TV of 2020

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flyonthewall2983
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Re: TV of 2020

#26 Post by flyonthewall2983 » Mon Jul 06, 2020 3:24 am

Allison Ellwood's 2-part docuseries Laurel Canyon on Epix is a worthy look at the southern California rock scene as told by those who inhabited that area of Los Angeles, mostly through more recent voice-over and film clips and photographs taken between the ten year period between The Byrds and other psychedelic bands, and the Eagles and the country rock from which they fermented from. Outliers such as Frank Zappa, Alice Cooper and Little Feat are spoken of as well. Most interestingly The Doors are included too, who quite notably didn't make much friends amidst the other bands of that time, notably David Crosby who hated their music and didn't care at all for Morrison.


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therewillbeblus
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Re: TV of 2020

#28 Post by therewillbeblus » Sat Aug 08, 2020 1:44 pm

Jude Law leads strong cast in limited series The Third Day for HBO

This looks great, with an eerie Midsommar/Wicker Man vibe, plus it’s created by Dennis Kelly who devised the incredible channel 4 series Utopia, which alone makes this one of my most anticipated films of the year.

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Re: TV of 2020

#29 Post by therewillbeblus » Mon Aug 10, 2020 10:18 pm

therewillbeblus wrote:
Fri Jan 17, 2020 9:20 pm
MacGruber the TV show is finally actually coming, will air on NBC
Teaser says 2021, but no footage included other than from the movie and a brief bit with Forte at the end seemingly shot during COVID

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Re: TV of 2020

#30 Post by flyonthewall2983 » Wed Aug 12, 2020 5:10 pm

Peacock, not NBC

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therewillbeblus
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Re: TV of 2020

#31 Post by therewillbeblus » Wed Aug 12, 2020 5:44 pm

flyonthewall2983 wrote:
Wed Aug 12, 2020 5:10 pm
Peacock, not NBC
Yes, that was established on the previous page, I should have omitted the end of my original comment from the quote

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domino harvey
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Re: TV of 2020

#32 Post by domino harvey » Mon Aug 31, 2020 4:25 am

I haven’t seen it and was never planning to but I was surprised to learn the What We Do In the Shadows TV series has four former NewsRadio writers plus Tom Scharpling writing for it

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Re: TV of 2020

#33 Post by Reverend Drewcifer » Mon Aug 31, 2020 10:58 am

domino harvey wrote:
Mon Aug 31, 2020 4:25 am
I haven’t seen it and was never planning to but I was surprised to learn the What We Do In the Shadows TV series has four former NewsRadio writers plus Tom Scharpling writing for it
Scharpling's voice is very evident in his episodes of Difficult People. My wife can't stand him, but she adores Monk, so imagine my glee when I paused the opening credits for her...

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Murdoch
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Re: TV of 2020

#34 Post by Murdoch » Fri Sep 04, 2020 6:15 pm

The second season of What We Do in the Shadows was great. I thought the first season struggled to find its own voice but Natasia Demetriou and Mark Provsch help elevate the material. Demetriou saying "Colin Robinson!" may be my favorite thing on TV this year.

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Re: TV of 2020

#35 Post by therewillbeblus » Tue Sep 15, 2020 8:12 am

This premiered last night, but the odd format of the show’s ‘episodes’ has been revealed

Spoilers on structure rather than specific details:
SpoilerShow
Apparently the first three eps (Summer) focus on Law and the back three (Winter) on Harris, but the mysterious middle ‘episode’ (Fall) is a 12-hour live stream of the island with little known about its content

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mfunk9786
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Re: TV of 2020

#36 Post by mfunk9786 » Tue Sep 15, 2020 11:39 am

Reminds me of the tremendously executed trial in On Cinema, of all things!

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ando
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Re: TV of 2020

#37 Post by ando » Fri Sep 25, 2020 5:33 pm

Dan Duryea-athon (starting at 6am (EST)) on the Movies! cable network today. Did he EVER play against type? Dude was a slimeball in everything. :D
Last edited by ando on Fri Sep 25, 2020 6:06 pm, edited 3 times in total.

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domino harvey
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Re: TV of 2020

#38 Post by domino harvey » Fri Sep 25, 2020 5:48 pm

Highly recommend Underworld Story, in which he def does not play against type. Here's my writeup from the Noir list:
domino harvey wrote:
Sat Jul 04, 2015 1:12 pm
the Underworld Story (Cy Endfield 1950) Far more successful than Endfield's other, more-lauded noir from this year, this newspaper tale (the title's a bit of a stretch) gives a plum leading role to Dan Duryea and goes out of its way to make him despicable at all turns, even when (and sometimes especially when) he's doing the right thing! Exploiting liberal desires to further civil rights among its many negative tricks, the film is mean-spirited and vicious, and to its credit it never backs down from its depiction of Duryea-- even as he turns the corner he remains a total dick in the best way. But Duryea, unbelievably, has the movie snatched from him by Howard Da Silva as a genial mob boss who finds himself pulled into several different warring factions with perverse bemusement at the situation. Da Silva really gives us one of the great mob boss characters in all of noir here, and it's a shame he was soon blacklisted afterwards.
EDIT: Though I think ya got your AMs and PMs mixed up and this has already come and gone?

