Topic: Rate the last TV show you've seen

[BlackNMild2k1]

1st 2 episodes of Marvels Runways has leaked, and the critic reviews have given the show praise.

They say it's a teen drama like The O.C. done up by 2 people from Gossip Girl. Reviews all sounded really good.

Another show from Marvel, New Warriors, has tested so good, that they are no longer airing it on Freeform and decided to shop it to other networks (with a larger audience?) instead.

Personally I'm hoping it comes to ABC and gets paired with an AoS season 6.

[nickmitch]

Marvel has really been spreading the TV love around.  I find that to be a pretty interesting strategy.

[BlackNMild2k1]

I meant to post that in the upcoming TV shows thread... But whatever.

But yeah, concentration on Disney owned and Netflix platforms doesn't spread the brand quite far enough I guess.

[Plugabugz]

I'm a bit behind on Discovery (i was in the USA last week and Netflix roams when changing countries, so i lost access to Discovery while there) so i only saw last weeks episode yesterday.

Dark Matter did a timeloop episode this year too, and that was far better than Discovery's attempt at this. It's interesting how Stamets never even decided to just "skip a loop" and do whatever he wanted on at least one 30 minute loop or do his own investigating. The only reason that Mudd wasn't shot on sight or arrested, never to be seen of again, is because his character comes back later in the timeline so they were completely tied with what they can do with him - assuming we never see him again.

[oohhboy]

Yeah anyone with some Trek knowledge would know. The writers dug themselves into a massive massive hole and threw themselves into it with glee. They never should have chosen him oppose to making an original villain to avoid that very problem. Even then the absurd lack of consequences has to be dealt with.

His name is there to be name dropped, "HEY LOOK THIS IS STAR TREK BECAUSE NAME YOU KNOW"!!!. Khan had the exact same issue in the movie. They dropped him in with absolutely no idea what to do with him or understood why he worked in The Wrath of Khan or simply making a good movie.

I really don't mind war or a little bit more of a realistic bent like DS9 did or a dramatic comedy like the Orville dick jokes and everything. It has to be well made show which STD fails in spades.

The episode was a massive mess and lost opportunity. If this was ground hog day it would be following Andie MacDowell's character who sometimes gets hit on instead of following Bill Murry story where all the interesting things are happening.

Stamets 100% should have been the central character for that episode. But for whatever reason they when with Michaels while shoe horning in some contrived random character "Development" that could have been done later. The secret wasn't even secret or something worth while like some evil she did in the past that Stamets now holds as a potential plot thread. It was a cheap mystery box with a nothing burger.

SG1 nailed it with it's time loop episode by following O'Neill. He flips out, takes breaks, uses the Stargate as a driving range makes, out with Samantha.

[Plugabugz]

SG1 nailed it with it's time loop episode by following O'Neill. He flips out, takes breaks, uses the Stargate as a driving range makes, out with Samantha.

That episode, coincidentally, is written by the same person who did the one in Dark Matter i was talking about.

[Plugabugz]

Lucifer - ā€œSince Iā€™m not going to be penetrating you, I thought Iā€™d commemorate the one time you penetrated meā€. Said completely straight faced, a smile, and with not one hint of irony. I love how ridiculous this show is.

[ThePerm]

I finished Dark Matter. Too bad it ends on a cliff hanger. I'm on  Season 2 episode 11 of Enterprise now.

[oohhboy]

STD Episode 8: Are we there yet?

A boring but no less stupid episode.

Joke(?) about keeping the war going so you can continue getting laid, to the most humourless person who is most likely to take it literally.

Yes, a giant crystal tower that goes high enough to disappear into the clouds is a "Natural" structure when it is obviously built by some sort of intelligent beings yet they are surprised to run into said beings. Good job Michaels, you couldn't do one of the few things you are specialised in.

Michaels continues not to do the thing that is part of her job by letting Saru to do the heavy lifting of communicating with the beings. She literally sits on her ass spewing regulations and making out with Ash.

The reason that they are even there is to use the tower as a "Sonar" to detect the Klingon ships who now have installed on every ship. Calling it a RADAR would have sounded a lot less stupid as everyone know stealth aircraft is a thing. Whatever.

