What are you Watching (September 2023)

Finished the first season of Silo.
Pretty good!
Rebecca Ferguson is really good.

I'm about half way in, and the acting has been patchy - the guys playing Trumbull and Sims are bad, but when contrasted with Tim Robbins and Rebecca Ferguson, they come off a lot worse.
- I agree. I enjoyed most of the season, but Common (Sims) consistently ruined any immersion for me.

First season of Westworld is a masterpiece. The rest of the series is pretty good (S3&4 are simultaneously fairly self contained and open ended) but it suffered from the high expectations set by the first season.

They Cloned Tyrone is DAMN GOOD once you get past the language and settle in.

What do you mean by get past the language?
Get past what language? Not used to hearing AAVE?

The last time I tried to watch Farscape a few years ago on Netflix, the video quality was terrible. Is there a streaming service that's better? Or should I just hunt down some blurays?

It's free on YouTube but idk if the quality is better.

The show is over 20 years old, now.

I finished Farscape (for the first time) a couple weeks ago. Now I am binging Stargate Atlantis. It always amazes me that this show didn’t become more popular.

I love both of those shows. I actually like Stargate Atlantis better that SG-1.
- I hear that one a lot honestly, wonder if I should skip SG-1 and go straight for it.

Foundation, and Futurama, now that Strange New Worlds is an hiatus for a loong time.

I plan to start watching Silo in about an hour though!

Silo was great fun. I really want to get to the book now and see the rest of the story, but there are just so many other things to read.
- I read the book when it first came out and the series is, IMO anyway, a superb implementation.
First two episodes are absolutely superb. Brilliant hook.

I’ve never heard of For All Mankind. Good?

And I’ll be giving Foundations a try. Never read the books but I keep hearing good things about the show.

Foundation has been interesting so far and very pretty. For All Mankind is amazing.
It’s the best show on this list. Watch it for sure!
Very good. Alternate history that makes the moon missions bigger and better like we should have done all along

Altered Carbon. Very competent cyberpunk action thriller with some awesome ideas and outstanding world building. Loving it.

The second season is a real let down. It's passable, and expands the universe reasonably well. Just don't expect it to live up to the first at all.
- Hm maybe I should just read the book then. Classic Netflix.
Loved it too. My only gripe is a character change that IMO isn’t necessary. The book is pretty straightforward and could’ve been directly adapted to TV without that major change.
- Hey, you gotta change the lead actor to make sure it's not as good. Otherwise you might have to keep the show going.

Oh man, I remember buying the DVD set of Terminator: SCC and binging the whole thing! I'm still sad that season three never made it.

I still love Summer Glau to this day
- I just got from isle of sky...... I'm not very big, but I'm awful shy..... Lassies shout as I walk by..... Donald wheres your trousers?
  
  Fuck never thought anyone can punch me in the gut with an Andy stewert song.

Foundation and For All Mankind, absolutely. Also planning on finishing up Star Trek TOS.

I watched a few slightly older shows recently: Killjoys, which I really couldn't get into, and now Dark Matter. I'm finding it a bit cliched, but I like it so far.

I liked both of those shows and watched them when they were running. Think they aired back to back or around the same time. Maybe I’ll try a rewatch.
- They did, at least the first seasons were on back to back. Both had amazing first seasons and fell off rarher badly. Great concepts that seemed like they were under funded and could of been something special if handled properly.
  
  I remember being pumped thinking it was the revival of the sci-fi channel. Then it just all went to shit.

I’m fucking sorry, did they reboot Lex and Red Dwarf?

No, if you are referring to the image on the post this is curated from some of the most upvoted comments of last months post. It doesn't imply much beyond these are some shows people have been watching. Many of which may be very old or very new. There seems to always be a good mix.
- Damn I was excited
Red Dwarf reboot does not make sense as it seems they are not done making episodes.

In some way I hope someone creates a new Sci-Fi comedy that can be as long running as Red Dwarf, or make sure a Red Dwarf reboot starts in a parallel universe or something.

Just started watching (the fanmade 4k remastered version of) Farscape. Only my second time to watch the series.

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I'm watching Foundation. Watched one episode of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds and I might continue watching that until our subscription to Paramount Plus runs out.

SNW, Lower Decks and Prodigy are all fantastic Trek clearly written by people who love Trek

Right now I’m binging DS9 on paramount+ as well as watching Farscape and Babylon 5 on the Roku channel, although I’m not watching Farscape and Babylon 5 as intently as DS9.

Star Trek The Original Series.

Just finished Silo last month. Pretty good. Not perfect, but it wasn’t bad. Rebecca Ferguson was great, but her accent was all over the place. Also, Common is the weakest link on the cast. He’s fine as a one dimensional action character like in John Wick, but his character in Silo unfortunately extends beyond his range.

