One More on the Telly: Page 197 - The Arsenal discussion forum and community: One More in the Tolly

One More on the Telly

Qwiss

Klaus wrote:
Burnwinter wrote:
Finally started it this eve. Dirty, dirty cops. The similarities to THE WIRE are hard to miss but the shotmaking is more visceral and the production less glossy.

My main complaint about THE WIRE over time is I gradually figured out the real police in places like Baltimore are far worse in many cases. The cops in this seem like frail scum and Mackey seems about as filthy as the Gun Trace Task Force. Looks good so far.

Definitely. The greatest thing about The Shield is that it feels so antithetical to a tv show. Have to disagree with goon above, I think the show looked raw and unflattering from a technical standpoint compared to polished tv productions even back in its prime, and that was the pull for me. There's a certain type of violence and depravity that you can only get close to with conscious production choices like this. Unlike, say, Paul Greengrass, they managed to find an environment in which shaky handheld cameras not just worked but had a multiplying effect on the impact of what was being depicted. You can even stomach them playing shit like Limp Bizkit and Rob Zombie in certain episodes because it's probably what people like this would be down with in real life.

I don't know how much you know or remember about Rampart, but it was based on that whole scandal. LAPD were so scared about the connection that they threatened them with legal action throughout its run if they were even mentioned on the show.

Fully agree about the way it's shot Klaus. I watched it while it was still airing and even then I was a bit put off at first by the seemingly shoddy production. Once you get into it it works really well though. I think they were trying to evoke the feeling of shows like Cops too.

A real overlooked gem for people who like the Shield is Southland. Similar vibe but a little less of a long term thread. Some brilliant performances in it.

Qwiss

Quincy Abeyie wrote:
I liked it a lot as well, The Boys is a good shout for a similar show.

John Cena is actually a decent comedic actor.

I think Cena can easily follow Dwayne Johnson into big action comedy stuff. And I reckon he probably has more dramatic chops too.

Klaus

Oh yeah, great point about Cops! I think that's a big part of what they were going for too now that you mention it.

I've nfver watched Southland but it's close to the top of my backlog. It seems to be one of those things that gets rave reviews from everyone who watched it.

Burnwinter

COPS was great, it was like THE BILL if it weren't fluff. From memory it was the follow-up to THIS LIFE from that showrunner.

There was a film of the Rampart scandal starring Woody Harrelson a while back Klaus, okay but not great as I recall.

Qwiss

I'm talking about the US show Cops,where they follow cops around.

Burnwinter

Yeah, fair enough—makes sense with the handheld. I never really watched it, but I would believe its aesthetics were important. The Amy Jenkins COPS was still good though.

Klaus

Qwiss! wrote:
I'm talking about the US show Cops,where they follow cops around.

Yeah that's the one I thought you meant too. It used to be shown in syndication all the time on satellite TV over here. On wednesdays you had three or four Cops episodes in a row, and they were pretty much all just police going around and hassling poor people for petty shit and trying to make it look like they were doing society a great service by finding a crack pipe in the pocket of some poor sod they'd pull over because he didn't have enough money to pay his car insurance in time. And then The Shield took off where they ended, and sometimes if you were busy texting or whatever you barely noticed it had started until the theme song began playing.

Qwiss

Burnwinter wrote:
Yeah, fair enough—makes sense with the handheld. I never really watched it, but I would believe its aesthetics were important. The Amy Jenkins COPS was still good though.

I've never even heard of that but I'll look it up now because I loved This Life.

Klaus wrote:
On wednesdays you had three or four Cops episodes in a row, and they were pretty much all just police going around and hassling poor people for petty shit and trying to make it look like they were doing society a great service by finding a crack pipe in the pocket of some poor sod they'd pull over because he didn't have enough money to pay his car insurance in time.

Thats how I remember it too, half the time they're just hassling people in trailer parks for drugs or being drunk.

QuincyAbeyie

Hadn't even heard about it until recently, but started watching Dickinson. Much funnier than expected, when I read it was a drama/comedy I didn't expect it to lean as much into the comedy side as it seems to do. Only three episodes in but it's off to a great start.

Asterix

Have watched 5 episodes of Suspicion. It's a UK production based on an Israeli show about 5 Brits arrested for the kidnapping of a US student. It looks like they were set up and had nothing to do with the kidnapping, but then things get more complicated. It's a bit slow to get going but a few episodes in it heats up. As with most Apple + shows they drop an episode a week so you can't binge unless you wait until they're all dropped.

Big Willie

Just catching up on some old series I haven't watched in years. Started season 3 of the Expanse having not watched since like 2017. Watching the recap on episode 1 of season 3 I remembered a couple of scenes but have completely forgotten the majority of what happened before aside from

[Spoiler]The protomolecule escaped, Avarasala is being hunted for some reason, and the belt have their own protomolecule sample now.[/spoiler]

Is there anything else I should know about thats important to the progress of the show?

Most importantly, is the series worth continuing? I remember it was decent bscl then but not sure if it's turned to shit or not.

goon

It's worth finishing but it sort of goes downhill after there.

Big Willie

Shit man. Ok no worries, thanks. Do remember you were one of the bigger fans of it back then. Think I may have started it off the back of that recommendation.

Klaus

I thought The Expanse was high quality throughout, it was just the first season that suffered from bad pacing because they crammed way too much exposition into every scene and every sponen line of fialogue.

goon

I agree to an extent, it definitely becomes more polished. But I think they went a little too far and, maybe because their hands were tied by the books, it felt like the scope of the plot became smaller rather than bigger. That would be fine if it started out small, but it’s a little weird when the universe and stakes get smaller as a show progresses.

Pepe LeFrits

I thought it was all great. I can kind of see what you mean about the scope; the later seasons don't have the Earth-intrigue thread running through them like seasons 1 to 3 do, but at the same time I absolutely loved episodes like Gaugamela, Oyedeng and Nemesis Games in season 5 and Force Projection and Babylon's Ashes in season 6. There's not really any scifi show that has done stuff like that.

Big Willie

Klaus wrote:
I thought The Expanse was high quality throughout, it was just the first season that suffered from bad pacing because they crammed way too much exposition into every scene and every sponen line of fialogue.

Yeah, I enjoyed season 3 just now, although things started getting strange half way through with the ring and hallucinations and shit. Like it's not clear wtf is going on half the time, hoping more answers can come to light in future seasons and that it doesn't turn into another Lost situation where everything is left up in the air and unknown.

Sicario

New Top Boy season is the best one yet!

Say nuttin.

RocktheCasbah

Extreeeeeeeemely late to it, but been watching Inside Number 9 for the last few weeks. Blown away by the ideas, the writing, the directing and all the actors. Love it.

Also starting watching Call My Agent at the weekend, it's great.

goon

Not finished yet but S3 of Snowpiercer sucks. Visions, dream based episodes? Writers clearly punching way above their weight. Having to finish certain episodes in parts.

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