What was the last TV show you watched?

[Worf]

Puddin's gone mad dog nuts on "Men in Kilts". This Starz offering follows two of the male leads from "Outlander" as they "caravan" around Scotland getting up to all sorts of tomfoolery. Pretty funny!

Worf

 

[belfastboy]

"Magpie Murders" a Prime series from Britain. What fun! A very Agatha Christie like series, the usual well acted, well written Brit production.

 

[Edward]

Recently watched a 2017 made for television three-parter of Decline and Fall, based on the Evelyn Waugh novel of the same name. Never read the book so can't comment on how closely it reflects that, but it is tremendous fun, and the wardrobe is glorious. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5789958/

Last night I binged series 2 of The Cleaner. Contemporary character comedy - dark yet also whimsical and warm. Greg Davies at his best, both as writer and performer. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt12994356/

 

[FOXTROT LAMONT]

HBO series Perry Mason, II/ii Grit, grime, scuffed shoe leather, crimes turned inside out in 1932 Los Angeles.

 

[Edward]

Blue Lights on the BBC. Drama set around the working lives of several Police Service of Northern Ireland recruits coming to the end of their probation period, dealing with organised crime in the shadow cast by the legacy of the Troubles. No idea how true to life it is for those on that job now (like everything else, doubtless to some extent 'heightened' for dramatic purposes), but very well written and compelling viewing. Much as I enjoyed The Fall, for me this is a step up again.

 

[AmateisGal]

The new episode of Perry Mason. Such a great show.

 

[FOXTROT LAMONT]

I am rereading Season One of Perry Mason and again absorbing its prose and plot line together with
character cast and this novel's particular structure. I'll also admit to salivating over John Lithgow's sartorial kit,
truly splendid cut regalia pins & needle dapper down to shoes.

 

[Julian Shellhammer]

The Mandalorian, S3 E6. Writer Jon Favreau may or may not have had these inspirations or homages in mind:

The Plazir-15 population dependent entirely on robot (droid) labor, a nod to Magnus, Robot Fighter comic book.
The ugnaughts are an echo of the "gophs" (gophers) who dwell in the lowest levels of the city of North Am in the Magnus universe, except the ugnaughts are the hardest-working species in the galaxy and the gophs were sort of criminals.
The multi-toned pill bug used in the croquet game variant harkens back to the hedgehogs used in the croquet game in Alice in Wonderland.
Hyperloop? Elon Musk should ask for royalties.
The shots of the "hyperloop pod" whizzing along huge plastic tubes reminded me of the puppet show Space Patrol (UK)/Planet Patrol (US) with their pods zipping along their tubes.
Mike Ermantraut... I mean Christopher Lloyd... being "banished to the moon of Paraquat" which made me flash on the weed killing agent from the sixties and seventies, not to mention KMET radio newscaster Paraquat Kelley.

Ah, well, I certainly have too much time on my hands...

 

[Worf]

"The Mandalorian" - Boy has this one devolved into a stinking pile. I was never a "Star Wars" fan outside the original trilogy. That said I did like the first two seasons of this show... now it's not only terrible television but boring as well. Just battles and shootouts strung together by no plot or story at all. Ugh! When you've lost millions of viewers BEFORE the season started, guest appearances by Lizzo, Jack Black and Christopher Lloyd ain't a recipe for helping things... Double Ugh!

Worf

 

[Doctor Damage]

"The Mandalorian" - Boy has this one devolved into a stinking pile. I was never a "Star Wars" fan outside the original trilogy. That said I did like the first two seasons of this show... now it's not only terrible television but boring as well. Just battles and shootouts strung together by no plot or story at all. Ugh! When you've lost millions of viewers BEFORE the season started, guest appearances by Lizzo, Jack Black and Christopher Lloyd ain't a recipe for helping things... Double Ugh!

Worf

That's a shame. I enjoyed seasons 1 and 2 which weren't amazing but were mostly satisfying.

 

[Doctor Damage]

Our local PBS station has been showing the following Italian drama series about prosecutors chasing down the mafia in the 1990s, during the period when mafia wars had erupted and tons of people were being killed. It's all subtitles. I think it's a great show and I'm really enjoying it, especially since it doesn't romanticize the mafia figures (like so many Gollywood pictures have done at least in part, including that well-known TV series that was set in North Jersey). Not sure how to find it here in North America, although it's available on the PBS Passport service on Amazon or something. The series is titled The Hunter for us here. IMDB link below.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8118950/?ref_=fn_al_tt_13

 

[Edward]

"The Mandalorian" - Boy has this one devolved into a stinking pile. I was never a "Star Wars" fan outside the original trilogy. That said I did like the first two seasons of this show... now it's not only terrible television but boring as well. Just battles and shootouts strung together by no plot or story at all. Ugh! When you've lost millions of viewers BEFORE the season started, guest appearances by Lizzo, Jack Black and Christopher Lloyd ain't a recipe for helping things... Double Ugh!

