What was the last TV show you watched?

[Turnip]

The think that really fascinated me when I visited the first time was how West Berlin was this little, penned in bit. Outside, the notion w saw depicted of "escaping to the free West Berlin" was of an iron curtain down the middle, rather than West Berlin being a little bit surrounded by the wall. As ever, the reality was much more complex than the simplified media picture we saw outside Germany. I loved Berlin, been far too long since I was last there. Must change that....

I visited West Berlin for the first time in early 80s and my memories on my impressions are quite similar. I remember the city as grey, cramped, often a bit run down and depressive, even so sometimes as slightly provincial, nowadays the center is almost not recognizable.
Once the fence was open we often visited the folks next village across the border and had great times together. Still got a passport full of DDR visa.

 

[Edward]

I visited West Berlin for the first time in early 80s and my memories on my impressions are quite similar. I remember the city as grey, cramped, often a bit run down and depressive, even so sometimes as slightly provincial, nowadays the center is almost not recognizable.
Once the fence was open we often visited the folks next village across the border and had great times together. Still got a passport full of DDR visa.

Somewhere I still have an old passport from a visit around 2000 with an East Block (checkpoint G, I think?) stamp in it. Paid a few pennies for the stamp as a tourist novelty at the Eastside Gallery; changed times. I visited Berlin in 1999 (while they were still setting up the stage for the tenth anniversary of the Wall coming down), 2000, and 2002. I still have my (pre-digital) photos of those trips somewhere. Including shots of a sculpture in Potsdammer Platz, and the surroundings going from nothing, through a building site, to fully and extensively built up around it. Fascinating watching it all change over time.

 

[AmateisGal]

Fourth episode of The Last of Us.

And more Midsomer Murders.

And more episodes of Vera.

Yes, watching British murder mysteries is comforting, and as February is a hard month for me (lots of trauma anniversaries), I'm going to watch as many as I want to! LOL

 

[Edward]

Currently working my way through Les Combattantes. A French television series about women involved in the first world war. Set in the very early months of the war, Autumn of 1914. It's been retitled with the rather less prosaic Women at War by Netflix for the English language market. I have to admit that, owing to it being a heavy marking season as well as teaching, I've dumbed down and I'm watching the dubbed version, but it's not distracting. Well done. The show itself is interesting - the clothing, equipment and the rest appears broadly accurate. It is, of course, a dramatised version, so can be a little 'soap opera' (the prostitute finding her son, whom she gave up as an infant rather than raise as a single parent in a brothel, on the front line... she can't tell him who she is, but.... and such). Nonetheless, it's an engaging watch, and it certainly portrays a fair level of reality with the difficulties of life just behind the front lines.

 

[Edward]

Having finished Les Combattantes, I've moved on to a German production, also on Netlfix, entitled The Defeated. This series (only one season, but looks like it's designed to have more. Doubtless, however, if it's really popular Netflix will cancel it) follows a young American seconded from the NYPD to West Berlin in the aftermath of WW2, as the various (formerly) Allied Powers each seek to police and control their sector. Beautifully filmed and visually has a great sense of period to it. It opens with a clip from a genuine US post-war propaganda reel about the "grateful Germans, freed from tyranny", before cutting to the much more complicated reality. So far an entertaining watch - more detective thriller than 'historical fiction', but with a distinct grounding in the tensions of the time.

 

[Worf]

Having finished Les Combattantes, I've moved on to a German production, also on Netlfix, entitled The Defeated. This series (only one season, but looks like it's designed to have more. Doubtless, however, if it's really popular Netflix will cancel it) follows a young American seconded from the NYPD to West Berlin in the aftermath of WW2, as the various (formerly) Allied Powers each seek to police and control their sector. Beautifully filmed and visually has a great sense of period to it. It opens with a clip from a genuine US post-war propaganda reel about the "grateful Germans, freed from tyranny", before cutting to the much more complicated reality. So far an entertaining watch - more detective thriller than 'historical fiction', but with a distinct grounding in the tensions of the time.

I liked this show when it first came out. Puddin' and I binged it. However there's been no word on any follow up seasons and that's a bummer. Lots of scores were aching for settlement after WWII and we know full well what people will do to survive.

Worf

 

[Julian Shellhammer]

The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes, from the early 1970s, via the BBC. Title tells all- tv adaptations of detectives and sleuths published in the same era as Holmes. Well-done, with genuine whodunnit twists and reveals. I rediscovered it while trolling through the PBS streaming service. Good fun.

