Jul 4, 2018 12:25:59 GMT shinobimusashi said:

Also the theme song by Queen gets me all jacked up.

You're not alone, brother. Highlander was one of my go to shows in the mid 90s. 

Picked up season one of Picket Fences the other day. For those who don't know, it was a critically acclaimed series which struggled in the ratings, yet managed to stick around on CBS from 1992-1996. Picket Fences winning a couple Emmy's back in the day marked the first (and probably last) time I ever cared about the Emmy's. I can also confirm its lack of an audience in an anecdotal sort of way since I never knew a single other person in either middle or high school who spent their Friday nights religiously watching Picket Fences the way I did. Anyway, it was probably my favorite show from 92-94* but until this week I think I had only seen one episode (Kenny shoots a snake) in the past 20 years.

The closest comparison I can come up with is the original Twin Peaks. Both shows took place in small towns (Rome, WI in Fences) full of eccentric characters where weird things happened on a regular basis. It also had just the tiniest bit of an X Files thing going on what with all the odd occurrences and the show being centered around a law enforcement team. In fact, about a year ago I learned/was reminded of the rumored Picket Fences/X Files crossover back in the day. Oh. My. God. That would have been the coolest thing in the world to 1994 Baker. But stupid network politics (X Files was on Fox, while PF was on CBS) put the kibosh on that.

After 7 episodes I can safely say Picket Fences has aged a lot better than some of the other early 90s favorites I've been binging on over the past few months (AND that's even without having a single mayor die of spontaneous combustion!.....yet). Characters like the world's sleaziest lawyer Douglas Wambaugh and kooky medical examiner Carter Pike are as amusing today as they were 25 years ago. I also realized this show had to have been a subconscious influence on my fanfic masterpiece, New Generation Wrestling. I became aware of this fact when the 3rd episode began with a midget casually riding an elephant down a public street like it was the most normal thing in the world to do. That's so NGW. However, I also do remember turning on the show at some point in real time when it got too weird for its own good. 

Another thing I liked about this show back in the day was how frequently major characters were killed off. Plot twists were often unpredictable. The desired/expected outcome didn't always took place. Now all this stuff is commonplace today but it was extremely rare for network tv in the early 90s.

Anyway, fans of The X Files or original Twin Peaks might want to give this forgotten gem a shot. 

*I say "probably" only because The Simpsons and Married With Children were still in peak form from 92-94. WWF Superstars also had a claim to that title for a few months in the fall of '93 when the Foreign Fanatics were going strong. And at some point The X Files overtook Fences as #1 in my heart for a little while. I just can't remember exactly when that took place.



 

Jul 16, 2018 0:04:34 GMT @admin said:

Jul 15, 2018 15:20:25 GMT vendrell said:

Big Brother is starting to lose me. 

2005 called.

I know, I'm the only person on planet earth that still watches it.  Excuse me all to hell.

12 Monkeys wrapped up the series quite nicely, yeah, the nature of the material does raise some questions, but still a consistently entertaining show that ended on as perfect a note as could be expected.

I'm enjoying Sharp Objects. Jean-Marc Vallee is an amazing director - and just like in Big Little Lies has really created an immersive atmosphere out of the setting.

Still enjoying the Affair, but season 3 had a season long arc about a psychotic break that culminated in episode 9...and hasn't been mentioned since. Pretty major plot development to just gloss over, hopefully they actually address it some point moving forward.

Jul 28, 2018 1:30:34 GMT RagnarokMike said:

Still enjoying the Affair, but season 3 had a season long arc about a psychotic break that culminated in episode 9...and hasn't been mentioned since. Pretty major plot development to just gloss over, hopefully they actually address it some point moving forward.

I thought S3 was good. The finale though was the weakest of the three in my opinion. I didn't give two fucks about the professor and her storyline I thought they made the twist a bit to obvious though, I mean like right out of the gate they made it obvious but perhaps it was meant to be but that just seems odd.They really could have disguised that better and it would have had more impact on me. Haven't seen any of S4 yet.

The Ringer’s top 100 tv episodes list has sent me backwards to remember some excellent tv. I watched Mad Men’s “The Suitcase” a few days ago and then “The Constant” from lost this morning. Not sure how far down this rabbit hole I’ll go, but it’s been fun.

I watched Sneaky Pete last week. The first season was really fun, the second season was less so but okay and easy to get through. Seems like the show has a limit to where else it can go though.

