The really great TV thread

[F308GTB]

Season 2 of The Americans starts tonight on FX. Loved the first season.

[RallyMonkey]

Season 2 of The Americans starts tonight on FX. Loved the first season.

Amen. Can't wait.

On another note, anyone watching Hannibal (too lazy to go back and read)? If so, how is it? It's on Amazon Prime and debating on watching it, but if I do I want to DVR season 2 so I can roll right into it when I'm done and it starts this week.

[Aristo]

Season 2 of The Americans starts tonight on FX. Loved the first season.

Amen. Can't wait.

On another note, anyone watching Hannibal (too lazy to go back and read)? If so, how is it? It's on Amazon Prime and debating on watching it, but if I do I want to DVR season 2 so I can roll right into it when I'm done and it starts this week.

I wrote about it. It was probably my favorite new series last year. I think it is fantastic and just started watching the first season again to get ready for season 2.

This is such a great take on the Hannibal story. Will Graham, the profiler that originally caught hannibal, before jodie foster ever got involved, is a forensic profiler with some serious issues related to extreme empathy. the empathy makes him a fantastic profiler, but damages his psyche. The series opens up with him teaching at the FBI when Laurence Fishbourne's character recruits him to help on a case. Because of his issues, Will is required to see a psychiatrist while working the case. That psychiatrist is Hannibal. So the first season is Will and Hannibal working together.

Gillian Anderson becomes a recurring character eventually, and is fantastic in the same way that she was in The Fall.

The writing and acting are both just top notch.

And of course, there is gruesome murders and many a meal served by our favorite cannibal. In fact, each episode is named after an element of French cuisine.

[Aristo]

If you don't want to catch up through Amazon Prime, or just don't want to take the time, this is a good recap of where we are now in the story.

It is spoilers galore, obviously.

[Brando70]

I love True Detective, too. I am completely sucked in during each episode. The editing between past and present storylines has been especially brilliant.

McConaughey is brilliant. His days as a chick-flick beefcake are long gone. No TV character has compelled me this much since Don Draper in the first season of "Mad Men."

The script which feeds him great lines has a lot to do with how his character and the show is being received.

I think his performance really pulls off those lines, though. It would be very easy for a lesser actor to screw up those monologues.

To me, the show works because the two leads are really good, the setting and story are fascinating, and there is a lot of unreliability in the narrative, which increases interest in how we're being mislead. The only downside I've seen has been the two women Harrelson's character has affairs with. Their attraction to him wasn't interesting and also didn't really make a lot of sense.

[Inuyasha]

the cheating is because the guy is just a cheater. he finds it as stress relief. I think the character mentioned that in a previous episode.

too bad 2 more episodes left. I guess next season it'll be different actors and a different story.

[wco81]

Before Silence of the Lambs, there was Manhunter, directed by Michael Mann, with William Peterson as Will Graham. Hannibal Lecter was played by a lesser actor than Anthony Hopkins but the movie made up for it by being more atmospheric.

I never saw the Hannibal movie and I dismissed this TV show but some people compare it favorably to True Detectives so may be worth checking out.

[RobVarak]

I dismissed this TV show but some people compare it favorably to True Detectives so may be worth checking out.

I did the same, but I'm definitely going to get caught up. More than enough positive buzz out there about it.

[Brando70]

the cheating is because the guy is just a cheater. he finds it as stress relief. I think the character mentioned that in a previous episode.

too bad 2 more episodes left. I guess next season it'll be different actors and a different story.

I meant those two female characters being attracted to Harrelson's -- his cheating makes sense It's just a minor quibble, but it would have been more realistic if Martin's affairs with her women more likely to be attracted to a police detective with the personality of a pre-ritualistic bundle of sticks.

[Danimal]

So my DTV didn't catch the tail end of The American's last night. Did anything else happen after he left the house to set up a meet and she was locking down everything?

[wco81]

So my DTV didn't catch the tail end of The American's last night. Did anything else happen after he left the house to set up a meet and she was locking down everything?

I don't believe so.

Felt kind of an abrupt ending.

