What TV/Netflix show are you currently watching? (Megathread)

[Cartagia]

Shōgun - Utterly phenomenal production and one that isn't afraid to be deliberate and mature in its storytelling. Doesn't feel the need to be tongue-in-cheek at any point, which is very refreshing to see in a modern, big budget, prestige, TV production.

[weirdfeline]

Unfrosted was a pretty fun movie. Seems like it's getting crapped on and it also seems like it has less to do with the movie and more to do with something Jerry said on the promo tour. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[dhaabi]

Unfrosted was a pretty fun movie. Seems like it's getting crapped on and it also seems like it has less to do with the movie and more to do with something Jerry said on the promo tour. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

For reference, below is the aforementioned quote from Jerry Seinfeld:

Nothing really affects comedy. People always need it. They need it so badly and they don’t get it,” Seinfeld said. “It used to be, you would go home at the end of the day, most people would go, ‘Oh, “Cheers” is on. Oh, “MASH” is on. Oh, “Mary Tyler Moore” is on. “All in the Family” is on.’ You just expected, ‘There’ll be some funny stuff we can watch on TV tonight.’ Well, guess what—where is it? This is the result of the extreme left and P.C. crap, and people worrying so much about offending other people.

Both before and after reading part of Seinfeld's recent interview, I've not been interested in his latest movie Unfrosted. Generally, I'm not drawn to comedy films, and I wouldn't find it controversial to say it's the most subjective and divisive film genre within itself due to varying tastes. With that said, Seinfeld's quote regards network television, not film.

To me, Seinfeld's stance is very much a "back in my day" point-of-view from the 70-year-old man that he is. Hearing something like this from him specifically isn't surprising given he has a history of opposing beliefs to popular social attitudes for a number of years, which, again, shouldn't come as a surprise to learn that a billionaire is out-of-touch with society. Despite Seinfeld's opinion, co-creator to Seinfeld Larry David is one (but perhaps the most direct) example of an antithesis to such claims, given how popular Curb Your Enthusiasm is despite its controversial scenario writing.

[weirdfeline]

Unfrosted was a pretty fun movie. Seems like it's getting crapped on and it also seems like it has less to do with the movie and more to do with something Jerry said on the promo tour. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

For reference, below is the aforementioned quote from Jerry Seinfeld:

Nothing really affects comedy. People always need it. They need it so badly and they don’t get it,” Seinfeld said. “It used to be, you would go home at the end of the day, most people would go, ‘Oh, “Cheers” is on. Oh, “MASH” is on. Oh, “Mary Tyler Moore” is on. “All in the Family” is on.’ You just expected, ‘There’ll be some funny stuff we can watch on TV tonight.’ Well, guess what—where is it? This is the result of the extreme left and P.C. crap, and people worrying so much about offending other people.

Both before and after reading part of Seinfeld's recent interview, I've not been interested in his latest movie Unfrosted. Generally, I'm not drawn to comedy films, and I wouldn't find it controversial to say it's the most subjective and divisive film genre within itself due to varying tastes. With that said, Seinfeld's quote regards network television, not film.

To me, Seinfeld's stance is very much a "back in my day" point-of-view from the 70-year-old man that he is. Hearing something like this from him specifically isn't surprising given he has a history of opposing beliefs to popular social attitudes for a number of years, which, again, shouldn't come as a surprise to learn that a billionaire is out-of-touch with society. Despite Seinfeld's opinion, co-creator to Seinfeld Larry David is one (but perhaps the most direct) example of an antithesis to such claims, given how popular Curb Your Enthusiasm is despite its controversial scenario writing.

I noticed I posted this in the wrong thread since this is a movie and not a show. I guess I saw Netflix and didn't think.

I'm saying the negative reaction to the last part of the quote led to people crapping on the movie more than the movie's quality itself. Other factors may include Jerry and Amy Schumer being very pro-Israel when it isn't the popular choice amongst young people. It's also not the best defense using Curb and the other one I've seen used elsewhere It's Always Sunny since Curb started in 1999 and Sunny in 2005. Those shows are grandfathered in now. Not to mention Sunny has had multiple episodes removed from streaming for being offensive. Searching "seinfeld" on Reddit yields many unflattering results and a quick look at the Letterboxd reviews for Unfrosted shows many are completely off-topic.

