TV 2022 TV Discussion Thread

[Contentious C]

I made the mistake of watching The Bear last night.

Let me revise that: on some level, I've been making the mistake for several days now, not because I don't like it - I acknowledge its greatness - but, as a scientist, it's pretty screwed-up.  Cooking of course was the first science, and the parallels between working in a lab and working in a restaurant are difficult to miss.  The biggest difference is the handling of time; cooking involves many tiny tasks constantly happening, but that also allows for the possibility of the many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many (keep this up for a while) microaggressions you see on the show.  Science is a lot of "hurry up and wait", but it also means that doing one step wrong at the wrong time can cost you hours - or days, or months, or more - of time spent building to that point.  I would never work in a restaurant, but somehow I picked Time-Dilated Restaurant as my vocation location.  Go figure.

But last night was kind of a mistake, because I got to "Review" at about 3:15 AM, saw it was 20 minutes long, and thought, "Eh fuck it, one more episode."

And then THAT episode happens.

Probably the best piece of TV since "Who Goes There?" or maybe the S1 finale of Succession.  Jesus.  I don't *love* this show, because it's so full of anxiety, but it's the next closest thing to loving it.  Thank you, chef.

[J.H.]

With most of Spring/Summer shows either over or winding down I took the time to watch S1 of Reservation Dogs

Episode 6 "Hunting" had me legit crying. No music cues or anything to trigger. Just really good storytelling and depth of character. All TV should be this good.

James

[Brian Fowler]

Season 2 of Chad was cancelled by TBS yesterday afternoon.

The Season 2 premiere of Chad was supposed to air last night.

Discovery is "working with the producers" to find it a new home.

Apparently the entire season (which was supposed to start airing back in April) is in the can.

American Dad and Miracle Workers are the only two scripted shows left at the network, and I'm highly doubting Miracle Workers is on that list much longer.

Edited July 12, 2022 by Brian Fowler

[Technico Support]

We just watched Behind Her Eyes on Netflix and I guess I liked it but I have reservations.  It's only six episodes and it's really good and then it just takes a hard left turn into essentially a different genre right toward the end of the second to last episode (apparently the book sets this up better so it wasn't so ridiculous and jarring) and then the ending is like, "Huh.  Okay."  YMMV.  Maybe watch the first four episodes and write your own ending.

[The Natural]

Phoenix Nights by far.

[The Natural]

Cool seeing how many people are saying Phoenix Nights. It's a landslide.

[Contentious C]

OK, can we talk about how fucking stupid certain parts of The Bear finale were?

Spoiler

How in the HELL did he get all that money into those cans, and then close the cans back up, and THEN have them sit on the shelf, untouched, for multiple months, without a single person using them or noticing?  Fuck the whole "we don't make spaghetti" plot point; someone would have done *something* with one of them for *something* and then it'd be out - not that it should have been *in* in the first place, because HOW THE FUCK DID HE GET THE MONEY IN THE CANS???

And why was he just squirreling it away anyway? 

Maybe playing "Let Down" as the last scenes rolled was a nod that even they knew it was a shitty way to wipe the slate.

The rest was excellent, as per usual, but...MAN.  What in the cotton candy fuck WAS that.

Edited July 13, 2022 by Contentious C

[DEAN]

What We Do In The Shadows season premiere was last night and the Nadja Doll IS BACK!  I love that the Sklaar brothers are on the home repair show that Lazslo is fixating on. 

[RIPPA]

Five Days At Memorial

Limited Series on Apple+ based on the Non-Fiction Book of the same name

Quote

“The series is based on actual events chronicling the impact of Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath on a local hospital,” reads the synopsis. “When the floodwaters rose, power failed, and heat soared, exhausted caregivers at a New Orleans hospital were forced to make decisions that would follow them for years to come.”

It appears to be more horrifying than an recent Disaster or Horror Movie

Starring Vera Farmiga, Robert Pine, Cherry Jones, Julie Ann Emery, Cornelius Smith Jr., Adepero Oduye, Molly Hager, Michael Gaston and W. Earl Brown

[Greggulator]

On 7/12/2022 at 12:46 PM, The Natural said:

Cool seeing how many people are saying Phoenix Nights. It's a landslide.

Phoenix Nights is impossible to find in the States without a good hookup. It is so awesome. Clinton Baptiste…

Have you watched This Country? That is my favorite.

[Tarheel Moneghetti]

On 7/7/2022 at 10:22 AM, Mister TV said:

Started watching The Old Man, sorry for the hot take but I don't get the love for it.

