Less 24 and JJ (since serialized storytelling in TV was a thing the moment soap operas started) and more on the death of syndication. Once cable/satellite became so affordable that practically every household had it, then every network offered some form of dedicated channel, and this worsened with the rise of the internet.

Now, "monster of the week" types serve as palate cleansers and ways to pad out a season's length. If there are any actual shows doing this format, they're most likely comedy focused on short bursts of disposable entertainment.

Finished Stranger Things season 3.

Looking forward to the next season.

I felt the opposite way about Hannibal, as, while I liked every season, I still thought the 1st one relied too much on standalone killer-of-the-week episodes and wasted guest stars (hello, Lance Henriksen!), and it felt a bit too much like just a more stylish version of CSI. On the other hand, I thought it really picked up in Season 2, since they started building up more engaging, serialized, long-term story arcs, and did a nice job of balancing the material adaptated from the Harris novels with the original, show-exclusive sub-plots, as opposed to the 3rd Season, which relied too much on the stuff from the novels, and I'd be more excited for a possible future return of the show if Fuller wanted to do a more original story, instead of just doing Silence Of The Lambs again, because what would be the point of a mostly straight re-adaptation of one of the most iconic stories of all time? Then again, CBS is going to do that anyway...

Yeah don't count on it. I don't think letting the leaden goose drive off their remaining 12 subscribers will be the business model for the future.

They already have a teaser out for it: https://youtu.be/wdyjypTSKNs

Today's Mandalorian felt like a big-budget episode of Power Rangers. Pretty disappointing.

It's a simple setup to the finale, but there was still a lot to enjoy this episode.

I never watched Power Rangers but that chase scene still reminded me of something I must have seen as a kid, something with Japanese people, lots of colours and a budget I couldn't pay my phone bill with.

Even in the serialised format there are differences. Do you get a full episode that is part of the season arc, or do you just get a segment that means nothing on its own without the episodes around it? This was the third time this season we basically just got a segment instead of an actual episode, after the Katee Sackhoff segment and the spider planet segment. I really prefer the ones that are like full episodes on their own even if they're part of the season arc.

IDK, there was just something about guys in prosthetics and bulky plastic "armor" kicking, punching and thwacking each other with sticks on top of a truck pursued by a motorcade that felt decidedly cheap to me. Obviously it wasn't cheap, but it had this Power Rangers twinge that I couldn't shake.

It still had its moments and the redemption arc was totally cliche and expected but satisfying. I wouldn't call it a bad episode but it's definitely been my least favorite so far, especially compared to the last two, which I honestly liked more than even the good Star Wars movies (maybe not Empire).

Them jumping on the truck to fight one by one and get thrown off one by one was just funny to look at, very Foot Clan kind of thing. Just needed some early 90s one liners.

The Mandalorian finale:

While I hate that Prime is doing the weekly release model for the remaining 7 episodes of the Expanse S5 (which killed interest in the Boys S2 earlier), I can say that dropping for the first three reps right away is making me salivate at the remainder.

Also, darkeningday will be glad to know that S5 goes back to the multi-planetary/station storylines of the first three seasons after S4 focused on the one colony for all but an episode.

Watch The Twilight Zone episode, "The Obsolete Man" when you can. You might think this episode is futuristic. It is actually constructed from history, warning us that our future may be doomed to look like this if we fail to learn from history. I can see the latency of its arrival. Serling's words here are incredibly prophetic and wise.

I believe they stopped making new episodes of it, but anybody else like the show People Just Do Nothing? My roommate showed it to me on Netflix and I can't get enough of it. It reminds me of a mix of Trailer Park Boys and The Office, it's hilarious. Also an interesting look into a different subculture of music (UK grime/garage/jungle/etc)

Finished Twin Peaks all in one go for the first time. All encompassing. Just a wave of surrealism.

I probably gotta just go get HBO Max to find something new to watch.

Damn fine coffee, and hot!

Did you also watch The Return or just the original two seasons?

This was the first time I saw the first two seasons, then Fire Walk With Me, then The Return all in a row. I'd never seen Fire Walk With Me so that was a horrific depressing trip - maybe some of the darkest shit Lynch has ever done.

The Return is still my favorite thing he's done. I am just in love with all of it. It's purely what I wanted which is rare.

Letterkenny S9 is still better than S7, the show's only true valley, but nothing touches the first six seasons in terms of quality humor or, surprisingly enough, storytelling. There are two episodes that reference the overall plot of S8 and are two of the standouts, with each other episode either happening within a bubble or being a callback to weaker jokes from seasons past. The show has fallen into the same trap as spiritual cousin Trailer Park Boys where, upon realizing its success beyond Canada, ha started to become a caricature of itself.

Still, though, even weaker Letterkenny is better than most other shows, and it sets up S10 perfectly at the end in a way that I hope they can truly follow up on. COVID threw major wrenches into their plans, so let's see how things go without a pandemic and quarantines ruining life.

Finished Bridgerton on Sunday, really enjoyed it, and almost finished Schitt's Creek.

