What are you binge watching?

[NEforceUConn]

Thought it might be interesting for posters to list their 3 favorite streaming tv series, so as to provide some clue as to how they rate shows. Here’s mine:

Luther
Justified
Hanna

Honorable mention to GOT

 

[storrsroars]

Thought it might be interesting for posters to list their 3 favorite streaming tv series, so as to provide some clue as to how they rate shows. Here’s mine:

Luther
Justified
Hanna

Honorable mention to GOT

Not sure I get the assignment. If we're talking true streaming, that would be something that wasn't already aired on cable, no?

Off top of my head, I'm just going to go with a handful where I distinctly recall being sad that they ended. Not sure I can really make a differentiation between 1 and 6.
Money Heist
Stranger Things
Ozark
Slow Horses
The Bear
Mindhunter

 

[NEforceUConn]

Not sure I get the assignment. If we're talking true streaming, that would be something that wasn't already aired on cable, no?

Off top of my head, I'm just going to go with a handful where I distinctly recall being sad that they ended. Not sure I can really make a differentiation between 1 and 6.
Money Heist
Stranger Things
Ozark
Slow Horses
The Bear
Mindhunter

I’m referring to a series that can be watched today regardless where it originated from, eg Suits.

Ozark a great one.

 

[storrsroars]

I’m referring to a series that can be watched today regardless where it originated from, eg Suits.

Ozark a great one.

That's now basically every series ever made.

Anyway, binged "Man In Full" (Netflix) over last couple days. Have the book but never got far into it, so nice to have it condensed into a six-part series. Jeff Daniels (Charlie Croker) is the lead and does a credible job as the corporate Atlanta version of John Dutton. There are a lot of Yellowstone similarities in his story arc, especially of the BSD variety. But for me, it was the subplot of Roger White, Croker's right hand man and legal fixer taking the case of an employee who was arrested form assaulting a cop that I thought was the more dramatic and "human" story. Diane Lane is Croker's ex and object of desire of a mid-level lawyer who's trying to nail Croker, and is way out of Lane's league, making this part of the proceedings a bit unbelievable. But his boss, played by Bill Camp does a great job trying to out-alpha Croker in numerous conference room scenes. I found the ending a bit too contrived, several actors fairly wasted (e.g. Sarah Jones), and some stereotypes a bit too stereotypical, but overall, I found it pretty decent. It moved along quickly and wasn't all that difficult to follow the numerous subplots.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

That's now basically every series ever made.

Anyway, binged "Man In Full" (Netflix) over last couple days. Have the book but never got far into it, so nice to have it condensed into a six-part series. Jeff Daniels (Charlie Croker) is the lead and does a credible job as the corporate Atlanta version of John Dutton. There are a lot of Yellowstone similarities in his story arc, especially of the BSD variety. But for me, it was the subplot of Roger White, Croker's right hand man and legal fixer taking the case of an employee who was arrested form assaulting a cop that I thought was the more dramatic and "human" story. Diane Lane is Croker's ex and object of desire of a mid-level lawyer who's trying to nail Croker, and is way out of Lane's league, making this part of the proceedings a bit unbelievable. But his boss, played by Bill Camp does a great job trying to out-alpha Croker in numerous conference room scenes. I found the ending a bit too contrived, several actors fairly wasted (e.g. Sarah Jones), and some stereotypes a bit too stereotypical, but overall, I found it pretty decent. It moved along quickly and wasn't all that difficult to follow the numerous subplots.

I have been travelling so I have not seen the series, but I have read the book. The book has a lot of the same problems that you laid out, and it sounds like they tried to correct some of the weirder plot lines in the book, but were unsuccessful.

Tom Wolfe was better a better non-fiction writer than he was a fiction writer. His novel "The Bonfire of the Vanities" is legendary for some of its descriptions of the era (Wolfe coined "Masters of the Universe"), but the plot had issues that reviewers ignored because the writing was so good. But when it came to making a movie out of it, the movie sucked despite a monster cast because plot matters so much on the big screen. I was surprised Netflix, or anyone, was going to make a limited series out of "Man in Full" because it is basically the Bonfire of the Vanities, set in Atlanta. The descriptions are interesting and Wolfe breathed a lot of life into the characters, but the plot had serious problems.

 

[Palatine]

I have been travelling so I have not seen the series, but I have read the book. The book has a lot of the same problems that you laid out, and it sounds like they tried to correct some of the weirder plot lines in the book, but were unsuccessful.

