TV Series General Discussion

Anyone watched The Traitors (UK version), looking for a gameshow to watch, I heard good things about it but I'm not a fan of big brother type shows so I hope it's not that. Any other recommendations?
 
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Didn’t realise that 3 Body Problem was out. I’m also extremely glad that they eschewed the “weekly release” thing and made all the episodes available at once. Makes for an easy binge through the weekend.

For the uninitiated, it’s based on a Chinese book which is a part of a trilogy (which reminds me that I maybe should post a review of it in the books thread). It’s possibly the most mind bending hard sci-fi that I’ve read in my life and conceptually is incredibly good.

The show is made by the creators of Game of Thrones (yes, the infamous brotherly duo) and while I have no idea of how good the adaptation is… from what I’ve read about GoT it was the best show ever made as long as they had book material to adapt from. Given that this is a finished trilogy with a lot of cool concepts and an acceptance that it’s impossible to translate accurately for the screens, I would be surprised if they blew it up.

Just finished the first episode and it gave me extremely similar vibes to Expanse’s first episode in terms of pacing and characters. Hoping it becomes as good as the latter does once the stage is set.
 
So..... 3 Body Problem.

I'll again start by saying that the books are incredibly awesome and must reads if you're a fan of science-fiction of any kind. Skip through the really dry or cringe inducing parts if you want (I'd be lying if I said I didn't do that for parts of the second book which is still my favorite in the series) but it's a classic of the genre regardless of those parts.

Now... who would I recommend this series to?

Someone who likes big budget productions, science-fiction content of any type, wants something to binge over a weekend that can be quite thought provoking or someone who wants to see physicists being awesome.

I'm too much of a fan of the books to be an objective judge of the series so I'll just list the things I liked and disliked.


:tick: A lot of the big moments are really awesome or emotion inducing. The big budget helps but they're also really good as moments and for the most part, they do justice to those scenes from the books. I think they'll land even harder or better if you've never read the books and went into it blind since a lot of the awe factor for me wasn't present due to knowing what happens, still appreciated how well those scenes were (and there's one particular scene that really made my jaw drop despite knowing what happens).
:tick: The trilogy isn't in chronological order technically and so they've opted to adapt parts of the next two books alongside the first one for this season, a change that I liked. Some fan favorite characters appear early faithful to their original story and some have creative liberties taken to ensure they fit in this season. Either way, I like most of these decisions they took.
:tick: I don't remember the villains or the characters on their side being as sympathetic or compelling in the books. There's definitely more moral grayness added to the TV show and it's another change I like, it does seem like every villain is becoming more and more sympathetic with each new TV show or movie though. :D We do have a few unsympathetic, evil characters though so it's not all "everything is a shade of grey" in this show.
:tick: The original books are heavily Sinocentric due to the author being Chinese, almost equal to how Independence Day is US-centric. I like the show choosing to make it more global or adapted for a Western audience. There's still a Tencent version (should be available on YouTube) that is extremely faithful to the original books (to the point of being adapted page by page in many places) if you want the Sinocentric version or if you want even more of the series. I'm not the biggest fan of how the scope seems to be narrowed down for characters being acquaintances of each other at the very least but I appreciate that this is the best way to create narrative interest in a TV show with a set of characters that feel interconnected to have most major characters of the series in the very first season.