[dhaabi]

Unfrosted was a pretty fun movie. Seems like it's getting crapped on and it also seems like it has less to do with the movie and more to do with something Jerry said on the promo tour. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

For reference, below is the aforementioned quote from Jerry Seinfeld:

Nothing really affects comedy. People always need it. They need it so badly and they don’t get it,” Seinfeld said. “It used to be, you would go home at the end of the day, most people would go, ‘Oh, “Cheers” is on. Oh, “MASH” is on. Oh, “Mary Tyler Moore” is on. “All in the Family” is on.’ You just expected, ‘There’ll be some funny stuff we can watch on TV tonight.’ Well, guess what—where is it? This is the result of the extreme left and P.C. crap, and people worrying so much about offending other people.

To me, Seinfeld's stance is very much a "back in my day" point-of-view from the 70-year-old man that he is. Hearing something like this from him specifically isn't surprising given he has a history of opposing beliefs to popular social attitudes for a number of years, which, again, shouldn't come as a surprise to learn that a billionaire is out-of-touch with society. Despite Seinfeld's opinion, co-creator to Seinfeld Larry David is one (but perhaps the most direct) example of an antithesis to such claims, given how popular Curb Your Enthusiasm is despite its controversial scenario writing.

I'm saying the negative reaction to the last part of the quote led to people crapping on the movie more than the movie's quality itself. Other factors may include Jerry and Amy Schumer being very pro-Israel when it isn't the popular choice amongst young people. It's also not the best defense using Curb and the other one I've seen used elsewhere It's Always Sunny since Curb started in 1999 and Sunny in 2005. Those shows are grandfathered in now. Not to mention Sunny has had multiple episodes removed from streaming for being offensive. Searching "seinfeld" on Reddit yields many unflattering results and a quick look at the Letterboxd reviews for Unfrosted shows many are completely off-topic.

There are arguments both for mentioning Curb Your Enthusiasm or any other example and not, but that's ultimately besides the point because there won't ever be an objective answer on the matter.

You're bound to run into this scenario with any work of art across all mediums these days for two reasons: the first being because everybody from the general public to celebrities has an online voice and the second being people are often unable to remove an artist from their art (which is fine.) But, if someone's unable to separate art from artist, then they shouldn't be reviewing the work in question on a critical level or in ways which go beyond the art itself.

However, what I am not suggesting is that it's wrong for the public to choose to not support or interact with an artist's work for whatever reason. But, actually reviewing that work is another issue, as that sort of action should be done as unbiased as possible. You'll seldom find that approach on a general level, though. When this sort of reviewing bombing (or suggested reviewing bombing) occurs, then the best way to gain such an unbiased consensus is to return to its discourse at a later time, once whatever was being reacted to has long past and has been forgotten.

[kamikazekeeg]

Caught up to Invincible with the rest of Season 2, and it's such a solid show.  I loved how they re-did the convention scene to work with animation compared to the comic scene I saw, it's a quality gag.  While it still has all the edgy violence going on, just as much as before, I'm glad the show continues to have good story with its characters, the few different plot lines happening all being very interesting so it never feels like you are waiting for them to move on past a storyline to get back to what Mark is doing.  Speaking of, Steven Yuen does such an amazing job towards the end of the season, when it all comes loose for Mark.  Can't wait for next season and thankfully it won't take as long for Season 3.

[alligo]

I've been wanting to start for a while, but I finally got started The Office (US) a few weeks ago and just finished today.
I really liked and laughed until season 7, then it was just a descent into hell because of the departure of a certain person. I think the series should have ended there.

The last two seasons don't make much sense, we feel that the writers and producers no longer knew which direction to take for the series.
I didn't like the new characters, I found them boring and flat. They also ruined Andy's character. Not only is he not cut out to be a manager, but they completely changed his character.
It's completely ridiculous to have done everything to recover Erin back only to end their relationship a few episodes later. Her relationship with Pete has no credibility, just like the delirium with Bryan and Pam.

Cathy is useless except to heat Jim and be a green plant.
There's a parade of new useless characters, it's really weird what they've done with these last two seasons. There are a few funny moments but not as many as the first ones, even if it was starting to run out of steam a little before. Fortunately, the last 3 episodes of S9 save everything a little.

[Cartagia]

Finally finished 12 Monkeys.  It's a show that I enjoyed, but always put plot above character development.  It was constantly ping ponging character motivations to keep its convoluted story beats.  It reset itself so many times tgat you could skip entire chunks of seasons and not be lost because every "mystery" that had come up was pointless or rendered redundant by the next one.

