TV Thread - beware, [expletive] can get spoilery

[heyzeus]

It's Always Sunny is back on tonight, [expletive]!

[cardsfantx]

It's Always Sunny is back on tonight, [expletive]!

and if the actual episodes are anything like the previews, then oh man.....it may be the best season yet. mac getting fat, just for the hell of it? awesomeness.

[longhornbaseball]

It's Always Sunny is back on tonight, [expletive]!

and if the actual episodes are anything like the previews, then oh man.....it may be the best season yet. mac getting fat, just for the hell of it? awesomeness.

Yes. I've been rewatching last season and it wasn't as bad as I remember, but it was clearly the worst season yet. This season looks like it will return to form.

[ghostrunner]

Charlie Day and Glenn Howerton are on this past Monday's episode of Marc Maron's WTF podcast. It's about an hour long interview. Pretty good account of how the show came to be, among other things.

[ghostrunner]

I'm about 5 episodes into Sons of Anarchy, after having only seen pieces of episodes in the past.

The cast is excellent, though the lead guy I have problems with. He's well cast in a sense because he's charismatic and inherently interesting, but he doesn't really handle changing gears between being this charming rogue and having a troubled conscience. He seems to be second guessing all the violence, yet he seems to randomly beat the crap out of someone every episode. So I'm not really buying his backstory. In general that's a problem with the show too. The amount of violence is over the top and hard to believe. Per episode, I'd say it's more violent than the Sopranos. Only 5 episodes in, but already I'm thinking "again with the beatings?" It's almost like they feel like they've got a quota.

In tone it reminds me a lot of the Shield or Dexter, which I like but also get a little pulpy (or soapy maybe) and stretch believability too much.

Apart from that, it's still compelling, and there's a ton of actors I've always liked and wanted to see more of.


- So I went and checked Alan Sepinwall's old blog for reviews and found this thought which is exactly the same thing that occurred to me:

And, to be fair, I do feel attached to some of them. Katey Sagal remains terrific as Gemma, here in a more compassionate, less Lady Macbeth mode but still the unquestioned queen of Sam Crow. And I'm really starting to like Opie to the point where I wonder if the show would work better with him as the main character.

He's probably too much of a big lug for a network to accept him as a main character on a show, and he maybe plays it a little too quiet, but the guy playing Opie is much more compelling.

[robbotis]

I'm about 5 episodes into Sons of Anarchy, after having only seen pieces of episodes in the past.

The cast is excellent, though the lead guy I have problems with. He's well cast in a sense because he's charismatic and inherently interesting, but he doesn't really handle changing gears between being this charming rogue and having a troubled conscience. He seems to be second guessing all the violence, yet he seems to randomly beat the crap out of someone every episode. So I'm not really buying his backstory. In general that's a problem with the show too. The amount of violence is over the top and hard to believe. Per episode, I'd say it's more violent than the Sopranos. Only 5 episodes in, but already I'm thinking "again with the beatings?" It's almost like they feel like they've got a quota.

In tone it reminds me a lot of the Shield or Dexter, which I like but also get a little pulpy (or soapy maybe) and stretch believability too much.

Apart from that, it's still compelling, and there's a ton of actors I've always liked and wanted to see more of.


- So I went and checked Alan Sepinwall's old blog for reviews and found this thought which is exactly the same thing that occurred to me:

And, to be fair, I do feel attached to some of them. Katey Sagal remains terrific as Gemma, here in a more compassionate, less Lady Macbeth mode but still the unquestioned queen of Sam Crow. And I'm really starting to like Opie to the point where I wonder if the show would work better with him as the main character.

He's probably too much of a big lug for a network to accept him as a main character on a show, and he maybe plays it a little too quiet, but the guy playing Opie is much more compelling.

Gemma is great, so is Unser, and Chips, and poor Otto. Enjoy GhostRunner! There's lots of great stuff ahead.
And you're right on Opie, he is a great character, and gets even better and way more compellin.

[G. Keenan]

I think Chips and Unser are probably my two favorite characters.

I enjoy Sons of Anarchy but I think it's probably one of the most overrated shows out there. Season 1 held the promise of some more thoughtful plot lines but ultimately the show is just them running around blowing [expletive] up, fighting, and killing people. I think really it's just a male escapist fantasy show. In that aspect it's entertaining but each season has gotten progressively more mindless and unbelievable.

[Cronos]

I know I'm one of the few fans of Survivor on here, but I really liked the premiere episode of the new season that showed last night. Looks like this is going to be a pretty interesting cast and there's already some cool group dynamics going on.

[SHOW]

I love that they brought back Coach for his shot at Redemption, don't care so much about Ozzy. Coach has always been one of my favorite characters just because of how bat-guano crazy he is, and I'm rooting for him all the way.

Also, that geeky kid Cochran has to be the most self-conscious, low self-esteem person Survivor's ever had. He may be a super-fan of the show, but he's not going to last unless he learns to buck up a bit. Seriously, I think they picked this guy just because they figured the rest of the cast would eat him alive. I'm kind of shocked he didn't go first last night.

[cpebbles]

Sunny was solid. Definitely better than the first half of last season. Archer wasn't a great episode, but I think it was just a boring plotline.

[heyzeus]

Sunny was solid. Definitely better than the first half of last season. Archer wasn't a great episode, but I think it was just a boring plotline.

I was actually pretty disappointed by the Sunny premiere. It seemed to lack their old zest for insults and wacky hijinx. Perhaps because the "Frank is marrying this whore! Let's all note how nasty she is!" premise didn't do it for me. Or maybe because the copious blood vomit was more gross than funny - that's just me though. I totally get that seeing a dude repeatedly puke buckets of blood all over a woman can be funny to some. It just seemed forced.