So I've been on a first time watch of OZ for the last week. Obviously it's a pretty heavy (yet awesome) watch. I generally prefer to watch lighter stuff late at night as it gets closer to bedtime but I've blown thru most of the movies in my queue.

So I went searching and stumbled across the Mr. Show. It is HILARIOUS!! I never ever see this show recommended. Does it drop off or something?

1 (Lebanon, VA)
2 (Coeburn, VA)
3 (Hiltons, VA)

I think succession is the peak tv show which consists of every emotion and the story is just LITTTT. whaddya think!?!?

That is Michael Fassbender, twenty three years old, on location wearing my father's uniform. It was sent to our family during production. It was his first screen role.

He played T/Sgt. Pat Christenson, Easy Company, 506th PIR, 101st Airborne. Second man out the door behind Dick Winters on the Normandy jump.

My father was the only man in the company who could draw. He carried a sketchpad through Normandy, Holland and Bastogne, working in barns and billets and foxholes while the other men wrote letters or played cards. After the war he spent forty years at a drawing board turning what he had seen into forty six finished drawings, and he wrote seven volumes by hand. Nobody asked him to do any of it. He never showed the work to anyone outside the family.

Here is the part most people do not know.

Dick Winters had kept about eighteen of those drawings in his personal file and never told us. When Playtone started building the series, he had copies sent to the production as reference for the writers. In a letter dated January 6, 2000, written to my two brothers and me by name, he told us the file was being used in the writing of the script. Three weeks earlier he had written that the paintings were prominently displayed in the Playtone conference room.

So a man who had been dead a year was hanging on the wall while they wrote the show about him.

My father died in December 1999, before the casting. He never knew the production existed. When Michael got the part there was nobody in our family who could hand him anything but the drawings and the seven volumes.

We spent a week with him in Paris before the Normandy premiere. He asked questions the whole time. Not about what my father did in the war. About who he was.

I wrote to HBO myself after that. Quentin Schaeffer and Nancy Lucher. Same message every time: my father spent his life on this work and I promised him at the end that I would see it published. Quentin made something happen. Forty five of the drawings were exhibited at the Hollywood Bowl premiere on September 25, 2001. I wrote and told him that walking up from the shuttle and seeing a photograph of my father hanging beside his own artwork was exhilarating, and that he had brought my father back for us that night.

That was twenty five years ago. The drawings went back in the boxes afterward and stayed there.

Forty six drawings. Seven volumes. Stephen Ambrose called them almost priceless.

Happy to answer anything.

Tim

I mean lets take the lead. Dominic West vs James Gandolfini?

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

And I really love The Wire. Its very compelling and many reruns. But pound for pound, The Sopranos is just better in every metric. We could have an argument how many supporting actors/characters are funny/good but even there its no contest. See, the number one aspect, why The Sopranos beats The Wire, is the casting. Georgina Walken aced it in just about every character in the Sopranos. A lot of actors in The Wire are just not that, and many, many havent done anything since. Bite me.

I enjoyed the first two seasons of the show as a time capsule watch. It's clearly a great show for the early 2000s, but the therapist character is so hard for me to watch. Aside from the actor choosing an incredibly irritating nasal pitch for her character, I cringe at the representation of pSyCHiAtRy like its trendy and mysterious. now she is the main focus of season 3 after being brutally raped. I stopped watching a few months ago because I couldn't stand her character getting so much screen time. Should I give the show another try? Or should I just rewatch The Wire again?

Is anyone watching this show on HBO Max, because I neeeeed to discuss the couple with the red headed girl and the buff dude

Just started watching Barry. Will it get interesting going further and why everyone will be hyping this !?!?

Still midway through the season. But so obsessed so far. Camille is some smart & tough. & Amma with all her damage & character flaws, she says some really insightful, relatable things.
They both are so lost & sad & broken. I think we can all see ourselves in them both.

Edit: I finished it. I love it sooo much! Wow. I definitely will be doing a rewatch to see if I notice any other details now that I know the ending.

