What was the last TV show you watched?

[MisterCairo]

The finally arrived latest episode of Brooklyn Nine-Nine. What a fun ride!

 

[Ernest P Shackleton]

Good Behavior. new series on TNT with Michelle Dockery (Lady Mary, Downton Abbey). Not going to be a top-tier show, but it was better than I expected. The premise is interesting enough, though not all that original feeling. The directing left me a little wanting. The jump from moment to moment, situation to situation, wasn't as fluid as it can be. How much time has passed? Is this the next day? A couple hours later? A key situation or two could have used some building rather than springing it on the audience. I guess when Dockery cries, she's always going to look like Lady Mary crying. I found that sort of funny and telling of her skill level.

You're the Worst. season finale. This show can be too goofy and then preachy, but there are some brilliant moments because of the topics and dark perspectives. The characters could use some more depth if the series continues, but I like it.

 

[Fading Fast]

... I guess when Dockery cries, she's always going to look like Lady Mary crying. I found that sort of funny and telling of her skill level....

I saw Lady Mary sneak out a few times as well. Can you image the talking to Lady Mary would give Dockery's character in this one? Mary was more than a tad judgmental .

There's never enough good material, but IMHO, Dockery should have waited for a better script. That said, we'll keep watching for awhile because we enjoy her as an actor (which is why successful actors get paid so much money).

 

[Doctor Strange]

I only made it halfway through Good Behavior. It didn't work for me. While Dockery is always fascinating, I just couldn't buy it.

I finally watched the season finale of Better Things. I really like this show. I'm glad it's getting another season, it's a worthy project from the Louis C.K. continuum.

I've been watching my usual superhero shows, and the one that most impresses me is Supergirl. Substantially retooled for its second season, now on The CW vs. CBS (so: shot on a lower budget in a different city with numerous set and cast changes), it still has the same strengths, most notably a unique degree of compassion for its characters. Anyway, it continues to surprise me with how well it understands the way that Superman/Supergirl functions as a beacon of optimism - not the emo godling of the Zack Snyder films.

 

[Ernest P Shackleton]

There's never enough good material, but IMHO, Dockery should have waited for a better script.

She belongs on a smart HBO series, or at least a series on AMC. Something that took a while to develop and write. The problem is: I don't think there are many of those available to anyone, let alone available specifically to her grade of actor. I mean...I like some of the new HBO shows, but none are world class series. Either I've been spoiled by a handful of shows and my expectations are unreasonable, or it really is THAT difficult to find ideas and execution that even begin to approach that level. Maybe a little of both, but probably mostly the latter. Dockery might be A-list on BBC/PBS, but Hollywood in general? I don't think so. If there are a dozen or two top-tier jobs, she probably isn't finding them on her desk. And you're probably absolutely right about her being too concerned with type-casting. If so, that reeks of a poor management team as well. Get out of the way of yourself and do the best work you possibly can. Period. But heck, maybe she's loving this new deal. It just isn't up to snuff, and I think anyone with eyes can see that.

 

[Inkstainedwretch]

Maybe Dockery could be a villainess on one of the final season of Game of Thrones.

 

[Ernest P Shackleton]

Maybe Dockery could be a villainess on one of the final season of Game of Thrones.

She could certainly be one of the scheming queens.

 

[Zombie_61]

Kolchak: The Night Stalker (1974-75), episodes 1-3. Investigative reporter Carl Kolchak (Darren McGavin) investigates supernatural events in Chicago, apparently for no reason because the "officials" always create a cover-up explanation for the events and Kolchak is banned from reporting them in the newspaper he works for.

Some episodes are better than others, but the show survives it's one and only season because of McGavin. No matter how silly the scripts got, he gave it his all and turned in some of the best performances of his career (albeit some of the hammiest as well). On the other hand, it was also cancelled after one season because of McGavin. The Suits at Universal gave up on the show long before he did, so he assumed the unofficial duties as the show's producer in addition to being it's lead character; the additional duties left him exhausted, and he had become disappointed by the scripts, so he asked to be released from his contract. If anything, the show's weakest link is Universal and their usual "on the cheap" business mantra. It could have been first-rate if someone--anyone--other than McGavin cared about it. Still, it gained a loyal fanbase, and was the inspiration for another television series, The X-Files.

 

[Fading Fast]

She could certainly be one of the scheming queens.

Royal, cold and calculating she can do well; so far, low-rent, drug addict and grifter doesn't have quite the liftoff for her.

 

[Touchofevil]

Caught part of one the other night where Jerry and George are in the limo of some neo-nazi group and George absentmindedly starts whistling the tune to Fiddler on a Roof. They had their moment.

They are idiots, but I like them. Serenity now.

 

[MisterCairo]

Supernatural FINALLY comes to Canada (other than the alternate reality episode)! While we don't get to see much of it (ya, ya, I know, it's filmed in Vancouver and the lower BC mainland so we see it EVERY episode, but not "as" Canada) it was a super episode, and we meet some kick ass Canuck hunters!

 

[Touchofevil]

The Walking Dead
We get it, Negan is a bad man. Everyone is beaten down.
Move on with the story please.

 

[AmateisGal]

Supernatural. Great episode!

