Random TV Talk III - Do the Russell Coight

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I'm on board with The Good Place, but will probably hold off on Speechless until mid season if it's still getting good buzz.

FX has put out a couple of winners with Better Things and particularly Atlanta. Cinemax's Quarry is also keeping me entertained, a pair of original Rectify writers doing their version of Banshee-style southern pulp.
 
I really wanted to like Atlanta, but I gave up about halfway through the third (?) episode. There were some things about it I really liked, and some things I really didn't like, and the latter won out.
 
I'm trying to like Son of Zorn but I can't get past the son on the show whose acting just apes Michael Cera's.


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The season premier of Bob's Burger was great. How is The Simpsons still on?


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That new episode of the Simpsons made me angry. It's an irrational response to a show long past its expiration date, but there were some fucking disgustingly awful jokes in there (Kirk walking around with his arms cut off wtf) and the "ending" was horrendous.

I really want to like Son of Zorn too, but I only laughed once or twice at the episode I watched. Mostly it was just awkward, particularly the way the live action interacts with the animation. It just doesn't work. Maybe if it was on Adult Swim and could indulge in wacky stoner humor it would work better, but whatever it is right now feels stuck between oddity and convention.
 
That Arnold Palmer joke on The Simpsons was a weird eerie coincidence. Also I felt the same about thinking Son of Zorn should be on Adult Swim.


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'Fargo' | 100 Greatest TV Shows of All Time | Rolling Stone

Not sure if it was posted before but RS ranked the 100 Greatest TV Shows of All Time.

My favorites seemed to be in the proper spots.


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It's a pretty good list, and like the top 100 from the recent TV (The Book), it's rightfully focused on stuff from the past century just as you would expect it to as the medium (like, say, video games) didn't really come into its own until fairly recently. Those old TV Guide lists were pretty laughable as they were full of so many older comedies. Hell, most people couldn't sit through an episode of I Love Lucy or All In The Family anymore, but those at least deserve to be on any Top 100 because of how groundbreaking they happen to be.

Only really shitty thing about the Rolling Stone list is that they had a side section for the Worst Shows of All Time and included Northern Exposure. Like, wtf? The granddaddy of all great dramedies and still probably the smartest hour long program to ever air on network television. It was fucking brilliant. Hell, FiveThirtyEight recently did a feature on the "most balanced" shows ever in the history of the Emmys (shows that excelled in all types of categories) and it scored in the top two (although they awarded #3, Mad Men, the title since it far outdrew the two above it in the number of nominations).

Personally, I think The Simpsons should always be #1 (for now) just as it was in TV (The Book). There is no comedy show in television history that has had a bigger impact on changing the game than that show. There's next to no great comedies from this century that can't trace a line back to that one in both the type of humor and the relentless amount of jokes that it brought to the table. Stuff like The Wire, Breaking Bad, etc. all deserve to be near the top, but there is no drama that comes even remotely close to influencing its genre the way The Simpsons has on its own.

And to answer the question about why it is still on the air, that's so friggin' easy. Young men. Young men. Young men. Young men. Young men are the most sought after demographic of all because they watch the least amount of television of anybody and it's been that way for decades, so when they find a show they like, they become loyal to a fault. The Simpsons. Family Guy. Sunny In Philadelphia. South Park. Literally all of those can't ever be canceled because so many of these male viewers are concentrated on such a small handful of programs. So you've got the most loyal audience and the most expensive to advertise for...a huge cash cow for the networks with a show of that magnitude.
 
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That Arnold Palmer joke on The Simpsons was a weird eerie coincidence. Also I felt the same about thinking Son of Zorn should be on Adult Swim.

My girlfriend thought it was a joke related to his death, but I told her that it was just a stupid joke where Homer is over-explaining the drink when Marge is concerned about just why the hell he was shooting someone with an Arnold Palmer. That's modern Simpsons for you.

But yeah, obviously a coincidence since The Simpsons takes about eight months from start to finish. They can chuck in new chalkboard gags, signs and occasionally even there will be an audio sync issue where they changed a line at the last minute...but there's no way such a long gag that was integral to the episode was thought up at the last minute and animated.
 
I'm on board with The Good Place, but will probably hold off on Speechless until mid season if it's still getting good buzz.

Speechless is way funnier, but it's also way dumber at times in the ways you normally expect from ABC comedies about a family (of which they have about 37 at this point). Like, in the pilot they rush to a waffle place or whatever while Dolly Parton's "9 To 5" plays for no fucking reason (it's as pointless as "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" being at the start of the horrendous Runaway Bride).

Then at the end of the episode there's an atrocious part where the mom is trying to find her son and she boards a ride to do it...and then the son happens to be on a ride right next to her...and her ride just fucking sits there for no reason...and his just keeps going up and down instead of stopping. You know, so they can conveniently hold a conversation. Ugh. It's stupid crap like that they I just fucking hate, topped off with an end credits gag of various characters on same drop ride that the son was on earlier. Poorly thought out and meant to be cute.

That's the problem with literally all of those ABC Comedies in the same mold (I'll give Fresh Off The Boat a pass since it's just Malcolm in the Middle, again). They sacrifice what could be a clever show to put in cutesy dreck that makes it feel like you're watching a single camera version of Step By Step or whatever. Ruins literally all the rest of their shows. BTW, never found Modern Family remotely funny and it actually feels like a ripoff of an earlier, unfunny sitcom that Lorne Michaels put out like two years prior.

But I'll stick with Speechless for now as it's actually very funny. The Good Place is more of a clever Pushing Daisies/Dead Like Me type show rather than being all that hilarious, but there isn't anything in it that truly sucks either, so it wins the prize for best new network comedy.
 
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Designated Survivor. I wasn't expecting this to be one that held my interest for more than an episode or two, but my suspension of disbelief couldn't extend far enough.

