Telly thread

[HarmonicGenerator]

7 hours ago, Onyx2 said:

I've just finished Severance, watched from start to finish in a couple of weeks. And I'm not entirely sure how I feel about it. 

It's incredibly well made. Like, top tier production design, acting, cinematography... And built on a brilliant premise I can't believe hasn't been dealt with yet. 

And yet I'm left feeling like I'm not quite getting it. 

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Why does Lumon have Gemma? What's so important about #25 and Cold Harbour? Why are they so surprised she can dismantle the cot dispassionately but Dylan can be oblivious to his wife? What is Lumon trying to do? So what if Harmony had a bunch of designs? Why is it so appealing to work there for Milchick and others? What's the goat thing about? 

Is this a LOST thing, I should just enjoy the ride? 

And as it got towards the end of series 2 it was so self indulgent. S2E8 was reviewed excellently (for once) on IMDB as "should've been an email" and great swathes of the finale could've been truncated or cut completely with no loss. 

I know I'm watching greatness, I just don't feel it. 

It took reading a few reviews and listening to a couple of podcasts about it for me to understand what they may have been getting at with some of your questions. I was equally baffled while watching it, but was so entranced by the deep and booming and brilliant voice of Olafur Darri Olafsson as Mr Drummond that I never switched off.

Spoiler

We don’t know why they have her, but something about her must make her particularly susceptible to their experiments - she and Mark met at a Lumon sponsored blood drive so must have been on the radar since at least then. #25 and Cold Harbour is what Lumon were trying to do - it was the culmination of how many severances/splits a person can take - their general idea seems to be that they want you to be able sever yourself from any negative feelings or past trauma - Gemma hates the dentist, so there was an innie who only ever saw the dentist, she has a fear of a plane crash so there’s someone who takes over for anything on a plane etc - leaving the true ‘you’ only to have positive experiences. The cot thing was surprising because the baby situation was her biggest trauma and the end point for what they wanted to achieve - don’t know about the Dylan aspect. Don’t know about Harmony. It’s appealing because it’s half corporation half cult, so there’s some moderate to severe indoctrination going on - there’s a religious aspect to the company alongside the business stuff for some reason. The goat thing is probably part of that cult-y aspect, sacrifices and that kind of thing, they’re raising the goats to make a sacrifice every time something is achieved.

I don’t think it’s a LOST thing because speculating about LOST was a lot more fun! I want to rewatch LOST, I still love that show.

Those are explanations as I understand them, but it doesn’t mean they’re correct…

[LaGoosh]

Finished White Lotus season 3 last night. After what was shaping up to be an excellent season I was pretty let down by the finale. I don't think a single one of the stories really had a climax or satisfying conclusion. Most the characters didn't really do anything after episode 4. The previous two seasons were so good at wrapping up both the plot and characters in a pretty much perfect thematic bow but with this one I just felt like it was totally flat and a lot of the stuff that happened in the season just turned out not to go anywhere whatsoever. There was one particular out of nowhere plot twist which was also just fucking stupid. Ah well.

[Mr_Danger]

3 hours ago, LaGoosh said:

Finished White Lotus season 3 last night. After what was shaping up to be an excellent season I was pretty let down by the finale. I don't think a single one of the stories really had a climax or satisfying conclusion. Most the characters didn't really do anything after episode 4. The previous two seasons were so good at wrapping up both the plot and characters in a pretty much perfect thematic bow but with this one I just felt like it was totally flat and a lot of the stuff that happened in the season just turned out not to go anywhere whatsoever. There was one particular out of nowhere plot twist which was also just fucking stupid. Ah well.

Think I agree with all of this. They built up the characters really well then did fuck all with them. I think the only one who’s story had any sort of interesting conclusion was Gaitok who sacrificed his beliefs just for a go at the pretty girl. Patrick Schwarzenegger was looking to head in an interesting direction but just tailed off.

[JLM]

I did unexpectedly tear up a bit at Carrie Coon’s final speech, but I think it was the strength of the performance more than the content. I liked Belinda’s ending, felt very on brand for this show that she became Tanya when her bank balance gained those extra zeroes. Agreed on a number of the other threads fizzling out a bit. Still largely captivating and engrossing TV for most of the season though. 

[Devon Malcolm]

Series 6 of Taskmaster is a problem for me because I'm spending too much of it going, "Give Alice Levine more points, how could you do this to her?!"

Liza Tarbuck is great, isn't she. A national treasure.

[Mr_Danger]

4 hours ago, JLM said:

I did unexpectedly tear up a bit at Carrie Coon’s final speech, but I think it was the strength of the performance more than the content. I liked Belinda’s ending, felt very on brand for this show that she became Tanya when her bank balance gained those extra zeroes. Agreed on a number of the other threads fizzling out a bit. Still largely captivating and engrossing TV for most of the season though. 

Yeah this was a nice little call back. This series did feel a bit more cynical than the other two. I wouldn’t have been against at least one wholesome thread being sewn in. Other than the obvious 

Spoiler

Millionaire didn’t murder his family and faced up to his future of being poor and  in prison whilst the brothers presumably never make eye contact ever again

happy ending.

[Devon Malcolm]

I'm round at my parents and just sat through two episodes of Last One Laughing and it's absolute shite. So there's my review.

[gmoney]

Switching over the Clarkson's Farm?

[Devon Malcolm]

Just now, gmoney said:

Switching over the Clarkson's Farm?

My mum's moved on to Adolescence now. 

[gmoney]

That's a lot less harrowing. 

[gmoney]

I've been watching John Mulaney's Netflix chat show and it's fucking brilliant.

 

 

 

 

[Onyx2]

8 hours ago, Devon Malcolm said:

Liza Tarbuck is great, isn't she. A national treasure.

I think she's massively underrated. I love her radio 2 Saturday show too. 

New Taskmaster back on May 1st BTW. 

[Thunderplex]

Just finished the last episode of the latest Black Mirror run.  Marked out a bit when PC Zone was featured in one of the episodes, as this I where Charlie Brooker started as a journalist and I had a lengthy email exchange with him at the time.  Sadly this season was a bit of a damp squib.  Overlong episodes and just a retread of previous stories.  Great cast didn’t really save it for me.  Watchable if nothing else is on.

[TildeGuy~!]

3 hours ago, Thunderplex said:

Just finished the last episode of the latest Black Mirror run.  Marked out a bit when PC Zone was featured in one of the episodes, as this I where Charlie Brooker started as a journalist and I had a lengthy email exchange with him at the time.  Sadly this season was a bit of a damp squib.  Overlong episodes and just a retread of previous stories.  Great cast didn’t really save it for me.  Watchable if nothing else is on.

Yea I enjoyed the 1st and 2nd episodes but then the others in between were just a slog to get through, enjoyed the Callister follow up though which I wasn’t expecting too.

[Lorne Malvo]

13 hours ago, TildeGuy~! said:

Yea I enjoyed the 1st and 2nd episodes but then the others in between were just a slog to get through, enjoyed the Callister follow up though which I wasn’t expecting too.

They're notoriously difficult to watch, those episodes that come inbetween Episode 1 and Episode 2.