Now I’m mostly just catching up on the last two seasons of New Girl.

The newest season of Orange Is The New Black was just spoiled for me by a friend posting on twitter. Normally I let spoilers go when it comes to social media because that's just how it is. If a big movie drops, everyone is going to be talking about it. When a new episode of a TV show airs, everyone that watches it is going to be talking about it. If I choose to go on social media before I see that film or that episode, it's on me if I get spoiled and I accept that.

Netflix is a bit of a different beast though. The new season of OITNB came out 10 days ago. In that time, I've moved to a new house and been busy as all fuck on top of my normal every day stuff of having a wife and kids and a full-time job. The fact that we're on episode 9 of OITNB is a feat in itself, because we've had barely any spare time.

The end of the season was just spoiled for me and I think I'm justifiably upset. I think 10 days for a 13-episode (13 hour) commitment is too soon to be talking about it in a spoilery fashion. Just because you don't have kids, live alone, work 20 hours a week and can crush a season of TV in no time shouldn't mean you can just go "OMG I CAN'T BELIEVE _________ #OITNB #SEASON6 #ATTENTION" without being considered a dick.

End of rant.

The neckbeards losing their shit over Batwoman being a gay character (true to the comic) is my favorite thing on facebook right now.

My summer long 90s tv binge is concluding with X Files season one. Like the other shows I've been watching, I haven't seen it in over 20 years aside from maybe an episode here and there. First episode was a lot weaker than I remembered. That one instantly hooked me back in the day. 2nd & 3rd eps lived up to the quality I remembered from early X Files though. Was looking for shinobimusashi 's epic X Files post but it appears to have been over at the old forum. What a shame. So much goodness has been lost.

X Files is the GOAT tv show ever. Season 1 was better to me the second time around, loved every episode even the bad ones. Beyond The Sea is one of the best for Brad Dourif. Season 2 for me was not as good until the latter half once Kim Manners started cranking out some of the best episodes of the whole series. Season 3 is the peak of the show and one of my favorite seasons of any show. X Cops is my favorite episode, season 7 i believe.

Baker  my 90's TV bro I forgot to tell you I found a season 1 DVD set of Millennium at Books A Million about a month ago. Not sure if you remember this one but it was made by the same people who made X-Files and it starred Lance Henrickson as the lead. I remember really liking this show back when it would come on and I've been wanting to get the DVD sets for years but never came across it. I shit a brick when I seen it at the store in the used DVD's section. The first episode is five stars, outstanding shit, really dark and kinda reminds me of the old Marilyn Manson or Nine Inch Nails music videos in it's style, really trippy story plus they used some awesome licensed music(including Hey Pig by Nine Inch Nails and some White Zombie).

After the pilot though I kinda lost interest honestly. Henrickson was fucking perfect for the role of that detective but I got to say my favorite part of the show so far has been his part time sidekick detective played by Terry O'Quinn, the guy who played in the Stepfather movies back in the day(he was excellent in those, he also pops up in several episodes of X-Files). I don't know though, I watched the rest of disc 1 and kinda lost interest in it and forgot I had it. I'm going to try to get back in it tonight.

shinobimusashi Yeah, Beyond The Sea with Brad Dourif was great. That and Squeeze were my favorite episodes so far mainly because of the great guest stars. I still love Mulder too though. He's the man. Man, X Files was so Me when it came out :lol:

On the last disc now- 4 or 5 episodes left. I'm enjoying it but some of the episodes are kind of weak. X Files is great at build but lousy at payoffs. So many otherwise stellar episodes just sort of sputter out at the end. I got tired of that after a while back in the day. I'm going to keep watching until I lose interest though. Think it was Season 5 or 6 in real time. I know I was done with the show before Mulder became a part timer.

I don't remember Millennium at all. It came up a few times in my research and I just assumed it was that spinoff with Mulder's nerdy friends. Maybe I'll look into both of those once I wrap up The X Files.

Wife and I are presently working our way through The Office from the beginning as a way to procrastinate unpacking. We've been averaging maybe five episodes per weeknight since arriving in Waltham. It's parallels to my cubicle life are too real. Combine it and Office Space, and it's a spot-on representation of my working existence with a needed comedic flair. Subtract the comedic flair, and it's just... Ugh. I don't want to wake up and go in tomorrow. Or ever. Fuck me and this life.

I should've taken that firefighter position in DC after all.

