Seems to me that most series go downhill after 1.5 to 2 seasons for US made TV, while 2 to 3 seasons for UK made TV.
I do find a lot of new shows feel like identikit TV. However, having people stream old shows is the actual business model.
Netflix may get a new subscriber with their $50million shiny new production, but what keeps people subscribing is the old half hour comedy series, with a gazillion episodes, that they have licensed for $50,000.
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The Royal Institution Christmas lectures are on at the moment (200th anniversary as well)
This year, itās Maggie Aderin-Pocock from the Sky at Night presenting on the history of space research. Itās on the iPlayer and available internationally on YouTube:
They are primarily aimed at high school children, but I have always found them very entertaining.
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Decided to go on an Anime bingeā¦
Rewatched 86 ā Eighty-Six. Really enjoyed it the 2nd (or was it 3rd time). Sawano Hiroyuki music for the show was good too (same composer for Attack on Titan).
Also watched DanDaDan. Absolutely insane and fast pace. I do not remember much from FLCL, but the insanity could be somewhat similar?
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We finally caught up with the final season of Stranger Things and I think the best thing you can say about it is that it was desperately uninspired. Mrs Limie missed all the episodes from the first 2 mini releases (7 of them) and was still able to be caught up enough to watch the final one with about 2 mins of explanation and the final resolution was equally weak. Ultimately though it was a story that lost its way in the mythology and was always at its best when focusing on the relationships and camaraderie
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The sound and most of the music was excellent so I was happy 
.
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I think thatās what kept me watching. Iāve always liked the Tangerine Dream-esque soundtrack, and Iron Maidenās Trooper and Bowieās heroes were a bonus.
I should have bought the album instead.
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I had seen a lot of online criticism of the season before I started watching it and it feels most of that just comes from the toxicity of online fandom where whatever they did large segments would have hated it. I donāt think they did anything to justify that sort of reaction, it was just a weak resolution in terms of the story, even if still somewhat enjoyable. Lots of things were advanced with throw away lines that didnt reallt connect to things weād seen, and lots of things were just disposed of once convenient (demobats?). I think a lot of that is likely due to it always being harder to satisfactorily resolve stories with this sort of mythology than it is to do the world building. But mostly that even their world building was never really THAT good and it wasnt what made people take interest in the show in the first place.
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This seems to happen in all fandoms (certainly online ones).
I suspect that part of it is that Ć¼berfans have a little head canon of what a particular series is about, and when the writers have different ideas, they are absolutely furious about it. Clearly their little work of fan fiction is the only true and pure gospel.
You see this with Star Trek, Star Wars and Doctor Who fandoms. You can look at some peopleās social media history and wonder why they keep subjecting themselves to a series that clearly causes them so much distress.
In fact the latest one I saw was a series called Helluva Boss on Prime. Itās just a series of wacky little 20 minute animations. However, once you look on SM there is a huge fandom of people who utterly despise the thing and the people who make it.
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100%. WIth mystery shows I get that part of the fun is unpacking what is happening and guessing at what comes next, but the level of investment in peopleās own pet theories is really toxic. I dont get why people do that over something they supposedly enjoy, unless its the communicty aspect of all hating the same thing and telling themselves they are real fans who enjoyed it before x is more enjoyable.
For this season it does seem a lot of revolved around Willās story. Some people just hated him coming out, even though it had been very heavily alluded to throughout. But there is also another segment of the fans who were furious at being gaybaited into believing Will and Mike were going to end up together despite completely imaging those hints 
My take is it was a totally reasonable character development given the actor is himself gay, and in a story about friendship in the 80s showing them all going against societal norms to unquestionably accept him regardless was worthwhile and well done. Where it fell flat was trying to make it a bigger part of the plot, about something Venca had been using against him. There was nothing to point to about that before Will said it, and him saying that changed nothing at all about Vencaās plans. Thatās the sort of lazy writing that undermined the resolution, the idea they can just throw in a line unconnected to anything that has come before to advance the plot through the present scene and then do away it.
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Iām waiting for all the episodes of dark winds season 3, night manager season 2 and a korean show - cashero, to drop before watching any of them as my wife hates having to wait for weekly episodes.
Iām also waiting for shrinking season 3 to land later this month.
In the meantime iāve been watching Lucifer and Burn notice (somewhat terrible but watchable in their own way and i never saw them first time round). Am also watching fallout season 2 weekly as she doesnt like that show!
Iāve also started re watching the live action One Piece show (awesome show shame its only 8 episodes) ahead of its second season/ a mid series special, and live action cowboy bebop (why the f*** did they cancel this after only 1 or 2 episodes landed!).
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This was such a wild, pleasant surprise when I heard that last week. I didnt enjoy their adaptation of Little Drummer Boy, but thought Night Manager was fantastic.
Also coming in Jan:
- The Pitt S2
- Industry S4
- The new GoT spin off
- Shrinking S3
- The rest of Fallout S2
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Havenāt seen Little Drummer Boy. Not sure i have heard of it. Is it the same kind of show?
Likewise i wasnt expecting much from night manager and only watched it when it released because my wife likes Tom Hiddleston, but i was hooked from the first episode.
What platforms are The Pitt and Industry on, iām not familiar with them but think i have seen you mention them before?
Little drummer girl (not boy) was another Le Carre adaptation about an Israeli attempt to take out a Palestinian terrorist. The book is loved by Le Carre fans but I think maybe I just wasnt in the mood for an Israel vs Palestine show when it came out
The other two are both HBO shows. Industry is about a London investment bank that focuses on a cohort of new hires and what they have to do survive. The Pitt looks every bit the standard hospital procedural youāve seen 20 times already until you start watching it and you appreciate how much better it is at doing that stuff.
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The only show Iām currently watching (though I plan to watch the new season of Night Manager as well). Iām still in amazement as to how they managed to seamlessly translate the game elements onto the big screen (every time Lucy opens her mouth, it just screams āFallout speech skill checkā and I laugh my heart out) and how they combine the post-apocalyptic hopelessness with dark humour.
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Good heavens! Camberwick Green is 60 years old today!
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I tried a Danish show called Families like us. Denmark has decided their effort to deal with rising sea waters are futile and so closes the country down and it follows 2 families through their refugee process. I donāt know that Iād recommend it but thought it was pretty good
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The story we all need to hearā¦canāt waitā¦
One of the funnier criticisms of the show Iāve seen is that āit isnāt serious enoughā - like have you even played the games?
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I wonder why people who arenāt fans of the game series would watch in the first place.
As for seriousness, thereās a lot of it, both in the show and in the game. If thereās criticism I can level at it, itās the portrayal of Brotherhood of Steel - other stuff is pretty much spot-on.
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