2014 RANDOM TV THOUGHTS

[ChesterCopperpot]

Could be interesting 

 

 

HBO, the US TV network behind The Sopranos, Girls and True Detective, is to remake 70s sci-fi thriller Westworld with a host of blue-chip talent: Anthony Hopkins and Evan Rachel Wood will take starring roles, and JJ Abrams will produce.

Westworld, set in the near future, imagines a theme park that recreates the Wild West, complete with artificially intelligent cowboys that visitors can shoot and kill, as well as pliant robots who agree to sexual encounters. A malfunction spreads through the robots, causing them to turn violently against the park's human visitors – with a robot gunslinger played by Yul Brynner most lethal of all. Released in 1973, it was directed by Michael Crichton, and was an early adopter of CGI.

Now HBO is expanding the action into a long-form TV series, a "dark odyssey about the dawn of artificial consciousness and the future of sin", according to the Hollywood Reporter. Hopkins will play the "brilliant, taciturn and complicated creative director" of the park, while Wood will play an android farmer girl "who is about to discover that her entire idyllic existence is an elaborately constructed lie."

JJ Abrams, who is currently shooting his Star Wars sequel, will produce the show, following his backing of blockbusting TV series Revolution, Person of Interest, Almost Human and Believe, the latter alongside Alfonso Cuarón.

[PuroresuFan]

It's not good. Not at all. I want to like it, so I'm sticking through it, but it really is a bad Mad Men clone. I'm hoping it turns around as there is a good show in there. But I'm not sure it gets a second season to work things out.

 

The opening credits are a thing of beauty. So it's got that...

 

 

The last episode was probably the best overall that they've had so far. The actors they have are fine but sometimes I feel like I have no idea where it's going even though I do, if that makes sense. If this was on when better shows were around I'd never have made it past one or two episodes.

 

Am I the only one who liked HBO's "How To Make It In America"? For years I always wanted to live in the NYC area so I was always a sucker for regular guys/girls trying to make it work there but aside from that I didn't think it was too bad of a show.

[Stennick]

 

Could be interesting 

 

JJ Abrams, who is currently shooting his Star Wars sequel, will produce the show, following his backing of blockbusting TV series Revolution, Person of Interest, Almost Human and Believe, the latter alongside Alfonso Cuarón.

 

 

The only show on here to make it past two seasons is Person of Interest and half of them only made it one season. 

[Stennick]

I finally sat down with this week's The Leftovers last night. While it wasn't as strong as last week's stellar episode, I thought it was another solid hour of television. The lack of buzz around this show is a little discouraging for a second season, but I think people these days have a hard time sitting through a show that is such an emotional downer.

 

I didn't think there was anyway they would cancel it but I just looked at the ratings. The highest rated episode they have had is 1.7 million viewers. True Detective is their second lowest rated show and I think the lowest viewed episode they had was 1.67 million. So Leftovers highest rated episode to date would be damn near the lowest viewed episode for their lowest viewed dramatic series. Two episodes ago it dropped to 1.3 million viewers. I can't recall the last drama of HBO's that was one and done but then again looking at the rest of their dramas they all pull in 3 and 4 million viewers. Unless you're Game of Thrones then you push nearly 7.5 million viewers on the reg. 

[Joe Lucia]

I'm about one episode from punting on The Leftovers. Four episodes in, and I still have no idea what the hell is going on. It just seems so scattered and unfocused.

[Greggulator]

Tyrant is really bad but entertaining at once. Just sayin'.

[Elsalvajeloco]

Tyrant is really bad but entertaining at once. Just sayin'.

 

Jamal's hot wife is really going for the gusto with the fake accent. They didn't really dig deep into the talent pool (looking at you too, Adam Rayner).

 

Speaking of FX shows, Franka Potente's character on The Bridge is just downright vulgar. She's walking around naked and trying to get young teenage boys to touch her snatch. Stabbing herself in the chest with pins. I dunno what award she is going after, but she is leaving no stone unturned in her attempt to be Gustavo Fring with tits.

