TV Show Discussion Thread

What TV series are you watching? Anything upcoming you’re excited about? Any shows you want to recommend?

Discuss to your heart’s content below…

I started the long-awaited Season 2 of Hilda the other day, and to my surprise one of the new characters was played by a familiar voice actor.

John Hopkins, our very own Lucas Grey. In the show, he plays the brash and bold Erik Ahlberg, head of the town’s security force with an opinion that’s a little too harsh of the creatures living nearby.

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im waiting for the next seasons of Better Call Saul to come out on Netflix… its gonna be a while :pensive:

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With the Mandalorian season 2 wrapped up, I’m waiting for the Witcher Season 2 and currently waiting for the last half of Vikings season 6 to air on late December.

The Expanse, season 5 is currently well underway. It’s one of my absolute favorite scifi-shows of all time, and this is a really strong season so far.

The show is based off a series of novels by James S.A. Corey (which is actually the common pen name of two collaborating authors), and the story is set in a future where humanity has colonized the solar system. In season 1 a group of different characters start unraveling a deep conspiracy that might threaten to wipe out all of humanity.

It’s a bit reductive, but if I had to describe this in one short sentence it would probably be “Game of Thrones in space”

If you enjoy scifi and haven’t seen this you definitely should.
Always thought this season 1 trailer did a good job at selling it:

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I’m about to finish up the first season of Apple’s For All Mankind. It’s an alternate history of NASA that starts with the Soviets beating us to the moon in the summer of '69, which spurs a reinvigorated space race that never fizzles out in the 70s.

It hits all my space-nerd buttons with lots of spacewalks and burning rockets and mission control scenes with jargon as thick as the cigarette smoke in the air, so I’m willing to forgive it some of its more melodramatic moments. It also leaves me annoyed that, for example, there still hasn’t been a woman on the moon or that we haven’t established a sweet moonbase.

Also watched Ted Lasso (American football coach gets a job managing an English soccer team), which is as good as the reviews say and Mythic Quest, which is fantastic…but it’s a game developer comedy produced by Ubisoft, so every time they make a joke about the lack of diversity in gaming (which they do a lot) and especially when it’s about how horribly women are treated in the industry, it’s more than a little meta-cringey.

But they’re all excellent shows. I’ll have to get Apple TV again when the second seasons come out.

Currently watching The Walking Dead s10. Unfortunately Netflix did not upload the season finale in The Netherlands yet, so now I’m waiting for the last episode. :unamused:

And I’m also eagerly waiting for the last season of Better call Saul. The previous seasons have been a journey, so was Breaking Bad. I’m curious what will happen in this last season.

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I am watching The Walking Dead now, I have watched all seasons of Daredevil and Sherlock too. These are amazing series, You should watch them!

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I’ve started watching the Bates Motel. I’m really curious how the 1. season will end. Almost finished watching Castle ( I’m a fan of crime shows), just need to finish the last season.

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i’m watching the sopranos. currently on s5. as far as i’m concerned, the first season was the best though

Currently between shows. We just finished Big Mouth (fucking amazing) and half of the pilot fro Bridgerton (zzzzzzzz) so I’m on the hunt.

I finished the fifth season of Better Call Saul last night. Rhea Seehorn deserves an Emmy and I am completely mystified that she’s never been nominated. I’m excited/terrified to see what they do with Kim in the final season.

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I finished Messiah, a very unique premise for a show that I won’t spoil. It’s quite sad that the second season was cancelled

After it being leaked like 2 months ago, Netflix finally officially announced the new Sonic TV show for 2022: Sonic Prime.

Some rambling thoughts on this.

Very notable news to go alongside this: Roger Craig Smith, Sonic’s voice actor for the games and last TV show, Sonic Boom, has left the role. Rumblings that Sega might be recasting the entire English voice cast again like they did with Sonic X. Not to mention wonderings if Ben Schwartz might be persuaded to just become Sonic for all media after the Sonic the Hedgehog movie, although I would think that is perhaps unlikely.

This would make it the sixth Sonic TV show, after Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog, Sonic the Hedgehog (Satam), Sonic Underground, Sonic X, and Sonic Boom. Not to mention as well the 2 OVA episodes, and ofcourse, the very recent Sonic the Hedgehog movie and its upcoming sequel.

So yeah, running around the multiverse? Sounds like an interesting premise. Definetly seems like a real far cry from Sonic Boom’s self contained comedy. Definetly seems like the kindof premise a lot of fans want from a Sonic TV show, something more action oriented and some serialised story telling. “Journey of self discovery and redemption”? That’s an interesting synopsis. Makes me wonder if Sonic cocks up in episode 1 and has to fix a situation he accidently caused.