Peripheral. Very fun sci-fi, beware: second season renewal revoked because of writers strike, unless someone else picks it up in afraid season 2 might not happen :/

Watching Ahsoka and also season one of SW Rebels which is kind of an interesting juxtaposition.

Getting ready to watch Lower Decks in one week!

I started watching Babylon 5 this month, and I'm already in the third season. I'm thoroughly hooked.

spoiler

I thought I'd hate the replacement character for Commander Sinclair and I could tell they were trying particularly hard to make me like the Captain but he grew on me, and now I like him the same.

It's hard how much I love the world and flavor of this show. It looks like shit, no doubt, but it has tremendous soul.

Not sure if anime counts here, but I just watched Cyber City Oedo 808 and it was pretty dope.

It absolutely counts. Some of my favorite science fiction shows are anime. I'm not sure why it doesn't come up more often in this community. I tried bringing it up a few times early on. Also our communities icon is from Cowboy Bebop.
- Cowboy Bebop is my all time favorite anime. Wish it had more episodes, but a big part of the reason why I like it so much is that it didn’t drag on for too many seasons once the writers ran out of ideas.
- It has some of the best animation I've ever seen, and it has the perfect mix of being over the top ridiculous but also taking itself seriously. Also the swearing and banter in the dub is hilarious.
  
  I'm watching all the similar ones I haven't seen yet next, like Genocyber, Angel Cop, Battle Angel, Angel Cop, Parasite Dolls, etc.

Strange New Worlds and Ahsoka.

Man, reminding me of TTSCC... Now I wanna watch it again, again

Wish they’d reboot that Terminator show. Considering it involves time travel, it wouldn’t be difficult to start a new season.

Star Trek DS9

Anyone know where to get Babylon 5? I've heard a lot of sci Fi I love is inspired by it and wanted to see it.

Star trek Voyager for a while now. I between I was watching Strange New Worlds. I still have half of Picard S3 left to watch

I've heard a lot about Babylon 5, even though I didn't watch it when it first aired...it ended in 1998, and I didn't have access to a TV until about 2 years later, so that's probably why I didn't watch it as a kid. But I'm trying to go back and watch it now.

I like the alien characters more than the human. Sinclair is way too smarmy for my tastes, and Garibaldi is written with too much casual perving--although I bet I wouldn't have noticed if I'd watched it when I was in middle school and it was airing. So it suffers a bit from social norms shifting.

I haven't gone back to watch older shows in a while--but it sticks out to me that this show which aired in the 90s has such an old-school way of acting so prevalent in it. Again, it would have seemed totally normal to me if I'd seen it in the 90s, but nowdays it sticks out as quaint.

Anyway, I don't know if I like the show...I know they lose Sinclair after Season 1 so I might hang on until then. I don't dislike it either--I think I'm just reserving judgement.

A funny thing though--I'm a fan of the Vorkosigan books by Lois McMaster Bujold. And one of her characters, Simon Illyan, is partly based/influenced by the looks of a certain actor (David McCallum). I have never actually seen anything with this actor in it before B5, I only saw a wikipedia headshot of him when he was younger. But he guest-starred in a Babylon 5 episode, the one where he's pressuring the Dr. as an old artifact-hunting colleague. And somehow I was like--wait, is that Simon Illyan? Is that the actor he was based on? Which was wild, because all I know of him is whatever homages made it into the Vorkosigan books and a wikipedia headshot of the actor earlier in his career, and I somehow managed to correctly identify him.

Was a weird crossover between entertainment mediums.

Futurama of course. Also The Venture Brothers to get set for the Movie. Also Batwoman and Asoka, although I'm not sold on either yet.

Man I was so amazed when i finished 1899. Then i read they canceled it like a week later. So upsetting. I guess I'll rewatch dark for the third time.

I have seen the first episode of Lexx. I could not do another. Someone sell Lexx to me.

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Just finished Justified Primevil.

Not one of those listed and not sure if it fits the assignment but I started watching the Mobile Suit Gundam, The Witch from Mercury anime and have been enjoying it. It’s got some fun if tropey sci fi environs

The Ark

Just finished Severance! Watched most of it on 1.5x speed and skiped a lot of the 20 second visuals scenes with no dialogue but besides the pacing issues, its one of the most interesting shows I've seen in years. I love how they developed the dynamics between split personalities.

Dude, just watch it at normal speed and don't skip anything. There's a lot going on in that show.
- Uh, no dude? I don't feel like a word was said or a scene played out that I did not understand. You might find fulfilment in watching a 40 second sequence of someone drinking coffe with a pensive look but I don't have time for that. I slowed down when I had a reason to.
Maybe I can try that. I just can't get into it the couple times I tried to start because it grinddddssss.

See - Disney+

frist season good, second seasons bad - stopped watching on s02e03