Second season of Orange is the New Black launched today.

 

Anyone else into this?

 

I have to admit to being a bit of a TV/movie-phile.  I generally buy Blu-Rays when there's a movie I want to see rather than just watching it on PPV or In-demand (I like to collect).

 

Premium TV has really been leading a creative resurgence in recent years, probably dating back to The Sopranos.  Its nice that Netflix has become a legitimate competitor for HBO (which puts out some really great shows like Sopranos, Deadwood, Boardwalk Empire, True Blood etc).

 

House of Cards was tremendous.

 

While cable channels like AMC are getting in on the act, I annoys me a bit.  The Walking Dead would be so much better on Netflix or HBO where they could truly appeal to adults (HBO passed on The Walking Dead when Thomas Jane was attached).

 

As for Orange, it took me a few episodes to get into last season but Im looking forward to banging out a few episodes tonight.

 

As an aside, for you Trekies, it was recently the 20th anniversary of the finale of TNG, one of the best Series' Finales in TV history.

Edited February 5, 20188 yr by The Unknown Poster

Anyone watching OITNB?  I just finished episode 10. Im underwhelmed. 

I find the show is at its best when dealing with serious issues and at its worst when it forces laughs. And it really has forced laughs a lot this season. It tries to be too cute.  It also plays too many serious issues for comedy and the tonal shifts just don't work (such as mental health, attempted murder etc). 

1 hour ago, The Unknown Poster said:

Anyone watching OITNB?  I just finished episode 10. Im underwhelmed. 

I find the show is at its best when dealing with serious issues and at its worst when it forces laughs. And it really has forced laughs a lot this season. It tries to be too cute.  It also plays too many serious issues for comedy and the tonal shifts just don't work (such as mental health, attempted murder etc). 

I'm looking forward to starting it next week. We're just working through House of Cards. We're at episode 8 or 9 and it's finally starting to get good.

I agree that OITNB is best when it's dealing with serious issues. They have so many compelling storylines that deal with serious issues, why downplay that aspect? I don't remember how they write the episodes (individuals or teams).

1 hour ago, JCon said:

I'm looking forward to starting it next week. We're just working through House of Cards. We're at episode 8 or 9 and it's finally starting to get good.

I agree that OITNB is best when it's dealing with serious issues. They have so many compelling storylines that deal with serious issues, why downplay that aspect? I don't remember how they write the episodes (individuals or teams).

They have show runners so even if the episodes have different writers, the tone would be consistent (or should be).  But they are actually continently inconsistent in tone.  I cant remember which season it was, 3 maybe, that was criticized for being too funny and they made the effort to be more serious in season 4.  Although I really thought the first half of season 4 sucked but the last half was really good.  I think thats where the writing is inconsistent - they get a lot better when the different story threads come together in the last few episodes because the story flows more organically.

Ill probably finish it today.

this is what happens when people bingewatch they either feel overwhelmed or underwhelmed it's like when Arrested Development arrived at Netflix
 

I felt that feeling last week when a buttload of WitWiCS episodes that I had never seen  revisted and by the time I got to a certain episode I had literally posted in the comment section "I'm not going to go to sleep tonight am I" and in another comment section I basically said "I guess not" and by the time I got to bed I was feeling awful, kind of like the couple in the latest hotels.com ad

I think I disagree.   I think the best series' are better when you can watch them in quick succession. The Sopranos certainly was better binge watching on DVD. 

If a series isn't that good because due to binging you see the logic holes and storylines don't impress then that's a fundamental weakness of the series. 

Of course the biggest negative is, as you say, not being able to pull away. And good to work very very tired. Lol

I never said it was a bad series or anything (especially since I haven't seen it)

 

and luckily for me, WitWiCS has no plot holes (well except for the episode Cuba Missing Crisis)

 

besides I'm sure you've probably finished the season by now

1 hour ago, The Unknown Poster said:

I think I disagree.   I think the best series' are better when you can watch them in quick succession. The Sopranos certainly was better binge watching on DVD. 

If a series isn't that good because due to binging you see the logic holes and storylines don't impress then that's a fundamental weakness of the series. 

Of course the biggest negative is, as you say, not being able to pull away. And good to work very very tired. Lol

Only problem I have with binge watching series, especially new ones with only 1, maybe 2 seasons, is once I burn through them, I have nothing to watch again. I still prefer to binge tho because I like being completely captivated and uninterrupted from start to finish.

the only shows I am/was watching week to week was The Walking Dead (now Fear the walking dead), The Big Bang Theory and Lucifer. Other than TWD/FTWD, I tend to forget/miss a lot of episodes on weekday programing depending whats going on otherwise (such as hockey/baseball..etc) or real life stuff that pulls me away.  

