The Glass Teat, or 'Television'

True Detective S3 continues well. Dorff and Ali kill it in several scenes.

On reflection, House Hill Haunted etc was a good series, hindered by a dull first episode, and a stupid last episode. The bits inbetween, quality.

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Bosch is okā€“I also found it quite tropey, and the dialogue was at times hard to bear. But the pacing was strong and the plot was interesting. I think someone got it into their head that the lead actor could entirely carry the series, and it really should just be an ensemble show. Heā€™s fine, but heā€™s not all that.

New season of The Magicians just started airing and is pretty absorbing. The previous season was excellent, and itā€™s hard to tell where this one is going just yet. It feels a little like a reset, of the characters and world.

Fully agreed. Just started season 2 and itā€™s not grabbing me as much as the first season did. I can see it being a filler show for when Iā€™ve nothing else to watch.

Hmmm I watched the first seasonā€¦not sure if I should continue reading these responsesā€¦

The Expanse Season 1,2,3

Finally, Season 2 and 3 are on Amazon Prime in Germany (and can be purchased there as well). Since, well forever, inside US Amazon hat exclusivity on the expanse, outside US Netflix had it (until today)ā€¦and I am not using Netflix so I am up for some good stuff nowā€¦hopefully

I am probably a founding member of Team #The-book-is-always-better but I might make a rare exception for the Expanse here.
Since the tender age of 11 when first watching ā€œALIENSā€ I am a die-hard fan of the creepy slow/eery/silent hard-fi stuff in space. Not the Lensflare-gasm of the new Star Treks or the PEWPEWPEWFLASHBOOMBANGChewbaka-makes-a-noise-here of the Star Wars franchise.

TV/Cinema needs more of that hard-fi stuffā€¦way way more.

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Oh, I hope Season 3 in on Prime in the US now! Iā€™ll have to check sometime.

The Expanse is a strange thing for me. I liked the books, but donā€™t think they are amazing. Same with the show. It is certainly better than a lot of other sci-fi offerings, but it just falls short of greatness for me, and I couldnā€™t even tell you why.

I do think that one ā€œissueā€ I have with it, if you could call it that, is that it kind of straddles the line between hard sci-fi and space opera and neither it nor I can figure out exactly what it is trying to be.

Overall, and in spite of any impressions I just gave, I to view the series - both book and TV - in a positive light.

Edit: It does seem that Season 3 is on Prime now, if Iā€™m reading the Amazon.com website correctly. Thatā€™s good news for me!

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Not that Space Opera is inherently bad (I devoured Peter F. Hamiltonā€™s Commonwealth Saga and his Nightā€™s Dawn trilogy)) but hard-fi is always tugging more on my heartstringsā€¦

Expanse and Game of Thrones both are inflicted with ā€œforce awesome(well at least expansive/lore rich) books in a serialized mid-budget setting with all its shenanigansā€ and suffer for it a lot. If both had the budget and expertise which was poured in the Lord of the Rings/Hobbit films it would have been terrific. So it is at least tolerableā€¦and the more space action and less Drama/Angst section the expanse shows the better for meā€¦

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Iā€™m over a decade late to the party but I have finally been able to watch Deadwood, which I have done over the last couple weeks. I have to say that Iā€™m actually disappointed.

I love Westerns of all sorts; I also love the actual West and have visited many of the famous Western cities, Deadwood included. I donā€™t need my Westerns to be bang-bang action. I do like my Westerns to have a point, though, and I really didnā€™t feel like Deadwood had much of a point, other than to show the grit and griminess of everyday life in a Western gold camp. There were some large story arcs that felt a little too drawn out and there were many, many side stories that seemed very pointless.

As I told one friend, if youā€™re looking to watch an episode of a show about a stoic sheriff trying to broker a deal between a black livery owner, a racist buyer, and the newly-opened bank, then this show is for you. Its not to say that side stories like this are bad or that they have nothing to offer, just that the pacing of the show, and the focus, seems very scattershot.

The acting is excellent and all the set/costume design feel authentic. The two standouts are Brad Dourif as the doctor and Ian McShane as the pimp. McShane, in particular, is absolutely fantastic as Al Swearingen. The character is instantly iconic and surely a television classic. He is also quite a vile human, and it was a bit difficult for me to figure out how I should feel about him.

Iā€™m not disappointed that I watched Deadwood, but Iā€™m also not recommending that anyone drop what they are doing to watch it immediately.

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Iā€™m a huge fan of Westerns, a big fan of Timothy Olyphant, and a fan of Ian McShane ā€¦ so, yes, for me Deadwood was amazing! Iā€™m looking forward to the Spring 2019 release of a Deadwood film. :sunglasses:

All three seasons of Deadwood are available for streaming for free on Amazon Prime Video, for those who have an Amazon Prime membership and want to check it out. Having said that, itā€™s completely inappropriate for family viewing with kids, the F-word is used so frequently that I dock them a few points for that. I understand they are trying to convey a certain ā€œfeelā€, but unless youā€™re currently living in an army barracks so need to get inundated with F-bombs itā€™s over the top, to me, and detracts from the show.

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Olyphant disappointed me a bit; not because of his acting, but because of his character. Maybe itā€™s because I love Justified so much, but Seth Bullock was really dull for me. I get that heā€™s quiet and brooding and stoic and all that, but the character was just way to stiff to be interesting.

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Justified is a hard act to follow, I completely agree! I am a big fan of Olyphant, and I was all in on his character with the opening scenes in Montana, writing in his journal, and ā€œIā€™ll help you with the dropā€. :sunglasses:

https://youtu.be/RiaYYhvQRjk

I wasnā€™t sold on Bullock until he smashed in the face of Alma Garrettā€™s dad. From that point on, I liked him. Then again, E.B. Farnum could have beat the shit of out Almaā€™s dad and I would have liked him. What Iā€™m saying is that everyone should have beat the shit out of Almaā€™s dad.

Deadwood is still my #1 TV show of all time. The plot is secondary to the characters. I would watch those characters (especially Swearengen) work together on a crossword puzzle.

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Even Jane? I cringe whenever sheā€™s around.

But wouldnā€™t you have liked her if she was spilling Almaā€™s dadā€™s teeth all over the Bella Union?

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I was referring more to the crossword puzzle comment :grin:

But yes, Jack McCall May have been a hero had he floored Almaā€™s dadā€¦

We tried watching Deadwood a couple of years ago and just couldnā€™t get into it. I think we lasted half a season.

McShane is awesome (heā€™s awesome in almost anything) but the story didnā€™t bring us in at all.

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My wife and I are just crazy about SyFyā€™s new show this season, Deadly Class. It is a comic adaptation. I was a teen in the 80s and this is one of the best 80s soundtracks ever. Show takes place in 1987, and is sort of a 2019 completely desensitized mashup of a John Hughes, Tim Burton and The Lost Boys movies.

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LOL! One kind of expects HBO to emphasis the sex and violence, but the number F-bombs seemed crazy and was a bit distracting and over the top, IMHO. Glad to see the writer also thought it detracted from the show. :sunglasses: