Current TV Series You'd Like To Recommend

[GreatNews2night]

Crazyheads on Netflix a very british and original take on Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Not that I've seen it, but how is something said to be original, when it is a "take" on another show? By definition, it's not original, then. Maybe it's clever, or interesting, or whatever other positive adjectives one might pick, but if a show is a sort of reworking of a previous one, then it's not original.

 

[PoS]

Finished Punisher season 2, which ended with a whimper... I was hoping a good final fight but it didnt happen. Ugh. Plus all the times he gets beaten up, stabbed and shot is like, unreal- he should have been a quadriplegic by now.

Watched two episodes of Project Blue Book- starring the guy who played Littlefinger in GoT as an Air Force investigator for UFO sightings. It seems more like Scooby Doo than X-Files, but its good for my research so I guess I'll stick with it.

 

[GreatNews2night]

Finished Punisher season 2, which ended with a whimper... I was hoping a good final fight but it didnt happen. Ugh. Plus all the times he gets beaten up, stabbed and shot is like, unreal- he should have been a quadriplegic by now.

Watched two episodes of Project Blue Book- starring the guy who played Littlefinger in GoT as an Air Force investigator for UFO sightings. It seems more like Scooby Doo than X-Files, but its good for my research so I guess I'll stick with it.

What research, if I may ask?

 

[GreatNews2night]

I know it is very silly of me, and kind of a hidden pleasure, but I do like The Orville. It's a show that by definition doesn't take itself seriously, and it is just satire and silly fun, but it does get to be entertaining. Not always. Some episodes are off the mark but some others are quite good.

 

[PoS]

What research, if I may ask?

Oh its on a book Im working on. Cant say anymore lest my competitors find out. :mrgreen:

 

[Checkerboard Strangler]

Billions Season 3 is coming out this month. Paul Giamatti is a straight badass...

With all the plusses for Altered Carbon I might have to give it a try.
Currently I am pushing wifey to give Billions a shot, so we might get sucked into it.
Right at the moment we old folks are just starting Season One of Mad Men and loving it.

Yeah I know, I know...it's old.

What am I waiting for??
Goliath, starring Billy Bob Thornton.

 

[Checkerboard Strangler]

There's a comedy series here about a group of teen girls growing up during the troubles in 1980's Northern Ireland. (The Inbetweeners meets Father Ted!)

"Derry Girls" V funny while reflecting the life back there back then, by all accounts

Slightly off topic but OUR US version of Shameless is way better than the UK version, and I've watched both! :mrgreen:

 

[Checkerboard Strangler]

Well big 'ol Jeff Bezos himself said The Expanse is saved, so I guess thats a confirmation.

Currently binge watching Silicon Valley- there is a conspicuous absence of TJ Miller- who was written out, but otherwise its still good for a few laughs.

Silicon Valley was a riot...but have you also watched "Halt and Catch Fire"?

 

[Checkerboard Strangler]

"Killing Eve" is pretty good, if I haven't mentioned it before.

Don't know if we'll ever watch it but I get a kick out of annoying my wife by randomly singing:

"I-I-I-I....have to kill you, I'm really sorry..."

 

[Checkerboard Strangler]

Also, there was a blue and white American 1979 Ford Pickup used in the show which would not have been in Mexico in the early '80s. The Mexican version has no rear side marker lights and still used the old 1972 tail lights.

I know it is a minor thing, but it is so easy to get it right.

I'm with you...I cannot stand when I see stuff which isn't historically accurate.
Phones in the 1930's that have 1980's dial tones and ringing signals, police and fire vehicles in the 1950's with modern electronic solid state siren tones, modern radios that sound like antique shortwave sets, cars from the 21st century that sputter and knock when you shut them off, all of these are incredibly simple things which permeate the soundtrack of our lives.

 

[Checkerboard Strangler]

LOL now that is some serious nitpicking there.

It depends. You're an author, I'm sure you understand this on a lot of levels.
Some missteps and oopsies can be forgiven but even in print there are things which destroy an entire story's credibility.
My first wife worked as a business manager for a guy who used to be a pretty well known screenwriter who decided to branch off into detective mystery novels.
He blew it first time out.
His protagonist was driving a VW Karmann Ghia that suffers a radiator leak. VW Karmann Ghias do not have radiators, they're AIR cooled. For God's sake, if you're going to engage something like that as a plot device, make it real.