[Greggulator]

We're in the second decade of the "golden age of television" that has these genre-defining and bending shows come off of the assembly line. I haven't even started to watch True Detective or Breaking Bad yet and I don't feel like I'm missing out, since I've watched The Wire and The Sopranos and Mad Men and Friday Night Lights and Fargo. There is no shortage of awesome TV.

That's why I'm so into Tyrant. There SHOULD be a dramatic show that takes us into The Arab Spring and what it means. A show like this can really help American audiences get to know the great struggle of 21st Century international politics, and the whole precarious balance of wealth, power, democracy, human rights, freedom, chaos and the role our government plays (or doesn't) in shaping how other countries are run.

Instead, this absolute garbage. It's a poorly done Godfather, with terrible accents and stock cliches and the like.

I'd much rather watch this than anything else. It's a rare swing-and-a-miss.

[Reed]

"Middle East dictators" seems to be kind of a tricky subject. They're kind of ridiculous people and it's difficult to show that without making them cartoons.

 

I remember a few years ago, after Saddam kicked the bucket, channel 4 made Saddam's Tribe a biopic of Saddam and his crazy family in those last few years based on the account of one of his daughters.

 

The whole thing should be absolutely horrific--these are all terrible people running amok--instead it came off like an unintentionally hilarious middle east version of Dynasty.  You've got AK47s made of gold, Saddam as a Bond villain and Uday Hussien is so ridiculously evil it's difficult not to laugh. He's got his own pet cheetah, slaughters an entire bar because he's bored and tortures the soccer team if they don't meet his high expectations. Even The Joker would think he was a sick fuck.

 

I mean, this was all apparently true. It shouldn't have been laughable, but it was. It was so absurd.

[Elsalvajeloco]

It's one thing to do the awful Bryan Singer Valkyrie "Tom Cruise plays a Nazi colonel with an American accent" idea. It's another to use bad accents and everyone speaks English. Then, the very next night, FX has a show that uses subtitles when it's appropriate. But people don't want to read, I guess.

 

The woman who plays Fares Fares' daughter (the defiant rebel girl because rebellious daughters aren't already common) was sorta intriguing for an episode. Then she just became another auxiliary character. Just there to deliver dialogue and hit her time cues.

[Rev Ray]

I got a laugh out of Paget Brewster on Drunk History turning into Sadie Doyle seeing a bee when a moth was flying around the set.

[Stennick]

So I finished Under the Dome season 1 at at around the halfway point I was very interested in learning something new. I knew there was a season 2 so I didn't expect to learn the origin of the dome but I wanted SOME new information. Instead I didn't get any new information and the show stop being sci fi and started just being "evil councilmen takes control of his city by force". It fell off horribly bad to the point where its nearly killed my interest. Sadly it pretended as a sci fi show when most of it was bad drama and then the last 30 seconds something would "happen". I can't stand the Junior character and the cop is pretty useless as a character all the way around. I was really digging the first few episodes and hadn't been as interested in the mystery sci fi aspect of a show since Flashforward (RIP damn I loved that show).

 

Now its onto Bates Motel and I've never seen Psycho. I'm not a fan of black and white movies and I'm not a fan of black and white movies that where made when my dad was still in the womb. I'm sure its a great movie I read the wiki page and thats good enough for me. The show is hit and miss I would almost enjoy it more if it wasn't Psycho and it was an original piece. The interesting parts of this show with the human trafficking, the drug trafficking, the corruption in the town, etc. But to the best of my knowledge nothing outside of Norma being very overbearing, controlling and protective of Norman and of course the hotel have anything to do with the show. I like it well enough but again I'd like it more if it wasn't Bates Motel and it was just an original story. The episode I just watched had the the guy who played The Dollmaker from Arrow in it as a villain so thats cool. 

[Curt McGirt]

"Middle East dictators" seems to be kind of a tricky subject. They're kind of ridiculous people and it's difficult to show that without making them cartoons.

 

I remember a few years ago, after Saddam kicked the bucket, channel 4 made Saddam's Tribe a biopic of Saddam and his crazy family in those last few years based on the account of one of his daughters.

