1y ago

What are you Watching? (July 2023)

Are there any science fiction TV series you are currently in the middle of watching? I'm sure there are plenty of people watching Silo. What else are you guys watching?

Personally I've been on a bit of a Star Trek Next Generation binge. I've also recently completed the Chinese version of Three Body Problem as well as the animated Three Body Problem which is actually just The Dark Forest.

The animated Three Body Problem was kind of a let down as they strayed from the source material in a weird way and made some aspects of it a comedy as well as a love story. Hopefully if it is renewed for a season 2 they get back on course and get to some of the good stuff. There are some scenes I would love to see animated. The trailer for it was so cool too. It seemed like they knew what they were doing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wfHXmLXmwz0

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Been watching Silo, loved the books and really like the show. The author had a lot of input into his season. He wrote the first but as a short story and he was glad to be able to revisit the early parts and flesh it out more. Good to hear there’s a second season. I’m eagerly awaiting Foundation season 2 which starts next month! I’ve been watching Black Mirror in small doses. I do want to check out the New Trek sometime soon, too.
- I recently watched the first 3 episodes of the new season of Black Mirror. That 2nd episode though.. it seemed like it had nothing to do with Black Mirror and was basically just a horror film.
  
  Black Mirror lost me when I saw Miley Cyrus in a fighting game.
  The robo dog episode, shut up and dance, that’s some good shit.
- Foundation was the biggest let down. It has no connection to books, except for its name.
  
  I felt that despite the distance from the source material it was still worth a watch. Maybe I'm just starved for any sci-fi shows, but I too am looking forward to season two.

Only loosely related to sci-fi, but I just finished Station 11 (twice) and think it might be the best TV show I’ve ever seen. I nitpick details and plot holes in stuff I watch all the time, and Station 11 just… didn’t have any. It’s the most well thought, cohesive story I’ve seen in ages. Watch it a second time and your mind will be blown at all the little details that crisscross perfectly across the entire arc.
The characters behave like real people. The acting is incredible. The score is perfection. It’s a masterpiece.

Silo
Star Trek Next Generation
From
Recommendations are welcome.
- Really looking forward to the finale of Silo tomorrow. It's currently my favorite show on tv.
  
  Apple TV+ announced a season two renewal so I'm expecting some kind of cliffhanger.
  
  Silo seemed kind of uneven and slow to me, but according to posters who read the books, the first book is a lot of exposition and character building, so I guess it follows the books. I just hope it pays off!
- Just finished the season finale of Silo. Can't wait for the second season

Like a lot of people I presume I'm watching the season 2 of Star Trek Strange New Worlds. And it's good.
- Is it any good? I watched season 1 of discovery and the first season of picard and those combined put me off so haven't bothered with any star trek stuff for a while.
  
  Well I'm not a fan of Discovery either, but I liked Picard so we may not have the same tastes, however I'd say that Strange New Worlds is the best Trek we had since the end of DS9. I love it.
  
  I can't stand Discover or Picard but greatly enjoy Strange New Worlds. Besides still being a prequel, it's everything I wished modern Trek would be!
  I'm also obligated to recommended Lower Decks.
  
  It is the best "New Trek" by far. Vastly better than Discovery. You should definitely give it a chance. It isn't perfect, but it is a positive relief to watch after some of the other recent stuff.
  
  SNW was great out of the gate. DSC never found its footing with a "Riker beard" season like TNG did. Picard was a disappointment to me. There is a lot of internet love for Picard S3, but I found the writing to be lazy and inconsistent with respect to both canon and years of character development JMHO, though. I won't yuck your yum if you enjoy it! :-)
  
  Yup. Discovery was nonsense really, and while the only season of Picard that was good was the last one, SNW is awesome from the very start. It's almost like old star trek going down to planets in shuttles and stuff. Really enjoyable.

I am currently rewatching Fringe with my gf. God, it does not hold up.
- Really? In what way? I just watched it a year ago and thought it was fine.
- I keep meaning to rewatch Fringe someday. But I don't think it will ever compare to the first watch. It is a really great show that doesn't get as much attention as it deserves. It starts off as just some kinda neat "monster of the week" sorta show and then becomes super innovative I think a season in.
  Just typing this up makes me want to watch it lol.
  Annoyingly, last time I checked (a while ago), it wasn't streaming anywhere in Canada.
  
  That is exactly what happened to me. Fringe was my favourite show back in 2009. I guess I was remembering it with rose tinted glasses. The story is fine and it is really entertaining. But the amount of plot holes it has is staggering. And the pseudo-science mumbo jumbo spewed out by Walter Bishoo gets old really fast. I guess I am just older mow and more sensible to details. But regardless of all that it is still a great bingeable show. My GF is loving it so far but even she notices a lot of the show's issues. I guess there are shows that are best kept in our memories.

Just binged Severance, which was really good. Now I'm watching through Star Trek Next Gen, getting towards the end of season 2.

I've been slowly working my way through Stargate, midway through season 3 right now. It's almost refreshing how shamelessly they reuse old Star Trek plots and tropes, but it kind of works because the show doesn't seem to take itself as seriously as Star Trek does either.

