sabotabby | well that sucked goat balls

Incidentally, while the villains past the first season and a half (which was when they stopped having villains from the books) completely suck, I think you would really enjoy Margo/Janet (she's Janet in the books, but another major character is named Julia so they changed her name to avoid too many Js).

Should I watch the show, read the books, or both?

Right now books are on the list of "content to consume" but the show isn't, I thought you didn't like it?

Definitely read the books; they're awesome.

I'd say the first season of the show is pretty good? The rest have their moments but also a massive assortment of the worst tropes of genre TV, which is extra-ironic because the whole concept is very meta and self-aware, and they regularly have characters mention when they encounter said tropes. (My favourite line from a scene where Penny, who is psychic and can enter people's dreams, drops in on one of Quentin's for reasons that I don't remember: "If you would just shut up for two seconds, this sex dream would pass the Bechdel Test.") But they get through the first book and part of the second in the first season, and the rest of the trilogy would be way too expensive for the show's budget, so they kind of run out of plot and start doing deeply stupid things to the characters.

So, for the past 5ish years, my anxiety has manifest in part as finding TV really stressful. Like, I can watch it, and I like it, but I have to get myself Ready and Emotionally Prepared, like a normally anxious person might before going out to see their friends. I, um, don't watch a lot of tv anymore. So... I can put season one on the TV watching list, but I don't know if it'll ever make it to the top. If you tell me it's worth a top slot, I'll try to put it closer to the top? I'm not sure what's coming next once I catch up on top chef.

It sounds entertaining, though! Minus the part where the writers are more interested in the continuing of the show than in the plot or characters making sense. Good way to ruin a show, that.

I don't think it's worth a top slot; there are far better shows. It's entertaining but way too uneven.

TV shows that I know are going to treat their characters poorly are almost never worth it. I mean, sure, you can be as mean and cruel to them as you like, but don't you dare make them act out of character for a plot point.

There's an opening coming soon in the top spot, and I'm not sure what will jostle into the spot. I've left The Night Manager and The Punisher partway through, so in theory one of them, but I have surprisingly little interest to know how either of them end. And the list of new shows to start is devastatingly long.

If you're looking for recs, I recommend The Expanse, which is my favourite thing on TV right now. Things it has going for it: Really great plotting and political maneuvering, lots of awesome diverse characters, badass sweary grandma who is the greatest, Cara Gee being super hot, underlying optimistic humanism despite a very grimdark setting. Amazon could decide to fuck it up now that they've acquired it, but it doesn't seem like they will.

Black Sails, which is a prequel to Treasure Island but with some real historical pirates, starts as silly and violent swashbuckling, one of the most satisfying endings I've ever seen on a telly, especially given several foregone conclusions. If you watch it, the best thing is not to Google anything about it so that you, like me, can squint and go, "are they going there? are they really going to go there?" at multiple points.

Well, I asked my husband for his vote, and he said The Expanse before I saw your response here, so that's a good sign for that show.

I'll put Black Sails on the list. That's not such a good sign.

Don't judge The Expanse by the first episode. It's necessary for context but it sucks and is mainly about different characters than the rest of the show.

That's the opposite of how I felt about Star Trek Discovery.

Disco gets better too, just in a different way.

I loved the captain in episode one. I loved that there was a star trek that wasn't grimdark, that went back to the Picard hopefulness. I loved that there was a captain who gave more than lip service to the Prime Directive.

Then episode 2. And it wasn't a bad show, not really, I could have liked it, but I'd already fallen in love with a different show. There are ways that shift could have happened and I would have accepted or even admired it (see: Harry Potter) but I just felt annoyed. And I couldn't appreciate the show for what it was going forward.

Today in: I have opinions.

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