Discuss and Rate the Last Thing You Watched (non-movies)

[Gordon_4]

I’ve been binging The Rookie while I’ve been packing and unpacking my house for the new floors we now have installed.

It’s fine. Nathan Fillion still has the easy charm of Mal Reynolds in spades, and his supporting cast are very able. Episodes move at a good clip and don’t spend time meandering around.

However, the show does over egg its pudding with the gun fights. Like I know LA can be dangerous but the amount of shootouts these people get into stretches credulity somewhat. I also think it’s kind of weird that a patrol officer can just go “Yeah I’m gonna take an AR15 out today”.

 

[Bartholen]

Finished Bojack's third season. It has some of the most emotionally heavy stuff of the entire series, like the episode that's basically one long argument between him and Princess Carolyn, or the notoriously rough That's too much, man! It's so emotionally complex that watching it while mildly ill produced some headache-inducingly convoluted fever dreams. It's the turning point where the show's balance between comedy and tragedy becomes even more extreme as Bojack spirals downwards, and everyone's pretty much better off by not having him in their lives. It's also the point after which I've barely rewatched any of it and remember even less, so it'll be interesting to rediscover it.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Finished Severance S2. As flustered as I got this season with the show's... mysteryboxiness, the finale settled pretty much all the big overarching enigmas and dared wrap up most plotlines, too. We're still treated to an open ending but it's more tolerable than S1's - more of a "what's next" rather than a flat out cliffhanger trumping the action. I dare say in a world where S3 never happens, this even works as a series finale.

So I feel very liberated by he finale, and the wait for the next season will definitely be more tolerable, partly because I'm just not that into it anymore.

S2's biggest miss was never reuniting the four main characters ever again, when their dynamic was the heart and soul of the show, and with that foregoing the workplace comedy structure in favor of, like, Lost or Westworld. Does anybody think leaving the island improved Lost, or leaving the theme park improved Westworld? Well there you go.

 

[Bob_McMillan]

Ted Lasso seasons 2 and 3 got me through a particularly rough month at work. I have so many criticisms, but only because I love the show so much. Great characters, uplifting vibes, genuinely funny jokes. Not exactly sure what they'll do for a season 4, but I have high hopes.

 

[BrawlMan]

James Rolfe is my spirit animal when it comes to martial arts movies.

​

 

[Phoenixmgs]

Ted Lasso seasons 2 and 3 got me through a particularly rough month at work. I have so many criticisms, but only because I love the show so much. Great characters, uplifting vibes, genuinely funny jokes. Not exactly sure what they'll do for a season 4, but I have high hopes.

There's gonna be a season 4? I thought 3 was the last season. I wasn't too big a fan of season 3 overall, it was fine I guess. I recall the episodes were way too long and they did all this stuff with all the characters and then they just decided to return all the characters to the status quo basically so like everything that happened felt kinda pointless to me.

 

[Old_Hunter_77]

There's gonna be a season 4? I thought 3 was the last season. I wasn't too big a fan of season 3 overall, it was fine I guess. I recall the episodes were way too long and they did all this stuff with all the characters and then they just decided to return all the characters to the status quo basically so like everything that happened felt kinda pointless to me.

Correct, show's over.

At least as of now (because given how freaking everything keeps coming back I won't be surprised if in 5 years that will be Ted Lasso: Rugby or whatever).

 

[Bob_McMillan]

Correct, show's over.

At least as of now (because given how freaking everything keeps coming back I won't be surprised if in 5 years that will be Ted Lasso: Rugby or whatever).

Season 4 was officially announced just last March 14. I genuinely think your rugby joke might come true.

There's gonna be a season 4? I thought 3 was the last season. I wasn't too big a fan of season 3 overall, it was fine I guess. I recall the episodes were way too long and they did all this stuff with all the characters and then they just decided to return all the characters to the status quo basically so like everything that happened felt kinda pointless to me.

Season 3 was definitely the weakest. I was not a fan of where Jamie, Roy, and Keeley ended up. I agree with the episode length criticism as well.

 

[Phoenixmgs]

Season 3 was definitely the weakest. I was not a fan of where Jamie, Roy, and Keeley ended up. I agree with the episode length criticism as well.

I didn't like what they did with Nate either. I get the show's message is obviously rehabilitating people (not quite the right word but giving people second chances and support and all that), but you can still have a "villain" per se as you can't reach literally everyone.

 

[Xprimentyl]

On Cinema At The Cinema: Brilliant / Great

Tim Heidecker and Gregg Turkington host a very amateur movie review show, except it's everything BUT the reviews that make the show worth watching.

