Okay! Now this is what I’m talking about! You should definitely check this one out.
The non-spoiler version: Detective procedural. A small boy is murdered on a playground in a quaint village in the English countryside. The team of local detectives hop to it. There’s strange witnesses, schizophrenics, anonymous packages, a ghost detective, relationship disasters and medical maladies. The dialog is crisply delivered and heartfelt when it needs to be. The humor is subdued, and I’m mean that in a very nice way. The actors seem to have a solid grasp on their characters right from the start. The pacing of the episode was flawless. This is the kind of show that Netflix has an abundance of (relateively speaking). First episode of Paranoid makes me think it’ll measure up well against shows like Hinterland and Wallander and crap what are some of the others? Y’know what I’m talking about.
Unless the second episode takes a nosedive, I’m already committed to watching the entire first season of this show.
P.S. One of the main actors was in Luther (as Luther’s ex) and is in Game of Thrones as (hoo boy, here we go) the character Sheila Asp. Y’know, the one who killed Jamie’s daughter Emma May just before they got on the boat? Oh, and she’s the mother of those super hot desert assassin chicks.
UPDATE: Watched the entire series, which is just the one season of eight episodes. Totally worth it. I really enjoyed the show. Weird title, though. Not really reflective of the show's tone or anything. That's about the only criticism I can level at it. Solid series, top to bottom.
This inspired me to watch another Bojack Horseman last night; I've been watching them really slowly over the last year or so; every episode I like it a bit more.
I've had periods of flipping around through shows a lot but lately I've gotten hooked on the Bridge (American version). But of course last night Hulu was broken.
My wife and I have been watching the Netflix original Longmire, about a Sheriff in Wyoming and with the girl from Battlestar Galactica. It's a slightly cheesy crime show, but we usually enjoy those. Any kind of gritty crime show (like the Bridge) I'm on my own.
amc2 - your wife might like The Halcyon. It is set in a hotel in London in 1940 during the Blitz. ITV, who showed it, are hoping it might be another Downton Abbey, with staff and owners, romance between the two groups, etc. It has just finished over here. Worth a watch if you can get it, but not yet in the Downton class.
I'm definitely hooked on both Bojack Horseman and Paranoia. Netflix is a winner with both of those for sure. The dialog on Paranoid is outstanding, wonderful dark humor.
The latest first episode of a Netflix original show I watched is:
Fauda
Oh my god, the audio dubbing is terrible. The voices sound like the focus-group family in a SUV commercial. Couldn’t they have hired voice actors who actually sound something like the actors look? And the thing is sometimes they switch to native voices and the subtitles are just fine.
Burned out soldier spy coming out of retirement. All it ever takes is a former partner to say something like “The Panther is going to be there.” Naturally, the burned out solider spy will say something like “No, NO… he’s DEAD. I killed HIM. I SAW HIM DIE.”
No my friend, it’s true, the Panther is alive.
Oh great, back story with tedious dialog.
At some point, the gay thing has gotta be happening. All the signs are there.
Weird, every now and then the show flirts with some action movie cliche. But they only half-ass it, which is strange, because if you're going to take the cliche route, why only flirt with it. Strange.
Wow, I really wonder if the translation is bad, that a person listening in the native dialect would be enjoying a rich dialogue. This crap they’re dubbing in sounds like stuff the bad guy on a MacGyver episode would say.
All the scenes where the “good guys” aren’t in or just plain city scenes are wonderful. The terrorist was very sweet to his little brother, who is getting married. His bride is very sweet too.
Cool wedding music. The groom has had this silly grin on his face the whole time. He looks so thrilled to be getting married, and it’s so genuine, it’s almost like someone told the actor that he was really getting married to the actress.
Okay, the dialog is so bad I’m starting to think the English voice actors are ad-libbing all their dialog as they watch the actors do their thing.
Oh man, the groom just got shot. Lame. He seemed like a sweet kid.
God this is bad. The voice actors… it’s like they were given no idea on the tone of the show or what’s happening… they’re just reciting some lines off a piece of paper. The actors are in a gun fight and the voice actors sound like they’re ordering lattes at a moderately busy Starbucks.
All the street scenes during the big chase are cool The chase is pretty lame. But as b-roll, it’s pretty cool.
I swear to god, what I think it is (and this is merely supposition on my part), I think the whole thing originally was in Hebrew or Arabic w/English sub-titles, but some producer-type came along at the very end and said, hey, how are viewers gonna tell the difference between the good guys and the bad guys? You gotta dub in English voices for the good guys. And since it was last minute and maybe they were out of money, too, they went and got a couple interns out of production and said, hey, read these lines. That would explain the tone deaf voice audio to what’s happening on screen. It also wouldn’t surprise me if this same producer also ordered them to change some dialog at the last minute to buddy-movie type of crap.. get a joke in there about dating and divorce. And get a few lines in there where they’re busting each others balls. I mean, there’s such a disconnect between the touching scenes between father and son, and the groom and bride, and the wedding speech and even those scenes where the “good guys” are speaking in Arabic (on an undercover assignment) and then those scenes where the English is dubbed in. It’s gotta be some sort of post-production thing. But whatever the reason, it totally poisons the entire show.