Really though, the multiverse setting makes me excited as a fan, because by this point, Sonic already has several multiverses due to the various canons the TV shows, comics, and games have created. Just to count them, we have: Modern Sonic, Classic Sonic, the past 5 shows, OVA, Movie, Archie Sonic before and after issue #252, Fleetway Sonic, and the currently running IDW Sonic. Probably missing a few, like more obscure stuff like that one off French Sonic comic, and some Japanese Sonic manga.

There are just so many settings that they could pull from, aside from ones that have weird copyright. (Looking at you Penders.) So many old characters that could come back as guest characters. Or hell, even just getting the extended cast of current characters in, since some like Silver and Blaze have never made it to TV. Hell, Blaze the Cat’s entire thing is that she is the princess of another dimension with her own set of Sol Emeralds that lets her go Super, feels like she should be a shoe-in for this show’s premise.

Sonic Boom was pretty tight on bringing in many characters. Really aside from the core 4 of Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, and Amy, plus Eggman, the only others we got were Shadow due to his popularity, Metal Sonic, and Vector got a fun episode but didn’t even get to bring his Chaotix partners with him. So the inner fanboy in me would love this to be an excuse to just bring in as many characters as possible, even if just for single episodes. Make it a real love letter to the Sonic franchise, while also keeping it accessible for new fans.

As for what I’m watching right now, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine is basically my go to TV show for the time being, despite still not watching Discovery Season 3 and Picard. Need to watch Lower Decks since it finally arrived in the UK last week on Amazon Prime. Just watched all of Joe 90 recently, as I plan to eventually watch all of Gerry Anderson’s TV shows. Should probably watch Disenchantment Part 3 since that is out, but it sounds like that show is still in the state of being “eh, it’s alright, might get better later.”

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Anyone else watching Wandavision? I swore off the MCU unless it was Taika Watiti-related after the pile of nothing that was Infinity War but gosh darn it this is so cute!

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Wow… That’s one big brand.

Um… question… (and I can’t believe I’m asking this) As a pretty big Sonic noob, if I wanted to get into this, where the hell should I start? Your deep attachment and adoration for the Sonic franchise kinda intrigues me, and I’ve heard quite a bit of good things about the franchise outside of the games. I might want to check it out.

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I am! The family here all curl up on the couch together every Friday night now.

My sister and I are the big Marvel fans, so we’re in it for the plot and characters. Our parents have seen most of the films, but aren’t devoted fans in any way. They don’t remember much from any of them, so they really get enjoyment from the Sitcom-lampooning aspect. Overall, we’re all enjoying it a lot!

I’m really liking the show! I’m not too familiar with the eras of sitcoms the show is re-creating, but I really like this out-there premise the show is rolling with! (And how to-the-book the show was parodying sitcoms! Those first 3 episodes fit in really nicely in the genre!) Two Marvel characters inexplicably start living idealized lives in a Sitcom-type world, with all the iconic bells and whistles from those eras.
After Endgame, I was getting weary of Marvel and whether I’d be able to continue with the franchise after all those Phase 4 announcements happened – so many new characters! But I think this 1.5-year hiatus and the sudden jump into this artsy, experimental-storytelling that is WandaVision really revitalized my faith in this ongoing genre of cinema.

Excited for this week’s episode (and I can’t wait until they get to the 2000’s era, as that’s the kind of sitcom I know the ins and outs of).

Thanks man. Helps this forum is pretty chill and friendly, it’s easier for me to talk about my love of Sonic than it is on actual Sonic forums.

I guess it depends in what way you mean, like from a story point of view or from trying some games? I guess if you want my tl;dr answer, for 2D Sonic gameplay it would be Sonic Mania, for 3D Sonic gameplay it would be Sonic Generations, or if you don’t mind some old school jank, Sonic Adventure. For something narratively focused, it would be the currently running IDW comic series. Sonic Boom is a fun comedy series, with season 1 available in some regions on Netflix, although Boom is very much it’s own entity compared to game Sonic.

For a far lengthier answer:

2D Sonic

2D Sonic, Sonic Mania came out a couple years ago. It’s actually a little like Hitman Contracts, in that the game has 12 Zones, but 8 Zones are remakes of Zones from Sonic 1, 2, 3 & Knuckles and CD and 4 Zones are brand new. Sonic Mania was made by a fan team who basically made their own engine that recreates the old school physics of the classics without. Really, Mania is the classic formula, just redefined by people who know Sonic inside and out, and to me is the definitive 2D Sonic experience. If you get Sonic Mania Plus, you get 5 characters to play with altogether and a good 4 hours campaign.

