Your Ten Favorite Shows Currently on Television

watched the first episode of Raised by Wolves and it is VERY Ridley Scott right down to the murderous android with white blood. too soon to tell if this could get good but for the moment it's worth watching for the dual android leads who carry the whole thing on their backs, particularly amanda collin who does everything but snap her back in half to hold your attention.

am curious

my Ridley handbrake is firmly in the engaged position though lol

it's only been ~30 years since he made a memorably good movie so I might check this out

Is this the Caitlin Moran autobiog sitcom? I wasn't going to watch it but it sounds better than I thought

me crossposting me from the wrong thread!!

did anyone talk about ted lasso itt? i can't remember (maybe even i did)

this show is a fucking delight. maybe my fave new show of 2020. sudeikis rules and the new character in episode 6 is wonderful and also in ep6 sudeikis paraphrases the greatest monologue in sports history dont at me

Our family just finished all of Steven Universe, including the movie and SU Future. It was awesome and we loved it. So many great things were brought up that we could talk to our kids (5 & 10) about.

I've heard that She-Ra has the same sort of appeal and we started it a few nights ago. Does it get better? I like it okay but the animation is sometimes clunky and the writing is so-so. Maybe it's still setting everything up which can drag a little. I know SU got a lot better as it went along.

African Renaissance has been pretty good. Seen 2 of them so far, Ethiopia and Kenya.

had not heard of that, will try.

Steven Universe Future bored me senseless with its endless supply of wholesome intentions but I liked most of the regular run. (of course I was not watching it with kids so kinda a different thing!)

The Ted Lasso short from when NBC got the Premier League contract was hilarious.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000lwf5

presenter is quite striking.
& the art she's looked at has been pretty good.

Also want to see if i can get the episodes I missed of the series on African Civilisations that followed it.

Glad the BBC is doing serieses like this, hope they do more. Though that Africa's Grreat Civilisations thing may have been made elsewher.
Yeah a PBS series but glad to see it being broadcast in the UK.

I mentioned that (African art and history) on the bbc4 thread, briefly. The thing on before it, with Ade, has also been interesting, but a bit more Palin-esque. Kinda curious about the civilisations thing on after it now - didn't watch it at the time because it was another 90 minutes on top of the 120 minutes I'd already watched that evening.

I really want to get some stuff by the Ethiopian artist Wendwesen Kebede, would love a coffee table book of his stuff. Not getting very far with googling him, wonder if a thing like that might exist anywhere. Not sure if African artists are getting much distribution of things like that below a certain threshold of sales etc. But loved his work that was shown in that African Renaissance series.

The big cartoony canvases?

yeah I think so, kind of psychedelic-y remionded me of Mati Klarwein but I think more based on local iconography.
THink it was him had a massive looking work based on the Italian in vasion in the late 19th century and teh major battle at that point.

As of mid-September 2020:
* Corporate s3 (Comedy Central) - Surprisingly short season, especially considering the ratings stabilizing and the strength of the episodes. Sad to see it go.
* Bluey s1/s2 (Dizney/ABC [no not that one]) - Stealthily not only the best children's show on television right now but probably among the top five shows on television this year, period.
* Desus and Mero s2 (Showtime) - As it has been since it went on the air, D+M is the best talk show on television by a country mile.
* P-Valley s1 (Starz) - So soapy, so trashy, so occasionally innovative in its designs and thoughtful in its inclusion. My gf loves it, otherwise I might've stopped but as she's hooked I guess I'm all in for s2.
* Woke s1 (Hulu) - JB Smoove plays a felt-tip marker.
* Raised by Wolves (HBO) - Lol, this is pure garbage but it's filling a need. The two lead androids are a ball to watch androiding it up until the point where the one turns into an emmy and starts screamkilling people and then the stupids start feeling a bit too stupid. I'll see it through i suppose.
* South Side s1 (Comedy Central, now HBO) - Better than I was expecting and, based on its upward curve, pretty much ready to get great in s2.
* Don't Forget the Driver s1 (BBC2) - Enjoying this but also finding it depressingly hard to watch?
* NBA Playoffs - i was worried but the lack of covid as a storyline has made this mostly guilt-free.
* Rosehaven s4 (ABC [still not that one])- I have exactly 20 minutes a week to give to this.

