Eco-Challenge on Amazon Prime. A Bear Grylls-hosted adventure race in and around Fiji. 60 4-person teams from around the world compete in a 600k race that includes open water canoeing, hiking, stand-up paddle boarding, canyoneering, mountain biking, climbing, etc. Kinda cool but the episodes need to be longer. There are almost 250 people in this thing and after two episodes I could maybe name 4 of them, and one of those is an ultra runner I was already familiar with.
Re: What are you currently watching on TV?
Posted: Mon August 17, 2020 4:24 pm
by Monkey_Driven
Finished Schitt's Creek. I still feel Chris Elliott's Roland character is probably the most unfunny character of any good TV comedy I can think of.
Re: What are you currently watching on TV?
Posted: Mon August 17, 2020 4:32 pm
by tragabigzanda
Steve Albini wrote:Whenever there's active promotion on the part of somebody else, whenever I see somebody all dolled up for a fancy photograph and someone's handing out flyers or whenever there's active promotion for something like that, as an imposition on my day, I hate all those people and I want them to fail. I have a visceral reaction to advertising and promotion. There's just something about salesmanship that grates on me on a very base level and I react very negatively towards it. I want those people to suffer and I want their enterprises to fail.
Re: What are you currently watching on TV?
Posted: Mon August 17, 2020 4:38 pm
by Monkey_Driven
tragabigzanda wrote:I’ll reiterate what I said earlier: Roland’s not supposed to be funny. Hes not even written as a funny character. He’s supposed to work as a device of discomfort around which the Rose family grow to be better people.
It is a comedy though, and those types of characters can still be funny, interesting, or amusing in some way. He was not. Jocelyn worked much better.
Re: What are you currently watching on TV?
Posted: Mon August 17, 2020 4:45 pm
by epilogue
Monkey_Driven wrote:
tragabigzanda wrote:I’ll reiterate what I said earlier: Roland’s not supposed to be funny. Hes not even written as a funny character. He’s supposed to work as a device of discomfort around which the Rose family grow to be better people.
It is a comedy though, and those types of characters can still be funny, interesting, or amusing in some way. He was not. Jocelyn worked much better.
I think that's why you see a switch away from Roland and toward Jocelyn as the show goes on. I agree that Roland isn't as funny or interesting as he could be but I also don't think he was ever meant to be more than what trag described. To that end, he's a necessary and well used character. How he rudders the show, especially in at least one key moment in each season (and even more especially in S6!) is important and more than validates the character's impact/inclusion in the story's overall arc.
Re: What are you currently watching on TV?
Posted: Mon August 17, 2020 4:50 pm
by tragabigzanda
Steve Albini wrote:Whenever there's active promotion on the part of somebody else, whenever I see somebody all dolled up for a fancy photograph and someone's handing out flyers or whenever there's active promotion for something like that, as an imposition on my day, I hate all those people and I want them to fail. I have a visceral reaction to advertising and promotion. There's just something about salesmanship that grates on me on a very base level and I react very negatively towards it. I want those people to suffer and I want their enterprises to fail.
Re: What are you currently watching on TV?
Posted: Mon August 17, 2020 4:52 pm
by Monkey_Driven
tragabigzanda wrote:Yeah I agree he could have been a funny character and still serviced the same narrative device. I think part of the problem is that they cast Chris Elliott, whom most people would associate with comedy.
The wig and horrible "beer" gut doesn't help either.
Re: What are you currently watching on TV?
Posted: Mon August 17, 2020 5:10 pm
by Jorge
The "Roland isn't supposed to be funny" theory does not hold up at all. There are a lot of punchlines and gags delivered by / based on his character and they don't all hinge on the Roses' reactions. But even if they did, that is definitely a comedic performance (which isn't to say purely comedic performance). It just doesn't work a lot of the time
Re: What are you currently watching on TV?
Posted: Mon August 17, 2020 5:42 pm
by tragabigzanda
Steve Albini wrote:Whenever there's active promotion on the part of somebody else, whenever I see somebody all dolled up for a fancy photograph and someone's handing out flyers or whenever there's active promotion for something like that, as an imposition on my day, I hate all those people and I want them to fail. I have a visceral reaction to advertising and promotion. There's just something about salesmanship that grates on me on a very base level and I react very negatively towards it. I want those people to suffer and I want their enterprises to fail.
Re: What are you currently watching on TV?
Posted: Mon August 17, 2020 6:04 pm
by Monkey_Driven
tragabigzanda wrote:Shut up
Re: What are you currently watching on TV?
Posted: Mon August 17, 2020 8:37 pm
by Rangi Guy
One episode left in the first season of Perry Mason. Took a couple of episodes to get into the swing of things - but this has been a great series overall.
Matthew Rhys is s treasure! Actually the whole cast is great
Re: What are you currently watching on TV?
Posted: Mon August 17, 2020 9:29 pm
by VinylGuy
Rangi Guy wrote:One episode left in the first season of Perry Mason. Took a couple of episodes to get into the swing of things - but this has been a great series overall.
Matthew Rhys is s treasure! Actually the whole cast is great
i should watch ep 4 someday and continue with it.
Re: What are you currently watching on TV?
Posted: Tue August 18, 2020 1:30 am
by digster
The fourth episode was where I really felt like it really turned a corner. And seconded on the cast; for a show with a titular character, it's a really great ensemble where it's really enjoyable to watch everyone play off each other.
Re: What are you currently watching on TV?
Posted: Tue August 18, 2020 2:44 am
by BurtReynolds
Re: What are you currently watching on TV?
Posted: Tue August 18, 2020 2:46 am
by lennytheweedwhacker
Re: What are you currently watching on TV?
Posted: Tue August 18, 2020 3:15 am
by tragabigzanda
Steve Albini wrote:Whenever there's active promotion on the part of somebody else, whenever I see somebody all dolled up for a fancy photograph and someone's handing out flyers or whenever there's active promotion for something like that, as an imposition on my day, I hate all those people and I want them to fail. I have a visceral reaction to advertising and promotion. There's just something about salesmanship that grates on me on a very base level and I react very negatively towards it. I want those people to suffer and I want their enterprises to fail.
Re: What are you currently watching on TV?
Posted: Tue August 18, 2020 1:19 pm
by VinylGuy
digster wrote:The fourth episode was where I really felt like it really turned a corner. And seconded on the cast; for a show with a titular character, it's a really great ensemble where it's really enjoyable to watch everyone play off each other.
yeah, ill try a little more for sure. The whole thing looks amazing.
Re: What are you currently watching on TV?
Posted: Tue August 18, 2020 8:50 pm
by BurtReynolds
BurtReynolds wrote:
It's easy to see where Michael Bay got his entire thing. Most of these episodes are just coked out mini-bay movies.
Re: What are you currently watching on TV?
Posted: Wed August 19, 2020 12:17 am
by lennytheweedwhacker
les miserables from PBS...halfway through and it’s okay, nothing special
