Finished The Deuce last night. I feel like I need to start over and watch it again now that I know everyone’s names. This was somewhere in between The Wire and Tremé for me where it left me, close to the same place as Show Me a Hero. Very good though with some real humor in a not particularly funny world.


Big Pete did you like Ozark? Haven’t watched it yet.

Yeah, I enjoyed it. At times the writing felt weak but the acting from Bateman and Linney was strong through out and there's some fun sub-plots in there that breathes life into the Ozarks.

The story picks up right away, so watch the first episode and see what you make of it.

I still watched The Real World

Just wrapped up Law and Order The Menendez Murders. Show kind of fell flat there down the stretch but finished up strong with a solid finale, truly a sad and fucked up story all the way around.

Caught up with The Good Place tonight, the last two episodes maintained the same pace as the rest of the season, it was for my watching the best comedy on tv this year.

Horrible finale from AHS even by AHS standards, maybe the worst episode of the series.

These past couple of days, I finally sat down and watch Stranger Things seasons 1 & 2. It is really the best show out there IMO.

Watched the first episode of Superstition, at least they're unabashed in their being basically just Supernatural, name dropping Sam and Dean by the end of the episode. Solid, but needs time to develop, like most shows (including Supernatural, which didn't really get going until mid-late first season).

Mr. Robot has been really great this season and the past two episodes in particular were two of the most tension filled eps they have done.

Also This Is Us is just pure greatness. Really every episode has been solid, there really isn't one episode I can look at and say "oh that was just a filler episode". This is right up there with Mr. Robot and Walking Dead for my favorite series right now.

Finished up with the Punisher, probably my favorite of the Netflix shows, did great with characters just sitting around talking. Daredevil handled the big moments great, but it's those in between moments that it didn't land quite as succinctly. So many scenes this season were just a couple characters talking, and never felt to drag for me, and when the punishing got started, it was a thing of brutal beauty. This is the Punisher property we've been waiting for since the beginning of adaptations, landed on basically every level, where Lundgren Punisher felt like the name was an afterthought, Jane Punisher was a great Frank but in a subpar movie, and War Zone Punisher certainly had some great punishments, but was a bit too camp. 9/10

Friday night I caught the 2 hour Dateline special on the Menendez murders. This was such a great companion piece to the Law & Order True Crime: The Menendez Murders series I've been watching every Tuesday night for the past 2 months. I really never knew much about this story until I watched the series. After watching the doc it really showed how closely they were able to capture the real life characters with the series, really made me want to watch it again. Such a crazy and sad story. With the facts I was faced with this story I'm of the opinion that the boys got what they deserved, they belong in prison for the rest of their lives. I'm sure there was some abuse but they were of the age where they could have easily did something about it other than blowing their parent's faces off with shotguns. I'm sure that money was a big motivation for them, I just don't buy this excuse that they were afraid for their lives. But even as heinous as their crime was I still can't help but feel a little sorry for them. I feel really sorry for anyone spending their whole lives in prison for something they did at 18-21 years old, I'm not even close to the same person I was when I was at that age. 

I've started another X-Files watchthrough this morning. This time on the 4K Curve! I have the first 3 seasons on DVD and I just pickedup the blu ray for season 4 this past weekend. There are some local channels I pick up that play X-Files episodes remastered in HD on Tuesday nights and it looks phenomenal. Netflix dropped the show off and raised their price, that was the straw that broke the camel's back. I'm going to cancel my subscription after I finish Stranger Things season 2, it's just not worth the money for me. I think I'm going to subscribe to HBO through Amazon Prime, I like what I've seen on HBO Go, I may finally get around to checking out Game Of Thrones.

But X-Files is my favorite show of all time. Major reason is the characters, Mulder and Scully, and the way they interact with each other, the relationship that develops between them through the first few seasons is solid gold. Really the first season is so great, it just has a tone that was lost as the show went on through the years. The pilot episode is excellent, also Conduit is an episode I like more and more every time I watch it, one of my favorite episodes of the whole series.

So far, enjoyed the first episodes of Damnation, captures the western vibe perfectly, solid performances all around, one guy seems like they finally figured out how to clone Tom Hardy. Excited to see where the show leads. Between it, and Mr. Robot (amongst others), USA is really doing some good things with TV.

