Television Thread (NO ANIME ALLOWED)

general
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I tend to watch more TV format content than movies so perhaps it's time for a television thread.

Like more than a few things I end up reading or watching or playing, based on something Tim Rogers said either on Twitter or in a video once or on the podcast, or a combination of all of 'em, I been watching _Deadwood._ I like how it's got very realistic portrayals of white people, scheming and fighting and yelling racial slurs with reckless abandon (I'm being facetious (mostly)).

One thing I know Tim has praised is the dialogue writing, and oh boy, he was not wrong about that aspect of the show. I like how it's not exactly spikes of $5 words amid a sea of trash, and more like just a steady stream of $2 words combined into delicious medium rare tenderloin steak dinners of lines of dialogue. Almost every line has this roundabout meandering cowpoke talk feeling and sounds and feels like a newly unearthed stanza of the classic country song Home on the Range. Yet it all comes out sounding so understandable when you let it sink in as the scene is progressing. It's just entire episodes of the best lines from every western. Also according to Tim, which if I had to guess might have been mentioned in a commentary track, the initial script treatment had strictly period appropriate profanity and they changed it thinking it might be less alienating. I think that's the only ways I could conceive of there being a significant improvement on what is proving to be a very compelling series... one can only dream of how good that would have been.

I think I appreciate _Deadwood_ as a sort of mythological history, it's got more in common with historical writing by William Shakespeare than your average historical drama, and maybe it's not to everyone's taste but I think the obviously intentional incongruity by the aforementioned genteel dialogue with the screamin' slurs and fightin' and fuckin' is, at least, more effectively executed upon than in _Game of Thrones._

Anyway I'm starting in on Season 2 so far, and yes, I already know it was ended prematurely and there was a movie more recently. So we'll see if my opinion changes.

Anime is BANNED from this thread. Use the dedicated [anime thread. ](https://forums.insertcredit.com/d/2504-i-guess-it-cant-be-helped-the-anime-thread)

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The only recent show I‘ve been into is “Doom Patrol”. I usually dislike superhero stuff so this has been an outlier for me. I don’t subscribe to the platform it‘s on but it’s easy to pirate.

I recently watched the 00's Japanese series Denshin Otako (Train Man), based on the famous 2ch thread. I loved it. I've always been "extremely online" so I like the way it portrayed a diverse group of people who share a forum connecting over the internet.

I've been into some recent anime like "wonder egg priority" but anime should probably be it's own thread.

I keep telling myself I need to finish my rewatch of "The Prisioner", because I thought the AMC remake was brilliant in its own way, but I've never seen all the source material.

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@“Moon”#p48271 I think it'd be preferable for this to be majority an anime thread rather than for there to be, say, a thread only ~65% relevant to the interests of this forum enough to make much traction and another only ~35% relevant to the interests of this forum enough to make much traction

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If we need two I suppose we'll demonstrate that in time

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While I'm often chasing the latest “prestige” TV — your Successions, your Better Call Sauls, etc. — my constant and always screaming from the rooftop television recommendation is eternally the CBS procedural drama “The Good Wife” and its extended universe.

The early goings are structured pretty precisely as a CBS legal drama, but as the show shakes off some early-going uncertainties regarding its presentation, the secret hook of The Good Wife comes into focus. The Good Wife is not merely a "Case of the Week" show — It's a "Confusing and sometimes Archaic but relevant aspect of America's legal system" of the week show and to my mind _the_ defining show of America under the Obama administration.

It's got a pretty simple character hook — Alicia Florrick (Julianna Marguiles, who won an Emmy for this role), Wife of a disgraced Chicago D.A., attempts to return to her law career after 15 years away. She learns the ropes, makes friends, tries to hold her life together. What the show does through that, is Trojan horse a comprehensive look at justice in America, who gets burned by it, how the gnarled and tangled bureaucracy of law makes the very pursuit of justice futile, and the lengths people go to put themselves in a position to influence said justice. As the show goes on, we follow this sheltered suburban housewife face the evils of the American People and the American justice system head-on and watch it slowly erode at the person she was. It's not as dramatic an evolution as Walter White, but it is television's most understated and underappreciated anti-hero arc.

About 2/3 of the way into the first season, the show does something that I love about great older network dramas in that it pretty much creates its own spin-off within itself centering around Eli Gold (Alan Cumming), a Rahm Emanuel-esque campaign manager for the aforementioned D.A. who attempts to wriggle his way through America's political machine for his client's. The show provides the same sharp lens it applies to American law to the political circus at a local level (and takes on a larger scope as the show goes on).

The show's world-building is on par with the ideal for the genres of shows one would generally associate with the term (fantasy, sci-fi, etc.) While a core supporting cast surrounds Alicia along the way, the recurring and guest cast expands to include just about every great New York stage actor of the past twenty years as returning judges, assistant district attornies, competing lawyers, clients, and beyond. The Chicago of The Good Wife is as fully realized as The Sopranos' New Jersey or The Wire's Baltimore.

Even beyond the characters, plot threads are woven so thoroughly that landmines lay dormant for multiple seasons before blowing up and recontextualizing some of the series' core dynamics. There is a ten-episode stretch in Season 5 of this show in which the show cashes 95% of the checks it has written up to that point, and it's maybe the best that network television has ever been.

It may not compete with your love of The HBO Greats, but if you're looking for a long-running show that you can just hang out with — A breezy 156 episodes not including it's exceptional spin-off _The Good Fight_ which follows esteemed lawyer Diane Lockhart (Christine Baranski) through the Trump era and beyond with surreal results — that accurately charts the past 15 years of law, justice, and life in America, give The Good Wife a chance. Throw it on while you're doin' somethin' else, and before long it'll have you under its spell. It's on _Paramount+_ (I know, I know), but I promise you — if you make it to that stretch in Season 5, you'll thank me.

