The All-New TT: Television Time Mini Reviews

[FelixSH]

I'm watching the second season of Heartstopper. Seems like I will binge the whole thing in one go, like I did with the first one, beause I can't stop. It's still very queer and super adorable.

Just can't stop smiling and also crying (no idea why, exactly, I think it's because I find it too adorable).

 

[Purple]

So if nobody caught it, Futurama is back Yet Again, via Hulu, but 4 episodes in you... really aren't missing much. Of what we're calling season 11 after some count confusion with the movies, we've got:
1- As has become a weird tradition, a meta episode about being uncancelled, composed almost entirely of jokes about how reviving old shows is a bad idea and creative burnout and such (oh and one bit with a standup comic starting a joke about nonbinary robots and being booed by a PC crowd, as in personal computers).
2- Hey remember when Kif gave birth the one time and there was that joke about them just being tadpoles in a bog for 20 years and Amy being maybe ready to be a parent then? That aired a whole 20 years ago! So we're revisiting that and... actually just kinda doing all the same jokes again.
3- What's a real current hot button topic we can do an episode about to establish that we're up with the times? Aha! Bitcoin mining! Like I dunno, they gotta go to California and be prospectors in a covered wagon. We never did that right? Oh. Season 3? Eh whatever.
4- Hey remember that time Fry had the brain worms, and they made him smart, and they did the whole Fantastic Voyage thing? Well what if Nibbler had them and they made him dumb? We can do this whole Dune parody in a litterbox. Namedrop Ivermetcin a whole lot.

Like, I dunno. I was already starting to re-evaluate the series in hindsight and this isn't exactly helping.

 

[Neo Skimbleshanks]

It's not very good, but I'm sure the earlier stuff was better. When Nibbler ate that man and his dog in the park... hard to earnestly root for him. Completely in the wrong!

I have had this horrible habit for months of watching 30-second clips of late Family Guy on youtube and like reading the comments. (strange choice) I have functionally seen several season 21 episodes on this point. I tried to watch full episodes at some point which was obviously a bad idea, but now I'm picking up American Dad from where I left off (thanks for keeping track, hulu) and that show is actually good. AD has the right comedic tone for its principal characters to occasionally commit murder. And I am no longer watching these clips on youtube.

 

[Rascally Badger]

I am vaguely enjoying the new Futurama. I thought the newest episode did a good job of bringing back the worms only because it made sense for the episode, rather than a callback for the sake of a callback. And I didn't think they really redid the jokes from the original worms episode. That Ivermectin bit never turned into a joke. They just mentioned using ivermectin to get rid of worms.

Overall, I've had a few chuckles and find the general Futurama vibe pleasant. I'd rate it about a C so far.

 

[lincolnic]

Starting watching Severance before my Apple TV trial runs out next week, eight episodes in and man does this show know how to do a cliffhanger. But also, (episode 8 specific spoiler) what the actual fuck happens at the Waffle Party.

 

[WisteriaHysteria]

So if nobody caught it, Futurama is back Yet Again, via Hulu, but 4 episodes in you... really aren't missing much.

It's not great/is completely disposable. It's also not really offensive either, beyond creatives just going through the motions in order to get paid again. Stacked up to the original run, it's obviously lacking in creativity and spirit. But like RB said, it's got the vibe. It's made good background noise while finding shrines in Zelda.

I have had this horrible habit for months of watching 30-second clips of late Family Guy on youtube and like reading the comments.

I must have triggered the algorithm somehow, and now Snapchat shows me Family Guy clips ad nauseum when browsing the spotlight videos. Family Guy is not a good TV show, but this might be the ideal format for watching it? Like, the show is just a collection of comedic skits to begin with, barely strung together with any coherency. I could see a future 50 years from now where major media corporations begin putting out actual content like this.

 

[Patrick]

They already tried it with Quibi. It did not turn out well.

