What was the last TV show you watched?

[Formeruser012523]

I'm still watching The Affair, but I don't know why. It occasionally has interesting moments, but nothing in it is remotely believable, and I hate all the characters. Noah's the worst husband/writer/dad/lover/teacher/etc. EVER, but they're all mainly jerks to one degree or another.

Is that the show's point, that we're all ultimately jerks, even when we view ourselves as the hero? This show seemingly lost any interest in making interesting observations beyond "Noah/Alison/Cole/Helen is doing something really stupid yet again" a long time ago.

Yet I keep watching!

This is an interesting comment and potential experiment. I remember going to a movie in the 90s (can't remember the title right now because it wasn't very good) that had a clear virtuous hero and a scummy villain. The virtues of the hero were sort of that unattainable, perfect, of utmost integrity variety that you rarely run into outside of books, while the villain was a jerk in real, common, normal ways that you run into every day. I don't care who you asked. I never met anyone who related to the villain, despite the fact that they had far more in common with them. They always viewed themselves like the hero. You know, their inner dialogue was telling them, "I'm him." I'm sure this is a common phenomenon, but in this instance, I thought the situation was particularly sharp. It's funny how much we lack self-awareness (and crap all over anyone who is even attempting to make self-awareness a priority, as if it is a waste of time and of little use). It's funny how we seem to be a nation of superiority complexes and delusion. I don't know if that is cultural, primal, or what. But in some instances, like this movie, it is clear as bathwater that 99.9999% of the audience is basically the villain and would act similarly. It's that goofy notion that we can relate to the exception more than we can the rule. Uh...that isn't how it works, folks.

Back to The Affair. Ruth Wilson is an awful actress. As if her storyline wasn't absurd enough, she doesn't sell any of it.

Interesting that there are so many shows about "jerks" nowadays. Why is that? Or the "morally grey" characters? None of us are truly black and white. Audiences know this and always have, so I think, at least, that it's a bit annoying that it has to be shoved in our faces how rude or brash or "flawed" a character in a show or movie is.

Tried watching Mr. Robot when it showed up on Amazon Prime and didn't get a full four episodes in due to this very thing. Who was good and who was bad? Everybody sucked and I had no empathy for any character AT ALL. Found myself asking why is this so famous and winning awards? Sure, it has good actors, but, what else? Besides things I don't want to see?

 

[Doctor Strange]

I haven't seen Mr. Robot, but most of the big dramas of the last decade-plus have been about severely flawed characters, e.g, Don Draper on Mad Men. There are endless other examples of moral ambiguity, jerkish behavior, and narcissistic self-interest. And of course, even most Marvel superheroes are flawed too, that's the original Marvel Comics innovation. I think we should be glad that today's dramas are more nuanced than the old white hat/black hat simplicity.

But the oversimplified good vs. bad approach is very appealing, of course: it seems to have entirely taken over political discourse...

 

[Ernest P Shackleton]

I haven't seen Mr. Robot, but most of the big dramas of the last decade-plus have been about severely flawed characters, e.g, Don Draper on Mad Men. There are endless other examples of moral ambiguity, jerkish behavior, and narcissistic self-interest. And of course, even most Marvel superheroes are flawed too, that's the original Marvel Comics innovation. I think we should be glad that today's dramas are more nuanced than the old white hat/black hat simplicity.

But the oversimplified good vs. bad approach is very appealing, of course: it seems to have entirely taken over political discourse...

agree and agree. One of the more common complaints I experienced about Mad Men, to use your example, was that none of the characters were likeable. I don't understand that. First, I don't need to "like" a character to find something interesting, intriguing, useful, whatever about them. I don't really need to be rooting for anyone. That shouldn't imply I don't expect quality. There's a clear difference between crappy people and a poorly written character. Second, I prefer my entertainment to be heavy. Bring the profound and flaws. Meat. I'll relate. I have a more difficult time relating to old TV series than I do the new mode. Those nuances make it all more real if you ask me. I can find value there if it is written well. Value? Yes, please. Likeability? Eh, not necessary.

As for Mr.Robot, I stopped watching after the second season. I thought the story was worn out. We got it. It should have been a single season. There was a lot to value there though. Technically. Characters. Music. Sure, it became an endurance test. Once you got invested, you didn't want to drop it. But it was high quality in a lot of ways. It was deserving in my opinion.

 

[Wyldkarma]

Just finished all 5 seasons of Boardwalk empire. Great series with tons of great hats. Now watching CB Strike and Condor (mini series remake of 3 Days of the Condor)

 

[3fingers]

I haven't seen Mr. Robot, but most of the big dramas of the last decade-plus have been about severely flawed characters, e.g, Don Draper on Mad Men. There are endless other examples of moral ambiguity, jerkish behavior, and narcissistic self-interest. And of course, even most Marvel superheroes are flawed too, that's the original Marvel Comics innovation. I think we should be glad that today's dramas are more nuanced than the old white hat/black hat simplicity.

