What do you mean he was there the whole time?

I think the Sopranos has significantly better characters and writing, on the whole it's much more rewatchable than BB. BB is better at suspense and thrills, there's great writing to back that up but ultimately I don't think it has quite as much depth.

I wasn't saying it was inherently a bad point, just that those were bad examples because Severance could easily go the way of Westworld.

When Westworld was where Severance is at now it was critically acclaimed.

Might not be the best two shows to make your point.

None of the plot changes you suggested are related to the addition of a question mark.

Jaime doesn't become a fan favourite until he starts exhibiting likeable traits in fairness.

Though be mindful that watching too many shows at once might just result in a different kind of burnout.

Yeah people are equating Mandalorian and TLoU because both feature Pedro Pascal travelling while protecting a child but the former is far more western inspired than the latter.

The strike team deal with a lot of episodic storylines as well in the first couple of seasons and there are instances where Vic's storyline overlaps with Dutch/Claudette and others at the station.

The show is constantly building on itself, it's definitely not a procedural that resets to a baseline at the end of every episode but yeah it's also not accurate to say it's fully serialised.

I think it's a good balance for long form storytelling, it gives the characters time to breathe, the world feels more realised when it's not constantly about the high stakes main plotline.

> and I will die on that hill.

With such a brave and controversial pick as well.

Sorry couldn't help myself.

> Don't trust HotD at all on landing the ending

The story being told in HotD is already finished in Fire & Blood, they'll have to flesh it out a lot but it has a clear and defined trajectory.

> It had some cool moments but the quality of plot, writing and dialogue took a tumble there

That's how I'd describe 6. 5 was a mixed bag and the lows were really low but it still felt like they were trying.

They never suggested otherwise. Their first sentence reads "I don't care about nepotism if..."

You're free to disagree and say these examples of nepotism are still wrong but pay attention to what is actually being argued.

Yeah the notion that an unfinished story has no value is a very pessimistic one. We spend plenty of time piecing together the stories of real history even though we know we'll never have a complete picture of it.

It's a fucking shame how it all turned out and I don't blame any individual for not wanting to engage with ASOIAF any further. I just hope that the prevailing narrative that the early seasons/the books are fundamentally tainted will start to shift soon and that they can be appreciated in spite of their conclusion or lack thereof.

The Wire season 5 is a real mixed bag for me. The parts that are good are as good as ever but the serial killer plotline is very silly and the journalism stuff just isn't all that engaging, I really think they should have ended the trend of introducing new institutions every season and just focus on tying up all the plotlines that had already been established.

The ending is still very satisfying and makes up for the messy jog to finish line to a large extent but it's still disappointing that the final season is so much less tight than the rest.

Season 2 is excellent and just as good as 1-4, I struggle to rank them above one another.

I can definitely separate the art from the artist in a case like this I think.

Certainly lost some personal respect for them but if they're in something I want to see I'm not going to deprive myself

Obviously this person isn't the most attentive watcher but I can imagine someone knowing who Ewan McGregor is and not recognising him by face.

I would bet there's a significant number of people who only know him from Star Wars and he does look quite different with a shaved face and darker hair.

> Not defending Ewan's cheating in any way, though.

Fair enough but it's a slightly weird anecdote given the context of the conversation.

Greg, what do you know about Nero and Sporus?

Yeah I know people like to say the show won't work without >!Brian Cox!< but I entirely disagree. >!I think we need a full season post-Logan that fully examines the inevitable chaos that will follow!<.

> It's why the first two seasons are regarded as the best of the entire series

Not so sure about this. I defend season 2 of TWD but it was fairly heavily criticised when it came out and still doesn't have the best reputation to this day due to the (not entirely unfounded) perception that it is drawn out and tedious.

Losing Darabont definitely did a lot to hurt the show's vision and set the stage for the inevitable decline. That said I think if you asked a group of people (let's assume they've seen at least the first 6 or so seasons) to rank their favourites I would expect to see most people place S4 above S2 and frankly I wouldn't be surprised to see S2 at the bottom of many lists.

People on this site have a tendency to assume something is no longer popular just because they're not in the target demographic anymore.

Like obviously you heard more buzz about wrestling in the 90s, you were probably a kid and so were all your friends.

It might be another decade or two before it can be done but I don't see why it would remain forever off limits.

He sounds weird as fuck and at times a bit slurred in Rises but I wouldn't say it's his 'mumbliest'

Stranger Things is better if you're in the mood for a lighthearted adventure with likeable characters and 80s nostalgia.

Dark is better if you're more in it for the compelling long term mystery.