Yes, yes they are.

But seriously a lot of these places, in the north of england especially, lost industry and have struggling economies now, the same as you see in the rust belt in the US. Lots of working class/poor people who do tie a lot of their identity up with the local football team. Before football became the money-centric Arabian playground that it is today, it was a working class man's game and clubs like sunderland are the last vestiges of that. It gives it a certain romance, whilst at the same time being quite depressing.

My Octopus Teacher is worth the time.
as others have said, the footage is beautiful and octopuses are amazing animals.
i also can't imagine what it would be like to cuddle with an octopus in 50*F water, as well as having the lung capacity of someone able to stay underwater as long as that guy does.
i hold my breath when walking into the beer cooler at the local to reduce my chance of catching the covid and i'm ready to exhale after 20 seconds.

Hope the team can turn it around somehow, would seem to be a big boost to everyone involved

I'm sad to read there is no current season 3 planned

my binge of all these shows has me watching the Premier league, Im enjoying it more than American football (& all other sports) but damn, the lack of fans HUGELY impacts the game and excitement you feel from the great crowds. Hope they can return asap, its just not the same without the fans

The Boys latest episode puts the whole show up a tier.

Aya Cash has really come in and just crushed her role.

I like when good actors have to do bad acting on shows in shows. Also some of the dialogue made me lol.

Westworld swung strong, then hit itself in the balls...

If everyone had great lives few would give much of a **** about football. What makes it important is that the game is what brings a lot of colour to what would otherwise be much duller lives. In my city one of the top teams was relegated to the 3rd division and forced to change their official name for financial foul play and for about half the city it was as if a family member had died. Last year the manager of the other big team left to manage Leicester and half the city acted like their misses had run away with someone else. It's definitely depressing if you think about it too much but the average life nowadays is still way better than it has been for the last ~1000 years. Alcohol is a bit of a problem but most work 5 plus days and only get shitfaced on the weekends.

Breaking Bad was nowhere near as popular as GoT.
Lol at even comparing those two. Just bc it was an incredible show and everyone here on 2p2 loved it, does not mean it was actually on the same social level as GoT.

And it will happen again. Almost by default. I mean look at the numbers. HBO has about 43 million subscribers, and in the low 30's in early seasons of GoT. Netflix has over 4 times that number, at 180+ million. Nearly 60% of the US has access to Netflix. HBO wasn't really close to that. A show on Netflix doesn't have to be as good nor as (relatively) popular as GoT was to gain the same kind of momentum.

It's only been, what, a year since GoT ended? almost by definition, the kind of shows jish is talking about don't come out very often. I also wouldn't be surprised at all if streaming services started doing episode by episode releases as standard to keep peak interest spread over several months rather than a couple weeks, which would help mainstream long-term popularity.

thanks for sharing, these folks seem like good hearted people too, thats part of what I find depressing because it looks so hopeless for Sunderland and I want the fans to be rewarded for their devotion & passion

The Hillary Swank mission to Mars show Away is sooo bad it might be the greatest unintentional comedy ever. It's up there with the Rocky Horror Picture show & the Room.

I put up the 16 bucks and watched Antebellum last night on Amazon Prime. Very engaging movie with a creative story which scores a lot of points with me. It wasn't exactly the plot I thought it was going to be from the trailer, but still pretty good. Too preachy in spots, seems like it was made based on current political environment, but story is good enough to carry it through.

its been fringe s tier now sine s1 ep 4

yeah i dont know the og source, but the direction they took s3 in was completely ****ed. like it feels like a spinoff show. i am only 3 eps in s3 but it legitimately feels like a spinoff diff show. the feel the look.

I understand we cant be at the park forever, but the way ep 1 started, how disjointed and disconnected it was from s2. I just dont get it but maybe its me, i feel i didnt hear **** about WW midway thru s3 so i feel it lost its muster hard

Im not talking about their social levels, Im talking about their qualities as shows to support my argument against people arguing that no show will ever achieve water cooler power again.

Try to keep up before charging in all spittle flecked.

To achieve GoT water cooler power, you have to be a great show, there have been plenty of very good shows recently, but none have hit that super elite level of Breaking Bad/Got/Wire.

Also btw BB was shown on Netflix in the UK and GoT on a channel with slightly less subscribers that costs more. So yea when judging social effects try to remember not everyone lives in the same social circles as you.

Also Ill leave this clip which does not reference GoT here.

I'm about 6 or 7 episodes in so far. Not sure what to make of it? I think its kinda meh. Tries to hard to be a serious situation while kinda trying to be a comedy. I'll definitely keep watching but I don't like the lead actor or the brother character. Just seems to be way way over the top trying to be I guess satirical.

OAF,
Not sure what all you're talking about or arguing against for against(?), but I was replying to the notion of no more water cooler shows as defined here in whatthe's comment:
"Behemoth that appeals to all audiences" is exactly what popularity is imo. It's not just about being a "super elite level" show as you put it, that may only appeal to a narrow audience.


And idk about the UK, but I get the feeling that around here BB wasn't even all that popular or appreciated the first few seasons. It was more of a cult following then, and didn't even gain huge popularity until much later. GoT on the other had a massive following right off the bat. In fact it already had a huge following before a single episode ever aired because the books were already massively popular.

And since there will always be massively popular books to base new shows on, new massively popular hit shows will keep popping up every few years. And we may even discuss them while at the water cooler!

This is a bit of a leap, considering how viewing habits have evolved over the past two decades. We digest media much differently now, with more of the control being in the hands of the user. I stand by my assessment; micro-casting is the future. Audiences will be spread evermore thinly over the rapidly increasing number of shows.

This has its advantages, though, and ultimately I think it's better for the viewer. Narrowing your audience scope allows you to cater to them with much more freedom. The end of the water cooler era is not really a bad thing, it's just another landmark.

Who knows, in another decade the way we experience media may be straight out of a Black Mirror episode

Reading the thread helps a lot.

So before you chimed in I was arguing AGAINST the idea that there will never be another "water cooler" or whatever show.

So to support that, I said no shows had been released at the level of BB and GOT, by level I mean artistic level/quality level not social popularity level. Which is one reason we have not had such a water cooler moment since those shows.

You then charge in loling me for comparing them because you have not kept up with the thread.

Oaf,
I read the thread. My point stands. Maybe euros just have a weird definition of water cooler, idk if you addressed that but I only see your posts when someone quotes you

Funny how you have replied directly now to two of my posts that were unquoted. You are slow enough to attempt that obvious BS. JFC that's dumb.

You are obviously seriously **** at reading then if you think your point loling something no one ever said stands.

Ill hold your hand and help you through it really slowly. Given your track record, probably wont help, slow is your thing.

Me: No show has had the level "of quality" of Breaking Bad or Game of Thrones.

Cs3: LOOOOL, GOT was much more popular than BB.

Me: No one said that try reading.

CS3: My point stands (because I am **** at reading.)

Sorry oaf, I can't see that post!

Yes but you could see the other three perfectly fine.

This is the most pathetic display imaginable.

Imagine going to such self pawn steps instead of just admitting you grunched the thread wrong.

What an off the charts loser.

Anybody watch Cuties?