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Culturegasm: On the Tee-Vee: January-March 2013

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      CommentAuthorTF
    • CommentTimeFeb 4th 2013 edited
     (10951.1)
    I agree with Will about the second episode - the whole X-Factor parody thing has been little played out to many times before and the story didn't really go any where... really

    The last ep with the Google glasses was fine I thought

    The first episode was class though - looking forward to this run.
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      CommentAuthorcity creed
    • CommentTimeFeb 4th 2013
     (10951.2)
    House of Cards
    Yuss.
    "You might think so... I couldn't possibly comment."
    This made me happier than is reasonable.
  3.  (10951.3)
    "I keep reading rumours that they're putting it on hiatus to re-work the story for subsequent seasons so it'll bridge better with the sequel to Legacy (which is in the early scripting stages),.."

    That means they have a script pick up. It keeps the writers on hold, but the artist are now scattered to the wind and are working on other shows. The team that made that show what it is, is gone. Unfortunately suits tend to look at us as interchangeable.
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      CommentAuthornelzbub
    • CommentTimeFeb 5th 2013
     (10951.4)
    Nobody watching "Ripper Street"?


    Did I mention it's set in Whitechapel?
  5.  (10951.5)
    The new series of Being Human had a strong start, quite in contrast with the first episode of last series that suffered from having so much happen off-screen that I felt like I'd tuned in a couple of episodes in.


    Will
    • CommentAuthorOddcult
    • CommentTimeFeb 5th 2013
     (10951.6)
    Agreed about Being Human, although it does seem to be turning into a 'Big Bad Of The Season' show, whereas originally you had Herrick and the crap vampire conspiracy being more background to personal drama than the main point of the programme.

    I really like Tom and Hal, but am not sold on Alex yet, because she doesn't really seem to have a motivation beyond 'pass on'.

    Just curious - does the US version have equivalents of Tom and Hal yet? Or are they still on their versions of the original cast?
  7.  (10951.7)
    Still the original cast. And this season opened with a plague wiping out all of the vampires except Aidan, who was buried at the time.
    •  
      CommentAuthorD.J.
    • CommentTimeFeb 5th 2013
     (10951.8)
    I decided to check out The Americans, but after they developed a dark, rapey backstory for the female lead within the first twenty minutes for no good reason, I pretty much checked out.
    •  
      CommentAuthorjohnjones
    • CommentTimeFeb 6th 2013
     (10951.9)
    @ D.J.

    I'm probably about thirty minutes into The Americans and so far the person who's given the best advice has been Colonel Rape Defector, who's pretty much told the husband to take the money and defect. I guess they did the rape story to really establish the defector as an evil guy who deserves what he's getting. It's revealing that Keri Russel is pretty good at playing a fanatic semi-psychopath. I have two main problems with the show. First, it's essentially asking me to actively root for people who are trying to subvert and destroy my country. Second, the show is set in 1981, which means that the Soviet Union is less than a decade from crapping out anyway.

    I suppose I'd have preferred it if they'd set the show in maybe the 50s', when the Cold War was always on the verge of turning nuclear hot or maybe during the late 80s, early 90s when the Soviet Union actually is crapping out and there's a lot more tension in the stay or go question, especially with kids involved.

    It's interesting that Elementary has had episodes devoted in part to the concepts of two new shows, this one and The Following. Elementary essentially showed a version of the series finale for The Americans by having the KGB-wife killed, her husband and kid disappearing into witness protection and their handler going down for murder. Meanwhile, Elementary dismissed the entire serial killer plot idea with "You've met serial murderers. They're duller than the Queen's Jubilee. Mouth breathers and chronic onanists, the lot of them." Even better, the show viciously mocked the profilers by having Holmes say "She's a buffoon. All profilers are. A snake-oil salesman who casts maladjusted closet cases as criminal geniuses in the media. The profilers, in turn, can be super geniuses when the killers are caught."
  10.  (10951.10)
    I guess they did the rape story to really establish the defector as an evil guy who deserves what he's getting.
    It also establishes how deep Russell's character's loyalty goes: despite how horrifically she was treated during training she will not even for a second consider defection.