I suppose I can add Game of Thrones to my week to week viewing in a month, there is not a snowballs chance in hell I will be able to not watch it live after such a long hiatus

oh yeah withdrawals too man I should have brought that up

Finished OITNB.  I was disappointed.  No spoilers.  But it was okay in the sense I like the show so even "bad" OITNB is good.  But it was really inconsistent.  Thats a regular criticism of the show but I thought this year was particular bad.  The tone, the writing, the logic.  Very inconsistent. 

They played almost every serious moment for laughs which inevitably lessened the impact of the moments in question. 

They had characters (both inmates and authority) acting stupid to further plot developments.  And things happened because they needed to to advance the story rather then the story unfolding in an organic way leading to plausible things.

I get that part of the appeal is its funny.  Funny characters can be funny.  And its emotionally resonant when a funny character has a serious moment or a serious character as a funny moment.  But literally everyone slipped back and forth between cracking jokes to emoting deep feelings.  Rather than being a satisfying roller coaster, it was more of a rickety old roller coaster with few thrills.

And this is a positive review because I *like* the show.  But they need to add a couple of better writers to weed out the crap.

Excited  to watch Oh, Hello on Netflix! John Mulaney and Nick Kroll are both hilarious, and all of the clips they put on Twitter from the Broadway run were awesome.

Anyone else go see Mulaney when he was in town a few weeks ago? My face hurt from laughing by the end of it.

Edited June 13, 20178 yr by nate007

attention American Crime Story fans: http://tvline.com/2017/06/13/american-crime-story-versace-season-2-katrina-delayed/#comment-list-wrapper

guess which news network is dropping their slogan, but then again have they really?

http://tvline.com/2017/06/14/fox-news-fair-and-balanced-slogan-dropped-roger-ailes/#comment-list-wrapper

Figured I could ask this in the TV thread.  I think we discussed this very subject a year or two ago but I cant remmeber lol

Thinking of upgrading my TV from a 9 year old Toshiba 52" 1080P.  Im willing to spend money for something truly magnificent with the intent of it lasting ten years+ also.

I was leaning towards a 75" Sony - 4K ofcourse but not OLED.  I've now become intrigued with a 65" LG OLED (the E7) which is on sale for $2000 off.

The sales guy encouraged me to go with the smaller (and less expensive) LG because of the unmatched picture quality and the future proof aspect as it included HDR10 support as well as Dolby Vision support.  But others have said get the largest TV you can afford.

I think Im leaning towards the LG for quality but I dont want to spend a lot of money and wish I had got the 75".  The 65" will still be considerably larger than my current 52".  A 75" would be monstrous...probably in a good way but there is also the issue of going too big.  The savings of the LG are nice in the sense I'd want a high quality 4K Blu Ray player as well...

My question is, for you all, what would you do?  What do you have?  What went into your decision-making process etc?  I end up doing lots of research for big purchases and agonize over it...lol 

For me, it would come down to LG vs Sony, and I generally go LG all day. With TVs, there becomes a point where it's almost TOO big, and you're better off going projector anyhow. I'm not sure I'd go as big as 75" with a non-projector ever. Depending on the size of your room, the 65 should be PLENTY, and if you accompany it with a killer sound system, you're going to have a GREAT entertainment package.

I just bought a 55" Sony 4K HD TV for my basement that we just finished, literally two days ago.  I did tons of research and I just liked what I saw better from the Sony.  I'm sure LG is fine as well.  I haven't fired it up yet, it's still in box as I need to install the TV mount first and I just haven't had time.  It was on sale at Visions for $998 and I got the last one in stock on Regent.  Guy gave me a deal on the warranty too, which I don't usually buy, but I figured it was on sale so whatever.  I'll let you know once I fire it up what the picture quality is compared to my 58" Toshiba upstairs, which is a regular 1080P like yours, but not as old.

I just heard that CMT is eyeing to save Last Man Standing

 

I think CMT should probably change it's slogan to "We pick up after ABC's garbage" because the network has been dumping their shows when people are still watching them, first Nashville now maybe Last Man Standing

1 hour ago, iHeart said:

I just heard that CMT is eyeing to save Last Man Standing

 

I think CMT should probably change it's slogan to "We pick up after ABC's garbage" because the network has been dumping their shows when people are still watching them, first Nashville now maybe Last Man Standing

I would not have called Nashville garbage.

