Low Winter Sun (new AMC police drama starring Mark Strong & Lennie James)

[hagios]

I thoroughly enjoyed the 1st episode & will continue to watch this 'gritty' crime drama.

Just my 'cup of tea'!!

[jayembee]

Originally Posted by djariya

Sometimes a Pilot is filmed anywhere from 6 months to 1 year before they actually begin series production. It's before the showrunner even hires a writing staff. So IMO you really can't judge a series by 1 episode.

I may be asking for it again (I've already gotten into this argument in another thread), but I disagree. Most people -- and I'm willing to bet that you're among them -- judge many series without even seeing a single episode. Be honest. How many series do you read about, or see an ad for, and say, "Oh, that looks stupid," or "That does not look at all interesting" or "I wouldn't watch that if you paid me"?

Some people (and I count myself among them) have a pretty good handle on determining what they like, and whether something is working for them. I don't have a cut and dried rule, myself. Sometimes, I make a decision after one episode, sometimes I give it a few episodes, sometimes a whole season. I make a decision on a case by case basis. Whenever it is that I decide a show isn't working for me, I drop it, however few or many episodes I've seen up to that point.

Originally Posted by djgeneral

Yeah, I've never heard of that rule. You always give TV shows at least 3 episodes. You at least NEVER judge by the Pilot. That is often filmed months before the rest of the season and before the show really has its footing. Always give a show 3 episodes

Now see, in the other thread I alluded to, I mentioned having given up on Breaking Bad after three episodes, and I was slammed for not giving it enough time. One person even said that it didn't really start getting great until the second season. And that's kind of my point: different people have different thresholds for what they consider giving a show enough of a chance.

Watching a movie is an investment of only a couple of hours, plus or minus. Watching a TV show is a much more serious investment in time. There are too many series that pique my interest to devote 13 or more hours to one when it's clear early on that it's not working for me. And if I make a bad call and give up on something that's considered "great", I'm OK with that. It's just a TV show, after all, and failing to watch a "great" TV show isn't going to kill me.

And then there's the point of whether it's even "great". Just because you a show is great doesn't mean I'm going to think the same. And just because I think something's great doesn't mean that you'll think it is, too.

[djariya]

Originally Posted by jayembee

I may be asking for it again (I've already gotten into this argument in another thread), but I disagree. Most people -- and I'm willing to bet that you're among them -- judge many series without even seeing a single episode. Be honest. How many series do you read about, or see an ad for, and say, "Oh, that looks stupid," or "That does not look at all interesting" or "I wouldn't watch that if you paid me"?

That isn't my point though pertaining to Low Winter Sun. The premise, actors interested me. I think this is a show that will get better and could potentially be great with time. It sometimes takes the actors and writers time to get a grasp of the characters and the story.

Some people write off a show after the Pilot even if they were interested in the premise, actors. Saying stuff like I just don't have the patience or time.

Look at a show like Chicago Fire. One of the biggest sleeper hits for NBC last season. A lot of people wrote it off after the Pilot saying it was just some blah Fire fighting procedural. The people who stuck with it, including me, saw that it get gained a lot of momentum and became a really compelling character-driven drama.

[jayembee]

Originally Posted by djariya

That isn't my point though pertaining to Low Winter Sun. The premise, actors interested me. I think this is a show that will get better and could potentially be great with time. It sometimes takes the actors and writers time to get a grasp of the characters and the story.

Some people write off a show after the Pilot even if they were interested in the premise, actors. Saying stuff like I just don't have the patience or time.

Look at a show like Chicago Fire. One of the biggest sleeper hits for NBC last season. A lot of people wrote it off after the Pilot saying it was just some blah Fire fighting procedural. The people who stuck with it, including me, saw that it get gained a lot of momentum and became a really compelling character-driven drama.

True enough. But it all boils down to a risk/reward situation. You can say that it takes time for a show to settle in and start to get cooking, but you can never now how long that period is going to be. Some shows cook quickly, for others it's a slow burn. And each person needs to decide for themselves whether he thinks the potential reward will be worth the investment of time.

There have certainly been times where I gave up too soon. There are just as many when I gave a show an entire 20-something-episode season to work, and I felt like I wasted 20-something hours of my life.

Now, I think Low Winter Sun is worth it, but if someone else doesn't think it will be, it's not my place to judge. Because what value I place on my time isn't necessarily the same value that that person places on their time.

[djgeneral]

If you find the Pilot for any show remotely interesting, you should at least give it another 2 or 3 episodes to judge. If after watching the Pilot you think it is horrible, that is a different story. But there are very few shows with perfect/good pilots.

[djariya]

If LWS can manage to stay over 2M viewers during it's remaining 9 week run, I think the chances for a 2nd season are good. It was obviously helped a little with Breaking Bad's excellent premiere numbers.

Episode 2 was the last episode reviewed by critics and it didn't get really favorable remarks. So the key will be to see how this does fresh starting with week 3.

[djgeneral]

AMC is going to keep the ratings up by airing the BB scenes during the breaks of LWS. Otherwise, the show would crash under 2 million this week without a doubt

[Bulletproof Tiger]

Just watching this now. It's good but not amazing. I really hope it gets better as i really love James Ransone, he needs to be in more things.

