New TV Season 2019-20

Madame Secretary used to be really good.

Now it feels like it's being written by a Trump supporter.

The BBCs The War of the Worlds adaptation is off to a very good start. Setting it in the early 1900s is a good move (the cast reflect the bewilderment at encountering such alien technology well) and while it lacks some scope of the cinematic version with having to scale for TV it works well. The tripod design works especially well in comparison to Steve Spielberg’s effort.

They have add a very strong female character with a distinctly 21st century plotline. While that’s perfectly justifiable and understandable (and handled rather well), it does feel very much like it’s blundered into the show from a different story all together. It’ll be interesting to see how much that’s lip service to more modern considerations, or how much it integrates into the rest of the series.

Well The War of the Worlds ending in a extremely depressing damp squib to be honest. It very much went for the ‘add depressing plotline to depressing atmosphere and then add even more depressing stuff before giving a tiny little modicum of hope right at the end’ angle, and also felt the need to patronise it’s audience like they were all 5 years so that, you know, H G Wells story was all about the evils of colonialism. There are 2 excruciatingly unnecessary speeches about that at the end which undermine the substantive changes to the story (which were fine) and the alteration to lead characters. All in all, I was a little disappointed.

Infinitely better, but also suffering slightly from the need to over explain everything to it’s viewers His Dark Materials continues to be rather excellent. It’s the sort of Sunday night fare that the BBC used to excel at, and I haven’t seen from then since they did their Narnia stuff in the late 80s/early 90s.

I dumped War of the Worlds, half way through the second episode. The flash forwards really took me out of it.

Watched season one of Impulse and liked it. The show probably needs a rape warning because most of the show deals the fallout of a attempted rape. Very emotional at times that might trigger someone. I thought it was just going to be another person with powers show but that is oddly less than half the show or at least less than half of the first season.

Baron Of Hell wrote:

Watched season one of Impulse and liked it. The show probably needs a rape warning because most of the show deals the fallout of a attempted rape. Very emotional at times that might trigger someone. I thought it was just going to be another person with powers show but that is oddly less than half the show or at least less than half of the first season.

Yeah I really liked season 1. I could have sworn the show did come with a warning at the beginning of the episodes. I am looking forward to watching Season 2!

Watchmen I just watched the most recent episode and I am loving it! So f*cking good!

Quintin_Stone wrote:

Madame Secretary used to be really good.

Now it feels like it's being written by a Trump supporter.

This comment caught me completely by surprise.

The wife and I have been long-time fans of the show. I think the ideas was for her to run for president from the very beginning. The wife and I really liked how the show balanced i) gov/work drama, ii) kids-will-be-kids/parental drama and, iii) a healthy power couple dynamics. I feel the show didn't excel in any in particular, but keeping all three interesting is what kept the wife and I tuning in every Sunday.

This 6th and final season feels rushed; as if the the showrunners wanted to cross off every item on their bucket list. Some topics feel too on the nose re Trump and this sad reality we live in, but I think ever since Trump, pretty much everything feels like too on the nose re him.

Overall, the season feels preachy; "this is how a real President would have handled this!" or "see how partisanship is destroying this country!!?!??!" Then again, everything feels like that since Trump.

Madam Secretary has always riffed on current events, and has been trolling Trump since he got in office.

For various reasons, we haven’t been watching this season, deciding to just binge it later. But I caught a clip of the current storyline, and when I mentioned it to Teresa, we just noped right out.

They are probably handling it fine, as we have liked it through last season, but really don’t feel like enduring that.

This final season of Mr. Robot, on the other hand, has been fantastic. Still not sure the “twist” for this season is what I would have dropped into the middle of a global conspiracy. It’s working, but it was enough of a bomb that I almost wondered if the entire story arc would get dropped in favor of just dealing with that fallout.

But there has been some really poignant scenes, some abject horror, and a couple of really good heist type episodes. And there was one episode that goes from everything is lost to all the good guys win in a way that makes you want to cheer.

Sam Esmail is doing a little of the same thing Bryan Fuller did with the last season of Hannibal, which is to go overboard on the artistic aesthetics (although Mr Robot’s aesthetics is more urban and grungy) and the intellectual commentary.

It’s worth catching up on to see this play out.

Jayhawker wrote:

Madam Secretary has always riffed on current events, and has been trolling Trump since he got in office.

For various reasons, we haven’t been watching this season, deciding to just binge it later. But I caught a clip of the current storyline, and when I mentioned it to Teresa, we just noped right out.

They are probably handling it fine, as we have liked it through last season, but really don’t feel like enduring that.

removing all Mr Robot text w/o reading because I'm still halfway through last season.

