ysbreker

Movie/TV recommendations

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I'm not going to click on that spoiler until I've finished S2! Yeah, it still has enough good stuff going on that I can enjoy, I just feel like it's still finding its feet (maybe I'll disagree with JKO and find it massively improves in later seasons!).

 

Anyway, I happened to stick my head into the Thumbs Discord yesterday right when someone was slagging me off for shitting on everything all the time. So in the interest of balance, here are some shows I am watching and enjoying:

 

Two that have been discussed already are Bojack Horseman and Parks & Rec. The former is so dense with different modes of humour but also brings the pathos, the latter is very broad but lovable and feel-good (at least once it suddenly improves a ton towards the end of S2).

 

Two that haven't are Frankie And Grace and Love. The former is a comedy drama with an amazing older cast (Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin, Martin Sheen and Sam Waterson, plus a strong supporting cast and some great recurrings like Ernie Hudson, Sam Elliot, Craig T Nelson). It doesn't have a lot of bite, but it's a cosy watch. The latter is a Judd Apatow production and basically feels like the second act of one of his movies carrying on indefinitely (which Bojack would tell you is what his second acts feel like anyway). It's more of a Funny People/This Is 40 vibe than a Knocked Up one; that is to say, it's not so much gregarious and laugh-out-loud funny,  more well-observed character stuff.

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Regarding Parks & Rec; I've obviously heard tons of great stuff about it, but when I actually tried to watch it I bounced off immediately. This isn't the first time someone has mentioned that it gets better - is there a better jumping on point than the very beginning? Will I miss anything important?

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Yeah, watch the last four or so episodes of season 2 and continue from there (the start of Season 3 has a sum-up of the previous two seasons to fill in the gaps, but I don't think there's anything you wouldn't have figured out already and certainly nothing important). I asked the same question as you elsewhere when I was bouncing off season 1, and that was the overwhelming consensus.

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Yes, the show gets much better at some point in season 2. You will probably not miss too much if you skip the rest of season 1, since you already know the "key players". Then again, it has been a long time since I watched the show, so maybe someone else has better advice. 

 

Edit: what Ben X said.

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When I tell people to watch Parks and Rec I usually suggest skipping season 1 entirely. It still doesn't hit it's stride until part way through the season but that's true of most shows, and telling people to start at the beginning of a season feels like an easier sell that an arbitrary episode in the middle.

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Yeah, there's basically no reason to watch Season 1 of Parks and Rec. Early Season 2 is still pretty bad, but they're clearly righting the ship. I'd suggest starting with season 3, and if you like it, going back to season 2, tolerating the bad episodes, and enjoying the build-up to the events that kick off season 3.

 

One of the advantages to the disastrous Season 1 was that they established that the show's premise evolves. One of the show's iconic sequences, the ice rink campaign launch, isn't even remotely compatible with the premise of the show established in season 1.

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When did they fuck up the opening credits, by the way? Can it be that the show gets good when the timing of the opening theme gets bad?

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You seemed to think that happened in season 2 when you posted about it in the Crazy Ex Girlfriend thread. I didn't notice the change, but that's probably because I skip the titles every time because of the nauseatingly chipper theme tune.

 

Anyway, turns out I am enjoying Ash Vs Evil Dead season 2 more! It has a lot of the same problems, but the

 

morgue and possessed car

sections were fantastic. Hilarious, gruesome and inventive. This is what it's been missing! (Now if it could just chill out on the lore and the ham-fisted character arcs...)

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Nice! :tup:

 

I think S2 has some awesome setpieces but it falls way too hard into its own lore butt..

 

Look forward to hearing what you think of the season by the end. Maybe I’m misremembering S1.. weren’t there any fun, gross, inventive setpieces in it?

