Show recommendation thread

QueenCityGator

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I'm watching After Life (stars Ricky Gervais). Not a big fan of his, but he was made for that script - show is basically about a British guy whose wife dies of cancer, and he basically adopts a "fck it" attitude about life (with grieving and drama in there). He's a crumbum local newspaper guy living an ordinary life and trying to make it through each day. Good blend of drama/comedy.
 

wrpgator

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Have any of you watched 'The Frankenstein Chronicles' on Netflix? It is excellent...recommend watching after the little kiddies go off to bed however. The details of this production...London circa 1827 match my historical reading of that time and place. Down to the smallest details--this series really puts you there... from clothing, the rags of the teeming humanity living at edge of survival, to the finery and opulence of the privileged few. The story follows John Marlott, a London police officer who discovers an unusual body in the mud along the Thames. This is a few years after Mary Shelly published her 'Frankenstein' novel. As he tries to solve the crime, plot twists revolve around the powerful who believe they can replace God in matters of life and death.

Many scenes look like they've been staged by the Dutch Masters--the play of light and shadows and subdued colors make this a (sometimes gruesome) work of art.
 

Musclepug

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Just finished Waco on Netflix, 1 season 7 episodes, we all know the results but it was good, lot of actors you'll recognize from other things. Worth checking out
 

Zambo

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I watched a series called Fortitude on Prime I believe a year or two ago. I think it was 2 or 3 seasons. I enjoyed it. It was about an outpost town up in the Arctic circle where some strange murders start taking place and no one knows why. Visually impressive and an interesting cast of characters.
 

Swampy!

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Aug 3, 2018
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Not sure if it has been mentioned here yet but has anyone watched Hunters on Prime Video? It's based in the 70's and it's about a group that hunts Nazis that relocated to America and went into hiding after WWII. I'm only 3 episodes in and I am completely hooked.
 

Zambo

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Not sure if it has been mentioned here yet but has anyone watched Hunters on Prime Video? It's based in the 70's and it's about a group that hunts Nazis that relocated to America and went into hiding after WWII. I'm only 3 episodes in and I am completely hooked.
I watched a couple and thought it was pretty good, but I got sidetracked and haven't picked it up yet. I have to admit the airplane scene where the hitman was talking to the kid with the peanut allergy was awesome.
 

Pablos Tunnel

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I'm watching After Life (stars Ricky Gervais). Not a big fan of his, but he was made for that script - show is basically about a British guy whose wife dies of cancer, and he basically adopts a "fck it" attitude about life (with grieving and drama in there). He's a crumbum local newspaper guy living an ordinary life and trying to make it through each day. Good blend of drama/comedy.
Tried a couple episodes. It fell flat.
 

Pablos Tunnel

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I think we all need to re-watch the John Adams miniseries. This country needs a refresher in backbone, character, community and self reliance.
 

TLB

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The Mandalorian (Disney+)

Was recommended to me by some Star Wars fans, so I have it a whirl. Only one season, but the look and feel is very much what you'd want and expect, harkening back to the original films we actually liked. Characters are a little iffy in that our lead 'never shows his face*' and the storyline follows around his handling of a baby Yoda type character (not Yoda, same species). I'd say if you loved ep4-6 of the movies, this will be alright. It isn't great other than that look and feel. I'll admit a few funny moments out of S1 (has 8 episodes), and I was disappointed that's all there was, but it wasn't like I was really disappointed. It doesn't pull you in that much. Meh. 6.5/10




Devs (FX made, showing on Hulu)

Created by Alex Garland (Ex Machina, Annihilation, 28 Days Later), so you should already have some sense of what you're in for = a SciFi that toys with existence. Actors, and characters, are pretty good here, although it is the slowly unfolding storyline that pulls you in. The side stories feel a bit weak, and appear to be discarded without much thought, more like filler to move an episode along but not a whole lot towards the main plot. It has an interesting ending, some may see it coming, some may not. But overall, another single season eight episode binge that left me feeling meh. Better story than most, but it should have been made with the intent of ONLY one season (as a movie, split up) rather than something that needed to be sustained for multiple seasons (there's no word on S2 as yet, and IMO it will be jumping sharks). It is a good one-shot story, not a series, IMO. At least, not with the base premise. Anyway, I can say I saw it. 7/10


Now to go find where GoT is available so I can see what all that was about.
 