The wife and I keep fantasizing about a Madam President a lá West Wing.

On the other hand, we've started seeing Apple+'s The Morning Show. We're up to Episode 3 so far and we're very intrigued. Even though the topics were different, I think The Morning Show was the show Sorkin's The Newsroom wanted to be.

Delicate subject ahead; please tell me in what thread to properly discuss this, as I don't want to derail this thread. And also, specific The Morning Show plot lines, so spoilers:

Spoiler:

I am loving how they're handing the #MeToo interpreation of Carell's character. That last scene with Martin Short and how slowly he goes from indignant victim to realizing how he's surrounding himself with the wrong crowd is brilliant.

So there are two War of the Worlds series that came out this year, wild. One is on the BBC and one is on another station. Kind odd how they go between french and english.

Castle Rock season 2 was great. I was a little confused on the last episode because it seemed to wrap up in the first half of the show. Wasn't sure where they were going for the second half but it ended on a high note.

This season of Survivor is the biggest sh*t show. It’s been a master class on how not to handle sexual harassment and bullying, with a lost a crappy consequences for several people besides the accused.

And then, after letting the douche stay in the show, the woman that reported him was voted out in a blind side made possible by the accusations. The victim debated trying to vote the douche out, or if it was better for her game not to. One woman stepped up and rallied the other women to vote the douche out. Two of those women embellished their dtiries about being touched by the douche, and then used this as a distraction to get the accuser voted out.

Then, as it happened to be a double episode, which CBS seemed to be trying to make it their #metoo moment, a long discussion and tribal council led to the man who made a strong case for believing women, was voted out. Worse, since the victim was voted out before, she got to sit silently and watch this play out. It was grotesque.

Then we, the viewers, got treated to the douche becoming even more cocky and douchie. Last week, in the family visit episode, CBS thrust his 13-year-old son into the middle of this.

Last night’s episode then ended about 5 minutes early. but the last scene was the host coming to camp to tell the contestants that the douche had been removed from the game. Then a message told viewers that another incident happened off camera involving a crew member. So, THAT’S when CBS decided to do its job.

Mind you, while contestants had to discuss who to believe and all that bullsh*t, CBS showed video evidence of his actions. This was not a he said/she said situation.

Before the victim was voted out, she was asked by production if she wanted them to step in, and she said she would be fine. The producer asked a contestant with a million dollars on the line to make the call, instead of choosing to protect her themselves.

This overshadowed some really toxic bullying of another woman whose offense is not being a very good player. Last week saw a woman rallying her tribe to vote out someone, emphasizing how on the bottom she feels by saying that she is like that bullied player, only she is actually fun to be around. The bullied player was among those she was rallying. The bullied player was voted out.

It’s been week after week of players we like falling victim to assholes. Last night saw another favorite voted out, only to have the douche taken out of the game right after.

Latest rumors are that the finale will be taped instead of live this year. The hope is that Probst and CBS address their failures, but looks like they are making sure they control the message and hide any protests and comments they don’t like.

This season started out as one of the more diverse and fun casts. Then all of this.

Yeah this season has been a giant mess, and I agree terribly handled. Unf*cking believable.

Jayhawker wrote:

Madam Secretary has always riffed on current events, and has been trolling Trump since he got in office.

For various reasons, we haven’t been watching this season, deciding to just binge it later. But I caught a clip of the current storyline, and when I mentioned it to Teresa, we just noped right out.

They are probably handling it fine, as we have liked it through last season, but really don’t feel like enduring that.

That storyline finally wrapped up December 1st. It was grueling to sit through because

Spoiler:

...the impeachment she faced was every lie Trump has ever spoken about his own impeachment. Intentional or not, the show seemed to be saying, "See what Trump is suffering through?" It wasn't just hard to watch because her opponents were so corrupt and dishonest, it was hard to watch because of what it seemed to be implying about the real world.

Watching the new season of The Runaways. I feel like I missed a season or two. Might just drop it since it was canceled and probably doesn't have a clean ending.

SNL with Eddie Murphy, live coast to coast!

Tonight is the two hour season finale of Mr. Robot. This has felt like a master class in final seasons, balancing the closing of storylines, new reveals, and artistic touches. The stylistic shots and surrealism kind of reminded me of Hannibal's, last season, but instead of making it beautiful, it’s a world breaking down, making the ugly interesting.

My favorite episode was done more like a stage play, with main story of the episode set in one location over one day with the story Becoming darker as day turns to night.

It’s worth hopping back on if you hopped off. The craziness is paying off this season in spades.

IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/pyF0h26.jpg)

I've started watching from the beginning again, with the hopes that by the time I'm done, it'll be close to Season 4 being on Prime Video.

