Indirectly asking for recommendations on what to watch.
The good place
It’s such a good show, the ending is absolutely perfect.
It’s not just that the ending is perfect (though it absolutely is). It’s that at every point, in every season, when they could have chosen the easy, dumbed-down route for continuing the show, they… didn’t. They didn’t do that, and it’s hard to express what a difference that makes.
For example (without spoilers), the way season 1 ended set up, for a lesser show, an easy rehash for season 2, where the same characters get up to slightly different versions of the same season 1 hijinks.
Instead, the show runners packed that painfully obvious concept into the first half of the first episode of season 2, then moved right past it. They could have milked the concept for a whole season, but they didn’t want to. So instead they acknowledged it in the most hilarious possible way, then got on with the actual story.
Goddamn, now I want to watch it again. It’s just so good.
Thanks for the insight, it’s one of the few shows I’ve rewatched.
There’s an official podcast with the showrunners and the cast members where they do post episode discussions. It’s a great listen after watching an episode.
Michael Schur’s book is also on audible and quite entertaining. And it adds context to the next rewatch
Season 3 and Season 4 both had endings that leave me bawling every time.
Also, I know the show didn’t invent it, but Chidi’s presentation of the wave idea just slips under everything for me and is really good.
oh dip
The humor is great, writing and acting are top notch.
But it hit atheist me on a spiritual level and awakened a thing I didn’t think existed.
That’s pretty fuckin rad.
I’m here just to upvote the correct choice.
Maximum Derek
Forking good show!
Agree.
Yes! That show melted my heart and soul.
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If you enjoy the humor in this show check out Norsemen. Totally different premise, but very similar dry humor with a lot of jokes and situations that are funny on multiple levels.
I love What We Do In The Shadows, it is hilarious. I could watch Colin Robinson drain people all day!
The series is great as well. I was reluctant because the film is so perfect and I didn’t want it to get draged out and repetitive. They did exactly that but still they managed to keep it super funny with great new vampires.
It is genuinely unreasonable how good Arcane is.
I went in thinking OK, this is an animated show based on League of Legends, it’s gonna suck but at least the fight scenes will be fun, right?
Reader, I cried. You could teach classes on how good the writing in this show is. The last half hour of season one is, without question, one of the most perfect scenes in television history. A flawless masterclass in character development and believable conflict, paired with note perfect editing and some of the best animation you’ll find outside of a Miyazaki or Satoshi Kon movie.
This show is based on a god damn MOBA. It had absolutely no right going this damn hard and I fucking love them for it.
And the soundtrack! Definitely among the best of the best. That’s actually how I got into it - I was listening to a lot of Bones UK ever since Pretty Waste was featured in Pistol Whip and I absolutely loved Dirty Little Animals. From there I started listening to the whole OST and after a week or two I decided it’s time to give the series itself a chance. I was blown away.
Speaking of, it’s also pretty unreasonable how much awesome music is there around LoL. I was already a fan of KDA thanks to Beat Saber (what is it with VR games getting me into LoL music?), and turns out there’s a ton of amazing music just because.
And that track from Sting. Fucking Sting! Absolutely kills me every time I hear it.
That was the only one I didn’t like when I was listening to the OST. Then I watched the series and oh my god it hits hard when you know the context… It’s amazing.
Arcane was such a an amazing show. Both because it was amazing on its own and because it made me go so crazy over show from a video game I care nothing for.
I’ve played 2 games of LOL in my life and I still loved Arcane to death. Season 2 can’t come fast enough.
Yeah I went into it completely blind. Never played LoL but the animation style looked cool, so I’ll just check an episode for the animation.
And damn it was a well written. The only flaws were scenes where suddenly a dude has a hammer weapon, and it was like “where did that come from… oh yeah this is based on a video game so that’s probably his signature weapon in the game.” So they had to put it in there. But there were only a couple of things like that and it’s a really minor nitpick. And we can’t expect them to make LoL show without throwing a few bones to LoL fans, right?
Yeah it really doesn’t make sense how good that show is.
Yeah, they had to get in the obligatory scene of Jayce using the hammer just to keep up the pretence that this was in any way connected to LoL. Ditto Vi popping the bubble shield, IIRC.
On the other hand, the way they incorporated Jinx’s ult? Oh my God. Chef’s kiss. Flawless.
I avoided Bojack Horseman for years because I thought it was going to be like so many other edgy adult cartoons. I thought I knew what it was going to be like. I was so wrong.
I came here to recommend BoJack. Especially after that moment in the middle of Season 1, it’s a masterpiece.