Aug 8, 2018 23:41:04 GMT KJ said:

The neckbeards losing their shit over Batwoman being a gay character (true to the comic) is my favorite thing on facebook right now.

Maybe funnier are the people losing their shit because Ruby Rose "isn't gay enough." Like, what does that even mean? 

Just finished Ozark season 1, not bad...Aside from all the homo shit it reminds me of Breaking Bad.

Aug 16, 2018 2:32:07 GMT shinobimusashi said:

Baker  my 90's TV bro I forgot to tell you I found a season 1 DVD set of Millennium at Books A Million about a month ago. Not sure if you remember this one but it was made by the same people who made X-Files and it starred Lance Henrickson as the lead. I remember really liking this show back when it would come on and I've been wanting to get the DVD sets for years but never came across it. I shit a brick when I seen it at the store in the used DVD's section. The first episode is five stars, outstanding shit, really dark and kinda reminds me of the old Marilyn Manson or Nine Inch Nails music videos in it's style, really trippy story plus they used some awesome licensed music(including Hey Pig by Nine Inch Nails and some White Zombie).

After the pilot though I kinda lost interest honestly. Henrickson was fucking perfect for the role of that detective but I got to say my favorite part of the show so far has been his part time sidekick detective played by Terry O'Quinn, the guy who played in the Stepfather movies back in the day(he was excellent in those, he also pops up in several episodes of X-Files). I don't know though, I watched the rest of disc 1 and kinda lost interest in it and forgot I had it. I'm going to try to get back in it tonight.

I loved Millennium watching it in it's initial run.  Lance Henerickson was money in the role.  I do think that it was less interesting trying to rewatch it and S3 in particular kind of goes off the rails.  

Your love the X-files I once shared but it's been so devalued by the return and the original final season that it's tainted the overall feel of it. I do agree though.  Those first 3 seasons were awesome.  The main story hadn't gone bat shit crazy yet and the monster of the weeks were fantastic.  Starting in season 4 the main story started going off the rails and the monster of the weeks were kind of hit and miss.  

Oh man Better Call Saul is just the best. I feel kinda nerdy marking out every time another Breaking Bad character shows up but they're always such great (re)introductions. The pizza/dipping sticks reference this week was amazing too!

Watched the first three Better Call Saul episodes over the past couple of days. The show is better than ever. The only complaint I have is that bloody elements song. Yeah, it's within Gail's character to be singing that song, but it doesn't make it any less annoying.

Aug 22, 2018 7:41:06 GMT @admin said:

Oh man Better Call Saul is just the best. I feel kinda nerdy marking out every time another Breaking Bad character shows up but they're always such great (re)introductions. The pizza/dipping sticks reference this week was amazing too!

What is this pizza reference?

Aug 23, 2018 21:40:13 GMT Emperor said:

Watched the first three Better Call Saul episodes over the past couple of days. The show is better than ever. The only complaint I have is that bloody elements song. Yeah, it's within Gail's character to be singing that song, but it doesn't make it any less annoying.

Aug 22, 2018 7:41:06 GMT @admin said:

Oh man Better Call Saul is just the best. I feel kinda nerdy marking out every time another Breaking Bad character shows up but they're always such great (re)introductions. The pizza/dipping sticks reference this week was amazing too!

What is this pizza reference?

Mr Neff called Venezia's which is the same store that the pizza came from in Breaking Bad - most notably in the iconic scene where Walter brings pizza to Skyler before throwing it on the roof in frustration. Neff ordering his pizza sliced is also a reference to the unusual way the store serves the pie whole (which was really just to allow the roof toss) but they also went on to acknowledge in a funny conversation between Badger and Jesse in later episode of BB.

The attention to detail is just amazing - another little nug that I didn't pick up myself but people have noticed that Kim is tying her ponytail lower this season because she's only got the use of one arm. 

Aug 23, 2018 23:40:43 GMT @admin said:

Aug 23, 2018 21:40:13 GMT Emperor said:

Watched the first three Better Call Saul episodes over the past couple of days. The show is better than ever. The only complaint I have is that bloody elements song. Yeah, it's within Gail's character to be singing that song, but it doesn't make it any less annoying.

What is this pizza reference?