If it weren’t for that, I’d probably watch the next episode. But now there’s no way I’m going to allow this show to inflict more pain upon me.
Watching an episode of Paranoia every other day, an episode of Bojack daily. Totes content.
The latest first episode of a Netflix Original tv show I watched was:
Bloodline
I’d seen this one hanging around the various Netflix “suggestions” for, like, forever it seems.
Takes place in the Florida keys. As they rolled the opening credits, and the way the voice-over was hinting at things, I was really hoping to see Thomas McGuane get mentioned as some sort of writing credit. No McGuane, but some of the spirit of the author in this first episode. Troubled, eldest son comes home from the big city. Old-school hotel, locally famous father, troubled relationship with family, sport fishers, local law enforcement with a dead body, drinking & drugs & bonfires, and a healthy dose of sarcasm.
The show does some flashbacks and flash-forwards, and the pacing is pretty good. Dialog is okay. Shots of Florida are wonderful. Acting is okay.
I have a feeling this show is going to go into heavy decline after a couple episodes… once it’s forced to actually move deeper into the story and leave the detached style behind. But I’m gonna play it episode-by-episode and see how it goes. Gonna keep this one on a short leash, but that’s a far more favorable opinion than I expected to have on this one.
Verdict: Good first episode, but final judgment pending.
Okay, The latest first episode of a Netflix Original tv show I watched was:
Jessica Jones
I actually tried watching this when it first came out, but I only got through the first ten minutes before shutting it down in frustration. But since I'm doing my first-episode thing, I figure I have to watch all the way through no matter what.
Well, that just sucks.
The damn show only had one glimmer of hope, and that was extinguished immediately by the god-awful voice-over they keep returning to. And it's so unnecessary... lazy, really. The voice-overs so often could've been accomplished by just a little effort in acting and direction and set design. It would've been forgivable if the dialog weren't so hammy. There's cliched lines delivered with all the enthusiasm of cliche delivery person who's on the verge of finally retiring. None of the actors seemed to buy into their own characters. That especially applies to whoever had the title role of Jessica Jones. There was one moment when she looked truly panicked, and the show seemed like suddenly it was going to take off... and then back to the vapid dialog and general stupidness. Even the theme song, promising at the start, turns into trite, boring crap, like some updated eighties action buddy movie roll credits music. All of this, so bad.
Which is a crying shame, because the Jessica Jones comic was one of the best things Marvel did. With Brian Bendis doing the writing, it made a former superhero very personable and strong and vulnerable, and it dealt with so many raw themes of PTSD, fear, victimization and finding courage... and it couched it in sort of hardboiled detective stories that sat at the fringes of superhero life... the misfits and discarded lives, both those who had/have powers and those who don't/never did. And when Bendis did bring in a true "bad guy," he somehow turned a silly retro character into something truly dangerous and fucking creepy. Like, a real bad guy. A bad person. And Jessica's humanity was always front and center.
It's really too bad that Netflix/Marvel/Show Producers couldn't figure out how to handle Jessica Jones (or Luke Cage or Daredevil, for that matter... two heroes whose humanity speaks more volumes than any "powers" they have... in the books, at least. The TV adaptations, just hammy bullshit mediocrity.
I can't stand the thought of watching any more of this cliche bullshit. And so I won't.
I really liked all the Netflix Marvel shows. Really a lot. Except maybe I wasn't 100 percent on board with Punisher. Or Electra. But I still really liked that season even though it was generally panned. Maybe it makes a difference that I never read a lot of comics? Just a few. I also suspend disbelief easily.
But anyway your description of Jessica Jones as really human with a really bad bad guy is how I remember the show; maybe it improves as it goes along? I can't really remember what I thought of the first episode but I was pretty committed after how much I liked Daredevil, so I could have not cared for the first few and still stuck with it. Or I could just be less picky/discerning.
The Punisher and Electra references you made... are those on Daredevil season 2 or do they have their own shows and I just haven't noticed yet?
I watched all of S1 of Daredevil. I thought it was mediocre at best, hammy at worst. It may help (in fact, in almost certainly helps) that you didn't read the comics. Daredevil in particular, first with Frank Miller writing it and later Brian Bendis, underwent a remarkable change in tone and focus, and redefined what a superhero was. Unfortunately, Season 1 of the show never came close to approaching that level of enlightenment. I might have enjoyed DD a bit more had I not been familiar with the comics. I'm likely more critical because of it.
Unrelated, the fight scenes in DD bored me to tears. Doesn't a punch mean anything anymore? Why does it take fifty haymakers to knock a dude down and get him to stay that way? It actually diminishes them, DD and the various thugs, that for all of their awesome fighting skills, apparently their fists and feet are made of feathers for all the good it does knocking someone out cold.
There may come a time when I give episode 2 of Jessica Jones a chance. But it'll have to be a day I'm desperate to watch something, anything. Same goes for the last couple episodes of Luke Cage.
I watched the whole season of Jessica Jones, having neither read the comics nor seen any of the other marvel series. I found it slow to get started - the first time I tried I gave up after ep 1, then tried again later. But once I got into it I enjoyed it quite a bit.
Yeah Punisher and Elektra show up in season 2. Punisher is the guy who was Rick's cop partner in Walking Dead; I liked him in the role... but something overall in the character development bugged me.
I read enough comics to be familiar with characters and story lines, and Dare Devil was always a favorite of mine, but not enough to make real comparisons. I think most Dare Devil I read though was post Frank Miller.
I liked the fight scenes. And you have to admit, just like with guns, evil henchmen get taken out way easier than real characters. There was a fight scene when he takes on a biker gang in season 2 that was one of my favorite fight scenes ever, although I think it may have been cribbed a little from the (more brutal) hammer fight scene in Old Boy.
Update: Bojack Horsemen is now one of my favorite shows.
Okay, this next Netflix Original was a movie, not a TV show, but I was in the mood for a movie, so I made the exception.
Mascots
Each one of these movies that comes off the assembly line shows an increasing amount of creative deterioration compared to its immediate predecessor. From the same(ish) group that did Best In Show, A Mighty Wind, etc. Many familiar faces, some new ones.
There's nothing wrong with this movie. There's a few funny moments, and a couple blatant grabs at the heartstrings, and a very familiar formula. I enjoyed it, but would never watch it again. Parker Posey totally phoned in her performance, but the thing of it is, her adequate days are still pretty damn good. So, between her and a couple of the new faces, the movie is enjoyable. Fred Willard was painful to watch, and not in a good way. The dude that plays the hockey mascot (The Fist) was pretty amusing.
I mean, I can see why Netflix ordered this movie. If I was putting together a battery of original programming, and this got pitched to me, I can see why Netflix would pick the movie up. It makes sense to me. But if I need one of these movies soon, I'll go with Best in Show.
So I'm almost done with Iron Fist and I don't think I really liked it as much as the other 3. Idk if it's because of this conversation or what but it just didn't click with me.
Spoilers kinda: There was one RZA directed episode with a fight challenge that I liked a lot, and I really like Madam Gao; liked her in Daredevil too; but then it got kinda more and more dull. I hate the Meechums and the Bacudo guy, and as much as Clair was cool in the other series this time she just seemed off.
I think it was this conversation. Darn Critics and your criticy thinking when I just want to relax and watc a stupid show! But really it wasn't because for all the criticism the other shows got it didn't bother me and I know Jonah critiqued Breaking Bad a lot and that never bothered me. I think this Iron Fist was just genuinely worse than the other ones.
Oh well; on the bright side new season of Better Call Saul is up! Not a word Jonah; I mean it.
I may be kinda thick on this, but is there a reason that "recommendations" is misspelled? Is it just a typo or is there some meaning I've been missing. It's been bugging me for years now.
I think it was just a typo, but I always liked the way it looked. I kinda thought I started the thread and it was my typo, but looking back I see it was Frogkopf. He might have had some reason, but hasn't been around here in years.
I'm gonna have a post about Iron Fist pretty soon. I'm a couple episodes away from finishing it.
And @amclark2 - I thought Better Call Saul Season One was one of the very best things I'd seen on TV in a while. It left Breaking Bad in the shade. I'm gonna start Season 2 pretty soon. Also, The Get Down has season two out now, too.
Well I'm guessing if you almost finished it you must've liked it better than Daredevil or Jessica Jones though.? I'm looking forward to your post. I've got one episode left.
Is the Get Down good? I never really looked at it.
So, I'm taking a short break from my Neflix Original project, but I've got two non-Netflix-original shows to report on, and they both take place in the far north.
Life Below Zero (BBC)
In the reality tv vein, this documentary follows the lives of a different people who live out in the middle-of-nowhere Alaska. The first episode focuses on their various methods of obtaining food while introducing who they are and what the basics of their lives are like. I wouldn't call it compelling tv, but it definitely had some interesting moments, and I'm likely to watch another episode or two and see if it's able to pull me in. "You can't mis-spend fish" said one of the show's personalities. There's some effective contrast used to distinguish between their lives and, y'know, the rest of civilization. Nothing particularly melodramatic or trite in the first episode, which is promising.
It wasn't until I began looking for the above image that I discovered that (it appears) this show has had a bunch of seasons. I may be introducing a show that everyone here is already familiar with.