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ando
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Re: TV of 2020

#39 Post by ando » Fri Sep 25, 2020 6:02 pm

YES. Merde. Thanks

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ando
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Re: TV of 2020

#40 Post by ando » Fri Sep 25, 2020 6:28 pm

Well, there’s a repeat airing of Too Late For Tears early Monday Morning Oct. 19 at 1:10 AM, though Eizabeth Scott and Don DeFore get top billing in that one. Just saw Scott in the Bogie flick, Dead Reckoning, where she was Rita Hayworth replacement. Not the most persuasive noir player. I hear comedy was her thing.

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domino harvey
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Re: TV of 2020

#41 Post by domino harvey » Fri Sep 25, 2020 6:31 pm

Comedy is not the first word that comes to mind for Lizabeth Scott. She's in a lot of memorable noirs though: the Strange Love of Martha Ivers, I Walk Alone, Pitfall, Two of a Kind... And of course she's the contentious would-be beard in Desert Fury

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ando
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Re: TV of 2020

#42 Post by ando » Mon Oct 05, 2020 5:12 pm

Ok, so the repudedly best of the Hammer Frankenstein sequels, Revenge of Frankenstein (1958, Terence Fisher, color), airs tonight on the Movies! channel at 8pm (EST). I've never seen any in the series but Peter Cushing in the lead role is enough reason to adjust my evening viewing.

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ando
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Re: TV of 2020

#43 Post by ando » Mon Oct 05, 2020 5:21 pm

Doesn't help that the Kansas City Chiefs-New England Pat's, Green Bay Packers-Atlanta Falcons plus Yankees-Devil Ray's ALDS games are all on in roughly the same time slots as well.

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Mr Sausage
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Re: TV of 2020

#44 Post by Mr Sausage » Mon Oct 05, 2020 7:05 pm

ando wrote:Ok, so the repudedly best of the Hammer Frankenstein sequels, Revenge of Frankenstein (1958, Terence Fisher, color), airs tonight on the Movies! channel at 8pm (EST). I've never seen any in the series but Peter Cushing in the lead role is enough reason to adjust my evening viewing.
Frankenstein Created Woman and Frankenstein Must be Destroyed are generally considered the high points of the series, but you can’t go wrong with Revenge. Just know it’s a direct sequel, so it benefits from having first seen Curse (tho’ I believe it starts with a recap).

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Re: TV of 2020

#45 Post by ando » Mon Oct 05, 2020 7:50 pm

Ah, good. Thanks

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therewillbeblus
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Re: TV of 2020

#46 Post by therewillbeblus » Mon Oct 26, 2020 12:35 am

Michelle Williams has reportedly exited the project and is being replaced by Jessica Chastain

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Re: TV of 2020

#47 Post by barryconvex » Sat Nov 14, 2020 3:03 am

Caught the first two episodes of A Teacher on Hulu the other day. Only two episodes in but right off the bat they got the central character all wrong and since everything hinges on this performance I'm not holding out much hope for this to improve by any significant amount. Kate Mara is a fine actor but she's miscast here (her sister Rooney would've been perfect for this role and is the only actor I can think of who could've possibly improved on Lindsay Burdge's brilliant performance of damaged sexuality in the film-one of the best of the past decade) as the high school English teacher who has an affair with a student. What Burdge brought to the role was an impossible mix of guarded mystery, quiet desperation and in a masterstroke, an even quieter reading of the character's crumbling psyche. Marc Manon was talking on his podcast about "anxiety morphing into dread" (I'm paraphrasing) during his interview with Rhea Seehorn and that's exactly what has happened to this woman- the weight of the consequences has collapsed under itself destroying her self esteem and decision making capabilities and with no outlet or support system and everything being internalized things turn ugly very quickly for her. It's a fascinating character and probably the best example of a woman breaking down I've ever seen.

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Black Hat
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Re: TV of 2020

#48 Post by Black Hat » Sat Dec 19, 2020 11:12 pm

Unless I missed the thread I'm surprised there hasn't been any mention of the HBO/BBC co-production Industry. It's kinda like a younger, hornier, druggier 2020 update on Mad Men. I could see it be compared to Euphoria, but Industry makes that show look like a Disney production. I do not recall seeing anything on tv as graphic sexually as this is, but what is most excellent besides the accurate portrayal of this area of finance is the refreshing way it deals with gender politics, sexual power dynamics vis a vis how it connects to power outside of that space and to my surprise a challenging of a few of today's prevailing cultural orthodoxies. To put it another way I think it was a very well executed, smart piece of television very much following in the footsteps of shows like I May Destroy You and Betty. Really recommend it and if that isn't enough to entice you board favorite Lena Dunham directed the first episode. Need more? Miles from Lost parachutes in out of nowhere in a fantastic part giving a thoroughly enjoyable performance.

