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2014-15 TV Cancellations: Under the Dome canned, what will CBS do with CG cows next?

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I

ivysaur12

Banned
berzeli said:
I had 40 minutes to spare and Between popped up on Netflix so I thought to myself "exactly how bad can it be?" The answer is pretty fucking bad, it is the worst Netflix "original" (I realise that it technically is a co-production) by quite a bit. Since there isn't an OT (thank Cthulu) I'll drop my thoughts here. The following contains spoilers in case you want to avoid those, but I would suggest avoiding the show rather than the spoilers.

It took the show about 4 seconds to get on my bad side, adding shitty sound effects of someone typing to that text blurb which indicates location, date and death toll just makes me wonder who the wanker is typing the info. Oh, and halfway through when you add the bleeps for when the death toll rising it makes me wish that your sound guy was in the show and older than 22. Anyway the show opens a few days into the outbreak with some guy with a beanie attempting to escape the quarantine, but he fails. That was worth showing.

A short credit sequence later and we're now on the day of the outbreak, in a high school with a pregnant girl eating a burger. The guy (sans beanie, with ugly hair) from the intro joins her and they engage in totally authentic high school banter with the girl trying to channel the film Juno, oh and they mention that bad ugly hair got accepted to MIT early. Cut to some young douche driving a fancy sports car while listening to radical dubstep. Cut to two dudes trying to fix their shitty truck so they can get to school, one of them just wants to get there so he can sell drugs for the party that night. Young douche tries to overtake another vehicle and hits the two dudes' truck, nearly hitting them. I smell a set up for some class warfare, but we have no time to actually stay with a character, fleshing them out or giving a reason to care about them. Cut to the least convincing prison kitchen put on TV and two inmates picking a fight for some reason when one of them walks past the other with onions, (racial tensions between latinos and whites? Hatred of onions? idk show doesn't explain). It gets called off by two really scary and intimidating guards, one tiny girl and one really overweight dude. Cut to an army recruitment centre where a guy walks out just having joined up, he meets his young daughter/sister (one of the two, I can't be arsed to look it up) who reads of cue cards is adorably mature for her age and lightly berates him for joining up. And now we're back in the school with ugly hair dude, his teacher gives him some book related her masters'. The show makes it really clear that the teacher won't die just yet; "How old are you? Since you started your masters', I mean... Some kids say that you're only 22." "Actually I'm still 21". Mmm, that organic dialogue. They also mention that ugly hair got into MIT again, so that we know that he is smart and not just a blob of bad hair.

And that is the first five minutes; I'm not going to bother recapping the following 40 minutes in detail, because that would be putting more effort into this post than anyone put into the show. But soon people start dying by having red nail polish drip out of their mouths, mostly when it is convenient for the drama (talking about leaving town with your mother? Uh uh, she's dead now). The show is a mess, and unfortunately not a very fun one at that. The rest of the episode includes things like:

-Ugly hair hacks into some database (accepted to MIT bitches!), discovers that the youngest victim so far is 22 and leaps to makes the perfectly logical conclusion that everyone over 22 is dying of this outbreak, also finds an escape route (which we know will fail)
-Druggy poor guy skipped town to buy some guns, gets stopped at quarantine when he tries to re-enter. But they let him through and gives him his guns back "Here you'll need these". Nice work protecting people there military guy.
-Not-Juno goes into labour on the same night that she was going to escape the quarantine with ugly hair (because of course she would do that).
-The fat prison guard gets tired of his work, leaves, but not before he lets the latino inmate free to kill that other dude. As you do.
-Just as latino inmate is about to shoot white inmate with a gun he found, girl guard tells him to drop it. He does so, and then she shoots and kills him.
-The two poor dudes, now reunited (thanks military guy), decide that there are no more rules so they steal a truck. Which conveniently belongs to the dad of the young douche from earlier. Douche+dad tracks them down, points guns at them, makes them strip and are about to cover them with driveway sealer, when wholesome army guy shows up and saves the day.

