What TV Shows Are You Watching?

[moldyfigg]

I've been doing a Sopranos power re-watch these last couple of weekends. I'm in the middle of the fourth season right now, but it's been interesting to see in a compact time frame the progression of the show in the first three seasons from good to great to redefining the possibilities of television.

Once it starts extricating itself from some of the overly humorous and 'wacky' elements, it also begins to more clearly and unambiguously convey this dark and soul-destroying world is without ever de-humanizing the characters or going for the easy bad guy portrayals or the expedient redemptions. Though there's no question by then that these are bad guys.

It's kind of interesting to compare and contrast how very different modern dramas such as Mad Men, Sopranos, The Wire, Breaking Bad, and even Game of Thrones tackle moral ambiguity and the fluidity of the spectrum. (I'm sure this is important for shows like Dexter and The Shield as well, but I've not seen those)

The best episode is where they try to whack the guy in the forest.

[Blue Train]

The best episode is where they try to whack the guy in the forest.

If you mean the Russian....while a great episode....it reminds me of it's one of the things I didn't like about the Sopranos. The unresolved story plots.

The guy was the friend of the guy in charge of the Russian mob in the area and laundered the money for Tony. They both served in special forces in Russia and he saved his friend's life. He killed 16 Chechens by himself.

He doesn't go tell his friend/boss what happened....which would have ended up in a lot of dead bodies. @ the very least they would have put a hit out on Paulie and Christopher. In fact he doesn't try to get revenge in anyway. He just disappears.


P.S. Really hated the ending....but that last season, or two wasn't as good.

[stonemonkts]

The best episode is where they try to whack the guy in the forest.

I would say one of the other great episodes was when Carmella confronts Tony with his infidelity. It was the same one with the hilarious Dean Martin on the boat bits.

[BFrank]

Christopher Guest's "Family Tree".
If you're a fan, it's worth watching. Same quasi-faux doc treatment as his films, but funny........as usual.

[stonemonkts]

I love the Monkey puppet.

[moldyfigg]

Christopher Guest's "Family Tree".
If you're a fan, it's worth watching. Same quasi-faux doc treatment as his films, but funny........as usual.

We like it but it does take time to get used to, strange rhythm.

[BFrank]

I love the Monkey puppet.

Such an ODD concept to begin with, and a little uncomfortable at times......yet hilarious!

[Blue Train]

Orange is the New Black is easily the best of all the shows Netflix has released. Loosely based on a real person/events. They really ordered a 2nd season.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nryWkAaWjKg


P.S. Kate Mulgrew's Russian accent is just bad, but nowhere as bad as Kevin Spacey's southern one.

[sozamora]

Orange is the New Black is easily the best of all the shows Netflix has released. Loosely based on a real person/events. They really ordered a 2nd season.

I liked the first episode. The writing is pretty solid and the lead as well as the supporting cast are all good. I found the scenes outside of prison far less interesting than the ones inside, so I hope they don't get carried away with flashbacks.

[Blue Train]

Orange is the New Black is easily the best of all the shows Netflix has released. Loosely based on a real person/events. They really ordered a 2nd season.

I liked the first episode. The writing is pretty solid and the lead as well as the supporting cast are all good. I found the scenes outside of prison far less interesting than the ones inside, so I hope they don't get carried away with flashbacks.

The first episode is really the weakest one. Each episode has flashbacks. They deal with whichever of the main characters the episode mostly revolves around.

The weakest part is the Jason Biggs character, and the main protagonist's family/friends and their storylines outside of prison.

[moldyfigg]

With all the channels we get on Direct plus HBO, Showtime and the Genie, I can't get motivated to get Netflix with a bunch of reruns of show I already saw or didn't want to watch in the first place and the odd maybe good original show.

[LennyH]

With all the channels we get on Direct plus HBO, Showtime and the Genie, I can't get motivated to get Netflix with a bunch of reruns of show I already saw or didn't want to watch in the first place and the odd maybe good original show.

It's hard to justify having all of these channels and packages because they all add up to such a bloody fortune but they all, including Netflix, round out the picture to me. And I have HBO, Showtime, Amazon Prime, etc. In our house, nothing gets watched as much as Netflix. It's been easily the best bang for the buck for us when it comes to entertainment.

[jaka]

Downton Abbey since the beginning of the week.
Great cast, great story. I never tire of these English periodical dramas.

[walto]

I saw the season finale of Bachlorette because my daughter was watching it. Incredible weirdness.

I understand the whole thing is fake. Scripted. But who could write that kind of crapola? And wouldn't there be some narrative flow if it were actually scripted? But the dates on horseback, at castles, with background music etc., and you know the cameras are running except for when you sleep with each of a half dozen suitors. Just really weird.

[sozamora]

I saw the season finale of Bachlorette because my daughter was watching it. Incredible weirdness.

I understand the whole thing is fake. Scripted. But who could write that kind of crapola? And wouldn't there be some narrative flow if it were actually scripted? But the dates on horseback, at castles, with background music etc., and you know the cameras are running except for when you sleep with each of a half dozen suitors. Just really weird.

