(I know it's been less than a month, but we should probably try to nudge this back towards its normal programming slot.)
Since we're living in the Golden Age Of Television™, it's probably worthwhile to discuss TV's Oscar awards (better known as the Emmys). What's been your favorite TV shows of late? Any deserve special recognition? Admittedly, I don't watch enough TV to properly say who actually deserve a nomination. I can only say that if Zach Woods doesn't get something, I'll consider the Emmys an exercise in futility.
Somehow ended up with a free preview of Starz and have been binging on American Gods ... through three episodes and I am blown away.
Watched La La Land on Friday night. It was pretty and fun, but I disliked the ending, even though I understood (or perhaps because I understood) the message.
I still have the last two episodes of American Gods to watch. It's a trip, that's for sure but it wasn't appointment watching for me.
I powered through the rest of the season. Good stuff!
Better Call Saul continues to be amazing. I'm certain that there will be a couple of Emmy nominations for it.
Orange is the New Black's new season was a disappointment, compared to season four, which I thought was the best season yet.
Definitely this was Saul's best season. The Hearing episode was fantastic, the Jimmy-Irene story line was hard to watch and the ending.... Man. Michael McKean is a fantastic actor.
as mentioned, i started BCS yesterday. stayed up way too late watching the first 3 episodes. man, odenkirk has really refined his chops over the years. a lot of promise here, and it sounds like it only gets better.
The middle of the first season drags just a little, in my opinion. They haven't fleshed out the characters enough or given them quite enough to do yet at that point.
I'm definitely not saying it's a mile a minute cliffhanger machine like Bad was, but I'm almost tempted to call it the superior show at this point. If nothing else, it does a much better job with its secondary characters.
I think we will be ok there.
8 episodes into Twin Peaks return and I'm still caught up in it. The most recent was certainly was an example of experimental filming. I'm finding the Dougie Jones thread annoying as hell; no way the side characters would put up with that level of ignorance.
I'm not sure about Runner daughter, but I'm increasingly okay with not following Dr. Who spinoff Class.
Multiple Emmys to Legion, por favor
I've only seen the first two episodes of Class. I have more recorded, and intend to watch them, but I haven't been all that impressed. It seems really talky, and none of the characters really seems to stand out or give me a reason why I should like or care about them. I'm going to give it more of a chance, because I think the potential for a good show is there, but I don't think they've developed that potential very well so far.
Torchwood was alright, but Class has an obvious young audience target, and they are having to conveniently not address a whole lot of plot problems due to setting the show in a school.
I've never seen Torchwood. I'd like to, sometime, but there are a lot of things I'd like to do sometime.
btw, I'm a little bothered by TP ep 8 title "Gotta Light?" -- I think the official title is "Part 8" but all over the web people are calling it (obviously if you saw it) "Gotta Light?" What bothers me is that "gotta" is short for "got to", and the unofficial title should be "Got a Light?"
I finally got around to watching the first episode of this season's Dr. Who last night. Very good, not great. I think I'm gonna like Bill as the new companion.
watching it made me wish I'd also recorded the spinoff, Class (set in Coal Hill Academy). [edit: now I notice that this series got mentioned above by Rhu and JeffA]
I've seen the first three episodes of Doctor Who this season. So far, so good. From what I've read, I suspect later episodes fall into the Moffat trap of trying to do too much, rather than just tell a good story, but I guess we'll see.
I've been keeping up with Attack on Titan. I'm really enjoying this season,but that's been about it for TV recently.
On the movie front, I watched Dr. Strange the other day. It was a perfectly cromulent movie with some really good visual effects.
I just got about 20 minutes into Doctor Strange. I think I'm gonna like it once I can actually sit and watch it (the PR is working late tonight so it's me and TLO)
It was entertaining enough. Cumberbatch is pretty good in the role. And the big fight with the Big Bad turns out to be...surprisingly smart.
i asked this before, but wtf kind of accent was benny clusterbuck trying to pull off!?
I dunno. I'm from the Midwest, where we don't do accents. 😉
I think I caught mostly "Air Force One" aged Harrison Ford.
Since Netflix took away my Bob's Burgers, I tried out BoJack Horseman as my laundry-folding show. First three episodes were a little...meh. Should I stick with it?
