What was the last TV show you watched?

[GHT]

André Rieu was in top form tonight as he compared snippets from his tours. A moving performance of "Smile" by Jermaine Jackson with pictorial backdrops of Michael.

Carlos Buono was just amazing.

For the finale somebody older than MickJagger wowed the audience, Trini Lopez. (He's 83.)

 

[Worf]

André Rieu was in top form tonight as he compared snippets from his tours. A moving performance of "Smile" by Jermaine Jackson with pictorial backdrops of Michael.

Carlos Buono was just amazing.

For the finale somebody older than MickJagger wowed the audience, Trini Lopez. (He's 83.)

Errrr.... for us knuckle dragging cretins from THIS side of the pond.... WHO IS this guy? Not being snotty, just have no clue.
Worf

 

[Doctor Damage]

I finished Moon Knight on Disney+. I didn't like it. Despite a strong performance by Oscar Isaac, I thought it was the weakest Marvel series so far, and that it didn't make any logical sense by the conclusion. Which personality is the real one? Which side is evil? Does it really matter? Feh! Makes Iron Fist look like Shakespeare.

Just finished five of the six episodes and yeah it's underwhelming and frankly just confusing. I have a dozen or so comic books I bought when I was a kid, I think it was the Moon Knight Fist of Khonshu series, and from what I remember Marc Spector had some mental health issues (who wouldn't with an Egyptian god talking to you in your head) but wasn't full-on schizophrenic like the TV series seemed to be suggesting. Weird. Kinda pointless. Wouldn't make me want to become a Moon Knight fan and run out and collect Moon Knight comics, that's for sure.

 

[belfastboy]

Just finished "Landman" tonight. Decent show, some of the writing is a bit clunky. It would a mediocre show but Bill Bob Thornton is always watchable, he makes the show good.

 

[Edward]

We were the lucky ones (2024; TV miniseries, on streaming) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt9114512/ The true story of a Polish Jewish family and how they escaped the Nazis. It's a tough watch in places, but an excellent piece of historical drama.

Spoiler

The surprising bit of the story - and it is entirely true - is that the whole family managed to survive the war (as hinted in the title). A real rarity.

It's well worth a watch - well made, gripping, beautifully written, and doesn't pull any punches. Also an insight into what went on other than the death camps. Those are an ever-present threat, but not directly covered as this particular family managed to evade them. In many ways that's one of the things that makes this story stand out, as it covers other aspects of the terrors European Jews faced from Nazi Germany that maybe aren't so popularly known. One thing that raised my eyebrows was learning how many European Jews escaped to Brazil as a place of safety - that being of course popularly though of these days more as "where ex Nazis escaped to after the war".

Eight episodes, all about 50 minutes each. Well worth two or three evenings of your time.

 

[Edward]

Three series of particular note that I watched during February.

A Thousand Blows (Disney Plus)https://www.imdb.com/title/tt21874900/. Produced by Stephen Knight (of Peaky Blinders fame), this is a show set in 1880s London. A work of historical fiction which takes real characters, among them the all-female organised crime gang The Forty Elephants, Jamaican boxer Hezekiah Moscow (interesting article on the historical Moscow here -https://grapplingwithhistory.com/2019/05/07/where-did-you-go-hezekiah-moscow/ ), and others, and brings them together in a fictionalised plot (most of them never met in real life). For the male characters, boxing is a big part of it, contrasting the backstreet, (illegal) barefist fights in the East End with the development of gentlemen's boxing clubs in the West End, under the Queensbury Rules. It's a romp, not a history lesson, that will appeal to the same audience as Ripper Street, or perhaps Knight's own Peaky Blinders. The series has a satisfactory climax that sets it up perfectly for a future outing while also giving it a sense of proper ending if a second series doesn't get made. I'd be surprised if Disney drop it without at least one more series, however given it seems to have been treated as a flagship offering in their marketing. There's a lot of road for it to run as a narrative across several decades, particularly with the Forty Elephants as a grounding device, given the last known members of that organisation were active into the 30s. Eight parts, each about 55 minutes long.

Dope Girls (BBC iPlayer) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt27191732/?ref_=fn_all_ttl_1 A co-production between Sony and BadWolf Productions (the latter responsible for Doctor Who these days - this is, however, a very different animal). Set in 1918, this show across six, one-hour parts delves into the world of illegal Soho nightclubs in London in the immediate aftermath of the Great War. It's an unapologetically female-focussed show, a major thread in the story being the women who experienced major life changes during the war with so many men away fighting, and who either didn't fancy going back to their "traditional roles" after the war, or found themselves in circumstances in which it was not an option. The central characters are mostly female performers, cabaret artistes, dancers, and club managers involved in getting a club off the ground as a going concern. Along the way they encounter a protection racket that they have to fight back against, cocaine dealing (cocaine had then only very recently become a legally controlled substance, by application of powers under the Defence of the Realm Act 1914 as of 1916, initially banned from supply to or use by the armed forces, quickly extended to civilians; it would later be specifically criminalised under the Dangerous Drugs Act 1920), and police corruption. In parallel, we get the story of the first ten female officers to be recruited to the London Metropolitan Police, one of whom becomes involved in the murky nightclub work when sent in undercover. Fictional events set in and around a real period of history, and while sensationalised certainly accurate to much of what was gonig on in Soho at the time, including the illegal clubs offering a haven to the gay community who were equally criminalised and subject to police brutality at the time (which would continue for decades thereafter). Again this series ends with a conclusion that could stand as a credible narrative ending to the show entire, but also leaves it perfectly primed for another series. It's whole look is beautiful. I hope it does come back.

The other series I've watched in the last week and very much enjoyed was an older, Australian "comedy drama" called Spirited, which I chanced across on Amazon's FreeVee service. (Free with ads.)https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1524415/?ref_=nm_flmg_job_1_cdt_t_27 Two series, eighteen episodes in total. It's the story of Suzy Darling, a dentist who leaves her psychologically abusive, cheating husband and strikes out on her own. She moves into the penthouse of The Arcadia, the Sydney apartment building which also, in one of the ground floor commercial units, houses her dental surgery. For reasons outlined in the plot, when she moves into the apartment, she becomes able to see and interact with the ghost of Henry Mallet, an English punk rock singer (of band The Nerve), who died there in 1982, while he was staying in the penthouse suite of The Arcadia during its former incarnation as a hotel. A suite which is now Suzy's apartment. The rest of the events of the show unfurl from there. A less raucous comedy than Ghosts (the sublime BBC original; the US remake is.... well, it has its moments and is certainly more watchable than I's anticipated, but it's not as good as the original by a long shot), but it's an engaging story, with more room to breathe (care of eighteen, fifty-minute episodes), and considers the practicalities of the situation as more than just a source of humour. Alas the Australian channel for which it was made in 2010 / 2011 decided to cancel the third series after the second aired, and while there was the possibility of a new home, it didn't happen. The ending of the second series fortunately is not a cliff hanger. Plenty of road still left to run and lots of little ideas that could be expanded on, but still an acceptable ending to it all. Well worth a watch for anyone who is a fan of Matt King from other shows, such as his turn as SuperHans in Peep Show.