Last web series/tv show seen — Page 92

Arrested Development Season 5 Part 1.

Man, I dunno what to think. Releasing it in two parts was probably a mistake. They have no idea what to do with Tobias anymore, Lindsey’s near-complete absence is felt very strongly, and the difficulties of getting all the actors together at the same time still hurts the show, since the characters play so much better when they’re all together to bounce off one another. And there’s a slight overreliance on callback jokes that didn’t really work for me.

But Michael feels like Michael again now that he’s trying to keep everyone together once more and not spending a whole season trying to avoid the family and do his own thing, and after an awkward detour, the George Michael and Maeby storyline was a highlight of the (half) season. I also pretty thoroughly enjoyed Buster in prison and the continued evolution of his missing hand.

GOB was a bit of a letdown this time around, but I think that was due to pairing him with George most of the time, who for some reason (unrelated to the Tambor controversy) didn’t work too well for me either.

I’ll have to reserve judgment on the season until the back half is released, but as it stands, it’s marginally better than season 4, but still pales in comparison to seasons 1 and 2.

Current AD rankings for me:

1. Season 2
2. Season 1
3. Season 3
4. Season 5A
5. Season 4 Remix
6. Season 4 Original

EPISODE RATINGS

• “Pilot” – 7/10
• “Strange Visitor (From Another Planet)” – 7/10
• “Neverending Battle” – 6/10
• “I’m Looking Through You” – 5/10
• “Requiem for a Superhero” – 7/10
• “I’ve Got a Crush on You” – 8/10
• “Smart Kids” – 6/10
• “The Green, Green Glow of Home” – 8/10
• “The Man of Steel Bars” – 6/10
• “Pheromone, My Lovely” – 7/10
• “Honeymoon in Metropolis” – 7/10
• “All Shook Up” – 7/10
• “Witness” – 7/10
• “Illusions of Grandeur” – 6/10
• “The Ides of Metropolis” – 6/10
• “Foundling” – 8/10
• “The Rival” – 7/10
• “Vatman” – 5/10
• “Fly Hard” – 6/10
• “Barbarians at the Planet” – 7/10
• “The House of Luthor” – 8/10

SEASON RATING

★★★★★★★☆☆☆

EPISODE RATINGS

• “Unaired Pilot” – 6/10
• “Pilot” – 6/10
• “Metamorphosis” – 5/10
• “Hothead” – 6/10
• “X-Ray” – 7/10
• “Cool” – 5/10
• “Hourglass” – 7/10
• “Craving” – 6/10
• “Jitters” – 7/10
• “Rogue” – 6/10
• “Shimmer” – 5/10
• “Hug” – 5/10
• “Leech” – 7/10
• “Kinetic” – 5/10
• “Zero” – 7/10
• “Nicodemus” – 6/10
• “Stray” – 6/10
• “Reaper” – 6/10
• “Drone” – 5/10
• “Crush” – 5/10
• “Obscura” – 5/10
• “Tempest” – 6/10

SEASON RATING

★★★★★☆☆☆☆☆

My wife likes Smallville. From what I’ve seen of it, it’s terrible. But to be fair to her, she admits it’s terrible too.

Michael Rosenbaum, John Glover, John Schneider, Annette O’Toole, and Allison Mack are the bests things about Smallville; they make it watchable. But Tom Welling sucks, his version of Clark sucks, Lana Lang sucks, the teen angst sucks, the monsters of the week suck, and the show’s Millennial atmosphere sucks. Yet I’m gonna continue rewatching until I get to the sixth season premiere, because I’m deranged.

Isn’t Allison Mack the crazy cult lady?

She is now. I don’t believe that was the case when the show began.

PROS

• The stargates have pronged upper chevrons, just like in the original film.
• The chevrons don’t glow, just like in the original film.
• The Goa’uld & Abydans speak ancient Egyptian rather than English/made-up gibberish, just like in the original film.
• The miscellaneous other tidbits which hearken back to the original film.
• Sarah Navratil’s curves.

CONS

• The writing.
• The direction.
• The characterization.
• The humour.
• The production values.
• The pointlessness.

★★★★☆☆☆☆☆☆

Disenchantment, Matt Groening’s new show on Netflix.

Not quite done with the half-season, but I’m enjoying it a lot so far.

ChainsawAsh said:

Disenchantment, Matt Groening’s new show on Netflix.

Not quite done with the half-season, but I’m enjoying it a lot so far.

I watched a few because I was home with a sick kid and didn’t have anything else I could do really.

Maybe I’m just getting old but I didn’t find the show very funny.

Could be both?

Watched the trailer a week or so ago. Looks meh.