I never called Nashville garbage, I referred to it as such because ABC keeps throwing their show that still had life in  them away

http://tvline.com/2017/06/19/last-man-standing-no-season-7-revival-cmt-cancelled/

On 6/15/2017 at 10:10 AM, The Unknown Poster said:

Figured I could ask this in the TV thread.  I think we discussed this very subject a year or two ago but I cant remmeber lol

Thinking of upgrading my TV from a 9 year old Toshiba 52" 1080P.  Im willing to spend money for something truly magnificent with the intent of it lasting ten years+ also.

I was leaning towards a 75" Sony - 4K ofcourse but not OLED.  I've now become intrigued with a 65" LG OLED (the E7) which is on sale for $2000 off.

The sales guy encouraged me to go with the smaller (and less expensive) LG because of the unmatched picture quality and the future proof aspect as it included HDR10 support as well as Dolby Vision support.  But others have said get the largest TV you can afford.

I think Im leaning towards the LG for quality but I dont want to spend a lot of money and wish I had got the 75".  The 65" will still be considerably larger than my current 52".  A 75" would be monstrous...probably in a good way but there is also the issue of going too big.  The savings of the LG are nice in the sense I'd want a high quality 4K Blu Ray player as well...

My question is, for you all, what would you do?  What do you have?  What went into your decision-making process etc?  I end up doing lots of research for big purchases and agonize over it...lol 

I went to a 60" Samsung 4K for my newly refurbished basement and it's plenty big (standard St. James bungalow).  Keep in mind that there is not a lot of 4K content outside of Youtube right now, but it is coming.  Also keep in mind that if you want to watch 4K Blu Ray, you need a true 4K blu ray player - not a 4K upconverting etc.  Save the money on the bigger TV and spend it on a proper 4K blu ray player.  Just my 2 cents.

@Wideleft I went with quality over quantity (and actually the 75" non-OLED was MORE than the 65" OLED I got).  Got the LG OLED E7.  And then went out and bought the OPPO 203 4K Blu Ray Player.  Magnificent.

While I'm on this thread, is anyone else watching Fargo season 3 or Better Call Saul?  Those are 2 amazing series.

Been watching Fear the Walking Dead, and this past episode was 99.99% in spanish. I don't mind reading a subtitle here and there but for a whole episode is kind of bunk. Reminds we of when I went and saw that movie Brotherhood of the Wolf years ago. When you spend your time reading the bottom of the screen you tend to miss a lot of the acting.

That said I can't say I've really been enjoying this season so far (about 3-4 episodes in). Now that they are off the boat,  out of Mexico and the little "Post apocalyptic" communities seems to be a thing now, it's literally become The Walking Dead lite with an inferior cast imo.

Best thing FTWD could do is have the main cast somehow stumble upon an iconic villain from TWD and showcase how they came to be.  It's too bad "the Governor" had a full episode dedicated to his background as they could have gone a long way in how he ended up in Woodbury and as their leader. 

Same with Negan, but since that story is still in progress, no chance Jeffrey Dean Morgan would be able to commit to anything more than cameos so that's likely not going to happen, or at least for a long time. 

4 minutes ago, Wideleft said:

While I'm on this thread, is anyone else watching Fargo season 3 or Better Call Saul?  Those are 2 amazing series.

After watching Breaking Bad I watched the first season of Better Call Saul, and it was alright,  nothing mindblowing imo.  I really had trouble staying interested in the beginning of season 2 so i kind of gave up.  But I keep seeing a lot of commercial hyping it's current state. I'd be interested in picking up that show again if they bring back Gus Fring

I have FTWD on the PVR but havent got to it yet.  The gf is a HUGE TWD fan but she gave up on Fear pretty quickly.  It absolutely failed to deliver on its promise.  They never really showed us anything.  It was a poor man's TWD almost from the start, just "earlier".

They could have taken the concept of the outbreak and made it last multiple seasons if showing us a perspective we give a **** about.  Not average people...we see that and a lot better in the main show.  Show us the perspective of the leadership.

The CDC guy from TWD was really interesting.  There was a military chopper shown in TWD too, indicating some command & control still existed.

the idea that the President and Cabinet/Congress are all dead doesnt make a lot of sense.  If that's true, show us that.  That this out break could spread globally so fast as to catch everyone off guard?  Show us that.

For example, in TWD, it made sense to go to the CDC since they were near Atlanta anyway.  Big city etc.  Made sense.  But now they just wander around... go to Washington.  That was their plan with Eugene.  Why not go there?  If there is any leadership in control, they are there.  If there isn't, then they are probably holed up in an under ground bumker in Wyoming or some place.  But you want a protected location?  Go to the pentagon or the White House.