Tom Wolfe was better a better non-fiction writer than he was a fiction writer. His novel "The Bonfire of the Vanities" is legendary for some of its descriptions of the era (Wolfe coined "Masters of the Universe"), but the plot had issues that reviewers ignored because the writing was so good. But when it came to making a movie out of it, the movie sucked despite a monster cast because plot matters so much on the big screen. I was surprised Netflix, or anyone, was going to make a limited series out of "Man in Full" because it is basically the Bonfire of the Vanities, set in Atlanta. The descriptions are interesting and Wolfe breathed a lot of life into the characters, but the plot had serious problems.

The reason Bonfires sucked as a movie had nothing to do with the plot of the book which was great.

First, every character in the movie was miscast. They wanted to use big stars, so they ignored everything about the characters, they were all A-list actors but none of them fit their characters. None of them was natural.

Second, the real story of the book was it's setting. The fall of New York. The trial is just a device to show you a civilization going to pieces. This is a brilliant novel, perfectly of its time, written beautifully with insight and humor.

 

[Deepster]

I binged "Baby Reindeer" (Netflix) over the past couple of days, without having read anything about it, other than it was promoted as a "dark comedy".

"Dark" doesn't even begin to describe it. I imagine it's going to win a bunch of awards for being one of the most disturbing series to ever appear on TV. But unlike the dark and disturbing comedy "Poor Things", there aren't many actual laughs to be had here. Instead, it's just one depraved character after another, including the protagonist. Reviews have alluded to viewers "having pity" for the lead's plight, but other than a later love interest (Teri) and the lead's parents, there are no characters here I found worthy of sympathy, and other than the three characters just named above, I couldn't find myself empathizing with anyone. They are all broken people, but IMHO, of their own doing moreso than mental cases who needed help only to find the system failed them. What I view as "lack of personal responsibility" is what seems to drive the plot.

Given it's based on a true story of the writer/lead's life, that the guy is being hailed in media as "brave" and "honest" confounds me. To me, this is a guy who made a series of bad decisions, each one with enough warning lights and sirens screaming "G-T-F-O", but he decided to stay. And that decision affected everyone around him. I don't think one should get awards for that. YMMV.

I watched the first 2 episodes last night and don't know what to think. I found it annoying that the stalker acted the way she did and that he basically let her. Based on comments here and from others, I assume it escalates (tremendously) from here but the first 2 episodes were meh.

 

[Letsgohuskies11]

Under the bridge on Hulu has been great. Also got sucked back into watching Band of Brothers again.

 

[FfldCntyFan]

Under the bridge on Hulu has been great. Also got sucked back into watching Band of Brothers again.

Band of Brothers is among the top two or three things ever produced for television.

 

[phillionaire]

Finished Fallout last week, loved it. Time to dust off Fallout 3 and New Vegas and venture back out into the wasteland.

 

[Palatine]

I spent some time with Mindhunter. It is pretty interesting for a crime show with virtually no action. Only 19 shows so it's not a huge investment of time. It's been around for a while but if you don't know, it's about the guys who invented profiling for the FBI. The best thing about the show is the casting. The job they did finding look alikes for the serial killers is pretty amazing.

 

[HuskyHawk]

I spent some time with Mindhunter. It is pretty interesting for a crime show with virtually no action. Only 19 shows so it's not a huge investment of time. It's been around for a while but if you don't know, it's about the guys who invented profiling for the FBI. The best thing about the show is the casting. The job they did finding look alikes for the serial killers is pretty amazing.

You're just now getting to this? This is one of the shows people are most pissed was never renewed.

 

[ZooCougar]

That's now basically every series ever made.

Anyway, binged "Man In Full" (Netflix) over last couple days. Have the book but never got far into it, so nice to have it condensed into a six-part series. Jeff Daniels (Charlie Croker) is the lead and does a credible job as the corporate Atlanta version of John Dutton. There are a lot of Yellowstone similarities in his story arc, especially of the BSD variety. But for me, it was the subplot of Roger White, Croker's right hand man and legal fixer taking the case of an employee who was arrested form assaulting a cop that I thought was the more dramatic and "human" story. Diane Lane is Croker's ex and object of desire of a mid-level lawyer who's trying to nail Croker, and is way out of Lane's league, making this part of the proceedings a bit unbelievable. But his boss, played by Bill Camp does a great job trying to out-alpha Croker in numerous conference room scenes. I found the ending a bit too contrived, several actors fairly wasted (e.g. Sarah Jones), and some stereotypes a bit too stereotypical, but overall, I found it pretty decent. It moved along quickly and wasn't all that difficult to follow the numerous subplots.

