New TV season... anything good on?

Argus · September 5, 2014

Bring back Firefly!!

Really loved that show!

There's been a lot of talk of turning the Honor Harrington novels into a TV series after the first movie comes out. I think it would do well. Just to begin with, one of the features of the honorverse is 'prolong' which is a biological treatment which helps people live a lot longer than otherwise. One of the side effects is they look very young. That would obviously allow the casting of younger stars which would draw more of the kind of fans advertisers love. Of course, finding a 6'2" Eurasian Actress to play the title role might be a tad difficult.

http://io9.com/the-legendary-honor-harringtons-new-adventure-movies-1530155710

Edited September 5, 2014 by Argus

Argus · September 5, 2014

Among the issues I have with many of the newer shows is that many are serials, which means you have to watch all of them, and in order, and many are consistently dark. I don't watch TV to be depressed, but to be entertained.

Black Dog · September 5, 2014

Among the issues I have with many of the newer shows is that many are serials, which means you have to watch all of them, and in order, and many are consistently dark. I don't watch TV to be depressed, but to be entertained.

Dark shows can be entertaining too.

September 5, 2014

Really loved that show!

There's been a lot of talk of turning the Honor Harrington novels into a TV series after the first movie comes out. I think it would do well. Just to begin with, one of the features of the honorverse is 'prolong' which is a biological treatment which helps people live a lot longer than otherwise. One of the side effects is they look very young. That would obviously allow the casting of younger stars which would draw more of the kind of fans advertisers love. Of course, finding a 6'2" Eurasian Actress to play the title role might be a tad difficult.

http://io9.com/the-legendary-honor-harringtons-new-adventure-movies-1530155710

I've never read any David Weber, the main reason for recognizing the name being seeing his books as I scan for Connie Willis titles in bookshops. I'll have to try one or two.

Talking of science fiction movies, Ridley Scott has been promising his adaptation of Joe Haldeman's "The Forever War " for years now. I wish he'd get to it.

kimmy · September 20, 2014

Season 2 of The Blacklist starts Monday! It's one of the few network shows I still watch.

The writing is sometimes pretty bad. For example, if you take a shot each time somebody says "reach out to", you'd be drunk by the end of each episode. Everybody on this show is always reaching out to their contacts. There's so much reaching out going on, people gonna hurt their arms. And the formula is sometimes as by-the-numbers as House MD. Shocking death occurs! Inexplicably, Reddington has a connection with the killer. He tips them off. They go flailing around trying to catch the killer! They fail! They return to Reddington for help. He gets their shit together. They catch the suspect in the nick of time! And the "information" they get from Reddington is sometimes completely inane. "Liz, you're looking at this the wrong way. To catch a thief, you need to think like a thief." Really? They need a criminal mastermind to give them advice like this? Or the number of times Liz gets in a snit and refuses to work with Reddington because she's mad at him, when lives are at stake. What is she, 12? And so on.

But, in spite of some of the less than brilliant aspects of the show, I still enjoy it. While the villain-of-the-week aspect often falls flat, the serial aspect of the show keeps me interested. Last season's building tension as Liz and the viewers gradually learned that her husband wasn't what he seemed kept me eagerly awaiting each new episode. And the mysteries-- what is Reddington's connection to Liz? What secrets are hiding in her background? --are compelling enough that viewers need answers.

The main reason to watch is James Spader as Red Reddington. He's very enjoyable to watch as this character who shifts from upper-crust dandy to cold-blooded killer to tortured old soul and back.

-k

-1=e^ipi · October 1, 2014

I recently finished the first season of Aldnoah Zero, which was surprisingly decent. It had very thought out battle scenes and best of all the characters act rationally which is rare in so many tv series. I think the second series starts in January of 2015, so I look forward to it.

overthere · October 1, 2014

The wonderful 2nd season of Ray Donovan ended on Sunday.

Sadness.....

Boges · October 14, 2014

A lot of people are love and hate with Walking Dead. This past Sunday's Season 5 premiere was Great. I'm a WD fanboy, but all the criticisms of the show didn't apply to this episode.

The core group was being held captive by a group of cannibals. The entire episode was an elaborate Great Escape/Action movie filled Good guys winning and bad guys losing. Very satisfying.

People say it's just a zombie show. The zombies are background characters, the true appeal of the show is the case study in the decent into the heart of darkness people who survive in this world have go through.

Bryan · October 14, 2014

I second The Walking Dead premiere as being a tremendous way to start off the season.

It really was a great episode. I cheered out loud for bad-ass Carol. I loved the non-linear timeline. Hooray for Tyreese finally snapping out of his "I can't" funk too.

I'm very excited to see how Gareth ends up back with the group (as seen in the trailer). After what we've seen, it seems impossible that they would trust him and take him in willingly, and I'm pretty certain that he was shot on the roof of Terminus while the group made their escape, so he's going to need medical attention as well. Why would they help him?? I can't wait!

And yeah, It's not really a zombie show in the George A. Romero sense of the genre. It's the story of people surviving chaos. You could easily change the disaster/threat with any number of other scenarios and still tell essentially the same tales with these characters.

Edited October 14, 2014 by Bryan

Boges · October 14, 2014

I second The Walking Dead premiere as being a tremendous way to start off the season.

It really was a great episode. I cheered out loud for bad-ass Carol. I loved the non-linear timeline. Hooray for Tyreese finally snapping out of his "I can't" funk too.

I'm very excited to see how Gareth ends up back with the group (as seen in the trailer). After what we've seen, it seems impossible that they would trust him and take him in willingly, and I'm pretty certain that he was shot on the roof of Terminus while the group made their escape, so he's going to need medical attention as well. Why would they help him?? I can't wait!

