TV Series / Shows

So I was thinking of doing a thread on the latest TV shows / series that you're watching, and recommendations that you have. I'm not usually one to watch TV shows (prefer to read & game instead) but since part of the gaming comes with a Prime Video subscription, why not, let's see what's going on.

First series is Jack Ryan, based on the famous novels by Tom Clancy.

Recommendations?

The Crown on Netflix is on my definite watch list.

Depends on what genres you enjoy, etc. for recommendations. I thought The Crown was really good, most of the Netflix series I've seen have been enjoyable to watch.

Bojack Horseman is a Good Show, but what I've seen of Netflix' original programming has been decidedly middling. And of course they cancel almost everything by 3 seasons, so why bother?

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Originally Posted by edyzmedieval

The Crown on Netflix is on my definite watch list.

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Originally Posted by Csargo

I thought The Crown was really good

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:laugh4::laugh4::laugh4:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gOyMsQ6BtiM

BTW I wasn't laughing at you liking The Crown. Watch the video, it'll make sense.

Another good Netflix show: Korean historical zombie thriller Kingdom.

No, no, I got it - I saw you linked a video so it made sense. :yes:

Any reviews on Man in the High Castle? That's next on my Prime Video list.

I'd like to know more about the High Castle.

Godfather of Harlem on Amazon is pretty great.

Did anyone watch Suits?

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Originally Posted by edyzmedieval

No, no, I got it - I saw you linked a video so it made sense. :yes:

Any reviews on Man in the High Castle? That's next on my Prime Video list.

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Its a great concept, but it really lost me in season 2 and I stopped watching. I heard that season 4 is great but honestly, I cant be bothered.

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Originally Posted by edyzmedieval

Did anyone watch Suits?

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I watched the first few seasons, but the whole "will he be caught as a fraud" gets tiring real fast. I think I stopped around season 3.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8LiD3i9DS_c

So... yeah, Witcher kind of took over the whole TV show spotlight in the past weeks. Sort of kind of the new Game of Thrones, at least in popularity level, not just the lore.

Also this -> https://www.pcgamer.com/the-witcher-...he-first-time/

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Originally Posted by edyzmedieval

So... yeah, Witcher kind of took over the whole TV show spotlight in the past weeks. Sort of kind of the new Game of Thrones, at least in popularity level, not just the lore.

Also this -> https://www.pcgamer.com/the-witcher-...he-first-time/

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The Witcher is enjoyable, but disappointingly short and a bit disjointed story-wise imo. There's a lot to not like, but it was fun to watch at least. :shrug:

The Witcher was pretty good as a TV series but I think it is not as good as the books, most of the changes made seem to be changes for the sake of being different rather than adaptations to the medium of visual entertainment.

The decision to changes Dandelion's nom de plume from English into Polish, rather than providing a more accurate translation of the original doesn't add anything to the character, it just serves to obscure how ridiculously foppish he is. He also don't wear a hat.

Distinct lack of horses aside from Roach was strange and made it feel like a British fantasy series (that avoids the expense of working with animals) rather than an American one.

The presentation of Nilfgaard is - frankly - really bad and is pretty much a 180 degree flip from the books making the Nilfgaardian characters unambiguously bad guys - and religious zealots to boot.

That said, Henry Cavill is completely convincing as Geralt and Anna Chalotra really gets her teath stuck into playing Yen - I think she'll be the breakout star of the series. Anna Shaffer does a reasonably good job as Triss despite not really embodying the character physically - aside from Shaffer being mixed-race and therefore having somewhat darker colouring than Triss has in the books (which isn't really that important) the really discordant thing I found is that she's quite tall whereas Triss, like Yenn, is described as being very petite in the books and also rather girlish. The got the way she dresses down pat, though. Freya Allen as Ciri mostly has to react to what others are doing, it's a bit of a wan part and they focused so much on her experiences after the Nilgaardian attack that they missed the opportunity to develop her character before that. The actors playing Cahir and Fringilla are really just not given good material, but at least they commit to it.

I liked the way they dealt with magic and elves - I was less keen on the portrayal of dwarves, especially the idea that they're kept as actual slaves.

