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The last season is best viewed as another season of a show of very decent TV in the same style of Banshee, that just happens to have some very familiar characters in it (that it features a time jump helps with this.)

I very much enjoyed Eliza Dushku in it for a variety of reasons, and it does tie up a few loose ends as well as telling a few new stories, but as a whole the series doesn't need it to feel complete.

Back to Walking Dead season 11.

Definitely a rare example of a long running series that lost its way, then finding it again.

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
Back to Walking Dead season 11.

Definitely a rare example of a long running series that lost its way, then finding it again.

That reminds me that The Walking Dead: Dead City premieres tonight.

Hail Algorithmo, He Who Plants Ideas In Our Heads!

We still haven’t had Tales of the Walking Dead in the U.K., but hopefully D+ will have this one for my viewing pleasure.

It’s happened again! No U.K. broadcaster confirmed for Dead City.

This is intolerable. The one good thing of the modern era, entertainment on demand, replaced with the one bad thing from the 90’s, the UK getting stiffed on US TV shows.

The Black List season 5.
I'm almost to the half way point, up to EP 9 so far.
The writing has been much better this season seems to me. The know what they want to do and are doing it. EP 8 ends with a bloody farewell as Tom goes out in a blaze of glory. I didn't think I would like Tom as a character very much in season one but he had a good run I'd say. He dies in the best way possible I might say.
EP 9.
Elizabeth ends up with a few unwanted house guests in her cabin out in the middle of nowhere in an ice storm and yep they turn out to be a band of killers for the mob. it does not end well for them. I liked this episode, Liz is a bit of a savage. They shouldn't have killed her dog. Her battle with the bad guys was almost to ne sided because she had apparently enough prep time, like bat man.

It had been a while, but I finally returned to Masters of Horror S2.

The first one back is Valerie on the Stairs. A really nice return episode, and one of my favorites since Cigarette Burns.

I may have to noodle on how to make it a horror 1-shot adventure.

Black Mirror S6

Mr Brooker isn't angry any more, and it shows.

I should preface this by saying that even the worst Black Mirror episode is still better than most of the crap churned out to fill the schedules, so this is more a case of comparing it to its own standards. Fundamentally the show is still worth watching.

But, by its own standards, this isn't a good season. It has good episodes, but these don't really help elevate it to some of the previous heights.

Of the 5 episodes, the general consensus seems to be Joan Is Awful is the better one. This is certainly the most familiar in a season where we depart frequently from the established patterns. This episode ticks all the boxes around technology and the cautious application we've come to expect, with hefty doses of black humour.

Personally, I found Loch Henry , an examination into the relatively recent explosion of interest in true crime media, and Demon 79, a 1970s retro episode that may have cause a world shortage in beige during production the most entertaining. Loch Henry especially, stayed with me for several days for reasons I can't fully explain.

Mazey Day is a largely forgettable episode with nothing new or interesting to say, but is entertaining enough in the moment.

Which just leaves us the turd in this particular punch bowl, Beyond The Sea. It opens promisingly enough, with a genuinely distressing home invasion scene dropping breadcrumbs that hint at a really meaty story. Sadly, any of the myriad of interesting directions we might take at that point are discarded in favour of an utterly predictable sequence of events, culminating in an ending that I'm still trying to figure out where the groundwork was laid for, even if it is suitably bleak.

I've seen it suggested that the episodes should be watched on the opposite order for an approximate upward trajectory in quality. I'd largely agree, but get Beyond The Sea over with first.

White House Plumbers
Want to relive the farce of the Watergate scandal from the perspective of the criminals?
I'm a sucker for Woody Harrelson at the best of times. Only two episodes in and there's a wonderful balance of subterfuge and satire. As with all political crimes, contemporary to many countries in the west but particularly the English speaking ones; it's not the crime, it's the coverup.

So far, I can recommend it.

From - Season 2

Really don't know about this one.
I still enjoy watching it, but the fact the this season is mostly self contained story-wise, with minimal progress on the overall plot, beyond adding more mysteries and more characters, is deeply annoying and does kinda suggest the writers don't have a clue either.

Not sure I'd watch a third season without learning if it cleared up a few mysteries first.

 aku-chan wrote:
From - Season 2

Really don't know about this one.

