What show are you watching now?

I tried getting into Dark but had a hard time.

Perfume is also pretty good. German show. Looks incredible on my 4K OLED.

 

Never heard of PERFUME...will check that out.

I must have forgotten...which OLED do you have? I was (still am) a plasma-lover, and now I'm an OLED lover, for sure.

I admit to really digging it when this or that 4K production lights up my big/new OLED. But 4K isn't all positive: sometimes it looks harsh or digital. Usually that's on purpose (BLACK MIRROR; JESSICA JONES).

Some of the most beautiful scenes I get on this LG OLED come from upscaled 1080i (the upscaling on this set is excellent): shows like PERSON OF INTEREST & the Australian reanimation series, GLITCH, where the beautiful outdoor scenes in Australia knocked my eyes out.

 

I have an LG B8. It's incredible. Perfume was shot with Arri Alexa65 cameras so it looks gorgeous. Altered Carbon is another Netflix show shot with that camera and is just visual orgasm in every scene.

Even upscaled 1080p is ridiculous. I had an LED 4K previously... a Vizio P55F1. Excellent TV but I didnt realize how much visual "plankton" was being washed out from the light emissions from LED until I got an OLED. Alot more visual information and subtle gradations became visible.

People think OLED is about perfect blacks but it's much more than that. It's about none of the visual information being lost from light pollution since each pixel can be turned on and off and is self emitting.

 

Yeah Colt, I'm currently using an LG C9 and it's spectacular. Recently watched Stranger Things 3 and it was quite the visual feast.

 

Gobbled the first three episodes of Mindhunter today. Somehow even better than season 1 so far.

 

The trade-off is clear: you give up the intense peak whites of top LCDs for the saturated colors, solid contours/lines, and shadow detail of OLED. Transmissive vs emissive technology; emissive always wins. I'm happy to give up the peak brightness; as it is, I avert my eyes from the peak whites on my 77" C8 (I get headaches too easily).

BTW, I don't watch network TV on the OLED. No network logos burning in all the time. I know better than to even attempt it. That's what I have other TVs for. The OLED is used only for Netflix via ethernet, straight shot back to the router. The right tool for the job!

 

I'd love to see a C9!

 

I've never understood peak brightness zealots. If anything it just hurts my eyes. My OLED is always bright enough even during daytime with the blinds open. In fact I can still see better with my OLED during the day than I could with my LED. Part of that is the better non reflective coating on the screen as well.

To me OLED has virtually no downsides except burn in, but that is so rare and difficult to f**k up and way less problematic than people believe. The boogeyman of televisions.

 

Just completed all 3 seasons of Stranger Things within the span of about a week.

Across the board, I enjoyed it tremendously. Objectively, it's good, maybe great at times, but certainly not top-tier; there are better ones out there. Subjectively however, it was just a blast to watch, under the given condition (especially in the latter seasons) of letting loose, taking it in a non-serious way, and not trying to piece together the aspect of realism, kinda like how you would when catching a chick-flick or even a kids cartoon.

The Stephen King influenced, synth infused, nostalgic 80's vibe is terrific. The set and costume design are amazing. Camera work and CGI are both great overall. The writing and character development is not perfect and suffers from consistency issues, but also has a surprisingly large amount of depth and complexity when at its best. Some of the acting is top-tier (Millie Bobby Brown in particular, but David Harbour, Dacre Montgomery and Noah Schnapp also have their moments).

That said, all 3 seasons are distinctly different from each other:

Season 1 is the most immersive because the novelty factor hits the hardest. But in terms of overall balance, it's also objectively the best, and has the least missteps. It's purely a cross between a mystery-horror genre, in a teenage setting. Suspense is in abundance. It's dark and sinister at times, and lighthearted in others. The teenage angst / growing pains elements of the show are finely woven in. You can (too?) clearly see that the creators of the show derived inspiration from contemporary works.

Season 2 more or less carries on from where things left off. It explores darker and more mature themes. Characters are more fleshed out. It's more consistent than Season 1, yet somewhat more monotonous. The character arc of Eleven, previously by far the most intriguing of all, grows a little bit stale.

Season 3 marks a complete deviation from the original formula. You could basically reclassify it as a comedic teen flick with a sprinkling of mystery and horror. The plot takes a back seat. Exploration of teenage romance, growing pains, and individual character dynamics are thrust to the forefront. Overly expositioned with almost irritating characters at times. It's cheesier, but strangely enough I found it to be quite endearing. Cringeworthy at times, but funnier or sweeter in others. Special mention to the 2nd half of the season finale, which had some of the very best moments of the entire series so far.

One of the most unique things about this show is its target audience. You can't really pinpoint a specific demographic or age group. I guess it tries its hardest to be all inclusive, as is the current trend in entertainment. With it comes the milking for maximum $ aspect of it (The S2 spinoff episode was the apex of it), but overall the show manages to pull it off, as seen by its tremendous global popularity and outreach.

Watching the behind-the-scenes footage is also a treat. Watching the actor/actress kids grow up through the years is simply cool and makes you root for all of them.

 

Mindhunter season 1 was great on so many levels. I didn’t realize season 2 just came out. Funny, and kind of scary, remember when you were 16 and had that immortal mentality? When they introduced BTK, I personally found that very chilling. When I was 16 some friends and I argued, fought and begged until our parents let us go solo out of state to a concert in Wichita Kansas. The biggest argument against it was there was an active serial killer in the area, which we ignored to the point that it took this show for me to put two and two together.