Everyone was just way too calm about the president, capitol building and half of the government being wiped out with a bomb. Like, how is anyone even functioning?

Also, after the above event, why in the world would the Secret Service or anyone think President Keifer and his family should be put in the White House? Like, why is he not in an underground bunker or something?

It was just too dumb.

It's really not any dumber than House of Cards, but let's hope it gets a little more compelling. So far it's like he gets a check list of five things to deal with and they're ultimately just dealt with via no real action by the end of the episode. You're thinking like "wow, how will he solve this problem or that one?" and then the resolutions are just wrapped up tidily and in as mundane a fashion as you can imagine.

This Is Us is the only must-see new network drama this year. Definitely check that one out. Guess there will be two great ones in the 2016-2017 season since American Crime will inevitably return at some point.

The Pitch was a solid pilot even if the twist was so fucking obvious.
 
When Fox lost King of the Hill, a lot of people thought the network wouldn't find such a consistently strong show for quite a while, if ever. But honestly, as good as KOTH was, Bob's Burgers has been just as consistently good over 6+ seasons, with all of the warmth and character-driven humor that made KOTH great, but with added strangeness and culturally progressive ideals. I'm thrilled that Loren Bouchard finally got his time in the sun after a terrific show like Home Movies never quite gained traction.

Eh, I feel that KOTH had to work harder than any great comedy in history to get to their jokes despite it being very character driven. The humor had to kind of work itself out of the plot and it's outstanding that they put out six great seasons doing just that. Obviously, it was never the same around Season 7 onward when they switched to digital animation and were really just stockpiling the syndication ammo (as if they really needed to go to 250 episodes). It was still a good show at the end though.

Closest thing to KOTH, ever, is obviously Parks & Recreation. It's like the same damn thing.

I don't love Bob's Burgers despite absolutely being enamored with Home Movies and Dr. Katz. Those shows were funny with a little weird, this is a lot of weird with some funny. But it's too easy in terms of jokes half the time. How many instances do the kids just rhyme some crap for a joke (or whatever the joke is, but you know what I'm getting at)? Happens like hundreds of times in just a single season.
 
This Is Us is the only must-see new network drama this year. Definitely check that one out.

I really like it so far, very much like Parenthood, which I loved.

I rolled my eyes at the twist/surprise at the end of the pilot, but I can deal. I expect a level of sap with these kinds of shows.
 
It was a nice twist, but it's kind of funny that the network had to basically advertise it with a vague sounding premise (people born on the same day) in order to not give it away. Really isn't as compelling a show when described that way.

It had the highest ratings of the season of any new show so far, surprisingly, and held up well in Week 2 and was given a full season order, so it might have a lot of legs despite it feeling a little too dark and niche for the mainstream.

My girlfriend pointed out that the same guy who did This is Us also did Pitch, so there's that.



Oh, Speechless and Designated Survivor just got full season pickups as well. And a renewal for You're The Worst.
 
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I've been watching older episodes of Louie via Netflix. Seasons 3 & 4 really took on a new direction and feel. The two-part "In the Woods" episode from season 4 was amazing.

Yeah, he kind of gave up on straight comedy after Season 2. From the first season onward, the show became less and less funny with each passing year but Louie continually grew artistically so it all evens out quality-wise.
 
And a renewal for You're The Worst.

I LOVE that show.

I made the mistake of watching the latest episode in the middle of the night while I was up with an anxiety attack. Oof, that was hard to watch someone else having PTSD while I was having my own problems. :lol: Super strong episode, though - really well done.
 
http://www.rollingstone.com/tv/lists/100-greatest-tv-shows-of-all-time-w439520/fargo-w439584

Not sure if it was posted before but RS ranked the 100 Greatest TV Shows of All Time.

My favorites seemed to be in the proper spots.


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I think this has been posted before, because I vaguely remember seeing such a list once and wondering what you need to be smoking to put Oz at 99 behind a bunch of talk shows, reality shows, and Jeopardy.
 
It was a new list that came out two weeks ago.

Breaking Bad
Seinfeld
Curb

Are a few of my favorites. All in good spots.

Jersey Shore got snubbed. Jk


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I was shocked that American Idol made the list and Survivor didn't...the latter actually has content, changed the face of television and a good share of critics that will go to bat for it. American Idol was just Star Search with convenient timing and a bunch of product placement.
 
Cori, I've given up on the Alaska sends everyone home who isn't named Roxxxy Andrews Show.
 
God damn it, I hadn't watched it yet. :sad:

It's okay - I suspected what happened after a friend posted a vague (but spoiler-free) pissed-off thing about the show on Facebook.

I like Alaska and Detoxx as well, so I'll get over it.
 
Oops, sorry. I haven't actually watched it either, I was mostly just saying from last week and from what someone spoilered for me from yesterday. I like all of them, I'll be over it too. Just makes for annoying tv week to week.
 
It's still on my DVR.

I am SUCH a dope. I was rolling my eyes at the end of the pilot of This Is Us. I only just now realized that the scenes with Milo V & Mandy Moore were flashbacks the whole time. I totally thought they were a couple "now," and their lives intersected somehow with the other characters, and that the "oh, adopting a kid left at a fire house" was like "history repeating itself" and that was the twist. (I guess the twist was "surprise! These people are siblings!", but I assumed they were siblings from the get-go - I just thought Mandy Moore or Milo were also a sibling of the others.)

Holy shit, I'm so dumb.

Now that I look back at both episodes, I can't even defend thinking the way I did. The show makes *so* much more sense now. :lol:
 
The third episode of The Exorcist was creepy and great. Amazing how they pulled this off given how far the franchise had fallen after so many bad sequels (with the exception of the 1990 sequel).


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