Let's Talk Television

Just noticed that Reetae has finally, years later posted the last part of his amazing Lost Review, now totaling well over 9 hours. It's almost to the Plinkett level of brilliance, it really us, and you don't have to know or care of Lost at all to get immersed into the ludicrousness of that show. Highly recommend

Few years old, but really cool time lapse into writing process of Breaking Bad (ep S05E04) I hadn't seen before. I'd love to just stroll around there drinking coffee all week like they do and coming up with ideas

https://vimeo.com/100638526

Bates Motel came to and end this week. Only started watching a couple months ago, wish I'd caught onto it sooner. Such a fantastic show I'm glad got to run it's course.

Roseanne Revival Series In the Works

I am absolutely in love with the Man in the High Castle. I just finished both seasons and it's the only thing on my mind. HIGHLY RECOMMEND#

That's a show I been meaning to check ever since it came out, but never got around to it. I'll try to remember to check the pilot soon-ish

Not a big fan of summer, but it does mean several season premieres coming up. Most of all, I can't wait for third season of Another Period to start. It's probably the best thing ever in the category of "in-your face insane comedy". Which is not a thing that usually is something I care for, because people either try too hard or the jokes just fall flat, but here it works perfectly. The parodied reality show aspect isn't even the most interesting side of it, but the surprisingly historically accurate* - well within comedy parameters - satire of the ridiculous class structures at the start of the 20th century. They really studied the history books and not just slapped something together out of their asses, which I very much appreciate. Also the characters make Austin Powers look sane. Hopefully this season will be as amazing as the show's been for the last couple of summers.



*It's funny that all-out crazy show like this is so much more accurate and realistic than something like When Calls the Heart, which actually seriously attempts to create drama for a period decade later, 1910's. Yet it fails miserably in authenticity, their clothing and stylizing department in particular is like the worst ever. Season 1 was passable-ish I guess but then it turned into absurdity when everybody gave up on trying to bother with anything. Those characters in that show might just as well all be from 2017, wearing newest fashion brand clothing, makeup and hairstyles when going to freaking opera. I can't think of a more terrible historical inaccuracy in modern television*. I mean what the hell is this sh*t below, supposedly trying to present 1910's middle class people in rural backwater Canada in the middle of nowhere? It's a joke, that's what it is. Total joke.



*Well okay. The only more obscure example of laughable historical accuracy comes from Xena (/Hercules TLJ), where you know absolutely nothing in the setting or landscape or clothes or happenings or timeline or characters or whatever makes sense whatsoever. But that's because it's camp! It's a land of so-bad-it's-funny historical inaccuracies yes, and those inaccuracies are especially hilarious in episodes that try to act serious, but at the same time it's also a land of gods, monsters, centaurs and whatever! And even the parts that try to mimic the ancient Greek mythology are mostly fabricated on purpose. It's silly by design. That's one of the reasons why I love Xena so much... it's just whatever goes



Hercules is nowhere near as good, not by long shot, but one of my favorite lines ever comes from standout episode there where someone says " Listen, I know this ain't Shakespeare", as reference to the show itself lol.

Anyone else watching Better Call Saul season 3? This is getting into some really good television again, the last couple of episodes have been pretty amazing. I mean season 2 was pretty good, but I thought still bit of a slump after the first season, and now they are getting back on rails again. Both Jimmy and Mike story lines are becoming extremely interesting, minute by minute, and obviously with Gus now on the frame as well it starts to break into the Breaking Bad territory ever so more.

Which is something they could've screwed up easily, but they handle it pretty damn good actually. You know the recurring appearances and linkups, while still holding personal identity to this show. That's not to say every reference to Breaking Bad has been necessary, and I don't think it needs to be quite as connected as the writers seem to be pushing it. Some of it is admittedly tad clunky. But for the most part they seem to know how to execute this kind of thing. Most of all the conflict with the cartel side is really exciting and actually links up with the story. I'm really happy they brought back Don Eladio and associates for this latest episode for example, because it's not forced. It's appropriate. And away from that, Jimmy vs Chuck is escalating into all-out war.

