Homeland Season 4 was pretty great. Started a bit slow and uninteresting (at least compared to the fireworks of season 3) but things got extremely intense during the second half of the season.

True, but the finale was garbage.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1740299/

The Man in the High Castle

Watched the pilot of this new series based on K. Dick's book and it was pretty interesting. I always liked "what if?" scenarios and this is basically that. I've never read the novel so I don't know if it's the adaptation is good though.

That pilot was pretty damn good. Impressive production, good flow and very immersive. I haven't read the book either, but faithful adaptation or not, they certainly captured and translated the feel of this alternate history well.

Huh, so there's going to be a show coming out called The Last Kingdom (with Rutger Hauer! ) that's...basically the exact same thing as Vikings, except from the opposite side of the conflict. Based on Bernard Cornwell books. Sounds kind of awesome, except, you know, Vikings already did it. I'm guessing Vikings lifted the plot concept from Bernard Cornwell originally?

Been sort of binging on detective shows recently. After Hinterland (which was good) I checked out Broadchurch. That was alright. Doesn't inspire much commentary. Pretty forgettable. Then I blew through the second season of The Fall, which was pretty good, except for the irritating fact that I can't at all buy into the killer's character – mostly Jamie Dornan's fault, as he definitely doesn't sell it. Not sure why his performance is so damn bland. Now I'm onto The Killing, which has gotten off to a pretty good start. I think I tried watching the original Danish version of this and lost interest after the first episode.

I'm midway through Broadchurch, I can't binge it like I do with all the other series I watch. It's so depressive and slow that I have some issues with it. Tennant and Colman are stellar though.

The Fall seems interesting, I love Anderson and it's fun to know who's the killer right away. I'll download it.

Finally watched the Christmas special of Black Mirror yesterday and it was perhaps my fav episode yet. It was so deep but I still have some reservations concerning the whole series. I think Booker is pushing just a bit too far the boundaries of "man, this won't exist at all". An example in the xmas special would be the "blocking you" feature, it's like blocking someone on Facebook but in real life. Still, it's one of the smartest series on tv and everyone should watch it.

I love those books!

Broadchurch is a great show but certainly not one to watch in one sitting. I never finished it but I should now that I've been reminded of it.

I finished watching S1 of Black Mirror. Those three episodes were gripping to say the least. I initially did not know that the three episodes were disjointed but the episodes on their own are so good. Great satire, dark humor and captivating stories. The 2nd and 3rd episode has some interesting sci-fi too. A highly recommended Brit series but then again, I'm sure most of you have watched it already.

Onward to S2 and then the 'White Christmas' episode that everyone went on about.

Broadchurch:

It's a charming concept: Small town rocked by a brutal murder and while the small town feeling is grasped, it is at times fairly haphazardly executed. Everyone of course, has a dirty secret in their past or a underhanded deed to be committed. And a lot of the length and suspense comes from the fact that every damn character is unwilling to disclose - even discreetly to the police - their supposedly sordid past or recently committed act. Sometimes it's not even sordid or shameful at all, but at the risk of being arrested, convicted of child murder, being marked as a murderer and even being lynched, they still hang on to a secret that's not even embarrassing, let alone something that would mark them poorly for life.

The Fall:

This one was fairly well executed all around. Astute and interesting. I'm just not sure if the second season can be any good. It would've been better left at the finish of the first.

Black Mirror:

A lot of praise for this one and while most of them were well executed, some of the stuff falls just a bit short. Second episode of first episode is overtly long, really dragging its obvious point and not driving it home with much of any force. A lot of the episodes took quite a while to establish themselves and then a really short while to make the point and drive it home, leaving it all feeling rather "Huh, was that all?".

You guys should give Hinterland a try. Definitely one of the best of the recent detective shows I've been watching. It's got a great sense of atmosphere, really nice camerawork and setting, and the writing/acting/directing are all really solid. Good stuff!

Most of the way through The Killing S1 now and it's definitely kept up the quality. Based on what I've seen so far I would certainly recommend this as well.

Man, The Killing is one of the most addictive shows - loved the first two seasons despite the tendency to get a bit sensationalistic with plot twists like every episode - but that's kinda what we signed on for. Magnificent leads, too; in acting as well as character writing. Third season drops off a bit, but the shorter fourth season Netflix put out is almost as good as the first two.

Season 3 was by far the best. The suspense had me holding my breath, and Peter Sarsgaard was amazing. Every time he was on screen, I was beyond compelled. The end of his story was extremely powerful. I would say all 4 seasons were great though. Couldn't get enough of Holder and Linden and overall it's probably one of my favourite shows ever.