John Mulaney's Everybody's in LA was an interesting experiment in live talk show broadcasting, and while it had some really great bits and guests throughout, it was a touch too chaotic overall, with each episode being overstuffed with 1 or 2 too many guests.  Each episode was themed, so I'd recommend checking out any one that might interest you, or has a guest you like, but there's not too much of a reason watch the whole thing.

Knuckles - There are a lot of really fun moments in this, and Idris Elba is surprisingly game for all the ridiculous crap they have him say, but there is no reason for this to be a 6-hour mini-series. If it were a 1.5 hour movie it would be all the better for it.

After 3.5 years of watching it off and on, I am finished with Murder, She Wrote.  I think they must have known the writing was on the wall, also season 12 feels a little more experimental than the last several, and seems to have fewer high profile guest stats.  Remarkably consistently through the three distinct eras (first 5 seasons, the bookend seasons, then the final 5 seasons) you could put on pretty much any episode and know exactly what to expect and have a fine time.

X-Men '97 - I think people have way too much nostalgia for how good the original is, but this is more along the lines of how people remember it rather than how it was.  It has updated and matured with the times, while still feeling like the original series.  There were several moments that I couldn't believe the show was willing to go that far.

Star Trek: Discovery died as it lived - squandering immense potential.   Gorgeous visuals, some decent characters, shallow writing.

[kamikazekeeg]

Star Wars: Acolyte (Episode 1 and 2) - I don't normally watch shows in progress as much these days, I've been waiting for stuff to finish and then I binge it, and I haven't even really seen anything trailer or character wise with this one, which I don't get to do often.  Haven't even watched Ahsoka yet.  I was slightly more curious about this one being set in a very different era for the tv shows/movies, something like a 100 years or so before the Prequels I believe.

The first two episodes are okay...I saw one or two people say that it sorta feels like the Jedi come across like cosplay, and I don't really disagree, but I'm not sure why.  I think some of that is the High Republic era clothing, it's all very light visually.  Some of it feels like lighting and how the shots are handled, it's just stylistically kinda flat.  One character has a cool look, gives me like a light armored version of a samurai.

I've seen some pissy comments about the show from the previews, of which I hate online discourse these days, it makes fandom stuff even worse than it usually is, where there were complaints about a lot of hand to hand combat for what are force user fights, but I think it works well, not every Jedi fight needs to be leaping about and clashing sabers.  There's also seemingly story implications for it, not too mention with combining force powers, it creates like a justification for the combat coming across like "Wire Fu".  I don't think it's particularly great choreography, much the rest of the show, it's abit flat, it's functional, not bad, but we've seen so much better and harder hitting action these days, I feel like shows and movies, especially big properties, should really try to do better.

So yeah, it's just...okay.  Nothing is standing out a ton.  I'd probably say I like it more than Obi-Wan so far, I didn't really care too much about that one, but we'll see how the rest of the show goes.  Like before, I'm slightly more curious about this one just because it is a different setting and there are new things they can do with it hopefully.

*EDIT* Oh, the one Master in it is the guy from Squid Games, I have no idea why I didn't recognize him, he's probably the best character in the show so far lol

*EDIT* Completely random note, but this show is one of the very few instances where Star Wars has proper space suits.  I thought it was a first for the movies/shows, but apparently Ahsoka had one for her, and there was another kinda oddly designed one in the CG cartoon for Ahsoka, but it was kinda interesting to think that for a series so focused on space, space suits are almost nonexistent, like the rebel pilots all pilot their ships in what amount to stand pilot gear, so they can't ever eject from their ships and maybe get saved.

[weirdfeline]

Monsters at Work season two (released three years after the first season) is quite a step up from the first. Terrible release though and seems like a third season is now unlikely. It's a Disney+ show that for some reason released on Disney Channel first with very little promotion.

[Cartagia]

Secret Invasion - Not nearly as bad as most reviews would make it seem.  There's some really good performances in here, but not nearly enough story, and what story there is does not really work in the wider context of the MCU.  Plus there's no reasilon that this should have cost over $200 million.

The second season of Loki is way better than the first.  More consistent, more fun storylines, better side characters.  I thought the first season was just fine, but this was great.