Really hoping AMC doesn't cancel it, and we get season 4. I hear the ratings have gone down a bit, but hopefully that doesn't discourage the network.

HBO Eyeing Multiple Game of Thrones Spinoffs

That is disappointing. I don't want them disney/marvel'fying Westeros. I could live with one spinoff, but not multiple. The desire to cash on it seems high. Multiple efforts will also lead to concentrating less on making one product great.

Also, I tried to watch the pilot for that Man in the High Castle show, but I couldn't finish it. I mean the premise is interesting, but the exposition is clunky and acting wooden. Maybe it gets better, but usually when I'm not particularly convinced by pilot I don't continue on. Yes, even acknowledging that many great shows have had not so amazing starts in history, Star Trek shows being the prime example of course.

Mistral wrote:

Anyone else watching Better Call Saul season 3? This is getting into some really good television again, the last couple of episodes have been pretty amazing. I mean season 2 was pretty good, but I thought still bit of a slump after the first season, and now they are getting back on rails again. Both Jimmy and Mike story lines are becoming extremely interesting, minute by minute, and obviously with Gus now on the frame as well it starts to break into the Breaking Bad territory ever so more.

Which is something they could've screwed up easily, but they handle it pretty damn good actually. You know the recurring appearances and linkups, while still holding personal identity to this show. That's not to say every reference to Breaking Bad has been necessary, and I don't think it needs to be quite as connected as the writers seem to be pushing it. Some of it is admittedly tad clunky. But for the most part they seem to know how to execute this kind of thing. Most of all the conflict with the cartel side is really exciting and actually links up with the story. I'm really happy they brought back Don Eladio and associates for this latest episode for example, because it's not forced. It's appropriate. And away from that, Jimmy vs Chuck is escalating into all-out war.

Really hoping AMC doesn't cancel it, and we get season 4. I hear the ratings have gone down a bit, but hopefully that doesn't discourage the network.

I'm behind, I haven't seen the last 3 episodes yet, I've gotta get to it this weekend. That said, I wouldn't worry yet. While ratings dipping are never good, Breaking Bad was actually pretty mediocre in ratings for much of its run. The current Netflix culture really brought that show up because despite always being fantastic, it didn't really catch on until binge watching did. You can check the ratings and see that while the first few seasons had decent viewership, it shot extremely far up at season 5, especially for the final half.

TheDreamMaster wrote:

Mistral wrote:

Anyone else watching Better Call Saul season 3? This is getting into some really good television again, the last couple of episodes have been pretty amazing. I mean season 2 was pretty good, but I thought still bit of a slump after the first season, and now they are getting back on rails again. Both Jimmy and Mike story lines are becoming extremely interesting, minute by minute, and obviously with Gus now on the frame as well it starts to break into the Breaking Bad territory ever so more.

Which is something they could've screwed up easily, but they handle it pretty damn good actually. You know the recurring appearances and linkups, while still holding personal identity to this show. That's not to say every reference to Breaking Bad has been necessary, and I don't think it needs to be quite as connected as the writers seem to be pushing it. Some of it is admittedly tad clunky. But for the most part they seem to know how to execute this kind of thing. Most of all the conflict with the cartel side is really exciting and actually links up with the story. I'm really happy they brought back Don Eladio and associates for this latest episode for example, because it's not forced. It's appropriate. And away from that, Jimmy vs Chuck is escalating into all-out war.

Really hoping AMC doesn't cancel it, and we get season 4. I hear the ratings have gone down a bit, but hopefully that doesn't discourage the network.