I think they wanted a through-line from the main story rather than more directly adapting the first two books (this would have meant no Ciri at all in series 1) and as a result the whole thing does feel rather rushed and compressed. It's also quite difficult to follow the time jumps unless you already know the story - something that could have been fixed by titled cards at the start of every scene.

Gonna do my first week of classes and then, week two after add-drop has closed, I am gonna binge watch season 5 of "Peaky" while the wife works over in Blighty.


LOVED it. Loved that they brought Alfie back.

If you have Amazon, you should be watching Marvelous Mrs. Maisel and The Expanse.

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Originally Posted by a completely inoffensive name

If you have Amazon, you should be watching Marvelous Mrs. Maisel and The Expanse.

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My daughter is a fan of Maisel. I have yet to watch it, though it is on the "get to" list.

As outlined by others, Witcher has some mixed reviews in which Henry Cavill is unanimously praised but there are gaps in the story which make it difficult for people to follow adequately. I've had friends tell me that they didn't fully grasp the whole story of the Witcher as potrayed from the TV show.

That being said, the games are fabulous. Check them out if you haven't.

The problem with the Witcher is that it is multiple stories occurring and being presented from different time-frames and eras. This can mess with the flow and can be seen as confusing. However, it ends with those stories merging together. In essence, season 1 is about setting up a bigger story from different threads being woven together.

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Originally Posted by Beskar

The problem with the Witcher is that it is multiple stories occurring and being presented from different time-frames and eras. This can mess with the flow and can be seen as confusing. However, it ends with those stories merging together. In essence, season 1 is about setting up a bigger story from different threads being woven together.

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Which would have worked better with more, shorter, episodes to air more of those individual stores... episodically. It would also have benefited from having Ciri appear a bit less at the beginning and following her story chronologically. One friend of mine thought that Pavetta was an older version of Ciri because they look so similar.

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Originally Posted by Beskar

The problem with the Witcher is that it is multiple stories occurring and being presented from different time-frames and eras. This can mess with the flow and can be seen as confusing. However, it ends with those stories merging together. In essence, season 1 is about setting up a bigger story from different threads being woven together.

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Just saw S1:E1. I thought that was clear from the beginning? I got that multiple threads "Pulp Fiction" vibe from the outset.

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Originally Posted by Seamus Fermanagh

Just saw S1:E1. I thought that was clear from the beginning? I got that multiple threads "Pulp Fiction" vibe from the outset.

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Some don't like it and others like Phil's friend got confused.
It was a little off-putting at times as they could hypothetically made it more canonically timed. The argument against this is that it is a story about Ciri as much as the Witcher, so there are a lot of segments for her.

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Originally Posted by Beskar

Some don't like it and others like Phil's friend got confused.
It was a little off-putting at times as they could hypothetically made it more canonically timed. The argument against this is that it is a story about Ciri as much as the Witcher, so there are a lot of segments for her.

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Repeated allusions to "Destiny" and deathbed prophetic statements about being entwined with the other? How much foreshadowing do you need?

Nevermind, it is no doubt the parallel to those who love Oliver Stone movies. Stone never trusted his audience so he always had a "pound the summary of the theme/point like you are beating a dead horse" to end all his films. A pity really, as he was a crafty storyteller in the first 85% of all his movies -- if he only trusted the audience enough that they were able to get his message.

More annoying are the parts omitted, like Ciri and Geralt's first meeting, after which the ending of the series would make a lot more sense.

Took an interest in watching The Bodyguard, particularly because Robb Stark (Richard Madden) is a good actor. A bit too dark for my liking, a bit too realistic but it's been quite popular I understand.

Anybody watching The Boys? What an incredible show, easily my favorite of 2020.

I've watched 4 new TV shows and 2 new anime series this year (must be the pandemic). For one of them I can't recall, but all the rest had the curious feature of playing their intro theme/montage a few minutes into the program.

I'm not sure I can recall seeing an infixed intro before this year. Yet another show, not new (starting its fifth season this month), has also adopted the infixed intro; I know for sure that in prior seasons it followed the well-known standard of leading with the intro.

Is this a hot new trend in production?

