What’s on TV?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Huntn
  • Anyone can edit the first post of this thread WikiPost WikiPost
  • Start date Start date
Status
The first post of this thread is a WikiPost and can be edited by anyone with the appropiate permissions. Your edits will be public.
The White Lotus finale was entertaining. I enjoyed that show.

Also, Doctor Death on Peacock is very addictive.
 
This review in The Atlantic made me decide to give The Chair a whirl on Netflix.

www.theatlantic.com

'The Chair' Is Netflix’s Best Drama in Years

The near-perfect show elegantly skewers the subject of free speech on campus.
www.theatlantic.com www.theatlantic.com

OK, I cop to being in a mood perfectly suited to the review when I read this bit of it and I found it hilarious.

The Chair, created by the actor Amanda Peet and the academic and screenwriter Annie Wyman, feels like it could have been a play (Peet has written two). The show’s structure—from introduction to rise to complication to catastrophe—is pure Freytag, and its setting (the fictional Pembroke College, a frigid northeastern school that’s supposedly a “lower-tier Ivy”) is insular and wood-paneled.

In the first episode, Ji-Yoon Kim (played by Sandra Oh) has finally reached a lofty career peak as the chair of the Pembroke English department. Apprehensive and endearingly awkward in a duffel coat, she walks into her new office, unwraps a gift (a nameplate for her desk that reads FUCKER IN CHARGE OF YOU FUCKING FUCKS), and sinks into her new desk chair, which promptly breaks beneath her. The pratfall is also an omen: More than the furniture is rotten at Pembroke.

The college, in fact, is in crisis, and the English department is hemorrhaging enrollments, largely because the majority of its professors are tenured, over 70, and totally unwilling to try to connect with their impassioned Gen Z students and their progressive priorities. On her first day, Ji-Yoon is instructed by the dean to ax the most egregious dinosaurs, including the Chaucer scholar Joan (Holland Taylor) and the American-lit professor Elliot (Bob Balaban). Elliot’s classes pale in popularity compared with those of his dynamic colleague Yaz (Nana Mensah), and yet he’s presiding over her application for tenure. More troublesome still is Bill (Jay Duplass), a rock-star professor of modernism in a state of catastrophe after his wife’s death. During one packed lecture, Bill satirically performs a Hitler salute while considering absurdism’s power against fascism, sparking a viral meme and a furious debate about free speech on campus.

Not sure any of that actually counts as a spoiler so I'll leave it up to you. As far as the show, maybe I just like the idea of that nameplate referred to that's apparently featured in the first episode. Well on to find out if I like the actual experience of the show as much as I enjoyed the review.
 
lizkat said:
This review in The Atlantic made me decide to give The Chair a whirl on Netflix.

www.theatlantic.com

'The Chair' Is Netflix’s Best Drama in Years

The near-perfect show elegantly skewers the subject of free speech on campus.
www.theatlantic.com www.theatlantic.com

OK, I cop to being in a mood perfectly suited to the review when I read this bit of it and I found it hilarious.

The Chair, created by the actor Amanda Peet and the academic and screenwriter Annie Wyman, feels like it could have been a play (Peet has written two). The show’s structure—from introduction to rise to complication to catastrophe—is pure Freytag, and its setting (the fictional Pembroke College, a frigid northeastern school that’s supposedly a “lower-tier Ivy”) is insular and wood-paneled.

In the first episode, Ji-Yoon Kim (played by Sandra Oh) has finally reached a lofty career peak as the chair of the Pembroke English department. Apprehensive and endearingly awkward in a duffel coat, she walks into her new office, unwraps a gift (a nameplate for her desk that reads FUCKER IN CHARGE OF YOU FUCKING FUCKS), and sinks into her new desk chair, which promptly breaks beneath her. The pratfall is also an omen: More than the furniture is rotten at Pembroke.

The college, in fact, is in crisis, and the English department is hemorrhaging enrollments, largely because the majority of its professors are tenured, over 70, and totally unwilling to try to connect with their impassioned Gen Z students and their progressive priorities. On her first day, Ji-Yoon is instructed by the dean to ax the most egregious dinosaurs, including the Chaucer scholar Joan (Holland Taylor) and the American-lit professor Elliot (Bob Balaban). Elliot’s classes pale in popularity compared with those of his dynamic colleague Yaz (Nana Mensah), and yet he’s presiding over her application for tenure. More troublesome still is Bill (Jay Duplass), a rock-star professor of modernism in a state of catastrophe after his wife’s death. During one packed lecture, Bill satirically performs a Hitler salute while considering absurdism’s power against fascism, sparking a viral meme and a furious debate about free speech on campus.

Not sure any of that actually counts as a spoiler so I'll leave it up to you. As far as the show, maybe I just like the idea of that nameplate referred to that's apparently featured in the first episode. Well on to find out if I like the actual experience of the show as much as I enjoyed the review.
Click to expand...
I watched the season today… just 6 half-hour episodes. I liked some aspects, but I found the “Bill” character to be quite unsympathetic. The exploration of cancel culture was somewhat interesting.
 