I simply do not get it. I know I mentioned watching this a few years ago, but I started it over again a few days ago, and... I sill don't get it, but I love it. It's an atrociously long slow burn form of comedy that I can only imagine appeals to a very niche few, and it's fucking brilliant. I've been trying to imagine pitching it to anyone else, and I just can't; I can't ask anyone to watch 4 hours of effectively nonsense for a gag to land at the prefect moment, especially when the jokes are mostly dark, disturbing, and tragic. It's not a show you can watch an episode or two of and "get;" you have to commit; the whole body of work is the piece. Heidecker and Turkington think on an entirely other plane of comedy; I imagine like Andy Kaufman where any given moment is not only not funny and uncomfortably off-putting, but in the broader context, is absurdly rewarding humor.

Bring your popcorn, but bring a LOT of it; this is a long ride.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Disclaimer (Apple TV+)

Mom thriller starring Cate Blanchett and Kevin Kline, directed by Alfonso Cuarón. Kline is a retired widower with a dead kid, Blanchett is a successful author with a husband (Borat) and a kid (the gangly lil cocktease from Power of the Dog). Kline gets it in his head that Blanchett had some nebulous part in the death of his kid and so self-publishes a novel as a coded fuck you to Blanchett, who immediately catches on and freaks out.

So this looks to me like a sanitized version of Nocturnal Animals, in its suspenseful entwining of a hazy crime perpetrated in the past and the unravelling of characters in the present, with a seemingly innocent "fiction" book serving as a j'accuse/catalyst. One episode out of seven and this looks to me like it might as well have been a movie, but we'll see how the miniseries format pans out.

 

[Old_Hunter_77]

Disclaimer (Apple TV+)

Mom thriller starring Cate Blanchett and Kevin Kline, directed by Alfonso Cuarón. Kline is a retired widower with a dead kid, Blanchett is a successful author with a husband (Borat) and a kid (the gangly lil cocktease from Power of the Dog). Kline gets it in his head that Blanchett had some nebulous part in the death of his kid and so self-publishes a novel as a coded fuck you to Blanchett, who immediately catches on and freaks out.

So this looks to me like a sanitized version of Nocturnal Animals, in its suspenseful entwining of a hazy crime perpetrated in the past and the unravelling of characters in the present, with a seemingly innocent "fiction" book serving as a j'accuse/catalyst. One episode out of seven and this looks to me like it might as well have been a movie, but we'll see how the miniseries format pans out.

Wife and I gave up after two episodes. The mini-series that could have been a movie really hit us hard and then there's that decision of well do we care enough to see where this goes and we just didn't. We didn't hate it we just... watched other stuff, I guess?

 

[Old_Hunter_77]

Season 4 was officially announced just last March 14. I genuinely think your rugby joke might come true.

OMG can I go one day where reality doesn't out-stupid my stupid jokes making fun of reality lol

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Wife and I gave up after two episodes. The mini-series that could have been a movie really hit us hard and then there's that decision of well do we care enough to see where this goes and we just didn't. We didn't hate it we just... watched other stuff, I guess?

What's a good miniseries on Apple TV+, now that Severance is over and I still have 2 weeks left before the sub runs out? Already watched Blackbird, Masters of the Air, Shrink Next Door.

 

[Old_Hunter_77]

What's a good miniseries on Apple TV+, now that Severance is over and I still have 2 weeks left before the sub runs out? Already watched Blackbird, Masters of the Air, Shrink Next Door.

Hijack stars Idris Elba dealing with a, well, hijack, of a plane. This isn't Air Force One, he's a business negotiator guy so it's more about tense drama. I had heard mixed things so I enjoyed it more than I thought I would.

Bad Monkey is not a miniseries it's a show that had one season so far but it's a lot of fun. Stars Vince Vaughan as a very Vince Vaughan character which isn't always my thing but this is the perfect setting where his smarm belongs in the Florida Keys. So you can watch it in two weeks and not miss anything that happened yet and if you like it you have something to look forward to the next time you sub up.

 

[Xprimentyl]

Baby Reindeer: Ep 1-2: Oof / Great

Based on the true story of a struggling comedian working as a bartender who has a casual interaction with a female customer. What he doesn't realize in the moment is that his simple act of kindness, showing this women platonic affection, would spark her obsession with him, and she begins stalking him.

Weird stuff. Lots of uncomfortable bits, but I guess that's the point. It gets pretty dark very early on, so I'm curious how bad and out of hand things will get over the final 5 episodes.

