New TV Season 2018-19

This article made me realize just how little network television we watch! I haven't even heard of most these shows.

https://www.slashfilm.com/2019-tv-ca...

At least The Rookie isn't on that list.

Gifted and The Passage were the only two on there I intended to watch from what I good I had heard about them. Oh well.

Hah, that list is kinda funny, I didn't recognize a lot of these shows, and check out this wild log line: "A former hostage negotiator takes a job retrieving people who are lost in a virtual reality program." Sorry I missed it?

The Gifted was the only one on that list I watched. However, I was planning on giving Whiskey Cavalier a shot once it was up on streaming &/or I got around to it.

mrlogical wrote:

Hah, that list is kinda funny, I didn't recognize a lot of these shows, and check out this wild log line: "A former hostage negotiator takes a job retrieving people who are lost in a virtual reality program." Sorry I missed it?

We stumbled across that one, and my wife started it. Can’t even remember the name of it now, but it starred Sarah Shahi, and actually wasn’t bad. It’s not not great either, and felt a bit cheesy.

The premise would have made a brilliant Black Mirror, though.

Code Black was actually a really well done medical drama. We liked it because the balance between hospital drama and relationship drama leaned more heavily to the ER, as it’s a thick is that it’s ER has more patients than resources, called a code black, than any hospital in the country. But it had axslee of good actors, including Rob Lowe, Marcia Gay Harden, and the always awesome Luis Guzmán, who is heart of the ER.

I think it just wasn’t different enough for people to add another medical drama to their watchlist. It deserved better, but it’s easy to see why it didn’t catch on.

Whiskey Cavalier, in the end, really had the feel of the old TNT show Leverage, with Timothy Hutton. But no one on the show was even as good an actor as Hutton. Lauren Cohan was pretty fun, and it will be interesting to see where her career path leads now. But, otherwise, it was mostly generic spy ops that ended up causing and solving the team’s personal and interpersonal problems. It got sappier each week.

An interesting thing about Whiskey Cavalier is that the male lead (Scott Foley) isn't just emotional, his high emotional quotient (EQ) is a key part of his character. And in a flip of expected gender norms, the male lead is the emotional one and the female lead (Laura Cohan) is the cold killer.

Of course, they lean way too much on the "will they/won't they" that you'd expect from a show like this.

The only show I heard of from that list is Lethal Weapon because I'm pretty sure my parents were watching that show when I visited them one time.

The only one that sounds like I might check it out is Angie Tribeca. But considering my list of "gotta sees" is growing faster than I have the initiative to watch them, I'm not holding my breath.

Angie Tribeca was basically a modern day Police Squad/Naked Gun. Sad to see it go but it had a good run.

Also, anyone watch the Survivor finale last night? I thought it was actually a fun season, but that finale just absolutely ruined it. The show might have just jumped the shark.

Here's a pretty good analysis of it. It's pretty much what went through my head watching.

https://www.realityblurred.com/reali...

Jayhawker wrote:

Also, anyone watch the Survivor finale last night? I thought it was actually a fun season, but that finale just absolutely ruined it. The show might have just jumped the shark.

Here's a pretty good analysis of it. It's pretty much what went through my head watching.

https://www.realityblurred.com/reali...

Spoiler:

I watched it and I thought it was a fun season to watch, but deeply flawed! The edge of extinction lasted too long. I kept wondering when in the hell they were going to bring someone back and by the time they did, it seemed absurd. However once Chris made it back I thought he played it perfectly. He was the obvious choice for me. I feel sorry for Gavin. In a classic game he would have deserved it the most had Devens not made it to the final three somehow.

That Chernobyl mini-series on HBO is pretty damn good. First two episodes are pretty damn depressing but I'm sure the remaining 3 will make me feel way better about the whole situation.

kuddles wrote:

That Chernobyl mini-series on HBO is pretty damn good. First two episodes are pretty damn depressing but I'm sure the remaining 3 will make me feel way better about the whole situation.

I've been enjoying it as well. I have a fascination with disasters that are various combinations of engineering and user error.

I've read a lot about Chernobyl, and it's also been very accurate when it comes to portraying the events in the plant at the time of the accident, down to who crossed paths with whom in which corridors after the accident. The main invention for the series has been Dr. Ulana Khomyuk, who is a conglomerate of several people.

The trailers for Chernobyl looked melodramatic and sensationalized to me. How does the actual show compare?

I saved all the episodes of Gotham's final season, and watched them all over the course of one week. It was really good! The last episode was especially fun to watch.

beanman101283 wrote:

The trailers for Chernobyl looked melodramatic and sensationalized to me. How does the actual show compare?

