What TV SHOWS are you watching?

True Detective was outstanding but I'm kind of skeptical about the 2nd season. I'm not even sure why that is, just a gut feeling. I suppose I am not very enthused with the cast. I do hope it's good though.

The critics' reviews of the first half(?) of season 2 have not been particularly kind. I'm just now watching the rest of season 1, having only watched (but having liked) the first two episodes when it was on originally.

Finally finished watching Spartacus: Blood, Sand, Gods, Vengeance, War, Wine, and Boobs after having stalled out on season 4. Three plays of the board game made me sentimental. Actually, the fourth season turned out to be pretty good. I'd gotten kind of board with it when the army was in the city, but watching all ten episodes in a compressed time frame helped gain some momentum.

Looking forward to the last season of Strike Back, which is less-poetic garbage than Spartacus but still enjoyable if viewed with a self-protective ironic distance.

Yeah, early reviews are not good...it sounds like they went and made an ordinary crime show. But who knows, it may evolve into something else. But I kind of think that was a one shot thing- right people, right script, right time.

I'd be surprised if it's not still much better than 95% of TV series, and being a limited series, there isn't too much time to lose, regardless. The hard thing will be letting go of comparisons/expectations after season 1. What (little) I've read of advance reviews say that the mystery/story is great, but the characters aren't as interesting or compelling. If that's the case, I'm fine with that.

grantland.com/hollywood-prospectus/trued...al-more-mustachioed/

I don't always agree with him but I like Andy Greenwald's writing. This definitely leaves me interested in season 2, though I will admit I liked the mystical stuff in season 1. But I could live with a straight noir season 2.

jpat wrote: Looking forward to the last season of Strike Back, which is less-poetic garbage than Spartacus but still enjoyable if viewed with a self-protective ironic distance.

Agreed. A guilty pleasure that is fun to watch.

I'm finishing up a watching of all 7 seasons of Star Trek Voyager. I'm... not hating it? I think, for the most part, it is pretty good. The real issue is that the first season or two got off to a rough start---they hadn't figured out the characterizations and some of the characters were fucking insufferable. So, basically, compare Neelix season 6 or 7 to the god awful annoying piece of shit from seasons 1 and 2. Same could be said of the doctor. On the other hand, the captain has been consistently good throughout. No question Janeway belongs up there with the other, non-Archer, captains. She has a lot of fuck you in her captainship without taking it over the edge to homicidal maniac like Sisko did. Chakotay, too, despite his cheeseball Native American trapping (really, you have a (Navajo) dreamcatcher? You were just doing Sioux shit in the previous episode!) is an interesting character in some ways. He's one of the few male characters I've seen on TV that is purely a supportive character as first officer; a "team" player,, with almost no gung ho personality... sort of feminized re: traditional gender roles but in a really good way.

The other issue is that they never came up with an alternative story generating arc. Star Trek has always been a split between stories generated from established world issues (politics, Q, war, etc) and "WE JUST RAN INTO A NEBULA!" stories. Voyager's "WE JUST RAN INTO A NEBULA!" stuff are way over the top in terms of balance---you can even see them trying to build up compelling story generating world stuff (Khazon, Hirogen, Borg, etc) but it just does not consistently work. It leads to episode after episode of monotonous running into threat accidentally storylines. Star Trek has always had a ton of that, but Voyager just goes way beyond other series.

Anybody watching Wayward Pines. It's a new show on Fox with Matt Dillon as the Protagonist. I don't find him very likeable as an actor but I dig the Lost meets Twin Peaks vibe. The mythology is interesting more so than the characters. Three episodes in and I wish his wife and son would die though.

It always bothered me that Janeway seemed to be trying really hard to imitate Katherine Hepburn. I wasn't a fan of the show but I did watch episodes from time to time. What I saw was a random mixture of mediocrity punctuated by a few good and few terrible episodes. One in particular is stuck in my memory, because Janeway and Paris got turned into alien lizards... and had offspring. Ugh.

