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AUGUST 2015 TV THREAD!


DEAN

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Just finished binge watching all three (so far) seasons of Banshee. Man, how to review that show? On the one hand, it's easily one of the most ridiculous shows I've ever watched. On the other hand, it hooked me and I enjoyed all three seasons...

Banshee tells the story of a mysterious thief just released from prison after 15 years. He wanders into a bar in Banshee, PA and is soon followed by the newly-hired sheriff. Two guys come soon after to shake down the bar owner. A gunfight ensues and the two bad guys and the sheriff all end up dead. Our mysterious thief enlists the bar owner and a super-hacker friend and assumes the identity of the sheriff. This somehow works and he starts performing the job, while also still continuing his life of crime. Complicating things are Kai, the former Amish man now turned killer gangster. There's also Alex Longshadow, the chief of the local Kinaho tribe - also a gangster. And Carrie/Ana, the former girlfriend of our hero, now married to a DA/mayor. And there's Rabbit, the vicious Ukrainian mobster that our hero & Carrie/Ana ripped off 15 years ago in the case that got the guy sent to prison.

Sound confusing? It's not. It's just ridiculously implausible :) But Banshee is well-made and a lot of fun. It places a premium on the three Bs of an action movie - boobs, bullets, and brawls. We get lots of all three. And the brawls are GREAT. Everyone in the show is tough as nails and can fight, including the women. The show is REALLY violent and revels in it - like when Burton, the Terminatory-esque assistant of Kai, rips out someone's windpipe.

So, yeah, turn off your brain a bit, sit back and enjoy the implausible storylines, the scorching hot babes, and the awesome fights. 7/10.

 

The blonde in the red dress in episode 6 who gets topless and has bathroom sex in the casino is WWE's Lana.

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So...Did anyone other than me watch the finale of the Brink?

 

And also, credit where credit is due. Johnny Sorrow...and someone else (I forget who, sorry)...saw how funny the Brink was from the jump. I didn't see what they saw, but I certainly did over time.

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I dug it, but it wasn't as funny as previous weeks.  Funniest scene for me was right at the beginning when the pilots are getting the big speech as they bump into walls.  

 

It will be interesting to see what they do for season 2.  I'm assuming Walter runs for president?  Obviously the nuke at the end will play a big part, but they could go a ton of different ways with that.

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Am I crazy or is 'Fresh Off the Boat' not bad for a 2015 major network sitcom?  The two leads have tons of charisma (The always amazing Randall Park and the new-to-me but totally charming Constance Wu), they veer from the problem arises-gets worse-resolution sitcom format (Some episodes have virtually no story arc, one I saw basically took the Simpsons route of presenting a story, ending it before the first commercial break, then going in a different direction after that), the kids are fairly entertaining, it has a fun soundtrack (All mid-90s hip hop like BIG, ODB, Ice Cube) and a nice assortment of peripheral characters (Paul Scheer as a weirdo host at the dad's restaurant, Steve "Stevie Janowski" Little as the rival restaurateur and Chelsey Crisp as the neighbour).  I mean, it's not reinventing the wheel or anything, but for a simple, digestible, fairly funny major network sitcom, it seems pretty damn solid.

 

I watched the first few eps, but the sheer obnoxiousness of the kid based off of the real life guy the show is based around drove me away.

 

I might check out the new season if the producers listen to critics and dial him down a lot.  Maybe even Brother Chuck him and just focus on the parents.

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I really surprised that I've only liked two summer series this year. Ok, that's not really a surprise. Every year, I find myself checking out more and more shows I would not make time for if they aired between September and May. The surprising bit is that the two shows are Mr. Robot and...... Scream?

Scream is no Breaking Bad, but I've been thoroughly entertained all season. The show is all about the red herring. Next week is the season finale, and I'm still not sure who the killer (s) is/are.

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Am I crazy or is 'Fresh Off the Boat' not bad for a 2015 major network sitcom?  The two leads have tons of charisma (The always amazing Randall Park and the new-to-me but totally charming Constance Wu), they veer from the problem arises-gets worse-resolution sitcom format (Some episodes have virtually no story arc, one I saw basically took the Simpsons route of presenting a story, ending it before the first commercial break, then going in a different direction after that), the kids are fairly entertaining, it has a fun soundtrack (All mid-90s hip hop like BIG, ODB, Ice Cube) and a nice assortment of peripheral characters (Paul Scheer as a weirdo host at the dad's restaurant, Steve "Stevie Janowski" Little as the rival restaurateur and Chelsey Crisp as the neighbour).  I mean, it's not reinventing the wheel or anything, but for a simple, digestible, fairly funny major network sitcom, it seems pretty damn solid.

 

I watched the first few eps, but the sheer obnoxiousness of the kid based off of the real life guy the show is based around drove me away.

 

I might check out the new season if the producers listen to critics and dial him down a lot.  Maybe even Brother Chuck him and just focus on the parents.

 

I LIKE the main kid.  He reminds me exactly what a kid growing up in the 90s and having his understanding of life filtered through hip hop albums would sound and act like.

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I've been re-watching My Name is Earl, and I had forgotten how much I loved this show.  It's so positive and sympathetic to its characters, and most of the casting is absolutely perfect.

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I've been juggling various shows season-by-season, fitting in an hour long show, a half-hour sitcom or cartoon and a 10-minute cartoon nearly every day. Right now I'm closing in on the end of True Blood season 3 (and I totally understand why people told me to stop after 2 now, I was warned and I didn't listen), Rick and Morty season 1 (next is "Rixty Minutes" which I'm told will break me one way or another) and a little under halfway through Regular Show season 2, with the occasional dalliance in other stuff. Next is probably Breaking Bad season 1 (yes, only now getting to this one), The Thick Of It season 2 and my first visit to Sealab 2021 since the series ended in 2005. At some point I need to finish Powers and Avengers United (both of which go in a different subforum) but that's being put off because I'll be finishing them out of sunk-cost fallacy rather than joy. But hell, that got me thru TB season 3.

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I've only seen the first 3 eps, and I'd describe it as "okay." The shoestring budget hurts it quite a bit (the homemade-looking costumes work in some situations and really, really don't in others). If you're looking for anything remotely like the comic you'll be disappointed but it's not actually "bad" so much as "not what I want."

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Its a solid show aside from the cheap costumes. Its just nearly nothing like the comics. I like both a decent bit though I couldn't blame anyone for hating or not caring the show after the reading the comics. I watched the show first so the vast differences don't bother me much.

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