    I think '81 is actually the perfect time for the show. The Cold War was just starting to wind down when Reagan was elected and started to crank up a lot of the paranoia and fear of the Soviets that the general public was largely over after decades of Red Scare madness, while the upper echelons of the Russian government and their intelligence communities pretty much know that there's not much gas left in the USSR's tank. Invading Afghanistan was their last gasp, and they're two years in and it's not going at all how they planned.
  11.  (10951.11)
    InvincibleM -- I'll back you up on 30 Rock. I adored the Six Sigma Wheel of Domination -- what the hell is eficationication, anyway? Oh. "finular analysis". Of course.

    I especially loved that they confirmed Kenneth's, uh, backstory, without explaining it.
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      CommentAuthorTF
    • CommentTimeFeb 11th 2013
     (10951.12)
    Black Mirror = Good shit.

    A solid story well told, proper characters and a well realised future.

    Great bit of telly.
    •  
      CommentAuthorD.J.
    • CommentTimeFeb 13th 2013
     (10951.13)
    Seconding Black Mirror, it is an absolutely great series so far.
    • CommentAuthorflecky
    • CommentTimeFeb 15th 2013
     (10951.14)
    @nelzbub: I've not been watching Ripper Street, but a few of my mates seem to be really enjoying it.

    Black Mirror was good, and I've been doing my best to catch Utopia.

    For my sins, I've been watching Derek. I can't help but laugh at the sick bloke with the constant can of Special Brew.
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      CommentAuthorjohnjones
    • CommentTimeFeb 17th 2013
     (10951.15)
    I'm really liking Elementary, especially the most recent episode with Jonny Lee Miller's Sherlock's "proposal" to Lucy Lui's Watson. Just a lovely nuanced scene.
    • CommentAuthorStefanJ
    • CommentTimeFeb 17th 2013
     (10951.16)
    Elementary is now officially the show I save for last on my weekend DVR-catch-up-viewing. That means it is my favorite.

    I'm also watching Sherlock via Netflix. I like that a lot too. I think it has somewhat superior talent, but I don't see the two shows as competition.
  17.  (10951.17)
    Tonight's Black Mirror was excellent. A really interesting take on surveillance society and entertainment. Not as subtle as last week, but well worth watching.
    •  
      CommentAuthorEd Jackson
    • CommentTimeFeb 18th 2013
     (10951.18)
    Well tonight's Black Mirror was seriously fucked, but bloody good. I bet it had Daily Mail readers jizzing in their pants.
    •  
      CommentAuthorjohnjones
    • CommentTimeFeb 18th 2013 edited
     (10951.19)
    So I saw the reprise of Zero Hour and I have decided to enjoy it. That will be difficult, since it was essentially an overwrought, incoherent, silly-ass mess, but I believe that I have found a way.

    Back in the 1990s there was a paper and pencil roleplaying game called TORG. The concept of the game was that various other dimensions were invading the earth and transforms parts of it, including the inhabitants of those invaders, into beings like themselves, complete with their own cultures, magic and laws of a nature. So, one could take a perfectly functional M-16 into the Living Land, a place of dinosaurs, miracles and lizard people only to find the weapon would not fire because the Technological axiom of the Living Land was too low and primitive to work. You also tended to forget what that green stuff in your pockets was since currency was also a little too advanced.

    One of the fan-made supplements for the game detailed Illithicar. I have therefore chosen to believe that Zero Hour takes place in Illithicar so that I can watch the show without constantly interrupting myself with "Well, that's just stupid. "Wait a minute, why didn't she just..." or "Oh, for fuck's sake!"
  20.  (10951.20)
    Ok, checking out the first couple episodes of Utopia with my girlfriend later tonight. I'm trusting you!

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