TV of 2021

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therewillbeblus
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TV of 2021

#1 Post by therewillbeblus » Sun Jan 10, 2021 12:35 am

Lupin is getting some high praise but the first five eps in Part 1 aren't much more than a fantasy tale full of contrivances that make the skillful aspects of the narrative hold less weight. That's not to say that the mystery is devoid of fun, but explanations are absurd -from plot specifics (the prison book.. what?) to an explanation for why a marriage fell apart, including the stupidest therapist insert of aggressive opinion I've seen yet. All this would be forgivable for the sake of superficial entertainment, except the tone continuously reminds us that this is a serious revenge tale, a drama about social responsibility and harming loved ones, and half-measured commentary on racism (the source is there, and some posturing elsewhere, but several specific scenes completely colorblind the climate to irritating degrees). I might continue whenever the next five come out, as it's not a huge commitment and this kind of constantly moving crime thriller is engaging enough, but -as is often the case with universally-acclaimed Netflix series (hello, Russian Doll)- the hype is lost on me. At least Ludivine Sagnier gets to play a more self-actualized character in a pretty good part.

[Note: there's no TV of 2021 thread but this belongs there]

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DarkImbecile
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Re: TV of 2021

#2 Post by DarkImbecile » Sun Jan 17, 2021 5:15 pm

therewillbeblus wrote:
Sun Jan 10, 2021 12:35 am
[Note: there's no TV of 2021 thread but this belongs there]
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zedz
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Re: TV of 2021

#3 Post by zedz » Sun Jan 31, 2021 5:40 pm

I agree on Lupin. It’s entertaining enough, but the plotting is contrived and the characters shallow: they’re more like collections of traits than believable personalities. (Amusingly, the same approach even applies to the dog!). Omar Sy is immensely likeable, but he’s stuck in a comic book. I figured out what was happening and where the story was going in the first episode, and at the end of the series I’m still ahead of the protagonist.

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therewillbeblus
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Re: TV of 2021

#4 Post by therewillbeblus » Sun Jan 31, 2021 7:13 pm

I find myself more and more irritated by the racism commentary that tries to have its cake and eat it too
SpoilerShow
The narrative establishes racism as key to understanding the conflict, and there are moments when in present day Sy makes statements that indicate he's aware of experiencing microaggressions, yet there are all these moments that undercut very real racist patterns - as well as simply common sense situations, and threaten to undo not only a commentary on race relations but reality as we know it. For example, there's a scene in the police station where someone picks Sy out of a list of suspects and the rest of the detectives all wonder aloud why Sy, yet the police never acknowledge that narrowing it down to him and some others being black makes sense, having seen a black man dressed up in fake facial hair on TV. And even more frustratingly, Sy - who is of course aware of how racism operates- has no issue going into a rich white lady's home and coaxing her into giving him all of her expensive jewels? I mean, I guess that could be a statement about perceived authority trumping racism or whatever, but it's so nonchalantly executed against the grain of his social self-consciousness that I felt like the show may as well have not touched the idea of race at all if it wanted to escape into fantasy or grasp onto realism depending on its mood.

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Re: TV of 2021

#5 Post by flyonthewall2983 » Sat Feb 06, 2021 9:10 am

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fdm
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Re: TV of 2021

#6 Post by fdm » Sat Feb 06, 2021 7:25 pm

Ridiculousness works really well when I want the wife to go elsewhere so I can do some movie watching in a little while. Look honey, Ridiculousness is on! (To which she usually responds: It's always on.)

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DandyDancing
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Re: TV of 2021

#7 Post by DandyDancing » Sun Feb 07, 2021 3:01 pm

Anybody else immensely enjoying Painting with John?