 

[PsychedelicDiamond]

Baby Reindeer: Ep 1-2: Oof / Great

Based on the true story of a struggling comedian working as a bartender who has a casual interaction with a female customer. What he doesn't realize in the moment is that his simple act of kindness, showing this women platonic affection, would spark her obsession with him, and she begins stalking him.

Weird stuff. Lots of uncomfortable bits, but I guess that's the point. It gets pretty dark very early on, so I'm curious how bad and out of hand things will get over the final 5 episodes.

Quite so.

It's a show about people making very poor decisions. Considering its autobiographical you gotta hand it to Richard Gadd that he managed to write and play himself at his most pathetic. I often had trouble relating to the way the people in that series acted but there was always a part of me that kind of understood why they did what they did, even when it was very obviously a very bad idea.

 

[Xprimentyl]

Quite so.

It's a show about people making very poor decisions. Considering its autobiographical you gotta hand it to Richard Gadd that he managed to write and play himself at his most pathetic. I often had trouble relating to the way the people in that series acted but there was always a part of me that kind of understood why they did what they did, even when it was very obviously a very bad idea.

Yeah, a couple more episodes in, and woof, this is rough. You're spot on: "It's a show about people making very poor decisions." I absolutely cannot relate to any of them, but I've never had much of an issue with impulse control, or had the kind of deep and passionate desire to succeed where failure is nigh inevitable that would have me risking everything from my relationships to my very dignity. Under better circumstances, I'd almost envy those kinds of people because they keep going when I inevitably land of "it's not fucking worth it;" if it takes stories like these to build success and/or figure oneself out, I'm content being wholly unremarkable until my dying day.

Oh well, off to see this thing through. If I wasn't working, I'd pour a cocktail to help cope the sinking anxiety and depression. "Dark Comedy" my ass...

 

[Xprimentyl]

Yeah, a couple more episodes in, and woof, this is rough. You're spot on: "It's a show about people making very poor decisions." I absolutely cannot relate to any of them, but I've never had much of an issue with impulse control, or had the kind of deep and passionate desire to succeed where failure is nigh inevitable that would have me risking everything from my relationships to my very dignity. Under better circumstances, I'd almost envy those kinds of people because they keep going when I inevitably land of "it's not fucking worth it;" if it takes stories like these to build success and/or figure oneself out, I'm content being wholly unremarkable until my dying day.

Oh well, off to see this thing through. If I wasn't working, I'd pour a cocktail to help cope the sinking anxiety and depression. "Dark Comedy" my ass...

Welp, finished Baby Reindeer, and now I feel like crap. It's an awful story (as in a well-written and performed story about an awful subject,) and it intentionally ends back where it started, in sadness and despair. I can only hope that the fact that this series exists is because the writer and subject, Richard Gadd, has found himself in a better place, and wanted to share his as a cautionary tale. I can't imagine feeling that alone, that confused, that lost. Recommended, but don't expect to "enjoy" yourself.

 

[Bartholen]

Finished Bojack's fourth season. It shakes the format and dynamics up a fair bit, which is great to make the show not feel predictable or repetitive. Bojack hardly interacts with either Todd or Mr PB in the season where in the previous ones they did it on a regular basis. Princess Carolyn has perhaps the most brutal arc of the season with her getting the shit kicked out of her mentally. Hollyhock is a great character, and so important for forcing Bojack to actually grow as a person. It's one of the most interesting odd pairing of characters I've seen in any media, and their dynamic is really well executed. Despite the show revolving around characters in or approaching middle age, it's remarkable just how well and compellingly the teenage characters are written as well. The season's also got some of the series' most ambitious storytelling with basically a silent episode, a Todd-centered episode and the non-linear and harrowing "Time's Arrow".

Todd feels perhaps the most sidelined this season. With him having neither Bojack nor really Mr PB to play off of, his clown dentist venture, delightfully nonsensical and silly as it is, feels mostly like a side plot. He does have a vital role in Princess Carolyn's arc, being her sole pillar of support, but otherwise he's mostly in the periphery. His asexuality doesn't really come to the forefront until next season, so this season feels very "business as usual" for Todd, sans the amazing "Hooray, Todd episode!"

The amount of details I'm picking up on only now is just staggering. For some reason I never picked up on that Beatrice decided to have Bojack instead of an abortion because of losing her doll as a child, it wasn't just some arbitrary decision or how those times were. Or that the show within the show that a lot of season 5 centers around comes about because it shares a name with Princess Carolyn's miscarried baby. Or all the signs that Diane and Mr PB's marriage was doomed to fail. This show is just bafflingly good.