But the oversimplified good vs. bad approach is very appealing, of course: it seems to have entirely taken over political discourse...

Mad Men really went off the rails for me when they started Don off on the path of introspection and self discovery. He was the ba***rd you loved to hate and they ruined that.

 

[TimeWarpWife]

My favorite Odd Couple show was the one where Felix points out in court that you should never assume because when you assume, "you make an 'ass' of 'u' and 'me.'"

 

[LizzieMaine]

I've used that in staff meetings, to the horror and amazement of the kids.

 

[Fading Fast]

I liked "Mad Men," but disliked that almost no-one in it was reasonably likable or decent (throughout the run). It rang as false to me as the old shows with all "good" people where even the "bad" ones were just surface cranky people with big hearts underneath.

Very few people are all good or all bad, but most do lean one way or the other. In "Mad Men," they almost all leaned bad. My experience with life is that it's more balanced. It took me awhile to understand why I liked "Mad Men" but sometimes didn't want to watch it and why I felt exhausted afterwards - it was a dystopian world that (like the famous original "Star Trek" episode) mirrored our world but was populated with all the bad people.

The best shows reflect reality - maybe exaggerated, maybe bent in a way to bring drama, highlight issues, etc., (real life can be quite boring) - but "Mad Men" for me, while I did enjoy it, fell short of being great because of its narrow portrayal of almost everyone being selfish, narcissistic, etc. Real life does have some pretty decent people in it.

 

[AmateisGal]

I'm still watching The Affair, but I don't know why. It occasionally has interesting moments, but nothing in it is remotely believable, and I hate all the characters. Noah's the worst husband/writer/dad/lover/teacher/etc. EVER, but they're all mainly jerks to one degree or another.

Is that the show's point, that we're all ultimately jerks, even when we view ourselves as the hero? This show seemingly lost any interest in making interesting observations beyond "Noah/Alison/Cole/Helen is doing something really stupid yet again" a long time ago.

Yet I keep watching!

I refuse to watch this show simply because my ex-husband had an affair which ended our marriage. It was a traumatic, horrible event in my life and I have no desire to witness it onscreen.

 

[AmateisGal]

I started watching the HBO miniseries remake of Mildred Pierce starring Kate Winslet. It's very well-done and the costumes, settings, etc. are absolutely fantastic. It more closely follows the original novel which is set in the 1930s as opposed to the Joan Crawford movie which took place in the 1940s and was turned into a murder mystery.

 

[Fading Fast]

I refuse to watch this show simply because my ex-husband had an affair which ended our marriage. It was a traumatic, horrible event in my life and I have no desire to witness it onscreen.

I understand. I lost both my father and grandmother to horrible cancers that destroyed their bodies and, eventually, minds as I watched, helplessly, them dissipate at home and in the hospital until death thankfully came to relive the suffering.

To this day, I hate seeing cancer patients on TV shows go through what my father and grandmother did. Since my radar is out for that, I notice it - it is amazing how often it is shown.

I started watching the HBO miniseries remake of Mildred Pierce starring Kate Winslet. It's very well-done and the costumes, settings, etc. are absolutely fantastic. It's set in the 1930s as opposed to the Joan Crawford movie which took place in the 1940s.

That is an outstanding miniseries. HBO and Winslet kill it. The original movie is wonderful, but the HBO series more than holds up. Having more time in a series, it is also truer to the very enjoyable book. And, yes, the period details in the HBO series are incredible. I love the little house they live in at first - the one that the anti-Christ daughter Vera can't stand.

 

[Doctor Strange]

Fading, you have a very optimistic view of humanity. I liked Mad Men largely because everyone was self-obsessed, nasty, greedy, and mostly motivated by self interest: that's how the vast majority of people are. (Bartender Edit: let's keep away from the current politics, please) Peggy was the only "nice" character, and it was mostly beaten out of her by the end. I think the show's strength was that it eventually got you kinda sympathetic to dickish characters like Don, Roger, Joan, Betty, and (especially) Pete.

Melissa, another reason not to have watched The Affair is it's a pretty terrible show! Like I said the other day, it has no real observations about relationships, it's just awful people doing awful things. Very post-Mad Men. You're not missing anything.