Yeah, I binged on The Killing a while ago. The whole show is really good. The chemistry and performances of the leads sell the whole thing, IMO. Netflix does some good work. Looking forward to Season 2 of The Fall, also.

they do end pretty quickly, but if i had to guess, its because the episodes seem very movie-esque. and i agree that the second episode just didnt stack up well against the others. still though, definitely a favorite of mine on netflix. i dont know what the deal is with more episodes or not, but if more get announced that will be the most excited ive ever been for a TV show in a while

So, a teaser for season 3 of Hannibal was just released... Oh, my. This is another of my favourite shows, and I don't quite have words for the excitement. It looks quite amazing. Any other fans?


I'm looking forward to this - I'm a fan of the book (although not to the extent of wishing eldritch violence upon anyone who dares tamper with it), and it has so much promise.

Oh god, I went here to post the Hannibal trailer, can't fucking wait! I did marathons of the first 2 seasons, it will be hard to watch the new episodes one by one!

Great minds, eh? Yeah, I did that with season 2 - it's such an addictive series, I don't know how I'm going to handle the tension.

The casting for new characters looks quite promising so far, too - Richard Armitage and Rutina Wesley especially should be cool additions; the latter was wasted in True Blood (although she was also one of the few interesting things about the three or so seasons I managed to watch).

I'm not big on ghost shows, but apparently there's an episode of Ghost Adventures on the Nopeming Sanatorium in Duluth. That's pretty interesting, since I was there quite a few times when I was small. I didn't realize it had even closed down!

Yeah, GA is a bit hit and miss. As far as that episode, there were some interesting parts where . They interviewed a young guy who went there a few years ago and he said he saw a shadow figure on a ledge, and also got arrested for trespassing. But, with a place like that, considering how creepy it looks, it will mess with your mind. That tunnel though, that looked dangerous.

I really wish that episode had more actual info, and less "People being scared by everything."

Late to the party but Vikings is awesome. I'm two episodes into S02. I found S01 gripping and thoroughly entertaining. I also think that Ragnar is possibly the most badass protagonist I've come across in recent time. Another observation from the show is how Rollo's character develops further towards the end of S01 and into S02. On a side note, I'm wondering...

I've finished the first season of Broadchurch tonight and god, the conclusion managed to surprise me. Well done, I almost cried during the last episode.

Olivia Colman was astounding, such a great actress. I'll start the 2nd season soon.

For the guy who wanted to see more True Crime shows check out Most Evil.

I forget what channel it's on right now but it's pretty good and compares criminals on a scale of "evil" to see who is, well...most evil.

Smallville has an Aquaman episode. Dear god, WHY?! Half man, half fish, ALL DOUCHEY FRATBOY.

Yeah that was way better than Gracepoint. It doesn't start until March though right? I heard that Gracepoint tanked in ratings and will not be renewed which is cool because I don't really need two of the exact same show. The main thing I think is

Nah man, there's already 4 episodes of Broadchurch season 2 that has been played. I'll watch them after my Black Sails marathon!

What do you think of Black Sails, Twonn? I checked out the first episode back when it was new and it seemed kinda...entertaining but frivolous and possibly an indicator of a huge waste of time incoming. I would blindly believe it's turned out better than Marco Polo, in any case.

What? Fuck muffins how did my dvr miss that?

Ohh because it doesn't air on BBCA until March 4th.

So far (after 2-3 episodes) it's pretty good and interesting. It seems pretty historically accurate too and the sets, costumes and boats are all well done. I think the relations and interactions between the characters are what could be really good. It's slow paced but you're immersed into the era and you want to be a pirate haha!

I've watched the Marco Polo trailer the other day and it looked like a boring "epic" series with a sort of fantasy flair, Black Sails is rough, realistic and well written. Of course, I'll watch the whole thing and tell you more stuff.

Just finished all of The Killing. Gah, so good! Enos and Kinnaman just killed it 4 real. Easily one of the best cop shows I've ever seen. The acting was amazingly consistent across the board, even with secondary/minor characters. Writing and directing were good, atmosphere was great. I enjoyed it more than The Wire.

You guys ever watch The Missing? Thinking of picking that up next. Glad it's only one season, though, 'cause I'm about detective show-binged out.

Wait, the one with Frances O'Conner or the one with Ashley Judd? Because the latter is among the worst TV shows I've seen in the past few years. The former is probably really good though.

Have you still not watched Peaky Blinders yet, Star?

I guess it's the one with Ashley Judd, whoever that is? I'll proceed, but with caution. Always with caution.

Oh, dd, I noticed Babylon started for real just earlier this month? That's cool, the early pilot was pretty neat so I'm curious to see more.

Yes, I did watch all of Peaky Blinders! I liked it pretty well overall. It didn't exactly rocket to the top of my favorites list, and Sam Neill tends to annoy me in most things he's in, but I still thought it was good.