Saru flips out from his communications with the natives on his own accord because they gave him some peace from his own biological imperative of constant fear. So they gave him a sort of drug equivalent. He claims to speak for them, crushes all the communicators and attacks Michaels and Ash. Michaels then uses her "Logic" regarding an earlier statement that the natives are allowing them to do what they please so she sets off for the tower.

She leaves Ash to distract Saru which lasts all of 5 seconds. Saru fights Michaels at the tower who keeps screaming about harmony the whole way through. She stuns him with her phaser at which point the natives finally intervene by teleporting Ash and telling Saru whatever the hell he was doing wasn't harmony.

Brunt face Klingon wants to defect because she has lost everything including her lover who I assume was boytoy. She gets the admiral to scream in what should have been an interrogation but is a cover for her to drive the guards off so she can ask the admiral to defect.

I assume there was listening devices in the cell or she chose the worse way to defect she pretty much instantly screws it up as she walks the admiral down corridors with out even tying her up. When guards challenge her the admiral pulls the knife because??? They fight and I assume L'Rell killed her but the camera keeps going back to the admiral in a very heavy handed hint she is still alive even after she was told that at least she wouldn't die in a cage.

She drags Cornwall into her room?? where there are a bunch of dead Klingon she cares about who looked like they were murdered a minute before. She then goes to Kol who probably put them to death to swear loyalty. Kol puts on a little show before he revels her very obvious and most stupid plan to defect. She gets dragged away looking surprised.

The natives call both the Discovery and the corpse ship to the planet ending in a cliffhanger. Unless they somehow force or negotiate peace the planet is going to get glassed. Since this is STD they are so going to die.

Hmm I think I have seen an episode somewhere where some powerful aliens broker peace in the middle of a hot war....

[ShyGuy]

I finished Dark Matter. Too bad it ends on a cliff hanger. I'm on  Season 2 episode 11 of Enterprise now.

That is why I never got into Dark Matter :/

[broodwars]

I finished Dark Matter. Too bad it ends on a cliff hanger. I'm on  Season 2 episode 11 of Enterprise now.

On the upside, Enterprise has quite a decent finale*.


*Note: Like many Enterprise fans, I consider the final episode of the series to be Terra Prime. There are no shitty TNG Holodeck fanfics afterwards.

[Khushrenada]

Enterprise was cut down just as it was turning into something really good and that's something even worse than the actual finale. I was reading about the plans for Season 5 on Wikipedia a few months back and knowing about the plans for a Romulan War is just further salt on the wound. And Shran was going to be promoted to a regular. I'd have loved to see him hanging around with the crew fulltime. Just a rotten shame that the writers took so long to figure out how to make the setting work in order to start getting better scripts and ideas.

It's something I was ready for in Season 2 when they encounter the Romulans for the first time. But no, the writers wanted to focus on Klingons instead and talk about the Temporal Cold War for which they had no plan. The Temporal Cold War is a thing that sounds very cool and it definitely was an early factor in getting me hooked into Enterprise when it first premiered as a regular viewer. Yet, despite the early intrigue and mystery, it soon devolved into confusing nonsense and ended in a very different manner than I ever expected. Writers should have learned their lesson from DS9 and how things didn't work out to well with the Prophets and Emissary storyline with no real endgame or conclusion in mind. Once the writers realized they didn't like or care where the Temporal Cold War was going and finally just jettisoned that plot point, the series really did take off. But how much faster and better could it have been if they decided early on that the focus of the series would be the creation of the Federation and war with the Romulans? If they'd been building to that a lot sooner than more people may have stuck around with Enterprise as it went through its growing pains.

[NWR_insanolord]

I think the Enterprise writers were working under the assumption that the show was going to run longer than it did and were saving the Romulan War for the later stages. TNG, DS9, and Voyager all went 7 seasons, and it seems like they were expecting Enterprise to do the same and slowly building to the real meat of it.

[BlackNMild2k1]

Lucifer - ā€œSince Iā€™m not going to be penetrating you, I thought Iā€™d commemorate the one time you penetrated meā€. Said completely straight faced, a smile, and with not one hint of irony. I love how ridiculous this show is.

i LOL'd at that scene too

[Plugabugz]

This week's episode of Lucifer was fantastic. This show continues to prove why its the best DC property on TV by miles. The gag with the edible sex toys had me in hysterics.

