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    #4982
    [Deleted User]
    Posts: 0 ✭ [Deleted User]


    awec wrote: »
    Any of you watched Sons of Anarchy?

    Started watching it with the wife and I am really struggling. It's just so... cheesy? The acting is pretty wooden at times, Charlie Hunnam does not convince me that he's a biker, he's so clean and well groomed or something. And there's hardly any swearing!

    Yet I always heard how great it was. What am I missing? I think we're about 8 episodes in and I'm about to pull the plug.

    Sons of Anarchy is for watching when you have absolutely nothing else to watch. Which sounds like what you are doing...!

    It's soap opera fair for the most part.


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    #4983
    The Inbetween is mine
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,705 ✭✭✭The Inbetween is mine


    I decided to finally watch Breaking Bad...I'm 4 episodes in and not too impressed at all


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    #4984
    awec
    Administrators Posts: 53,468 Admin ✭✭✭✭✭awec


    The Inbetween is mine wrote: »
    I decided to finally watch Breaking Bad...I'm 4 episodes in and not too impressed at all

    I watched it when it first came out, and have forgotten most of it, but from what I remember it was pretty slow to start.

    I never found it amazing though. Wouldn't hold a candle to the wire or west wing or sopranos.


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    #4985
    Buer
    Registered Users Posts: 24,191 ✭✭✭✭Buer


    Sons of Anarchy is extremely mediocre, for me. I didn't make it past the halfway point of season 2 and I feel like I gave it more time than it deserved. It just was pretty cringey stuff. The wife persisted and I recall seeing some story line featuring Northern Ireland which made me wince.

    I'm currently juggling a few shows. Jack Ryan on Prime which I thought was promising and then became disappointing. It's easy to watch fluff but there are plotholes you could drive a bus through. So many nonsensical and convenient plot devices.

    I've started watching The Boys based on the rave reviews here which looks promising. So far for me, it hasn't lived up to the billing I saw on here but certainly is a solid watch. Very early days on it though.

    I'll also finish The Queen's Gambit this evening, hopefully. Was extremely slow to start but has become a compelling watch. Excellently made. It reminds me of some episodes of The Crown insofar as it's completely dull source material but the acting and production overall make it a really good watch.


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    #4986
    awec
    Administrators Posts: 53,468 Admin ✭✭✭✭✭awec


    Buer wrote: »
    Sons of Anarchy is extremely mediocre, for me. I didn't make it past the halfway point of season 2 and I feel like I gave it more time than it deserved. It just was pretty cringey stuff. The wife persisted and I recall seeing some story line featuring Northern Ireland which made me wince.

    I'm currently juggling a few shows. Jack Ryan on Prime which I thought was promising and then became disappointing. It's easy to watch fluff but there are plotholes you could drive a bus through. So many nonsensical and convenient plot devices.

    I've started watching The Boys based on the rave reviews here which looks promising. So far for me, it hasn't lived up to the billing I saw on here but certainly is a solid watch. Very early days on it though.

    I'll also finish The Queen's Gambit this evening, hopefully. Was extremely slow to start but has become a compelling watch. Excellently made. It reminds me of some episodes of The Crown insofar as it's completely dull source material but the acting and production overall make it a really good watch.

    Queen's Gambit is very good. Well written.


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    #4987
    thomond2006
    Registered Users Posts: 45,433 ✭✭✭✭thomond2006


    Try the Man in the High Castle on Amazon. I loved it.


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    #4988
    MaybeMaybe
    Registered Users Posts: 1,297 ✭✭✭MaybeMaybe


    watch Banshee instead


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    #4989
    errlloyd
    Registered Users Posts: 12,603 ✭✭✭✭errlloyd


    The Inbetween is mine wrote: »
    I decided to finally watch Breaking Bad...I'm 4 episodes in and not too impressed at all

    I remember for all of season 1 every second episode was garbage. It then improves.


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    #4990
    [Deleted User]
    Posts: 0 ✭ [Deleted User]


    The Inbetween is mine wrote: »
    I decided to finally watch Breaking Bad...I'm 4 episodes in and not too impressed at all

    I never thought it was as good as people made out but it's still a solid show and it gets better as it goes. It can be very slow at times but definitely improves over the seasons.

    I actually prefer Better call Saul - if you finish Breaking Bad it's worth a watch.
    thomond2006 wrote: »
    Try the Man in the High Castle on Amazon. I loved it.

    This is my next watch through!


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    #4991
    realhorrorshow
    Registered Users Posts: 1,906 ✭✭✭realhorrorshow


    awec wrote: »
    I watched it when it first came out, and have forgotten most of it, but from what I remember it was pretty slow to start.

