Exceelent TV Shows

[johnnya24]

True Detective is really something special. Best thing on TV since the departure of Breaking Bad (that includes series 3 of Sherlock)

Klondike was just OK. Probably limited and constrained by the fact it was based on the truth, but so many of the story lines were just left hanging, with only curt end-trailer summaries to wind them up. Lot's of anti-climaxes.

[heyelander]

I finally got around to watching the first season of The Newsroom this weekend. Good stuff - extremely well acted, Jeff Daniels is brilliant, all the secondary characters are excellent. I'm still trying to figure our if it's disingenuous by portraying McAvoy as a disavowed repub ... he sure feels more left than that ... maybe the second season will help with that ...

I think he's a kevin seitzer republican.

[heyelander]

True Detective is really something special. Best thing on TV since the departure of Breaking Bad (that includes series 3 of Sherlock)

it's very slow, but I am hanging on every moment.

[DMT]

Is this the new show on HBO with Woody Harrelson?

Yea, it's gotten positive reviews from everyone I know who is watching it. You gotta figure it would be good if they got Woody & Wooderson on board.

[johnnya24]

it's very slow, but I am hanging on every moment.

Yeah, the music and the setting (Louisiana) really adds to the suspense. The dialogue and interaction between the two main characters is outstanding. They seem to genuinely hate everything about each other, but it doesn't affect their working relationship or their very awkward social interactions. The casual nature of their arguments is really strange considering they are really spitefully attacking each other's beliefs ... then 20 seconds later ... back to work, business as usual.

There is a real feeling of impending doom, especially with the way they have structured the show (the flash forward interviews). It's suggesting something really bad is going to happen, but you gotta wonder what that can be, considering we are already dealing with a deranged serial killer.

I'm avoiding all websites, reviews and details. Even hearing there could be a season 2 would be a bit of a spoiler at this point.

[ironfist]

Yeah, the music and the setting (Louisiana) really adds to the suspense. The dialogue and interaction between the two main characters is outstanding. They seem to genuinely hate everything about each other, but it doesn't affect their working relationship or their very awkward social interactions. The casual nature of their arguments is really strange considering they are really spitefully attacking each other's beliefs ... then 20 seconds later ... back to work, business as usual.

There is a real feeling of impending doom, especially with the way they have structured the show (the flash forward interviews). It's suggesting something really bad is going to happen, but you gotta wonder what that can be, considering we are already dealing with a deranged serial killer.

I'm avoiding all websites, reviews and details. Even hearing there could be a season 2 would be a bit of a spoiler at this point.

I believe this is going to be an anthology series, so if there is a season two, it will be a different story

[heyelander]

I believe this is going to be an anthology series, so if there is a season two, it will be a different story

Yeah, I think they are going American Horror story with it. Different case, different detectives. On going series of season long cases.

[johnnya24]

Sons of Anarchy started off well in seasons 1 and 2, then just gradually got more and more contrived. By the end of series 4 I was forcing myself to finish it. Someone please tell me seasons 5 and 6 get better.

A few observations:

Charlie Hunnam (who I didn't realize was English until now) is really lame in a firefight. I can't stop laughing when he's chasing someone down with a gun. He prances around, fixes his hair, and shoots like he's in a 50's B-movie ... I half expect his gun to go pee-yong. Also his character gets more and more stupid and contradictory as the series goes on ... one second he's conflicted about minor criminal stuff, the next he's torturing and murdering people for fun.

Are Harley's really appropriate vehicles for high speed "car chases" ... they have the freaking turning arcs and mobility of a oil tanker.

Irish angle rant:

Spoiler!

They managed to find every decrepit corner of Belfast that presumably fits their 1970's vision of what Belfast is supposed to look like from their fireside fantasies ... they did most of the filming in the abandoned parts of the old shipyard. They needn't have bothered coming here. They even managed to dredge up some old Ford Cortinas from the late 1970's. It was like watching an old episode of the Sweeney.

Never seen or heard of a biker gang in Belfast or Northern Ireland.

The drive-by shooting from a black taxi ... could not stop laughing ... they have a top speed of like 40mph. I was praying for a low speed car chase with the Black hack, the Harley's and the Ford Cortina ... how awesome would that have been.

The accents ... dear god. I was cringing. Imaging if all the US characters sounded like Walt Jr, that's what the Belfast characters sounded like to me ... only worse.

It's a shame to see the same old phoney Irish-American vision of the Irish problem being repeated again and again. This place has been really transformed over the last 20 years ... HERE SEE! and again HERE It wouldn't matter as much, but America is still their primary source of funding (as it was during the troubles) ... donations from people who presumably believe this crap. Things like this only serve to perpetuate the lies. These days you only seem to get these extreme opinions from people who don't live here ... Scots especially.

The Real IRA are not super-organised criminals, religious devotees or extremist baby traders. The writers seem to want to take every possible Irish angle, and squeeze it into one narrative. I'm guessing most real-IRA members have never even seen the inside of a church, or can even spell the word church for that matter. The real-IRA are half-wit imbeciles who no-one wants, not even their own community. In 2009 they shot 2 people, and they called in responsibility on one of their girlfriends mobile phones. Didn't need the NSA to solve that one. They also tried to firebomb a Christmas pop-up golf store (I guess they don't like golf), and the guy planting the device set himself on fire, and was seen running through the town centre in flames. The idea that they are criminal masterminds supplying hi-tech weaponry is laughable. But I suppose it makes for good TV.

Ray McKinnon was the best thing about seasons 4 (he was amazing in Deadwood also ... the preacher who was losing his mind). This guys needs his own TV show. Agent Stahl and this guy have been the best thing about the series so far.

[heyelander]

Watched episode 5 of The Fall on netflix and was excited to see episode 6 as I thought it was finally ramping up.. only to find out that there were only 5 episodes in the season.

[BuckyBuckner]

Sons of Anarchy started off well in seasons 1 and 2, then just gradually got more and more contrived. By the end of series 4 I was forcing myself to finish it. Someone please tell me seasons 5 and 6 get better.[/IMG]

It doesn't.

[johnnya24]

Managed to get 5 episodes into season 2 of House of Cards. Top drawer stuff. Maybe doesn't have the punch of season 1 when FU was still wannabe, but intriguing nonetheless.

"The next episode will start in 15 seconds" ... that's like crack cocaine.

[Fresno Bob]

True Detective on HBO is the best new show I've seen in ages

[Erik]

Finished Season 1 of Orange Is the New Black. The second half of it was incredible, especially the last three episodes. Season 2 will be posted June 6.

[johnnya24]

Finished Season 1 of Orange Is the New Black. The second half of it was incredible, especially the last three episodes. Season 2 will be posted June 6.

The way it subtly changed tone was brilliant. Top show. 2013 was quite a year for new shows:

Rectify
House of Cards
Orange Is the New Black
The Returned
Hannibal
Top of the Lake
Master of Sex (yet to watch, but rave reviews throughout)
Broadchurch (yet to see, but all anyone was talking about when it aired)

[heyelander]

finally got around to Klondike. Nice cast, great setting, but I really didn't care too much about the story. Maybe if it was better developed, but there seemed to be so much more that could have been going on for the main story line to be a fairly generic murder mystery.