What TV SHOWS are you watching?

Gregarius wrote:

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).

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This. Cersei told the Iron Banker they'd repay their debts in a fortnight. I suspect Jaime will be escorting the Tyrell gold back to Kings Landing to hand over to the Iron Bank. Its why they left Casterly Rock lightly guarded - the mines have run dry and there isn't anything worth protecting.

Finished Ozark. Overall I liked it, and I enjoyed how they made characters more than one note, when at first they seemed very much one note. One thing I'm pondering...

Binged on the Detectorists this past week. I loved the pacing and soundtrack and humor and characters and so on. Every time they dug a whole I was on the edge of my seat wondering what they would find.

I have had Amazon Prime for months, but really only jumped on it because of one delivery that I needed to really get there on time, for Mother's Day. But I've been meaning to look at their shows for a while now, and after seeing a trailer for Comrade Detective, I finally had a reason.

Judging by the first of six episodes, Comrade Detective is good. Channing Tatum and Joseph Gordon-Leavitt utterly disappear into their roles as a pair of Romanian cops investigating a criminal conspiracy. The conceit is that these are recovered episodes from a long-lost Cold War era tv show with a pro-communist propaganda theme. The commitment to the setting is impressive.Though set in the '80s, everything looks vaguely crappy and dated in a soviet style. Most of the supporting characters are obviously dubbed, just for fun. Joseph Gordon-Leavitt is difficult to recognize, as he looks like a cross between Freddy Mercury and Borat. Likewise, Channing Tatum doesn't look at all familiar, but certainly seems plausible as a renegade cop seeking vengeance. Even the supporting characters generally somehow look European and not American. EDIT: Tatum and Gordon-Leavitt are both dubbing in dialogue in English. All of the actors are apparently actual Romanians. That explains why I had trouble recognizing the lead actors.

Comrade Detestive isn't as funny as I had hoped, but it's worth some smiles and the occasional chuckle. The story is somewhat generic, but there are constant references to the time and place that make the show distinctive anyway. The propaganda spin is amusing at times, as are the anti-capitalism jokes. I recommend watching at least the first ten minutes of the first episode. If you aren't digging Comrade Detective by then, give it a pass.

I am halfway through Constantine, which lasted about 2/3 of a season before cancellation. I'm a big fan of the character John Constantine, who happens to also be Alan Moore's most successful creation. He debuted early in Moore's excellent Swamp Thing series, and eventually got his own monthly title which ran for 300 issues. He is an occult investigator with a punk rock attitude and an eclectic knowledge of magic.

The show was surprisingly edgy for NBC, with the opening credits featuring eerie orchestral music and images of burning, screaming souls. Lead actor Matt Ryan looks amazingly like John Constantine and does a fine job of capturing the character's attitude, style, and personality. There are generally at least a couple of times per episode when Constantine does something cool and clever, and the writers also nail the part about it being dangerous to be his friend. The stories often move at a brisk pace, and there is a fair amount of action. The specific stories draw primarily from the first year or so of the solo title, suggesting that the writers were hoping for a long run on the show.

And yet Constantine somehow falls a little short of the Hellblazer comics, even accounting for network restrictions on gore. One problem is the female lead, a jumped-up minor recurring character from the comics named Zed. She isn't especially attractive or interesting, and mainly serves as a convenient plot device for getting each plot up and running. And that's probably the bigger problem, the stories and the dialogue are just okay. Just about any random issue of the Hellblazer comic is better than an episode of this show. Also, they mispronounce Constantine's name (should be constan-tine, not constan-teen), and made Chas an American.

The elephant in the room for this discussion is Supernatural. Specifically, Supernatural has a character named Castiel that ripped off Constantine's look. In a just world, Supernatural should have ended years ago, but it built up a solid fanbase with the ladies by featuring two good-looking male leads. Sadly, Constantine was probably dismissed as a Supernatural ripoff, even though John Constantine debuted in comics in the early '80 and went on to enjoy a 25-year run as the star of a monthly comic. In terms of quality, I think that Constantine is moderately better than Supernatural, except that the occasional deliberately funny episodes of Supernatural are usually better than Constantine.

I immensely enjoyed Constantine. And besides firefly, was the one show that I thought deserved more.

Constantine was a strange anomaly for NBC. But this was also made during the time NBC was doing Hannibal as well, which pushed some major boundaries for broadcast TV.

Hellblazer is obviously better, but given being an NBC show, it was laudable. Had this been an HBO title, I think we would have seen the next true blood in terms of popularity.

We sorely need this kind of programming, but instead we are stuck with supernatural. Shame.

Colorcrayons wrote: I immensely enjoyed Constantine. And besides firefly, was the one show that I thought deserved more.