The final scene when you realise that Reese is in his own personal hell, he's put himself there and, according to Lucifer, the "door is unlocked" is just a gut-punch.

I do enjoy Supergirl's heavy focus on "the female experience", and how this season the music and tone feels a lot more solemn and relaxed. I just wish it would mine more of this interesting direction away from relationships, but i'll continue to blame CW for that.

[ThePerm]

I still haven't seen Star Trek Discovery, but I don't think it bodes well that its abbreviation would be STD.

I'm on Season 3 of Enterprise. I'm not liking this third season Xindi arc. I just prefer the crew just randomly finding civilizations. I don't care for the temporal war thing either. Also, the sudden change of personality with the crew. I wonder how much 9/11 and the Iraq war influenced these seasons because they were at the same time.

[broodwars]

I still haven't seen Star Trek Discovery, but I don't think it bodes well that its abbreviation would be STD.

I'm on Season 3 of Enterprise. I'm not liking this third season Xindi arc. I just prefer the crew just randomly finding civilizations. I don't care for the temporal war thing either. Also, the sudden change of personality with the crew. I wonder how much 9/11 and the Iraq war influenced these seasons because they were at the same time.

The Xindi Arc goes to some rather bold places towards the end. Just stick with it

[BranDonk Kong]

3 episodes into The Punisher and so far I'd put it up there with Daredevil. There are still 10 to go, but so far it's been pretty incredible.

[BlackNMild2k1]

Just finished the 1st episode of The Punisher.


(edit: just finished ep3.... see below)

damn... this gonna be good ain't it!?

[oohhboy]

Orville Episode 10

Alaria continues to be my favourite character as she kicks 12 kinds of ass day in, day out. I had the biggest **** eating grin when the not-Ripley Aliens theme kicked in.

The jokes are getting better regardless of whether you have a fondness for dick joke equivalents or not.

STD Episode 9: Why would you show us that?

STD gets passed on when we see boytoy(Ash) get raped with detailed Klingon tits. This is the one and gross thing I have seen in Star Trek that I never want to see again. No Ash getting raped but naked STD style Klingon, fucking gross.

Other news: Michaels continues to be a self entitled bitch magic contractually obligated central character. Please fucking kill her.

[Shorty McNostril]

Hang on what?

There's nudity in Discovery now?  Not only swearing, but nudity?  What on earth are they doing?

[oohhboy]

Hang on what?

There's nudity in Discovery now?  Not only swearing, but nudity?  What on earth are they doing?

Its not full frontal Klingon nasties but nipples are there. Neither Kirk or Riker would never, ever tap that.

STD Klingon are already the most comicality over the top monstrous looking alien seen in Trek topped off with 110% the only good Klingon is a dead Klingon.

I was shitting myself with laughter when Michaels calls out Kol's Klingon "Honour" like it's a thing in STD. The same Michaels who after nearly a decade of living in a normal(non-Vulcan) social environment whose speciality is the study of alien culture who didn't even take a couple of days to study human culture out of a book so to fit in better while crying about not/being human invokes Klingon honour.

[Khushrenada]

Not to distract from the clearly important topic of Klingon breasts and whether or not they are being flashed with STD but I was just going to chime in on my current quick takes of the old CW superhero shows.

After taking a break from them all for about a year and a half since they seemed to be sagging in quality a bit, I happened to be at the library and saw they had last years seasons on DVD available so I've started doing some catch-up on them. I was particularly interested in Arrow because I thought I saw a lot of high marks for its episodes as they were reviewed last year on a few sites so it kept my interest in wanting to check out Season 5 eventually and knowing they added Slade/Deathstroke back into the show again near the end had me further intrigued. Plus, I knew the villain was Prometheus who's supposed to be sort a Batman of crime in being highly intelligent and able to take on any threat with all kinds of back-up plans and scenarios. A sort of Moriarty I suppose even though I can't recall ever reading too many comic stories with him in them.

Anyways, before I delve into Arrow, let's talk about the others. At this point, I've watched up to the Invasion crossover episodes of the other three series.

