I stopped halfway through Resident Alien just to start over from the beginning to try & clip funny moments, and damn

I forgot that Alan Tudyk was not a complete hoot in the first episode. Just my take, I think he really found his character’s voice another episode or two in once Harry was more confident in himself around humans.

Maybe it’s just me, but they could have had an entire episode where Kim paces around a parking garage, smoking cigarettes and waiting for a phone call and I’d still watch to the end.

Maybe?

Did do you think they just oopsied that scene and just recorded him making tea?

From several angles?

Subtext can have layers, you know. But you are not supposed to wonder if they accidentally filmed to much. Those movies are very special

To me the odd pace and the cinematography of Vince Gilligan shows are part of the draw.

Like a lot of his shows feel like they’re meant to convey a peek into the beauty of niche monotony. It can definitely be difficult if not impossible to keep that entertaining while stretching it out over several seasons, but…

When it’s done right, it kind of disarms you/hooks into your sense of empathy and reels you in (At least that’s what it does for me). It’s more than just a standard attempt to capture slice of life/fly on the wall where you’re watching as part of the audience. You get to momentarily slip into the perspective of a stranger by feeling what they’re feeling.

For example, the entire unsaid backstory of Kim and Saul scenes in the work parking garage: always feeling a bit out of place among your elite peers at a prestigious law firm. Convinced that no matter how hard you try, or how successful you are, somehow you know and they just know you’re not like them. In part it’s a defense mechanism, but but you’re also not totally wrong.

Finding the part of your day you look forward to the most are actually moments when you escape from the job you fought so hard to land, and slip away for a quick smoke break (in secret of course). That’s the only part of your day you can finally let your guard down and just breathe/be real with the only other person who really gets it.

Or, in Mike’s case: finding yourself looking back at the end of your career as a dirty cop with deep sorrow and regret for all the things you did while knowing it was the wrong thing to do. Yet always choosing to take the easy way for your own sake. Then trying to start over new, by picking what feels like the safest most routine job you can find as a parking attendant, essentially trying to break good.

Even the little peaks into the lives of side characters tend to give little brief glimpses that are unique enough to be interesting, but routine enough to be familiar.

There’s a throw away scene in the first episode of Pluribus before the aliens begin to take over that stuck with me. It shows a big group of industry scientists pipetting in synchronization while they toil away in a huge lab.

No dialogue, the characters are all extras, and it’s such a niche scene specific go science, but it also perfectly conveys the kind of hive mind, almost mechanical flow that tends to just take over for all humans when you’re working to achieve a common goal, and also foreshadows the entire plot of the show without a single word.

Thats part of what made me keep watching. It’s almost masochistic. Walts character going further into the narcissistic abuse with each season is horrifying to me, but it’s also so well written through that psychological lens that it fascinates me.

The difference between that and BCS for me was mostly that there was a ton more back story to see how Jimmy’s psychology developed. I had a lot more sympathy for him.

Both are interesting to me in the sense of how TV shows were starting to pivot away from these more traditional perfect protagonists into complex mixtures of horrible people that I still wanted to root for. But again, masochistic for me, cuz I want to see the good in everyone — and that has come at the cost of understanding when I need to set boundaries and walk away irl. I like to tell myself its like exposure therapy when in reality I need professional therapy 💀

I felt thing after stopping at season 2 and hearing about it after s4 started. I decided to catch up. I enjoyed it over all, but still felt it was too slow. Out of any “slow burn” character-driven shows show I at least moderately enjoyed it by the end? I’ll forever rue watching all of Mad Men.

Similarly, I will never go back to finish The Wire, The Americans, or Homeland after this.

I don’t shit on Vince Gilligan shows, I just don’t enjoy them (was only even aware of two of them before I just googled him). I don’t think they’re bad shows, they’re just not the type of show I like.

As far as answering your question as to what I do enjoy watching, I tend to lean heavily into sci-fi, fantasy, or horror genres. Doesn’t matter if it’s live action or anime, if it has a well built world with engaging storytelling, then I’ll binge it.

I watched breaking bad a couple years ago and thoroughly enjoyed it. What was new about the format?

I hated Skyler the first time I watched it. The second time through, I felt a lot more sympathy for her character.

I think Skyler is pretty universally disliked. I thought the kid was annoying too which pretty much undermines the whole premise of the show.

That was my problem with the show too.

Smart person decides to cook meth…

Step 1: Partner with complete dipshit

Step 2:

Step 3: Profit

It’s not hard to cook meth especially if you have a science background.

EVERYTHING in the show is there to make cooking meth harder because if it wasn’t hard it would be a completely boring story.

This is an apt description of how I felt when watching The Acolyte. The fight scenes were cool, but I couldn’t help but feel like basically everyone was acting like an impulsive teen all the time and if they had just been a reasonable adult for basically 2 minutes the whole plot wouldn’t have happened.

I like pluribus but it is extremely slow though

Bet they wear shirts for bands where they can’t even name their 20 top songs.

Im absolutely shitposting. To be clear.

I’ve watched Breaking Bad in it’s entirety over a dozen times, BCS at least 4 times, El Camino twice. Finished Pluribus already. The only thing I haven’t really got into fanatically is X-files, but I don’t dislike it.