What was the last TV show you watched?

[belfastboy]

The character that got to me most was Bodee. He starts out as just a street slinger/soldier but in many ways becomes almost the moral compass of the show from the "back side" of the mirror if you catch what I mean. I knew cats like him in my formative years. Some ran "numbers", some sold weed, some sold Horse... but hey had lines they wouldn't cross. Back then if you were a scholar or an athlete, they left you alone. If you weren't cut out for the game they would tell you so in words or with fists... but killing civilians was not part of their game. They were hustlers just trying to make a living. That has sadly changed.

Worf

Yes, he was another well written character out of large cast of many great characters. My wife and I loved Omar. We have seen him in numerous shows since and each time we see him in another role we shout out in unison...."Its Omar!"

 

[Fading Fast]

First episode of Krypton, courtesy of youngest Shellhammer. Will give it a go, based on its clever premise of Krypton leading up to Kal-el's trip to Earth.

Love the premise - look forward to hearing your thoughts after you watch it.

 

[Ernest P Shackleton]

The Wire. I'd heard good things about this show but never thought it was something I'd be interested in. Watched three episodes last night. I'm interested enough to keep watching.

I'm envious. I'd like to be just now experiencing that series.

 

[Seb Lucas]

Jessica Jones Series 2. Liked it a lot. Stylish set design, surprising characters, and a compelling story. Krysten Ritter is great in the lead. I generally dislike and avoid anything to do with comics or Marvel or any type of superhero tosh but this was pretty cool. Better than Series 1, actually, which to my taste had an off putting, scenery chewing performance by David Tennant as the bad guy. Couldn't get through that show.

 

[AmateisGal]

Finished the first season of The Wire. It's a tough show to watch - and the scene with Wallace in the empty apartment about did me in.

 

[Benzadmiral]

"The Hanging of Roy Carter," a Season Two episode of Have Gun - Will Travel. One of the most suspenseful stories I've seen on this show. Paladin is tasked with delaying the hanging of an innocent man for 3 hours, until the governor's pardon arrives. But the warden is an old enemy of the prisoner's father, and because of that and other reasons, is determined to carry out the hanging as the law orders, at 6 am. An unarmed Paladin must use persuasion and trickery, and must convince the weak-willed prison chaplain (John Larch) to step in on his side. The suspense comes from the fact that HGWT did not always have happy endings and Paladin did not always succeed in his missions; so there was the distinct possibility that he might fail.

The chaplain's last name is "April." That * and the tricks Paladin uses made me suspect who the writer was, and bingo! It was indeed Gene Roddenberry -- probably the best script I've ever seen by him.


* In the first draft of Star Trek, the captain and lead character was named "Robert T. April."

 

[Benzadmiral]

"The Homecoming," a late Season One entry for The Fugitive. Kimble is working for a modern-day (1964) Southern plantation owner (Richard Carlson), a good guy who has recently remarried -- to a local girl who grew up dirt-poor (Gloria Grahame). She, for reasons not well explained, wants to drive her new stepdaughter, who's recently emerged from a sanitarium, right back into her rubber room. And Kimble, being the kind of man he is, wants to stop it . . . despite the presence of a young sheriff who is sweet on the stepdaughter.

Not the best episode ever, despite good performances by Carlson and Shirley Knight as the daughter. Grahame, for some reason, hardly moves her mouth as she speaks her "Southern" dialect; it looks as if her chin is Botoxed (and I read on IMDb that she apparently did have plastic surgery on her lips at some point, which might explain it). One of the IMDb reviews describes this as a "slice of Southern Gothic," and while I'm no expert on that subgenre, I think the writer could be right.

 

[Ernest P Shackleton]

The Alienist. season 1 finale. **SPOILER** Well, it was a quality, fun season until they tied up the case. Talk about walking off the edge of a cliff and offering little as an ending. Build. Build. Build. Plop. They answered questions and resolved character just fine, but as for the case? Nada. No sense in thinking about it, because everything to do with John Beecham was fumbled and lost at the finish line. I've gotten used to the fact that Hollywood spends no time or energy on endings. (It's why I don't look forward to the final season of Game of Thrones.) I just sat there with a couple shakes of the head. I'll take 9.5 episodes of goodness.

