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

[Animalmother]

1883
I've never watched Yellowstone or had much interest in ever watching it, but it's prequel 1883 looked a lot more interesting. Sam Elliot and his friend are hired to escort a group of (clueless) German settlers to California. Bandits, disease and stupidly are clearing out the numbers so far. Its pretty rough in places with the result of most confrontations is a bullet in the head. Acting is very good and the scenery on display is stunning. Worth a look.

[Raid]

I watched a fair bit of that, I don't remember stopping for any particular reason. I ought to go back and finish it.

[Stormbringer]

American Primeval

Thought I'd get more into the spirit of the Old West (to give me mind-fuel for our Frontier Scum game), so I just watched through this six-part series. Very brutal with some great cinematography.

Didn't like the ending, though (by which I mean the very last scene).

[Animalmother]

You seen Bone Tomahawk? Long periods of nothing happening interspersed with some cringe inducing violence. Has an definite Weird West vibe to it.

[Stormbringer]

I have! Some years back. I liked it a lot!

[Wrathbone]

Andor

Finally forced myself to watch the whole thing, having only made it through two episodes when it first came out. It’s so uneven as a show, with some episodes being gripping masterpieces and other episodes being inexplicably listless. It was worth persevering with but I only enjoyed about half of it and I don’t think it quite earns the near-universal adoration that’s been lavished upon it.

Part of the problem is that when it comes to Star Wars I’m much more interested in the Force and the fantastical side of it, which is almost entirely absent from Andor. I like being shown the mundane, everyday aspects of life under the Empire, it just doesn’t inspire any curiosity in me. And the gritty realities of forming a rebellion are interesting to me, but not thrilling. To put it bluntly, if it wasn’t Star Wars, it wouldn’t be for me at all.

That said, I think it makes some real errors in its pacing. If you’re going to give a show room to breathe (which is good and should be encouraged for something like this), the answer is to use that time to explore the depths of character when you’re not advancing the plot, but Andor often wastes that time by retreading ground that’s already being sufficiently covered. The whole wedding thing, for instance (spoilers for season 2):

Spoiler

The point of the wedding in broad terms is to show that Mon Mothma is willing to effectively sell her own daughter to protect the Rebellion. It also serves to show her more maternal side when at the last minute she tells her daughter she can back out. That’s all we needed. The rest of it, which spans three bloody episodes, shows us almost nothing worthwhile. Did we really need to see endless clips of Mon Mothma drunk-raving on the dance floor?

It would have been far better to have tightened the story into 10 episodes per season and kept things moving.

The parts that are good, though, are excellent. The machinations of the ISB, the complex balance of mistrust and necessity that hangs the various factions together, the realities of tyranny and how loyalty alone isn’t enough to protect you from it - all made it worth watching in the end. Still, if I’m honest, I enjoyed The Mandalorian, Ahsoka and even some of The Acolyte much more than Andor.

[Sly Boots]

Lol... I was literally just telling someone about my feelings on Andor. I'm at the midway point of S2 and honestly struggling to summon the will to continue with it. The only thing that gives me hope is that I had the same experience with S1 - boring first half of the season, gripping second half.

The other problem is I feel like I haven't been given enough reasons to care about anyone in the show or what they're doing. I don't care about Ghorman. I don't care about Syril's relationship with his mother or Dedra. I don't care about whatever the frick Saw is up to (or Saw in general as a character, honestly). The whole wedding arc honestly came close to ending me several times.

So in S2 there's nothing going on that I find as interesting as the prison section in S1 or the heist. In ep6 a fairly significant character from especially S1 died and was presenting as something I should care deeply about but... I just didn't. The show hadn't given me a reason to care, honestly.

The IMDB rating for episodes 8-12 are insanely high which suggests I should stick with it, but I'd have to get through ep7 (one of the lower rated episodes in S2) first, so...

[Wrathbone]

The second half of season 2 does get better.

[Animalmother]

Classless and tasteless swines!

To each their own I guess. I really enjoyed it, even though they did waste the limited amount of episodes on some tedious stuff admittedly.

Finished The Expanse and also really enjoyed that. The last season was a bit rushed and felt unfinished but top notch stuff all the same. Is there anything with a similar theme out there? Only thing I can think of is Battlestar Galactica.

[Rusty]

Just watched the last Murderbot episode and whilst it kind of wrapped up, it left enough story to warrant a second season. Just read that season 2 has been green lit

[Stormbringer]

Watching Nautilus with the wife.

Not sure if I like it, or if it's just 'not as bad as everything else we've been watching these days'.

Some pretty cool ideas and scenes, interspersed with some really odd script-writing at points.

[Hatredsheart]

Just watched the last Murderbot episode and whilst it kind of wrapped up, it left enough story to warrant a second season. Just read that season 2 has been green lit

I enjoyed the series but I enjoyed the books more, not played for laughs so much.
Looking forward to season 2.