Is Gentleman Jack any good then? Kind of dismissed it as a bog standard BBC period drama
it's good: the most auteurist work by Sally Wainwright (creator of At Home With The Braithwaites, Last Tango In Halifax, Happy Valley) and her only period piece. She wrote every episode, and directed half. It's applying slightly-higher-than-bog-standard BBC period drama values to a series whose themes are 100% about womens rights and lesbian "rights" in 19th century capitalism, with whatever resonance to the subsequent 190 years that the viewer chooses to apply. There are strongly continuing plot and romance elements, but it's also written like proper telly in that normal viewers can miss a week and pick up the stakes next time.
― Fantastic. Great move. Well done (sic), Wednesday, 12 February 2020 21:14 (four years ago) link
I had no idea that’s what Gentleman Jack would be. Thanks for that explanation, will definitely watch. AHWtB and LTiH both incredible.
― tangenttangent, Wednesday, 12 February 2020 21:16 (four years ago) link
I think someone mentioned it on one of the queer/trans threads when it came out?
― sarahell, Wednesday, 12 February 2020 21:25 (four years ago) link
https://i.imgur.com/T45hswJ.jpg#40 (Tie) - Desus and Mero (Showtime) - 40 points, 5 votes
bodega boys desus nice & the kid mero aka's poll
Desus and Mero on Showtime
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ecNklJTlwws
― Fuck the NRA (ulysses), Wednesday, 12 February 2020 22:36 (four years ago) link
love these dudes so much...but i don't have showtime.
― ooga booga-ing for the bourgeoisie (voodoo chili), Wednesday, 12 February 2020 22:37 (four years ago) link
it's worth the investment! they also post about half an hour of content every week
― Fuck the NRA (ulysses), Wednesday, 12 February 2020 22:43 (four years ago) link
on youtube that is.
https://i.imgur.com/CBZhsi7.jpg#39 - The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel (Amazon) - 40 points, 6 votes
The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel
The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel on Amazon
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=76bH1b9XreE
― Fuck the NRA (ulysses), Wednesday, 12 February 2020 22:56 (four years ago) link
bad + sorta antisemitic show sorry to fans :(
― Mordy, Wednesday, 12 February 2020 22:58 (four years ago) link
― Fuck the NRA (ulysses), Wednesday, February 12, 2020 5:43 PM (nineteen minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink
yeah that's where i experience most of their stuff (plus twitter, obviously)
― ooga booga-ing for the bourgeoisie (voodoo chili), Wednesday, 12 February 2020 23:03 (four years ago) link
first season of maisel was good, feeling pretty ok with my decision to not keep up, especially since i don't have a vote in any major award shows.
― ooga booga-ing for the bourgeoisie (voodoo chili), Wednesday, 12 February 2020 23:04 (four years ago) link
Was going to jump in with 'TOO LOW', but saw Mordy's post. The antisemitism has clearly gone straight over my head, but I know the show's creators aren't exactly great with subtlety or nuance, so I'm not super surprised, but can you direct me to what is so off about it so I can understand better?
― tangenttangent, Wednesday, 12 February 2020 23:06 (four years ago) link
would like to make it abundantly clear that tt is on her own with this one, even more so than bloody Gilmore Girls, which I gather this is some sort of edgier reboot of
― imago, Wednesday, 12 February 2020 23:08 (four years ago) link
https://i.imgur.com/JittrfS.jpg#37 (Tie) - Pen15 (Hulu) - 41 points, 6 votes
Your Ten Favorite Shows Currently on Television
Pen15 on Hulu
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tdt2COuH4Js
― Fuck the NRA (ulysses), Wednesday, 12 February 2020 23:12 (four years ago) link
That's my 3rd (I think) to show up. Stath Lets Flats is fantastic and I completely ignored it because British comedy until imago's incessant positivity got me interested so props to him
― or something, Wednesday, 12 February 2020 18:41 (four hours ago) bookmarkflaglink
👌
― imago, Wednesday, 12 February 2020 23:18 (four years ago) link
I barely watch Desus & Mero anymore but that’s more than any other talk show.
― Chris L, Wednesday, 12 February 2020 23:20 (four years ago) link
PEN15 is great! Thank you ulysses for this one. The pop culture references concerning being a nerdy teen in the early 00s are so painfully on point that I can't not love it. The AIM episode killed me.
― tangenttangent, Wednesday, 12 February 2020 23:25 (four years ago) link
https://i.imgur.com/D2FbKtn.jpg#37 (Tie) - Corporate (Comedy Central) - 41 points, 6 votes
Corporate on Comedy Central
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Gmyg43jE_4
― Fuck the NRA (ulysses), Wednesday, 12 February 2020 23:25 (four years ago) link
and one more just to get me out for the night
― Fuck the NRA (ulysses), Wednesday, 12 February 2020 23:27 (four years ago) link
https://i.imgur.com/EQOXB9Y.jpg#36 - Broad City (Comedy Central) - 45 points, 5 votes
ah fuck it it's the BROAD CITY thread
Broad City on Hulu
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aNFRG_qGJ3o
(not 100% sure Mordy doesn't mean Desus & Mero!)
― Andrew Farrell, Wednesday, 12 February 2020 23:28 (four years ago) link
xp to Corporate: And another! This season was so strong. The male makeup episode was one of my favourite episodes of anything last year. The soullessness and labyrinthine contours of the office building are some stunning set design.
― tangenttangent, Wednesday, 12 February 2020 23:31 (four years ago) link
Didn't see much Corporate but enjoyed what I did
― imago, Wednesday, 12 February 2020 23:32 (four years ago) link
Corporate maybe my 2nd or 3rd vote to show up. Frequently a riot.
― bold caucasian eroticism (Simon H.), Wednesday, 12 February 2020 23:33 (four years ago) link
sorry didn't mean to drop that bomb and then just walk away. it's that its depiction of jewishness - predominately by a non-jewish cast - feels very caricatured and false/superficial to me I could really hardly watch it for this reason. this emily nussbaum article touches on some of the other problems i have with the show. antisemitic is maybe overstating it but there's just an uncomfortable falseness i feel when i watch it and particularly bc of how it portrays jewishness (and judaism) not in an obviously pejorative way but in a kind of superficial + shallow one.
― Mordy, Wednesday, 12 February 2020 23:39 (four years ago) link
it portrays everything in a caricatured and superficial tone tbh. it's a total fantasia of show business, of wealth, of creativity, of performed comedy, of social progress, and of cultural jewishness.
first season of maisel was good, feeling pretty ok with my decision to not keep up
I did the same, but caught lots of the later two when my housemate was watching them recently and I think it gets better. there were a couple of eps in S3 that I went back and finished myself bcz I got caught up in the bits I'd seen.
― Fantastic. Great move. Well done (sic), Wednesday, 12 February 2020 23:47 (four years ago) link
Corporate was good, at least the half season I saw of it. Didn’t vote for it cause I still have five episodes to go.
― ooga booga-ing for the bourgeoisie (voodoo chili), Wednesday, 12 February 2020 23:59 (four years ago) link
Need to use more exclamation points in my emails!
Considered voting GoT in one those "give the Oscar to someone to acknowledge their previous snubs" type situations, but couldn't do it. man, the last season was disappointing
Leeee summed up my thoughts on the Dragon Prince rather well so I'll just say more people should check it out
― Vinnie, Thursday, 13 February 2020 00:57 (four years ago) link
I haven’t heard of Stath Lets Flats but I liked Jamie Demetriou in Fleabag
― Dan S, Thursday, 13 February 2020 01:12 (four years ago) link
didn’t think the main character’s turn in Season 8 of GoT was surprising at all, they were autocratic and uncompromising from the beginning, and the events in previous seasons seemed to be predicting it
― Dan S, Thursday, 13 February 2020 01:13 (four years ago) link
PEN15 and Broad City were my #1 and #3, respectively. The latter arguably provided the former a template, tho filtered thru an uneasy, uncanny recent-part period filter that is never scared to verge on creepy. Broad City, in an age of shows peaking early and burning out quick (Maisel), somehow managed to roll up shop at just the right time and the finale was gut-wrenching.
― 🚶♂️💨 (Eric H.), Thursday, 13 February 2020 01:28 (four years ago) link
Shows I voted for: Dark Crystal. Puppets >>> CGI, amazing turn from Simon Pegg as the Chancellor. Tuca and Bertie. I wasn't totally convinced by the middle, but the last episode or two really made it worthwhile. Shame it was cancelled.Shows I have seen and didn't vote for: Mortimer & Whitehouse - a bit too gentle for me. The Good Place - made it through half of the first season, meh.Shows I might have voted for except somehow I missed that they were nominated: Pose.Shows I have seen earlier seasons of and wish I could have voted for but they moved to a service I don't subscribe to: The Expanse. Have just found a site where I can stream Picard so might see if they have this too.
― Paperbag raita (ledge), Thursday, 13 February 2020 08:48 (four years ago) link
The turn itself wasn't surprising, but the actual way it happened came completely out of nowhere, and the rather horrific things the character did weren't really justified by anything they'd done earlier.
