The Last of Us - everybody’s watching it so I’m watching it :)
Poker Face - folks call this a “who dunnit”. not terrible, but pretty formulaic
Your Friends and Neighbors - kinda soap opera-ish in my books, but not too bad
Bad Thoughts - short funny comedy. I liked it
Rick & Morty - new season just started
Love, Death & Robots - weakest season yet imo
Paradise - pretty good. Not a “cop show” as I initially thought; won’t spoil it
El Eternauta - nice Argentinian sci-fi. Hoping they’ll also make a good season 2Oh. Thanks …I didn’t know new Rick and Morty episodes were out.
Halfway into this year’s De Mol out of Belgium.
I started watching Pokerface. It’s a cheeky Columbo style murder detective show. The woman detective is not a police though, but someone with a sixth sense that detects lies. It’s a working class American road movie with lots of cineastic references. Not too serious, well shot, good storytelling, low stakes, peeks into different social groups, very American, at times hilarious.
Just finished Andor today and have Rogue One up next. My husband and I aren’t Star Wars fans but that was enjoyable.
Not quite sure what to watch next but I think we have a few queued up on Apple TV+
Finished series 1 of Bad Sisters, it was a very good, entertaining dramedy.
Hogan great. Claes Bang also continues to be amazing in everything I see him in.
Melodrama reveals went far in the end, and I don’t know what future series that I’ve seen exist are gonna do except probably be less well written and put together. I’ve also not seen the original Belgian show, Clan, maybe one day.
Only three episodes in so far but have been enjoying El Eternauta (The Eternaut) an Argentinian apocalypse type show based on a comic of the same name.
I can’t really offer much more info as I’m going in blind and haven’t read the comics or anything but it has my intrigue up and looking forward to finding out more information as to what is going on.
It is also nice and refreshing to see an apocalypse type show that isn’t based around the USA.
Recently got a new iPhone from my company which came with a 3-month trial of Apple TV. So I’m in the middle of a tour de force of the great sci-fi shows in there:
- Severance
- Foundation
- Silo
- For All Mankind
I’ve only just finished S1 for all of them so no spoilers please!
For All Mankind is amazing. Perhaps a bit too much non-space related drama but still excellent.
Silo also got me very curious to find out what happens in S2.
I’m a big Asimov fan so I was really looking forward to Foundation. S1 was OK but not entirely sure about some of the many ways they have departed from the books.
Severance is perhaps a bit overhyped and disappointed me a bit but it’s still pretty good.
You might want to add Murderbot to this list, since it’s currently releasing weekly on Apple TV+. I’ve been mostly enjoying it so far, at least as far as the story it’s telling. My only problem is with the episode length/structure. It’s a 22-minute show and I always feel like I’m just getting into it by the time it’s over, with the episodes tending to end very abruptly; there’s rarely a satisfying conclusion to the story elements introduced in that episode.
I don’t normally mind having a week to digest an episode, but with this show it feels like reading a few pages of a book once a week, without the benefit of finishing a chapter. I think the show would be far more enjoyable if watched once all the episodes are available. That said, I find most of the characters likeable and the titular Murderbot’s arc is a unique take on the “android develops humanity” trope. Their behavior is already very human at the start, with the major shortfall being their difficulty/discomfort when relating to people, in a way that’s very autism-coded.
I found Murderbot to be a disappointing adaptation. I recommend reading the books instead.
A warning that For All Mankind ramps up the soap opera drama in S02 quite a lot. It declines a bit again in 3 and 4 (although it’s always there).
For All Mankind starts turning into “The Expanse” prequel in seasons 3 and 4. I enjoy it all the same!
I feel it does become a different show, but I still find it enjoyable. With having to crank up the sense of disbelief due to the need to accept a lot of tech that doesn’t currently exist, I think it makes accepting the overdramatic and unrealistic stuff of the characters more bearable than if things would have stayed closer to present day reality. I thought the whole thing was still really fun overall and I can’t wait for more.
Silo and Severance stay much more even IMO, but we don’t have the massive jumps we get in FAM. Haven’t seen Foundation.
I could not get on board with Silo. Forced myself through 3 and a half episodes before I realized it was just a lower energy version of Fallout without the cheeky self awareness.
When I got the notification, I was going to say if you lined the premise but not the execution to try Fallout.
I like the slow burn of Silo and the putting back of the layers of their situation, but I get why people wouldn’t.
I was originally going to avoid Fallout, but I heard enough good about it that I checked it out. I only played Fallout 4 and watched a playthrough of New Vegas and listened to lore videos as background chatter a good bit, and I felt they really got the mood of Fallout right. Was pretty thrilled with that show.
If you want people trapped in one place but with more action and creepiness than Silo, you might check out From also.
I mean in s02 a particular plot line is kinda revolting and it hurts that they did that. I assume you know which one I mean.
