TV You Have Watched

[Finsbury Girl]

Finished The Old Man I really enjoyed it ; Lithgow and Bridges really really good ; great nail biter ; few holes in the plot but hey I can live with it. Will wait patiently for the next season. Hoping the new Jack Ryan will turn up soon to scratch the itch

[randombs]

Started The Sandman and am eight episodes in.

It felt a bit weird in the beginning, and the opening flew through some backstory stuff and it reminded me of the recent Dune film’s opening. I read some of the Sandman comics years ago so I had a vague idea, and bits and bobs are coming back to me as I watch these episodes but it’s mostly new.

Anyway, it’s just beautiful to experience. The death episode in particular was extraordinary.

Two episodes left and part of me wishes I’d taken my time, while the other part is enjoying the programme too much to be away from it for long!

[Dogg Thang]

Yep, the Death episode is beautiful. A combination of two of my favourite issues of the comic and they work so well together.

[fuse]

Mentioned in the dedicated thread already, but enjoyed Sandman quite a lot. There were some bits I thought might've suffered a bit trying to keep in with the tone during the leap from page to screen (see: Cain and Abel), but for the most part thought it was pretty brilliant. Episodes 5 and 6 in particular were fabulous.

And similarly to everyone else here, have been pretty enamoured with Better Call Saul. I feel like it would've been recommended and lauded purely by association, and being so firmly rooted in events before the thing you've already watched, you'd expect it's an uphill battle to surprise while still being entertaining in equal measure, but they managed it. For a show so rooted in criminal excess, to portray it so regularly with such mundanity is so refreshingly respectful of its audience too, and it's all the better for it.

[Neon Ignition]

Bel Air: Season 01
It veers towards and then away before more towards the original show but hats off to it, by the end of the 10 ep run it had reinterpreted some of the original storylines in new ways and still managed to convincingly define its characters enough to yank the tears out when necessary too. I can't imagine this as a show that would benefit from having many seasons but this first run is surprisingly strong.

[fallenangle]

Been watching on Talking Pictures TV (Freeview) a rerun of the BBC/Belgium BRT early '80s series Kessler (1981) a spin off from their earlier collaboration the WW2 escape organisation (Lifeline) series Secret Army.

Kessler centres on what happened to Kessler, the Nazi nemesis of Lifeline in Secret Army, after 1945.

I'd not seen it for over 40 years since it was first broadcast but it still stands up as a great piece of TV drama even now. Very much of its time in filming style, location stuff done on film, indoor scenes all in TV studios but that really does not matter particularly when the writing and acting are as good as in this case.

Solid support from a cast of other actors familiar to viewers at that time (not all brilliant it has to be admitted) but Clifford Rose as Ludwig Kessler stands out making the character human but still unsympathetic ie. not just an obnoxious, evil Nazi caricature.

Incidentally Clifford Rose had a very long career after Kessler, in the theatre and, mostly, supporting character roles on TV including most recently The Crown (2019). He only died last November at 92, not that far from where I live.

Both Secret Army and Kessler are well worth seeking out if you want to see two of the best UK action/drama series of that late 70s/early 80s period.

[Brad]

Better Call Saul:

Summed up perfectly by Lebowski basically. A master class in television. Vince Gillian is basically schooling everyone at this point.

[Neon Ignition]

I Am Groot
Another one of those shorts series from Disney, the entire five episode run basically clocks about 15 minutes top at total. Each is basically small Groot messing around and broadly seem to cover the time between GOTG and GOTG2. Nothing wrong with them but nothing special about them either.

[cutmymilk]

These are tiresome to watch on Disney plus, especially shorts where more than half the run time is credits for some reason.

Just let us watch it all at once.

[Neon Ignition]

The shortness is odd too. For TV you could imagine them used like old WB cartoons were, to help balance the schedule gaps. But on a streaming service you watch around 180 seconds of footage then the credits roll and you move on and forget they exist. Especially with only 5 episodes.

[Colin]

Apple's The Beatles: Get Back. My god, it's taken me months to get through the first bit of this as my wife doesn't like it and I keep forgetting about it. I love the Beatles, so to watch the process of how these songs were made is incredible, even if it makes me think they're all a bunch of arseholes. Legends one and all, but they can't see who they are any longer as their heads are so far up their own backsides.

[Colin]

As a follow up, after all the drama with George leaving. Billy Preston sitting down with the band for the first time killed me. Amazing.

[Neon Ignition]

Dead End: Paranormal Park
Another Netflix animated series, this one is alright. There's a musical episode toward the end which is done well and it comes together more broadly decently too. Never quite clicks enough to really feel overly compelling but it's a likeable show.

[QualityChimp]

We've watched all but the final (8th) episode of The Resort (NowTV), which has really shifted from the amateur sleuth premise to something with strong fantasy elements (think LOST), which is totally fine and we're itching to know how it ends, although I suspect it will have no resolution other than "...to be continued!"

We also watched the final few episodes of The Lazarus Project (NowTV), which continues with its wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey craziness. Definitely has a Nolan feel to it, but smaller scale and we've both really enjoyed it.
Annoyingly, it finished with "...to be continued!", but a second series is going ahead.

[QualityChimp]

Only Murders in the Building (D+).
I liked the first season, but there was very little sleuthing - it was a character show.
Started S2 last night and it's so meta.
Literally someone winked at the camera.
Not sure I'm onboard yet.



I watched episodes 2&3 of FROM (NowTV), which is about a small town where anyone who stumbles upon it is unable to leave and at night, they are preyed on by ghouls.
This one has a massive spooky warning. Yikes.
Even I was a little unsettled checking the doors in the dark before bed last night!
Feels like a Steven King story.
There is some serious gore (mainly eviscerated bodies), but the sense of dread as night falls is pretty intense.
Found myself going "Blimey" and "Sheee-it!" a few times.