Clarence: good! the first episode was pretty rough, but the rest have been great so far. it says a lot about childhood that I haven't seen in media before

Veep: I don't like it. bad things happen and awful people make snarky comments. I hate it
elaine's vice president character occasionally pulls off some of every presidential politician's plastic creepiness, but that's not particularly entertaining when spread intermittently across three seasons of snarky, wannabe-witty & fast-paced dialogue. matt walsh (UCB), tony hale (buster), and zach woods (office/silicon valley) have some of the only likable characters, except they're just less believable or interesting versions of characters they always play. this is Intelligent Comedy. HBO is the fucking worst
 
 
I'm reading the king in yellow right now and I'll have more to say about last & next season of true detective soon. since we last talked, it's been confirmed that Showrunner Nicolatto Pizzolatto is an idiot (do not bother researching it, u already figured), the director Fukunaga has left the show, and that it will star 4 leads by the names of Vince Vaughn Kevin Spacey Megan Fox and Shia LaBeouf

Clarence is the most realistic portrayal of childhood I've ever seen in cartoons. Shame the creator was a creep who got fired for sexual harassment, hope the show stays around and stays good in spite of that.

Clarence is the most realistic portrayal of childhood I've ever seen in cartoons. Shame the creator was a creep who got fired for sexual harassment, hope the show stays around and stays good in spite of that.

noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo everyone is awful

They already re-cast the VA for Clarence, and stated that  they plan to continue the show despite the "creator incident". It was really just a title more than anything anyhow, all he was responsible for was the idea of making the show about a fat kid with a funny voice. They are already airing the re-dubbed episodes and it's almost impossible to tell the new VA apart from the old.
 
My favorite thing about the show was finding out that the character Jeff was based on a person that actually exists. Man I love that guy.

everyone interested probably already heard about Twin Peaks coming back for one more season in 2016, with all episodes by Frost and Lynch.
 
that's something I never expected to happen! it kind of changes the playing field on series like true detective, gravity falls and whatever other show has been referencing or drawing precedent from the formerly long-gone cult classic. even though I never felt True Detective was particularly similar to twin peaks, it's kinda like what's the point of TD season 2 now? what's it really going to bring to the table? what was actually good about season one that pizzolatto, as the writer and sole remaining element, is going to preserve? true detective can tinker around with whatever at the baby table, we're mostly just waiting for big bro twin peaks to come back. that's how my sis and I feel.
 
also Vince Vaughn and Colin Farrell confirmed for TD season 2, shia labeouf and megan fox still strong candidates to fill out the roster.
 

Colin Farrell as Ray Velcoro, “a compromised detective whose allegiances are torn between his masters in a corrupt police department and the mobster who owns him.”

Vince Vaughn as Frank Semyon, “a career criminal in danger of losing his empire when his move into legitimate enterprise is upended by the murder of a business partner.”

TP definitely spins outta control and begins to make the supernatural too concrete, around the point of/especially after the main story arc is solved. that's something the cult has noted & kinda just chalked up to loss of input/interest from Frost and Lynch. when I watched it the first time someone told me stop right after 205, or whatever episode it is where they find the killer, and I only watched the rest recently. it's difficult to take the show as a complete experience

when Lynch picked TP back up for Fire Walk With Me he seemed to have a better control of the otherwordly elements again, which leaves me feeling pretty positive about the new season.

I finished the King in Yellow a little while back. by the way it's referenced in TD and Lovecraft I was expecting an esoteric, difficult-to-read tome, but it's not at all. several of the stories reference the fictional play the king in yellow and hint at a possibly greater, malevolently supernatural presence, but then the stories resolve without ever going into any deeper explanation & it's left up to the reader to imagine the potential influence of this unknown force. it's good.
 
in this respect, True Detective is really exactly like a story from the King in Yellow, down to the scattered references to a sinister, maybe nonexistent supernatural element. I think it's noteworthy how effectively pizzolatto translates the Chambers style of horror/weird fiction to a TV crime drama series, and I feel it's definitely intentional homage rather than plagiarism (idk about cohle's ligotti paraphrases).
 
also Tim and Eric's Bedtime Stories is 4 episodes into its first season and it's good. it's the best portrayal of real nightmares I've seen. episodes like "toes" are kind of standard freudian or literary nightmares, but other episodes draw on elements I've only ever seen TnE use. I thought I'd be the only person who has public restrooms and awful, offensive sitcoms as frequently recurring elements in my anxiety dreams, but "bathroom boys" is literally a sitcom about boys who live in bathroom and blurt out misanthropic and anxious things to a laugh track

I have been watching Columbo. Lots of Columbo. Some have suggested an unhealthy amount of Columbo. Been watching some of it with my parents, and my dad sat me down for A TALK today which turned out to be a Columbo intervention where he suggested he would not help me perpetuate this evidently deviant behavior.

