All Things TV Series Recommendations/Reviews

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fan of Ray Williams said:
New series coming in November, Tulsa King, starring Sly Stallone.

Sylvester Stallone is making the jump to streaming. Paramount+ has released the first teaser for “Tulsa King,” the new crime drama from “Yellowstone” creator Taylor Sheridan, featuring Stallone in the central role.

Stallone, in the first regular TV role of his career, plays Dwight Manfredi, a New York Mafia head who finally gets out of jail after a 25-year sentence. Upon his release, he’s unceremoniously relocated by his boss to Tulsa, Okla. to establish criminal operations there. Stuck in a new location with zero existing connections and with no support from his Mafia family, Manfredi slowly builds a crew of unlikely allies to establish his own criminal empire.
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I read an article that said Sly might make an appearance in Yellowstone, too. There's also a rumor that Neal McDonough might return as Malcolm Beck. The overall excellence of the entire cast is right up there with Mad Men.
 


Slim Tubby said:
I read an article that said Sly might make an appearance in Yellowstone, too. There's also a rumor that Neal McDonough might return as Malcolm Beck. The overall excellence of the entire cast is right up there with Mad
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Yeah, read a couple times where it mentions Beck might reappear. Looking forward to Tulsa King. Stallone is 73 now and still in fantastic shape. He’s had quite the career with the franchise movies.
 


Watched "Keep Sweet: Pray and Obey" on Netflix. Doc on FLDS Church. Last episode will really make your stomach turn.
 


Slim Tubby said:
Looking forward to “The Old Man” on FX tonight. The previews look good and who doesn’t love Bridges and Lithgow? I hope I’m not disappointed but FX rarely disappoints.
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Been watching it. While there's a lot of good scenes, it's SO slow and very talky. Lithgow, Bridges and Shawkat are all very good. Brenneham was given an impossible character so hard to speak to that. IMHO would have been much better as a 2hr movie or at best, a 2 episode "mini-series".

Still watching it, but after the first 2 episodes by recording it and fast forwarding thru a lot of the exposition and the staring. There's a whole lot of both.

Oh and it's been renewed for a 2nd season so not expecting a lot of the plot threads to be settled this season.
 


I see AMC is starting to run some promos for their "Interview with a Vampire" series, which apparently starts this fall.

I have read a few of the Anne Rice books. The Tom Cruise movie adaptation was not good, IMHO.

the question is how faithful they can be to the books and stay within TV standards. But, considering the level of gore they show on the 'Walking Dead' shows, that shouldn't be a big problem.

it all comes down to the tone of the show. and they need an actor who can pull off Lestat.
 

short ornery norwegian said:
I ran across a You Tube channel where the host breaks down the screenplays for different movies, explaining the various screenwriting techniques being used.

the episodes on The Godfather - both part I and Part II - were really interesting.

The Godfather is a masterpiece. Part II - I love the "flashback" segments with DeNiro as young Vito. the "modern" segments are not as compelling to me.
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I agree. Part II was great....but the first film was better, imo. And Part III wasn't half bad. Except Sophia Coppola. The writing didn't do her any favors.
 



'The Bear' on Hulu is VERY good. And the first season is a quick watch. Eight episodes over about four hours.
 

BleedGopher said:
And I recently binged Succession and am fully caught up. Fantastic show. Only 1 bad episode in 3 seasons and Season 3 ends strong!

Go Gophers!!
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Bleed, I finally made the executive decision (in my house, which show to watch may be the only executive decisions I get to make) for me and the Mrs. to crank up Succession. I can't remember where I stopped watching 3-4 years ago (4-5 episodes in?) so we just started from the beginning, just about finishing up Season 1 right now.

I really like it (not sure if "love" yet?) and will definitely stick with it to get all caught up. Found myself thinking that literally none of the Roy family members are worth cheering/rooting for in this one, all of them are horribly flawed, but I can't wait to see how it ends up.
 

over the weekend, A&E ran this mini-documentary about Black comedians. I liked the older segments where they were playing excerpts from some of the Redd Foxx "party" albums. Also featured a lot of stuff about Richard Pryor. it was worth watching.
 







Ope3 said:
I find it remarkable at how Season 3 of Barry could arguably be the best one yet. Really rare. I have read they were just a week or so away from starting the filming in March 2020 when COVID hit. They took the extra time to re-write the season (and get a head start on Season 4). It was frustrating to have to wait 3 years since Season 2, but in the end well worth it.

