This is a general "thoughts about whatever you're watching" thread, but we're also running a TV watcher club out of this joint. We're going to start out by watching and discussing True Detective, which recently finished its first season, and possibly Hannibal, which is currently in its second season. Feel free to talk about whatever other show you're watching or suggest what we should try to watch next.
 
GENERAL THREAD GUIDELINES
Please avoid spoilers! If you want to write about something that's potentially a spoiler, either indicate so in your text or use the spoiler tag:

TV WATCHER'S CLUB
We'll wait until people check in or start discussing the first episode of True Detective before moving on to the next.

Hannibal is currently airing, so we're just going to write about the most recent episode/the series up to this point if we have any thoughts on it.

TRUE DETECTIVE

True Detective is HBO's latest Quality TV, but I find it's actually pretty enjoyable! Its first season is composed of eight hour-long episodes, and stars Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson. A lot of people have compared it to Twin Peaks - we can discuss any correlation as we move through the episodes, but I'll say right now that the similarities are pretty slim.

I'll leave the rest for the individual episode discussions, as I'll be re-watching the series from the beginning. Watch it with us if you want!

HANNIBAL

Hannibal is a TV series based upon the Hannibal franchise, using characters from the books and movies. The story is set prior to Red Dragon, the prequel to Silence of the Lambs. In the show Hannibal is still a respected psychologist, and only the viewer knows what he really is.

I've never been particularly interested in the franchise or the idea of cannibals as a horror story. I started watching Hannibal after I stumbled upon an interview with the creator or director, who was rambling about The Shining and Kubrick and David Lynch, and how they've all influenced him in the creation of the show. Really, there is no discernible influence of these directors or their creations on Hannibal (it's much closer in style to an average primetime crime drama). There are some pretty overt references or tributes to them, such as this scene in the first episode, but that's really about it.

Like True Detective, I feel the closest thing to Hannibal is actually the X-Files, especially the "monster of the week"-styled episodes. What it lacks in comparison to X-files, I feel, is particularly likable characters. The development of Hannibal himself is pretty good. Aside from that we've got Will Graham, kind of the main character - a cherished "autism spectrum" superhero savant who is only occasionally interesting. Everyone is obsessed with him, especially every single female character on the show, each of them possessing little other character development. There's Lawrence Fishburne's character, he makes some nice faces but seems to get most of the clunky lines. Scott Thompson of Kids in the Hall has a minor part.

It's shot pretty well. It looks nice. You've got a beautiful field of hibernating wild grass with a gross dead thing in the middle. There's also a ton of over-the-top gore, which I'm still not too sure about. Is it supposed to be funny? I dunno.

We're in the second season now, and Will and Hannibal are currently in an interesting situation. We're only 5 episodes in, and I'm curious to see how they take the relationship from here and finish off the 13-episode season.

Cool setup.
 
I've seen all of True Detective, I watched it as it was on week to week. I'll be back tomorrow night after I've rewatched the first ep with at the least all my thoughts about it and hopefully make them up in video form to present them in a more interesting way. I'd like to do all the episodes, I think, and it isn't such a dense or long series that doing that would be a chore, while at the same time having enough in it that I think I'd have things to say about every episode.
 
Hannibal I've been dipping into really lightly - I've seen the pilot and bits and pieces from later episodes, but I've only been half watching. Right away my impression is that I don't like the series, but I do like Mads Mikkelsen a lot so if there is something better there beyond the procedural stuff then hopefully he can get me into it. I did notice about the crazy gore and body horror - it feels REALLY extreme to me. Just utterly grotesque stuff that I also can't imagine the point of, but maybe watching it will bring that out. At any rate, whether I end up enjoying it or not, for whatever reason I feel like I want to know what it is, so I'll come back with thoughts on that after I've watched a few more, too.
 
About spoilers - is that for storylines from upcoming episodes, or do you mean from things beyond the first couple of episodes of a series? Cos I haven't seen much of Hannibal for example, and I've never watched or read any Hannibal related things so beyond knowing that at some point Mads Mikkelsen transforms into Anthony Hopkins and starts doing weird things with his tongue, pretty much any developments would be a spoiler to me at this point. Since we'll be talking about a few different series, people might be okay with knowing everything that happens in Hannibal, but not True Detective, and so on with other series.
 
Also I'll want to post things about Mad Men and Game of Thrones when they start in the next couple of weeks, too.
 
til tomorrow...

