Hello /c/sciencefiction lemmies. I’ve put together an image of some of the most discussed shows from July 2023.
Are there any science fiction TV series you are currently in the middle of watching or plan on watching in August?
Here is last months post. What are you Watching? (July 2023)
I’m watching Foundation (just started, so I’m on s01e01!), Silo, and I’m planning to rewatch Babylon 5.
Foundation is great. I’m enjoying the hell out of it. Silo was really good too
Silo started out pretty good for me, but lost steam about halfway through.
Seems like it takes a mighty deuce over the classic and everything it was saying, as is tradition for Asimov adaptations. Did you read the books?
I tried to read Asimov (by recommendation of my grandpa) as a kid and even though I was big into really heavy, dry philosophy and philosophical books I couldn’t get through any of his books - if you watch Foundation without expecting a great adaptation of the books (which in and of itself would be quite an achievement which I doubt we’ll ever see) it is a pretty great scifi show in my opinion. Certainly piqued my interest in finally reading the books even if it’s nothing like the show, but then again I don’t expect adaptations to be exact replicas of the original work and find that very difference enjoyable.
a direct adaptation of Foundation would never have worked, I’ve been enjoying the show but I’m not fully sold on how they’re doing it. I think they are going too hard into ideas only introduced in the later books (written decades after the main trilogy) that changed certain characters, making those later revelations too obvious and damaging the characters somewhat by doing it, but that’s just me having read the expanded asimoverse books recently, mostly it’s been fun.
What I would love to see is more isolated original stories in the foundation/empire/robots universe, it feels like an untapped treasure in that regard.
Did you watch it? I read the books and I’m really liking it. It very obviously diverges from the books early on, but I like to think of it as a different timeline, where things happened slightly differently. That’s what it feels like, anyway. Not sure about how they’re characterizing the Mule though, he’s not supposed to be some superman blasting his way through the galaxy, but the man in the shadows, orchestrating everything from behind the scenes.
Strange new Worlds. I think it’s the best Star Trek series since the original. I don’t think the casting is particularly great, but Anson Mount makes up for it. Like William Shatner was born to be Captain Kirk, Anson Mount was born to be Captain Pike.
The casting is good enough, the writing is great, and second season the directing and editing are also great.
Definitely the best Trek since Next Generation. Infinitely better than the reboot movies, Discovery, and Picard.
It’s genuinely funny, it’s usually smart, it’s optimistic, and most importantly it’s episodic, so when bad writing creeps in, it remains isolated to just a few bad episodes (like every other good star trek series).
So far my only critique is that occasionally they go too hard on mindless action/violence, which is just boring.
I wish the show had gotten a better main musical theme. Other than the cool retro sci-fi sound at the end, it’s really lame.
Ummm I agree with most of it, but I felt discovery managed the time jump well.
Definitely the best Trek since Next Generation.
I see you never watched Deep Space Nine.
DS9 was great. I just didn’t care for how dark it was, thematically.
I thought it a refreshing take on themes barely touched on in TNG.
I’m still trying to figure out why kirks brother is being shoehorned in. Most of his season one scenes had him just standing there. He was even knocked out 5 minutes into a mission. I love the “holodeck” they use for set extensions, definitely better than any green/blue screen from previous series. At least brother-Kirk is getting more to do in season 2.
My only issue with this season is that the worlds they are going to are neither strange nor new. It’s always a previously-discovered or previously-visited planet or even one that’s already a Federation world. Still love the show, but it’s not a good name for this season.
How do you feel about std? 😜
I honestly don’t hate it. It’s probably my least-favorite Star Trek, but I can find grains of goodness in it. For example, I really love Saru. Doug Jones’ performance in that make-up is amazing. He does so many little things with his movements to make them non-human.
I could watch Jess Bush as Nurse Chappel all day.
Currently watching Farscape. Such a bonkers show. About to finish second season.
YES! it’s so rare I find anyone else who’s seen farscape. only tv show I wish I could see again for the 1st time.
I think I’ve watched it completely at least four separate times; I love it so much. It’s just such good fun.
