My Random TV Thread

@Deathy McDeath I didn't care for it. Too slow, one or two neat moments in it, but the opening scenes....GREAT concept, HORRIBLE execution. It plodded along, like I said: 15 minutes of story in an hour time slot. Maybe some will like it, but I didn't care for it. My daughter is a huge Breaking Bad fan and looked forward to BCS and she was disappointed. She' giving the next episode a chance, but that's it.
 
Started Gracepoint, realized how much I dislike Anna Gunn, hated the tone and presentation of the series...30 minutes and done.
 
Freefalling said:
@Deathy McDeath I didn't care for it. Too slow, one or two neat moments in it, but the opening scenes....GREAT concept, HORRIBLE execution. It plodded along, like I said: 15 minutes of story in an hour time slot. Maybe some will like it, but I didn't care for it. My daughter is a huge Breaking Bad fan and looked forward to BCS and she was disappointed. She' giving the next episode a chance, but that's it.
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I agree with you, somewhat. The first episode was definitely slower, but I think that that helped the (lack of) exposition. When we ended Breaking Bad, we knew a good bit about Saul Goodman and his proclivities, but we never learned about his previous life. Likewise, Saul didn't undergo a lot of character development throughout the story.

[SPOILERS START HERE] I really like the way the writers of this show are slowly teasing out little details about Saul's previous life, like his connection with Chuck and this big law firm. We have this scene of him complaining about his money situation, sitting atop a pile of bills, then we get to this check for $26k and think "Oh hey, a nice break for Jimmy/Saul!". Instead, he tears it up and as we go to commercial we are left thinking, "Why the hell did that just happen?" Then when we head to the law firm and learn about "Chuck", we are left wondering "Who is Chuck? What is his deal?" So far we've gotten a little glimpse of Chuck and his relationship with Jimmy (as an aside, I LOVED the use of minimal lighting in that scene where Jimmy and Chuck discuss money) but I feel like the details of this relationship are going to form one of the larger narrative arcs of the show and will probably become one of the seminal points of the show. The show is sloooooowly teasing out little details about this very interesting character and doing it in a way that's quite the departure from Breaking Bad. It's not slam-bang meth cooking all of the time. It's little things. I could see definitely see this show developing Jimmy's character in a counter-narrative to Walter White: whereas Breaking Bad was the story of a good man's fall from grace, Better Call Saul might end up describing Jimmy's character arc in the sense of the traditional hero narrative. It will be interesting to see how he develops since we already know where he ends up (as a scumbag lawyer in the beginning of BB), but how he gets there remains to be seen.

The real test of this show will be whether it can stand apart from the show that birthed it. If we can empathize and be enthralled with the story of Jimmy McGill, having never known about Walter White and company, then I think that we will be able to call this show truly excellent.
 
@TLDR20, I watched season 2, episode 11 of HOC on NF...where the SS agent cut his hand on the wine glass in the VPOTUS residence.

WHAT THE FUCK??? :dead:

You're recommendation got me hooked on the show but I dunno if I can continue. Oh, now the wife expects me to accompany her to FSOG because of that episode!
 
Is it just me, or does this bullshit of making tv shows, only to have them canceled before the story is finished just piss you off and make you consider waiting till a show has had a good run? Or just not make them at all? This is like the ultimate cock-tease. If you look at a list of network shows it is almost like they just pump shit out and see what sticks.

Examples of shows fucking canceled too soon...
Jericho - 2.1 seasons
V - 2 seasons
Crisis - 1 season
SGU - 2 seasons
The Event - 1 season
Last Resort - 1 season
Terra Nova - 1 season
just to name a few.

I mainly focused around shows with less than 4 seasons that were unable to really get into their stride. Others like Farscape, Enterprise, ect... were just cut too early for bullshit reasons, but were sufficiently closed in the end.
 
LoL. Tbh, Firefly wasn't that exceptional of a show. Sure it was cool, but I don't believe the series was all that super awesome like fans have fawned over. It wasn't until the Serenity movie did the concept of the series really come into its own beyond rabid fans. It almost seems as if Whedon was allowed more creative freedom in the movie versus the show.
 
ke4gde said:
Is it just me, or does this bullshit of making tv shows, only to have them canceled before the story is finished just piss you off and make you consider waiting till a show has had a good run? Or just not make them at all? This is like the ultimate cock-tease. If you look at a list of network shows it is almost like they just pump shit out and see what sticks.
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Ratings. Some shows make their pitch, they have promise, and they are picked up. If the ratings aren't there or the execs think they have a better replacement, they cut sling load. Then you have Lost...those guys pitched a show predicated on BS. They had no plan past the pilot and the pilot they pitched wasn't the finished product. They were lucky...and I think other shows pulled similar stunts.

And that's all before internal politics come into play.
 
Freefalling said:
Ratings. Some shows make their pitch, they have promise, and they are picked up. If the ratings aren't there or the execs think they have a better replacement, they cut sling load. Then you have Lost...those guys pitched a show predicated on BS. They had no plan past the pilot and the pilot they pitched wasn't the finished product. They were lucky...and I think other shows pulled similar stunts.

And that's all before internal politics come into play.
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Do not bother me with facts and logic!
 
ke4gde said:
Do not bother me with facts and logic!
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Nice.

One other thing I forgot: production costs. Period and Sci-Fi pieces cost more to make than modern stories. If ratings and/ or awards aren't there the shows will go away. Rome was a victim of production costs. Even Game of Thrones re-purposes sets and locations to minimize the costs where possible.
 
Freefalling said:
Nice.

One other thing I forgot: production costs. Period and Sci-Fi pieces cost more to make than modern stories. If ratings and/ or awards aren't there the shows will go away. Rome was a victim of production costs. Even Game of Thrones re-purposes sets and locations to minimize the costs where possible.
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Yeah I figured all of that. I just hope that the better stories prevail. However, with the lowest common denominator being the jersey shore and honey booboo, there isn't much luck out there for good shows.

Though even some of the period pieces are expensive too. Look at Marco Polo, a really good show that probably won't make it past the second season. The cost for the first season was nine million an episode and while the show was really good, it did not receive excellent marks. Look at the HBO show Newsroom, a fantastic show with lots of potential. However it received constant scorn from critics because it attacked the holy institution of the news media itself. Most of its detractors were in the media business. Although that show was killed by Sorkin himself, it is just an example of the rampant stupidity surrounding some shows. Let me get off my soap box before I asphyxiate lol.
 
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