TV Thread - beware, [expletive] can get spoilery

[MrSaigon]

I listened to a few episodes of the podcast, but just got a bit tired of Karl saying something stupid, then Ricky's terribly annoying shreiking laughter and '[expletive]'-calling. There's such a lack of balance to that relationship, and Karl definitely didn't seem like a character to me, that it never played well for me.

[thrill]

The Strain. Dumb. Fun.

[go birds]

Can anyone give a compelling argument as to why The Leftovers shouldn't be cancelled?

It's awful.

Unless you have insomnia, then its great because it will put you to sleep, almost immediately. I recorded an episode and will keep it on my DVR forever, because sometimes i have trouble sleeping and now i the perfect remedy.

[JL21]

The Strain. Dumb. Fun.

Hell yeah. I'm already addicted to that show.

Matt Zoller Seitz hit it out of the park in his review for the premiere last week:

During high school and college I used to go to a decrepit mall on the other side of town. Most of the spaces that normally would have held stores had been empty for years, but the pedestrian areas were open and filled with flea market–type stalls where people sold homemade and used goods. People brought dogs and cats into the mall. On weekends you could sometimes buy freshly laid eggs and homemade tamales and churros there. You'd see people having tailgate parties in the parking lot. The only "respectable" business holdout was the movie theater, which showed films for a dollar. My friends and I used to go there on Friday or Saturday nights to catch the midnight shows, which were raucous affairs. Cigarettes and joints were smoked. People talked back to the screen. Beer was openly consumed. It was a rare screening that didn't include the sound of bottles accidentally being dropped on the concrete floor and rolling slowly toward the front of the bowling alley–sized "auditorium."

Most of the movies that played at this mall were stupid and trashy and terribly made. But once in a while you'd get a film that was stupid and trashy but well-made — something that had personality and a sense of fun, like The Hidden or The Kiss or Child's Play 2 or The Serpent and the Rainbow or The Crush or John Carpenter's Prince of Darkness. Then again, maybe they weren't all that well-made; maybe they were just not totally terrible and they seemed good because we were drunk or high. I can't say for sure; mists of time, etc. Once in a very great while you'd see an objectively awesome work of pure bloody gold there, like Stuart Gordon's Re-Animator or From Beyond, and it was a day-improving surprise, like finding a five dollar bill on the sidewalk. But you didn't necessarily expect those kinds of tiny miracles. The movie was just part of the experience. As long as it wasn't dull, you liked it.

Anyway: This biographical warm-up is context for me to tell you precisely what you're getting getting into when you watch FX's science-fiction vampire horror miniseries The Strain. It's a TV show, not a movie, but it if were a movie, it would have played at that theater. I could kind of smell churros as I watched it. Quality-wise, it's closer to Child's Play 2 or The Kiss than it is to Re-Animator — which truly is awesome, as anyone who's seen it will testify — but I love the fact that The Strain seems to be trying to evoke these sorts of better-than-government-work horror midnight time-wasters.

http://www.vulture.com/2014/07/guillerm ... eview.html

[cardsfantx]

Can anyone give a compelling argument as to why The Leftovers shouldn't be cancelled?

It's awful.

Unless you have insomnia, then its great because it will put you to sleep, almost immediately. I recorded an episode and will keep it on my DVR forever, because sometimes i have trouble sleeping and now i the perfect remedy.

It's not a horrible show, just really, really bad....I just watched the last episode, and I'm out. Deleted it off my schedule.

[thrill]

After the strain aired on Sunday, I was irritated that I couldn't binge the rest of the season. Its awesome.

[The Third Man]

I'm a Seinfeld acolyte who has seen every episode at least five times and most more than that but I'm only now beginning Curb Your Enthusiasm.

Holy [expletive] this is hilarious.

[Jocephus]

very surprising. no doubt you will love it.

[JL21]

I'm a Seinfeld acolyte who has seen every episode at least five times and most more than that but I'm only now beginning Curb Your Enthusiasm.

Holy [expletive] this is hilarious.

[Jocephus]

What do you remember most about casting Breaking Bad?
Thomas: It was just was so authentic in every way, and we would salivate for the next script. And we didn't have the pressure from above to cast stars or names. It was really an honest process of having actors audition, and the person who best fulfilled the role and Vince's vision got the part.

Did you ever go after any big names?
Bialy: Actually, by the end, there were so many actors who had called to say they were huge fans and wanted to be on the show and we couldn't use them because they were huge names. The late Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Michael Cera, there were so many, young and old, by the last season, actors calling and saying, ‘I love the show and I want to be a part of it.' And to Vince and the writers' credit, they stayed true to the authenticity of the storyline because it would take you out of it. You would stop and say, wait, what is he doing in Albuquerque?

http://www.eonline.com/news/562055/emmy ... -wanted-on