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Originally Posted by Montmorency

Another good Netflix show: Korean historical zombie thriller Kingdom.

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How was it compared to The Walking Dead?

If you have HBO Max, I very very highly recommend Valley of Tears. Its an Israeli ministries about the Yom Kippur War set in the Golan Heights. It follows a bunch of soldiers through the first few days of the conflict. A really great story and extremely high production value. I was completely blown away by how good it was.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ltSvPE8xw3A

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Originally Posted by Shaka_Khan

How was it compared to The Walking Dead?

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I haven't watched or read TWD. I hear it's bad after the first season of the show.

While the first season of Kingdom was more thrilling than the second, I found the latter a satisfactory conclusion to the arc (sequel-bait is teased at the end).

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Originally Posted by Hooahguy

If you have HBO Max, I very very highly recommend Valley of Tears. Its an Israeli ministries about the Yom Kippur War set in the Golan Heights. It follows a bunch of soldiers through the first few days of the conflict. A really great story and extremely high production value. I was completely blown away by how good it was.

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But when does the intro play?

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Originally Posted by Montmorency

I've watched 4 new TV shows and 2 new anime series this year (must be the pandemic). For one of them I can't recall, but all the rest had the curious feature of playing their intro theme/montage a few minutes into the program.

I'm not sure I can recall seeing an infixed intro before this year. Yet another show, not new (starting its fifth season this month), has also adopted the infixed intro; I know for sure that in prior seasons it followed the well-known standard of leading with the intro.

Is this a hot new trend in production?

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It's fairly common in anime.

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Originally Posted by Montmorency

But when does the intro play?

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With the exception of the first episode, I believe its the opener, so no infixed intros.

Saw the recent Catch-22 miniseries. While I enjoyed it overall and the production is great (and should placate the certain demographic who complain about insufficient white faces on their screens), many could criticize that the adaptation diverges quite heavily from the book in everything from themes, characters, and plot events.

It's kind of 'what if Catch-22, but 1984?'

And of course it comes with a dollop of the contemporary media fashion of hard-injecting humor.

Did anyone watch Age of Samurai on Netflix? Seems right up our alley considering the Total War theme.

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Originally Posted by Montmorency

Saw the recent Catch-22 miniseries. While I enjoyed it overall and the production is great (and should placate the certain demographic who complain about insufficient white faces on their screens), many could criticize that the adaptation diverges quite heavily from the book in everything from themes, characters, and plot events.

It's kind of 'what if Catch-22, but 1984?'

And of course it comes with a dollop of the contemporary media fashion of hard-injecting humor.

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I just started watching this and it just doesn't feel like Catch-22. I've read the book multiple times, have the audiobook too, love the old movie but this series just isn't sticking with me somehow. I don't know but it just seems to not really embrace the absurdity quite as well.

Know this isn't the book thread but any recommendations for authors on the level of Heller and Vonnegut?

Also, CGI just can't capture the same effect as the small fleet of aircraft from the movie, petrol-heads like me just love that engine noise!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nLMDIlxUa58

Been watching the new Around the World in Eighty Days, it is enjoyable but doesn't capture the feel of any authenticity to the period. They certainly manufacture enough 'excitement' and 'drama' to pad it out for a series instead of a movie. Just wish they didn't have to make Fogg such a bumbling fool.
All in all though it is a fun show, just so long as you don't try and think about how a hot air balloon goes from Paris right over the alps into Italy and a few other silly things.

Anyone watched Rings of Power yet?

It looks good but I'm hearing it's also very 'woke' compared to Peter Jackson's LOTR. I'll probably watch it no matter what though, love the world of Tolkien's.

I tried to watch it but I couldnt get into it, as I didnt find the story very compelling. It being "woke" wasnt the issue for me.

On a side note, House of the Dragon so far has been fantastic.

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Originally Posted by Hooahguy

I tried to watch it but I couldnt get into it, as I didnt find the story very compelling. It being "woke" wasnt the issue for me.

On a side note, House of the Dragon so far has been fantastic.

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Having just watched the two episodes available I have to agree, there's nothing in the story that grabs at all, slow pace, lots of disjointed stories etc...

