Watch, Watched, Watching: The Shield lands on top

[Raja]

I stopped Justified after Season 2. I mean, Season 2 was good but I had no inclination to continue. Might get back into it. To be fair, I also stopped Breaking Bad after 1 season because I really couldn't give a fuck about anyone on the show.

Have some time off work and there are *so* many things to watch - I've got Minari, Judas and the Black Messiah and Sound of Metal lined up for the week.

 

[Iskaral Pust]

We’ve been watching some British detective shows.  We always need a compromise between my preference for grittier dramas and my wife’s preference for lighter viewing.

Endeavor S7 was pretty good.  We tried some Morse but we’ve really found that both Lewis and Endeavor are much better than the original from which they sprung.

We also watched both seasons of Bay, which is a bit similar to Broadchurch.  Pretty good.  We’ve tried Dalziel & Pascoe too, which is OK but not gripping so far.  (More like Lewis)

My wife suggested that we try Miss Scarlet & The Duke on PBS Masterpiece Classic.  After a couple of eps, that seems too fluffy for my taste.

The Detectorists was a light comedy that I enjoyed, although my wife was bored.  I watched all three (short) seasons.  Now I’m rewatching Arrested Development, which still makes me laugh out loud.

 

[Mindwalker]

I just realized that Gentleman Jack has Gemma Whelan (Yara) in it - as Lister's sister, I totally didn't recognize her. She's here, on the ground, in this deleted scene: https://www.instagram.com/p/B-heZW1hF9D/

If you can get over the ridiculous hairstyles - which took me a while - the show is very entertaining.

 

[Zorral]

Gentleman Jack was my favorite of all the shows I watched that year. I hadn't realized until the program debuted that Anne Lister had lived and written just like that.  Subsequently I read her journals.  Additionally Suranne Jones is one of best television actors, plus, you know, Sally Wainwright.  There is going to be a second season.  The shooting was postponed for quite some time due to covid, of course.  So I don't know if it will be out this year or not.

Just to show we are not all the same and thus we need more than one sort of show: for me the only really good thing in The Sopranos was Carmella.   I coudn't stand Breaking Bad on any level, but particularly due to the character of White.  I haven't watched  single ep of The Shield and never will. Or any of these endless blunderbuss franchises that proliferate like an invasive species.

Further, Justified is one of the very best series ever made that is pure distilled USA. Not a coincidence that the inspiration of the show is Elmore Leonard's fiction.  Think about the title for a while and one sees this is the theme of the nation from the first settlement ever made on the Atlantic, when it was merely a colony of the venture capitalist Virginia Company.  Which is one of the reasons the show begins the very first ep of the very first season as it does.  Think about this in the conditions in which some rando asshole kills a kid like Treyvon Martin just coz he was in the mood, and to do so stands his ground -- and on nd on and on, including all the myriad legally armed justified violence forces this country employs.  Greed and gunz, that's US #1 Yay!  Justified!

 

 

[SpaceChampion]

Away cancelled.  I'm not mad.

 

Edit: oh that's an month old article.  I hadn't heard prior to now.

[aceluby]

Watched a few things w/ my wife over the last month or so.

Tell Me Your Secrets - Tried and true suspense/thriller premise with an average at best delivery and terrible ending.  There's so many shows that have done this better that I couldn't recommend it.  Will likely skip any further seasons unless we're really bored.

Synchronic - An actual interesting premise of a new drug, similar to DMT that kids are taking.  First 45 minutes were actually quite good.  The next 1/2 hour it got weird, but wanted to see it through.  The last 15 min were laughably bad and the ending was truly terrible.

Utopia - Watched both the US and UK versions.  The US version was cancelled after one season, but the UK version got 2 and both were fantastic.  Weird show to watch during a pandemic, but we both really enjoyed it and are disappointed this is as much of the story we'll ever get.  Still something I'd recommend even though it's not finished.

The One - Again, an interesting premise around finding genes that predispose you to love someone and a decent enough delivery, but everything about it was just so over-the-top.  I was also hoping for more of a twist somewhere in there, but everything is pretty straightforward.  Will likely watch a second season if it gets one.

Soul & Onward - Two Disney movies here that I've now seen about 50 times a piece (2 year old LOVES Disney).  Onward is a movie that I feel like was made just for me.  Sick dad who died, set in a DnD type world but also modern, buddy/brother story, epic quest.... I just absolutely love it.  Soul will definitely appeal to more people, but the music and character growth in that movie are just great.  Recommend both.

