The TV Discussion Thread

[Winston*]

Anthony Atamanuik is so good as Trump.

Amazingly good.

https://twitter.com/TheMattWilstein/...53230093004800

[number8]

I watched the first ep and even if you're not down with the concept of this show, you gotta admit that his impression is nuts. It's impressive that he's able to sustain it while engaging in banter and interviews. I'm kinda worried for him if he does this for years.

The show really is just Colbert Report 2.0 though.

[dreamdead]

While the pilot and second episode of Trial and Error double down on broad humor, the season settles down and actually gets fairly interesting after that. Jayma Mays plays a terrifically dirty lawyer, always halfway into innuendo, and the show is smartly structured even if the broadness returns to some hick-centric aspects afterwards. That said, for a first season, it's got potential to expand, especially if NBC shows it the grace to develop its tendencies.

It'll be interesting if Lithgow were to stick around or if he left...

[Acapelli]

so timeless was canceled and that's really bumming me out since i really did think it would get another season. making history less so because i was expecting it to be, but it still bums me out nonetheless

really happy that great news survived somehow. did not think it would make it to a season 2

[Peng]

Just realized we don't have The Americans thread for this season, which is kinda appropriate since this has been a very slow-burn season, even more than usual (a shame though since we have one for every season until now). It seems knowing like when their show is going to end gives the showrunners a confidence for this to be essentially 'Part1'. Occasional episodes of brilliance and general involvement, per usual, but it doesn't stun me as much as the previous 2. Still good but might be my least favorite season, behind 2.

Last week's "Dyatkovo", however, is up there with the very best of the series. [

Show Spoiler

It's been a while since I'm this upset by any TV episode, in part because the show has lulled me into a (sometimes to a fault) slow burn of (now false) security this season. That was so emotionally grueling. In my opinion the worst death (in term of feeling, not quality) the show has ever done, and I'm glad to see it seems to have a big repercussion down the line.

]

This week has me recognized something about Paige. [

Show Spoiler

For me, Paige Jennings is up there with Peggy Olsen as the best stealth character planning in TV history, and Holly Taylor is so great in the role. So organic and yet still surprising at every turn. Especially this season, the sight of her alone, with the weight of the show's history and the character's current turmoil seen on her face and posture, is enough to get me emotional. Quite remarkable, although I am a bit afraid how I'd react if/when any more heartbreak (or harm) happens to her in the final season, or even next week's finale alone. I've really come to feel and identify with her story strongly.

]

[number8]

Quick thoughts on TV seasons I've just finished this past week:

Master of None S2
The glowing reviews were correct. A marked improvement over an already excellent first season--This feels like it captures the stellar character work and unique perspective of that first season, but with a steadier hand. It's more at ease in trying out new stuff, but the return players seem to have settled into a sure groove (especially Aziz's dad's acting). I tried to dole this out because it's actually episodic, which makes it perfect to enjoy a little bit at a time, but it's just too well-done so I finished faster than I intended. The "Thanksgiving" episode with Angela Bassett is so good. It seems to know that the coming-out-to-family story is well-covered territory in sitcoms, so it tries to play with the format and cultural tropes instead (I laughed so hard at the idea that the mom was worried that she's gonna bring home a Jennifer Aniston). It all works so well. Gah, this show is fantastic. It bears mentioning, though, that I think romantic comedies are never as romantic as they tend to think it is if it focuses too much on one of the two parties. Somewhat understandably, this show sticks almost exclusively to Dev's point of view, which makes the whole story with Francesca wilt a little. I kept wondering when we would get to learn how she feels about all this, and we never did. The feelings of just one person is not romance.

The Americans S5
I'm pretty dumbfounded to find out that this season has been trashed by fans. I found it to be the series best. I get that the cat-and-mouse game has stalled, but that is obviously rather the point since this is the season where all they've done boils over. The show has always flirted with Phillip and Elizabeth's growing disillusionment with the job they're doing, but their patriotism has never been so upended and challenged like it was this season. How can you not find that riveting? Especially with them [

Show Spoiler

learning that all they did in S4 was bogus, committing to each other in a secret wedding, and then declaring their intention to quit

], it feels like a monumental season. It also has several of the show's best-of moments, like the interrogation of the Nazi survivor. Great show remains great, and I argue got even greater.