:x: Some of the acting felt wooden. I'm also not the biggest fan of a few story arcs reaching their conclusions or progressing via plot reinforcement in a rigid manner rather than naturally progressing via better storytelling and acting. Time may have been a constraint that forced this but we're seeing it be a big problem in more and more shows these days that are stubbornly stuck to one season every two years with an eight episode release format. Where it most causes an impact is in the agency of certain characters... it almost feels like they're being railroaded to their conclusions for this season and for one fan favorite character in particular it's an issue throughout the season.
:x: The first book had more of a mystery element to it along with the sci-fi content that I've seen that has been neglected in the show. It's another thing that they may have been forced into due to time but I think the show is poorer for it. They instead cut to the chase to show all the cool stuff... and I'd add that some of the really cool scenes/big moments also don't get as much time to breathe before being rushed to. I don't know if this was something they realised wasn't a good thing later on because the episodes that come afterwards all have more time in the prelude and during the big moments to breathe and shine that make them more memorable from a story perspective and I'd add that they also left more of a mark on the show's characters.
:x: The CGI in the later episodes felt cheap. I'm not sure if this was because I failed to notice it during the earlier ones but the later ones stood out badly. Speaking of which... there's also an unnatural bokeh effect in way too many scenes that I thought had significance like in other media content wherein it implies that the scene is happening outside of the regular, established places but.... it didn't seem to be the case? Not an artistic choice I'm a fan of.


I think further discussion would veer heavily into spoiler territory so I'll refrain from that.

How would I rate the show?

If you've read the books, 7.5/10. Seeing all of the cool moments you read about be adapted to a visual medium is awesome and there's enough of them to love. However, you're also likely to notice just how much potential was squandered and how much better it could have been with some of the talent on the show and the money involved. Seems to be an increasing trend with adaptations of previously popular content, even Dune 2 which has been widely praised and appreciated for being a banger of a movie has some hardcore fans completely hating the director's decisions to add agency to a certain character.

If you haven't read the books, I'd say the show is 9/10 or if you're particularly harsh, 8.5. There's a lot of incredibly cool scenes to see visually, the concepts of the show are very unique and it's well paced for a sci-fi adaptation with enough care put into it.

That should give an overall score of 8/10 which feels about right. Hope they do justice to the second book since it's my favourite in the series and it gave birth to a very popular and scary hypothesis.
 
Bevab said:
So..... 3 Body Problem.

I'll again start by saying that the books are incredibly awesome and must reads if you're a fan of science-fiction of any kind. Skip through the really dry or cringe inducing parts if you want (I'd be lying if I said I didn't do that for parts of the second book which is still my favorite in the series) but it's a classic of the genre regardless of those parts.

Now... who would I recommend this series to?

Someone who likes big budget productions, science-fiction content of any type, wants something to binge over a weekend that can be quite thought provoking or someone who wants to see physicists being awesome.

I'm too much of a fan of the books to be an objective judge of the series so I'll just list the things I liked and disliked.


:tick: A lot of the big moments are really awesome or emotion inducing. The big budget helps but they're also really good as moments and for the most part, they do justice to those scenes from the books. I think they'll land even harder or better if you've never read the books and went into it blind since a lot of the awe factor for me wasn't present due to knowing what happens, still appreciated how well those scenes were (and there's one particular scene that really made my jaw drop despite knowing what happens).
:tick: The trilogy isn't in chronological order technically and so they've opted to adapt parts of the next two books alongside the first one for this season, a change that I liked. Some fan favorite characters appear early faithful to their original story and some have creative liberties taken to ensure they fit in this season. Either way, I like most of these decisions they took.
:tick: I don't remember the villains or the characters on their side being as sympathetic or compelling in the books. There's definitely more moral grayness added to the TV show and it's another change I like, it does seem like every villain is becoming more and more sympathetic with each new TV show or movie though. :D We do have a few unsympathetic, evil characters though so it's not all "everything is a shade of grey" in this show.
:tick: The original books are heavily Sinocentric due to the author being Chinese, almost equal to how Independence Day is US-centric. I like the show choosing to make it more global or adapted for a Western audience. There's still a Tencent version (should be available on YouTube) that is extremely faithful to the original books (to the point of being adapted page by page in many places) if you want the Sinocentric version or if you want even more of the series. I'm not the biggest fan of how the scope seems to be narrowed down for characters being acquaintances of each other at the very least but I appreciate that this is the best way to create narrative interest in a TV show with a set of characters that feel interconnected to have most major characters of the series in the very first season.