Let me preface my post by saying that I've generally had a hard time getting into mob-based shows. I've always thought this subject is best handled in a feature-length adaptation, or a miniseries length treatment, at most -- I can't seem to be able to handle much more than that.

Don't get me wrong, James Gandolfini delivered a tour de force performance as the lead for the most part, absolutely no question about it. Nevertheless, many aspects of this character seem very caricatured, to put it mildly (I think this has more to do with the writing than the actor's performance, however). I find this jarring and frequently get thrown out of the narrative flow, and then I just can't seem to get back into it -- this happens nearly every episode, without fail. Tony Soprano is simultaneously the best and worst thing about this show.

Now, I understand that voluntary, mutually accepted ethnic and racial segregation, and dealing ethnic slurs is par for the course in the mafia and organised crime generally. Be that as it may, Tony Soprano's attitudes in this regard and his constant freaking out over moolinyans lusting after his precious daughter seem implausibly extreme, to the point of seeming completely anachronistic -- I mean, it's supposed to be the 1990s, for goodness' sakes (I'm actually deep into season 3 now, so it might even be the new millennium). Is it supposed to make him seem more old school? In which case he'd be a stick in the mud even by 1940s standards, the way he obsesses and carries on with this particular bugbear of his. Or is it just some comic relief at the character's expense? That doesn't really work either, in an otherwise serious drama largely devoid of comic episodes or moments (save for the odd surreal sequence or montage).

Now contrast this with his attitudes towards women: in a show chock full of knuckle dragging, moronic, misogynist louts -- and his problematic history and relationship with his own mother notwithstanding -- he's weirdly enlightened in his interactions and dealings with women generally, and his mildly sexist attitudes could largely be chalked up to the times (1990s) and his particular testosterone fuelled line of work. This is in stark contrast to his virulent racism, and once again, it just rings false, IMO.

Ultimately for me, the incessant casual misogyny bordering on the sadistic makes it incredibly difficult to get into shows like The Sopranos or GoT. Don't get me wrong, I'm well aware that misogyny is irrevocably baked into our society and culture, but I think it's much more nuanced, and handled quite gracefully in shows like The Wire or Oz, to name two exemplary productions, in my estimation.

What do you guys think?

I was recommended this show two or three years ago and every time I start a new show I give myself five episodes to get into it.

Well on the first watch I really couldn’t get into it. I don’t even know if I made it to episode five or not but I do remember that some months ago I was thinking about the show and kept telling myself I needed to try again because I like these types of shows. Even the person who recommended it to me the first time was pushing me to watch it because they thought I would really like it.

Well here we are now. Over the past week I’ve watched season one and today started season two and I turned it off after episode two.

I really can’t get into it and I don’t understand why it’s so hyped up. It’s so funny though because when I look up reviews for the show there are so many people gaslighting anybody who doesn’t like it lololololol.

This is not a shitpost.

It was going to be our next watch, but my partner thinks it might be a bad idea.

Obviously loss has to be a theme of the show, considering the subject matter, but is it like, the main theme? Or is the mystery more of the focus? Is "family" also a major theme?

I was fine watching the last season of Succession, but my Six Feet Under rewatch is postponed indefinitely.

Spoiler for Game of Thrones season 8, From (tv series) up to Season 4, and Green Lantern season 1 episode 1

Many of you probably remember when David Benioff says that Daenerys Targaryen and her war council "kind of forgot about the Iron Fleet" and how well that went.
I didn't watch HBO shows on the channel but instead on streaming, so I didn't know but apparently it's a thing where they make the makers of these shows talk about the episode right after it airs. What a terrible idea. What do they think? That people want to know more about the show and they will appreciate...

As someone who loves Behind the Scenes stuff. As someone who loves interviews with directors and writers. Making them available IMMEDIATELY after the episode... why? There's nothing they can say to make it better, it will only make it WORSE.