  Reveal hidden contents

The whole 70+ year old white man kicking ass in movies and tv shows needs to stop, there were points in The Old Man where I was straight up laughing at how silly it was. 

 

I’m sort of interested in where it goes, but, yeah, the episodes themselves are a slog for me.  Lithgow and Bridges could make a dramatic reading of the phone book watchable and the supporting cast is fine, so the whole is definitely less than the sum of its parts for me.  
 

I’m really hoping Zoe (Amy Brenneman) is revealed as an operative.  Not sure that swerve would make even a bit of sense, but I don’t buy anything her character has done on-screen either.  Her character is reacting in a way no real person ever would.

 

On 7/11/2022 at 7:01 PM, John from Cincinnati said:

Only Murders in the Building renewed for season three. Wonder who gets Sting's apartment next year. 

Flair?  I mean, Charlotte’s done a bit of acting.

[Craig H]

Finished watching the Bear. Nearly had a nervous breakdown. Let Down is my favorite song by Radiohead. It has weirdly been a song that has been ever present every time I go through something rough in life. So of fucking course in this week of all weeks it pops up again.

That song has dual purpose here. Everyone is happy because they found all of this money, but that money doesn’t wind up in those cans without something super fucking shady happening. Given the bad characters Mikey was involved with, I think he was either laundering money or borrowing hundreds of thousands from one loan shark while he was involved with transporting drug money or something else for someone else and trying to rob Peter to pay Paul. I think that second season is going to have some extremely dire consequences for all those involved for thinking that money is theirs.

I loved this season. The first two episodes were rough and reminded me of Uncut Gems, but the thing that really kept me hooked through all of that is that this is one of the rare shows to actually capture Chicago. I fucking love that city. My heart breaks every time something terrible happens there and that city also gives me hope for how it always pulls itself back up. There’s just something so beautiful to me about Chicago and there’s always will be. The Bear captured a lot of that flavor, pardon the pun.

[onelegbrynn]

On 7/7/2022 at 10:22 AM, Mister TV said:

Started watching The Old Man, sorry for the hot take but I don't get the love for it.

I watched a bit more of it and I gave up. Too slow for my tastes and my ADHD brain! With Big Brother being back on now, something had to go, so Old Man got the axe from my rotation.
 

Nearly done with Moon Knight. Watched episode 5 and … well … that was a hell of a trip! Next up for me in terms of Disney+ shows will be Obi-Wan.

This past weekend, I finally finished off the most recent Bob’s Burgers season as well. Kinda had to since the movie is now on Hulu!

[Bustronaut]

3 hours ago, onelegbrynn said:

This past weekend, I finally finished off the most recent Bob’s Burgers season as well. Kinda had to since the movie is now on Hulu!

The movie was supposed to be released in 2020, but then everything went to hell.

 

[The Natural]

On 7/13/2022 at 10:14 PM, Greggulator said:

Phoenix Nights is impossible to find in the States without a good hookup. It is so awesome. Clinton Baptiste…

Have you watched This Country? That is my favorite.

Sorry Phoenix Nights is so hard to get in the States. Glad you've made the effort.

I haven't seen This Country. Will check it out. Cheers.

[The Natural]

Naga's awful. Feel for the reporter and owner. Good Charlie pulled her up on it.

Edited July 15, 2022 by The Natural

[Log]

17 hours ago, Craig H said:

Finished watching the Bear. Nearly had a nervous breakdown. Let Down is my favorite song by Radiohead. It has weirdly been a song that has been ever present every time I go through something rough in life. So of fucking course in this week of all weeks it pops up again.

That song has dual purpose here. Everyone is happy because they found all of this money, but that money doesn’t wind up in those cans without something super fucking shady happening. Given the bad characters Mikey was involved with, I think he was either laundering money or borrowing hundreds of thousands from one loan shark while he was involved with transporting drug money or something else for someone else and trying to rob Peter to pay Paul. I think that second season is going to have some extremely dire consequences for all those involved for thinking that money is theirs.

I loved this season. The first two episodes were rough and reminded me of Uncut Gems, but the thing that really kept me hooked through all of that is that this is one of the rare shows to actually capture Chicago. I fucking love that city. My heart breaks every time something terrible happens there and that city also gives me hope for how it always pulls itself back up. There’s just something so beautiful to me about Chicago and there’s always will be. The Bear captured a lot of that flavor, pardon the pun.

