The Small Screen: TV

[tented]

Off course

I watched the season 1 of Strange New Worlds. For me it is best Star Trek in a while. There is a Star Trek feel to it, like I'm watching the episodes from New Generation. It's just done right. I will download season 2 to watch once I board the vessel. They are trying to revive the franchise with Picard and Discovery. The latter I didn't watch, heard it's bad and Picard seems all about the action and not very convincing when Picard starts to swear and storyline is weak IMO.

Give Discovery a chance. I like it, for many reasons, but don’t want to go into exactly why because it would go into spoiler territory quickly. Let’s just say it has many fun, unusual storylines which go places no Star Trek has gone before. One of the main Discovery characters is portrayed by Michelle Yeoh, who does an excellent job. Also, the Enterprise crew is first introduced during Discovery’s second season.

 

[don_fabio]

Give Discovery a chance. I like it, for many reasons, but don’t want to go into exactly why because it would go into spoiler territory quickly. Let’s just say it has many fun, unusual storylines which go places no Star Trek has gone before. One of the main Discovery characters is portrayed by Michelle Yeoh, who does an excellent job. Also, the Enterprise crew is first introduced during Discovery’s second season.

I'll take your word for it and give it a try then Michelle Yeoh, I had no idea she was a part of Star Trek series, good actress choice.

 

[tented]

I'll take your word for it and give it a try then Michelle Yeoh, I had no idea she was a part of Star Trek series, good actress choice.

Consider watching the first 2 seasons of Discovery before watching the second season of Strange New Worlds. If you don’t like it, you’ll know not to watch all 4 seasons, but you’ll get enough of a feel for it to know whether or not to continue, while also seeing how/when the Enterprise cast is introduced, which helps you understand some of the storylines in Strange New Worlds.

 

[tented]

I’m watching “Electric Dreams”, a 10-part series based on short stories by Philip K. Dick. Each episode is based on a different story, with different actors, taking place in different timelines. Since it’s Dick, you can imagine the themes: dystopian futures, AI, androids/robots, alien life forms, etc. It’s extremely well done, with actors such as Bryan Cranston, Anna Paquin, Steve Buscemi, Greg Kinnear, Timothy Spall, and many more. I highly recommend it.

 

[Federberg]

thought this was hilarious!

 

[Kieran]

thought this was hilarious!

Tony Sopranos sister, brilliant!

 

[Federberg]

Not sure if the non-Brits will rock with this one

 

[tented]

Not sure if the non-Brits will rock with this one

Speaking for myself, I’ll give anything a try which features Gervais.

 

[Federberg]

Anyone else watching Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time adaptation on Amazon Prime. It's an absolute abomination. It's almost like the script writers have actively set out to destroy his life's work. I hate it but I'm hate watching it. I'm actively trying to observe how deep the corruption is

 

[Kieran]

Anyone else watching Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time adaptation on Amazon Prime. It's an absolute abomination. It's almost like the script writers have actively set out to destroy his life's work. I hate it but I'm hate watching it. I'm actively trying to observe how deep the corruption is

Well I just finished season 4 of Babylon Berlin, a German TV show that exceeds the reach of the books it’s based on. In fact, it’s very cleverly steered an almost parallel path, with the same main cast and vaguely the same stories, but everything is deepened and made richer on the television show.

Weimer Berlin, Germany in the late 1920’s, the rise of communism and fascism, the decadence and noirish music and nightlife you’d expect, it’s a dark tale so compellingly told, you’ll be emotional. Great cast, particularly actors playing the two main characters, Volker Bruch who plays detective Gereon Rath with a Bogartesque intensity, toughness and vulnerability, and Liv Lisa Fries who plays the flapper wannabe detective Charlotte Ritter.

Exceptional show! Great music and dancing in it too. Vibrant and atmospheric.

 

[don_fabio]

Well I just finished season 4 of Babylon Berlin, a German TV show that exceeds the reach of the books it’s based on. In fact, it’s very cleverly steered an almost parallel path, with the same main cast and vaguely the same stories, but everything is deepened and made richer on the television show.

Weimer Berlin, Germany in the late 1920’s, the rise of communism and fascism, the decadence and noirish music and nightlife you’d expect, it’s a dark tale so compellingly told, you’ll be emotional. Great cast, particularly actors playing the two main characters, Volker Bruch who plays detective Gereon Rath with a Bogartesque intensity, toughness and vulnerability, and Liv Lisa Fries who plays the flapper wannabe detective Charlotte Ritter.

Exceptional show! Great music and dancing in it too. Vibrant and atmospheric.

