Binge Worthy? Netflix/Amazon Prime

There is a podcast for each episode, sorry I am not familiar with podcasts (yet) and that is all I know.

 

I'm late to the party, definitely.
I'm watching "The West Wing" now and it is fascinating. Halfway through Season 3.
I had no idea Allison Janney was such a good actor. She has the toughest job among the President's staff, dealing with us asshole newspeople.
Never thought much of Stockard Channing until watching this.
I feel a sort of a kinship with Rob Lowe because we went to the same high school. He probably knew Martin Sheen growing up because he was classmates with Emilio and Charlie.

 

One of the genius moves of the WW's launch was slowly introducing characters. Sheen is only in the last three minutes of the pilot. Charlie isn't in it at all (he was added after critics noted the lily-white cast). Channing came later. It was primarily Lowe, Whitford, Spencer, Schiff and Janney.
The flashback at the start of season 2 giving the backstories of how they came together. (Though I cringed when they played the assassination card so early in the run-they used it to good effect).

 

Sharp Objects on HBO has been fascinating. Two episodes left, I'm anxious to see how it ends. [I read book and forgot story.]

 

Red Oaks on Amazon Prime was fantastic.

 

If you weren’t watching “The Expanse” when it was on Wednesday nights on SyFy, the first two seasons are on Amazon Prime (presumably the third will be at some point), and the fourth and thereafter seasons will be distributed by Amazon Prime first.

Very good adaptation of the books, which shouldn’t be a surprise because the authors are heavily involved in the TV series.

 

WW is probably my favorite show of all time.

As for Sheen -- I believe the original concept was that the show would be almost entirely about the president's staff, and Sheen would only be in it a few times a season. Like every fourth or fifth episode. Obviously, that changed after the pilot.

 

GLOW on Netflix, about the Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling and starring Marc Marron, is awesome. And I expected to hate it because I'm not much of a fan of wrestling.

 

I tried GLOW. I remember watching the original product in the 80s, late night on the new-fangled Fox network. I couldn't get into the series. Quit after about four episodes.

Mid-way through Season 3 of Fargo. This one is a more weird and than anything else. Not a fan of this season.

 

If I remember correctly, Lowe was close with the Sheen family when he went to school with Charlie.

Janney is amazing, though that show seemed to raise everybody's level. I watched it when it first ran. I watched the series again this summer. I believe that was my fourth time going through the entire thing. There are some serious rough spots in seasons five and six, but it picks back up near the end and the final episode is outstanding.

Deskgrunt is correct. Martin Sheen wasn't even supposed to appear in every episode the first season. If I remember correctly, it was around the time he played a scenery-chewing villain in Spawn among a bunch of forgettable roles, so his career hadn't really been at a high point before The West Wing.

I get Dan's point about the assassination attempt so early in the series, but it really made for three excellent episodes. They made it work. It's not quite "Two Cathedrals," but it is one of the high points of the series.

By the way, for those watching the first time, once you see "Two Cathedrals," it is worth looking up versions on YouTube with the translation. The scene certainly works without it, but it is nice to know what the heck he was saying, too.

 

For those of you who love Allison Janney, she's also terrific in Mom, which airs on CBS.

 

And how great was that bomb they dropped with Miss Landingham at the Christmas party in season one. You have this third-tier character talking to a second-tier character and she says: