in sight. Adlon stars as a single mom and actress grappling with her daughters, her mom, her absent ex and the usual glut of useless men. The episode where she drops dozens of rapid-fire "no” attack on the same guy ("This is a very no") felt like an epitaph for the whole year. The comedian directed every episode herself; she also wrote most of them with her longtime friend and collaborator, Louis C.K. – whose behind-the-scenes creative presence just adds sad resonance to all her encounters with soul-crushingly disappointing men.

We finally watched Happy and Knightfall. Enjoyed both.

Knightfall is kind of a cross of The Bastard Executioner (or Vikings I guess, haven't caught that one) with the The Da Vinci Code. We're digging it so far.

Happy is, by and far, my favorite new show. It is deliciously depraved, incredibly violent, and trippy. I love it.

Just watched episode 1 of Happy. Very violent indeed and crass. The first two episodes are on SyFy official youtube channel. I'm not sure how many episodes they are planning to put up there. The show is nuts to the extreme.

Just finished Shut Eye on Hulu.

It started to dragged a little but it ended up with another surprise.

Jun-Bi!!

I'm still pleasantly surprised by Future Man on Hulu. It has enough laugh and/or shock moments to keep things interesting, but tries to stay grounded by using the main character as a counter to the other two wildcards.

Also, Jean-Claude Van Johnson on Amazon! I'm trying to keep my hopes in check, but it's not going well...

Van Helsing has kind of jump the shark. It is pretty clear the current story isn't what was originally planned. I'm wondering if they are planning to cut the main actress. She hasn't been in half of them and they have new hot girl.

Knightfall is pretty good. Its all about the holy grail, templar knights, and screwing.

So many shows, I think I might have to drop the ones that aren't top tier.

dewalist wrote:

Also, Jean-Claude Van Johnson on Amazon! I'm trying to keep my hopes in check, but it's not going well...

Having watched it all the way through, I really liked it. It's got an offbeat charm, much like the film JCVD, and reminded me that he can actually act when called to.

And that Timecop is still better than Looper.

Kurrelgyre wrote:
dewalist wrote:

Also, Jean-Claude Van Johnson on Amazon! I'm trying to keep my hopes in check, but it's not going well...

Having watched it all the way through, I really liked it. It's got an offbeat charm, much like the film JCVD, and reminded me that he can actually act when called to.

And that Timecop is still better than Looper.

Now don't start getting all kinds of crazy now!

Bad News: I've been knocked out with a broken foot.

Good News: TV! Yeah!

I'm still loving Outlander. One of the best shows on right now. It's such a beautiful show and the plot never slows down.

Watched all four seasons of You're the Worst and I loved it. If your unfamiliar with it, I call it: Unmarried with No Children. It's great if you like your humor dark and sarcastic. It also handles serious topics really well, like PTSD and Depression. Best new find of the year and it snuck in right before the buzzer!

I'm more on the fence with Ten Days in the Valley. On the one hand its pretty decent, but some of the plot twists are a little silly. It seems like its trying to do too much. That said I don't regret watching it, I'd just prioritize it below almost everything else. I thought The Sinner or The Bridge were much better.

I used to love Two Broke Girls for irreverent, silly humor. Now I've got The Mick and it is heads and shoulders better. The only thing that could make this show better is if they brought Kat Dennings into the cast.

I also caught up on Lucifer. Still loving the show. They managed to not kill the premise like Sleepy Hollow did. A smart, slick, polished cop show with an amusing twist.

Last and definitely least is Andromeda. I don't know how I missed this campy Sci-fi show when it was on TV. But after watching the first season I don't mind that I did. Farscape did this much, much, much better. I mainly watch the show for the female lead, Lisa Ryder, who was in one of my all time favorite shows Forever Knight. But, we all need a campy sci-fi show in our lives. Amirite?

Speaking of time traveling, I had started watching Netflix's Travelers show when it came out, watched maybe a couple of episodes, then drifted off to something else new/shiny. I liked it, but didn't stick with it.

Over the holiday, I watched season one, then started season 2 that just came out.

Turns out I really like this show.

My wife and I just binged the entire second season in two days. We loved it. It better get a third season. I didn't end on a cliff hanger, per say, but there is lots of story left to tell.

