Show recommendation thread

TLB · Apr 8, 2020

Just finished binging Season 3 of Ozark on Netflix.

For those unfamiliar, the very first episode of the series opens with him as some financial advisor with clients in his office while he's distractedly watching pr0n on his computer screen. Turns out, it's his wife, cheating on him (private eye set up the proof for him). Within S1 his partner gets them in trouble with the wrong folks, and Bateman is constantly thinking quick on his feet how to get out of situations. This leads to him and his wife being forced to maintain the 'happy family' image with their two kids as they move within hours to the Ozarks to begin money laundering operations. The running plotline for all 3 seasons is him trying to keep the family alive, and being a bit smarter than everyone else around him. Over time you see his wife express similar sharp mind manipulations, and of course there are some main characters that carry their own side plot lines that interweave, and all have a layering of 'who knows how much?'. If you like a story that constantly feels like the protagonist is going to tip over into mayhem, but manages to keep tap dancing on the land mines...this is for you. Most characters you'll care about, some not so much and that's ok. Some stories may not matter all that much, but they are all threads of the overall tapestry, even up to the end of S3. Worth a binge of 3--5 episodes when you feel like trying it out...see if you don't get hooked, trying to watch more. Great writing, great cast, nothing real hokey about it, IMO. 8.5/10

TLB · Apr 10, 2020

So, sticking with Netflix shows...I've picked up "Money Heist"

Started this the other day, now up to s1e5. This was created by Spanish television, and picked up by Netflix. For Netflix, they chopped and resorted the episodes to fit the timing format (no movement of the flow, just different break points). Seems to flow well enough with the Netflix breakpoints. However, being made in Spain (where the rain falls mainly in the plains), I'm watching with English subs and audio dubs....which don't match (annoys me) but you still have a good feel for what's happening.

Premise so far is a team of thieves were brought together by 'The Professor', each with their own skill sets (sounds familiar...it is far from a rehash, it's very fresh writing). They go into the Royal Mint of Spain, and present the image of a robbery gone wrong and they are forced to take all people in there as hostages as negotiations begin with the police. That's the first wrinkle, it was never a robbery of the cash in the vaults. Second layer, involves one of the hostages being a diplomat's daughter. The team knows it and timed the event to be when she was there on field trip. Is THIS the real intent? Or is it the third wrinkle (shown thus far) of running billions of unmarked bills off the mint's presses while they are in 'negotiations'? This alone is intriguing enough to keep you drawn in. However, they have a very good cast between the thieves, the head negotiator for the police, and the overall flow of sub-relationships (a MUST for Spanish tv, I'm sure!).

Like I said, I'm really struggling with the language issue, more than usual (I do like foreign films and am usually fine with subs...maybe it's the dubs throwing me off). But that is the only real issue I have, and it's manageable. The rest, has been very good to this point. I'm looking forward to the remainder.

It has a few hotties, but they don't show much. Not really 'action' as we'd normally seek it out, it's more storyline and writing that holds you in. If you get past the language barrier, the only other minor complaint is you may or may not associate with the characters all that well. I can't tell if the language is keeping them at a distance, or if that's just the Spanish way of filming or interacting. Idunno, but it's still pretty good.

gingerlover · Apr 10, 2020

TLB said:
Just finished binging Season 3 of Ozark on Netflix.

For those unfamiliar, the very first episode of the series opens with him as some financial advisor with clients in his office while he's distractedly watching pr0n on his computer screen. Turns out, it's his wife, cheating on him (private eye set up the proof for him). Within S1 his partner gets them in trouble with the wrong folks, and Bateman is constantly thinking quick on his feet how to get out of situations. This leads to him and his wife being forced to maintain the 'happy family' image with their two kids as they move within hours to the Ozarks to begin money laundering operations. The running plotline for all 3 seasons is him trying to keep the family alive, and being a bit smarter than everyone else around him. Over time you see his wife express similar sharp mind manipulations, and of course there are some main characters that carry their own side plot lines that interweave, and all have a layering of 'who knows how much?'. If you like a story that constantly feels like the protagonist is going to tip over into mayhem, but manages to keep tap dancing on the land mines...this is for you. Most characters you'll care about, some not so much and that's ok. Some stories may not matter all that much, but they are all threads of the overall tapestry, even up to the end of S3. Worth a binge of 3--5 episodes when you feel like trying it out...see if you don't get hooked, trying to watch more. Great writing, great cast, nothing real hokey about it, IMO. 8.5/10

Love this show

ThreatMatrix · Apr 11, 2020

Has anybody checked our DEVS? It's free on Hulu but you can buy the season on Amazon. Season and likely series finale is next week. It's from the guy that did Ex Machina and Annihilation.
It stars Nick Offerman as a very low key "balding hippie" tech entrepreneur (Forrest) who has the leading quantum computer company in the world. In a secret lab (Devs) they have achieved the ability to not only look back in time but look forward. The premise is all mind-bendy. Determinism and multiverses are a big theme. Forrest and his CTO, Katie, have seen the future and it ain't good. But they approach it with a detached acceptance. Whatever happens, including murders they commit, and murders they don't, are unavoidable.

