What TV Shows Are You Watching?

The Daredevil TV show has enough problems without people inventing new ones. Zatoichi (1962) is only two years older than Daredevil (1964). I would be more surprised if a “young” Stan Lee had seen a random Japanese movie and took inspiration from it than I would be if both characters had emerged via the ideological equivalent of convergent evolution, especially considering how little penetration VCRs had at the time.

So the new season of Bojack was pretty good. Two or three of the episodes were really really good. I was especially fond of 6. And I thought 11 was the finale at first for some reason.

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The eulogy episode was A+ television.

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It was B-Grade Theater. Saw the ending coming.

I stick by my statement that if you remove Todd from Bojack Horseman it becomes a x100 better show.

Me too. Didn’t care. It showed Bojack so close to processing everything that’s happened and getting better at living, but not quite making it over the line into true understanding.

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I have recently realized that with few exceptions, I just don’t care for Western live action television dramas any more. Nothing really grabs my attention. I think the only thing I’ve watched more than an episode or two of in the past five or six years is Stranger Things. In part it’s the move away from episodic to serial presentation. I always liked being able to watch any episode of Law and Order or Burn Notice or House or whatever other junk and have a good time. Another is so many shows are trying to be the next Walking Dead or Game of Thrones so it’s all kinda samey. That and the persistence of the idea from studios and producers that you have to grind the show into the ground for years even after it sucks and get every last penny out of it. Like Stranger Things as a single self contained season was fine, I don’t need more. I’m watching more documentary shows, anime and movies lately, and picking up older episodic shows. Anime may be serialized but it’s also a lot easier to digest and catch up on if you miss an episode or two. A twelve episode show is only four hours without credits.

What’s funny is that this move is the sole reason I’m watching these shows now. The episodic nature of American TV is one of the things that drove me into anime and foreign television at a young age :wink:

Granted, the only shows like this I’m really watching right now (or recently) are:

  • Westworld
  • The Good Place
  • Peaky Blinders

Everything else is animated serials.

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I am actually the complete opposite of you.

I think we’re in a Golden Age of TV right now. There are so many great and amazing TV shows, about all kinds of things, that I just don’t have the time or interest to watch even mediocre genre TV shows I might have watched in the past (namely mediocre sci-fi and superhero shows).

I can’t stand episodic TV and vastly prefer a serial presentation that tells an overarching story with actual character progression and growth. I am so bored with episodic shows like Burn Notice or Law and Order where it’s basically the same plot every episode with just the proper names and details swapped episode to episode.

While documentary shows are fine, I am almost sick to death of anime. I was actually just talking about this with another friend about how I hardly watch any more anime. I’m just tired of the same anime tropes and character archetypes reused and recycled over and over again. My tastes have evolved and changed and matured as I’ve gotten older, but, for the most part, it doesn’t seem like there are anime shows that match my tastes these days.

Maybe it’s just me getting crotchety, or maybe I’m not aware enough about current anime, but there just doesn’t seem to be shows as bold or as defining or as good as Cowboy Bebop, Stand Alone Complex, Escaflowne, or even weird little shows like Serial Experiments Lain. I recently watched Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, which everyone had been telling me was amazing, and I could barely finish the show. The main characters were stupid, the side characters were vastly more interesting, the plot was predictable, and the same tropes showed up again and again. I think I wrote in another post, but I am so tired or anime using pseudo-psychological wankery based around Kabbalahist imagery pretending to be “deep.”

Most of the cartoons I watch actually tend to be Netflix shows like Voltron or The Dragon Prince, or shows primarily aimed at kids, but also enjoyable for adults like Duck Tales and (the now finished) Star Wars Rebels. I look at the descriptions of the anime I see on Netflix and Crunchyroll, or even the shows talked about on this forum, and I just can’t summon the interest to care about another shonen show or another harem-type show, or whatever. Even enjoyable shows like Little Witch Academia were about as fresh as a week old loaf of bread. Every character was an archetype I’ve seen countless times in the past and every plot point was predictable.

Movies can be hit or miss, but even when they’re good, I always want more. That’s why I prefer TV, because the stories you can tell can be so much bigger and in-depth.

Obviously you’re entitled to your personal opinion about TV, but like I wrote at the start of this post, I could not disagree more.

