You could say the same for almost every series filmed in Vancouver. X-Files, anyone?
I have zero recollection of where Xfiles was supposed to take place. It used to scare the bejeesus out of me and sometimes gave me nightmares but I’d always return, week after week, anyway, for mysterious reasons. 
one of the downsides to living in SoCal and having toured several of the studio lots: “umm, that’s not Khandahar, its Santa Clarita hills in the background.”
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TV shows:
Apparently, 10,000BCE LA in LaBrea is Australia! Wwhen the sinhole survivors figure out where they are, they point to hills and say “look, the Hollywood hills, like on that van’s picture” and yes, they match, so it’s true. I figured the BC set wasn’t set in LA for real but I thought the hills were a “real shot” Guess not! 
Not sure why the CGI animals are criticized, they’re loud and big, it works for me. I didn’t believe a bear could make those rocks fall, though. Will they go and remove the rocks? It’d make a nice shelter in case they need one plus it’s got water.
And, of course, we’re still with that pet peeve of mine, that a “premed drop out” would be less qualified than anyone with a first aid certificate to do anything remotely medical.
Okay, still liking Ghosts. Although I’d have organized a fake burning and taken the money from Albany, win-win. But of course there would have been no fix/flip this house shenanigans and no possible “will they won’t they” among the ghosts (that has funny possibilities.)
Grey’s Anatomy: Addison, Derek’s first wife, is back! (not a spoiler it was in all the promos and apparently she’s a very big deal)
Did anyone pick up why she’s a big deal (or is it assumed knowledge) and did they say why she’s coming back, BTW?
And who remembers if she liked Meredith or didn’t, once Derek and Meredith got married?
I appreciated they incorporated the heatwave (from the heatdome this summer)
She’s conducting a clinical trial on uterine transplants and the subject is conveniently located in Seattle. I guess it’s just assumed she’s the preeminent fetal and neonatal surgeon in the field.
Any catch this homage: "I’m Dr. Addison Montgomery and you must be the group that’s screwing up the program” to her introduction in season 1: “I’m Addison Shepherd … and you must be the woman who’s been screwing my husband.”
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WOW, I wondered why this sentence “rang a bell”. Thanks.
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X-Files was about FBI agents who in theory were based in DC (main FBI hq) but pretty much traveled all over depending on their assignments.
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@MYOS1634 , I assumed they filmed on some SoCal backlot, so that when the characters left the office to go outside, palm trees and distant mountains were visible. Living in RI at the time, I checked out my window–nope, no palm trees or mountains.
EDIT: The show was "Doctor Doctor (89-91), starring Matt Frewer (Max Headroom),he played a Providence doctor.
I assume “broadcast TV” means traditional networks like ABC, CBS, NBC and not subscription services including streaming and cable. After some thought, I can’t come up with a single current network broadcast show that I am especially enthusiastic about. Instead the shows I most enjoy are often ones I discover on streaming services, often ones that only air <= 10 quality episodes per year, and are not airing current new episodes during October 2021. However, there are a few that are airing new episodes this month (Titans, Only Murders in the Building, What We Do in the Shadows, etc.).
While not an enthusiastic endorsement, I found the first episode of La Brea interesting enough to record the 2nd. I’ll probably watch it later. The time portal is an interesting concept that is very different from other current broadcast shows, but implemented poorly (as of first episode) – lazy writing with a storyline full of big holes (fall hundreds? of feet from sky and land unharmed with hair/clothes/… in perfect condition), cliches I have seen many times before that I expect will make the show predictable, characters that I don’t really care about or find interesting, weak enough acting for me to notice, CGI animals that look like something out of a decades old video game, huge inaccuracies about time period, etc. It reminds me of a low budget B sci fi movie. I don’t think La Brea is going to be the next Lost, which is a great broadcast network show that I did enjoy. I don’t even think it’s on the level of the more mediocre anime Gate (gateway to other world suddenly appears in the middle of a city in Japan).
Cable is fair game.
Anything that can be binged is on the “Binge watched TV shows” thread and spoilers aren’t allowed there.
I just read that only 6 episodes of LaBrea had been ordered, so we’ll see. On the other hand, sending everybody to Australia, building the sets, etc, etc, would be a huge expense for just 6 episodes.
