All Things TV Series Recommendations/Reviews

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Ope3 said:
I have seen all 6 episodes up to this point (I think there 2 left) of A Small Light. The 100% Fresh Rotten Tomatoes score from critics is justified, in my opinion.

It's a telling of the Anne Frank story, but from the perspective of those that helped that help the Jews & resistance in Amsterdam.

www.rottentomatoes.com

A Small Light: Limited Series | Rotten Tomatoes

The inspiring, real-life story of Miep Gies, who played a critical role in hiding Anne Frank and her family during the Nazi occupation in Amsterdam.
www.rottentomatoes.com www.rottentomatoes.com

I expect Bel Powley to be in the conversation around awards season.
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Hadn't heard of it, will have to check it out.
 

GophersInIowa said:
Hadn't heard of it, will have to check it out.
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Each A Small Light episode also ends with a modern music act, covering a song (during the credits) from the era which I also find interesting. I suppose that's a post for a different thread ;)


That's actually how I found out about the series through my google feed.

I should also add, Liev Schrieber is really good as Otto Frank, not surprisingly.
 
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Ope3 said:
I have seen all 6 episodes up to this point (I think there 2 left) of A Small Light. The 100% Fresh Rotten Tomatoes score from critics is justified, in my opinion.

It's a telling of the Anne Frank story, but from the perspective of those that helped the Jews & resistance in Amsterdam.

www.rottentomatoes.com

A Small Light: Limited Series | Rotten Tomatoes

The inspiring, real-life story of Miep Gies, who played a critical role in hiding Anne Frank and her family during the Nazi occupation in Amsterdam.
www.rottentomatoes.com www.rottentomatoes.com

I expect Bel Powley to be in the conversation around awards season.
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I was actually sort of dreading watching the series finale, knowing it would not work out well for so many, but it's worth it and in the end the title (A Small LIght) made complete sense once it wrapped up.

The whole series was very well done, start to finish.
 

Ope3 said:
Barry, 4th and Final Season.

Quite good at the halfway point.
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While Barry was always a Dark Comedy, this past Final Season 4 was heavily slanted to the "Dark" aspect rather than the "Comedic". There were a couple of LOL moments, but pretty sparse (Dave and Busters, Little League Youtube videos and Hank-Raven showdown #1).

Still I found the season really good and the ending quite satisfying. Very few loose ends.
 
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Ope3 said:
While Barry was always a Dark Comedy, this past Final Season 4 was heavily slanted to the "Dark" aspect rather than the "Comedic". There were a couple of LOL moments, but pretty sparse (Dave and Busters, Little League Youtube videps and Hank-Raven showdown #1).

Still I found the season really good and the ending quite satisfying. Very few loose ends.
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Soooo dark and not very funny. But it did feel like about the only way to end it. There wasn't going to be much of happy ending there.
 


Started a show called From on Amazon Prime...its an MGM + show that prime currently has (season 1 of 2 is available).

If you liked Lost you'll like From...very similar vibes about people showing up in this strange town with no way out and there are these ghostly monsters that come out at night and hunt them.
 

Ope3 said:
Each A Small Light episode also ends with a modern music act, covering a song (during the credits) from the era which I also find interesting. I suppose that's a post for a different thread ;)


That's actually how I found out about the series through my google feed.

I should also add, Liev Schrieber is really good as Otto Frank, not surprisingly.
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We're 3 episodes in, it's really good. Thanks again for the recommendation.
 

for Sci-Fi fans or Star Trek fans -

a little heads-up.

Paramount Plus has a series titled "Star Trek-Strange New Worlds." It's a prequel - set in the years before "ST- The Original Series."

the second season is coming up soon.

So - Paramount Plus did something fairly unique - they took the entire first season and posted the shows on their You Tube page - for free! 10 episodes. If you like Trek, worth a watch. they take some liberties with established canon, but I would give it a passing grade.
 




It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia is back. Cold open for the first episode of season 16 is brilliant.

I'm setting the over/under for total seasons at 25. Think it will finally end when Devito decides to hang it up. Because from a creative standpoint.....the main crew could probably keep it going for as long as they want.
 



GophersInIowa said:
Finished it tonight. Really good and another reminder of how horrible of a time it was. Unthinkable what some people went through and that this only happened 80 years ago.
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WilliamsArenaGuy said:
We also finished it last night. Just a fantastic series.
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Glad you both found it worthwhile. I felt quite an emotional investment for all the characters.

Really cool that the main protagonist Miep lived to be 100 and with Jan made it past their Golden Wedding Anniversary.
 



BleedGopher said:
We watched the entire season of Jury Duty over the weekend, very well done show. The premise is fantastic, it's a an entirely fake jury, fake trial, fake lawyers, etc., except for 1 juror who is real and thinks everything is real. Amazing casting and the unsuspecting real juror is very likable.

Go Jury Duty!!
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Watched it this weekend and I Lol for reals and shortly thereafter secured the East Coast distribution rights for 🪑 👖
 

Ope3 said:
While Barry was always a Dark Comedy, this past Final Season 4 was heavily slanted to the "Dark" aspect rather than the "Comedic". There were a couple of LOL moments, but pretty sparse (Dave and Busters, Little League Youtube videos and Hank-Raven showdown #1).

Still I found the season really good and the ending quite satisfying. Very few loose ends.
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Best thing I’ve seen in a long time, the courage she and her husband displayed was remarkable.

