What was the last TV show you watched?

[Ernest P Shackleton]

Counterpart. Starz series. Anyone else watching this? It gets better and better, and they're doing due diligence with character and backstory. We audience don't have a clue what could happen next, and they're fully earning it through story and smart ideas. I've been surprised by how interesting they're making the premise of a mirrored world. Really enjoying this series, and I went into it halfheartedly.

 

[Seb Lucas]

Bosch Series 2. An LA based police show starring the resonant voiced Titus Welliver. Some carefully developed moods and characters but ultimately it doesn't soar. It's a touch bland despite some great casting and performances.

 

[TimeWarpWife]

The Golden State Killer: It's Not Over on the Investigation and Discovery channel. Chilling stuff just like the series that was on about the Zodiac Killer a few weeks ago. What's really frightening is that there is the possibility that these two serial murderers could still be alive and even with all of the technological advances we've had over the last 40 to 50 years since these murders, we still don't know the identities of these evil lunatics. I think the Golden State Killer was the more frightening of the two because he not only broke into the victims' homes, he'd stay for two or three hours, go through their stuff, and even eat their food from the refrigerator! One of his victims was a military policeman and a judge who was about to be become a Federal judge, proving nobody was safe. DH and I have also been watching earlier episodes of Cold Justice on Netflix. Almost makes me afraid to go out my front door, but after watching about the Golden State Killer, I'm evidently not safe inside my front door either.

 

[Benzadmiral]

A 1960 episode of Peter Gunn. Howard "Floyd the Mayberry barber" McNear plays a fussy bachelor bank teller, "Horatio Smeddler," who robs his employer of a large sum of money; but it's not so he can run off to Tahiti. He wants private detective Gunn to protect him as he meets with the bank's owner and board of directors -- to force them to institute an employee pension plan! The bank owner makes the mistake of publicizing the whole matter, and Mr. Smeddler becomes a public hero. He also comes to the attention of a mobster who wants that money for himself.

Neatly done; McNear gives his Smeddler a flash of steel in the gaze now and then, but this performance is very much a rehearsal for Floyd the barber, which role would start the next year.

 

[Doctor Strange]

The first four episodes of the just-dropped season 2 of Jessica Jones on Netflix. This remains the best of the Marvel Netflix series... but I can already see that it still has the not-enough-story-dragged-out-to-13-eps syndrome that plagues so many Netflix productions.

 

[AmateisGal]

Mozart in the Jungle. It's a half-hour comedy/drama about a conductor and the New York Symphony Orchestra. I'm quite enjoying it!

 

[AmateisGal]

I get that we are late to the party on this one, but SGF and I just started watching "Mozart in the Jungle" (we are in the middle of season 2 so far).

It's slick - even manipulative - but it's smart enough, entertaining enough and moves fast enough that you don't care. Thirty minute comedies aren't real life, but at their best they capture real life's moments of joy, pain, fun, struggle and "Mozart..." does all this.

But its real joy, IMHO, is Gael Garcia Bernal as Rodrigo De Souza a.k.a Maestro. His impish spirit is infectious and a joy to watch.

Comedy writers try to create characters who move through life genuinely oblivious to the normal rules of behavior and thought - Kramer from "Seinfeld" did this noisily - Rodrigo does it with an innocence and childlike joy and mischievousness that powers the show by knocking every one around him off center.

Rodrigo wants to enjoy life; has a gift for music that haunts him (smartly revealed through his ripping conversations with an imaged Beethoven); wants to help others but is also selfish in a non-mean way - all resulting in a small* human ball of basically benevolent crazy and tangled emotions.

There are also a bunch of other very talented actors creating interesting characters - the randy "retired" older maestro who doesn't really want to be retired, the ingenue oboist both insecure and cocky trying to find her place in NYC and the music world and the somewhat lost, aging but too-pretty cellist, amidst others - and all the usual dynamics - jealous musicians, demanding managers, prima donna donors, etc. - but this is De Souza's show and it's better because of that.


* IMDB lists De Souza as 5'7", which tells us that the conversion formula for IMDB height to real-world height is

IMDB height - 4 inches = Real World Height​

Haha! I just posted that I started watching this, too, before I went back and read the thread!

I am really loving this show. And you're absolutely right about De Souza. He is a DELIGHT to watch.

 

[3fingers]

Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts. It's on Amazon, but unfortunately there are only two episodes. People drag in their talented friends and acquaintances to play, sing, do comedy, etc.. It's a snapshot of early television and like him or not, typical Godfrey.

