What's the last Television show you watched on DVD/VHS/youtube/Netflix?

[stansimpson]

Saw the first ep of Picard last night. I expected to be rolling my eyes at a bunch of CW actors, but I was pleasantly surprised it wasn't. Some solid world building, mystery, and special effects really impressed me. I'm looking forward to continuing the series.

[Variety of Cells]

I watched the first episode of The Witcher. *siiiiiiighhh* I! JUST! WANT! TO! SEE! HIM! FIGHT! MONSTERS!!!! Is that really too much to ask?! I don't care about the different villages or royal family crap. I certainly don't care about a bunch of villagers so dumb they think fighting a guy they know has superpowers is a good idea! Hell, he doesn't even need superpowers to beat you losers, the dude is huge!

Interesting. What I like about the games is that they aren’t just fighting monsters, and it has a compelling story.

[Johnny Unusual]

The last season of Bojack Horseman was very, very good. It tackles a lot of difficult questions and doesn't provide pat easy answers for our problematic lead character while also not feeling like a cop-out.  The show has been very deft at examining its characters and last season wasn't afraid to interrogate itself (particularly an episode tackling the fact that its prominent Asian character is voiced by a white woman and where shows like Kimmy Schmidt seems to respond by getting defensive/doubling down, I think Bojack seems to understand that there were consequences in that creative decision).  The penultimate episode is deeply unsettling and the finale provides some gentle relief in a bittersweet, hopeful way.

It is a goddamned shame that Tuca and Bertie got cancelled.  If you wanted to see a weird mix of Bojack and a mid-90's Nickelodeon cartoon, that's one to watch.

[Variety of Cells]

The last season of Bojack Horseman was very, very good. It tackles a lot of difficult questions and doesn't provide pat easy answers for our problematic lead character while also not feeling like a cop-out.  The show has been very deft at examining its characters and last season wasn't afraid to interrogate itself (particularly an episode tackling the fact that its prominent Asian character is voiced by a white woman and where shows like Kimmy Schmidt seems to respond by getting defensive/doubling down, I think Bojack seems to understand that there were consequences in that creative decision).  The penultimate episode is deeply unsettling and the finale provides some gentle relief in a bittersweet, hopeful way.

It is a goddamned shame that Tuca and Bertie got cancelled.  If you wanted to see a weird mix of Bojack and a mid-90's Nickelodeon cartoon, that's one to watch.

I loved where everything ended.  It was very sad, and honest, but perfect.  I realized that I've both hated and loved almost every character. 

[MartyS (Gromit)]

Season 4 of Better Call Saul. 

This show really messes with you, gets you feeling all sympathetic for characters we already know are horrible people and then hits you with a reminder of just how terrible they are....

And Mark Evan Jackson makes a brief appearance.

[Johnny Unusual]

I think in many characters cases, "horrible people" is reductive.  Mike says it early in the series that being a criminal is not the same as being a bad person.  But you can be both.  And Nacho, Mike and Jimmy both feel the push and pull of both criminality and being "good".  Jimmy often feels like he's pretty done with good and then finds himself capable of something good, like undoing a bad mess (often that he caused).  Nacho doesn't mind being a criminal or even being a certain level of bad until it threatens his father.  Mike thinks he can be a good criminal but finds that the more responsibilty he has, the more "necessary" evils he has to take on.  Its less that you are being reminded so much as these characters take what they are capable of and do something bad with it.  The show is a tragedy after all and if these characters were monsters from the get it wouldn't be tragic.  The real tragedy is that Jimmy could actually be a very good (in all senses of the word) and savvy lawyer with the right mentoring (heck, in elder law, he proved pretty skilled at connecting with his clients AND even went to bat for them against a huge opponent) but a bad mix of his own issues and how he is treated by some people in his life.