Nov 20, 2017 15:03:10 GMT shinobimusashi said:

I've started another X-Files watchthrough this morning. This time on the 4K Curve! I have the first 3 seasons on DVD and I just pickedup the blu ray for season 4 this past weekend. There are some local channels I pick up that play X-Files episodes remastered in HD on Tuesday nights and it looks phenomenal. Netflix dropped the show off and raised their price, that was the straw that broke the camel's back. I'm going to cancel my subscription after I finish Stranger Things season 2, it's just not worth the money for me. I think I'm going to subscribe to HBO through Amazon Prime, I like what I've seen on HBO Go, I may finally get around to checking out Game Of Thrones.

But X-Files is my favorite show of all time. Major reason is the characters, Mulder and Scully, and the way they interact with each other, the relationship that develops between them through the first few seasons is solid gold. Really the first season is so great, it just has a tone that was lost as the show went on through the years. The pilot episode is excellent, also Conduit is an episode I like more and more every time I watch it, one of my favorite episodes of the whole series.

X-files was also my favorite tv show for quite some time because really it was so different from so much else on tv.  It really was ahead of it's time in many respects...HOWEVER I will say that the big alien conspiracy storyline seemed to always get bogged down and kind of became the least entertaining part of the series for me.  I mean I'd be fine with a movie wrapping everything up or what they are doing now with the reboot even if the reboot was somewhat of a let down, not bad but I mean jesus fucking christ...Cig man still being alive is unforgivably ridiculous.  Why not just wheel out Mulder's sister and Scully's dad while we are at it. 

I really liked the monster of the week eps though.  They were usually so much fun.  Mulder and Scully being stuck in the woods with what was pretty much Predator ranks up there as one of my favorites. 

I seriously can't wait for it to return in January.

Nov 28, 2017 1:13:03 GMT vendrell said:

Nov 20, 2017 15:03:10 GMT shinobimusashi said:

I've started another X-Files watchthrough this morning. This time on the 4K Curve! I have the first 3 seasons on DVD and I just pickedup the blu ray for season 4 this past weekend. There are some local channels I pick up that play X-Files episodes remastered in HD on Tuesday nights and it looks phenomenal. Netflix dropped the show off and raised their price, that was the straw that broke the camel's back. I'm going to cancel my subscription after I finish Stranger Things season 2, it's just not worth the money for me. I think I'm going to subscribe to HBO through Amazon Prime, I like what I've seen on HBO Go, I may finally get around to checking out Game Of Thrones.

But X-Files is my favorite show of all time. Major reason is the characters, Mulder and Scully, and the way they interact with each other, the relationship that develops between them through the first few seasons is solid gold. Really the first season is so great, it just has a tone that was lost as the show went on through the years. The pilot episode is excellent, also Conduit is an episode I like more and more every time I watch it, one of my favorite episodes of the whole series.

X-files was also my favorite tv show for quite some time because really it was so different from so much else on tv.  It really was ahead of it's time in many respects...HOWEVER I will say that the big alien conspiracy storyline seemed to always get bogged down and kind of became the least entertaining part of the series for me.  I mean I'd be fine with a movie wrapping everything up or what they are doing now with the reboot even if the reboot was somewhat of a let down, not bad but I mean jesus fucking christ...Cig man still being alive is unforgivably ridiculous.  Why not just wheel out Mulder's sister and Scully's dad while we are at it. 

I really liked the monster of the week eps though.  They were usually so much fun.  Mulder and Scully being stuck in the woods with what was pretty much Predator ranks up there as one of my favorites. 

Yeah I never realized it until my last watchthrough a couple of years ago(whenever I started that thread on the old PW) the main storyline arch gets pretty whack after the movie, I really didn't like the latest season reboot at all. The monster of the week episodes are where it's at for sure, the main story was pretty great in that first season though and it interweaves into the monster of the week episodes pretty nicely.

I'm down to the last disc on my season 1 watch through, this was the first time I've thoroughly binge watched the entire first season in a short period of time like this. My love for it has grown, it may be my favorite season of the whole series. 

I think the X-files reboot had some good stuff and some bleh stuff. It's something I feel they need to wrap up in these episodes because the longer it goes the worse it's going to get if there is no ending time line.

Ah, it's good to have Vikings back, now I hope Knightfall (History's next big scripted drama, about the Knights Templar) next Wednesday can come close to matching it in quality.

