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

[burningdoom]

She-Hulk - This is just goofy, light-hearted fun.  It's pretty different from the usual MCU shows and I think that makes for a pretty chill watch.  It has an ongoing story, but is generally it's own thing every episode and the bit of 4th wall breaking is a little extra spice thrown in.  It's not amazing, but it's some good fun.  I'd probably put it in the upper half of the MCU shows so far.

That's exactly what I liked about it, too.  It was nice to finally get something from the MCU that remembered it was enough just to be fun.

I've watched the first three seasons of Veep.  It starts off pretty ok and has been getting better with literally every successive episode.

Veep continues to get better with every episode until it peaks at the end of season 5.  Season 6 is roughly the same quality as S5, but a bit more inconsistent as they're trying a lot of new things.  S7 is the first legitimate step down, as it everything just gets a bit too outlandish, but this comes almost exclusively from the fact that it is the only season written after the 2016 election, and it had to compete with the new absurdity of American politics.

Cabinet of Curiosities - One great episode, one good one, one decent one, and the rest just OK or worse.

Andor - Holy hell this was good.  Maybe the best Star Wars content Disney has put out.  Close call with Mando S1.

The Woman in the House Across the Street from the Girl in the Window - Solid-ish parody of the Gaslit Woman Mystery Genre.  I love how straight it plays the joke, and the touches of absurdity, but it's a balance that would have worked better in a 90 minute runtime, not an 8 episode mini-series. Back half is better about it than the first.

OMG, She-Hulk was such an incredibly god-awful steaming pile of dog shit.

[Cartagia]

Third season of The Umbrella Academy is easily the weakest so far.  It's not bad, but there is a bit more manufactured drama that's caused by characters not acting quite like themselves, being impulsive, etc.

Netflix's The Characters is an interesting experiment.   8 30 minute sketch episodes all written by different comedians.  Not as hit or miss as Cabinet of Curiosities,  but it is kinda varied.  Loved the Kate Berlant, Paul Downs, and Tim Robinson episodes.

The Way Down - Documentary about a religious weight loss "church" that is about 15 minutes from me.  Fascinating stuff, but like so many of these lately, really should have just been a movie.

Rewatched all of I Think You Should Leave while I was out of town.  Definitely turned around on my opinion about Season 2.  Now I'm sure it is way better than the first after being way more undecided after my first viewing.

Nathan Fielder's The Rehearsal which is of the most interesting, bizarre, meta, and incredible things I've ever seen.

The final season of Atlanta solidifies it as one of the best, daring, most creative, genre-bending series ever made.  Just incredible stuff.

[dhaabi]

Nathan Fielder's The Rehearsal which is of the most interesting, bizarre, meta, and incredible things I've ever seen.

Knowing the lengths to which Nathan Fielder has before shown audiences he's willing to go, I still found The Rehearsal to be such a huge surprise as Fielder again blew away all of my expectations. As some off-the-wall social experiment, there comes a moment where I'm sure many viewers are left to truly consider what is is they're even watching. When discussing the show with someone, they said how they believe the show transcends genre; while I'm not sure I can agree to that opinion fully, there is certainly some truth to it in considering what The Rehearsal is. Toward the end, there are certainly moments where the direction the project is moving in becomes quite surreal as more and more heavy themes are presented. As a follow-up to Nathan for You, I think the more mature tone that the project held set the two apart from another for the better.

[Cartagia]

Nathan Fielder's The Rehearsal which is of the most interesting, bizarre, meta, and incredible things I've ever seen.

Knowing the lengths to which Nathan Fielder has before shown audiences he's willing to go, I still found The Rehearsal to be such a huge surprise as Fielder again blew away all of my expectations. As some off-the-wall social experiment, there comes a moment where I'm sure many viewers are left to truly consider what is is they're even watching. When discussing the show with someone, they said how they believe the show transcends genre; while I'm not sure I can agree to that opinion fully, there is certainly some truth to it in considering what The Rehearsal is. Toward the end, there are certainly moments where the direction the project is moving in becomes quite surreal as more and more heavy themes are presented. As a follow-up to Nathan for You, I think the more mature tone that the project held set the two apart from another for the better.

I hadn't seen Nathan for You yet (aside from random clips here and there), but I just finished Season 1 last night, and I think you are spot on.  It is gutbustingly funny, but it definitely feels like it was a series of trial runs (of varying degrees of seriousness) for The Rehearsal.

[kamikazekeeg]

Last season of The Walking Dead went up on Netflix, so I figured why not, I'll finish up the series.  It's never been as good as the earlier seasons and I wouldn't say the final season was particularly great, but it's...fine.  I feel like Season 10 had more of a serious threat to it with The Whisperers, as The Reapers early on in Season 11 were kinda lame, and the Commonwealth was a change of pace for the show, but I thought it dragged a lot.  There's decent things dotted throughout, but it's not really a show I'd recommend.

