The general TV show watching thread.

[Spatial]

Proper lol's at the guy getting upset about someone trying to behead his dog. So it's Gods will that millions of people die in natural disasters and from cancer, but when someone tries to kill his dog, that's not Gods doing?

Not one thing any of them said made any sense and I'm left afraid that I have somehow been infected by their stupidity just by watching that programme.

[Rossco]

Watched the first few episodes of Friday Night Dinner tonight. Quite funny. Geek from Inbetweeners is in it.

[dazzling_bubble]

Got Miranda series dvd for my b'day - Score

[wonderboy]

Just watched the first season of Bored To Death. Brilliant! Anyone else watch?

Yep, just started season 2. Really, really great, very funny. The only downer, is eight episodes per season. Wonder when season 3 is coming ?

[eastyy]

anyone watching the new series of masterchef ? not to keen on the new format tbh think the editing is not quite right as for example during the judging if there is three people as the judges 2 would get there say and a third ones response is edited out

Also in the early episodes they spend more time on some contestants and others would only get a few seconds

[mikewl]

Watched the first two episodes of The Walking Dead last night, so far it seems like it could be a really good series.

[Atticus]

Some great TV on at present. Really loving Sky Atlantic. Treme is the best show I've seen in a while, good to see Bunk from The Wire on fine form again. Thought Boardwalk Empire was highly enjoyable too.

[Number45]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-13359064

Operation Crossbow: How 3D glasses helped defeat Hitler

Sunday @ 21:00 on BBC 2 and @ 22:45 on BBC HD.

[prinnysquad]

I recorded Paul Merton's Birth of Hollywood three part series a while ago and watched them recently.

I'm probably a bit biased concerning Merton's output - I find him very funny, and seem to share his taste in various aspects of entertainment. For example, like PM, I used to think opera was a terrible, caterwauling mess. But both he and I grew to recognise that opera contains some excellent music and decent stories. I also have a love of old comedies. He seems to be more of a Chaplin fan, whereas I like Stan and Ollie (or as Dogg Thang would call them - Stan and Laurel), but I will happily watch Chaplin, Keaton, Lloyd, etc. I thought his previous documentaries on silent comedy, old films (e.g. the Lumiere output) and Hitchcock were very watchable, informative, personal looks at what he enjoyed and respected.

This short series took the same angle. If you sought a more objective look at the start of Hollywood, this series had many flaws in its approach. But as a subjective exercise, I thought it was great. The narrative device used was interesting - two of the three episodes were based around a central tether, that acted as a microcosm of general trends.

The first episode looked at how Hollywood evolved. I had no idea it was partially due to Thomas Edison inventing a piece of equipment that he basically demanded a license fee for, and sent around toughs to extract dough from production companies. Many fled to Hollywood, due to its vast tracts of land (orange grove fields!), photogenic terrain and long periods of nice weather, which were perfect for filming. The idea of a 'cliffhanger' came from Hollywood - someone hanging from a cliff to impart suspense. He looked at the rise of silent film in the 1900s and 1910s, usually financed by entrepreneurial European immigrants, and where the inspiration for new films came from. Men like DW Griffith, inspired by Italian epics like Cabiria (1914), with its lavish and astonishing set design, created Birth of a Nation - an incredible production with thousands of extras, which had the awful side effect of almost single-handedly resurrecting the KKK. He followed this with a poorer effort - Intolerance - a film which was overlong, overblown, but featured incredible sets and visual scope. I had no idea that silent films were this grand. He also looked at the rise of the star, people like Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks, as actors went from objects of social scorn to individuals with immense gravitas and power.

The second episode looked a bit at silent comedy. I simply cannot believe the stunts they used to try in those days -



Most of the episode was centred around the scandal of Roscoe Arbuckle, who was wrongly accused of murder. Arbuckle was a talented silent comedian, and friend of Chaplin and Buster Keaton. Despite being accused by a career liar, who was so unreliable the prosecution didn't call on her to testify, his trial was held three times before an acquittal. His reputation was blemished, however, as it coincided with Hollywood becoming synonymous with scandal, immorality and excess. Arbuckle was tainted with this brush, and barely worked for years. Hollywood self-regulated itself, and stars were kept on a tighter leash.

