Posted December 31, 2017
Considering there's already a thread on movies, and I'm way, way more into TV shows, instead of derailing that with a different type of entertainment best to make a sister thread.
Tell us about what you liked, disliked, etc. in television during this past year.
Best TV Shows
Legion
Legion is about a man called David Haller locked in a mental asylum who gets broken out of there, and told that he isn't crazy but is in fact a mutant. Soon enough he and the group that rescued him discover that there is something deeply wrong with David. He has something hidden inside his mind twisting his memories and his perception of reality.
The biggest surprise with this show was how, depite all the pastel colors, a good part of it feels like a psychological horror. Not that it ever goes too far in that direction. The show also has its moments of levity. What made it brilliant in my eyes, and how it manages to retain a consistent tone, is by leaning in heavily on the surreal aspect of the story. You can go from a Bollywood dance humber in the first episode, to a creepy mind monster making him question his sanity, to the main character having a discussion with his own rational self (who obviously speaks in a british accent), to dedicating the first 15min of the last episode to the sad routine of a minor villain just to humanize him, and it all feels like it fits within this weird surreal universe about telepaths and astral planes that they created. It's from the same creator and showrunner as Fargo, which I haven't watched yet, but after seeing Legion it's definitely on my list.
Alias Grace
Alias Grace is inspired by the true story of Grace Marks, a 19th century servant convicted of murdering her bosses. The book, andthe 6-episode miniseries, is a fictionalized narrative of her recounting her life's story to a psychologist hired to determine if she truly deserves to be in prison.
Yes, out of the two critically acclaimed Margaret Atwood adaptations this year, I would rank this one above The Handmaid's Tale. That show, while I can't deny its quality, has not enticed me to watch it all the way through. In part because the flashbacks, while thematically appropriate and go towards establishing that something like that could potentially happen anywhere, feel like a distraction when my most pressing concern was how the protagonist is going to survive in the present. And in part because all the oppression and injustices the main character suffers result in a show that, however well made, is still hard to watch.
Alias Grace, by comparison, while also working with a present day/flashback framework, in it the enphasis is far heavier on the flashback; the result of which will have a direct impact on the main character's future, thus making the two narratives inextricably tied. Also, despite it being just as much a parade of injustices and tragedies as The Handmaid's Tale, the possibility of her being pardoned in the end is just enough of a ray of hope to keep it from being exhausting.
Alias Grace constructs a truly gripping and nail-biting mystery. Told from the perspective of an unreliable narrator, we're left pondering so many questions: Did she commit the murders? Was she aware of her actions if she did it? If she did murder her bosses, was it justified by their actions? What of society's treatment of her, both before and after the murders took place? Did it drive her to commit the murders? Is the punishment she received unreasonable? This mystery and these questions create such compelling television that it is truly a challenge to not watch all 6 episodes in a row.
Tell us about what you liked, disliked, etc. in television during this past year.
Best TV Shows
Legion
Legion is about a man called David Haller locked in a mental asylum who gets broken out of there, and told that he isn't crazy but is in fact a mutant. Soon enough he and the group that rescued him discover that there is something deeply wrong with David. He has something hidden inside his mind twisting his memories and his perception of reality.
The biggest surprise with this show was how, depite all the pastel colors, a good part of it feels like a psychological horror. Not that it ever goes too far in that direction. The show also has its moments of levity. What made it brilliant in my eyes, and how it manages to retain a consistent tone, is by leaning in heavily on the surreal aspect of the story. You can go from a Bollywood dance humber in the first episode, to a creepy mind monster making him question his sanity, to the main character having a discussion with his own rational self (who obviously speaks in a british accent), to dedicating the first 15min of the last episode to the sad routine of a minor villain just to humanize him, and it all feels like it fits within this weird surreal universe about telepaths and astral planes that they created. It's from the same creator and showrunner as Fargo, which I haven't watched yet, but after seeing Legion it's definitely on my list.
Alias Grace
Alias Grace is inspired by the true story of Grace Marks, a 19th century servant convicted of murdering her bosses. The book, andthe 6-episode miniseries, is a fictionalized narrative of her recounting her life's story to a psychologist hired to determine if she truly deserves to be in prison.
Yes, out of the two critically acclaimed Margaret Atwood adaptations this year, I would rank this one above The Handmaid's Tale. That show, while I can't deny its quality, has not enticed me to watch it all the way through. In part because the flashbacks, while thematically appropriate and go towards establishing that something like that could potentially happen anywhere, feel like a distraction when my most pressing concern was how the protagonist is going to survive in the present. And in part because all the oppression and injustices the main character suffers result in a show that, however well made, is still hard to watch.
Alias Grace, by comparison, while also working with a present day/flashback framework, in it the enphasis is far heavier on the flashback; the result of which will have a direct impact on the main character's future, thus making the two narratives inextricably tied. Also, despite it being just as much a parade of injustices and tragedies as The Handmaid's Tale, the possibility of her being pardoned in the end is just enough of a ray of hope to keep it from being exhausting.
Alias Grace constructs a truly gripping and nail-biting mystery. Told from the perspective of an unreliable narrator, we're left pondering so many questions: Did she commit the murders? Was she aware of her actions if she did it? If she did murder her bosses, was it justified by their actions? What of society's treatment of her, both before and after the murders took place? Did it drive her to commit the murders? Is the punishment she received unreasonable? This mystery and these questions create such compelling television that it is truly a challenge to not watch all 6 episodes in a row.
