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[TV] DECEMBER 2018 TV DISCUSSION


Curt McGirt

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On 12/15/2018 at 11:55 PM, Fuzzy Dunlop said:

I watched the 1st series of Mrs. Maisel a while back and I liked it but, I dunno, Mrs. Maisel isn't...that...funny. Shit, her manager is way funnier than she is. The funniest act in the whole thing is the ventriloquist act ('how big are their tits?').

Having watched the first episode of the new series, my view has not changed; I really like the show but Mrs. Maisel is absolutely not as funny as Susie.

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Black Mirror: Bandersnatch has been mentioned in the Movies thread for whatever reason, but I'm surprised it's not getting much love. Perhaps it's foundations in a British 8-bit computer games scene will be offputting to some, but I really enjoyed spending about 3 hours getting lost in that world.

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On 12/28/2018 at 2:21 PM, supremebve said:

You are right on point with pretty much all of this.  The show reached it's best show in history reputation because pretty much every character in the first 4 seasons is a believable human being.  No one is a hero, you find yourself rooting for villains, and no one is perfect.  

My loathing of Jason Whitlock doesn't allow me to agree with your accurate assessment. 

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8 hours ago, ComingToAmerica said:

Black Mirror: Bandersnatch has been mentioned in the Movies thread for whatever reason, but I'm surprised it's not getting much love. Perhaps it's foundations in a British 8-bit computer games scene will be offputting to some, but I really enjoyed spending about 3 hours getting lost in that world.

Because it's a movie.

Anyway, I started The Wire last night. I love this fucking show already. The pilot was slow, but everything else after it has been pretty good. I'm only on S1E5, though.

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I have no idea who Jason Whitlock is. I looked him up, and it seems he's one of those guys who's basically an internet troll, but on television and he's supposed to talk about sport. No idea how that connects to how much you rate The Wire.

Why do so many people not realise that 'controversial' is not a synonym for 'offensive'? Controversial just means something that people may or may not agree with. Which technically applies to basically everything that exists, if you extend the court of opinion wide enough.

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15 minutes ago, AxB said:

I have no idea who Jason Whitlock is. I looked him up, and it seems he's one of those guys who's basically an internet troll, but on television and he's supposed to talk about sport. No idea how that connects to how much you rate The Wire.

Why do so many people not realise that 'controversial' is not a synonym for 'offensive'? Controversial just means something that people may or may not agree with. Which technically applies to basically everything that exists, if you extend the court of opinion wide enough.

He is a contrarian / provocateur sportswriter. Maybe the equivalent of Neal Ashton or Oliver Holt. 

When Whitlock used to be on Bill Simmons podcast, he always made references to the Wire.

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The only likeable character so far, after 8 episodes, is Lester. Everyone else has done some dirty shit in the previous episodes.

It's crazy seeing all of the faces that I know mainly from other stuff. Father Gabriel, watch your mouth!

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5 hours ago, odessasteps said:

He is a contrarian / provocateur sportswriter. Maybe the equivalent of Neal Ashton or Oliver Holt. 

When Whitlock used to be on Bill Simmons podcast, he always made references to the Wire.

Not only podcasts, but like every other day. When I saw him use "when you come at the king, you best not miss" for some random sports analogy/metaphor, I wanted him to fall into a massive sinkhole.

But yeah, Whitlock sits atop my shitlist for being a giant piece of shit. For whatever reason, he was ESPN's original choice for the Undefeated as chief editor. Now listen...I don't take anything that ESPN does that seriously when it comes to race relations or how they cover African-Americans in terms racial discussion. But to choose Jason Whitlock to head the Undefeated would be like choosing the guy that ratted out Fred Hampton for $500 and a ham sandwich and got him shot to death in his sleep by the cops with his infant child in the next room to head the Congressional Black Caucus. For him to fuck THAT up given the proclivities of ESPN towards race in the manner he did tells you a lot about Jason Whitlock. 

