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Honorable Mention - Jack Ryan - It does everything that it is supposed to well, but sometimes the realism is almost too good, in that it portrays the real-life intel stuff can be boring at times. Still, Krasinski is great and perfect choice for the role. 10) The Amazing Race - This season was fun in that I actually would've been happy with any of the Top 4 winning. What I'm saying is that they did a good job finding likable teams. I have a soft spot for this show because it's one of the only shows both my Mom and I watch. 9) Real Time with Bill Maher - 90% of the time I agree with Bill and think he's funny, 10% of the time I think he's out of his mind and vehemently disagree with him. And that's okay. He has interesting guests, including some I really don't like. And that's okay. Actually, it's more than okay, it's a great thing! 8) Cobra Kai - This show was way better than it had any right to be, but it does feel like we're running out of steam a little. It is still a lot of fun though and balances self-awareness without getting too cute with it. 7) For All Mankind - This show is a fun mess sometimes. Still, it hits more than it misses and I'm a sucker for alt-history. 6) Last Week Tonight with John Oliver - I wish I could make everyone watch this show. 5) Stranger Things - 2022 was a season of comebacks and Stranger Things is back, baby! I was never really that down on this show, but drat, this season was as good as anything this show has done. 4) The White Lotus - Always sad to check out of the White Lotus. I was worried that this show might struggle to avoid just repeating the same thing with new characters and in a new place, but I had nothing to worry about. I enjoyed the shift from class issues to relationship issues and jealousy and honesty because it kept things fresh. The cast was once again perfect from top to bottom, and I enjoyed the multiple dead bodies twist to keep the "who died" thing fresh. Some of my friends felt it was a little too slow, but I found it be a perfectly paced, exquisite slow burn building up to an inferno by the last episode. Can't wait for Season 3. 3) House of the Dragon - Game of Thrones is back, baby! Although I did not hate Season 8, I wasn't super excited for this show and didn't watch it when it came out immediately. But finding myself in a show hole I decided to check it out and it was one of my favorites of the year. This show didn't suffer from having to tell too many stories and tie them together, and, as a result, it got to tell a more intimate GoT tale in superb detail. There was more drama and tension at HOTD's dinners, weddings, and funerals in this show than most of the big GoT battles. The shot of Vhagar rising out of the rain was as cool as anything as I saw on TV this year. The other thing that bears mentioning is that the show took the creative risk of replacing actors that had really grown on the audience and were throwing fastballs. It worked. The show didn't skip a beat during the line change. Impressive stuff. 2) Better Call Saul - A victory lap for one of the greatest shows in TV history.....surely this is a mistake at #2?!?!? Based on the totality of the series body of work, BCS is better than my #1, pick, yes. But based solely on the episodes that aired this year, we have ourselves one of the biggest upsets in Bulky's TV list history...... 1) Andor - Star Wars is back, baby! Going to see ESB and ROTJ are some of my earliest memories. In high school, I rediscovered my love of Star Wars and used to play West End Games: Star Wars RPG with my friends along with every video game LucasArts spit out. During that time period, Obi-Wan became my favorite character. I was so disappointed by the Kenobi series, I nearly lost interest in Star Wars to the point where I didn't really have any interest in watching Andor. With White Lotus over and having nothing else to watch I decided to give Andor a try. The best way I can describe it is that for me, Andor brought one of the Star Wars RPG supplements to life. The supplements were small stories, a complete set of missions with characters and objectives that didn't involve the "big" events of the movies or the "big" characters. They were just small stories in this incredibly well-crafted universe. I found the writing and production values to be so much higher quality than Kenobi (and to a lesser extent Boba Fett) that I struggle to comprehend that they were both made by the same company. This was Star Wars for grown-ups and it was magnificent. To me there is plenty of room in the Star Wars universe for all sorts of stories to be told and it's all still Star Wars because of the common elements that ground it all together. What an unexpected delight this was. It's even got me digging around in the basement for my old Star Wars RPG books. Pure magic. Bulky Bartokomous fucked around with this message at 00:50 on Jan 27, 2023 |
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Dec 28, 2022 15:48
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Hakkesshu posted:3) Andor Glad to see I'm not the only who felt this way. West End Games for life!
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Dec 29, 2022 19:29
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It sounds like Severance is the best show I’m not watching. Every year this thread finds me another show I would have passed on left to my own devices. This thread in years past inspired me to watch Ted Lasso, For All Mankind, and Fleabag.
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Jan 3, 2023 16:03
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Having thought more about this year's TV, I would swap Andor into my 1 spot. I can't stop thinking about it. Better Call Saul is/was amazing but I really think based on just what aired this year, I got it wrong and Andor was #1.
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Jan 23, 2023 06:05
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Looten Plunder posted:So if you want to make this official you can - just change your list and post again in the thread or PM me. Awesome, made two changes: Andor to 1, BCS to 2. Jack Ryan dropped out, Real Time entered the fray at 9.
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Jan 27, 2023 00:53
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Pillowpants posted:The Bill maher show? Yes
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Jan 30, 2023 05:57
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NGL, I get WAY too excited about being quoted in the reveal.
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Feb 1, 2023 19:21
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| # ¿ May 9, 2024 21:59 |
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Looten Plunder posted:
Johnny Lawrence would be pissed for a second….but then read the last part and be totally cool with it.
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Feb 3, 2023 19:54
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Biggest Faller: Cobra Kai (Down 69)