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domino harvey
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Re: TV of 2021

#8 Post by domino harvey » Mon Feb 08, 2021 11:53 am

Noping out on AppleTV's Dickinson after a few episodes. This had a lot of potential, but the creator and writing staff have no ideas and the end product is witless and clearly created to hit a checklist of every "hip" hot button topic with young viewers today. As established elsewhere on this forum, I almost always like Hailee Steinfeld, but this is a big miss from her, and capable comic actors Toby Huss and Jane Krakowski are wasted as her parents. David Gordon Green's direction in the first two episodes was so bad that it boggles my mind he had a hand in it-- def more in his Manglehorn mode. If you think it's amusing to hear modern rap music in a period setting or for Emily Dickinson to say something is "bullshit" like that in itself qualifies as an idea, you'll love this

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Dr Amicus
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Re: TV of 2021

#9 Post by Dr Amicus » Tue Feb 16, 2021 8:32 am

The new Russell T Davies series, It's a Sin, has seemingly got a lot of attention over here and very high viewing figures (especially for the channel) - and deservedly so. In format it's not dissimilar to Longtime Companion 30 years ago in that it follows a group of gay men (and their straight female friend) over the first 10 years of AIDS. Unlike the film, the friends are a mix of both class and ethnic backgrounds (maybe obviously so, but it's largely an unwinnable argument either way) with a large supporting cast of friends and family. Davies caused a stir before the series started (what - starting a publicity friendly debate just before your new series starts! Whatever next) by arguing that only gay actors should play gay characters - as indeed is the case here. Whatever the merits or otherwise of such a stance, generally it seems to work very well here - perhaps because most of the main cast are (at least to me) largely unknowns. One of the few possible "Oh it's him" moments is Stephen Fry as a Tory MP - his character seems more caricature than others and I'm not sure how much of that is Fry's casting. Neil Patrick Harris however is undeniably great and manages a decent British accent.

Anyway, I loved the show - it's moving, angry and often very funny (and quite rude!). As has been pointed out elsewhere, the timing hasnn't helped in a couple of cases - the use of isolation and full PPE for early cases seems potentially natural in COVID times whereas it's clearly intended as a condemnation of ignorance and institutional homophobia. I'm a few years younger than Davies, I was at University at the end of the 80s not the start, and in the GaySoc we did a LOT of safe sex activism - but much of it still brought back memories. Canterbury was, and is, a lot quieter than London, but the feeling of community feels familiar - and many of the characters are similar to friends from back then. Overall this is one of the best things Davies has written and likely to be one of the best shows of the year.

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Re: TV of 2021

#10 Post by bearcuborg » Wed Feb 24, 2021 8:56 pm


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HJackson
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Re: TV of 2021

#11 Post by HJackson » Thu Feb 25, 2021 7:23 am

I've long loved Frasier and know the first five or six seasons like the back of my hand but I've never actually seen the whole show through, with patchy knowledge of later seasons from random TV showings. Going through it now with a view to actually getting to the finale and I'm up to season eight, which includes a hacky "jump the shark" episode where Frasier hires an English butler. Hopefully the revival establishes a really good scenario like the pilot and then sticks to it - the original show is still entertaining up to the point I'm at, but the character dynamics have obviously decayed over time and the show has become more generic. Niles gets significantly less "uptight" and instead becomes more of a comedic weakling, Martin ceases to be a cranky ex-cop at constant odds with Frasier and instead becomes some kooky old man who buys women's glasses and loves his dog too much. Daphne just becomes a part of the furniture and that tension of her being an employee living in somebody else's home evaporates except for the odd joke about opening the door and answering the phone - that sublime season two episode where they all end up sneaking into her bedroom is unimaginable by season six or seven. Not to mention the inevitable get-together that throws everything off kilter a bit - and which would have hit harder a few seasons earlier when the characters were less familiar and more uncomfortable with each other.

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bearcuborg
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Re: TV of 2021

#12 Post by bearcuborg » Thu Feb 25, 2021 10:33 am

I too like the earlier seasons, but still enjoy the transformation of the characters, like Daphne becoming a snob like Niles. I guess the only one who doesn’t change is Roz, even though they gave her a kid nobody gave two shits about, particularly Frasier.

Without Mahoney this will be difficult to pull off, but I’ll buy whatever streaming service I need to get to see it...

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Re: TV of 2021

#13 Post by flyonthewall2983 » Thu Feb 25, 2021 11:15 am

The low point is when they had Daphne's mother and brother part of the show I felt. Other than that I never felt a real dip in quality in the later seasons.

