SPOILER WARNING: Prestige Television Discussion

[Yada]

Getting pretty choked up regarding the final season of Girls.

Girls is for Girls. Not boys.

I don't know about that.. show is hilarious. Can't believe that move Shosh pulled.

[K8teebug]

Getting pretty choked up regarding the final season of Girls.

Girls is for Girls. Not boys.

I don't know about that.. show is hilarious. Can't believe that move Shosh pulled.

I just mean usually boys don't like it. But they should.  And that move was amazing. I wish I had the guts to tell some of my meaner girlfriends what she said.

[Julian, Forum COGNOSCENTI]

Shosh has been the most emotional mature person of the main characters since Season 3.

[Bagley]

Fargo season three commences on 4/19!!!

[DeathFromAbove1979]

Anyone else excited for new MST3K?

[Julian, Forum COGNOSCENTI]

Anyone else excited for new MST3K?

Actually yes. But it's not really prestige tbh.

[kosmo vinyl]

Found out that second season of Fortitude is now streaming on Amazon Prime.  As if I need more content in my life..

[Julian, Forum COGNOSCENTI]

Found out that second season of Fortitude is now streaming on Amazon Prime.  As if I need more content in my life..

Thanks for the heads up!

[Julian, Forum COGNOSCENTI]

Since I started this thread with a bullet-point list of talking points about an episode of Girls, I felt the finale deserved the same:

• Really unique final episode. Of the 7 "main" characters, we saw exactly 2 of them. The time jump made the entire episode feel like an epilogue and last week's episode the true end of the show.
• The thing I have always liked about Girls -- and that many of you are just too willfully obtuse to admit -- is that the show works because the characters are awful. Hannah being an annoying narcissist and you hating everyone is the entire point of the show. It is the one and only character study of a generation of older Millenials who come from upper-middle to upper-class backgrounds and manage to live in insular bubbles of myopia that results in them moving to the greatest melting pot in North America and meeting exactly one minority in 7 seasons. It reminds me of something Miss P once said "people either move to NYC for something or because they have nothing; no in-betweens." Exactly. And to break down the gentle gossamer depiction of such a disparate, self-absorbed subculture by judging it by the same metric you would the television show Friends ("but do I like this character? Would they fit in my friend group?") shows you missed the point entirely.
• Going back to episode 9, the friend group breaking up is the most realistic depiction of five years out from college I could imagine and I liked seeing a show that loosened the thread of that friendship realistically over the last few years. And I liked that our unabashed winner at the end (Shoshana) was the one that despite all the "totes presh"es uttered over the years was the one with the emotional maturity to realize things before anyone else (hell, she's been saying it since Beach House).
• In the end, there was no deus ex machina that made anyone more much more mature. Divorce didn't change Marnie (who apparently is a camgirl now?). Motherhood didn't change Hannah. These people are still acting out of sheer self-regard entirely. Marnie isn't the only one there with Hannah because she's the "best" friend, its because she had the worst life at the time. But her ability to tell herself a story about why she's doing what she's doing that is completely divorced from reality (no pun intended) and delude herself into actually convincing herself of it is about as good of a commentary on the American zeitgeist as anyone can muster.
• To piggyback off the first half of the last point, if there's anything "magic" that the word of Girls believes in, its small glimmers of perspective after random run-ins with strangers. In true Girls tradition, Hannah had exactly that last night meeting her (skinny) 17 year old doppleganger. These one-off character interactions in Girls cannot be counted; they are legion.
• If there's anything I will remember Girls for it will be its marvelous use of bottle episodes (or "spinoff" episodes where a non-Hannah character gets center reel for 27 minutes). One Man's Trash, The Beach House, The Panic in Central Park, whatever the one is with Shoshana in Japan, American Bitch, and probably even Painful Evaculation all are absolute classics that will be dissected by film students for a generation no matter how annoying someone finds Lena Dunham's social media presence.
• If there's a second thing I will remember Girls for it will be Allison Williams cringeworthy attempts at singing which brighten every episode in which we were blessed with it.