And I'm halfway through Star Wars: Andor and despite the high praise I've heard about it, the first half of the season is kinda boring aside from the actual heist in Episode 6.  This type of show is what I want to see with Star Wars, everything doesn't need to be Jedi and fan favorite characters, but I don't know, Andor is just sorta stumbling through scenarios and the Coruscant plot line is just okay and I could not care less about what is going on with the failed security officer lol Maybe the show really pulls it together in latter half, but it's not been a particularly great start.

[Cartagia]

The thing with Andor is that it builds, and builds, and builds on everything that comes before it, where I'd say that probably literally every episode is better than the one before it, but the end result wouldn't be nearly as satisfying if you hadn't built that earlier foundation.

It reminds me of Spartacus: Blood and Sand.  Sans the first awful episode, that show just got better and better throughout the season until it hit one if the best season finales I'd ever seen.

[kamikazekeeg]

Finished Andor and I'm still not in love with it.  It's okay.  The show was just steadily decent with spikes of interesting stuff going on and I would say the latter half is better than the first, but nothing wowed me, it's just a decent bit of scifi drama, and that's about it.  Maybe I sorta fell in for the hype and that kinda tainted things a smidge, my expectations were too high because of that, but it's fine.  Compared to the other Star Wars shows, I'd probably say I like it more than Boba Fett, it's better written, more consistent, but I think I just like Mandalorian more in general as a show. 

[Cartagia]

The rest of Nathan for You is incredibly hilarious, and often incredibly smart, but sometimes it felt a bit too much like a prank show for my tastes.  Overall, though, Nathan Fielder is a mad genius.

[dhaabi]

Overall, though, Nathan Fielder is a mad genius.

Some of Fielder's much earlier work is also incredibly funny. From his old YouTube channel, Thin Watermelon and "Morning Walk" are two of my favorites. His old news segment On Your Side has some good clips too, such as Talking to the Animals.

[Cartagia]

Star Trek: Prodigy surprised the hell out of me.  Reminded me a lot of Avatar and Korra in that while it is targeted towards children it doesn't talk down to them while having mature themes.  It does this while still feeling like Star Trek through and through.

[kamikazekeeg]

Last of Us: Episode 1 - I'm not gonna keep up with the show till its done, but I had the HBO sub for a week anyways, so figured I'd just watch the first episode and it's good.  They stay really accurate to the game, which doesn't make for a truly exciting watch as I played the game twice, so I know what is mostly going to happen, but they are interjecting some new stuff to fill things out here and there, like we got an extended opening with Joel and his daughter that is nice. 

There is a big change of how the infection works, they got rid of spores in favor of "tendrils", which I don't love the change, but the "tendrils" are creepy as hell, so I don't mind it.  It's not crazy important to the overall story, but they are so accurate to the game as is currently, something minor being altered like that isn't so bad.

[Cartagia]

Last of Us: Episode 1 - I'm not gonna keep up with the show till its done, but I had the HBO sub for a week anyways, so figured I'd just watch the first episode and it's good.  They stay really accurate to the game, which doesn't make for a truly exciting watch as I played the game twice, so I know what is mostly going to happen, but they are interjecting some new stuff to fill things out here and there, like we got an extended opening with Joel and his daughter that is nice. 

There is a big change of how the infection works, they got rid of spores in favor of "tendrils", which I don't love the change, but the "tendrils" are creepy as hell, so I don't mind it.  It's not crazy important to the overall story, but they are so accurate to the game as is currently, something minor being altered like that isn't so bad.

Pretty much where I landed on it as well.  It's incredibly well made, but I can't find myself getting that excited for it week to week, since I already know the story pretty well.

As for the spore change, I understand it for a couple of reasons - there were always internal logic inconsistencies with it in the games.  Why is this room ok, but the next room over not?  Just how many spores can you inhale?  How far does a single blooming body spread?  Getting rid of spores gets rid of all those types of questions.  Secondly, it's to keep the actors faces uncovered, which, sure, yeah, whatever.

Second episode:
I honestly think I liked it more than the premiere. It showed that they can do more than just adapt the cutscenes and are able to take the actual gameplay loop and make it compelling to watch. The premiere was really good, but outside of the cold open (which please let every episode have some kind of pre-outbreak cold open) I couldn’t shake the whole “I’ve already seen this” feeling.

[kamikazekeeg]

Finally got around to Harley Quinn: Season 3 and the show is still just a lot of fun.  I really enjoy how they are goofing on all the heroes and villains, I feel they handle it all in a way that still keeps the characters intact, but just amplifies their extremes or gets to play with them in different ways and are able to do a lot with genuine character growth.

[Cartagia]

Willow was generally a bit of a disappointment.  It gets way better in the back half, but the first half was tonally all over the place, and a lot the dialogue is terrible and filled with modern colloquialisms.  And the decision to use modern rock songs over the credits was baffling.  If it were it's own new idea that wouldn't be a problem, but it does not work as a sequel to the movie.  It grew into its potential over time, and I'll watch S2, but I just wish it were good from the jump.

The first season of Abbott Elementary is extremely solid and sure-footed, especially for a network sitcom.  Great characters, fun performances.

[weirdfeline]

Eddie Murphy and David Duchovny were great in You People.