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Author Topic: TV shows  (Read 279330 times)

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Kuildeous

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TV shows
« on: September 26, 2014, 11:11:38 am »
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Fall is the time for America to premiere their new shows. I haven't watched Gotham yet, but it's on my list. I'm a little wary about it. The reason that Smallville did so well (at first) was because it was a story of a youth coming to terms with his new powers. Bruce Wayne has no such powers to cope with. I had heard that the show is really focused on Gordon, which may make it more interesting, but I don't know if it'll stand out from other cop shows…unless they take a Dick Tracy bent, which could be kind of awesome.

The shows I did see so far are Forever and Scorpion. Forever just bugged me. The very first scene annoyed me as they clearly were going with a Sherlock vibe with him approaching a random stranger and astounding her with his cold-reading techniques where he reveals parts of her personal life. Naturally, he continues to do this even though it's been overdone already. Furthermore, the show assumes some really dumb police if it's standard procedure to allow the medical examiner to examine the body of the person that he's accused of killing. Sure, Mr. ME, feel free to handle the only evidence we have to suspect you; I'm sure nothing bad can come from this. Granted, that kind of stupidity permeates all manner of crime shows, but then again there's a reason I generally don't watch those crime shows. I have a limited number of times I can suspend disbelief, and I have to reserve those for the shows I do watch, like Agents of SHIELD. I was amused that he figured out what the poison was by injecting himself with it, but he came to the correct conclusion awfully quickly. I'm sure there are plenty of poisons that can kill nearly instantaneously.

Scorpion is a bit more interesting. It falls into the socially-awkward-geek trope, much like Big Bang Theory. In fact, it's about four nerds who team up with a pretty girl who keeps them grounded in reality while not fully understanding any of the genius stuff they do. It's not as egregious as BBT, but naturally they had to make one of the geniuses cripplingly OCD. They also added an adorable child element, but at least it ties into the group fairly well. One interesting thing about the pilot is that it featured nary a single death or gunshot. I'm sure that'll change later on, but it was interesting to see a drama without a bad guy. They also played up the genius trope by having the psychologist figure out where the data center would store the server for a specific client based on a photograph of the manager but then taunt us by him identifying the correct server by reading the label (though he still relied on psychology to get to the right area).

I'll give Scorpion another try. I'm not sure about Forever. The pilot got a little bit more interesting at the end, but I don't know if I can endure another sociopathic genius, despite the Highlander similarities. I'm more lenient about Scorpion since they aren't quite so bad with the annoying genius angle, but that depends on the focus group. I can see the executives in season 2 saying, "You know what audiences love? An annoying genius who repeats a catch phrase!" This show has the potential of being interesting and an even greater potential of being monumentally stupid. I hope it reaches the first potential and not the second.

Nothing else recording right now. I forgot about the new shows until this week, so I already missed some. Not a whole lot sounds that interesting to me except for Gotham. I recorded the other two on a whim. Also, I have Google Fiber and can record a shitload of shows, so why not?
« Last Edit: October 20, 2015, 08:02:36 am by Kuildeous »
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Eevee

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Re: New TV shows (American edition)
« Reply #1 on: September 28, 2014, 11:56:46 am »
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I watched the pilot of Gotham. It wasn't the greatest, but I'm hoping it'll get better once they don't have to force all the characters into one short episode. It definitely seems to focus on Gordon, but he was a likable character so that's fine by me.
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Teproc

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Re: New TV shows (American edition)
« Reply #2 on: September 28, 2014, 03:47:02 pm »
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Yeah, Gotham wasn't great, but pilots are often rough, we'll know what kind of show it is after 3 episodes. I like the look of it a lot though.

I watched the pilot of Black-ish, it's pretty good. The voiceover got a little annoying, ut I hope it'll be less present in subsequent episodes.
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Grujah

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Re: New TV shows (American edition)
« Reply #3 on: September 28, 2014, 04:01:33 pm »
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I might be a bit biased, but Gotham is horrible.


Constantine had some major flaws but was overall OK, and they are getting rid of the worst part of the pilot (the female support character) so it might get better.
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Eevee

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Re: New TV shows (American edition)
« Reply #4 on: September 29, 2014, 10:56:42 pm »
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I wish they didn't go for shock value and cliffhangers as much, but the second episode of Gotham was certainly better, I'm starting to like this. Holy hell the actress playing Cat is amazing! Catwoman has been my least favorite character in all the franchises, but I'm absolutely loving her now.
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AndrewisFTTW

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Re: New TV shows (American edition)
« Reply #5 on: September 30, 2014, 01:23:09 pm »
+1

Sorry this isn't adding to the conversation but BBT sucks.
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Re: New TV shows (American edition)
« Reply #6 on: September 30, 2014, 02:26:23 pm »
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I like some of the season 1 bbt episodes. Recently it's become more pop culture jokes and less "nerd" jokes. The characters are getting annoying.

