What are you watching?

[Elle]

I am watching Martha Stewart's cooking school on PBS. She hypnotizes me rather like a serpent hypnotizes a rabbit.

Also watching the occasional episode of Longmire since others are netflixxing it. Pretty sure I dislike the show, yet it holds my attention somehow. I get the sense it has, like, a team of four writers, one of whom is a hilarious genius while the other three are clichéd and vaguely offensive duds.

[Tahlvin]

Game of Thrones and Outlander (my wife has been a huge Outlander fan since she read the first book back around 1993). Recorded episodes of Treehouse Masters. And the Stanley Cup finals.

[El Jefe]

Just started rewatching Burn Notice from the beginning, mostly to see if my initial feelings about how the show trailed off still hold true. Well, that and I'm waiting for additional seasons of the Blacklist, the Flash, and Agents of Shield to hit Netflix.

So far, I'm in the mostly strong seasons of Michael Weston: The Miami Saga. When I hit season six and seven, I'm pretty my opinions will be reinforced.

[Mike]

Game of Thrones -- when available on DVD
Walking Dead -- when available on Netflix/Hulu
Orange is the New Black
Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt
All Marvel Netflix offerings
Once Upon a Time -- when available on Netflix/Hulu
So You Think You Can Dance
Twin Peaks -- thoroughly entertained until the middle of Season 2; then it got stupid. Might finish it out. Might not.

I'll have to look at my Recently Watched list later, because I know there's a couple missing.

[Elle]

How is the Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt?

I considered watching that.

[Mike]

Kimmy is funny and quirky and really good. First season was awesome. I'm three episodes into the second season, and it took a couple episodes for it to find it's footing for me. Or maybe it took me a little bit to get back into the characters and world... who knows. But I think I'm really going to enjoy the rest of this. Not as good as the first season, probably, but I should reserve judgment until I've actually watched it all.

[Cazmonster]

I want to watch Outcast and Preacher.

What does AMC stream to? Netflix? Hulu?

[Elle]

The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt is hilarious, FYI.

[Elle]

Somehow it also continues to improve. I love it. I can't even put into words what I like about it, though I will have to try because Ron doesn't get it and insists on making me watch Longmire. Or really, he watches it while I am there, hanging about, so I get it too. I cannot understand what went wrong with the people making Longmire. It had problems from the get-go, but they should all basically die of pure shame for what they are doing with and to the Cheyenne Indians and various others. It's really just over the top nauseating.

[Cazmonster]

[mimekiller]

Your children sleep. Quality stuff

[Cazmonster]

I've seen a number of articles that AMC is bad at real-time updates for their shows, which aggravates me.

I'll be sticking with Vice's MUNCHIES and Hot Ones from First We Feast for the time being.

[Elle]

Ugh Longmire is so racist.

[Elle]

Okay, I don't think the Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt should be criticized for being racist but I do think Longmire's depiction of Native Americans is totally racist. So, I am topsy turvy with the world, but seriously, this baffles me. I feel like whoever thought Kimmy Schmidt was racist against Asians and Native Americans just totally failed to get it. And I don't mean that they didn't get the joke; I mean they didn't get the serious part. Apparently people are also mad that Dong is a "model minority". This also baffles me. He's the love interest, people, and he can't be Kimmy's love interest and not be a nice guy. That doesn't make him a model minority; that makes him a cute Asian guy who plays the love interest. We don't want Kimmy to date some jerk.

[Mike]

Amen to everything you just said.

[Elle]

Ok, while you're giving me an amen, please let me add that people who are offended by the fact that Kimmy's bunker story reminds them of real live stories like the women who were imprisoned in Cleveland, you too have also missed the whole point. The show is absurd, ridiculous, over the top silly, and OH MY GOD even this absurd level of shit is actually done to women!!! Women aren't allowed to be ridiculous and silly without terrible consequences. Why do they think so many episodes include jokes about how easy it is for Kimmy to be taken advantage of or kidnapped and raped again?! Women cannot afford to be cheerfully friendly, trusting, and helpful (which they're paradoxically trained to be!) in this crazy world. Kimmy is not the crazy one; she's MY eighth grader's real life. Tina Fey is freaking brilliant to twist it all inside out like this. Why doesn't the real world match Kimmy, rather than the other way around?

And same x2 for people pissed about the Antoine Dodson comparison. Who knows why various idiots made fun of him, but the genius of that clip was that someone Real and Funny and Honest, which we do not often see televised, burst forth to express the giant WTF is wrong with this world some people were feeling inside. This man was, lest we forget, a freaking HERO who personally fought off his sister's rapist, and then hilariously warned everyone and mocked the guy in the interview! That was the reaction we should be having every single time to the completely insane level of violence we accept as normal. The show gets that. The cultural embrace of violence here is not universal around the globe, in a way that shocks me sometimes. Every part of Jane Krakowski's character illustrates other forms of insanity and violence we are accepting as tolerable.

[Ronster]

The Blacklist

[Elle]

After small doses I finally went crazy and binge watched the whole rest of Kimmy and it is so good. It's like a giant catharsis for all the bad shit you've experienced, and particularly as a woman though not exclusively. It is a miracle we are all still here; we have all struggled to escape captivity in some way.

And there are so many beautiful little moments, like when Ms. White says "discipline has killed my joy" or "men find funny women disgusting". Yes, what IS it with the discipline, as if it's a good in itself? And Ms. White reminded me there is but one time in life anyone ever said I was "funny" (or specifically, used that word as a general descriptor of me). I remember being so shocked by that; definitely one of the best compliments ever received. Kimmy does her thing regardless of whether anyone gets it or finds it funny. It's inspiring, an image of a person who provides her own joy. Because she has to, but also just because she can. I seriously think that's rare as an image for women, which is sad.

I will add one thing though: Tina Fey is a genius for bringing us this show, but I kind of think her own stint as an actress on it sucks. She needed someone else to play that role (or roles, I should say). I feel like she was having so much fun with the show and loved it so much she had to write herself into it, but nah, it doesn't work. Maybe it appeals to the viewership of her other shows, though - I'm not a fan of those either.

[Elle]

[Ronster]

My wife can't stand Spader. I on the other hand appreciate the situation and the acting. It is my guilty pleasure to admire the character too .

Would you say he is Lawful Evil, or Chaotic Neutral? I am still trying to grasp these ideas.