Random TV Talk IV: We're So Broken Inside

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Please Like Me is one of my favorite shows. It's so weird and funny and charming. Glad Hulu picked it up ... at least for another season (which I think has already aired in Australia).
 
Need new Rick and Morty


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Has anyone checked out The OA yet?

The series was created by actress Brit Marling and her frequent director collaborator Zal Batmanglij (brother of Vampire Weekend's Rotsam). The two previously worked together on Sound Of My Voice and The East.

Anyway, this arrived over the weekend in mysterious fashion, with almost no pre-release hype. For some reason it's getting compared to Stranger Things, because both are from Netflix and have paranormal content. Four episodes in and I have found this far more fascinating, as it's considerably more original and not trafficking in 80s nostalgia. It's not as "fun" and a more difficult watch because information is released slowly, but definitely more of a mindfuck if you're into that sort of thing.

There's a huge transition about 3/4 of the way through the first episode (when the credits finally appear), and I have to say it was one of the most exhilarating moments I've ever experienced watching television. As if a world of possibilities suddenly opened up. I really have no idea where the rest of this is going but I'm totally on board.

 
I've heard mixed things about it, but another friend raved about it this morning, so maybe I'll check it out.
 
I've now watched the first two seasons of Black Mirror, as well as the Christmas episode.

Mostly, it's great stuff. Strong satire, great direction and acting. There's enough skill involved that egregiously soapy episodes like The Entire History of You wind up not feeling all that melodramatic in the end. And The Waldo Moment really is frightening in hindsight, isn't it? The episode itself is kind of a mess, but so portentous. Again, certain very strong aspects keep the whole thing from going off the rails.

The crown jewel of the series so far, however, is Fifteen Million Merits. What a monster of an episode that is. Right at the center is a bit of light, love and authenticity. Those are the stakes. What happens to it is what makes your stomach churn. There's so much attention that went into crafting every detail of the episode's aesthetic, from the score, to the avatars, to the interactive panels...it's like a cross between the Wii menu and Requiem for a Dream. It's a very absorbing episode and that goes a long way to making it so suffocatingly nightmarish. And I don't use that term lightly; it really gives off this helpless, sorrowful tone that's also frighteningly uncanny. I've had nightmares that felt exactly like watching this episode. It feels very real and plausible, but you don't want it to be.
 
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Interesting, in that The Entire History of You is considered by many to be the best of those first two seasons.

There's not a bad one in the bunch, IMO.

Any thoughts on the Xmas episode, with THE HAMM? I thought it was fantastic.
 
Any thoughts on the Xmas episode, with THE HAMM? I thought it was fantastic.

Yes, it was one of the best of the series so far. Besides Hamm and the careful unwrapping of the co-star, the visual aesthetic of the episode is what really blew me away, which is often the case. I loved the look of the grandfather's house in winter, how uncanny it was. There wasn't really snow on everything, so much as all the leaves on the trees were spray painted white, as if the environment didn't allow for snow anymore but the Christmas facade still had to carry on regardless.
 
Man, I finished Fargo Season 1 and that shit is outstanding. Billy Bob Thornton's character is an all-timer. And that slow and sad theme music. Hot damn.
 
I still have one episode left of Black Mirror, but I don't think season 3 was that bad. It was fine. The tone was a little brighter and it was too Americentric overall, but the quality was still quite high. Definitely good television.

Some thoughts on individual episodes:

Playtest was awful. I think it could have been OK but somewhat meaningless if it had ended a minute sooner and had a different lead actor, but it would always have been hamstrung by a lack of satirical purpose. Shut Up and Dance made me feel awful while otherwise being a strong episode. Bronn was fun in it. I wish the kid had actually been 15 like he looked instead of being an adult. That would have muddied the waters a bit. Men Against Fire was thematically powerful and gave me chills to think about but was actually too plausible to quite hit. It's just a big allegory for what already happens in the military and the government was just a stand-in for Nazi eugenics practitioners. So, yeah, powerful stuff, but not the insidiously impactful brilliance of the first season.

Nosedive I fucking loved. It was too long and relied too heavily on cringe scenarios, but my goodness that was a cathartic, funny, memorable ending and I loved their show-don't-tell approach to world building in this one. I also loved San Junipero, of course. I didn't know whether to laugh, smile or cry throughout. The ending with the consciousnesses in metal orbs being inserted by a robot into a machine whose purpose was to create an ideal afterlife offered a "happy ending" while also being rather challenging on a philosophical level.

Good use of music this season as well. Exit Music and Heaven Is a Place on Earth both made for A+ endings.
 
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No takers on The OA yet? It's very divisive and I expect half the people here to have major problems, but am looking forward to your opinions.

Definitely the most thought-provoking, ambitious thing I saw on TV this year.
 
I'll give The OA a go after I finish the last episode of Black Mirror, which should happen tomorrow. I saw an ad for it that was quite appealing.

Netflix original programming is fucking awful a lot of the time, but there's so much of it that gems are bound to surface on occasion. The opinions of people I trust narrow that otherwise broad net for me.
 
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I watched 1.5 episodes of the latest season of The Fall and gave up.

Just lost complete interest in where the story might go.
 
So who here has watched Suits? Seen the first two seasons in the last week. After three or four I was not all that impressed, seemed a bit like a less cartoonish Entourage, men walking all over the women, men in suits doing whatever they want and getting all the rewards and no consequences. But after an ad hoc start it's become a favourite new show. It's very well-layered, the characters are complex, the women are mostly badasses. Thought the s2 finale took things to a ridiculous level that was very hard to believe, but otherwise, enjoying greatly.
 
I've now finished both seasons of Fargo and they were tremendous and I feel empty inside. Can anyone recommend shows in a similar vein to Fargo? I'm fiending. And yes I've already seen every Coen Bros movie.
 
No takers on The OA yet? It's very divisive and I expect half the people here to have major problems, but am looking forward to your opinions.

Definitely the most thought-provoking, ambitious thing I saw on TV this year.

I finally just finished it tonight. My basic one-sentence thought would be that it started out very promisingly, with a world of possibilities, and ended disappointingly, leaving me with a feeling of, 'so what was the point?'

Some more specific thoughts, spoiler-tagged:

I thought the struggle of the captives to escape their prison would've been more engaging if they were actually trying to figure out a real way to escape. The "movements" became tedious after awhile. The exploration of the question of whether or not there's consciousness after death is endlessly fascinating, but this got a little too new-age-y.

I still don't understand how Jason Isaacs could just magically bring his captives back to life after every time he drowned them.

I find it hard to believe these kids(and the teacher) would stick around past the first night of this story. They'd probably think she was nuts. At least that would be more realistic.
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If she made the whole story up, then what is the point of this whole thing? Where was she really? And how did she magically get her sight back?

She was blind for most of her life, she shouldn't even know how to read well, much less read on the level of the Iliad.

The whole school-shooting at the end was a bit eye-roll worthy. The ultimate use of the "movements" is to distract a shooter so a cafeteria worker can tackle him?

I actually really like Brit Marling, I think she's a good actress, very charismatic and intelligent, but I didn't, on the whole, love this.
 
I'm still on board with Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, but MAN they are going out of their way to make Rebecca completely unlikable.
 
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