Harvey was the best.
Loved Harvey. My favorite episodes are crackers don’t matter, unrealized reality, Kansas, won’t get fooled again. Rygel in John’s body trying to figure out how to pee in a corner always cracks me up. Humans are SUPERIOR!!!
Just finished it recently. Chrichton being completely unhinged the whole show was a blast.
I said this above- when you finish Farscape, check out Blake’s 7, because Farscape paid tribute to it a lot.
I watched the whole series recently, it’s on YouTube.
They Cloned Tyrone is a surprise for me. Great modern scifi/blaxploitation film, though I have about 30 minutes left to finish.
Finally finding the time to finishAndor and what the fuck?! How is it so good???
Andor is SOOOOO GOOD. Andy Serkis straight up made me cry. (I have the last couple of episodes still to go so no spoilers pls lol)
But the characters, the writing, the acting, the storylines and the theeeeeemmes omg. It’s like a dramatic embodiment of Seeing Like a State.
One Way Out. ONE WAY OUT.
I’m probably exactly where you are so no spoilers from me either. I just can’t believe how good this show is, for all the reasons you stated. Ugh it actually brings me back into the fold. Hoping for me great SW content
I’m sorry, you’re only allowed to say “what the fight? How is it so good???”
But otherwise, yeah - it’s a show that really benefits from tight plotting, dedicated performances, an excellent score and some Tony Gilroy & Friends bangers for speeches. I kind of have to stop myself re-watching it (for the millionth time)
I’m sorry, I don’t understand the first half of your comment. Are there strong language rules on this community?
Not that I’m aware of. Sorry - it was a reference to Andor: there’s a scene where a character says ‘Fight’ where it was initially filmed as ‘Fuck’ but Disney wouldn’t let them use it (maybe for the best, I don’t know).
Haha that’s actually hilarious. I can’t wait to dig into reviews, essays, and bts stuff when I’m finished.
Rewatching The Expanse. First 3 seasons are so intense and so good
I’ve been binging Lower Decks and looking forward to the new season, it’s really a solid show and is definitely more than it seems.
The Strange New Worlds crossover episode was fantastic.
So worthy!
Rewatching Westworld, the first season was truly a masterpiece.
It really was, and the last season such a pile of shit. I might even have finished it. Like, I get it, we needed to break out, but let’s maybe end it there.
But the first episodes are always so promising haha! Man I watched every Westworld season as they aired, and while s2-4 never got as good as the first one they would always have one or two really strong episodes where you thought ‘right, that’s why I’m watching this’. Usually every subsequent season would then peeter out towards the end. Although, season 4 was particularly sour
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Please do watch the expanse 😉 but the first season can be a little slow at least the first half of the season.
Slow but absolutely necessary. As the stakes grow bigger, knowing the players that well pays off so good.
Yup can confirm. I after the last season of the expanse, I really had to just read novels. Me who hardly read books after age of 25. It’s just so good. Expanse physics is relatively speaking so realistic. No magical convinient inertia or gravity.
There not being anymore Firefly is always sad whenever I think about it. I noticed there was a series of books when I was in the bookstore the other day. I have no idea if they are directly related or not. It must at least be in the same universe.
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These ones were novels. It looks like Joss was only an editor for them.
If you can, keep going on the Expanse. I think seasons 2 and 3 are some of the best sci-fi ever made.
I love Firefly. Nothing to add about that, just wanted to state that.
Foundation and a re-watch of Rebels (so good!)
I really like foundation as it’s own thing, separate to the source material. top notch show
I’ve been watching Star Wars Rebels slowly over the last few months. I’m currently part way through season 4 and it’s some of the best Star Wars I’ve watched. Such a great series that I think some people won’t watch because they think it’s a “kid’s show”. I’ll have it done before Ahsoka starts next month and I’m glad I finally watched it.
And Chopper is by far my favourite character.
I read somewhere that Chop has the highest kill count in the entire franchise 🤖☠️
+1 foundation is good
I’m watching Terminator - The Sarah Connor Chronicles. I don’t know how I missed this back in 2008. It’s real good.