I think he references the Wire so much because he wants to gain brownie points with other black people like we don't know about his fuckery over the years. Charles Barkley is in the same wheelhouse, but the popularity of NBA on TNT has staved off a lot of deserved criticism. Plus, once he failed miserably with that TNT show on race relations in America, I think Barkley realized less is more and his stupid comments are now reserved about the actual games and players.

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6 minutes ago, Greggulator said:

Derry Girls on Netflix is wonderful. It is Freaks and Geeks but instead of kids in 80s Michigan it follows a group of teen girls in early 90s Northern Ireland. 

The Wife was quite angry when she poweredthrough all the episodes only to find ther eis a single season of Derry Girls so far. I've enjoyed the show quite a bit

James

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I'm marking out, bro!

Never thought I'd see 2 mentions of Derry Girls on a predominantly American forum. Derry is my wee hometown and it was a big deal when it first aired at the start of the year, the streets here were basically empty the nights it was on. They filmed exterior scenes recently in the town centre for the 2nd series (including Clinton's visit to Derry in 1995) and it was also the talk of the town. Derry has a population of 100,000ish so it's not a big place and stuff like Derry Girls happening is a big deal and we're all kinda super protective and proud of it. 

I'm just curious how you guys were with the accents? I know a few comments from English viewers were that they enjoyed the show but they couldn't quite understand it at times. We talk super fast and, if anything, Derry Girls probably toned the speed down a little and definitely toned down a lot of the slang terms. Being from Derry, a lot of the accents from the actors are...ropey at times, a few are essentially doing Belfast accents but people not from here might not even notice that. The actresses who play Erin and Michelle are Derry born and bred but the actresses playing Clare and Orla are from the Republic and, Orla is basically nowhere near a Derry accent but, I'll forgive her, because outside of Michelle, she's obviously the standout character. 

It's not perfect, the humour is hit or miss but when it hits, it's great. A lot of it is basically the feckin' English type humour (basically summing up so much Irish history in school by saying 'maybe if your lot had stopped invading us for 5 fucking minutes, there'd be a lot less to wade through, ya English prick!') but it's tongue-in-cheek.

Anyway, yeah, I'm rambling but that set me off.

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Just finished powering through Nightflyers (SyFy).  What an absolute pile of shit.  Meandering, depressing, short on plot and long on "WTF is this shit," with a god awful ending that wrapped up absolutely nothing.  Seriously, it ended like the show creators just lost interest as much as the audience did and just said, "yeah, okay, that's enough of that."

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18 hours ago, Fuzzy Dunlop said:

I'm marking out, bro!

Never thought I'd see 2 mentions of Derry Girls on a predominantly American forum. Derry is my wee hometown and it was a big deal when it first aired at the start of the year, the streets here were basically empty the nights it was on. They filmed exterior scenes recently in the town centre for the 2nd series (including Clinton's visit to Derry in 1995) and it was also the talk of the town. Derry has a population of 100,000ish so it's not a big place and stuff like Derry Girls happening is a big deal and we're all kinda super protective and proud of it. 

I'm just curious how you guys were with the accents? I know a few comments from English viewers were that they enjoyed the show but they couldn't quite understand it at times. We talk super fast and, if anything, Derry Girls probably toned the speed down a little and definitely toned down a lot of the slang terms. Being from Derry, a lot of the accents from the actors are...ropey at times, a few are essentially doing Belfast accents but people not from on here might not even notice that. The actresses who play Erin and Michelle are Derry born and bred but the actresses playing Clare and Orla are from the Republic and, Orla is basically nowhere near a Derry accent but, I'll forgive her, because outside of Michelle, she's obviously the standout character. 

It's not perfect, the humour is hit or miss but when it hits, it's great. A lot of it is basically the feckin' English type humour (basically summing up so much Irish history in school by saying 'maybe if your lot had stopped invading us for 5 fucking minutes, there'd be a lot less to wade through, ya English prick!') but it's tongue-in-cheek.