All 5 of the principal actors/characters who have been there since the beginning were phenomenal.

Sarah Goldberg - Sally (look out Joplin)
Anthony Carrigan - NoHo Hank (still provides the best levity but dramatically great too)
Henry Winkler - Gene (quite a 3rd act)
Stephen Root - The Raven (best work yet?)
Bill Hader - Barry (word his he will direct Season 4 start to finish)

There's no drop off from the minor characters either.
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Barry was nominated for Best Comedy Series. Carrigan & Winkler received Supporting Actor noms as did Bill Hader for Lead Actor.

www.vulture.com

Succession, Ted Lasso, and White Lotus Lead the 2022 Emmy Nominees

Along with history-making nods to Abbott Elementary, Euphoria, and more.
www.vulture.com www.vulture.com
 

Nathan Fielder's new show on HBOMax, 'The Rehearsal', debuted on Friday. Very interesting premise. Not sure if it has the potential of 'Nathan For You'....but the first episode was good. Fielder is a funny dude. The ending in particular really cracked me up.
 

Watched the first two episodes of "The Old Man" on Hulu.

as others have noted, it's very slow-paced, with occasional bursts of action.

one of those shows where all of the characters have secrets, and we learn about them a little at a time.

Jeff Bridges is good in the lead role. and for the "flashback" sequences, they found some guy who does a good job of acting like a young Jeff Bridges. John Lithgow is solid as Bridges' 'frenemy.'

I will probably watch the rest of the 1st season - 7 episodes.

trying to avoid spoilers, but - I love the dogs!
 

This is the main problem for me, with "good" TV.

There is so much money these days in TV production ... that a new "good" TV show is basically the same thing as a movie, in terms of quality. Except that, it's an 8-10 hour long movie.

There's a reason movies are usually around 2-2.5 hours long.


Almost always, all that extra time just gets filled with extra dialog and character/plot background. Those are cheap to shoot.


I lose patience and attention too fast.
 

Gophers_4life said:
This is the main problem for me, with "good" TV.

There is so much money these days in TV production ... that a new "good" TV show is basically the same thing as a movie, in terms of quality. Except that, it's an 8-10 hour long movie.

There's a reason movies are usually around 2-2.5 hours long.


Almost always, all that extra time just gets filled with extra dialog and character/plot background. Those are cheap to shoot.


I lose patience and attention too fast.
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there is a guy named John Campea who does a daily live show on You Tube, talking about movies and TV shows. mostly focuses on 'genre' subjects like comics, sci-fi and fantasy.

He is always ranting about the shows on Disney+ for following the 6-episode format. He wants shows that have more episodes and longer episodes. But, that has to be supported by the story.

if the writers have enough story for a 6-hour show, make a 6-hour show. but don't try to stretch it out to 8 or 10 hours. that is where the 'filler' comes from.

BTW - some guy on the internet took the "Obi-Wan Kenobi" show on Disney+ and re-edited it down to a 2-1/2 hour movie. I didn't see it - got yanked due to copyright infringement - but people who saw it said it was better than the TV series - shorter, more concise and better flow.
 

Gophers_4life said:
This is the main problem for me, with "good" TV.

There is so much money these days in TV production ... that a new "good" TV show is basically the same thing as a movie, in terms of quality. Except that, it's an 8-10 hour long movie.

There's a reason movies are usually around 2-2.5 hours long.


Almost always, all that extra time just gets filled with extra dialog and character/plot background. Those are cheap to shoot.


I lose patience and attention too fast.
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I may be on the opposite end of the spectrum. I feel like so many movies are cramming so much into 2-2.5 hours that it feels frenetic and poorly paced. It makes things completely unbelievable in other cases... like when a murder is solved in an afternoon!

I have liked the Disney+ series and the Mandalorian, for example, as they allowed some time to breathe for character and plot development. I think this is especially important for some of the new characters.

The personalities for most of the tent pole characters in the Avengers like Cap, Stark, Banner, Natasha Romanoff and Thor were familiar to many from the comics. Their personalities were further developed over the last 10-12 years in numerous installments.

A lot of these newer characters like Kate Bishop, Moon Knight, and Ms. Marvel are minor characters and will not see much screen time. The series format allows for more origin story so that they won't have to 'waste' valuable time introducing them during any possible future movies in which they might appear.
 


