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

[Alan]

Been going through The Sopranos with the better half and SG1 when I'm on my lonesome.

Sopranos still mostly holds up. It has times when characters just turn on a dime with zero development beforehand but all in its still an excellent series. We're just starting S4 currently.

SG1 is still great. I honestly would hold that up next to any Trek stuff and in actual fact I think it probably has a far higher hit rate than TNG. It has a lot of cheese and some very transparent social commentary episodes but its still great scifi. Great characters, funny, smart and fun. Currently on the body swap episode and having Teal'c acting like Jack cracks me up. The movie is hot trash but I love all the series, even Universe.

[Animalmother]

Always wondered why it never got a modern reboot, Universe not counting (which I liked as well).

[Raid]

I think Stargate is just too silly a premise to warrant a modern reboot. They pretty much tried to do a gritty refresh with Universe and it flopped. The fans missed the humour and light-hearted adventure, there was too much lore and background for new viewers, and then Universe took too long to really get going. It's a shame too as by the end of the second season it was pretty gripping stuff, but it had lost too much of the viewer base for the studio to continue with what was a very expensive (for the time) show. Something similar happened with Star Trek Enterprise.

I watched all of SG1, Atlantis and Universe over the time I was off work long-term. I don't think it quite stands up to the 90s Star Trek stuff, but then I was practically raised on that; I didn't come in to Stargate until I was a fair bit older. I still thoroughly enjoyed it though.

[Alan]

I never watched Universe when it was first on because I was put off by the dumb teen geek in space rubbish which should never have been in it. I did eventually watch it and was really enjoying it when it was cut. Not a patch on SG1 or Atlantis but good solid sci-fi.

[Raid]

I mean, some of those predictions are incorrect...

Season 5 is my favourite for the nothing-off-limits bananas plot.

Oh jesus christ.

I genuinely had no idea what was going to happen in season 5 beyond the first episode (and even then I only knew half of it), I thought my predictions were being flippant!

That was absolutely barking. Brilliant fun, no doubt, but bloody hell it's gotten silly now. I like how characters just dismiss absolutely incredibly revelations, especially the lengths Jack Bauer goes to to get results, as entirely ordinary now. There's a character that's only in it for the last two episodes, and he reacts to seeing the fairly important man tied to the chair that Bauer is interrogating, and basically just goes "oh you!" and walks away. It's amazing. Everything is turned up to 11; the stakes, the drama, the way that absolutely everything has no solution other than the deaths of hundreds of innocents, or acts of war, or treason, and Jack Bauer is literally the only person in the world that can do it. There is not a single human being alive who is more capable, more righteous, and more capable of yelling with (presumably) an entire esophagus full of gravel. He's practically the human equivalent of the Chuck Norris Facts meme.

I think I may take a bit of a break before starting season 6, but as the predictions are almost as fun to think up as watching them turn out to be accurate, here are some thoughts:
-Jack Bauer will single-handedly install democracy in China, maybe with a bit of help from Mike Novic who prints the pamphlets.
-Kim Bauer will be held at gunpoint by a bus driver because she doesn't have the right change. A tense hostage situation ensues, and the day is saved only by the timely arrival of Bill Buchannan and his nun chucks.
-CTU will be flooded with radioactive sharks, and the only way to the room that stores the scuba gear requires the removal of a person's arms and will thus be fatal.
-Terrorists will attempt to seize the moon.
-It turns out this season's mole is an actual mole that dug into Chloe's filing cabinet.
-The ghost of Tony Almeida will be installed as CTU's director on a provisional basis.
-The season's main villain will be all 40,000 serving members of the US coast guard.

[Wrathbone]

Yet again, I legitimately can't say that all of them are completely wrong.

[Sly Boots]

RIP Moley "Mole" Molesson

[Raid]

"Moley, what are you doing at this workstation, you don't have level 5 clearance!"
<Moley squeaks>
"You're working undercover for Jack? But isn't he on the terrorist's moon base?"
<Moley squeaks and wrinkles his nose>
"Of course I can give you satellite coverage of the moon, I just have to change the satellite's orbital path by giving it a boost from the International Space Station's VPN server. It's never been attempted before but it'll take me about 30 seconds."
<Moley turns away and bows his head, looking to the side as he covertly pulls a pistol and awaits his moment to strike>

[Sly Boots]

[elgaucho]

So....

I'm still watching Invincible - I'm enjoying it because I know what's coming next, and it's going to be excellent. However, they've changed some of the sequence of events (for... reasonable reasons), but I do feel it's impacted the engagement levels of the show at this point - they're setting up a lot of stuff for later, but it's not really clear to the audience, which seems a missed opportunity.

Still, it's plenty watchable at the moment, and the payoff should be worth it

I also didn't realise there were a couple of episodes of mythic quest raven's banquet that had come out during the pandemic, one last year, and one just recently.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8879940/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0

It's very funny show, and worth a watch!

[ManBearSquid]

Dark

Finished watching this with my good lady the other day - fucking hell...

Invincible

Watched the first episode of this last night - fucking hell...

[Sly Boots]

Invincible is awesome (thanks to AM for the tip), can't wait for the finale to land in a couple of days.

[Animalmother]

Funnily I haven't watched it since I posted about it a few weeks ago.

Dark

Finished watching this with my good lady the other day - fucking hell...

Best tv I've seen in a very long time, can't possibly recommend it enough.

[ManBearSquid]

Aye, it was pretty great. One hell of a ride.

[Animalmother]

Lost in Space
Decided to watch this on a whim last night. Two episodes in and I already dislike everyone, they're all wankers. They consistently make stupid decisions then bicker about it like 10 year olds. Should I keep watching or just save myself the bother and quit now?

Just rewatched all of Castlevania, it's still great. The interactions between Trevor and Alucard are worth it alone Really looking forward to new season.