The Hype TV Club

For Christmas I like to watch Krampus, The man who invented Christmas, and the Scrooge movie with Jim Carey.

 

You could not pay me to watch that.

 

I nominate a story of family for December...

Either The Bear or Interview with the Vampire!

 

You guys gotta see The Bear.

 

For whatever reason The Bear never interested me at all.

 

If you have ever read Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain, The Bear is a great spiritual sequel and really gets the toxic nature of the restaurant industry.

Along with IWTV, it is my favourite new show of the year. It is very intense and I can see why it is not for everyone, but it is amazing television. Extremely well written, acted, and shot. And seeing Joel McHale as toxic Charlie Trotter/Gordon Ramsay celebrity chef is fascinating.

 

Derailed by 1899. I'm never going to catch up on things. I still haven't finished Better call Saul or X-Files. I'm not a good participant in this club, lol.

 

Just found out my cable provider is giving me Starz free for 6 days starting tomorrow. I will be using it to watch season 3 of American Gods which I missed. It's going to be even harder for me to catch up on things, so you guys can go ahead and watch The Bear. I've heard nothing but good things about it.

 

The Bear doesn’t interest me in the slightest as I cant stand the lead actor and can’t watch a whole show of him (his screen time in Shameless was already too much) so I’ll take y’all’s word for it that it’s great.

 

I've just never been a fan of cooking shows, or ones where characters push and pull at each other. At least not with a murder or two, lol.

EDIT: I meant to say not WITHOUT a murder. Oops.

 

Oh, there's no murders or anything like that. A celebrated fine dining chef comes home to operate the family sandwich shop after his brother dies.

 

I meant to say not WITHOUT a murder, lol. I need some mystery to keep me interested.

 

You forgot The Unnatural! For shame!

 

Because it’s a meh episode.

 

If that's an episode of X-Files I'm still only halfway through season 1, way too far behind.

 

We are about halfway through Season 6 using @flickchick85's list with a few additions here and there, including the 1998 movie. Because I am a glutton for punishment, we are still keeping all of the mytharc episodes through seasons 6 and 7. I plan on probably stopping at Requiem.

 

Guess I'd better finish my list then!

Seasons 8 & 9 (this is where the MotW quality really took a nosedive as there was far less Gilligan or Darin Morgan involvement at this point - none in Morgan's case - so there's not a lot here, but still some quality eps):

8x04 "Roadrunners" - another demented town episode, wooo!
8x06 "Redrum" - think Memento if Guy Pearce were actually living his days in reverse. Quite good, though.
9x04 "4-D" - a serial killer who can traverse parallel universes. Fun concept.
9x07 "John Doe" - a unique Doggett-focused ep. He wakes up in Mexico with no memory of who he is.
9x11 "Audrey Pauley" - A similarly Reyes-centric ep.
9x13 "Improbable" - Burt Reynolds!
9x17 "Release" - This one dives into the murder of Doggett's son, but I'd still count it as a standalone, and a good one at that.
9x18 "Sunshine Days" - The Brady Bunch, Ben from Lost, and Vince Gilligan writing/directing. What more could you want, honestly. This is also the last episode Gilligan ever wrote for the show, so kinda bittersweet.


Revival seasons:

10x02 "Founders Mutation" - This really felt like an old-school episode of the X-Files, which was just nice.
10x03 "Mulder & Scully Meet the Were-Monster" - Thank god they got Darin Morgan back, is all I have to say.
10x04 "Home Again" - Was initially disappointed in this episode given the title and the fact it was a Glen Morgan episode made me think it was a sequel to "Home," but this was still solid and Gillian Anderson was great here.
11x03 "Plus One" - S11 was my preferred revival season because it was mostly MotW's. This is another one that felt like classic X-Files, elevated by a great guest-performance.
11x04 "The Lost Art of Forehead Sweat" - Darin Morgan tackles the Mandela Effect! Enough said!
11x05 "Ghouli" - This is one of those dual MotW/Mythology eps, but it works.
11x07 "Rm9sbG93ZXJz" - Mulder & Scully vs. Technology! There's barely any dialogue in this episode and it's a joy.
11x08 "Familiar" - One of the darkest eps of these revival seasons. Good stuff.

And that's it! What I consider to be some of the most notably Good-to-Great episodes of one of the truly greatest TV shows of all-time. Hope you make it to the finish line, DK!!

 

Crazy how many X-Files episodes there are. Maybe I'll even finish them by Christmas next year.

 

I'm on episode 71 of @flickchick85 's abbreviated watching list. The episodic nature really hits the spot when you are new parents. You can throw on a couple episodes and veg during dinner or while the baby naps.

 

Currently on The Goldberg Variation! The season 6 finale/season 7 opener three-parter was a real slog and almost killed our momentum. But Hungry was a great recovery.

So is The Bear December's show since @Kane52630 and I are at the top with 2 votes?

 

I could go along with The Bear since it was brought up so many times. I could suck it up and give it a try.

 

I thought Yellowjackets had 2 votes with me and squeekness lol. Anyway, I'm watching that next.