Another show I watched recently:
Ice Pilots (History Channel)
Another reality show. This one focuses on Buffalo Airways, located in Yellowknife, Canada (which is where Season One of Ice Road Truckers took place, just in case... y'know what, I'm not sure why I just shared that). They fly a bunch of WW2-era planes, and the show goes into the history of it a little. But the show format is pretty standard for this kind of thing. It's not unlike Deadliest Catch or Great Lake Warriors or, actually, Ice Road Truckers. But it falls into the same trap that many of them do, which is to try to generate a bunch of bullshit tension and conflict and competition where it doesn't exist... and which the show doesn't need. I don't understand why these shows think they need to put all this superficial tension and conflict into these shows. The best part of Ice Pilots is when they simply explain what the job is and shows the various crew preparing and flying the planes. Slice of life stuff. And in the far north of Canada and Alaska, it makes for great b-roll. By the time I was half-way through the second season, I was ready for it to be over, and don't care if they've got a third season. That said, it's worth checking out, even if the production company are a bunch of hacks with their tired old formula.
Oh my god, I can't believe I forgot to keep you all updated on first episodes of netflix originals. Gonna need to get you caught up.
First up...
Altered Carbon
Okay, so, people are brought back to life because their sentience is stored on discs embedded in their necks and given bodies that are kept in storage, and mostly its the rich that can do this, but sometimes it's other people, too. So, there's the terrorist/alien/hired killer that gets brought back to life after 250 years, and he's being paroled as a loaner to this 1% rich dude who wants to find out who murdered him (yes, him, but he's still alive because his memory was downloaded into a new body). Meanwhile, the terrorist isn't sure if he wants to be back in this future world and so he spends a night on the town getting high and drunk and hanging out with this cop that wants to arrest him and these mercenaries who try to kill him and these Artificial Intelligence who run a hotel.
Does that makes sense? Well, it shouldn't. But the story flows rather seamlessly for that first episode, even if they do through a shit lot at you. The only actors that have any charisma is the one who dies early on, and receives a bunch of flashback scenes. But nobody is particularly irritating either. The visuals are amazing. If all this Netflix show ever amounts to is Blade Runner fan fiction, I'm cool with watching the whole series as long as the visuals stay this electric and noir.
Stranger Things is a tribute to many many 80's horror movies. Worth checking out.
If you liked that, I recoomend "Dark." It has something of the same feel, and a sorta similarish story, without being the same. It's in German, and apparently the dubbing isn't great. So watch it with subtitles.
On a totally different theme, "The Good Place." The first season is roughly speaking setup and character development for the second season. You can get away with watching the first two and the last two, and then going to S2, but if you feel like it, watch them all.
I managed to sit through all two seasons of "Glitch," and while it wasn't bad, the science was completely implausible and it did come pretty close to devolving into another "save the baby at all costs!" and motherhood-conquers-all show at the end. Still, a good example of what can be done by clever Australians on a low budget.
(Mind you, I'm not saying motherhood doesn't conquer all, just that it isn't necessary to keep reminding people of that in nearly every single TV series ever made.)
More recently I started watching "Babylon Berlin," which appears to be an attempt to shock everyone with how decadent Berlin was in the 1920s while unraveling some sort of conspiracy/mystery involving communists, pornographers, and corrupt politicians. Not bad so far, but I'm still deciding if I want to keep at it.
I generally haven't been too fond of the original Netflix series (they all seem like shlock with amazingly high production values and great actor4s). But some of the recent movies like "Mudbound" sound promising.
After one episode, I haven't decided whether to continue with Altered Carbon. The visuals are just incredible, but I tire of all these high tech murder/gorefests. I loved season one of the Time Travel show, Travelers but thought Season 2 was not worth my time.
I was a huge fan of a ABC miniseries now on Netflix , The Assets, about how the CIA managed to catch double agent Aldrich Ames in the 1980s. Great acting and writing -- plus it's based on a true story.
(Lately I've been warming up to docudramas. At least it discourages the scriptwriter and director from going overboard on the violence). Oh, yes, another Netflix original movie which I found amazing was The Most Hated Woman in America -- about the real-life murder of a prominent atheist).
Comedy-wise, I've been a fan of Schitt’s Creek, a great and very warm satire of rural life.
Finally I want to recommend two indie sci fi indie flicks which Netflix has offered from the beginning: Monsters and Europa Report. Both have great scripts and special effects for the budget. Monsters has so many allegorical, philosophical and political resonances...
I'm with you on several scores there, @idiotprogrammer - the first episode of altered carbon left me visually impressed, interested to find out what happens, and unwilling to plough through the general ethos to get there. And your description of the Netflix series rings true to me from the one I have bothered with. I have Europa Report on my watch list - must get to it. Maybe it'll keep me on Netflix for another month.
I managed to sit through all two seasons of "Glitch," and while it wasn't bad, the science was completely implausible and it did come pretty close to devolving into another "save the baby at all costs!" and motherhood-conquers-all show at the end. Still, a good example of what can be done by clever Australians on a low budget.
(Mind you, I'm not saying motherhood doesn't conquer all, just that it isn't necessary to keep reminding people of that in nearly every single TV series ever made.)
