Telly thread

[Nexus]

Fixed it, apologies. 

[ReturnOfTheMack]

It's just nice that I'm not the only one daft enough to do that. 😉

[BomberPat]

finished season 2 of Good Omens last night.

Thank God for Tennant and Sheen, because it didn't have much else going for it. The plot was paper-thin, the supporting cast mostly lacked any of the charm of the first series, and I wasn't feeling Jon Hamm playing the Angel Gabriel as Dougie Jones from Twin Peaks: The Return at all. It felt like what it was - a bridge to get to the more substantial story planned for series 3 - and like some particularly ill-plotted fanfiction. 

[Jesse]

5 minutes ago, BomberPat said:

finished season 2 of Good Omens last night.

Thank God for Tennant and Sheen, because it didn't have much else going for it. The plot was paper-thin, the supporting cast mostly lacked any of the charm of the first series, and I wasn't feeling Jon Hamm playing the Angel Gabriel as Dougie Jones from Twin Peaks: The Return at all. It felt like what it was - a bridge to get to the more substantial story planned for series 3 - and like some particularly ill-plotted fanfiction. 

It's hit the real classic of the genre of a 15,000 word Tumblr post explaining why it was actually written bad on purpose and it'll all be a big reveal in Season 3. One step removed from the secret Sherlock episode that was definitely airing.

[BomberPat]

30 minutes ago, Jesse said:

It's hit the real classic of the genre of a 15,000 word Tumblr post explaining why it was actually written bad on purpose and it'll all be a big reveal in Season 3. One step removed from the secret Sherlock episode that was definitely airing.

In fairness, series 3 will at least be based on Gaiman and Pratchett's original idea for a sequel, so will hopefully be more substantial. This was almost unadulterated Tumblr-bait, though.

It was clear in the first series that they prioritised the Crowley/Aziraphale relationship over the main plot to a far greater extent than the book did, and that was probably the right call, given the change from book to TV, and given the actors they got to play those parts. But this series really had nothing but the Crowley/Aziraphale relationship, and pinned a flimsy excuse for a plot on top of it and, even by the standards of a story that's basically about Deus Ex Machina, relied on nonsensical solutions to problems at every turn.

It reminded me, ironically, of something Terry Pratchett wrote about how he never got on with Doctor Who or Sherlock Holmes - they are, effectively, mystery stories; every episode of Doctor Who has a mystery to be solved, or a problem to be resolved. A "good" mystery story is one that gives the reader all the clues they need to figure out the solution before the characters do - it's like a good cryptic crossword clue; what seems incomprehensible at first should make perfect sense once you have the answer, you should be able to read back through the book and see every clue you need to figure it out, and think, "oh, that was clever". But Sherlock Holmes' solutions rely on things like "oh but Watson, you never noticed the colour of the mud on this man's shoes when he entered the room", information that was never given to the reader in the first place. Doctor Who, even moreso - half the time, the solution is "oh, but it turns out this alien species is allergic to the colour green", or just magically combining two made-up sci-fi things to do made-up sci-fi stuff; it's all completely invented, so there's no way the viewer could have figured out the solution ahead of time. This series just did that with pretty much every problem - invented a new magical thingamajig to explain things away or to drive the plot forward.

Spoilers:

Spoiler

There probably are clues to Gabriel and Beelzebub having a relationship, in that Gabriel/Jim comments on the fly in the book shop a few times, and Beelzebub is more despondent and forgiving than they perhaps should be. But there's no way you'd figure out that the fly contained Gabriel's memories, because that isn't a thing until Beelzebub explains it after the fact. Things like the Buddy Holly song, the fly, the little snippets that Gabriel remembers, all have the shape of clues or of foreshadowing but none of them actually perform that function because there's no opportunity for the audience to understand them ahead of time. The conclusion doesn't make you think "oh, of course!" as you put all the pieces together, it's more "oh, is that it?". 

I also don't understand why Derek Jacobi as the Metatron was presented as a big reveal, and that the Angels didn't recognise him, given that we'd already been shown scenes of him in Heaven. (I can't remember whether he was in series 1 or not).

 

The ending was good, because most of Crowley and Aziraphale's interactions in the present day were, and it was the only bit of the story to have any meat on the bones. It just took a ridiculous route to get there.

 

It also took me until a particular scene in episode 4 to realise that David Tennant was playing Crowley as Bill Nighy; he's talking to Nina outside the coffee shop, and the voice was bugging me until it twigged. The pursed lips, the Love Actually/Boat That Rocked walk...I thought maybe it was just that scene, as his voice was a bit all over the place across the series, but then I couldn't stop noticing more and more Nighy mannerisms. Turns out people on the internet picked up on this back in series one, and I was just slow on the uptake.

Edited August 9, 2023 by BomberPat

[Jesse]

Yeah, I'm sure Season 3 will be better being based on that, but I don't think it will contain a reveal that will undo all the things everyone didn't like about series 2 and show that Neil Gaiman was being a bad writer on purpose instead of just whiffing on this one.

I'm adjacent to the fandom, but it doesn't seem like it's gone over too well with some of the Tumblr lot either.
 

Spoiler

This cracked me up when I came across it

 

[BomberPat]

Yeah, that post is beyond ridiculous, and part of the trend of people with absolutely no media literacy thinking that art and media should only exist to be nice to them and tell them what they already know, and that bad things in art are somehow a targeted attack on the viewer.