 

[MCBanjoMike]

Starting watching Severance before my Apple TV trial runs out next week, eight episodes in and man does this show know how to do a cliffhanger. But also, (episode 8 specific spoiler) what the actual fuck happens at the Waffle Party.

I loved Severance and am eagerly awaiting season 2, but it looks like it might be a while before it comes out. They were having production troubles even before the writers strike started.

Obviously it should be stated that I'm in favor of the strike and don't mind waiting for my favorite shows to return. But this is one of the ones that I'm the most excited for!

 

[Octopus Prime]

the Futurama Revival is… exactly as good as I was expecting it to be

 

[Daikaiju]

the Futurama Revival is… exactly as good as I was expecting it to be

hooray?

 

[Octopus Prime]

For my ability to accurately gauge things, yep!

 

[WisteriaHysteria]

They already tried it with Quibi. It did not turn out well.

Quibi tried to be a pay-gated platform with episodes around 5mins. Both stats being mutually exclusive with what I’m proposing and what retains the attention of Zoomers. I’m suggesting something 15s-60s skits on a platform that’s free to view. Basically what I’m saying is professionally developed Instagram Reels/Snapchat Stories/YouTube Shorts/TikTok Whatevers. We already see traditional media try to do these things. They don’t do a great job of it yet. Give it several decades and the only ones left will be the ones who mastered this nascent medium.

 

[WisteriaHysteria]

When Nibbler ate that man and his dog in the park... hard to earnestly root for him. Completely in the wrong!

Counterpoint: The man was 1) a lawyer, and 2) wearing a "Yale Law" hat. Which includes prestigious alumni such as:

• The Clintons
• Gerald Ford
• Joseph Lieberman
• Josh Hawley
• Samuel Alito
• Brett Kavanaugh
• Clarence Thomas
• Hunter Biden
• Pat Robertson
• Bruce Wayne

Nibbler was actually being a good boy and doing a public service

 

[lincolnic]

I loved Severance and am eagerly awaiting season 2, but it looks like it might be a while before it comes out. They were having production troubles even before the writers strike started.

Obviously it should be stated that I'm in favor of the strike and don't mind waiting for my favorite shows to return. But this is one of the ones that I'm the most excited for!

We finished it tonight and oh no I thought season 2 was already out oh nooooooooo

But yeah, this show was super good. Whenever it comes back, I will make a point to watch!

still wanna know about the waffle party though, what the fuck

 

[Kirin]

We just watched the first season of Only Murders in the Building, that was a good time. As a murder mystery, you don't get much but constant misdirection until the last few episodes, but really it's more about the characters anyway. Kind of a jarring last-second cliffhanger into the second season there at the end, though I guess there was that one flash-forward from Tina Fey's podcast that foreshadowed it. Speaking of which, dang there's a lotta stars in here. I guess Steve Martin just knows everybody by this point in his life.

 

[lincolnic]

Since discovering they put How It's Made on whatever weird beast HBO Max morphed into, my girlfriend and I have been putting on random episodes of How It's Made every so often. This show still rules, folks.

 

[Johnny Unusual]

Not completely caught up but the newest seasons of Only Murders is great. I feel like the show has the power to put in big names but they are far more than glorified cameos, they are interesting characters. Will be really bummed if it goes the obvious route and Streep is the killer. I will say, though, my going theory is Paul Rudd poisoned himself before the show in an effort to get out of an enforceable contract, someone was relieved when they thought he died, and then when he came back, the party felt they needed to kill him for real.

 

[Rascally Badger]

I wasn't crazy about the latest episode of Only Murders (I don't feel like we needed to see any more of Jane Lynch), but yeah, I am enjoying this new season.

 

[Rascally Badger]

This is not necessarily reflective of my overall opinion of the episode, but the latest episode of Futurama has the exciting character find of 2023 in Bonebot.

More Bonebot please.

 

[BEAT]

So squid game is fucking intense

 

[Octopus Prime]

This is not necessarily reflective of my overall opinion of the episode, but the latest episode of Futurama has the exciting character find of 2023 in Bonebot.

