Has anyone been keeping up with South Park? Season 22 just ended, and it was decent, but the show still hasn't recovered from the nosedive it took with Season 20. I don't really have any hope that it'll ever be great again, and I have to wonder if the '#Cancel South Park' tagline they used for this past season is really a joke. I don't even know whether to hope SP does get canceled or not, it's so mediocre now.

I honestly haven't watched South Park on even a semi-regular basis in like 10 years...

I quit watching it in the middle of the one season they tried a long form storyline. Friends tell me it's doing better now though - maybe I'll check it out again.

Yeah, wow, post-production took ages on the first season, so there's a good chance S2 won't be out until 2020. Just in time for Cyberpunk, I guess...

I was thinking constantly yesterday (when I watched the final episode) that I should tell someone that it is one of the best shows of the year. I really, really enjoyed every second of it, wonderfully refreshing show.

God, House of Cards is such a shit show these days.

Vikings is so full of historical inaccuracies that I'm completely turned off by it...not to mention the wannabe vikings and heathens that have descended upon us. I can do without people in Floki makeup.

The Last Kingdom is a much better show with little to no historical inaccuracies. Yes, Uhtred is a fictional character but the timeline of events jives with history. I've been reading the books even before they decided to make a show.

Been stuck at home with the flu this week so caught up on Better Call Saul, which I was apparently two seasons behind on, not one. I really liked season 3, and while it picked up a little toward the end, I thought season 4 was actually sort of a let-down. Not strictly bad or anything, but just less engaging that s3, which was really powerful stuff. By now, though, the show kinda just has me itching for it to end so I can segue right into a Breaking Bad re-watch.

I have recently binged seasons 1 & 2 of The Good Place. I don't know what I expected, but it's a cute little show, starring the cute & little Kristen Bell. The comedy was almost Hitchhiker's Guide level absurdist observation, and it would've been funnier in print.

Mjollnir, lighten up dude Vikings was never meant to be historically accurate. Most of its source material comes from the legendary sagas, with characters that may have sorta been based on (maybe) real people.

The sagas about Ragnar Loðbrok may not be accurate and I can accept that. People are already ignorant of history, so you have the HISTORY channel linking Normandy's Rollo to Ragnar when the timeline is totally impossible. Don't get me started on what they did with Alfred the Great. You would be surprised how many people think that what is portrayed on that show is plausible. Sorry but I'm a nerd like that.

^ Yeah, well that's what you get when you want to cram a lot of interesting Viking history into a show that involves the same core characters pretty much the whole time. You get Ragnar allegedly at Lindisfarne in 793, but also running afoul of Aella of Northumbria, who would have been an infant at the time, if born at all. They also made Egbert of Wessex a contemporary of Aella, and of course Ragnar's brother Rollo became the Rollo, first Duke of Normandy, even though that didn't happen until the 900s. I didn't consider any of it too unforgivable, since Ragnar was probably not a real guy anyway. Made it more of a "legendary fiction" rather than "historical fiction" show.

And yeah, it's called the History Channel, but jesus, most of their programming is decidedly non-history reality schlock like Forged in Fire, American Pickers, Counting Cars, etc.

Just watched Stranger things 6. Episode

I love this show!

Any of ya'll watching Murder Mountain? It's a documentary on Netflix about a specific area of Humboldt county, California. The area is basically unpoliced, outlaw wildlands. The story centers around one missing kid, but covers the overarching missing people problem in the area.

It's pretty fucking wild. My mental image of Humboldt has been WAY off, apparently.

Man, this season of The Orville has been absolutely awful so far. I enjoyed the first season well enough, even if it was just a TNG ripoff with dick and pee pee jokes, but my god, three episodes in and I'm not even sure if I'll see the season through. Bafflingly bad choices at every turn, from deciding to kick off the season with a soap opera episode devoid of both sci-fi action AND comedy, to completely wasted cameos by Jason Alexander and Patrick Warburton, to removing the best character on the show for the lamest of reasons (very nearly defending anti-vaxxers)... my god, how did Seth fuck this up so much. The ratings are in the toilet, so the show will probably be cancelled. Oh well. At least there's Discovery.

