TV Watching thread

[Spark Doll King]

Just started the 7th Ultra series, Ultraman Leo.

f*ck me dose this series start dark. Showa Ultraman has a reputation for being surprisingly violent and dark at times. Even the prior series, Ultraman Taro, which is noted as being more kid focused has some rather dark moments, but Leo’s first two episodes are pulling no punches.

Earth is invaded by Alien Magma and his minions, the Giras Brothers (a pair of dinosaur-like monster) who proceeded to beat the shit out of Ultraseven. Leo appears to help but while the villains are driven off, Ultraseven’s leg is broken and he is now stuck in his human form. We then learn that Alien Magma has destroyed Leo’s home planet, killing his family in the process. While Ultraseven is able to convince Leo to become earth’s new hero, it dissent start well as the Giras brothers succeed in destroying an entire island, and the people on it, then move on to Tokyo, where upon the twin monster flood the city, killing thousands of people.

And there is no ambiguity about that. The episode makes it horrifyingly clear that people are dying on mass.

[iank]

Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin. Watched an ep and a bit of this last night before giving up. The new cast don't hold a candle to the old, the one character who talks in nothing but Twitter speak made me want to throw something at the screen, and it also seems to take itself very, very seriously, with none of the wit or self-knowing charm of the original. Ended up turning it off halfway thru ep2 (and if you think that's too quick, I was interested in the original show after ep 1) and watching Watching instead. The curse of modern television strikes again.

[iank]

Onto Watching season 6, which I've never seen before thanks to emigrating. Still very funny, but there's a palpable sense of sadness hanging over this season that's strikingly different, with Malcolm now married to someone else and both he and Brenda having realised that they have, in the words of Arrested Development, "made a huge mistake", but both think it's too late. There's some real poignancy here. Marry in haste, repent at leisure!

[iank]

Finished Watching s6, onto season 7, the final, now. Going through these very quick now lol, partly because it's so easy to watch and partly because I've never seen these before. Season 6 was very good but I am glad the marriage plot is over and Brenda and Malcolm are together again. While the resolution perhaps it made it very easy on them - with Lucinda having been cheating on him and both of them wanting to be with someone else - I think they made them (and us) suffer enough to get there. It was kinda stressing me out lol

[Deleted]

I bought The Suite Life of Zack and Cody - Volume 1 on DVD. I know I could easily just watch the show on Disney Plus, but I wanted to actually own some of the episodes. There's only five on the DVD, but pretty much all of them are episodes I watched as a kid. My favourite, out of the 100 odd episodes that were produced, is on the DVD which is a result. It was a nostalgia buy really. The show is typical generic Disney from the 2000s which many here will find cringey or unwatchable, but it has a lot of value for me. I do miss the 00s sometimes.

[Deleted]

Mar 4, 2023 22:13:30 GMT @kengrubshaw said:

I bought The Suite Life of Zack and Cody - Volume 1 on DVD. I know I could easily just watch the show on Disney Plus, but I wanted to actually own some of the episodes. There's only five on the DVD, but pretty much all of them are episodes I watched as a kid. My favourite, out of the 100 odd episodes that were produced, is on the DVD which is a result. It was a nostalgia buy really. The show is typical generic Disney from the 2000s which many here will find cringey or unwatchable, but it has a lot of value for me. I do miss the 00s sometimes.

I miss how optimistic the 2000s/early 2010s were. Even a YouTube channel like Smosh, which is morbidly unfunny in retrospect, is really nostalgic for me, and I guess the same can be said of film, TV, etc. More than anything I miss the time and the zeitgeist; if those guys were still producing stuff today I doubt I'd care, much in the same vain as guys like Filthy Frank and iDubbbz. Perhaps even the same can be said of Doctor Who; I sometimes long for those sweet bygones, but I miss the atmosphere and the culture more than the show itself: the TV guides, the BBC idents, the internet forums and games, everyone talking about it at school. Those are things I will never relive, which is what makes it such a bittersweet feeling for me. The past is a lost world. To this day, watching anything of RTD's Doctor Who gives me a longing pang in my gut. Sometimes it's comforting, sometimes it's not. It's a different sort of nostalgia to what I get from Classic Who; I equate that with fondness for ancient Roman or Greek culture for example, the unlived life; whereas, since I lived through the RTD era, it feels like something was almost stolen from me, like the time was snatched from right in front of me when I wasn't looking—it's more personal and painful in that sense.

[iank]

While the early 2000s are kinda when movies starting going downhill IMO, there is a lot of fab TV in the first half of the decade especially. It may even be my second fave decade of TV after the 90s.
The state TV is in nowadays breaks my heart.

[Deleted]

Suite Life of Zack and Cody - French 101

The twins try and one up each other in their pursuit of a cute French girl who doesn't know any English.

This brought back quite a few memories. This episode was always a favourite of mine as a kid, I suspect because I liked the French girl a lot at the time. The whole thing is just oozing mid 2000s and I found myself feeling quite nostalgic for my childhood and the period in general. It's hard to belive it aired 17 years ago!

[Deleted]

Red Dwarf- Back to Earth

I rather enjoyed that. Not classic Dwarf by any means, but a perfectly fun set of episodes with an interesting premise. Was a bit weird without the audience laughter, but apart from that I thought it was quite good actually.

[Deleted]

Mar 5, 2023 0:02:29 GMT iank said:

While the early 2000s are kinda when movies starting going downhill IMO, there is a lot of fab TV in the first half of the decade especially. It may even be my second fave decade of TV after the 90s.
The state TV is in nowadays breaks my heart.

I often feel 90s TV was better than 90s cinema while 80s cinema was better than 80s TV.

[Deleted]

I gave Series 7 of Red Dwarf another go before I check out more of the DAVE era. None of the episodes are particularly great except maybe Tikka to Ride, but some of them are fairly OK once you get used to Rimmer not being around. I like Chloë Annett actually and I prefer her Series 7 look to her Series 8 appearance. She's quite funny too. I feel Cat is sidelined (and seems to be more of an idiot here) and Kryten's jealousy of Kochanski gets old real quick. I did enjoy Duct Soup, though. It's the weakest series for me, but probably not as bad as I originally made out.

[iank]

I like Epideme the most from 7. It's gallows humour very much appeals to me.

[zarius]

Mar 8, 2023 23:58:56 GMT iank said:

I like Epideme the most from 7. It's gallows humour very much appeals to me.

I quote "Hello, Wall" all the time.

[Deleted]

I binge watched Series 11 and 12 of Red Dwarf today. I saw The Promised Land when it aired so I've now watched every single episode of the show. Though "Skipper" was the only outstanding episode of the DAVE era, I did find a lot to enjoy about the others. The four actors are so watchable and the humour is very much the same as it has always been. I just find watching the show so comforting. The glory days are gone, but the most important thing is the show is still watchable and charming.

[iank]

As I have sais before, it is the most watchable and least offensive of all the seemingly endless reboots/revivals we've had.