More Bonebot please.

Hard agree

 

[Rascally Badger]

Mon bone ami

 

[Octopus Prime]

Three Bonedred Years

 

[Johnny Unusual]

So squid game is fucking intense

Yeah, I rather liked it overall. Interesting to see it after learning it was partially inspired by the madness that is Kaiji.

 

[FelixSH]

As mentioned at some point, a friend and I watch slowly through Parks and Recs. Yesterday, we watched The Fight (S3), the first time where Leslie and Ann have a fight.

I don't care for nearly all romantic couples, and their dumb fights. It's boring and annoying. But this here? That hurt. I don't want them to fight. I love their friendship. This one actually got to me a bit (likely as much as it was supposed to be).

This show really feels like The Office, just better. I love Leslie so much. She feels like Michael done right. The Office could be uncomfortable (at least sometimes), with how Michael forced his employees to endure his nonsense. With Leslie actually being competent and generally being a capable, hard-working person, who isn't so needy for sympathy, works much better for me.

I could do without them having this one coworker who everyone is shitty towards, which feels so much meaner then the rest of the show. But elsewise, I love it. Makes me feel good.

 

[Beta Metroid]

I could do without them having this one coworker who everyone is shitty towards, which feels so much meaner then the rest of the show. But elsewise, I love it. Makes me feel good.

Hard agree. They attempt to address this later on, but I'd say the results are mixed at best.

 

[Kirin]

Just finished up the latest and final season of Sex Education, that went pretty hard and nobody will believe me if I say no pun intended. Pity they lost a few characters from previous seasons, but the show's so packed with good character arcs it wasn't really hurting from it.

Anyway, can't wait to see Ncuti as the Doctor, he's a damn fine actor.

 

[MCBanjoMike]

After a little over 6 months, I have finished watching (the original six seasons of) Justified. I was way into it at first, binging maybe a little too hard through the first seasons, but I started losing steam around season 4. By the time I hit season 5, I really had to force myself to get through the episodes, although thankfully season 6 was propulsive enough to keep me glued to the screen. I still can't quite decide where the show falls for me, though. The writing and acting (not to mention the incredible slate of guest actors) are generally top tier, but there didn't seem to be a huge amount of character development over the series and the characters' motivations didn't always seem totally tied to what was happening in the episodes. The biggest victim of this is Raylan himself, whose character really winds up treading water in seasons 4 and 5 before kind of resolving all at once at the tail-end of season 6. There were some stretches where I honestly found myself wondering why they kept him at the center of the show, since nothing in his life was changing, and almost all the actual devlopment was happening on Boyd's side. As for Crowder himself, Goggins is a delight in pretty much every scene, although I think I liked the character best in the first season, where it's hard to tell if he legitimately believes his own preaching or if he's just wants a congregation of morons around to facilitate his mayhem. He transitions from "intense weirdo" to "charming ganster looking for a big score" fairly early in the show, but I always missed the days when his motivations were a bit murkier.

Anyway, I had a good time with it overall, barring season 5 - that one flopped really hard for me. But the show brought enough fun dialogue and incredible villains (Margot Martindale! Neal McDonough! Sam Elliot! And Jere Burns as Wynn freaking Duffy!) to make it worth a watch. If I was a little more ruthless in my viewing habits, I would have skipped season 5 and just read a two-line summary of where it leaves everyone for the start of 6. But I watched it, and I'm a little saturated now, so I'm going to hang up the cowboy hat for a bit before I consider watching City Primeval.

 

[Adrenaline]

I liked City Primeval. Raylan is still Raylan but he's older and a bit wiser, and the show feels like it could take place in the same world as the original show without feeling like it's just the next season.

 

[Rascally Badger]

The only opinion I see in this thread appears to be in direct opposition to mine, but I don't think the last season Sex Education is turning out to be very good. It feels really scattered; I feel like we've barely seen any of the primary characters interact as of episode 4.