Board 8 > we should have a general TV discussion topic and Cokes should post in it

(+) Yeah! (+)

I still haven't gotten around to watching chicanery yet

spent most of the day with my grandmother and then shooting water guns with kids
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I've got 3 left in the season. Probably will get through one or two more tonight.
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3 episodes in for Japanese patent show.

Classic underdog story where big corporation is trying to sue them into oblivion.

Next arc looks like their technical capabilities will be tested against a powerful engineering firm.

It's intense, it's incredibly saccharine and the Japanese bosses spend more time demeaning and crushing people than actually doing anything else.

Half the subplots involve people being either bitter or overly prideful.
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Reminder that the most ridiculous and entertaining show of the summer is back on Sunday. Preacher!
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Wow that Fargo ending was perfect. And the whole storage locker sequence, what incredible atmosphere. This wasn't the best season, but it still had some damn amazing moments.
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Just watched the first episode of Animal Kingdom. Seems solid.
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The Fargo ending was pretty far from perfect
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To me, it was the perfect summation for the season, based on truth, alternative facts, reality, and asks the viewer their outlook by not giving a definitive answer either way.
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It was alright I can appreciate the season well enough even though it's a clear step down from S2. It just didn't really resolve things in a very satisfactory manner.

Who did you think was telling the truth at the end by the way?
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I believe Varga was telling the truth personally, which does make me sad being a generally optimistic person.

I'm with you on some resolution issues though. Nikki's closure felt really empty. So did Emmit's.
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cleared up through 3x09 of better call saul. I ... did not see that ending coming at all. will watch the finale tonight as well if I don't get too tired and fall asleep.
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MariaTaylor posted...

cleared up through 3x09 of better call saul. I ... did not see that ending coming at all. will watch the finale tonight as well if I don't get too tired and fall asleep.

I'm at the same point you're at, but less tired.

Truthfully, I saw it coming. You don't shoot from that angle unless you're going to do that.

I do like how it was a total callback to her nap in the car earlier in the season, where she sets the timer for 5 minutes and then closes her eyes, and then they smash cut to it going off and her being startled awake.
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oh nice observation. I didn't make that connection. that is pretty neat.
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It stuck with me because I don't typically startle easily and both of those got me.

Finale was excellent. I can see a lot of ways to build off of it. I don't have a lot more to say at this hour, but I'm gonna sleep on it and talk about it more tomorrow, hopefully.
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i was already filled with dread during the lead-up, and i still got shocked.

i mean come on she almost had a disaster in the oil field! it's kind of sick, making me think she managed to squeak by already and that she'd be good for the rest of the episode!
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Yeah. I had that same feeling, until I remembered that for all her flaws, she's still incredibly clever
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Next on my summer viewing list is Atlanta because Donald Glover deserves my time. Looking forward to it.
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Atlanta is exceptional.

Probably the best new series of the past TV year.
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hell yes atlanta

value has to be my favorite episode
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Sounds like I should add this to my watchlist.
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Atlanta is really good

The talk show episode is easily the best
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BAN, The Club, and Value are the top 3 in some order
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my grandmother had to go to the hospital yesterday for high blood pressure and then she somehow colluded with the nurse's to have herself released when she was supposed to stay overnight. her plan was to go to the casino with me today. well, after she went through all that trouble there was no way I could refuse. spent most of the day there as a result and obviously I was busy yesterday.

anyway I somehow found time during all of this to watch the Better Call Saul season 3 finale. here are my thoughts.


this was another good season of a show I've already been enjoying very much. the holistic completion of almost every storyline this season was a HUGE step up from how season 2 ended. as much as I liked season 2 those absurd cliffhangers left a bad taste in my mouth. this season had three main storylines and the only one that wasn't really wrapped up was Nacho/Hector. it felt like his plan to take out Hector at least succeeded but instead of showing us the result and the aftermath it just ends with Hector falling over. either way this is still a lot better than season 2 ending every plot in the middle of a climactic scene. big improvement.

characters

Jimmy: definitely went to some dark places this season. I don't have as much to say about his character as some of the others. he's consistently entertaining. there are some parts where I felt like his acting was a bit too hammy and these were often times when Jimmy (the character) was supposed to be 'acting.' the problem is that Jimmy is supposed to be good at fooling people and being charismatic. in that sense it feels weird that the director, and actor, would choose a less nuanced approach where it's obvious that Jimmy is acting. if WE the audience can tell then the character he's interacting with should be able to also tell. and in that case he shouldn't really be all that convincing or charismatic. oh well.

Chuck: I think Chuck is a great character, very well acted, but also really insufferable as a person. it seems as if he is designed to make you kinda loathe him and loathe the fact that you sympathize with him but maybe that wasn't the intention and those are just my personal feelings. either way this ending to his arc was satisfactory. he has already destroyed everything that was in his life and the worst part was that he kept spiraling out of control even further based on the delusion that he was getting better -- when he clearly wasn't. it was a nice, clean way to remove a frustrating character from the show while still keeping the excellent points about him intact. there's never a point where I feel like the writers forced his plotline to go somewhere, and the actor sold every moment of the trip along the way.