I can tell you that after last night, the payoff is worth it. The entire 4th season is a perfect ending to the story.

I know that anytime a twist is used in storytelling that a lot of people will spend time worrying about what they saw coming and didn’t. I’d say that every season has had some great twists, and the 4th is loaded, but they all serve the story perfectly.

You could say that Esmail is even commenting on the use of twists in fiction by using them as part of the story instead of shock factor.

Got around to finishing the last season of Legion. I still liked it for how much more interesting it is than most superhero stuff (It'll be depressing if Disney ruins the F/X output) but I also felt it was way more generic than I was hoping.

Spoiler:

I feel like we needed way more time spent with Farouk if I was supposed to buy his complete change of heart, and I'm starting to really get sick of time loop stories, especially one like this where there seems to be no consequences at the end.

Jayhawker wrote:

You could say that Esmail is even commenting on the use of twists in fiction by using them as part of the story instead of shock factor.

Well, there is a scene in the end of Season 1 that makes way more sense now that I'm watching it with the knowledge of a twist in Season 3.

Also, one of my favourite twists is in Homecoming because it's anticlimactic but you don't feel cheated.

Spoiler:

You feel like everything must be building up to a horrible violent incident because of what is written on the main characters' dismissal forms, but it turns out the ending is much happier and the dismissal forms were just randomly written by a staff member to hide what happened.

His Dark Materials finished up here in the UK on Sunday. It certainly doesn't pull any punches at the end

Spoiler:

Roger most certainly dies at the hands of Lord Asriel

but it was all handled really well, and absolutely put Pullman's opinions on organised religion front and centre of the plot. It was really excellent - the actors portraying Lyra and Will were both superb and more than capable of holding their own against their more distinguished adult alumni.

Thoroughly recommended. Very much looking forward to the second season next year

The ending to Mr. Robot was fantastic!

I have re-watched S1E1, and it is almost surreal how well this works out.

This series is a masterpiece. The finale ties it all together so well.

I have been watching so much TV this holiday season. I tore through The Witcher, the most recent season of Lost in Space, and The Expanse.

The Witcher I ended up really enjoying the 1st season. They took a big risk in the way they decided to tell the story this season, and for the first half of the season I think they fell flat. It took me until the end of Ep. 3 for me to clue into what was going on, and by the end of Ep. 4 I was all in. But man the first few episodes are not that great. I wonder if that's going to ultimately hurt the series. I imagine most people are not like me and won't give a show that many episodes to hook em.

Lost in Space I really enjoyed the 1st season, and was looking forward to the 2nd. The 2nd season did not disappoint. This season felt like a non stop roller coaster ride, and I seriously don't know how they are going to keep that pace up. This show isn't going to win any awards for plot or anything but it's pretty fun to watch.

The Expanse One of the best hardcore scifi shows around.

Gaald wrote:

The Witcher I ended up really enjoying the 1st season. They took a big risk in the way they decided to tell the story this season, and for the first half of the season I think they fell flat. It took me until the end of Ep. 3 for me to clue into what was going on, and by the end of Ep. 4 I was all in. But man the first few episodes are not that great. I wonder if that's going to ultimately hurt the series. I imagine most people are not like me and won't give a show that many episodes to hook em.

The Witcher is Netflix’s most watched Original Series So far. I think most people have been more than happy to get it through those first 2 episodes, which while no where near as good as the rest of the show aren’t quite that bad. I reckon there’ll be more than a few series of it personally.

I don’t like the slightly lazy GoT comparison in the article, but it is sort of understandable.

Watched the first episode of Dracula on BBC. Thought it was pretty good. Might be the most violent BBC I have seen. I'm a sucker for vamp shows.

Didn't care for the main nun at first but I liked her by the end of the show. I liked jerky Dracula. I think the story got a bit muddled at parts but the main story was easy to follow. Looking forward to the rest of the series.

I have high dopes for Dracula. It's been too long since Penny Dreadfull, I need some gothic horror.

Second episode of Dracula was really good. That ending, no idea what is going on but I'm sure the last episode will explain it. I think they might have made a mistake with his clothes though.

I liked His Dark Materials, but it could've been better. It seemed to be too frenetic, not giving space for the characters to breathe. This could either be fixed with more episodes or, better yet, remove all that that was not in the book (for example, everything to deal with a character that should only appear in the second season).

Dracula Was pretty interesting. It always kept me guessing as to what was going to happen.

His Dark Materials It took a while for me to get into the series and got really dark at the end. The actors portraying Lyra and her friend were fantastic and were a big part of why I stuck with the series.