Posted on 09/11/2017 10:58:40 AM PDT by EdnaMode
This is the worst fall for new TV shows in the decade I’ve been a professional TV critic. And it’s hard to find one much worse in all the years I’ve been cognizant of “new fall TV” as a concept, since the late ’80s.
The comedies didn’t make me laugh. The dramas made me roll my eyes. Even with the boom in platforms making new TV, there’s but one show I’d recommend wholeheartedly and a smattering of others that made me say, “There could be something there if they work out the kinks.” The vast, vast majority of the new shows — whether on broadcast or cable or streaming — are just plain bad.
Now, to be sure, there are some heavily anticipated shows I have yet to see. Star Trek: Discovery, for instance, hasn’t sent out screeners to critics. (That CBS All Access is playing so coy with the show isn’t a great sign, but with a major project like this, it’s entirely possible the post-production process is taking longer than usual.) But I’ve still seen the vast majority of new series — and they’re bad.
So when people ask me what new shows they should watch, it takes but a few seconds to say, “Hey, The Deuce is good!” But if they’re not fans of David Simon or James Franco, or if they don’t have HBO, well … ABC’s The Mayor is pretty charming. Fox’s Ghosted has a good enough cast that I guess it should pull itself together eventually. CBS’s S.W.A.T. is certainly ambitious for a remake of an old TV show, even if it’s not all there yet…
(Excerpt) Read more at vox.com ...
We have a 55” 4k set and own a lot of DVD’s and Blue Rays. We have also been Prime members for about a year. Living in the sticks it is a godsend.
We get all of our internet via our phone data plan. We were paying a LOT for 40 GB plan that would leave us throttled even after only watching a few Youtube videos. Streaming movies and TV was out of the question.
Then they told us about a 22 GB plan for around $70 a month Less, and it only throttles you if there is a lot of usage on your local towers based on current tower usage.
Well, as I said, we live in the sticks so there is no such thing as heavy tower usage out here. So we tried the plan. And then we noticed a few months ago that our Prime membership already came with tons of free shows, and it is built into our TV, so we logged in and gave it a try.
Our minds were blown! We have not put on a DVD since we discovered it and we have never been throttled. And I’ve seen ON DEMAND some old favorites, classics and really awesome documentaries (The 24 hour war is a must see). I even watched “A Boy and His Dog” free. I had not seen that one in decades and it had made an impression on me when I was younger. And a couple of GREAT indie films, Ink, and “Frame” really surprised us.
And since we have prime anyway, it’s all really free. That and our new data plan were game changers for us.
I remember in the 60s if the guy was a homo he wore a scarf around his neck instead of a tie. i think Sid Ceasar started that in the early 50s.
Metflis sure is spending a lot of money on original programming.
Ernie Kovaks as Percy Dovetonsil!
That is one good thing about the period piece detective series: less of the modern PC baggage.
Netflix has the first 7 seasons on disc. An 8th season will air in the UK in 2018. The series is based on novels by Ann Cleeves.
I always expect those kind of changes. The “the first hit is free” thing doesn’t apply to me much because I don’t do “new” TV shows and I’m such a cheapskate that if I’m in the middle of a series and they start charging, I just stop watching and go on with my life. It’s partly because I’m old now, but I see it all as temporary distraction and it’s not that important how the story ends since it’s all made up. And if you’re not watching cliffhangers, it isn’t relevant. :)
Int was Zen with Sewell I haven’t heard of Montalbano. Now i have to find it.
I watch Ghamorrah about Italian gangs in lapels but nit’s not for everyone. I’m hooked on French, British and italian. Im saw a serial killer series from Argentine a few years back Epitaphios. i liked that one.
The series aired recently on PBS, and has been cancelled.
I doubt that I’ve ever seen a more derivative show in my life. Everything on that show was cribbed from earlier work. Trite hackneyed and old. With gratuitous peni$ jokes added.
Thanks for the suggestion. If we lived a half mile to the west, north or south, we could use your suggestion. The Dang hills block the tv, and the city won’t let me remove them.
I tried the inside antennas and got nothing in spite of the government site showing me I could. Our next door neighbor tried the inside ones, and they didn’t work. Then, he had an outside antenna put up and it didn’t work. His outside antenna is at least 50’ higher than my home, and his house blocks the prime direction for us.
He just had Comcast internet installed and is learning how to use the simple equipment I use. He had the archaic AT&T dsl internet, and can’t believe how much faster the Comcast Business is.
Thanks. Just ordered both of them.
I watch too much TV. I have direct with all the premiums and because I was grandfathered I have all the San Diego channels and the east and west coast feeds of CBS, NBC, Fox, and ABC. I can watch a west coast 9 PM program at 6 PM.
The problem with streaming is that you can have a favorite on another service and you have to get that service. I can do Amazon Hulu and Netflix for less than my diretcTV but then my wife has a slew of favorite channels. So i don’t have a clear path to ,get rid of the satellite. two of our four adult kids just stream.
Part of the Paul Henning agrarian trilogy. The Beverly Hillbillies and Green Acres being the other two.
Check out Endeavor, Morse’s younger self. We get it and its weekly updates on our upped PBS by donating $5/month.
Yes. We watch “The Middle” and “Last Man Standing”. Both cancelled now. Can’t have those pesky conservatives — Heaton and Allen — muddying up the vile airwaves, I guess.
That is too bad. I thought it had promise.
Be careful. After i read those and saw the series I read 2000 pages of roman history from Livy and the inception of Rome through the year of the four emperors (69). Yo0um might enjoy Livy. eye had access to the wealthy families who had chronicled their ancestors speeches and he quotes some of them especially before and after battles. He ends at the second punic wars because the last 150 years of his writing were never found.
I read a few sources concurrent trying to read in alphabetical order. i still have some books that go to later years but I stopped at 69 AD. Enjoy.
Already on it.
Thanks. I like the way they show the 60s now.
What I hated about television was its sense of immediacy. That doesn’t exist with streaming so I just watch what I want to, when I want to. And for me it is all ephemeral stuff. I don’t have “favorites” in the sense that I “never miss a show”. I just watch what’s free and looks interesting. If it costs money, I’m not interested.
When you don’t watch TV, you have not seen the ads and trailers, so the “hottest stuff” is not really hot to me. It’s just something I’ve not seen. And if the ratings are not great (three full stars at an absolute minimum), I don’t bother.
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