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TheDouglas78

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The Mandalorian (Disney+)

Was recommended to me by some Star Wars fans, so I have it a whirl. Only one season, but the look and feel is very much what you'd want and expect, harkening back to the original films we actually liked. Characters are a little iffy in that our lead 'never shows his face*' and the storyline follows around his handling of a baby Yoda type character (not Yoda, same species). I'd say if you loved ep4-6 of the movies, this will be alright. It isn't great other than that look and feel. I'll admit a few funny moments out of S1 (has 8 episodes), and I was disappointed that's all there was, but it wasn't like I was really disappointed. It doesn't pull you in that much. Meh. 6.5/10

Watched it with my daughter, enjoyed it enough that I want to see what they do in season two. But my daughter favorite character was IG-11. The amount of giggle that she had during the beginning of episode 8, was well worth the long portions in some of the middle episodes.
 

t-gator

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I finally got around to the last season of game of thrones. If you haven't seen it, skip the last season . That might have been the worst ending i could have imagined
 

TheDouglas78

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I finally got around to the last season of game of thrones. If you haven't seen it, skip the last season . That might have been the worst ending i could have imagined

There was a thread about how bad it was, you can tell they start to push the narrative the last two seasons. Broke their formula and were not good enough story tellers to go away from what was already in the books.
 

ThreatMatrix

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I could write a book about what went wrong with GoT. The show runners D&D eventually admitted that they didn't know WTF they were doing when they got the show but they had GRRM's books to go off of for the first 5 seasons. After that, without GRRM's brilliance the show began to decline. Dialogue declined, plots meandered. By S8 they just wanted to GTFO and work on Star Wars (which they were subsequently fired from). They rushed to a conclusion despite HBO offering to spend millions and let it run and GRRM saying there was over 10 seasons worth of story (though he's yet to finish the next book).
Each episode of the final season seem to have been written in a vacuum. In one we have the Dothraki army decimated in the next they are at full strength. A succeeding episode doesn't know what plot point a proceeding episode set up. Remember Cersei's pregnancy? D&D went for cinematography over substance. Character arcs are dropped for odd payoff scenes. Brianne should have died in the Long Night episode (as should have half the main characters), after achieving Knighthood, but is kept alive to write Jaimie's story in the big book. Jaimie's character takes a complete 180 when he heads back to Cersie after the forced love story (fan service, not in the books) between him and Brianne. I could go on. And I might.
And let's not forget the biggest FU to the audience. The entire premise of the show was that the White Walker's were the real threat and that "The Game of Thrones" didn't matter. And they end that in episode 3 with a whimper and holy shyt it's not the Prince Who Was Promised to deal the final blow. Jon instead is off in the courtyard yelling at a dragon. They certainly subverted expectations on that one.
Shortly after Season 7 I read a supposed leak of the Season 8 script. It was magnificent. I couldn't wait to see it brought to life. The battle with the White Walkers lasts until the final episode in King's Landing. Main characters are killed off one by one as the season progresses. Character arcs are wrapped up. Daenerys dies in child birth as Euron takes Dragon Stone. Varys hides the child, Euron hangs Dany's body outside the Red Keep. The final battle between Jon and the Night King happens in the dragon pits were Cersie has buried tons of wildfire. In a last ditch effort Jon, on Drogon, ignites the wildfire killing himself and the Night King. The remaining white walkers retreat, however in the final scene we see them collecting Bran, presumably to become the next Night King (a common part of lore was that everything repeats) . Fade to black, open to the epilogue 6 years later. We see Tyrion and Misssandie in the Throne Room, guardians of Jon/Dany's 6 year old daughter. Try as I might I can not find that leaked particular leaked script.
 

TLB

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Dark (series 2017-) <Netflx>

My initial thoughts (after 2 episodes) was what stands out thus far = very German. Granted, this is a program out of Germany, but my American mind brought up on melting pot casts is struck immediately with how all the actors appear very German. I'm watching with English dubs and subs, and they are quite good to keep things moving, but facial appearance, body types, and then extending to clothing and home-family environments are all very....German. Back to the story, the cast has about a dozen key members ranging from a core group of teens, through their parents (who have their own interweaving stories). The character connections have a bit of a soap opera feel, but I think it's laying a foundation for complexities as the main plot develops and effects them each directly, then secondarily based upon those relationships. Main plot isn't being brought out directly, but we are given a few small glimpses into the antagonist, and what he's doing, but not why.

Now, I come back after binging a bit. I had only finished s1e2 when I wrote the above. Episodes 3-8 took off like a rocket fueled roller coaster created by some demented ******* that loves corkscrews and loops. Now that I've finished s1, and am starting s2 (there is a s3)., all I have to say is wtf! But, in a good way. Production is top notch, color quality, acting, etc. One major complaint is that they left the sound guy as last in line for editing, so he's got the same deep ominous tones dragging out too long on scenes and repeated all the damn time = annoying af. BUT, he also does a good job of laying in soundtracks to help with the story line. I'm still having a real hard time mapping people between who they are in 2019...and when we warp to 1986 to see them as teens, but it is intentional on their part. Not the confusion, but the fact that everyone's lives are intertwined in real messed up ways.