People have made notice that Kelsey Grammer is the only cast member returning so far, so maybe it won't have any of the other characters.

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Re: TV of 2021

#14 Post by colinr0380 » Mon Mar 01, 2021 5:13 pm

I actually bought the entire run of Frasier on DVD a few months back, partly because I wanted to watch the show without the edits made for television and partly because I was getting a bit worried for Kelsey Grammer after he seemed to have ended up taking parts like the main bad guy role in the ridiculously premised Money Plane (which is basically doing that episode of The Simpsons where everyone travels out to international waters to gamble but playing it straight). Though it looked like Grammer was having a lot of fun wielding a machine gun like a modern day James Cagney and he did have some memorably profane quotes in that film that I could never imagine Frasier uttering to Niles!

(I think that I may just skip over the parts with Daphne's 'Mancunian' brothers when I re-watch Frasier!)
Last edited by colinr0380 on Fri Dec 01, 2023 12:14 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: TV of 2021

#15 Post by DandyDancing » Mon Mar 01, 2021 7:06 pm

Well, Painting with John wrapped up (its first of many seasons?) and as far as I know I'm the only person on this forum that watched it. It was thoroughly enjoyable and had the most hilarious final scene of any TV show I've seen.

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Re: TV of 2021

#16 Post by Yakushima » Tue Mar 02, 2021 1:39 am

I loved every minute of it! You are not alone!

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Re: TV of 2021

#17 Post by flyonthewall2983 » Thu Mar 25, 2021 3:13 pm

Bo Burnham cast as Larry Bird. This has a pretty stacked cast, with John C. Reilly, Adrien Brody, Sally Field and Michael Chiklis all in featured roles.

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Re: TV of 2021

#18 Post by Glowingwabbit » Fri Apr 30, 2021 8:51 am

Not sure if this is where to post this but the What We Do in the Shadows spinoff, Wellington Paranormal, is finally coming to the US. There have been 3 seasons so far in New Zealand. Very funny and definitely worth checking out if you're a fan of the movie and the TV show.


https://www.cbr.com/jemaine-clement-tai ... iere-date/

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therewillbeblus
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Re: TV of 2021

#19 Post by therewillbeblus » Wed Jun 09, 2021 10:45 pm


Shanzam
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Re: TV of 2021

#20 Post by Shanzam » Thu Jun 10, 2021 11:16 am

I am currently watching Luca Gaudagnino's drama series ¨We are who we are¨. Haven't watched all of his films yet, but I was blown away by his 2017 feature film "Call me by your name". There are a lot of similarities between the two in terms of visual aesthetics and themes - summer vibe, a clash of various cultures, young protagonists immersed in art and exploring the topics of identity, love and sexuality, and amazing OST playing a big role in setting the atmosphere. The main characters are quirky teenagers living with their families in a military camp in Italy. I enjoy it so far.

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Re: TV of 2021

#21 Post by Shanzam » Thu Jun 17, 2021 10:02 am

Shanzam wrote:
Thu Jun 10, 2021 11:16 am
I am currently watching Luca Gaudagnino's drama series ¨We are who we are¨. Haven't watched all of his films yet, but I was blown away by his 2017 feature film "Call me by your name". There are a lot of similarities between the two in terms of visual aesthetics and themes - summer vibe, a clash of various cultures, young protagonists immersed in art and exploring the topics of identity, love and sexuality, and amazing OST playing a big role in setting the atmosphere. The main characters are quirky teenagers living with their families in a military camp in Italy. I enjoy it so far.
Finished season 1 in the meantime. The series' strongest points imo are well-written complex characters and photography. I was surprised by the whole episode dedicated to explicit orgy-like scenes and the general lack of subtlety at times (based on what I've seen so far in Gaudagnino's films) but it does seem justified as the teenage rebellion is to be expected and contrasts well with a strict-rules-setting like a military base. The disparity between the officers' private and professional lives/values had enough material to be a separate series. All in all, I felt like the series needed more episodes to properly develop all its segments and themes into a unified whole (particularly its social and political context) I hope there will be season 2 at some point. Not the most best comparison, but some parts reminded me of ABC's drama series Once and again.