Star Trek Stange New Worlds, Silo, Babylon 5 (again), From, and Futurama (again)

I was rewatching sliders for a while. Corny, but it reminds me of my childhood
- Sliders is great, except for the last season or two. I rewatch it every five years or so.

I've been watching through Babylon 5 for the first time and it's so good. I was aware of it when it was running in the 90s but I wasn't big into scifi TV shows at that point. I've watched through Star Trek TNG like 3 times (until they took it off Netflix) and The Orville twice (until I cancelled Hulu).
After I get through Babylon 5 I will choose between X-Files and Stargate SG-1, two other 90s shows I slept on. Overall I'm loving this. Because it's all new to me, and yet it's nostalgic at the same time. I remember the ads for all these shows, I recognize a lot of the actors from other things.
- My youngest offspring has been making their way through X Files and loves it but they are such a fan of horror. I love it too but it's pretty scary, more than just sci-fi. Though I did always find the filming annoying, so many minutes of black screens with flashlights! So many shows are dark now (and I hate it) but back when this series came out it was novel.

i've really enjoyed the Orville. It tries to find itself the first season but really evolves into a truly wonderful show.
- The Orville is great

Just bought the full box set of Babylon 5 and started watching from the beginning. Never had the opportunity to see all the episodes in order, and never got to finish it. Here’s hoping!

Silo. It’s a decent show despite the wooden acting from Common. Looking forward to season 2.

Clone Wars!

I've been working my way through The Expanse again. I couldn't get into the books for some reason, despite being an avid SFF reader, but I love the show. (It happens to me for some reason--most of Gaiman's works I'm meh about in book form but like on the big screen. Same deal with Game of Thrones--never got through the books in HS, even though I was reading other big fat fantasy at the time, but found the series...until the last few seasons...good.
Anyway. The Expanse probably the only SFF show I've encountered that actually feels like lit SF.
And for me, given most movie/TV SFF is a deacde or more behind lit SFF in ideas, it's nice to actually see the types of stories made into a show.

As far as newish stuff goes, I've been watching Silo, which is pretty entertaining. Better than I expected from AppleTV.
Also just watched S2 of Raised By Wolves. S2 got off to a really rocky start. Honestly I flat-out hated ep1; feels like they needed a mulligan. But it got me hooked a few episodes in.
Strange New Worlds has pretty entertaining though the pace of the courtroom episode seemed a little off (almost like they thought I was too dumb to get it so they had to eliminate any subtlety), and I watched some TNG in the gap between Picard and SNW.
Only made it a couple episodes into Hello Tomorrow before I couldn't stand it anymore.
I remember liking Severance but I think it's been quite a while. I think there might be a new season soon?

I finally got through and began the Expanse proper :)

Silo, Strange New Worlds, Secret Invasion, and Foundation.
Really liking Foundation so far, I wish we’d watched it sooner.

I started watching Stargate SG1 again this week. I was HOOKED by the end of episode one. I'm almost done with the first season. The nice thing is my GF doesn't think it's too bad and she generally does not like Sci Fi.

Currently watching Strange New Worlds and Halt and Catch Fire. Will likely check out Silo in the near future.

I know it's not sci-fi, but I'm rewatching SOAP. This and WKRP are the near pinnacle of comedy tv.

I'm currently watching stargate again.

Finished The Silo and started Outer Range. Silo was very good all season and Outer Range is very weird and interesting.

I’m currently finishing TNG, on the final episode, also watching Babylon 5, SNW, Farscape, getting ready to start DS9 and SG-1
I also just recently binged all episodes of seaquest DSV
- That is a ton of things to be watching all at once. Have you ever seen these shows in the past or is this your first time watching them?
  
  I’ve watched some episode of all of them here and there over the years. I’m disabled and don’t work so I have plenty of time to kill watching them. I binge so many shows so that I don’t get bored with watching just one straight through. It took me 3 months to watch all 7 seasons of TNG. SNW is easy since I’ve been watching the series since it started, so catch a new episode weekly.

probably more Fantasy Western but, Ive been watching Wynonna Earp

I'm currently partway through the first season of From. So far its a good mixture of monsters + mystery + sheer WTF. I just hope it continues to be coherent and eventually leads the viewers to a conclusion that, if not "reasonable", at least follows some sort of consistent internal logic. That's the part that typically winds up disappointing me in shows like this, so... fingers crossed, but so far so good.
- If you like series which begin WTF but have a satisfying end, I'd recommend Mrs Davies to you.
  
  The trailer for that looked really interesting. If/when we add a subscription to Peacock that's getting binged. Thanks for the recommendation!
- I've enjoyed From so far, for the same reasons you describe... but it really needs to clear up some of its loose ends, otherwise it'll end up like Lost.
  At the moment, it's a lot of "hey! look at this crazy thing! I wonder what it could be... oooo?", and not a lot of "so this was actually..."
  
  "and not a lot of “so this was actually…”" That's exactly what I'm afraid of. These types of shows just don't work without that part!

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