Supergirl - Winner of best improved series has to be this show. When I walked away from these superhero shows, Supergirl was the worst of the bunch full of weird tonal issues, bleh romantic drama of Jimmy, Lucy and Kara, overpreachy lessons from Cat Grant and all manner of odd choices like not showing Superman's face to weird aerial fights. When Season 1 ended, it was at the bottom of my list for the Arrowverse shows and it was frustrating to watch because it had some elements that could have made for a much better show. The best episode for me was The Flash crossover episode. The characterization of a bubbly, excited Kara able to geek out with another superhero and not be so angsty about public perceptions of her or her place in National City was the direction I felt should be taken with her. Even the supporting cast worked well in that episode and it had me envisioning a future direction for the show in which it went in a bit of a Star Trek direction dealing with aliens more or sci-fi anomalies / ideas and technobabble with a happier Kara excited by these new phenomena.

Now that's not exactly the way the show has gone but credit to whoever looked at this show in order to figure out how to fix it from the state it was in Season 1 because Season 2 has been a blast so far. Bringing Superman/Clark into the show at the start of the season was awesome and I'm glad they got over whatever reason was holding him back from being shown in Season 1. It brought back the Kara I saw in The Flash crossover episode and it seems to have stuck as the season continues. That doesn't mean she has to be happy all the time or that things have been drama free on her end but she's definitely less mopey, a bit more mature and a bit more positive and I think that's the right spirit for a Superman or Supergirl show.

Yes, in some ways, the show has moved even closer to an almost genderswapped Superman show with classic Superman villains now appearing in Supergirl like Metallo and Parasite and Kara is now trying to learn to be a reporter but it's not like we are going to see a Superman show on TV any time soon so might as well let Supergirl incorporate those elements and use them. As a Superman fan, I'm still happy to see these elements being used. I particularly liked the take on Parasite that was presented so if this show can start to equal Superman:TAS then it is definitely doing something right.

Of course, there is the awkward phase at the start of the season where things have to be readjusted from the end of last season to explain away changes by crew or set direction. After the whole Jimmy Olsen romance sub-plot that went on so long from last year, it feels out of character to immediately have Kara decide that dating Jimmy isn't what she wants so that she's back to be single again this year. Cat Grant decides to leave the company to "dive in" to something else. What that something is doesn't get mentioned but Cat's doing it and we say goodbye to her with possibility of guest appearances. I'm okay with it though since Cat Grant was a big part of Season 1's awkwardness and I think the show is proving to be stronger without her. Moving Wynn out of Cat Grant and into DEO is a better fit for that character. Kara no longer being a struggling secretary is refreshing change of pace. I did like when Lucy Lane ended up in charge of the DEO near the end of last season and working towards friendship with Kara. However, to have her just gone completely makes me wonder just what the point was in featuring her so much in Season 1. Same goes for Maxwell Lord. Maxwell was being treated as a substitute Lex Luthor anyways and by bringing in the Luthor family for Season 2, it goes to show it's better to have the real thing even if Lex himself isn't popping up. It just seems strange to have no mention of Maxwell or Lucy after all their time in Season 1.

The Alex/Maggie subplot is the only thing I've felt that's been dragging a bit this season but I've seen worse relationship dramas in superhero shows and, other than that, now that the cast and crew have made their adjustments and tweaks to this season and have started to find their groove, everything else is starting to gel a lot better. The secondary characters being introduced and added to this season are all working out a lot better that Season 1's and episodes have been more exciting to watch. I'm just surprised at how pumped I am to be watching this show and want to keep watching it. Great job, people!

[Khushrenada]

Legends of Tomorrow - Maybe the absence of these superhero shows has made me fonder of them as I return to them than if I'd stuck with watching them as they aired last year but, like Supergirl, LoT also seems to have improved a bit from last year. Of course, I thought it was a show that got better as it went along and it actually had some explanations for some of the actions and events in earlier episodes that were questionable so that by the end of Season 1, it was a show that was mildly good but hamstrung with boneheaded character decisions. Losing one of the best characters of the show in Captain Cold wasn't exactly a positive to make me want to continue with Season 2 along with the nonsensical time travel rules the show seems to have. However, Season 1 did end with tossing out Vandal Savage and the Hawks storyline and the effect of jettisoning those characters has clearly been a big part of Season 2 being an improvement over Season 1. The additions of Vixen and Steel haven't added much to the show for me but at least they aren't dragging it down like the Hawks were. The mystery of what happened to Rip Hunter has been lowkey which I'm fine with since his absence hasn't really bothered me. A lot of his storyline was tied up in the Vandal Savage storyline anyways so with those elements gone, his presence doesn't seem to be necessary.

