TV 2023 TV DISCUSSION THREAD

[RIPPA]

5 minutes ago, EVA said:

So are we going to need sullied/unsullied threads for THE LAST OF US? I feel like this show is gonna be a thing.

Hey! I could still do my Video Game Movie/TV Sub Folder!

But okay - I will start one up

[Curt McGirt]

Finally saw the Maria Bamford ep of Dark Side of Comedy and it was really nice for them to end on an open, hopeful note. The only ones I missed now were the Dustin Diamond one (which looks real fucked up, as the beginning was tacked to the end of my DVR recording) and the Freddie Prinze and Pryor ones (been there done that with both). Now I guess the next oral history (heh) on Vice is gonna be Sex Before the Internet which starts tonight talking about phone sex lines. This will be... interesting

[Kuetsar]

Golden globes on tonight. First exposure to Jerrod Carmichael and likely my last. Wiit, this guy is not funny.

[Curt McGirt]

Sex Before The Internet was playful and honest and not horrible and disgusting at all (I presume that will happen soon enough, though -- the next episode is Traci Lords). It definitely identified that sex work is real work which is nice, and that folks need to COME  OUT  OF  THE  CLOSET. Easy for me to say, but hey. 

Edited January 11, 2023 by Curt McGirt

[The Natural]

Well fucking said, Dustin. I fucking detest Piers Morgan and Jeremy Kyle.

[J.T.]

11 hours ago, Kuetsar said:

Golden globes on tonight. First exposure to Jerrod Carmichael and likely my last. Wiit, this guy is not funny.

His short lived television show on NBC was really funny and IMO was cancelled before its time.  He is an excellent comedic writer, but his stand-up leaves a lot to be desired.  I think he is a better joke writer than he is a joke teller.

Edited January 11, 2023 by J.T.

[Raziel]

2 hours ago, The Natural said:

Well fucking said, Dustin. I fucking detest Piers Morgan and Jeremy Kyle.

Piers *really* carries a fucking grudge that Markle wouldn't fuck him.

[Raziel]

Disney really decided to run 3 seasons of Willow?

I hope they, um, actually improve it for S2.

[Matt D]

I like Willow fine. Mainly it's about Warwick Davis being rightfully grumpy and screwing up all the time. That's my oeuvre. There's a sense of wonderful incompetence from basically all the characters in the show, good and bad, that I find endearing. And hey, it's still loads better than the George Lucas/Chris Claremont sequel books!

[Log]

1 hour ago, J.T. said:

His short lived television show on NBC was really funny and IMO was cancelled before its time.  He is an excellent comedic writer, but his stand-up leaves a lot to be desired.  I think he is a better joke writer than he is a joke teller.

I liked his special Rothaniel a lot, but it's really stretching calling it "stand-up comedy", I think. I'd call it more of a one-man show. It's more thoughtful and touching than funny.

[Doc Townsend]

I’m reluctant to agree with Piers Morgan about anything, but he seems to get Prince Harry fairly well.  I’d dial down the vitriol, but royal family to reality tv sleaze is an interesting career choice,

[Craig H]

I heard so many bad things about Willow from friends that are watching it, many comparing it to A Knight's Tale, that I've never felt compelled to watch it.

[Brian Fowler]

Because I'm hip with the modern times, I just finished watching the two pre-series movies and first season of Columbo. Formulaic but good shit. Peter Falk, it turns out, was really good in this role! Who'da thunk it?

[Kuetsar]

I'm watching Rockford files on freevu?, It's good shit. . .

[odessasteps]

I'm mad Peacock took down Rockford and Miami Vice before I could watch them. 

[elizium]

4 hours ago, Brian Fowler said:

Because I'm hip with the modern times, I just finished watching the two pre-series movies and first season of Columbo. Formulaic but good shit. Peter Falk, it turns out, was really good in this role! Who'da thunk it?

Columbo rules. The 90s episodes are less good, mostly because they don't seem to have the budgets of the older ones and are stocked with failed tv actors, rather than cool character actors and slumming movie actors. But 70s Columbo cannot be fucked with. Maybe my all-time favourite television character

[piranesi]

34 minutes ago, elizium said:

Columbo rules. The 90s episodes are less good, mostly because they don't seem to have the budgets of the older ones and are stocked with failed tv actors, rather than cool character actors and slumming movie actors. But 70s Columbo cannot be fucked with. Maybe my all-time favourite television character

Columbo is my #1 even beating out MST3K for best t.v. series of all time.