Then they showed previews for the season. In one, Claudia asks them to help find the killers of the other couple.

[Aristo]

I've been busy, upgraded to a new DVR that lost some recording, and host of other stuff, so I had not gotten to the new season of Hannibal until tonight.

Simply, they took an awesome first season and cranked it up a notch. It's smart, it still plays with all of the Hannibal motifs we love, but they have really increased the tension. I'm hesitant to talk much about it, as this season is a pretty huge spoiler from last season, and I'm hoping many more folks will dive into this on Amazon and get caught up.

I will say that the scene that ended the first episode was so nightmarish that my wife wanted to watch another episode so that it would not be stuck in her head. And while that worked, we were not fully prepared for how much more nightmarish that scene would become when it opened the second episode. There is some serious gore and nastiness in this first case.

This is such a fun take on the Hannibal story, and we often stop and rewatch scenes because there is so much going on. The show benefits from having so many psychiatrists and psychologists in important roles. There are just layers and layers of mind games. And poor Jack Crawford (Laurence Fishbourne) is stuck in the middle trying to make sense of it all.

[JackB1]

***SPOILER ALERT IF U HAVEN'T WATCHED THE FINALE YET OF TRUE DETECTIVE***

So what did everyone think of the finale last night? I am kind of mixed on it....I liked it but I
felt it was too "simple" for this show. The way they quickly located the scar guy's house and
then the way they went after him? It just seemed too predictable and they didn't add anything
that surprised you? I was definitely looking for some big surprises in the ending and they never
came. Also, what about the whole cult thing? They just focused the ending on this one guy
and there were countless others involved in this whole thing. I felt like they should have made
the last episode 2 hours and went into more depth on the entire thing.

What did u guys think?

[Brando70]

The True Detective ending was creepy but at first reminded me of Seven, where it felt like a random guy was dropped into this story. However, the post-fight epilogue tied it all together really well. McConaughey's monologue at the very end was delivered so perfectly, and I think that brought the show back around to it being about the relationship of these two men solving a crime, rather than being about the crime itself.

It pulled me in a lot like the first season of Homeland. What started out as an interesting premise became even better because the main characters were so well played.

[wco81]

Pizzolotto was quoted as saying the story is about the two detectives, not so much a mystery. The finale was kind of anticlimactic in the sense of resolving the case.

They could have shown the guy more in previous episodes but seems like the exposition was more geared towards how Marty's and Rust's lives changed. Some people think he's some simple hillbilly and feel let down that it took almost 20 years for them to finally get this guy.

But when he changed his accent, it may have been simple mimicry of some movie he saw but I got the sense that it was suppose to show there was more to him than it appeared -- obviously he was a serial murderer beneath that bayou laborer surface.

The final confrontation where he almost takes both detectives out seems to suggest he's definitely more savvy, though it could have been about a Hollywood ending.

[Pete1210]

I watched the first episode of Cosmos last night. I remember watching the original PBS series and was always fascinated by "what's out there?" The new narrator told a neat story of how at 17 years old he met and was inspired by Carl Sagan.

Last night gave a quick overview of how little we are in time and space. The planet and galaxy images are awesome. The animated historical stuff was not great, but did portray an interesting story of a guy I never heard of before Galileo.

I did a double take when I saw Seth MacFarland listed as a producer. Today I read that he was a big fan of the original.

Episode One is being shown again tonight on the National Geographic channel.

[Inuyasha]

***SPOILER ALERT IF U HAVEN'T WATCHED THE FINALE YET OF TRUE DETECTIVE***

So what did everyone think of the finale last night? I am kind of mixed on it....I liked it but I
felt it was too "simple" for this show. The way they quickly located the scar guy's house and
then the way they went after him? It just seemed too predictable and they didn't add anything
that surprised you? I was definitely looking for some big surprises in the ending and they never
came. Also, what about the whole cult thing? They just focused the ending on this one guy
and there were countless others involved in this whole thing. I felt like they should have made
the last episode 2 hours and went into more depth on the entire thing.

What did u guys think?

