Recently watched Episodes of TELEVISION BOX offerings!

[Rucks]

been sick. watching the first season of Pushing Daisies. Along with Dead Like Me, Bryan Fuller has made two of the most bizarre and visually impressive tv shows this side of a wes anderson script.

Shame they were both cancelled after their second season.

[Ranadiel]

Watched episode 1 of Inhumans. I don't think I would say it was "bad," but it was underwhelming? Although I might be trying to give it too much credit? It fails at making me feel like the villain was a threat because his plan only succeeds because Crystal is a moron and forceful evacuates two of the best fighters (one of which was about to kill the main villain) against their will. Had she not gotten involved the coup probably would have been taken care of.

[Aeolus]

Watched episode 1 of Inhumans. I don't think I would say it was "bad," but it was underwhelming? Although I might be trying to give it too much credit? It fails at making me feel like the villain was a threat because his plan only succeeds because Crystal is a moron and forceful evacuates two of the best fighters (one of which was about to kill the main villain) against their will. Had she not gotten involved the coup probably would have been taken care of.

The fact that the show seems to be on Ludicrous Speed doesn't really do it any favors as well as apparently there's like 3 episodes left for the season. In fact, it feels that the main thrust of the show is simply to get the main characters out of their ivory tower for a few minutes, while the conflict is almost entirely a secondary affair. In like the space of 3 days the characters have done the following

Spoiler: show

Black Bolt: Gets arrested, makes a cell buddy, breaks out, gets science'd on with Inhuman Super Gene results, wipes out half of the antagonist's strike force and learns how to benevolence.
Medusa: Gets haircut'd, changes her wardrobe, befriends a nerd, dodges the law and learns how not to be a queen bitch.
Karnak: Gets nerfed, falls in with some :420: farmers, bangs a hot chick, gets some of his powers back, dismantles a drug cartel and learns how not to be a complete tool.
Gorgon: Hangs with some surfer dudes, gets into some fights, has to bury one of his surfer dudes and learns of the benefits of having a brain.
Crystal: Gets her dog back, gets her dog run over, falls in with a blonde dude who's available after breaking up with a bitchy vet, gets said bitchy vet to treat her dog and will probably learn something next episode like how not to be a douche bimbo or something.
Lockjaw: Gets gassed, run over, and nursed back to health by this nice bitch. Learns that being CGI Doge is hard.
Maximus: Learns that unlocking his gimmick is hard. Harder than usurping a throne at least. But that's okay because he's still unlikeable like every other Mootian (not named Black Bolt; seriously, his emoting is his real mutant powers; the "Black Canary but stronger because he's a dude and that this isn't DC where wall shattering vocal cords don't even get you into the Justice League until the third pass at the earliest" powers are just a bonus).

Also they got the band back together by episode 3.

Basically. For a Marvelverse related property, this has been really underwhelming thus far. Its been like going through the motions without committing to anything.

[Hathen]

Finished up to Episode 7 of Discovery. I had mixed feelings about the show at first but the last 3 episodes or so have been fantastic IMO. The characters feel like they've found their places, and it's nice that what they're doing with Stamets makes him come off as less of a guy with a stick up his ass. Lorca's a really great character and I often shift between agreeing, condemning or even pitying the guy.

Episode 6 did a very unique story that only could've been done with the idea of having Burnham as the adopted daughter of Sarek. It was one idea in the show I always thought was a headscratcher to include, considering the franchise's really, really bad precedent in letting Spock have siblings, but this episode took that idea and actually not only made a pretty good episode, but it actually brings some purpose to the creative decision, because it added something to consider for Sarek/Spock interactions in previous shows.

Episode 7 was also a pleasant surprise in that it was a classic style Trek episode, a self-contained story involving a zany time loop. Was starting to think that the show would be all serialized. Trek has done way too many time loop episodes so I was ready to not like this one much, but I think this one certainly one of the better ones and ended up liking it quite a bit.

Also watched episodes 4 and 5 of The Orville. Didn't care much for the former, it was a tired scifi concept done for the umpteenth time, which wouldn't be a problem if the show was making fun of the concept, but it pretty much played all the scifi stuff straight with some jokes thrown in. Episode 5 was pretty good though, and it had a nice balance of the drama with comedy.