More recently I started watching "Babylon Berlin," which appears to be an attempt to shock everyone with how decadent Berlin was in the 1920s while unraveling some sort of conspiracy/mystery involving communists, pornographers, and corrupt politicians. Not bad so far, but I'm still deciding if I want to keep at it.
Glitch season two was nearly unwatchable for me as the characters started to go and I didn't really care what happened to who. Seemd to rip of a bit of Fringe a la shapechangers.
I'm familiar with the character from the comics, but that's it. I heard that Frank Castle makes an appearance in the second season of Daredevil (didn't watch it). The first episode doesn't require any background. You have a quiet, intense dude working a construction job and not wanting to get to know anybody and not wanting to make any waves. The rest of the episode lazily creates some scenarios where Frank finally has to get involved and kill some people. It's okay. The episode is fine. Whatever.
[Not really spoilers follow, but maybe]
It's not a bad series, actually. The dude who plays Frank does a solid job... likable without making us forget what an asshole Frank is. His interactions with his buddy/conspirator are personable. The plot is contrived, but not where it's painful to follow. Probably the reason this series works where its other Marvel series have failed is because there's no superpowers in this one.
I wouldn't recommend this series. It just isn't good enough. But I don't regret breezing through it. Enough enjoyable moments to pass the time.
Minor spoiler? I didn’t really like the final fight scene.
Have you watched Legion? Season 1 is on Hulu. I think it’s easily my favorite Marvel show, and I’ve liked them all, except felt unsure about Iron Fist.
I wonder if I like these shows more than you do because I followed the comics less? I had friends who were into comics and read/had a few; enough to be aware of a lot of characters, but was never really a collector. Maybe not though; I think I also suspend disbelief really easily.
Comments
Paranoid
Okay! Now this is what I’m talking about! You should definitely check this one out.
The non-spoiler version: Detective procedural. A small boy is murdered on a playground in a quaint village in the English countryside. The team of local detectives hop to it. There’s strange witnesses, schizophrenics, anonymous packages, a ghost detective, relationship disasters and medical maladies. The dialog is crisply delivered and heartfelt when it needs to be. The humor is subdued, and I’m mean that in a very nice way. The actors seem to have a solid grasp on their characters right from the start. The pacing of the episode was flawless. This is the kind of show that Netflix has an abundance of (relateively speaking). First episode of Paranoid makes me think it’ll measure up well against shows like Hinterland and Wallander and crap what are some of the others? Y’know what I’m talking about.
Unless the second episode takes a nosedive, I’m already committed to watching the entire first season of this show.
P.S. One of the main actors was in Luther (as Luther’s ex) and is in Game of Thrones as (hoo boy, here we go) the character Sheila Asp. Y’know, the one who killed Jamie’s daughter Emma May just before they got on the boat? Oh, and she’s the mother of those super hot desert assassin chicks.
UPDATE: Watched the entire series, which is just the one season of eight episodes. Totally worth it. I really enjoyed the show. Weird title, though. Not really reflective of the show's tone or anything. That's about the only criticism I can level at it. Solid series, top to bottom.
I've had periods of flipping around through shows a lot but lately I've gotten hooked on the Bridge (American version). But of course last night Hulu was broken.
My wife and I have been watching the Netflix original Longmire, about a Sheriff in Wyoming and with the girl from Battlestar Galactica. It's a slightly cheesy crime show, but we usually enjoy those. Any kind of gritty crime show (like the Bridge) I'm on my own.
I'm definitely hooked on both Bojack Horseman and Paranoia. Netflix is a winner with both of those for sure. The dialog on Paranoid is outstanding, wonderful dark humor.
The latest first episode of a Netflix original show I watched is:
Fauda
Oh my god, the audio dubbing is terrible. The voices sound like the focus-group family in a SUV commercial. Couldn’t they have hired voice actors who actually sound something like the actors look? And the thing is sometimes they switch to native voices and the subtitles are just fine.
Burned out soldier spy coming out of retirement. All it ever takes is a former partner to say something like “The Panther is going to be there.” Naturally, the burned out solider spy will say something like “No, NO… he’s DEAD. I killed HIM. I SAW HIM DIE.”
No my friend, it’s true, the Panther is alive.
Oh great, back story with tedious dialog.
At some point, the gay thing has gotta be happening. All the signs are there.
Weird, every now and then the show flirts with some action movie cliche. But they only half-ass it, which is strange, because if you're going to take the cliche route, why only flirt with it. Strange.
Wow, I really wonder if the translation is bad, that a person listening in the native dialect would be enjoying a rich dialogue. This crap they’re dubbing in sounds like stuff the bad guy on a MacGyver episode would say.
All the scenes where the “good guys” aren’t in or just plain city scenes are wonderful. The terrorist was very sweet to his little brother, who is getting married. His bride is very sweet too.
Cool wedding music. The groom has had this silly grin on his face the whole time. He looks so thrilled to be getting married, and it’s so genuine, it’s almost like someone told the actor that he was really getting married to the actress.