I'm not sure if I can accurately convey how messy the show is, it completely lacks an overarching narrative and is just a bunch of unrelated stuff happening. It doesn't help that none of the characters are particularly interesting, the dialogue is awful, and the acting is baaaaaaad (especially the young girl with the army dude). Some of the actors also look way older than the characters they play.

Join me next time when I'll be hatewatching SENS8, because I'm not going to watch another fucking second of Between.
Click to expand...

I'm a little mad about this because my CW/ABCFamily/MTV writing sample is super similar. But then I realized no one will actually be watching Between, so it's moot!
 
W

WarrenMax007

Member
Cornballer said:
- Deadline: Kurt Sutter Drama ‘Bastard Executioner’ Picked Up To Series By FX For Fall Launch

PgKDe7f.jpg
Click to expand...
Yeah, i'm going to watch it. Good setting and it's FX. Yeah it's Sutter and SOA was pure trash the last 2 seasons, but i'm still watching this.
 
J

JMDSO

Unconfirmed Member
I know it's a cash cow, but I think I kinda wish that CSI was ended when Grissom left. I think, like Gibbs and NCIS, he was the glue that kept the show together. I liked Laurence Fishburne, but he wasn't the same.
 
I

ivysaur12

Banned
berzeli said:
Is your sample coherent? Because if it is, then it is super dissimilar.
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Thankfully, it is! Phew.

also lol

Cornballer said:
- Deadline: Kurt Sutter Drama ‘Bastard Executioner’ Picked Up To Series By FX For Fall Launch

PgKDe7f.jpg
Click to expand...

One of my best friends just got promoted to writers' assistant there, so I hope it runs for a long time for his sake and he gets staffed off of it. He's been on SOA since season 4 as an office PA (and Barch, who just got promoted to staff writer, was an office PA on the pilot for SOA)
 
C

Cornballer

Member
Palmer_v1 said:
It took 1 post.
Click to expand...
It's sitting on 21 posts right now. *crosses fingers*

ivysaur12 said:
One of my best friends just got promoted to writers' assistant there, so I hope it runs for a long time for his sake and he gets staffed off of it. He's been on SOA since season 4 as an office PA (and Barch, who just got promoted to staff writer, was an office PA on the pilot for SOA)
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Nice!



I looked up the current FX slate, so I thought I'd post that quickly here.

FX in 2015:

Airing this calendar year:
American Horror Story
The Americans
Fargo
Tyrant
The Strain
The Bastard Executioner

Archer
The Comedians
Louie
Married
Sex&Drugs&Rock&Roll​

In production:
American Crime Story
Baskets​

It's a little disappointing aside from The Americans, Fargo, and Louie. Losing Justified hurts.

Also of interest, FXX has It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, The League, Man Seeking Woman, and You're the Worst this year along with a few animated shows.
 
S

Saty

Member
Is somebody going to save The Following? That would be classic Poe.

In all seriousness, the second half of the season was trash but to call the finale a cliffhanger would be an understatement. I don't recall such strong of an example of a show ramping up the story on its finale episode. It's like the cancellation came out of the blue.
 
D

dead souls

Member
Sadly, no one is going to save The Following. I'd love to watch another season of it. The finale set up a pretty kickass fourth season.

I'd call it the greatest guilty pleasure of all time, but I'm not ashamed of my love for it at all.
 
F

firehawk12

Subete no aware
Was The Good Wife splitscreen thing really that bad? Since a few podcasts brought it up, I almost want to watch the episode to see how terrible it looked.
 
D

Dan

No longer boycotting the Wolfenstein franchise
Sundance has pulled the plug on The Red Road. I don't think there's any official statement anywhere, but it seems the actors have let it be known.

It was an ok show, but I'm not particularly sad that it won't return. It was kind of a mixed bag with certain plots and characters working well and others not so much. Julianne Nicholson and Jason Momoa had the most compelling presences. Any show would be wise to scoop up Nicholson for something else.
 
T

TheSeks

Blinded by the luminous glory that is David Bowie's physical manifestation.
Dan said:
Sundance has pulled the plug on The Red Road. I don't think there's any official statement anywhere, but it seems the actors have let it be known.