I am enjoying Parks & Recreation though.
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Kuildeous

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Re: New TV shows (American edition)
« Reply #7 on: September 30, 2014, 02:28:03 pm »
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Sorry this isn't adding to the conversation but BBT sucks.

Which is why I was a little leery about Scorpion. Any time a TV show is described as having a team of eccentric geniuses, I cringe a little, because I know that television writers are typically not geniuses. Maybe someone is, and he really loves writing, which would benefit the rest of us, but I wouldn't hold my breath.

There's some show where everything on the board is verified to be correct. I'm not sure if that's BBT or not.
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Witherweaver

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Re: New TV shows (American edition)
« Reply #8 on: September 30, 2014, 02:28:56 pm »
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I watched the pilot of Gotham. It wasn't the greatest, but I'm hoping it'll get better once they don't have to force all the characters into one short episode. It definitely seems to focus on Gordon, but he was a likable character so that's fine by me.

Pacing was waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too fast.   It should be a slow boil.
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AndrewisFTTW

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Re: New TV shows (American edition)
« Reply #9 on: September 30, 2014, 02:32:58 pm »
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Sorry this isn't adding to the conversation but BBT sucks.

Which is why I was a little leery about Scorpion. Any time a TV show is described as having a team of eccentric geniuses, I cringe a little, because I know that television writers are typically not geniuses. Maybe someone is, and he really loves writing, which would benefit the rest of us, but I wouldn't hold my breath.

There's some show where everything on the board is verified to be correct. I'm not sure if that's BBT or not.

I have a physicist friend who pointed out something wrong to me on BBT when they were trying to say something smart. But besides that, it's just not funny.
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Witherweaver

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Re: New TV shows (American edition)
« Reply #10 on: September 30, 2014, 02:39:36 pm »
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Most of Big Bang Theory's "sciency" stuff is not quite right, or at least not appropriate to the level of the characters.  (Like, talking about basic high school/freshman Physics stuff as if it's a PhD thing.)  But, that's not really the point of the show.
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eHalcyon

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Re: New TV shows (American edition)
« Reply #11 on: September 30, 2014, 02:57:46 pm »
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I'm mostly looking forward to The Flash, and excited for a whole slew of returning series.
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Dsell

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Re: New TV shows (American edition)
« Reply #12 on: September 30, 2014, 06:43:09 pm »
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Anyone seen stuff about Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt? It's from Tina Fey and some of the other creators of 30 Rock, which is one of my all-time favorite comedies. I also love the lead actress (The Office), though I didn't care so much for other listed actor in Don't Mess With the B*.

Anyway it's not coming until midseason, but I'm pretty pumped.
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Eevee

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Re: New TV shows (American edition)
« Reply #13 on: October 02, 2014, 05:27:52 pm »
+1

Has anyone seen Bojack Horseman? I thought it was very very good, Bojack himself and Vincent Adultman being the funniest characters.
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Kuildeous

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Re: New TV shows (American edition)
« Reply #14 on: October 02, 2014, 05:42:12 pm »
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Has anyone seen Bojack Horseman? I thought it was very very good, Bojack himself and Vincent Adultman being the funniest characters.

I watched the first two episodes. It did not annoy me. I may watch again.

I worried that it would be gross and/or raunchy for the sake of shocks, but some of those jokes work. But the cotton-candy puking scene really had to be cut down. Seriously guys.
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Jorbles

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Re: New TV shows (American edition)
« Reply #15 on: October 02, 2014, 05:47:41 pm »
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Fall is the time for America to premiere their new shows. I haven't watched Gotham yet, but it's on my list. I'm a little wary about it. The reason that Smallville did so well (at first) was because it was a story of a youth coming to terms with his new powers. Bruce Wayne has no such powers to cope with. I had heard that the show is really focused on Gordon, which may make it more interesting, but I don't know if it'll stand out from other cop shows…unless they take a Dick Tracy bent, which could be kind of awesome.

I'm really hoping it ends up feeling like Gotham Central one of my favourite DC series, about cops who work in Batman's shadow. It always felt really human, and just edged around living in a world where super heroes existed. If Batman doesn't exist yet though, I'm not sure how much they could incorporate from this series though.

Has anyone seen Bojack Horseman? I thought it was very very good, Bojack himself and Vincent Adultman being the funniest characters.

It's great! I love the details in the animation that are separate to the plot. The animators must have had a blast working on this show when they were given so much leeway to include their own visual gags in the show. (My favourite character is Mr. PeanutButter, voiced by the great voice actor Paul F. Tompkins.)