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Here's an interesting interview with the (now former) showrunner to read regarding season 2. Full of finale spoilers. https://tv.avclub.com/updated-craig-digregorio-on-leaving-ash-vs-evil-dead-1798255766

 

Regarding the end of S2:

I thought the ending was bad and in hindsight the rewritten nature of it is pretty obvious...it's been a while now but I remember a lot of things just coming out of nowhere and making very little sense. But that being said, I think the "original" ending mentioned in that interview would have been worse. Ash becoming Kelly's dad is an absurd plot twist and a lazy way to advance their relationship which is interesting enough as it is.



 

I haven't watched any of it yet but S3 seems to be received well enough so far, so the loss of that guy doesn't seem to have hurt things anyway.

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Thank you for the link and spoiler warning/tags, I'll check it all out when I'm done with the season!

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A quiet place is a fraud, there were sounds! It’s good though

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On 9/4/2018 at 2:14 PM, Ben X said:

Nothing to match those, I'd say...

 

Yeah, just looking at some of the highlights of S1, the only one that stuck out in my mind was the diner showdown. I might not be watching this very critically, it's such an easy show to just devour and have fun with because of the half-hour format. There's already one magnificent fluid-related setpiece in the new season that feels like a sequel to the Morgue.

 

That is a great interview. What a bummer that it seems like DiGregorio had to fight the producer just to get the morgue stuff in, for example. It's a bummer the lasting impression of S2 was the final episode.. It seems like that soured what was otherwise a really fun season in my head.

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You guys are sick and need help, Season 1 of Parks and Rec is still very good.

 

Love is awful, I hate watched the first season.

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I disagree with Love being awful. It’s not super great, but I like it.

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On 11/04/2018 at 10:28 PM, Erkki said:

I disagree with Love being awful. It’s not super great, but I like it.

 

I guess because the main character reminds me of Woody Allen, and seemed to be doing the Woody Allen shctick it made it really hard to watch. Further to that, they were both horrible people and it only seemed to properly acknowledge that she was terrible. Then the rest seemed to be trying to extract comedy out of events that made me want to see everyone involved buried.

 

Sorry, I don't think I have had such a immediate and intense dislike of a show since someone tried to get me into that Eliza Dushku thing with the brothel(?).

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Dollhouse? That ended up amazing but the first few episodes were dreadful.

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I've watched a fair amount of ambient Love while in the room as my partner watched it and I didn't get a "Woody Allen schtick" from Paul Rust at all. Like, he has glasses and is neurotic, but it felt like a way different kind of character from what Allen would usually play. Allen's characters are usually defined by their misery and unwillingness to compromise whereas Rust just felt a little socially awkward and insecure AKA half of all comedy protagonists.

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Clive Owen! 44mins in an Valerian gets better and better. This film is so gooooodd. After watching Mute early which is 80% dog shit

 

this is my home alone movie bit with drinky poos 💩

 

Valerian so far has been this best thing I’ve seen this year. So confident. Expert work

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1:19 Ethan Hawk :) I think I’m in love with cara delavene, and woodswhatever reserve, makes good old fashions 

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I also didn't get a Woody Allen vibe.

 

Quote

Further to that, they were both horrible people and it only seemed to properly acknowledge that she was terrible. Then the rest seemed to be trying to extract comedy out of events that made me want to see everyone involved buried.

 

I don't think they were that horrible people. They had flaws. Maybe even really off-putting flaws. Maybe the early first season focused too much on their flaws, in fact. I know I found Mickey to be really annoying the first two episodes.

 

I think it was acknowledged that Gus was also very flawed. I mean, I don't even know how you would write him to be that flawed without acknowledging it. How would you even go about being more explicit about it? Whatever it is, it's not what I'm looking for in movies and TV.

 

(side note: I may have brought out some similar criticism to not acknowledging the rottenness of characters towards Three Billboards, but I think there's a difference of nuance. My argument there was that first they let bigotry be seen as the normal and then they made the bigots get away with things and the victims pay. And then they washed clean the biggest bigot, making him turn into a semi-hero. It's not about not acknowledging)

 

I think a better show with flawed people trying to have a relationship is You're the Worst, though.

 

[edit] That Carlito's Way title song though - awful shite.

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