What was the last TV show you watched?

[Ernest P Shackleton]

A Discovery of Witches. BBC-America/AMC simulcast. One more time: I like this show. I like that they opt for editing and camera work over CGI for suspense and violence. Could be budget, but feels old school in ways. Not that it is completely void of CGI, because it isn't. SPOILER FOR THOSE NOT CAUGHT UP. One thing I haven't liked, which is the foundation for the whole darn thing, is they did not earn the love between Matthew and Diana. Sure, I'LL go along with love and emotions being another supernatural event, but for two people who haven't "mated" in respectively long periods, they sure fell in-love from little interaction or reason. Life and death consequences notwithstanding. Can we please at least develop and earn the very pillars of a story? Too much to ask? Must be.

 

[MisterCairo]

The series finale of Gotham.

Absolutely disappointing.

It felt rushed. No spoilers, just my opinion.

Final episode curse, I guess. Still enjoyed the ride while it lasted!

 

[Edward]

The series finale of Gotham.

Absolutely disappointing.

It felt rushed. No spoilers, just my opinion.

Final episode curse, I guess. Still enjoyed the ride while it lasted!

Hopefully that means it will soon hit Netflix in the UK...

 

[Big J]

I've been watching GoT as each episode was release over the years, but my wife just caught on to the hype over season 8 a couple of months ago, so we watched the whole thing from the beginning so she could catch up.
Now watching season 8.
I feel cheated. Like the end of Lost.
They're just wasting my time.
I don't mind that the battle of Winterfel defies any military logic as Worf points out, because Jon Snow has never been a military genius and has implemented disastrous strategies every time he's led an army, always being saved by the lucky arrival of someone willing to save his a$$.
Nope.
What annoys me is that they've got bigger budgets, and longer episodes, and what do they do with it?
Fillers.
Every plot line moves from act I to act III with no act II, no suspense, no drama, no tension building, and all the time they 'save' by doing that is filled with inconsequential dross that just runs down the clock.
The writers/producers are just punching their tickets, ticking off boxes and wrapping things up as quickly and unemotionally as possible.
Ghost doesn't even get a 'goodbye pat on the head' FFS.
The most expensive battle scene ever, but a forgotten not-a-Starbucks paper cup left in shot? WTF?
It just feels like everyone involved wants to get it over with ASAP and move on to cash in on their fame at their next project.
Thanks for nothing, jerks.

 

[The Jackal]

The series finale of Gotham.

Absolutely disappointing.

It felt rushed. No spoilers, just my opinion.

Final episode curse, I guess. Still enjoyed the ride while it lasted!

After getting to the end of the episode, I was just sitting there like "um...that's it? What was the point of this episode?"

I really believe they could have ended the series at the next to last episode and it would have worked as a better send off.

 

[Formeruser012523]

^^^

My thoughts exactly! Hadn't watched it in some time and thought I'd watch the finale for old time's sake.

I want my hour back.

 

[Ernest P Shackleton]

Into the Badlands. AMC. I liked this show enough to keep watching it. Few frustrations, and even found some of its limitations to be funny. I definitely wasn't tuning into it for the profound or contemplation. The series finale was banal, trite, cliché...you get the gist. I will give it credit for maintaining its silly character right up until the final minute. That last minute, though? That's it? All for that? Not to mention how convoluted the timeline would have to be for it to end up there. Am I EVER thankful this show is done. Good riddance.

In that Pink Floyd vibe, "Are there ANY writers out there?"

 

[MisterCairo]

Hamish Macbeth on dvd in barracks. What a great little show this is!

 

[Edward]

Into the Badlands. AMC. I liked this show enough to keep watching it. Few frustrations, and even found some of its limitations to be funny. I definitely wasn't tuning into it for the profound or contemplation. The series finale was banal, trite, cliché...you get the gist. I will give it credit for maintaining its silly character right up until the final minute. That last minute, though? That's it? All for that? Not to mention how convoluted the timeline would have to be for it to end up there. Am I EVER thankful this show is done. Good riddance.

In that Pink Floyd vibe, "Are there ANY writers out there?"

Which season does it run to? I'm currently closing in on the end of season two. Enjoying it well enough - it's like the Matrix minus the overbearing pomposity and clumsy product placement.

 

[The Jackal]

Into the Badlands. AMC. I liked this show enough to keep watching it. Few frustrations, and even found some of its limitations to be funny. I definitely wasn't tuning into it for the profound or contemplation. The series finale was banal, trite, cliché...you get the gist. I will give it credit for maintaining its silly character right up until the final minute. That last minute, though? That's it? All for that? Not to mention how convoluted the timeline would have to be for it to end up there. Am I EVER thankful this show is done. Good riddance.

In that Pink Floyd vibe, "Are there ANY writers out there?"

I watched through the end of season 2. I think I missed a few episodes of season 3 and decided it wasn't worth going back and watching them.

Honestly, that's how I've felt about most of the shows on AMC. Into the Badlands, Preacher, both Walking Dead shows, etc.
They just stop making me care fairly quickly and once I miss an episode, I don't feel like im missing out enough to go back.

 

[Ernest P Shackleton]

Which season does it run to?

It's difficult to tell anymore, especially on AMC. They split seasons. Take long vacations during holidays or busy seasons. A series can run for five years and still only be shown as three seasons. I get really annoyed with how they play around with scheduling. They pull two big seasonal cliffhangers rather than one "Who shot JR?" per season like most channels. According to IMDB, there was three seasons.