Let me attempt to restate what this is, because my 2 episodes summary sucked in representing the whole. We begin with some teens in 2019 in a small German town, with our focal lead Jonus not so much the 'leader' but the central figure in the teen group. The parents all know each other from growing up there as well. A boy goes missing, and some weird things are happening (dead birds everywhere, for example). The missing boy is the son of a current cop....who's brother also disappeared like this 33y ago (part of why he is a cop). We then start alternating between 2019 and 1986, when the cop used to be the focal leader of the teen group of that era. A few boys go missing in 2019, and a few were missing in 1986, we get shown some parallels, but it isn't about the parallels so much as who the characters are and the relationships between them = who lies, to whom, and why; who ends up marrying who and having which kids. There's your spaghetti mess of relationships getting it's foundation. Next, we start learning there is a wormhole of sorts connecting 2019 & 1986, and Jonus goes thru looking for the missing 2019 kid. The entire s1 is following a few characters moving thru the time hole trying to fix things, independent of one another, and questioning if they can make a difference, or if this is what already occurred - meanwhile, people in 'their time' are dealing with the fallout. Wrinkle in an antagonist, Noah, who doesn't get much background but presents as a preacher all the while doing evil, along with his henchman Hegle. As time travelers go back and forth, and we further twist together people's lives, we late in s1 introduce a leap (by accident?) of the cop trying to stop Hegle, and ending up in 1953 (another 33y gap) but Hegle is a child.


To conclude s1, we have people trapped in the wrong times, some aware and some not, of the implications of their out-of-time presence and what it means, what they can do. And we transition from s1 to s2 with Jonus leaping thru another hole, and ending up in the future (2020, months past the 2019 events), while we start alternating with scenes from 1920 (33y gap to 1953) with our evil priest, Noah, as a man digging in the wormhole area.


One could say they are widening the time brackets to extend the tv series, which is likely true, but it also fits quite well with the developing plots and twists. IMDB gives the ongoing series an 8.7/10, and I'd have to agree. Aside from annoying sound effects, and the trouble of following who-when, this is clicking along very well. It doesn't drag, it doesn't skip, it has appropriate special effects as opposed to sucky or over-the-top, it doesn't waste time on tangents with no meaning. You're strapped in, and they just launched the roller coaster rocket. Hang on.



ThreatMatrix: German tv, so there's some boobs (teen and adult) a few times, but not much. There's also none of the expected S&M German sexperience to be seen, just sayin.
 

TLB

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Altered Carbon (2018 - )


Not at all what I expected when I started this up. Consider this as Blade Runner of sorts, except done with modern special effects, and the intent to be a series rather than a stand alone film. The premise is that we are way, way off in the future where at age 1 each person has a disc at the base of their skull that contains their consciousness, and bodies are considered expendable 'sleeves'. So, a person can be 'backed up' from that disc, and inserted into another body, affording the opportunity to live forever. That the other body used to be someone (tough luck for them) or a clone (for the rich that can afford it) or enhanced with bio or tech advancements (for the ultra rich) is just added wrinkles to this opportunity. We start with a prisoner's disc being inserted into a body by a super rich man and being promised his freedom and a pardon if he can solve who/how the rich guy was murdered, or if he committed suicide. Realize, the rich guy gets backed up daily and just came back in a clone 'sleeve', but wants to know what happened. Our prisoner is a bit more interesting in that he killed his father when he was about 10, to save his sister and himself from the abusive father who had already killed their mom. At 10, he was then recruited into the galactic police force known as CTAC and trained to be a kick ass fighter 'protecting' the known population. Later, he was betrayed by the CTAC guys that recruited him, he joined a rebellion team and was trained by them to be an 'Envoy' which is another type of kick ass fighter. He was then captured, imprisoned for being with the rebels, and we now have him revived into a body for this detective job....but put into the body of a tough guy cop that nobody likes (reborn with a target on his back).


It feels visually like a cleaner version of Blade Runner, but the story doesn't follow that (as described above). The characters and acting get an unusual twist in that people can be inserted into just about any available body, so sometimes our protagonist can't tell who he is dealing with behind the face, adding a few plot twists along the way. There are a few supporting characters that are ok, a little better than meh but not dominating with their side stories which are also above meh. Acting is B+, violence is A-, nudity is abound so that helps. I'm only into s1e8 of two seasons, and while I can probably walk away at any point and not feel I'm missing something, I'll likely see it thru. So far, giving it 7.5/10

Threat Matrix: Worth the nudity.
 

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