[Yada]

Since I started this thread with a bullet-point list of talking points about an episode of Girls, I felt the finale deserved the same:

• Really unique final episode. Of the 7 "main" characters, we saw exactly 2 of them. The time jump made the entire episode feel like an epilogue and last week's episode the true end of the show.
• The thing I have always liked about Girls -- and that many of you are just too willfully obtuse to admit -- is that the show works because the characters are awful. Hannah being an annoying narcissist and you hating everyone is the entire point of the show. It is the one and only character study of a generation of older Millenials who come from upper-middle to upper-class backgrounds and manage to live in insular bubbles of myopia that results in them moving to the greatest melting pot in North America and meeting exactly one minority in 7 seasons. It reminds me of something Miss P once said "people either move to NYC for something or because they have nothing; no in-betweens." Exactly. And to break down the gentle gossamer depiction of such a disparate, self-absorbed subculture by judging it by the same metric you would the television show Friends ("but do I like this character? Would they fit in my friend group?") shows you missed the point entirely.
• Going back to episode 9, the friend group breaking up is the most realistic depiction of five years out from college I could imagine and I liked seeing a show that loosened the thread of that friendship realistically over the last few years. And I liked that our unabashed winner at the end (Shoshana) was the one that despite all the "totes presh"es uttered over the years was the one with the emotional maturity to realize things before anyone else (hell, she's been saying it since Beach House).
• In the end, there was no deus ex machina that made anyone more much more mature. Divorce didn't change Marnie (who apparently is a camgirl now?). Motherhood didn't change Hannah. These people are still acting out of sheer self-regard entirely. Marnie isn't the only one there with Hannah because she's the "best" friend, its because she had the worst life at the time. But her ability to tell herself a story about why she's doing what she's doing that is completely divorced from reality (no pun intended) and delude herself into actually convincing herself of it is about as good of a commentary on the American zeitgeist as anyone can muster.
• To piggyback off the first half of the last point, if there's anything "magic" that the word of Girls believes in, its small glimmers of perspective after random run-ins with strangers. In true Girls tradition, Hannah had exactly that last night meeting her (skinny) 17 year old doppleganger. These one-off character interactions in Girls cannot be counted; they are legion.
• If there's anything I will remember Girls for it will be its marvelous use of bottle episodes (or "spinoff" episodes where a non-Hannah character gets center reel for 27 minutes). One Man's Trash, The Beach House, The Panic in Central Park, whatever the one is with Shoshana in Japan, American Bitch, and probably even Painful Evaculation all are absolute classics that will be dissected by film students for a generation no matter how annoying someone finds Lena Dunham's social media presence.
• If there's a second thing I will remember Girls for it will be Allison Williams cringeworthy attempts at singing which brighten every episode in which we were blessed with it.

whoa... that is some dedication. For what I thought was a great season, the show wrapped up incredibly painful and did a great job in making me happy the show ended.

[shemptiness]

Anybody catching Brockmire on IFC?

[ye-ole-hatch ıll|̲̅̅●̲̅̅|̲̅̅=̲̅̅|̲̅̅●̲̅̅|llıl]

man the new season of Silicon valley is outstanding
kinda forgot it was starting up


I'm not sure how Mike Judge got into Julian's brain
but I swear it's the visual representation of his schizophrenia
the obvious dominate personality is Erlich, while really felling a soul mate with Russ Hanneman
the barbed disdain of Gilfoyle
but really a part of him wants to be Ron LaFlamme
and unfortunately too often he parades like

[Julian, Forum COGNOSCENTI]

It's been commented on several times that I receive a fee for consulting on Erlich Bachman, a character which is clearly based on the Julian brand. Obviously my time with the writers has rubbed off and helped to create the Hanneman character.

I do not see the rest of your connections but I may be understating my massive influence on everyone I come in contact with.

[DeathFromAbove1979]

Oh, the Bachmanity!

[ggw]

No discussion of the Handmaid's Tale?  I think it mostly lives up to the hype (although the comparisons to "Trump's America" are way overdone).

American Gods has potential, mainly because Ian McShane is awesome.  Pretty weird first episode, but I'll give them time to establish some sort of direction.