I'm behind, I haven't seen the last 3 episodes yet, I've gotta get to it this weekend. That said, I wouldn't worry yet. While ratings dipping are never good, Breaking Bad was actually pretty mediocre in ratings for much of its run. The current Netflix culture really brought that show up because despite always being fantastic, it didn't really catch on until binge watching did. You can check the ratings and see that while the first few seasons had decent viewership, it shot extremely far up at season 5, especially for the final half.

Yeah, but it's difficult to imagine the ratings going up from this point either, because everybody knows the property and format already. And at the end the studios don't care of reasons, only the numbers. But hopefully they'll renew it.

You've only seen the season premiere of BCS 3? That's more like alright catching up episode, the three after that are really great.

Spoiler:

Mistral wrote:

That's a show I been meaning to check ever since it came out, but never got around to it. I'll try to remember to check the pilot soon-ish

Def would check it out if you have the time.

Btw I dig your profile pic a lot (Gravity Falls fanboy here lol). Is Wendy possessed by Bill Cipher or does she have lemon juice in her eyes?

Richard Levine wrote:

Mistral wrote:

That's a show I been meaning to check ever since it came out, but never got around to it. I'll try to remember to check the pilot soon-ish

Def would check it out if you have the time.

Btw I dig your profile pic a lot (Gravity Falls fanboy here lol). Is Wendy possessed by Bill Cipher or does she have lemon juice in her eyes?

Yeah I kind of checked the pilot, as I said couple of posts above, not sure if my thing

Good to have even more Gravity Falls fans here. And yes it's the 'usual' reasoning for her mood

It looks like American Idol is coming back. This time on ABC. Because the 2016 presidential election wasn't enough of a reality show.....


Sony Pictures and Universal are both aiming to get Funimation. One movie/tv branch that's imploding and burning against another one that I don't fully trust since they rarely plan thing out. That's just great... I trust WB or Fox far more then these two.

Rhedosaurus wrote:

Sony Pictures and Universal are both aiming to get Funimation. One movie/tv branch that's imploding and burning against another one that I don't fully trust since they rarely plan thing out. That's just great... I trust WB or Fox far more then these two.

I still put way more stock in Universal rather than Sony any day.

However, I would be interested in a video/research piece showing the degrees to which Universal really aren't as competent as WB or Disney. I know you expressed interest in Midnight's Edge doing something on it, but I would be curious as to what your own take would be either as a video or forum post.

BarrytheOnyx wrote:

Rhedosaurus wrote:

Sony Pictures and Universal are both aiming to get Funimation. One movie/tv branch that's imploding and burning against another one that I don't fully trust since they rarely plan thing out. That's just great... I trust WB or Fox far more then these two.

I still put way more stock in Universal rather than Sony any day.

However, I would be interested in a video/research piece showing the degrees to which Universal really aren't as competent as WB or Disney. I know you expressed interest in Midnight's Edge doing something on it, but I would be curious as to what your own take would be either as a video or forum post.

Basically, I see Universal as a company that since 2000, does not have many long term plans and basically throws things to the wall and run with what sticks. If anything else, the only great movie they've made since 2000 was the 2005 King Kong remake, but that was far more Peter Jackson then Universal. Everything else since then has been hit-or-miss. The F&F movie series is basically their Transformers movie franchise. The biggest difference is that at least the Transformers movie series has more interesting stuff-human alien interaction, AI, the old man vs. machine, high tech weapons, history, stuff like that. The F&F series doesn't have that and is far more dumber. And yet, I can't help but think that Universal cares more about that then with the JP franchise.

Which leads me to how they have made mistake after mistake with the franchise since TLW. With JP3, Universal made it for the sake of a JP trilogy and it clearly shows. Not only that, but we all know the faults with that movie. Add in the merry-go-round of scripts, directors, producers, actors/actresses, and release dates, and JW was ultimately a movie that was made for the sake of Universal getting that albatross of it's back. I still like the movie, but I can't deny that it should have been much better then what it was. And let's not forget how they really don't care much about the canon. Hopefully, the first 2 sequels get ensured as canon with JW2/JP5, but if they don't I wouldn't be surprised. Besides, if they do get the rights back, I don't think things will improve. The best thing for the franchise would be to make a trilogy that connects the two trilogies and properly explain a lot of things. I.E. Ret-con the JP3 Spino as a Spino/T. rex hybrid and show 'real' Spinosaurs instead of force feeding the JW Spino skeleton as the JP3 Spino which is what they tried to do. If anything else, I think that they would reboot the whole thing, which would be a wasted opportunity and besides, I would distrust them even more.

