TV You Have Watched

[Atticus]

Probably my favourite TV show of all time @Atticus

We’ll have to share favourite eps sometime.

Sure I read somewhere Peele is a huge fan of the original series too. Can’t think of many better hands. Though JJ Abrams is a huge fan too. He wrote a lovely piece on Walking Distance that just nailed what was magic about it.

[wakka]

Yeah Peele’s films are basically like feature length Twilight Zone eps. The second one was quite closely based on an actual TZ ep, Mirror Image, but I’m sure you knew that!

I loved Get Out, except the ending (which was more like Cop Out), but was underwhelmed by Us’s uneven swerves between zombie horror and psychological chiller. Although - completely unrelated, this - I was actually on the beach in Santa Cruz when they were shooting it. At the time I had no idea what it was. When it came to the Santa Cruz scenes where the family are on the beach, my girlfriend and I looked at each other like “Holy ****!”, and we realised that was what it was. Sadly there is no Vision Quest attraction in real life, although I did go on the rollercoaster

Anyway I’m being a bit of a negative nelly before it’s even started. Hopefully it will be awesome and true to the quality of the wonderful original.

[Neon Ignition]

With Peele, I'm still in the boat of:

Get Out: Great first half then flatlines after the reveal
Us: Doesn't peak as strong as Get Out but is more consistent overall
Twilight Zone: Awful

His stuff does absolutely reek of him being a fan of the original Twilight Zone stuff but for me it's his undoing. He could do something genuinely brilliant if he'd step away from the genre and embrace something more on the dramatic social commentary thriller side.

[Atticus]

Can he break the trend of every single Twilight Zone except the OG being terrible?!

Hmm, on the strength of ep 1 I’m not sure he can. Maybe not terrible but not great either. I don’t know what the magic formula is for a Twilight Zone for today. Maybe the show just belongs in the atomic age of ad guys and the red menace, ice cream parlours and pool halls.

Not writing the new show off just yet but it wasn’t the strongest of starts.

[wakka]

Yeah, I read some reviews of ep 1 after our chat. Sounds pretty bad, which is a shame. I don’t think it’s impossible to do a new Twilight Zone that works (even though no one’s ever managed it), but I really don’t think you need the Twilight Zone name in order to do it. What Black Mirror has done so effectively is to take some of the core aspects of what makes TZ what it is, and rework them into a new idea (even though I don’t like it personally and think it’s tremendously overrated).

A similar approach could be taken to a new dark anthology series that asks ‘What would happen if...?’, and makes strange, sometimes supernatural things happen to otherwise ordinary people in otherwise ordinary situations. The TZ license isn’t necessary for that to work or be good, and actually is probably more of a hindrance than anything else.

[Neon Ignition]

Fleabag: Season 01
When something gets a lot of praise it's easy to be mindful of your expectations. I'd read about this a lot lately due to the awards the second season enjoyed, it being brought to an end and the Guardians obsession which is usually the final kiss of death to anything given how poor a judge they are. Whilst it's not something I'd consider as greatest of all time comedy level stuff this was, to be fair, really good. It's brilliantly observed, the delivery is spot on throughout and it's incredibly well judged as the episodes roll on and the surface level falls away to reveal the truth to each characters lives that drove the earlier episodes which make the dramatic moments land perfectly.

[Atticus]

Episode 2 of The Twilight Zone (The Comedian) was much better. Really enjoyed it. Less like a tribute, more like a proper TZ episode. Great little nod to

->Open Spoiler<-

The Shining

too.

Looking at the S1 ep guide it looks like The Comedian was originally ep 1 in the states ... it must be showing in a different order over here for some reason.

[Atticus]

Started watching the new/current series of The Simpsons (squeezed a couple of eps in before work this morning) and it's sill great It'll be a sad day when they decide not to make it anymore. For me, it's never outstayed it's welcome.

[Dogg Thang]

I finished Sex Education season 2. Didn't grab me as much as the first one mainly because they split up the main characters and gave focus to some characters that I just find dull. Some of them felt just like plot devices for the main characters in season 1 so it felt weird to me that they were getting their own stories here.

[QualityChimp]

I finished Sex Education season 2. Didn't grab me as much as the first one mainly because they split up the main characters and gave focus to some characters that I just find dull. Some of them felt just like plot devices for the main characters in season 1 so it felt weird to me that they were getting their own stories here.

We really enjoyed it, but I can see where you're coming from.

I think most of the characters have some interesting elements and they're all pretty likeable.
Except the Headmaster, who is an irredeemable bastard.

Thought some of the random switching to lesbianism was a convenient plot device, rather than a clever character development.

Definitely less boobs this series, though.

[gordon]

Currently on The Twilight Zone thanks to the comments here, and on the whole... I like it. Though I've only seen the first three episodes. Sometimes it feels like they're padding out the story, sometimes my attention wanders, and the remake of Nightmare wasn't as good as the original, but on the whole I like the guy's vibe. I like his cheesy pastiche intros and outros, and both The Comedian and Replay were fairly entertaining, I thought. Looking forward to the rest being a pleasant way to pass the time.

I'm ambivalent about him as a creator, though. I thought Get Out was a great idea with a weak ending. I didn't care much for Us.

Also watched Locke and Key on Netflix last week: very good supernatural series with nuanced characters. The twist was a bit disappointing at the end, but the rest of it kept me hooked.

[Dogg Thang]

I think most of the characters have some interesting elements and they're all pretty likeable.
Except the Headmaster, who is an irredeemable bastard.

Thought some of the random switching to lesbianism was a convenient plot device, rather than a clever character development..

Yeah, that was a bit odd. And with some characters (the swimmer guy especially) they were completely disconnected from all the characters so it was a little like they were in a different show.

[QualityChimp]

See, I really liked him and thought his character was one of the ones that developed the most, addressing his relationships with his parents, swim team and study partner.

What I didn't like was my wife banging on about how good looking he is every time he was on screen.

Like I didn't mention I really fancy the English teacher, out of courtesy.
Just rewatched the sex scenes when she'd gone to bed.

JK, but I thought she handled the revelation of who was writing graffiti about her really flippantly, with a demused shrug for comedy value, rather than how a teacher or a real woman would.

[Dogg Thang]

Yeah, he did develop but, for me, that was like if we were watching Star Trek and we kept cutting back to one of the red shirts to see their family dramas play out when they never interact with the main crew or are part of the main stories. But I felt that a lot with this season, like with Maeve's mother too even though she was core to what was going on with Maeve. It was like they were all an obstacle to the story that actually got me interested in the show in the first place - the clinic that Otis and Maeve run and their relationship that comes from that.

[wakka]

Episode 2 of The Twilight Zone (The Comedian) was much better. Really enjoyed it. Less like a tribute, more like a proper TZ episode. Great little nod to

->Open Spoiler<-

The Shining

too.

Looking at the S1 ep guide it looks like The Comedian was originally ep 1 in the states ... it must be showing in a different order over here for some reason.

I recently got a free month of Now TV (it’s in the Vodafone app’s ‘VeryMe’ free offers thing), and the whole of S1 is on there if you want to watch it a bit more quickly. Haven’t checked it out myself yet.