See, now, this is the kind of multicultural diversity this forum has been sorely lacking for the last several years.
Oh I'm keeping it tame .... we had one called Shampoo where guess what .... the girls would give you a nice soapy massage. Not that I ever went in or anything. The best part is all these places were like 2 -4 blocks from the central business district and one of the few neighborhoods in Manila where anyone had any money.
I started watching episode 2 on a Thursday and tried twice since and still haven't made it through the episode. This season is a pile of shit so far. No wonder Sudeikis didn't want to do a fourth season, he was checked out before they finished the second one. (the ending segment of TL season 2 was tragically bad.)
The Night Agent for anyone? Typical action show. Wrongly accused on the run with a love interest ala Shooter, Condor, Bodyguard and a couple others. Pretty good so far though don’t expect a deep story.
Season 2 just wrapped up. Didn’t hate it, didn’t love it. They dragged-out the storyline into about twice as many episodes as it needed. It COULD have been really good, if Hollywood writers didn’t suck so badly. My biggest issue with the series, though - it’s not Perry Mason. What’s the one thing you think of when you hear the name Perry Mason? A trial attorney and his team investigating a crime and then trouncing the prosecution in court by making some witness piss himself and reveal the truth. I won’t spoil it, but we don’t get that here. All they’re really doing is trading on the Mason name. They could have done the same series and called it anything else, you’d never watch and think, “Damn, this is a great prequel to Perry Mason.” The writers obviously wanted the Della Street character to be a major part of the story. Some of that’s cool. Most of it is forced. All of it takes the story further away from the title character. Fine. Then call it Attorney Phil Jones and his Lesbian Paralegal”. If they do a third season, I’m sure I’ll eventually watch it. Wouldn’t bother me at all if they didn’t, though. Every time I see a series like this, all I can think about is how these days HBO, Netflix, Amazon, etc. will pour money into a mediocre streaming series, but in 2006 HBO let Deadwood die after three seasons in favor of John from Cincinnati, supposedly because of production costs. Dickheads.
Thanks for reminding me, I knew there was a show I needed to get to before I shut HBOMax off again. I'm with you with the show trading on that name, I went into season 1 with a certain expectation and it didn't come close to meeting it. I would probably like it a lot more with Phil Jones. I watched season 1 and 2 of Euphoria. What the fuck.
Ted Lasso rebounded from a strangely awkward and slightly crappy first few episodes and is back on track, 1 episode left. Those first few episodes felt like a giant block of exposition.
Maybe the writers had like 3 years worth of stuff to say and only a few episodes to say it in? And don't we have a writer's strike on again?
In binging Succession right now, I thought it was going to annoy me early on but the character development is really outstanding.
I'm sure I have newer contributions since I last posted in this thread. But with so much horseshit on large and small screens these days, I’ve been slowly catching up with Vikings. About ten years behind those of you who caught it while it was running. I’m just a few episodes into Season 2. Early verdict: not unworthy of my time. Kinda slow moving, which is fine if you know you’re going to be picked up for six seasons. I just find it hard to imaging how they started out Season 1 knowing they'd have to fully develope the character of Ragnar Lothbrok and eventually get to his sons (which I haven’t even really hit yet, but cheated) thinking, “Let's not get ahead of ourselves. We'll pick that up in Season 3." That said, a few repeated themes really grab me. * The casual and accepted approach to death and killing. Not casual in a mafia movie, “It’s just business” sense. More like: Viking 1: You’re a good and honest man, my friend. Now let me push this huge knife into your chest and send you to Valhalla. Viking 2: Thank you, my lord. * The more horrible the tragedy, the more appropriate it is to have sex with a purpose. Viking Wife: (Sobbing) Our daughter died of plague while you were away in battle. Viking Husband: Let's fuck. Viking Wife: And this time I shall bear you another son. * Just about anything terrible can be excused away by invoking the gods, and it's inappropriate to dick around with the system. Viking 1: This man is guilty. But he looks like he's sorry, so I decree we should give him a pass. Viking 2: ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME??!! He just can't do that! The guy killed all our friends and family!! Viking 3: He said it while standing on the sacred rock. It can't be challenged. Viking 2: Oh, right. The sacred rock. My bad. * Sort of related to that last point but more suited for the back half of all tragedies - everything horrible happens because the gods wanted it that way. I love this one. Wish I had it in my back pocket 30 years ago. Viking 1: My lord, Leif fell overboard and drowned. Viking 2: Tough break. Odin must have wanted that to happen. or Viking 1: Adnock was slain in battle and now his wife and five children have lost their husband and father. Viking 2: Yeah, Thor always hated that fucking guy. Anyway, at the rate I'm going it's probably going to take me a few years to catch up on all six seasons. Not a bad pinch-hit option, though.
It started a little slow for me, then hit it's stride about S3 or so. It got boring for me near the end, but I'll avoid why because of spoilers. The whole thing was worth it for me just because of Kathryn Winnick.
Haven't been keeping up with this thread, but I just finished a 3 season binge of "The Witcher". Great series..!