Bridgerton was rotting my brain for several hours last night - some of the worst dialogue I've ever heard, and I'm quite partial to 80s action movies. Fantasy land costume drama stuff is all well and good, but I wish they'd hire decent scriptwriters - Downton & the Last Kingdom suffer from the same problem. The lead actress I have a sneaky suspicion will occupy the Lily James / Keira Knightly go-to-costume-drama-actress position in a couple of years, so long as she doesn't actually get good at her chosen craft.

God that programme grated something terrible

Cobra Kai season 3:

Loved Mandalorian season 2. Best SW-related thing to come up since the OT (OK, maybe not books and games, haven't read/played them all).

Watched the first two episodes of WandaVision, Disney's first attempt to get Marvel in on the streaming TV show thing.

It was excruciating to watch. It was so bad, I almost couldn't get through it. It was so bad that I felt bad for watching it. It was so bad that I was afraid a homeless crack addict would wander by the house, see me watching it through the window, and pity me. It was like Elizabeth Olsen and Paul Bettany had gotten arrested for masturbating in public and sentenced to do WandaVision.

It has two pluses, if you want to call them that. One is that the episodes are short. This is good, because there is less of them in the universe, like having less nuclear waste would be good. The other is that approximately 9 seconds of the show so far, cumulative, hints that something's going on. All is not what it seems.

Which is like, NO SHIT. Did you have to make us sit through the worst TV currently in existence to say that? Obviously something's up. OBVIOUSLY. FUCK. Vision's dead and Wanda can bend reality and neither one of them lives in a black-and-white episodic Dick Van Dyke Show world. FUCK.

Do yourselves a favor. Watch the first 10 seconds and the last 10 seconds of each episode. That's all you need. Everything in between is unrefined shit, irredeemable in every respect. FUCK.

^ I'm happy to see I'm not the only one that felt this way.

It's tedious as hell. I don't need full episodes of Bewitched starring "my favorite Marvel characters". This whole thing should've been a ten second cut scene joke in an episode that's about something completely different.

The Good Lord Bird was awesome. I think every American should watch it. If you're worried they were going to portray John Brown as a crazed religious nutjob or quasi-terrorist out of fear the show would be called a "white savior puff-piece," you needn't be concerned. He does come off that way at first, but by the end it's crystal clear he was a literal martyr and a beautiful soul. He wasn't "taking pity on them poor negroes" or simply arguing slavery was a bridge too far, he saw slavery as wholly illegitimate and that anyone who supported or condoned it were actually the insane ones. Which today is mostly seen as obvious.

I think acting awards are mostly bullshit, but Ethan Hawke nailed an incredibly challenging role and deserves recognition for it.

finished watching southland. what a great way to make something dynamic and keep the drama. my favorite police show.

started watching banshee, gave up after finishing season 1. it just ain't good enough.

Almost at the end of our 'watch the entire run before we watch the final season' campaign on Supernatural. Watching it from the start, this programme is actually much more consistent than I remember.

Also nearly through the first two series of The Expanse - which, couple of casting decisions aside (Amos seems too young for me, Bobbie too small) - is absolutely excellent.

I'll catch up with 2020 at this rate, and might start on 2021 early next year

Man the late night tv programs suck. Watching one now.

One of our TV channels has started running double-bills late at night consisting of Baywatch and A-Team episodes. Certainly makes the potential of a late one more attractive

Dustin Diamond has recently died from lungs cancer

The last episode of WandaVision was finally tolerable.

It actually felt like an Avengers TV show at moments and not just bullshit they tossed together to use up time.

Just read that, soooo sad, poor bastard. He did not have a very happy life after SbtB.
Making me want to watch it now!

Nearly through Season 2 The Expanse, its flipping brill. I'm not through the book series yet, I'd been reading it before the series but took a break so need to get back on that.
How I Met Your Mother is still providing light relief - never watch it when it aired, Barney is by far my favourite character in a comedy tv series. He has consistently made me laugh out loud.

All of WandaVision has been good - the first few eps were fine and it's become about as good as the MCU can get outside of their super big projects I think. At least they're finally doing something different and cool. I thought the same thing like 'well we knew what this was before it started' but it's an enjoyable watch. Not nearly as surrealistic as they seem to want us to think, but I'm liking the arc of it for what it is, which is pop-culture popcurn flick stuff.

Watched all of the new The Stand miniseries. Good acting and some cool cinematography. But there's no way this story could be told in nine episodes that were less than an hour. Too much just felt fast-forwarded through.

Also watched a few eps of The Flight Attendant - fun show, though kinda like some cheap stuff you'd find at a grocery store book aisle.

I also watched all of The Leftovers. Fabulous fucking show. A joyous, insane, artful piece of work. So much to unpack - really deep interesting character stuff that unfolds over the seasons and interesting reflections on human grief. A new favorite show for me.

I don't see it mentioned anywhere on here, but the Crack documentary on Netflix is a 10/10.

What a shithole country we live in and what a piece of shit Ronald Regan was.