TV of 2015

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flyonthewall2983
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Re: TV of 2015

#76 Post by flyonthewall2983 » Wed Sep 16, 2015 7:20 pm

Oh okay, I was under the impression it did already, but it could be some of the people I follow on Twitter probably got advance copies.

I don't know how I feel about taking what essentially were characters that appealed directly to children, and now appropriating them into something that by and large appeals to the grown-up counterparts now. It doesn't look as bad as that time Warner Brothers tried to give Bugs Bunny and company "attitude", but still as troubling to me in some regards.

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Re: TV of 2015

#77 Post by flyonthewall2983 » Sun Sep 20, 2015 12:08 am

Former Top Gear host Jeremy Clarkson returns to the BBC as host of the quiz show Have I Got News For You. I've seen a few of the episodes he was on and liked it very much. It's a kind of format I'd love to see more of but don't think it could be pulled off here.

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Re: TV of 2015

#78 Post by domino harvey » Mon Sep 21, 2015 12:22 pm


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Re: TV of 2015

#79 Post by cdnchris » Mon Sep 21, 2015 12:46 pm

Yep. My wife was watching it while I was working on other stuff and I happened to look up during that montage. So basically I don't need to watch Boardwalk Empire, True Blood, Sons of Anarchy or whatever else they spoiled (though admittedly I gave up on True Blood 2 episodes into season 3, so no big loss there, I guess).

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Re: TV of 2015

#80 Post by lacritfan » Mon Sep 21, 2015 4:58 pm

Don't watch much TV these days but was glad Amy Schumer won. Glad anything won over Modern Family for best comedy again, Game of Thrones deserves at least one best drama during its run. Guess I might need to read/watch Olive Kitteridge one of these days...

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Re: TV of 2015

#81 Post by flyonthewall2983 » Wed Sep 23, 2015 4:28 am


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Re: TV of 2015

#82 Post by ianungstad » Wed Sep 23, 2015 7:33 pm

pzadvance wrote:
flyonthewall2983 wrote:Did anyone watch the new Muppets show?
I believe it premieres on Tuesday
The "adult" jokes are fairly codified so that for the most part they would go over the heads of any kids watching the show with their parents. Reminiscent of the key party scene and other in-jokes in Ron Howard's The Grinch.

The show itself is mildly entertaining. I'm not a fan of the "confessional" style of sitcom popularized by The Office.

If the show seems tonally weird; it's not the adult humor that's the culprit. It's the fact that it strangely goes out of it's way to try and be depressing which doesn't seem like a natural fit for The Muppets. Their behavior also seems a lot more mean spirited. This doesn't make the show more "adult" and doesn't ring true to the franchise. Still; I had a few mild laughs and didn't hate it like I do most network sitcoms.

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Re: Netflix Originals

#83 Post by jbeall » Tue Oct 13, 2015 7:55 pm

flyonthewall2983 wrote:I recently finished the third season. Best way I can put it is that for a lot of it's run it felt like Justified, if it was your average CBS-type procedural. But that's not necessarily a slam against the show as a whole because there were enough elements in place that didn't quite feel like it would be on any of the major networks.
SpoilerShow
But with the way the end of the third season went, it felt like it was slipping away from the procedural trap and becoming much more like a cable show. Especially considering how it ended on the cliffhanger it did.
It also proves Lou Diamond Philips is surely due a McConnaissance.
I've recently finished the fourth season, and Netflix picking it up has been a boon for the show. While it still has the occasional procedural episode, there's more of an overarching storyline to the fourth season. I still think that at its best, Longmire is a step below Justified, but it's still quite good, especially as it's buoyed by strong performances from Robert Taylor in the lead role, and Katie Sackhoff as the lead deputy. The occasional appearances by Gerald McRaney and Peter Weller don't hurt, either.

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Re: TV of 2015

#84 Post by flyonthewall2983 » Sat Oct 24, 2015 10:46 am

Stephen Fry stepping down as host of QI. Just got into this show, there's something kind of cozy and intellectual about British panel shows that you can't find at all in America. I think the closest thing I can think of is @Midnight on Comedy Central, which in some respects couldn't be any different.

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TV of 2015

#85 Post by sir_luke » Sat Oct 24, 2015 10:53 am

I adore QI and have watched it religiously for years but I cannot imagine it without Stephen Fry. It was the show that introduced me to the panel show phenomenon and, in addition to being riotously funny (the banter between Fry and Alan Davies is always gold), it's a fiercely educational show - it's the most engaging learning environment I could imagine. Shame to see Fry stepping down, as I could not see anyone who could adequately replace him.

EDIT: I've been trying to think of who COULD replace him, but to my knowledge, all of the reasonable candidates (Rob Brydon, Dara O'Briain, etc.) are already hosting their own panel shows.

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Re: TV of 2015

#86 Post by Ribs » Sat Oct 24, 2015 11:06 am

It was announced at the same time as he stepped down it would be Sandi Toksvig, who should be wonderful.

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Re: TV of 2015

#87 Post by flyonthewall2983 » Sat Oct 24, 2015 11:30 am

I like her too. It'll be an adjustment but I think she'll do just fine.

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Re: TV of 2015

#88 Post by sir_luke » Sat Oct 24, 2015 11:39 am

Okay, that's what I get for glancing. Yes, Sandi Toksvig should be great as host. I always enjoyed her as a guest - obviously extremely intelligent as well as hilarious in her own soft-spoken deadpan way.

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Re: TV of 2015

#89 Post by flyonthewall2983 » Sat Oct 24, 2015 11:06 pm

Davies leaving the show would honestly be much more harmful.

