The TV thread

Five episodes in and The New Pope has finally established the coming conflict, but they did a nice job of setting it up over the first four episodes by establishing the neuroses in Malkovich's John Paul III character. This remains an incredibly weird show that is beautiful visually.

High Maintenance returned to HBO last Friday, and it remains brilliant. Might be one of my five favorite shows ever. It's that good.

 

My wife and I just finished up The Americans on Amazon Prime. The last season and a half were dark and bleak, and the final episode was damn near perfect.

 

I'm halfway through season four. What a show!

 

Ever try “Universe Below” book about ocean? Fascinating.

 

Correction, its "The Universe Below"

I'm going to check out the show so another show in my queue, so damn you too!

 

Anyone else seen "Spiral"? The French cop show? It's probably the closest thing I've seen to Law and Order in terms of taking a "simple" crime and spinning them out to be part of a far-wider plot. It has a bit of "The Shield" in its DNA as well. The lead cop is terrific. It was on Netflix for a time, but now its on Hulu. It's subtitled, not dubbed. But a great watch if you dig gritty cop shows.

 

Less gritty is Angie Tribeca - never watched it when it was on. A decent effort to replicate The Naked Gun and an enjoyable change of pace - the show hit well above its weight class considering I doubt TBS put a hell of a lot into the budget. And I'd even say the show did a good job of using its lack of budget to great comedic effect.

 

I enjoyed the first season, but never kept up with it after that because it coincided with us going basic cable. It felt like a B-, C+ version of Naked Gun to me - Cool to check out when nothing else was on, but never appointment watching for me.

 

it was like popcorn shrimp - they didn't reinvent the wheel, but a nice palate cleanse. Kind of like Psych was. And the random cameos (Kevin Pollack, Carl Reiner, Natalie Portman, Bill Murray, Jon Hamm...) were as notable as they were quick.

 

"Peaky Blinders." I only understand about 2/3 of the dialogue but it's good so far, into season 3.