Mr Neff called Venezia's which is the same store that the pizza came from in Breaking Bad - most notably in the iconic scene where Walter brings pizza to Skyler before throwing it on the roof in frustration. Neff ordering his pizza sliced is also a reference to the unusual way the store serves the pie whole (which was really just to allow the roof toss) but they also went on to acknowledge in a funny conversation between Badger and Jesse in later episode of BB.

How the heck do people remember shit like this? I struggle to rememember everything that's happened in Better Call Saul up to now - never mind obscure Breaking Bad references. I get that the pizza on the roof was a memorable moment, but to remember the name of the pizza place too?

Reddit.

Made my way through Season 2 of the X Files in rapid fashion. I remember far less of these than I was expecting. The only episodes I recalled really well were the Pilot and the one with the Arkansas chicken plant cannibals. 

shinobimusashi is gonna hate me for this but X Files hasn't aged all that well. They usually have a good first act, decent second act, and dud endings. Even most of the 'good' episodes tend to fizzle out with weak endings. This peaked when Mulder & Scully got played big time by some cult only to be saved in the end by basically the devil because....reasons? Then there was the time they got trapped in a forest with homicidal prehistoric insects who devoured everybody else within seconds only to survive unlike all those other characters because.....they needed to make a new episode the following week? A surprising amount of episodes are straight up bad. I'd say the average X Files ep is a 4/10. And don't even get me started on all the evil twin episodes......

Top 5 Episodes of Season 1 & 2

Squeeze (S1/E3)- A 100 year old man who doesn't visibly age due to eating five human livers every thirty years has the ability to squeeze into tiny places. He uses this talent for murderous reasons....in Baltimore! Trust me. It's way better than it sounds. Mainly because the guy who played Tooms was great. Sadly his return episode was not up to par.
 
Beyond The Sea (S1/E12)- Scully's father dies. Scully & Mulder encounter another great guest star in psychic(?) serial killer Luther Lee Boggs.

Ascension (S2/E6)- Scully is missing. Mulder is pissed. Krycek officially turns heel. Probably the most dramatic episode of the bunch.

Irresistible (S2/E13)- Mulder & Scully encounter another great guest star in creepy 'death fetishist' Donnie Pfaster. This one reminded me of a story I read back in the day called The Loved Dead.

Die Hand Die Verletz (S2/E14)- The one where the devil saves Scully & Mulder. But it was quality, possibly my favorite episode yet, up until the dud ending.

Bad Episodes- Too many to list. 

Irredeemable Episodes

3 (S2/E7)- A vampire episode. I have absolutely no idea what was going on here. The whole episode glosses over a guy literally no selling death. DEATH! He was dead. Then he wasn't. Mulder doesn't make a big deal about this. Now I know Mulder has seen some shit, but come on! Surely coming back from the dead warrants at least a throwaway line or two. Then Mulder uncharacteristically hooks up with the prime suspect, who may or may not be a vampire. Then some crazy woman (the REAL vampire) appears out of nowhere shouting in Latin with a distorted 'creepy' voice. This woman is never seen or mentioned again. 10/10 for sheer WTFness. 0/10 for such things as making sense & storytelling. The worst of the bunch.

Fearful Symmetry (S2/E18)- An invisible elephant stampedes through town and a gorilla gets impregnated by aliens. No symmetry is involved, fearful or otherwise.

Humbug (S2/E20)- A 'comedy' episode about a town full of freaks. The great Vincent Schiavelli has a homicidal, detachable goiter. Said goiter is eaten by an old timey sideshow geek. Yep. This happened.

F.Emasulata (S2/E22)- A nasty, boil-producing, killer disease spreads due to escaped convicts who have contracted said disease. Many episodes were bad. This one was just boring. I stopped paying attention halfway through. I assume Mulder & Scully saved the day.....perhaps with help from Krycek's previously unknown good twin....who also happens to be an alien? That sounds about right.

*Season 3 is ready to go. Be back with a recap in a week or so.

This is something I posted about the first 3 seasons on another forum after my second watchthrough this past March:

X-Files is my favorite TV show for sure. The subject matter is right up my alley, the characters Scully and Mulder is what sets it apart from other TV shows though. I just love them and the way they interact with each other and the way their relationship develops through the seasons. Mulder's whole deal with his little sister is something I can relate to so I also think that is why I love the show so much.

I used to watch the show whenever it was on back in the day, I remember really liking the movie that came out in 1998 also. Sometime around 2010 I picked up the box sets for season 1, 2, and 3. For some reason though I never really thoroughly watched through them, I would just watch random episodes here or there whenever I was in the mood. It really sucks that they took the show off of Netflix because it was great for random watches on rainy days or late nights with nothing to watch.