The third episode was about the rise of the producer, especially during the 1920s and into the talkies era, which created a crisis in the industry, yet also allowed other talents to flourish. The episode used producer Irving Thalberg as its anchor, a sickly yet brilliant man who helped to create many classics of the era, like Ben Hur and Mutiny on the Bounty. He actually edited Ben Hur from his hospital bed, recovering from a heart attack. He was employed by Universal boss Carl Laemmle, and made an early name for himself when he fired Erich Von Stroheim, a well-known actor-director. His control over editing meant that Thalberg was the hands behind every major Universal release, and demonstrated to studio bosses that producers were essential for retaining control over a film, and not allowing stars or directors to splash copious amounts of money. He later joined MGM and worked with the Marx Brothers. The episode also looked at how talkies presented problems for stars - with their voices and deliveries - and cameramen - who were back to static shots. It took a while for teams to develop new ways of filming, writers to develop spoken conversations and gags, and actors to hone their skills of pace, delivery and timing.

Like Rich Hall's How the West Was Lost and A History of Horror with Mark Gatiss, I really liked the personal aspect of this series. I learnt a lot, and Merton's fondness for his subject shone through, amongst a few amusing dry asides. I'd love him, or someone with a love of the genres, to cover film noir and gangster films.

[monel]

I remember watching Paul Merton's sketch show on C4 in the 90s, I absolutely loved the absurdity of most of the material. Used to just crack up at random moments.

[Skull Commander]

I watched Paul Merton's Birth of Hollywood as well, and although the first of the three didn't really hold my interest, the 2nd and 3rd parts were superb. You can tell Merton loves the subject matter, and he presents it in an entertaining way, without talking down to the audience.

I have a fondness for Merton's work in general, and went to see his live Silent Movie tour/talk when it came to Aberdeen. I really hope he tours something similar again, as it was a brilliant way to spend a Saturday night. Merton was enthusiastic and spoke with great passion about the films, and throughout there was screenings of clips and shorts, with live accompaniment from a chap who's name escapes me, who played a piano. The whole thing was brilliant and although it was me who initially wanted to go to it, my wife enjoyed it far more than she anticipated and said she would go back again should the opportunity present itself again.

[cutmymilk]

Those stunts are CRAZY. I remember watching the Paul Merton show as a kid and there was a fantastic episode based in a jury room where the jury had to reach a decision. I thought it was genius,but haven't seen it since.

[teddymeow]

I'm addicted to Man Vs Food at the moment. It makes me want to go back to America and sample some of the awesome things that Adam Richman eats.

[QualityChimp]

Has anybody been watching any of the various magic shows on at the moment?

Penn & Teller: Fool Us was first up and it's great fun. There are a lot of acts that are doing existing tricks and some people have perfected those tricks, but P&T know how they're done. P&T try not to ruin the acts by giving away the secrets, but make it clear they know how they're done. (Although I think Brynolf & Ljung cheated this week and P&T knew how their trick worked).

Then every so often, somebody will come up with a trick that they've invented themselves and they truly manage to fool them, and it's great TV. This one was brilliant:

More recently, Watch have started showing Dynamo: Magician Impossible, and it's brilliant. It takes me twice as long to watch it because every time he does a trick, I'm rewinding it and trying to work out how he's done it! Some of it is very clever misdirection but some of it is absolutely baffling and I have no idea how he does it.

Close-up street magic must be so much harder to do than on a stage as it's much harder to control. Part of me would love to know how he does his tricks, but the other half likes being baffled!

[JazzFunk]

^Been watching Fool Us, too, really like it but maybe Jonathan Ross made a bit of mistake choosing it as his next 'vehicle', can't see this pulling in viewers like his chat show.

Had a bit of a TV blowout today. Continued with the 4th(?) episode of C4's Sirens, it's OK but not quite as good as it could be, was expecting it to develop in a much better way but it hasn't done that yet but I shall persist with it, it's watchable. As it's set in Leeds, I'm recognising a lot of the locations, it was very odd seeing the Fonejacker in a 'heavy chav infestation' area mere seconds from where I live, used to deliver papers there(!) Also disconcerting on some of the shots to see unrelated, wide-apart places contained in certain scenes. Tonight's episode had them driving past the Corn Exchange down past Revolution, yet during their in-ambulance conversation, they were ALSO driving up past the Town Hall, out of Leeds (which is completely the opposite direction!!!!) Maybe being from Leeds makes watching this a problem, maybe the only people watching it are people from Leeds???

Also watched that Family Guy Blue Harvest thing, love Family Guy but I found this surprisingly rubbish, didn't laugh once. Nice to have the Griswolds in there but it just felt like a big waste of time, didn't have that 'edge' that generally makes Family Guy so amusing. Got the other two to watch on the Sky+ box, will persist with them to see if things improve.

Best thing I saw was episode 1 of Breaking Bad, **REALLY** loved it, am totally hooked from here on in, plus liked the way it kept me guessing throughout the whole pilot episode. Need to see more things like this, might lure me back to watching TV regularly.