[chris_sc77]

gave it 20 mins. then deleted it from the DVR.
Did not enjoy see anything enjoyable during the time I gave it.

[djariya]

I don't know what the TV critics were smoking, but I thought tonight's episode of LWS was solid. It was actually better than the Pilot.

They fleshed out the subplot with the drug dealers more and also helped establish Geddes having dealings with them. What was the deal with Geddes and Sprague Grayden's character? He acted like he knew her and she brushed it off.

And as I mentioned in the Pilot thread, they actually addressed the issue about the water in Brendan's lungs being chlorinated tap water instead of river water.

Just a poorly planned murder by Geddes and Agnew. It looks like Geddes is screwing Agnew over big time.

And I liked the reveal at the end about the CI being in the trunk. Maybe Geddes had some involvement with that too?

Some interesting developments this week. I like where it's going.

[MasterChief3624]

Truthfully, I didn't watch the whole pilot, but I caught a decent chunk of it, and I couldn't get into it. The whole thing felt overly confident, like they "knew" this was going to be a hit on the level of Breaking Bad, but it lacked any ingenuity or hook to keep me, at least, invested.

Even the acting is blah.

I don't know, all around the show feels like a boring cop drama that's trying to be a gritty Breaking Bad-level hit, but fails to do anything special. I hate the acting, especially. Ugh. I don't know how to explain it, it just bothers the hell out of me

I was excited to see it, too. Whatevs. I'll give it another chance down the road, but so far I'm not liking this show at all.

[Monolithium]

Two episodes in and already better than The Killing.

[jayembee]

Originally Posted by Monolithium

Two episodes in and already better than The Killing.

That's not difficult.

[djgeneral]

The Killing is WAY better.

Seems like viewers agree as well. The 2nd episode dropped drastically to only 1.467 million viewers and a 0.5 in the demo. Many of those viewers were also Breaking Bad fans who stuck around to see the preview. Not a good sign.

[jayembee]

Originally Posted by djgeneral

The Killing is WAY better.

I was indifferent to The Killing during its first season, though there were things that I liked about it. I didn't watch it the second season. I figured I'd give it another chance the third season, and only got about half-and-hour through the premiere, and decided I didn't want to watch anymore. The original Danish series was much better.

I haven't watched the second episode of Low Winter Sun yet, so I can't say for sure whether I'll stick with it, but I'm encouraged by what I've seen so far.

[djgeneral]

It will be very interesting to see what AMC will do with Breaking Bad ending this year, Mad Men next year, The Killing up in the air for another season, Low winter Sun not doing well at all, and Hell On wheels surprising on Saturdays.. AMC has a lot of new shows in the works as well so if LWS does not start picking up, its probably gone

[hagios]

Originally Posted by djgeneral

It will be very interesting to see what AMC will do with Breaking Bad ending this year, Mad Men next year, The Killing up in the air for another season, Low winter Sun not doing well at all, and Hell On wheels surprising on Saturdays.. AMC has a lot of new shows in the works as well so if LWS does not start picking up, its probably gone

Hopefully they don't go the route we constantly see networks do.....they'll put on junk that will last 5 seasons+ & can good shows w/o giving them time to appeal to naysayers & especially to ppl. that like that particular show!

Apparently I am in the remnant again, I enjoy The Killing & Low Winter Sun, so these will probably get cancelled.

[djgeneral]

I just now finished episode 2 of LWS, and it was better than the Pilot, but I still am not "Excited" to watch the show. I'm giving it a chance because it was filmed in my city, and AMC normally has great programming. But viewers are vanishing quickly. If Breaking Bad wasn't on before this and aired the previews during LWS, the viewers would probably be barely over 1 million

[djariya]

Originally Posted by djgeneral

I just now finished episode 2 of LWS, and it was better than the Pilot, but I still am not "Excited" to watch the show. I'm giving it a chance because it was filmed in my city, and AMC normally has great programming. But viewers are vanishing quickly. If Breaking Bad wasn't on before this and aired the previews during LWS, the viewers would probably be barely over 1 million

On Sunday night, you had Breaking Bad, Talking Bad, the season finale of True Blood, Dexter, Ray Donovan, Unforgettable, Devious Maids, Crossing Lines etc. all in the same night. There just isn't enough live viewers for such a busy night. I'm guessing that most people who watch Breaking Bad live DVR whatever else they are interested in and hit the sack.

It really has little to do with the quality of LWS. Most people who I saw comment on the LWS Facebook page like it along with Strong and James.

[djgeneral]

Originally Posted by djariya

On Sunday night, you had Breaking Bad, Talking Bad, the season finale of True Blood, Dexter, Ray Donovan, Unforgettable, Devious Maids, Crossing Lines etc. all in the same night. There just isn't enough live viewers for such a busy night. I'm guessing that most people who watch Breaking Bad live DVR whatever else they are interested in and hit the sack.

It really has little to do with the quality of LWS. Most people who I saw comment on the LWS Facebook page like it along with Strong and James.

There is always a lot of competion though, especially on Sunday. The show needs to be able to get live viewers but we'll see how DVR results will be.