What TV SHOWS are you watching?

repoman wrote: Just finished watching the conclusion of season 1 of Babylon Berlin and it was awesome. Not too often that a movie can blindside me so completely and yet in retrospect everything leading up to the finale makes perfect sense.

Heed my words, watch this show. It's super.

I am three episodes into this, and although I can tell it's a pretty good show, it is so grim, gritty and dark that I don't know if I can handle twelve more despair-filled episodes. This makes Bladerunner look like a light comedy.

It's noir my friend. By definition it's dark. But stick with it. I think you'll like it in the end.

In other news, I've been watching The Keepers , a documentary series on Netflix about the murder of a nun in Baltimore in 1969.

Sort of a mixed bag. Lots of interesting stuff but there is a lot of innuendo that leads nowhere. Haven't watched the final episode yet so I've no idea if this cold case investigation has any kind of suitable pay off.

I give it a mild recommendation if only for the episodes that deal mainly with the goings on at a Catholic girls school. That was horrifying.

Watched the first two episodes of Netflix's Lost in Space reboot. Just the space family Robinson trying to survive on another planet so far. Its nothing like the original show but at the same time feels like the modern equivalent. Female Dr Smith is cool and alien robot is creepy but cool. I'll definitely finish the season and see where it goes.

Watched the first ep of the netflix show about the cult in oregon and it is very good. It does a great job of talking to both sides of the conflict and not immediately othering the cult as the enemy.

Gary Sax wrote: Watched the first ep of the netflix show about the cult in oregon and it is very good. It does a great job of talking to both sides of the conflict and not immediately othering the cult as the enemy.

We just watched those, and since my wife grew up here (Portland), she remembers a little bit of it. Mostly seeing people in red at the airport.

It's funny, during the first two episodes, I kept thinking, "I don't see the big deal here, just seems like the townspeople don't like change." Then during episode 3, shit goes off the rails.

Mad Dog wrote: Watched the first two episodes of Netflix's Lost in Space reboot. Just the space family Robinson trying to survive on another planet so far. Its nothing like the original show but at the same time feels like the modern equivalent. Female Dr Smith is cool and alien robot is creepy but cool. I'll definitely finish the season and see where it goes.

It's good so far and I like it.

Ended up binging Lost in Space. It was quite the adventure and I'm on board for a second season. Took me a few episodes to realize Mrs. Robinson was Alma Garrett on Deadwood. Her and Toby Stephens were both great in their roles. The kid actors did good too. I like the tech designs and

Lost in Space -- The first episode didn't convince me. One of those "what more could POSSIBLY go wrong" adventures that drive me crazy. But if you guys think it's worth going a little deeper I'll give ep 2 a shot.

Sagrilarus wrote: Lost in Space -- The first episode didn't convince me. One of those "what more could POSSIBLY go wrong" adventures that drive me crazy.

This show will drive you crazy.

Mad Dog wrote:

Sagrilarus wrote: Lost in Space -- The first episode didn't convince me. One of those "what more could POSSIBLY go wrong" adventures that drive me crazy.

This show will drive you crazy.

Agreed. I'm about 5 eps in. I kinda hate it, but can't stop watching. The acting and effects are quite good, but the writing is pretty lacking.

I have only the vaguest memories of the original series, so I have no nostalgia for it. But I seem to remember the original Dr. Smith was just a cowardly, selfish ass. This new one seems to be straight up crazy evil, and I have trouble understanding her motivations. Ditto what Mad Dog said.

I appreciate that they're trying to do real science, but so often it just falls short and gets wonky. It's like they have a cool idea, but totally ignore how that might affect everything else. I wish they would choose between hard science or "magical science." This halfway between stuff just doesn't work for me.

I watched the first episode of Queer Eye on Netflix. I never saw the original series. It was really good, and had a nice message. I will watch more episodes over time, definitely.

Mad Dog wrote: Took me a few episodes to realize Mrs. Robinson was Alma Garrett on Deadwood.

Ah, thank you! I knew I recognized her from somewhere and it's been driving me nuts.

The show is nonsensical as fuck but I'll stick it out since we're halfway through this season. It's a shame because I do like a few of the actors and it does look nice. Dumber than a rock though.

After hearing it here and elsewhere I decided to give Babylon Berlin a shot while I wait for some more Legion episodes to come out. Fun facts: it was created by Tom Tykwer whose smash hit Lola rennt some older gents might remember. Also, it's loosely based on a series of crime novels that were and are hugely successful. Every single one of which I read twice, because there are almost no well-written dumb hard boiled page turner thrillers written in German. And the amount of historical research that went into those books is simply astounding.
That said, I'm three episodes in and still on the fence. The actors are great, old Berlin looks unbelievably real, and they filmed it there, no place else on earth looks like that. They understand how TV works and adapted the plot accordingly, but also made some questionable changes to the character of Charlotte Ritter and others. I am not happy with that as of yet, to me it feels they lost relatable human beings to gain more central personnel for the sex-and-drug scenes, which leads to a converging of what used to be very different parallel worlds into one big swinging twenties decadence.
There's lots of effort to tie this into today – standing out is a show act in the third episode that actually is a contemporary Berlin techno party. Will continue watching this, but right now I'm wary if the strained feeling of 'this is art, this is Berlin' won't grow old before it's over.

Lola Rennt! So good. I started watching Babylon Berlin but then decided to read the book because it would be faster and hopefully more absorbing, but the translation felt a little clunky, which is a shame because I love thrillers set in that period. Maybe I'll give the book another shot. The decadence of the Weimar period was impressive. I guess prostitution and drugs and callous bureaucracy will always be with us.

Well, during the research on various gunpla kits, it convinced me that I have to watch the original series. I've put off watching the original MS Gundam. I'm not sure I can stand it's age, and it's 43 episodes!

And I'm kinda grokking it now. Into episode 21.

As an old movie, both the animation & writing is stiff but the story and characters are very, very well made. It is really the most militaristic of Gundam I've watched so far. It comes with all the war movie trope such as war fatigue, desertion, horrors of war, chains of command, politicking & scheming etc. There's also logistics issue (the Gundam doesn't have that much ammo--it has a powerful rifle but can't use it for many shots). The mobile suits are almost always fight in units. At an episode the White Base (Gundam's carrier) diverted its course just to get some salt. Other involves a supply run to re-supply and repair the White Base. Guerilla attacks using various methods (from using men in jet packs to plant bombs to Gundam to open topped hover tanks carrying boarders). At first I was disappointed that the titular good guys have only 3 mobile suits in the carrier, and this make them akin to super robots compared to the other. But the various battles won me over. The types of combat presented are really good, although far from being realistic.

And the characters! Whoa! Lots of various characters, with real personalities that change during duress. Nobody is perfect, and a lot of the ship's crew was named. Pilots were also interchangeable, with different persons piloting different machines at times.