The TV Thread

Think TV version of Detroit: Become Human and you're in the ball park.

My wife watched the first season, but then it disappeared from the streaming service that had it here and hasn't come back.  Not sure if they lost the rights or just no one was watching it.

Anyway - it looked pretty good from the snippets I saw, but I never got too invested in it myself.

Oh, okay. Could be interesting then. According to IMBd it's still going, there's the third season rolling this year.

Finished American Gods....I have a few questions.

That's a lie. I have all the questions

It was insanely, superbly weird and I loved it. The leprechaun is awesome.

Just finished watching the series final of Sense8. You can see the hurried through plot lines, but overall I think it was the very best send off this fantastic series could have possibly gotten. As frustrated as I was at its cancellation after season 2, I am very thankful that Netflix gave it a great 2.5 hour final episode to wrap up the cliffhanger ending.

I want the Red Green Show back. 

So I ran a search on period dramas and came across Chinese tv series. It's been many many years since I last watch a Chinese period drama so I started looking into them. I've to say I don't understand what's going on with modern productions nowadays.

One aspect of such dramas, besides the story & chars, is the period costumes. Chinese, Korean, etc, they each have their individual signatures and styles. They're beautiful and give a wonderful visual of how people were dressed hundreds of years ago.

Now I don't know what the heck I'm seeing in present Chinese period dramas. It's a razzle dazzle of modern mixed with old, in extremely bad taste. It's very hard not to like sh** to see the king in a clownish all golden cap and loud flowery robes. Honestly, how can anyone take such a char seriously? He's supposed to be the king / emperor! He's supposed to inspire awe, to radiate dignity, the power of his position, his authority. Instead, he's a laughable vision whenever he appeared. To add another idiotic presentation, a char in another drama series was wearing Korean costume. If it was explained that she was Korean who stayed in China, that would have been fine. But no, there was no such explanation. Hence, the char was wearing it because the producers wanted her to look special.

To accompany bad costumes are bad hairstyles. Flopping fringes and crazy strands here and there. I rotflol when I saw one series about a princess. The story is about her fight to power or something. But how does one take it seriously when the first thing the viewer sees is the princess making an escapade out to the streets, dressed as a man with flopping hair stylishly brushed to one side, deep red lips, a silly penciled moustache on her upper lip and idiotic flowery robes? I quit watching after seeing that.

The stories mostly uploaded are all romantic romps and nonsensical supernatural stuff. There's only one that has a presentable plot and chars.

Of all the Chinese tv dramas, the ones about Empress Wu and Water Margin have the practical production approach. They kept to costume authenticity, however, these are the older productions. The language is precise, the dress is correct and the handling of the story / chars, down to earth. It seems that authenticity is longer important in modern production. A pity. I'll stick to Korean historical period dramas though it seems to me that they would not long, follow the same path.

Just found a rather interesting fictional take on The Three Kingdoms. It does not focus on the power struggle raging through the entire country but instead is centered on the Han royal court. It's called the Secret of the Three Kingdoms. The writers come up with the plot that Emperor Xing had a twin who became embroiled in the power struggle against Cao Cao. 

While on historical dramas, kinda wish there's a newer production on Emperor Qin Shi Huang.

P.S. It's starting to look more like romance of the Han court.   j/k. It's a tale of an untried Emperor trying to reconcile his ideals and desire to bring peace and stability with the cold harsh policies and political intrigues of the people surrounding him. Who could he trust? Who could he convince to stand with him? Was his goal unrealistic?

P.S. II Ok, good ending. Gave me a turn for a moment during the last parts which I felt are rushed compared to the snail pace in the beginning. Still, it's a good story, a good adaptation, good production, good actors and a down to earth approach; I'm definitely going to stick to historical dramas. Chinese period dramas are generally silly and bad. The writers could have followed the historical ending for Emperor Xiandi / Xian of Han, which is a good one as well (well, he wasn't killed) rather than write the ending they went for. But never mind, I like the ending. 


I've to say I'm fascinated by the robes and how authentic the symbols are (for Eastern Han); on the Emperor's robes, the Empress and the jewellery she wore. Everything has a meaning, top to toe.

That scene was comedy gold.

And I'm 40 this year and I enjoy it for nostalgia reasons...

It took me a few eps to get into the 100, but once it takes off it quickly out grows its teen/cw roots.  I like the fact there are no 'heroes' as such, just lots of grey. 


I was also bummed about Penny Dreadful, season 1 and 2 were great, season 3 felt off and I was not happy with the ending.  It could have been an excellent contained 3 season story but they fluffed the landing.  

I was surprised by just how much I loved The Punisher and it has everything to do with the cast. Jon Bernthal stole every scene he was in in Daredevil and my only minor complaint about The Punisher is that it's a shame they re-cast Franks wife. 


A show I am not so patiently waiting for season 2 of is Taboo.  Please Tom Hardy hurry back to the small screen and be pantless again. 

I gave 100 a shot but the target audience felt like 13-15 years old. It'd really have to outgrown it's tweenie roots. I mean, maybe it does, stranger things have certainly happened, but what I remember was... oof... not good, for anyone over 16 at least.

Penny Dreadful I got into but lost interest. Coincidentally around season 3 I think lol.

Punisher was amazing, with some very pertinent scenes. Particularly the last thing he says in the show.
(Spoilers obviously, although not very spoilery, two lines of random speech)

I like Taboo, my girlfriend loves it. (And that part specifically too...  ) I'd like more pants but I'd also like more Taboo. I found it carried by superb acting but it lacked a cohesive story. I'm hoping the next season will provide some linear motivation for the writers to adopt. They have a much more definable goal in their sights now. Curious where it'll pick up as well. I'm hoping they show the voyage. I expect they'll gloss over it and pick things up once they are there. We'll see... 

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Speaking of Netflix Marvel and scenestealers, this guy  was a breath of fresh air in an otherwise boooooring ass Iron Fist. I found an article suggesting the idea of him playing Iron Fist as a missed opportunity. One which after thinking about it I wholeheartedly concur with. This guy would've made a much less wtffauxasianwhiteboyknightofflowers, actually looked the part better, and probably just be downright more entertaining. Also here's a link to the article. 

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Westworld continues to be fucking spectacular. I was worried they'd lose the pacing in season 2 but that's only been true for Dolores. I'm getting mighty bored of her and cyclops.

Luckily... the other story-lines are picking up the slack to such an extent that I'm still just as interested as ever. Maeve, Bernard, and Man in Black are just killin' it.

My suggestion: try something different and explore Chinese shows. They should be able to offer something interesting.