I'm glad to get this good word of mouth on Travelers, because I've watched the S1 trailer a couple times and while the concept is cool, the trailer doesn't do that much for me. Y'all are going to get me to try the pilot.

The first season of "Travelers" was really good. I haven't started the second season yet.

I enjoyed the 1st season more, the 2nd seemed to lack direction.

X-Files is off to a good start. Chris Carter actually did a great job with this mythology episode.

Djinn wrote:

X-Files is off to a good start. Chris Carter actually did a great job with this mythology episode.

Really? It felt like I was watching a book on tape.

I finished season 2 of "Travellers". Enjoyed the season a lot, maybe more than the first one, especially episode 10. However, I did have a problem with one episode:

Spoiler:

In 17 Minutes the team is tasked with ensuring the recovery of a meteorite with a mineral critical in creating the director.

After that fails, the director retries until the desired outcome is achieved. But....how is it that failing the first attempt doesn't result in the timeline changing such that either a.)there is no director in the future, or b.) the director was able to be constructed without the meteorite?

Either of those outcomes should mean that there's no need to desperately repeat the mission until a succesful outcome is achieved.

Djinn wrote:

X-Files is off to a good start. Chris Carter actually did a great job with this mythology episode.

Won't get fooled again.

slazev wrote:
Djinn wrote:

X-Files is off to a good start. Chris Carter actually did a great job with this mythology episode.

Won't get fooled again.

I thought it was a decent attempt at trying to tie up some of the mess that is the X-files mythology, but goddam there were elements of the episode that were just horrible, like “worst of the series” horrible. Duchovny had an extremely phoned-in voiceover that took up way too much time, how they dealt with the cliffhanger from last season was extremely cheap, and the episode’s twist was problematic at best.
I’m going to keep watching but at this point I think it’s because I’ve suffered through so much crap in the last few seasons I can’t let the show defeat me now.

Accept defeat and find peace.
Clumber wrote:

I finished season 2 of "Travellers". Enjoyed the season a lot, maybe more than the first one, especially episode 10. However, I did have a problem with one episode:

Spoiler:

In 17 Minutes the team is tasked with ensuring the recovery of a meteorite with a mineral critical in creating the director.

After that fails, the director retries until the desired outcome is achieved. But....how is it that failing the first attempt doesn't result in the timeline changing such that either a.)there is no director in the future, or b.) the director was able to be constructed without the meteorite?

Either of those outcomes should mean that there's no need to desperately repeat the mission until a succesful outcome is achieved.

IMAGE(http://ic.pics.livejournal.com/sansanotp/61112866/5108/5108_900.jpg)

what bothered me was;

Spoiler:

the trucker gets overwritten because the Director concluded either of the skydivers would be insufficient to successfully warn Mac and team.

A. Director should have let the skydivers go on their merry way.
B. I thought the Director would not overwrite someone unless their death was a certainty. The trucker should be off-limits.

Hobbes2099 wrote:
Clumber wrote:

I finished season 2 of "Travellers". Enjoyed the season a lot, maybe more than the first one, especially episode 10. However, I did have a problem with one episode:

Spoiler:

In 17 Minutes the team is tasked with ensuring the recovery of a meteorite with a mineral critical in creating the director.

After that fails, the director retries until the desired outcome is achieved. But....how is it that failing the first attempt doesn't result in the timeline changing such that either a.)there is no director in the future, or b.) the director was able to be constructed without the meteorite?

Either of those outcomes should mean that there's no need to desperately repeat the mission until a succesful outcome is achieved.

IMAGE(http://ic.pics.livejournal.com/sansanotp/61112866/5108/5108_900.jpg)

what bothered me was;

Spoiler:

the trucker gets overwritten because the Director concluded either of the skydivers would be insufficient to successfully warn Mac and team.

A. Director should have let the skydivers go on their merry way.
B. I thought the Director would not overwrite someone unless their death was a certainty. The trucker should be off-limits.

Spoiler:

That is definitely not try. At this point there have been many people overwritten that weren't slated to die. For normal overwrite only a recorded death is needed. For a extreme case like this anyone at a known location can be overwritten.

I just finished season 2 of Travelers in just a couple of days and I had a lot of fun watching it. Especially the season finale left things at a point that makes it possible for season 3 to move into different directions.