Howard: I think season 1 and early season 2 Howard are the best of all. this was the time when he came across as fairly ambiguous and we didn't know much of his internal thoughts. it seemed at first like he was kind of a douche pretending to be a good guy, then we learn he actually is a pretty good guy but is often in the position of looking bad due to other reasons (like covering for chuck). I feel like season 3 showed us that the true Howard is somewhere in the middle. he's neither entirely good nor entirely bad. makes perfect sense, really. I don't know any law partners all that well personally but the show and the actor at least do a good job of selling him as a realistic character.


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saved the best ones for last

nacho: is great. what they've done with this character is take a fairly common trope and then apply it to a completely unexpected situation. nacho essentially represents the guy who is too competent for his job, is never recognized by his bosses, and ends up doing a lot of their work... and doing a better job at it... and continues to live in a thankless position where the people he serves keep getting him into even more difficult situations because of their careless mistakes. reminds me of your typical office cubicle worker struggling with incompetent middle management. but instead they make him a low level drug dealer and it's like the entire archetype has been reinvented. the relationship between him and Mike is great, I almost wish they had somehow gotten the chance to develop a bit closer even if it would have felt a bit forced. having Mike acknowledge Nacho as a skilled, intelligent guy would be a rewarding 'fanservice' type moment in that it's mostly just something we'd want to see rather than something Mike would probably think to say out of the blue. they gave us a good reason to empathize with his arc this season by having his father get dragged into the salamanca crosshairs. I don't know the exact number of minutes that Nacho has been on screen but it felt like he got a bigger role and a more complete arc this season? either way I'm excited to see more from him in the future.

kim: another great character. the BCS original cast has really knocked it out of the park. my only complaint with Kim is that she is almost TOO good at times, and this does bring about several questions. like, why would such a good person who almost always does the right thing and have a wise head on her shoulders associate herself so closely with a guy like Jimmy? but, ultimately, especially in season 3, we are given some semblance of an answer to this question. Kim has seen, and sees, a side of Jimmy that almost no one else has. the arc where Jimmy takes advantage of the old ladies in order to get them to settle so he can get his money, then realizes that it backfired and he accidentally ruined that woman's life, is definitely one of the more grounded and brutal moments of the season for me. even if I thought the plot was a bit odd and sort of hammy at first I ended up really appreciating it. the way Jimmy solved this arc, by making himself into the bad guy, shows a certain aspect of his character. he's totally willing to make himself into the villain and play that role, becoming hated, just to fix the mistakes that he has made. everyone else -- chuck, even the old ladies at sandpiper -- they all see one side of Jimmy. they see the version of him that screws up and causes all this terrible stuff to happen. they see the Jimmy who shows himself as a villain and becomes the target of their hatred. Kim is the only person who knows the version of Jimmy that intentionally makes himself look bad in order to make others feel better. and in that sense you can kinda see why she'd stick with him despite him seeming like such a bad guy.



there's a lot of other stuff I could talk about but I'm a bit tired already. I've been out and about since 4 AM, and I didn't get much rest yesterday either. seeing Gus was fine but it didn't feel like we got a real storyline. he was just there for the sake of being there, so whatever. I can't say too much about Mike's plot this season. I know people love the scenes where he just walks around in the desert or does something without any dialogue for minutes at a time... it's fine. I don't hate his half of the show or anything. but I think I do prefer the more character driven drama of the other characters. and I say this despite liking Mike quite a bit as a character and enjoying his role on this show.
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Mike did have a pretty forgettable season. Setting up those guys, shooting the sneaker of drugs onto their truck was pretty badass though. And yeah, Gus hasn't done much, but they probably don't want to make him too central of a figure in the show. He's kind of just there pushing things along, seeing how Mike gets integrated with him, add a little backstory with his angle with Salamanca. I think it's been fine.
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the mike scenes are there for gilligan and the directors to show off their cinematography chops. very meditative stuff, but yeah, i've always felt that the whole mike storyline isn't anywhere close to being as compelling as jimmy's.
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I disagree with one of your fundamental points about Chuck, which is that he's destroyed everything else in his life.