And the little things Mason is talking about might be lesser offenses but they have a cumulative effect which ultimately jars the viewer or reader out of their willing suspension of disbelief. If a story is taking place in the Forties or Fifties, suddenly seeing or hearing stuff which is decades in the future breaks the illusion, sometimes in the clumsiest way imaginable.
For want of a nail a horse goes lame, as the story goes, and the "kingdom" is ultimately lost.

So, just as a two dollar switch doomed the Apollo 13 mission, careless inattention to the simplest ordinary details can doom a story. It's not just off-kilter license plates, it is often a general sloppiness and carelessness which creates cracks in the entire vessel.

People notice stuff like this every day. New Yorkers are scratching their heads because the city is testing EU style two tone equipment to see if it's easier on the ears and yet still effective:

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/youre-not-hearing-things-new-yorkers---some-of-your-ambulance-sirens-have-changed-2017-11-09

 

[Checkerboard Strangler]

I dont think so. Plenty of good shows to choose from now. It's the new golden age of TV.

Golden Age to such an extent that a lot of critics are concluding that premium TV might just be outdoing the movie business altogether. The last four big movies we went to were enormous disappointments but we're GLUED to our premium channels because we're finding content which is much better.

 

[Checkerboard Strangler]

Agreed. That's precisely why I'm not liking the show as much. And Monica is really cute and sexy, they should use her more and in a more flirtatious way but she is also way too serious. I heard that they decided against the flirtation with Monica because they thought it would be sexist or demeaning. Gee! We want entertainment, and we want hot girls! Dammit!

You know what? I'm all about the metoo thing but right at the moment it has achieved far more than critical mass, with the result being that women who ARE and have BEEN assaulted and harassed are drowning in an ocean where ALL males are harassers and assaulters, and ALL sexually linked human behavior (which is unapologetically HUMAN) is harassment, assault, degrading and demeaning.

It is entirely possible to be aware, sympathetic and understanding of the issue, it is entirely possible to forswear bad and even terrible behavior, but it is not nor will it ever be possible to entirely excise sexuality from human relationships. Women will always be attracted to men, men will always be attracted to women, and all the other people in the gay community will always be attracted to whoever they are attracted to.
We are sexual beings, we find sex interesting.

 

[Cardinal]

Punisher season 2 has taken quite the nosedive since season 1, which actually had something to say. Season 2 is much more confused and seems eternally on the hunt for a plot. Nonetheless it's still leagues and leagues ahead of the crapfest that is The Defenders and all their characters, and if you want to see the Punisher punch and shoot people a lot, this season still delivers.

 

[Mason66]

It depends. You're an author, I'm sure you understand this on a lot of levels.
Some missteps and oopsies can be forgiven but even in print there are things which destroy an entire story's credibility.
My first wife worked as a business manager for a guy who used to be a pretty well known screenwriter who decided to branch off into detective mystery novels.
He blew it first time out.
His protagonist was driving a VW Karmann Ghia that suffers a radiator leak. VW Karmann Ghias do not have radiators, they're AIR cooled. For God's sake, if you're going to engage something like that as a plot device, make it real.

And the little things Mason is talking about might be lesser offenses but they have a cumulative effect which ultimately jars the viewer or reader out of their willing suspension of disbelief. If a story is taking place in the Forties or Fifties, suddenly seeing or hearing stuff which is decades in the future breaks the illusion, sometimes in the clumsiest way imaginable.
For want of a nail a horse goes lame, as the story goes, and the "kingdom" is ultimately lost.

So, just as a two dollar switch doomed the Apollo 13 mission, careless inattention to the simplest ordinary details can doom a story. It's not just off-kilter license plates, it is often a general sloppiness and carelessness which creates cracks in the entire vessel.

People notice stuff like this every day. New Yorkers are scratching their heads because the city is testing EU style two tone equipment to see if it's easier on the ears and yet still effective:

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/y...your-ambulance-sirens-have-changed-2017-11-09

What bothers me more than anything is in just about every show where a knife is drawn, you hear a metal on metal sound like it is being withdrawn from a metal sheath. Most of the time it is being withdrawn from a fabric sheath that would make no noise at all, so even worse, from no sheath at all, and they add that metal on metal sound.