On a side note we had very, very normal parents. Can you imagine parents letting a pack of teens go out of state alone to a rock concert today? Kind of dating myself. That would never happen today and would be considered gruesomely irresponsible.

Binge watched The Boys on Amazon last week then bought every graphic novel on Kindle...still on sale. My wife was horrified. I think she sees it as spectacle, violence for violence’s sake, immature or just some MCU parody. I loved it. Really comes off to me as a stance against the way we handle celebrities in real life as a culture. Think every time you see the news and someone famous gets away with it, gets fined or gets house arrest and you think to yourself, “If I did that, I would spend 30 years behind bars.”

 

Great piece of TV criticism--detailed & observant...

 

Just finished season 2 of Mindhunter. Just brilliant, riveting television, the likes of which isn't being seen. What they do with simple dialogue scenes can be as exciting and nerve wrecking as any action or chase scene in a great thriller. Amazing character development (with some caveats), gorgeous cinematography and design, striking music... it's just the whole package and doesn't come around often. It's as good as any of Fincher's movies, in some ways better.

 

Dave Chappelle's new special dropped on Netflix today.

Genius as usual.

 

Can't believe I forgot to post this a few days ago. New Breaking Bad movie coming out on Netflix in October.

 

I never saw BB. A number of people told me I would love it/I'm crazy not to watch it/it's the best TV since TRUE DETECTIVE, etc. I just never watched it.

Should I care about this movie? Were there any other post-TV series BB films?

PS: I should say that I watched BETTER CALL SAUL for a couple seasons until it got tiresome. Really liked several characters, especially Nacho & Mike Ehrmantraut (villains tend to be the most interesting to me).

 

Into season 2 of The Sinner on Netflix, great slow-burn unfolding of events for each seasonal case. Bill Pullman is perfectly cast as the troubled/defective detective.

I concur with Mindhunder S2 being great as well.

 

Better Call Saul is a mixed bag. I really liked the first couple seasons, with reservations, but it started to lose me after that. I haven't kept up with it.

Breaking Bad the show is on a whole different level. It's completely different, even though they share similar DNA. Some people think BCS is a better show. Most I've encountered agree with me that BB is far, far superior. To me it's no contest. BB is the best TV show I've ever seen, by a significant margin. It starts fairly modest, but great and each season is a better than the last, with the final season reaching damn near Shakespearean levels of greatness. Alot of this comes down to a few freak of nature aspects.

1. Brian f'ing Cranston... his performance on the show is so good he received a letter from none other than Anything f'ing Hopkins, who told Cranston he binged BB and said Cranston's acting was the best he's ever seen. It's hard to argue with him. If you see BB for no other reason, see it for the force of nature that is Bryan Cranston aka Walter White/Heisenberg.

2. The writing is consistently excellent. This alot more significant than it may seem. Most shows I've seen, even the best ones have an episode here and there where the characters act strangely out of character, or the plot is weirdly stagnant/boring/irritating/filler, etc. Not BB. There is only one episode of this f'ing show I don't like, and the only reason for that is because it was designed for a specific guest director who wasn't really part of the team (Rian Johnson), so it feels weirdly out of place. Not bad at all, just... a weird aside. Like if you removed it, nothing would feel missing. It's called "Fly" if/when you decide to tackle the show. I will say the episode brilliantly comments on Walter White in a not so obvious way and that's probably it's main contribution. It doesn't really move the plot forward much. Anyway, other than that, the show is written within an inch of its life at all times. There isn't a single scene that feels unnecessary or indulgent. And you could literally graph the progression of each episode on an emotional, thematic and narrative scale and it would have a near perfect rise. There's a reason the show won so many Emmys, inspired so much pop culture and everyone berates people for not seeing it (which is only slightly over the top). It is the best written show of all time. No Games of Thrones 11th hour bullshit.

There are other reasons, but those are the top two. Every actor is brilliant to fantastic, even the bit players. And visually the show is becomes more cinematic as it goes on. The episode Ozymandias in season 5 (the second directed by Rian Johnson) might be visually the best directed episode I've ever seen, besting many movies.

Just watch the f'ing show dude. It's more than worth your time.

(sorry, in a cursing mood today)

 

I liked the 1st season of THE SINNER a lot, but IMO it really went to a different place in season 2. Part of the reason (I feel) was the de-emphasizing of Bill Pullman's character's sexual oddities & the re-emphasizing of his terrible family background. This felt more balanced & left me free to enjoy Pullman's in-the-moment acting as an obsessive, isolated man who happens to be a superb detective (and a superb nothing else). Elisha Henig was quite amazing, as well.

I must say: anything Carrie Coons is in, I have to watch. She's a brilliant character actor. First saw her in THE LEFTOVERS (brilliant plot..she killed in it), then the 3rd season of FARGO--again, brilliant, also very creepy. CC was the anchoring "real" person in that one.

 

f'ing excellent post, if I may f'ing say...

 

I'm on Season 7 of the original Magnum P.I. I watch one episode per night with my youngest son.

I finished watching The Boys on Amazon Prime. I thought it was pretty good. I like Karl Urban, and I started checking out the graphic novels.

I also watch The Practice, CSI New York, and I just started CSI Miami. So far, I'm giving a slight edge to CSI New York, as I like Gary Sinise and Melina Kanakaredes as a team a bit more than David Caruso and Kim Delaney. I prefer the supporting team on CSI Miami, because "Danny" from CSI New York annoys me. He comes across as a stubborn know-it-all. He needs to do a better job listening to and learning from "Mac."

I plan on checking out that new show on Amazon Prime with Orlando Bloom when it debuts, and I'm looking forward to the next Jack Ryan.