 

The whole thing should be absolutely horrific--these are all terrible people running amok--instead it came off like an unintentionally hilarious middle east version of Dynasty.  You've got AK47s made of gold, Saddam as a Bond villain and Uday Hussien is so ridiculously evil it's difficult not to laugh. He's got his own pet cheetah, slaughters an entire bar because he's bored and tortures the soccer team if they don't meet his high expectations. Even The Joker would think he was a sick fuck.

 

I mean, this was all apparently true. It shouldn't have been laughable, but it was. It was so absurd.

 

Sounds like the HBO miniseries House of Saddam measures up favorably in comparison, likely because it avoided those exact details. 

 

The Meltdown on Comedy Central (after @Midnight) looks to be a winner. It's three comedians bookended by intros doing their thing in the back of a comic book store. David Koechner and especially Neil Brennan killed it tonight. 

[Reed]

Uday Hussein in Saddam's Tribe really is one of the great all-time TV villains in my mind. You know things are bad when you're making Saddam frigging Hussein look relatively normal and well-adjusted.

 

I never saw House of Saddam, I might check it out.

[Niners Fan in CT]

Maybe people shouldn't be lazy fucks. Go pick up another language. Nothing is stopping you from leanring Arabic. Or I guess you could read subtitles. It wont kill you.

[cwoy2j]

Getting pretty stoked for Hell on Wheels season 4. I'm going through season 3 on Netflix now. Wasn't that surprised to see The Swede turn up again and liked his re-introduction.

[cwoy2j]

 

I think you guys have talked me out of The Strain.

 

In an era of emo vampires that are just misundestood and not really evil we swear and you should feel sorry for us as we prattle on about how horrible immortality is blah blah blah, the vicious bloodsucking freaks from The Strain are a breath of fresh air.

You have to endure a lot of crappy dialoge to get to the good parts, though.

The second novel, The Fall, should make for an amazing season. The third novel, The Night Eternal, is so fucking weird its amazing..

 

 

The Strain uses my least favorite tv/movie family trope. The “guy/girl who has a super stressful and important job who neglects his family and his/her significant other doesn’t understand”. The significant other just comes across as bitchy. Lives are hanging in the balance and your husband has to rush off to help and all you do is give him grief? Why marry someone who is in or was studying to be in that line of work in the first place?

[pipGofern]

It's one thing to do the awful Bryan Singer Valkyrie "Tom Cruise plays a Nazi colonel with an American accent" idea. It's another to use bad accents and everyone speaks English. Then, the very next night, FX has a show that uses subtitles when it's appropriate. But people don't want to read, I guess..

I liked what Lost used to do with Sayid's Iraq flashbacks: start off speaking Arabic and then do a pan-dissolve move ending with everybody speaking English. So you know they're still speaking Arabic, we're just hearing in English.

Although it definitely seems like TV producers are skittish of Arabic. Back to Lost, they had no problem doing Jin flashbacks all in Korean - I remember a story that an ABC exec once congratulated them on "the best episode of TV I've ever read." Or maybe they just figure Americans are more used to Kung fu movies.

[HumanChessgame]

 

It's one thing to do the awful Bryan Singer Valkyrie "Tom Cruise plays a Nazi colonel with an American accent" idea. It's another to use bad accents and everyone speaks English. Then, the very next night, FX has a show that uses subtitles when it's appropriate. But people don't want to read, I guess..

I liked what Lost used to do with Sayid's Iraq flashbacks: start off speaking Arabic and then do a pan-dissolve move ending with everybody speaking English. So you know they're still speaking Arabic, we're just hearing in English.

Although it definitely seems like TV producers are skittish of Arabic. Back to Lost, they had no problem doing Jin flashbacks all in Korean - I remember a story that an ABC exec once congratulated them on "the best episode of TV I've ever read." Or maybe they just figure Americans are more used to Kung fu movies.

 

 

I agree with all this but Jin also didn't speak English, at least not until later when he tried to learn some for Sun's sake.  Keeping his flashbacks in his native language also helped to re-iterate that.  IIRC, in some of the Sun-centric portions of them they had her speak English a few times to illustrate she had been learning in secret.

[Ace]

There are rumors coming out about the new season of American Horror Story, based on an alleged leaked callsheet.

 

The return of...

