Good TV (aka, the TV series spamthread), the second series

[Sly Boots]

Oh, it gets better! Thoroughly entertaining and well written. Energy Vampire is a touch of genius!

Yeah, was going to say. Colin Robinson may even be my favourite character.

[Mantis]

This season of The Boys has been fantastic.

[Sly Boots]

This season of The Boys has been fantastic.

Yep, it really has.

[Achtung Englander]

Slow Horses (Apple+)

A very funny (all thanks to an amazing performance from Gary Oldman) and thrilling show. It sometimes stretches credability but the story and acting (Jack Lowden and Kruistin Scott Thomas) and cinematography all look great especially on a 4K telly with the lights off. A second season is coming, probably shot back to back to the first. The Mrs and I really enjoyed it, so much so we actually opted to finish the series than watch the last 2 hours of No Time to Die! (which I find to be a bit boring now. Bond is such a tired franchise)

7/10

At first it was tricky to watch Oldman play another MI5 circus master without thinking of Smiley, but by episode two, the transformation was well and truely established.

Still like to see a cinematic adaptation of Smiley's People.

[Hatredsheart]

Really enjoyed Slow Horses too, can't wait for the next season.

[Animalmother]

I've never heard of half the shows people are watching!

[Lenny Solidus]

This season of The Boys has been fantastic.

Hard to think of a recent show that's subverted my expectation as much as this and this season is, boom. Homelander continues to be the biggest common draw Butcher really starting to come into his own. The much talked about Herogasm episode more than lived up to its name, fantastic. Thanks go to The Boys, in a time when my interest in anything superhero was at an all-time low (Marvel continue to suck recently) I have a show that's built up and maintained a steady paced Supes can pull me in done right success story, it only took great highly imaginative (and wtf am I even watching) episodes superb characters and storytelling. I don't even mind the gore all that much now either.

Hughie + Starlight 4EVA? Fucking Diabolical.

[Animalmother]

I know I've harped on about Peacemaker multiple times but if you liked The Boys then you'd like this. A jingoistic dipshit that evolves as a character with each episode. Also insanely violent and very funny.

[Alan]

Discovery S2 rewatch for some reason...
Goes without saying that that was a slog. So much I hate so fucking much about it all but there are a few things that were good, very few things mind you but enough to make the shite even shiter. Theres also some great visuals and great audio too its just a pity the substance is what it is. I kind of feel bad for Soniqa Green because shes not a bad actor shes just written so badly that shes going to get the brunt of most of the hate. As with season 1 Michelle Yeoh is the highlight, shes clearly just having loads of fun with it.

I was going to list the awful things about it but there are so damn many! Even in the final episode there is (spoilers) kelpians suddenly have an armada, a door can not only stop a photon torpedo explosion but apparently stop it doing virtually any damage to the ship, "michael there is no time for me to get rescued from the shuttle but there is plenty of time for a long stupid monologue", everything to do with Ash. One of my favorite bits of the whole series was when they are trying to destroy the discovery to destroy the data in the ships computer - the data stops the self destruct, the enterprise fires on it but the data raises Discovery's shield and the response is "oh well, guess shes impossible to destroy now! Theres never been an instance of shields taking damage and failing after short sustained fire!"

It hurts my soul that Bryan Fuller is linked with this because I fooking love almost every other thing he has made, Heroes can fuck off though.


Oh well, this is as far as I got the last time, lets see what S3 has to offer.....

[Raid]

Good lord, why would you put yourself through it a second time?

lets see what S3 has to offer.....

[Alan]

Fucking space wizard fake Idris!



FFS!

Congrats Discovery you consitently get worse with every season.

[Achtung Englander]

The Dropout (Disney+)

This is brilliant. It like watching a real life Severance. The detatchment of reality is surreal. The true story of what Elizabeth Holmes did is beyond belief. I have been following up watching this with the HBO documentary and YouTube videos and the drama gets it all. How this is happened in a workplace is utterly compelling and atrocious at the same time.

The acting from Amanda Seyfried is excellent. Stephen Fry is also superb in this but I hazzard a guess he did not have to too hard playing the real life Ian Gibbons as they look alike. Great casting. The editing and cinematography all very good.

I find the story of Elizabeth Holmes fascinating. It is watching a car crash in slow motion. I am going to read the book Bad Blood by the Washington Post journalist John Carreyrou who blew open the whole shebang.

9/10

[Achtung Englander]

In regards to Star Wars, Star Trek and Marvel, the need for streaming content from all these bloody streaming channels has systematically fucked these universes to the point of FUBAR.

Beyond caring now...

I did not even see Obiwan as I heard its aweful. Will pretty much skip all Disney Star Wars content now unless the hearsay is overwhealmingly positive. How they fucked this up is a testament of laziness and this:

[Sly Boots]

Obi-Wan is ok but extremely hot and cold. Ewan McGregor is great in it and some scenes are really cool, but it's interspersed with a fair bit of shit.

[Raid]

I'm not really sure what the problem is with the production process on Disney+ shows. They have all that money to spend, and the best they ever seem to get is better than average. I mostly enjoy them, but these are massively valuable franchises and they just aren't very exciting, which is a feat in itself given their source material. Is the writing being massacred by a committee before it gets into the hands of the cast, or are they just not hiring good writers? Are they so protective of the properties that they simply refuse to show any narrative bravery, or are they just desperate not to make any significant changes in the film continuity?