The real tragedy is Kim.  She's stuck with Jimmy through thick and thin and she, probably more than other characters can see the best in him.  And its there.  And the real tragedy is that she's right but she can only do so much to prevent Jimmy, a troubled man capable of both good and ill, from becoming Saul Goodman, a man unmoored from morality.

God, I can't wait for season 5.

[MartyS (Gromit)]

That line about being a criminal not the same as being bad can be true, but hard to make that stick for these characters.  At the start it might hold true but not for long.  Jimmy and Mike have always had questionable morals, and give in to the evil side more and more.  These are not momentary lapses of sanity, there has to be a level of sociopath in there to go from family man one minute to putting a bullet in a guys head the next.

As is the case with most fictional criminals (and many real life ones), if they applied the time and skills they used in their illegal activities to legal ones they would probably do very well.  That does always add to the tragedy.  Wish I could remember the exact quote from The Sting about being regular folk, that seems to apply here, they just don't want to be regular (good) folk.  Jimmy could have had a thriving practice in elder law but couldn't keep his inner con artist in check.

I do agree Kim is the truly tragic character, a good person that gets addicted to the rush of doing some bad things.  I'm kind of dreading how tragic her story might get, since there is no mention of her in Breaking Bad.

[Johnny Unusual]

As is the case with most fictional criminals (and many real life ones), if they applied the time and skills they used in their illegal activities to legal ones they would probably do very well.  That does always add to the tragedy.  Wish I could remember the exact quote from The Sting about being regular folk, that seems to apply here, they just don't want to be regular (good) folk.  Jimmy could have had a thriving practice in elder law but couldn't keep his inner con artist in check.

I mean, Jimmy's definitely his own worst enemy as much as someone else in his life was (being cagey in case anyone hasn't seen it yet, because it is a fantastic reveal).  There are people who are prejudiced against Jimmy for his past.  There are people who try to let him move on with opportunity.  Ed Bagley Jr. really does give Jimmy a chance but despite his skills, Jimmy lacks the discipline to follow the rules and ends up fucking over a genuinely good man.  But I don't think Jimmy is a full on monster until he becomes Saul full time.

I mean, before the events of the show, its mostly just cons and that can definitely be shitty, its not near what he intends to become complicit in.  And even though they are crimes, its hard not to root for him in moments like when he defends Huell because going to jail for a long time for hitting a cop with a sandwich feels beyond the pale.  We know he will become a monster but I wouldn't say he's horrible.  Not inherently.  But trying to be a good guy tends to get him beaten down or feeling weak or humiliated, so its no surprise that the siren song of crime and just plain being awful is tempting.  Kim is definitely close to bringing him over by showing respect for his various skills that other people might deride.  But she can't overcome Jimmy's insecurities and the personal trauma that Jimmy fails to address.

As for Mike, he's probably closer to horrible simply due to the fact that he's committed violent crimes.  He's the opposite of Jimmy and Walter White: those leads are people who feel lesser and when they realize their potential, they become ambitious and high on their own power.  Mike rarely wants to rock the boat.  At least, so he thinks.  He threaten a revenge scheme through season two and is willing to do something rash if a certain nerve is struck.  But despite being a criminal, he clearly thinks the best bet is to follow the rules, both spoken and unspoken.  But sadly there's no sure way to keep his world's seperate and despite his speech, following the rules isn't the same as being a "good criminal".  At the end of the season, he's in a position where he can't be one without ruining his life.

[MartyS (Gromit)]

After watching season 4 of Better Call Saul I remembered that I hadn't watched El Camino yet, so watched it last night.  Kind of meh, more like a long version of an OK episode of Breaking Bad, I did enjoy it but that's about the best I can say about it.

I guess it's easy to be hard on it, the movie does it's job, letting you know what happened to Jessie over a 2 day period, with some interesting flashbacks.

[Johnny Unusual]

El Camino is a weird mix of rather unnecessary but also, to me, really, really good.  Man, Todd is... just the worst.  The writers find new entertaining ways to make Todd a uniquely awful human being.