[Brian Fowler]

6 hours ago, elizium said:

Columbo rules. The 90s episodes are less good, mostly because they don't seem to have the budgets of the older ones and are stocked with failed tv actors, rather than cool character actors and slumming movie actors. But 70s Columbo cannot be fucked with. Maybe my all-time favourite television character

It's interesting. It's basically not doing any of the things I usually love in television. There's no recurring cast outside Falk, there's no real character development over the entire season, partially because we never see anyone that actually knows Columbo on a personal level. If I'm not mistaken, we never even saw the police department building or Columbo's home.

But it's so damn compelling watching him worm his way into each criminal, never seeming dangerous until he already has them.

Also, even though I've been aware of the basic character more or less my entire life, but I had never watched it, so I had no idea it was inverted mysteries where we always know more than Columbo.

[J.H.]

On 1/10/2023 at 7:34 PM, Curt McGirt said:

Now I guess the next oral history (heh) on Vice is gonna be Sex Before the Internet which starts tonight talking about phone sex lines. This will be... interesting

Oh man! I hope they cover the wonderfully seedy NYC phone lines if no other reason to see the "970-PEEE... The extra E is for extra pee!" Ad

James

[elizium]

8 hours ago, Brian Fowler said:

It's interesting. It's basically not doing any of the things I usually love in television. There's no recurring cast outside Falk, there's no real character development over the entire season, partially because we never see anyone that actually knows Columbo on a personal level. If I'm not mistaken, we never even saw the police department building or Columbo's home.

But it's so damn compelling watching him worm his way into each criminal, never seeming dangerous until he already has them.

Also, even though I've been aware of the basic character more or less my entire life, but I had never watched it, so I had no idea it was inverted mysteries where we always know more than Columbo.

I love that Columbo himself is the biggest mystery of the show. You do find out more about him, as he tells criminals stories about his wife and her insane extended family, but you also have to wonder how much of that is true and how much of it is bullshit he's telling to disarm the criminal. I choose to believe its all true, because his relationship with Mrs. Columbo is hilarious

[odessasteps]

On a tangent, I didn't realize until a few months ago that the inverted detective story was started with the Dr John Thorndyke stories. The character is a Victorian contemporary of Holmes, but he is a "medical lawyer" or what we'd now call a forensic scientist. 

There are a bunch of his stories in audio form on YouTube that'd I'd encourage people to check out. 

[elizium]

Since Fowler brought it up, what reoccurring characters are there in Columbo? There's lots of reoccurring actors, but they're playing different people. There's Bruce Kirby's sergeant character that shows up a few times and the young detective that partners with Columbo twice, but that's all I can think of.

Well, Dog too, I guess

[odessasteps]

I think there's another guy with multiple appearances, but not sure if he officially is placing the same character. 

Edited January 12, 2023 by odessasteps

[piranesi]

Bob Dishy is the young guy they have taggin along with him. He is an excellent typist!

 

A few people made many appearances as many different characters.  At least a hundred people I would think appeared at least twice as two different people.

But a few notables in terms of quantity: An extra type actor that Falk liked named Mike Lally was in like 15 mostly non speaking roles but a few more prominent. Falk used to have his own car go around to pick him up on shooting days because he liked to hang out with him.

Vito Scotti was everywhere on the show, playing snobby tailors, snobby maitre d's, snobby doormen, etc.

 

In terms of repeat characters, there is also one guy played by John Finnegan that Columbo seems to respect and calls "Duffy". In A Fiend in Deed he's the lead detective in robbery and helps him eliminate suspects but in Lovely But Lethal he's there helping on Homicide. BUT he also shows up like 10 more times as 10 totally different people.

Jerome Guardino played the same background cop four or five times.

A scary looking guy named Todd Martin also showed up twice as the same background cop.

In season 2 there was a Dr. that was in 2 epsiodes played by the guy who was Teri Garr's dad in Young Frankenstein.

The guy with a camera shop Columbo visits in Negative Reaction played an unnamed coroner twice.

I think that's it as far as I know.

Edited January 12, 2023 by piranesi

[piranesi]

4 hours ago, elizium said:

I love that Columbo himself is the biggest mystery of the show. You do find out more about him, as he tells criminals stories about his wife and her insane extended family, but you also have to wonder how much of that is true and how much of it is bullshit he's telling to disarm the criminal. I choose to believe its all true, because his relationship with Mrs. Columbo is hilarious

I think he contradicts himself too many times to trust any of it. and at times he's so clearly putting on a show. Like in the Leonard Nimor episode where early on he almost passes out at the sight of a surgery, but later he is staring directly into the surgical room from overhead watching Nimoy's hands like a hawk. Why do the act? Nimoy wasn't even there when he did that part. It was just for his own benefit.

 

He is a very nice psychopath.