I guess with True Detective we're not even gonna talk about what happens in later episodes until most of us who are participating are ready to move on. Maybe entire posts of the second season of hannibal should be in spoiler tags?

Mads is definitely the high point so far. I haven't seen the Hopkins version in a really long time, but at this point I definitely prefer the Mads version. I think a big part of the thrill of the series is knowing where the character is going to end up.

And yeah, if you've seen game of thrones please write about it! I watched the first episode a while back and I really fucking hated it. None of my friends whose opinions I can take seriously have watched it either.

This sounds like it would be fun to do but I only watch vaguely esoteric old shit like Columbo and The Twilight Zone that either everybody has already seen or nobody wants to watch.
 
This would have been fun when I was going through my MISSION IMPOSSIBLE phase and watched the first three seasons in about a month and a half, but that's probably even more esoteric and old and I'd probably have had an easier time getting people to watch and chronicle their adventures in watching the television guide channels.
 
I guess all I can say is that if anybody wants to join me in watching the static on channel 666 for three hours every day you can drop me a line here or something idk

I ain't got time buddy for dese serioues buuut talkin about hannibal, been watching eric andre show feat hannibal with guana... heeell yeaa..... in an interview hannibal was asked that if you could pick ONE song for THIS kind of situation, what would you pick for the end of the world?? hannibal's first comment was "that's rough, man." ...

This sounds like it would be fun to do but I only watch vaguely esoteric old shit like Columbo and The Twilight Zone that either everybody has already seen or nobody wants to watch.
 
This would have been fun when I was going through my MISSION IMPOSSIBLE phase and watched the first three seasons in about a month and a half, but that's probably even more esoteric and old and I'd probably have had an easier time getting people to watch and chronicle their adventures in watching the television guide channels.
 
I guess all I can say is that if anybody wants to join me in watching the static on channel 666 for three hours every day you can drop me a line here or something idk

If you're gonna pick up any other shows in the future, please mention them! fwiw I think you'd be able to tolerate True Detective. It's not very 'TV', unlike eg Breaking Bad.

i've seen all of true detective already too... i don't think i'm so good at examining stuff episode-by-episode, i think any thoughts i have would be about the series in general, so maybe i should wait until everyone is done with the episodes first

that's fine!

I ain't got time buddy for dese serioues buuut talkin about hannibal, been watching eric andre show feat hannibal with guana... heeell yeaa..... in an interview hannibal was asked that if you could pick ONE song for THIS kind of situation, what would you pick for the end of the world?? hannibal's first comment was "that's rough, man." ...

I went to a live eric andre show once, it was good and all but the audience was full of dopes and eric ran thru naked and squirted me with a lot of lotion.

And speaking of Hannibal Buress, I watched a few episodes of Broad City last night. I kind of like it, but it makes me uncomfortable because all the guys they like are super hunks and I'm not.

yeah hundleyyou'd like true detective

 my video is a bit delayed because my Internet is cut off, but i have already written the bulk of the review. i rewatched it and may be careful notes as i went through. hope you all enjoy it.

sorry on phone so i can't edit posts

going over it line by line, shot by shot, like this i'm realising how well constructed the opening of true detective is. it's also got some big problems. i hope you folks find the video interesting.

I wrote a couple lines about True Detective, episode 1. If you haven't watched it yer, I suggest you do before reading this post
 
 
I might have more to say if others chime in. It's a good first episode, gets me excited about where the series is going. Acted pretty well
 
btw jamie, dunno if you realized there's no video link! wanna hear your thoughts. same edc/bwiz/warp/everyone

gaddamn these phones. the vid u
is made. going back to read your comments earl.

not

yet

yall can post your overall thoughts on the series if yall done want
 
my quik episode 2&3:
relevant, episode 1 spoilers
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0W6g0PS_zvE
 
edited slightly for sober clarity

hey farren!
 
I also read today that there's gonna be three leads for season 2 of true detective. I'm still not positive the creator/writer and the director aren't lucky idiots so I'm trying not to get my hopes up.
 
the idea of a main female lead for season 2 is kinda inconceivable for me, with s1 and other crime dramas being the only other things we have to go by. we'll probably see how intentional the issues ppl see with season 1 were
 
hannibal is fundamentally stupid, can be alternately enjoyable and annoying. it's not really a show for acting skills but mads is good, michael pitt is pretty good in season 2.

I finished re-watching True Detective, liked it even more the second time thru. official rating "good"

hannibal s2: ok tv, but pretty hard to watch in the middle.

broad city: ok I guess. they seem kinda............basic

steven universe: good