The show is also unique for me in the sense that IMO the later seasons were the best, this making it a series that actually gets better and better over time.
Only show I’m afraid to re-watch because of how it made me feel.
Community. I kept casually hearing about it. My first episode was the paintball episode. Needless to say, I was hooked from the start.
You are streets ahead with this recommendation.
it’s downhill from there brother.
Hard disagree. Granted, it’s not what it used to be after some people leave the show but it’s still entertaining until the very end. Even season 6.
i didn’t say it wasn’t entertaining, but THE paintball episode is peak Community.
Fight club was intentionally misadvertised seeming like it would be some dude bro ‘FIGHTING IS HARDCORE AND AWESOME LET’S CHUG A BEER’ bullshit.
Completely ignored it for that reason until there is nothing better on TV so I said fuck it I’ll give it a shot and holy crap did that destroy my mind.
Watched it at a cinema when it first came out - thought it was ok, bit funny, nothing special. Watched it again a couple of months ago on DVD. Completely changed my view of it, for the better. Great film.
Severance
Can’t fucking wait for season 2. IT’S BEEN SO LONG DAMN IT!
Yeah, I watched it a month or so ago, not really with high too high of expectations, but then after the 1st episode I was like fuck yeah! And it just gets better.
I looked on a torrent site to see if there was a season 2 and noticed that s01 was from 2 years ago and was like shit, did they get canceled, but ends up they’re just delayed from the writers strikes, so they’re working on s02 🥳
Haven’t seen anyone mention Severance, which is one of my more recent obsessions. Everyone I watched the first episode with bounced off pretty hard, saying it was too weird. Man the payoff is amazing though, everything slowly ramping up to a crescendo in the final couple of episodes. Highly recommended if you like early Black Mirror.
Severance is an amazing show on every level. Writing, casting, acting, design… every single facet is brilliantly executed. The season finale was insane. I was on the edge of my seat the entire time.
I haven’t felt this excited for a second season premiere since the second season of Lost.
Not to mention Ricken. He may be one of my favorite fictional characters ever. He’s an endless well of brilliantly mindless quotes:
A society with festering workers can not flourish just as a man with rotting toes cannot skip.
If you’re as obsessed as I am, you should check out the Severed podcast by Allen Stare. Dude does a DEEP dive into each episode and it’s a great companion to the show.
Right on, I’ll check it out. I’ve also watched a lot of Nautilus Files on YouTube. He does some great character and theory breakdowns.
And agreed on Ricken being an amazing character (caricature?). The fact that >!the severed employees find his book and it becomes their new Bible!< was so perfect.
ARCANE!!!
I’m over here thinking: Oh, League of Legends fans are all overreacting over getting something that’s probably decent at best…
My friend, let me tell you, they were not overreacting.
Arcane is the best show. The character development, the story, the art… Unbelievable. Go watch the making of, lots of great info.
Dark on Netflix. I had started it once and gave up after 2 episodes, but came back years later and finished it. It’s now one of my all time favorite time travel stories. Lots of big, cascading mysteries kind of like Lost, but the ending was so satisfying!
I can’t recommend dark enough.
Oh man. I loved it. The complexity made me feel smart and I absolutely loved how everything tied together in the end. At one point I was certain they had over convoluted the story and there was no way they were going to make it coherent again, but I was wrong.
You both might want to check out 1899.
Same production company and one of the main character actors is from Dark.
Should feel familiar even if you dont like it as much.
I loved 1899, I knew it was the same couple that did Dark and watched it right when it cam out and then 2 days later heard it was canceled wtf 😾
Netflix has performance anxiety. Just can’t finish good projects sometimes
DUDE! You, me and literally EVERY SINGLE PERSON I know that watched it, bailed after an episode or two, but every one of us came back to it and all were blown away. So weird.
One of my favorite show from the last 10 years, if not last 40 years
Edge of Tomorrow. Blew my mind once I finally got around to watching it.
I watched this thinking it was gonna give my inner teenager a kick but it was so good. It still gave my inner teenager a kick.
Still hoping for that sequel. It’s not dead yet!
For those who saw the movie it would be more of a re-quel.
Breaking Bad. I heard I’m not the only one who started watching it and gave up after the first 2 or 3 episodes that were just setting the scene at a fairly slow (boring) pace. Someone had to convince me to push through them because it gets so much better. It does.
Better Call Saul is also spectacular. In fact, I might go so far as to claim it’s better than BB…
I might go so far as to claim it’s better than BB…
You would not be alone in that assessment. Lots of us agree. It is absolutely the better show.
I will be the dissenting voice then. Knowing what it is, I started watching it, and watched all the way to something like mid-second season. But then I just stopped and didn’t really miss it.