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Pretty much this exactly. Anime and foreign television seemed so fresh and exciting to me when I was younger because they told complex overarching stories.

These days though, with American TV catching up and in some cases surpassing foreign shows and anime, it’s not enough for a show to be serialized, it has to be good.

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You and @SkeleRym are certainly in the majority on this, going by the explosive popuarity of serial shows. And I’m not against them, I loved Stranger Things season one. but many of them just don’t pique my interest. It might also be the ADHD and I don’t have patience for the serial kind of things unless it’s in 20 minute chunks or REALLY in my wheelhouse. 1980’s aesthetic LoFi SciFi and horror is my jam which is why I binged Stranger Things.

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If you’re going to watch a serialized show, Stranger Things is an excellent choice.

Well since you asked, thread title, despite not having really watched an anime since kill la kill, I’m watching Megalobox, which I’m only watching based on this one image of two ladies riding a motorcycle together. It’s holding my attention so, good enough I guess.

Going back and forth between a bunch of serials.

Season 3 of Daredevil, (on eps 3) I’m enjoying it so far, it’s my treadmill show. Kingpin is a lot of fun and I’m kinda interested in how Bulleye shows up in this. Though the Daredevil parts are pretty much a well done Catholicism advertisement

Just finished the Third season of My Hero Academia. I mean if you are going to watch one long fighting show, I recommend this one, it doesn’t a great job of meshing Western super heroes with your anime High school stuff.

Agents of Shield Season 5, IN SPACE!, it’s good so far but I put it on hold while I get thru Daredevil.

Titans, I liked the first episode ok. Partially thru the second and I’m still on the fence.

Season 3 Super Girl, A show I have on when I’m playing games, I’m enjoying the Justice Society plot but I really liked Legends this season, eventually will get through Arrow and Flash

I’m a bit into super hero stuff these days haha.

Luke Cage season 2 Shades’ character arc is gold IMO.

Kingpin is pretty great in DDS3, and I watched the season through. But the protagonists are full of irresponsibly racist crap, and the self-congratulatory lines in the finale prove the writers have no idea.

yeah basically.

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Not that second season, though. It was enough to convince me it is 100% a-ok for me to not watch whatever they decide to do next.

This post reminded me to get back into Legends of Tomorrow. I though I had stopped mid season 2, but Netflix claimed I did finish it, so started up on season three. Also I’m waiting for season 4 of Flash to reach Netflix and I have couple of season of Arrow to catch up on. I’ve been meaning to watch Super Girl at some point too.

Watched the new She-ra series. Pretty much paint by numbers storytelling, which is fine. Oddly I think I like the side characters and bad guys way more than the main characters. During the first few episodes I was trying to grok what was going on on this planet. How are the bad guys the rulers and the other factions considered the “rebellion” when they have a collection of different monarchies that are basically able to ignore a constant war going on? I kinda figured the population of each of these cities must be like 12 people. It’s a really weird setting, up until they finally reveal something about this and it might not be a planet so much as a construct. Animation is definitely cheap in some places. Lots of falling back to “bad communication” as the primary plot device.

The bad guys would definitely have the cooler playsets.

Oh no, I finally finished Adventure Time. I cried twice in that last episode, dang.

In lighter news, Amazon’s Britannia is much better than it has any right to be. There are so many little historic touches that stand out, and its ambiguous portrayal of magic/insanity/superstition is kind of tonally perfect. Plus its characters’ insults are extremely on point for that historical period.

Hear this, Pellenor! I shit on the souls of your dead!

Turns out the screenwriter is a pretty famous playwright who also wrote Edge of Tomorrow (which was also surprisingly good).

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The new Bodyguard miniseries on Netflix was pretty good. As an American, it’s always interesting to see political intrigue shows about other countries, although a focus on Brexit would have been more timely.

It was also somewhat refreshing to watch a show with a strong woman politician that’s more realistic and nuanced than the Claire Underwoods at one end of the spectrum and the Selina Meyers at the other. Finally, I’m not sure how many shows I’ve seen where the main protagonist is suffering from a mental disability (in this case PTSD). Plenty of shows have main characters that are on the Autistic/Asberger’s Spectrum, which seems to give them special “powers,” but in this show, Budd’s PTSD is clearly hindering his decision making abilities and actions.

The show is only 6 episodes, each about 50 minutes long. I recommend it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tLfLU6-9lxY