What TV series are you watching at moment?

[zero]

20 hours ago, Joyrex said:

Plus I don't think black and white will make the current TZ any better than it is...

Yeah...lipstick on a pig. 

I gave it a shot. Was only able to get through 3 episodes before giving up. Watched 1, 2, then skipped to 5 (the kid president) and that was enough. I realized they weren't out to remake the classic '60's TZ, but instead chose to remake the shitty 2000's Forest Whitaker TZ. So this new reboot is like a 4th degree watered down version of the original. 

On the positive side, I got the CBS all access 3 month trial only to watch this new TZ and it also has all episodes from the original series, so I've been enjoying getting to re-watch those.

 

[Brisbot]

Finished the new Dark Mirror season. Gah. This is the first season that I'd describe as 'okay' or average and is the worst season of the show so far. Not counting the Bandersnatch which was good. I definitely recommend Bandersnatch before any season 5 episodes.

The season as a whole ranges from average at best to fairly bad, and boring at worse.

The Miley Cyrus one felt like I was watching a disney channel movie toward the end. It is watchable, but kinda boring. The characters are boring. And the whole AI thing which was the only interesting thing about the episode comes in late and isn't really fleshed out in ways I was hoping. It probably is the worst black mirror episode. Very Skippable. 

 Smithereens does a decent enough job at building tension, but never really resolves the tension, and the ending has a lackluster and rushed feeling. It felt like the writers had half an idea and wrote a whole script using it which left me wondering what the point of it was. It felt like there was a better way to tackle the concepts they raised in this one, which mostly revolves around how social media is changing people. The main character in this one's motivations are interesting at first, and it leads you to think it's building up to something, but there's not much "there, there" in the end.

Striking Vipers was enjoyable to watch and raises some good points, and the plot actually fits the concept here. But as I said it's still just middle of the road Black mirror wise. Basically two guys fall in lust in a vr world where one of them plays as a female, and the other male. It raises some interesting things we may see in our lifetimes, and doesn't feel as contrived as the other two.

Edited June 8, 2019 by Brisbot

[eugene]

regarding the smithereens episode, an average episode of silicon valley contains much more insight into the modern tech-corp dominated state of the world. this embarrassingly overwrought, grim and preying on technophobia bullshit that is black mirror offers nothing of value really.

[Brisbot]

1 hour ago, eugene said:

regarding the smithereens episode, an average episode of silicon valley contains much more insight into the modern tech-corp dominated state of the world. this embarrassingly overwrought, grim and preying on technophobia bullshit that is black mirror offers nothing of value really.

I don't think black mirror is technophobic by default, it just depends on the episode. However season 4 and 5 kind has suffered with more pessimistic writing. And I do think the worst episodes tend to be more technophobic.

The best episodes tend to be ones that explore the effects of technology as a whole, both the good and bad/ pros and cons. San Junipero for instance. The technology is just there and it explores that concept in a broad sense.

The Striking Vipers episode wasn't technophobic and was probably the best of the three in terms of showing how technology may/will change humans and you do kinda get why it ends the way it does.

Smithereens did feel needlessly pessimistic. It literally boiled down to: social media is lowering our attention spans, and if you look at your phone while driving it's because there's a committee of people trying to figure out ways to make you release dopamine in your brain. Which is a true thing, however it just doesn't work that well. I think the writers were trying to show that he automatically checked his phone without thinking, but they didn't do a good show of showing it. Instead it comes off as the guy making the irresponsible decision to look at your phone while driving.

It's like the writers read a few articles about how social media is lowering attention spans and hammered out a lackluster script. And just gave up when he/she couldn't think of a good reason the guy would want to talk to the CEO guy. I feel like this concept should have been taken further in some other way.

Actually now that I think about it Black mirror has already done the social media thing like 2/3 times and did it better.

 

Edited June 8, 2019 by Brisbot

[Candiru]

Watching Game of Thrones. Bran looks like he ages about 10 years in the span of 1 season, its out of control. 

[Brisbot]

Has anyone ever seen that documentary type show "I Shouldn't be Alive". Good show. It's basically about a bunch of people getting into survival type situations. It seems to be a theme thru the show that probably 2/3rds of the people end up in their situation due to their own crappy decision making and not so much people who prepared correctly but were just supremely unlucky. Though there are episodes like that too.

The show goes thru their survival situation with a pretty good re-enactment with some often talented actors. The show initially looks like one of those low budget discovery channel documentary type shows, but honestly most of the episodes are pretty good and some are great.

This channel has many of the episodes and this is one of the best:

 

[MadellisTheSixth]

watched the first episode of Black Mirror, surprisingly enjoyable. Probably won't watch the rest as I really disliked the last season, it feels like the TV equivalent of r/im14andthisisdeep. 

Also I remember watching the Shut Up and Dance episode with my then girlfriend back in 2017 and it was super uncomfortable lmao.

Edited June 9, 2019 by MadellisTheSixth

[auxien]

been watching some of Outer Limits' first season (pretty sure someone in here was and got the idea in my head)

also started on Abesntia (Amazon Prime) and it's looking good so far

[Guest]

Quite liked new Black Mirror. Don't understand all the negative comments I see... I mean, surely this season is not so dystopian and maybe it's not a welcome change of tone for some, but all 3 episodes were interesting to watch and enjoyable. Good bits of humour as well. 

[spratters]

Goliath - Quite enjoying it, over halfway through series 1. I do like Billy Bob Thornton anyway, but he is the best character in this which I guess isn't unexpected. Surprised to see there's a second season, can't quite see where it'll go but I'll wait and find out.