When I see a show or movie that uses old cars, like the new movie Roma I look for the hubcaps on those old cars. A lot of the times, you will see a perfectly restored, or even an original car, with much later hubcaps on it, or other accessories that didn't exist at the time.

A glaring example of that was the tow truck in the first Back To The Future which was supposedly from 1955 but it had 1972 - 1984 Chevrolet van tail lights on it.

I did notice the steering wheel in the Galaxie in Roma was from a newer car, or more accurately a newer Ford Truck. The hubcaps were correct for the car as they were used on the Mexican made Galaxies but not the American made cars.

 

[PoS]

It depends. You're an author, I'm sure you understand this on a lot of levels.
Some missteps and oopsies can be forgiven but even in print there are things which destroy an entire story's credibility.
My first wife worked as a business manager for a guy who used to be a pretty well known screenwriter who decided to branch off into detective mystery novels.
He blew it first time out.
His protagonist was driving a VW Karmann Ghia that suffers a radiator leak. VW Karmann Ghias do not have radiators, they're AIR cooled. For God's sake, if you're going to engage something like that as a plot device, make it real.

And the little things Mason is talking about might be lesser offenses but they have a cumulative effect which ultimately jars the viewer or reader out of their willing suspension of disbelief. If a story is taking place in the Forties or Fifties, suddenly seeing or hearing stuff which is decades in the future breaks the illusion, sometimes in the clumsiest way imaginable.
For want of a nail a horse goes lame, as the story goes, and the "kingdom" is ultimately lost.

So, just as a two dollar switch doomed the Apollo 13 mission, careless inattention to the simplest ordinary details can doom a story. It's not just off-kilter license plates, it is often a general sloppiness and carelessness which creates cracks in the entire vessel.

People notice stuff like this every day. New Yorkers are scratching their heads because the city is testing EU style two tone equipment to see if it's easier on the ears and yet still effective:

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/youre-not-hearing-things-new-yorkers---some-of-your-ambulance-sirens-have-changed-2017-11-09

Well, film and TV is a very different medium compared to writing. With a book, you can cram a tremendous amount of detail into it. In movies and TV, there are budget and time constraints. Movies and TV shows based on novels are usually very truncated versions, even when they stick to what was written.

In this case, it took an expert on cars like Mason to point it out. Perhaps the producers might have been aware of it via their historical consultants, but due to budget and/or time constraints, they decided to keep the anachronistic plates hoping very few would notice it.

 

[Mycroft]

Punisher season 2 has taken quite the nosedive since season 1, which actually had something to say. Season 2 is much more confused and seems eternally on the hunt for a plot. Nonetheless it's still leagues and leagues ahead of the crapfest that is The Defenders and all their characters, and if you want to see the Punisher punch and shoot people a lot, this season still delivers.

I loved seeing him get the crap beat out of him in every episode. It warmed my heart.

I haven't liked that actor since he played Shane on TWD, when he stole Rick's wife.

 

[calamity]

Cold Justice with Kelly Siegler is about to kick off its new season

 

[Cardinal]

Star Trek Discovery is sucking as bad in the second season as it did in the first.

Stark Trek refuses to learn from The Expanse: make plots that are relevant and avoid boring bull**** side rants.

 

[Lord of Planar]

Star Trek Discovery is sucking as bad in the second season as it did in the first.

Stark Trek refuses to learn from The Expanse: make plots that are relevant and avoid boring bull**** side rants.

Are they interjecting too much liberal propaganda again?

 

[GreatNews2night]

I'm enjoying Mars, on Netflix.

As a big Sci-Fi fan, I'm actually a bit disappointed in terms of the required suspension of disbelief needed to enjoy a Sci-Fi work. This excellent series is half a documentary with real people involved in space exploration, and half fiction with a 2033 manned mission to Mars. What I learned from the real-life experts is that it is EXTREMELY difficult to land on Mars and colonize it, to a degree that I was unaware of. Mars is our neighbor, and it will take a HUGE effort to send manned missions to our next-door neighboring planet. Landing there is fine for 1-ton probes, but for a manned spaceship to land there, 40 tons are required, and going about it in such a thin atmosphere is more likely to fail than not, even with advanced technology. Not to forget, even with this planet being so close, supporting human presence there with re-supply ships is extremely difficult, and the cosmic radiation and extreme temperatures are big killers.