I've only been to Mr. Beef in Chicago once and that was like 15 years ago.  But, in the first episode, I told my wife that I thought they were either filming there or had built the set to look like it.  Turns out, both were right!  They shot the pilot there and then recreated it as a set.  Also, apparently they didn't build it like a typical set with room for cameras to move around.  They kept the dimensions of the restaurant so that the cameras would be crammed in there with everyone else.  Certainly added to it, particularly episode 7.

Also...

Spoiler

Maybe I'm dense, but I didn't notice that episode 7 is entirely one take when I first watched it.  I want to re-watch the whole season, so I'm looking forward to noticing that this time.

 

[Craig H]

Holy shit. I absolutely didn't notice that thing in your second spoiler box either. I told my wife about the show and now she wants to watch it so I'll be doing a re-watch at the very least.

[Curt McGirt]

The Old Man's first episode was a hit with the rents last night. Mom had to get out at the end, but otherwise they're possibly hooked. Me? It was fine. Everything is as good as you would think, really, but I'm not sure if anything more. 

[Coletti]

101 Places To Party Before You Die (on TruTV) is pretty damn entertaining, albeit short travel/comedy show especially if you're familiar with either host's other work. I'm a big fan of John Gabrus so it's a joy seeing him live it up. Although it makes me miss Insomniac with Dave Attel

[Contentious C]

On 7/14/2022 at 5:53 PM, Craig H said:

That song has dual purpose here. Everyone is happy because they found all of this money, but that money doesn’t wind up in those cans without something super fucking shady happening. Given the bad characters Mikey was involved with, I think he was either laundering money or borrowing hundreds of thousands from one loan shark while he was involved with transporting drug money or something else for someone else and trying to rob Peter to pay Paul. I think that second season is going to have some extremely dire consequences for all those involved for thinking that money is theirs.

I think my problem with this, and why it seems so ridiculous, is that it's a missed opportunity.  I didn't really consider that Mikey would be in bed with multiple scuzzballs, but then again, if one, why not more; the issue for me is that they could have let that sink in a bit or be foreshadowed in a more effective way.  Have Cicero name-drop some Bigger Bad in an earlier episode whose initials happen to be "KL", expecting that people aren't really going to make the connection (unless they have subtitles on), or cut away to the pile of money with one bit that has some kind of identifying characteristic on it: handwriting in another language on the rubber band, perhaps?  Something to make it seem less like the get-out-of-jail-free card that it felt like and more like the time bomb that it almost certainly is, so that the happiness of making choices and figuring out a goal is tinged with some kind of menace due to what's to come.

This is clearly picking at small threads in something that otherwise kicked all the asses in Chicago.

Edited July 16, 2022 by Contentious C

[Craig H]

They pretty much set up the KBL stuff near the halfway point of the season when Carm is looking through the books and wondering who KBL is. Then we find out at the end what KBL is, but that still doesn't resolve why Mikey was keeping tracking of the KBL money or where or who it was coming from. 

And we still know little to nothing about Nico and at least one other shady person that the family was involved with.

Edited July 16, 2022 by Craig H

[peterien]

The Bear was a great great season of tv. Won’t say I loved it from the get go, I was probably the same as @Greggulatorin that it took me most of the first episode to warm up to it but when I did I didn’t want to give it up. 

Man what an experience, I loved every single bit of it bar the reveal at the end but I accept it. 

Some tidbits;

Richie is a jerk, but he’s your jerk.

Every character is so well cast.

The character/casting of Mikey is probably the one that stuck with me and he’s only on screen for 5(?) minutes. 

Episode 7 is great but Carms monologue the next episode is on par if not better. 

I get why people may not like the reveal at the end of the season but lesser shows get away with a lot more so it gets a pass from me. 

I’m torn between wanting more seasons of this and thinking that it should’ve been a perfect one and done season of television. Can they capture the magic for another season or two? 

 

 

[Greggulator]

The Rehearsal is Nathan Fielder’s newest show and the first episode is nothing short of a masterpiece. There had never been anything else like it on television. It’s funny, ridiculous, bizarre and has such unique emotional stakes. 

[Hail Sabin]

On 7/15/2022 at 6:01 PM, christopher.annino said:

101 Places To Party Before You Die (on TruTV) is pretty damn entertaining, albeit short travel/comedy show especially if you're familiar with either host's other work. I'm a big fan of John Gabrus so it's a joy seeing him live it up. Although it makes me miss Insomniac with Dave Attel

Their episode on Fast Foodies was pretty good too which got me to DVR the new show when it debuted.