 

[Worf]

"Hard Sun" - A BBC/Hulu offering on the latter. Premise (no spoiler here it'd in the trailer for the series) the earth will experience an E.L.E. (Extinction Level Event) in 5 years. Hackers find this information and after a few machinations the "proof" of this event lands in the hands of two London D.C.I's via a thumb drive. Of course "The Man" would prefer this information be kept secret and are more than willing to kill everyone they even suspect might have seen the information on the drive. The first episode is primarily about how the thumb drive is kept from the hands of M.I.6 and their assassins, however a watered down version of the information on the drive makes it to the web. Later episodes deal with how this information, which is of course denied and debunked by the authorities, affects some people. At that point it becomes more or less a typical cop and killer show. However I must say that the first episode is absolutely brilliant and scary. Question is... would you want to know? And if you did know.... what would you do with this knowledge?

Worf

 

[LizzieMaine]

Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts. It's on Amazon, but unfortunately there are only two episodes. People drag in their talented friends and acquaintances to play, sing, do comedy, etc.. It's a snapshot of early television and like him or not, typical Godfrey.

Godfrey is one of those personalities who's fascinating to watch for the sheer calculatedness of his persona. On radio, the studied casual folksiness works -- but on television, you can see just how hard he has to work to appear sincere.

I will give credit where credit is due, though -- as careful as he was about creating and protecting his own image, he had no hesitation in giving the Boys the back of his hand when he felt they deserved it. He spent the better part of a decade promoting "buy 'em by the carton" Chesterfields -- but when he nearly died from lung cancer, he turned on a dime and became for the rest of his life a militant, outspoken foe of the tobacco industry.

 

[Benzadmiral]

"Somebody to Remember," a late Season One entry on The Fugitive. Kimble is working in a warehouse for a Greek named Gus Priamos (Gilbert Roland), who has only 6 months to live (presumably lung cancer). He is fond of Kimble, who reminds him of his long-dead younger brother. Thanks to the true crime magazines, he knows who Kimble is. So he works up a plan: Kimble will purchase tickets to Greece, using Gus's passport with Kimble's picture. Then Gus will switch the pictures and take his place on the plane -- after Gus calls Lt. Gerard anonymously to tip him that "Kimble" is leaving the country. Gerard, thinking it's Kimble, will chase after Gus, who plans to die at sea before the cancer gets him; and Kimble will be free of Gerard's pursuit.

Nice idea -- but Gus's eye-on-the-main-chance girlfriend (Madlyn Rhue) wants Gus's savings. She spots the magazine, and calls Gerard herself. So even as Kimble and Gus execute their plan at the airport, Gerard is already there and is checking the passengers. . . .

Very exciting, as it usually is when Gerard shows up. The producers were very wise in not having him appear more often, because when he does, it's top-notch stuff.

 

[Julian Shellhammer]

Lights Out, the early television version of the great radio program. This episode, Dark Image, is, as near as I can research, from 1951. Troubled lady on honeymoon with patient, earnest husband deals with creepy mirror tricks that seem to threaten her very soul. Looks like a kinoscoped presentation from those days before videotape was widely used. That, and live television production demands, gives the viewer a claustrophobic viewing experience.

 

[1967Cougar390]

Amazon original Sneaky Pete. Season 2 episode 1. I really like the first season so I hope the current season will prove to be as good.

Steven

 

[Worf]

Nuthin'.... Ah've been "Midwifed" AGAIN!!!!

Worf

 

[3fingers]

Part of the reason I enjoyed Call the Midwife besides the story is that being raised Catholic before nuns became an endangered species, I could connect the sisters to sisters I knew in real life from the sweet or nutty to the ornery and cranky, they are all there.

 

[GHT]

We have a channel, (81) if you are from these shores, that shows movies from the era. This evening I watched the 1948 film: Lulu Belle, starring Dorothy Lamour.
It was toe curlingly corny, yet somehow compulsive viewing. Probably the cars and fashions, but the film was enjoyable enough to keep a silly grin on my face for most of it's entirety.

 

[Fading Fast]

Part of the reason I enjoyed Call the Midwife besides the story is that being raised Catholic before nuns became an endangered species, I could connect the sisters to sisters I knew in real life from the sweet or nutty to the ornery and cranky, they are all there.

Not having been raised Catholic - just saying that for context of my view - Sister Julienne is the real-world ideal version of a sister. The Catholic Church would be an even greater institution if it had more sisters like her.

 

[AmateisGal]

Finished the first three seasons of Mozart in the Jungle. Such a great series. It's funny and charming. Rodrigo (the Maestro!) is like a little kid so much of the time, but always, the music is what inspires him. Great show.

 

[Fading Fast]

Finished the first three seasons of Mozart in the Jungle. Such a great series. It's funny and charming. Rodrigo (the Maestro!) is like a little kid so much of the time, but always, the music is what inspires him. Great show.

Good show made great by Rodrigo. I love how excited he is by so much in life - like every single time he meets the maestro he replaced. He manages to keep the kid Rodrigo alive in the adult Rodrigo.

 

[AmateisGal]

Good show made great by Rodrigo. I love how excited he is by so much in life - like every single time he meets the maestro he replaced. He manages to keep the kid Rodrigo alive in the adult Rodrigo.

Yes, exactly! Almost TOO much sometimes...