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

[Animalmother]

The Orville
Trying to get through this one assurances it gets good in S2 but by god S1 is a slog. The stories are obvious, basic and been done to death and I cannot state how much I hate the two helmsmen. The jokes are just cringe Ive no idea how it even got a S2 on the strength of this ¬_¬

I'd give up now if I was you mate. It starts to take itself too seriously and you'll grave a return of the stupid jokes. I gave up midway through season 3 after I finally admitted to myself I wasn't enjoying it.

[Hatredsheart]

https://scifibulletin.com/2023/02/10/th ... ime-video/

Really enjoyed season one so well-chuffed at this news.

[Drarok]

Yeah, if you're not liking Orville, don't bother trying to push through to reach the slightly-improved seasons since they're not that different. That said, I quite like it!

---

Looks like I can start watching The Peripheral now; no point until a second season is confirmed…

[Hatredsheart]

Looks like I can start watching The Peripheral now; no point until a second season is confirmed…

It's starting to be like that with everything lately, I was going to try 1899 on Netflix as I really enjoyed Dark but lo and behold cancelled after one season. And I just bet it ended on a cliffhanger.

[Animalmother]

Oh it did!

[Raid]

The Orville felt more worth watching when there wasn't any good Star Trek on, but as of last year that's no longer really the case. I found it basically impossible not to constantly draw comparisons between the franchise it was so transparently aping. With one plotline that was a notable exception, it always felt like a poor imitation, with a fairly lacklustre script and cast. I think I left the third season with just the final episode to watch, but I never felt the urge to watch it.

[Animalmother]

Bortus as the obvious Worf of the show is comedy gold. Growing a mustache and discovering cigarettes are the highlights. Klyden as his prissy partner had some great moments.

For it's faults I did love the use of practical effects for many of the alien races. Some of the ship designs are also great.

[Sly Boots]

I thought the Orville was great tbh -_-

[Lenny Solidus]

I didn't even make it through the first season.

[eny]

Clarkson's Farm is back for a second season on Prime. I love it, not necessarily for Jezza, but because it is a fun caricature of what really goes on, and is basically a guy farming with the added luxury of just buying what he needs new, and not having to scrimp and save and bodge up old kit to make a proper job. He does however face the same realities, which are unavoidable with stock and machines, and the program is a good window into the uphill battle that is farming life, tempered by equal amounts of wonder, laughing and swearing.

[edit] Actually, I will revise my thoughts somewhat, Jeremy is Jeremy, but the farming IS farming and an accurate insight into the perennial pressures most farmers face. The biggest illustration being the central premise of the series: how people paid far more than they are worth purchase their rural dorms and then use bureaucracy — vested in proving their jobs are worth keeping — to protect them at all costs from the efforts of those never paid what they are worth who are part of what creates that idyll in the first place.

Farmers really are up against it post-Brexit, from all directions, and this series highlights that incredibly. 5 stars from me.

[Tommy]

Watching The Shield - it's consistently ranked as up there with The Wire, The Sopranos etc., so thought it was about time I gave it a go.

It's good and I'm enjoying it, but it isn't as high as that. It's also probably the cop show with the most grim crimes of all shows.

[Snowy]

The Shield is a very good show, funnily enough we were debating the merits of it against The Wire in our TGA co-op gaming chat the other night on Discord. For me while it is very good, it isn't quite at the same level as The Wire, but then The Wire is my favourite show of all time.

[Sly Boots]

Raid, are you watching Picard S3? Apparently it's much better than the previous two, but your opinion would be useful before I decide to dive back in

[Raid]

It's probably too early to give a real opinion just yet, but I largely enjoyed the first episode. It's got some silly touches that don't really make sense, but as Picard and Riker share a fair amount of screen time in this first one (and their dialogue is how I'd have imagined it), it's fulfilling at least part of what I wanted from this show in the first place. I'll put more specifics in spoiler text, but I'm mostly talking about dialogue choices and things that happen in the first five minutes.

Spoiler

Sadly it's maintaining the same sense of silly drama that really doesn't fit the characters involved that bugs me. Beverley Crusher, who is obviously good friends with Picard especially, but certainly the entire Enterprise-D senior staff, has mysteriously disappeared for 20 years without speaking to any of her comrades. That's just not the character that we watched for seven seasons and four films. It had better have a decent explanation for this, but I'm guessing it won't.

Seven of Nine is purposefully dead-named by her new CO which is just so antithetical to what we expect from a Starfleet captain. He's being positioned as an antagonist, and in a way that does at least make some sense (he's given opposing orders by a retired admiral - we've seen enough badmirals over the years and Picard would have questioned this when he was a captain too), but insisting on referring to Seven by her original human name when this is obviously uncomfortable for her is a seriously clumsy way to do it suggesting that the writers don't understand how degrading that can be.

And if you'll excuse a paragraph of extreme nerdiness; they consistently refer to the USS Titan-A as a refit of Riker's old ship. The USS Titan was a Luna-class ship, confirmed on screen in Lower Decks. The Titan-A is a Neo-Constitution class which is an entirely different size and configuration, and is also confirmed as brand new by Picard's own production team. How can it be a refit in any sense of the word under those circumstances? It's probably not an issue for most viewers, but to me it's just another example of how the showrunners don't seem to care about consistency of worldbuilding.

I'm trying not to get too invested in it really; I remember enjoying the first episode of season 2 as well and that ended up being one of my least favourite seasons of TV I've ever watched.

[Sly Boots]

Cool, I'll give it a few more weeks then to see how it goes!