April 28th - "TV Stuff"
5As the April Galactic Goatdom slowly begins it’s fade to black, I’d like to encourage everyone to visit the May Goat nominations topic. Make your nominations, cast your votes and share the Goat wealth with a new victim for May.
TV Stuff
I spent quite a bit of time in airports over the last week. Caught without my movies loaded up on the iPad, I resorted to Amazon Prime Video, and began watching The Man In The High Castle. I went in blind, only knowing the series has received quite a bit of positive buzz. Right now I’m only 5 episodes deep, but it’s enough to keep me curious how it all plays out.
NO SPOILERS PLEASE!
It’s possible I’m projecting, but I’m sensing a sort of fourth dimension “Lost” aspect may be revealed in future episodes. Or maybe I’m just making that up. Regardless, I’m in for a few more episodes anyway.
This series is an Amazon Original, exclusively available on Amazon Video. I’ve watched some similar programming on Netflix (Stranger Things, OITNB, Marco Polo, etc). What are some of your favorite streaming exclusives? I feel like I need to find more on Amazon Video to help justify my Prime membership fee.
- 10 comments, 13 replies
- Comment
I like the thread image.
@PlacidPenguin Ha! I’m a moron. I was searching high and low for a streaming series called “Thread Image”. What a tool I am.
I’m watching Fortitude right now. It’s good.
@sammydog01 It certainly seems to feature a “who’s who” cast af BBC stars. I’ll check it out.
The Man In The High Castle is a class
@amy01 Uh… so the story is a statement about social standing and class structures?
@ruouttaurmind
And High Castles. So sort of for kids. No real life possibilities there, surely.
/image neuschwanstein
ORPHAN BLACK and HANNIBAL!
@mossygreen I followed the first two seasons of Orphan Black, and loved it. I stopped watching when I changed my programming and lost BBC America. I also lost track of Torchwood then, which was a mild amusement as well.
@ruouttaurmind But it’s on Amazon Prime! Four seasons–start over again and blow your mind in a slightly different way from the first time! Hannibal (also on Prime) is more of an acquired taste, but it’s so beautiful to look at, and if you adjust your expectations for the finale it’s… fine.
Love Netflix’s Sense 8. Season 2 is available May 5, hooray. I also really enjoyed Hemlock Grove’s first season, hated the ending of the second season. Grace and Frankie is great. On Amazon, Goliath is well acted, good story. Haven’t watched as many of their series, I’ve had Netflix longer and I like their interface better.
@moondrake I just read the official description of Sense8. Looking interesting. It’s vaguely reminiscent of USA network’s Falling Water. (Which I gave up on, not because it was not interesting, but because I had too many shows backlogged on the DVR)
@ruouttaurmind I am madly in love with pretty much every character in Sense 8. They are a fantastic looking cast, but the characters are also richly developed and interesting people. I’m really looking forward to spending some more time with them. I hope they don’t screw it up like the creators did with Hemlock Grove. The show is shot all over the world, the characters live in the US, Mexico, India, Africa, East Germany, Iceland, and Korea, and they actually film in all these countries. The cinematography is gorgeous, especially in India and Iceland.
On Amazon I recently enjoyed Patriot. The story is sometimes slow but it’s not necessarily about the story; it’s got a sense of humor that doesn’t often get produced as TV.
@djslack I just checked out the synopsis. Looks interesting. I need more humor in my watch list. Added.
I don’t watch much TV, and it’s almost always streamed. Recent exceptions where the TV has been on are the Olympics, the debates, election night, the Super Bowl, and the Oscars.
Recent streaming:
Mad Men (yet to finish the last season, but I do know how it ends, which doesn’t bother me)
Silicon Valley
most of the 1st season of West Wing (good, but I don’t want more right now)
some streaming related to current politics, such as John Oliver and Bill Maher, but I’d rather podcast whatever I can get and not bother with the video. And right now I’d rather have straight news that comedy political commentary, even if the material is funny as hell. Exception: Alec Baldwin on SNL, I look for that on Youtube every week.
I think that’s it on streaming for the last 5 years or so. I must have streamed a few films also, but I forget.
@f00l I never got into Mad Men. Not for any good reason. When it originally aired I was pretty occupied with Breaking Bad, GOT, and TWD. I love Silicon Valley. Partially due to the humor and my personal experiences in the golden age of the tech biz when Silicon Valley was still dominated by hardware companies, before the dot com invasion.
@ruouttaurmind
Most of Mad Men is just very good.
Once in a while they have moments as good as any ever shot for television.
They have low points where they kinda don’t know what to do for a few episodes. Inevitable in a series that went on for so long.
And some degree of non-lead character potential was just thrown away. But still.
When I started streaming it, about a year ago, It kinda blew my head off a little. I didn’t know that anyone except HBO was turning out dramatic live-action (as opposed to animated) television that good.
It’s a multi-year meditation on cultural touchstones vs self vs illusion vs image vs saleability vs what is genuine: and can any of us be sure we can tell which is which?
If I understand the final episode contents correctly, and they did it well, (haven’t seen it): perfect denouement.
Black Mirror
@RiotDemon So many decent series coming from BBC. Probably half my watch list is BBC programming.
Bloodline on Netflix. It takes about 5 or six episodes to really get going, so bear with it. Well written, and even better acted.
Mr. Robot on the USA network (first season is on Amazon) is pretty intense. Also the first show I’ve seen where the “hacking” looks believable. They even make fun of the movie “Hackers” in an episode for extra credit.
@canuk I’ve been watching Mr. Roboto since the first season aired on USA. I dig it, despite the often convoluted plots (so many threads sometimes).