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Re: TV of 2015

#90 Post by colinr0380 » Sun Oct 25, 2015 9:20 am

It has happened just after Toksvig left her hosting role on Radio 4's News Quiz (and she has been taking up more TV presenting duties recently), so I can only assume this has been in the planning for a while, especially as it is happening 13 series into QI (i.e. halfway through the alphabet). I'm actually more concerned about the News Quiz than QI!

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Re: TV of 2015

#91 Post by flyonthewall2983 » Thu Nov 12, 2015 10:55 am

Kareem: Minority of One is a pretty good sports doc, par for the course for HBO, especially now that Bill Simmons is working for them. My big pop culture memory of him now, even more than his appearance in Airplane!, was Michael McKean eating his lunch on an episode of Celebrity Jeopardy.

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Re: TV of 2015

#92 Post by colinr0380 » Thu Nov 12, 2015 5:57 pm

In terms of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, don't forget his appearance as one of the bosses that Bruce Lee fights in the small bit of legitimate footage in Game of Death!

Game of Death was a film put together using the material that Bruce Lee had shot before his untimely death (basically the final climactic tower fight scenes that he had shot before going off to do Enter The Dragon), but which in the 1978 film had an entirely new James Bond-style plot cobbled together (including a John Barry soundtrack and very Maurice Binder-styled opening credit sequence for the international release version of the film) to lead up to that 1972 fight footage.

The final result of the 1978 film is one full of stand ins, doubles, stock footage (mostly from the previous Bruce Lee films, but most shockingly in the use of newsreel footage of the real Bruce Lee's funeral spliced into the 'plot' as our hero fakes his own death after an attempt on his life with a misfiring gun on a film set. Something which itself resonates uncomfortably with the death of Brandon Lee on the set of The Crow decades later) and people with their backs towards camera trying unsuccessfully to pretend to be the 'real Bruce Lee', at least until the real thing appears distressingly briefly in the footage at the end of the film. But amusingly the Game of Death filmmakers have to try and justify the guys that Bruce fought in the footage he left behind too, even though most of the original actors refused to have anything to do with the new film! So not only does Bruce Lee get a body double, but they also have a double for Kareem Abdul-Jabbar at a couple of points, who mostly has to sit down with his face in shadow whilst being filmed from an angle to suggest that he is incredibly tall!
Last edited by colinr0380 on Sat Nov 21, 2015 6:53 am, edited 2 times in total.


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Re: TV of 2015

#94 Post by cdnchris » Wed Nov 18, 2015 6:54 pm

Yep, pretty much.


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Re: TV of 2015

#96 Post by Shrew » Fri Nov 20, 2015 6:00 pm

Crazy Ex-Girlfriend is surely too beautiful and bizarre to last much longer in this cruel world, but I figured I'd beg everyone to look past the title (which the show acknowledges and owns in its opening titles) and give it a shot. As TV musicals go, it's more Flight of the Concords than Glee (thank God), mixed with Girls' darkly comedic portrayal of flawed characters dealing with modern neuroses. It's basically a miracle of tone, somehow able to reconcile confrontations with some pretty dark issues about mental health with a zany cartoonish universe and pop-parody musical numbers. It embraces the swooning romanticism of its premise (girl follow boy to hometown on a desperate whim) and the self-awareness of how deeply troubled such an act is. For an hour-long comedy, it also has a shockingly high joke-per-minute rate, although a few episodes could probably have been cut by about 5 minutes.

Musically, it's not exactly a revival of Arthur Freed. Most have been parodies of various genres of music videos, but star Rachel Bloom came out of viral videos, so she knows how to build some clever lyrics and visuals around a solid hook, while making light of a lot her character's anxieties. The show's biggest coup is probably thoroughly (and hilariously horrifyingly) subverting Katy Perry's I Kissed a Girl in "Feeling Kind of Naughty Tonight" (though my favorite, as far as relating to all too relatable anxieties goes, is the kidz bop parody "I Have Friends"). The pilot's big "West Covina" number is the closest to an old-school musical, and its certainly better choreographed and edited than anything in Les Miserables or Into the Woods (it was directed by Marc Webb, who I had forgotten did 500 Days of Summer before those Spiderman movies everyone hates). There's also a decent Astaire-Rogers homage, which admittedly disappointed me because it didn't adopt an academy ratio even though they switched to 2.35 for a Bollywood parody (I may be insufferable).

Anyway, give it a shot and maybe it'll get a full season before it's inevitably canceled and becomes a cult object.
Last edited by Shrew on Fri Nov 20, 2015 6:40 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: TV of 2015

#97 Post by sinemadelisikiz » Fri Nov 20, 2015 6:36 pm

I think the fact that its on the CW gives it a better chance than most for renewal, as they're used to lower ratings.

I agree that it's a fun bit of weird. It plays like a romantic comedy with the usually unstated mental illness brought to the forefront and dialed up to 11. Rachel Bloom looks like she's having a blast, and I find her more enjoyable here than on her previous videos. My one small annoyance is that it's clearly been cleaned up a bit for the network (was originally made for Showtime and the explicit versions show up on youtube after airing). But as far as TV musicals go, I'll take this over Glee any day.

Actually I think the CW has been quietly killing it this year, with iZombie and this. I did not expect that.

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Re: Netflix Originals

#98 Post by flyonthewall2983 » Thu Dec 03, 2015 11:54 am

River is pretty good.

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Re: TV of 2015

#99 Post by flyonthewall2983 » Thu Dec 10, 2015 4:19 pm

I'm a couple episodes into Blunt Talk. More than a few hearty laughs so far, and I'm enjoying the performances.

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Re: TV of 2015

#100 Post by flyonthewall2983 » Sun Dec 13, 2015 10:01 pm

Very smart show. A little more serious-minded then Bored to Death, but not too much. Really hope Starz renews it.

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