The Golden Age of TV. So, what are you watching?

[YellowStreak]

The wife and I got into watching 'Designated Survivor' on netflix over the weekend. It's a political drama where terrorists (maybe) blow up the Capitol Building during the state of the union address killing the president and cabinet, the senate, the supreme court etc.
The then rather lowly housing secretary, who was chosen as the 'designated survivor' (a real concept if you're unfamiliar with it) is sworn in and has to try and run the country with no senior government in place, the states revolting, more terror attacks etc.
Pretty good if you like political stuff.

[me_in_japan]

watched season 2 of Ash vs Evil Dead, and by god it is glorious. There are things depicted in that show the like of which I have never, ever seen on TV before (and if I'm a good boy maybe I'll never ever have to see their like again.) Srsly. Episode 2, in the morgue. I was like: Cannot. Un.See. Also props are due to the cast - Bruce Campbell does an awesome job (as usual) but Dana DeLorenzo (Kelly), Ray Santiago (Pedro) and Lucy Lawless (Xena) are all excellent in their roles. Kelly is particularly good - I could easily watch a show with her as the lead.

Anyway, excellent show. Last ep in the series was a bit meh, but I did a bit of further reading and it appears the showrunner left/got kicked out just before that ep, hence the somewhat haphazard nature of it. Happily the bloke who's replacing him for season 3 worked on Battlestar Galactica and Daredevil, and also wrote some Evil Dead comics n stuff, so presumably knows his shit.

[Konrad]

@MIJ- Totally. The supporting cast really make that show shine, even through the buckets (barrels, tanker truckloads) of gore.
Put in contrast to Constantine, which I just started watching . Got about 5 episodes in and yeah... pretty meh. About what you'd expect from an American Big 3 network TV corporation trying to do gritty, edgy, British horror for prime time. The guy doing Constantine looks and acts the part competently enough, given the dialogue and direction he's given. And the stories are not entirely unlike the originals. They did the hunger demon from Africa story, and it was all graphically there. Bloody runes carved into people's faces, swarms of locusts bursting from people's chests, mystical LSD journeys into the spirit world, John manipulating his junkie buddy into making the sacrifice that the buddy deep down wants to do anyways and the moral ambiguity of that. (I was surprised in how Network TV really has changed. I have not really watched any regularly in like 15-20 years and was quite surprised. Lots of that stuff would have gotten them an R rating when I was a kid.) But the lines, acting, pacing, everything else is just so run of the mill, nothing sticks. Add the sort of annoying plot devices, John's secret Batcave of full of exorcism gizmos and the "Where do we go this week?" magic murder map, and the whole thing feels just sort of lazy.
Also got to Season 3 of "Black Mirror". Oh man. Can not even begin to describe how much this show will get you thinking and very slowly, subtly, coldly and inevitably leave you scared to death of the future. You know that each and every one of the technological advances presented in each episode is being worked on in some form by someone at Google or the DOD.

[Konrad]

"Westworld", oh man. Wheels within wheels within wheels..... it's like....a maze.....

[YellowStreak]

Srsly. Episode 2, in the morgue. I was like: Cannot. Un.See.

Just watched that last night....

[me_in_japan]

Srsly. Episode 2, in the morgue. I was like: Cannot. Un.See.

Just watched that last night....

I know! Right?!?

[me_in_japan]

This evening i finished season 1 of The Man in the High Castle. Blimey but it's good. Excellent cast, but the story is the real draw. Intrigue and plot twists a go-go. It's full steam ahead for season 2 tomorrow, I reckon. Definitely one to watch.

[Konrad]

This evening i finished season 1 of The Man in the High Castle. Blimey but it's good. Excellent cast, but the story is the real draw. Intrigue and plot twists a go-go. It's full steam ahead for season 2 tomorrow, I reckon. Definitely one to watch.

I have to see that. I just re-read the book a few months back.

[Konrad]

This evening i finished season 1 of The Man in the High Castle. Blimey but it's good. Excellent cast, but the story is the real draw. Intrigue and plot twists a go-go. It's full steam ahead for season 2 tomorrow, I reckon. Definitely one to watch.

I just finished Season 2 last weekend. Just as good, maybe even better, than the first. The setting is just so chilling and insane it will leave you despairing not just the world, but reality itself. Drama these days really don't do white hats and black hats, do they? The characters are wonderfully complex. Men who will murder countless innocents in the pursuit of their duty are still human enough that you feel for them and their family tragedies.

[me_in_japan]

Recently I've finished watching The Expanse season 2, Preacher season 2, and The Strain season 4. Also the first 3 eps of Star Trek: Discovery. All are worth watching, although they're quite different in tone. First up: The Expanse. It's interesting watching The Expanse and then watching Star Trek: Discovery. It kinda makes ST:D (there's an unfortunate acronym, if ever there was one ) look like a kiddy show. Don't get me wrong - I'm actually rather enjoying the new Trek, far more than I ever did the earlier ones, it's just that The Expanse feels like a show for grown-ups. Nice complexity, and it doesn't spoon feed you stuff. You're expected to pay attention and have a basic grasp of science shit. Proppa sci fi, in my opinion.

By comparison, The Strain is a bit lighter, if a vampire apocalypse can be considered light viewing. It's well acted, and the story is meaty enough to keep the attention. I'd say the thing that makes it worth watching is the way the story and events develop. There's a lot of effort put into demonstrating how things can believably go from "hmmn. That plane passenger looks a bit sick" to "goddamit! Vampires have taken over the world!" Season 4 is the final season, by the way, and everything is resolved in a nice satisfying conclusion, with all the plot arcs getting tied up with little bows. It's a good solid watch, and well worth the time it takes.

Preacher continues on from season 1, managing to maintain the feel of the comics and soul of the characters, whilst wandering off on its own story arcs. It's mostly set in New Orleans, and deals with Tulip's ex-employer, what it means to Cassidy to be a vampire, and introduces Herr Starr and the Grail. Starr is suitably well acted, and props also go to the actress playing Featherstone, who manages to nail hard-ass and vulnerable at the same time. There's also an interesting sub plot about what happened to Arseface in hell, which sets up season 3 nicely. All the main actors (Jesse, Tulip, Cass and Arseface) are very good, and tbh now feel more natural to me than the comic book characters. Another one that's well worth a watch. Also, it has the Saint of Killers in it, which is a Good Thing.

Next up: Game of Thrones season 7, then Stranger Things season 2 at the end of the month. Truly we live in a Golden Age of TV*

*edit* oh yeah - and over the summer months I watched Designated Survivor, which I notice Ystreak mentioned at the top of this page. As he said, it's a fun political thriller. I mostly watched it in Scotland with my mum, tbh. Anyway, not bad if you like that kind of west-wing thingy.