Constantine was a strange anomaly for NBC. But this was also made during the time NBC was doing Hannibal as well, which pushed some major boundaries for broadcast TV.

Hellblazer is obviously better, but given being an NBC show, it was laudable. Had this been an HBO title, I think we would have seen the next true blood in terms of popularity.

We sorely need this kind of programming, but instead we are stuck with supernatural. Shame.

Supernatural seems lame at first glance, but there was some very clever calculations for the show's formula. First season had two good-looking male leads for the female fans, plus action, classic rock and the chick of the week for the male fans. After the first season, they cut back on the chick of the week angle as it became clear that female fans were the majority and the male fans were content with the action and the classic rock.

For what it's worth, I went out as John Constantine for the last two Halloweens in a row. I had the perfect trenchcoat, because I was thinking about Constantine when I bought that trenchcoat way back at the start of my career in the late '80s. It's a little bit worn for professional wear now, but ideal for the slightly rumpled Constantine look.

Anyway, two Halloweens ago, I went to a special bigger venue version of this weekly '80s dance thing. A mixture of young people who like to dance, hipsters who don't dance, and people around my age who are nostalgic for '80s music (and I also like to dance). Maybe a 1,000 people there, but only a few recognized my costume. However, ladies who didn't recognize the costume liked the look and I ended up dating two different women that I met that night.

Last Halloween, I went to the local goth club. Maybe 400 people there that night, but twice as many recognized my costume. One poor bastard asked me if I was Castiel.

I thought Constantine, the show, was a very poor representation of the character. The character is a dark figure with a dark past. The show didn't represent that at all. He's frequently drinking heavily in an attempt to forget some of what he remembers and his clothing looks it. The actor always looked like he'd just stepped out of a dry cleaners in the two episodes that I sat through. Plus, it being a major network, they reduced everything to the standard commercial-boundaried formula (Situation introduced and hints to the conflict/threat before the first commercial break; conflict ramps up to a crux point by the second; the solution is at their fingertips by the third, but it might still be a disaster; everything wrapped up nicely by the end.) That's not Hellblazer. And the supporting cast were cardboard cutouts, in contrast to the people with actual texture that inhabited the writing of Delano and Ennis. I just think it would have worked far better on a network that could take more risks and isn't afraid of running a series where you have to watch from the beginning to get the full story, like AMC or HBO. Then again, Preacher is on AMC and they spent the whole first season being weird for the sake of weird until I gave up on it, so maybe it wouldn't have worked anywhere but HBO.

Watching season 1 of Preacher was an odd experience. It ignored almost everything from the comic book except for the personalities and abilities of a few key characters. And yet it felt like Preacher, and also like the best translation of the Vertigo style from comic book to another medium.

If the opportunity arises, you might give Constantine another try. I've watched the first eight episodes now, and there is an overall story arc which seems to be roughly based on the American Gothic storyline in Swamp Thing, complete with the Brujeria and even the Invunche. Which makes sense, because John Constantine first appeared around the start of the American Gothic storyline, and frankly Constantine stole the scene nearly every time he showed up in Swamp Thing. It's true that NBC's Constantine was relatively clean and decent compared to the comic version, but the results were very edgy for a network show. I finished watching a scene where Constantine soaks a dead chicken in blood and then casts a glamour to disguise it as a baby, just to lure a baby-snatching demon. And this episode finally made Zed interesting to me. This same episode introduces Sister Ann-Marie with considerably more depth than I remember from the pen of Alan Moore.

HOLY SHIT, the last 20 minutes of Game of Thrones on Sunday was one the most jaw-dropping things I've ever seen on TV. Just a stunning display of stunt work, special effects, and pent-up demand to finally see those dragons FUCK SOME SHIT UP. The whole thing was just fantastic and terrifying and gut-wrenching. I honestly don't even know who I'm rooting for at this point! At various points, I was convinced that Bronn was going to die, then briefly that Jamie was going to die, then that Drogon was going to die (Daenerys probably has Plot Armor +2 at this point).

I've said this before, but I'll say it again. Game of Thrones isn't the best show ever (that's still The Wire, hands down), but it is one of the most solidly entertaining shows ever. It's just so much damn fun. They pulled off an unbelievable feat, showing a cavalry charge against a shield wall, and oh yeah, with a fucking dragon raining down fire on everything.

Ugh, only three episodes left this year?!?

Yeah Joe, it was insane. I felt torn on who to root for as well.

Joebot wrote: HOLY SHIT . . . Game of Thrones . . . finally see those dragons FUCK SOME SHIT UP.

I'm trying to figure out how they're going to end this thing. As best I can tell they're going to need to kill damn near everyone in the final episode.

Best episode of GoT in a long time. Just awesome.