The Television Streaming Thread: Now With Felonies

[R.C]

@Ikioi

Just getting into Season 2 of Seinfeld.

Didn’t find myself laughing much during Season 1, but Season 2 is much better so far. I can almost see/hear/feel Larry David reciting the lines.

Did Seinfeld have Office or Parks like growing pains in the first season before figuring it out?

Yeah, for sure. The first season is only four episodes, I think, and they didn’t even have all the characters set. (The original version was going to have a Monk’s waitress as the fourth lead instead of Elaine. George was left out of an early episode and Jason Alexander told the producers he’d quit if that happened again.) I don’t remember how good season 2 is, but season 3 definitely has some all-time classics.

Speaking of figuring it out, I love Jason Alexander talking here about when the character of George clicked for him:

Jason Alexander discusses 'George Costanza' being based on Larry David- EMMYTVLEGENDS.ORG

@Fossilkid93

Gonna have to defend The Office here as it’s my favorite comedy ever.

First off, season 1 is only 6 episodes. I.e. not even a real season.

Second, they put out 2 classic episodes out of 6 with basketball and diversity day. And it’s not like the other 4 are crap, they’re very good, health care and hot girl are quality.

It’s fair to say it was mostly trash after Michael left, he was The Office, but S1 is a better watch than 95% of comedic TV.

Making the pilot a more-or-less straight remake of the UK pilot was a huge mistake imo. Ended up turning me off the show for a couple of years. Which is a shame, because “Diversity Day” is the second episode and it really is quite good.

@mosdef

Generally agree but the consensus view is that they were still working out Michael’s character. Season 2+ Michael is cringey but with occasional “loveable buffoon” moments. Season 1 Michael is just an asshole.

Yeah, I think season 2 straightens out Michael’s character a bit, even though season 1 of The Office wasn’t as rough as, say, season 1 of Parks and Rec. But both shows did really have a great seasons 2 and 3 before engaging on a steady decline.

@Aofrantic

The Office was the 4th best NBC comedy on Thursdays when it aired

Depends when we’re talking. If we’re talking during the time when it was airing with Community, Parks and Rec, and 30 Rock, I would agree.

@VoteForSocialists

are we going to need to cancel dave chappelle? i feel like we are just overlooking a bunch of his current comedy because of how great he was early on. like, it was refreshing when he spoke truth about racism to white people, and refused the network executives when they asked him to moderate. and i guess it is still refreshing that he can tell netflix to shut up and continue to do what he wants to do, but it’s coming off really bad once it’s no longer “truth to power” and just an exercise of his own bad opinions.

I haven’t seen the special yet but everything I’ve heard is that it’s even worse than his previous material-- not even borderline or questionable jokes, but just engaging in and defending his own bigotry.

Sad to see how enough money or success makes some people think they should be immune from criticism or from growing. Chappelle left his show because he was worried he was unintentionally giving cover to bigots; now he’s intentionally doing so.

And of course, Netflix has been embarrassing themselves dealing with the fallout, from suspending a trans employee who spoke out, to the trans employee protests, to the CEO defending Chappelle, to this kind of shit:

https://twitter.com/QualiaRedux/status/1448594767797948418

(If it’s not clear, “Most” is “The home of Netflix’s LGBTQ+ storytelling.”)

[R.C]

The last (or at least, most) word on Ted Lasso season 2:

“Just do the work, pal. You’ll be all right”: TED LASSO season two | The-Solute

[Trolly]

@CanadaMatt3004

I’ve literally never spoken to a single person who has seen the witcher.

The Witcher owns. It’s all about this gig worker who does essential and dangerous work for people but everyone shits on him because Capitalism. Then he flips out and stabs a bunch of people.

[grue]

Yes it’s very very likely that you’ve never spoken to a person that has watched a TV show based on one of the most popular video game series of all time and starring an A list actor who’s best known as playing an obscure super hero named “kal el”.

[Fossilkid93]

@anon46587892

Has anyone seen Elite (E L I T Ǝ), a Spanish show that I saw mentioned in reference to foreign-language shows that were huge on Netflix? Money Heist has been such a burden to watch. Whenever I think I’ve finally slogged through to the end, it turns out there’s more coming out in a few months.

I watched S1 when it first came out and thought it was pretty good, but then when S2 came out, I started an episode and never resumed.

Then I recently tried to watch it again b/c I’m going to Spain in 2 months, but again lost interest after 5 episodes.