Started watching the Mist (2017) on Netflix earlier today. Stopped watching the Mist earlier today. It was cancelled after 1 season and that's 1 season too late. By episode four, I was getting annoyed. By episode 8, I was so livid that I just closed Netflix and gave up. Won't finish it. There's not a single likable character on the entire show. Everybody is simply varying degrees of awful. Called the big twist, in jest, 2 episodes in and was legit disgusted when it came true. It was too absurd to continue watching. Looked up reviews and saw they were mixed. I was floored any critic could give this a positive review. MANswers was more dignified for Spike than this.

Fuck this entire show and the people who made it. King should have sued to get his name taken off. This made the movie look like an Oscar winner.

Started watching Friends From College. Not great, not awful. After 2 episodes, I'm convinced, it has the greatest soundtrack ever.

Nov 28, 2017 22:14:00 GMT vendrell said:

I think the X-files reboot had some good stuff and some bleh stuff. It's something I feel they need to wrap up in these episodes because the longer it goes the worse it's going to get if there is no ending time line.

I was so disappointed with it, just kinda felt like a cash in with no effort really put into it, almost felt like a parody of the series at times, hated the cliffhanger ending and the way nothing was resolved, so typical of the show during those last 2 or 3 seasons. With that said I still really enjoyed having new X-Files episodes to look forward to, I was really excited about it, I'm definitely hyped for the new season coming up even though I have lower expectations for it(previews don't look very good at all). 

I've made my way up to the last 2 discs of season 2, I got to say that on this complete watchthrough season 1 blows season 2 out of the water. I don't know how to explain the tone and feel of that first season with words, it was darker more mysterious, more reserve, the story that was told from episode to episode was tight and well written. I loved every single episode of season 1 except for the 2 part about Tooms the guy who can stretch, I know this is a very popular episode(s) but I've just never been a big fan of it for some reason. Also I hate the fucking flukeworm episode in season 2. In fact I'm just not real crazy about any of the first 8-12 episodes of season 2. The episode about the ghosts in the nursing home has to be the worst episode of the series. Not a big fan of where the story went with that Duane Berry saga and that one episode where Scully is in the hospital about to die was so long and drawn out, I just didn't like the execution, they were trying to go big with the story and it just felt out of character for the show(though I liked that they followed up on Scully's father's death in season 1). 

I've been paying closer attention to who wrote and directed the episodes on this go around, I've found that my least favorite episodes were usually written or directed by the show's producer/founder Chris Carter. Kim Manners is a name I'll be looking out for because he/she made their X-Files directorial debut with Die Hand Die Verletzt, one of my favorite episodes of the whole series. Easily the best episode of season 2 so far. This is the episode about the teachers in the small town who are in a satanic occult, spectacular episode all the way around, great supporting acting from the special guest characters, great story, excellently directed. 

They had a hard time recapturing the vibe of the first season with the first half of season 2, Die Hand Die Verletzt is where they really got it going again though, hands down one of the best episodes of the whole series, and I remember the last half of season 2 really picks up nicely. That first half was kind of a chore to get through though, some really lame monster of the week episodes(the nursing home episode, the vampire episode) and I don't really like where the main story are was going through that first half with Krycek and the whole Duane Berry angle and Scully's drama in the hospital. 

The show was definitely way ahead of it's time though. There was one episode about the machines influencing people in a town to go on murder rampages, they mention Russians researching how to influence people's minds with technology and later in the episode one of the guys goes on an active shooter rampage with a rifle in a tower. In the Duane Berry episode they talk about how he took a bullet to the brain in the line of duty(he was an FBI agent) but survived and his personality changed, Scully referenced the Phineas Gage story about the metal rod through the skull(they mentioned this on Stranger Things season 2). Also they are constantly using and referencing the internet, which was crazy ahead of it's time when these episodes were airing in 1993-1994-1995. 

I have now watched The Deuce twice. Much like The Wire, a second viewing was essential for me because in the game of catch up I’m playing from episode one on in a David Simon show I find that I finally know all the characters and their motivations by episode 8 and then it’s helpful to watch the shows that came before it to see all the beats that were building to something.

The show is going to pick back up a few years later and they’ve openly said they’re gonna lose some people, but there are some that are already locked in like Gyllenhaal, Franco, and the lady playing Franco’s girlfriend because they cast her despite her being in her 30’s because they wanted her to be able to play the eventual ten year span of the show.

Anyway, on second viewing I’d put it right up there near where the Wire was as the second best thing I’ve seen of Simon’s.

Solid premier for Knightfall, not as drawn to anybody like Vikings though, none of the characters really stand out. Looking forward to see what it goes though.