Anyone seen stuff about Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt? It's from Tina Fey and some of the other creators of 30 Rock, which is one of my all-time favorite comedies. I also love the lead actress (The Office), though I didn't care so much for other listed actor in Don't Mess With the B*.

Anyway it's not coming until midseason, but I'm pretty pumped.
I hadn't heard about this, but I'm already excited!
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Jorbles

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Re: New TV shows (American edition)
« Reply #16 on: October 02, 2014, 05:49:07 pm »
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Has anyone seen Bojack Horseman? I thought it was very very good, Bojack himself and Vincent Adultman being the funniest characters.

I watched the first two episodes. It did not annoy me. I may watch again.

I worried that it would be gross and/or raunchy for the sake of shocks, but some of those jokes work. But the cotton-candy puking scene really had to be cut down. Seriously guys.

I tend to agree with this. I think the show took a few too many cues from Family Guy in how to execute it's jokes. It's better in later episodes (I felt anyways).
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eHalcyon

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Re: New TV shows (American edition)
« Reply #17 on: October 03, 2014, 02:20:38 am »
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I checked out Gotham.  I'll keep watching, but the guy playing Jim Gordon is too young.  Also, there was once a time when I watched The O.C., which kind of puts his character in an odd light.  Nothing on his acting, he just doesn't look very different from when he played a moody, troubled teenager.

Similarly, that one kid from the most recent episode was recognizable from when he played various goofy characters on Disney Channel shows.  Also a little jarring, though his acting was fine too.

Anybody else ever find it odd to recognize characters playing roles that don't match their past work?
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dondon151

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Re: New TV shows (American edition)
« Reply #18 on: October 03, 2014, 02:58:53 am »
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Ben McKenzie played one of the leads in Southland, which was really gritty and way more mature than The O.C.
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eHalcyon

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Re: New TV shows (American edition)
« Reply #19 on: October 03, 2014, 03:00:36 am »
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Ben McKenzie played one of the leads in Southland, which was really gritty and way more mature than The O.C.

I never watched Southland though.
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Witherweaver

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Re: New TV shows (American edition)
« Reply #20 on: October 03, 2014, 10:00:08 am »
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I checked out Gotham.  I'll keep watching, but the guy playing Jim Gordon is too young.  Also, there was once a time when I watched The O.C., which kind of puts his character in an odd light.  Nothing on his acting, he just doesn't look very different from when he played a moody, troubled teenager.

Similarly, that one kid from the most recent episode was recognizable from when he played various goofy characters on Disney Channel shows.  Also a little jarring, though his acting was fine too.

Anybody else ever find it odd to recognize characters playing roles that don't match their past work?

I've never seen anyone on Gotham before except Alfred and Gordon's partner, so it's not really a problem for me.

But generally, I don't have a problem with this.  If the story is told well and the characters are engrossing, I'll get drawn in and ignore other things.
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Eevee

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Re: New TV shows (American edition)
« Reply #21 on: October 03, 2014, 10:50:33 am »
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The Alfred casting on Gotham is god-awful.
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Teproc

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Re: New TV shows (American edition)
« Reply #22 on: October 03, 2014, 12:21:18 pm »
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The Alfred casting on Gotham is god-awful.

Agreed.
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eHalcyon

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Re: New TV shows (American edition)
« Reply #23 on: October 03, 2014, 12:49:31 pm »
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The Alfred casting on Gotham is god-awful.

Maybe more the writing and direction than the casting. It seemed out of character when he called Bruce a stupid little boy.
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Kuildeous

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Re: New TV shows (American edition)
« Reply #24 on: October 03, 2014, 03:24:46 pm »
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So I brought up American Horror Story in another thread and felt that deserves its own mention here. I'm looking forward to the new season.

I had a roller coaster of emotions about AHS between seasons 1 and 2. I watched season 1 up to the end, and I was disappointed. I felt that it was a horrible cliffhanger. Well, little did I know it wasn't a cliffhanger. It was the end of season 1, and season 2 was a brand new story.

I like this formula. Perhaps more shows should have gone with this format. How many shows get beaten into the ground because the writers are trying desperately to explain why the protagonist has this condition that wasn't revealed in the previous five seasons? Or they want to introduce another love interest (there was a Cracked article that points out that George Costanza bedded a significantly higher-than-average number of women despite him being the schlub of the group).

I feel that if Heroes adopted this formula, we might still be having episodes today. Granted, it already feels like the seasons are disjointed, but it'd be cool if they were separate on purpose.

Anyway, Freakshow next week, I do believe. Looking forward to it.
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