Based on the first two episodes...I definitely do not get that impression. I mean, obviously the subject matter ensures there are some dramatic beats that feel pretty dire but that more comes from people slowly discovering exactly how bad the situation is (or on the government's side, trying desperately to deny that reality), not from gratuitous audience manipulation.

beanman101283 wrote:

The trailers for Chernobyl looked melodramatic and sensationalized to me. How does the actual show compare?

It is a drama, not a documentary. The thing is, it was pretty sensational, but the USSR was very secretive at the time. Quite a few people died horribly within a few weeks from radiation poisoning, and thousands more died withing a few years from long-term effects. The alternative could have been far worse.

The personal story surrounding the firefighter is dramatized.

Dr. Ulana Khomyuk is a composite character.

Otherwise, it looks like it's based on the info gathered in The Truth About Chernobyl, and even uses dialogue recorded for Voices from Chernobyl.

Edit: Found this: Chernobyl True Story: What The HBO Miniseries Gets Right (& Changes)

Edit2: Also it's full of British actors, but they're not pulling a Sean Connery and trying to speak Russian, thank $diety. So there is a bit of suspension of disbelief required there.

I like how they decided to not even try to do accents whatsoever.

I posted this in the Netflix thread (I think) but back in the early 2000s the BBC did a docudrama series on ‘surviving disaster’ Chernobyl was one:

I think they did the Mount St Helens eruption in 1980 as well. Possibly the Iranian Embassy siege in London in 82 too.

Rat Boy wrote:

I like how they decided to not even try to do accents whatsoever.

Oh my god, 1000 times yes. It would have been super distracting having a bunch of British people talk with an accent and yet speak English all the time, ironically just highlighting the fakeness of the situation even more. Just embrace the fact that it's a dramatization of events.

The worst are the holocaust movies/TV shows where all the make all the Jews sound American and all the Nazis have the thickest German accents in the world.

Rat Boy wrote:

I like how they decided to not even try to do accents whatsoever.

Just to be clear, I agree with this. It just took me a few minutes to get accustomed to watching a show about Russians speaking with UK accents. I think my American ear might not have noticed had they been American accents, and I didn't realize it was a Sky production going into it.

NBC, in its infinite wisdom, cancelled AP Bio.

Enjoy the last four episodes, cuz that's all we're going to get.

Been enjoying a new sitcom on Comedy Central (UK).

LA To Vegas.

I like the mix of stereotypes like the arrogant Captain or the sweet stripper, one liners are pretty good as well.

Sadly after looking into it turns out there's only one season.

Yeah, I liked it and I'm sad it was cancelled. But I think that one season is worth watching.

Chernobyl is freaking great! Horrifying! But great!

Doom Patrol season final was crazy. Never thought I see what I saw. The things I seen can't be unseen.

Gaald wrote:

Chernobyl is freaking great! Horrifying! But great!

Episode Three is definitely in the "Horrifying" category.

Wasn't sure where they were going with the season final of The Twilight Zone but I liked the ending.

Catch-22 is a very good rendition of the book, would recommend. Some of the scenes felt like they were lifted right out of my visual imagining of the text. I would be open to more single season adaptations like this, it seems like the most appropriate format for most novels. The Night Manager was another good example.

With that scope you can really dig into character and theme. The typical sprawly, meandering approach seems closer to soap opera pretending to be drama than the other way around.

Danjo Olivaw wrote:

Catch-22 is a very good rendition of the book, would recommend. Some of the scenes felt like they were lifted right out of my visual imagining of the text. I would be open to more single season adaptations like this, it seems like the most appropriate format for most novels. The Night Manager was another good example.

With that scope you can really dig into character and theme. The typical sprawly, meandering approach seems closer to soap opera pretending to be drama than the other way around.

Good to hear. I've been looking forward to this. I may need to re-read the book first, though. I last read it 30 years ago. We really like The Night Manager, and the single season story is a really good way to tell a story.

It's why I think the Fargo TV series is one of the best things on TV. That focus on a consistent theme, where the end is in sight from the very beginning, really does help focus on the narrative to enhance the drama instead of relying on it to supply shallow emotion to to keep you watching.

Will NOS4A2 be a single season, too?

The Deadwood movie is available today. I've been rewatching through the series, and I just finished season 2. I had intended to just watch the pilot and the finale to prepare for the movie, but good god, I'd forgotten just how flawlessly incredible that show actually is. No other show has used language as beautifully as Deadwood (or as colorfully), and it's so easy to forget just how hopeful and moving this show is. I can't wait to see the movie, but revisiting this world has been a joy.