What other TV shows do you watch?

[Arcadia]

Yep, I think that pretty much describes most of what I bother to watch. Although I did enjoy Patrick Melrose, and it was neither of those things … so I guess I really should give more things a chance than I do. Except I have zero interest in paying for premium cable, streaming, or whatever those other for-pay options are.

[Pseudonym]

I like a good, gripping thriller... and that's pretty much what this was. 

[Artemis]

I've been making my way through "The Haunting of Hill House" on Netflix.  It is surprisingly good.  It starts slow, but sticking with it is so worth it.  Each episode is a telling of the same events, but from the perspective of a different family member.  You finish one episode thinking you know the characters and know what's going on, but then you see the next episode and get an entirely new view.  Each telling adds a piece to the story.  The writing is brilliant, the acting is brilliant, and so is the cinematography.  I was expecting a cheesy, tropey, spooky haunted house series, and got something far beyond my expectations.  It's just really, really good.

 

[Pseudonym]

Is that the one that's meant to be really terrifying?

[Artemis]

Mmmm I'm not sure; it might have been advertised that way, I don't really know, but I don't think that's the general consensus.  It is definitely creepy in places, but that's not really the main thing.  It's more like a gripping family drama with occasional scares woven in.  Or, like this person said:

Quote

What you expect when watching The Haunting Of Hill House: haunted house. Spooks.

What you get: emotions with a chance of ghosts

 

 

[Pseudonym]

That's not the one then. There are two haunted things that came out the same time on Netflix, the other one might have been a film. 

[Carol the Dabbler]

8 hours ago, Artemis said:

I was expecting a cheesy, tropey, spooky haunted house series....

Just curious -- why did you watch it, then?  Did you happen to be in the mood for that sort of thing?

[Artemis]

Yes, lol.  I just wanted a spooky haunted house movie (which always end up cheesy and tropey just by way of being “horror”, lol).  I think that’s why most people started watching it.

 

[Carol the Dabbler]

I see that Haunting of Hill House is based on a novel by Shirley Jackson.  I've only ever read two things that she wrote, a short story called The Lottery (which may have scarred me for life) and a semi-autobiographical humorous novel called Life Among the Savages (which I enjoyed).  The woman had range for sure!

 

[Arcadia]

52 minutes ago, Carol the Dabbler said:

I see that Haunting of Hill House is based on a novel by Shirley Jackson.  I've only ever read two things that she wrote, a short story called The Lottery (which may have scarred me for life)...

 

Egad, we were forced to read that thing in high school. Why, why, why????????

[Carol the Dabbler]

I was astonished to discover just tonight that Jackson had also written the rather whimsical Life Among the Savages (about raising her four children) -- which I had read before being subjected to The Lottery.

[Pseudonym]

Now I'm curious about the lottery but too tired and lazy to look it up.

[Artemis]

Never read The Lottery, but I saw a movie version and liked that.

The Netflix “Haunting of Hill House” is only loosely adapted from the book.

 

[Artemis]

By the way, if anyone was planning on giving “The Haunting of Hill House” a try, and is bothered by animal scenes like me, there was a gross moment in episode 2 when they were burying a dead kitten.  There is actually a point to the kittens story, but you’ll get the idea enough through their conversations in other scenes, so I would probably just fast-forward every time I saw the kittens.  (There’s nothing horrible that happens to them, they just get sick and die and it made me sad.)  Thankfully there are no other animal scenes in the rest of the show.

 

[Carol the Dabbler]

According to Wikipedia (follow that link for a plot synopsis):

"The Lottery" has been described as "one of the most famous short stories in the history of American literature." It initially received a negative response, which surprised both Jackson and The New Yorker. Readers cancelled subscriptions and sent hate mail throughout the summer. The Union of South Africa banned the story.

 

[Pseudonym]

Is still no one watching Mr Robot? For such a popular tv show it's weird I can't find anyone who's seen it IRL or here. 

In a weird cross over invented entirely by my mind Tyrell Wellick is the perfect adult version of Draco Malfoy. Especially in his freaking out moments. 

He is not a pleasant person, sooooo messed up, a literal psychopath and yet I really like him.

[Hikari]

I hardly ever watch broadcast television anymore, except for a special event like the holiday parades or Royal weddings.  But last night I blundered into back-to-back episodes of 'The Big Bang Theory'  on FOX and watched both of them.

Owing to a former co-worker who was Sooo obsessed with the show as to be off-putting in the extreme (he had all the action figures, t-shirts, lifesize cardboard stand-ups and sundry) and sprinkled his conversation with incessant BBT references, I had stayed pretty much far away from this show, though I'd caught a few episodes here and there.  The ones I saw last night were not the strongest examples but even so, they were about 100% wittier than most other shows I've seen, except maybe for Frasier.  So I just ordered a 10-season box set so I could see the episodes in order.  They are all jumbled up in syndication.  I hadn't planned to; it was definitely an impulse buy.  But got the whole thing for $6.35 a season.  Brand new.  Was not going to do better than that.  Thanks, Ebay!