So, if we're likely to kill more than half of our astronauts trying to land on Mars and then kill more with the extreme radiation/climate... all the easy planetary landings and colonies in Science Fiction in distant planets and stars require a lot more suspension of disbelief than I had realized.

 

[calamity]

The wife really enjoys "Harlots." I find it to be rather entertaining as well. Creative and silly, but sort of compelling at the same time.

 

[Lord of Planar]

I'm enjoying Mars, on Netflix.

As a big Sci-Fi fan, I'm actually a bit disappointed in terms of the required suspension of disbelief needed to enjoy a Sci-Fi work. This excellent series is half a documentary with real people involved in space exploration, and half fiction with a 2033 manned mission to Mars. What I learned from the real-life experts is that it is EXTREMELY difficult to land on Mars and colonize it, to a degree that I was unaware of. Mars is our neighbor, and it will take a HUGE effort to send manned missions to our next-door neighboring planet. Landing there is fine for 1-ton probes, but for a manned spaceship to land there, 40 tons are required, and going about it in such a thin atmosphere is more likely to fail than not, even with advanced technology. Not to forget, even with this planet being so close, supporting human presence there with re-supply ships is extremely difficult, and the cosmic radiation and extreme temperatures are big killers.

So, if we're likely to kill more than half of our astronauts trying to land on Mars and then kill more with the extreme radiation/climate... all the easy planetary landings and colonies in Science Fiction in distant planets and stars require a lot more suspension of disbelief than I had realized.

I watched the first couple episodes, and as much as I like Sci Fi... I have better things to do right now.

To get there and land would require a huge ship, and several support ships that just carried fuel to transfer. Getting on the moon was a monumental achievement. Really, the way to make it to mars and land would take having having a primary refuel ship sent to earth orbit empty. Several refueling missions to fill it up. Then only the fuel needed to change orbit from the earth to mars orbit is needed. Park it around Mars.

You pretty much do the same thing with the crew. First put it in Earth Orbit, then refuel it, and sent it to Mars orbit. Then you dock with the fuel ship, fill the tank, and land when the best window is available. There may be better ways, but the way they did this show was very unrealistic. This show obviously didn't get, or maybe they just didn't take any good technical advice. The energy needed to first orbit Mars and then land is little or no different. than going straight into the land. The difficulty is real, but they really threw reality out the window the way the did things.

The radiation isn't really much of an issue. Mars doesn't have a similar Van Allen Belt like Earth does. The 1/8th inch Aluminum skin of the Apollo missions was adequate for the short exposure our astronauts had in their short journey through the Van Allen Belt.

 

[Derp]

Don't know if someone posted this since it originally aired in 2017


Riviera

 

[GreatNews2night]

I watched the first couple episodes, and as much as I like Sci Fi... I have better things to do right now.

To get there and land would require a huge ship, and several support ships that just carried fuel to transfer. Getting on the moon was a monumental achievement. Really, the way to make it to mars and land would take having having a primary refuel ship sent to earth orbit empty. Several refueling missions to fill it up. Then only the fuel needed to change orbit from the earth to mars orbit is needed. Park it around Mars.

You pretty much do the same thing with the crew. First put it in Earth Orbit, then refuel it, and sent it to Mars orbit. Then you dock with the fuel ship, fill the tank, and land when the best window is available. There may be better ways, but the way they did this show was very unrealistic. This show obviously didn't get, or maybe they just didn't take any good technical advice. The energy needed to first orbit Mars and then land is little or no different. than going straight into the land. The difficulty is real, but they really threw reality out the window the way the did things.

The radiation isn't really much of an issue. Mars doesn't have a similar Van Allen Belt like Earth does. The 1/8th inch Aluminum skin of the Apollo missions was adequate for the short exposure our astronauts had in their short journey through the Van Allen Belt.

So you watched just a couple of episodes, but you are passing judgment? Weird.