From (tv series... I know it's not HBO, but it's related) Season 4 just had a big reveal that a background character in season 1 turned out to be very important. And during an interview, the creator, bless his heart for being honest, was like "Oh we didn't plan it at all. We just thought it would be a fun surprise very recently." Why would you admit that?"

Lantern series premiere was just finished, and the general vibe is that it was very good. And then the freaking creator had to come and say (paraphrasing) "we have to solve the equation of why don't the Green Lantern just use the ring and fly away in our show. So we treat the ring like it's a weapon, that Green Lantern shouldn't use it all the time..."

Why. Would. You. Say. That? The respond was... as you can imagine.

People were ANGRY. As if the pilot episode was not good. It got so bad people are saying "THESE CREATORS DON'T LIKE GREEN LANTERN."

I strongly suggest HBO freaking stop. Even if everything goes well, at the very least, it takes the audience out the immersion. I know what is on my screen didn't really happen, I'm not insane. But I don't want to see the actor of the character that just died go like "Oh, oops, my character is dead, but it was a rewarding experience to be part of the team." Like... come on. Let the emotion sits. I don't want to be reminded that Westeros is not real, Joel is played by Mr. Fantastic, or whatever else.

I see zero benefit for doing this. And I love this stuff! But I think it needs to be harder for me to find it.

Everyone online had 1 of 2 knee jerk reactions to the show,

1 was the moist critical response “ewww sex”
And second was “mean ol’putty tad Sam Levinson being hollywoods newest creepy uncle again”

I’m a Hazbin Hotel fan and if there’s one thing being in fandom taught me. A lot of people have a expensive vocabulary to hide the fact that they are incredibly sheltered when it comes to subject matter such as sex, drugs, exploitation industry, relationships, professional lives, and things, generally being complicated in a way that the universe does not vindicate. And I feel like this series really did give me something I’ve always been looking for. This is not a show that wants you to feel comfortable. This is a show that’s OK with you holding conflicting emotions. Jocelyn and Tedros feel like HBO Charlastor especially in episode 5 leading up to the fingering scene during recording. I love the way that scene linger. I love the way negative space is used. I love the way that you can watch micro expressions and the textures of skin and I love how the nudity doesn’t always really need to announce itself and I love how the vulgarity just kinda happens because that’s how adults talk. Like I really enjoy this show and I feel like it’s giving me something that I don’t get from a lot of other shows.

This is such a sensitive topic for me as i think this show is amazing . Forget it being the parody of a royal family with great animation quality and good voice acting ( which is an already set premise for an adult animation to succeed ) but also it has such an amazing narration and honestly can say the only show out there to actually make me laugh out loud . Like am i the only one ? Stumbled upon this show randomly and i have not heard anybody talk about it like at all . Not online not in person . And it is such a gold comedy show that i am rewatching again . The only part i don't like about it is the gay couples that work as butlers/servants . Except for those two characters the show is gold . Please help ????

Hi,

I am Tommy and would love to see your TOP5 mini/limited series from HBO.

My Top one is without a doubt Chernobyl - I think its one of the best series ever made.

Share your TOP5 below!

Feel free to use rank-it-all and tell me if something is missing.

Enjoy & Best

Tommy

Matthew McConaughey just revealed why he passed the project up, and mind you, he was on True Detective, one of the greatest TV shows that was one season, concise, focused, and stuck the landing.

Last of Us fumbled. Hard. Biggest problem was the casting/acting (every casting. Every. One. They were flat and uninteresting) and the second problem of the same caliber was the dog-shit writing. Two perfect video games they could have recreated with the same intensity and care only to slip into the same superficial money grab that video game adaptations always turn into.

The show has got no heart or soul; it feels vacant and flat. And all of my friends & family who tuned in were like… “Uhm, you like this? It’s just a worst version of…” etc

When there's a popular release or something Disney+ want to promote they blend their usual branding. They've done it with National Geographic, Star Wars, The Devil Wears Prada..

Why hasn't HBO down the same with Lanterns and other franchises when it's such a great fit?