Do you have a guilty favourite television show?

submitted by JasonCarswell from self.Television

I don't have a television, but I do watch television. On occasion. Usually binge watched now. Never as much as I'd like but always too much.

I try to keep up with the decent noteworthy shows. Rick & Morty, The Expanse, etc. I'm always behind, yet never really missing anything.

During my Big Pharama poison prescription induced depression fog all I did was watch TV and movies and now I can't remember much of them. Plus my sense of time is shot now.

There are only a couple from that time I still follow. These are some of my guilty pleasures that I actually download on a weekly basis instead of waiting to binge. None of them are great, but they're not bad either, and I can easily do other things while it plays on my 4th monitor:

 

The Curse Of Oak Island documents Nova Scotia treasure hunters in a banal reality-TV presentation yet has some occasionally interesting authentic discoveries. (I also like Digging For Britain, but I binge that every few years.)
Torrent

 

Picard is not your Dad's Star Trek but desperately wishes it was. The fundamentals of Star Trek are pushed aside to "modernize" this very unoriginal series dependent on nostalgia while ruining the legacy and failing to improve on anything. As a fan of the original Star Trek and Star Trek: The Next Generation I watch in desperate hopes that it eventually finds good solid footing to take off.
Torrent

 

Endeavour , British ITV murder mysteries solved by a younger Endeavour Morse set around Oxford in the late 60s / early 70s, based on another series I haven't seen. I can't explain why exactly that I like this quaint pseudo-gothic semi-pretentious show, but I think it has something to do with the excellent immersion into another time and place and culture, even if fictionally glazed over in artificial nostalgia propaganda.
Torrent

 

Bonus:
I've also got 1864 (2014) qued up and ready to watch. If anyone is interested I can wait for you to download or whatever and we can watch it together and correspond about it, pros, cons, propaganda, etc.
Torrent

" 1864 is a 2014 Danish television historical war drama series written and directed by Ole Bornedal. It is based on two books by Tom Buk-Swienty about the Second Schleswig War of 1864 between Denmark and an alliance of Prussia and Austria which ended in defeat for Denmark and the loss of a quarter of its territory to Prussia. It follows two brothers from a remote village on Funen who enlist in the Danish army just before the outbreak of war, and experience the horrors of combat in Schleswig. It also features actual historical figures such as Danish prime minister D. G. Monrad and Prussian prime minister Otto von Bismarck. It was the most expensive Danish TV series to be made to date. " ~ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1864_(TV_series)

IMDb only gives it a 6.6/10, but I figure I can learn a lot about non-English Europe. For period pieces I like to peruse the trivia about the behind the scenes production, fictions, facts, anachronisms, etc. If it turns out to be meh then I'll just multitask.

 

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[–][deleted] 4 insightful - 3 fun4 insightful - 2 fun5 insightful - 3 fun -  (7 children)

Shart Tank and Dragon's Den. I'm gonna try the paris hilton cooking show too.

[–]AbeFroman 3 insightful - 5 fun3 insightful - 4 fun4 insightful - 5 fun -  (2 children)

Shart Tank

Is that like Fear Factor? Sounds disgusting.

[–]DffrntDrmmr 3 insightful - 4 fun3 insightful - 3 fun4 insightful - 4 fun -  (0 children)

Shart Tank

*Shark Tank

Shart Tank would be very disgusting.

[–]JasonCarswell[S] 2 insightful - 2 fun2 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 2 fun -  (0 children)

Not at all. It's where you pitch your unique business ideas to investors. From what I recall.

[–]SierraKiloBravo 3 insightful - 3 fun3 insightful - 2 fun4 insightful - 3 fun -  (0 children)

OMG I love Shark Tank and Dragon's Den!

[–]JasonCarswell[S] 2 insightful - 2 fun2 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 2 fun -  (2 children)

My cousin likes Shark Tank and Dragon's Den. I only saw the Canadian version of one of them, I forget which, and found it droll. 9+ years ago?

While I wouldn't kick her out of bed for eating crackers, I have no interest in Paris Hilton. And cooking shows make me hungry and envious and sad at my state.

So I avoid such things and try to dig my way out of my state and focus on making the epic I would want to see. (And just maybe it might bring me some "success" to escape my state.) Some days are good and some meh, and it's taking longer than I thought to configure the whole thing, but the more progress I make the more momentum it seems to have, yet it also becomes more apparent that there's ever so much yet to do in getting it out of my head and into words and images. Obviously consumes most of my thoughts. Its exhausting and invigorating simultaneously. And it's also disappointing and refreshing to be putting the pieces in place while leaving a pile of pieces on the side. I have too much story and/or backstory for just a movie, which is kind of a waste, but it's also better than trying to fill time or something. And now I'm trying to "cut" it all down to the essentials, without wasting time or feeling rushed within 2 hours 20 minutes, roughly. (It can always be edited down in post. 2001 and Fight Club were both about that length too, though I felt the former dragged and the latter whipped by.) Really, it might work better as a mini series.