Swampy! · Apr 13, 2020

ThreatMatrix said:
The Expanse is one of my top three series. The character development of Breaking Bad, the world building of GoT, against the SyFi adventure of Battlestar Galactic). The first book was great and I was excited when they turned it into a series. They did not disappoint. I don't love much of the casting but it's some of the best story telling with character development on TV. The backdrop is hard science fiction which I love (and there is way too little of). The first half of season 3 is the absolute best episodes of any series I've seen. I was re-watching a couple of months ago and found myself saying out loud "OMG this is good".
The show was cancelled on the SyFi channel but fan support convinced Amazon to pick it up for Season 4 and 5. Unfortunately Season 4 wasn't great. Granted it's following the books but gone was the Solar System wide intrigue and most of the action is confined to a single mining settlement. <sigh>. Hopefully Season 5 returns to it's "Expanse" roots.
Next to Westworld there's no other series I'm more anxiously awaiting.

I love The Expanse so much I'm gonna explain it. It takes place a few hundred years in the future. The key development has been the "Epstein Drive" a highly efficient rocket engine. So efficient that fuel is no longer a consideration. This allows ships to travel under constant acceleration so one may travel to a distant planet under 1G acceleration, turn around at the half way point and decelerate at 1G. Other than making travel comfortable it also means that a moon trip is a few hours, Mars a few days and the outer planets a few weeks. Travel outside the Solar System isn't a thing. The Expanse doesn't break physics with gravity plates or FTL travel. Because of the ease of exploring the expanse of the solar system and overpopulation on Earth, Mars has been colonized to the point of wanting autonomy from Earth. Both rely on materials mined in the asteroid belt which at this point has a several million residents working under the heavy hand of Earth/Mars. The Belters live in huge space stations or in large asteroids that have been hollowed out and spun up to simulate gravity. However it's only partial gravity and Belters have grown up tall with weak bodies. Like wise for Martians to a lesser extent. Martian Marines however train in simulated 1G environments in case they ever have to fight on earth.
So Mars and Earth exist in a cold-war environment. Mars has developed more advanced technology for it's Military however Earth has more weapons so there is an uneasy stalemate. The weapons are conventional. Nukes and ballistics. No Death Stars. Meanwhile the Belt while not having an official government has a loose coalition called the OPA which wants to achieve parity with Earth/Mars.
So that's the backdrop. A populated Solar System on the brink of war.

Enter our heroes, the crew of the Canterbury led by the altruistic Holden. And our antihero the cynical detective Miller. Miller is my favorite character. Miller is works for (Star Helix Security) which amounts to the police in the Belt. He's given an assignment to find the wayward daughter (Julie Mao) of a wealthy industrialist. The plot gets way complicated from here. The Canterbury goes to investigate a distress signal which turns out to be from Julie Mao's ship (the Scopuli). Stealth ships destroy the Canterbury while Holden and a few crew are exploring the Scopuli. Holden finds the distress beacon and discovers that it has Mars markings. Thinking that Mars destroyed the Canterbury he solar system wide broadcasts that the Canterbury was blown up by ships from Mars. This puts Earth/Mars on a war footing. And "Remember the Cant" becomes a rallying cry in the Belt.
A lot of shyt happens and eventually Miller and Holden are brought together when they both eventually find Julie Mao, who escaped, now dead having been infected by the "protomolecule". I've kinda buried the lead because everything revolves around this mysterious protomolecule. An asteroid from outside our solar system has been secretly discovered by daddy Mao. Mao's company has been working to discover it's secrets and weaponize it or save humanity depending on how you look at it. The protomolecule requires biomatter to grow and Mao sparked the war to hide his experiments which include infecting and thus killing the 6 million residents of Ceres. What is the protmolecule? Where did it come from? Was it sent by an ancient aliens to destroy us or save us?

Man, I'm sooooo glad I read your recommendation of this show. I have fallen for it hook, line and sinker. Just finished up season 2.

TLB · Apr 16, 2020

TLB said:
So, sticking with Netflix shows...I've picked up "Money Heist"

Forget it. Netflix made it into 13 ep each for S1 & S2. By S1e9, we started in with the soap opera romantic drama aspects and lost the quick paced mind games. I made it to S2e5 before saying 'fk it'. IMDB ratings told everyone to ignore S3 & S4 as it went downhill, and if the last 6 ep I watched are an indication....seems the writers had a great idea and no way to wrap it up or milk it well for a multi-season tv series. Moving on.

BMF · Apr 16, 2020

TLB said:
Forget it. Netflix made it into 13 ep each for S1 & S2. By S1e9, we started in with the soap opera romantic drama aspects and lost the quick paced mind games. I made it to S2e5 before saying 'fk it'. IMDB ratings told everyone to ignore S3 & S4 as it went downhill, and if the last 6 ep I watched are an indication....seems the writers had a great idea and no way to wrap it up or milk it well for a multi-season tv series. Moving on.

