Half LifeEdit: also, PortalEdit 2: left 4 dead 2Edit 3: maybe katamari if the new one that comes out in a couple weeks is any goodBasically all games go downhill on subsequent games. It’s an extremely rare thing for that to not happen. I’m sure there are more out there, but these are the only games that I could immediately think of that stayed just as good or got better with sequels/subsequent games. Everything else that I liked got worse. It’s very disappointing.Edit 4: Holy shit this is about tv not games I’m so dumb. It is time to go to bed.
Gotta go with Foundation.
For anime, Frieren has been fantastic so far. Could get to fullmetal alchemist level for me but we’ll see.
Severance! Season 3 has big shoes to fill
Innie Mark’s actions right at the end in the season finale killed my interest in season 3.
I mean if he left that building, it would’ve been over.
I disagree and here’s why:
Spoilers
-
you mean “over for Innie Mark”, I think, and my answer is: not necessarily. Integration is still possible, as well as Mark had Mrs Cobel available to him who designed the technology to begin with.
-
they have the power to wipe Innie minds clean. They did this with Gemma dozens of times. Innie Mark has no chance of finding a safe place inside the Lumen building. By staying inside he guaranteed Innie Mark will be a Lumen slave until they dispose of him just like they were planning to do with Gemma.
you mean “over for Innie Mark”, I think, and my answer is: not necessarily. Integration is still possible, as well as Mark had Mrs Cobel available to him who designed the technology to begin with.
Did you not see the conversation between iMark and oMark? iMark doesn’t trust oMark at all. They even discuss reintegration, and iMark brings up concerns just how much of him would be left, which oMark doesn’t assuage.
Having Cobel there doesn’t help if oMark just decides to live his perfect life with his wife. iMark would still be dead.
they have the power to wipe Innie minds clean. They did this with Gemma dozens of times.
No, they did not wipe iGemma, not even once. Her chip contains multiple innies, but we’ve never seen an innie be erased/wiped/whatever.
Innie Mark has no chance of finding a safe place inside the Lumen building.
It’s literally the only safe place for him, because he can’t exist anywhere else without help from someone on the floor. But it’s not like iMark considered his safety when he decided to run away with the love of his life.
By staying inside he guaranteed Innie Mark will be a Lumen slave until they dispose of him just like they were planning to do with Gemma.
By staying inside, iMark guaranteed that he at least has a couple more minutes with the love of his life. That’s not to mention that the innies are currently rebelling and will most likely take Milchik hostage, allowing them to commandeer the floor and, most importantly, the security room.
-
I felt the same way. Mark is already pretty boring as a character, and I dislike love triangles (even if this is technically not one), so meh.
But I do like the setting, so I’m willing to put up with it some more.
Nah, the show starts with great ideas but ends up being just bad. It’s poorly written, basically replacing one open plot by another until nothing make sens.
deleted by creator
Common Side Effects is so good!
Technically still on going: Ted Lasso. However I am unsure if I’ll watch season 4. I am terrified they ruin it.
I dunno. I felt like series 1 was pretty much flawless, 2 was good with some missteps, and 3 had some good moments.
For example:
Tap for spoiler
I can’t imagine series 1, after having had Nate be the villain for so long and having the team all hate him would have the team working through their feelings, deciding to forgive him, and deciding that they wanted him back as coach all happening off-camera. But in series 3 it’s “he’s the emblem of everything we loathe” to “hi, Nate, you’re our best friend now” with literally nothing in between.
I’ll watch series 4, but I don’t have high hopes.
Wait, they renewed for a new season ? That seems like a bad decision.
Ted Lasso is one of the only TV shows I feel they ended too soon.
For All Mankind
Thank God someone said it. I feel like I’m living in an alternative universe that this amazing series never even gets mentioned.
It feels like loving The Americans did back in the day -one of the best things on TV, and nobody seems to have even heard of it.
Taskmaster
The Boys
Taskmaster has been consistently great for 20 series. Surely it’s a classic already.
no argumet there.
The Boys could have been the answer after season 2, but since then we got 3 seasons of status quo
And season 4 was ASS
It’s a filler for the finale
Doesn’t make it any less ass
Unpopular opinion here I imagine but I’ll stand by South Park.
Have they said a lot with which I vehemently disagree? Absolutely! But I think there’s little to no value in only watching or reading things with which you agree.
And their perspective, while different than mine, seems to have helped them nail things in a much better and often more interesting/sophisticated way than anyone else. Or before others really get it.
And goddamn, they’ve had me howling with laughter more than a few times each season. Thinking on their highlights over a damn near 30 year run and despite marginal dips in quality, I’m in.
