What TV SHOWS are you watching?

As I mentioned in the 'What Music?' thread, I recently watched through the three tv mini-series sequels to This is England (so, that'd be This is England '86, '88, and '90).

Ultimately....I didn't enjoy it and as the series went on I found myself using it more for background noise. Not sure why, but I felt compelled to finish the thing.

I thought the original movie was fantastic, but this series seemed to shift into Downton Abbey for the punk/skin set. I found the characters less and less likeable as the show went on, and in an unfortunate twist the antagonist of the movie winds up the most likeable character in the series. His fate was hard to come to grips with and maybe that had something to do with my opinion of the show.

From what I've read, the series captures its eras well, but the show wasn't a +1 in my life. Characters I don't like + wasted hours = -1. Can't recommend.

I'm 4 episodes into Netflix's latest, Ozark, starring Jason Bateman as a financial planner who launders money for a Mexican drug cartel. It's fairly dark, but not as brooding as Bloodline. My current opinion is that it's good, and worth your time. Warning... there's more boobs in one episode than 4 average episodes of GoT.

Ok, let's talk about Ozark. Being in St. Louis, everyone is talking about this show (I'm 6 episodes in). Not simply because it's good - it comes off as a poor man's Breaking Bad, which I mean in a good way - but because everyone I know visits Lake of the Ozarks. It's the biggest lake in Missouri and about a 3 hour drive from the city. My aunt/uncle own 3 condos there and we have gone every single summer since I was about 3. More recently, we've gone for the 4th of July weekend for the past four years, skipping it this year for a family trip to South Haven Michigan instead.

So I'm very familiar with the lake and area.

First of all, they make it seem red neck as hell. Parts of it are definitely that way, but it has a huge outlet mall and tons of commercial property. Some huge, expensive resorts on the lake, etc. I've never felt like it was Justified on the lake as the show portrays.

Also, the lake is never calm, always very choppy with large waves.

It is funny watching them portray the Party Cove (which is a real thing) and different elements like that.

But otherwise, the show is pretty awesome. Jason Bateman is great and the plot is strong. It's a slow burn, but it's interesting along the way and doesn't slow down.

I should be done with Ozark today. That first episode is amazing and hooked me. But... something in the next one seemed just dumb dumb dumb to me and dropped the whole thing down a notch or two since. I guess I'll spoiler tag it here:



And some of what has transpired since has a similar feel of being odd writing. Such as:



And there's other stuff that seems weak or screwy. It's still occasionally great, and it's a perfect kind of character for Jason Bateman, but for me it's been kind of meh since that first episode. Other series have done this type of thing much better with more consistency.

I feel like I've been watching Game of Thrones on fast-forward this season. The first three episodes just burned through what would have taken two seasons to get through earlier in the show's run. I appreciate the quicker pace, but they seem to have sacrificed all sense of time, space, and geography to do it.

Other stuff that I've watched recently:

I finally finished Penny Dreadful, which was great. I feel like that show was really overlooked. Beautiful production, great cast, tons of moody atmosphere.

Second season of The Last Kingdom was a lot of fun, and an improvement over the first season. I enjoyed the show enough to start reading the books by Bernard Cornwell, and they're even more awesome than the show.

yeah Jaimee being in King's Landing and Highgarden in the same episode threw me.

Cersei was easier on the sand mother than I anticipated. It was very telegraphed and predictable too, which is surprising for that show.

Jorah has a line at one point, "...I don't know anything about that" that doesn't come off as Westerosi at all, and I'm wondering if that was lazy screenwriting.

I still like the show a bunch, but I guess it's having a harder time impressing than it used to maybe? I can't believe I'm saying this but i think Bran's scenes were in the best in the episode. .... ah, who am I kidding, the Queen of Thorns was as awesome as ever.

I loved Cersei's punishment for the sandmother. Deliciously awful, and perfectly in her character.

Black Barney wrote: yeah Jaimee being in King's Landing and Highgarden in the same episode threw me.

That bothered me too, but primarily, because Jaime didn't need to be in King's Landing at all. Euron's return would have played better without Jaime present and the Cerse/Jaime scenes weren't needed. Overall, the pace feels a bit harried, but I don't think a longer season would have alleviated that sense. GRRM has been dicking around with Winds of Winter. The showrunners stalled for season 5. Most are probably relieved that dominoes are finally falling.

Last season Varys went from Mereen (or where ever Danerys was) to Dorne and back to Mereen in what seemed like a day or two.

Also, these great houses have stood for thousands of years. Now, all of a sudden, in the last few years, a number of them have been wiped out wholesale. It feels a little contrived for the sake of creating a captivating story. Athough I suppose it could be argued that with the Targaryans ruling, there was no outright rebellion (save Robert's War), so no reason for all out war. It's only the recent chaos of the Iron Throne that necesitated such actions.

Hmm, maybe I just convinced myself.

What was the gain in going after Highgarden for the Lannisters other than simply reducing the number of enemies?

There was something that really bothered me in the recent episode that maybe is just in my head. At one point Jorah responds, "...don't know anything about that" to the high maester who is commenting that it looks like someone has been treating his stoneskin infection. The way that the actor delivers it is very North American and very 2017. It doesn't sound at all westerosi, or anything that any of the characters would say, especially Jorah the Andal. It felt like lazy screenwriting trying to make the scene sound clever, like Gary Oldman in The Dark Knight. Maybe i'm just being sensitive to that, but it totally yanked me out of the scene, which hasn't happened since Ed Sheeran appeared..... wait a minute.... are they phoning in this season a wee bit maybe?

I'm ok with the passage of time in the series. (Or at least I don't tend to pay attention to it very closely.)

Essentially, I figure the episode took place over many weeks, not just a few days. When you think back to Robert Baratheon first arriving in Winterfell, the show has taken place over years. I don't expect the only big jumps in time to be during the off-season.

Though, wait, how much time was there supposed to be left in the summer in season 1? Certainly not years... Actually, don't answer that. Let me keep convincing myself people aren't teleporting back and forth...

Barney, there have been previous examples of dialogue that sounds contemporary. I'm re-watching the older seasons right now and Shae tells Tyrion at one point he has a "shit memory."

i'll post the video in the spoiler tag below. The title is a spoiler so I want to protect it from anyone that hasn't seen the episode.

The line is at 0:45

Black Barney wrote: What was the gain in going after Highgarden for the Lannisters other than simply reducing the number of enemies?

I think they took their money. The Lannisters are essentially broke, so they needed to take over someone else's horde (although I'm sure it's not nearly enough).

In the books, they kind of address the idea of the ancient houses falling by playing up all the sub-houses. The Boltons and the Karstarks saw their chance to rise in the ranks once the Starks were destroyed. There were others as well, but I can't remember their names. I think it goes back to that allegory about the wheel that they talked about an episode ago.

I really have no problem with the time jumps. I find it strange that so many people scrutinize those details that much. Things happen and time passes while we're not with the characters. That's the way of the world. I'll admit that seeing Varys on the fleet with Danerys was jolting, but other than that instance it hasn't bothered me.

The final episode of Ozark was pretty strong, and I liked a lot of what happens. But the actual ending itself felt very weak. Very much a "that's it??" So on the whole, sure, it's worth a look, I suppose, but I don't think I would recommend it other than that first episode.