Yeah, I didn’t get into the second season yet, because the end of S1 just seem to add more mystery just for gaks and giggles.

Neat concept, but poor execution.

The Real Ghostbusters

A childhood favourite. Got 10 “volumes” on Prime. And it still holds up pretty well. But then, I guess that’s what we get when J Michael Straczynski is involved!

The Blacklist season 6.

I finished the season but seemed it seemed like parts of the larger pot were missing. I discovered I had somehow missed three episodes. Silly me. Having gone back and watched what I missed it all cam together. I had thought something was off but expected some kind of weird ending explaining everything thing I had missed, like a tying up the loose ends story format. No, it was me being a bone head.

Over all not bad the writing was decent all the way through as far as this show goes. I enjoyed the treasure hunt episode. It's fun when the story is fun and no lives are on the line it looks like everyone has a good time and that's nice. I liked how much they used Aram this season he's really a good character and it's nice when he gets a chance to stand out. There's been a lot of character development with him.
Demba was very conflicted this season that dude carries a lot of weight on his back.
But I have enjoyed him interacting with other characters much like Raymond will and the mixed reactions is usually very funny.
another cliffhanger ending as well.
I'm looking forward to the next season when I find the time for it.

Young Indiana Jones Chronicles

Grabbed these on DVD, and on the second story.

These are pretty cool. More of an educational than adventure show, though of course young Henry Jones Jr still gets into scrapes and tough spots. And of course meets a frankly unfeasible number of historical characters along the way.

It doesn’t pull its punches on social issues either, which is nice.

The Blacklist season 7.
A few good episodes and a few steeped in the culture war that were not so good. The culture war stuff is usually a drag as far as the writing goes. When they get back to what the show is about they do a bang up job. This season had a game of clue and another Dr. Mindbender type character as well as a story tied to Agent Ressler past. Oh, and some more character development for Aram, he's a likeable guy and it's nice to see him out of the office being more of a field agent and finding his footing. The final episode was filmed at some point during the pandemic and used animation and live footage they had shot to wrap up the episode. Not wonderful but at least they got to finish the season. Not the best season by a long shot but there were some fun episodes.

The couture war stuff this go around was about gun manufactures selling cheap pistols to straw purchasers but apparently not doing anything illegal but also knowingly turning a blind eye. It was a waste of time, Red could have just capped Ceo at any point. and he does but they threw away a whole episode on this trash concept.
Oh, honorable mention Agent Park. She's violent and too smart for her own good but a good addition to the cast so far.
And, Glen" jelly bean " Carter and the truck. Glen is a nut. He's like a daemon that works at the dmv.

FUBAR

I really wanted to like Arnold Schwarzenegger's Netflix comedy.

I did not.

They don't speak Spanish in Guyana.

Duck Tales
New Duck Tales

Old Duck Tales is a classic. The first few episodes were rough, but the show soon found its stride. My son loves it.

New Duck Tales is almost as good as Scooby Doo: Mystery Inc because it has a lot of the same energy. A lot. There are overarching storylines, the foremost of which is the mystery of the boys’ mother. The first few episodes of this series were also rough, but it also found its stride. My son loves it.

The characters are all familiar yet different. The boys each have distinct personalities. Webby and Mrs Beakky have been changed the most, but make sense as the series progresses. Unfortunately, it feels like the studio hired “real” actors instead of voice actors for some of the cast.

Robin of Sherwood

The ITV version, originally airing 1984-1986. With music by Clannad.

This is….wonderful. Whilst I don’t really recall seeing it as a wean, it is from my era.

Being shot on locations, it’s held up remarkably well, with really only the quality of the actual film tipping the nod to its vintage.

It also turned out highly influential, as the Geographically Challenged “Robin Hood Prince of Thieves” lifted a lot from it. Such as a Saracen character, and indeed the “Robin Hooding” of the target, where Robin’s arrow splits his opponents.

Whilst I do have this on DVD, it’s now also on BritBox, so if you fancy watching it (and you really really should), there’s your legit method.

However….this is only the Second Best take on the legend of Robin Hood. And indeed by happy erm…happenstance? Also only the Second Best take on the legend of Robin Hood on BritBox.

Because as any Brit of a certain undisclosed vintage will attest? The top spot will always, always belong to Maid Marian and Her Merry Men.

