What was the last TV show you watched?

[MisterCairo]

Supernatural and Gotham from the week before last; we're trying to play catch up...

Both AWESOME!

 

[Big J]

Love The Great British Bake Off, hate Burns Vietnam. Snazzy editing of truly 'great' combat footage with a well-mixed soundtrack of nostalgia, it essentially continues to promote a factually incorrect 'myth' that America was 'bad' and our army of draftees were reluctant accomplices to endless war crimes whilst doped up and dreaming only of coming home.
Neglects to mention that the vast majority of US service personnel were volunteers who still to this day feel proud of their service and believe they were doing the right thing. The voices of those veterans aren't there, nor are the voices of the South Vietnamese.

 

[Ernest P Shackleton]

Better Things. If I had to sum up this season in a single word, it would be: BEAUTIFUL. In the truest sense, too. Wholesome, but not trite, commercial, or even pretentious. Great story. Quality situations. Sometimes odd dialogue, but so well done, and within solid characters, that it feels right. Everything, and at all times, actually feels like a family, but the creativity is full-on. I sometimes forget I'm watching a show. Now that I'm hooked, I'm a bit worried where it will go with Louis CK being knocked off all the FX programs. Will his name get knocked off the credits, but he'll still be working at the same capacities? Or is he actually gone gone gone?

 

[Fading Fast]

Love The Great British Bake Off, hate Burns Vietnam. Snazzy editing of truly 'great' combat footage with a well-mixed soundtrack of nostalgia, it essentially continues to promote a factually incorrect 'myth' that America was 'bad' and our army of draftees were reluctant accomplices to endless war crimes whilst doped up and dreaming only of coming home.
Neglects to mention that the vast majority of US service personnel were volunteers who still to this day feel proud of their service and believe they were doing the right thing. The voices of those veterans aren't there, nor are the voices of the South Vietnamese.

RE Burns / Vietnam, I respect your opinion and lean toward it myself or, at least, see both sides as having valid arguments, but want to avoid starting a political Vietnam discussion, so instead, for this forum, I take the documentary as it is and just respect the sweep and skill of it as a film.

Glad you like "The Great British Bakeoff" as we, in general, avoid reality TV shows and "competitions" like this, but my girlfriend is an avid baker and we've both enjoyed the, overall, focus on baking skills and technique and the, reasonably, small amount of fake drama. Plus, the contestants seem to really care and their enthusiasm is contagious.

 

[MisterCairo]

Last night's Walking Dead (WOO HOO!) and last week's Supernatural, one of the best so far of a really great season.

 

[Benzadmiral]

Another Season One episode of the solid 1960s drama series The Fugitive. In this one, Kimble is aboard a passenger ship heading to Alaska -- in his case, for work, but his fellow passengers are on vacation. Until a Federal agent comes aboard to search for a traitor to the U.S. during the Korean War. When the agent is murdered, Kimble finds himself in the crosshairs of the investigation. A nice little murder mystery of the closed type, with David White ("Larry Tate" of Bewitched fame), Geraldine Brooks, and several other familiar character actors.

And we find out Kimble is a whiz at skeet shooting -- a "state champion," he says.

 

[Benzadmiral]

Another episode of the strange neo-noir take on the Archie Comics characters, Riverdale. Despite using the names and general descriptions of the four major characters, Archie, Betty, Veronica, and Jughead, this is a very startling and quite dark take on the high-school series. It's as if they mixed the original 90210 with Silence of the Lambs or something. There is a black-hooded serial killer stalking the town, and he's seized on blonde good girl Betty as his "contact."

Since I didn't grow up reading Archie Comics (though I was always generally familiar with the four majors), this doesn't have the same echoes for me as it would if I had been a big Archie fan. I'm just taking this as a dark, dangerous, and serious small-town thriller series. Fun stuff.

 

[Doctor Strange]

Regarding Better Things and Louis CK... He's gone, but I suspect FX will find a way to keep doing the show without his visible involvement. It's a critical darling and awards-nomination generator.

And I agree, Better Things is an outstanding show. Blazing truths everywhere. Descended from Louie... but minus Louie's surrealism and punchlines, it's simply about real life. It's unquestionably the best series I'm watching at this moment.

Oh, the irony! CK falls because of things he did 15 years ago... long before he was co-creator/co-writer/co-producer of the virtually all-female Better Things. Some of the best episodes of this season - ones with continual takedowns of male jerkdom - have CK credited as the sole writer. Thus I'm not surprised that he immediately admitted the allegations were true, vs. trying to spin it or hiding behind a phalanx of lawyers.

