What TV SHOWS are you watching?

Surf Girls Hawai'i on Amazon Prime was a decent show. It's a 4-episode documentary about indigenous female pro surfers from Hawai'i competing to join the world tour. The girls part of the title is a bit inaccurate, as the five featured women range in age from 17 to 28. While surfing definitely requires skill, courage, and athleticism, the competition format features a surprising amount of luck and judgment. Contestants have a fixed time period (maybe 20 minutes) to surf the waves, and their score will be the sum of the ratings of their two best runs, based on score assigned by the panel of five judges. But there are 2 to 4 contestants in each heat, and only 1 or maybe 2 can surf a given wave without getting penalized for interference. But the quality of the waves can vary, so a surfer might pass on one or more waves in hopes of catching a better one. And as with any high-level athletic competition, mental state can be a significant factor. Might be a good topic for a board game, or at least a card game.

I am still gradually watching Freaks and Geeks, limiting myself to one episode per day to savor the experience. It is such a great sitcom that it has completely halted my slow binge of Friends, and I may not be able to resume Friends afterwards. I was just about finished with season four of Friends, and while many viewers consider seasons 4 - 6 to be the best of the show, I find it rather bland and unauthentic. I liked the first two seasons better because Friends still hadn't settled into a formula and took more chances. Freaks and Geeks is so much better because it serves up realism with some sympathy for every character. There are hints that the bully comes from a very dysfunctional home, especially when he has to shave his head after catching head lice. One geek has a crush who falls for a good-looking jock, but the jock pukes before every game because he has performance anxiety. The slightly intimidating gym coach turns out to be a really nice guy who is a closet Star Trek fan. On the other hand, the protagonists of the show sometimes behave badly, though at least we can understand why.

Shellhead wrote: Might be a good topic for a board game, or at least a card game.

Dude, that game exists: Tavarua
You should check it out, it's great.

By the guy who designed Xia.

Virabhadra wrote: If you change the music, is it still the same song?

It is if there's money to be made.

Nodens wrote:

Shellhead wrote: Might be a good topic for a board game, or at least a card game.

Dude, that game exists: Tavarua
You should check it out, it's great.

I concur. Tavarua is excellent. A bit unintuitive maybe, but plays well once everybody groks it.

World on Fire - Started watching season 2. Was surprised it came back after so long a hiatus from the pandemic. Looks like the focus is on North Africa, a French nurse (she was an extra in S1) in the resistance, and two German schoolgirls who argue over if being baby-machines for the Reich is right or wrong.

I am nearly done with Max. Since the merger, there has been a significant increase in low-grade reality tv fare and a decrease in interesting movies. I am deep into Teen Titans Go season one, for the Powerpuff Girl style humor. I am also watching the new season of Harley and Ivy. As soon as I finish those two shows, I will probably cancel Max and go try Disney+ or something else for a while, then maybe come back to Max next year for True Detective season four.

But I am not always in the mood to watch cartoons, so I randomly tried Vampire Diaries last night. Couldn't quite finish the first episode, because I was so bored. I like vampires, but this show felt like a very generic CW teen drama with a faint whiff of vampires in the mix. You could easily swap this cast out with the cast from One Tree Hill, Roswell, Gossip Girl, or Smallville and get the same results. I don't think that a teen drama is a terrible concept, but the few good ones (like Veronica Mars or The O.C.) benefited from good writing and good acting. The mediocre ones like Vampire Diaries appear to be a combination of J. Crew models and bland soap opera scripts. Also, I can't accept the concept of a couple of vampires living in a small town. You can't keep a secret like blood drinking in a small town for long, and even just a couple of deaths or disappearances will cause a big problem for the vampires.

The writers strike means the channels will stop having new quality content soon, if not already.

The Lost King on Acorn, which was light but rewarding. Excellent acting. It's about the rediscovery of Richard III's lost grave.

And with that I've cued up The Plantagenets, and Britain's Bloody Crown. Why watch Game of Thrones when this shit is crazier, and true?

First two episodes of AHSOKA. Rosario Dawson is great; her take on the character -- no longer the spunky teen of the Clone Wars series, but now older and solemn, more wry than spunky -- is very compelling. The older Sith is great (apparently the actor died while filming the series, which is too bad). Other characters range from serviceable to fun. Visually it looks great.

Overall I'd put it a little below ANDOR and .5 parsecs above Kenobi and Fett.

It's guilty confession time. I am still watching Vampire Diaries. I think my goth tendencies may date back to some early viewings of Dark Shadows, and that is clearly a touchstone from Vampire Diaries. I was worried that Vampire Diaries was going to be a heap of soapy vampire angst, but instead it is more fully realized world of darkness, with both witches and ghosts showing up in early episodes. The writers deftly weave the usual human soap opera elements with the darker and more violent vampire drama. Is Tyler's dad a vampire? No he is just an abusive self-proclaimed alpha male who became the town mayor.

The writers are apparently familiar with White Wolf's World of Darkness, because they are very conscious of the risk for a vampire existing in a small town. As it turns out, this town has a dark past that featured a clash between vampires and vampire hunters. So otherwise normal people might have a mystic family heirloom and/or an old diary with insights about fighting vampires.

It doesn't hurt that the whole cast is attractive. And the occasional humor helps. So I am all in for at least the first season, and will see where this show goes.

Ahsoka may hit differently if you've seen Clone Wars and Rebels. I haven't so I found her to be a fairly dull and bland character. I liked the two shady not-Jedi and the show looks great. I'll keep watching to see if it gets better and I do want to see Thrawn but I was close to bored for a lot of it.

Kmann wrote: I found her to be a fairly dull and bland character.

In her defense, that's the Jedi endgame.

But yeah, she was like that on Rebels too. Didn't watch CW so I've never seen the big deal.

ChristopherMD wrote: In her defense, that's the Jedi endgame.

A fair point.

ChristopherMD wrote:

Kmann wrote: I found her to be a fairly dull and bland character.

In her defense, that's the Jedi endgame.

But yeah, she was like that on Rebels too. Didn't watch CW so I've never seen the big deal.

This isn't really the expected character arc for snips (anakins pet name for her in Clone Wars) though because she explicitly REJECTS the jedi dogma on emotional suppression. So to see her go through all the shit she did on TCW season 8 and the bits of Rebels just to end up a jedi-esque solemn monk ANYWAY is kinda sad.