Okay, the dialog is so bad I’m starting to think the English voice actors are ad-libbing all their dialog as they watch the actors do their thing.
Oh man, the groom just got shot. Lame. He seemed like a sweet kid.
God this is bad. The voice actors… it’s like they were given no idea on the tone of the show or what’s happening… they’re just reciting some lines off a piece of paper. The actors are in a gun fight and the voice actors sound like they’re ordering lattes at a moderately busy Starbucks.
All the street scenes during the big chase are cool The chase is pretty lame. But as b-roll, it’s pretty cool.
I swear to god, what I think it is (and this is merely supposition on my part), I think the whole thing originally was in Hebrew or Arabic w/English sub-titles, but some producer-type came along at the very end and said, hey, how are viewers gonna tell the difference between the good guys and the bad guys? You gotta dub in English voices for the good guys. And since it was last minute and maybe they were out of money, too, they went and got a couple interns out of production and said, hey, read these lines. That would explain the tone deaf voice audio to what’s happening on screen. It also wouldn’t surprise me if this same producer also ordered them to change some dialog at the last minute to buddy-movie type of crap.. get a joke in there about dating and divorce. And get a few lines in there where they’re busting each others balls. I mean, there’s such a disconnect between the touching scenes between father and son, and the groom and bride, and the wedding speech and even those scenes where the “good guys” are speaking in Arabic (on an undercover assignment) and then those scenes where the English is dubbed in. It’s gotta be some sort of post-production thing. But whatever the reason, it totally poisons the entire show.
If it weren’t for that, I’d probably watch the next episode. But now there’s no way I’m going to allow this show to inflict more pain upon me.
Hashtag Fail
Watching an episode of Paranoia every other day, an episode of Bojack daily. Totes content.
The latest first episode of a Netflix Original tv show I watched was:
Bloodline
I’d seen this one hanging around the various Netflix “suggestions” for, like, forever it seems.
Takes place in the Florida keys. As they rolled the opening credits, and the way the voice-over was hinting at things, I was really hoping to see Thomas McGuane get mentioned as some sort of writing credit. No McGuane, but some of the spirit of the author in this first episode. Troubled, eldest son comes home from the big city. Old-school hotel, locally famous father, troubled relationship with family, sport fishers, local law enforcement with a dead body, drinking & drugs & bonfires, and a healthy dose of sarcasm.
The show does some flashbacks and flash-forwards, and the pacing is pretty good. Dialog is okay. Shots of Florida are wonderful. Acting is okay.
I have a feeling this show is going to go into heavy decline after a couple episodes… once it’s forced to actually move deeper into the story and leave the detached style behind. But I’m gonna play it episode-by-episode and see how it goes. Gonna keep this one on a short leash, but that’s a far more favorable opinion than I expected to have on this one.
Verdict: Good first episode, but final judgment pending.
Jessica Jones
I actually tried watching this when it first came out, but I only got through the first ten minutes before shutting it down in frustration. But since I'm doing my first-episode thing, I figure I have to watch all the way through no matter what.
Well, that just sucks.
The damn show only had one glimmer of hope, and that was extinguished immediately by the god-awful voice-over they keep returning to. And it's so unnecessary... lazy, really. The voice-overs so often could've been accomplished by just a little effort in acting and direction and set design. It would've been forgivable if the dialog weren't so hammy. There's cliched lines delivered with all the enthusiasm of cliche delivery person who's on the verge of finally retiring. None of the actors seemed to buy into their own characters. That especially applies to whoever had the title role of Jessica Jones. There was one moment when she looked truly panicked, and the show seemed like suddenly it was going to take off... and then back to the vapid dialog and general stupidness. Even the theme song, promising at the start, turns into trite, boring crap, like some updated eighties action buddy movie roll credits music. All of this, so bad.
Which is a crying shame, because the Jessica Jones comic was one of the best things Marvel did. With Brian Bendis doing the writing, it made a former superhero very personable and strong and vulnerable, and it dealt with so many raw themes of PTSD, fear, victimization and finding courage... and it couched it in sort of hardboiled detective stories that sat at the fringes of superhero life... the misfits and discarded lives, both those who had/have powers and those who don't/never did. And when Bendis did bring in a true "bad guy," he somehow turned a silly retro character into something truly dangerous and fucking creepy. Like, a real bad guy. A bad person. And Jessica's humanity was always front and center.
It's really too bad that Netflix/Marvel/Show Producers couldn't figure out how to handle Jessica Jones (or Luke Cage or Daredevil, for that matter... two heroes whose humanity speaks more volumes than any "powers" they have... in the books, at least. The TV adaptations, just hammy bullshit mediocrity.
I can't stand the thought of watching any more of this cliche bullshit. And so I won't.
But anyway your description of Jessica Jones as really human with a really bad bad guy is how I remember the show; maybe it improves as it goes along? I can't really remember what I thought of the first episode but I was pretty committed after how much I liked Daredevil, so I could have not cared for the first few and still stuck with it. Or I could just be less picky/discerning.