WandaVision -  Took a few episodes to get into it, but overall I thought it was great.

Falcon & Winter Soldier - Really enjoying this one.  Funnier than I expected it to be.

Snowpiercer - Disliked the movie, but am glad we gave this one a shot.  Premise is awfully stupid still, but the delivery was better than expected.

[RumHam]

Finished re-watching Succession. That is on track to be one of those top tier shows. Reminds me of The Sopranos in that it's a great serious drama that is also darkly hilarious. Season three can't come soon enough. I see they boosted Fisher Stevens to a regular and have cast someone to play Sandi's daughter Sandy. 

[DMC]

While it's certainly true that after the pilot the first season of Justified meandered for quite awhile and even verged into becoming a listless procedural a bit, I think it should be emphasized that the last 3-4 episodes of season 1 are a great arc - one of the best of the series IMO.  When my sister started watching around the holidays my suggestion was to skip to episode 10 if she got too bored after the pilot, but episodes 5 and 7 are pretty crucial for the series/characters (plus pretty good episodes in their own right).

[RumHam]

Justified gets by on it's charm most of the time. famous character actress Margo Martindale elevates season two. Goggins elevates everything he's in. Olyphant might be a great actor it's hard to tell because he is too awesome. 

I found the Crow family season and the final season to be poor. Also

Basically the twists involved in the "Drew Thompson" reveal broke any goodwill the show had earned. Then we got Ava is the new Black and hillbilly illuminati storylines.  

[briantw]

16 minutes ago, RumHam said:

Justified gets by on it's charm most of the time. famous character actress Margo Martindale elevates season two. Goggins elevates everything he's in. Olyphant might be a great actor it's hard to tell because he is too awesome. 

I found the Crow family season and the final season to be poor. Also

 

  Reveal hidden contents

Basically the twists involved in the "Drew Thompson" reveal broke any goodwill the show had earned. Then we got Ava is the new Black and hillbilly illuminati storylines.  

 

Dewey Crowe was a great character.  The rest of his family?  Not so much.  Although I did find the fate of one of his brothers pretty hilarious.

But yeah, Justified is about the snappy dialogue and clever writing and mostly gets by on a bunch of Hollywood's best character actors hamming it up in every scene.  It's also effectively a modern day Western, which helps it stand out from the average cop show.  

It also has a lot of memorable lines/scenes.

"You shot me in the back!"
"If you wanted to get shot in the front, you should've ran toward me."

[RumHam]

1 minute ago, briantw said:

Dewey Crowe was a great character.  The rest of his family?  Not so much.  Although I did find the fate of one of his brothers pretty hilarious.

But yeah, Justified is about the snappy dialogue and clever writing and mostly gets by on a bunch of Hollywood's best character actors hamming it up in every scene.  It's also effectively a modern day Western, which helps it stand out from the average cop show.  

It also has a lot of memorable lines/scenes.

"You shot me in the back!"
"If you wanted to get shot in the front, you should've ran toward me."

Yup. It is absolutely worth watching. I recommend it and look forward to the sort of continuation that might be in development. 

I'll never forget this bit either,:

Quote

"If you run into an asshole in the morning, you ran into an asshole. If you find yourself running into assholes all day, maybe you're the asshole. "

I'm not saying I didn't have my suspicions before. 

[briantw]

2 minutes ago, RumHam said:

Yup. It is absolutely worth watching. I recommend it and look forward to the sort of continuation that might be in development. 

I'll never forget this bit either,:

I'm not saying I didn't have my suspicions before. 

I've used that asshole quote many times.  It's a great line.

My favorite comedic scene is the one where the guy takes off his prosthetic leg as Raylan is chasing him, jumps out a window, and slides down either a flag pole or a telephone pole and then flips Raylan off as Raylan looks out the window and nods in respect.

[RumHam]

1 minute ago, briantw said:

I've used that asshole quote many times.  It's a great line.

My favorite comedic scene is the one where the guy takes off his prosthetic leg as Raylan is chasing him, jumps out a window, and slides down either a flag pole or a telephone pole and then flips Raylan off as Raylan looks out the window and nods in respect.

I know exactly what you're talking about. The show was full of little bits like that that make it greater than the sum of it's parts. 

Also Tim is the best friend from Eurotrip. 

 

 

[RedEyedGhost]

6 hours ago, DMC said:

While it's certainly true that after the pilot the first season of Justified meandered for quite awhile and even verged into becoming a listless procedural a bit, I think it should be emphasized that the last 3-4 episodes of season 1 are a great arc - one of the best of the series IMO.  When my sister started watching around the holidays my suggestion was to skip to episode 10 if she got too bored after the pilot, but episodes 5 and 7 are pretty crucial for the series/characters (plus pretty good episodes in their own right).

