What TV SHOWS are you watching?

I was unproductive and bored so I watched most of Rick and Morty.

I had fun watching it, but eh, it's a fairly flawed show. What bothers me most is not the animation or the general cynism, but, well, Rick himself. I believe he is a fairly flat character. His reaction to most events is to insult somenone, which gets old fairly quickly. He has some "good" aspects to punctuate his jerk behavour but, by nature, they are also defined by it. So I don't find to be actually very interesting or funny.

The series is also fairly bog standard on a narrative level despite what it might seem. None of the sci-fi concepts are actually meaningful to the plot or the interaction between characters. For example, the episode on pocket universes is simply a chase episode and the clone blues could be replaced by any other "I can't believe you were a jerk to me" motive.

I think the above re: Rick is exactly why it's so funny so many internet folks think they're all Rick. It's such a terrible, grim thing to say about yourself.

Gary Sax wrote: I think the above re: Rick is exactly why it's so funny so many internet folks think they're all Rick. It's such a terrible, grim thing to say about yourself.

That's a great insight, and I think that it's possible that the internet has shaped many folks into a Rick mindset.

If I didn't have a Blood Bowl league game tomorrow, I'd be watching Stranger Things. I agree the show is very heavy handed on the '80s nostalgia, but it's so well done and the attention to detail is ridiculous. I'm also not cool with all the merch, but then I like Star Wars and Lord of the Rings too and those things were merched the hell out. It's jut the nature of fandom these days ...

I enjoy most Rick and Morty episodes, mostly when they are spoofing on sci-fi tropes. I actually thought the most recent Council of Ricks episode from this season had some good story telling ... "just Mortys killin' Mortys." The one with the Guardians of the Galaxy/Avengers knock off was pretty good.

Also watched two episodes of Fox's The Gifted which is a spin-off of the X-Men series, apparently it takes place a couple years after X:Men Last Stands ... it's um ... not the best, but kind of entertaining to see which C-list mutants they dragged out of the comics for this show.

I finished American Horror Story: Asylum, and it was good. Not great, because the show sometimes gets greedy and tries to cram too many stories together at once. But most of these stories got wrapped up in a satisfactory way. Since learning that the showrunners also did Glee, I had been expecting/dreading a musical number, but when one showed up in Asylum, it was glorious and appropriate. I am looking forward to season 3: Coven. It's interesting that fans of the show are all over the place about which season is the best.

We are watching the most recent AHS and it is not resonating with me. It may be because it is trying to be too topical. The other reason is that my first wife had delusional episodes akin to the female lead. For me, it is right at the bottom with Roanoke.

But... in what world is Roanoke worse than the boring slog that is Freak Show?

On the current season (without having watched it yet), my concern was roughly along your problem of trying to be too topical.

Just watched episode 1 of season 2 of Stranger Things. I loved it!

I just finished episode 2...so far so good!

Two off details:

1) virtually no arcade game at the time would let you put in MADMAX in the high scores. You could MAD or MAX, more likely AAA or ACE though.

2) Johnathan would have recognized Siouxsie Sioux in 1984. He's a with it kid.

Two hilarious moments:
1) Two Venkmans!
2) Bob's 45.

Favorite moment so far - montage of Halloween costume photos. So cute.

Missed musical opportunity- after the Halloween party, "Drive", The Cars.

Biggest mystery so far- why is one episode titled THE MIND FLAYER?

barrowdown wrote: But... in what world is Roanoke worse than the boring slog that is Freak Show?

On the current season (without having watched it yet), my concern was roughly along your problem of trying to be too topical.

I enjoyed the characters much more in Freak Show than Roanoke. The Roanoke characters couldn't die fast enough. It also felt like the Roanoke story has been told before and better.

Michael Barnes wrote: I just finished episode 2...so far so good!
1) virtually no arcade game at the time would let you put in MADMAX in the high scores. You could MAD or MAX, more likely AAA or ACE though.

I caught that too. They could have written around that... she should have claimed score 1 AND 2.
MAD
MAX

I used to put GOD

So lame

the_jake_1973 wrote:

barrowdown wrote: But... in what world is Roanoke worse than the boring slog that is Freak Show?

On the current season (without having watched it yet), my concern was roughly along your problem of trying to be too topical.

I enjoyed the characters much more in Freak Show than Roanoke. The Roanoke characters couldn't die fast enough. It also felt like the Roanoke story has been told before and better.

I certainly agree that Roanoke's story has been told before, but I thought the structure of the season made it a more fun and thoughtful (at least as much as AHS can do) experience than a lot of AHS. Freak Show was just a painful slog for a lot of its run

Black Barney wrote: I used to put GOD

So lame

"Huh, I would have thought God would be better at Dig-Dug."

hotseatgames wrote:

Michael Barnes wrote: I just finished episode 2...so far so good!
1) virtually no arcade game at the time would let you put in MADMAX in the high scores. You could MAD or MAX, more likely AAA or ACE though.

I caught that too. They could have written around that... she should have claimed score 1 AND 2.
MAD
MAX

Wow. I haven’t seen it yet, but that’s a pretty conspicuous detail to get wrong.

I know Stargate (sequel to Defender) let you enter really long names, but I can’t remember if the original did as well.