The Punisher and Electra references you made... are those on Daredevil season 2 or do they have their own shows and I just haven't noticed yet?
I watched all of S1 of Daredevil. I thought it was mediocre at best, hammy at worst. It may help (in fact, in almost certainly helps) that you didn't read the comics. Daredevil in particular, first with Frank Miller writing it and later Brian Bendis, underwent a remarkable change in tone and focus, and redefined what a superhero was. Unfortunately, Season 1 of the show never came close to approaching that level of enlightenment. I might have enjoyed DD a bit more had I not been familiar with the comics. I'm likely more critical because of it.
Unrelated, the fight scenes in DD bored me to tears. Doesn't a punch mean anything anymore? Why does it take fifty haymakers to knock a dude down and get him to stay that way? It actually diminishes them, DD and the various thugs, that for all of their awesome fighting skills, apparently their fists and feet are made of feathers for all the good it does knocking someone out cold.
There may come a time when I give episode 2 of Jessica Jones a chance. But it'll have to be a day I'm desperate to watch something, anything. Same goes for the last couple episodes of Luke Cage.
I read enough comics to be familiar with characters and story lines, and Dare Devil was always a favorite of mine, but not enough to make real comparisons. I think most Dare Devil I read though was post Frank Miller.
I liked the fight scenes. And you have to admit, just like with guns, evil henchmen get taken out way easier than real characters. There was a fight scene when he takes on a biker gang in season 2 that was one of my favorite fight scenes ever, although I think it may have been cribbed a little from the (more brutal) hammer fight scene in Old Boy.
Update: Bojack Horsemen is now one of my favorite shows.
Okay, this next Netflix Original was a movie, not a TV show, but I was in the mood for a movie, so I made the exception.
Mascots
Each one of these movies that comes off the assembly line shows an increasing amount of creative deterioration compared to its immediate predecessor. From the same(ish) group that did Best In Show, A Mighty Wind, etc. Many familiar faces, some new ones.
There's nothing wrong with this movie. There's a few funny moments, and a couple blatant grabs at the heartstrings, and a very familiar formula. I enjoyed it, but would never watch it again. Parker Posey totally phoned in her performance, but the thing of it is, her adequate days are still pretty damn good. So, between her and a couple of the new faces, the movie is enjoyable. Fred Willard was painful to watch, and not in a good way. The dude that plays the hockey mascot (The Fist) was pretty amusing.
I mean, I can see why Netflix ordered this movie. If I was putting together a battery of original programming, and this got pitched to me, I can see why Netflix would pick the movie up. It makes sense to me. But if I need one of these movies soon, I'll go with Best in Show.
Spoilers kinda: There was one RZA directed episode with a fight challenge that I liked a lot, and I really like Madam Gao; liked her in Daredevil too; but then it got kinda more and more dull. I hate the Meechums and the Bacudo guy, and as much as Clair was cool in the other series this time she just seemed off.
I think it was this conversation. Darn Critics and your criticy thinking when I just want to relax and watc a stupid show! But really it wasn't because for all the criticism the other shows got it didn't bother me and I know Jonah critiqued Breaking Bad a lot and that never bothered me. I think this Iron Fist was just genuinely worse than the other ones.
Oh well; on the bright side new season of Better Call Saul is up! Not a word Jonah; I mean it.
Is it just a typo or is there some meaning I've been missing. It's been bugging me for years now.
Hi Frokopf, how r you?
And @amclark2 - I thought Better Call Saul Season One was one of the very best things I'd seen on TV in a while. It left Breaking Bad in the shade. I'm gonna start Season 2 pretty soon. Also, The Get Down has season two out now, too.
/furniture
Is the Get Down good? I never really looked at it.
/monies
- We miss you @frogkopf !
- I'd rule out misspelling when Froggie is involved
So, I'm taking a short break from my Neflix Original project, but I've got two non-Netflix-original shows to report on, and they both take place in the far north.
Life Below Zero (BBC)
In the reality tv vein, this documentary follows the lives of a different people who live out in the middle-of-nowhere Alaska. The first episode focuses on their various methods of obtaining food while introducing who they are and what the basics of their lives are like. I wouldn't call it compelling tv, but it definitely had some interesting moments, and I'm likely to watch another episode or two and see if it's able to pull me in. "You can't mis-spend fish" said one of the show's personalities. There's some effective contrast used to distinguish between their lives and, y'know, the rest of civilization. Nothing particularly melodramatic or trite in the first episode, which is promising.
It wasn't until I began looking for the above image that I discovered that (it appears) this show has had a bunch of seasons. I may be introducing a show that everyone here is already familiar with.
