Whatcha Watchin'?

general topics
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This post is for the discussion of new or obscure tv shows and series that you think other mutants would dig, but they may not be hip to yet.

For example I went to my usual streaming site and I was stoked to see that, unbeknownst to me, the 3rd season of From Dusk Til Dawn (the tv show) has finally been released.

And if you don’t know why you should be watching this expansion of the 1996 Tarantino hit, I have two great reasons;

DJ Cortrona and Zane Holtz.

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Aside from the obvious eye candy, both actors bring a fresh take on a classic tale, one which explores the back story of that ancient Mayan pyramid the Titty Twister was built on top of in the closing shot of the film.

Hell, Robert Rodriguez even breaks it down for the viewers as to why the vamps get so damn fugly when they fang out.

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So, now that I have S3 ep 1 cued up so I can watch it after dinner, I have one more recommendation before I ask you to share your own picks:

If you love Hip Hop, or just the creative musical process in general, you need to watch The Get Down; a semi-fictionalized take on the birth of the genre in 1977’s South Bronx.

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Watching the first 6 eps of this latest release on Netflix took me straight back to my roots; the music of that era provided the soundtrack for my adolescence and early adulthood.

As Stranger Things was a nostalgic love letter to the suspense/action movies of the 80’s, so is The Get Down a love letter to the origins of Hip Hop.

Baz Luhrmann doesn’t nail every single aspect of the series perfectly as far as the narrative goes, but the acting and the cinematography more than make up for any flaws or minor chronological errors, IMO.

If you’re not hip, you’re missing out.

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And so with that said, let’s hear what recent shows the other mutants are into right now…

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my wife and i have been watching a british series called “foyle’s war.” it’s a police procedural/slice of life about a detective superintendent working in england at the beginning of world war ii. we’ve been enjoying it quite a bit. my mother-in-law was born in england in 1919 and met her husband in 1948. he was a chief master sergeant in the air force stationed in england after working in the pacific theater. he and his team of mechanics helped keep one of the squadrons supplying berlin during the airlift going. after my father-in-law proposed to her through the mail she took a passenger berth on a cargo boat in 1950. anyway, this show reminds my wife of a lot of things her mother told her about life during the war. i think the scripts are very good and the actors are first rate.

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I’ll put it on my list…

Thanks.

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Nothing right now but I did enjoy binge watching the first and only so far season of the anime Flying Witch.

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Been watching BoJack horseman. Gets deep fast. At the outset it Seems like a genre show, just capitalizing on Arnett’s douchebro typecasting. But it gets deep, and BoJack becomes very three dimensional. Sure he’s still a generally immature callow person. But he knows it and wants to do better. You root for the guy because while he’s often childish and self centered, he puts in effort.

Plus it’s basically “what if furries were really real?”

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The Americans. Not currently watching, just waiting impatiently for the fifth season.

Philip and Elizabeth Jennings live in the suburbs of Washington, D.C. in the early 80s. They have an ordinary house, two children and an Oldsmobile, and they’re busy travel agents. And also deep-cover KGB agents.

As well as seeing the Jennings’ double lives as parents and ruthless super-spies, we also have the perspective of the FBI, the Soviet diplomatic corps and its KGB agents working under official diplomatic cover, and some glimpses of the USSR. It’s all loosely based on Russian/Soviet practices going back almost a century. (A ring of deep-cover Russian agents was busted in the US as recently as 2010, apparently a major inspiration but not the only one.)

There’s an excellent cast led by Keri Russell, Matthew Rhys, Noah Emmerich and Holly Taylor, plus Annet Mahendru, Alison Wright, Richard Thomas, Margo Martindale and Frank Langella. And a mail robot.

What’s great about this show IMO is that there’s no clear good guy/bad guy. Everybody has their noble qualities, everybody has their evil side. The FBI agents aren’t dummies, but they aren’t super-sleuths either, and they are far from uniformly good and pure. The Soviets do a lot of nasty shit, but they also have a core of humanity that would not have even been hinted at were this made in the 80s. And it’s just generally well-made, from the 80s-family-drama x cop show aesthetic to the well-chosen music. There is, however, a considerable amount of violence and death. On the other hand, there’s a lot of cool vintage tech.

Unfortunately it can be hard to find if you don’t subscribe to FX. I believe the first three seasons are available on Amazon, and there are DVDs. But, despite very low ratings, the network has committed to another 2 seasons to wrap up the story.

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You Me and the Apocalypse should have gotten a second season.

And Rob Lowe should have gotten an Emmy for the first one.

But no.

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About to get started on season 3 of Vikings.

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The 100… which is an interesting show… Ricky Whittle is in it.

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I vaguely remember a friend of mine mentioning that one…

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I concur on Foyle’s War. Great show.

One of my favorites is Terriers, with Donal Logue and Michael Raymond-James.
I also like Whitechapel, but get the feeling it’s done.

Catching up on season three of Elementary, and I’m getting the feeling Lucy Liu is going away?
Also, Ripper Street is getting another season!

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Lights Out is now streaming on Netflix.

This show definitely deserved to live longer than it did.

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We’ve just finished watching Jordskott, which starts the first episode looking like a standard Scandi procedural, til everything gets weird, and it turns out to be eldritch horrors in the woods. It’s very good.

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I’m currently watching—not really; currently I’m doing my laundry and updating my iPod—Penny Dreadful on Netflix. It’s kind of like a smaller scale League of Extraordinary Gentlemen crossed with some kind of horror show.

It has Eva Green, Billie Piper, and two guys I recognize but I don’t know their names. Plus no “good guys” just people who are either less bad or more trying to do goodish things.

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I’m actually already hip to that one; I accidentally dropped a spoiler in Fuck Today about a month ago.

My advice is not to get too invested and dont expect too much from the last ep.

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Boo. I’m not terribly invested but it is kind of in my line of things I would get invested in. :crying_cat_face:

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I know; I was disappointed.

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Rose is in it! Awesome! But given what @Melizmatic just said, I’ll tread carefully… is it worth the journey, at least?

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Let’s say I’ve hit nearly the end of season 1 and it hasn’t passed the Bechdel test yet so it has room for improvement. :sweat:

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I love Billie Piper; alas Penny Dreadful failed her, and Ms. Eva Green.

It was a good idea, with poor execution, especially season 2; get back to me after you’ve watched the entirety of both seasons, so we can compare notes.

ETA:

It would never have even occurred to me to apply the Bechdel to this show, as it already seemed destined to fail.

(It did not improve, IMO.)

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