The Wire

The Sopranos

Deadwood

Twin Peaks

The Shield

Larry Sanders Show

Curb Your Enthusiasm

It’s Always Sunny

Arrival may fit your criteria. It's set in present day which makes it feel more relevant/timely, and with its themes of the importance of communication and cooperation and the dangers of rushes to violence when faced with a lack of information, I'd say a lot of that is very relevant to today, and especially the year it came out.

It's also hard to pin down the modern aesthtic in the same way we can retroactively identify T2 as being perfectly emblematic of the late 80s/early 90s action blockbuster vibe, but Arrival's clean eerie presentation feels consistent with some of the general tones of his contemporary directors like Fincher and Nolan.

I thought it was pretty funny in general, and I don't mind that change. Music videos aren't as huge a part of pop culture as they used to be, and a lot of that space has been taken by TikTok/YT.

It's not as good as either of the two movies, and I never watched much of the original series, but I enjoyed it a lot.

I called it.

Is he going reverse-method as Logan in a wild mindfuck double-cross heelturn?

Is a nailgun a firearm?

The purpose of a gun is murder. The fact guns are used for murder isn't a shocker.

The shocker is that half the government gets paid so much by the NRA that they're happy to make the yearly sacrifice of dozens of innocent people, often children, just to keep that paycheck.

If people were using firearms to fasten nails, now that'd be interesting.

I mean if somebody tries to use a hammer to slice a block of cheese, that's not the hammer's problem.

Problem 1 is not a problem with RT, it's a problem with the people unable to wrap their brain around what a RT% actually is, or if they do understand what it is can't figure out how to apply that information to their movie-choosing.

As far as the trolls/bots, it's no more susceptible to this than any other platform, and the fact the main metric is the Critics Rating means all you need to do is ignore audience score for any popular movie with a prominent minority/woman since it will inevitably get review-bombed by the alt-right.

The third problem is again, not a problem with RT, just a reflection of the fact that most popular mainstream cinema is focused around American movies.

I find it easier to watch stuff as it airs. One hour a week for 10-12 weeks is an easy commitment, but if that builds up to one 10-12 hour block, it gets a bit harder to manage.

And as a parent I gotta imagine it’s nice knowing that even if your kid is getting into somewhat reckless behavior, they won’t be in a car. For all the concerns I hear about crime or any possible increased likelihood of drugs/alcohol, I never had any of my contemporaries growing up die, whereas everybody I know from suburbia/rural areas had at least a couple kids around their age die in car crashes.

I think the action scenes Gangs of London are a bit better and more elaborate.

And as far as pure martial arts I think Warrior beats it.

But overall I think Banshee does have the best balance of action/characters/story. Warrior is trending in a positive direction to compare, but Gangs of London’s season 2 went downhill outside of the pure action.

I loved it, specifically not needing a car makes being a teenager in NYC way more liberating than most other places. As soon as your parents trust you not to die you can kinda do what you want. Even at 13-14 you can just meet up with friends in your neighborhood and wander around and do whatever.

My high school was small but public, and they’d call your parents if you didn’t show so it made skipping harder but I never really had an inclination to skip.

The Wire. The way it marries seamless sprawling narrative with compelling characters and political/economic commentary that’s just as relevant today as ever is such an incredible achievement.

The Sopranos is also essentially perfect, but I’m not quite as naturally interested in the micro themes it revolves around as I am the bigger picture stuff The Wire deals with.

I could also see The Wire not being as impactful to non-Americans who may not be as keyed into the ways it relates to our politics and socio-economics.

It’s so good. It’s also so dumb and feels like it was made specifically for 16 year old boys, but within that rubric it’s just fantastic. Great performances, awesome action, fun characters, and will stimulate every bit of your lizard brain.

Definitely watch Warrior, Jett, Quarry, and Gangs of London.

Just binged this last weekend, not one of the best shows I’ve ever seen but very solid all around, and I really like the way it ends.

Definitely will be back for season 2.

Don’t Stop Believin’

Cronenberg's eXistenZ really does belong in this canon. Just an all around crazy mindfuck. I feel like it's virtual reality premise kinda got overshadowed by The Matrix.

Rewatched this recently, definitely a pretty wild mindfuck. The twist is set up kind of obviously from the start, but it's just so outlandish you actually have to see it happen to believe it.

It's not generally seen as awful, but in comparison to the first two, it is a massive drop off, which is admittedly a very very high bar.

But it also suffers from coming out 20ish years after the first two, which were made more or less back-to-back, so they really feel like one full piece.

I am interested to see the new Coda re-edit, because I do think that it works best as an epilogue, and not something that's supposed to be a full 1/3 or 33% of the total picture on equal footing with the first two, and from my understanding, that's the direction Coppola goes with this newer edit.

It’s kind of a mix. Many episodes have a self-contained story, but a lotta the time that’ll be something like a Dutch/Claudette story while the Vic/Strike Team storyline may factor more into the overall serial aspect.

Overall I think it’s an awesome show, but there is a LOT of it and there are stretches where things drag, but there’s always awesome performances, and it really does get better as it goes along.

Basically the first 2-3 seasons are them getting away with all kinds of crazy shit, and the rest is that all slowly crumbling around them, and that second part is the best.

I haven't, just saying that my original point about Fargo being a matchmaker still stands.

Oof well that's a rough one. Still, a match is a match,

Oh damn I actually had no idea. Between that and Kirsten Dunst/Jesse Plemons it seems like Fargo is quite the matchmaker of a TV show.

Little Fargo season 3 reunion.