More than anything, I think it's that with his illness proven to be in his head - especially by Jimmy - and Howard forcing him out of the firm, he has nothing left to fight. he lets the depression associated with his illness have its say and that's it
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i didn't think the mike storyline was compelling at first, because BB told us literally everything there was to know about mike - he's a principled dude who happens to kill people for the benefit of drug dealers. believes strongly in right and wrong despite doing many things that would fall into the wrong category.

that said - much of the thrill of BB has always been in the meticulous way it lays out its traps. now the stakes are way higher in BB, but the trick mike pulls with the GPS, the way he dissembles his whole car, the pathos as he's trying to find the body of the innocent bystander - it's so damn fun to watch for me.

and i don't care if gus isn't breaking new ground, he's just a phenomenal screen presence. i like the mob stuff more than the chuck/kim stuff usually. any scene with jimmy in it almost always wins, though.
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either way it's just a sad but great ending

he ruined his relationship with Jimmy
he ruined his ability to continue working at HHM
he ruined his near lifelong friendship with Howard
he destroyed his house

all because his delusion changed from the idea that he was allergic to electricity to the delusion that he was getting better when he clearly wasn't. Howard pretty much puts it best. "this is not what 'okay' looks like."

I think Jimmy being the one to 'prove' that the illness was fake was definitely a huge blow. for many reasons. firstly, you could always tell that his symptoms flared up whenever something relating to Jimmy happened. in a lot of ways the stress of not being able to deal with his brother is what often exacerbated the symptoms. secondly, it meant he lost in court (his church) to the one person who he does not even consider a lawyer (essentially the "devil"). and this is a situation where Chuck was in the right and knew he was in the right, but he was still cheated out of justice.
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Halfway through S3 of Fargo.

It's a little sluggish so far, and Ewan MacGregor can't do a very convincing Minnesota accent, but David Thewlis, Mary Elizabeth Winstead and Michael Stuhlbarg are all fantastic
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Episodes 6 and 7 of Fargo really picked up the pace and made things interesting. It's probably no coincidence that they were also the shortest and tightest edited episodes yet - the only two under 50 minutes.

The last 3 will have to be pretty exceptional to stack up to S2 or even S1, but it's still shaping up to be a solid season of television.
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Check-in for the first episode of Preacher. Status: Batshit insane.
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Finally got around to BCS. It was an aright season that IMO peaked during its fifth episode. It seems like a lot of people hyped up the last episode which is kind of perplexing. It was okay I guess. This is definitely not a better show than Breaking Bad
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Man, Fargo had a really weird year.

I liked it, but boy, I can see people being pretty polarized by it a lot.
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I have, after much delay, started my rewatch of Twin Peaks.

I've only watched it once, it was roughly a decade ago, before I knew much of anything about TV or film.

I livetweeted my rewatch of the pilot. I'll probably keep doing that.

@cokes311 if you are interested.
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Wow, that iZombie finale was something. That was a really good way to handle DDay. Also super super messed up, but I get it. They need big numbers in order to not be immediately exterminated, and they got it. Next season should be really interesting.
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First episode of GLOW is good. Promising start. Gonna watch more tomorrow, I think
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Ended up watching the second, which was a good choice. The first two episodes really should be watched together, even if you're not a binge-watcher. They feel like two halves of a pilot; the first one ends kind of at a weird junction, but the second one picks it up and runs with it.
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was planning to watch glow when it premiered but held off because i wanna start it with this new girl i'm seeing. gonna see it this saturday!

or maybe twin peaks after we watch eraserhead because i'm sure we'll just fall in love with lynch. i hear this new season is... something else.
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Yeah, iZombie was pretty wild.
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*Black kid walks in*
Ern: Oh shit, it's Justin Bieber

I laughed.
Well played, Atlanta
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so i strapped in and started season 5 of the americans

episode 1 was... one of the weakest episode 1s the show has had, IMO.

i'm a little disappointed overall that the show has trended so consistently toward further grimness, given that it wasn't exactly a ray of sunshine to begin with.

the ending of the episode (the extremely sympathetic german student getting executed because he tripped and fell) is the most americans thing, and the sequence leading up to it is hilariously troll-ish (five straight minutes of digging on screen)

really not excited about misha coming to america

i also miss arkady ivanovich and so many other lost characters :(
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Does anyone watch The Blacklist?

I picked it up on a whim since I love James Spader. I'm halfway through S1(just finished Anslo Garrick two parter). There are stuff I love (Red is excellent ), but also boring typical network TV elements (Ressler)

I'm wondering if the show is worth sticking with or if it gets boring or repetitive later.
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I'm a huge Spader fan, but I had to tap out in the middle of season 2. It just gets monotonous.
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I still watch it. My partner likes it more than me, so I kinda tune out a bit sometimes. The overarching plots of Seasons 3 and 4 are better than 1 and 2, I thought.
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The Blacklist has definitely gone downhill, but I still watch it.
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Oh yeah, uh, the trailer for Inhumans is out today and it looks uniquely dire.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yEBhjXoazVc
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Medusa is so bad.
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That dinner scene at the start of Value was great

I thought it was going on a bit longer than I expected, but I was never bored of it. Very understated, excellently-written TV
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The worst part is that when it's awful and gets cancelled then we can't ever get an actual good Medusa in the MCU.
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