TV Thread

boozeman

28 Years And Counting...
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Fuckin' A. Last half of the final season of Mad Men is on Netflix. I know what I will be doing tonight and/or tomorrow.
 
D

Deuce

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Mad Men, so good....:drool
Probably the only finale that I wasn't sure about at first, but grew to appreciate it more as time went on after. Now I consider it truly great. Enjoy it.

The tranformation of Crane from the start of the series to the end is an underrated storyline.
 

Carl

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I must say that I feel sorry for ISIS the dog in Downton Abbey who has been marginalized for a season and a half, merely because of current events and his name.
 

Jiggyfly

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Better Call Saul starts Monday.

I think I will watch this weekly this time, I don't think I can wait to binge.

 

Jiggyfly

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Magic Mike: how Jonathan Banks became TV’s best-loved hitman
At 69, the Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul star is enjoying the best years of his career. He reflects on life as one of the great on-screen heavies

Jonathan Bernstein
Thursday 11 February 2016 04.00 EST

The cold, dead eyes that once stared at Walter White with contempt are moist and red. “I’m not feeling well today,” groans Jonathan Banks, as he fumbles with a tin of cough lozenges. “And my back is killing me.” This is a somewhat disconcerting introduction to one of the great on-screen heavies. Banks, now 69, has been an intimidating presence in movies and TV for over four decades, only ascending from the ranks of naggingly familiar character actors in the last few years with his portrayal of bone-weary crime-scene fixer Mike Ehrmantraut in Breaking Bad and its prequel, Better Call Saul.


Banks received best supporting actor Emmy nominations for playing Ehrmantraut in both. Back in 1989, he was nominated for another deadpan supporting role, that of cynical detective Frank McPike in Wiseguy, a show about undercover cops. That series, I tell Banks, with its dense serialised story arcs, its antihero lead and its blurring of good and evil, was fairly prescient about the direction US TV has taken. Banks’s gloom lifts, both at the mention of Wiseguy (“It spoke to the darkness in all of us”) and the state of the small screen. “If you had ever told me that the finest film work was going to be done on television, I wouldn’t have believed it. You could take a film like Spotlight or The Big Short and either of them could easily have been done on TV; that’s the quality of writing. It’s not that I don’t enjoy a good mystery that comes and goes in a hour. I do but, God, Breaking Bad and Saul unfold like novels.”


Banks spent much of the 1980s playing bad guys on high-rated series such as TJ Hooker and Simon & Simon. This was an era when the term “the best TV show ever made” was rarely bandied about. We now live in a different time. The Sopranos was hailed as the best TV show ever made somewhere in the middle of its first season. So was Mad Men. The Wire was anointed in its third year. So how does Banks feel about Breaking Bad’s place in the pantheon of best TV shows ever made?

“I don’t think it’s up to me to say, because I’m a part of it, but if it is the best show, it’s because it was consistently good,” he says. “There’s some shows you’ve mentioned where I see a weakness here, a weakness there. I love Boardwalk Empire but there were moments where I thought it didn’t have the constant through-line that Breaking Bad did and Better Call Saul does.”

Banks made his Breaking Bad debut at the end of the second season in 2009. In 2012 – late watchers’ spoiler alert! – he took a bullet to the stomach at the hands of Walter White. Other cast members have described how series creator Vince Gilligan broke the news of their characters’ imminent deaths to them by gently inviting them into his office for a chat. Banks grins at the memory of Mike’s notice of termination.


Jonathan Banks and Bob Odenkirk in Better Call Saul Season 2. Photograph: Ben Leuner
“I always knew Mike was going to get knocked off,” he says. “We were at Aaron Paul’s pre-wedding fiancee party, whatever the word is…” He looks confused for a second and then brightens. “Engagement! That’s the word I was looking for. The hors d’oeuvres were coming around. Vince was standing there with me and Aaron’s father-in-law-to-be, and Vince was going on about how good the hors d’oeuvres were and I went: ‘Hey motherfucker, what about my future? How am I going to die?’ That’s when he told me.”