Agree with all that you wrote. It's a great show. I think I mentioned it here too at some point. I watched 3 seasons and downloaded the 4th which I plan to watch soon.

 

[Kieran]

Agree with all that you wrote. It's a great show. I think I mentioned it here too at some point. I watched 3 seasons and downloaded the 4th which I plan to watch soon.

Yeah you did! I envy you having season 4 to to watch. It doesn’t disappoint! By the time season 5 is filmed and then translated for English audiences, I don’t expect to see it before 2025..

 

[Kieran]

From the sublime to the ridiculous. The missus has me watching Virgin River. Yes indeedy, folks, there are women’s shows. They exist, like women’s books. Bloke flicks. Men sheds.

Virgin River is an idyllic place of endless abundance and wealth, into which heartache and danger sometimes intrudes. A sample episode might sound a little like this:

Hunk: I know I’m not who you want me to be, but I promise to try to be as good a father as I can be to our unborn child.

Bland strawberry blonde: I know honey. It’s not your fault you have PTSD from your hunk work in Vietnam or Iraq or whatever. I just want this to be perfect.

Big teeth cute neighbour girl: literally OMG there’s a forest fire heading to Virgin River!

Exit hunk, dashing into danger. Bland strawberry blonde faints. Hunk’s sister with big teeth walks in.

Hunk’s sister with big teeth: anyone seen my drug dealing hunk? He promised he’d change but I dunno. Hmm, and now I’m having confused feelings for a cop.

Enter gay dads with their rainbow mixed race kids, all smiling. Exit gay dads with their rainbow mixed race kids, all smiling.

Scene two, Hunk is fighting bad guys who are beating up drug selling hunk boyfriend of hunk’s sister with big teeth. Hunk and hunk drug selling boyfriend beat up the baddies then fight the fires while the town rallies around and bakes cakes for the survivors of the fires.

Strawberry blonde: I lost the baby [sob]

Hunk: that’s okay honey, I put out the fire, and them bad guys won’t be around here again for at least two episodes, I got a bit of free time, let’s make another baby.

Bland strawberry blonde blinks with happy tears.

It’s really that awful. We’re on season season 4 now…

 

[Kieran]

Just finished watching a masterful ITV production of a non-fiction book by Ben McIntyre - A Spy Among friends, based on the true story of Kim Philby, one of the infamous Cambridge Five Soviet double agents at work in the UK. Myself and brother @tented often talk together about great spy shows, particularly of the Cold War variety, well brother, this one is a show perched on the very top notch. What I love about spy tales is the heart racing tension, the plausibility - or implausibility - of the cause, the craziness of the commitment to the cause, the courage, the edge of the seat scenes where a bead of sweat might lead to torture. This show - and presumably the book, if the review by John Banville in the Guardian, linked above, is anything to go by - takes a different route. There isn't only the great sense of betrayal by friends, the vehement denial of treason by the spy who says he did what he did from principle, and was therefore serving his country. There's the psychological toll this tension between reason and treason takes.

It's a six part show, very slowly and deliberately peeling layers so that at times it's hard to know who's betraying who, and the performances by the two leads, Guy Pearce particularly, and Damian Lewis, are spectacular. Pearce in particular because his Philby is a tragic figure, charismatic and daring and unflappably alone and sad and aware of the toll his actions will eventually take on him. Pearce is so good in this, at times he reminds me of the great James Mason. The scenes are often spliced and interrupted even while the characters speak, with flash forwards and flashbacks, but it's never gimmicky. Never intrusive, or distracting. The slowness of it impresses. It makes no concession to all those great spy thriller effects I mentioned above: this one respects its secrets too much to sell them cheaply. In some sense, it's an incestuous platonic love story between friends, a love that somehow is more baffled and deeply affected by the betrayal. The music, direction, look, all of it is perfect. it had me racing to Wiki to discover what happened to everybody in real life - a lot of which I remembered from the news at the time.

There are some fictional characters in it too, which worked as a device to open up the story a little, and present the questions we'd ask at home...

 

[tented]

Just finished watching a masterful ITV production of a non-fiction book by Ben McIntyre - A Spy Among friends, based on the true story of Kim Philby, one of the infamous Cambridge Five Soviet double agents at work in the UK. Myself and brother @tented often talk together about great spy shows, particularly of the Cold War variety, well brother, this one is a show perched on the very top notch. What I love about spy tales is the heart racing tension, the plausibility - or implausibility - of the cause, the craziness of the commitment to the cause, the courage, the edge of the seat scenes where a bead of sweat might lead to torture. This show - and presumably the book, if the review by John Banville in the Guardian, linked above, is anything to go by - takes a different route. There isn't only the great sense of betrayal by friends, the vehement denial of treason by the spy who says he did what he did from principle, and was therefore serving his country. There's the psychological toll this tension between reason and treason takes.