There are the classic games themselves, Sega has basically ported Sonic 1 and 2 to nearly every console and toaster known to man. Sonic 1 is good but they hadn’t got the formula down right. Sonic 2 is a classic but obviously has a bit of old school jank and design, same with 3&K. Sonic CD (named after the Sega CD add-on for the Sega Mega Drive) is very divisive due to the game’s time travel mechanic, where you travel into the past, and have to change the bad future into a good future. I’m not a big to be honest, but some people adore it since it is far more about exploration and memorisation than just racing to the end of a level.

Sonic’s 2D career was really defined by the handheld consoles in the 2000’s, which if you have the hardware (or cough emulator), there are alot of Sonic games on those consoles. Sonic Advance 1, ,2 , 3 for the Game Boy Advance, Sonic Rush, Rush Adventure, and Colours for the Nintendo DS, Generations, Lost World, Boom Shattered Crystal and Boom Fire & Ice for the 3DS. There’s also Sonic 4, which isn’t very good, pretty mediocre, a total cash grab on the classic Sonic name.

3D Sonic

For 3D Sonic, there’s certainly less titles. To me, the most accessible is Sonic Generations, a game which is to celebrate the 20th anniversary. 9 Zones, each with a 3D Sonic level and a 2D Sonic level, gorgeous game, solid level design, pretty much designed for people to learn the layouts and try and achieve good times. It’s simple yet great. But I’d also recommend Sonic Adventure. It is old, it’s from 1999, so this is pretty old school 3D gameplay, with a lot of jankiness. But it still holds up and can be a lot of fun.

Adventure 2 is good, some people prefer it over Adventure 1. I’m not as hot on it, it has no open world sections, and there are alot of these levels in mechs which are very underwelming. Sonic Heroes is a fun time but extremely jank and glitchy, especially the PS2 version. Shadow the Hedeghog and Sonic '06, just avoid. Sonic Unleashed is half a good game, Generations improves upon it in my view. Sonic Colours is good but it’s never left the Wii sadly. Lost World, just very mediocre. Forces is basically Generations 2 but with less content and far less good level design, don’t bother. Yeah, Sonic’s 3D career is just all over the place.

There are a ton of spin-off games as well. Not many I
can really think to bring up. Our friends at Sumo Digital have made a trilogy of Sonic racing games, and the second one, Sonic and All Stars Racing Transformed is actually a very good little kart racer. Really recommend that if you like that sort of thing.

TV Sonic

As for the Sonic TV shows, Sonic Boom and Sonic X’s first seasons are available on Netflix in the UK. Not sure how available they are elsewhere. Anyway, Sonic Boom is a comedy series, and Sega’s failed attempt to create a sub-franchise for Sonic. They kindof screwed the pooch though when the Rise of Lyric tie-in game was severely rushed and ended up being terrible, really wrecking Boom’s reputation. Which is a shame because the Boom TV show is actually really good, easily the best of Sonic’s TV shows so far.

I guess to proceed backwards, Sonic X came out 2004ish. It’s OK. It’s an anime, with the dub being by 4Kids, who Pokemon, One Piece back in the day, and still technically do the Yu-Gi-Oh franchise. Which means censorship, cringy dialogue, and a sound mix that is never quiet. I hear the Japanese version is better, but really, I don’t X is that good. The animation is usually pretty mediocre, the first season isn’t too fun. Chris Thorndyke, Sonic’s Human best friend in this, is notoriously annoying and he is a massive focus on the show.

In 1998ish we got Sonic Underground. Underground is probably the weirdest Sonic continuity. The plot is, Sonic is a prince, and his siblings(!) Sonia and Manic, are forced to flee when their mom and Queen is captured by Robotnik as he takes over the world. So the 3 of them form a band literally called Sonic Underground to fight Robotnik, somehow. This means that every episode has the band singing an original song with a music video in the middle of every episode. It is baffling, loved to know what the creators of this were smoking at the time when they made this.

Before that, back around 1993, we had 2 Sonic shows running. Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog is a comedy show aimed at young kids, I’d say something in the vein of Animaniacs, but with a far, far lower budget. It’s alright if you enjoy that kindof thing. Sonic the Hedgehog (Satam), was airing roughly the same time, and was aimed at slightly older kids. The plot being Sonic and the Freedom Fighters fighting to free Mobius from Robotnik, who has turned nearly the entire population into robots. Satam hasn’t aged too well, but I still think it is a good show. Satam is what the Archie comic would evolve from. It also has a bitchin’ theme tune.