Damn. I read that book ages ago. Not bad.

 

[gwhuskyfan]

That's now basically every series ever made.

Anyway, binged "Man In Full" (Netflix) over last couple days. Have the book but never got far into it, so nice to have it condensed into a six-part series. Jeff Daniels (Charlie Croker) is the lead and does a credible job as the corporate Atlanta version of John Dutton. There are a lot of Yellowstone similarities in his story arc, especially of the BSD variety. But for me, it was the subplot of Roger White, Croker's right hand man and legal fixer taking the case of an employee who was arrested form assaulting a cop that I thought was the more dramatic and "human" story. Diane Lane is Croker's ex and object of desire of a mid-level lawyer who's trying to nail Croker, and is way out of Lane's league, making this part of the proceedings a bit unbelievable. But his boss, played by Bill Camp does a great job trying to out-alpha Croker in numerous conference room scenes. I found the ending a bit too contrived, several actors fairly wasted (e.g. Sarah Jones), and some stereotypes a bit too stereotypical, but overall, I found it pretty decent. It moved along quickly and wasn't all that difficult to follow the numerous subplots.

I'm two episodes in and can't tell if I like it enough to keep watching. Feel like it's been back and forth for me

 

[nelsonmuntz]

The reason Bonfires sucked as a movie had nothing to do with the plot of the book which was great.

First, every character in the movie was miscast. They wanted to use big stars, so they ignored everything about the characters, they were all A-list actors but none of them fit their characters. None of them was natural.

Second, the real story of the book was it's setting. The fall of New York. The trial is just a device to show you a civilization going to pieces. This is a brilliant novel, perfectly of its time, written beautifully with insight and humor.

I have read Bonfire 3 or 4 times, and even know people that were at Salomon Brothers and spoke with Wolfe when he was researching the book. Wikipedia says he spent a day at Salomon, but he was actually researching the bond desk for weeks and based the big bond deal in the book on a transaction that actually happened. I love the book, but the plot has problems and is almost superfluous to the characters in the story.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

That's now basically every series ever made.

Anyway, binged "Man In Full" (Netflix) over last couple days. Have the book but never got far into it, so nice to have it condensed into a six-part series. Jeff Daniels (Charlie Croker) is the lead and does a credible job as the corporate Atlanta version of John Dutton. There are a lot of Yellowstone similarities in his story arc, especially of the BSD variety. But for me, it was the subplot of Roger White, Croker's right hand man and legal fixer taking the case of an employee who was arrested form assaulting a cop that I thought was the more dramatic and "human" story. Diane Lane is Croker's ex and object of desire of a mid-level lawyer who's trying to nail Croker, and is way out of Lane's league, making this part of the proceedings a bit unbelievable. But his boss, played by Bill Camp does a great job trying to out-alpha Croker in numerous conference room scenes. I found the ending a bit too contrived, several actors fairly wasted (e.g. Sarah Jones), and some stereotypes a bit too stereotypical, but overall, I found it pretty decent. It moved along quickly and wasn't all that difficult to follow the numerous subplots.

I am enjoying it through 4 episodes binged last night, but my review before watching it still holds. There are interesting characters that I care about, but the plot is starting to come apart. The core story about an arrogant oligarch's life unwinding against the backdrop of racial unrest and idiotic banks in the New South is interesting. I also think spending 20-30 minutes of screen time on a character in a prison is odd, and this arc, while meaningfully different in the book, was weird in the book too. The end of the book was a train wreck, so I hope Kelley does something different.

The acting is pretty good overall despite some complicated characters, Lane, Pelphry and Harper stand out. Daniels is OK as an actor, but he is not right for this role.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

The ending of A Man in Full was ridiculous, but still a significant improvement over the book’s ending. Overall, I enjoyed it. B+

 

[ZooCougar]

I have been travelling so I have not seen the series, but I have read the book. The book has a lot of the same problems that you laid out, and it sounds like they tried to correct some of the weirder plot lines in the book, but were unsuccessful.