Also:
* In My Skin (s1, BBC3) - okay but it felt suspiciously like it was just ticking boxes on the "troubled uk childhood" half-hour format. Some great acting, though that may just be one of those necessary boxes.
* Jeopardy s∞ (Sony syndication)
* The Film Review (BBC)
* Frontline and POV
* The Other Two s1 (Comedy Central and now HBO) - Doing a rewatch and it holds up.
* The Eric Andre Show s1,2,3,4 (Adult Swim) - Doing my annual rewatch in advance of s5 in October

Quite a bit on deck for the next few months:
* Love Fraud
* Lovecraft Country
* Des
* We Are Who We Are
* The Plot Against America
* African Renaissance
* Moonbase 8
* Animaniacs(!)
* Soulmates
* The Mandalorian
* How To with John Wilson
* A Wilderness of Error
* Monsterland
* PEN15
* Amber Ruffin Show
* Wilmore
* City So Real

I also have designs on full series rewatches for Battlestar Galactic and Hannibal... plus I got a few subbed seasons of GameCenter CX to nerd my way through.

i would try ted lasso but i am about 99% sure that it's not my thing.

YOU NEED TO WATCH TED LASSO

it’s the best

veg i will watch one ep for you but i am likely to complain

I'm down to just Lovecraft Country (which, y'know, A+++) in terms of currently-airing shows but cycling through a half dozen deep dives of old shit (half of which belong to the 'shows based or originating in Texas and which ran for a little more than a dozen seasons' microgenre).

I don’t really know what to think of the first episode of We Are Who We Are, but it I’ll definitely keep watching. The show is definitely not shy about showing male nudity, for those for whom that might be a selling point.

xxpost you will only complain that it’s too awesome

https://www.indiewire.com/2020/08/corporate-comedy-cental-ending-season-3-1234582130/

The Plot Against America

ymmv, but I would consider waiting to watch this until after the election

Started Corporate S2 the other day and it's quite good, feels like a noticeable step up from S1. I also liked The Other Two--is Comedy Central good now? I live in Canada and haven't had cable in decades

Comedy Central was edging toward good with Corporate, Nora From Queens, Detroiters, The Other Two, South Side, Drunk History... now Detroiters, Drunk History and Corporate are canceled or done; The Other Two and South Side are going to HBO and Nora from Queens will be there shortly.

They're currently blowing up the network and turning it into an "adult cartoon" and merch ip factory (presumably based on the phenomenal success of Rick and Morty) and dropping all the live action stuff in favor of south park and reboots of ren and stimpy, crank yankers, beavis and butthead and daria.

Cable networks playing fast and loose with their clearly-stated purview is like Foot Locker deciding they're only selling glass dildos now.

Rick and Morty has so much awfulness to answer for.

I parted ways with cable so long ago that it does take a little effort to remember that Bravo doesn't show ballet anymore

thanks for the rundown, ulysses, luckily my wildly overpriced Canadian streaming service gets everything hbo

All three seasons of The Great Pottery Throwdown are on HBO in the US as of tomorrow and it should go without saying that I VERY MUCH rep that show and, if you find any enjoyment in Great British Baking, I recommend it strongly.

If you enjoy Great British Baking, they've been doing some hardcore quarantining/bubbling to make the new series

btw I feel my 'Raised by Wolves' joke some time ago was slept on

I just watched the 5th episode of Lovecraft Country and I am coming around. My biggest issue has been the weird tonal mix as I generally don't like my eldritch horror mixed with so much humor but if every episode is as good as this one I don't mind.

3 episodes into Lovecraft Country and it's not doing it for me yet. The episode formula so far is a starting story of racism leading into a second story that replaces the racists with literal monsters -- which is too neat of a formula for me. Also not Lovecraftian at all. It also feels like a white writer doing a story for every example of racism he knows.

really? wow. i am 5 episodes in and could not love this show more; it exceeds my expectations exponentially every episode

i have no idea where it is going one moment to the next, but i am along for the ride

You know the author of the book is White, right abanana?