I'm not suggesting that the awfulness of anything he did be minimized, just that much of his recent work is much, much more sympathetic to the feminine POV than you'd expect from your typical alleged deviant.

 

[Ernest P Shackleton]

Regarding Better Things and Louis CK... He's gone, but I suspect FX will find a way to keep doing the show without his visible involvement. It's a critical darling and awards-nomination generator.

And I agree, Better Things is an outstanding show. Blazing truths everywhere. Descended from Louie... but minus Louie's surrealism and punchlines, it's simply about real life. It's unquestionably the best series I'm watching at this moment.

Oh, the irony! CK falls because of things he did 15 years ago... long before he was co-creator/co-writer/co-producer of the virtually all-female Better Things. Some of the best episodes of this season - ones with continual takedowns of male jerkdom - have CK credited as the sole writer. Thus I'm not surprised that he immediately admitted the allegations were true, vs. trying to spin it or hiding behind a phalanx of lawyers.

I'm not suggesting that the awfulness of anything he did be minimized, just that much of his recent work is much, much more sympathetic to the feminine POV than you'd expect from your typical alleged deviant.

Certainly deserving of conversation, but I wasn't sure I should mention it in this thread. And after I'd posted, it nagged at me for hours that it might seem that I liked the show so much that it didn't matter what CK has done. That MY rewards are THAT important. That I wasn't acknowledging the situation. That it minimized, or brushed aside all together, the CK news. It isn't the case at all. I was also tempted to say I trust in Pamela Adlon's talents enough that the show would likely maintain that upper echelon quality. I still don't know how to say any of it, but I'm saying it anyway. I'd like to hear Adlon's take on CK, this show, those episodes, and so on. True talk. Not friendly business or friend speak. How she really sees it all. Are they throwing the baby out with the bathwater? Is there any other option? Sweeping oversimplification as a reaction might be counterproductive in this instance.

The problem with the pendulum...is that it doesn't allow for healthy change (without more damage and finger pointing), contrition, trust in that contrition, etc. The worst in us is exposed, and then the worst in us comes more. It's nature, though. At least, it's human nature (from my experience).

 

[Feraud]

"The Flash" - Throw away episode. I'm all for "Girl Power" but I don't need to be hit over the head with it for a solid 42 minutes! And with the crap going on today with predatory male behavior... this show seemed laughably childish.

Worf

Poor Barry. The Fastest Man Alive cannot run away from the clutches of that obsessed maniac Iris..

 

[Feraud]

Season 3 of "The Great British Bake off -" I'm not proud of myself for liking this show, but I'm rarely proud of myself anyway. I love watching them make all those awesome baked goods. Also, they, fortunately, keep the fake drama of the show down and really focus on the baking skills.

The wife and I love this show for those reasons. There is no contrived drama that we're subjected to on every American 'competition' show. I wish more shows would take a cue and focus on the contestants' skills.

 

[AmateisGal]

Last night's Walking Dead (WOO HOO!) and last week's Supernatural, one of the best so far of a really great season.

I am REALLY impressed with this season of Supernatural. It is much, much better than the last two or three seasons. I worried after last season that they might be going downhill with no hopes of recovery. Glad I'm wrong.

 

[AmateisGal]

Poldark.

This has been a hard season for me to watch, and since I read the books this series was based on, I know what's coming for the season finale. Not looking forward to it.

 

[MisterCairo]

I am REALLY impressed with this season of Supernatural. It is much, much better than the last two or three seasons. I worried after last season that they might be going downhill with no hopes of recovery. Glad I'm wrong.

Agreed.

Dig the avatar, by the way...

 

[Big J]

@Fading Fast, no, absolutely no desire to talk politics, but calling out 'bad history' should be ok though
I think that after Burns expansive and excellent Civil War series, I was expecting him to give Vietnam the same caliber of treatment, but instead it's a tired anti-war narrative that deserves to be challenged. It's kind of 'Vietnam War for grade schoolers' history. Burns is letting his bias show.

My wife has a huge collection of Mary Berry books now, and bakes regularly. Neighbors and dogs very satisfied!

@AmateisGal, yeah, I've been watching a little Poldark. It's pretty good.

