The Television Streaming Thread: Now With Felonies

beetlejuice · September 17, 2019, 10:04pm

wowowwow i understand you now. this would be fucking epic.

King_of_NY · September 17, 2019, 10:06pm

Who plays jazzy

beetlejuice · September 17, 2019, 10:06pm

jim carrey

Smacc_25 · September 17, 2019, 10:09pm

Shavar Ross?

hokie · September 18, 2019, 12:36am

Kevin Hart. The Rock as Uncle Phil.

beetlejuice · September 18, 2019, 12:52am

lmao WHAT

hokie · September 18, 2019, 4:42am

Fwiw I finished the Burr special (by myself). Found the rest of it much funnier than the early bits–still think the offensiveness of those took away from the humor

superuberbob · September 18, 2019, 2:58pm

Meh I guess offensiveness isn’t a thing for me. I guess if you can handle Anthony Jeselnik without flinching, is there anybody that can offend you?

oneeyedtripping · September 18, 2019, 3:58pm

Watched the first episode of The Righteous Gemstones on HBO and found it funny and interesting enough to keep watching

anon10396289 · September 18, 2019, 6:06pm

Gemstones has been great. The last episode was really well done, pretty sad and touching, actually. Great characters and great performances. The kid they had do young Danny McBride this week was amazing.

cassette · September 18, 2019, 6:38pm

Just now caught the end of Broad City. Damn, that was a good show. Pretty good finale, too.

hokie · September 19, 2019, 2:18am

Has anyone brought up The Dark Crystal yet? Has gotten some amazing reviews. Watched the first episode last night and thought it was a bit weird but definitely good, got high hopes.

anon92450360 · September 19, 2019, 1:45pm

I somehow managed to miss the entire run of that show.

Marksman · September 19, 2019, 2:54pm

Obvious misogynist.

kerowo · September 19, 2019, 5:39pm

The puppetry is pretty spectacular but I couldn’t get very invested in their dead, dead eyes.

prana · September 20, 2019, 9:33pm

Watched all of Top Boy before finding out there are 2 previous seasons under a slightly different name lol.

WichitaDM · September 21, 2019, 12:19am

Just through 3 eps (currently halfway through season 2 on AMC IRL)on Hulu so far but Lodge 49 seems good so far and I’ve never even heard of it.

Marksman · September 21, 2019, 5:28pm

I love Zach Galifinakas and Between Two Ferns. When I saw the movie on Netflix was instant watch for me.

Just a little bit Into it and had a few good chuckles. Worried it will become tiresome with 70 more minutes but I am hopeful.

tabbaker · September 21, 2019, 6:00pm

Scott Aukerman of Comedy Bang Bang directed it.

Haven’t watched but when I first heard it was happening I wasn’t sure how they would get a whole movie out of it.

anon10396289 · September 26, 2019, 2:59am

Minor spoilers for Righteous Gemstones, not going to spoil it all out, scroll along if you don’t want to read it.

I watched the next episode of Gemstones yesterday and I’ve been thinking about the show a lot since then. It’s strangely affecting, as all of McBride’s HBO shows have been. But where Eastbound and Down and Vice Principals focused on McBride’s character and his insecure, blustery hypermasculine bravado, it’s becoming clear that Gemstones isn’t actually mostly about McBride’s character. The heart of the show is Goodman’s Eli, his dead wife, and his brother in law played by Walter Goggins. And the key device the show uses to elucidate these relationships is this song:

One of the two most wonderful moments in the show is Goodman’s Eli softening from (deserved) mistrust of his brother in law to genuine joy when he watches his wife and her brother perform the number. In episode five you gradually learn what their backstory is – the above clip is a rehashing of a number from the siblings Evangelical showbiz youth from thirty years in the past. And you’ve got thirty years of Baby Billy trying to relive and revive his fame and fortune and love from his abbreviated partnership with his sister. And when Aimee moves on to become Eli’s wife and partner, Baby Billy is increasingly eclipsed and left behind. But in the clip above you see how delicately McBride is treating the subject – it would be hard not to treat these two rehashing their childhood hit with contempt, but somehow the show skirts past that effortlessly.

And while all of these characters could very easily be mocked and belittled by the show – indeed, they are all ripe for derision – none are. They’re treated with kindness and thoughtfulness and compassion by the show. And Baby Billy, as contemptible, and petty, and dishonest, and insidious as he is, is still a sympathetic character. Sympathetic but not quite pitiable. Not since Gaius Baltar has television seen such a character. And when he wistfully pops the tape of Misbehavin’ into his tape deck some 50 years after it was recorded, well, that’s another of the beautiful moments in the show. It was so smart for the show to play the song with the adults earlier in the show, with it’s puzzling childlike lyrics. Why are these middle-aged adults singing this song? Then you hear the childlike sopranos of brother and sister singing the same song when Old Baby Billy pops the tape in, and it gets a bit misty in here.

And then in the show this week you have Baby Billy performing the same song with his niece. With a video of his 10 year old wife and 9 year old brother in law performing the same song and dance on in black and white in the background. And again you see John Goodman’s Eli watching, and being unable to hide his smile.

And that’s what the show is about: a family dealing with the death of a wife, a mother, a sister. The glue that held the whole family together.

Also, it’s very funny, which is really all it needs to be. Thankfully it’s much more than that as well. The best show I’ve watched this year by far.