Worf

Sounds like somebody accidently left the back door open and George Lucas got in again...

 

[Worf]

Side note.... I rarely watch much broadcast TV. However we've gotten hooked on this ABC series called "Will Trent". I love the show (don't know if it'll be renewed) but one thing I HATE is the multi-week mid-season hiatus' that they take. Say what you will about premium streaming... they don't leave you hanging for weeks right in the middle of action!

Worf

 

[Edward]

Side note.... I rarely watch much broadcast TV. However we've gotten hooked on this ABC series called "Will Trent". I love the show (don't know if it'll be renewed) but one thing I HATE is the multi-week mid-season hiatus' that they take. Say what you will about premium streaming... they don't leave you hanging for weeks right in the middle of action!

Worf

What riles me is when the mechanics of broadcasting like that dictate plot. Doctor Who has been a good example in recent years. At one point, a pair of popular companions were kept on by a good half a series longer than they had any real plot to deal with, purely so that their leaving could be the big mid-series finale. Problem was, it was much harder to care by then....

 

[Edward]

Been watching a couple of interesting things recently. Transatlantic on Netflix is interesting, several episodes in. It's about a bunch of Americans working with British Secret Services in Vichy France in 1940, smuggling Jewish refugees over the Pyranees and on to the US. Nicely put together, beautiful wardrobe.

The fifth and final series of The Marvellous Mrs Maisel has now dropped on Amazon over my way, and I enjoyed the first three episodes of that during a few hours between flights in the lounge at Dubai. I know the show has had mixed reactions as it has 'matured'' and become less directly comic over time, but I have enjoyed it all the same. I was a little worried it would take a wrong turn after Midge's liaison with Lenny Bruce, but that appears not to have been the case. I'm enjoying it, and will miss the various characters when it comes to an end in a few weeks' time.

 

[FOXTROT LAMONT]

All caught current Perry Mason chapters and await next week's conclusion.

 

[Zombie_61]

I know there are a few Star Trek fans here, so Star Trek: Picard. Specifically the final episode, but I have watched all three seasons. I was never the biggest fan of Star Trek: The Next Generation, but being a Star Trek fan I stuck with it until they called it quits, and I saw most of the episodes. That said, I thought the returning cast members did an excellent job of re-creating their respective characters, and I didn't really mind changes made to some of the characters (even a semi-pacifist Klingon ). That said, I think most Star Trek fans (I loathe the terms "Trekkies" and "Trekkers") should be reasonably pleased by this three season series, and particularly with the third season which reunites all of the primary characters except for Tasha Yar (Denise Crosby) and Wesley Crusher (Wil Wheaton). Hell, they even dragged in Walter Koenig (Ensign Pavel Chekov in the original series and it's sequel movies) to give voice to his character's son, Anton Chekov, who is also President of the Federation. Watch it if you're interested, don't if you're not. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

[Edward]

I'm looking forward to bingeing the last two episodes of this series when I get home from Beijing next weekend. I've enjoyed it across its run. I particularly appreciated how they gave it a very different feel to begin with, and then have gradually dialled back in the feel of the Next Gen cast as they have been regrouped as an ensemble in this final season. I'm intrigued to see what they do next.... I can't imagine they'll just shut up shop and not make another offering within the franchise. I know there's a Paramount offering (not a streamer we currently have, so not seen it yet), but I'll be surprised if they don't do something with Amazon, given that this Prime series seems to have gone down fairly well.

I should also note I self-identify as a Trekkie in absolute defiance of how that term has been slung as an insult for years (never more viciously so than by some I've known who call themselves 'Trekkers', funnily enough).


In other televisual content, I've been watching the first season of Designated Survivor, a Netflix show where Kiefer Sutherland becomes the POTUS as a result of being the only cabinet member left when a terrorist attack on the State of the Union address proceedings sees all but him and two members of Congress killed. It's a bit of fun. Eschews the cynicism of House of Cards in favour of a more heroic central figure, some action, and enjoyably hokey conspiracies. I believe there are two further series left for me to watch when I can next log into my Netflix account.

 

[AmateisGal]

The season finale of Perry Mason. Excellent season! I really hope they make a third.

I binged all of the new Netflix series The Diplomat. It's very well done.

 

[Edward]

I'm hoping Perry Mason makes it to one of my UK streamers soon, it sounds good (even though I have only very limited knowledge of the series to which it forms a prequel).