    I never found it amazing though. Wouldn't hold a candle to the wire or west wing or sopranos.

    Breaking Bad relies largely on suspense and plot twists and has little to no rewatch value. As opposed to The Wire or Sopranos which I could watch forever. Need to give West Wing a go.


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    #4992
    [Deleted User]
    Posts: 0 ✭ [Deleted User]


    Sopranos is overrated IM humble O. I didn't see it in it's hayday so I was kinda used to top notch TV by the time I watched it. It is excellent, but I think there are better things out there. Although I think gangster related fiction is overrated in general.


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    #4993
    b.gud
    Registered Users Posts: 4,801 ✭✭✭b.gud


    realhorrorshow wrote: »
    Breaking Bad relies largely on suspense and plot twists and has little to no rewatch value. As opposed to The Wire or Sopranos which I could watch forever. Need to give West Wing a go.

    I actually rewatched Breaking bad a couple of years ago and there were a lot of little foreshadowing things that I noticed which I had missed first time around and they greatly added to my enjoyment of it.

    I also agree with Venjur Better Call Saul is better and I can't wait for the next season of it


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    #4994
    Dave_The_Sheep
    Registered Users Posts: 7,339 ✭✭✭Dave_The_Sheep


    MaybeMaybe wrote: »
    watch Banshee instead

    Now that's solid turn-your-brain-off entertaining stuff with oodles of gratuitous violence and nudity thrown in for good measure.

    Currently on Season 3 of Justified and thoroughly enjoying it.


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    #4995
    Paul Smeenus
    Registered Users Posts: 4,383 ✭✭✭Paul Smeenus


    b.gud wrote: »
    I actually rewatched Breaking bad a couple of years ago and there were a lot of little foreshadowing things that I noticed which I had missed first time around and they greatly added to my enjoyment of it.

    I also agree with Venjur Better Call Saul is better and I can't wait for the next season of it

    My thing about Breaking Bad was that it reached a point and it was just about Walt's innovations in drug dealing. If you weren't amazed by his crazy schemes, it felt like it was a bit of a grind. Didn't improve until the stuff with the brother-in-law.


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    #4996
    awec
    Administrators Posts: 53,468 Admin ✭✭✭✭✭awec


    realhorrorshow wrote: »
    Breaking Bad relies largely on suspense and plot twists and has little to no rewatch value. As opposed to The Wire or Sopranos which I could watch forever. Need to give West Wing a go.

    West Wing is superb. IMO the best TV series, at least for the first 4 seasons, it is just so easy and addictive to watch.


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    #4997
    Neil3030
    Registered Users Posts: 17,018 ✭✭✭✭Neil3030


    Sopranos clips on YouTube is a rabbit hole from which no man will ever escape.


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    #4998
    awec
    Administrators Posts: 53,468 Admin ✭✭✭✭✭awec


    Neil3030 wrote: »
    Sopranos clips on YouTube is a rabbit hole from which no man will ever escape.

    My favourite scene is the one where
    they're sitting at the table in Satriales talking about how Vito is gay. "Catching, not pitching?!"
    :D


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    #4999
    dregin
    Moderators, Music Moderators Posts: 6,524 Mod ✭✭✭✭dregin


    Speaking of The Sopranos, this is a pretty surprising interview bandcamp did with the actor that played Christopher Moltisanti about his band and his love for all sort of music - https://daily.bandcamp.com/big-ups/michael-imperioli-big-ups


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    #5000
    pickarooney
    Moderators, Arts Moderators Posts: 35,197 Mod ✭✭✭✭pickarooney


    awec wrote: »
    West Wing is superb. IMO the best TV series, at least for the first 4 seasons, it is just so easy and addictive to watch.

    I lasted 4 episodes. Wretched stuff. Sorkin can't help having every character illustrate what a clever writer he is


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    #5001
    sydthebeat
    Subscribers Posts: 41,138 ✭✭✭✭sydthebeat


    awec wrote: »
    My favourite scene is the one where
    they're sitting at the table in Satriales talking about how Vito is gay. "Catching, not pitching?!"
    :D

    It was 21 years ago....

    I think you're safe with any spoilers at this stage ;)


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    #5002
    The Inbetween is mine
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,705 ✭✭✭The Inbetween is mine


    I see Conor McGregor is fighting Saturday.... hopefully he gets a bigger battering than Annabel Chong's bits


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    #5003
    Podge_irl
    Moderators, Sports Moderators Posts: 25,672 Mod ✭✭✭✭Podge_irl


    pickarooney wrote: »
    I lasted 4 episodes. Wretched stuff. Sorkin can't help having every character illustrate what a clever writer he is

    Also the president is insufferable and they are all ridiculous sycophants.