There isn't a whole lot to say about this show, when you really break it down. It's another crime drama that happened to have a pretty decent cast much of the time. You watch this show for Peter Falk, your episode count will only grow as far as you can tolerate seeing a grown man repeatedly knock things over and stumble unsuccessfully through his pockets for things he's misplaced. But I totally dig Peter Falk, and I don't normally give much of a shit about actors. There's some novelty in those everyman actors, those Joseph Cotten types that just feel like some regular dude you spoke to for half a minute at the hardware store. If anything can be said for actors like that, it's that they can make otherwise grandiose or unreal stories more relatable, brings the action a little closer to home and makes it something that can potentially hit you a little harder. Falk does more with that than any actor I'm really aware of, and I think there's real beauty in his performances, going pretty far beyond how much more accessible he makes everything he's in.

Columbo is cool because you watch it and are immediately struck with the question "But wait, this guy is repulsive and pedantic, and yet there is beauty in how repulsive and pedantic he is. Does this mean I can be beautiful even though I am repulsive and pedantic." And Columbo is a great show because the answer to that question is invariably yes.

But again, there isn't much beyond that, really. I guess if anything it's a neat angle on crime dramas, where you see absolutely everything and then follow this exceedingly regular guy try to pull it all apart. And it's a nice antidote to all the super-edgy/super-violent cop dramas by featuring this genuinely harmless guy who doesn't even carry a gun, and even manages to make ultra-vanilla cop characters like Joe Friday look like Dirty Harry.

Just fun stuff, even if some individual episodes can be hit or miss.

PS I don't care about canon and shit, but Columbo is a lot more fun when you just elect to believe that Der Himmel über Berlin is essentially part of the Columbo canon. This is NOT AT ALL PERTINENT INFORMATION but I am putting this here and you aren't going to stop me.

Jpoe Friday is the best DETECTIVE you will have ever laid eyes upon bucko.

The thing you don't understand about Joe Friday is that every story is based on true events, but the names have been changed to protect THE INNOCENT??

Sergent Joe Friday is the epidome of detective swave. If I had a nickel for every dime and larry that spoke a bad word about my main man Joe before I ain't saying he's a bit for a water house or a two part carriage, but I don't trust a hatstand whose mouth is faster than his fists.

 

i have to admit it that seeing good Hundley and climbtree posts in a row sends shivers down the spine/yeah those were some good posts, i've been missing ya fools, and i hope everything is alright/doin fine in your life climbtree... not that you are going to check a post 4 years later after ur post... don't die over stress hundley...
 
wait Hannibal as in... Hannibal Buress??? OBVIOUSLY you mean it, he's hella good. also sorry Prim but i'm just fuckin around wif ya / no hard feelings but I wanted to see every "recent post" in every forum subcategory done by That Hella Intimidating Bluehaired Guy With Obviously A Blue Towel Around His Neck * HOLLOW LAUGH... *

yeah i miss climbtree and hundley

is anyone else gonna watch Wayward Pines? by M. Night, previews have some obvious twin peaks precedent. seems like it could be good, or could be full of really clumsy dialogue and embarrassingly stupid moments.
 
edit: first episode was pretty good. harvester references. 
 
uh we skipped Better Call Saul. pretty good, couple episodes were great, lookin' forward to more. I know how much the BB team loves filler and stretching out seasons tho so I am wary.
 
I re-watched True Detective again. I was wrong about the directing, it's good. I do wish it was more Louisiana, but that's probably not the director's fault. trailer for the second season came out, I'm not hating the casting choices so far. colin farrel's character looks real sad, I like it.

Anyone still active watching NCIS: True Detective

I don't know if you're saying td season 2 is NOT like an unusually gripping, extra-produced NCIS arc so far, but I still think it is

More thoughts to come when I'm not sitting on the toilet at work