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

[Cartagia]

I Love That For You - A single season series from Vanessa Bayer on Showtime.  I really like cast, and there are some great jokes and bits, but it leans a bit too much into cringe comedy for me.  The editing is also kind of weirdly bad for a big-ish show like this.  Molly Shannon and Jennifer Lewis are great on it, though.

Under the Banner of Heaven - Starts really strong, but quickly gets repetitive and struggles with pacing.  This should not have been told as flashbacks during the investigation but instead as a slow revelation of how messed up things got.  By leading off with crime it just becomes a series of "Yeah, I get it they were bad," because you know the ending.

[kamikazekeeg]

The Boys: Season 4 - While this was maybe one of the weaker seasons they've done, it's pretty much because it's about setup for the final season.  Which is unfortunate because there was so much going on with the Soldier Boy stuff from last season, but what is here is not nearly as strong.  Get some family stuff with Hughie, Starlight and Firecrackers fued, Homelander and Ryan (Poor kid hit puberty during filming and it's not till like the 2nd to last episode that his voice stops cracking), and while the others are involved, it's not as strong.  It's still messed up, obscene, gross, but hopefully they can go out big with the last season.  Might get around to Gen V eventually, not sure, I'm not as interested in the spinoff stuff.

[kamikazekeeg]

Reacher: Season 1 - This was overall a decent bit of tv drama/action.  I do think it got abit slow at times, but I liked it well enough, it's good side-watching tv.  Reacher is kind of an unapologetic badass, but also an incredibly smart one.  He feels like an 80's action hero brought into the modern day, the build of Arnold Schwarzenegger, but the attitude of Charles Bronson lol I'll probably check out the next season eventually.

[Cartagia]

Tokyo Vice is a gorgeously produced Max series about journalism and the yakuza in the early 2000s.  It's got great performances, stellar direction, and some great storylines.  Unfortunately is also has a couple of lousy storlines, both headed up by the American characters.  It's weird because the police and yakuza story is phenomenal, but the two gaijn are constantly making dumb decisions that people in their positions should know better.

Mr. & Mrs. Smith - So, this show is weird, because the relationship writing and chemistry between Donald Glover and Maya Erskine is off the charts, but the spy storyline stuff feels so completely half-assed.  Like, I get the relationship drama is the important part, but your spy stuff still has to, you know, make sense.

Severance - I had a feeling that I was going to like this show, but nothing prepared me for just how much I was going to love it. I expected it it to be weird and creepy, but it has really blasted by my expectations. It is really one of the more disturbing dystopian ideas I've ever seen.  Like it doesn't sound that bad on the surface, but once you see it in action... jesus.

Conan O'Brien Must Go - Conan might be the funniest person on the planet for me.  I watched all 4 episodes last night and I could not stop laughing the whole time.  Very fun travel show.

[Cartagia]

I've got three months of Apple TV so I'm trying to knock out a few things.

The Afterparty is a comedic murder mystery where every episode is a different genre / style based on the character POV.  First season starts a little rough, because there's a lot of set-up to get through, but it really comes together in the back half as one of the most well-structured series of clues I've ever seen.

I liked the second season of The Afterparty more than the first.  It's got 2 more episodes so there's a little more time for everything to breathe, and as much as I loved the stacked absurdist comedic cast of the first season, the second just has better actors.  The conclusion isn't quite as satisfactory,but it just hangs together better overall.

Conan Without Borders basically started as a series of specials for his TBS talk show, but evolved into a little more over time.  Basically ended up being a trial run for his new Max series since COVID and the end of TBS contract ended this one.

[kamikazekeeg]

Got around to watching Season 7 of Rick & Morty and it's overall pretty on par on what to expect from the series.  The most interesting aspect was whether the voices were right since this was the season they got new actors and I think they nailed it.  If you know the voices, I feel like you can tell, to quantify it, Rick feels like 10% of what he was vocally before and Morty is 10% leaning into that "Ah Geez Rick" feeling of the voice, that's how I hear it.  That being said, you watch like one or two episodes and the difference is negligible.  Honestly it's impressive they got two guys to so expertly nail the voices without it sound like a caricature of Roiland's voice. 

