I’m happy Bojack is there now that I have finished American Vandal 2, which was pretty great.
I thought American Vandal season 2 was nowhere near as good as season 1, but I still liked it a lot. Season 1 really blew me away with its surprisingly nuanced and visceral exploration of documentary ethics. The way the creators became personally implicated in the true crime doc they were producing, and the way the show lingered on the suffering this caused to innocent people… There was a lot going on there.
Season 2 barely touches that kind of metatextual critique, but it was still a very funny and well-paced mystery. The twist at the end was really well done, and the show had some pretty engaging things to say about the ways social media affects the high school experience.
1 Like
Yeah, I didn’t think they were going to be able to replicate the personal involvement of Season 1, but I thought 2 went to some really interesting places with what it was saying, and had some fun parodies of Errol Morris’s style in it. I think I like both of them about equally, but I can see arguments for Season 1 being better.
I really hope these guys get to keep making these long enough that we can get a Werner Herzog season.
2 Likes
started watching columbo
it’s classy
4 Likes
maniac is just cary fukunaga doing a version of fx’s legion but without superpowers? very stylish, full of weird anachronistic tech, visually sumptous and impossible trips into the human mind
also it has the only accurate version of vr porn ever made by hollywood
8 Likes
exactly the right placement for a “Jane Derriere” joke
the good place is so amazingly confident and surefooted in completely changing the plot it’s kind of amazing
i was worried last year when it seemed like they sped through about 5 seasons worth of random good premises just for fun but they really seem to have a handle on just about anything
5 Likes
halfway through the first episode of the second season i. was like ‘ah i see they’re gonna do one reboot every episode this season, what a neat premise’ lol
2 Likes
Thanks for the recs for Halt and Catch Fire S4 guys; I had fallen off after S3 but it really does end beautifully.
1 Like
I would have said OA done better, mostly because I saw that instead of Legion. Maniac has its hooks in me, one that I’m tempted to binge after each episode.
I’m also idling through Dark Matter because I don’t get enough ships in space sci-fi these days; Canadian Netflix has a rather poor showing of it and my Farscape discs are still rather fresh in my memory. It’s okay, glimmers of good ideas but not willing to risk safe serialization.
1 Like
I really liked Dark Matter, it takes itself exactly the right amount of seriously to be compelling and yet not stressful to watch. They have a few cool pulp sf ideas that are used over and over again in different situations that it becomes almost video game like (e.g. How will this seemingly limited device be put to new use in this new situation). The overarching plot is sort of interminable and boring but episode to episode I found it really charming. The show runner is writing a blog about how he would have continued the series post cancellation, and it’s adorable. It’s like fan fiction straight from the source.
I hit the episode where Mr. Kim and Mrs. Kim from Kim’s Convenience show up as a pair of scientists. That was an unexpected but pleasant crossover of Canadian broadcasting, even though she murdered him because he was dishonourable.
Finished Maniac. It is good, watch Maniac.
1 Like
Yeah that episode is ridiculous. We had binge watched Kim’s Convenience a few months after watching season 2 of Dark Matter and immediately before beginning season 3 so it was particularly weird. I really wish Kimchee had shown up at some point.
Been hearing a lot about this “Lodge 49” show, so I decided to give the first episode a chance and I’m intrigued. I’m hoping it turns out kinda like the new version of Cheers, except it adds a whole lot of weird melancholy and directly confronts the isolation of living under late capitalism. It’s kinda sanitized but it does at least directly address the idea.
It’s mostly just a show - so far - about lonely fuckups searching desperately for any community to be a part of. I can relate to that.
1 Like
watched the first season of the incredibly cheap super sentai parody “kanpai senshi after v” about the rangers all going out to drink after work and (except for a frustrating middle arc where they all fall in love with the new yellow) it’s quirky and melancholy and heartfelt in kind of a great way. it hits some of the same beats as akibaranger, but because it’s so unbelievably cheap (the sentai costumes are basically halloween costumes, there are two sets) it has to work harder as a general workplace sitcom. it’s treats being a power ranger as just kind of a pain in the ass government job with all the bureaucracy that entails. it’s all very broad and theatrical and goofy but it builds to a very sentimental and incredibly weird ending. good sitcom.
4 Likes
Norm Macdonald Has a Show seems like the perfect format for Norm Macdonald’s humor.
Tokyo Vampire Hotel is on Amazon Prime. Has anyone watched it yet? I wanna know if its good and stuff.
It’s pretty lazy and padded for Sono imo
so its a Sono movie
except as a TV show, so the worst qualities are magnified