And yeah, It's not really a zombie show in the George A. Romero sense of the genre. It's the story of people surviving chaos. You could easily change the disaster/threat with any number of other scenarios and still tell essentially the same tales with these characters.

I would imagine showing a bit of an origin story on how the "Termites" became would help the audience believe that he's not "all bad".

Bob is a medic so perhaps he will help Gareth out of obligation. (even though Gareth threatened to kill him, before he was supposed to be "put down" anyway)

There are a lot of potential conflicts with this group. Tara (who was part of The Governor's Group) is still there. What happens when Maggie finds out who she actually is? Will Darryl be aight when he finds out Rick banished Carol? And if Gareth does join the group, will the fact that Carol let his mom get eaten by Walkers play into future episodes. And of course, what about Eugene and Abraham? I know how this is supposed to play out from the comics, I'm looking forward to see how the show handles this story arc.

Edited October 14, 2014 by Boges

Michael Hardner · October 14, 2014

Downtown Abbey Season 5 anyone ?

Mary got absolutely SNARKY last night ! She almost bit Miss Bunting's head off !

cybercoma · October 14, 2014

Mary? Snarky? It's like I don't even know who she is anymore. [/sarcasm]

Also, Downton* not Downtown.

Big Guy · October 14, 2014

Parenthood is back for its final season. We will miss it.

Michael Hardner · October 14, 2014

Mary? Snarky? It's like I don't even know who she is anymore. [/sarcasm]

Also, Downton* not Downtown.

ha ha ha.. I believe Downtown Abbey is the name of the parody version including P. Diddy.

GostHacked · October 14, 2014

The second season of Orange is the New Black is very good. And I'm not just saying that because the Lesbian sex scenes have increased ten-fold.

I may have to start watching this show now. Very graphic or just regular TV soft core porn?

GostHacked · October 14, 2014

Also I need to catch up., but Archer is going into their 6th season I believe.

Boges · October 14, 2014

I may have to start watching this show now. Very graphic or just regular TV soft core porn?

Not graphic. Just boobies and stuff.

Michael Hardner · October 14, 2014

I may have to start watching this show now.

Really, it's not a reason to watch the show.

cybercoma · October 14, 2014

Really, it's not a reason to watch the show.

To be fair, it was a reason to write the show.

cybercoma · October 14, 2014

she started to use the storyline to explore her own feelings and intimately realise she was gay.
She wrote: 'In Piper and Alex, I'd found a mouthpiece for my own desires and a glimmer of what my future could look like.'

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2754668/Orange-Is-The-New-Black-writer-Lauren-Morelli-files-divorce-husband-realising-lesbian-set-falling-love-one-shows-stars.html#ixzz3G9QuJfLx

Boges · October 14, 2014

OitNB character Poussey seems to be a chick magnet on and off screen it appears. She had the top nude scene in season 2. Of course it was her partner that was the highlight.

kimmy · October 15, 2014

Of the new season TV shows, the only one I have checked out so far is "Scorpion".

It stars a girl best known as a loser on American Idol, a guy best known as one of the Khaleesi's bloodriders on Game of Thrones, and a guy best known as T1000 in Terminator 2.

The Premise: Agent Gallo (T1000) is an NSA agent who recruits genius Walter O'Brien (bloodrider) and his genius cohorts as "consultants" to assist in extraordinary circumstances where only the brightest minds can solve the problems in time. A struggling single mother named Paige (American Idol loser) becomes embroiled in their first adventure and proves helpful; she's hired on to act as a liaison between the socially awkward geniuses and the normal people they often struggle to interact with. Her gifted son begins to relate to O'Brien and friends in a way that he's never related to other people before.

The Good: T1000 is his usual crusty self, but the best thing about the show is American Idol loser Katharine McPhee, who provides a warm and likeable presence.

The Bad: pretty much everything else. The genius characters are a collection of cliches, aside from Walter O'Brien who is pretty much an ubermensch. Parts of the show relating to science and technology, which occur often, are so painfully bad that I have to conclude that they hired Pliny as their science consultant. The genius characters spout technobabble so lame that Geordi LaForge himself would lift up his visor and say "whaaaaa???" The plots are full of holes that you could fly a 747 through. For example, in episode 1, the planes can't land at LAX because of a software malfunction, and they'll start to crash within 2 hours if the team can't fix the software. But... none of the assembled geniuses comes up with the idea of maybe diverting the planes to the numerous other airports within 2 hours of LAX. How smart could these guys really be? I have a hunch that no actual geniuses will be watching this show; they'd knock themselves unconscious from all the facepalms.

-k

Boges · October 20, 2014

I'm going to put this here because I don't really care about Televising SCOTUS. But this segment of John Oliver's show is HI-LAIR-IUS!

http://www.salon.com/2014/10/20/john_oliver_slams_scotus_for_not_allowing_live_video_creates_hilarious_canine_reenactments/

He's the cutting edge of TV/News Comedy. If you get HBO you HAVE TO! DVR his show. It's great!

Mighty AC · October 20, 2014

I'm going to put this here because I don't really care about Televising SCOTUS. But this segment of John Oliver's show is HI-LAIR-IUS!

http://www.salon.com/2014/10/20/john_oliver_slams_scotus_for_not_allowing_live_video_creates_hilarious_canine_reenactments/

He's the cutting edge of TV/News Comedy. If you get HBO you HAVE TO! DVR his show. It's great!

You're right, Oliver is absolutely outstanding. Between him, Stewart and Colbert it's no wonder more people get their news from comedy shows than actual news programs.

Mighty AC · October 20, 2014

Has anyone seen The Flipside? It is an embarrassingly bad attempt to make a right wing version of Last Week Tonight or The Daily Show. Check it out, and let me know if you can get through it without cringing.