Might get around to Solar Opposites, I think I was behind 2 seasons, but I thought the voice change they did for that was kinda funny from what I hear.  Solar Opposites I actually remember kinda liking more than Rick & Morty, which was because it was less like "Here's something random and messed up while Morty freaks out or doesn't and Rick assholes his way through everything, or doesn't", it was kind of a more consistent bit of comedy to me, so hopefully that's what it still is.

[tripredacus]

I started to watch the TMNT cartoon. I had the complete series on DVD for awhile now. A few things I noticed so far. First is that the episodes are not standalone, at least yet. I think they become more standalone later. The second was the most shocking to me. The origins of the Turtle Van, apparently the turtles stole Baxter Stockman's van in the Mousers episode. And between that and the next, Stockman went to jail. At which point, the Turtles then rob his house! I understand that Stockman becomes a villain later, but the way he is portrayed in the Mousers episode is that he is just looking for someone to sell his invention to, and is tricked by the Shredder. It is clear he did not want to use them this way and did the work for the Shredder under duress. And obviously he helps the Turtles when they find him.

[Cartagia]

Might get around to Solar Opposites, I think I was behind 2 seasons, but I thought the voice change they did for that was kinda funny from what I hear.  Solar Opposites I actually remember kinda liking more than Rick & Morty, which was because it was less like "Here's something random and messed up while Morty freaks out or doesn't and Rick assholes his way through everything, or doesn't", it was kind of a more consistent bit of comedy to me, so hopefully that's what it still is.

My fiancé definitely likes Solar Opposites more than Rick & Morty. It's less cynical and a bit more wholesome, and doesn't seem as concerned with trying to be some super smart epic sci-fi story (though it is also really smart).  Dan Stevens replaced Roiland on this show, and they did a very meta "Oh he injured his throat and we fixed it, and this is just what he sounds like now... and the technology we used uses chronitons, so it will be that way in any future flashbacks as well."  Simple, elegeant, addressed in the first 2 minutes of that season and it has just gone as normal since.

[kamikazekeeg]

Terminator Zero - I think this is probably the most interesting Terminator thing I've seen in long while.  It's all been very middling to bad since T2 (That being said, I actually like Salvation a decent amount), and while this one does retread similar things to T1 and T2, downright similar setups at times, it does work in new stuff to spice it up.  It's got some solid action, well animated with some generally alright CG, some interesting characters, and I hope it gets a second season as I think that has some more potential for continuing this fresh streak for Terminator media.

[Cartagia]

Reacher: Season 1 - This was overall a decent bit of tv drama/action.  I do think it got abit slow at times, but I liked it well enough, it's good side-watching tv.  Reacher is kind of an unapologetic badass, but also an incredibly smart one.  He feels like an 80's action hero brought into the modern day, the build of Arnold Schwarzenegger, but the attitude of Charles Bronson lol I'll probably check out the next season eventually.

Check out the new movie Rebel Ridge on Netflix.  It's got some reach heavy Reacher vibes to it - former Marine wanders into a small corrupt town and conflict ensues.

The first season of Tiny World on Apple TV+.  Your typical gorgeous nature doc, but this time focused on smaller creatures and parts of the ecosystem.  Stunningly gorgeous photography.  The creator got his start on Planet Earth and continues with that level of quality.

[kamikazekeeg]

Reacher: Season 1 - This was overall a decent bit of tv drama/action.  I do think it got abit slow at times, but I liked it well enough, it's good side-watching tv.  Reacher is kind of an unapologetic badass, but also an incredibly smart one.  He feels like an 80's action hero brought into the modern day, the build of Arnold Schwarzenegger, but the attitude of Charles Bronson lol I'll probably check out the next season eventually.

Check out the new movie Rebel Ridge on Netflix.  It's got some reach heavy Reacher vibes to it - former Marine wanders into a small corrupt town and conflict ensues.

The first season of Tiny World on Apple TV+.  Your typical gorgeous nature doc, but this time focused on smaller creatures and parts of the ecosystem.  Stunningly gorgeous photography.  The creator got his start on Planet Earth and continues with that level of quality.

I'll give that a shot, I was part way through season 2 of Reacher and got sidetracked, but maybe I'll finish that and then go check out Rebel Ridge.

[Cartagia]

Season 2 of Tiny World feels a bit more dynamic and narratively driven than the first.  It also has me mystified by the logistics of getting such gorgeous and upclose photography of such small ecologies.  Kind of mind-blowing to watch.