Tom Wolfe was better a better non-fiction writer than he was a fiction writer. His novel "The Bonfire of the Vanities" is legendary for some of its descriptions of the era (Wolfe coined "Masters of the Universe"), but the plot had issues that reviewers ignored because the writing was so good. But when it came to making a movie out of it, the movie sucked despite a monster cast because plot matters so much on the big screen. I was surprised Netflix, or anyone, was going to make a limited series out of "Man in Full" because it is basically the Bonfire of the Vanities, set in Atlanta. The descriptions are interesting and Wolfe breathed a lot of life into the characters, but the plot had serious problems.

The movie sucked because the movie sucked. It had nothing to do with the base material.

Wolfe is a bad fiction writer!?! Come on.

If you went back in time and saw Jimi Hendrix play guitar you would probably swear that you’ve seen better.

 

[nwhoopfan]

Anybody watch "Daybreak" (2019) on Netflix? Over the top high school cliches meets Road Warrior, post apocalyptic in sunny So Cal. 3 eps in, fairly entertaining. Some nods to Ferris Bueller, they even got Matthew Broderick to play the school principal. There was some kind of nuke that was also a bio weapon I guess? Most adults died, the few who didn't turned into zombie type things. Kids survived, stayed with their cliques with the dial turned up to 11. Our hero was new to school so didn't have a clique, except for his dreamy girlfriend who he is desperately looking for.

 

[ZooCougar]

Dark Matter

Oh joy. Yet another show/movie about multiverses! Schrodinger’s Cat? That poor thing thing has been getting worn out by the folks at Apple.

The good news is that unlike Constellation the plot actually moved forward in the first two episodes. So maybe this show won’t complete suck.

 

[nwhoopfan]

Anybody watch "Daybreak" (2019) on Netflix? Over the top high school cliches meets Road Warrior, post apocalyptic in sunny So Cal. 3 eps in, fairly entertaining. Some nods to Ferris Bueller, they even got Matthew Broderick to play the school principal. There was some kind of nuke that was also a bio weapon I guess? Most adults died, the few who didn't turned into zombie type things. Kids survived, stayed with their cliques with the dial turned up to 11. Our hero was new to school so didn't have a clique, except for his dreamy girlfriend who he is desperately looking for.

I'm about 3/4 of the way thru now (10 episodes; cancelled after 1 season in typical Netflix style). Pretty into it. A few characters I find tiresome or irritating, but some others make up for it. Ms. Crumble the science teacher turned into a semi-zombie but still partly human has an interesting arc. There's the youngest of the Alyn Lind sisters playing a character that I think they're at least partially modeling after Chloe Grace Moretz from Kick-A**. How many Alyn Lind's are there anyway? I think 3. One of the other sisters popped up in a cameo most of the way thru the series. And I realized why I find the main character's love interest so appealing--Sophie Simnett is giving me younger Imogen Poots' vibes. Matthew Broderick is good too. And the main guy played by Colin Ford has the every man thing going for him. Just looked him up on imdb, he's got a ton of credits under his belt already. He was Matt Damon's kid in "We Bought a Zoo," I absolutely did not recognize him as the same person.

 

[AreBee1969]

I finished Franklin last night. As a history geek I enjoyed the storyline but went back an forth on Douglas' performance. Eddie Marsen in his wig was a Grampa Munster clone and was in the unenviable position of playing John Adams after Paul Giamatti. For all you old-timers like me, the series was directed by Timothy van Patten, AKA Salami from the White Shadow. I give it a 7 out of 10.

 

[Bomber36]

I finished Franklin last night. As a history geek I enjoyed the storyline but went back a forth on Douglas' performance. Eddie Marsen in his wig was a Grampa Munster clone and was in the unenviable position of playing John Adams after Paul Giamatti. For all you old-timers like me, the series was directed by Timothy van Patten, AKA Salami from the White Shadow. I give it a 7 out of 10.

Marsan’s Adams was actually comical to watch. All I could think about was I wished Giamatti had reprised his role. Enjoyed the series though.

 

[HuskyHawk]

Dark Matter

Oh joy. Yet another show/movie about multiverses! Schrodinger’s Cat? That poor thing thing has been getting worn out by the folks at Apple.

The good news is that unlike Constellation the plot actually moved forward in the first two episodes. So maybe this show won’t complete suck.

I'm debating whether to even continue Constellation, because the pacing is just glacial. Is there even a point to this? They have to give you something.

I agree the multi-verse thing is overdone, but at least Dark Matter has been interesting. They aren't trying to keep the story from you and make you guess what the story actually is.