Finished the (half) season. It gets much better in the last 3 episodes, as the show actually has ongoing story arcs and things finally converge toward the end. I’m hoping the show finds its footing now and the back half of the season (and any potential future seasons) can hit the ground running.

There’re a few too many filler episodes (o hai, network television), and most of the main characters are on the bland side (emphasis on most; Walter’s unadulterated awesome), but I liked it well enough.

★★★★★★★☆☆☆

DuracellEnergizer said:

There’re a few too many filler episodes (o hai, network television), and most of the main characters are on the bland side (emphasis on most; Walter’s unadulterated awesome), but I liked it well enough.

★★★★★★★☆☆☆

I remember that show. When it first aired it filled the xfiles shapped hole in my heart.

★★★★★★★★★☆

Fringe gets infinitely better in season 2, and season 3 is one of my favorite seasons of TV in general (and nails the hybrid procedural/serialized format in a way few shows have). Season 4 is divisive, but I enjoyed it and it has my favorite episode of the series in it. Season 5 feels like a finale movie that got stretched out to 13 episodes, but I enjoyed it overall, and the ending is good.

If you more or less enjoyed season 1, I’d say you owe it to yourself to keep going. And some of the “filler” episodes in season 1 turn out not to be filler after all as the show continues.

ChainsawAsh said:

If you more or less enjoyed season 1, I’d say you owe it to yourself to keep going.

That’s the plan. I’m gonna finish watching seasons from some other shows I’m currently watching before proceeding.

Tobar said:

Knowing you, I can’t wait to hear your thoughts once you’ve finished the entire series. I’d link to my post detailing my thoughts on the show but its spoilerific.

I’m particularly interested to hear what he thinks of the season 4 shake-up and the overall direction of the final season. But I think he’ll very much enjoy seasons 2 and 3 at the very least.

Just finished season 5 of BoJack Horseman. Great season once again, but…

Every season I go back and forth on whether I relate more strongly to Diane or BoJack. This season made me realize I relate to both of them. Very strongly. And that’s not a good thing, because it’s mostly their worst qualities that I relate to.

And how is it that every year when a new season comes out, there’s something about it that hits me on a deeply personal level related to recent events in my life? Like…

SPOILERS FOR THE LAST TWO EPISODES OF BOJACK SEASON 5

…how about the fact that I got blackout fucked up and assaulted a cop two weeks ago and don’t remember it, and BoJack gets blackout fucked up and strangles his costar? The way various characters interacted with him after that looked really fucking familiar to me and it was uncomfortable to say the least.

It’s really weird to see your most toxic qualities dramatized in entertainment so accurately. I’ve been both the BoJack and the Diane in their episode 10 argument before, and even though one of them may have the moral high ground, they’re both huge pieces of shit. And that’s just one example.

Every year I watch this show, and every year it makes me realize I have some real work to do to fix myself. But BoJack and Diane realize the same thing about themselves every year too, and they never manage to really get any better.

Maybe this year’s the year. I don’t know.

Anyway, great season. Probably better than season 4. Loved the jabs at modern “cerebral” shows (“It’s confusing, which means it’s complex and smart!” or something along those lines was a great line), especially with Mr. Robot’s Rami Malek playing the head writer of BoJack’s new show.

“He’s a sex robot.”
“You mean that as a metaphor, right?”
“…No.”

9/10

The terrible Cat Grant has been binned and the writing’s a bit tighter, but John Shea’s Lex is sorely missed. In all other regards, the show remains identical to Season 1; Dean Cain’s a poor Superman but a great Clark, his chemistry with Teri Hatcher remains strong, and the show still suffers from too much corniness. It’s an improvement on its predecessor, but a pretty negligible one.

EPISODE RATINGS

• “Madame Ex” – 7/10
• “Wall of Sound” – 6/10
• “The Source” – 6/10
• “The Prankster” – 6/10
• “Church of Metropolis” – 7/10
• “Operation Blackout” – 7/10
• “That Old Gang of Mine” – 5/10
• “A Bolt from the Blue” – 7/10
• “Season’s Greedings” – 7/10
• “Metallo” – 6/10
• “Chi of Steel” – 6/10
• “The Eyes Have It” – 7/10
• “The Phoenix” – 8/10
• “Top Copy” – 5/10
• “The Return of the Prankster” – 4/10
• “Lucky Leon” – 8/10
• “Resurrection” – 7/10
• “Tempus Fugitive” – 6/10
• “Target: Jimmy Olsen” – 7/10
• “Individual Responsibility” – 7/10
• “Whine, Whine, Whine” – 8/10
• “And the Answer Is…” – 8/10

SEASON RATING

★★★★★★★☆☆☆

Well dahmage were you ever gonna tell me there was a 5th season of arrested development out.