I’m pretty sure I know which you’re referring to. By the words you chose, I think this is about the politician?
I found a lot of the discrimination (all varieties the show goes into) to be something grounding the show a bit while it is still an alt-history show, as it gets tied into some real-world events at the time, socially and politically. Granted I wouldn’t have been affected by that stuff then or now, so I’m not saying it shouldn’t bother people to see it, and I didn’t like how a number of characters get treated for different reasons, but the way people’s personal beliefs really cause a lot of trouble in the show throughout all of it is one of the things that makes it compelling to me. I feel it gets to be as much a political show as it is a sci-fi show. If people don’t want to see that in their escapism, I get it.
But for myself, with the behavior of all the eventually involved factions still treating each other just as crappy as in today’s reality, I find it an interesting change in how space exploration is typically depicted in a world where we’ve resolved our Earthly pettiness and have formed a cohesive world society of peace and harmony and that was what allowed us to venture off into space. In the FAM universe, we’re still as idiotic and petty as ever, and most of what we accomplish is just to spite people we don’t like, from a personal level up to the international.
No,
spoiler
It’s about Karen and Danny.
Oh lord, I remembered the event happened, but I went back to read the details why that was one of the worst parts for you and all of a sudden I realized my brain had repressed a looooot of details about that whole plotline! 😦
Yeah, the show could have done without that!
I’m a big Asimov fan so I was really looking forward to Foundation. S1 was OK but not entirely sure about some of the many ways they have departed from the books.
Ironically i’d say the best thing about the show is something they completely made up for the show: the whole genetic dynasty with dawn/day/dusk.
Yes, I’d like a sci-fi show just purely based on that. Purely based on Trantor (or whatever they call it in a show not based on Foundation) . A sci-fi court intrigue empire show based around the mechanics and philosophical implications of a genetic dynasty.
Slow Horses.
It’s 6 episode seasons, so it’s easy to binge. The stakes are fairly low. The things the characters are doing is very important, but everyone is chill about it. Gary Oldman is a terrible/excellent boss.
It’s a show that grows on you. I wouldn’t strongly recommend it, but it’s such a small commitment to get started, it’s worth taking a look at.
Slow Horses is great. I didn’t know they made more seasons. Two more for me. Thanks for the reminder.
The Righteous Gemstones had me rolling.
I just started The Last of Us with my wife last night. We’re 3 episodes into it so far.
I wasn’t planning to watch it originally. My biggest gripe about zombie shows is that it’s not about the zombies; it’s about the people surviving zombies. And honestly, I don’t care to get to know a bunch of people who might get killed off throughout the series. Their drama just isn’t appealing to me. I’m here to watch zombies do their zombie thing!
For the record, I’m a huge empath; I get way too invested emotionally in other people and their stories, so shows where characters are killed off frequently are extremely stressful for me to deal with.
I couldn’t get into The Walking Dead because the zombies took a backseat to the drama going on in the humans’ lives. They had some of the coolest looking zombies I’ve ever seen on screen and they became so unimportant, there are literally scenes where the characters are conversing while zombies just shamble by in the background! No fear, no sense of urgency. Zombies literally became less important than the survivors and their interpersonal drama.
But I’ve played the video games for The Last of Us and they were quite enjoyable. Because I was in control of the main character(s), I got invested in their story. I feared the TV show would expand on the universe and get too wrapped up in creating more post-apocalyptic drama, but from what I’ve read, it seems like it’s staying pretty loyal to the plot of the games.
And then I heard there was outrage over the beginning of season 2. Pedro Pascal had to post a picture of him hugging a costar on social media, informing the masses that despite their on-screen drama, there’s nothing but love and respect between the two actors. That’s when I found out they’re staying very loyal to the video games, and that intrigued me. A bold move, knowing the plot to the second game.
So I waited for season 2 to wrap up, and now my wife and I are binging the whole thing from the beginning. I’m hoping the series is officially caught up with the games now, because I hate waiting for more episodes to drop a year or two later.
Season 1 is a pretty good show and is mostly faithful to the game. I would, however, recommend tempering any expectations before watching season 2.
While I wouldn’t consider season 2 bad, they do ramp up the interpersonal drama and cut the game’s story in half to make another season–which will focus on Abby’s perspective from the 2nd game.
I didn’t much care for the main story arc on season 1 but episode 3 was the best hour of television I’ve ever seen
There’s a reason we stopped at episode 3. My wife was emotionally drained watching a beautiful 20-yr relationship packed into an hour episode. She needed a break to process.
We started up again today and we’re at episode 6 now. Hoping to finish season 1 today and maybe get into season 2.
I just wrapped up Say Nothing, highly recommended. You don’t need to be Irish to get the gist of it.
Next on my list is Sense8
The Devil’s Plan, season 2.
I am in awe of the intelligence and creativity of the “contestants” in both seasons.