It's a six part show, very slowly and deliberately peeling layers so that at times it's hard to know who's betraying who, and the performances by the two leads, Guy Pearce particularly, and Damian Lewis, are spectacular. Pearce in particular because his Philby is a tragic figure, charismatic and daring and unflappably alone and sad and aware of the toll his actions will eventually take on him. Pearce is so good in this, at times he reminds me of the great James Mason. The scenes are often spliced and interrupted even while the characters speak, with flash forwards and flashbacks, but it's never gimmicky. Never intrusive, or distracting. The slowness of it impresses. It makes no concession to all those great spy thriller effects I mentioned above: this one respects its secrets too much to sell them cheaply. In some sense, it's an incestuous platonic love story between friends, a love that somehow is more baffled and deeply affected by the betrayal. The music, direction, look, all of it is perfect. it had me racing to Wiki to discover what happened to everybody in real life - a lot of which I remembered from the news at the time.

There are some fictional characters in it too, which worked as a device to open up the story a little, and present the questions we'd ask at home...

Sounds perfect! Thanks for the recommendation, brother. I love both leads, and can perfectly envision them in these roles.

(It’s available on MGM+ for those in the US.)

 

[shawnbm]

Well, I was likely the last person on the planet to watch Squid Game and enjoyed it. Now I KNOW I am one of the last people ever to start watching Breaking Bad! Just finished the first season and it was exemplary. Looking forward to continuing with this one. Everyone now says I must than watch Better Call Saul.

 

[Kieran]

Well, I was likely the last person on the planet to watch Squid Game and enjoyed it. Now I KNOW I am one of the last people ever to start watching Breaking Bad! Just finished the first season and it was exemplary. Looking forward to continuing with this one. Everyone now says I must than watch Better Call Saul.

I haven’t seen either of these shows. And I haven’t seen Game of Thrones.

I think I just won some sort of prize there, brother!

 

[tented]

Well, I was likely the last person on the planet to watch Squid Game and enjoyed it. Now I KNOW I am one of the last people ever to start watching Breaking Bad! Just finished the first season and it was exemplary. Looking forward to continuing with this one. Everyone now says I must than watch Better Call Saul.

I binge-watched Breaking Bad about a year after it ended. I thought it was extremely well-written, with great actors.

 

[Kieran]

Any fans of The OA here? This is a Netflix show that was unbelievably cancelled after 2 seasons. It’s difficult to categorise but it’s incredibly clever. It’s a sci fi/supernatural/mystery tale of Near Death Experience and what occurs during them, but it’s also a gothic moral story of a deranged scientist looking to achieve godlike powers by creating maps of the many dimensions humans can live in; or it’s a tale of delusion; or else it’s a story about faith, and how to sustain it in the face of proof against it.

It’s a very brilliant show, with some really emotionally impactful scenes in it. It comes from Brit Marling who both writes and acts in it, and Zac Batmanglij who writes and directs. Both of them are responsible for the innovative take on the classic whodunit, A Murder At The End Of The World, among other things. I would say they traverse the same eerie spectrum as M. Night Shyamalan, but their work is more visceral, for me…

 

[don_fabio]

Any fans of The OA here? This is a Netflix show that was unbelievably cancelled after 2 seasons. It’s difficult to categorise but it’s incredibly clever. It’s a sci fi/supernatural/mystery tale of Near Death Experience and what occurs during them, but it’s also a gothic moral story of a deranged scientist looking to achieve godlike powers by creating maps of the many dimensions humans can live in; or it’s a tale of delusion; or else it’s a story about faith, and how to sustain it in the face of proof against it.

It’s a very brilliant show, with some really emotionally impactful scenes in it. It comes from Brit Marling who both writes and acts in it, and Zac Batmanglij who writes and directs. Both of them are responsible for the innovative take on the classic whodunit, A Murder At The End Of The World, among other things. I would say they traverse the same eerie spectrum as M. Night Shyamalan, but their work is more visceral, for me…

I loved that show, but I only watched season 1. I know it was cancelled, but didn't know they actually made 2nd season. Netflix has a tendency to cancel good shows, which is a pity.

Btw I finished watching "Babylon Berlin" season 4 and enjoyed it.

Now I have 2 episodes left of "The Tourist", which @Moxie recommended about a year ago. I like it too, it's fun, plot and characters feel like I'm watching Coen brothers work.