There is also the anime OVA which you can find on Youtube I believe. It’s pretty alright, although is very much it’s own weird little thing, but some of the animation is very good. And ofcourse the live action movie. I haven’t seen it, but y’know, sounds alright, hoping the sequel will add in some more Sonic elements into it.

Comic Sonic

As for the comics, really, there are only 3 that matter: Archie, Fleetway, and IDW. Fleetway was the comic ran in the UK for roughly a decade in the '90s and 2000s. I haven’t read it, but I hear it is a very original take on Sonic, has alot of it’s own characters and ideas. Not too close to the games.

The Archie comic would run from roughly 1993 to 2017. Because it was cancelled and due to rights issues, there isn’t any legal way to buy Archie Sonic, aside from second hand copies, or just reading scans of the comic on certain websites, which is what I’d recommend. Archie… is a weird beast. Overall, there are roughly 450 issues of the Archie continuity altogether. And alot of it is either bad or outright awful. Lots of weird creative decisions behind the book, especially when alot of the early writers had no interest in game Sonic and what the video game plots were doing, meaning the comic for a while feels completely divorced from games Sonic.

The comic would also receive a soft reboot in issue #252. Basically, this was due to Ken Penders lawsuit, a guy who used to work for the comic. He claimed that he had ownership of all characters he created for the book. Archie lost the paperwork which he had signed saying that wasn’t the case. Penders won. Archie Sonic had no choice but to wipe out all Penders characters in a bit universe wipe, leading to this softish reboot. And then the reboot would end after about 80-90 issues around #296.

I guess to throw out some vague time stuff:

#1-#20: Comic is mainly comedic.
#21-#50: Comic gets serious, receives multi mini-series accompanying it, really begins to utilise concepts and characters.
#51-#80: Comic has proper continuity and serialisation, some good stories come out of interesting situations.
#81-#130: Comic enters decline, lots of bad artwork and bad stories in this period.
#131-#159: Comic’s dark age. Some terrible ideas and decisions, and while the video game’s really set up their own world by this point, Archie seems intent on ignoring all of it.
#160-#251: Ian Flynn takes over. Man who actually likes game Sonic. Tries to do best of both worlds by bringing in more game elements while keeping the unique elements of Archie alive.
#252-#290: Comic gets soft reboot. Some stuff here but Flynn has alot of set ups that sadly never pay off due to cancellation.

Knuckles also got his own book for 32 issues. It’s… something, mainly Ken Pender’s excuse to use his own ideas crowbarred into Knuckle’s side of the Archie universe. And then there was Sonic Universe, which ran alongside the main comic for almost a 100 issues before getting cancelled at the same time as the main book. Universe was essentially an anthology series dedicated to giving Sonic’s side characters their own time in the spotlight, with some pretty great stories to come out of it.

I mean, Archie Sonic has alot of good in it, and a lot of bad in it. I guess you could start at say #160 when Flynn takes over and the quality tends to rarely drop. But you also miss alot in the process. I dunno, it’s up to you if you ever wanted to undertake reading so many issues, perhaps if you are a quick reader. Archie really is its own saga.

And finally, IDW. When Archie ended, alot of the staff working for Archie wound up getting to work on the IDW book, including Flynn running it. IDW starts straight after the last 3D game, Forces, and is far far more in-line with the game canon. In fact, since we haven’t had a 3D game since Forces yet, there hasn’t really been anything to contract the IDW run so far. Really, IDW is probably the Sonic media most in-line with the game continuity, but also gets to introduce its own characters, like lesb… best friends Tangle and Whisper, who are awesome and even got their own little mini-series.

Pretty good time jump on IDW right now. Evan Stanley is in the middle of taking over, we’re inbetween arcs right now. Altogether there’s roughly 40 something issues between the main book, 2 mini-series, 2 annuals, and a one shot adapting Team Sonic Racing, all available on Comixology, or available physically in various ways. Love IDW and what it is doing and it is pretty understandable to get into it right now.

Hope that helps a little bit. Feel free to ask me anything else.

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I was raised on Bewitched and I Dream of Jeanie because my parents loved them so much. So all these magic goes haywire bits are hilarious!

And I will give Elizabeth Olsen all the credit in the world. When Monica starts unravelling her carefully constructed world by mentioning Ultron, she does an amazing job of showing Wanda start to crumble. And that shot of Ultron’s dead face? Fucking chills.

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Hoo boy I need to lie down after that latest episode of WandaVision.

This show is using its sitcom format so, so well. Plus the melding of Zany Sitcom antics and the increasing Marvel Thriller vibe is my kinda cup 'o tea.

They’ve even gone so far to use the “character long thought dead returns inexplicably!” trope. God, I love that.

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