Mike Ehrmantraut may have expired in 2012, but the character is still alive and eternally pissed off in Better Call Saul. The notion of a Breaking Bad prequel focusing on Bob Odenkirk’s shyster lawyer, Saul Goodman, nonplussed many fans. Until they saw that Vince Gilligan and co-creator Peter Gould were making their own Death Of A Salesman, a weekly catalogue of the small indignities and humiliations assailing hard-working Jimmy McGill before he reinvented himself as Saul Goodman. Mike Ehrmantraut makes fleeting appearances in the first few weeks, but the mid-point of the series is all his. In the episode titled 5-0, the character’s back pages are finally revealed. He was a corrupt Philadelphia cop with a son who joined the same police department. Fearing that his boy’s strong moral code would make him a target for the station’s dirty cops, Mike persuaded his son to take a few bribes. The dirty cops killed him anyway. After gunning down the policemen responsible, Mike confesses to his daughter-in-law Stacey (played by Irish actor Kerry Condon): “I made him lesser. I made him like me. I broke my boy.”

Banks exhales when reminded of the scene:“[Writer] Gordon Smith wrote me a love letter and when somebody takes that kind of work and he gives you it, I was going to make goddamn sure I would work to the very best of my ability and I would be lying to you if I didn’t tell you I loved the pay-off. The dad kills the motherfuckers that killed his son.” He leans forward and pins me with those unforgiving eyes: “Listen, if I’d be king, would I outlaw the death penalty? Probably. If I’d be me, I’d kill the motherfuckers. Let me ask you: how many fathers in the world, if somebody murdered their son, wouldn’t enjoy killing them?”


5-0 won Banks his third Emmy nomination. Discussing that climactic scene with Condon still makes him emotional. “I’ve had friends that have lost children and I look at them and I don’t know how they survived,” he says. “In both cases, I’m thinking the only reason they didn’t blow their brains out was that they had other children to raise. But I don’t think that has anything to do with Mike. Mike will never, ever, ever forgive himself.” Experiencing Mike’s guilt over his son gives audiences a better understanding of his affection for Jesse Pinkman, Walter White’s hapless sidekick in the crystal meth business in Breaking Bad. “I don’t know if Mike thought he could ever save Jesse, he could only tell him to go away from the business. I don’t think he ever wanted to take Jesse on as a son, but I think he instinctually loved him. Mike has a lot of love in him. He can’t put it in words. He knows he’s broken and it’s very easy for him to see how broken other people are.”


The day before I met Banks, Abe Vigoda, the character actor best known for playing Sal Tessio in The Godfather, died. Aged 94, he was working up until the end. Thinking back now, it may have been a little morbid to ask a sick, sweating, coughing actor with a bad back whether he sees himself going out like Vigoda, or emulating Sean Connery, Joe Pesci and Gene Hackman by walking away without a word. “I think I’d rather go the way they did,” he answers, gamely. “The first actor I was aware of was William Powell, who did The Thin Man, and when he was 60, younger than I am, he walked away. There just comes a point. I’m close to that point. I love being at home. My wife and I for the first time are alone. My boys have both left. I like my wife. I’m stupid in love with my wife and always have been. I’m going to be maudlin, but I have a great life.” With that, Banks closes those terrifying eyes and lets the cough medication whisk him away to a happier place.

Better Call Saul returns to Netflix on Monday 15 February
 

Jiggyfly

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16 Great Unsung TV Shows of the Past Few Years That Everybody Should Watch

We’re living in a goddamn Golden Age of television. But there’s also way too much TV to keep track of, and a few shows get the lion’s share of attention. So here’s our list of 16 recent TV shows that haven’t gotten their props. Time to start binge-watching!

First, let’s define our terms. These are “unsung” TV shows, in that they haven’t gotten loads of attention in mainstream media outlets. (So no Game of Thrones, or even Supergirl, for that matter.) And by the “past few years,” I mean shows that were airing in 2013 or later, or are still on the air now. OK? Here we go.