I agree with this.  Season 1 is really underrated on this board.

[red snow]

5 hours ago, briantw said:

I've used that asshole quote many times.  It's a great line.

My favorite comedic scene is the one where the guy takes off his prosthetic leg as Raylan is chasing him, jumps out a window, and slides down either a flag pole or a telephone pole and then flips Raylan off as Raylan looks out the window and nods in respect.

I laughed at how raylan beat the sharp shooter at the table stand off.

Mare of Eastown was strangely compelling as it was incredibly light on the policing for what's supposed to be a cop/murder mystery. But the town and the characters within it were full of potential. It reminded me of a lot of UK cop shows that were more about the community than the crimes but with a harder edge (UK ones are generally more light hearted)

[3CityApache]

5 hours ago, RumHam said:

look forward to the sort of continuation that might be in development. 

Never heard there was anything in development? I wouldn't hesitate a second. Justified always had that something which made it much better than it looked at the first glance. Still consider Mags Bennet season as the best, but I agree the last few episodes of season 1 were also great.

[Heartofice]

Promising Young Woman really is great. Haven't seen any of the oscar nom movies this year, but I really thought this was a good entry. From reviews I had the expectation that it was quite arty or surreal, but its not that. Its a well made, fantastically acted and importantly, very well written movie that also hits home. Mulligan does a great job.

[RumHam]

38 minutes ago, 3CityApache said:

Never heard there was anything in development? I wouldn't hesitate a second. Justified always had that something which made it much better than it looked at the first glance. Still consider Mags Bennet season as the best, but I agree the last few episodes of season 1 were also great.

https://variety.com/2021/tv/news/justified-elmore-leonard-fx-city-primeval-timothy-olyphant-raylan-givens-1234905405/

[Veltigar]

21 minutes ago, Heartofice said:

Promising Young Woman really is great. Haven't seen any of the oscar nom movies this year, but I really thought this was a good entry. From reviews I had the expectation that it was quite arty or surreal, but its not that. Its a well made, fantastically acted and importantly, very well written movie that also hits home. Mulligan does a great job.

So far PYW and Minari are the best nominees for me. Nomadland is alright as well. Sound of Metal is awful.

14 hours ago, aceluby said:

Utopia - Watched both the US and UK versions.  The US version was cancelled after one season, but the UK version got 2 and both were fantastic.  Weird show to watch during a pandemic, but we both really enjoyed it and are disappointed this is as much of the story we'll ever get.  Still something I'd recommend even though it's not finished.

It's still a huge bummer that they cancelled the UK version. I'll probably never rewatch the first two seasons in all their trippy glory, despite the fact that they are both outstanding as they will forever remain unfinished.

20 hours ago, Mexal said:

Good, cause you're going to be pleasantly surprised as you move into Season 2. The first season was a bit over the top with Raylen killing someone every episode and it gets significantly better when he stops. That and they figure out what to do with Boyd (originally not planned to last beyond the first episode but Goggins is so damn compelling).

Jacking up my anticipation, that's an interesting strategy  It will take me a while to get there, I still have Breaking Bad to plow through.

15 hours ago, Iskaral Pust said:

We’ve been watching some British detective shows.  We always need a compromise between my preference for grittier dramas and my wife’s preference for lighter viewing.

Endeavor S7 was pretty good.  We tried some Morse but we’ve really found that both Lewis and Endeavor are much better than the original from which they sprung.

We also watched both seasons of Bay, which is a bit similar to Broadchurch.  Pretty good.  We’ve tried Dalziel & Pascoe too, which is OK but not gripping so far.  (More like Lewis)

My wife suggested that we try Miss Scarlet & The Duke on PBS Masterpiece Classic.  After a couple of eps, that seems too fluffy for my taste.

The Detectorists was a light comedy that I enjoyed, although my wife was bored.  I watched all three (short) seasons.  Now I’m rewatching Arrested Development, which still makes me laugh out loud.

 

I have got one show for you: McDonald & Dodds 

Your wife will be very happy, but it's so good you'll be pleased as well  

 

[Heartofice]

The second season of the UK version of Utopia was a real drop in quality, felt like it was made without a plan and just meandered its way over the line. Real shame.

I really loved Detectorists, it’s a cute little show that warms the heart. Feels like a throw back to more innocent days of television.