[marf]

Black mirror is nice and all but its always the brain implant / alternative reality upload consciousness thing. 

Edited June 10, 2019 by marf

[T3551ER]

17 hours ago, Stickfigger said:

I revisited love death and robots last night and watched a few eps at random. I enjoyed it. Had very low expectations going in compared to the first time around and this did help things along a bit

Yeah, started watching this randomly a couple of weeks ago (good w/ busy life to have episodes that are only 17 mins long at max or whatever) . . . *shrugs* seems pretty enjoyable. Interesting blend of animation styles w/ short little sci-fi vignettes. Lot of these could be little snippets from episodes of something larger (that I might not watch but are great in small doses). Don't get the hate. 

3 hours ago, lickneonlights said:

Quite liked new Black Mirror. Don't understand all the negative comments I see... I mean, surely this season is not so dystopian and maybe it's not a welcome change of tone for some, but all 3 episodes were interesting to watch and enjoyable. Good bits of humour as well. 

Same thing here - I . . . don't get the hate? Show is experimenting with diff things and changing it up in some places. . . Striking Vipers in particular felt was an interesting examination of gender identities/effect of tech on how we view these sorts of things. Dunno - if there had been 0 prior seasons of Black Mirror people would be shitting themselves over it, maybe just suffering under weight of its own expectations. . . 

[Lada Laika]

I wish I had stopped at the first ep of Black Mirror this season. It was still a B, B+ for me, but at least it was interesting. Andrew Scott was great in ep2 but it would have been a big wet fart without him and is basically an Emmy reel. I have no idea what to make of ep3. It was like a kids’ movie with swears. 

[beerwolf]

I can't seem to settle on anything at the moment (probably because there's just too much to choose from)

So decided to finally watch The Sopranos (yep never watched it!!). Almost done the first season, and I'll definitely be sticking with it.

[Guest]

1 hour ago, Lada Laika said:

ep2 would have been a big wet fart without him

But it's not, and he's in it, and it's great. Why would you envision an impossible scenario to belittle a show or take away from the experience? (just curious, don't mean to be a dick)

Like, surely, the same thing could be said about anything – A would have been awful without B. Breaking Bad would have been boring without Jesse and his signature bitch, Stranger Things would have been a weird kid show without 11 and her story arc, and so on and so forth. That's the thing. Andrew Scott was in that episode and it was brilliant to watch.

[Candiru]

8 hours ago, beer badger said:

I can't seem to settle on anything at the moment (probably because there's just too much to choose from)

So decided to finally watch The Sopranos (yep never watched it!!). Almost done the first season, and I'll definitely be sticking with it.

An excellent thing to decide to watch. It'll get you to ponder the mysteries of life

[kichiguy]

Shane Meadows is back on Warp with The Virtues. Quite the gut punch as per usual. Also seems to have been a catharsis for Shane, exorcising his own demons via Stephan Graham's intense performance. Spoilery interview with Shane here where he bears quite a bit of his soul with us. 

 

 

[Lada Laika]

14 hours ago, lickneonlights said:

But it's not, and he's in it, and it's great. Why would you envision an impossible scenario to belittle a show or take away from the experience? (just curious, don't mean to be a dick)

Like, surely, the same thing could be said about anything – A would have been awful without B. Breaking Bad would have been boring without Jesse and his signature bitch, Stranger Things would have been a weird kid show without 11 and her story arc, and so on and so forth. That's the thing. Andrew Scott was in that episode and it was brilliant to watch.

Breaking Bad was terrible and Smithereens was terrible. 

[hello spiral]

14 hours ago, Stickfigger said:

He is now the black guy from Season 1 Episode 2. 

He always was. That's my fave episode because of how meta that one is. That's basically Brooker's career and he is fully aware of it.

That Miley episode did fucking suck tho. Also, you can apparently get a tie-in tshirt on the NiN website. Great way to undermine your whole hamfisted message guys!

[Brisbot]

Apparently everyone is watching Chernobyl and it's currently the highest ranked show on IMDB. Can't wait to check it out.

8 hours ago, hello spiral said:

That Miley episode did fucking suck tho.

oh my god it was so bad. It was like watching a Disney channel movie. The other two were decent enough but if I were to make a ranked list of episodes all three would be near the bottom. It was just a bad season overall.

[Dpek]

Watched Fleabag based on your comments here. I enjoyed it! It had all the makings for a cringe show but it dodged all the bullets and I have to say it is one of the best TV shizznits of the last few years.

[ooqpoo]

Fleabag was great, but was there just a little too many shots of her looking wryly at the camera? 

Caught up with the latest Black Mirror. Really enjoyed Striking Vipers. Great episode that had the euphoric, heady feeling I remember from watching some of the early episodes. Not too preachy or dystopian, more a fun and optimistic study of balancing a kink with normal life and making it work. 

[Nebraska]

22 hours ago, Brisbot said:

Apparently everyone is watching Chernobyl and it's currently the highest ranked show on IMDB. Can't wait to check it out.

if you have to tell people how to behave at the site of the biggest nuclear accident, then we've already lost 

[Guest]

Apparently he's referring to this. Jfc. 

Found a nice summary in the comments: "Wow, people lost their lives, lost all of their belongings, were getting sick for years to come and now some chicks use it as a background for nudes, seeking Internet fame. This is wrong."

Edited June 12, 2019 by Guest
comment

[Brisbot]

1 hour ago, Nebraska said:

if you have to tell people how to behave at the site of the biggest nuclear accident, then we've already lost 

For some reason I knew someone would reply with this