Finally saw Trolls and Moana with the kids.
Had a free night with the wife and watched Logan. We both thought it was great, but then we needed to go find something on Netflix to take the edge off.
From what I understand....yes? Then again, I'm exactly as far into the show as you are, and my thoughts are basically the same.
Friends' reviews (include fellow citizens) would seem to point to "YESYESYES!!!"
Absolutely. It doesn't hit its stride until near the end of season one, and then it becomes incredible.
Can I just skip the early episodes?
I wouldn't because the show has the most incestuous humor since Arrested Development, so there will be many callback jokes you may miss.
The parts of Trolls I paid attention to seemed highly "meh". Also recently watched Moana, and yeah, it's great. All of those songs get stuck in my head for days. FTLT commented on the Tweeter that "Shiny" is basically a David Bowie song. And he's right.
Well he's got some practice...
Moana was a gorgeously "shot" movie. The ocean scenes were just stunning
And The Rock is a charming mf'er as always. And not a bad singer.
I knew what it was before I un-spoiler'd it. I've had that in my head since Sunday.
That dude has to be among the most charismatic people ever.
I watched so much Blaze and the Monster Machines this month. Also, Hey Duggee. We generally let Newbish watch one episode of TV before books and teeth brushing and bedtime.
Having seen most of the roster of Nick Jr. shows, I can confidently say that there are much worse fates than watching the voice of Nathan Drake teach my kid about STEM.
We've gotten through Season 3 of Sherlock. We'll probably finish the show next week.
We're almost all the way through Season 2 of The Great British Baking Show. It is so much fun.
Bake Off is the best. The PR got me Paul's "Bread" book for our honeymoon. I need to actually make time to make something still though, so busy lately with school wrapping up and all the yard work when the weather's cooperating.
Please share when you do make something. A few years ago I started to add some baking to my cooking repertoire, but didn't get too far before life got even more hectic. I'm thinking I might try adding a bit more of it back this off-season.
Netflix anime: Ajin: Demi-human
I'm halfway into season 2 (which is all there is so far, at least on Netflix).
Concept: apparently some people among us are immortals "Ajin", who don't know it until after death their bodies repair themselves and they come back to life.
Governments and private labs like to experiment on them and stuff. Regular Japanese boy gets hit by truck and comes back to life, caught on cellphones. Manhunt/Badness follows. He runs into some Ajin who are planning some pretty extreme terrorism. More Badness.
Might be good for fans of Attack on Titan, though the animation must be computer-generated and has a bit of a robotic feel to it. Not as graphic as AIT, but there are scenes...
EAR and I liked season 1 of Quantico, so we started watching season 2, but she didn't get into it the same way, so I'm going to wait until I finish Ajin.
Season 1 was a long mystery that was revealed in two timelines (like How to Get Away with Murder or Bloodline), and so I figured, like those, there would be a problem picking up season 2 (which is the same concept).
EAR got me watching New Girl from the start (I picked it up somewhere in the middle). I find it quite funny.
Also: I looked at some pictures of my mom from between her senior year of high school and when she married my dad . She looked so much like Zooey Deschanel does in this show that it's weird. (I should find those pics and scan them onto facebook or something.)
I shouldn't need to spoiler things that happen in episodes 1 or 2 of a TV series, right?
Moana: You're wellllcome!
All The President's Men: Dang that was suspenseful for something I knew the ending to.
'bout time!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DeAw6aXHzcY
I managed to watch the first half of two different movies while getting ready for and traveling to vacation with my wife's family.
We Redboxed Logan with the intent to watch it before packing, but didn't get to it until after the kids were in bed. Considering we had to head to the airport at 4 am, I just wasn't up to watching the second half once we were packed and ready to go. First half was good, so I guess we'll watch the rest at some point.
Second one was Hidden Figures. One of the planes had free movies streamed to your own device through the plane's wifi, which is a pretty cool thing. But, between bad signal pauses and me sleeping the first part of the flight, I only got through the first half. I liked the first half a great deal, I figured I'd watch the rest on the second plane, or at worst on the way back. But, all the flights required money to watch a movie, and I'm too cheap for that. I think I can stream it on HBO now that I'm home.
So, half a thumbs up each; two good first halves of movies, hopefully the ends live up to the beginnings.