Few other observations of mine below, warning spoilers:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

As everyone has been saying, the show is beautiful, wonderful scenery, excellent use of CGI, nice costumes and sets. The musical score is on point too, works well.

The story overall so far is very 'meh' the main character Galadriel is unlikeble so far. Her character arc seems like it'll be straight forward as the first scene of the series is it: she knows what's best and if people just listened and stopped getting in her way they could stop the evil. I'm sure that Sauron will be in a position for Galadriel to end him at some point and Sauron will be saved by one of Galadriel's naysayers.
Gotta say, her jumping off the boat and swimming half way across the world back to middle earth is just stupid.

Elrond is unimpressive so far, just a weak willed 'politician' who toes the line for his bosses. Hope they have a good story for him down the road because so far it's not looking good. His offending Durin by not going to his wedding or seeing the birth of his two kids seems extremely uncharacteristic for a dwarf prince. It seems like they just wanted an excuse to have a dwarvish highland games event. I like how Khazad Dum looked but so far the representation of Dwarves seems childish.

The Arondir story so far seems dumb too. He's part of the elvish constabulary ruling over the humans that fought for morgoth. High command declares peace so everyone is pulled out but of course he knows better and stays behind. The human woman he's fallen in love with seems the only person in the village not covered in dirt and for some reason she leaves her kid behind to join Arondir on a recon of the next town. When she gets back home no one believes her that the town was destroyed but luckily she and her kid manage to behead the orc that happened to get into her home of course letting her plop the orc's head in the pub to quash any naysayers about there not being any danger from the next door village being wiped out. The whole village of sauron sympathizers/ collaborators will be interesting to watch but so far hasn't added any value and looks like they'll only be useful as the 'bad guys' that aren't cool with the human/elf love affair that will happen.

The harfoots are just irritating, a community of irish/caribbean back to nature hippies. I didn't like any of their scenes and am worried about much screen time they'll get. I imagine they're there for kid viewers, comic scenes, and merchandising. What meteor man turns out to be will be interesting but I'll be a bit irritated if he ends up being one of the wizards as this doesn't at all seem the way in which I or anyone else envisioned them going to middle earth.

As for the 'wokeness' yeah, like Hooahguy wrote it's not really much of an issue. That so far the only 'strong' leads seem to be woman is a bit irritating but was expected. The rainbow of ethnicities for casting isn't an issue though it doesn't really add value (Tolkien had people of color in middle earth they just weren't in "the West" but were the Southrons or Easterlings), it does help Amazon though as those of us that don't like it for other reasons can be called racists for not embracing it. I'm honestly more irritated by the dwarf women not having beards and the elvish men having short hair.

These first two episodes being so overall weak in a show that was always going to get heaps of criticism for veering even farther off course from Tolkien's work than the LOTR movies or the terrible Hobbit trilogy. I just can't believe they edited these two episodes this way, a much longer backdrop to the previous major events would have been useful such as the kin slaying, more about the war with morgoth, the sinking of beleriand, the creation of numeanor with it's first king being Elrond's brother who choose to be human rather than elf for example.

I'll keep watching it for now but it's not at all like the LOTR from twenty years ago. Two one hour episodes were almost a chore to watch instead of being drawn in and engaged in the story as right now we don't know what the story even is beyond that Orcs and Sauron are still out there and could have been defeated if other people didn't keep naysaying.

I'll do an update on my observations in a few weeks after I hope the story has become a bit more clear. Having writers try to fill in the gaps of an entire age of Tolkien's world is a monumental task that so far they are unsurprisingly doing poorly. I think the wrong lessons of the Hobbit trilogy were learned but hopefully I'm wrong and this show turns out well.

Glad to hear House of Dragons is good, I was extremely disappointed at how GOT seasons 7 and 8 went so I'll let this seasons run its course before I give it a go, just don't want to be let down again.

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Originally Posted by spmetla

Glad to hear House of Dragons is good, I was extremely disappointed at how GOT seasons 7 and 8 went so I'll let this seasons run its course before I give it a go, just don't want to be let down again.