I watched through the whole series back in late 2015/early 2016. Actually I did not watch every episode though, I just stuck to the main storyline arc episodes and cherry picked certain Monster Of the Week episodes that appealed to me.

This past December though I started watching through the series far more thoroughly than I ever have before. I picked up season 4 on Blu Ray, then about a month ago I picked up a box set of season 5 through 8 at Wal Mart. My love for the show has grown on this watchthrough and my opinion of it has changed from the last (partial)watchthrough.

Season 1 there is just something about it I love so much. Even though later seasons outdo certain aspects of it, there is just a certain straight to VHS horror movie tone to it that really tickles me pink. I enjoy every episode in this season, it's a great little self contained batch of episodes that is seemingly darker, more mysterious, more serious in tone than latter seasons. I love how the pilot ends with the Cigarette Smoking Man filing the evidence in that huge Pentagon bunker like Indiana Jones, then the season finale ends the same way with him filing away the baby alien hybrid fetus in the same bunker.

I take that back, I actually really don't care for the Victor Tooms episodes(Squeeze/Tooms), I feel like those are pretty overrated and always want to skip past them when I watch through season 1 for some reason. All of the other 22 episodes though I really love, Conduit, Beyond The Sea(Brad Dourif is amazing in this), Pilot are some of my favorite episodes of the whole series. Even the weakest episodes from this season I still have a soft spot in my heart for them. Ice used to be one of my favorites from this season but I really wasn't all that crazy about it on this viewing, kind of a middle of the pack episode from this season, still solid though.

Season 2 I really didn't enjoy as much on this go around. The first episode Little Green Men was solid, even though I hated the way it ended without resolving anything. From there we get to "The Host" one of my least favorite episodes of the series. Blood was pretty weak but Sleepless was really good(love Tony Todd in this one). Didn't really care for the Duane Barry 2 part saga that kind of drags on into a third episode(One Breath). 3(the vampire episode), Excelsis Dei, and a few others rank down there with Host as some of my least favorite episodes of the series. But then you had Humbug, which is probably the GOAT episode of X-Files, and Die Hand Die Verletzt which is another one of my favorite episodes of the whole show. Overall though I felt like season 2 was a drag to get through this time, definitely did not like it as much as season 1, almost felt like they kind of struggled with what they wanted the show to be or where they wanted it to go.

Season 3 though the show really got comfortable within it's own skin and was fucking perfect. To me this is the best season, I enjoyed every single episode, even the cornier Monster Of The Week episodes where it felt like they were phoning it in were fucking great. This was the show in it's prime imo.

Caught up on OITNB and GLOW. Solid season, for OITNB, losing some of its charm each season, but still entertaining, I kind of hope Piper's new role means less focus, as she's long since become one of the least interesting main characters. GLOW continues to be a fun blast from the past, just can't stop grinning.


Also caught Disenchanted, not up to par with the likes of Futurama, but still an okay show with some solid laughs.

Started catching up on Better Call Saul today and got through two episodes. That second episode was incredible.

Rhea Seahorn man , that seen with Howard... give that woman the Emmy now and just shut down the category.

Also that ending was fun.

Despite using her importance to the show to leverage her way into Macy Money, Emmy Rossum will be leaving Shameless after this next season. Rather disappointing with her being the emotional core of the series, hard to picture it without her. Would rather she just agreed to one more season and they wrap the thing up. Oh well, have to see how it goes.

As per Power:

SPOILER: Click to show

They finally killed Kanan, long overdue, he really should have stayed dead after Dre sold him out, all his machinations since then ending at this point make them entirely pointless, just a waste of space. It was a better ending when Ghost put him down.

Slugging through Generation Kill. I've seen it before. Part of me, was/is hoping for an Iraqi War Band of Brothers. It's not. But I do enjoy the supposed realism.

Aug 29, 2018 9:57:59 GMT RagnarokMike said:

Also caught Disenchanted, not up to par with the likes of Futurama, but still an okay show with some solid laughs.

I've only seen the first couple episodes, it's not early Simpsons, or as you said Futurama, but I like it enough for what it is.

Started Goliath yesterday. The second episode caught me off guard with the conclusion so that’s good.

I’m a little behind on Saul, but it hasn’t reeled me in yet. Good of course.