What show are you watching now?

Just finished S1 of HBO's Succession. I had heard good things but was wary from the start. The characters were repulsive and one dimensional with virtually no redeeming qualities and the show seemed to rely on shock value (they literally show someone wiping their cum off the window they just jizzed on) and wallowing in the recent trend of dour, anti-hero, everything-is-terrible TV tropes. It was kind of funny, but you really wanted to take a shower after watching it. But I will always watch something well written and it was, so I continued...

And you know what? It's a great show. I don't necessarily need to "identify with" or "root for" characters, but I also don't care for people-behaving-badly-theatrics as character development... and it was skirting dangerously close to completely alienating me with its disgusting, vile, hellish atmospherics... until it really started to inject the characters with some pathos and complexity, so you started to understand where they were coming from, even if you didn't like or agree with their behavior or worldview. I'm still waiting for Brian Cox (who plays the father and who the show revolves around) to resemble anything other than an evil, irredeemable gargoyle, but the other characters have definitely grown on me. And it helps that the actors are all delivering top tier performances every episode.

I highly recommend checking it out if you can stomach your way through the first 2 or 3 episodes. It is a brutal, unforgiving, heavily satirical black, black, BLACK dramedy that isn't for the squeamish.

 

That was exactly the problem for me. After the 1st 2 or 3 I just didn't give a shit about anyone on screen. Superb acting, but I did feel too repulsed to continue.

 

you guys say "repulsed" like it's a bad thing...

 

Depends on context of course. You're supposed to be "repulsed" in certain stories to aid the point the artist is making. But I find this usually works better in short form storytelling, like 2 hour movies. Long form TV... it's asking a bit much to be around repulsive people for hours and hours on end and I don't blame people for checking out.

I can handle Travis Bickle in short bursts.

In the case of Succession, what starts off like watching how the sausage is made becomes more about why it has to be made in that particular way. And that's more fascinating... for some of us. At times Succession really is like watching a horrible car wreck in slow motion.

 

Of course I was just joking. But the fact is I now have far less capacity to withstand true repulsion (feelings of dismay, discomfort, anxiety) caused by any film or television content. Oddball foreign films or indies that delighted me 20-30 years ago, but also made me extremely uncomfortable, would be intolerable today.

Yes, truly disturbing/unlikable characters in long-form TV have that much more time to distress the viewer--and can thus become unbearable. Although when the writing is really top of the line, either in cinema or TV, whatever is disturbing and unlikable in a character can deepen, becoming far more nuanced & thus perversely entertaining. It's a balancing act.

I have no access to SUCCESSION, but even if I did, might not choose to spend time with it.

PS: I watch a horrible car wreck in slow motion at least 4-5 times a week in the shows I watch on Netflix...so its currency as a qualitative metaphor is diminishing!

 

This is actually Succession in a nutshell. It really is a great show that pulls off the balancing act.

I dunno man, this shit's pretty damn funny:

 

Mythic Quest was fun. It’s about a video game company that produces a mmo and is developed by most of the Always Sunny principals.



All the episodes are out so you can binge, I think Apple TV+ is $4.99 for a month if you didn’t get a free subscription from buying one of their products.

 

Just finished watching the Icelandic police procedural, THE VALHALLA MURDERS (Netflix). Wow! It's a slow burner--starts low/slow, builds, builds, and in the final episode gets crazy good & tense, going in directions you just can't expect. It's a very good series. Wish there was a 2nd season...

Also just started watching a crime documentary, EVIL GENIUS (Netflix). I've seen plenty of crime documentary work, but this one is batshit crazy due to the indescribably weird subject matter. Episode 1 knocked my socks off--then right at the end the hook is planted for episode-2 ("there's a body in her freezer"). I am totally this show's new bitch.

For what it's worth, I do appreciate the difference between fictional crime and the real thing. It's harder to watch the real thing...it makes me feel terrible at times in ways fictional stuff doesn't. What keeps me going is the unpredictability & variability of human behavior (endlessly fascinating).