I was actually thinking about PMing you before sitting down to this. I was gonna ask if there was a way of "sharding" the SaidIt database so that you could process, say, each year - then when it's time to look back, tally, search, etc then it could just calculate the most recent year then add that to the accumulated past years. And every year you start a new shard, and add the new shard to the old shard list and re-tally their totals. Or something. Maybe I'm just talking out my ass. Or hopefully it's something to think about 1) before the next upgrade, 2) towards decentralization modularization, and 3) general efficiency. Food for thought?

[–][deleted] 3 insightful - 2 fun3 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 2 fun -  (1 child)

i don't know what the goal of this sharding is. We could calculate all sorts of stats by year now if we wanted to. and we purposefully don't let posts become "archived" like on reddit.

your guilty pleasure shows don't sound very guilty to me. I'm glad that you're making progress on your mega-project.

[–]JasonCarswell[S] 2 insightful - 2 fun2 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 2 fun -  (0 children)

I feel guilty in that they are television shows - as in, a waste of time when I could be saving the world. Maybe I also feel guilty they aren't rare finds worthy of more interest.

In my mind, and I may be wrong, by embracing the sharding it might make it easier to share databases that aren't "complete". Rather than requiring a complete full database, one might be able to use a less than intact database, and collect the rest of the shards over time. Maybe I misunderstood what you and M7 did over the weekend. I thought you were recalculating the whole database, and down the road might need to again. I don't know what that entails but it might be neat if you could do that in parts, and maybe even in shard parts, then maybe it might not be such a big event - and be easier to share (and thus decentralize). Maybe I'm talking too abstractly about things I know nothing about.

I like that you don't archive stuff. I guess that's part of it too. Maybe there's a way to "archive" stuff, and then alter/build changes on it in later epochs.

I'm excited about BsS but fear I might be overselling it. But maybe not. The worst thing is knowing it's good, and not being able to show much yet. I'm ready to explode. But there's sooooooo much more to go before it's even presentable as a first pass. It's also frustrating because it starts very small and humble and builds to an epic scale - so you can't really fathom it until you understand the whole journey.

[–]Vigte 4 insightful - 3 fun4 insightful - 2 fun5 insightful - 3 fun -  (4 children)

Trailer Park Boys

[–]AbeFroman 4 insightful - 3 fun4 insightful - 2 fun5 insightful - 3 fun -  (0 children)

An answer and a link. Getting 2 birds stoned at once!

[–]JasonCarswell[S] 1 insightful - 2 fun1 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 2 fun -  (2 children)

I've heard that folks like Trailer Park Boys, but I couldn't watch it then, and I wouldn't even have watched half way through that Best Of except I saw a young Ellen Page. Tragic more than funny.

[–]Vigte 3 insightful - 3 fun3 insightful - 2 fun4 insightful - 3 fun -  (1 child)

It's because it's so painfully stupid that it's fun to watch, it lets you turn your brain off for a while lol. Plus it's kind of part tragedy (as you said) and part "overcoming adversity"... just not in a wolf of wallstreet or Rambo kind of way.

[–]JasonCarswell[S] 1 insightful - 2 fun1 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 2 fun -  (0 children)

The painful part and watching people suffer is too much for me. I don't like the COPS shows and the Funniest Home Videos - and the YouTube equivalents - because people get hurt.

I didn't catch the "overcoming adversity" thing but that is indeed a worthy reason. And the unconventional nonconformist angle is also worth embracing.

[–]a_man_a_plan_pancake 3 insightful - 2 fun3 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 2 fun -  (5 children)

Los Espookies

Angie Tribeca -- though it got tiresome mid-way through the 2nd season, you can only do the same joke so many times.

Junkyard Wars (I think that's what it was called)

The Man Show (of course)

Most Extreme Elimination Challenge (MXC)

[–]JasonCarswell[S] 1 insightful - 2 fun1 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 2 fun -  (4 children)

I know about none of those, though I've heard the name Angie Tribeca.

By titles alone my curiosity has not been piqued.

[–]a_man_a_plan_pancake 1 insightful - 2 fun1 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 2 fun -  (3 children)

Who gives a fucking shit whether your curiosity has been piqued, you pompous ass

[–]JasonCarswell[S] 1 insightful - 2 fun1 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 2 fun -  (2 children)

You responded to my post. Further, you listed them without a reason why you liked them, tempting to no one and/or assuming we can read your mind, thus I wonder who really is the pompous ass.

[–]a_man_a_plan_pancake 1 insightful - 2 fun1 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 2 fun -  (1 child)

In which we are reminded that fuckwits exist to provide entertainment for the rest of us. Also, butthurt much?

[–]JasonCarswell[S] 1 insightful - 2 fun1 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 2 fun -  (0 children)

Unfortunately most fuckwits are not remotely entertaining, and the majority of entrainment propaganda's demographics are aimed at fuckwits.

My butt is fine. I don't know why it would hurt.

I fail to see your point, if there is one.

