favorite current tv series...

[Doc Holliday]

Homeland

I started watching season 5 yesterday and so far i only have 3 episodes (out of 12) left to watch. I started to watch this great series about 4 years ago and i can't say enough great things about it! :thumb:

 

[man77777]

First Season of True Detective is absolutly incredible (best scene sex ever btw).

 

[Gabriella Laurence]

Gabriella, I completely agree with your summary. I binged watched this and it's indeed an emotional roller coaster. Have you followed up on it?

Only after I had finished, I did the google and it appears that we're in store for some potentially big developments in the near future. If you're interested, reddit has alot of background/additional info and material that didn't make it into the documentary and i found it quite engaging and enlightening.

After assessing it yourself, you want to feel that definitive verdict, confirming what you felt it should be. Putting your bias aside and thinking objectively and rationally. I'd be very interested in what others have felt and i believe we do have a number of resident lawyers here.

In the end, its either not guilty or guilt. however, to get there, the entitlement of a fair trial is paramount. This case can be characterized by the saying that, truth is stranger than fiction.

Yes, I've followed up on it. A lot, actually. I'm really interested to see if anything will come out of this documentary aside from the petitions that were signed and the refusal of the Wisconson Gov. to even consider a pardon and Obama saying he can't do anything because it's a state matter and not a federal one... What a joke.

Here's an article well worth reading: http://www.postcrescent.com/story/n...-pretrial-behavior-called-unethical/78630248/

If anyone is interested in discussing the documentary and everything else since the docuseries aired, perhaps a new thread should be created so not to highjack this one?

 

[freedom3]

The best series I ever saw was Boss. It is like House of Cards, but not stupid.

 

[freedom3]

Black Mirror or maybe the title should be Black Horror.
British television series delving in the darkest side of the human psyche.

Great recommendation! I started watching it.

 

[EagerBeaver]

X Files Reboot

At the outset I should note I was a huge fan of the original X Files TV show and watched almost every episode (I may have missed one or two episodes in the first few seasons). I think it is one of the best TV shows in the history of television. I can't think of any better conspiracy theory TV show ever. It spawned many imitations in the late 1990s and early 2000s which were not nearly as good. The reasons for the success of the show was outstanding writing by Chris Carter and Vince Gilligan (who later was the chief writer of Breaking Bad), and an uncanny chemistry between the two stars of the show, played by David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson. They both have aged well, and both have slipped seamlessly back into their former characters and 20 years later that same magical chemistry that was there in the 1990s is back! Chris Carter is also back as writer and director.

I have watched each of the first two episodes of the reboot and IMHO, they were very good. Tonight's episode was more serious and much better than the often tongue in cheek premiere last night. Tonight's episode was on a par with the best stand alone episodes of the original show back in the 1990s when the show had its peak glory. However the episode tonight was also extremely disturbing and had very graphic violence including an extremely violent, horrifying suicide scene to open the show. It might be the most graphically violent suicide in the history of television. There is another graphic scene in which a woman cuts a fetus out of her womb with a knife. VIEWER DISCRETION ADVISED - NOT FOR THE KIDDIES.

Without creating any spoilers, the reboot proceeds based on new facts which are revealed in the first episode through a dramatic reenactment of "what really happened" with the infamous Roswell 1947 UFO incident. The viewer is shown what the United States government has hidden for the 69 years since Roswell from the American public. The viewer sees what "really occurred" in Roswell in 1947 and proceeds based on those "facts".

Tonight's episode was about genetic testing on fetuses and children. It was extremely disturbing and thought provoking as far as exploring the potential for abuse with genetic testing technology on humans. At the end of the show they paid homage to the film 2001: A Space Odyssey as 2 characters watch the famed monolith scene in that classic 1968 science fiction film.

There is also a hysterical scene in which a gay man who is a potential witness to a crime mistakenly believes that Mulder (Duchovny's character) is coming on to him.

Overall I would give last night's episode a B and tonight's episode an A. Gillian Anderson and David Duchovny were both fantastic in tonight's episode. I also read next Monday's episode will be the best yet and I cannot wait. Next Monday's installment is a stand alone monster episode, which was a formula that created some of the very best episodes of the original show back in the 1990s.

 

[EagerBeaver]

The legendary X Files character of "Cigarette Smoking Man", now close to 80 and seen smoking cigarettes through a trachea device as noted by Patron, is played by Canadian actor William B. Davis, who wrote a book called "Musings of a Cigarette Smoking Man":

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_B._Davis

According to the above, he is very active with the Canadian Cancer Society, and strikes a decidedly different note in real life than his character in X Files.

 

[EagerBeaver]

I know there is a lot of makeup and camera work involved, but the Mulder and Scully look extremely good to have aged significantly from the original series.