I don't think this current business method will last much longer. Besides, once the F&F franchise ends/gets overmilked and if they lose the JP rights, then what else do they have that's a blockbuster? Not much. The Bourne series is kind of a James Bond knockoff and the Monsterverse has had a bad start and was modified quite a bit.


That's my overall take on Universal as of now.

I've noticed you seem very attached to how well or poorly big studios / distribution companies are doing, creatively and financially. Sometimes like it's matter of life and death. Are you working in the business or where does this fascination come from?

Also, and this needs repeating... Forbes can forget me going to their site as long as they require disabling adblock. No way in hell

Mistral wrote:

I've noticed you seem very attached to how well or poorly big studios / distribution companies are doing, creatively and financially. Sometimes like it's matter of life and death. Are you working in the business or where does this fascination come from?

The behind the scenes parts really interest me. You rarely hear about what happens behind the curtain except for news stories on respected internet sites and leaks on Reddit and 4Chan, which have a proven track record of being accurate. Besides, movies are a part of life and pop culture and so are the stories and business deals behind them.

Rhedosaurus wrote:

Mistral wrote:

I've noticed you seem very attached to how well or poorly big studios / distribution companies are doing, creatively and financially. Sometimes like it's matter of life and death. Are you working in the business or where does this fascination come from?

The behind the scenes parts really interest me. You rarely hear about what happens behind the curtain except for news stories on respected internet sites and leaks on Reddit and 4Chan, which have a proven track record of being accurate. Besides, movies are a part of life and pop culture and so are the stories and business deals behind them.

What about the smaller companies? I think you mainly discuss just the multi billion dollar powerhouses

Mistral wrote:

Rhedosaurus wrote:

Mistral wrote:

I've noticed you seem very attached to how well or poorly big studios / distribution companies are doing, creatively and financially. Sometimes like it's matter of life and death. Are you working in the business or where does this fascination come from?

The behind the scenes parts really interest me. You rarely hear about what happens behind the curtain except for news stories on respected internet sites and leaks on Reddit and 4Chan, which have a proven track record of being accurate. Besides, movies are a part of life and pop culture and so are the stories and business deals behind them.

What about the smaller companies? I think you mainly discuss just the multi billion dollar powerhouses

The bigger the companies, the bigger the screw ups. Besides, many smaller companies are really proxies/branches of the big companies. Case in point, did you know that the movie studio that made Super Mario Bros. was really a Disney company? It's true.

Rhedosaurus wrote:

Mistral wrote:

Rhedosaurus wrote:

Mistral wrote:

I've noticed you seem very attached to how well or poorly big studios / distribution companies are doing, creatively and financially. Sometimes like it's matter of life and death. Are you working in the business or where does this fascination come from?

The behind the scenes parts really interest me. You rarely hear about what happens behind the curtain except for news stories on respected internet sites and leaks on Reddit and 4Chan, which have a proven track record of being accurate. Besides, movies are a part of life and pop culture and so are the stories and business deals behind them.

What about the smaller companies? I think you mainly discuss just the multi billion dollar powerhouses

The bigger the companies, the bigger the screw ups. Besides, many smaller companies are really proxies/branches of the big companies. Case in point, did you know that the movie studio that made Super Mario Bros. was really a Disney company? It's true.

