Board 8 > Finished 12 Monkeys (TV) and it's probably my favorite show of the past 20 years

(+) Yeah! (+)

Like all of 4 people watched it, and it got cut down a season from what was originally planned, but a lot of effort was still put into painstakingly making everything right. Which in a show that relies heavily on time travel, means a ton and almost never happens.

I recommend it highly to anyone who enjoys sci-fi, time travel, good characters, or good television in general.
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One of those ones that I keep thinking I'll get round to on Netflix, but hasn't reached the top of the queue yet. I kind of got burnt on time travel by Continuum, which went off the rails a bit in its third season (the first two are excellent, though).

I'll keep the recommendation in mind though. It does look good.
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A lot of sci-fi shows and time travel shows in general I'm afraid to get into because I'm afraid they will go off the rails in the final act. But I have literally zero complaints about the series finale and that seems to be the general consensus of the reviews I've read as well. Like I am so excited to have watched this show, that's how good it is and I want to push as many people as I can to watch it too.
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I watched like 2 episodes a year or so ago because I really liked the movie, but didn't get into it

want to give it another shot at some point
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The first season has the unenviable task of world and character building an entire apocalypse, but it gets rolling fast enough after the first few episodes. And once it has everything built up, it just fucking plows through. For reference, on Rotten Tomatoes (Critical/Audience):

S1- 62% / 82%
S2- 88% / 92%
S3- 89%
S4- 100% / 95%
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Is it too grandiose to say the 12 Monkeys series finale was flawless? Definitely not! In fact, flawless fails to reach the heights of praise this episode and this show as a whole deserves. There are many wonderful shows whose finales have left fans disappointed; 12 Monkeys stands alongside these science fiction greats with the further distinction of nailing its landing. Fans will be talking about this tour de force for years to come, and all those who come to the series after its stellar end will be kicking themselves for not being there before the cycle ended.

i will keep hyping this for at least a few more days
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I still need to watch the last 3 episodes.

It is a show I think was hurt greatly by an irregular release schedule because the plot is so layered and interconnected that you really need to remember what was going on and each new season had a rough start because I was trying to remember what the hell happened last season each time.

That's nothing on the show, though. I do think it'll be one that'd be much better to marathon than watch as it broadcast on TV as I more or less did. Great show if the finale delivers at all, which apparently according to hype it will.
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Oh yeah I don't disagree with that. SyFy mangled distribution of it. After S1/S2 had poor initial viewers, but slammed hard on DVR/streaming sites they just decided that would do it all binge style. And that was a poor decision. Airing all of S3 in one day last year was miserable, and airing all of S4 over four weeks this year wasn't much better.

But the show was good in spite of its distribution, which also almost never happens.
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Yeah I guess the binge style was half the problem now that I think about it. Instead of giving the season like 3 months to fully expand and digest I'm watching it over the course of like a week or two because of the way they released it, which hurts two-fold in that it wasn't on my mind for as long a period of time and also because there ends up being more time between the end of the season and the beginning of the next even if it's reliably released on time because the last season ended earlier.

I kinda noticed this happened with Stranger Things for me too. I loved the first season and I just couldn't get into the second one.

That being said that I liked it enough to push through the mangled release really says something about the series. Lesser series have all but died to me because of that. I wasn't able to watch the last set of 3 immediately after it aired like I was for the other sets of 3 but now I'm more hyped to watch it.
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so what I'm hearing is I should binge this all at some point since I don't have to worry about remembering anything for a future season
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on netflix?
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I actually have no idea. I know it's on Hulu, but I'm still a dirty pirate.
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don't you

forget about me
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How does this relate to the movie? Same continuity, reboot, or no connection at all?
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i've had ISP giving me shit a lot in recent years :(

otherwise i'd absolutely be all over this!
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redrocket posted...

How does this relate to the movie? Same continuity, reboot, or no connection at all?

It takes the "shell" of the movie and basically expands on it in every way possible, so I guess reboot? A virus released by The Army of 12 Monkeys in 2017 wipes out like 90% of the earth's population. In 2043 a team of survivors sends James Cole back to 2015 in order to try and prevent its release. There's no direct connection to the movie at all though.

SeabassDebeste posted...

i've had ISP giving me shit a lot in recent years :(

lame, but understandable
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well it can't be worse than "Lost" so well........you got nothing to lose really
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LOST is one of those shows that I'm angry I watched all of. Same with Heroes.
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FFDragon posted...

LOST is one of those shows that I'm angry I watched all of. Same with Heroes.

I think I may trust your tv taste and give 12 monkeys a chance then
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LOST was great, shit ending and all! 1-2 seasons of WTF don't negate the exciting character and plot development, and there was still some enjoyable stuff in those last two seasons. You just have to adjust your expectations accordingly.
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I'm of the opinion that if you have to adjust your expectations, something has already gone wrong. Shows are allowed to -- and should -- evolve but it has to feel natural. LOST was just jarring and floundered, even after they didn't have to pump out filler episodes (which were another nasty problem on their own) anymore.

Plus, I'm of the opinion that the only thing the last few seasons of LOST did right was taking the luster off the John Locke character, who I never enjoyed.
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I did an exercise last night, trying to figure out where to best cut off LOST.

I originally felt the best ending would be end of season 5, just whoops nuke explosion killed us all, show over. While this solves the S6 problem, you've got the issue of S5.

Pretending the show ends after S4 kinda works, but is still really weird. I think I've determined lost died with Charlie (sorry Desmond)
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I'd be okay with that. S2/3 had issues with their filler episodes though, so it's not even a perfect fix.
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Just curious... what from 20 years ago is better than 12 Monkeys?
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Probably The Shield, which started in 2002, so more like 16 years ago. And even then it's debatable which I'd find better right now.
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initiate bumping sequence
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and once for the road
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Last one unless business picks up
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Just watched the last few episodes. I was pretty impressed with the ending even with the hype given here. Probably the most satisfying ending stretch to a TV Series ever.
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That's what I'm saying!

It's a shame that SyFy's botched distribution managed to make them literally pull a 0.2 rating.
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