For the longest time, I placed some trust in the Rotten Tomatoes ratings. But I think Sons of Anarchy scored high, and now I see both Into the Badlands and Fosse/Verdon are also high scorers. I can remember pre-internet, there were a couple A5 magazines dedicated to stereo equipment reviews. You could trust them. They weren't chained to industry control or advertising dollars like Stereo Review and High Fidelity were, which you couldn't trust at all for any semblance of objectivity. Every piece of consumer electronics they tested scored well. Hello, Rotten Tomatoes.

 

[Edward]

It's difficult to tell anymore, especially on AMC. They split seasons. Take long vacations during holidays or busy seasons. A series can run for five years and still only be shown as three seasons. I get really annoyed with how they play around with scheduling. They pull two big seasonal cliffhangers rather than one "Who shot JR?" per season like most channels. According to IMDB, there was three seasons.

Thanks, sounds like the three series I have on Prime are the lot, then.

For the longest time, I placed some trust in the Rotten Tomatoes ratings. But I think Sons of Anarchy scored high, and now I see both Into the Badlands and Fosse/Verdon are also high scorers. I can remember pre-internet, there were a couple A5 magazines dedicated to stereo equipment reviews. You could trust them. They weren't chained to industry control or advertising dollars like Stereo Review and High Fidelity were, which you couldn't trust at all for any semblance of objectivity. Every piece of consumer electronics they tested scored well. Hello, Rotten Tomatoes.

I've never bothered with reviews of anything much, I've yet to find one infallible to my tastes. Sometimes reviews are gamed, but often I simply don't agree with the herd. Then there are Amazon reviews which are another animal altogether. I last week received an item I'm returning that I bought on eBay; said item arrived in Prime packaging, which leads me to believe the seller was registering the sale on Amazon so they could provide their own review somehow?

 

[The Jackal]

Then there are Amazon reviews which are another animal altogether. I last week received an item I'm returning that I bought on eBay; said item arrived in Prime packaging, which leads me to believe the seller was registering the sale on Amazon so they could provide their own review somehow?

When it comes to Amazon reviews, the first thing I look for are the lowest scoring reviews. A 1 star review is far more likely to be giving his honest opinion, from there I can weed out the unreasonably disgruntled reviews and get a feel for if people actually have issues or not.

 

[Ernest P Shackleton]

I've never bothered with reviews of anything much, I've yet to find one infallible to my tastes. Sometimes reviews are gamed, but often I simply don't agree with the herd. Then there are Amazon reviews which are another animal altogether. I last week received an item I'm returning that I bought on eBay; said item arrived in Prime packaging, which leads me to believe the seller was registering the sale on Amazon so they could provide their own review somehow?

Ratings, not reviews. I don't tend to bother reading reviews. Sometimes, but very rarely. I used to go to Rotten Tomatoes to check both the critics and audience scores (different animals); the statistic crunching at the top of a show's page. They used to be enough to get me over that hump to try something or to get a vague sense of how others were feeling about a show.

A few months ago, this study about Amazon, Walmart, and a more general sense of online reviews was on a few news broadcasts. I ran into it on PBS Newshour.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/buyer-...ing-amazon-walmart-and-other-major-retailers/

• 52 percent of reviews posted on Walmart.com are "inauthentic and unreliable," Fakespot estimates
• 30 percent of Amazon reviews are fake or unreliable, the study found
• About a third of reviews on makeup retailer Sephora and video-game service Steam are also unreliable or fake, the analysis discovered

 

[Julian Shellhammer]

Thanks to Prime Video, a couple episodes of Tombstone Territory ("the town too tough to die"), and Yancy Derringer, with Jock Mahoney as Yancy, and X Brands as Wolf Who Stands in Water. Strongly written characters and stories, a blast from my past.
...and the return of When Calls the Heart, sans Abigail. As the opening titles rolled I was laughing so hard at the possible explanations of the missing character that the Missus paused it and gave me a warning. I will admit the absence was handled deftly.

 

[Ernest P Shackleton]

Deadwood movie coming!

 

[Fading Fast]

Deadwood movie coming!

⇧ The trailer does look good.

We've also watched the first few episodes of Netflix's Dead to Me. It's a solid half-hour mystery-around-a-"normal-"family series that, so far, reminds me of what an updated version of those old half-hour-long Hitchcock TV shows from the '50s and '60s would be like.

While this show stays with one family throughout, versus the Hitchcock show which dropped you into a new situation each episode, the way Dead to Me shows the dark side of "normal" life - how most things are not as they appear to be on the surface - has a real echo back to Hitchcock.

And a shoutout is deserved for Christina Applegate as she's killing it in the lead role as a somewhat tired-of-it-all mother of two who's dealing with the fallout to her family and herself from the recent death of her husband.

 

[bearinfedora]

Taboo

Someone had enough time to compile Hardy's grunts

 

[Worf]

You need to post more often - your contribution to FL is missed when you're not here.

Hope all is well my friend.

Well all is well save for the usual aches, pains and disappointing children that age brings. I did have some "minor" surgery that hobbled me for a bit... but I'm alright. Been watching shows and movies just been a bit busy lately. And suddenly sleep has become a bit of a bother. I'll be sitting down watching something and next thing you know----- I'm waking up like a coma patient! These "unexpected naps" are becoming bothersome in the extreme. No I'm around and still love this joint. I'll try and post more...

Love you too man and all the denizens of this mad house!

Worf

 

[Seb Lucas]

Deadwood movie coming!

I'm worried it could be patchy - but that's only because Deadwood is the only long form TV series I have fully enjoyed.