What was the last TV show you watched?

[Zombie_61]

...Mind you, I hold to the view that the sharpest dissection of the real nature of Superman was that Tarrantino gave in Kill Bill. Clark Kent is the disguise, Superman is who he really is. Clark Kent is his judgement on humanity...

The same is true of Bruce Wayne and Batman--Wayne is the disguise.

...Over the weekend I stumbled across The Watch on BBC iPlayer. I'd heard they were making this but forgotten about it, so it was a nice surprise. It's the story of Captain Sam Vines, Corporal Carrot and the rest of the Ankh Morpork City Watch, based on the Discworld novels by the late Terry Pratchett...

I watched The Watch on BBC America and liked it well enough, but by the time it ended I had the feeling that it was exactly what it was and nothing more, i.e. a small portion of a much larger story and universe. As such, I felt some of the elements could have been a little more detailed, more "fleshed out" to give the audience a better overall understanding of what we were watching.

 

[Touchofevil]

We are fortunate, in Canada it is on Netflix and B Box.

I believe that the first four or five seasons are on Netflix which is where we became fans. At some point I will subscribe to BritBox and/or Acorn to watch the newer episodes as well as Doc Martin. We used to watch Doc Martin on PBS, but no longer do since it has moved on too.

 

[Touchofevil]

Judge not lest ye be judged!!!

It happens whether or not I judge. It is just how it is.

 

[Touchofevil]

Part of 60 Minutes and kind of an episode of A Discovery of Witches on AMC. The Moonlighting glow on A Discovery of Witches is just one of a number of somewhat annoying things with this show.

 

[Edward]

The same is true of Bruce Wayne and Batman--Wayne is the disguise.

I can see a case for that, it's certainly how it's often been interpreted on screen. Tbh, though, I've always read that as more a split personality disorder thing. It's an absolute compulsion to don the cowl and be the bat, not a choice as such. It would be interesting to see a film (perhaps set in the same world as Joker) where that was the take. Something akin to the Green Goblin and Norman Osborne in the first Raimi Spiderman picture.

I watched The Watch on BBC America and liked it well enough, but by the time it ended I had the feeling that it was exactly what it was and nothing more, i.e. a small portion of a much larger story and universe. As such, I felt some of the elements could have been a little more detailed, more "fleshed out" to give the audience a better overall understanding of what we were watching.

There's definitely scope there for a lot more development of this take on the Discworld. One thing I wasn't clear on was whether Lord Vetinari was a male character (as he is in the books, though there are forty odd and I've not read them all) who just happened to be being played by a woman, or if there was a significance to it. I suppose if the latter a future series will reveal.

I loved Vimes with a backstreet Portadown accent - not one you hear often on big-budget television. Good candidate for playing Dan Starkey from the Bateman books in a Netflix series (please, Santa, I'll be good forever!).

 

[Doctor Strange]

The "Batman is his true identity, Bruce Wayne is the disguise" concept only came to foreground in the seventies. After decades of Greatest Generation DC writers (*) began transitioning to younger, college-educated writers who grew up with the character and had thought it all through far more than the older guys; I'd single out Denny O'Neil as the key figure. Those important eighties graphic novels like The Dark Knight Returns and Batman: Year One took it further. Of course, B:TAS writer Paul Dini made this a cornerstone of their interpretation. ("How did you know that those memories the Scarecrow implanted weren't real?" "Because inside I don't think of myself as Bruce Wayne.")

(* Let's recall that many of these guys hated the work, considering comics just kiddie fare, and just pushed increasinly nutty plots through every month. They usually didn't add character details beyond the most superficial plot requirements. And before the sixties breakthroughs at Marvel, they didn't even make an effort to distinguish different characters' speaking patterns. Check out a Justice League meeting from the early sixties... where all the characters speak in identical generic "heroic" voices, with little beyond their catchphrases to individualize them.)

And re obsession and compulsion, as Edward notes, we sometimes see the "Batman is as nuts as the villains he's created" approach, notably in the Tim Burton films. My own feeling is that does a disservice to the character. One of the things that makes B:TAS my all-time favorite adaptation is that it frequently brings Bruce/Bats right up to the edge of this mania... then pulls him back and allows him to remain heroic and (vaguely) sane.

For the longest time, Superman was the "real" identity and Clark the disguise. Then a similar thing happened (first in the 1986 Man of Steel comics reboot), but it's a bit trickier than Bruce and Bats. Kal-El couldn't have become Superman without first having the grounded upbringing as Clark, wherein he absorbed the better-angels values that drive him. ("There is right and wrong in the universe, and the difference isn't hard to distinguish.") He's really more of a three-way split as Kal-El, Clark Kent, and Superman... though Clark is essential to him in a way that "playboy Bruce Wayne" is not to Batman. Other than the usefulness of having a secret identity, Bruce's fortune is the only part of "Bruce Wayne" that Batman really requires.

 

[Harp]

^^^
As an avid comics reader/fan since I was a kid, I have always considered comics literature,
not kiddie pulp fare, and this is an excellent discussion with various approaches and development
I frankly have never thought much about. Thanks for the briefing.

 

[zebedee]

I re-watched 'The Leftovers' and am still struck by how good it as a meditation on grief. I also enjoyed both seasons of 'Black Summer' and am interested by the latter's knowing nods to zombie/stealth video games as well as the subversion of 'The Walking Dead's' sometime optimism.

 

[Touchofevil]

UFC 264 preliminaries on ESPN. Price vs. Pereira is one heck of a fight, but that was to be expected with these two.

 

[Touchofevil]

Ended the night with Vera on PBS. The night however ended before the end of Vera. I will have to find it and finish it at some point.