Edit: An example of one trend/issue etc they nailed way before anyone else (as far as I know) was PC Principal. Using frat bros to represent social justice culture was absolutely brilliant and I didn’t even realize how accurate it seemed to others until I talked with a Conservative friend about it (to anyone outside of the progressive bubble, the early 2010s felt like a bunch of elites/rich kids using the plight of others to finally be the bullies, albeit online.) And I think that pretty accurately predicted the blue collar/non college grad backlash to all of it, which is the tide that trump rolled in on.
Agreed. Not many shows kept running and be funny and relevant at the same time. Like a good stand-up comedian, South Park keeps delivering and probably going will become timeless when it ends.
Oh absolutely. I mean, some of their episodes from 20 years ago already feel like timeless classics. Just looked over the season 9 lineup, which somehow was 20 years ago. You’ve got Randy fighting Bat Dad in the Losing Edge, the Death of Eric Cartman, and Die Hippie Die. And, while the episode may not have been as great, the end of Willzyx absolutely slays me.
The issue with South Park is that it targets a narrow audience and I am not part of it. The best episodes are going to be studied as master pieces of political humor, but when I try to watch it in season order, those episodes are sandwiched between episodes that are offensive and obscene just for shock value. I am not opposed to those episodes existing but watching them feels like a waste of time.
I totally get being too offended to enjoy it but I don’t think it’s particularly accurate to claim it only has a narrow audience, it is literally one of the most valuable franchises on television in part because it targets a large swathe in the middle. (Despite what the internet would have us believe, I think there is a large group of folks in the middle who can laugh at the craziness on both the Left and Right.)
I’m reminded of my mom’s stance on rap and hip hop, which is essentially, it might be really good and a valid form of art but there’s just too much vulgarity and misogyny for her to ever enjoy it, which is fair.
But, comedy is subjective. When I look back at the last few years, the specials over the last half decade, I come to quite the opposite conclusion, there are great episodes with an occasional dud but a hit ratio higher than most shows currently on air and a “oooh, that’s an interesting take” miles beyond anything else.
This year has been very good because there’s just so much material to work with. But for years and years they’ve only had 1-2 good episodes per season. They’re not particularly good writers because unless society gives them something easy to mock, they struggle hard. They’re basically bullies that if you don’t give them easy material to work with, they’ve got nothing.
Those low quality episodes are worse than a waste of time. They directly detract from the satire that South Park otherwise survives on.
“Satire requires a clarity of purpose and target lest it be mistaken for and contribute to that which it intends to criticize.”
Their insistence on making fun of everything makes them no more politically significant than all of the punk bands of the 80’s and 90’s… A footnote in history that otherwise did nothing but make the uninformed fools clutch their pearls and a bunch of teens cheer for that which they could never understand.
Rick and Morty has had great quality for the last 3 seasons as far as this kind of show goes
I’m tempted to say Slow Horses, but there’s just something about it that I think keeps it “merely” excellent instead of an all time great.
I kind of want to check out some of the books because I suspect it’s the underlying source material that keeps it from being transcendent, and the cast and screenwriters are actually elevating the material, at least a little, and they’re making it the rare “adaptation is better than than the book” situation. The fact that the series has evolved to be basically a novel or novella every year makes me thinks later entries may be pretty formulaic.
Link Click.
I think anime tends to get overlooked unless it’s really good, and if it’s not from Japan, it doesn’t get looked at at all (as anime, not TV in general). Link Click is a Chinese anime, and it’s as good as any “science fantasy” anime from the last 10-15 years, including Dr Stone (first season anyway), Steins;Gate, and others. Leaning more into fantasy, it’s about a couple guys who can use time travel in creative ways together. The main guy can enter a photograph for 12 hours, typically taking on the role of the photographer. It’s unclear on whether any changes he makes stick in the present when he comes back, but he’s urged not to. His partner can see 12 hours in both directions from when the picture was taken, the timeline frozen when it was taken, and he can telepathically guide the main guy in his “dives.”
All the music is on point. The first opening impressed us with the “hand dancing” (somewhat similar to the first Jujutsu Kaisen ending with the dancing), but the second one, with its backwards-spoken verse (and reversed subtitles!!) really stepped it up. We’re rewatching the first two seasons to get ready for the third (which is out). The first season ends up revealing that they aren’t the only ones with time manipulation powers (I mean they kinda had to introduce a villain at some point). And the second season has a different tone. Rather than doing odd jobs for people, they’re kind of in an intellectual cat and mouse game with their adversary, kind of like the best parts of Death Note.
Link Click is already in a league with all those shows I’ve named, the question is not that but rather, if it will exceed them.