It was an ok show, but I'm not particularly sad that it won't return. It was kind of a mixed bag with certain plots and characters working well and others not so much. Julianne Nicholson and Jason Momoa had the most compelling presences. Any show would be wise to scoop up Nicholson for something else.
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Disagree. Her whole psychotic break storyline was grating. It never went anywhere outside of this season
making her father the one that made her crazy due to the shit her parents put her twin through and apparently they rigged all this shit to make her crazy to... cover up the paint being dumped in the Indian land by the city?
which was just... yeah. Better left unsaid.

Momoa's character was by far the most interesting thing in the series. I really wanted to like the series, but it seemed so slow on getting anywhere that wasn't screwing Momoa's character over. Speaking of which: Plotline for Season 3 will never be resolved:
Momoa's mom, the new Indian Chief was shot and critically injured.
Never gonna get a resolution to that or the meta-plot of the paint, either.

Tugatrix said:
CSI should have ended by season 6 or 7
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It should've ended when Grissom left. He was pretty much the glue of the entire cast.
 
D

Dan

No longer boycotting the Wolfenstein franchise
TheSeks said:
Disagree. Her whole psychotic break storyline was grating. It never went anywhere outside of this season
making her father the one that made her crazy due to the shit her parents put her twin through and apparently they rigged all this shit to make her crazy to... cover up the paint being dumped in the Indian land by the city?
which was just... yeah. Better left unsaid.
Click to expand...
I don't think I interpreted all of that exactly the way you did, although it's still problematic.
I don't think the father's disturbing in-home and very private method of treating his kids' schizophrenia was to cover up the paint situation. I took it as a broader desire to deny the disorder's existence within his family, to deny the 'impurity' through sheer force of will rather than going outside of the family for real treatment. That was the motivator more than anything. If his only concern was the paint thing, that would be easy to work around and still get his kids treatment.

But I chose the word "presences" carefully, because the plotting was often a letdown, but those two could transcend script weaknesses to keep me engaged.
 
T

TheSeks

Blinded by the luminous glory that is David Bowie's physical manifestation.
I guess I can see it that way. Though the whole illness storyline felt insulting, to me. Mostly because as someone that does have a history of mental illness it just... didn't seem authentic in the slightest. What annoys me is that season one set up
her brothers murder and his mental issues
but never expounded on either outside of
Mamoa's character possibly killing him
. Which, if I remember right that one pivots into "no, he's a rogue with a heart of gold."

Though, her best scenes with this issue is when she's in the shed (though it's kinda cut badly, I
thought she was attempting to kill herself before it's revealed it was a hallucination
) and maybe the first break where
she opens the window in her childhood bedroom and attempts to go through it/possibly killing herself from the fall because her brothers voice is calling her out there.
But everything else about it just seemed insulting or poorly done, to me.

What really gets me is that season one had this meta-plot of
who killer her brother
in the background and then season two is like "okay, we got renewed let's drag another mystery out!" but neither was really that interesting. I kinda feel Sundance didn't do themselves any favors with the pilot teaser they advertised on multiple networks that made it seem like Mamoa's character was going to be doing numerous heists more than the stuff he did in the series
and season 1's drug running, I guess
 
S

Saty

Member
lol, I was completely oblivious to the fact that the second season already started and finished. Show wasn't good in the first season and the cancellation news will save me the trouble of catching up to the second.
 
T

The Dutch Slayer

Member
lol The Strain gets a S02? wow I really don't know why I watched that but it was pretty bad.

Also just finished the DIG from USA was pretty good story some cringe moments but mostly pretty great.
I hope their is a season 2 even though the story pretty much ended.
 
D

Dan

No longer boycotting the Wolfenstein franchise
I guess I was forgiving with The Red Road. Bring on that WGN adaptation of Scalped, maybe that will happen and do the material justice. Could use a good show about the difficulties of modern reservation life.
 
K

Kevin

Member
The Strain had so much potential but was just really poorly written. Characters acted really dumb, a lot of the plot was slow and boring, etc. I did enjoy some elements of it and will likely watch season 2 but yeah the show isn't amazing or anything. Watchable though!
 
