Last TV series you watched and your rating

Albear wrote:
Had to stop about 20 mins into the last episode and haven't been able to sum up the will to go back in and finish it off.

Hang on...someones at the front door

Halfway through the penultimate season of rewatching Parks and Rec now and it is getting increasingly hard going, the will to press on is definitely diminishing! I'd say the show probably peaked around season 3/4 and it quite quickly drops from that place over 5 and 6.

Many of the existing characters have largely become caricatures of themselves, amping up some of their worst characteristics and the show just relies way to heavily on the standard US sitcom setup of repeating the same jokes/situations over and over with rapidly diminishing returns. They have also given increasing screen time to some of the worst secondary characters - the likes of Jean-Ralphio and his sister are so strawberry floating awful but seem to pop up all the time. It's the same with Leslie's city council antagonist Jeremy Jamm, these characters provided a bit of a laugh as a one time "ho ho look what a cock this person is being!" scenario, but you can't just keep going back to that well constantly! Oh and don't even get me started on Billy Eichner's Craig who arrives in season 6. Again the "annoying character" trope is tired but can have results if implemented correctly, Craig is just plain awful.

To pick on a particular bug-bear that has increasingly annoyed me: the whole "everyone hates Jerry/Garry/Larry" trope was tired when they first deployed it but at least it was used relatively sparingly early on, now it seems like everyone is just constantly being a strawberry floating banana split towards Jerry for no reason, and it's not even funny! It's a tired lift of the Michael Scott / Toby Flenderson dynamic from the US version of the office but without the same setup and justification. Michael hates Toby because he reminds him that he's supposed to be doing a job and managing the office, Toby's whole existence as the HR rep and promoter/defender of the corporate line stands in direct opposition to Michael's desire to see work as a place to have fun and doss about. Michael tearing into Toby both made sense and was funny because of how extreme it was, but with Jerry it's just cruelty. Also in The Office it isn't a pile on, nobody else in the office is on Michael's side and they are all generally nice to Toby but for some reason P&R just has everyone being a gooseberry fool to Jerry regardless of reason or motivation. Same with the constant "WTF!? How did Jerry get a hot wife and kids!!?!?" schtick, maybe because he's not a complete banana split like the rest of you assholes.

There are still laughs to be had for sure, Swanson will never fail to be excellent value for money for instance, but for me it's just really hard to call it a great show when there is so much other stuff dragging it down.

Lovecraft Country 6.5/10

Really strong first couple of episodes, but after that falls off a lot. The structure is weird constantly introducing new elements then resolving them the same episode whilst the main plot stands still. It's a real shame as there's some really good stuff in here but by the end I was just wanting it to finish. I'd recommend it if you like the sound of 1950s racial tension mixed with fantasy (just don't expect anything great) but otherwise avoid.

Jenuall wrote:Halfway through the penultimate season of rewatching Parks and Rec now and it is getting increasingly hard going, the will to press on is definitely diminishing! I'd say the show probably peaked around season 3/4 and it quite quickly drops from that place over 5 and 6.

Many of the existing characters have largely become caricatures of themselves, amping up some of their worst characteristics and the show just relies way to heavily on the standard US sitcom setup of repeating the same jokes/situations over and over with rapidly diminishing returns. They have also given increasing screen time to some of the worst secondary characters - the likes of Jean-Ralphio and his sister are so strawberry floating awful but seem to pop up all the time. It's the same with Leslie's city council antagonist Jeremy Jamm, these characters provided a bit of a laugh as a one time "ho ho look what a cock this person is being!" scenario, but you can't just keep going back to that well constantly! Oh and don't even get me started on Billy Eichner's Craig who arrives in season 6. Again the "annoying character" trope is tired but can have results if implemented correctly, Craig is just plain awful.

To pick on a particular bug-bear that has increasingly annoyed me: the whole "everyone hates Jerry/Garry/Larry" trope was tired when they first deployed it but at least it was used relatively sparingly early on, now it seems like everyone is just constantly being a strawberry floating banana split towards Jerry for no reason, and it's not even funny! It's a tired lift of the Michael Scott / Toby Flenderson dynamic from the US version of the office but without the same setup and justification. Michael hates Toby because he reminds him that he's supposed to be doing a job and managing the office, Toby's whole existence as the HR rep and promoter/defender of the corporate line stands in direct opposition to Michael's desire to see work as a place to have fun and doss about. Michael tearing into Toby both made sense and was funny because of how extreme it was, but with Jerry it's just cruelty. Also in The Office it isn't a pile on, nobody else in the office is on Michael's side and they are all generally nice to Toby but for some reason P&R just has everyone being a gooseberry fool to Jerry regardless of reason or motivation. Same with the constant "WTF!? How did Jerry get a hot wife and kids!!?!?" schtick, maybe because he's not a complete banana split like the rest of you assholes.

