The TV thread

That's what I'm most thrilled about with Doctor Who. Steven Moffatt's run, in general, was not very good.
The Davies/Tennant era was great. So many memorable shows, a great Doctor, and you could almost pick it up at any point and jump into it. There were some easter eggs that paid off if you watched closely, but you could enjoy each story as its own thing and not be lost.
Moffatt got way too bogged down in the mythology of the series. I'll give a pass to some of it since it was in service of the 50th anniversary celebration, but beyond that the storylines were insanely convoluted and major characters (like the Pasternak Gang and Nardole) appeared seemingly out of nowhere if you were a casual fan who only watches the TV episodes. All of Season 6 was a mess. It felt big and important and threatening, but the second half of the season felt like I'd missed two or three crucial episodes that the writers assumed everyone had seen and memorized. I liked Matt Smith's Doctor, but the writing felt repetitive and confusing. I think they literally reset the universe three or four times during his run.
I liked Capaldi, too. Like all the Doctors, he grew into it by the end of his run. The Heaven Sent/Hell Bent two-parter was very good. The structure of the seasons just felt off, though. I think it was Season 9 or 10 that had almost nothing but two-part episodes, which are always kind of a slog unless they're the season finales. Putting five or six of them in a row was tedious.

In short, I'm hoping the reset gives us more of the fun, cohesion and simplicity of the Davies/Tennant era, and less of the muddled messes of the Moffatt era.

 

Regarding Major Dad, For a guy in the biz as long as he was, he sure seemed surprised to realize a) the network and production studio didn't have an incentive for the show to go another year (Universal had longstanding ties to NBC and is now part of Comcast) b) the star is more valued than the producer c) network and production bosses have no loyalty to shows launched by their predecessors. Good numbers at CBS don't mean a whole bunch, mediocre shows last for years there. Which is why shows that don't hold their numbers, like Major Dad, get dumped unless they have a financial incentive to keep them on.
TV by the Numbers is a great source on a lot of this stuff. Streaming deals with Netflix or Hulu, syndication deals, whether a network owns a piece of a show or the studio that produces it - it all matters.

 

What's the deal with all the stubble on TV actors faces? (mostly male). I get beards, I get clean shaven and I get the "haven't had a chance to shave because of (whatever)" - I don't know what it is supposed to say as a constant look, particularly among people who are supposed to be professionals.

 

I think it will come down to the companions being any good. No one's really resonated after the Ponds, and while Jenna Colman was good the character always felt wooden and Bill was just bad. Capaldi was really hamstrung by the shortcomings in writing for his "friends"

 

More Vestra, Jenny and STRAX! I thought we’d get more when the Capaldi run started with them, then... nothing.

 

I really liked "Missy," She does a tremendous turn as the Master. But her story arc in season 10 was awful.

 

Given the strong reviews it received last year, and the stellar cast (Sanaa Lathan, Helen Hunt, Will Patton, Aisha Hinds, Richard Dreyfuss) really surprised "Shots Fired" didn't register more when it aired.
Sometimes it could use a little more subtlety, but there are also scenes and interactions I've never seen before on TV.

Eyewitness from USA was another one-and-done 10-parter. Pretty good thriller. Two teens witness murder while they are in a cabin, but don't want to come forward out of fear and the fact they don't want anyone to know they're gay. Some decent twists. Great location (Upper Ontario) and nice to see a small-town adaptation of Nordic Noir without the typical depressed police detective (Julianne Nicholson), though she does have an issue or two.

 

Finished watching season 4 of “Mozart in the Jungle” (Amazon Prime). Perhaps the best season of the series, so far.

It’s an interesting take on the interplay of muse, discipline and relationships involved in creating beautiful and interesting things. In this show the process is about music, but I don’t think that it’s much of a stretch to relate other creative arts, such as writing, photography or design, to the shows central themes.

 

Marseille just dropped the second season. Once you realize it is closer to a mid-80s nightime soap like Dallas or Dynasty than it is to House of Cards, you can kind of enjoy it - or at least ogle the scenery. Added bonus, they have an English audio track so you don't have to rely on the subtitles.

 

One of the most fascinating things I have ever seen on a socially conscious, educational level.

 

The End of F***ing Everything. It’s s channel 4 British TV show on Netflix. 8 episodes about 30 minutes each. Only 1 season. You can watch in 2-3 nights easily. Dark comedy. Original. Smart.

 

Here's a M*A*S*H oral history you might be interested in:
'M*A*S*H' Finale, 35 Years Later: Untold Stories of One of TV's Most Important Shows