[Aeolus]

Also watched episodes 4 and 5 of The Orville. Didn't care much for the former, it was a tired scifi concept done for the umpteenth time, which wouldn't be a problem if the show was making fun of the concept, but it pretty much played all the scifi stuff straight with some jokes thrown in. Episode 5 was pretty good though, and it had a nice balance of the drama with comedy.

I can get behind this.

On the one hand, I'm glad that MacFarlane is staying away from turning this into a Family Guy Star Trek special, on the other hand, they really haven't done much of anything with it beyond making it Star Trek TOS/TNG except updated with more modern/topical issues (which as mentioned above in reference with TNG's first season, isn't a particularly good idea).

That being said, episodes 4 or 5 have only had a small portion of the crew as the focus of each episode which only works when you have strong crew interactions or characters strong enough to carry the scene. Episode 4's primary focus being the navigator dude's episode just drew attention to the fact that he's really weak on his own, while Episode 5's primary focus being between the doctor and the robot was a lot better, especially since both had the support of the doctor's kids to play off of.

And with that being said, I will say that The Orville's Episode 4's premise's humor was not lost on me as both lampooning TOS's various Earth-like planet episodes, and TNG's early episode where Wesley got the death penalty for stepping on the grass, at the same time was pretty funny, even if the latter was perhaps too deep a cut (it seriously does follow the events of that episode minus the Totally-not-God allegory menacingly floating about and everybody basically wearing nothing but torso-sized jock straps, up to and including hijacking a member of the lower civilization to show off the mighty/beige techno-future, and the crew beating the system on bullshit ("We must follow our own laws! Including the Prime Directive!" followed by "What is life but a series of exceptions?")).

[Hathen]

I personally didn't feel like they spent enough of Episode 4 making fun of the Earth-like planet aspects common in scifi. The one gag that I felt kinda worked was when they sat down to eat and it disgusted Mercer, which I felt could've been taken further- have a redshirt eat the food and keel over dead since it turns out randomly eating alien food is not a good idea. Though maybe that would've been too dark?

The rest of the episode felt like it was largely played straight, up to and including the pretty snappy decision to suddenly expose a civilization to nighttime after millennia of not knowing it exists. Pretty sure that would just result mass hysteria, but at least it depicted Mercer as someone who can make assertive judgment calls instead of a guy who just bitches about his ex-wife to diplomats...which brings me to the fact that I've now watched episiode 6-9!

Episode 6 was decent, but it still continues what I think is a mistake by using incompetence as the basis for its humor. I just feel like the show can't have its cake and eat it too- it wants the scifi aspect to be taken somewhat seriously when it comes up (the whole "murdering a whole ship to save our own" thing), but then you have both Ed and especially Gordon acting like the worst undercover agents possible. Episode 7 had the same issue where LaMaar just starts humping a statue for a cheap gag despite them not knowing plot-convenient things (they know what they wear but not that they have an entire society based around reddit karma voting apparently).

Episode 8 is the trite ol' "our shuttle crashed on a hostile planet moon" plot, but it centered around characters who aren't insufferable so that automatically made it superior for me.

But Episode 9 is the one I really, really didn't like because it's like an entire episode about any gripes I have with the show. Not much to say other than "Captain Mercer: Willing to let millions die because he's horny".

[Arvis]

Finally been catching up on Doctor Who season 10.  Just watched Episode 3, "Thin Ice".  Not bad!  Great effects, great period episode, with some fantastic dialogue and a good speech.  Top quality DW.

[Mickeymac92]

Binge-watched Season 1 & 2 of Bravest Warriors on Youtube, as well as the first episode of Season 3. When I got to season 3, I figured I'd save it for later, since well...I just binge-watched 2 full seasons. Gotta save something for tomorrow.

Then I found out Seasons 3 & 4 are only on VRV. That site runs like crap on my PS4, and it has next to nothing that I couldn't get elsewhere. I think Season 3 at least is available for free, but the site also ran some of the most obnoxious ads I had ever seen the last time I tried it, and most of them were for its own content. Yeah. Can't say I'm sold. I'll probably look elsewhere, like I did for HarmonQuest. (I also finished season 2 of that last week, btw. Good stuff. Really curious to see where it goes in Season 3, if that's actually happening?)

At least what I saw was really good. It's short, but got a lot of humor and a surprisingly intriguing story packed into it. Like the best parts of Futurama back-to-back, no filler. I don't watch cartoons much anymore, but I'm glad I saw that one, at least.

[Hathen]

The episode of Star Trek Discovery this week really blew me away. Only wish it was longer because only when it was over did I realize it only ran about 35 minutes. I suppose it's a good thing that they have episodes only last as long as they need to on streaming services like this.

I had my gripes here and there with the first half of the season and I wasn't too keen on the promises of the second half from the first episode, but I really think the show has hit a stride and I can't wait to see where it goes.

[Jimmy]

I caved in December and started watching The Flash. I've caught up through season 3, and that's probably as far as I'll make it for now because that's all that's on Netflix. I've really enjoyed it a lot the past few months as I've caught up and now I'm interested in checking out the other shows in the Arrowverse. I guess that means I'll need to start with Arrow. I gave it a shot when it first premiered several years ago, but couldn't get into it. We'll see what happens. If it doesn't work out I'll still give the other Arrowverse shows a shot.

[Frostillicus]

Been watching the Super Mario Bros Super Show! with my son. Just the animated parts though, not the live-action stuff. I thought the latter was unwatchable even when I was a kid.
Said cartoony parts are so low budget and nonsensical, it's hilarious. For one thing, there are so many instances of voices not matching the characters on screen. Like, you'll see Luigi's mouth moving, but it's Peach's voice actress talking. I don't even know how that's possible. I love it. Also, I like, totally dig Link's gnarly surfer accent in the Zelda segments, bra.
I will give props to the guy who did the music for the Mario 'toons, though. There are some pretty cool remixes of traditional Mario music throughout.

[Arvis]

Been watching the Super Mario Bros Super Show! with my son. Just the animated parts though, not the live-action stuff. I thought the latter was unwatchable even when I was a kid.
Said cartoony parts are so low budget and nonsensical, it's hilarious. For one thing, there are so many instances of voices not matching the characters on screen. Like, you'll see Luigi's mouth moving, but it's Peach's voice actress talking. I don't even know how that's possible. I love it. Also, I like, totally dig Link's gnarly surfer accent in the Zelda segments, bra.
I will give props to the guy who did the music for the Mario 'toons, though. There are some pretty cool remixes of traditional Mario music throughout.

"Well excuuuuuse ME, Princess!"

[Aeolus]

Been watching the Super Mario Bros Super Show! with my son. Just the animated parts though, not the live-action stuff. I thought the latter was unwatchable even when I was a kid.
Said cartoony parts are so low budget and nonsensical, it's hilarious. For one thing, there are so many instances of voices not matching the characters on screen. Like, you'll see Luigi's mouth moving, but it's Peach's voice actress talking. I don't even know how that's possible. I love it. Also, I like, totally dig Link's gnarly surfer accent in the Zelda segments, bra.
I will give props to the guy who did the music for the Mario 'toons, though. There are some pretty cool remixes of traditional Mario music throughout.

Now go watch Captain N and Super Mario Bros 3/World.

Also watch the liveaction parts, because it does have the occasional B-list guest star in among the conga-line of out-of-work C-grade and lower TV stars.

[Hathen]

After many years of hearing about Breaking Bad and how great it is, I decided to start watching the show about a week and a half ago.

I am now finished with the show, all 62 episodes. I haven't went through a show that quickly in a long while.

Maybe I need some more time to process it, but for now I think I'll say it was one of the best, if not the best show I've ever seen.

[Jimmy]

As I mentioned above, I gave Arrow another shot. I'm not sure how I wasn't getting into it when it premiered, because I found the first three seasons completely engrossing, even if season three was largely a repurposed Batman plot. I'm currently in season four, and while I'm not finding this season as interesting as its predecessors, it's still good. It has started falling into some TV cliches though. Can't have the main love interests tie the knot too easily and all.

I'm going to get caught up through season five of Green Arrow, then watch Legends of Tomorrow and Supergirl seasons one and two. Starting with season six of Arrow, I'll watch the all the various series in their broadcast order.

I guess I've become a fan of the Arrowverse.