Discovery is lame though. I think you mean "at least there's The Expanse."

Why are you trying to reason with him

How am I being unreasonable? C'mon, man.

The Expanse is much better than Discovery, of course. Discovery's first season was hit-or-miss and it ended up not going anywhere, but it wasn't garbage. Unlike the second season of the Orville. Also, the last three Short Treks were really good, especially the Michael Chabon episode. Big-budget sci-fi series have always been in short supply, so when one comes out and it isn't dogshit (e.g., not Terra Nova or Almost Human), it's probably worth watching.

Despite horrible reviews all around, I really enjoyed the first episode of True Detective S3. It was SHOCKINGLY similar to S1 in a number of ways. Shamelessly so. But since that's what I wanted how could I be mad?

I've never had any expectations for Orville and I haven't minded the new season. It's definitely not great, but I've never expected greatness from this show, just some basic entertainment.

New True Detective has been solid IMO. Not the A++++++ of the first season, but way better than the second.

Yeah, new TD is awesome so far.

Glad I'm not the only one enjoying it! I know most press reviews were written based on seeing the first 5 episodes. I'm wondering what their major gripe is? The few I read bashed Nic P. (the writer) for basically...continuing the style he's cultivated. Again, I've only seen 1 episode but it completely captures the atmosphere that I love and expect from True Detective. The "it factor" that Season 2 was seemingly missing.

I thought S2 had a lot of great parts but was obviously less good than S1. S3 seems like they decided to go the opposite direction S2 took, going for an even more realistic "true crime" approach than in S1. Dunno how it'll work out but the first episode has me hooked for sure. When it comes to a personal favorite series like this, I don't even glance at reviews, since I know I'll be watching it either way.

I definitely don't want to watch True Detective S3 until the whole thing is over, and thankfully I don't really know anyone who watches it except you guys and I know you're all cool with spoilers, so should be no problem. I have a friend who might get hooked on it so maybe I can get her on the hype train for S3 by the time it's over.

Having seen the first two episodes, I really dig the way they're handling the three timelines plus the whole dementia thing from 2015 colouring the entire narrative. Ali's acting also deserves mention. Scoot McNairy is great as well, for some reason I just really enjoy the guy no matter what he's in. Oh hey and it's a very likable Deacon Frost!

Normally I also like to wait until a season is over before I watch it, but with True Detective and a few other things (like The Return) I just can't help myself. It's rare for me to really REALLY love a series like this, so when I do find one, I go after it like a free trampoline.

New Star Trek Discovery...hmmmmmm.

I thought it was very good for an action/adventure/mystery whatever. Part of the way through though I realized that although I was enjoying it a lot, it's still not Trek. I hope they manage to add more classic Trek in and only have some Abrams-Trek for flair.

The Orville is more Trek than Discovery is.

I liked the first season well enough, it had some original twists and concepts in an unoriginal setting. I'll continue the series.

Not sure what people mean by Discovery not being properly Trekular. Is it the use of normal-people dialogue instead of the stiff military bridge babble of previous series? ‘cause I rather enjoy that, making the characters more accessible. I’ll agree that the look of the show is a little off though - and no I don’t mean the appearance of the Klingons, although their behaviour is a lot more evil than I expected.
I just find the whole show kind of hard to look at compared to the soft bright colours of other Treks. Even Enterprise, which was a little darker looking, is still easier on the eyes than Discovery. Too dark, too much exposed metal. I like a nice cuddly starship

NORMAL-PEOPLE DIALOGUE??? Everyone talking to each other is constantly condescending, a constant superior complex everyone has over everyone, to the point of being sociopathic. Every single character on the show is just scary the way they talk to each other, and I am certainly glad that is as far from normal people as it gets, because I wouldn't want to live in a world like that.