Vikings just keeps rolling for me, now there's more turmoil than ever between the brothers Lothbrock, but Ivar's gearing up to kick some English ass.

Started Big Little Lies last weekend and it's pretty good. Kind of like a less crappy Desperate Housewives. I'll start episode 4 this weekend and polish off the whole thing.

I really enjoyed Mr. Robot this season. I thought the finale was a bit week for all the build up but still not bad by any means. Bobby Cannivale is so good. Really glad he's getting his chance to shine now. I was a fan of his from all the way back to his run on the show Third Watch.

I'm down to the last 4 episodes of season 3 of X-Files. I really wasn't feeling season 2 at all for some reason, it was pretty weak up until the 2 Kim Manners directed episodes, the one about the high school teachers in the satanic cult and then Humbug the one about the circus sideshow freaks. Humbug might be one of the best episodes of any 90's TV show ever, if I were to recommend one episode of X-Files to somebody to watch the series for the first time this would probably be it. The whole episode kind of has the vibe of an episode of Tales From The Crypt, the story certainly seems like it was inspired by EC Comics.

But season 2 fell a little flat for me on this go around, the main storyline arc just didn't do it for me until it got to the 2 part End Game/Colony, which was fantastic, and the finale Anasazi set up season 3 pretty nicely. Season 2 just didn't have the same vibe that season 1 had that I liked so much.

But holy shit season 3 is unbelievably good, every episode, especially the main storyline arc episodes. The show just had the perfect little sense of humor, after this season it felt like the show tried too hard to be funny at times and the main storyline arc went off the rails. The show really found it's groove and was running on all cylinders for this whole season though, literally all 25 episodes was all killer no filler, you might have had 1 or 2 weak Monster Of The Week episodes in there but for the most part the show was going pretty hard all season. I love all the lies and subterfuge and red herrings that get thrown at Mulder and Scully and how their skeptic/believer character dynamic plays into how they deal with it, Mulder because of what happened to his sister is so gullible to believe everything they throw at him while Scully always questions everything and looks to find the bullshit in everything through scientific explanation. A big reason why X-Files is my favorite show even over Sopranos and The Wire is just that there is so much shit happening in every episode, rarely ever a dull episode, always some major shit going down with a lot of action but with story/character to go with it.

The trailers for the new season do not look good at all, I'll be watching but based on what I've seen and based on that last little mini-series reboot I'm not hyped at all for it. 

Started watching Ozark this morning and am a little torn on it.

There are moments in the show that are incredibly engaging and I can't look away , but then it drops off to the point where I'm looking for something to distract me from the boringness. Totally unsure if I'm going to continue with the series.

Wife and I just watched the first episode of Stranger Things last night. Intriguing. Seems like a mix of Super 8 and ET. I'm curious enough to at least watch another episode. I think Wife is too, but it was hard to read whether or not she liked it. She misses Marvel so much right now, I doubt ANYTHING will be quick to fill that void.

I don't binge watch, so I've been going through Stranger Things season 2 at a slow pace. I just watched the apparently infamous seventh episode. You know, the episode dedicated to Eleven's adventures in some big city with a poor man's Mr. Robot/Suicide Squad gang. It was bad and completely pointless. What did you guys think of the episode?

Dec 19, 2017 20:29:20 GMT UT said:

Started watching Ozark this morning and am a little torn on it.

There are moments in the show that are incredibly engaging and I can't look away , but then it drops off to the point where I'm looking for something to distract me from the boringness. Totally unsure if I'm going to continue with the series.

Echoed my experience entirely. I liked the pilot - plenty of action, interesting characters and a Radiohead-backed final scene - but tapped out pretty quickly after a couple more episodes because it got dull quickly and I really didn't care for the redneck family.

My issue with the Ozarks funnily enough was the lack of nuance. The characters largely came off as flat to me and while they were all given arcs, there wasn't a lot to endear them to the audience. I still thought there were some great performances, I enjoyed how they characterised the location and I liked certain relationships in the show. It isn't too often you see a father-daughter relationship like that.

Emp - In truth, I was disappointed with the way they handled El's arc. I would have preferred if they respected her heroic sacrifice more and had her not just leave the Upside Down like it was a funky closet. What they wanted to do was humanize her and develop her character which was fine, but it wasn't executed as well as it could have been. The idea of El stumbling on another experiment was inevitable and should have been a great moment, or even a great arc but the writers got too cute.

I'll touch more on Stranger Things when it pops up in the countdown.