What was the last TV show you watched?

[Worf]

People will probably snicker at this, but it truly doesn't look like a fun life to me. Yes, there are some incredible experiences - and being on the inside of world politics and events is the opposite of boring - but the outsized and overwhelming rules, traditions, obligations and burdens would be oppressive.

I didn't watch the series... but one thing I've always had trouble with is people calling Princess Diana's life a "tragedy". Mebbe it's my less than humble origin but how can one's life be a tragedy if:

1. You grew up well to do in an estate.
2. Literally marry THE Prince.
3. Move from your estate into a castle.
4. Become mother to two incredibly handsome son's.
5. Divorce your Prince Charming without being beheaded.
6. Get to live in only a slightly smaller castle.
7. Then get to jet around the world with fantastically rich playboys?
8. I almost forgot, have the biggest baddest wedding in recorded history televised live round the world.

I'm only being partially facetious here but I was struck dumb by intense amount of grief shown over her untimely passing by EVERY woman I knew at the time. The one that puzzled me most was my friend Jeanne. She was "shanty Irish" (that's how she referred to herself DON'T SHOOT) through and through and so anti English she bled Sin Fein. I called her up around the time of Diana's death to find her crying her eyes out!!!! I just couldn't wrap my head around that one. "Her life was such a tragedy" she blubbered. I ticked off the list mentioned above and it moved her naught. Nor can I understand America's fascination with Royals in general. To each I suppose.

Worf

 

[Touchofevil]

Catching up on Ripper Street. I'd rented some disks a while back, really not sure in what order I got them because I'm seeing series one episodes I'd not seen previously! Really enjoying it.

It gets better as the seasons continue. Better scripts, better directing, better acting, and better cinematography.
Enjoy!

 

[Touchofevil]

The Walking Dead
Two more episodes left in the season and this is all we have.
They can do so much better.

 

[1mach1]

Impastor on TruTV

 

[Stearmen]

Pearl Harbor--Into The Arizonan. As many of you know, divers are not allowed below deck, so ROVs are the only way to see how much she is deteriorating on the inside. They finally made it to deck three, beyond belief what they discovered!

 

[Zombie_61]

The latest Westworld. They keep playing name games. Anthony Hopkins plays Robert Ford who may have done away with his partner, Howard...

Ford's partner's name was Arnold, not Howard. Otherwise, they do appear to be specifically selecting names for the characters that may or may not have deeper meaning.

 

[MisterCairo]

The Walking Dead
Two more episodes left in the season and this is all we have.
They can do so much better.

Two more episodes in this half of the season - the second half is in the new year.

Just read an article complaining about the slow pace so far. I've commented that with four separate camps, and now entire episodes showing missing characters' adventures, it is overly fragmented. There's no central story line. Even Game of Thrones can show several story arcs within a single episode.

The article suggests the next two episodes move things along on the Negan front, starting off the story arc that will see how Rick et al deal with the Saviours (sorry, I have to use the Canadian spelling!).

Here's hoping!

 

[MisterCairo]

Two more episodes of Ripper Street, series two eps one and two. Good times...

 

[Touchofevil]

UFC 178 Main card replay from some time ago. Nice.
Really nice.

 

[Touchofevil]

Thursday Night Football
Too stressful for me, might watch some Seinfeld.

 

[Stearmen]

The Librarians And The Fangs Of Death. Nice to see Jane Curtin back, if only in a cameo!

 

[Fading Fast]

I didn't watch the series... but one thing I've always had trouble with is people calling Princess Diana's life a "tragedy". Mebbe it's my less than humble origin but how can one's life be a tragedy if:

1. You grew up well to do in an estate.
2. Literally marry THE Prince.
3. Move from your estate into a castle.
4. Become mother to two incredibly handsome son's.
5. Divorce your Prince Charming without being beheaded.
6. Get to live in only a slightly smaller castle.
7. Then get to jet around the world with fantastically rich playboys?
8. I almost forgot, have the biggest baddest wedding in recorded history televised live round the world.

I'm only being partially facetious here but I was struck dumb by intense amount of grief shown over her untimely passing by EVERY woman I knew at the time. The one that puzzled me most was my friend Jeanne. She was "shanty Irish" (that's how she referred to herself DON'T SHOOT) through and through and so anti English she bled Sin Fein. I called her up around the time of Diana's death to find her crying her eyes out!!!! I just couldn't wrap my head around that one. "Her life was such a tragedy" she blubbered. I ticked off the list mentioned above and it moved her naught. Nor can I understand America's fascination with Royals in general. To each I suppose.

Worf

I've never gotten the Lady Diana thing. Sincerely, it was a shame she died young - shame for her, her boys, her family, her friends - but the public outpouring of emotion - to this day - I don't get.

That said, Elizabeth in "The Crown," even though only forty years earlier than Diana, is living in a time where rules and decorum around the royals seem much stricter and her life appears walled in by tradition and expectations.