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Re: TV of 2020

#49 Post by brundlefly » Wed Jan 06, 2021 3:08 pm

The Flight Attendant follows a good-time girl whose downward spiral drags her into international espionage. Plotting can err toward the convenient and the babble has an agreeable bounce that never quite lands – which is fine, because this is a character study and that’s the surface of the central character. She tells people the plot, they don’t always believe her, neither will you.

But mixing her functional alcoholism with some serious PTSD and legitimate peril forces her to undergo the sort of introspection she’s made it her business to avoid. There’s an iffy internal monologue device that is at least playful and played-with enough that I accepted it; some pat psychological shortcuts I tolerated because they’re surrounded by eight hours of demonstrative behavior. At its darkest and most desperate the show is about the effects addiction has on the family and friends of the addict, and at those times it doesn’t seem careless or dismissive. Of the limited series I’ve seen recently (The Good Lord Bird, Queen’s Gambit) it’s the only one I devoured and the only one that made me chuckle and tear up.

Dug the dalliances with split screen, and the Mad Men-meets-Archer credits sequence is pure win.

Solid presences in support. You’ll wish whatever member of The Strokes is playing Zosia Mamet’s boyfriend was your best friend’s boyfriend. Samantha Bee’s husband is a convincing monster. Rosie Perez’ b-story feels like a different show, and I wonder if anyone will ever connect the dots around Michelle Gomez’ energy to make a coherent character, but I’m never going to complain when either shows up. And why not wheel out Bebe Neuwirth for a scene or two if you can?

Kaley Cuoco can lean on an assumed lost-puppy charm and has a sort of punctuative energy that doesn’t lend itself to sustained moods; I don’t know how much of this is part of this particular performance or how much of it is a bag of tics, but she and her show are in agreement throughout. There’s a quiet breakdown moment in her friend’s office where a single unexpected tear was the best dialogue in the episode. Between this and Harley Quinn (which I love, which is also on HBO Max, which has also spent time in her character’s head) she’s at least a project-chooser of interest.

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Re: TV of 2020

#50 Post by The Curious Sofa » Tue Jan 19, 2021 4:12 am

Black Hat wrote:
Sat Dec 19, 2020 11:12 pm
Unless I missed the thread I'm surprised there hasn't been any mention of the HBO/BBC co-production Industry. It's kinda like a younger, hornier, druggier 2020 update on Mad Men. I could see it be compared to Euphoria, but Industry makes that show look like a Disney production. I do not recall seeing anything on tv as graphic sexually as this is, but what is most excellent besides the accurate portrayal of this area of finance is the refreshing way it deals with gender politics, sexual power dynamics vis a vis how it connects to power outside of that space and to my surprise a challenging of a few of today's prevailing cultural orthodoxies. To put it another way I think it was a very well executed, smart piece of television very much following in the footsteps of shows like I May Destroy You and Betty. Really recommend it and if that isn't enough to entice you board favorite Lena Dunham directed the first episode. Need more? Miles from Lost parachutes in out of nowhere in a fantastic part giving a thoroughly enjoyable performance.
I'm just watching Industry (up to episode 5) after finally getting round watching Euphoria. Maybe its watching both shows in close proximity but after Euphoria, Industry doesn't fare too well. I think it just about gets by as entertaining trash. Unlike Zendaya's character, the main character here falls into the cliche of the anti-hero with a secret past and neither the performance nor the character have anywhere near the power or nuance of Zendaya's troubled heroine. Characters across the board are shallow, which I suppose is the point but also doesn't make for great drama beyond superficial pleasures. While Euphoria deals with addiction and lines of sexual dynamics crossed with some complexity, beyond the now obligatory nods to inclusivity, I find nothing too revelatory about Industry. There certainly is nothing that deserves to be compared to I May Destroy You.

Euphoria is probably the most beautiful looking and sounding TV show I've seen. Industry looks not different than a gazillion dramas (while repeating its electronic main theme way too often) and as you brought it up, it doesn't come near Euphoria in terms of explicitness. Male full frontal nudity has become a bit of a thing in TV recently to balance out decades of exploiting female actors on screen I suppose but Euphoria went quite a bit further
SpoilerShow
(there was an erect penis, something I never thought I'd see in a TV show)
and many of those characters are supposed to be underage.

Maybe something will happen in the last 3 episodes to change my mind but I'll watch this season to the end and then probably will leave it at that.

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