No, but I've never watched that film and never knew who made in the first place

What's MGM doing these days btw? Crap it seems, by quick look at their releases. But they do still produce Vikings, which I appreciate

Mistral wrote:

Rhedosaurus wrote:

Mistral wrote:

Rhedosaurus wrote:

Mistral wrote:

I've noticed you seem very attached to how well or poorly big studios / distribution companies are doing, creatively and financially. Sometimes like it's matter of life and death. Are you working in the business or where does this fascination come from?

The behind the scenes parts really interest me. You rarely hear about what happens behind the curtain except for news stories on respected internet sites and leaks on Reddit and 4Chan, which have a proven track record of being accurate. Besides, movies are a part of life and pop culture and so are the stories and business deals behind them.

What about the smaller companies? I think you mainly discuss just the multi billion dollar powerhouses

The bigger the companies, the bigger the screw ups. Besides, many smaller companies are really proxies/branches of the big companies. Case in point, did you know that the movie studio that made Super Mario Bros. was really a Disney company? It's true.

No, but I've never watched that film and never knew who made in the first place

What's MGM doing these days btw? Crap it seems, by quick look at their releases. But they do still produce Vikings, which I appreciate

Not much. Their recent big movie was the Ben-Hur remake and it bombed really hard.

Rhedosaurus wrote:

Mistral wrote:

Rhedosaurus wrote:

Mistral wrote:

Rhedosaurus wrote:

Mistral wrote:

I've noticed you seem very attached to how well or poorly big studios / distribution companies are doing, creatively and financially. Sometimes like it's matter of life and death. Are you working in the business or where does this fascination come from?

The behind the scenes parts really interest me. You rarely hear about what happens behind the curtain except for news stories on respected internet sites and leaks on Reddit and 4Chan, which have a proven track record of being accurate. Besides, movies are a part of life and pop culture and so are the stories and business deals behind them.

What about the smaller companies? I think you mainly discuss just the multi billion dollar powerhouses

The bigger the companies, the bigger the screw ups. Besides, many smaller companies are really proxies/branches of the big companies. Case in point, did you know that the movie studio that made Super Mario Bros. was really a Disney company? It's true.

No, but I've never watched that film and never knew who made in the first place

What's MGM doing these days btw? Crap it seems, by quick look at their releases. But they do still produce Vikings, which I appreciate

Not much. Their recent big movie was the Ben-Hur remake and it bombed really hard.

But how can a 100 million dollar reboot that nobody wants to see possibly be flopping?

Rhedosaurus wrote:

Basically, I see Universal as a company that since 2000, does not have many long term plans and basically throws things to the wall and run with what sticks. If anything else, the only great movie they've made since 2000 was the 2005 King Kong remake, but that was far more Peter Jackson then Universal. Everything else since then has been hit-or-miss. The F&F movie series is basically their Transformers movie franchise. The biggest difference is that at least the Transformers movie series has more interesting stuff-human alien interaction, AI, the old man vs. machine, high tech weapons, history, stuff like that. The F&F series doesn't have that and is far more dumber. And yet, I can't help but think that Universal cares more about that then with the JP franchise.

Which leads me to how they have made mistake after mistake with the franchise since TLW. With JP3, Universal made it for the sake of a JP trilogy and it clearly shows. Not only that, but we all know the faults with that movie. Add in the merry-go-round of scripts, directors, producers, actors/actresses, and release dates, and JW was ultimately a movie that was made for the sake of Universal getting that albatross of it's back. I still like the movie, but I can't deny that it should have been much better then what it was. And let's not forget how they really don't care much about the canon. Hopefully, the first 2 sequels get ensured as canon with JW2/JP5, but if they don't I wouldn't be surprised. Besides, if they do get the rights back, I don't think things will improve. The best thing for the franchise would be to make a trilogy that connects the two trilogies and properly explain a lot of things. I.E. Ret-con the JP3 Spino as a Spino/T. rex hybrid and show 'real' Spinosaurs instead of force feeding the JW Spino skeleton as the JP3 Spino which is what they tried to do. If anything else, I think that they would reboot the whole thing, which would be a wasted opportunity and besides, I would distrust them even more.