 

[AmateisGal]

Watching Shetland lately. It is so incredibly good. One of the best shows I've ever seen.

 

[Edward]

I liked this show when it first came out. Puddin' and I binged it. However there's been no word on any follow up seasons and that's a bummer. Lots of scores were aching for settlement after WWII and we know full well what people will do to survive.

Worf

A shame - but so very Netflix.

The tone is really nice, wonderful pacing. It feels to me like the same 'universe' as the Deutschland 83/86/89 series, with elements of The Defeated establishing the world that we saw end in the former.

 

[Zombie_61]

Carnival Row on (Amazon) Prime video. "A human detective (Orlando Bloom) and a fairy (Cara Delevingne) rekindle a dangerous affair in a Victorian fantasy world, where the city's uneasy peace collapses when a string of murders reveals an unimaginable monster." Or so the description says.

I don't normally go for this kind of "fantasy" world fiction--fairies and trolls and creatures that appear to be half human and half ram (complete with horns and hooves), but this show's production staff have managed to minimize the fantasy elements to the point that they seem no more out of the ordinary than any other community here on Earth. The show's pacing is on the slow side, but that's deliberate and, fortunately, this cast and crew know how to do it without boring their target audience. It was a good friend's idea to watch this, but I'm surprised by how much I'm enjoying it. Not the best television ever produced, but far better than I initially expected.

 

[Edward]

Carnival Row on (Amazon) Prime video. "A human detective (Orlando Bloom) and a fairy (Cara Delevingne) rekindle a dangerous affair in a Victorian fantasy world, where the city's uneasy peace collapses when a string of murders reveals an unimaginable monster." Or so the description says.

I don't normally go for this kind of "fantasy" world fiction--fairies and trolls and creatures that appear to be half human and half ram (complete with horns and hooves), but this show's production staff have managed to minimize the fantasy elements to the point that they seem no more out of the ordinary than any other community here on Earth. The show's pacing is on the slow side, but that's deliberate and, fortunately, this cast and crew know how to do it without boring their target audience. It was a good friend's idea to watch this, but I'm surprised by how much I'm enjoying it. Not the best television ever produced, but far better than I initially expected.

I must confess the way the marketing has revolved around the two lead actors has always put me off giving it a go, but I really should by the sounds of it.

 

[Worf]

"Childhood's End" - I read a lot of Arthur C. Clarke in Junior High and High School. I read this one many moons ago. Puddin' and I watch this mini-series when it first aired 7 or so years ago. For some reason I got a hankering to watch it again. Didn't remember ANYTHING from the first two chapters and enjoyed the rewatching immensely, however the third act was needlessly padded and slow. I also found earths' transformation from a planet circling the drain of self destruction to blossoming Utopia a bit too pat. But then again the alien "Overlords" could do just about anything physically, but changing hearts and minds (particularly our reptile brain) just wouldn't go down so easily in my opinion.

It's "free with ads" on Tubi (I believe) and as I said, the first two acts are pretty darn good.

Worf

 

[Edward]

But then again the alien "Overlords" could do just about anything physically, but changing hearts and minds (particularly our reptile brain) just wouldn't go down so easily in my opinion.

I find this a common problem in scifi, or often even anything with a dystopia-feel where they want to have a happy ending - it often just comes over as lazy, deus ex machina, fairy dust. Sometimes the screen realisation of a literary classic can be particularly prone to this: great world-building, but not so good with endings.

I've been watching a couple of historically set dramas this week. The Gold on the BBC is the story of the Brink's Mat robbery in 1983. I remember it being reported at the time (I'd have been not long turned nine); I think it was the first time I'd ever heard of the Great Train Robbery, as it was much referenced at the time. Brink's Mat was the biggest heist since the train robbers. The latter being twenty years previously (the equivalent of a 2003 event today....) was very much a remembered event for a lot of people in the UK at the time, in a par with the Kennedy assassination. There is, of course, a more direct link between the two: Charlie Wilson, the former treasurer of the Great Train Robbery, was ultimately murdered on the orders of someone who entrusted him to launder some of the proceeds of the robbery (he actually lost them money). The other big similarity between the two is that the robbers got away with far more than they had anticipated (in this case, GBP26 million - closing in on GBP100 million adjusted for inflation), which led to its own problems. This particular dramatisation is very good. The Daily Mail attempted to stir up a controversy over it (part of the Mail's well known, anti-BBC agenda) by claiming it made Kenneth Noye - a nasty murderer in the last instance - out to be a 'cheeky chappie' working class hero. Anyone with functioning critical faculties who has actually seen the programme will realise it does nothing of the sort.