There are still laughs to be had for sure, Swanson will never fail to be excellent value for money for instance, but for me it's just really hard to call it a great show when there is so much other stuff dragging it down.

Hard Yikes.

Drumstick wrote:

Jenuall wrote:Halfway through the penultimate season of rewatching Parks and Rec now and it is getting increasingly hard going, the will to press on is definitely diminishing! I'd say the show probably peaked around season 3/4 and it quite quickly drops from that place over 5 and 6.

Many of the existing characters have largely become caricatures of themselves, amping up some of their worst characteristics and the show just relies way to heavily on the standard US sitcom setup of repeating the same jokes/situations over and over with rapidly diminishing returns. They have also given increasing screen time to some of the worst secondary characters - the likes of Jean-Ralphio and his sister are so strawberry floating awful but seem to pop up all the time. It's the same with Leslie's city council antagonist Jeremy Jamm, these characters provided a bit of a laugh as a one time "ho ho look what a cock this person is being!" scenario, but you can't just keep going back to that well constantly! Oh and don't even get me started on Billy Eichner's Craig who arrives in season 6. Again the "annoying character" trope is tired but can have results if implemented correctly, Craig is just plain awful.

To pick on a particular bug-bear that has increasingly annoyed me: the whole "everyone hates Jerry/Garry/Larry" trope was tired when they first deployed it but at least it was used relatively sparingly early on, now it seems like everyone is just constantly being a strawberry floating banana split towards Jerry for no reason, and it's not even funny! It's a tired lift of the Michael Scott / Toby Flenderson dynamic from the US version of the office but without the same setup and justification. Michael hates Toby because he reminds him that he's supposed to be doing a job and managing the office, Toby's whole existence as the HR rep and promoter/defender of the corporate line stands in direct opposition to Michael's desire to see work as a place to have fun and doss about. Michael tearing into Toby both made sense and was funny because of how extreme it was, but with Jerry it's just cruelty. Also in The Office it isn't a pile on, nobody else in the office is on Michael's side and they are all generally nice to Toby but for some reason P&R just has everyone being a gooseberry fool to Jerry regardless of reason or motivation. Same with the constant "WTF!? How did Jerry get a hot wife and kids!!?!?" schtick, maybe because he's not a complete banana split like the rest of you assholes.

There are still laughs to be had for sure, Swanson will never fail to be excellent value for money for instance, but for me it's just really hard to call it a great show when there is so much other stuff dragging it down.

Hard Yikes.

Watching it back has been a whole load of yikes for me really

Ecno wrote:Lovecraft Country 6.5/10

Really strong first couple of episodes, but after that falls off a lot. The structure is weird constantly introducing new elements then resolving them the same episode whilst the main plot stands still. It's a real shame as there's some really good stuff in here but by the end I was just wanting it to finish. I'd recommend it if you like the sound of 1950s racial tension mixed with fantasy (just don't expect anything great) but otherwise avoid.

We're at episode 6 and for me it just keeps getting better. It is very much a Monster of the Week format, but each ties into the greater plot and themes of the series.

Can't wait to get the rest under my belt.

Jenuall wrote:Halfway through the penultimate season of rewatching Parks and Rec now and it is getting increasingly hard going, the will to press on is definitely diminishing! I'd say the show probably peaked around season 3/4 and it quite quickly drops from that place over 5 and 6.

Many of the existing characters have largely become caricatures of themselves, amping up some of their worst characteristics and the show just relies way to heavily on the standard US sitcom setup of repeating the same jokes/situations over and over with rapidly diminishing returns. They have also given increasing screen time to some of the worst secondary characters - the likes of Jean-Ralphio and his sister are so strawberry floating awful but seem to pop up all the time. It's the same with Leslie's city council antagonist Jeremy Jamm, these characters provided a bit of a laugh as a one time "ho ho look what a cock this person is being!" scenario, but you can't just keep going back to that well constantly! Oh and don't even get me started on Billy Eichner's Craig who arrives in season 6. Again the "annoying character" trope is tired but can have results if implemented correctly, Craig is just plain awful.

Kinda agree about everyone being a dick to Jerry, though.

I'm glad to say that season 4 has picked up and won me over now that Tom is back in the government.