I’d say it’s good, and maybe some will find it more interesting than me, but inevitably I drifted off to other shows I wanted to watch.

[Marksman]

Dang I have only seen one of those entirely and three others partially.

[Aofrantic]

Yes, I have 30 rock>>community>parks and rec>the office.

Parks and rec would have been second but some of the Hillary Clinton yass girl type stuff did not age well.

[LikeClockwork]

The fact that I’ve only seen three of these makes me think I’m doing Netflix wrong.

[CanadaMatt3004]

I meant Ive never discussed it with anybody in real life. Its never once been brought up to me like “Holy shit have you seen the Witcher?” Whereas I heard “You HAVE to watch Queen’s Gambit” multiple times.

[eyebooger]

Today I watched the first episode of Dopesick, a dramatized version of the Appalachia opioid crisis starring Michael Keaton and a few others.

It’s not bad. Was a bit heavy on quickly switching timelines, but I’ll keep watching. The guy that plays Richard Sackler did a great job.

[Trolly]

I mean, The Witcher was actually a successful franchise of books before it became a videogame.

[NhlNut]

The biggest surprise of the Chappelle reaction is the lack of Isreali/Jewish response. The Israeli re-settlement jokes were brutal.

If you think the special was anti- trans and lgbq+, I don’t know what to say. Maybe I’m an old and don’t get it either.

[Fossilkid93]

@Trolly

The real surprise here is The Witcher doing so well. It’s an A+ show, but it didn’t seem like it was getting a lot of buzz. Would have never guessed it was a top 3-4 Netflix show.

Wasn’t Sex/Life awful? 23% RT and 5.3 IMDB seems to indicate it was. I guess you can quintuple your viewers just by adding sex to the title.

Tried watching Sweet Tooth but found that kid too damn annoying.

Gambit, Tiger King, Lupin, and Squid Game were among my favorite things I’ve watched in recent memory.

Working my way thru Money Heist (8 eps in). Liking it a lot, but people say it falls off quickly so maybe just another season max.

Not sure why I haven’t seen Witcher or Stranger Things yet, but def. need to remedy that soon.

Bridgerton I think is probably not my thing.

I’m surprised how far Squid Game has surpassed everything else, being that it’s Korean. But I guess I shouldn’t be b/c it’s awesome.

[DUCY]

Stranger Things is fun. I was a big fan if the Witcher books and video games but the show didn’t do much for me. I think may opinion is in the minority for Witcher fans though, maybe I should rewatch it.

[dlk9s]

Stranger Things is a must-watch. Especially certain episodes in Season 2 and one to come in Season 4. There’s one person in those who is just captivating.

[Trolly]

Tiger King seemed like it was all anyone talked about for weeks. In here I think we had an entire Queen’s Gambit thread IIRC. This is the wrong demographic for Bridgerton, but I’ve at least heard people talking about how great it is. Money Hest has had a lot of buzz for sure. For Witcher, I haven’t heard anyone really talking about it but somehow it got 76 millions views, a second season, and an animated spinoff show.

Lupin is the other oddball. Is that something that’s big over in Europe? Is it a live-action Lupin III thing? I think I head this show mentioned once, but apparently it’s a huge hit.

[JonnyA]

@Fossilkid93

Wasn’t Sex/Life awful? 23% RT and 5.3 IMDB seems to indicate it was. I guess you can quintuple your viewers just by adding sex to the title.

Yes, it was terrible. We watched a few episodes since Netflix suggested it before we realized just how terrible it was and that it was not going anywhere. Basically no plot other than hot wife wants sex. I’d love to see stats on how many watched episode 1 vs later episodes, has to have a huge drop-off.

[dlk9s]

I rarely do this, but Tiger King was one of those things I’ve kind of refused to watch BECAUSE it was so popular. It also seemed dumb as shit, so even after everyone (including my wife) loved it, I just stuck to my guns.

I saw a few minutes of Bridgerton here and there. It’s fucking dumb and there’s a ton of sex.

Not Netflix, but my wife and I are finally watching What We Do In the Shadows. We’re on season 2. Brilliant stuff. I’m also getting her to watch The League, which I’ve seen.

[Huehuecoyotl]

Money Heist is a prime example of a show that knew a story it wanted to tell, told it, then the rating wouldn’t let the producers quit so they just kept going ruining the point of the story. A bit like Prison Break back in the day

[CanadaMatt3004]

Pilots suck (WWDITS pilot isnt great) but you should try picking it up again. Its very good.