Good TV (aka, the TV series spamthread), the second series

[Alan]

Pluribus
Vince Gilligan's new show and you can tell it in every lingering shot. I'm really enjoying it. Its tag line "The most miserable person on Earth must save the world from happiness." doesn't quite sum it up but it doesn't not sum it up either.

[Animalmother]

Yeah I'm really enjoying it as well. Definitely won't be for everyone, a lot of people apparently give up around 3 or 4 episodes in. I've watched the available 8 episodes and looking forward to more. Very Vince Gilligan in tone and appearance.

[Wrathbone]

Just finished a rewatch of Better Call Saul, my second time watching it. I still don’t know if it’s better than Breaking Bad and frankly I don’t think it matters. They’re both superb. BCS is some of the best TV I’ve ever seen, with possibly the best acting I’ve ever seen when it comes to the principal cast. It’s mesmerising at times.

Pluribus is on my watchlist, but next up is the Star Trek original series. I watched the original films for the first time last year (which I very much enjoyed) and now it’s time to see what the fuss was really all about.

[Raid]

The Original Series has its charms, but even as a massive Star Trek fan, I still haven't seen all of it. The true classics; City on the Edge of Forever, Balance of Terror, maybe Doomsday Machine, Space Seed and The Ultimate Computer, are few and far between. There are a ton of very good science fiction stories in there, but unfortunately only the best really elevate the episodes above the antiquated presentation without the benefit of nostalgia. I watched all of Voyager pretty much back-to-back last year, twice the number of episodes, and would have happily then moved on to DS9 or Enterprise straight afterwards (I'm not mentioning TNG because it's my absolute favourite comfort TV, and I've seen it far too many times to binge watch it as a series), but I find I can only watch the odd TOS episode now and again.

[Wrathbone]

I’m expecting it to be tricky and I’m going to try to not compare it to TNG (also a comfort series for me), but I’ve heard TOS has some truly great stories amidst the nonsense. If anything, it’ll be a history lesson.

[Maturin]

Yeah, TOS is 70% hokum - but it was the start of something special. The original films (apart from V) were better. Probably best to check out the ten highest rated episodes and stick to those. When I did a binge several years ago, tbh I just went 'Nah' about 15 minutes into quite a few episodes and skipped to the next one. It's surprisingly patchy when you consider its reputation.

I think Rodenberry was caught between two stools a lot of the time, he was under a lot of pressure back then to just make it something completely harmless and whimsical for children to watch. Hence the cartoon-like music cues at the end of many episodes and falsely jokey situations on the bridge. Does have some very cool episodes here & there though.

TNG is leagues ahead.

[Sly Boots]

I can't lie, I love TOS, I love the cheesy storylines, dad jokes, scene-chewing overacting, laughable costumes and special effects and everything else that comes with it.

It's just pure fun.

[Wrathbone]

I shouldn't be surprised that two episodes in, Kirk's Enterprise has already suffered a sexual harrassment situation.

They need one of those "x days since last incident" counters.

[Snowy]

Ah original Star Trek, a key part of my childhood but it really hasn't aged well. Much like old Bond films watching with modern sensibilities makes for awkward viewing.

Must say at risk of causing massive offence to friends here, I also struggle with TNG these days too. Absolutely loved it when it was on TV and enjoyed watching on VHS with friends a few years after too, but these days it just leaves me cold. The endless bloody holodeck "20th Century Earth" episodes being the worst.

/gets coat

[Animalmother]

I tried watching TOS on Netflix but lost interest remarkably quickly. Turns out I'd only seen the same 5 or 6 episodes over and over again when it was on TV in the 80's. Don't have any interest in Next Generation or anything after that. Do like Strange New Worlds though.

Shall I also get my coat!?

[Raid]

Must say at risk of causing massive offence to friends here, I also struggle with TNG these days too. Absolutely loved it when it was on TV and enjoyed watching on VHS with friends a few years after too, but these days it just leaves me cold. The endless bloody holodeck "20th Century Earth" episodes being the worst.

Endless is a bit of an overstatement if you're looking at episodes where the Holodeck is the basis of the plot. The technology is featured fairly frequently, but only 4 or 5 episodes have a plot that revolves around it (The Big Goodbye, Elementary Dear Data, A Fistful of Datas, Emergence, with Ship in a Bottle a possibility depending on how you read the plot - I'd say that's more of an ethical and technological dilemma than pure Holodeck episode). I will say though that I tend to agree with you otherwise; the Holodeck episodes were always a bit of a let down as they were usually such flimsy premises. They got more common in Voyager, and also usually done far worse.

I will say that TOS has a ton of great ideas for plots, but they had such a tiny budget compared to more modern stuff that they just couldn't really represent it in the way they'd be done today. They're also almost 60 years old; just about anything original has been picked up and done better by what came after it.

[Can't think of one]

Any Deep space nine fans here? It's my favourite

[Alan]

Reg and Wes episodes can get fucked, I'd take 100 Holodeck eps rather than those.