I'm also now working my way through The Queen's Gambit on Netflix, having not gotten around to it before. Engaging and well written, it also captures very nicely a sense of what the Sixties was really like, aesthetically, for an awful lot of people: much closer to the fifties (by today's conceptions thereof) in look than many now realise. Worth seeing if you haven't already.

 

[FOXTROT LAMONT]

Queen's Gambit is very well done.

 

[Julian Shellhammer]

Located A&E's run of Timothy Hutton's Nero Wolfe series, available on yew toob. Whether it was Hutton's influence or one of the producers, the shows stick very close to Rex Stout's canon (Wolfe's yellow pajamas, Cramer never lighting his cigar, etc.) Ever since I saw the shows years ago Hutton has been the Archie I visualize while reading the books. Wolfe remains Orson Welles in my mind's eye. Pay attention to the plot twists, while not distracted by the lusciously furnished brownstone, the fine examples of period-specific cars, and some remarkable neckwear.

Overall, enjoyable stuff, even if this Wolfe shouts more than in the books.

NB: some episodes play weaker than the usual high quality, mostly due to some odd direction; it may have been due to a yearning for novelty in camera set-ups and visual style.

 

[Edward]

Finished The Queen;s Gambit; excellent overall, very satisfactory ending - not least in that [spoiler alert] they have the respect for Beth not to make her happy ending dependent on a man. I must seek out the book; the only shame to the story is that it is a work of fiction.

I'm now watching Hollywood on Netflix. Two episodes in, it's interesting. It is clearly set in a parallel world (I am given to understand deliberately so) where a lot of things are just a little different than ours - not least the apparent absence of the level of racial segregation in law (prejudice is still apparent, and off-mainstream sexuality clearly still has legal ramifications) that existed in 'our' California in the immediate post-war years. It appears to be shaping into some sort of fairytale speculation on what the movie business might have been like were a studio to be more open with diversity earlier. The deviation from history will not appeal to everyone of course, though I'm finding it engaging enough. I'm also enjoying the aesthetics, the cars, the clothes. It does feel a little like there's a big gap here for someone to do another version of this story which embraces the actual history and takes it on in the mould of, say, Mad Men.

 

[Worf]

"Threads" - After hearing about this BBC production for years I finally bit the bullet and watched it. It's been described as "one of the most terrifying films ever made", "bonechillingly frightening" and "nightmare fuel". After viewing it I can see why many feel it's just this side of unwatchable. It makes the American made "The Day After" look like a Boy Scout Jamboree! I wish I could force all world leaders to watch it. Brutal in its depiction of not only the blasts and their immediate destructive power but also the long, slow decline of man back to medieval times... at best! Not for the squeamish nor the faint of heart but all concerned about the future of this world should watch it.

Worf

 

[Edward]

"Threads" - After hearing about this BBC production for years I finally bit the bullet and watched it. It's been described as "one of the most terrifying films ever made", "bonechillingly frightening" and "nightmare fuel". After viewing it I can see why many feel it's just this side of unwatchable. It makes the American made "The Day After" look like a Boy Scout Jamboree! I wish I could force all world leaders to watch it. Brutal in its depiction of not only the blasts and their immediate destructive power but also the long, slow decline of man back to medieval times... at best! Not for the squeamish nor the faint of heart but all concerned about the future of this world should watch it.

Worf

I remember seeing it when it was repeated in August 1985. It was only repeated that once until 2003 or so; its impact given how little shown /available it was is huge. Back in 1985, of course, we only had the four channels in the UK, so a big show got so much more attention.

I rewatched it a couple of years ago, and it still holds up. The truly horrific thing is how much more advaned the equivalent weaponry is now.

 

[FOXTROT LAMONT]

Finished The Queen;s Gambit; excellent overall, very satisfactory ending - not least in that [spoiler alert] they have the respect for Beth not to make her happy ending dependent on a man. I must seek out the book; the only shame to the story is that it is a work of fiction.

I read The Queen's Gambit on a flight and the film series proved infinitely better than the book.

 

[AmateisGal]

Finished all 7 seasons of Shetland and really loved the ending. It was perfect.

Started watching Perry Mason on HBO Max. 1932 L.A.? Yes please!