What was the last TV show you watched?

[AmateisGal]

The second episode of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. Starting to get really interesting! I dislike that they have a new Captain America, though, and so do Bucky and Sam!

 

[Touchofevil]

A couple more episodes of The Lost Pirate Kingdom. It appears the budget was pretty limited as they continue to use the same computer generated scenes over and over. It feels like watching an episode of Ancient Aliens on the somewhat History Channel with its goofy set of experts blabbering about far out alien theories, only LPK experts aren’t nearly so bad. It is entertaining enough.

 

[AmateisGal]

Watched seasons 1-3 of the British cold case mystery series, Unforgotten. It's very well done.

 

[Worf]

2 episodes of "Doom Patrol". Totally unknown property to me. Some claim that Stan Lee modeled the X-Men after it, right down to the wheelchair bound leader in a mansion. Interesting but nothing's really grabbed me as of yet. Will give it a couple more episodes before rendering a final verdict.

Worf

 

[Touchofevil]

Just a few episodes of The Andy Griffith Show during the past couple of days.

 

[Doctor Damage]

Good news, it appears Leninfilm has uploaded their 1980s adaptation of Sherlock Holmes onto youtube (first episode below). These are absolutely superb adaptations, very atmospheric, very warm and human. Livanov's Holmes is second only to Brett in my opinion, while Solonin's Watson is far and away the best ever, just perfect. Moriarty, who shows up in a later episode, was realized extremely creepily, which to my mind makes more sense than the traditional posh interpretation of other adaptations. Highly recommended. English subtitles, although the translation is a bit dodgy here and there.

 

[AmateisGal]

Some more British murder mysteries. First episode of the series, Shetland, and first episode of the Vera series.

 

[Ernest P Shackleton]

Gangs of London. AMC. The fight scene and coloration remind me of Into the Badlands crossed with a super hero movie, but since there aren't funny costumes, it looks polished and not cheap. The subject matter really doesn't interest me, but I'll give it a couple more episodes.

Atlantic Crossing. PBS-Masterpiece. Well done, and I'm looking forward to this different perspective.

My Grandparent's War. PBS. Color me dense. As I was watching the first minutes of this, it finally dawned on me how fixated the UK still is with WWII. still being the key word here. Do Millennials roll their eyes and think, "Here's another war series."? I'd like to see the UK demographics for this series. Is it 95% 60+?

 

[MisterCairo]

Some more British murder mysteries. First episode of the series, Shetland, and first episode of the Vera series.

I absolutely love Shetland, and hope at some point we get some more episodes.

I am currently viewing the Welsh crime drama Hinterland, and loving that too.

 

[Doctor Damage]

My Grandparent's War. PBS. Color me dense. As I was watching the first minutes of this, it finally dawned on me how fixated the UK still is with WWII. still being the key word here. Do Millennials roll their eyes and think, "Here's another war series."? I'd like to see the UK demographics for this series. Is it 95% 60+?

Yeah, you're quite right, parts of the UK population, various pundits and politicians, plus the entertainment industry are obsessed with that war. And obsessed with the Germans "taking over" even today. It's all ridiculous and they should be embarassed. I appreciate history more than most people, but it's gotten like some 80 year old man going on about how the best days of his life were in high school. Really? C'mon. They need to move on.

 

[Cornelius]

Caught the first episode of Ken Burns new Hemingway doc on PBS last night. No big surprises, as I was already familiar with James Mellow's very thorough 1992 bio, but there were quite a few photos I'd never seen before. Worth a watch if you're interested in the author or Modernism generally.

 

[Ernest P Shackleton]

Caught the first episode of Ken Burns new Hemingway doc on PBS last night. No big surprises, as I was already familiar with James Mellow's very thorough 1992 bio, but there were quite a few photos I'd never seen before. Worth a watch if you're interested in the author or Modernism generally.

I'm recording it, but the way they air these things now isn't conducive to me actually watching it. I'll probably watch it. A very good chance of that, but as I've said in the past, with documentaries, give me an hour every week for a month or two. I want time to digest and to research if I find it necessary. I know the streaming services drop everything at once, but that's a little different animal than PBS, or at least I think it is a different animal. I appreciate the slow pace of PBS and an episode per week. Documentaries aren't Game of Thrones, or whatever your favorite might be, where I'm willing to sit down for four hours at a time.

 

[Doctor Damage]

^ thanks for the comments re that Hemingway doc. I'm kinda 50/50 on sitting through it. If there's a lot of contemporary history covered then I'm game, since context is everything. On his own, Hemingway is interesting but also not interesting, if you know what I mean lol

 

[Edward]

A couple more episodes of The Lost Pirate Kingdom. It appears the budget was pretty limited as they continue to use the same computer generated scenes over and over. It feels like watching an episode of Ancient Aliens on the somewhat History Channel with its goofy set of experts blabbering about far out alien theories, only LPK experts aren’t nearly so bad. It is entertaining enough.

The wife and I always get a kick out of those Alien Conspiracy shows where people bend over backwards with all these totally evidence-free, wafer-thin alien conspiracies to explain away religion, and seem to think they're anything other than the blindest of True Believers themselves.

2 episodes of "Doom Patrol". Totally unknown property to me. Some claim that Stan Lee modeled the X-Men after it, right down to the wheelchair bound leader in a mansion. Interesting but nothing's really grabbed me as of yet. Will give it a couple more episodes before rendering a final verdict.

Worf

It picks up after that. I liked it a lot. I'm not (yet) familiar with the source material myself, but it somehow felt like a much more 'human' take on what people would do in these situations than the X Men. I enjoyed how 'real' the characters all are. Season 2 with The Chief's daughter takes it up a notch. Not sure if there will be more, but I enjoyed it. It had the feel of the X men had they been created by Alan Moore at around the same time as he did Watchmen.