BB for me was one of those “ok, last episode… … … OK, now really last episode then bed… … … OK, I know I have to wake up in 5 hours, so now really, REALLY last episode then bed.” And so on.
BCS wasn’t like that to me at all.
In my opinion it is the best written show in history. It has a succinct arc and every character is there on that arc for a reason. It ended when it should and kept true to the story the entire time.
I think it took me 3 attempts before it took hold.
I had a chance to read the pilot pitch script for Breaking Bad and it was one of the best I have ever read. Was the reason I started watching the show in the first place.
The Expanse, people keeps recommending it and I kept ignoring it thinking it was the Extant. I hope it gets picked up again.
Just finished the last season of For All Mankind yesterday and it can be seen as a sort of prequel to The Expanse.
The actor who played Alex Kamal was fired for being a creep I think, so I doubt it’ll come back. But there are more books to enjoy on wich the series ist bases.
They killed off the character and carried on without him.
They made a season without him. For the last three books they could just recast everyone, they’re set 30 years after what was covered by the show.
Well they killed off Alex in the TV version. And he honestly doesn’t have a particular big role in the final arc. So they could just give his little arc with his family to someone else.
This for sure.
I kept putting it off, then watched it all in one go when I finally managed to get through the 1 and 2nd episodes i think.
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I swear I rolled my eyes when my buddy said “they dont make shows like Columbo anymore” until I watched it.
Damn. They really dont.
I also cant imagine a columbo successor without Peter falk around, sad.
Yeah the inversion of a whodunit sounds like it would be boring because you know at the start who the murderer is.
But in a regular whodunit they can’t really focus on the murderer since they’ll give away the game. And you can usually just figure it out anyway because there’s usually a character that has no reason to be there… unless they’re the murder. Then the reveal at the end it’s like, yup that character is the murderer.
The Columbo inversion of this allows for the focus to be on the murderer which is far more interesting. And usually the murderer is a smug rich asshole so watching him pester the shit out of him until he makes a mistake is very satisfying.
It also avoided the trap of getting into the personal life of Columbo. It’s just about catching the criminal, not soap opera bullshit. Sure he mentions he has a wife (and a cousin, and an uncle, etc) but you can’t really be sure if that’s all just made up by Columbo to hustle the murderer into giving something up.
Fun bit of trivia: What was Columbo’s first name? They never said. With HD TV you can make out a name on his ID, but they never said his first name throughout the show’s run. It was all about catching the murderer.
What was Columbo’s first name?
Detective I think.
Funny you say that, when Peter Falk was asked, his answer was “Lieutenant.”
The closest you’ll get is Poker Face. It is a GIANT love letter to Columbo.
I really hope they do a second season.
Folks made a big fuss when it came out, so I’m hopeful. I loved it.
Stargate Universe got a raw deal. It was a really great extension of the overall Stargate mythos. Between SG1 and Atlantis, they’d basically gone as far as they could. The teams had defeated gods, both figurative and literal. They had limitless technology at their disposal and each new season became a slog to another deus ex machina.
SGU essentially reset the entire premise back to zero while keeping the overall accumulated canon in place AND it presented a much better conflict/goal than the typical “we must defeat these new powerful aliens before they destroy humanity”.
But it didn’t fit with the tone of the previous shows so a lot of the fans were turned off. Too much “drama”, not enough zat guns. Plus that was the time when SciFi rebranded to “SyFy” and started showing shit like WWE.
I would LOVE to see them do another season picking up right where they left off. It would absolutely fit within the established timeline.
That show was just bad. It haf amazing production and could have been so much better.
They needed to leave earth/sol alone. The constant connection to home base ruined the show.
Having the goa ould just show up and take over was so bad.
The show had a great set up they ruined by trying to include too much familiar elements.
And i say this as a huge fan of the stargate universe.
Granted i had very high hopes. Felt like the people who made Battlestar Galactica got moved to a stargate project and i was so dissapointed with the direction the show took
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Stargate Universe.
Literally my favorite spinoff and I legit sloppy cried when they canceled it.
Yes, Columbo! I got hooked on it as a teen and recently rewatched the series and they are still great.
After a LONG stretch of mediocre Star Wars content, I was burnt out on the franchise and had pretty much tuned out from new releases cuz they all sucked.
…saw people rave on and on about Andor, finally dove in expecting it to be more of the same half-assed shit we’d been getting for years leading up to it.
IT IS SO FUCKING GOOD!
Like holy shit, it felt so good to actually enjoy SW content again!
ONE WAY OUT! ONE WAY OUT!!