We just started it last night, watched episode 1. Disappointing to hear it tails off...

BMF · Apr 16, 2020

Anyone watch Rectify? I'm not sure if it's been mentioned in the previous 13 pages.

It's 4 seasons, last episode - the wrap up episode - was weak. It's very dark, not very exciting, but it sucks you in. The main characters do a really good acting job. Story is about a guy "Daniel" who was sent to death row as an 18 year old - his little sister fights to get his case overturned and gets him out of jail almost 20 years later. He's been held in a single cell for almost 20 years so his social skills are nil. He comes back home to a not so warm welcome (as the verdict was not thrown out). 4 seasons, but only about 28 total episodes. I'd give it a 6 or 7 out of 10 rating.

Zambo · Apr 18, 2020

Not sure if posted but McMillions is a pretty cool documentary about a big scam in the late 90s to win all those instant millionaire game pieces from McDonalds. Centers around the Jax FBI field office but follows all the suspects from Florida to Atlanta to New York to California. Interesting and hysterical if you ask me. I think it was six episodes or so.

MJMGator · Apr 18, 2020

Zambo said:
Not sure if posted but McMillions is a pretty cool documentary about a big scam in the late 90s to win all those instant millionaire game pieces from McDonalds. Centers around the Jax FBI field office but follows all the suspects from Florida to Atlanta to New York to California. Interesting and hysterical if you ask me. I think it was six episodes or so.

I enjoyed it. That one agent was a funny mfer.

TheDouglas78 · Apr 20, 2020

Zambo said:
Not sure if posted but McMillions is a pretty cool documentary about a big scam in the late 90s to win all those instant millionaire game pieces from McDonalds. Centers around the Jax FBI field office but follows all the suspects from Florida to Atlanta to New York to California. Interesting and hysterical if you ask me. I think it was six episodes or so.

The lead guy sounds like a guy in Jacksonville

-THE DUDE- · Apr 23, 2020

Finished up season 3 of Ozark last nights...keeps getting better and better. Wifey and I both agreed this was the best season yet

Zambo · Apr 23, 2020

Halfway through season 6 of Bosch on Prime, definitely some good plot twists so far.

Gatorbait25 · Apr 28, 2020

-THE DUDE- said:
Finished up season 3 of Ozark last nights...keeps getting better and better. Wifey and I both agreed this was the best season yet

I enjoyed season 3 the most by far .

-THE DUDE- · Apr 28, 2020

Gatorbait25 said:
I enjoyed season 3 the most by far .

Still pisses me off they didn’t film it there but I guess I got to get over that

Zambo · Apr 29, 2020

Just turned off the first episode of Outer Banks on Netflix. I say turned off because I couldn’t finish it. Terrible dialog, terrible acting, and boring story.

Gatorbait25 · Apr 29, 2020

Tiger King sucks. I have no idea why people like the damn show.

BMF · Apr 29, 2020

Zambo said:
Halfway through season 6 of Bosch on Prime, definitely some good plot twists so far.

I watched a couple episodes of Bosch a few years ago and stopped watching because it was too "Law & Order" - episodic (meaning - each episode seemed to be it's own story/case/crime vs. how most shows nowadays build on each other over the entire season w/ the last episode being the climax). Is that a safe assessment of Bosch? It reminded me of Longmire (each episode was it's own story), but w/ some overlapping issues (like 'he's getting divorced'...and that lingers in each episode). Anyhow, I only watched a few episodes of Bosch (and Longmire) so maybe I should have watched more episodes. I've been considering both of these shows and Ray Donovan.

Zambo · Apr 29, 2020

BMF said:
I watched a couple episodes of Bosch a few years ago and stopped watching because it was too "Law & Order" - episodic (meaning - each episode seemed to be it's own story/case/crime vs. how most shows nowadays build on each other over the entire season w/ the last episode being the climax). Is that a safe assessment of Bosch? It reminded me of Longmire (each episode was it's own story), but w/ some overlapping issues (like 'he's getting divorced'...and that lingers in each episode). Anyhow, I only watched a few episodes of Bosch (and Longmire) so maybe I should have watched more episodes. I've been considering both of these shows and Ray Donovan.

Weird, Bosch isn’t anything like that IMO but I know what you’re talking about. The whole season is about catching a single killer or terrorist with other side plots along the way. Longmire was very much like you say in the first several episodes, but becomes much more involved toward the end of the season and beyond.

BMF · Apr 29, 2020

Zambo said:
Weird, Bosch isn’t anything like that IMO but I know what you’re talking about. The whole season is about catching a single killer or terrorist with other side plots along the way. Longmire was very much like you say in the first several episodes, but becomes much more involved toward the end of the season and beyond.

Okay, I figured I didn't give it long enough. I've mentioned this before, but (before the virus) I run a lot of miles on the treadmill (usually 30-50 mpw) and I watch shows on a kindle/samsung thing. So I burn through a lot of shows. I like finding shows that have a lot of seasons. I'll give Bosch another try. Thanks!

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