[–]SierraKiloBravo 2 insightful - 2 fun2 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 2 fun -  (8 children)

We really enjoyed CHEER on Netflix: https://youtu.be/dhXRx_lva18

[–]JasonCarswell[S] 1 insightful - 2 fun1 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 2 fun -  (7 children)

Looks good! 6 episodes, not too long, not too short.

[–]SierraKiloBravo 2 insightful - 2 fun2 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 2 fun -  (6 children)

We loved it. It really showed how there is a lot more to it than glitter and scrunchies. It's bloody brutal

[–]JasonCarswell[S] 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (5 children)

Got it downloaded and ready to go.

[–]SierraKiloBravo 2 insightful - 2 fun2 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 2 fun -  (4 children)

Let me hear your mat talk when you're done!

[–]JasonCarswell[S] 2 insightful - 2 fun2 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 2 fun -  (3 children)

I have no mat talk but I did watch it between now and when you recommended it. Brilliant! Thanks for the rec.

I've also enjoyed your concise videos! Great work.

If I were to do a show like that I'd try to offer one more thing that I have yet to see much of out there - a skeptical analysis of propagandist nature of "authority". Some people touch on it here and there, or you get Renegade Cut who is 1/3 woke and 2/3 good critical analysis, but no one seems to focus on it.

To clarify what I mean with one easy example is this: How come there aren't more shows about plumbers, architects, mechanics, vintage store owners, ambulance drivers, etc? More specifically, why are there sooo damn many always about cops, spies, military, politicians, and "authority"? Just like going to church weekly for your brainwashing, the abundance of "authority" in media is programming you to accept it. Even if you get some CIA asshats that clown it up all movie long - they are still the "authorities" with the power. That power, authority, and expertise remains unquestioned and intact. And they are usually allowed to "justifiably cross the line" without ramifications.

Obviously it's a huge pet peeve of mine. I don't expect you to inject this kind of subversive commentary into all your videos (though I would be a fan for life), but maybe feel free to amp it up a bit. Also, feel free to take use/abuse these words and ideas as you see fit.

[–]SierraKiloBravo 2 insightful - 2 fun2 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 2 fun -  (2 children)

I'm glad to hear you enjoyed Cheer! I hope they make more, it was really engaging. On the cheer front, we also watched Cheer Squad but I don't think it was anywhere near as good as Cheer.

With reference to your other comment, in my recent video I briefly mentioned in my review for a Korean movie called Hide and Seek that one thing I liked was that the lead character was just an ordinary guy, not a cop or doctor or ex-military etc. He's just a dude that owns a coffee shop.

The catch with making videos / reviews is trying to keep viewers engaged, even if a video is less than 5mins long. These days with so much content available, people have very short attention spans, and unless a video is about something they are specifically interested in or sufficiently scandalous, they will click off very quickly.

[–]JasonCarswell[S] 1 insightful - 2 fun1 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 2 fun -  (1 child)

I saw your Cheer Squad vid. Obviously it didn't compel me to watch. When you recommended it I started watching Cheer! but stopped. It felt creepy and weird, and like I was a stereotype dirty old man. A while later it came up again on Nerdrotic, so I tried again and finally got past the initial weirdness - and was rewarded. Expertly presented. As was Tiger King, something else altogether.

Indeed. Andy Warhol said something about 15 minutes. MTV made it 15 seconds. Now it's 1.5 seconds, while multitasking.

I'm guessing you might already have seen many of these, but there might be something of interest you haven't...

Movie lists by topic, not all recommendable, but their scores on IMDb can indicate their quality:

I didn't watch/rewatch them all when adding them to these lists, nor have I bothered to actually review them as movies, and obviously there are a lot of blanks for notes about why they belong on the list.

If you write up reviews, comments, or other notes for any of the items in those lists I'd be happy to add your thoughts, with credit, or without, or just join InfoGalactic and contribute directly.

Book lists:

Above all: "The CIA As Organized Crime: How Illegal Operations Corrupt America And The World" by Douglas Valentine

Not on those lists:

Also, for your edutainment, should you seek it, my fave source for "friendly" content (though my wish list at the bottom remains largely unrequited, likely due to not being recent releases): https://infogalactic.com/info/Tigole.

If you're interested I could dig up my fave movies list I wrote to a friend last year. Perhaps you might find some new ones, perhaps worthy of review/promotion. And if you can gleen the essence of why I love those movies, maybe you can recommend some new to me. Or we could just swap notes, or riff, or whatever.

Thanks for Hide And Seek. Love your voice and accent. Ever consider animation?

[–]SierraKiloBravo 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Wow thanks man, a lot to take in. I will have a read through and explore your links. I am always down for watching / reading anything and love weird shit if its done right.

As for my accent, I am a New Zealander who has lived in Australia for over 10 years so its a bit of a mishmash these days! I have made some animations on my channel, but they are just silly joke things (the Toe Jam Football one is my favourite):

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLpfWODyVauq3-4XJ2_bzG261iB1zuYFbU

[–]Jesus-Christ 2 insightful - 2 fun2 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 2 fun -  (0 children)

I haven't properly watched a television series in years come to think of it.