Metal Reviews

seriously, she managed to be worse than fucking Lori from The Walking Dead. 90% of the shit that went wrong in Jax and the club's life stemmed from her.

I had high hopes for it and it has been kinda disappointing. Possible spoilers, but


the show captures almost every perspective of the issue of fair housing in a rather sophisticated way. But it almost comes off empty in the end. The ideological moves that conservatives make to mask their racism, the almost exploitative depiction of people of color as simply examples for why change was needed, to the weird glorification of the racist old white lady who had a true concern for her own safety and property values. It all just comes off as too orchestrated and for that reason not enjoyable. There are no great characters, like The Wire had. Characters are simply stereotypes or possible stories that have surely happened or are plausible, but they aren't ever anything more than just a caricature.

Fear the Walking Dead's first episode was pretty great.

Yeah, your spoilerish comments are why I am steering clear from 'Show Me a Hero'. Omar and McNulty moments notwithstanding, I think David Simon has had trouble writing characters that can stand on their own above the messages he tries to communicate since Stringer left the Wire. When I heard Paul Haggis was directing I knew any chance for solid characterization was basically out the window.

ah what a shame about Show Me a Hero.

finished Community. season 6 was weird, but it's still Community in the end. at its best (imo seasons 2 and 3) i would say that that was my favourite kind of humour.

not following any shows ATM. Narcos seems pretty cool, might start that.

Watched Mr. Robot. I am so conflicted. I usually hate banal anarchism stuff, but for some reason I really liked the characters in the show. Similar to Burn Notice, niche information driving a narrative with semi-interesting characters using their powers for good is a working formula for USA shows. Hacking and Anon aren't my thing at all, but Christian Slater did a solid performance and for the most part, the show kept its wheels on throughout the ten episode season if it sorta got derailed towards the end. And I do always love characterizations of business execs as cold-blooded psychopaths a la American Psycho. The conclusion of the show is a rather interesting thought experiment and curious to see if they can develop that further.

And is anyone else watching the new Walking Dead series? I feel like it is really bad. Besides its anachronistic use of contemporary police issues to address what I thought was happening six years ago, just how stupid the characters act is a waste.

Haven't watched at all, just glad that more people know who Chelsea Wolfe is in part because of it.

Kinda burnt out on tv series, never have the time. Finishing Mad Men though because it's essentially the tale of a man who has a shit day at work and that's something I can relate to.

Where are you in Mad Men? I loved and hated that show, but certainly miss it now that it is gone. At its best no other show that I've seen did characterization better.

Just watched the pilot of The Bastard Executioner, also known as Kurt Sutter's next endeavor following Sons of Anarchy. Wow was it bad.

Couple of episodes into season 7.



So bad it's entertaining, or...? Never finished Sons, it was never brilliant but got very boring once they'd finished the IRA feud.

Spoilers, I guess.

So, the Bastard Executioner started off with a dream sequence that was supposed to provide us the context for the show, but wasn't super clear until later events happened, so it comes off as just kinda weird and dumb. The dialogue was all pretty bad, a few too many gay jokes ("It's because he's fancy!") and shit jokes, like one character was recognized as consistently running away from battles and shitting himself. Like that was a thing. It kinda had this Kevin Costner Robin Hood vibe, but all of the characters looked a little too homely. And Katey Sagal is a witch who is manipulating the main character into entering a battle that he may or may not be able to win. Ya know? The usual. But with an awful, awful Scottish accent. Presumably it is supposed to be Scottish, because they're all supposed to be Welsh, but lack accents so her accent can't be Welsh. The title of the show hinges on a sort of collective suspension of disbelief that happens towards the end of the episode. Like I almost thought the bad guy was gonna call our main hero out on it, but he just kinda lets it slide. But it ends on a high note where the guy knows who he is going to be killing from here on out and so maybe the show can get better. There were a lot of small things that were supposed to matter and just really didn't. Like the oh, shit/stuff just got real fucking serious moment is the main character ditching his club and taking up his old sword and you're just kinda like sure, whatever, that's fine because I didn't even notice that he used a club because he had only been in one brief fight up to that point, which happened at night time and so I couldn't see much.

i read about The Bastard Executioner and it looked good until i saw that fucking Gemma was going to be in it, with her husband running the show. not even bothering with that one.

near the end of the last season of House of Cards. it's ok, but it was better when he was scheming his way into power than now. America Works is a stupid policy, i don't know what the fuck that bearded writer guy is doing, i don't care about Stamper, his alcoholism, or the chick who KO'd him way back when, and the show keeps forcing the "she's his wife but also his colleague" crap.

Heather Dunbar looks like she'd make a great president.

Yeah, the first season of HoC was way better, before he became El Pres. The chase is better than the catch, as Motorhead said.

I liked the duel with Tusk and the President back when Underwood was VP in season 2 too. The third was basically a mess, especially if somebody doesn't care about Stamper (I did, and I thought his story was the best part of the season by far). I would have had the house of cards starting to fall by the end of season 3. But as it stands we might be looking at almost 3 season of boredom, or even worse, marital angst, before the fall finally happens. I'm still hooked in because I have to see the collapse, just hope they do a good job with that.

Rewatching the first season of Fargo before the second starts this Monday, I know you Yanks have it out already. Brilliant stuff, really shows up True Detective.

First episode was pretty solid. And having Donovan from Burn Notice was a pleasant surprise.

Heroes Reborn is really bad. Yet kinda stuck watching it.

Gotham has been a lot better in the second season. If any of y'all like Batman, it would be totally reasonable to skip the first season and pick up with the second after some Wikipedia skimming.

But most importantly, the FX comedy, You're the Worst, is fucking brilliant. It's about two awful people trying to be a couple and all that that entails. And it is adorable.

Better Call Saul season 2 premiere was enjoyable, back on the bandwagon after that unsatisfying finale.

Of course I will devour House of Cards in about 3 days too, but I'm done with GoT until The Winds of Winter is actually released.

Anyone watching Twin Peaks? This guy has seen the first four Episodes of season 3 3 times already.

Preacher season 4 is pretty solid so far. Uneven show altogether (season 1 dragged and it only really got interesting with s2 onwards) but Dom Cooper, Ruth Negga, Joe Gilgun & Pip Torrens are all tremendous actors and very entertaining, to boot.

Still watching Succession and Billions. Two very different shows about rich people being scheming assholes to each other. The former is definitely better, but the latter is still fun not least for the blatant shoehorning in of various rock and metal songs/bands.

It's gleefully self-indulgent and artsy, but Legion is still tremendous three seasons in. Fantastic performances and a very entertaining approach to what an X-Men spinoff TV series starring Matthew from Downton Abbey and Aubrey Plaza could be.