Trust. new FX series. Big cast. Donald Sutherland. Hilary Swank (in coming episodes, though IMDB lists her as being in this pilot). Hannah New from Black Sails. Anna Chancellor. The pilot was interesting enough. Well done. I'd like to see their soundtrack budget. It had to be unusually huge for a TV show with no secured following. I had to google it, because it had the feel of a Murphy/Falchuck production; even possibly another season of American Crime Story. I don't know how true to life shows like this try to be, but anyone not from the upper 1% watching this had to be laughing at the idea that someone could be so rich and privileged that they don't even have to bend over in the morning to pull up their own underwear. And then the duality of every human when that same person is washing their own socks in their gold sink at the end of every night.

 

[1967Cougar390]

First episode of Krypton, courtesy of youngest Shellhammer. Will give it a go, based on its clever premise of Krypton leading up to Kal-el's trip to Earth.

I’ll have to look this show up. I’m a Superman fan, Clark Kent- George Reeves in his fedora is my avatar picture. I just finished watching The Adventures of Superman season 1 “The Mind Machine”
Steven

 

[1967Cougar390]

I just watched the pilot episode of Krypton. I’m ok with it so far but the jury is still out for me. It’s a modern take on the Superman story to this point. I’ll have to watch more to know if it’s something that will live up the the Superman saga.

Steven

 

[Doctor Strange]

Re The Alienist... I enjoyed it for its opulent production and mostly good acting. But the writing/storytelling was poor throughout, with pacing issues, underwhelming "reveals", and stock characters (plucky girl, crusading politician, troubled genius, old money puppetmaster, dastardly villains) that didn't really mesh. As I think I said above, most of what was unique about the book twenty-plus years ago - serial killer in a period setting at a time of great change - has been covered pretty thoroughly now, and this production just doesn't hold much novelty. The attempts to set up another season at the end were embarrassing: nothing in the story demands it, and I can't say I was fascinated enough by the characters or story to be enthused about it.

I watched the first episode of the final season of The Americans - still the best drama on TV as it hurtles towards its conclusion.

 

[Ernest P Shackleton]

The Americans. WHEW! They sure do know how to compile and edit a montage. Going to be a great final season.

 

[Julian Shellhammer]

I just watched the pilot episode of Krypton. I’m ok with it so far but the jury is still out for me. It’s a modern take on the Superman story to this point. I’ll have to watch more to know if it’s something that will live up the the Superman saga.

Steven

Watched ep 2, and was not convinced. Youngest Shellhammer and Mrs. S both seemed to like it. Personal gripe: all scenes are interior, probably to keep production costs down. Writer's justification is, I guess, Kandor is a city in a humungous dome. Okay, but in the print DC universe Kandor is a miniature city kept by the Son of Krypton in his fortress getaway. Yeah, I should chill, it's just a tv show.
But, shucks, I really gave up when a Kandorian tells an Earth visitor from a couple hundred years in the future that a fellow Kandorian can "hook you up" with Kandorian clothing.

 

[Fading Fast]

"Call My Agent" a French TV show via Netflix

• We just watched the first two episodes of season 2 (finished season 1 months ago and have been waiting for season 2 to drop)

• It's a well-done, albeit too-slick, show that's kinda a drama-comedy blend following the lives of the people who work in an talent agency

• The character-development arc for most shows is from bad to better - mean, selfish, narrow-minded people tend to become less so as the show progresses reflecting, perhaps, a positive view of life / humanity; but not here
  • Most of the characters - barring one or, maybe, two - seem to be getting a bit meaner and more selfish and snarky
  • Maybe it's a French versus American view (or maybe it's just this one show's producers' philosophy) - it's starting to reduce the show's fun-to-watch factor

• Overall, it's fluffy entertainment that - owing to its French production and subtitles - you can kid yourself is not just good, mindless entertainment (but that's all it is)

 

[AmateisGal]

Due to a horrible cold, I binge-watched Season 2 of The Wire and even a few episodes of Season 3. Really a great show. I have to admit, though, Detective McNulty is a TRAIN WRECK in his personal life, but damn if he isn't a good detective.