Second season of What If... is more of the same.  Could stand to let everything stand on its own more.  The appeal of the series has always been the one-offs.  Building arcs just feels antithetical.

[kamikazekeeg]

Star Wars: Acolyte Episode 3 to 5 - Was gonna wait till the end to say anything more on the series, but being constantly spoiled by my twitter algorithm deciding that I look at one Star Wars post, I must now see every single Star Wars post, especially spoiler ridden ones, so I caught up the other week and watched the new Episode 5 today and it's REALLY good.  The first two episodes were kinda "eh", the backstory for Mai and Osha was alright in Episode 3, Episode 4 is the build up to this episode and has some good moments, but Episode 5 is fantastic, it's probably one of the cooler lightsaber battles they've done in live action I feel, at least to me.  I haven't watched Ahsoka to see if they did anything there, but this was such a good watch. 

I won't spoil any actual details, but it was a great watch.  I'm kinda not expecting the series to finish out its last 3 episodes as strong as this, being what came beforehand, but hopefully I'm wrong about that and this was the turning point for a strong finish.

[Cartagia]

Ren Faire on Max is another over-produced overlong documentary .  It's not bad, and the subject matter is interesting, but it feels more like a reality show than a documentary.   Too many of these series trying to chase the high of Tiger King.

Went back to Ally McBeal after about a year and a half break.  Season 3 takes a lot of big swings, but it is only about a 50% hit rate.  It's odd how character motivations and attitudes sometime turn on a dime, despite the fact that it is over 20 episodes a season.  Certain things that would have been wildly progressive in 99 feel quaint or sometimes even insulting today.  All that said, I still laughed a fair amount and there are a couple of really great performances in the show, notably Lucy Liu and Peter MacNicol.

Third season of The Bear is still generally really great TV, even if it does get lost a bit in its own mystique a couple of times.  Jamie Lee Curtis is doing career best work here.

The new season of Star Trek: Prodigy follows the same trajectory as the first.  A little bit of a rough start that slowly morphs into a fun and rousing story that doesn't forget what it means to be Star Trek.  It also does a great job at situating itself into the larger Trek universe, and gives really good context to several things that occur in Picard.

[kamikazekeeg]

Star Wars: Acolyte - Man, such a high with Episode 5, going to 2 episodes afterwards that were either not good or mixed, and then ending on what I thought was a fairly decent finale.  This might be the most up and down show I've seen of Star Wars.  This definitely should've been a movie, not an 8 episode weekly series, or a better written show with more depth that could justify it's length.  It's annoying, because I see a good story, good characters, it's cool having this different era and not tons of stuff connecting it to previous movies/shows, but the pacing is atrocious and there's sloppy writing throughout.

I still think I put this above Kenobi for me, because where that might've been a generally more consistent show, that show did very little for me than just enjoying Ewan McGregor as Kenobi and Vader later in it.  I would like this to get a second season, that they could hopefully fix a lot of the first seasons issues, because there could be some fun stuff coming.

[kamikazekeeg]

Designated Survivor: Season 1 - With the political season happening, I kinda randomly wanted to watch this show, thinking I was getting something more out there as a political drama/thriller, but with how dumb the world is these days, this fictional show has less cartoonish and less ridiculous people than real life does.  The show itself is decent, I haven't watched what would be considered a standard tv show in a long while I feel, most streaming shows are 10 episodes at best, while this one is over 20 and each episode would be considered an hour long if there were commercial breaks.  It's kinda nice, everything gets to breath, there are some slow moments throughout, but it also works as a like a background show in that regard, where I do watch it, but It doesn't require a constant focus.

Cool getting Kiefer Sutherland in a tv show again, I was a big fan of 24 back in the day, even if this is pretty different character from Jack Bauer.  A whole lot less yelling lol.  It's funny, I think he works well in the part, but his voice is so strong and distinct, it almost works against the character abit who I think was meant to come across as like this more average guy, decent, well spoken, smart, but that voice just makes him stand out.

It is funny (and sad) how real life undercuts a lot of this show, because even the characters they want to kinda paint as too "partisan", feel literally conservative compared to some of the dense bricks in office in real life.  There's lots of appeals to common sense between the President and others, appeal to the betterment of the country, all this sort of stuff, things we need to see happen, but will never get, because things are so dumb right now...uggh...okay, no more political railing, the show is good enough, I'm gonna eventually get through the other 2 seasons.