What TV Shows Are You Watching?

Yeah, Phil seems more down to Earth. He enjoys life in America and wants to prevent war between the US and Russia. Felicity is a hardcore Russian out to destroy America.

 

I finished season 3 of The Americans. This is a great show. The writing and acting are excellent. It has great characters. It's suspenseful. It's also very frequently hilarious.

It should be much more popular than it is. The advertising on FX is really bad and doesn't really tell you what the show is about and makes it seem boring when it's not. Or maybe a show where the two main characters are KGB agents is a tough sell to American audiences. Regardless, if you even remotely like spy stuff, have any interest in The Cold War, or just like really good writing, you should give it a watch.

9/10

 

Which is not what it's about at all. Marital problems are an aspect of the show. But it's mainly about KGB agents and double agents infiltrating the US and the FBI spyhunters who are after them. And the KGB plots on the show are things the KGB actually tried in real life (trying to steal stealth bomber technology, hacking into an early version of the internet, infiltrating the civil rights and anti-apartheid movements, seducing low level government employees). It also gets really dark and violent. These are ruthless KGB agents after all. Their solution to an operation not going as planned is usually to murder people and either dispose of the bodies or make it look like a suicide. Felicity even kills a nice old lady who gets in her way at one point by making her overdose on pills at gunpoint. Phil is a bit more down to earth and has been seduced by the American lifestyle, but Felciity is drinking the commie koolaid. She really thinks that murdering people and doing all kinds of awful shit is going to make the world a better place. Also, the FBI guy hunting them is really inept and kind of a moron. He's not the hero of the story.

It's a spy show done from the perspective of the bad guys being misadvertised as some chick thing. If you like spy movies, you will probably enjoy it.

 

Ray Donovan

Couldn't get into it. It feels like a poor man's version of The Sopranos with annoying fake Boston accents set in LA.

 

Review

The first funny thing I've seen on Comedy Central in years. I guess it's a remake of an Australian series. A news anchor tries different life experiences, like getting addicted to cocaine or stealing things, and rates them on a scale of 1/2 to 5 stars, the same way a critic would rate a movie or video game.

15 pancakes + divorce + 30 pancakes was the funniest thing I've seen in a long time.

 

Mr Robot

It's just a bad knockoff of Fight Club where Brad Pitt has been replaced by Christian Slater, and Edward Norton has been replaced by some weird looking guy with bug eyes who looks bored in every scene and mumbles to himself. Except instead of blowing up the banks, they're going to hack them, because this is 2015 and we need to be relevant! Also throw in some side plot about a sociopathic executive that's basically American Psycho. I don't understand the super high rating this show has on IMDB. It doesn't have a single original idea. And it takes itself very seriously while being very bad.

3/10

 

Fear The Walking Dead is terrible. Unlikeable characters, boring family drama, way too slow. I can't see this getting more than two seasons. I'm actually surprised they even renewed it.

 

It starts before the zombie apocalypse, and it's set in Los Angeles rather than the deep south. They seem to be going in a family drama direction with it. The pilot is about two previously divorced people, a teacher and a school counselor, trying to start a new family together and dealing with the wife's messed up druggie kid. The druggie kid (who looks like a young Johnny Depp) might have seen zombies when he was shooting up in a flop house, or he may have been high and out of his mind (of course this is a Walking Dead spinoff, so they were actually zombies). The pilot is an hour and a half of dull family drama with a few short scenes that hint that the apocalypse is starting. It's really quite boring.

Maybe it will improve as time goes on, but I thought the quality of the writing and acting was pretty poor in the pilot. It had bad pacing. The characters weren't likeable or relatable or even interesting. I will probably give it one more episode and then I think I'm done with it.

The Walking Dead had one of the best pilots I've ever seen, but that was directed by Frank Darabont. This pilot was about on par with network TV shows that get cancelled after a few episodes.

 

Exactly. It's a cash grab flimed on the cheap in LA with a bunch of noname actors. I think AMC is desperate for viewers this time of year.

 

Flesh and Bone on Starz

Ballerina by day, stripper/hooker by night. This show is a trash masterpiece.