What TV Shows Are you Watching?

Rev. Powell · September 08, 2026, 11:38:51 AM

Started the "Death Note" anime. Good pilot, looks more coherently plotted than a lot of anime. Not sure how they can develop the premise for 37 episodes, but I'm down to find out.

Jim H · September 08, 2026, 03:49:14 PM

My wife and I just watched the first two seasons of Silo in like a week and a half. That was a lot! I've read the books it is based on, and the further it goes the more they diverge. Personally, I like the book version better, but if you care more about interpersonal drama (parts of the book are a bit like The Martian or Project Hail Mary, with people engineering solutions to their predicament - this is largely excised), you'd probably like the show.

Another thought, Common is in it and he's bad. I actually thought he was decent in John Wick 2 and in that Western TV show he was on, but man, he's bad here and has a lot of screen time. Doesn't help that the Alexandria Riley as his wife is MUCH better.

Quote from: Rev. Powell on September 08, 2026, 11:38:51 AMStarted the "Death Note" anime. Good pilot, looks more coherently plotted than a lot of anime. Not sure how they can develop the premise for 37 episodes, but I'm down to find out.

When you finish that one, I'll be quite interested in your thoughts, it's a good one to hear people's opinions on. I will say the last few issues of the manga are worth reading after the anime, for contrast. For the most part they are quite close though.

Rev. Powell · September 08, 2026, 05:09:46 PM

Quote from: Jim H on September 08, 2026, 03:49:14 PM
Quote from: Rev. Powell on September 08, 2026, 11:38:51 AMStarted the "Death Note" anime. Good pilot, looks more coherently plotted than a lot of anime. Not sure how they can develop the premise for 37 episodes, but I'm down to find out.

When you finish that one, I'll be quite interested in your thoughts, it's a good one to hear people's opinions on. I will say the last few issues of the manga are worth reading after the anime, for contrast. For the most part they are quite close though.

36 more episodes at 1-2 episodes a week will take me a while, but I'll try to report back. (I am an anti-binger, I spread viewings out by preference).

indianasmith · September 08, 2026, 09:55:26 PM

After teaching about the Gilded Age over the last few class days, I decided to watch DEATH BY LIGHTNING again.
It's the true story of James Garfield and the man who killed him. Brilliant, well-acted, and highly accurate with a thin overlay of dramatic license.

M.10rda · September 10, 2026, 10:59:40 AM

Quote from: Rev. Powell on August 04, 2026, 08:11:53 AMFinished "Cobra Kai" a while back. I enjoyed it, but I have to confess every season got a little worse until the final one was fairly ridiculous.

The "swing" (to appropriate a term from real estate) on this show was huuuge. Sometimes it was highly self-aware, smart, and funny - other times lowbrow as hell. I did enjoy almost the entire ensemble cast - particularly William Zabka, who made Johnny incredibly relatable as an adult in spite of him being such a turd as a teenager. The Magneto/Prof. X dynamic between him and Ralph Macchio as Daniel kept me coming back until the very end.

M.10rda · September 10, 2026, 11:01:26 AM

Quote from: HappyGilmore on August 23, 2026, 06:32:59 PMYellowjackets.

Christina Ricci, Juliette Lewis, Elijah Wood. Final season is out soon.

And...... good for them for pulling the plug. S1, very good. S2, close to brilliant. S3, increasingly shaky and then straight off the cliff by the end.

One more season and there would be no one left to root for anyway.

HappyGilmore · September 20, 2026, 03:01:22 AM

Quote from: M.10rda on September 10, 2026, 11:01:26 AM
Quote from: HappyGilmore on August 23, 2026, 06:32:59 PMYellowjackets.

Christina Ricci, Juliette Lewis, Elijah Wood. Final season is out soon.

And...... good for them for pulling the plug. S1, very good. S2, close to brilliant. S3, increasingly shaky and then straight off the cliff by the end. One more season and there would be no one left to root for anyway.

S3 was just rocky. Color me crazy but I love Misty. Nat was my favorite but considering adult her is deceased and young her is alive it's just like, where do you go? You know how her story ends.

M.10rda · Reply #292 - Re: What TV Shows Are you Watching?

I love Misty too. I also love Lauren Ambrose. Swapping out Ambrose for Hilary Swank is absurd.

M.10rda · Reply #293 - Re: What TV Shows Are you Watching?

We watched Season 1 of "Widows' Bay" over about a week - we were around Episode 7 or 8 when it won a poop-load of Emmys. The way that the Emmys and Golden Globes categorize "Comedy" versus "Drama" programs has always been a bit ridiculous and may be getting moreso. Seems like anything that's about a half-hour (including the highly stressful and unfunny "The Bear") is classified as a "Comedy", while things that are closer to an hour long are "Drama". Well, I think all the "Widows' Bay" episodes are longer than 30 minutes and some are 50+, and yet in this case the TV Awards Stopped Clock happened to be right. As a horror series, I have some complaints about "Widows' Bay". As a comedy, though - I highly recommend it!

No Spoilers - the tone is quite serious throughout, there are life and death stakes, there is a lot of tragedy, and there's a lot of suspense, which sometimes got my anxiety up. I would even say that "Widows' Bay" manages to be scary on a few occasions. As Melodrama or Horror, I'd rate "Widows' Bay" a B or a 3 or 3.5 out of 5. It's competent for the most part, but I was never knocked out of my seat from the acting or writing or the horror elements. The main actor (who just won two Emmys) is... fine. He plays "irritation" and "grief" over and over for ten episodes, sometimes a little "dread", but that's all he's got. The great comedic character actor Stephen Root (who also just won an Emmy) is also decent enough as a character that is almost 100% serious all the time. It's a little perverse to not let Stephen Root be funny! The female lead, however - who, yes, also won an Emmy - is very offbeat and fascinating and fun to watch. The biggest issue I have w/ "Widows' Bay" is it seems like it's made by and for people who aren't big Horror fans, a trait that materializes at least once in every episode, when there's either a ludicrous Idiot Plot contrivance that puts characters in a position that is largely implausible or otherwise characters behave really foolishly or recklessly even though they know they're living in a haunted town that's trying to kill them.

That's typical bad Horror storytelling, of course, but I would expect more from something that's winning so many awards.

All that said, "Widows' Bay" is still worth checking out, because at least once (or half a dozen times) per episode it is really, really, really funny. I'll specify that it isn't situation comedy or farce and it isn't witty repartee. Instead it's funny in the way that TWIN PEAKS was sometimes funny and in the way that four or five moments in ERASERHEAD are funnier than anything in any Mel Brooks movie. Amidst the atmosphere of sadness and dread, something completely inexplicable and sometimes even surreal & preposterous will happen, and the characters sort of just absorb it with the same solemn dejection as they accept everything else in their lives. So the amount of "comedy" in "Widows' Bay" is comparatively miniscule to the amount of suspense and horror and tragedy, and yet when it appears it always gave Madame and me a huge laugh.

I think it's a very odd show in the above regards. But, a lot of people are totally wild for it, so maybe I am just even more out of touch than I thought!