― Tuomas, Thursday, 13 February 2020 09:47 (four years ago) link
Executing a friend for being traitor: made sense with how the character had been portrayed before. Mass murder of innocent people, seemingly on a whim: didn't make much sense.
― Tuomas, Thursday, 13 February 2020 09:49 (four years ago) link
I think they had done plenty in previous seasons, it was clearly a conflict within the character which finally broke in the wrong direction (the mass murder seemed like "fuck it, I'm going to accept this is who I am now"), in writing terms you could see the path to it laid out - it wasn't written particularly well, that's all.
― Wuhan!! Got You All in Check (Camaraderie at Arms Length), Thursday, 13 February 2020 09:53 (four years ago) link
(the mass murder seemed like "fuck it, I'm going to accept this is who I am now"
But that's exactly why it didn't make sense... In earlier seasons the show had done a lot to make even its villains psychologically complex, and to make their actions coherent with their motivations and goals. A character being, like, "well, I guess I'm a villain now, might as well kill all these innocent people who've already surrendered" is the opposite of that.
― Tuomas, Thursday, 13 February 2020 10:05 (four years ago) link
But people really do behave in that way, the "motivation and goals" method of character development really fails to capture so much about the way humans really work, especially as applied in this show. If it had been written a little better it would have been exactly right.
― Wuhan!! Got You All in Check (Camaraderie at Arms Length), Thursday, 13 February 2020 10:55 (four years ago) link
there's just an uncomfortable falseness i feel when i watch it and particularly bc of how it portrays jewishness (and judaism) not in an obviously pejorative way but in a kind of superficial + shallow one.
That absolutely follows, and that article is generally on point about the show's easy saccharine choices. I enjoy it (like Gilmore Girls) whilst acknowledging the many flaws, including that the creator has an almost surreal need to shower the central character (Maisel, Rory) with levels of praise beyond the pale. But the costumes are so good.
Would be interested to know what shows you think do portray Jewishness well.
― tangenttangent, Thursday, 13 February 2020 11:55 (four years ago) link
For all its myriad flaws, transparent did a pretty good job of representing my personal experience with Reform Judaism (though the Pfeffermans’ was a distinctly west coast version, I’m east coast)
― ooga booga-ing for the bourgeoisie (voodoo chili), Thursday, 13 February 2020 13:39 (four years ago) link
man i have no idea what 90% of these shows are
― Muswell Hillbilly Elegy (President Keyes), Thursday, 13 February 2020 14:33 (four years ago) link
Truthpoint is one of the shows I watch but didn't vote for, but it's cool it made it.
― Chris L, Thursday, 13 February 2020 15:02 (four years ago) link
i love Corporate. it's occasionally a little try-hard in its jadedness but overall the combo of cynicism and absurdism meshes almost perfectly with my personal tastes. "make-up for men" was definitely a stand-out episode, and the one where jake is trying to stay up to go to his friend's rock show is a masterpiece of goofiness.
― na (NA), Thursday, 13 February 2020 15:16 (four years ago) link
I'm sad there's only one season left, feels like they just hit their stride.
― bold caucasian eroticism (Simon H.), Thursday, 13 February 2020 15:18 (four years ago) link
oh and Goofy Lance Reddick is amazing to watch
― bold caucasian eroticism (Simon H.), Thursday, 13 February 2020 15:19 (four years ago) link
https://i.imgur.com/B5UE0no.jpg#32 (Tie) - High Maintenance (HBO) - 45 points, 6 votes
High Maintenance - Very good web-series. Discuss.
High Maintenance on HBO Website
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LTL9hSrMhTQ
― Fuck the NRA (ulysses), Thursday, 13 February 2020 15:25 (four years ago) link
― bold caucasian eroticism (Simon H.), Thursday, February 13, 2020 10:18 AM (seventeen minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink
really? dang.
― ooga booga-ing for the bourgeoisie (voodoo chili), Thursday, 13 February 2020 15:36 (four years ago) link
Oh I saw the make-up for men episode I think! Great stuff
― imago, Thursday, 13 February 2020 15:47 (four years ago) link
https://i.imgur.com/k8PtCcU.jpg#32 (Tie) - Derry Girls (Channel 4, Netflix) - 45 points, 6 votes
Catch yourself on - it’s the Derry Girls thread!
Derry Girls on Netflix Website
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d8fH2Lqc8nY
― Fuck the NRA (ulysses), Thursday, 13 February 2020 15:56 (four years ago) link
Too low! But I guess it's U.K. only?
― Andrew Farrell, Thursday, 13 February 2020 16:29 (four years ago) link