[Artemis]

Enjoy!  I loved the first 4 or 5 seasons of BBT.  Have loved the following seasons less, but they’re still okay.  The final season is currently airing.

 

[Hikari]

14 hours ago, Artemis said:

Enjoy!  I loved the first 4 or 5 seasons of BBT.  Have loved the following seasons less, but they’re still okay.  The final season is currently airing.

 

I saw that Season 12 is the last one.  I figured that, as is the case with most long-running shows, they had run out of their best material about halfway through.  I was very happy to find 10 seasons for such a cheap price, and I will probably be satisfied and not have to buy the final two seasons.  Depending on how I feel at that point, I will rent them or maybe give them a miss altogether.  12 years is a real achievement in television, but I suppose I'd just as soon have six great seasons, rather than 3 great seasons, 3 good ones and six of increasing mediocrity. 

If LOST had ended itself after Season 4, that probably would have been best all around.

I look forward to watching the adventures of Sheldon & Co. after a grueling day at work.  I need more laughs in my life.

[Arcadia]

On ‎1‎/‎25‎/‎2019 at 10:35 AM, Hikari said:

If LOST had ended itself after Season 4, that probably would have been best all around.

Hear hear! I loved it at first, but it wandered off ….

[Hikari]

12 hours ago, Arcadia said:

Hear hear! I loved it at first, but it wandered off ….

After the pilot episode of LOST, I was blown away and thought, "I may have just seen the best thing I have EVER seen in broadcast TV (BBC Sherlock excepted, of course.)  I was a late-comer to LOST,  tuning in via DVD as the final season was getting ready to air.  I watched the series finale in broadcast . . including the finale night episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live.  Jimmy was a huge fan and had had most of the cast on his program during that final season.  JImmy's studio audience watched the LOST finale along with the rest of us and Jimmy's show that night opened on members of his audience, both men and women, visibly weeping.  I was still trying to assimilate what I had just watched, but admit that the final frames of Jack and Vincent, echoing the first frames of the pilot episode 6 years earlier made A Good Ending.  That final touching scene (almost) redeemed what had been for me at least 21/2 seasons' worth of 'WTF??'

Since I watched most of the show on DVD, my viewing experience was telescoped into a few months rather than six years, so my frustration levels with how far into the bushes the show went after such a promising start and super-addictive first 3 seasons were more manageable than those fans who were mourning what some of them viewed as six years of their lives wasted.  I joined a chat board in the aftermath of the finale, in which the good, the bad and the ugly were dissected and a sort of group catharsis/B* fest took place.  One of the threads was 'Write your own haiku using the letters of LOST as the start of each line.  That chat board is long gone into the ether, but I still remember what I came up with.  I skewered showrunners Damon Lindelof & Carlton Cruse for their increasingly lazy storytelling & their cop-out ending.  Mssrs. Gatiss and Moffat will be spared that, if only because we did not hold such an exercise on this board . .not 'cause I don't have some choice thoughts about their story-telling decisions in Season 4.

======================================================================

Lindelof and Cruse

On massive ego trip

Substitute mind games for plot

T (not-nice word for lady-business)s!

 

Ah, well.  All water under the bridge now.  I bought Seasons 1-3 and still watch them periodically.  Season 4 has some good stuff, chiefly all the significant backstory for Desmond (Henry Ian Cusick, that hot Scot) & Penny . . but S4 was where LOST's signature weirdness curdled from good-weird-with-a-purpose into "Uh, guys . . where are we going with this?!"

[Sheerluck]

I had a rewatch of The Young Ones. Just so funny. If you're too young to have seen it the first time around you probably won't like it.

[Artemis]

I just finished the 2018 miniseries “Vanity Fair” on Amazon Prime, starring Olivia Cooke.  I’ve seen several versions of Vanity Fair, and although I’ve really wanted to like it, I never have.  I loved this one!  It was really well done.  If you have access to Prime and 19th-century novels are your type of thing, I highly recommend giving this a watch.

Also, and this is a minor point, but there were battle scenes in one episode which I think are some of the best I’ve ever seen on screen, especially for a battle of that era.  They weren’t boring and they didn’t drag on, and I thought they captured the experience very effectively in real and poignant ways, without overdramatizing.  On top of that, they appear to have done their historical homework, and I appreciated the attention to detail.  The battle scenes aren’t a large part of the show by any means, I just thought they were worth a mention.

 

[Artemis]

“The ABC Murders” on Amazon Prime, a 3-part miniseries starring Agatha Christie’s famous detective, Hercule Poirot.  If grim detective stories are your thing, you will definitely like this.  If they aren’t your thing, you might still like this.  It’s a good show.

 

[Hikari]

Watching "Big Bang Theory" on DVD . . .Finished Season 3 last night.

Laugh out loud funny; just the medicine I need after a harried day at work.

There is one significant drawback, though.  I'm always left hungry for Chinese food and I don't have any.