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We have been trawling terrestrial tv, Amazon, and Netflix for something decent to watch. TV has become so saturated that it's hard to find really intelligently written and well produced series that don't lose us mid series. Writers seem to depend on the same formulas regardless of genre. Characters are given little depth, poorly written humour is often used to try and add colour to programs, and as for series length, keep to 8 episodes, Please! No one needs to sit through 12-18 episodes with a 'mid season' break.
Please recommend something gritty, well scripted, with lead characters that you can believe and invest in…The Wire series 1, True Detective series 1...the last series we stuck with wad Hannah. It was ok, but again tailed off towards the end.
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The Expanse
WestworldSent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
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I'm digging Yellowstone of late, plenty of flannel action and a cool Country soundtrack!
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Please recommend something gritty, well scripted, with lead characters that you can believe and invest in…The Wire series 1, True Detective series 1...the last series we stuck with wad Hannah. It was ok, but again tailed off towards the end.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2183404/
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4687882/
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8912384/
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1493239/
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0845746/ -
I Am the Night…
To do with LA's infamous Black Dahlia killing. Stars Chris Pine.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7186588/City on a Hill...
An FBI agent and a DA take on corruption & crime in Boston. Stars Kevin Bacon.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7187044/ @Stuart.T -
Amazon's "The Boys" is dark, violent, and very, very funny. Highly recommended.
Three eps in - had high hopes - find it more annoying that anything else… The Butcher not being British is (too) obvious and that's a pet peeve of mine... The music is "subversive" - the show is aired on Amazon Prime... One good joke so far... Frenchie saying his dad tried choking him with a Hello Kitty duvet...
I don't know... I'll probably keep watching it, but so far it's been quite the disappointment.
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Well thanks to @gaseousclay @Seul @neph93 and others for your suggestions. I so badly want to see City on the Hill but Showtime isn't legitimately available in the UK.
We are 3 episodes in on Mindhunter. Thankfully it is so much better than it's name. Really enjoying it so far.
We really loved The Sinner too, so stoked to find series 2 on Netflix.
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Mindhunter is great
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Mindhunter is great
Mindhunter was great. As in used to be, once. I found season 2 to be shockingly disappointing.
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@neph93 have you watch The Sinner? It is gooood
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Not had the pleasure. We manage a few episodes a week of anything we watch and a double header now and again is the closest we get to binging so progress is slow. Add to that the fact that every show is to a degree a compromise between me (picky) and my wife (squeamish) and the result is relatively narrow, slow viewing.
Thus using time on Mindhunter s02 was an egregious experience. How anyone can take such an awesome debut season and then utterly ruin it in the second outing through tedious plotting and bizarre character development is beyond me.
Ok, rant over. I’ll do some research on The Sinner and see if I can squeeze it onto the list.
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Thus using time on Mindhunter s02 was an egregious experience. How anyone can take such an awesome debut season and then utterly ruin it in the second outing through tedious plotting and bizarre character development is beyond me.
Ok, rant over. I’ll do some research on The Sinner and see if I can squeeze it onto the list.
I tend to agree with you about mind hunter, but I think it being based on real life makes it hard to be awesome all the time. But this season sucked BAD
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Just finished last night, @Graham. Wait until you can binge it! On the whole, I liked it a lot more than season 1. I seem to be in the minority here, though.
To your point about character development, @neph93, I think you're right. It seemed to be the same note or same thing they were trying to develop about the characters or, in Ford's case, they simply "forgot" to follow-up on his storyline they posited in ep. 1 of season 2. I will say this, though. Fincher, to me, is more interested in the mechanics of filmmaking than he is the characters. How does the shot look? What is the plot driving the story? That sort of thing. He isn't really interested in creating nuanced characters. IMO. I suppose I'm willing to give him a "pass" there because I like his cinematography and precision as a filmmaker.
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Just finished last night, @Graham. Wait until you can binge it! On the whole, I liked it a lot more than season 1. I seem to be in the minority here, though.
To your point about character development, @neph93, I think you're right. It seemed to be the same note or same thing they were trying to develop about the characters or, in Ford's case, they simply "forgot" to follow-up on his storyline they posited in ep. 1 of season 2. I will say this, though. Fincher, to me, is more interested in the mechanics of filmmaking than he is the characters. How does the shot look? What is the plot driving the story? That sort of thing. He isn't really interested in creating nuanced characters. IMO. I suppose I'm willing to give him a "pass" there because I like his cinematography and precision as a filmmaker.
Agree with ur opinion of what’s important to fincher. But it’s a true story so he can’t have lavish storyline if the shit didn’t happen right? Maybe that’s why he’s focused on cinematography. Also he clearly showed that FBI agents can’t hold down a Relationship. Be it Friendship or romantic. Law enforcement be bad on love.
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Yes, I think he could have explored how both the killers and law can't find ways to be "normal" when it comes to relationships. And that could be done with telling a true story, too. In many ways, Holden (and Tench and Carr, too) is like the men he wants to catch. He's methodical, exacting, obsessed. That idea could have been teased out, but, as you mentioned, @Matty123, the seeds are there.
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I’ve always been a fan of Fincher’s cinematography and I can do style over content any day of the week. There’a plenty to enjoy in s2 of this show (the colour scale is sublime and the invocation of time and place too, amongst other things). I’m glad some enjoyed it but for me the promise of s1 was betrayed by the atrocious character development and neglect of narrative drive. You can do what he did in a movie and it can be stunning but stretched over 10 hours it becomes a waste.
The classics of slow tv consist of wonderfully rendered atmosphere, plot development that can be slow to the point of glacial, but still purposeful, and character development in buckets. With pretty pictures to boot. MH s02 fails in at least two of these things. It picked up in the last two episodes but the damage was done. Given some of the shows that combine first class story telling with technically perfect, spectacular visuals, that we’ve seen just this last year, it doesn’t cut it for me.
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@neph93 examples, Please! Which shows do you feel hit your optimum watch criteria? Cinematography can compensate for less than perfect script and character development. But much like talking to a beautiful person that is an idiot, they stay with you for all the wrong reasons…or so my wife tells me
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Lol.
I'm not @neph93 but I think every Kubrick film is style over development. Wrong thread perhaps.