I've also kind of halfheartedly tried a Voyager "rewatch," but I put "rewatch" in quotes because it appears that I must've hardly watched the series at all when it was originally on because I remember a rare few episodes very clearly and then ... nothing. What to say? At only about halfway into season 3, which is the point we're sort of positing as a turning point, I can't say it's particularly good. Tuvok is actually the rare non-Spock Vulcan who actually seems like a Vulcan to me. Janeway is alright. Robert Picardo is clearly better than this show and is forced into some messed-up stuff as the Doctor. The rest are just kind of in a muddled middle for me. I falsely remembered there being almost no continuity in the first couple of seasons, but they do a fair bit of work with the Khazon storyline, albeit not in a way that makes the Khazon seem like a real group of people or a credible threat. The biggest problem the show has, apart from those identified, is the long-recognized one that there's very little likelihood that the ship could take the kind of abuse it does over and over again and survive, much less function at a high level. The geostrategic and logistical situation should've called for serious, consistent alliance making and resource scavenging, but there are really only nods to that when it's convenient. Otherwise, it's anomaly of the week, as Gary noted, and the anomalies aren't generally all that interesting. More so than any of the shows but DS9, this one should've had a sense of place, space, and time, but it feels incredibly generic to me.

jpat wrote: Tuvok is actually the rare non-Spock Vulcan who actually seems like a Vulcan to me.

I have no idea which season, but there was one exceptional Voyager episode featuring Tuvok. The point of the episode was to emphasize that Vulcans are actually very emotional beings who need to keep tight control over their emotions.

charlest wrote: Anybody watching Wayward Pines. It's a new show on Fox with Matt Dillon as the Protagonist. I don't find him very likeable as an actor but I dig the Lost meets Twin Peaks vibe. The mythology is interesting more so than the characters. Three episodes in and I wish his wife and son would die though.

Agreed on all counts, and I'm impressed by the big reveal in the most recent episode. Pretty interesting, and worthy of Shyamalan's better work. Some things are still annoying in a convoluted kind of way (especially, why didn't they just tell him what was going on to begin with??), and as you say the characters aren't as good as what's going on, but I'm finding it worthwhile.

Imagine there never was a first season of True Detective and the premiere would be pretty mind-blowing in terms of quality television. I'm already engrossed with the new characters (Vince Vaughan in particular is interesting as a mob guy who genuinely seems thoughtful and even kind, though you know there's gotta be violence underneath), and there are some great lines and an intriguing premise about corruption among a small city's business ventures. It may not be as unique a story as season one, and there isn't a real standout character yet like Rust Cohle, but damn, it's still really solid and I think Vaughan and Colin Ferrill will hold their own.

Grudunza wrote:

charlest wrote: Anybody watching Wayward Pines.
Imagine there never was a first season of True Detective and the premiere would be pretty mind-blowing in terms of quality television. I'm already engrossed with the new characters (Vince Vaughan in particular is interesting as a mob guy who genuinely seems thoughtful and even kind, though you know there's gotta be violence underneath), and there are some great lines and an intriguing premise about corruption among a small city's business ventures. It may not be as unique a story as season one, and there isn't a real standout character yet like Rust Cohle, but damn, it's still really solid and I think Vaughan and Colin Ferrill will hold their own.

I'm tempted to cut HBO and cable after watching episode 1 season 2 of True Detectives. It was decent, I'm sure the season will be good and I'd like to see the full season one day but it didn't totally hook me after one episode.

Yeah I thought it was just ok, mostly dwarfed by last season. I dislike Colin Farrell but thought he was decent in this role. I really dig the music and those sweeping sky shots. Atmosphere is still kind of there, just need the plot to erupt.

I have no huge love for Colin Farell, but he was probably the best actor on the set. Vince Vaughn is just painful to listen to in terms of dialogue delivery. Very robotic.