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Re: TV of 2021

#22 Post by The Curious Sofa » Thu Jun 17, 2021 4:24 pm

We Are Who We Are was the best thing I've seen this year, film or TV and it's Gaudagnino's best work yet. I wasn't sure about it for the first couple of episodes, Fraser initially seems like an unlikeable brat and his relationship with his mother is deeply troubling. He grew on me as the series goes on and by the end I thought Jack Dylan Glazer gave one of the best, most complex performances I've seen in recent years. The last episode had me in tears. This may also have to do with how it coincided with the 6 month lockdown we've been in where I live. The episode largely takes place at a concert and it conveys the excitement when you are young and you go to a gig and being taken away by the music and being among hundreds of people you love the same thing you do, better than anything I've seen. While I support people who identify as non-binary politically, as an ageing gay man who fought for changing what masculinity and feminist can encompass in the70s and 80s, I never quite understood it on an emotional level. This series made me understand, I actually learned something. Yet the show is never didactic or obvious, it just has a lot of empathy for its two teen characters dealing with issues of gender and sexual identity. I liked Call Me My Your Name but in retrospect, it feels like a dry run for this. Considering the series is almost all character study, with very little in terms of plot, I though the length was perfect and it worked as a stand alone with a great ending. I believe viewers for this were few, I don't know anybody personally who has even heard of it, so not sure there will be more.

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knives
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Re: TV of 2021

#23 Post by knives » Thu Jul 01, 2021 11:08 pm

(This is only sort of applicable to this thread, but since there’s a second season from this year I’m willing to post here) I just started Mythic Quest, thank you free subscriptions to crappy streamers, and it’s amazing, but I’m curious how seriously it is supposed to be taken? The first few episodes seem like a very astute parody of Sorkin, but then I just saw the flashback episode which quietly becomes one of the most disheartening episodes of television and is basically indistinguishable from what Sorkin himself would do. I’m not sure how to process the episode. Is it a sincere expression of artistic insecurities or is it teasing the idea of being invested with such characterization? In a way this was the most complex episode of television I’ve ever seen and would love to hear others thoughts on it or on the series as a whole.
Last edited by knives on Fri Jul 02, 2021 5:48 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Roger Ryan
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Re: TV of 2021

#24 Post by Roger Ryan » Fri Jul 02, 2021 5:33 pm

knives wrote:
Thu Jul 01, 2021 11:08 pm
(This is only sort of app,I able to this thread, but since there’s a second season from this year I’m willing to post here) I just started Mythic Quest, thank you free subscriptions to crappy streamers, and it’s amazing, but I’m curious how seriously it is supposed to be taken? The first few episodes seem like a very astute parody of Sorkin, but then I just saw the flashback episode which quietly becomes one of the most disheartening episodes of television and is basically indistinguishable from what Sorkin himself would do. I’m not sure how to process the episode. Is it a sincere expression of artistic insecurities or is it teasing the idea of being invested with such characterization? In a way this was the most complex episode of television I’ve ever seen and would love to hear others thoughts on it or on the series as a whole.
The New York Times' Margaret Lyons recommended skipping the entire first season of Mythic Quest and just watching the second season (which she felt was a big improvement). I'm glad I didn't take that advice as I thought the first season was great; even the pandemic lock-down episode was one of the best of that enforced mini-genre. I hadn't recognized any satirical stabs at Sorkin, but saw the show mining the same territory as Silicon Valley, but with a more humanistic bent akin to The Good Place or Parks & Recreation. The flashback episode was particularly strong and I felt it could get away with its radical tonal shift since the regular series characters did not appear - it was, essentially, a stand-alone short film that took place in the same world as the series but was almost completely divorced from the comedic style of the series. An inspired idea for a "bottle episode" that enriched the surrounding episodes. I've only watched a couple of the episodes from the second season to date, so I can't say if it puts the first season to shame. I'm not much of a gamer, but as much as I get out of this show, I imagine someone who's really into on-line RPGs would find Mythic Quest irresistible.

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knives
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Re: TV of 2021

#25 Post by knives » Sun Jul 11, 2021 12:19 am

So far season two strikes me as being as good as the first which is to say really great.

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