My Grandparent's War. PBS. Color me dense. As I was watching the first minutes of this, it finally dawned on me how fixated the UK still is with WWII. still being the key word here. Do Millennials roll their eyes and think, "Here's another war series."? I'd like to see the UK demographics for this series. Is it 95% 60+?

WW2 is very much a huge touchstone for the modern "British" (really more an English Nationalist in truth) identity - Churchill and Spitfires. It is very much rooted - and always has been - in the nostalgia of the generation that were born during or shortly after the war, and had no living memory of it. This is not the place to get into the politics of it, but suffice it to say that it is rooted in a heavily romanticised take on the whole thing by peopled who weren't there: they'll talk of Blitz Spirit and everyone pulling together, but perish the thought they be confronted with the truth about how crime (including incidences of rape and other sexual assaults) soared in the blackouts... It is an aging thing in much the same way as The Sixties (our UK equivalent of what Lizzie has often posted about regarding The Fifties as created in the US by the Boys From Marketing) as the be all, end all of popular culture is slowly - finally! - working its way out of the mainstream in the UK, but it does have a clear revival in certain political quarters every so often. IT will certainly be a long time before the Churchill Myth (founded entirely in an application of the Great Man theory to the WW2 era, and again very much in the main by people too young to have been adults during either of his turns as PM) is shattered by historical fact.

 

[Doctor Damage]

WW2 is very much a huge touchstone for the modern "British" (really more an English Nationalist in truth) identity - Churchill and Spitfires. It is very much rooted - and always has been - in the nostalgia of the generation that were born during or shortly after the war, and had no living memory of it. This is not the place to get into the politics of it, but suffice it to say that it is rooted in a heavily romanticised take on the whole thing by peopled who weren't there: they'll talk of Blitz Spirit and everyone pulling together, but perish the thought they be confronted with the truth about how crime (including incidences of rape and other sexual assaults) soared in the blackouts... It is an aging thing in much the same way as The Sixties (our UK equivalent of what Lizzie has often posted about regarding The Fifties as created in the US by the Boys From Marketing) as the be all, end all of popular culture is slowly - finally! - working its way out of the mainstream in the UK, but it does have a clear revival in certain political quarters every so often. IT will certainly be a long time before the Churchill Myth (founded entirely in an application of the Great Man theory to the WW2 era, and again very much in the main by people too young to have been adults during either of his turns as PM) is shattered by historical fact.

Excellent post. Thanks for taking the time to write it up so well.

 

[Edward]

Excellent post. Thanks for taking the time to write it up so well.

Thank-you!

 

[MisterCairo]

Still working our way through season 11 of Supernatural to catch the girls up, and now on season 3 of Parks and Recreation. What a laugh out loud show that is for us! My wife asked why we had never seen it before, though we'd heard about it. Only so many hours in the day I suppose!

 

[Ernest P Shackleton]

Mayans. FX. I've said many times that I think Sutter is a terrible writer, but I think this has been his best show so far. So far. Now that they're developing the characters and revealing some of the backstory, I feel it is falling apart. As they introduce the information, they don't take it anywhere. They aren't the only Hollywood storytellers who do this, but it still bugs me. Why do it in the first place? They unnecessarily make it more and more complicated. I guess it is easier to come up with other ideas than it is to develop the ideas they already have in place? It's just sort of strange to me. It feels pretentious. I'd like to see a show like this with a definite plan of X number of seasons, with a clear ending and full arc in mind, that wouldn't be affected by how popular it becomes or network requests for more seasons. This is the story I want to tell. It'll take three seasons. That's it. Precision.

 

[MisterCairo]

We have finished the six "bonus" episodes from season ten of The Walking Dead. My wife and I agree that exactly two were worthwhile. One focussed on Daryl and one on Negan. The others tried hard, but left us empty. Cannot blame those on the covid limitations of filming, either. Stories such as they were were just flat.

Fear the Walking Dead starts up Sunday, and here's hoping that is a return to somewhat normality.

 

[Edward]

Mayans. FX. I've said many times that I think Sutter is a terrible writer, but I think this has been his best show so far. So far. Now that they're developing the characters and revealing some of the backstory, I feel it is falling apart. As they introduce the information, they don't take it anywhere. They aren't the only Hollywood storytellers who do this, but it still bugs me. Why do it in the first place? They unnecessarily make it more and more complicated. I guess it is easier to come up with other ideas than it is to develop the ideas they already have in place? It's just sort of strange to me. It feels pretentious. I'd like to see a show like this with a definite plan of X number of seasons, with a clear ending and full arc in mind, that wouldn't be affected by how popular it becomes or network requests for more seasons. This is the story I want to tell. It'll take three seasons. That's it. Precision.

I tend to agree that a lot of shows would benefit from a better thought-out continuity arc. I would suggest that the problem lies with the industry: many shows are kept alive much longer than they have sufficient content for, or if they do have a set narrative arc can end up treading water for a season or two, at the whim of the networks who might demand an extra series. As I recall, Lost was one season longer than the writers had planned because its popularity was such that the network refused to commit to a 'final' season for some time, so they couldn't put their plan for the final act into place until they knew when it would end, as they had a two-season arc mapped out.

Fortunately, it seems that in this era of streaming as first-medium, the streamers are more inclined to commit to a set run, perhaps because content on the likes of Netflix has a longer shelf-life than on traditional broadcast media: always new subscribers to give it a new audience, rather than grief for showing "reruns".