I haven’t been watching much in terms of actual shows for a good while, then while listening to a podcast a host casually mentioned they had rewatched Chernobyl, how it still holds up, that there’s a reason it got as much acclaim as it did, etc. So I thought I’d give it a go and wow, loved it (still one episode left to watch).

Had me thinking, what else have I missed out on? What are some “absolute cinema” TV shows that still hold up and and are considered must watch?

      • loics2@sh.itjust.works
        7·
        6 days ago

        Meh, not really, there are references to it and

        spoiler

        ending capitalism is not reserved to fight club

        • harc@szmer.infoEnglish
          2·
          6 days ago
          spoiler

          Its more about the main character having an alterego who drive’s him in conflict only to turn out its his imagination, while starting him on a path to fight the system in some elaborate manner. Totally ruined the show for me.

      • RuBisCO@slrpnk.net
        3·
        6 days ago
        Tap for spoiler

        Elliot was ultimately motivated by a desire to protect himself and those he cared about. I never got that impression from Tyler; he was more interested in seeing humanity evolve and sculpting the concept of masculine.

        Mr. Robot himself did not arise out of insomnia.
        There is no violent therapy group for men in Mr. Robot; the themes around masculinity are absent.
        fsociety doesn’t really franchise, not like Project Mayhem.
        Tyler was an amateur chemist; Elliot is a master hacker.
        There is very little social engineering, and IIRC zero hacking in Fight Club.

        That being said, of course there are similarities. Maxence Cyrin’s cover of Where Is My Mind? is an obvious callback; Darlene is kinda like Marla, if one squints; the targeting of capitalism and debt; Project Mayhem comes into possession of some police.
        But do they own the FBI or the largest conglomerate?
        Where is White Rose or Phillip Price in Fight Club?

        Among other things the power plays are larger in Mr. Robot: organized crime the size of nations, corrupt federal agencies, corporations too big to fail. Fight Club was published and directed before 9/11, the Arab Spring, the subprime mortgage crisis and more, and it shows.

        I love both. But Mr. Robot feels like the grown-up, fleshed-out cousin that followed certain concepts through to their logical conclusions. Are they alike? Of course, no doubt. But I wouldn’t say they are so similar that if you’ve seen one, you’ve seen the other. They are distinct and unique. The more closely one analyzes them, the more one finds that the similarities are superficial.

        Or so it seems to me.

      • BrianTheeBiscuiteer@lemmy.world
        2·
        6 days ago

        They definitely scratch a similar itch.

        spoiler

        I definitely like the approach to multiple personalities in Mr Robot more. A fracture due to emotional trauma is much more believable than someone developing an alter ego out of boredom.