Started Servant from M. Night Shyamalan on Apple.  Terrific sense of atmosphere with nuanced writing and performances.  First season kept me guessing for all 10 episodes.  Really pleasantly surprised.

Second season of Servant still has great atmosphere and terrific performances but it spins its wheels a bit more in the middle section.

Three seasons of Servant down!  Doesn't spin its wheels nearly as much as season 2, but it does have a couple of characters have motivations turn on a dime which is off-putting for an episode or two, but overall I've been very impressed with how the show grows and evolves as it goes on.

Final season of Servant moves at such an accelerated pace compared to the previous ones, and while still entertaining it feels a bit odd.  There's a set of characters that show up answer sone questions and just float on out.  It doesn't 100% stick the landing, but I don't think it craps the bed either.  The penultimate episode is really the resolution.

[kamikazekeeg]

Mr. McMahon - Decided to watch this as I've been generally into wrestling since I was like a young teen in the 90's, and I've kept up with it off and on.  Going into it, I did know a decent amount of the behind the scenes stuff, I watch a lot of OSW, I've seen youtube videos, seen articles, so a lot of it wasn't known to me, but some wild stuff comes out of this even still and not even talking about the end where they discuss the recent allegations against Vince that led to his proper exit from the company.  It's honestly nuts that this interview documentary meant to document Vince from start to the current day started up before that new info, and then as the allegations come out, it completely changes the tone of things and I think in turns leads to them including stuff they may not have been then there before had they finish the documentary before it happened. 

McMahon was known to be a scumbag for a long time, his behavior in the past, how he's treated certain wrestlers, it was more than just the character he played, but some stuff was still shocking, like he downplays an affair he had in like the 90's, said it was consensual...and then just slips in "Oh and the statue of limitations was past that point anyways"...Like you don't need to say that.  He also has had multiple confirmed "consensual affairs"...I don't get how this man still has a wife with Linda.  Not a backbone in that woman, but I guess money and power is enough for her.

In the end, this is an interesting enough documentary, some moments are hard to watch, like when Vince and even some wrestlers downplay the problems of CTE, and some things that Vince says that you have to question, but it's worthwhile if you have an interest in wrestling and you don't mind seeing Vince kinda get slavished in praise for a lot of it.  He's undeniably the reason WWF/E became what it was and there's still reason to support wrestling, but it's a little tough to watch...That being said, if you are someone who has also seen anything from the show "Dark Side of the Ring", it's not as hard as that could get really detailing the downfall or unfortunate circumstances for many classic wrestlers.

[Cartagia]

The fourth season of Ally McBeal is a weird one. It has some of the best episodes of the entire series, and an incredible revolving door of guests stars (Taye Diggs, Regina Hall, Jami Gertz, and Anne Heche are all incredible here), but it struggles to find itself in the reinvention that it has done in the wake of the events of Season 3.  The biggest change is the introduction of Robert Downey Jr as a love interest for Ally, and he's incredible here... but he had a severe relapse towards the end of the season, got fired, and it ultimately completely shifted the direction and tone of the show - for the worse.  The season also struggles with attempts to be shocking or overly progressive for the time and ends up being way too juvenile and often transphobic in a few storylines, which made it difficult to watch for a couple of extended stretches.

[kamikazekeeg]

Dragon Ball Daima - When this was first announced, I was very against it, it felt like they were rehashing the initial idea of DBGT (And they 100% are), but as time went on, I got more on board with this, because it moves us away from what Super was doing, which I didn't like, and I think allows them to scale things back abit power creep wise and do the adventure angle for Dragon Ball again.
 Hopefully doing it better than DBGT though.

First episode is solid, it puts this directly after the Buu era, so we are back with the DBZ vibes, they are already expanding on DB lore out of the gate in an interesting way that I never expected (Creates a fun call back to the original Dragon Ball), and the animation is the best we've seen for Dragon Ball in a long time (Outside the movies), like Super had some great moments, but overall I thought Super was kind of awful artistically compared to how Dragon Ball use to look.  It was fun getting to see some moments from the Buu saga redone.

Great start though, hopefully the story pans out as it's cool to be excited for Dragon Ball again.