    I absolutely ****ing love it though.


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    #5004
    Buer
    Registered Users Posts: 24,191 ✭✭✭✭Buer


    I don't think The West Wing has aged too well but at the time it was a game changer for television. The writing might have been pretentious and preachy but it was the sharpest dialogue on television. Once you can park your cynicism (easier said than done given how history has unfolded), it's an excellent watch for the first 2-3 seasons.


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    #5005
    [Deleted User]
    Posts: 0 ✭ [Deleted User]


    West Wing probably hasn't aged brilliantly and there was certainly a moral and intellectual high horse that the writers placed much of the core cast upon, but it was a sensationally written show that did a good job of breaking down key social issues. At it's best it would challenge the idealism of the core cast in ways that provided a more balanced debate - but at it's worst as Buer pointed out it just came across as pretentious.

    Certainly that first season hosted some of the best writing but some of the worst and most cringy and magniloquent monologues, but it mellowed into a pretty sharp show for seasons 2 - 3, dipped a bit through 4 and 5 but then the final two seasons with the Santos character I thought were pretty solid and he wasn't as insufferable a core character as Bartlett could sometimes be.

    West Wing and Soprano's were two shows growing up that altered my perspective as to the quality of production that was capable on TV. Soprano's has definitely aged the better of the two though.


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    #5006
    awec
    Administrators Posts: 53,468 Admin ✭✭✭✭✭awec


    I thought Sam was the most irritating character as he was the most perfect, idealistic and naive.


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    #5007
    errlloyd
    Registered Users Posts: 12,603 ✭✭✭✭errlloyd


    awec wrote: »
    I thought Sam was the most irritating character as he was the most perfect, idealistic and naive.

    The show was meant to be based around him IIRC. I think the original vibe was meant to be "perfect man, limited power, broken world".

    To be fair, they all end up being pretty close to perfect. The only compromises they ever make are heroic compromises.


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    #5008
    Podge_irl
    Moderators, Sports Moderators Posts: 25,672 Mod ✭✭✭✭Podge_irl


    errlloyd wrote: »
    The show was meant to be based around him IIRC. I think the original vibe was meant to be "perfect man, limited power, broken world".

    To be fair, they all end up being pretty close to perfect. The only compromises they ever make are heroic compromises.

    Yeah, he's the only one not in alphabetical order in the credits (coming first). The president wasn't supposed to be in it anywhere near as much either.


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    #5009
    awec
    Administrators Posts: 53,468 Admin ✭✭✭✭✭awec


    Yes the reason Sam left after a few seasons was because he was supposed to be the main star and it didn't work out like that. Josh and Toby were the most entertaining IMO.

    I tried to watch the Newsroom, which is Sorkin's other big one at the time, but it's even more OTT on the idealistic America-is-great nonsense. Had to give up on it.


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    #5010
    [Deleted User]
    Posts: 0 ✭ [Deleted User]


    awec wrote: »
    Yes the reason Sam left after a few seasons was because he was supposed to be the main star and it didn't work out like that. Josh and Toby were the most entertaining IMO.

    I tried to watch the Newsroom, which is Sorkin's other big one at the time, but it's even more OTT on the idealistic America-is-great nonsense. Had to give up on it.

    The test audience screenings for the first episode had people raving about Martin Sheen's character and not so much about Sam's so they reoriented the show (and got a much higher budget due to the positivity of the test screenings).

    It was a juggernaut by the end of the first season.

    The Newsroom was unwatchable guff. Never made it to the end of the first season - tried again in season two and didn't last beyond the second episode.

    Heard the last season was better but didn't bother with it.


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    #5011
    Former Former Former
    Registered Users Posts: 5,589 ✭✭✭Former Former Former


    The recurring problem with all these American shows is that they're awesome but eventually become a victim of their own success by being flogged to death long after they should have been ended.

    I'd say the Sopranos is the only one I can think of that didn't fall into the trap. The Wire is still probably the best show ever but there were times during Season 5 when you're like "ah heeeyor, really?"

    30 Rock, Parks and Recreation, Breaking Bad, Sons of Anarchy, Game of Thrones, all of them would have been far superior if they'd wrapped up a year earlier. House of Cards, The Office, Arrested Development...

    And then there's the Simpsons, which just keeps going and going twenty years after it was last funny.


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