1) Continuum

A cop travels back in time from 2077 to 2012 and has to fight a bunch of terrorists from the future. This show dealt with all sorts of fascinating issues around the corporatization of police, and corporate control over society generally—and at its best, it was a show where nobody was “right” or “wrong.” (At its worst, this show got lost in its own overcomplicated mythos. But it’s still worth checking out.)

2) iZombie

A young woman becomes a zombie—and every time she eats someone’s brain she gains their personality attributes, memories and abilities. And she uses this ability to solve crimes. It’s a zombie police procedural! This show, based on a Vertigo comic, comes from the creator of Veronica Mars, and it’s just as good as it sounds.

3) Constantine

John Constantine is the world’s most profane sorcerer, who performs dark magic in a trench coat and holding a cigarette butt. This show absolutely nailed one of comics’ most fascinating characters. (He hails from the Hellblazer comic.) And even if the single season had a hard time finding its feet, Matt Ryan is note perfect, and it’s great for that reason alone.

4) Person of Interest


This show started out as a police procedural about two guys who know about crimes before they actually happen, thanks to a supercomputer. The first season is a little slow (but still awesome), and then the supercomputer starts to take center stage more. By now, it’s evolved into the smartest examination of artificial intelligence we’ve ever seen on television, and a superb show generally. Now on Netflix!

5) The Librarians

Noah Wyle used to star in these TV movies about the Librarian, a guy who works in a mysterious facility hunting down magical items. Now this has been rebooted into an ongoing series about a team of Librarians, and it’s basically the perfect replacement for Warehouse 13. The writers include John “Leverage” Rogers, so the scripts are often funny, whip-sharp, and deep without going dark.

6) Agent Carter

Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD got all the attention when it launched because it came right on the heels of The Avengers. But this other ABC superhero show is just as brilliant, and hasn’t gotten as many props. It’s the late 1940s, and Peggy Carter is back from the war—but there’s still plenty of evil to fight. If only she can get these boneheaded men to start taking her seriously. This show just keeps getting better and better.

7) Utopia

This British TV show is so under-the-radar, it doesn’t even seem to have aired stateside. But it’s dark and sardonic and ultra-weird. In a near future setting, a group of characters meet on a message board to discuss a fictional comic about a scientist who makes a deal with the devil... and over the course of this series, we delve into a deep, incredibly weird, conspiracy. We described it as Ben Templesmith meets Dennis Potter meets William Gibson.

8) Lucifer

It’s only just started, but this show about the Prince of Darkness hanging out in L.A. is already one of our favorites. We were incredibly skeptical about taking Mike Carey’s trippy, epic comic and turning it into a crime-of-the-week show, but thus far this show deserves way more props.

9) 12 Monkeys

Speaking of things we were incredibly skeptical about... Syfy took the classic Terry Gilliam show about a guy who travels back from a post-apocalyptic future to investigate the origins of a deadly plague, and turned it into an ongoing weekly TV show. This should not have worked. At all. But thus far, this show is intensely watchable and dark, including genuine surprises here and there. Fingers crossed for season two!

10) The 100

The CW launched a handful of teen science fiction shows around the same time, and they all looked vaguely Hunger Games-influenced. But this show, after a rocky start, became one of the best things on broadcast television. The survivors of a post-apocalyptic Earth, living on a cramped space station, send 100 teenagers back to the planet’s surface to see if it’s habitable again. Over time, this show has evolved into something genuinely fascinating.

11) Wayward Pines

A federal agent wakes up in a weird town, where there are tons of secrets and nobody seems to know what’s going on. This show, based on the books by Blake Crouch, seemed like a weak Twin Peaks clone at first blush. But the mystery actually has a killer answer, and standout performances by Matt Dillon and Carla Gugino ended up blowing us away.

12) Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell

The classic award-winning novel by Susanna Clarke, about two men who dabble in magic in an alternate 19th century, should have been impossible to adapt for the screen. But the BBC absolutely pulled it off, with incredible panache, and everybody should watch this miniseries. It is a total triumph.

13) Dracula

Before Lucifer was hanging out in L.A. solving crimes, Vlad Dracula was wandering around London trying to invent wireless electricity and watching women mud-wrestle. This show only ran for one season, but it is a pure delight of endless WTFery. Every episode packs at least a few “did I just see that” moments.

14) The Originals

The Vampire Diaries created one truly great villain: Klaus, the thousand-year-old Original vampire who’s kind of a megalomaniac. Spinning him and his siblings off into their own show seemed like a terrible idea, and the first season was kind of uneven. But at this point, Klaus’ theatrical insanity has become mesmerising, and watching this super-powerful vamp try to control the uncontrollable New Orleans is actually quite addictive.

15) Gravity Falls

We still can’t believe this show is ending next week. A pair of twins are forced to go live in the mysterious town of Gravity Falls with their Grunkle Stan, and have to help run the Mystery Shack, a horrendous tourist location. Even as shows like Steven Universe have blown up and become huge, this show has deserved way more attention than it’s gotten.

16) Humans

The Swedish show Äkta Människor has been one of the best kept secrets in cyberpunk for a few years now. But now this series about beautiful androids who live among regular people has been remade as a US-UK coproduction, and they managed to capture a lot of what made the original so thought-provoking and thrilling.
 

Cotton

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I tried Wayward Pines, but I just couldn't stick with it.
 

dallen

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I haven't caught up on the 3rd season of The 100 yet, but the first 2 seasons were great. It takes it maybe 2-3 episodes to catch its stride, but once it got started it has been one of the best shows on TV
 

Rev

Good, bad, I'm the guy with the gun
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Wayward Pines. Couldn't stand it and now I know why. :tippytoe
 

Cotton

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Watched it until the end, felt insulted.
Yeah, Lost fucked me over so bad that I'm jaded now. I'm taking a chance on Fringe just because it has come so highly recommended.
 

Rev

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Yeah, Lost fucked me over so bad that I'm jaded now. I'm taking a chance on Fringe just because it has come so highly recommended.
I enjoyed Fringe and think you will, too.
 

Rev

Good, bad, I'm the guy with the gun
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Damnit.
 

Jiggyfly

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Watched it until the end, felt insulted.
Insulted by what?

It was not great and it did have some huge plot holes but I kinda liked when the professor went off the deep end.

In retrospect it was kind of a batshit crazy show because they changed the tone like 3 times.:lol

Sometimes I like over the top stuff.
 

boozeman

28 Years And Counting...
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For those of you who have watched Dexter, I came across this.

http://www.slashfilm.com/dexter-showrunner-explains-that-ending-former-showrunner-reveals-alternate-idea/?utm_source=zergnet.com&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=zergnet_470948

That said, he told E! that he thinks “they did a good job with the final episode.” But that’s not stopping him from revealing how he would’ve closed the show, had he stayed on.
In the very last scene of the series, Dexter wakes up. And everybody is going to think, ‘Oh, it was a dream.’ And then the camera pulls back and back and back and then we realize, ‘No, it’s not a dream.’ Dexter’s opening his eyes and he’s on the execution table at the Florida Penitentiary. They’re just starting to administer the drugs and he looks out through the window to the observation gallery.

And in the gallery are all the people that Dexter killed—including the Trinity Killer and the Ice Truck Killer (his brother Rudy), LaGuerta who he was responsible killing, Doakes who he’s arguably responsible for, Rita, who he’s arguably responsible for, Lila. All the big deaths, and also whoever the weekly episodic kills were. They are all there.

That’s what I envisioned for the ending of Dexter. That everything we’ve seen over the past eight seasons has happened in the several seconds from the time they start Dexter’s execution to the time they finish the execution and he dies. Literally, his life flashed before his eyes as he was about to die. I think it would have been a great, epic, very satisfying conclusion.


 
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