[Factotum]

Is Neil Gaiman a good writer though?

Series 2 was like one long fan fiction series. Tennant is also really grating these days for me. Michael Sheen as brilliant as ever

[Merzbow]

Tennant has almost always been a one note shit that seems to be constantly winking at the camera.

[BomberPat]

20 hours ago, Factotum said:

Is Neil Gaiman a good writer though?

He certainly was, this made me question whether he still is, or at least whether he's a good TV writer. Some of the worst parts were where it felt like it was trying to be a bit Pratchett, and while they both always said that they worked so closely that they can't remember who wrote what bits of the book (and that the popular perception that Gaiman did the story and Pratchett sprinkled it with jokes is way off), there was stuff like one of the demons bickering with Shax over really pedantic points of order that felt like someone trying to do Pratchett, and it was just awful.

Sandman remains one of my favourite comics, I still love Good Omens, and there are other Gaiman books that I think have flashes of absolute brilliance. I just wish he'd realise that he's at his worst when he tries to do whimsy. 

18 hours ago, Merzbow said:

Tennant has almost always been a one note shit that seems to be constantly winking at the camera.

I think he's decent in this, though having realised the Bill Nighy thing, that might just be because he's cosplaying a much, much better actor and one of my personal favourites.

I don't mind Tennant, but he does seem to default to playing his Doctor Who whenever he's called upon to do anything remotely wacky. His Hamlet was unbearable because of it. It's a shame, because there are moments of genuine emotion - in Good Omens, and in Doctor Who - where he clearly has acting chops, but they're few and far between. 

He has great chemistry with Sheen, which is the only thing that made series two work, but also means he spends 90% of his screen-time opposite a much better actor, which doesn't do him any favours.

[Factotum]

12 minutes ago, BomberPat said:

I don't mind Tennant, but he does seem to default to playing his Doctor Who

One of the worst Doctors as well.

[Panhead]

On 8/5/2023 at 11:32 AM, Nexus said:

The Bear

 

Just an absolute masterpiece. It's so beautifully shot and scored, and it is the only show that gives me a panic attack. I have rarely felt euphoria and emotion like I did when Ritchie was singing Taylor Swift in the Forks episode. 

I only started Season 1 on Sunday night and finished Season 2 today. It really is something special. I stayed up until 2am last night in "Just One More Episode" mode. Fishes was absolutely incredible. There's loads of my favourite bands on the soundtrack too. 

[SuperBacon]

New Top Boy coming September 7th pussyholes.

 

[CleetusVanDamme]

On 8/5/2023 at 5:03 PM, Mr_Danger said:

The cast for that Lioness: Special Ops is mad for a show that sounds like it should be on Sky One featuring Ross Kemp. Had no idea Taylor Sheridan was involved.

Three episodes in, I quite like it. More spy shit than straight up army stuff works for me. We've seen it all before but once you can get past some girl working in a food truck turning up at the marines like it's Brock at the Minnesota Vikings or Drogba coming to the MLS and immediately destroying everyone, it's well written and acted. Sometimes sheer talent shines through.

It's working out much better than when I watched that may as well be Strike Back, with may as well be Ross Kemp (Mark Strong) just because Walton Goggins was in it eventually!

Edited August 16, 2023 by CleetusVanDamme

[FLips]

Staying in a hotel at the minute so we’ve had the chance to watch some shite on TV we usually don’t bother with.

Family Fortunes

Gino D’Campo is the host now apparently. I had an awful gut feeling that it would be Stephen Mulhern and maybe it was that gut feeling that lead me to enjoy this more than expected when Gino showed up. He did a cracking job as host and the episode itself had one of the least likeable families on it I can remember.

A gobshite family of scousers with a mother/daughter combo that dominated the whole thing. At one point they broke out into a full argument about X Factor winners and the daughter forced the mother to go with her answer which was as hoped, dead wrong, and lost them the round. The mam was fucking bouncing and had a face like a smacked arse. She then very loudly proclaimed “YOU IDIOT” to her daughter.

The dad was up next and his answer for “A reason people scream” on the buzzer round was “sex” and when Gino probed a little, he went “not me”. It was awkward, she hated that he’d done it. Wrong answer, her public humiliation was for nothing.

Later another argument broke out between the mam and daughter as they lost a hefty lead to be eliminated. The mam declared the daughter would not see a penny of the £200 they won and wouldn’t be going on the holiday she won either. Sore losers. Awful family. Rotten.

The nice family ended up winning the full £30k with all top answers. Gino looked genuinely chuffed for them and one of them started crying a bit. Good for them.

Keith Lemon Goes Shopping

Fucking hell. He literally just goes shopping at Asda, this time with comedian Chris Ramsey and his wife in Gateshead. They walk around Asda making jokes about willies and fannies for 15 minutes. The second half of the show he goes to visit Mylene Klass in her shed who for some reason outright admits it’s likely not even Hearsay singing on the single release of Pure and Simple as they got another band to do it and couldn’t tell you which one ever got released. 

Absolutely brutal. Cannot fathom how this got made. 
 

 

Edited August 17, 2023 by FelatioLips
Found the clip!