Hobbes2099 wrote:

what bothered me was;

Spoiler:

the trucker gets overwritten because the Director concluded either of the skydivers would be insufficient to successfully warn Mac and team.

A. Director should have let the skydivers go on their merry way.
B. I thought the Director would not overwrite someone unless their death was a certainty. The trucker should be off-limits.

Spoiler:

A. Ideally, yes. But the first traveler immediately called MacLaren and then his traveler handler at the FBI and declared an Alpha Protocol. That means "do whatever it takes."

What I don't know is why the Director picked the skydivers out of everyone in the area (perhaps because the woman was wearing a phone and could be tracked...though Mac didn't have a signal). That and who knows how the Director overcame the not-so-insignificant problem of transferring a consciousness into a body that was free falling.

B. The trucker was shot and killed during the eighth attempt. That became the new surviving timeline and gave the Director a known point/time of death that was closer to Mac and the team than the skydivers.

OG_slinger wrote:
Hobbes2099 wrote:

what bothered me was;

Spoiler:

the trucker gets overwritten because the Director concluded either of the skydivers would be insufficient to successfully warn Mac and team.

A. Director should have let the skydivers go on their merry way.
B. I thought the Director would not overwrite someone unless their death was a certainty. The trucker should be off-limits.

Spoiler:

A. Ideally, yes. But the first traveler immediately called MacLaren and then his traveler handler at the FBI and declared an Alpha Protocol. That means "do whatever it takes."

What I don't know is why the Director picked the skydivers out of everyone in the area (perhaps because the woman was wearing a phone and could be tracked...though Mac didn't have a signal). That and who knows how the Director overcame the not-so-insignificant problem of transferring a consciousness into a body that was free falling.

B. The trucker was shot and killed during the eighth attempt. That became the new surviving timeline and gave the Director a known point/time of death that was closer to Mac and the team than the skydivers.

Spoiler:

The skydivers were picked because they were the closes people the director knew about in the area. A cell signal isn't needed at the time of date. The director only needs a location and time sooner or later. At some point their phones would give off a signal and once that happens the director will know where they were. It is no difference than how google maps works now. My GPS still works even if there is no cell service. A recording of where I have been and at what time I was there can be uploaded when cell service is restored.

We don't know if a moving target is any more difficult than a target not in motion. All we know is time and location is needed and the director had that.

Baron Of Hell wrote:
Spoiler:

We don't know if a moving target is any more difficult than a target not in motion. All we know is time and location is needed and the director had that.

Spoiler:

It's been a while since I binged season one, but I don't remember anyone getting overwritten that wasn't essentially sitting still. Not only that, but the process doesn't seem to be instantaneous and instead seems to take several seconds.

In the last episode, when everyone was being held by Ingram, Grace unwittingly talked about how complicated the entire process was.

Oh, please. Like time travel is actually possible? Okay, maybe you could send information in the form of some coherent energy across space-time, but to calculate an exact position would require an almost impossible level of accuracy, not to mention nearly a billion zettaflops of processing power. And then to unpack it, without entropy in a biological...

That's why I questioned overwriting the skydivers. The Director would need to know their exact position throughout the entire process, which would be quite the feat.

But it's a popcorn sci-fi show and one involving time travel. I don't expect it to hold up under the intense scrutiny of multiple viewings. It sort of makes sense in the moment and that's enough.

Black Lightning pilot episode was pretty good. I could have done without the black terrorism in the form of gangs. I don't think BL is a Luke Cage type of hero where it makes more sense. I don't recall any white superheros dealing with the same thing. So to me it comes off more of a stereotype where any show with a black protagonist has to center around drugs and gangs.

I did however like seeing BL dealing with racism. This is something I liked in Legends of Tomorrow.

I think the writing wasn't on point and I hope it gets better. The special effects and fight scenes were all pretty good.

Overall good show but wish they went with Static Shock instead.

Latest episode of Vikings was a bit of a mess. One relationship happen really fast and came out of the blue. A major character gets taken out in a odd way but it happens. The episode jumped around to much and had little focus.

The Gifted final was good. The evil outfit was a odd choice. Mind control maybe or bad fashion sense.

The Runaways final was also good. Loved when everyone got off the floor and did the dinosaur.