Still better than community

Frank wrote:

Jenuall wrote:Halfway through the penultimate season of rewatching Parks and Rec now and it is getting increasingly hard going, the will to press on is definitely diminishing! I'd say the show probably peaked around season 3/4 and it quite quickly drops from that place over 5 and 6.

Many of the existing characters have largely become caricatures of themselves, amping up some of their worst characteristics and the show just relies way to heavily on the standard US sitcom setup of repeating the same jokes/situations over and over with rapidly diminishing returns. They have also given increasing screen time to some of the worst secondary characters - the likes of Jean-Ralphio and his sister are so strawberry floating awful but seem to pop up all the time. It's the same with Leslie's city council antagonist Jeremy Jamm, these characters provided a bit of a laugh as a one time "ho ho look what a cock this person is being!" scenario, but you can't just keep going back to that well constantly! Oh and don't even get me started on Billy Eichner's Craig who arrives in season 6. Again the "annoying character" trope is tired but can have results if implemented correctly, Craig is just plain awful.

Kinda agree about everyone being a dick to Jerry, though.

It's my only real bugbear with the show. It's basically office bullying of the worst kind. Generally Leslie, Ron and Anne don't get too involved in doing that for most of the series but even Leslie is involved by the end. From April, Andy and Tom it comes across as despicable all the way through.

At least they gave Jerry a beautiful family

Watchmen.

Absolutely loved it from start to finish. Shame there wouldn’t be a second season, but I’m glad that there isn’t as it would be hard to top the story. Great performances across the board.

9/10

Speaking of... Just finished episode 9 of Lovecraft Country and it's right up there with Watchmen (the Tulsa Race Massacre also features heavily, coincidentally). It's dealing with a lot of similar issues but in a far less allegorical manner and it's much tougher viewing as a result, but it remains utterly captivating.

It also has some of the best CGI I've ever seen, in any medium. It looks absolutely incredible (and incredibly gory...it's the bloodiest thing I think I've ever seen).

One more ep to go. Can't wait.

Wow, I'm going to have to check that out pronto. I'm a big fan of proper Lovecraftian horror and Watchmen was the best show I've seen in years. It better not disappoint!

It obviously wants you go in with certain expectations (via the name of the show) but don't read up on anything else. It's full of surprises.

Jenuall wrote:

SandyCoin wrote:Watched the first 4 or so episodes of Schitt's Creek and it's strawberry floating dreadful. I cannot find one thing I like about it so far. Only reason I'm watching is because my gf seems to like it, but I'm struggling to stay awake.

Is it supposed to be funny? Why is it a big deal? I honestly cannot think of a single moment I've laughed more than a "fff" noise. But also the plot is just not interesting, and the characters are... nothing.

I couldn't get past the first episode, absolutely dreadful stuff. By the sounds of this I did the right thing by bailing on it

My wife wanted to watch this as some of her friends recommended it; 7 episodes in (a miracle in itself!) and feckin hell it's aptly named! It's feckin awful, with no jokes whatsoever. How this won stuff I do not know. That's us done; no way we're sitting through the 2nd half of the season waiting for it to get good (which I sincerely doubt it ever does!)

On the last series of Parks and Rec now, was about to post something about how they'd managed to reverse the slump from 5 and 6 but then the Johnny Karate episode came on.

strawberry float me

dmin wrote:

Jenuall wrote:

SandyCoin wrote:Watched the first 4 or so episodes of Schitt's Creek and it's strawberry floating dreadful. I cannot find one thing I like about it so far. Only reason I'm watching is because my gf seems to like it, but I'm struggling to stay awake.

Is it supposed to be funny? Why is it a big deal? I honestly cannot think of a single moment I've laughed more than a "fff" noise. But also the plot is just not interesting, and the characters are... nothing.

I couldn't get past the first episode, absolutely dreadful stuff. By the sounds of this I did the right thing by bailing on it

My wife wanted to watch this as some of her friends recommended it; 7 episodes in (a miracle in itself!) and feckin hell it's aptly named! It's feckin awful, with no jokes whatsoever. How this won stuff I do not know. That's us done; no way we're sitting through the 2nd half of the season waiting for it to get good (which I sincerely doubt it ever does!)

Definitely sounds like ditching it was the right move then! There are too many great shows to waste time waiting for this to get it's gooseberry fool together

Well Bly Manor just gets better and better, just about to watch the last episode now, episode 7 and 8 were just as fantastic as the rest of the series. Proper goosebumps already a few mins into the last episode.