 

i just finished the first two seasons of Jack Ryan on Amazon. Jack Krasinski is a fine actor but he moves like Big Bird in the action scenes. Worth a watch if you like the genre.

 

Finally started watching The Umbrella Academy after looking for something to watch after The Boys.

It's a damn masterpiece. Might just hit all my buttons, though. Ellen Page, Gerard Way's aesthetic, decent writing.

I should be superhero saturated, but this one fits like jell-o.

 

Bosch season 6. Three episodes in and so far, solid. Much more focused than season 5.

 

I've read quite a few of the Bosch books; they're so good I'm not sure the Prime series version could keep up.

Maybe I'm just saying that because I don't have Prime & can't check...

 

Season 1 wasn't particularly good, but 2, 3, and 4 are worth the time. Titus Welliver plays Bosch with some anger. The procedural content is interesting. Not overly violent, which is a plus for me.

 

Check out Operation Odessa on Netflix
Russian mob, Cuban spy, Miami playas, ex-Soviet nuclear subs for sale to the Colombian Cartels, strip clubs,hookers and cheap cocaine.
Welcome to South Florida!

 

I'm 2/3s through the 1st season of THE CODE, 1 season of which is on Netflix (2nd season is only on Acorn TV, which I can't get...sigh).

This Australian drama is excellent--well made, different, compelling. It's a political mystery that very slowly reveals itself; a chase story; a love story between 2 devoted brothers; a love story between the brother who's on the spectrum and a sympathetic but troubled woman who may or may not have his interests at heart; and a riveting look at the people living in the interior, rough and ready, far from the halls of power.

Some of these actors are new to me, and they're all excellent. There's strong work here by Lucy Lawless, far from her glamour roles in Sci-Fi or sword & sandals dramas. She's aging beautifully & is perfectly cast. The 3 indigenous actors are fine character actors whom I've seen in other productions. Apparently Australia is like England, where an oversupply of well trained & talented actors for stage, screen & film means you'll see the same actors time & again in very different roles.

I can't wait to see the 5th & 6th episodes. Highly recommended.

 

Finished THE CODE the other night. That's the real deal: intertwined love stories, serious/lethal spy action, and heavy family sub-plots in the Australian outback. There's a 2nd season, but it's only available through Acorn-TV. I found a workaround to getting that on my LG OLED ...we'll see if that works.

Another recommendation: I'm nuts about Korean television & am midway through a truly unique series, EXTRACURRICULAR. The description sounds nothing like my usual dark tastes: action centers on a high school boy & girl who enter into a relationship that is romantic, but fraught with power games. There's teenage prostitution; baroque bullying schemes; assorted gangsters; a mysterious/skewed connection between one teenage prostitute and "Uncle," who protects the girls.

It sounds crazy & it is. Each episode is unique, compelling. The plot is convoluted & sinuous; I think I know where it's going but am often surprised. The acting is up there w/the best I've seen in episodic TV. Just when you get into a "high school kids & their antics" groove and relax, something bad happens and serious acting breaks out. I'm on the ropes the entire time.

The young woman who plays the main high school girl is very talented: fierce, beautiful, with serious acting chops. Terrific character actors appear in many scenes.

I'm 1/2-way through the single season on Netflix & highly recommend this one.

 

Currently most of the way through The Last Dance. It's quite an amazing docmentary-- informative, well-paced and hypnotically watchable. It's all the more fascinating for me given how much of a cultural institution Jordan and the Bulls were during the 90s when I more-or-less came of age. I don't want to give anything away for those who haven't seen it yet but the most striking thing for me is that it's forced me to reassess my opinion of Michael Jordan. My respect for his will power, drive, focus, athleticism and utter determination has gone up, however I think my respect for him as a human being has gone down a bit...it is a lot to process and will probably be some time before I settle my thoughts. Highly recommended viewing.

 

I'm on S6 of Game of Thrones... I know, behind on the times. I was finally badgered sufficiently. Just took a while.

