TV You Have Watched

[Neon Ignition]

This Time with Alan Partridge: Series 02
It has its moments but again, this show is Alan at his weakest. The trouble with the TV presenting mode Alan is that the format only lends itself to half the character that has been developed. You get all of the awkwardness, the right leaning inappropriateness and the bitterness of the character but none of the context you got during I'm Alan Partridge or the film etc where as bad as he is you saw snippets about him that made him somehow endearing and leant themselves to push him into the more ridiculous scenarios that made those incarnations gold. Alan on a low is much better than Alan on a high.

[randombs]

So I’ve been on the free Apple TV trial for a while now but hadn’t actually watched anything on it.

Compared to Netflix, etc, Apple TV feels… decadent.

Scrolling through the stuff on offer, I can almost hear Tim Cook describing each TV series as Apple’s most advanced TV series ever, and every film as magical and innovative. The UI is sumptuous, and everything’s chock-full of superstars in 4K HDR 5.1 and 30 languages. It feels more like browsing Hermes Apple Watch bands than picking something to watch.

Anyway, I decided to try Ted Lasso this morning. And by ‘try’, I mean watch four episodes back to back.

It’s wonderful, and I don’t care that I used the same word to describe Feel Good a few posts ago.

[Lebowski]

This Time with Alan Partridge: Series 02
It has its moments but again, this show is Alan at his weakest. The trouble with the TV presenting mode Alan is that the format only lends itself to half the character that has been developed. You get all of the awkwardness, the right leaning inappropriateness and the bitterness of the character but none of the context you got during I'm Alan Partridge or the film etc where as bad as he is you saw snippets about him that made him somehow endearing and leant themselves to push him into the more ridiculous scenarios that made those incarnations gold. Alan on a low is much better than Alan on a high.

The chaos of mid morning matters and the more laid back nature of radio where awful content is more forgiven was a better format they really needed to show more of his life outside the radio though. That scene where hes too cheap to buy a new red noes and uses one of the hard plastic ones form the 90s and gives himself a nosebleed and sneezes blood onto a Nun is fantastic Alan partridge.

Nothing has come close to Alan living in a Travel lodge though Id love to see a bit more of Alan in his personal life, The audio book has some fantastic bits where his pomp gets the better of him and midmorning matters would be the perfect format for him getting too big for his boots and getting torn down a peg off screen.

[Neon Ignition]

Yep, it's like the latter end of the series strand about the make up artist coming on to him. It's all we get about it for a long stretch and even then it's very little and kind of goes nowhere

[Atticus]

Another thing that made I'm Alan Partridge brilliant was the supreme writing talents of Armando Iannucci and Peter Baynham. Since then it's been predominantly Neil and Rob Gibbons and noticeably different.

[Neon Ignition]

Solar Opposites: Season 01
I'd say this took around half a season to get settled in to. It really does feel very strongly like a diluted Rick and Morty, there's a distinct air of there being little point to it given it attempts to cover the inverse of that shows concept but in doing so just feels more limited. By the end though you get settled in and it's likeable enough, it just needs more of its own direction.

[Finsbury Girl]

Finished Season 1 of The Following - it went on way too long and had a ridiculous ending ; so tapping out for S2 and S3 as I don't know where it could go unless the old cliche of

->Open Spoiler<-

you think they're dead but they're really not SOMEHOW they managed to survive X fate

is true in which case I'm glad I'm tapping out!

Watched the first episode of Bosch really liked it, very keen to see where it goes

[Neon Ignition]

You made the right move, The Following's later seasons declined in quality hard and fast, just one of those shows where the idea doesn't support long form storytelling.

[Finsbury Girl]

Finally finished The Witcher....the final scene was great! I must admit I zoned out on a lot of the mages' machinations/plots and I wanted more action. But overall I enjoyed it & will definitely watch the next series.

Really getting into Bosch, I gotta give a shout out to the DP ; it looks bloody amazing.

[fuse]

Started watching The Handmaid's Tale [...]

All but caught up with this now (S4 is still currently airing on C4) and I can't say I'm getting much out of it. I fully understand that it being dark and oppressive is intentional, but it also makes it quite awkward to watch, and I find some other things - like its use of long slow-mo scenes scored with contemporary pop tracks, or fleshing out the backstories of some of the most despicable characters to make them appear 'complex' - just undermines the setting. The story is meandering and repetitive at this point, but there's still lots of those moments you have to steel yourself for where they escalate the atrocities its characters have to go through. I can deal with a tough watch if something important or insightful is being said, but this is stretching its value very thin by this point.

[QualityChimp]

Gonna give that a swerve then, Fuse. Plenty of things to watch that aren't a chore.

We're a couple of episodes into Mare of Easttown (NowTV) and are enjoying it, but my wife needs to be in the right mood for it as it's quite heavy going.

So instead, we've been watching the latest series of Taskmaster (All4), which has been a lot of fun again.
Mike Wozniak has been the standout, although I think Lee Mack is phenomenally sharp as a panelshow contestant.
Jamali Maddix was a bit annoying, tackling a lot of the tasks with minimum effort, but Greg Davies seemed to click with him, so hopefully the two will be good together on the upcoming Never Mind the Buzzcocks reboot.

I usually can't commit to much as I'll have a spare 20 minutes when I eat, or something, so I've continued dipping into Red Dwarf.
I've also seen the first two eps of Rick & Morty, but I had to do it in chunks, so it lost its impact - more my fault than the show's.

[Finsbury Girl]

Finished season 2 of Bosch - another enjoyable season ; liked the slower burn of the first season a wee bit more. But still this is great telly, I hope they can keep up the quality over the next couple of seasons.

[Neon Ignition]

Harley Quinn: Season 02
I wasn't sure this would be that worthwhile after the first season but after a few eps it found its direction and has headed in it confidently. Despite the glib style of the show it's moving things forward so will be interesting to see where the third run goes with things.

[Atticus]

"Time" on BBC iPlayer was brilliant, about a man sent to jail for the first time and his warden.

It totally got to me in so many ways. I almost didn't want to watch all of it, because it made me really nervous and was worried it would have a relentlessly bleak ending. Like, genuine pit-of-the-stomach nerves.

I cried in several places too. I couldn't imagine being Mark Cobden's (Sean Bean) parents, wanting to help your children in any way you can, but feeling helpless. A theme throughout the show and from different perspectives.

The other theme is redemption and if it's even possible if you've done something terrible.

Amazing telly with a fantastic cast.

Finally got round to watching this (two eps last night, just finished the third and final). I felt many of the same feelings. Every emotion hits the target from the fear of the cramped and intimidating opening scene in the prison van to the very last frame. The writing was typically excellent from McGovern and Sean Bean's performance brought it to a level I wasn't expecting. Really top stuff.

[Lebowski]

I decided to try Ted Lasso this morning. And by ‘try’, I mean watch four episodes back to back.

It’s wonderful, and I don’t care that I used the same word to describe Feel Good a few posts ago.

It's like a warm Hug from your TV, I'm not a football fan but this had me rooting for this fictional team and rooting for coach lasso to succeed. On paper it shouldn't work as it just so god dam ****ing wholesome it should make you hate the protagonist. But i just cant help but feel anything but affection for him. Lasso's character whole stych is his overwhelming positivity and he uses this to try to bring the best out the people around him. I just love watching his plans come together its Sunshine TV at its best and I'm having to pace myself so i don't watch it all in one go