ASH VS. THE EVIL DEAD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

just started it

awesome + hilarious

I loved it at first and lost interest halfway thru the season. Let me know what you think.

oh noes! aghhh. please say no more.

alright. Well, you know I'm a huge (HUGE) Evil Dead fan right? I think the problem is this... there's too many people in this show. Too many characters with backstories and motivations. I don't know. It doesn't really "fit" to me.

As the season goes on it doesn't feel like Ash Vs Evil Dead, it feels like Ash & His Friends Vs Evil Dead & Some Other People.

Can't wait to watch this.

i'll rejoin this convo when i'm done watching. have mercy!

We've been just steamrolling through American Horror Story. I guess I'm finally desensitized to the gross sexual bullshit. Anyway...

Just finished:


Had its moments but mostly it was a letdown. Also, the ABSOLUTE BUTCHERING of David Bowie and Nirvana songs didn't help a goddamn thing. I liked Angela Basset and Kathy Bates a lot though. Highlights of the season for sure.

Now we've started:


Bloody and too much goth rock in episode one. But some scary stuff too. Not sure how I feel about Lady Gaga replacing Jessica Lange (yeesh!), but there's some coolness to it.

So far, this is how I rank the seasons:

1. AHS: Coven (Season 3) — Without a single fucking moment of doubt, this is the best, best, best. High watermark of acting, storytelling, and compelling drama for the whole show. More of this, less of everything else!
2. AHS: Asylum (Season 2) — Nowhere near as good as Coven, but still pretty good. Way better than the rest.
3. AHS: Murder House (Season 1) — Everyone was loathsome and everything was disgusting but at least it didn't butcher Bowie or Nirvana.
4. AHS: Freak Show (Season 5) — Storywise, probably a bit better than season 1... but again, the musical savagery was too horrific by far

We'll see about Gaga Hotel.

Started Black Mirror last week. About 5-6 episodes into it and really enjoying it a lot.

okay so having finished season 1 i dared look at your whole post, and i see what you're saying and how it could bother a hardcore fan.

but i'm new to the whole thing, and for me the show works the way it is, with the friends included, except i hate that *****SPOILERS SPOILERS**** one of the friends didn't/couldn't stick around.*****END SPOILERS**** gaaaah!

i really really liked the soundtrack, which was often hilarious. the way some of those old songs sound on a dvd is pretty great actually-- you can here the effects growling and audio details you usually don't get in the flat shitty "classic rock" radio format that abounds in my parts. (and unlike radio in ye olde pickup, i watch tv on big stereo speakers which sound great). good picks, those tracks.

what else. just... it's great! it's absurd and ridiculous and hilarious and that works for me.

AHS: Hotel turned out to be pretty ok. Turns out I kinda love Angela Basset. Who knew? Anyway, Lady Gaga was decent, but certainly not deserving of an acting award for her portrayal of a monk-syllabic vampire diva with very little explained motivation or character depth.

I started the sixth season, AHS: My Roanoke Nightmare, but I'm gonna definitely wait for that shit to come to Netflix. They switched up the narrative style so that it resembles an episode of Unsolved Mysteries, only with actors playing the "real" people telling their story to the camera while other actors act out those characters in the "dramatic re-enactment." Bleh.

DO A CTHULHU SEASON!!!

That series seems too locked into the whole goth-chic market to really go there. Maybe it could introduce an element of it but I can't see it ever jumping into it feet (or tentacles) first.

Probably not, you're right.

But there's no horror more American than Lovecraft's. If they really wanted to do a seminar-like survey of American horror tropes, they would certainly include the Master.

Like, what if there's a season that takes place in a quiet New England fishing village where a few rotarians and local bigwigs (bed and breakfast owners, funeral home directors, etc) secretly convene and conspire to bring the Old Ones back with the help of the Necronomicon, or some variation thereof.

It could be linked to the AHS: Coven season, which took place in New Orleans. Maybe some Detective learns about Inspector Legrasse's discovery of the cult activity in "The Call of Cthulhu," and follows a breadcrumb trail out east where he stumbles upon this order of socialites who are maybe killing folks in sacrifice to the Old Ones, and covering up their deaths.

Cthulhu himself would be a much bigger adversary than the show seems willing to explore, literally and figuratively, since they seem to prefer more (and human-sized) bad guys. But I think a compelling season could be made about a little Innsmouth-like town, and some fucked up cult's efforts to resurrect the ultimate evil. Gaga could be their leader! Or Jessica Lange, should she ever choose to return. It could be fueled by serial-killer elements and maybe some crossbreeding side-stories (Kathy Bates as the mother of a Deep One maybe?), and the whole "Cthulhu" thing could be sort of under the surface.

Actually now that I write that out, it seems plausible and potentially super entertaining! Eh? Ehhhh?

I saw Lovecraft's grave once. It said "I am Providence."

That could really work. The Cthulhu thing could just be treated through suggestion; maybe like it is in The Mist, so we don't have to see him completely. That way the general feel and look of the series is kept intact, and would actually fit really well with the idea of a cult.

I've started watching The Fall on Netflix, think I'm going to binge-watch that and Luther. Not at the same time, just one after the other. Both shows I've been meaning to watch for some time, but just haven't.

luther is fucking great. don't know about the fall. but luther is motherfucking great.

i'm in the middle of PREACHER season 1. which starts like you think it's just the comic with some spaces filled, but ends up being a completely different animal so far.

i don't love it, but i like it-- and 2 characters are superfucking great in it: tulip and cassidy. the actors do an amazing job and they're way better than the comic versions.

I watched this in its entirety when I was with my family on Christmas. Pretty good. I still don't know if I'm sold on Tom Hiddleston as James Bond (frankly I think Idris Elba would be better), but this was a good adaptation of a good post-Cold War Le Carré novel.

It's smart and well-paced. Not at all action heavy but it's Le Carré, so you already know that. Overall, well done. Plus it had that awkward 59-something British chick from Broadchurch -- essentially reprising her role on Broadchurch only with spy stuff instead of small town murder stuff -- and I like her.

One thing that was exceptional about it was the cinematography and camerawork. It's absolutely cinema-level. Moreso than Breaking Bad or Game of Thrones or Sopranos or anything else I've really seen. Flows together like a film, could have been directed by Ridley Scott. Very crisp, very clean, no shortcuts.

4/5 if I had to give it a rating. Not really my conceptual cup of tea, but it certainly pulls you right in.

Really want to watch Luther. Say more stuff about it. Gotta convince the girlfriend to go in with me.

Re: PREACHER -- I've been wondering how in the hell this could possibly be adapted for the TV or film in a non-catastrophic way. The story is so massive. But from what I hear the first season didn't really feel like an adaptation of the comic. Second season promises to be more like it. Not sure if I want to bother until it comes to Netflix.

Luther is another of those "tragic, angry detectives" . I'm fucking tired of them for sure, if life's so shitty, eat your gun...