What was the last TV show you watched?

[Ernest P Shackleton]

The Split. BBC/Sundance. This is one dark series of emotionally injured characters who are rarely genuine in their lives. Decent to above average writing. An interesting family and series of damaged situations. I liked it, and what was most surprising was that I looked forward to it each week. It's dark in a very real way. If you need your relationships to be positive or inspirational, this might not be the show for you. It isn't an arty or profound story, though some of the dialogue (Ruth in particular) is smart and insightful. I wasn't real crazy about how they ended the season. My bet is there was an alternate ending filmed, but when it was renewed for a second season, they went with this one. Poor Nathan. He's earnest , but he says all the wrong things. Such an emotional whipping post.

 

[The Wiser Hatter]

We watched this a few moths ago on yet BBC enjoyed. Me and my wife watch everything that
Nicola Walker is in as she is a great actor. He crime series the Unforgotten on ITV returns in July. It’s a much watch.

 

[Fading Fast]

A few episodes of "The Practice," an early '00s lawyer show with super-smart machine-gun dialogue and unbelievable but engaging plots and courtroom drama. My one observation - if I ever need a criminal lawyer, I want Eugene (Steve Harris) as my lawyer. The guy is incredibly smart, thinks to win and not how to play fair (I will survive less than five seconds in jail, I'll worry about any moral short cuts he took when I'm free), but speaks with such intensity and integrity that he could convince me the earth is square and up is down.

 

[Touchofevil]

Last night, a couple of episodes of Paramount’s new show, Yellowstone. Entertaining enough so far. Directed and written by Taylor Sheridan, who was a writer for Hell or High Water and Sicario, I am holding out hope.

 

[Doctor Strange]

I loved The Practice for its first couple of seasons. Very sharp writing, great cast. But it eventually morphed into a different show and lost me.

 

[Ernest P Shackleton]

I forgot to mention this in my last post about The Split. I'm surprised, and irritated if I'm being honest, with how much and how often the cell phone is used as a prop in today's shows. Being how central they are in real life, I'm not offering an option...other than the obvious one: leave the phone out of it. Phone calls rather than face-to-face conversations? Text conversations plopping up on screen rather then face-to-face conversations? Characters having "secret" relationships with other characters while they lay in bed next to their spouses. I find it all, as vehicles for dialogue, to be lazy and bothersome. It's one thing I really did't like about The Split. Phones. Phones. Phones. Can we not even escape to an imaginary situation and story where phones aren't ready in hand and of constant distraction? I really don't care if the younger generations would be screaming at the screen, "That would never happen! I'd just use my phone!" Screw all this story and plot development occurring via phone. Put the characters in the same room. Please.

*Man in an Orange Shirt was guilty of this same thing. UGH.

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

Hornblower -- "Examination for Lieutenant" episode.
Fun Fact: Series 1 of Hornblower was filmed in Yalta and the exterior of the place where young Midshipman Hornblower (Ioan Gruffud) goes for his exam is the Livadia Palace which was the site of the Yalta Conference during WWII. In the episode you can see the courtyard where the now famous picture of Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin was taken.

 

[Touchofevil]

Law & Order

 

[Stormy]

Hell on Wheels
TURN

 

[Touchofevil]

Hell on Wheels
TURN

We enjoyed both of those shows. We are now in the searching mode for new shows and waiting mode for shows to return.

 

[Touchofevil]

A few episodes of Live PD.

 

[Ernest P Shackleton]

John McCain: For Whom The Bell Tolls.

This is a difficult one to decipher. A lot of it I knew. They glossed over the darker moments of his life. His divorce? His adopted child, which made me feel uneasy how she was practically a ghost. It felt like more of an homage to him than an honest history. A lot of Democrats filmed, which made me wonder if this was a propaganda piece or if the Republican party is so volatile that they couldn't get any of his conservative friends on screen. If so, amazing. Whatever the case, it's healthy to see our leaders from opposite sides of the aisle being genuine, good friends. Uh...it's normal. If a guy like McCain is an enemy, we're in deep, deep trouble. We are. I find it truly unfortunate that he didn't go with his gut and run with Joe Lieberman. Instead, well...that decision likely got the train fully off the tracks, or at least got the engine headed down the embankment. I won't go on, but I could. A mixed ticket in the Whitehouse? I can't imagine, but I sure enjoy trying. I think I'd recommend this documentary, but I wish it was better.

 

[Zombie_61]

A few episodes of Live PD.

My wife and I have seen a few episodes after some friends suggested it, but we're both of the opinion that it's basically another version of Cops with a bit less editing. Also, a little research reveals it's not quite as "live" as they would have you believe. Many segments are broadcast using the "seven second delay" in order to avoid FCC fines, but some segments aren't aired for hours (or in some cases days) after they're filmed to allow the production company's legal staff time to review the footage to make sure they won't get sued.

 

[Ernest P Shackleton]

The Affair.

Sometimes good. Sometimes bad. With these long waits in-between seasons, it's easy to forget what you like and don't like about a show. I'm now reminded that I do not care, at all, about the Alison, Cole, and the Montauk story. I liked the season opener so much because it was only about Noah and Helen. Unless it is about the California situation, I can fast-forward through it all and barely miss a thing (like I did last night for the entire episode). The Noah and Helen thing is interesting. It doesn't hurt that Tierney is such a fine actress. In reference to last night's episode, I've still yet to see Dominic West in a believable love-interest situation. His softer emotions and sex scenes are awkward and often cringeworthy. They were awful in The Wire. Though this entire show is based off the Noah/Alison affair, it's too been rough in those moments. West is good with anger, intensity, aggression, diatribes, and other me vs. the world/survivalist emotions. When he's asked to intimately connect to another human being, he's far less natural. Funny enough, I can't buy into any woman being attracted to him. He's such a great a$$hole, but he does care about people as long as they aren't in his heart. It's better left as a social abstract. A loner of anti-social empathy with people being sucked into his misery. The Wire. The Affair. West.