So after watching all four seasons of AHS, I can confidently say that this is a reeeeaaally mixed bag. This series has a huge problem with storytelling and cohesion, season 3 and 4 are mostly a mess. 1 and 2 are better in that regard, but it's still like they want to cram as much cool horror shit into the series as possible and how to actually arrange it in the form of a narrative and how to resolve all the insanity is a secondary concern at best. Eh, it's a certain kind of fun to watch for the sake of crazy, though. Generally good acting too and I like the re-shuffling of the cast for the characters with each new season. Some cool stuff, even if it's often terribly non-sequitur-y.

Also, The Americans, season 3! wooooo. I think this is one of the better shows on TV currently. Not much to say about it except that it's just well done and exciting.


That's on my to-watch list. Most opinions I've seen on it so far seem to agree with your "not bad" assessment. But what's that about Sam Neill? What's annoying about him?

Anybody check Fortitude yet?

Yeah, I have a soft-spot for insanely overbooked plots with humorously rushed resolutions (being a huge Stephen King fan and whatnot) but AHS definitely pushes it even for me. Haven't seen much of s4 though.

What I've seen of American Horror Story ranged from mediocre to just astonishingly bad. Can't believe that show went to four seasons.



Eh, I just tend to find him really unbelievable in whatever role he's in. He does a good enough job in Peaky Blinders, though still nothing amazing.



I just did! It was interesting enough to make me curious to see more. I really like Arctic settings in general so that's a plus. I keep hoping it'll go in some kind of horror direction. So far it seems neat, but if someone doesn't split in half and turn into a skinless arachnoid soon, I'll be very disappointed.

Ah, AHS. 'Mixed bag' is certainly an apt description, though I'd go more with 'exponentially increasing disappointment' myself. Season 1 was the only AHS narrative that I genuinely enjoyed; it was one of those few shows that felt like it brought real horror to the small screen, and did so in a way that took advantage of the medium's longer-form storytelling. The character development, writing, setting, acting were all quite wonderful. The second season had so much potential, but squandered a great deal of it, I think.
Season 3 was pretty much unbearable for me (I can't adequately express how much I loathed that tale), to an extent that made me refuse to watch most of the latest one; the couple of episodes I saw didn't look particularly appealing. I wonder at its continued existence; Ryan Murphy's recent ridiculous attempts to suggest links between all the seasons surely portend its doom as anything resembling a credible show.

I still haven't got through Season 4. Two parter with Edward Mordrake was particularly tiresome, and that ending is such disappointment. I feel the problem is whenever the show gets it's wheels and builds to something astounding it cuts them to shreds in the name of twist and no character is safe. Much more so than Game of Thrones even.

Yeah, exactly - it seems like AHS feels it needs to do narrative gymnastics every time silly traditional things like character development or emotional investment start to form. The first season at least kept this in check a bit; it was over-the-top, but not in a way that left viewers with nothing left to hold on to. The other seasons erode this further and further, until you're just left with a hollow mess of second-rate fireworks; they're not thoroughly crafted or consistent enough to pull that off in a coolly ostentatious, boundary-breaking way, and just end up with something like a Shyamalan soap opera.

Last night I was casting about for something new to watch and idly checked out the first episodes of both The Following and The 100. I'm not sure I even need to say that both were laughably bad. The Following went nearly to A Touch of Cloth levels of stupidity within 30 minutes of run time, and The 100 was just... god, was this a SyFy production? A master class in how not to put a television show together. Fucking trash.

I don't feel like resurrecting the anime thread for this, because for me watching an anime series is no different from a western live-action series. The format is ultimately very similar in the stuff that I watch, even if the genre is always worlds apart.

I started watching Shinsekai Yori, and it's a very entertaining fantasy series, centered around mysteries and hidden truths that the main characters are gradually discovering about the world and society they live in.

The characterisation is quite good, although the two female protagonists' personalities are slightly downplayed in comparison to the males' personality traits (which can be a bit exaggerated at times). The animation gets slightly weird in some parts making it somewhat hard to follow, and some of the parts are actually emotionally confusing when things are drawn and animated exaggeratedly or weirdly for a dramatic effect. It seems to attempt to simulate the altered perception of time and surroundings people tend to have in intense situations, but I feel like the animators couldn't properly always convey effectively what they had in mind.

I've watched 13 episodes so far, and I'd definitely recommend it. It's philosophical, though not necessarily in the most original way - it's a fairly standard moral dilemma between utilitarism and individualistic humanism, but it happens to interest me - and it provides and excellent deconstruction of the situation where a number of humans have gained considerable superpowers (a bit like Darker Than Black in that regard, but much more dramatic).