Anyway the new episode was quite a laugh in its own way and my final verdict is "suck it, Stallone, The Expendables is no longer the dumbest thing I've ever seen." That scene with the space pods where they lifted the sound effects from The Phantom Menace I just burst out laughing and thought oh god they can't be serious. Took a wrong turn somewhere, guys, you're writing for the wrong franchise!

The dialogue and relationships and themes aren't thoughtful/reflective really, that's what I mean. Or if they are it's in a kind of generic angsty way dealing with generic issues (like the whole Spock shit).

Season 1 of Orville was more Trek than Season 1 of Discovery.

However, 4 episodes into the Orville S2... and it's pretty much gone to shit. Framing the premiere episode (and an 'emotional' episode at that) around a cast member pissing is not Star Trek. And if the ratings are any indication, it seems most other people would agree (very, very likely it will get cancelled when pulling under 3 million viewers in a prime slot for a big-budget show). The latest episode finally went back to ripping off Star Trek, but they ripped off the worst episode (the boring 'officer stuck on a foreign planet with your arch enemy without supplies and they must work together to stay alive). Ugh.

On the other hand, just finished the first episode of Discovery and I'm already ready to forgive the first season. THAT is how you kick off a sci-fi season properly; non-stop action scenes, but not a single phaser shot fired, not an enemy to be seen, just a good ole away team working together as a collective to overcome an environmental obstacle. Loved it.

I watched most of season 1 of Discovery. I agree about the dialogue. Everyone sounded like they were angry at and/or suspicious of everyone else. I turned it off after the giant magic space tardigrade, which was probably the dumbest thing I've seen in any Trek movie or show.

Not an easy thing to say, "the dumbest thing in Trek" has plenty of competition in the show. It starts with the fungus already and the tardigrade was the icing on that cake. If you gotta rip off some random online game hoping not to get sued for theft (but do anyway), no idea why you wouldn't pick something less awkward.

What I really "love" is the recycled characters. The main character is Wesley Crusher of all people, omniscient and omnipotent and saving the day no matter what comes. Stamets got the same hair as Conner Trinneer, leans to the side when standing like Conner Trinneer and even raises the voice at the end of every sentence as if it's a question like Conner Trinneer, why? Mary Wiseman is apparently just given a list of every Reginald Barclay line from TNG/Voyager and told that's her character. And when they were in the mirror universe about to meet the Emperor, I half expected it to be Hoshi Sato, and when it was Georgiou I was like "hah, close enough."

Anyway, now they have pods to copy the space race from Star Trek Into Darkness with sound effects from The Phantom Menace to apparently kick off the hunt for a Marvel supervillain, I'm really pumped to see what bottom of the barrel they scrape their next idea from. Lifting the elevator scene from The Orville was just an added bonus.

And speaking of The Orville season two, be done with the relationship episodes already. That's four in a row, I'm sure you can think of another subject. The first season was so good, please don't lose it so fast. Only one real highlight in four episodes so far, John Billingsley's switch to (or revelation as) evil in the "why don't you use your hand?"-scene, that one gave me goosebumps, really eerie acting performance.

"This Star Trek series isn't enough like Star Trek so here's a list of all of the things it stole from Star Trek." Also, maybe you were just completely out of the loop in 2015, but Tardigrades were the talk of the town among pop science nerds and blogs; the lawsuit is purely a marketing stunt for the indie developer and will likely not be brought to court.

But my favorite 'darkeningday from 2012' hot hyperbolic take is where droneriot called the journey to the starship 'a race stolen from Into Darkness and Episode 1.' That entire bit was just a cosmetic twist on the classic Star Trek away team, right down to the wiseass redshirt eating dirt. Maybe they do things differently in Germany, but here in the US a race isn't about team cooperation and coordination.

Anyway, the season opener was fantastic. Still not thrilled about Spock and The Red Mcguffin, but if the first episode has set the tone for the rest of the season, it'll be enjoyable at least.