SuperMatt said:
I watched the season today… just 6 half-hour episodes. I liked some aspects, but I found the “Bill” character to be quite unsympathetic. The exploration of cancel culture was somewhat interesting.
Click to expand...

I'm thinking the parts around the Bill character might be too frenetic for me to handle. Still gonna give it a shot because I'm still trying to puzzle through "cancel culture" issues v "free speech". As is the world, probably.
 
shadow puppet said:
Watched the first couple of free episodes of Ted Lasso. Enjoyed it so much, signed up for a month of Apple TV+. Just started season 2. Very well rounded ensemble cast.
Click to expand...
Season 2, episodes 3 and 6(?) (whichever was released this weekend) both brought tears to my eyes. I just love the ensemble and what they’re doing with each character.
 
Episode 2 of What If….

I certainly liked it more than episode 1. Mostly I liked Thanos. 🤣
 
shadow puppet said:
Watched the first couple of free episodes of Ted Lasso. Enjoyed it so much, signed up for a month of Apple TV+. Just started season 2. Very well rounded ensemble cast.
Click to expand...

We are going to start it as soon as the offspring goes back to college. We are working our way through The Blacklist with her.
 
Herdfan said:
We are going to start it as soon as the offspring goes back to college. We are working our way through The Blacklist with her.
Click to expand...

That's like saying "we'll have steak when the offspring goes back to college. For now we're working on a pack of hot dogs."

Ted is one of the best comedies I've ever seen. Blacklist is one of the better mediocre action shows I couldn't finish. It started good, but I think it went downhill hard.

Just my opinion of course.
 
MEJHarrison said:
Ted is one of the best comedies I've ever seen. Blacklist is one of the better mediocre action shows I couldn't finish. It started good, but I think it went downhill hard.
Click to expand...
I agree completely! I binged the first two seasons so I could watch season 3 as they were released. After the whole thing with Mr. Kaplan and the guy in the woods…the entire show fell off a cliff.
 
MEJHarrison said:
That's like saying "we'll have steak when the offspring goes back to college. For now we're working on a pack of hot dogs."

Ted is one of the best comedies I've ever seen. Blacklist is one of the better mediocre action shows I couldn't finish. It started good, but I think it went downhill hard.

Just my opinion of course.
Click to expand...
Alli said:
I agree completely! I binged the first two seasons so I could watch season 3 as they were released. After the whole thing with Mr. Kaplan and the guy in the woods…the entire show fell off a cliff.
Click to expand...

Spoiler, Spoiler. We are just on Season 2. ;)

I just loved Boston Legal, so maybe I just need a James Spader fix. :ROFLMAO:

But it does look like it could Jump the Shark at any moment.
 
shadow puppet said:
Watched the first couple of free episodes of Ted Lasso. Enjoyed it so much, signed up for a month of Apple TV+. Just started season 2. Very well rounded ensemble cast.
Click to expand...
Herdfan said:
We are going to start it as soon as the offspring goes back to college. We are working our way through The Blacklist with her.
Click to expand...

I was just informed that we are going to start it tonight. Like now. Bye!
 
Alli said:
OMG - that was one of the best shows ever. Spader and Shatner were brilliant. And the finale was perfect.

Sorry! I’m really bad about that.
Click to expand...

No problem. It is on like what, Season 8 or 9 and you posted something from 2 or 3. All good.

Herdfan said:
I was just informed that we are going to start it tonight. Like now. Bye!
Click to expand...

That was funny. Only watched the first Ep, but if the others are half as funny we will be hooked.

But here's a question for those who have watched Tes Lasso and also seen We're the Millers. My wife always thinks someone looks familiar and wants to know what else they have been in. In this case, it was the Assistant Coach. IMDB lists him as having a "We're the Millers credit as "sketchy guy". Racking our brains, we can't figure out which sketchy guy he was. Any clue?
 
Not helpful but I just noticed him playing a sketchy guy in an episode of Community. This was easily 10 years ago.
 
Yesterday I binged the White Lotus. I was overjoyed that nothing in my wildest imagination prepared me for the finale. You get hung up on the first scene in episode 1 and make assumptions.

Also invested now in Nine Perfect Strangers.

The two shows share a lot in common. Both have great casts.
 
Alli said:
Episode 2 of What If….

I certainly liked it more than episode 1. Mostly I liked Thanos. 🤣
Click to expand...
Episode 2 is my favorite so far. Thanos was indeed wonderful.

While I don’t mind animation in general, the artistic style used in this series isn’t working out for me. The setting and story of the second episode made it work better than it did in the two other episodes so far, I think, still not fond of it.

Enjoying the show anyway. What can I say, I am a sucker for alternate history. And I really like how they end each episode. :greenthumb:
 
When the Grandkids were here I ended up watching part of a What if episode. Besides my resistance to cartoons, I just don’t need to see reimagined episodes taking place in the MCU where the characters have played musical chairs. The Collector, a muscle bound thug? Thanos good? Pshaw… ;)
 

Similar threads

Huntn
What’s On Your Mind?
19 20 21
Replies
412
Views
17K
Huntn
Huntn
Back
Top