 

Which would make sense, as this season takes place some years before Season 2, and in Naomi Grossman's public appearances, she's been wearing wigs again.  

[Greggulator]

Tyrant's awfulness goes well beyond the English component.

 

It's just indicative of the biggest problem with the show. They're creating a fictional nation based off of the Middle East and have paid exactly zero details to how that fictional nation actually works.

 

For instance, it's set up that the country has some of the best economic indicators in the region. But what exactly powers that economy? The only industry that has been discussed in the show at all has been the country's telecom monopoly, which was handed to the family of Jamal's bride years ago. They also indicate that the only thing America really cares about with this country is having its regional naval base in its boundaries. Being a global security checkpoint certainly carries with it a certain amount of power, but it doesn't create a functioning economy.

The only thing we know is that there is some level of wealth in this country. Even the journalist dude lives in a nice enough apartment and has the time and disposable income to purchase tea and hang out in public squares. But then the young rebel dude talks about how the people don't have jobs. And the American embassy dude's more of a pain-in-the-ass but doesn't really have any real power or function beyond being an American.

They could very explain all of this by making this place an oil/natural gas/commodities economy. The al-Fayed family's wealth and power comes because they figured out a way to win control of natural resources. In a lot of commodity countries, the elite gets a lot of that cut. The regular folks typically have shoddy employment but have insane subsidies or the like to placate the public. The Saudis and Kuwaitis upped their subsidies once Egyptians flocked to Tahir Square in order to placate the populace. Sure, you might not have really anything to do all day long but you won't have to pay for your electricity bill and we'll make sure you have enough cash from your 15-hour a week no-show public sector job to keep your iPhone weekend minutes free.

And US officials do have to care about these places since Western energy companies do have investments and the like at stake in these countries and act on behalf of those interests. The U.S. Embassy guy talked about how they'll have their naval base their no matter what -- see Gitmo in Cuba. But having big western corporations have a stake in how this place is governed gives him a lot of teeth.

The family also says they have to worry about Amnesty International. In this world, there's no reason to -- they control Internet access, so people can't really go online to read their think tank pieces and, besides, they already know how horrible the regime is anyways. The primary impact that Amnesty International and those groups have is when they raise enough public awareness about countries that are truly terrible that cause people in Washington to raise eyebrows and/or put pressure on corporations doing business in those places.

Either way, it all comes down to the pocketbook and wallet. And I have no idea how any of that works in this country, and the producers/writers/etc. have no idea, either. They haven't even though about it, since they can't even come up with a consistent accent for the characters to use.

I also love how this regime gassed 20,000 people and the protests that could threaten the country as we know it largely take place in something roughly the size of my back yard.

[Fuzzy Dunlop]

 

Also, the world demands a special Deadwood Cunt Watch.

 

 

I think perhaps an ode to the endless variations on malfunctioning penises might be better:

 

 

It's been 4 days but still no Deadwood update? What have you been doing instead of watching Deadwood, having a life or something?

 

This displeases me, I'm taking measures to bring you down.

 

Dammit, I swore I'd stop paraphrasing Deadwood in everyday life. And yes, I also deliberately quoted the part where the phrase 'malfunctioning penises' was used too.

 

On another television related note, for those that have seen it, is Mob City worth watching? It seems like something I should like but I've heard mixed things about it and, although slightly irrational, seeing Milo Ventimiglia in a prominent position on the cast list puts me off a bit from the start. I mean, yeah, series one of Heroes was great and all but in spite of him.

[piranesi]

 

 

Also, the world demands a special Deadwood Cunt Watch.

 

 

I think perhaps an ode to the endless variations on malfunctioning penises might be better:

 

 

It's been 4 days but still no Deadwood update? What have you been doing instead of watching Deadwood, having a life or something?

 

 

 

Update: William Sanderson has the best website:

 

http://www.williamsanderson.net/

[Fuzzy Dunlop]

EB Farnum just personally welcomed me to his website. 

 

You're forgiven.

[Stennick]

So I guess its not really news but I've seen a lot of tv news sites saying Halt and Catch won't be getting renewed and Crossbones was just cancelled. It was on my to do watch list but I guess I'll settle for Black Sails if anyone has seen it how good is it?