P.S. If that sounds like a big commitment and you've not interested in giving a show a "few episodes" to find its footing check out the creator's sister show _Evil_, which is essentially "X-Files but with demons" and has all of the plotting and casting and world-building that makes The Good Wife an all-time great. Its star, Katja Herbers, is currently giving the best TV performance since Carrie Coon in _The Leftovers_ . Also on _Paramount+_, and you get caught up with the first two seasons if you time your 7-day trial out right.

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deadwood is probably my favorite tv show. and i know it was ended prematurely but they ended it right, imho. not to say the movie isn‘t a wonderful daytrip back into the world of deadwood. it felt like a flash forward episode from the show’s heyday, which, not having a long run, its heyday is its entirety.

i don't watch much tv, but by chance my whole family has been watching _resident alien_ and it's very funny. it's basically one of those god awful network dramas, but with one little scifi twist that makes the whole thing a comedy.

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[“Television Thread”,“Television Thread (ANIME TECHNICALLY QUALIFIES)”]

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I‘ll admit I sought out a way to engage in some vicarious haterdom in reading a review of that Netflix's Cowboy Bebop. But it backfired when I read this piece on Wired, which, only looking back on it and realizing why I thought the author’s name was familiar, is from Cecilia D'Anastasio, the journalist who broke the Riot Cesspool Confirmation on Kotaku a few years back.

I say that looking for vicarious haterdom backfire because reading the review just made me melancholic instead. But Cecilia wrote an absolute banger of a line that feels like a scream from the depths of the void, very epoch defining:

_"Everything good_ deserves _to be something other than what it is, the thinking goes"_

That line definitely should have tipped me off that the author is a former videogame journalist.

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I‘ve been watching the Netflix Bebop with the express intent to enjoy it just to be a contrarian, and it’s worked, to an extent, in fits and starts.

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@“thebryanjzx90”#p48835 braver than the troops

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Just to be safe for newer forumgoers, as always, if you genuinely like anything people are sour on, please don‘t take the haterdom personally! This isn’t the sort of environment where we enforce taste or pass judgement on people for their tastes.

I mean we're on a videogame forum for goodness' sake, there's been like, what, six good videogames?

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I‘ve been watching Insecure and that’s probably the best thing I‘ve watched in years. It’s incredibly smart in how it portrays complex personal situations while also being absolutely hilarious. The music is sooooooo good too, I end up looking up multiple songs after every episode. Super recommend it.

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I watched the first episode of the new Doctor Who series. It was called The Halloween Apocolypse, lol. It seems like they‘re going for a an epic season narrative. It was very action packed and was setting up a lot of things to come. I like Jodie Foster as The Doctor but the episodes she’s been in are not always written too well. I think Doctor Who is better in its more quiet episodes where there's not always an instant solution.

The one's I remember most from watching it as a kid is the Gas Mask Kid, the army capturing the Dalek and the Library. These all had a small scale and a slow sense of dread involved. The episode I watched last night had some blue guy villian breaking out of a cage and a intergalatic storm dissolving entire planets. I think I will keep watching as it was intriguing but it feels a bit Marvel influenced.

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last friday the fire alarm control panel across the hall beeped interminably (all night long, every 1.5 seconds,i'm serious BEEP

BEEP

BEEP
BBEEEP

BEEP

and so i did what anyone without any self -respect would do, iw acthced the first episode of cowboy netflix, and it was really really bad. the end.

it thought this was supposed to be COWBOY BEBOP, not COWBOY DUTCH ANGLE (the quip i came up with while watching)

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i'm a hater

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The latest season of Joe Pera is delightful and the latest episode is extra soothing if you‘re into that sort of thing. And if you’re alive, you probably are. There's usually a free episode here https://www.adultswim.com/videos/joe-pera-talks-with-you/

I'd recommend starting at the beginning if you can but it's not strictly necessary.

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I'm going away, so here are a few things.

How to with John Wilson is a good show, it's New York focused but enjoyable to all. I like eating food while watching.

I watched the second season of Alex Rider, I barely remember the books anymore and it can feel extra YA the TV Show at times but it was still pretty enjoyable. I think I liked the Point Blanc season better.

Sonny Boy is a top notch anime. I am yet to finish it, but so far Tatami Galaxy levels of excellence. A dreamy hot summer vibe with mind bending concepts and a real sense of emotion.

Also wowa weewa that Succession finale! With a bit of work that could've easily been the finale to the whole show.

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came here to recommend John Wilson. the NY-centric aspect is actually a draw card for those of us watching in slight horror from a great distance.

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i must be experiencing brain death or something, because youtube is now recommending clips of cheers. it makes me wish the old sitcom format still existed. actually, not just the algorithm giving me cheers, i've been feeling this way for a while. i want a sitcom that has at most 2 sets, is filmed before a live studio audience, and feels like a play. My heart yearns for them. any suggestions?

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I tried john wilson and I half like it half bounce off the affectation. Nathan for You is a decent comparison but has a lighter touch wrt that stuff even though the affected ‘character’ is on screen and narrates but in john wilson it‘s mostly monologueing. It’s a good show but I just personally have a limited appetite for ‘I’m a baby' style self-reporting I guess

Speaking of youtube recommendations: per the algorithm started watching a british series about landscape painting. It's like the baking show but for painting. One thing I like: people can just show up to the filming location and paint alongside the official contestants and the judges will look at their work and put them into the official competition if they like it. Always rooting for the rando slobs