R

Rhaknar

The Steam equivalent of the drunk friend who keeps offering to pay your tab all night.
Not sure if I asked this already but do we know the name and theme of the next AHS season?
 
I

ivysaur12

Banned
Claustrophobia horror is some of my favorite. I've always thought something about a zombie or infection-type show on a submarine would be great. And Ryan gets all of his seamen joke.
 
E

EzekelRAGE

Member
I didn't really mind Between. Was meh. It caught my eye more than Wayward Pines. Idk, I want to like it, but feel like I have to force myself through the episode instead of wanting to watch it. Probably just gonna drop it.


Anyone remember Mutant X? Are there any shows like that currently showing? I remember watching it years ago and liking it. Although I was 13-14 at the time. I'm digging flash, but really miss the mutant drama thing as a whole, instead of focusing on one hero. Tried powers, but stopped after around 4-5 episodes. May need to pick that up again. Seems like X Men TV would do okish for Fox. Might have to hold breath for Inhumans spinoff of AoS, think S3 pose to be heavily Inhumans focused.


Edit: Wow never realized Marvel had a hand in Mutant X, Avi Arad created it. Fox ended up suing and that ended up killing the show. Funny for how Marvel tried to slip mutants on T.V, but sad that a good show ended that way. Gives me more hope for Inhumans tv show.
 
beat

beat

Member
EzekelRAGE said:
Anyone remember Mutant X? Are there any shows like that currently showing?
Click to expand...
Alphas, which was cancelled a few years ago? iZombie, which is more specifically zombies than all sorts of superpowers? The UK show Misfits?

Other than that, right now there's far more licensed superheroes/superpowered stuff on TV than off-brand stuff.
 
E

EzekelRAGE

Member
RatskyWatsky said:
I don't think there's anything like that currently airing, but maybe try Heroes?
Click to expand...

Watched Heroes original run until the writer's guild stuff I think. It lost me at some point.

beat said:
Alphas, which was cancelled a few years ago? iZombie, which is more specifically zombies than all sorts of superpowers? The UK show Misfits?
Click to expand...

Alphas, I may give a shot. iZombie, I stopped after episode 2 or so, think I've read it has gotten better. Misfits, I loved, watched it through Hulu. Nice to see Rudy get a gig for Preacher and Simon on thrones.
 
N

Norwegian Rudo

Member
ivysaur12 said:
Claustrophobia horror is some of my favorite. I've always thought something about a zombie or infection-type show on a submarine would be great. And Ryan gets all of his seamen joke.
Click to expand...

Reminds me of a classic fantasy football (soccer) team name I saw once: "Do women prefer Flowers to Seaman"

At the time (mid '90s or so) Tim Flowers and David Seaman were competing to be first choice goalkeeper for the England team....
 
E

El Topo

Member
EzekelRAGE said:
iZombie, I stopped after episode 2 or so, think I've read it has gotten better.
Click to expand...

It hasn't really gotten better. I didn't really like the first few episodes, the show has grown a lot on me and I'm enjoying it more, but I don't think it's really gotten better.
 
Wiktor

Wiktor

Member
El Topo said:
It hasn't really gotten better. I didn't really like the first few episodes, the show has grown a lot on me and I'm enjoying it more, but I don't think it's really gotten better.
Click to expand...
The overreaching arc got stronger and the cases started to tie more to characters. I'm not sure if it's objectively improvement, but developments like those usually make people like the show more, at least here.
 
E

El Topo

Member
AdrianWerner said:
The overreaching arc got stronger and the cases started to tie more to characters. I'm not sure if it's objectively improvement, but developments like those usually make people like the show more, at least here.
Click to expand...

Maybe. I'd say I'm enjoying the show quite a bit now, so maybe it's really gotten better. I'd have to check whether the things I really disliked originally have improved since then.
 
P

Pachimari

Member
I'm gonna start Wayward Pines soon, but I'm afraid it'll be cancelled (?) by the middle of the season(?). Also gonna start American Crime. Both seem very interesting to me.
 
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