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Honestly, I wouldnt wait. Its a legitimately good show that reminds me a lot of GOT seasons 1-4. To ease your concerns, HotD has a few things going for it that the last few seasons of GOT didnt:
1) The showrunners from GOT who ruined it are not involved whatsoever.
2) The source material for the show is complete, not still in progress like with GOT.
3) GRRM is far more involved in this compared to the final few seasons of GOT, where he was effectively sidelined.

Rings of Power

My final review is that it's pretty crap overall for this first season. Not lore accurate, cardboard acting, and a plot that relies on mystery boxes that are poorly executed.

Biggest gripes in the spoilers below:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

The show is call "Rings of Power" and it screwed up the forging of the rings, if there's one bit of lore to stay loyal to that should have been it. Instead of Sauron helping the elves craft the rings for Men and Dwarves it's the opposite where he suggests the creation of the Elvish rings, is found out and then escapes.

Mithril being the 'cure' to a made-up problem that might cause the end of the elves is really irritating. Why create a backstory for an ore for no reason, cameo a Balrog that doesn't do anything this season, and create a false dilemma for the elves to solve so they can stay in middle earth? It's just really annoying how they write all this in, they create problems to solve for no reason.

The whole Numeanor chapter was terrible, modern-day politics (the elves are taking our jobs) thrown into there is silly. Numeanor should at this time have colonies across middle earth and be especially the mightiest power in the land, instead they aren't and just seem silly. Galadriel training Soldiers by showing off wasn't too clever and seemed to just play to girl-power-isms of writing.

Harbrand/Sauron being made king of the southlands was apparently stupid. If there hadn't been a King there in a 1000 years why would the Southlanders or Arondir as part of the constabulary for the last 79 years not be aware of that and just accept Harbrand as King? It just seems such a BS ploy to let him be set up as this Aragorn type guy but without any play up or work toward it.

The Harfoots and the Stranger (Gandalf for sure) could have been cut from the show entirely. They have added zero value, not moved any story line and just been annoying. It seems they were added in purely so they could setup up female Frodo and female Sam going on an adventure with Gandalf next season while literally doing absolutely nothing but take up screen time this season.

Unless Season 2 changes substantially and gets good reviews I will not be watching this.

Other reviews that I think are accurate though of course they are negative:
Now it's over, let's come out and say it: The Rings of Power was a stinker
https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-r...-was-a-stinker

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Well, now that the first season is finally over, there is one clear answer. The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power isn't very good. It quite often isn't anywhere near good. There are moments in almost every episode where I have found myself sniggering into my sleeve at how inept it is. And all these misgivings were massively underlined by the finale.

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The Rings Of Power Season 1 Finale Recap And Review: A Dreadful Mess
https://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkai...h=940ed175aef2

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I've never seen an adaptation of a major work so badly abused, so fundamentally altered or so disrespectfully handled as the creators of The Rings Of Power have treated The Lord Of The Rings. Tolkien's creation barely shines through the dreck.

I gave this show a chance. I went in with low expectations and for a moment was charmed by what I saw, but quickly the cracks began to show in the story and its heroes. Of Mithril, this show is most certainly not crafted.

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Been enjoying the Netflix show "Human Playground" which is a docu-series on various human 'play' activities and the various reasons people engage in such play. As pulled out some unique sports I'd never heard of and really done a nice job of showing many unique cultural ways people play in traditional and modern forms.

https://www.netflix.com/title/81122619

I watched Physical 100 on Netflix.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cSZib2k2H6A

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=soPt0kh1q_c?t=473

A bit off tangent, but The Last Kingdom TV show is also now a full fledged movie.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eqCYw_o5lng&pp=ygUQdGhlIGxhc3Qga2luZ2RvbQ%3D%3D

last time i saw the money heist series on Netflix all season

Band of Brothers is now on Netflix, if anyone wants to see it (again), or like me, for the first time. On my list to see this autumn.

I'm feeling nostalgic for the 80s and the opening credits of their tv series.

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Originally Posted by Shaka_Khan

I'm feeling nostalgic for the 80s and the opening credits of their tv series.

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Hehe, speaking of that, FRIENDS just celebrated 30 years since it first aired.

I know it's the 90's, but it's an iconic show and iconic opening scene.