Yeah guess what, if Korn steal a riff from Darkthrone they're not black metal. Nope, Discovery isn't anything like Star Trek no matter how many ideas they borrow. Star Trek is by definition a utopian series, and they can throw hollow references left and right, Discovery is a dystopian nightmare.

And yeah, racing somewhere means you try to get somewhere fast. Maybe in the US they should teach their native language in school. It's obvious they just recycled the Pine/Cumberbatch race to the U.S.S. Vengeance, down to the cracking glass. They just can't think of anything of their own to do with their show.

If you want to talk improvements in Season 2 over Season 1, the nice surprise is that the extras talk. They're not nameless stand-ins like the TNG/DS9/Voyager extras, they're on the bridge in every episode, so it's about time they're given a chance to open their mouths. The cast feels more ensemble overall, less "Sonequa and some extras." Pike came on the show and instantly became the least misanthropic psychopath character on the show. They did obviously try to make some improvements to the show for the second season. Unfortunately they insist on keeping the dumb-as-fuck shit from the first season as well.

Right, so most of DS9 (dominion war) and Enterprise (expanse + temporal cold war) aren't Star Trek? Got it.

Star Trek reused the trope of the second-in-command of the enemy leader defecting to "the good guys" at the last minute more times than I can even remember (off the top of my head: Year of Hell, Flesh & Blood, Star Trek: Insurrection, Descent, perhaps dozens more). Or how about the Borg threatening to assimilate earth? They just can't help but cannibalize their own ideas. This makes the show bad for some reason!

Discovery has problems but it still gave us the best first season in Star Trek history, even if that's not saying much.


Sidebar: never forget both DS9 and TNG (seriously) were met with massive hostility from fans for their first few seasons. Now look at them.

You do love to waste your time talking to your fantasy strawmen, don't you? Actually reading what I wrote instead of inventing stuff would benefit the discussion though.

Showing war is not a dystopian nightmare. I didn't say that (obviously) and wouldn't, because it doesn't make any sense whatsoever, except maybe in your mind. DS9 and Enterprise maintained a very positive, utopian mindset no matter the hardship they faced. Discovery doesn't at any moment.

Recycling ideas without adding anything new actually did make for some of the worst episodes in past shows. DS9's entire mirror universe subplot was a waste of half a dozen episodes. Voyager reusing "dark Voyager" from their previous episode "Living Witness" to make the first half of "Author, Author", then copying TNG's "Measure of a Man" in the second half, that was just pathetic (season 7 generally isn't well-regarded among the cast, it wasn't just Robert Beltran complaining anymore), Enterprise doing a copy of Con Air and Enemy Mine back to back in season 2 left everyone scratching their heads for sure. It's when they don't add anything new, that's what makes the show bad - that's just as obvious, except maybe in your mind. That's why I didn't mention something like "Magic to Make the Sanest Man Go Mad" - the episode takes its plot device from the TNG episode "Cause and Effect" but it does something completely different with it, which made the episode not so bad.

As for that last thing, DS9 and TNG were establishing the characters and relationships in the first two seasons each and the stories took a step back for that. Discovery only had one character plus some extras in the first season and went right into its story, basically starting where DS9/TNG wouldn't go until at least their third seasons. Since the "get to know the cast" seasons were omitted there's really no ground for comparison, and the only hope is that they actually catch up on those. Might be less stupid action going on, but getting to know and like the cast would be cool, and Captain Pike's bridge roll call was a step in the right direction, leaving some faint hope they'll build a real show.

Pretty sure you're the one operating on absurd generalities that can easily be proven wrong; episodes like The Butcher's Knife Cares Not For The Lamb's Cry and Si Vis Pacem, Para Bellum very clearly illustrate that "very positive, utopian mindset." Just because you refused to recognize it doesn't mean it wasn't there. And on the other hand, episodes like In The Pale Moonlight and the Enterprise episodes in The Expanse where Archer throws aliens into decompressing airlocks to get them to talk, shows that no, the shows did not always maintain positivity.

Such is the danger of the 'always' argument. C'mon dude, if you were any more hyperbolic you'd be a drill sergeant.