I've wondered just how extensively reality shows like that are scripted. I mean, I know they're completely staged and fake, but are there actually sheets of paper with written text, stage directions, etc. I've speculated that the producers intentionally hold back on the level of detail in order to manufacture a sort of restrained, controllable "spontaneity" and perhaps to not raise concern from the WGA.

I've never seen that show, but there's a pretty funny web-based parody called Burning Love. It's by the folks from The State. It's kind of difficult to parody something that's already kind of its own parody, but it works.

[sozamora]

With all the channels we get on Direct plus HBO, Showtime and the Genie, I can't get motivated to get Netflix with a bunch of reruns of show I already saw or didn't want to watch in the first place and the odd maybe good original show.

It's hard to justify having all of these channels and packages because they all add up to such a bloody fortune but they all, including Netflix, round out the picture to me. And I have HBO, Showtime, Amazon Prime, etc. In our house, nothing gets watched as much as Netflix. It's been easily the best bang for the buck for us when it comes to entertainment.

What do you think of Amazon Prime and the Amazon streaming service in general? I don't buy a lot of stuff from Amazon that requires shipping, so if I got AP it would be specifically for the streaming.

[sozamora]

The first episode is really the weakest one. Each episode has flashbacks. They deal with whichever of the main characters the episode mostly revolves around.

The weakest part is the Jason Biggs character, and the main protagonist's family/friends and their storylines outside of prison.

I'm taking my time with it, but it definitely got stronger after the first episode. I just saw the episode centered on Miss Claudette, and that was just brilliant. If the rest of the season is like that, this will be a candidate for my top ten of the year for sure.

[Blue Train]

Clint:


Have you ever seen Borgen? I think you would really like it. It's in Danish....the third and last season get's a bit soap operaish....but the first two seasons are the Danish version of The West Wing....but a whole lot better. Birgitte Nyborg pwn3s Martin Sheen.

Rewatched Black Books....if anyone hasn't seen this show...they should. Both Dylan Moran & Bill Bailey are in it.

[LennyH]

What do you think of Amazon Prime and the Amazon streaming service in general? I don't buy a lot of stuff from Amazon that requires shipping, so if I got AP it would be specifically for the streaming.

I got it a few months ago just because I wanted to see Justified and I'm not sure I've watched anything else except Goodfellas, which my daughter hadn't seen and wasn't available without paying anywhere else I could find. It's fine. It's got some things that Netflix doesn't. The navigation is nowhere near as good to me. It's sort of mixed in with the standard Amazon interface. I have to go back and look when I hit a rut with Netflix but I'm not sure I'd pay the $80 a year if I didn't also benefit from being able to fire off orders to Amazon without having to figure out what else to by to hit the $25 needed to get free shipping.

There are some newer seasons of TV shows, Dr Who for example, that I wanted to watch but the newer season was not included for free with the Prime membership. They still expect you to pay for the really new stuff. This wasn't evident to me until I joined.

[LennyH]

I liked Orange is the New Black a lot. After a few shows I was a bit indifferent but it really grew on me. It was fun.

I was surprised to find that much of the high-level story on which the series is based is true. Not the details so much but Piper's story.

[Blue Train]

I liked Orange is the New Black a lot. After a few shows I was a bit indifferent but it really grew on me. It was fun.

I was surprised to find that much of the high-level story on which the series is based is true. Not the details so much but Piper's story.

As I said before....it starts off slow, but if you make it past the first couple episodes and Kate Mulgrew's accent....

[moldyfigg]

Clint:


Have you ever seen Borgen? I think you would really like it. It's in Danish....the third and last season get's a bit soap operaish....but the first two seasons are the Danish version of The West Wing....but a whole lot better. Birgitte Nyborg pwn3s Martin Sheen.

Rewatched Black Books....if anyone hasn't seen this show...they should. Both Dylan Moran & Bill Bailey are in it.

We have been watching "Borgen", it's a good show even with captioning. Good acting and just as rotten politics as everywhere else. Kind of a Danish "West Wing."

I keep waiting for the chef to stuff a chicken, tho'.

[sozamora]

Should have been a little quicker on the draw, then we could have watched the rest in real time.

Don't blame yourself. You only had a whole year.

Still not sure why Gilligan broke up the last "season" over two years.

I don't think it's his call. More like AMC not wanting to lose one of their gravy trains and not having anything to replace it. The Walking Dead has better ratings, but BB has the critical cred.

[steve(thelil)]

Other than a few minutes of baseball 3 weeks ago, I haven't watched TV in 4 weeks. (I have watched a bunch of clips from TV on YouTube)

Just turned on Yanks-Tigers game to watch A-Rod get booed in his first Yankee Stadium at bat this year. Rain delay has game time pushed back to about 8:00 PM.

[stonemonkts]

Been enjoying Borgen. I wouldn't say it was a Danish West Wing, because Borgen is a far better show, and to me more a politics/journalism version of Prime Suspect. I can't get enough of hearing the language too. I like observing how other cultures depict drama, or the human condition in general. The acting is exceptional.