The episode focusing on Ruby was so freaking good. It just fires off bullseye darts in every direction - racism, identity, self-identity, body horror, gender, class. The scene of Montrose and the drag queens dancing seemed a little out of left field, but was so well done and the seeming sense of self-realization was actually moving.

enjoyed that new show US which just finished on BBC1 but it was bugging me that I couldn't work out who the young him was.
Just looked it up, found out who the actor is and it's the guy who plays Fitz in Agents Of SHIELD or at least did for a number of series.
Just watching through series 7 of that and he's not around.
Only thing is he looks like he lost weight or something.
Was wondering if i knew hinm as a younger actor somewhere, guess i just about do.

oh yeah going to have a new Lovecraft Country tomorrow.
Have been really enjoying that.
Hadn't looked up the ethnicity of the writer but thought i had heard that there were black writers reworking the notoriously racist Lovecraft's tropes

Hadn't looked up the ethnicity of the writer but thought i had heard that there were black writers reworking the notoriously racist Lovecraft's tropes

You're looking for Victor LaValle's The Ballad of Black Tom, which is excellent.

Yeah, Fitz' absence was odd in the final season but seems like it was his choice/schedule and not the producers' xps

Not Lovecraftian is fair, even the book mostly feels like a series of broader pulp comic/novel scenarios than Lovecraft. Makes a good hook, though, I guess.

Raised by Wolves is just the most innovatively dumb show. It's mostly holding my attention out of sheer astonishment in its lack of interest for logic/character development/clarity of idea but keeps me held rapt in shock watching each weird curveball and new stupid story development. Not liking the current plot? Then how about we add ghosts! Lots of ghosts! The killer android matriarch not doing it for you? Let's put her in a VR hologram and have her pursue a sexual relationship with her human hacker/maker! Good guys are bad guys and bad guys are good guys and the good guys who were pretending to be bad guys are now bad guys for real except maybe they're secret good guys? Depends on which episode you're on! And let's make this guy Space Jesus!

The acting among the show's leads is mostly excellent but the red shirts are pure throwaway characters. All of the kids are exhausting to listen to, less because of their skills and more about them being drastically underwritten. It's impossible to care about anyone; the scripting and plotting are knotty and nonsensical nearly beyond belief. There's an unironic reading of the line “Make love to me like a great man.”

The show generally looks very expensive but the consideration and execution of its expensiveness is predominantly horribly realized and results in mugwump/alien baddies and shitty grey bodysuits and the lamest potential architecture and tech design.

I have three episodes to go and can't imagine why/how this got renewed but I am sadly fully onboard this garbage scow. It's a prestige cable b-movie inflated to blimp size and set out to careen wildly through the Grand Canyon. Wheeeeeee!

btw veg, Ted Lasso isn't bad! Slowly plunking out an episode every few days.

:D

i call that a win

so turnabout being fair play, i need to ask if you've seen brockmire.

i have not

Imagine Ted Lasso turned up to 11 with Hank Azaria in the lead and instead of wholesome sweetness, it's fucking filthy. Secretly one of the best shows of the past decade and well worth hunting down. In the USA, all four seasons are on Hulu.
https://www.hulu.com/series/brockmire-8fccfdbc-f77c-4647-9132-59f24606bb7f
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=47VjZiIKmaA

^ that's the first episode of the second season.

Just caught up with The Expanse which is thankfully set up for another season but I wish wasn't disposing of characters I like.

Also just finished season 1 of Umbrella Academy which I hadn't been aware of until very recently. Have season 2 set up.

Also Agents Of SHIELD which I'd watched a couple of episodes of at the start of the year and then hadn't got the space to dld further episodes of so only just watched. Pretty good, shame it's gone now.
Think I may not have finished season 6 for some reason either.

Finally got to see I May Destroy you which was great. Hope there's more coming or the cast get more stuff going on.
Michaela Coel needs to be commissioned for more writing if this story did end there.

& got about 3 episodes away from season 2 of the Terror and didn't complete.
Think I even had more episodes on file since the start of the year.

So basically catching up on part watched things from pre Lockdown not sure why it's taken til now other than storage space. That and changing over to listening to podcasts and attending online things more.
May be wanting to catch Lovecraft Country that triggered watching more stuff.

Now wondering if I missed anything else over the last year that I would normally have grabbed.

Brockmire declined from season to season but that just means it went from 5/5 to 4/5 over four seasons.