I didn't like Mildred Pierce despite being a longtime Kate Winslet fan. It's director Todd Haynes. I loved his early work, especially Far From Heaven, but all his recent stuff - this miniseries, Carol, Wonderstruck - has left me cold. He's obsessed with surface details (especially fetishistic closeups of fabrics being fondled) and his direction of actors is uneven. I know I'm in the minority here not liking it, but I don't. Not even with all the lush period detail.

 

[Fading Fast]

Fading, you have a very optimistic view of humanity. I liked Mad Men largely because everyone was self-obsessed, nasty, greedy, and mostly motivated by self interest: that's how the vast majority of people are. Peggy was the only "nice" character, and it was mostly beaten out of her by the end. I think the show's strength was that it eventually got you kinda sympathetic to dickish characters like Don, Roger, Joan, Betty, and (especially) Pete.

Melissa, another reason not to have watched The Affair is it's a pretty terrible show! Like I said the other day, it has no real observations about relationships, it's just awful people doing awful things. Very post-Mad Men. You're not missing anything.

I didn't like Mildred Pierce despite being a longtime Kate Winslet fan. It's director Todd Haynes. I loved his early work, especially Far From Heaven, but all his recent stuff - this miniseries, Carol, Wonderstruck - has left me cold. He's obsessed with surface details (especially fetishistic closeups of fabrics being fondled) and his direction of actors is uneven. I know I'm in the minority here not liking it, but I don't. Not even with all the lush period detail.

I just haven't found people to be as bad as those portrayed in MM - many are, of course, but not nearly everyone. That's just been my experience. I've worked in financial firms - not advertising firms - for ~30 years and, despite it being a brutally competitive industry populated by type-A personalities who are mainly in it to make money, I haven't found people to be as uniformly nasty and selfish as those in MM. Again, that's just been my life experience.

I'm with you on "Carol," haven't seen "Wonderstruck" and am a fan of his "Mildred Pierce."

 

[Doctor Strange]

Mad Men, and drama in general, heightens and exaggerates for effect. So I'm not surprised you haven't met folks AS nasty as them.

Am I the only one having problems typing here today? The site is very slow and type-ahead is failing; I keep getting thrown back to the New Posts page. It's taking me forever to enter these posts. (I'm on Win 10 and MS Edge.) I'm leaving for a while...

 

[Ernest P Shackleton]

I'm going to say it again...even if Mad Man was all-bad people, which I would argue it wasn't, the quality was so insanely high in every single regard and...AND...there was so much value there in the writing. It was so profound and metaphysical. It would cause me to think about things for days and weeks. Myself. Things I've seen. Vices. Virtues. People I've met. Memories. Behavior and response. Self-awareness. The oblivious. Like the greatest of books. In that way, I would agree it could be exhausting. With every viewing, new things were flushed out and pondered (I've seen every episode at least a handful of times). It was rarely not an explosion of ideas that went well beyond the show and those particular dramatic situations. I know I wasn't alone, because the incredible conversations I would read after every episode on the Basket of Kisses website/forum. It was a touchstone for much more than just the show. Suffice to say, I really connected with the material. As art and precision, I was in total awe. I haven't seen it for a few years, so we'll see if I feel the same way next time. I have a hunch I will, but some things are locked in time. I hope not.

 

[Touchofevil]

A couple of episodes of The Crown. Still better than most movies we have seen the past few years.

 

[Fading Fast]

Rattling around in Netflix's attic, we stumbled upon a 2016 Taiwanese miniseries, "Life Plan A and B," about the lives of two young college grads who fall in love only to find themselves quickly facing career and life decisions which leads to a "sliding doors" twist in the show where it, then, flips back and forth between two alternative futures.

After an slow start, the show engages as the characters develop more dimensions while life keeps throwing one-after-another fast and curves balls at the young lovers. While uneven, there are some incredibly intense and real-to-life scenes that are better than the average TV show. Also, it's fun to see how other countries do TV shows and the cultural differences. If you are already paying for Netflix, it's worth a watch (just hang on through the first episode as it does get much better).

 

[HanauMan]

Watching the TV series Maigret starring Rowan Atkinson as the French detective Jules Maigret. The show really brings the atmosphere of post war 1950s Paris to life. Lovers of Noir should check out this series.

 

[Touchofevil]

Watching the TV series Maigret starring Rowan Atkinson as the French detective Jules Maigret. The show really brings the atmosphere of post war 1950s Paris to life. Lovers of Noir should check out this series.

I am a huge fan of Georges Simenon’s Maigret in written form. I had no idea there was a newish series out. Rowan isn’t what I would have imagined for Maigret. Nonetheless, thank you for bringing this to my attention. I will look for it.

 

[Touchofevil]

Last night, an episode of Jason Momoa’s Frontier. Not good.
This morning, The Andy Griffith Show. Always entertaining.