It hit me early on, particularly with the Shogun episode, that this show is just about having adventures through time. It just gives the chance for the actors to play dress-up and ham things up a bit in different eras and cultures of history and the whole patrolling time thing isn't actually being taken that serious. For instance, in the Shogun episode, the characters kill a bunch of samurai and a Shogun. Shouldn't all those deaths and seemingly blatent violations of time travel had a ripple effect throughout history? Apparently not as Gideon doesn't bring up any changes to the timeline caused by the excursion and no one else questions their actions. It was at this point that I realized the history of Legends of Tomorrow isn't our actual history but the history of this fictional Arrowverse world which free to be manipulated however these characters want since it has no major consequences to time or history. It's just big, dumb, colorful fun of fighting Nazis in WW2 or poking fun at 80's fashions and attitudes or indulging in cowboy fantasies in the Wild West all while Mick growls and grumbles his way through each adventure. And I'm alright with that.

Sure, I'd like to see better care taken with time travel since they talk it up as their important mission to preserve the timeline but at least it is succeeding as far as the whole superhero team-up premise of the show is concerned. By jumping around to different time periods, the show always seems to have a lot of material to work with and episodes fly by with all kinds of whiz-bang action and silly humour. Frankly, I think it might be Blake Neely's favorite show since the music seems to be a lot more varied and appealing compared to the other three he's also scoring. Or at least, I've been noticing the different musical scores and themes he's been composing for this show as it tries to invoke these different eras and classic types of scores and sounds to evoke them.

There is a scene in the Wild West episode before the Invasion crossover where Jackson and Heywood want to infiltrate a mining operation after learning it's an important part of the villain's scheme that episode. Ray Palmer interjects that they could do the responsible thing instead and just return to the ship to tell the rest of the team what they've learned. Jackson looks at him incredulously and asks "Are you kidding me?" disappointed that Ray would ruin this chance to let them further pursue this opportunity to be old west gunslingers. They look at each other a bit stonefaced in silence and then Ray breaks out a big smile and says something like "Yeah, let's giddy-up and check out that mine!" and then they all laugh and backslap each other. That about sums up Legends of Tomorrow. Sure, the characters could act smarter and maybe know they should and the show could try to take more care with how time travel and manipulating the past works but, eh screw it, let just get into a gun battle and a bunch of explosions instead. It keeps the series at a B level yet at least the crew seems to know it's a B series and are happy to let the show revel in its silliness.

Not as good as Supergirl S02 or Arrow S05 so far but better than the season 1 it had last year and The Flash S03. I'm also more willing and ready to keep watching the rest of this season and this show than when I left it at the end of Season 1 so good on it for being able to fix itself up a bit from when I last left it.

[NWR_insanolord]

Hang on what?

There's nudity in Discovery now?  Not only swearing, but nudity?  What on earth are they doing?

Its not full frontal Klingon nasties but nipples are there. Neither Kirk or Riker would never, ever tap that.

STD Klingon are already the most comicality over the top monstrous looking alien seen in Trek topped off with 110% the only good Klingon is a dead Klingon.

I was shitting myself with laughter when Michaels calls out Kol's Klingon "Honour" like it's a thing in STD. The same Michaels who after nearly a decade of living in a normal(non-Vulcan) social environment whose speciality is the study of alien culture who didn't even take a couple of days to study human culture out of a book so to fit in better while crying about not/being human invokes Klingon honour.

The thing about Klingon honor in this or any other Star Trek is that it only ever really exists in the minds of people who study Klingon culture from afar. Virtually nobody who's actually a part of Klingon society treats it with more than lip service. There are exceptions here or there with a big one being Martok in Deep Space 9, but even there he's portrayed as something of an outlier, apart from normal Klingon circles until he's forced into a larger role, or more accurately dragged into it by Worf, the ultimate example of someone who studied Klingon culture from afar.

As for Burnham, it seems pretty clear from the show that her not assimilating into human culture was a conscious choice on her part, not a lack of ability or perception. Also, fixating on Klingon traits makes sense given her history with them.