Your Ten Favorite Shows Currently on Television

5 has never come as part of the package of UK channels I have on my cable. & now they've removed UTV/Itv and replaced it with a Virgin channel as of a year and a bit ago I think.
THink I suddenly found myself unable to get something I'd been watching.

Not sure I'd even been aware of original programming from 5 or at least consciously aware of it until I noticed All Creatures Great & Small was showing on it. So am assuming it is an original commissioned show.

Finally saw the latest episode of Lovecraft Country. Amazing. They just continue to go there, successfully. Was Christina's self-simulation of the Emmitt Till murder part of the spell or just the way she wanted to die to verify the spell's success? Either way, it was like the ultimate act of cultural appropriation.

My take: It was appropriation, but it may have had the side-effect of bursting her bubble of imperious self-regard and made her actually empathize with Ruby's perspective? Only the subsequent episodes will say whether the latter is true; I think her desire for power and level of self-actualization will override any burgeoning kinship she feels with Ruby that falls outside of that dynamic but it will be more of a struggle than she thought it would be.

I'm also catching up Watchmen; I'm five episodes in and I know Jean Smart has kind of been popping up in everything but I really need her to continue popping up in everything.

Also, Regina King is as amazing as everyone said she was and I look forward to a future series starring her and Tim Blake Nelson as gun-toting insurance adjusters attempting to audit away the apocalypse.

have you seen The Leftovers? she gets some amazing stuff in that

It's on my list after Watchmen

(I watched part of season 1, liked it, got distracted by something shiny and never went back)

wait, Mark Lynn-Baker appears as himself in the last two seasons?

he sure does but to say more would be a spoiler

Yeah, I think your interpretation is pretty spot on. Beyond her acknowledged thirst for power, Christina's motivations are fairly opaque, but it does seem like an attempt at understanding Ruby's pain which is misguided inasmuch as the firsthand experience of a lynching still doesn't give her insight into the fear and anger of existing under that oppressive threat every day.

We probably need a dedicated Lovecraft Country thread at this point, huh.

LOVECRAFT COUNTRY

haven't watched yet but definitely thought it was called "Lovecraft County"

Didn't feel like bumping the Leftovers thread but now that it's been brought up I wasn't very into S1 and almost gave up but S2 (where Regina King comes in) and S3 are honestly some of the best TV I've ever seen and everyone should go watch it

yup.

honestly the best parts of Watchmen were mostly just pale echoes of The Leftovers for me

There's certainly a similarity to the shows, in that an episode feels like it could take you anywhere. But they were different enough to me that I loved both

Absolutely seasons 2 and 3 of the Leftovers are so far beyond just about any other TV made in the history of TV it's ridiculous.

JUst caught the first episode of Spitting image and it was atotal mess.
does it get any better.
NOt seen the original serieses in years so not sure how well those hold up.

Had a guest lecture from one of the guiys when i did Sociology at A Level thought he was ok at the time but i was like 17.

Fair play to @TheIDSmiths, they've actually made this funny https://t.co/0Rp3ClsJBw

— Juliet. (@zinovievletter) October 11, 2020

the writing is a garbage fire but i'm endlessly amazed by the quality of the likenesses.

i continue thinking about Raised By Wolves. It seems like an important show, not because it's any good but as a marker of just how much pre-COVID money corporations kept floating around to fund the raving mythologies of white guys who have proven capable of building franchises, no matter how unhinged. it, like much of the politics and entertainment of this era, looks more like last of the pus leaving the wound than anything else. that such poisonous idylls are regularly fun to watch doesn't make me feel particularly good about soldiering through to the end.

watching the first episode of how to with john wilson now. was that kyle mclahclan???? (abt 13 mins in)

also oh my god this show

yeah, it has to be him, right? i bet that's the columbus circle stop; can totally believe mclachlan doesn't know how to swipe his card.

"Whoa - knowledge and assumptions! Those are like Loggins and Messina. They seem similar, but time proves one of them to be completely worthless."

k, I'm sold for the long run

― LaRusso Auto (Neanderthal), Monday, September 28, 2020 1:41 AM bookmarkflaglink

you won't be disappointed. I think the final season is prescient and amazing but I think i'm in the minority.

― Fuck the NRA (ulysses), Monday, September 28, 2020 11:26 AM bookmarkflaglink

in Season 3 and still loving it

the john wilson show was WAY better than I expected and I'm in for the long haul

glad it's a hit neanderthal! it's def one of my faves of this past decade.
which we prob need a poll thread for eventually.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QyQ85DEVpbc
Very excited about this. Stever James' "America to Me" is one of the best shows I saw last year.

jfc I was growing to love Gabby and then Brockmire jumps to the year 2030

idk how I feel about it but I'll give it a chance. hard to really get invested in all of the characters who turned up in S3 and have them abruptly disappear and replaced by a brand new one, but I think that's cos I'm emo due to COVID-19 right now

the degree to which the current season of Brockmire was prescient in the writing room is astonishing; stick with it for an episode or three. i think it pays off. but yeah, it's a whiplash moment.

that first episode of how to with john wilson was incredible

we're raving on the NFY thread as well, but honestly it deserves its own thread

so the Brockmire ep where Jules has the stuntman as a guest and he blows himself up just had me rolling.

just because of how obvious it was what was going to happen and how oblivious she was.

The Queen's Gambit on Netflix is really good. It seems like it would be corny-ass prestige TV bullshit, and it has some big weaknesses, but you can't go too far wrong when you're starting from a novel by Walter Tevis (who also wrote the books that became The Hustler and The Man Who Fell To Earth; he wrote a book called The Color Of Money, too, but that movie has very little to do with the book other than the title). There were some parts that I wish were written by Harry Crews, but it made chess interesting for seven hours, which is quite an achievement.

one of my kids (9 y o) is really into chess. are there any scenes that would be too much for a kid to handle you think?

hope there's no violent scenes featuring chess pieces

windom esrle is BACK baby

are there any scenes that would be too much for a kid to handle you think?

There's no nudity or graphic sex. Some profanity. I'd put it at a solid PG-13. And the chess scenes are filmed in really exciting ways, so it's worth trading a possible awkward conversation for a probable explosion in your kid's interest in the game.

So what you're saying is, the queens they use would not excite me?

late pass but I laughed ridiculously hard at the second episode of Space Force

to all the people who recommended Brockmire over the years: thank you this show fuckin rules

I can't finish the 4th season til Biden is sworn in.

But yes...it rules

this show is like....the good version of Bojack Horseman

ok that's needlessly mean but I do like this better and it has a LOT of shared territory

it does help that Brockmire never becomes a complete son of a bitch. he has a very wavering but nonetheless-still-present empathy, and while he's a massive narcissist (like any broadcaster), it's nice that some of his 'gaffes' actually come in the service of doing the right thing at the wrong time.

i'm pleased you two came around. The description is a hard sell, especially if you are talking to someone who doesn't care about baseball, but I really think it's secretly one of the best-written and most acidly funny shows of the new century.

Charles is my fav. in all of his incarnations

i'm not sure i understand why you're holding off on the last season

I watched 3 eps or so. the stuff about the "disputed lands" and the (admittedly funny) global warming cynicism hit too close to home for my brain during the lead up to the election. I actually found the digs at how terrible baseball is now in 2033 to be pretty hilarious (multi-colored bats, etc)

that's all. i may watch a few tonight tho.

the final ep of season 3 actually stressed me the fuck out for that reason too, with Art Newly being alt-right leader and people harassing Brockmire at the stadium