Another show I watched recently:
Ice Pilots (History Channel)
Another reality show. This one focuses on Buffalo Airways, located in Yellowknife, Canada (which is where Season One of Ice Road Truckers took place, just in case... y'know what, I'm not sure why I just shared that). They fly a bunch of WW2-era planes, and the show goes into the history of it a little. But the show format is pretty standard for this kind of thing. It's not unlike Deadliest Catch or Great Lake Warriors or, actually, Ice Road Truckers. But it falls into the same trap that many of them do, which is to try to generate a bunch of bullshit tension and conflict and competition where it doesn't exist... and which the show doesn't need. I don't understand why these shows think they need to put all this superficial tension and conflict into these shows. The best part of Ice Pilots is when they simply explain what the job is and shows the various crew preparing and flying the planes. Slice of life stuff. And in the far north of Canada and Alaska, it makes for great b-roll. By the time I was half-way through the second season, I was ready for it to be over, and don't care if they've got a third season. That said, it's worth checking out, even if the production company are a bunch of hacks with their tired old formula.
First up...
Okay, so, people are brought back to life because their sentience is stored on discs embedded in their necks and given bodies that are kept in storage, and mostly its the rich that can do this, but sometimes it's other people, too. So, there's the terrorist/alien/hired killer that gets brought back to life after 250 years, and he's being paroled as a loaner to this 1% rich dude who wants to find out who murdered him (yes, him, but he's still alive because his memory was downloaded into a new body). Meanwhile, the terrorist isn't sure if he wants to be back in this future world and so he spends a night on the town getting high and drunk and hanging out with this cop that wants to arrest him and these mercenaries who try to kill him and these Artificial Intelligence who run a hotel.
Does that makes sense? Well, it shouldn't. But the story flows rather seamlessly for that first episode, even if they do through a shit lot at you. The only actors that have any charisma is the one who dies early on, and receives a bunch of flashback scenes. But nobody is particularly irritating either. The visuals are amazing. If all this Netflix show ever amounts to is Blade Runner fan fiction, I'm cool with watching the whole series as long as the visuals stay this electric and noir.
If you liked that, I recoomend "Dark." It has something of the same feel, and a sorta similarish story, without being the same. It's in German, and apparently the dubbing isn't great. So watch it with subtitles.
On a totally different theme, "The Good Place." The first season is roughly speaking setup and character development for the second season. You can get away with watching the first two and the last two, and then going to S2, but if you feel like it, watch them all.
(Mind you, I'm not saying motherhood doesn't conquer all, just that it isn't necessary to keep reminding people of that in nearly every single TV series ever made.)
More recently I started watching "Babylon Berlin," which appears to be an attempt to shock everyone with how decadent Berlin was in the 1920s while unraveling some sort of conspiracy/mystery involving communists, pornographers, and corrupt politicians. Not bad so far, but I'm still deciding if I want to keep at it.
I generally haven't been too fond of the original Netflix series (they all seem like shlock with amazingly high production values and great actor4s). But some of the recent movies like "Mudbound" sound promising.
After one episode, I haven't decided whether to continue with Altered Carbon. The visuals are just incredible, but I tire of all these high tech murder/gorefests. I loved season one of the Time Travel show, Travelers but thought Season 2 was not worth my time.
I was a huge fan of a ABC miniseries now on Netflix , The Assets, about how the CIA managed to catch double agent Aldrich Ames in the 1980s. Great acting and writing -- plus it's based on a true story.
(Lately I've been warming up to docudramas. At least it discourages the scriptwriter and director from going overboard on the violence). Oh, yes, another Netflix original movie which I found amazing was The Most Hated Woman in America -- about the real-life murder of a prominent atheist).
Comedy-wise, I've been a fan of Schitt’s Creek, a great and very warm satire of rural life.
Finally I want to recommend two indie sci fi indie flicks which Netflix has offered from the beginning: Monsters and Europa Report. Both have great scripts and special effects for the budget. Monsters has so many allegorical, philosophical and political resonances...
I'm familiar with the character from the comics, but that's it. I heard that Frank Castle makes an appearance in the second season of Daredevil (didn't watch it). The first episode doesn't require any background. You have a quiet, intense dude working a construction job and not wanting to get to know anybody and not wanting to make any waves. The rest of the episode lazily creates some scenarios where Frank finally has to get involved and kill some people. It's okay. The episode is fine. Whatever.
[Not really spoilers follow, but maybe]
It's not a bad series, actually. The dude who plays Frank does a solid job... likable without making us forget what an asshole Frank is. His interactions with his buddy/conspirator are personable. The plot is contrived, but not where it's painful to follow. Probably the reason this series works where its other Marvel series have failed is because there's no superpowers in this one.
I wouldn't recommend this series. It just isn't good enough. But I don't regret breezing through it. Enough enjoyable moments to pass the time.
Have you watched Legion? Season 1 is on Hulu. I think it’s easily my favorite Marvel show, and I’ve liked them all, except felt unsure about Iron Fist.
I wonder if I like these shows more than you do because I followed the comics less? I had friends who were into comics and read/had a few; enough to be aware of a lot of characters, but was never really a collector. Maybe not though; I think I also suspend disbelief really easily.