From the Parkinglot said:
Anyone started The Old Man on FX. Have them recorded but waiting to watch them when all the episodes are out.
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Iceland12 said:
Been watching it. While there's a lot of good scenes, it's SO slow and very talky. Lithgow, Bridges and Shawkat are all very good. Brenneham was given an impossible character so hard to speak to that. IMHO would have been much better as a 2hr movie or at best, a 2 episode "mini-series".

Still watching it, but after the first 2 episodes by recording it and fast forwarding thru a lot of the exposition and the staring. There's a whole lot of both.

Oh and it's been renewed for a 2nd season so not expecting a lot of the plot threads to be settled this season.
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short ornery norwegian said:
Watched the first two episodes of "The Old Man" on Hulu.

as others have noted, it's very slow-paced, with occasional bursts of action.

one of those shows where all of the characters have secrets, and we learn about them a little at a time.

Jeff Bridges is good in the lead role. and for the "flashback" sequences, they found some guy who does a good job of acting like a young Jeff Bridges. John Lithgow is solid as Bridges' 'frenemy.'

I will probably watch the rest of the 1st season - 7 episodes.

trying to avoid spoilers, but - I love the dogs!
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Watched the "finale" last night. Man that was truly a waste. Remember those long set-up jokes? The ones that went on and on and the punchline was, there was no punchline!

That was last night's show.

Turns out it was only the Season 1 finale. They've renewed it for another season. Another season of great acting, long speeches, flashbacks, reveals and little plot movement

Wonder if they wrote the last show before or after they found out they were gonna get renewed?
 

short ornery norwegian said:
BTW - some guy on the internet took the "Obi-Wan Kenobi" show on Disney+ and re-edited it down to a 2-1/2 hour movie. I didn't see it - got yanked due to copyright infringement - but people who saw it said it was better than the TV series - shorter, more concise and better flow.
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I do wonder when the obsession with making everything a TV show is going to tail off.

I think the product of all these streaming services is that everyone wants to make/buy shows because it results in longer content and thus people holding on to subscriptions longer/indefinitely.

I’m not convinced that longer content tells a better story. It can, but probably not so often that it justifies all these shows.
 

Iceland12 said:
Watched the "finale" last night. Man that was truly a waste. Remember those long set-up jokes? The ones that went on and on and the punchline was, there was no punchline!

That was last night's show.

Turns out it was only the Season 1 finale. They've renewed it for another season. Another season of great acting, long speeches, flashbacks, reveals and little plot movement

Wonder if they wrote the last show before or after they found out they were gonna get renewed?
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I have not started it yet but have them all dvr’d. I wanna like it but the reviews have not been great.
 

Decided to toss some 'Review' on in the background last night as I was fumbling around with some other stuff....and decided that I am going to have to rewatch it again. Absolutely hilarious show. The entire 'Addiction' segment is gold.



Andy Daly is truly one of the funniest people on the planet. For those of you who listen to comedy podcasts....and like improvisation....you need to check out the Andy Daly Podcast Pilot Program. It's brilliant. Also....Bonanas For Bonanza....his and Matt Gourley (another one of my absolute favorite improvisors) do a weekly show recapping every episode of Bonanza as characters (Dalton Wilcox and Mutt Taylor) from one of the one off ADPPP podcast episodes.
 

Finally got around to starting "The Terminal List" on Prime with Chris Pratt. Pratt's been pretty good in most of his stuff, what the heck.

So far, a couple episodes in, it's getting better and better. I wasn't sure by about 30-40 mins into the first episode but then things really kicked into gear. So far anyway, highly recommended.
 

so, finished up season 1 of "The Old Man" on Hulu.

as noted, the season ends in a cliffhanger. But there's a story behind that. according to what I read, the season was originally going to be 10 episodes long.

they started shooting in 2020, and ran into issues with the pandemic.
Then, Jeff Bridges was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (aka cancer). He went on chemo.
Then, he caught covid, and because the chemo had limited his immune system, he wound up in the hospital for six weeks and almost died. It was a long time before he was healthy enough to go back to work.

as a result, they re-wrote the series to be 7 episodes, and plan to wrap up the story in season 2.

so, considering that, I think they did the best they could with the situation.

I like the by-play between Bridges and John Lithgow. not the greatest show of all time, but watchable.
 

If there's anyone else like me that easily forgets the names of shows, there are several apps out there that allow you easily create lists of your shows. I use Next Episode. I add the shows I watch to my list and then whenever new episodes come out, it shows up on my Episodes list. then when I watch it I can mark it as watched and it goes off my episodes list.

These options are probably common knowledge but just in case it isn't for some.
 

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