Show was killed way to soon. It was pretty solid!
Damn you just gave me flashbacks to high school.
That was a great show, really bummed they cancelled it.
I really enjoyed this, was surprised it got lots of hate on it’s release. IIRC Fox didn’t do it any favors. It and Firefly are pretty much the only shows I’ve ever cared for on Fox.
It’s tight.
Let the wind blow high… Let the wind blow low. Through the streets in my… Kilt I go. All the lassies… cry hello. Donald wheres your trouser.
And then the girl starts singing along a bit later
Fuck didn’t know anyone can make me cry listening to fucking andy Stewart’s donald where’s your trousers. Motherf****
Anyway lena headey, summer glau. Show is slow but story is everybit worth it. The best expansion on terminator series.
Watched silo, then read silo. Excited to see how the show adapts the next book.
I’ve been curious with the show. Is it good?
The books are good political intrigue sci-fi, and the show puts a figure-out-the-twists mystery spin on it. I like both.
Currently re-watching The Orville for the 100 somethingth time! Love the show so much!
It’s terrifying that this might not be hyperbole…;)
I’ve been watching the X-Files. Back in the day I’d only ever sometimes catch episodes here and there on TV, so this is actually the first time I’ve sat down to watch the whole thing. Only partway through season one at the moment, but really digging it.
I did this recently with my wife, who’d never seen it. I love the show; I think there’s some fluff. It followed a sitcom schedule of 20+ episode seasons for a while and they can’t all be great.
Eventually I looked up and pulled out specific episodes to show my wife, because there are the classics. The episode with the Peacock family, Home, I recall.watching Sunday night after the Simpsons at 9 years old and being woefully under prepared mentally and emotionally, and my dad questioning his parentening, but the episode was just wayyy beyond anything the show had done. Haunted me as a kid and I don’t recall but I probably ended up taking dad’s spot in bed, maybe a penance for him letting me watch.
I wasn’t watching TV when the X files came out. Is there a list of shows to watch? I found a recommended list of Buffy (at least which shows were important at the beginning) when I finally saw that.
There are definitely some best of lists out there, ranging from top 10 up to 50 episodes, which nowadays is 4-5 seasons’ worth, especially considering the episodes are 40+ minutes.
You might search on the goog with the name of a popular website known for lists. This list covers my favorites and a few that I can’t specifically recall. And 25 is a good number.
There’s a few episodes where the show steps outside of itself and takes on a more humorous tone, and they’re must see. Some are more scary. Some filled with solid mystery.
I’m rewatching Lexx. The greatest and best show ever made!
Man, I wish to see more of The Expanse
I just started The Expanse and also just learned it got cancelled. I’m hoping by the time i finish it it’ll be picked back up.
It was canceled by Syfy, but then picked back up by Amazon. I haven’t finished it myself yet but I’m pretty sure they ended the show. That’s different from getting cancelled.
The problem is that the show ends before the end in the books. There’s still material for other 3 seasons I think.
There is, but the challenge is 30 years passes where they left off at the end of Babylon’s Ashes and before Persepolis Rising starts. They really rushed Babylon’s Ashes too since they knew they were getting cancelled.
That being said I REALLY want them to finish out the show. It’s so good.
It didn’t get cancelled. They planned to finish it there.
There’s also the weird thing that Alex is supposed to live and they killed him off. I really hope one day they will take their time to finish the show without rush.
The Actor sexually harassed a LOT of fans.
And so they canned him after it went public.
Honestly I’m not remembering anything in particular Alex did in the later seasons so probably it’s not a massive problem.
I know, it’s aweful. Anyway I still have to read the last book.
Yeah they really rushed through babylon’s ashes. But still we got the amazing fights of rocinante v zameya and rocinante v pella. Both of them are one the best space battles on TV Screen. And my only complaint with both of them is how quickly they ended. But still the chill you get once roci starts spinning and PDCs firing it’s just alone is worth it to watch the whole show.
Oh really? Well that’s great.