Up to season 5, it was kind of interesting. Lots of characters I like. The way they did the fantasy aestetic irks me, as it's like that surface-level conception of how fantasy 'must' be. But I gotta admit it is well-done. The sets and character designs are sick.

Not sure if I agree with the use of *ahem* certain visual and metaphorical devices. Just... the philosophical implications are a jumble of dark things in a ball of gross muck and the overt message is really off putting, like it is asking me to vicariously partake and enjoy things that I am morally averse to... like some sort of unwilling voyeurism. Which can actually be interesting... if there's a larger question at stake, or it highlights something interesting about the character or world. But in this case it mostly seems to just be there for the sake of being there. It casts the pathos on the writers instead of the characters and really just brushes me like "Eeek!" There's no payoff... no ultimate justification for the shock. Not to mention how little sense the reactions make to it all. It could all be gone and most things would be the same. The show would be just be a lot shorter... or maybe they'd have had more time for things that pay out better in the long run.

But okay. I've seen a lot of anime and things like that don't phase me emotionally. I just think about it like "Ohhhh okay 'mister director'... I see what you want me to like. This is... 'world-building activities.'"

The problem I'm finding now is that the characters are progressively becoming stupid. Like acting in direct contradiction to things laid-out in past arcs. Who are these f'ing people? I'm starting to feel like I don't know. I feel like the show wants me to feel like there's a build-up happening. But I don't know. The character motivations are shifting less towards defining them and more towards them all just being pawns to drive the plot to where they want to get it. Like they're just tossing characters out for the hell of it, because they're in the way. Other times I'm trying to figure out why I need this extra character development, when later on it's just gonna get wiped clean for whatever needs to happen cuz plot.

Like... did they think this through at all? I know that there was always an ending in mind. There is enough foreshadowing that I bet I know how it ends. But it feels like the writers didn't quite know how they wanted to get there, and now they can't wrangle-in the web they wove, so it's becoming a huge cluster of THINGS... and STUFF... and DRAMA. And yet I feel nothing, because I'm trying to figure out why it's happening, and right after it's just onto the next point, never to be explained or looked at. Just these huge leaps in character motivation. Big stuff happening that's hinged entirely on an established character completely breaking character out of nowhere. If they hadn't stroked out, there would literally be no reason for so many things to be how they are. And that's not very satisfying. I'm getting frustrated with this. If this is 'peak television' man... I don't know if that's a compliment at all. Unless we're going with television being for stupid people. Then sure...

Is this sounding fair? Am I getting down to why people HATE the ending? Should I even bother continuing? Or does it not get any better from here?

 

Only you can decide if you want to go forward or not obviously, but I'll say that I don't think it's a coincidence that the writing started getting...sloppy? once the story in the series diverged from the published books...GRRM hasn't finished them yet. I think the subtle motivations & character insight the books provide were an anchor for the writers/producers. If you're dissatisfied with the story arc now though, I can't say it gets better.

 

Agreed, I found S6 to still be relatively decent. I didn't have much gripes with it. I enjoyed it. This could be because I was on a GOT high, as I started watching once all the seasons were finished.

S7 is where I really started to get annoyed and thought it was getting kind of bad, things started to not make sense, writing was poor, and overall just not a great season. Lots of things made me scratch my head. While I feel everyone should finish the series, just to know how it ends, I felt that S8 was some of the poorest TV I have ever seen. The writing was rushed, it made no real sense. I found characters to divulge from their standard character arcs, there was too much "subverting expectations" and overall I left S8 just angry honestly. I found it a horrible season, maybe one of the worst seasons of a show I have ever seen. This crammed 3 seasons into 1 season of 6 eps?

I could honestly write a book on every episode, but I just have to say I am very disappointed.

Side note I am very excited for the new WoT show coming out. I am sure it won't be as good as the books, but I have really loved the books so far (only on book 6) and would love to see it have a really good TV adaptation.