 

[MisterCairo]

The Walking Dead
We get it, Negan is a bad man. Everyone is beaten down.
Move on with the story please.

This IS the story!

 

[Benzadmiral]

Kolchak: The Night Stalker (1974-75), episodes 1-3. Investigative reporter Carl Kolchak (Darren McGavin) investigates supernatural events in Chicago, apparently for no reason because the "officials" always create a cover-up explanation for the events and Kolchak is banned from reporting them in the newspaper he works for.

Some episodes are better than others, but the show survives it's one and only season because of McGavin. No matter how silly the scripts got, he gave it his all and turned in some of the best performances of his career (albeit some of the hammiest as well). On the other hand, it was also cancelled after one season because of McGavin. The Suits at Universal gave up on the show long before he did, so he assumed the unofficial duties as the show's producer in addition to being it's lead character; the additional duties left him exhausted, and he had become disappointed by the scripts, so he asked to be released from his contract. If anything, the show's weakest link is Universal and their usual "on the cheap" business mantra. It could have been first-rate if someone--anyone--other than McGavin cared about it. Still, it gained a loyal fanbase, and was the inspiration for another television series, The X-Files.

What it needed, too, was a mythos. Buffy the Vampire Slayer worked in part because the reason for the appearance of all the supernatural beasties in Sunnydale (and, later on Angel, LA) was that the town was located on a Hellmouth. If Kolchak had had something like that, a concept that Hell was about to be unleashed (or that the things Kolchak was encountering were pilot programs for the Unleashing), it would have taken care of the suspension of disbelief and left the writers free to be imaginative.

That said, I recall one episode in which Kolchak is hunting a thing that appears to its victim as the person the victim trusts most. Kolchak assumes he's immune to it; as a hardboiled reporter, he's proud of trusting no one. But the creature appears to him late in the story as the little old cleaning lady from his current newspaper office, who, we saw earlier, has a rather affectionate and charming relationship with Kolchak. Kind of startling.

 

[Benzadmiral]

"The Burning Tree," a late episode of Have Gun -- Will Travel. While escorting a multiple wife-killer to trial, Paladin encounters a sheriff who wants to hand his prisoner over to Indians -- who need a burial scalp! The sheriff, a drunken coot, is played by Paul Fix, "Micah" on The Rifleman; and his daughter by the lovely and underappreciated Elinor Donahue of Father Knows Best. (Both were on Star Trek: TOS at different times.) The story seems more "southern" at times than it does "Western," as Paladin is on his way with his prisoner from Arkansas to Wichita.

Whit Bissell, that venerable character actor known for his mild-mannered bankers and businessmen, here plays a charming sociopath and serial killer of his wives (seven, we're told). He charms Elinor's character until she frees him from his cell, then holds her hostage. Paladin refers to him as an "animal." And yet Paladin refuses to give him to the Osage Indians for them to use his scalp. He, Paladin, has agreed to bring his man to justice in Wichita, and by gum, he's going to do it.

 

[Formeruser012523]

Star Trek: TOS ep "The Changeling"

Don't think I've ever hated an inanimate object so much.

 

[Zombie_61]

What it needed, too, was a mythos. Buffy the Vampire Slayer worked in part because the reason for the appearance of all the supernatural beasties in Sunnydale (and, later on Angel, LA) was that the town was located on a Hellmouth. If Kolchak had had something like that, a concept that Hell was about to be unleashed (or that the things Kolchak was encountering were pilot programs for the Unleashing), it would have taken care of the suspension of disbelief and left the writers free to be imaginative.

It does seem a little odd that all of these supernatural events seemed to follow Kolchak wherever he went--a vampire in Las Vegas in the TV movie The Night Stalker (1972), a murderous 144-year-old alchemist in Seattle in the follow-up TV movie The Night Strangler (1973), and the various "baddies" in Chicago in the series. Maybe Kolchak himself was the link? He seemed to be a magnet for these oddities.

 

[Touchofevil]

This IS the story!

And I am already tired of it. I like Jeffrey Dean Morgan (as an actor in other projects) but I am tired of seeing him repeat the same gestures, motions, and facial expressions over and over; he is a one-trick pony. I do not blame him, it is the director/writers who bore me. It almost seems like Groundhog Day Zombie Style. And still I will watch because I have to see Rick prevail; I hope.

 

[MisterCairo]

And I am already tired of it. I like Jeffrey Dean Morgan (as an actor in other projects) but I am tired of seeing him repeat the same gestures, motions, and facial expressions over and over; he is a one-trick pony. I do not blame him, it is the director/writers who bore me. It almost seems like Groundhog Day Zombie Style. And still I will watch because I have to see Rick prevail; I hope.

That's the character in the graphic novel. What are they supposed to do, focus on his backstory and examine the factors that lead him to become as he is? Then people would be complaining (as they have here and elsewhere) about the "boring" backstory.

Remember - in the story arc in that episode, Rick and gang are only 72 hours from the massacre. We've only just been introduced to Negan. He's breaking Rick and gang down, peeing around Alexandria to show them who's the alpha.

This story line isn't going to be resolved by episode five!

Let us embrace his psychotic mannerisms! ALL HAIL NEGAN!

As for Rick, what a milquetoast p&%%# he's turned into!

All hail ROSITA!