Anyway, yeah, I'm rambling but that set me off.

My grandfather was from Arnagh and my grandmother was from Wexford and I grew up in a town w/ a big Irish culture. In other words, I'm familiar with brogues. But I still had the subtitles on, especially for any of the older characters. But I had no idea there was a difference in a Derry/Belfast/Dublin accent. Everything sounds "Irish." I can pick up English accents when I hear them on TV, but had no idea of the Irish differences. 

I think Derry Girls is a really universal show. Are you over here now? If so and you know what I'm talking about, I apologize. But there was a show in 2000 or so called Freaks and Geeks that was about the trials and tribulations of kids most would call losers circa 1982 in suburban Michigan. The humor is the same -- the awkwardness of being 16 dealing with your peers and family. Freaks and Geeks also was produced by Judd Apatow and also launched the careers of James Franco, Seth Rogan, Jason Segal and Martin Starr. It's weird because it had a cult following when it was on and when it finally came out on DVD. Then those guys all pretty much became giant stars and defined American comedy for about a decade. 

Obviously, though, Derry Girls has The Troubles looming in the background. I love it that the people lead normal lives and then all of a sudden they're at gunpoint of a British soldier and it's totally fine and normal. 

But it's seriously a great show. I'm so glad it popped up on Netflix. I'm telling everyone to watch it.

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3 hours ago, Greggulator said:

Obviously, though, Derry Girls has The Troubles looming in the background. I love it that the people lead normal lives and then all of a sudden they're at gunpoint of a British soldier and it's totally fine and normal. 

I think this perfectly sums it up. I was 9 the year Derry Girls is set and I had a great childhood here but growing up in this wee country you had all this horrible shit happening in the background, whether it was the Greysteel shootings or the Shankill bombing and, unfortunately, far too many more to mention but people just kinda got on with it because what else could you do? The parts in it when the parents are complaining about the bomb scare were perfect and really resonated with Derry people. It wasn't this mass hysteria or panic that a fucking bomb might actually go off, it was moaning because the traffic might be a nightmare in town. I don't know if you've watched all the episodes yet but the very last scene is perfect and pretty much encapsulates life here back then. It's poignant and sad and hopeful all at the same time.

I think, partly because of the bad shit that's happened in this country, there's a real sense of humour and take the piss attitude about the people here, particularly in Derry where everyone thinks they're a comedian but I wasn't sure how the humour in Derry Girls would translate to people not from here. 

Anyway, I don't want to bog the thread down with Derry talk, I just love that this wee show about my town is on Netflix and is being loved.

I haven't seen Freaks and Geeks, I always heard really good things about it but never got round to watching it but I'll check it out.

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Couple episodes into Derry Girls and finding it very funny too. I would maybe compare it to a NI version of The Inbetweeners (with a hint of Moone Boy thrown in) over Freaks and Geeks. The only real complaint I'd have against it (and a complaint I've seen elsewhere) is the English character appears to purely be there to have shit thrown at him with no comeback (a la Meg in Family Guy) At some point, that kind of comedy just becomes cruel.

I should also shamefully confess as a Dub (albeit one who moved away 15 years ago, though that's not really an excuse) that I didn't realise there were non-Derry accents in there (apart from Tommy Tiernan, and maybe the grandad?) ?

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Just got done with Champaign ILL on YouTube Premium, Sam Richardson and Adam Pally as two dudes who were in the crew of a rapper who have to move back to their hometown. Really funny hopefully enough people watch it to get a second season. First three episodes are on the free section of YouTube. 

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18 minutes ago, happjack said:

Just got done with Champaign ILL on YouTube Premium, Sam Richardson and Adam Pally as two dudes who were in the crew of a rapper who have to move back to their hometown. Really funny hopefully enough people watch it to get a second season. First three episodes are on the free section of YouTube. 

My friend is writing for that so I'm glad to see people talking about it.

Adam Pally should be in way more things.

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