 Kid_Kyoto wrote:
FUBAR

I really wanted to like Arnold Schwarzenegger's Netflix comedy.

I did not.

They don't speak Spanish in Guyana.

Which one? There is, in fact, a spanish guyana, which is nowadays part of Venezuela - long story short, settling that region was extremely difficult due to conditions on the ground, so in the end the various powers just took possession of a strip of land on the coast and progressed inwards along rivers and other bodies of water, and that's why you have a spanish, a french, a british, a dutch and a portuguese guyana right next to each other. British Guyana is named Guyana, Dutch Guyana became Suriname, French Guyana is an overseas Departement of France, Portuguese Guyana is now part of Brazil, and Spanish Guyana is now part of Venezuela, and retains the name Guyana Region


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Guianas

So conceivably, there is a Guyana where Spanish is the official language.

Stargate SG-1
By giving in to the endless crushing suffering that is separated streaming services, I have gotten around to watching Stargate.
It's such fun and it's a great show to stick on while I'm doing some hobby or having food.

SG-1 and to some degree Atlantis really don’t get the credit they deserve.

Like any Sci-Fi they of course have some super ropey, if not outright awful episodes, especially in early seasons? But the good massively outweighs the bad.

It has the benefit of being 90s SciFi so every few episodes I'm like "Hey, they were on Star Trek". And then of course Christopher Judge went on to voice Kratos, something that only became apparent to me during the episode where we meet Tea'lcs son.

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
SG-1 and to some degree Atlantis really don’t get the credit they deserve.

Like any Sci-Fi they of course have some super ropey, if not outright awful episodes, especially in early seasons? But the good massively outweighs the bad.

Something that imho works in SG-1's favour is that ever so often, they have some sort of 'chamber play' episode where they something vastly different, like doing bodyhorror/psycho-horror, solving a criminal case or doing deep introspection into a character or culture (of course for budget reasons mostly, as these episodes cost barely anything). Also, SG-1 did very good multi-season arcs and recurring characters unafraid of it ever going anywhere, which led to pretty well executed concepts in the long run, like the Tok'Ra, the Asgard or the various iterations of the replicators. Their faible for last-minute deus-ex-machina solutions to episode problems gets a bit repetitive after a while, but overall a very solid series.

I love SG1 and I like Atlantis. Both are fun, optimistic Sci Fi that hit the right balance between episodic and serialized television.

Yes Venezuela has a Guyana district (and claims 1/3 or more of the English-speaking Cooperative Republic of Guyana) the show makes it clear they're in Guyana the country not the district of Venezuela. And they fly out of Georgetown.

But that's far from the most egregious bit of geography and politics in the show, just the first one that struck me.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Gert wrote:
Stargate SG-1
By giving in to the endless crushing suffering that is separated streaming services, I have gotten around to watching Stargate.
It's such fun and it's a great show to stick on while I'm doing some hobby or having food.

Which service is SG1 on?

Ah, see that's the fun part. Either you can download it from Sky Max on a Sky Box, or you pay for Amazon Prime, then pay for the MGM addon for Amazon Prime. Very very annoying.

Or buy the full set of dvds for about £30, and probably still be able to sell them on for the same price after watching them.

It's something I'm getting around to eventually but the curse/blessing of streaming meant this was easier just now.

Just finished up the entire Neon Genesis Evangelion series and movies except for the Netflix.
I hadn't seen this in several years and thought it was longer. over all I found it ok but disappointing. I read people occasionally saying it's life changing but I don't agree with that. Interesting concepts but it never really gets where I think it should have because it's such a short amount of time and the characters are mostly children with no more life experience or growth. Which to me deflates the attempted meaning of the ending.
I don't hate it I just don't feel like it delivered.
I feel like Legion did a better job as I see a slight similarity.

Witcher Season 3.

Episode 1. Solid, with some fun banter between the 3 amigos (Geralt, Ciri and Yenn). Fun battle sequences that make me want to re-install Witcher 3.

Focus shifts at times to a variety of other characters and even in the first episode it seems this show is getting more crowded then it needs to be.

Episode 2 maybe 3 tonight!

edit: Well, finished the first half of season 3. Probably not going to finish the rest when it releases.