In my opinion, it’s reassuring they’re not trying to be LOST. 
I can accept “fall hundreds of feet and be okay” because it’s not a “real” fall or they’d all be dead. However if after Day 2 they all look perfect it’s a problem. They better start looking grimy or show us how they found a way to clean themselves
What are the inaccuracies about the time period?
In the first episode, one of the character’s says “It’s like we’re in an episode of ‘Lost.'” The self-awareness is nice break from the show’s usual dialogue.
Looking it up, they mention losing contact with the drone after descending 20,000 feet… so the fall is larger than the “hundreds?” of feet I previously listed. Maybe nobody hit anything on the way down in spite of the portal at the bottom appearing to be far narrower than the sinkhole at the top, their acceleration from gravity gradually slowed when crossing through the portal to avoid rapid deceleration injury, they were teleported to the ground rather than fell from the aurora borealis, the skyscrapers above them disappeared when crossing the portal (they don’t appear at the bottom, nor does a city block x 20,000 feet volume of dirt) so nothing landed on them… or it could just be lazy writing that you aren’t supposed to think about.
My earlier post mentioned Titans, Only Murders in the Building, and What We Do in the Shadows. All 3 are airing, so the full series cannot be binged. All 3 are completely different genres, so they will not appeal to everyone, but I think they are interesting and done well.
yes, I remember they travelled a lot! Investigating everywhere in the US Imagine nowadays, they’d be checking out youtube or tiktok for reports of unexplained phenomena I never knew there could be so many monsters (and legends)
“only murders in the building” is streaming, not cable though. But yes I like it - reminds me of “Murder Mystery in Manhattan” without the icky Allen implication, the actors are all brilliant, and I love the intro with the colorful windows for the credits.
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Not just in the US! Fox Mulder went off to a Siberian Gulag… and in the movie they went to Antarctica…
Any Grantchester fans out there???
If Leonard is going to take his chances with the British court system, why not immediately file a complaint against his blackmailer? The cat is now out of the bag.
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(hypothesis based on spoiler)
I’m guessing the blackmailer would be seen as providing a service to society, “flushing out” “perverts”.
Society looks well-mannered, polished, pretty small town, salt of the earth people, really “the good old days”, the better to expose how difficult it really was underneath for many people, even those who thought it was normal or were ok with it.
(In the same style, the Faith Martin book series “Ryder and Loveday”, which takes place in the early 60s in Oxford, is pretty good too. Trudy laughing at her little girl’s ambition of being a bus driver or the “pageant” story, where really being pretty on a stage is the only access to something other than becoming a working class housewife, make similar points to us, current readers.)
As for Leonard, he let himself enjoy life a little, he might even have bought into the idea he is not an immoral aberration or a pervert for a little while but he’s clearly thought of himself- and society has told him 24/7- that his very existence is a sin; as a curate the idea god can’t love him must be an awful, awful feeling in its certainty such that he can’t really file a complaint – How could he think he has any right to?
Spoiler:
Except the blackmailer is a “pervert” himself, having made a pass at Leonard. Granted his defense would probably be that Leonard made it up to get even. Unless something really unexpected happens, I would expect the Leonard character is leaving the show—it cannot end well, based on current conditions.
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yes, I didn’t expect the Merries waiter to do that, but it’d make sense, kind of protection - strike first.
Not sure how it’d go though for Leonard - what could he say? “He’s making it up” “what’s he talking about”, “he made a pass at me and now accuses me?” Could he say the pictures are staged or easily misconstrued?
I dislike Tamara. Really, really dislike her… .eevn if she got the money. Am I the only one? I feel that I should like her (or like her more).
I had been feeling so-so about the new reboot of The Wonder Years, but last week’s episode on Dean going to work with his mom was the best so far and a nice tribute to Kevin going to work with his dad in the original series. They also played the original theme during a recording session that Dean’s dad was doing with his band. I really enjoyed it.
Is Tamara Will’s stepsister by way of his mother’s recent marriage? If so, she’s quite involved in next week’s plot, if the preview is to be believed.
I wonder if Geordie’s sergent, Larry(?), is somehow involved in Leonard’s community—he seems hellbent to prosecute–often a defense mechanism for those still “in…” in TV/movies.