 

[belfastboy]

Looks like I will have to start drinking early this evening as Italy just defeated England in the UEFA finals. Decent game other than the result.

 

[Edward]

I re-watched 'The Leftovers' and am still struck by how good it as a meditation on grief. I also enjoyed both seasons of 'Black Summer' and am interested by the latter's knowing nods to zombie/stealth video games as well as the subversion of 'The Walking Dead's' sometime optimism.

Black Summer is to The Walking Dead as Babylon 5 is to Star Trek. I'm a longtime fan of TWD, but I also love BS for different reasons. Particularly in this series it took the notion (mirrored in many other zombie franchises, of course) that the real threat are the other living and really ran with it. It's The Road of the zombie genre.

The only current broadcast TV I've been watching is the fourth series of Handmaid's Tale. Mostly this last few days I've been binge-watching old episodes of Cracker online. The early 90s has never seemed so long ago. It's not the fashions (which ,for the most part, frankly haven't changed enormously in terms of what "normal" people wear) so much as the tech - no laptops, no mobiles; a detective dies when they can't locate him in time, as there was no GPRS /GPS location for police radios and such in 1994/5... All casefiles still on paper and no web in any of it.

 

[Zombie_61]

...Mostly this last few days I've been binge-watching old episodes of Cracker online. The early 90s has never seemed so long ago. It's not the fashions (which ,for the most part, frankly haven't changed enormously in terms of what "normal" people wear) so much as the tech - no laptops, no mobiles; a detective dies when they can't locate him in time, as there was no GPRS /GPS location for police radios and such in 1994/5... All casefiles still on paper and no web in any of it.

This is how I felt back in 2008-09 when I was watching the American television version of Life on Mars ("based on" the UK television show). For those unfamiliar with this show, the basic plot is that a New York detective who is in a car accident in 2008 is somehow transported back to 1973 (more or less), and spends the season trying to figure out why. Part of the fun for the older audience members was taking that ride with him, being thrown back in time 35 years and being forcibly reminded that things weren't always as "instant" as they've been since "The Internet" entered our lives. On the other hand, the show was canceled before the first season even ended because the ratings dropped drastically after the first few episodes aired, so maybe it wasn't so "fun" for most people.

 

[Fading Fast]

This is how I felt back in 2008-09 when I was watching the American television version of Life on Mars ("based on" the UK television show). For those unfamiliar with this show, the basic plot is that a New York detective who is in a car accident in 2008 is somehow transported back to 1973 (more or less), and spends the season trying to figure out why. Part of the fun for the older audience members was taking that ride with him, being thrown back in time 35 years and being forcibly reminded that things weren't always as "instant" as they've been since "The Internet" entered our lives. On the other hand, the show was canceled before the first season even ended because the ratings dropped drastically after the first few episodes aired, so maybe it wasn't so "fun" for most people.

I really enjoyed that one and was disappointed when it was cancelled.

 

[Zombie_61]

I really enjoyed that one and was disappointed when it was cancelled.

I barely remember it myself. I remember liking it well enough, but felt it was flawed and that they never really properly explained how and/or why the main character was sent back in time, which was the whole point of the show. That said, I thought the cast was excellent, and particularly Michael Imperioli. In the hands of a lesser actor his character could easily have become the stereotypical "cop character of the 1970s" with the hair and the mustache, but Mr. Imperioli made it more than that.

 

[Ernest P Shackleton]

Mr. Inbetween. FX. series finale. I didn't care for The Sopranos ending, but I was fine with this. Does that make me a hypocrite? I have to admit I wasn't crazy about this final arc, wishing the final episodes would have included his friends and family in scenes and doing various jobs per usual, but I get it. It worked. I've been surprised by the breakdown, insight, and energy put into this show by fans, like on its Reddit page, but that's what really good shows do: elicit thought. I'll miss this one.

Dave. FX. If Girls had kept going and addressed dating, dating apps, dating attitude, etc; I think it would have been something like this last episode. An episode of watching texts appear on screen and the characters always looking at their phones. The episode before this, a character looking for a place to charge their phone. YAY! This show continues to be sharp, but I haven't cared for half the subject matter this season. A generational thing, I suppose.

 

[Touchofevil]

A lot of The Andy Griffith Show and a number of episodes of those shows that show people trying to decide what log cabin or house in Hawaii to buy. Hit and miss with the paying of attention to the shows as I am usually doing something else at the same time.

 

[belfastboy]

Season 6 of "Line of Duty". The more exciting, the more convoluted the plot, the more improbable it seems. But it is Season 6 so to be expected.

 

[zebedee]

Black Summer is to The Walking Dead as Babylon 5 is to Star Trek. I'm a longtime fan of TWD, but I also love BS for different reasons. Particularly in this series it took the notion (mirrored in many other zombie franchises, of course) that the real threat are the other living and really ran with it. It's The Road of the zombie genre.

The only current broadcast TV I've been watching is the fourth series of Handmaid's Tale. Mostly this last few days I've been binge-watching old episodes of Cracker online. The early 90s has never seemed so long ago. It's not the fashions (which ,for the most part, frankly haven't changed enormously in terms of what "normal" people wear) so much as the tech - no laptops, no mobiles; a detective dies when they can't locate him in time, as there was no GPRS /GPS location for police radios and such in 1994/5... All casefiles still on paper and no web in any of it.

'Cracker' was excellent, as was 'Prime Suspect'. Currently watching an Israeli series called 'Blackspace'. Good so far.

 

[Trenchfriend]

"How long you've bee a cop?"

"I was the first."