A large part of the show's appeal is the juxtaposition of her immense wealth, possessions, servants against the utter lack of freedom to choose the life she wants which plays out in a series of painful personal compromises and, even, complete submission. While the show has all the usual soap opera elements, the "contradiction of wealth and personal freedom" theme drives the narrative and makes it soap opera on a grand scale.

I enjoy it, but am not vested in it as (1) their lives are so removed from mine, they could be the Royal Family of Pluto and it wouldn't change my world or my perception of theirs and (2) it is, as noted, just a high-gloss soap opera. But heck, I'm shallow and high-gloss soap opera works for me.

 

[Ernest P Shackleton]

Scientology and the Aftermath. I won't BS. I'm a little fascinated by Scientology. The fact that followers know the backstory of LRon Hubbard, how he was informed, etc...yet they still buy into it at a devout militant level is fascinating. It's like conformity studies where people who know the color is blue eventually get twisted into thinking it is now red from pressure and situation. That Scientology is also so systematically malicious and powerful to those who cross them. The reconciliation with the facts and fiction.

I worked in a factory as a teenager. I had to get my ears checked before I started, and while testing, the doctor recommended Dianetics. We had been talking about other things, so it wasn't out of the blue. I still wonder why. Was he a scientologist out there subtly recruiting? Was it simply a book recommendation? I'll never know, but it nags at me.

 

[AmateisGal]

Supernatural. Meh. This one didn't grab me as much. I find that this show has good and not-so-good episodes and isn't really solid like other show's seasons can be. Of course, they're in their 12 season, so maybe it's to be expected?

Also watched a few episodes of The IT Crowd. Hubby and I are rewatching them. So darn funny.

 

[AmateisGal]

I've never gotten the Lady Diana thing. Sincerely, it was a shame she died young - shame for her, her boys, her family, her friends - but the public outpouring of emotion - to this day - I don't get.

That said, Elizabeth in "The Crown," even though only forty years earlier than Diana, is living in a time where rules and decorum around the royals seem much stricter and her life appears walled in by tradition and expectations.

A large part of the show's appeal is the juxtaposition of her immense wealth, possessions, servants against the utter lack of freedom to choose the life she wants which plays out in a series of painful personal compromises and, even, complete submission. While the show has all the usual soap opera elements, the "contradiction of wealth and personal freedom" theme drives the narrative and makes it soap opera on a grand scale.

I enjoy it, but am not vested in it as (1) their lives are so removed from mine, they could be the Royal Family of Pluto and it wouldn't change my world or my perception of theirs and (2) it is, as noted, just a high-gloss soap opera. But heck, I'm shallow and high-gloss soap opera works for me.

I remember where I was when they announced she'd died. It gutted me. Maybe because I grew up in that era - 70s and 80s - where it was so romantic for a farm girl living in Nebraska to imagine being a princess and marrying your prince. I got up early to watch their wedding (same with Andrew and Sarah Ferguson); when I was young, there was a book in our school library about Charles and Diana and their wedding, and it was checked out so often that you had to wait your turn.

I think what endeared her to many was her amazing dedication to her boys, her determination to raise them in a somewhat "normal" fashion (or as normal as you can get growing up in the public spotlight), her commitment to charity, and how she seemed to dazzle constantly. And when their marriage went south and more details began to emerge, you came to see how she really had no chance because Charles loved Camilla first and always would (as evidenced by their eventual marriage). Diana famously said there were "three of us" in the marriage. So in essence, we saw this beautiful, rather ordinary girl - she wasn't royalty, but a member of the aristocracy - get to be a princess and and live in a palace, and then realized that it was all a sham. I felt sorry for her because I believe she truly did love Charles. So it was also the romantic in me who grieved because it was a jolt of reality: that there really is no such thing as a happily ever after.

That being said, I enjoy watching William and Kate and their two children. They seem to be genuinely in love and enjoy being parents.

I'm not sure what the American fascination is with the royals - but I admit to being part of it. And I make no apology for it, either.

 

[Ernest P Shackleton]

Vikings. A show that feels zero obligation to doing the work to forward the characters and story. Now, that shouldn't imply the characters and story don't progress. They do. Very little of it is earned. That's all. It has the strangest pacing or editing or directing of maybe any show in recent memory. It's possible that a viewer could wonder if every scene is maybe a dream sequence. The byproduct of that is a rather relaxed pace and tonality, which I do enjoy. I'd call it arty, but it feels more like a shortfall than a virtue. I wonder how the actors feel about consistently having a word, two words, maybe a dozen words every single scene. Is it a pleasant and rewarding challenge? Is it frustrating? I understand the vikings were illiterate, but I doubt they talked like cavemen. Look at their rich culture. The dialogue, or lack thereof, is weird.

 

[Touchofevil]

The Top 10 Dallas Cowboys of All-Time on the NFL Network.

 

[Touchofevil]

I Love Lucy Christmas Special

 

[MisterCairo]

The 1999 Saturday Night Live Christmas collection. We watch it every year, and man, what a laugh!

Whole disk makes its worth in two words:

Schweddy Balls.

 

[Inkstainedwretch]

They surpassed it with the Schweddy Weiner.