I was a bit letdown. The whole ending was like a typical 90s action movie. I was surprised the 'Im getting too old for this' or 'damn, I was just a few days away from retirement' lines weren't used.

spoiler :
The show was ballsy all season until the finale. It would have been more in line if Russ died at the end. That would have been the prefect ending.

[JackB1]

Pizzolotto was quoted as saying the story is about the two detectives, not so much a mystery. The finale was kind of anticlimactic in the sense of resolving the case.

They could have shown the guy more in previous episodes but seems like the exposition was more geared towards how Marty's and Rust's lives changed. Some people think he's some simple hillbilly and feel let down that it took almost 20 years for them to finally get this guy.

But when he changed his accent, it may have been simple mimicry of some movie he saw but I got the sense that it was suppose to show there was more to him than it appeared -- obviously he was a serial murderer beneath that bayou laborer surface.

The final confrontation where he almost takes both detectives out seems to suggest he's definitely more savvy, though it could have been about a Hollywood ending.

Correct that the show was about these 2 men's lives and relationships and life struggles and not so much about the actual crime.

I just think if they made the final episode 2 hours, they could have went into more detail about the whole cult and everyone involved including the cops and others involved in covering things up.

[Danimal]

I liked the True Detective series as a whole, ending was fine with me.

Walking Dead has been good for me this season, I know a lot of people hate it but I like the show although like all A&E shows the seasons are way too short.

I gave Resurrection a shot last night, mainly because I can't seem to get the Sundance show they ripped it off from. It was pretty good for a first episode.

[Brando70]

Resurrection is not based on the French program The Returned, but on a novel called the The Returned which, while conceptually similar, was written independently of the French TV show. It's a case study that there are no original ideas left.

Speaking of which, I have started watching The Returned. It's unsettling. Not scary, but there's a matter-of-fact presentation that makes the extraordinary circumstances a little more chilling. The acting is particularly good.

[Danimal]

Resurrection is not based on the French program The Returned, but on a novel called the The Returned which, while conceptually similar, was written independently of the French TV show. It's a case study that there are no original ideas left.

Speaking of which, I have started watching The Returned. It's unsettling. Not scary, but there's a matter-of-fact presentation that makes the extraordinary circumstances a little more chilling. The acting is particularly good.

I didn't know that thanks. I've tried to find The Returned but it is no where for free and I'm not paying for a TV show on iTunes or something like that. I also liked Believe last night but it's fairly easy to make a good pilot episode these days. These shows will depend on how episode 4 & 5 are. There are so many new shows coming on it is impossible to keep track.

[Brando70]

Totally agree on the pilot comment. Terra Nova is one of the worst violators I can think of in recent memory where the pilot hooked me but the next few episodes were just awful. There was also the ABC show about the nuclear submarine that had a great pilot and then went off the rails quickly.

Speaking of pilots, I watched "Review" on Comedy Central. Really odd but original idea for a half-hour comedy, where Andy Daly plays a character who reviews different life experiences. He has a good John Hodgman intellectual doofus approach that works for the character. The show was uneven, but the middle segment where he reviews becoming an addict, and that later comes up again when he reviews going to prom, was pretty funny.

[Brando70]

While technically not a TV show, the new "Veronica Mars" movie is essentially an extended episode with more swearing. Which is a good thing. It's a lot like "Serenity" in that it throws in plenty of inside jokes and cameos for fans. If you liked the show, I think you'll enjoy it.

[Aristo]

Totally agree on the pilot comment. Terra Nova is one of the worst violators I can think of in recent memory where the pilot hooked me but the next few episodes were just awful. There was also the ABC show about the nuclear submarine that had a great pilot and then went off the rails quickly.

I watched the whole season of Terra Nova, and I thought it was a fun sci-fi show with dinosaurs. While I wasn't crushed when it was canceled, I have to admit that the cliffhanger they ended on really made me want to see more. As for the submarine show (don't remember the name either), we bailed on the pilot.

[vader29]

Last Resort was the sub show on ABC. I thought it was ok, when it got cancelled they tried to wrap everything up in the last episode and did a terrible job of it.