Link Click has been dubbed in English as well as its native Chinese, and there is a Japanese dub as well, so however you like your anime, they’ve got you covered. As for the names, they sound more foreign to my western ears than even Japanese names, but it’s fine.
Well, I’m sold. I’ll check it out.
Do people really think MCU is goo dquality, i overheard some people at work they were fans of it despite its been garbage since endgage, aside from a few of the shows, nothing is really that good. almost every series, has been cancelled in the last few years that were good, because of mergers, fellating trump.
It was garbage long before Endgame.
It was hit-or-miss before End Game. The first Iron Man / Thor / Hulk / Cap A arc was genuinely good action fantasy. Daredevil and Guardians were good. I’ve loved all the Dr. Strange movies.
But the ratio of quality to crap definitely surged after End Game. They got Disney-fied, and its clear there was just a formula everyone had to follow. Movies that strayed farthest (and leaned hard into comedy) did much better than the action/thriller films that were ruined by predictability.
Also didn’t help that they never married the Netflix street level shows with the High Sci-fi. Nevermind all the wasted acting talent, it would have been fun to see Iron Man and Luke Cage or Black Widow and Jessica Jones share a script together.
it was. thats why im not into the MCU, i prefer X-MEN franchise over them really should be separate from marvels Multiverse of “madness” spin. they had really potential good shows before the merger killed the x-men spinoff shows.
It got a huge popularity boost, but they’ve always been pulpy popcorn flicks. Phase 5 was particularly bad in terms of writing but I think that’s the only substantial difference from the earlier phases. I enjoyed a lot of Phase 4 (people are quick to write off the hype of things like Wandavision or Spider-Man No Way Home), and I’m glad I got the chance to watch some Phase 5 shows that might have otherwise been canceled.
It’s just course correction from the pop culture explosion. Comics will continue to be weird.
alot of the shows like AAL had budget issues, it was telling with the props. yea they stretched out the shows way too much. on the comic book thing, people want continuity between comics and the shows, and the person at work said ooh i dont like those people, im guessing some people like all flash on no substance, which endgame was.
Only show with any heart left is Bobs Burgers.
They actually have LGBTQ+ representation and the one guy linked to Jan 6 was fired and locked up.
Everything else has been gentrified and whitewashed into corporate mediocrity.
Bob’s had kind of taken a dive for me a couple of seasons ago, but my daughter and I recently watched several newer episodes and we both really enjoyed them. I’m missing some of the side characters though.
Everything else has been gentrified and whitewashed into corporate mediocrity.
That’s the only currently ongong series, or show in the 2020s that you like?
Only current ongoing series. Everything else has been cancelled or finished.
Idk if that’s a fair reflection of Andor (just finished), or Severance, or Fallout, or Shogun.
Shogun was only one season, wasn’t it?
They’re doing another one.
Wow, expanded to three seasons apparently. Not sure how I feel about that.
Haven’t had any interest in Severance or Shogun so I haven’t seen them. I’ll watch them if they get proper endings
Everything else is just milking existing IPs.
Just to state the obvious: Andor does have an ending. A “proper” one in that it was intentionally written. It’s also ultimately split thanks to it being about a Rogue One character that dies in that movie, but… I think they did a better job than Better Call Saul at actually ending the show. As much as I’d love to watch more clear up until Rogue One starts, they still served their narrative well.
Just to state the obvious. I meant I’ll give severance and shogun a shot if they get endings.
Andor and Fallout are IP milking and I don’t give a shit about watching them.
I agree fully about Fallout, but Andor, ironically given all the other SW milk jobs, isn’t a milk job. It does an OK job standing on its own. If you changed the SW elements to not-SW, it’d still work great, yet it still fits nicely in the universe.
While I fully understand the sentiment, it might be worth pushing past the ick of the Disney production logo. At least if you have any real care for SW.
If its flavor of science-FICTION is not your jam then, well, I’m sure it can sit nicely on your pile of great things to never check out. lol Heck, I have a massive pile of supposedly great games and other media that I do want to engage with sitting in the same proverbial pile of stuff I’ll never get to. lol
Andor’s obviously a part of Star Wars, but it’s very different to most Star Shows and was pretty cutting (so to speak).
If you mean in terms of stuff made purely for TV: Dark Matter (2024), For All Mankind, The Pitt, Severance, Shogun (as mentioned). You could add Slow Horses, that’s apparently based on a book - but a lot of TV shows have always been based on some novel or comic.
Dark Matter is adapted from a book as well.
So it is. I forgot that. Eh, I still think that’s fine though. A lot of TV series as I said, whether made last year or 20 years ago are adaptations of literature.
Excluding like sitcoms and procedurals
Dope Girls
It’s no longer ongoing, but I was just thinking earlier today that I really wanted more Somebody Somewhere.