You know it’s elite writing when they can still find spots for humor.
 

Anyone watching Ghosts of Beirut? A 4 part miniseries just completed. Based on the true story of trying to find the terrorist in the 80s responsible for the marine base bombing in Beirut and other bombings at the time. Very good.
 

Me and the wifey plowed through "Citadel" on Prime a week or so ago. For all the fanfare and hype, it was okay at best. I didn't think it was that great. Not terrible, not time completely wasted, but there are better options out there, IMO
 

Gopher_In_NYC said:
Best thing I’ve seen in a long time, the courage she and her husband displayed was remarkable.

You know it’s elite writing when they can still find spots for humor.
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Was this meant for A Small Light instead of Barry?
 


Gopher_In_NYC said:
Best thing I’ve seen in a long time, the courage she and her husband displayed was remarkable.

You know it’s elite writing when they can still find spots for humor.
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Ope3 said:
Was this meant for A Small Light instead of Barry?
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Gopher_In_NYC said:
Yeppers
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That's a relief. Because "SPOILER ALERT" the main character of Barry is a sociopathic mass murdering hit man, so "courage" was not necessarily the right description. ;)

I do agree with the levity on A Small Light, like the "Welcome to Switzerland" punchline and also when their landlord returned and inquired what had happened to her chairs.
 

Ope3 said:
That's a relief. Because "SPOILER ALERT" the main character of Barry is a sociopathic mass murdering hit man, so "courage" was not necessarily the right description. ;)

I do agree with the levity on A Small Light, like the "Welcome to Switzerland" punchline and also when their landlord returned and inquired what had happened to her chairs.
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It was pretty great how often we were able to laugh during A Small Light despite it's content. And it was all tasteful humor. It made the characters so much more real and human (which of course they were).
 

Just started watching Silo on Apple. So far so good. Thousands of people living in a silo shaped bunker (over 100 stories deep) because the outside world is supposedly uninhabitable but nobody knows why.
 

Ope3 said:
While Barry was always a Dark Comedy, this past Final Season 4 was heavily slanted to the "Dark" aspect rather than the "Comedic". There were a couple of LOL moments, but pretty sparse (Dave and Busters, Little League Youtube videos and Hank-Raven showdown #1).

Still I found the season really good and the ending quite satisfying. Very few loose ends.
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Fourth and final season of Barry was good. Didn't love the route they took....but they had to wrap it up somehow.

GophersInIowa said:
Just started watching Silo on Apple. So far so good. Thousands of people living in a silo shaped bunker (over 100 stories deep) because the outside world is supposedly uninhabitable but nobody knows why.
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Read the books back when they first came out.....and then again last year. I have mixed feelings.....as the books run at a pretty rapid pace and the show feels slowed and bogged down by extra characters and storylines that weren't in the books. To me it feels like these would have been much better as a movie franchise....but the show is good enough.
 

stocker08 said:
Fourth and final season of Barry was good. Didn't love the route they took....but they had to wrap it up somehow.



Read the books back when they first came out.....and then again last year. I have mixed feelings.....as the books run at a pretty rapid pace and the show feels slowed and bogged down by extra characters and storylines that weren't in the books. To me it feels like these would have been much better as a movie franchise....but the show is good enough.
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Never read the books so I don't know what is different.
 

GophersInIowa said:
Never read the books so I don't know what is different.
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Honestly think it's probably better that way. They could have done the first book over the span of five or six episodes and hit everything. For example.....Common's character and the 'Janitors' are not a thing in the book. Huge chunk of the series. Guessing it all leads to the same outcomes of the book however.....which is why it seems so unnecessary and basically like a time suck from my perspective. Maybe they'll surprise me and make some big changes that make the detour worth the time.
 

stocker08 said:
Honestly think it's probably better that way. They could have done the first book over the span of five or six episodes and hit everything. For example.....Common's character and the 'Janitors' are not a thing in the book. Huge chunk of the series. Guessing it all leads to the same outcomes of the book however.....which is why it seems so unnecessary and basically like a time suck from my perspective. Maybe they'll surprise me and make some big changes that make the detour worth the time.
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I'm guessing they needed to stretch it out over so many episodes because that's what Apple wanted?
 

stocker08 said:
Fourth and final season of Barry was good. Didn't love the route they took....but they had to wrap it up somehow.
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Totally agree.

As dark as Season 4 was, I think the most I laughed out loud (maybe for the entire series) was during the Dave & Buster's raid scene in LA. This line had me rolling:

“We ain’t finding any heats on these fools, mostly Powercards™. No sign of Hank or any gangsters at all. Just a bunch of Chargers fans and one guy in a Houston Oilers hat, which is confusing.”

The absurdity of the whole situation was so rich.
 

The 🐻 Season 2 rocks -

Plowed through the first six episodes last night, with episode 6 being Christmas Dinner with his family, which included, besides those family members already in the story: Gillian Jacobs, Sarah Paulson, John Mulaney, Bob Odenkirk and Jamie Lee Curtis, who should win any and all awards, she qualifies for in a performance that is the best I’ve seen since…..as his Mom, the alcoholic matriarch. Made me feel better about my family’s holidays.

They’ve taken this thing to next level, with great backstories on the whole kitchen crew - it’s Breaking Bad type storytelling IMO. I’ll finish it this evening.
 



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