Sense8 S2
It's hilarious and fascinating that this show manages to maintain the exact same quality while offering so many new things. The weak parts of the show stays just as weak, but not in the same way. In the first season, I wasn't enamored with Mr. Whispers' shadowy corporation conspiracy shenanigans. This season they've managed to make those dudes interesting enough for me to pay more attention to that thread, but simultaneously introduces a bunch of new mythology like the worldwide network of good and bad clusters that reminds me of my original apathy. Same thing with the good stuff. The way the show plays with the notion of empathy and cultural common ground is top notch, but it's not as new and exciting and sweeps me off my feet as it did in the first season. In its place, though, there's this new emphasis on teamwork and community-strength that I find equally as joyful. Is this an achievement as far as the show is concerned? Heh. Dunno, but man I continue to love this show for being the kind of nonsensical ball of unrestrained positivism that it is.

[[ETM]]

They just cancelled Sense8...

[number8]

Goddammit.

[Peng]

I don't think The Americans is bad, but it's easily the weakest season for me. They've been a bit one-note with the disillusionment angle (saved for the Tuan storyline and the climatic 11th episode's last scene), which doesn't happen with any other main season's angle in the previous one. Everything with Paige is pitch-perfect though.

3>4 (I kinda think objectively 4 might be better, but 3 rallies ahead as my personal fav because of how they did the Paige storyline) > 1 >2>5

[Thirdmango]

Jason Dohring's now on izombie. He's a minor character but it's good to see him in another Rob Thomas shindig.

[Morris Schæffer]

Not even an Homeland Season 6 thread? Got one more ep to go, but huge respect for this show suddenly which ended on a sour note with the last season I thought. This is a really good season. Plausible, powerful, intriguing, Claire Danes is acting the hell out of this. I thought the Quinn subplot was incredibly banal, but now I must say that I was wrong.

[Sycophant]

I'm still baffled by the fact that we never once had a single The Good Wife thread (I only started watching the show after it ended).

It feels weirdly good whenever I see or hear someone agreeing with me that Veep is basically really shitty right now. I haven't watched past the second episode of season 6, but season 5 was barely watchable and season 6 seems like more of the same, except with really hacky sitcom developments that show how up the show's own ass it's gone. I almost just ranted about this on Twitter, but I really like the cast and it made me sad to think that one of them might somehow see it.

[Morris Schæffer]

Luther returns for season 5.

[Thirdmango]

The 100 season 4 may have been my favorite season of tv this year.

[Sycophant]

This is really looking pretty good.

[Henry Gale]

In news everyone would've loved even more a decade ago:

Damon Lindelof will make a Watchmen series for HBO.

[Peng]

I'd argue he has more credentials for this story after The Leftovers than during Lost though.

[Henry Gale]

As much as I do desperately need to watch the rest of The Leftovers, I just meant more in the sense that in the era of Greengrass being set to direct and then Snyder actually doing it, seemingly everyone was pleading for the comic to just be made into an HBO series instead of a single film, with the realists in everyone then seemingly saying to themselves, "With what budget?".. But now in a post-Game of Thrones and Westworld world, money and technology have seemingly no limits for them.

We also have no idea if they want to make this a very faithful miniseries or an entirely new take that doesn't have an immediate endpoint as a series. That'll be the most interesting development to me.

[number8]

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA FUCK YES.

[Philip J. Fry]

[Skitch]

Other than the killing people comment, Darabont sounds like me watching the last several seasons.

[number8]

Mahershala Ali confirmed as the lead for True Detective 3. Cool.

[Peng]

Just finished Bates Motel. Some ups and downs (increasingly ups as the series go along) but Vera Farmiga, Freddie Highmore, and their complex, creepy, affecting dynamics has been insanely enjoyable from the get-go. Gonna miss their characters and great performances. Farmiga especially nails the perfect combination of high camp and deep pathos since episode 1, and has made the rough Season 1 watchable.

[Ezee E]

Mahershala Ali confirmed as the lead for True Detective 3. Cool.

Any idea of location yet?

[transmogrifier]

Every time I watch Freaks and Geeks, I'm a little bummed out that we never got more of it, but then we did get what I think is the best season of TV ever, so that's something, I guess.