39 Comments

I think a lot of shows these days are just... mediocre. Good enough to watch a few episodes but then you get distracted and you feel no need to finish the season. I think streaming prioritizes getting things out fast instead of really honing in on nailing a concept and characters.

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Yes. There is just too much stuff to watch, and a lot of it is instantly forgettable. When was the last time you saw a movie and remembered key scenes or dialogue a few days or weeks later?

I used to be ambivalent towards the horror genre but some of the best films i've seen in the past 10 years are horrors. I think it's down to them being great films but i also think it's partly due to them staying in my head for longer than a day.

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Slow Horses is fantastic...just give it time and vertigo will diminish enough that you will focus on reading the books upon which it is based.

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I agree, the books are excellent. Herron’s series set in Oxford is terrific too.

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Apple TV is the home of Prestige Vertigo! I just experienced it watching Sunny, which I gave up on midseason. Slow Horses though is the real deal. I don't think it's actually prestige, it's kinda trashy but soo fun and addictive.

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I've tried several times to get into the Expanse, but the prestige vertigo is just too intense.

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100%

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Stick with Slow Horses. Never read the books and doubt I will but the show is great fun. It never takes itself too seriously which is no bad thing.

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I got 'prestige vertigo' with The Queen's Gambit. Everyone loved it! A couple of our family members said it might be the best show they've ever watched (second to Breaking Bad maybe?). We watched it and it was... dull. And cliched. Some of the dialogue and plot was laughable or just *cringe*. It felt like it was just a show about girlbossing with no depth whatsoever. It was so confusing to feel like this given the reviews! Haven't yet met another person except my fiance that felt the same way.

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Deporting all the immigrant (farm workers) is one thing that happened in brexit. Those workers were largely migrants from Eastern Europe who lived onsite with seasonal visas. Meanwhile no one in the UK wants those types of jobs. Now those workers are getting imported from Indonesia https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/aug/14/why-uk-farms-recruiting-fruit-pickers-from-7000-miles-away Maybe Trump deporting Immigrants will be the american brexit.

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Maybe similar to what you mean by "Prestige vertigo" - I sometimes start a show and can't tell if it is really clever, or just tricking me with a style that seems really clever.

Way back, HBO's Carnivale was the show that first hit me with this. Is it clever subtle writing? Or just random spooky crap the writers thought up that week? Sometimes you don't know until the series tries to land the finale, and you see if all the loose ends actually resolve.

Oh, Monsieur Spade was another great recent example of this. Pretty good - until the last episode.

Maybe Umbrella Academy too, given the final season?

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Bad Monkey has been giving me that exact feeling of prestige vertigo, Apple TV seems to have it that zone dialed in.

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Aww, poor Bad Monkey. You're right that its not really that great of a show, but I still really like it. I like Vince Vaughn's banter. The Keys scenery is fun too.

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Apple TV totally does! Sugar, anyone?

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Does the prestige vertigo get triggered by motion smoothing? I think maybe if does for me

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Prestige vertigo is very much a thing. I describe it as all the shows and movies feel like they’re being made by people who are constantly on their phones between working on the projects. It used to be that the actors, directors and crew would immerse themselves in films and shows and you could feel that. And now everyone is just looking at other stuff while they work. Sigh

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Those who claim "peak television" has peaked are not serious people. That said, the glut of mediocre shows is real, so beware Prestige Vertigo vortex. Protip: If you haven't seen the Julio Torres series on MAX (nee HBO) (Fantasmas and Los Espookys) you're missing out on something magical.

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James Poniewozik wrote about a related phenomenon called “Mid TV” https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/27/arts/television/mid-tv.html?unlocked_article_code=1.ME4.GY6N.yJXS0Z7flbgc&smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare&sgrp=c-cb&ngrp=mnp.

For me the worst offender of this is House of the Dragon - with all that effort, money and talent on screen shouldn’t it be more…engaging?

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This episode helped me feel less dumb about inflation. Also you really found the right person to talk to in terms of delight and clarity, qualities that probably don’t often go together.

For anybody else trying to figure out inflation, another perspective I appreciated was from two Search Engine guests: Ezra Klein interviewing Annie Lowrey on his show about how affordability in four key areas (housing, higher ed, healthcare, and child care) drives perceptions & experiences of inflation in the US.

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/06/07/opinion/ezra-klein-podcast-annie-lowrey.html

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Just had to pause the episode to comment:

PJ, you've really never seen those "I did that!" stickers on gas pumps before? They were started with Biden's image when gas prices were high during his early term. I'd see them on a lot of pumps in Illinois, Indiana, and Michigan.

Then of course, gas went down, and they seemed ironic. Didn't know someone was making Harris stickers now.

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Never! If we have them in NY, I haven’t seen them.

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Interesting. Maybe upstate in your redder counties?

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🙃🙃🙃🤗🤗🤗🥰🥰🥰

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