 

[Doctor Strange]

I'm still watching The Affair, but I don't know why. It occasionally has interesting moments, but nothing in it is remotely believable, and I hate all the characters. Noah's the worst husband/writer/dad/lover/teacher/etc. EVER, but they're all mainly jerks to one degree or another.

Is that the show's point, that we're all ultimately jerks, even when we view ourselves as the hero? This show seemingly lost any interest in making interesting observations beyond "Noah/Alison/Cole/Helen is doing something really stupid yet again" a long time ago.

Yet I keep watching!

 

[Ernest P Shackleton]

Is that the show's point, that we're all ultimately jerks, even when we view ourselves as the hero?

This is an interesting comment and potential experiment. I remember going to a movie in the 90s (can't remember the title right now because it wasn't very good) that had a clear virtuous hero and a scummy villain. The virtues of the hero were sort of that unattainable, perfect, of utmost integrity variety that you rarely run into outside of books, while the villain was a jerk in real, common, normal ways that you run into every day. I don't care who you asked. I never met anyone who related to the villain, despite the fact that they had far more in common with them. They always viewed themselves like the hero. You know, their inner dialogue was telling them, "I'm him." I'm sure this is a common phenomenon, but in this instance, I thought the situation was particularly sharp. It's funny how much we lack self-awareness (and crap all over anyone who is even attempting to make self-awareness a priority, as if it is a waste of time and of little use). It's funny how we seem to be a nation of superiority complexes and delusion. I don't know if that is cultural, primal, or what. But in some instances, like this movie, it is clear as bathwater that 99.9999% of the audience is basically the villain and would act similarly. It's that goofy notion that we can relate to the exception more than we can the rule. Uh...that isn't how it works, folks.

Back to The Affair. Ruth Wilson is an awful actress. As if her storyline wasn't absurd enough, she doesn't sell any of it.

 

[Benzadmiral]

"It's All Over Now, Baby Bird," a Season One entry in The Odd Couple. "Felix's pet parrot passes away. While he wants to give the bird an honorable burial, Oscar just wants to get rid of the body."

I remembered this one from its original TV broadcast, and it still is funny. Oscar is about to toss the bagged body of the parrot down the incinerator chute. One of the Pigeon girls says, "Shouldn't we say a few words?" Oscar pauses for the briefest moment, then yanks open the incinerator door and yells down, "Lay out, below!" (The comic timing of Klugman and Randall is the gold standard for comic actors.)

The other TV show I caught was a Season Two The Fugitive, "The Iron Maiden." "[By accident,] Kimble is photographed with a Congresswoman during her inspection of a military construction project. After they are trapped underground, Lt. Gerard arrives on the scene, confident that he has finally caught Kimble." Unlike the previous Gerard episodes, and despite its claustrophobic setting, this was not that spectacular an episode. I find it hard to believe that the construction people would take such an accident risk as to let Gerard down into the collapsed missile silo to nab Kimble. The title, I realize now, has a double meaning in that the Congresswoman (Nan Martin), is indeed a tough lady, determined to find problems and cost overruns with the missile site construction.

 

[Touchofevil]

My wife and I have seen a few episodes after some friends suggested it, but we're both of the opinion that it's basically another version of Cops with a bit less editing. Also, a little research reveals it's not quite as "live" as they would have you believe. Many segments are broadcast using the "seven second delay" in order to avoid FCC fines, but some segments aren't aired for hours (or in some cases days) after they're filmed to allow the production company's legal staff time to review the footage to make sure they won't get sued.

Yeah, it becomes obvious pretty quickly that it isn’t live. Live must mean that it was filmed live by those who are alive. Nonetheless, it is entertaining enough for a few episodes before a break is needed. I enjoyed Cops and this provides a needed fix.

 

[LizzieMaine]

"It's All Over Now, Baby Bird," a Season One entry in The Odd Couple. "Felix's pet parrot passes away. While he wants to give the bird an honorable burial, Oscar just wants to get rid of the body."

I remembered this one from its original TV broadcast, and it still is funny. Oscar is about to toss the bagged body of the parrot down the incinerator chute. One of the Pigeon girls says, "Shouldn't we say a few words?" Oscar pauses for the briefest moment, then yanks open the incinerator door and yells down, "Lay out, below!" (The comic timing of Klugman and Randall is the gold standard for comic actors.)

One of my favorite memories is seeing Klugman and Randall twenty-odd years ago doing "The Sunshine Boys" on Broadway. In one scene Klugman's character dropped his cigar butt on the floor, and without missing a beat of the script, Randall speared it on the tip of his umbrella and held it up under Klugman's nose. The audience went crazy.

"The Odd Couple" was one of the great "adult" sitcoms to come out of the Seventies, which in retrospect was the golden age for that type of show, built around character comedy rather than cheap gags, and targeting a sophisticated audience. It's one of those shows I always stop to watch when I come across it while flipping around.

 

[Doctor Strange]

Back to The Affair. Ruth Wilson is an awful actress. As if her storyline wasn't absurd enough, she doesn't sell any of it.

I can't agree, I think she's a good actress - though not as good as Maura Tierney, who's always impressive. Wilson starred in a BBC adaptation of Jane Eyre about ten years ago that's probably my second favorite version (after Joan Fontaine/Orson Welles). It's the writing of her character that's the real weakness. Like pretty much everything about everyone on the show, her actions don't make sense from moment to moment… regardless of who's POV we're sharing!