Anything New This Season That Warrants Viewing?

[Edward J Grug III]

Did you get into The Good Place, Lucas? It's the best, IMO

[k1]

APB was decent.
Powerless probably won't last. Too bad because the cast is great.
Riverdale was brutally awful. Didn't even make it through the pilot. Had to turn it off.

[LucasM]

Did you get into The Good Place, Lucas? It's the best, IMO

I'm glad you enjoy it.  For me the snide comments, the deception, the rudeness of Bell's character, and the saccharine-sweet tone (appearing artificial or at least shallow) of the others in 'the good place' were just too much for me, so I couldn't make it past the first episode.  Since TBI#3, I just can't tolerate personal and emotional deception at all (I was never terribly tolerant of it before, though I needed to at least be diplomatic about it while getting clients to open up and get past it, if need be).

Basically with TV series, if I couldn't see myself being at least reasonably comfortable with the characters in real life, I won't waste my time with them in fiction, as they will just - at best - irritate me (they certainly won't be entertaining).  [That's why I couldn't tolerate shows like Seinfeld, Cheers, Friends, Frasier, even before I just adopted the 'if it is a sitcom, I'm unlikely to tolerate it' position I've taken in the last nearly two decades, a position which has proven itself any time I've tried a sample of a more recent sitcom, even those with rave reviews (e.g. Parks&Rec, The Office, Modern Family).]

[Edward J Grug III]

Did you get into The Good Place, Lucas? It's the best, IMO

I'm glad you enjoy it.  For me the snide comments, the deception, the rudeness of Bell's character, and the saccharine-sweet tone (appearing artificial or at least shallow) of the others in 'the good place' were just too much for me, so I couldn't make it past the first episode.  Since TBI#3, I just can't tolerate personal and emotional deception at all (I was never terribly tolerant of it before, though I needed to at least be diplomatic about it while getting clients to open up and get past it, if need be).

Basically with TV series, if I couldn't see myself being at least reasonably comfortable with the characters in real life, I won't waste my time with them in fiction, as they will just - at best - irritate me (they certainly won't be entertaining).  [That's why I couldn't tolerate shows like Seinfeld, Cheers, Friends, Frasier, even before I just adopted the 'if it is a sitcom, I'm unlikely to tolerate it' position I've taken in the last nearly two decades, a position which has proven itself any time I've tried a sample of a more recent sitcom, even those with rave reviews (e.g. Parks&Rec, The Office, Modern Family).]

I can't comment on your criticisms without giving major spoilers, but I am left wondering what sitcoms you can watch?

[LucasM]

Did you get into The Good Place, Lucas? It's the best, IMO

I'm glad you enjoy it.  For me the snide comments, the deception, the rudeness of Bell's character, and the saccharine-sweet tone (appearing artificial or at least shallow) of the others in 'the good place' were just too much for me, so I couldn't make it past the first episode.  Since TBI#3, I just can't tolerate personal and emotional deception at all (I was never terribly tolerant of it before, though I needed to at least be diplomatic about it while getting clients to open up and get past it, if need be).

Basically with TV series, if I couldn't see myself being at least reasonably comfortable with the characters in real life, I won't waste my time with them in fiction, as they will just - at best - irritate me (they certainly won't be entertaining).  [That's why I couldn't tolerate shows like Seinfeld, Cheers, Friends, Frasier, even before I just adopted the 'if it is a sitcom, I'm unlikely to tolerate it' position I've taken in the last nearly two decades, a position which has proven itself any time I've tried a sample of a more recent sitcom, even those with rave reviews (e.g. Parks&Rec, The Office, Modern Family).]

I can't comment on your criticisms without giving major spoilers, but I am left wondering what sitcoms you can watch?

For the most part, none.  I just avoid them.  For simplicity's sake, if a TV show is 30 minutes, I skip it: period.  The only exception I tried recently was DC's Powerless which I commented on above (not likely to last more than 2-3 eps tops).

Oh, the other thing that angers me more than any of what I wrote before (yeah: me and language aren't yet on good speaking terms) is poor communication.  That occurs at an exponentially greater rate in sitcoms as fodder for 'amusement'.  Having worked with people whose personal lives and relationships were massively fucked by families of origin with shitty communication in them (among other things), and now with communicating causing so much mental drain that I can't tolerate wasting effort with people who can't communicate effectively, seeing such things as 'partially overhearing a conversation, misinterpreting it, but not asking for clarification on what was heard, and instead over-reacting' used to amuse outright pisses me off.

[Edward J Grug III]

It's a shame it wasn't for you. It is one of the best written and cleverly executed shows I've ever seen. I almost wonder if you went and read what the season finale twist was, if it might make it work for you, as it addresses some of your criticisms.

[Ortega]

Speechless was a better show than it had any right to be.  I was convinced that it would be a cloyingly overwrought message of disabled empowerment, but it actually is surprisingly subversive, and has the most realistic living situation I've ever seen on TV before.  And it routinely pokes fun and lampshades a lot of the tropes that a sitcom with this subject matter would usually employ.  Give it a shot.

[RoninFox]

Found out after we moved that our new TV package includes free Starz for a year, and because of that we just dove into the first three episodes of American Gods.

I absolutely loved this book, and so far the series is an excellent adaptation. The casting is brilliant, the tone is spot on, everything just feels right.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Gillian Anderson as Media in the form of Lucille Ball was a great surprise.

[Variety of Cells]

Found out after we moved that our new TV package includes free Starz for a year, and because of that we just dove into the first three episodes of American Gods.

I absolutely loved this book, and so far the series is an excellent adaptation. The casting is brilliant, the tone is spot on, everything just feels right.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Gillian Anderson as Media in the form of Lucille Ball was a great surprise.

I'm loving it as well so far. Never read the book, but the show is awesome. My favorite parts have been the contained introductions to different gods at the beginning of a few episodes. They are great little stories.

[LucasM]

Well... it seems it is about time to dust off this old chestnut of a thread, given that parts of the new TV season start next week.

So... what's people's take on new shows (once you've seen them)?  Or, which shows look interesting enough for you to try them?  And WHY - without the why they look interesting to you, the rest of us can't decide if it's worth our trying or not.

Thus far, for me, the only new thing that will get tried is:
  "The Rookie" - just to see what Nathan Fillion is doing since 'Castle' went off the air, since I don't care much for standard police procedurals (but with Nathan, it is unlikely to be 'standard' anything)

[LucasM]

I thought I'd dust off this old chestnut (and re-roast it).

While it is quite late in its season, there is - amazingly - a DC Universe TV series that I really like.  It is new (and on the DCUniverse streaming platform only, apparently... like there's enough to make such a thing viable?!?).

It is:  Doom Patrol

https://youtu.be/6tTM9nbRk5A

It is like watching Grant Morrison's writing coming to life: the somewhat bent view of the world, with the attendant bizarreness.  It is certainly the most psychologically sophisticated of the super hero TV series.  [It is, to Grant Morrison, what the Marvel 'Legion' TV series is to Bill Sienkiewicz.  Which, despite taking place partly in a psychiatric hospital, takes a somewhat distant 2nd place on psychological sophistication to the Doom Patrol series.]

I just hope that (like the Teen Titans live action, which I have not seen) they release it on Blu-ray when the season is complete.  I won't pay for WB streaming for one show, but I would be happy to give them my money to have a permanent collection of these.

[CJones]

The Terror

First season just finished on AMC. It's about a real life arctic expedition in the 1800's that went horribly wrong.