I feel like Trek is dead, and that The Orville has supplanted it. The Orville has the spirit on Trek but with a good modern take. I feel like Trek hasn’t figured out how to bring back that hopeful optimism for the future, that we can transcend our prejudices and hatreds, that was the core of the show, now it’s just action in space.
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I’ve only seen the first season of Discovery so I can’t comment on the second, but I agree that while I enjoyed it, it didn’t feel very “Trek” to me. I haven’t really heard if the second season is better in that regard, but like most shows, I think Discovery will improve over time.
The problem with Discovery is that it doesn’t want to be an “episode of the week” type of show, like The Orville. Once you decide to make the show serialized instead of episodic, you kind of have to amp up the tension and the stakes to have the story last over 8-13 episodes or however many it has.
There aren’t that many serialized shows that are also low-key and more calm in their theme and story. Hopeful optimism doesn’t really make for great long-form TV. Maybe Discovery could do that, but I can see how it would be hard for the showrunners.
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I like Star Trek stories where the hopeful optimism meets the reality of a cruel world. I like to see crews struggle with doing the right thing versus the right thing. Letting injustice happen due to regulations vs blowing up a ship that needs blowing up.
Voyager shined in the early/middle seasons with these kinds of episodes.
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Skip to 12:31
I love voyager simply because it’s the only Star Trek I’ve ever actually seen a sizable portion of. For a few years back in the, actually watching TV past, there was a time when Yu Yu Hakusho dubs were on, followed by a 1 hour voyager episode, followed by 1 hour of Law and Order (original run).
Thanks to that being a thing I did in my early teens. I have an incredible fondness for all three shows.
Trek is for people who like navy military thought experiments with their sci-fi aka my Dad.
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The Orville isn’t quite a serialized episode of the week, the events carry over, admittedly weakly. Not as strongly coupled as each of 24, for instance, but definitely more so than TNG, maybe closer to B5?
It’s not quite episodic, but most of the episodes are one-off events except for a couple
2-parters. I would definitely say it’s closer to TNG than say Game of Thrones. Babylon 5 would really depend on which season we’re talking about as the later seasons are much more serialized than the earlier ones.
Three streaming services for the price of one? Not bad.
Your turn, WarnerMedia.
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It’s cheap, but only cheap for now. That’s been the business strategy for the past 15+ years in several industries. When you aren’t top dog, you offer crazy low prices (at a loss), open source your code, be extremely customer friendly. You survive on the strength of your wallet or investments. Once you dominate the market and become too big to fail, you jack up the prices now that you have everyone over a barrel.
TL;DR: Enjoy the $13 while it lasts. I sure will!
Not a single mention of Fleabag on the forum yet! It’s really good. I have a hard time condensing a description to a sentence or two. I guess it’s about broken people dealing with their issues? Imagine if Jim was a misanthrope:
Anyway, there’s 2 seasons, 5-6 hours total. Just watch the thing.
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Oh shit, Legasov is Crozier!
FTFY 
I mean Legasov is gonna be one of the best roles he’s done, but, he became something else entirely in Dawes.
Really enjoyed the first few episodes but my spouse didn’t. I’ll have to go back to it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5kg6regArFY
Holy shit. I remember this show from way back when.
Im starting Ambulance Australia from BBC. Bad thing is it can only be watched within UK or keep a vpn handy in order to watch bbc iplayer in USA or any region.
Shame Food Network is really bad about streaming/DVDs. I would buy a complete set of the original show if it was offered in an aired season format.
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A lot of their stuff is on Hulu.
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so I just watched season 1 of fleabag, after hearing some good reviews… her relationship with her parents is a lot like mine, cuts deep.
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Just finished Hyperdrive on Netflix. It’s Ninja Warrior crossed with Fast and the Furious-style drift car racing. And it’s really good fun. With lots of drama. Way better than Netflix’s first Ninja Warrior rip-off, which was actually an obstacle course competition, and I watched three seasons of that show.
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