I don't think this current business method will last much longer. Besides, once the F&F franchise ends/gets overmilked and if they lose the JP rights, then what else do they have that's a blockbuster? Not much. The Bourne series is kind of a James Bond knockoff and the Monsterverse has had a bad start and was modified quite a bit.


That's my overall take on Universal as of now.

Thanks for the detailed and interesting post.

And yes, the more you look into it the more I feel like the ground beneath Universal feet is nowhere near as steady as most people think it is, even when compared to struggling film studios. Warner Bros had great management for much o the 2000s and it really showed in their high quality output. Disney pulled through their Michael Eisner years in the mid 2000s with competent/lucrative live action blockbusters such as Pirates of the Caribbean, National Treasure and Narnia after their main animation branch faltered. Now look where they are. What potential there is in a reboot of the Universal Monsters is not being well demonstrated in these marketing pieces for The Mummy, especially since the Brendan Fraser movies are still fresh in people's memory.

You say things won't improve for the JP franchise, even with Bayona directing. Did I miss something? Or would you chalk that up to the films needing better scripts in the future? If James Cromwell's recent interview was anything to go by, things behind the studio walls just might be going smoothly. We still need to see the next film before we can prognosticate the future of the franchise beyond that. Hopefully we'll be on the same page then.

With that said, a prediction I've fostered for a while regarding Universal and Jurassic Park is that once they lose the rights and finish the sequel trilogy, they will probably find another dinosaur/creature/monster property to replace JP. Hypothetically, it would be kinda like how Disney and Jerry Bruckheimer tried to find a replacement for Pirates of the Caribbean with Prince of Persia and The Lone Ranger in which you had similar fantasy/period piece action movies made by the same people. Unfortunately, the chances of said replacement series being well-made and good is a gamble of long odds

This discussion should really be relocated to the movie thread.

Bruce Campbell talks about the past season of Ash vs Evil Dead and other stuff:

Star Trek Discovery premiere expected in fall now, with the help of Netflix. But it will only be in Netflix outside United States, the americans still need CBS All-Access. Anyway, the production is apparently/supposedly progressing "extremely well"
https://www.inverse.com/article/31214-star-trek-discovery-premiere-date-netflix-fall-2017-cbs

Little Women is coming to TV... again. Never mind the other countless adaptations, but even for BBC alone it's the fourth time already.
http://nerdist.com/bbc-is-adapting-war-of-the-worlds-and-little-women-for-tv/

Also it's going to be remade again for film too, for the billionth time, as casting call was made in January already. It's basically like Wizard of Oz in that regards. But IMO nothing can top the 1994 version, it's just so good

USA Announces Small Screen Psych Movie

ABC is Bringing Back American Idol for the 2017-2018 Season

Season 4 of Sleepy Hollow is the last season. It's been canceled by Fox due to poor ratings.

I see they're making Heathers into TV series adaptation, with TV movie + 10 episode order for TV Land.

I don't know if they're setting it into 80's or modern times but in any case, call me skeptical but I don't have high hopes of this doing well. The film worked so well for very specific circumstances and one of those factors was the authenticity of the 80's. If Miami Vice was the 80's time capsule in the TV world, then Heathers was the similar capsule for the movies. The concept works in that world but hardly anywhere else, even if tried to replicate again. Also I don't know how they could play the black comedy aspect to the same tune, and no replacement actors can top the originals. Even though Shannen Doherty is coming back for some reason.

Recently, Scream Queens tried to mimic the similar "bitch order" from Heathers, and while it wasn't bad, they didn't seem like real humans, more like cartoonish comedy acts. I think the similar will happen here.

Despite great ratings, Last Man Standing has been canceled by ABC. A lot of people think that it's due to political reasons, since Tim Allen mocked anti-Trump liberals.