Gillian Anderson appears to me to be in fantastic shape for a 47 year old woman, and she weighs less now than she did in the 1990s. She got pregnant during the original TV show (ironically after a brief romance with a makeup artist on the show), and at one point her weight gain was noticeable on the original show. But she looks tremendously fit in the reboot. In some scenes you can tell she has aged, but in others she looks remarkable for a 47 year old woman. I agree that clever camera work by the people over at Fox Network certainly helps.

 

[EagerBeaver]

Many of the X-Files episodes were shot in Canada because the scenery was spookier (darkness, vegetation, rain) during parts of the year than what was available in the U.S. .

The first 6 or 7 seasons of the original X Files TV show were shot in the Vancouver, Canada area for the reasons you mentioned. The show began to suck a little at the end of its original run when they moved shooting to LA and Duchovny left the show. Once Duchovny left the show, the last 2 seasons or so, it was doomed, because the chemistry he had with Gillian Anderson was (and is) irreplaceable.

 

[dbiz2]

The first 6 or 7 seasons of the original X Files TV show were shot in the Vancouver, Canada area for the reasons you mentioned. The show began to suck a little at the end of its original run when they moved shooting to LA and Duchovny left the show. Once Duchovny left the show, the last 2 seasons or so, it was doomed, because the chemistry he had with Gillian Anderson was (and is) irreplaceable.

As of 3 weeks ago, its BILLIONS, a new Showtime original TV show, with ABC's new season of American Crime nipping at its heels. American Crime has a strong ensemble cast. BILLIONS also has a pretty good ensemble cast, with the 2 strong protagonists being: 1) a shady Wall Street player and 2) an equally ambitious U.S. Attorney looking for a new head to mount on his wall. Best line that told me I was going to like the show is when the U.S. Attorney warned the shady WS player to "walk away" or else.

The WS guy responded, " I should. But then again what's the point of having fuck you money if you never say fuck you."

My hero.....

 

[EagerBeaver]

The X Files episode tonight about the reptile creature who is bitten by a man, and then keeps transforming into a man (which he finds repugnant to his reptilian nature) and then back to reptile creature, was among the more bizarre X Files episodes I have seen. They had good fun with it. It was both homage and parody that the man he transformed into wore the same rumpled suit and trademark hat that was worn by the main character in "Kolchak: The Night Stalker", the TV series which inspired the X Files.

 

[warikahill]

The Shannara Chronicles and Beowulf

 

[EagerBeaver]

Here is a review about all the Easter Eggs that were contained in last Monday's X Files episode:

http://www.vulture.com/2016/02/x-files-easter-eggs-weremonster.html?sf20260232=1

 

[What's My Name]

Outsiders with Ryan Hurst

 

[Sara Cleavage]

Serie Noire, a french series from Quebec taking place in Montreal and yes one of the main characters (Charlene) is a what you call a prostitute. Very entertaining thriller. Season 1 is available on Netflix with English subtitles.

 

[foxhound82]

+1 for Shannara chronicles really impressed with the production values

 

[EagerBeaver]

Last night's X Files reboot episode was the 3rd consecutive classic episode, and as good as anything they did in the 1990s. This one was about a murdering monster who avenges against those seeking to relocate the homeless in Philadelphia. It was probably the scariest episode so far this year. One of the murders is set to the music of Petula Clark's 1964 hit "Downtown"-

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fllN8bUJ77c

This was a tremendous integration of classic pop music with contemporary cultural issues. As a matter of interest however the song was written by songwriter Tony Hatch on his first visit to Manhattan, and most of the melody came to him while he was visiting Times Square. He didn't know at that time that this isn't really the area of New York City that is considered downtown. Anyway it's not about Philadelphia LOL but close enough I guess.

 

[johnybird]

Can you explain something to me EB, from an American's point of view.

I never had watched the original X-files but I've gotten into these new ones and I'm really enjoying it.

(Spoiler Alert)

Just want to know why is it that I can see someone graphically rip apart a person, in more than one scene, on primetime tv and no ones bats an eye BUT if there are 2 people having sex on screen naked (not hardcore of course) or a booby showing all hell breaks loose?

 

[EagerBeaver]

Johnnybird,

There was a warning on language and violence before the X files TV show last night. The murders were very gory and brutal.

I don't really have an answer for your question but you have to distinguish between network TV and cable TV. On cable TV there is all kinds of sex and nudity on shows like Game of Thrones. X Files is broadcast on Fox and Fox, CBS, NBC and ABC all are answering to network censors. Fox has always pushed the envelope with the violence and controversial subject matter. These warnings before the episode are something fairly new.

Back in the 1990s X Files was broadcast with a generic "graphic content" warning. There was a show about incest among a family of mutants which caused a lot of controversy in around 1996 or so. I remember that episode well, it was very disturbing. It was office cooler talk all over the USA when it aired.

The reboot has gone much better than what I was expecting and I had high expectations as a fan of the original series.

 

[Taqueuse]

Funny ... I thought I was the only one watching Entourage and Californication. Ari Gold ... loved him so much haha. Do you guys watched the movie from Entourage ?