 

[Benzadmiral]

Three dynamite episodes of Have Gun - Will Travel from Season Two.

"Maggie O'Bannion" showcases Paladin as an all-around man, fighter, charmer, and strategist. Bushwhacked on the trail by an unscrupulous ranch foreman and robbed of his clothes, horse, and guns, Paladin shows up at the ranch owned by the young woman of the title. At first he makes himself useful as house help, but then Maggie sees how he dominates the ranch hands, how charmingly he recites Shakespeare -- and how he finishes off that crooked foreman. A charming story with just the right amount of humor, written by Gene Roddenberry.

"The Chase" features a closed mystery. Paladin is hired by a bank clerk's wife to bring him in alive after he flees the scene of his bank's robbery. Paladin joins the posse, which consists of a sheriff (whose deputy was killed by the robber) and three other men. Our man realizes that any of them could be the real robber, along on the posse to silence the bank clerk . . . and now to be sure that Paladin is silenced too. A solid mystery written by future Star Trek producer Fred Freiberger, with a neat sleight-of-hand that appears to clear one character (I admit I was fooled).

Earlier this weekend, too, MeTV ran an HGWT written by Harry Julian Fink, later the creator of Dirty Harry, "The Long Hunt." Paladin joins a group pursuing a part-Comanche into the mountains in winter --a group which includes the man's wife. In its character interplay and moral issues confronted by Paladin, the story is a major leap above most oaters of the time.

 

[Benzadmiral]

I’ll have to look this show up. I’m a Superman fan, Clark Kent- George Reeves in his fedora is my avatar picture. I just finished watching The Adventures of Superman season 1 “The Mind Machine”
Steven

My all-time favorite was the opener to Season Two, "Five Minutes to Doom." The story showcases Clark as a reporter, and Superman as the only hope a wrongly-convicted criminal has of escaping execution. The image of Superman bursting through the prison wall literally in the shadow of the electric chair -- wow.

 

[1967Cougar390]

My all-time favorite was the opener to Season Two, "Five Minutes to Doom." The story showcases Clark as a reporter, and Superman as the only hope a wrongly-convicted criminal has of escaping execution. The image of Superman bursting through the prison wall literally in the shadow of the electric chair -- wow.

I agree that is a great opening and episode. I feel that the best seasons of the show were the first two. I think for the most part the stories had a sharper edge to them. I think that as the series went on the stories were toned down to appeal to more children.

Steven

 

[Doctor Strange]

I agree, which is why I got the first two seasons - the b/w half of the series - on DVD and didn't bother with the rest.

I'll go further and say I really prefer the first season, with its more adult noirish plots and delightfully abrasive Phyllis Coates take on Lois. And Reeves doesn't yet seem kinda old and paunchy.

But you know, The Adventures of Superman was one of my few old favorites I couldn't get my kids to watch when they were growing up: they found it exhaustingly slow moving and embarrassingly cheap. And I guess compared to the WB's excellent Superman: TAS and Justice League series running at that time, they did seem kinda lame and ancient. But Reeves will always be my favorite, particularly for his mature, serious take on Clark Kent - a crusading reporter feared by the underworld. Christopher Reeve was a wonderful Superman, but I never liked his broad doofus Clark Kent. (And please don't get me started on Henry Cavill, etc.)

 

[LizzieMaine]

That early Reeves portrayal owes a great deal to Bud Collyer's version of Clark Kent on the Superman radio show, which had only just gone off the air when the first TV season was being filmed. Collyer's Kent might have had a high-pitched voice, but he was a tough, no-nonsense reporter who didn't go in for playing the milksop.