 

[EngProf]

@Fading Fast, no, absolutely no desire to talk politics, but calling out 'bad history' should be ok though
I think that after Burns expansive and excellent Civil War series, I was expecting him to give Vietnam the same caliber of treatment, but instead it's a tired anti-war narrative that deserves to be challenged. It's kind of 'Vietnam War for grade schoolers' history. Burns is letting his bias show.

My wife has a huge collection of Mary Berry books now, and bakes regularly. Neighbors and dogs very satisfied!

@AmateisGal, yeah, I've been watching a little Poldark. It's pretty good.

Burns always lets his bias show. Would say more but that would get too close to modern politics.

 

[Doctor Strange]

On demand, the first episode of a new documentary series on AMC, Robert Kirkman's Secret History of Comics, about the rise of Marvel Comics in the sixties, and specifically the creative partnership of Stan Lee and Jack Kirby.

This is the most detailed and even-handed treatment I've ever seen or read about their amazing run creating nearly all the famous Marvel characters - and the endless argument over who contributed more. The show has great interview footage, the right talking heads - Mark Evanier, Roy Thomas, etc. - and clever "sixties TV limited animation" sequences dramatizing Stan and Jack's life and work.

Very highly recommended, especially if what you know about Marvel comes mainly from the recent film adaptations.

I also DVR'd but haven't yet watched the second episode, about the origin of Wonder Woman, which also looks promising.

 

[Edward]

In general, we avoid reality TV, but this one keeps the fake-drama quotient under control while providing some real insight into the skills and processes involved in baking some pretty complex things. Also, the amateur bakers' enthusiasm is contagious - and some of the breads and pastries are really fun to learn about and see being created.

Herself was into this so I saw a couple of series. I've never been into baking myself, however I very much enjoyed seeing people develop new skills and gven constructive criticism, rather than the pre-scripted put-downs designed to make Simon Cowell look big in front of kids whov'e been through several rounds of intervewers telling them they're great, just so they can be humliated for the cameras.

For me, it ended with the final BBC show, though. The greed on the part of Love Productions in going to channel 4, as well as the (in my irrelevant view) wholly undeserving winner of the final BBC series (I don't think I've ever seen someone else on television so desperate to receive priase and so appallingly bad at taking constructive criticism) left a bad taste. Herself didn't watch t on Channel 4 either.

Some older Big Bang Theories, season three. Howard has just started dating Bernadette, and he's concerned she isn't "good enough"!

George Takei was great on that - "And yet here I am!"

All of Season 2 of "Stranger Things". Personally, I enjoyed it. While not as "ground breaking" as the first season I found it fun and fascinating. Since it can rightly be considered a "hit" and with the demise of "House of Cards" I'm sure it'll be back sooner rather than later and with an even bigger budget.

Worf

In a way, I think I enjoyed it more than the first series. I did catch the first series before it was over-hyped, though, so while the hype didn't ruin it or me, it certainlyh took a bit of the edge off. I'll look forward to the next two series, though I won't find it as hard to wait for as some other things, if that makes sense.

I loved Season 2 of Stranger Things! I had a few complaints (what was the point of the addition of new characters Max and Billy?) but overall, I loved it.

I think it needed a few new characters to spice it up a bit. Max provided a bit of conflict within the group in a way that makes perfect sense for the age they are, while Billy filled the role of bully vacated by Steve at the end of the last series. I think both of them will become more important characters in the next series. I also have the feeling eleven's sister will be back: they made too much of that for that to have been the externt of her role.

 

[Fading Fast]

Herself was into this so I saw a couple of series. I've never been into baking myself, however I very much enjoyed seeing people develop new skills and gven constructive criticism, rather than the pre-scripted put-downs designed to make Simon Cowell look big in front of kids whov'e been through several rounds of intervewers telling them they're great, just so they can be humliated for the cameras.

For me, it ended with the final BBC show, though. The greed on the part of Love Productions in going to channel 4, as well as the (in my irrelevant view) wholly undeserving winner of the final BBC series (I don't think I've ever seen someone else on television so desperate to receive priase and so appallingly bad at taking constructive criticism) left a bad taste. Herself didn't watch t on Channel 4 either.
...

We are watching it on Netflix and are only up to season four, so the big switch that I've read about hasn't happened in "our" world yet.

 

[Benzadmiral]

A 1959 episode of 77 Sunset Strip, set in Hong Kong, with Karen Steele (instantly recognizable as "Eve" from the Star Trek episode "Mudd's Women"), and Reggie Nalder, later to play on Trek and in the TV-movie of Salem's Lot.