:x: Some of the acting felt wooden. I'm also not the biggest fan of a few story arcs reaching their conclusions or progressing via plot reinforcement in a rigid manner rather than naturally progressing via better storytelling and acting. Time may have been a constraint that forced this but we're seeing it be a big problem in more and more shows these days that are stubbornly stuck to one season every two years with an eight episode release format. Where it most causes an impact is in the agency of certain characters... it almost feels like they're being railroaded to their conclusions for this season and for one fan favorite character in particular it's an issue throughout the season.
:x: The first book had more of a mystery element to it along with the sci-fi content that I've seen that has been neglected in the show. It's another thing that they may have been forced into due to time but I think the show is poorer for it. They instead cut to the chase to show all the cool stuff... and I'd add that some of the really cool scenes/big moments also don't get as much time to breathe before being rushed to. I don't know if this was something they realised wasn't a good thing later on because the episodes that come afterwards all have more time in the prelude and during the big moments to breathe and shine that make them more memorable from a story perspective and I'd add that they also left more of a mark on the show's characters.
:x: The CGI in the later episodes felt cheap. I'm not sure if this was because I failed to notice it during the earlier ones but the later ones stood out badly. Speaking of which... there's also an unnatural bokeh effect in way too many scenes that I thought had significance like in other media content wherein it implies that the scene is happening outside of the regular, established places but.... it didn't seem to be the case? Not an artistic choice I'm a fan of.


I think further discussion would veer heavily into spoiler territory so I'll refrain from that.

How would I rate the show?

If you've read the books, 7.5/10. Seeing all of the cool moments you read about be adapted to a visual medium is awesome and there's enough of them to love. However, you're also likely to notice just how much potential was squandered and how much better it could have been with some of the talent on the show and the money involved. Seems to be an increasing trend with adaptations of previously popular content, even Dune 2 which has been widely praised and appreciated for being a banger of a movie has some hardcore fans completely hating the director's decisions to add agency to a certain character.

If you haven't read the books, I'd say the show is 9/10 or if you're particularly harsh, 8.5. There's a lot of incredibly cool scenes to see visually, the concepts of the show are very unique and it's well paced for a sci-fi adaptation with enough care put into it.

That should give an overall score of 8/10 which feels about right. Hope they do justice to the second book since it's my favourite in the series and it gave birth to a very popular and scary hypothesis.
Click to expand...
Pura nahin pada par dekh ke acha laga


Good writeup bro
 
watched first 2 seasons of Fargo. good show. i like how it is less intense for its category (crime-drama) with a bit of humorous (dark comedy) tone to it.

would rate both seasons 9/10. Lorne Malvo was the best villain across the two seasons. And I really wished to have seen more of Kieran Culkin and his character. He is there for just 1 episode.

Best actor in my opinion was Martin Freeman.
 
Getting a hankering to watch Mad Men again (like the fourth or fifth time). But I stopped smoking (for the fourth or fifth time) in November and I don't know if I could watch Mad Men again without wanting to start again. Not to mention all the lovely alcohol. :eek2::cry::grat::flush:

After season 2 of The White Lotus, with Michael Imperioli being his awesome self, I really feel the need to do a rewatch of The Sopranos. Maybe The Wire. I was also gifted The Larry Sanders show boxset for Christmas which might be my favourite comedy ever.

Been keeping up with Shogun. It's about on par with Vikings for me (which is a good thing). That being said, every time the English guy does some acting I get Tom Hardy doing a Richard Burton impression vibes. More specifically Bill Murray doing Richard Burton in Scrooged.


I do like him (Cosmo Jarvis) though as an actor. It took me a while to warm to Travis Fimmel as Ragnor in Vikings too, but he was probably the only reason I watched that godawful Warcraft movie and the reason I first watched that batshit HBO show Raised By Wolves. The rest of the cast is very good too, particularly Anna Sawai and Hiroyuki Sanada. Although Yabushige is probably my favourite.
 
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