TV You Have Watched

[wakka]

I watched Telemarketers. It's a three part HBO documentary series, initially using footage shot in the 2000s of a shady telemarketing boiler room by the director (who was employed there at the time), before following its protagonists on a quest in the present day to take the culprits behind the scam to task.

A mix of footage shot in the late 2000s, mid 2010s and early 2020s gives it a slightly patchwork feel in the terms of the narrative, but I really enjoyed this. Tracing the scam and its perpetrators is intriguing, but fades into a backdrop against the interplay between the two protagonists - one of whom has a real redemption arc.

A good watch if you like slightly unusual docuseries.

[Neon Ignition]

Superman & Lois: Season 03
It felt like a shame when it was announced the show would end with a shortened fourth run but after this one I'm fine with it. It's losing momentum incredibly quickly and just three runs in there's a huge amount of wheel spinning and regurgitating old ideas. From the first season there were a number of directions they could have gone in and they've opted for largely repeating the same arc again and again around Clark's least likeable son whilst side characters just fumble through old soap storyline tropes. The fourth run has had budget cuts too which will see most of the supporting case dropped, again, likely no bad thing.

Doctor Who: Series 09
Finally got through this one with the kids, the last run of eps including Heaven Sent etc held them well enough but lots of this series struggled to hold their attention. I imagine series 10 will be like pulling teeth as it's very Missy orientated and they're done with her too but one more and it all changes up again.

[Dogg Thang]

The final episode of Shogun was released yesterday. That was a great run. The last episode for me wasn't entirely as satisfying as I'd like but I kind of get why they went this way. Overall, the series was superb.

[Neon Ignition]

Quantum Leap: Season 02
Skipped the filler again which is an awful lot of this run, the key good episodes still have a decent amount of emotion heft though

[Atticus]

Started watching Season 2 of The Jinx (S1 is the best true crime doc I've ever seen). There's no way it can match season 1 but I'm defo up for more.

[Colin]

The final episode of Shogun was released yesterday. That was a great run. The last episode for me wasn't entirely as satisfying as I'd like but I kind of get why they went this way. Overall, the series was superb.

100% agreed. There are things I would've liked to have seen visually at the end, but a description will have to suffice!

Since Shogun is now over we watched the first two episodes of Fallout last night. I have no idea if its true to the source as I've never really played any of the games, but we're certainly enjoying what we've seen so far!

[QualityChimp]

Wife and I watched Death and Other Details (Disney+) and it was aaaaalright.
A young socialite is reunited with the man who was tasked with finding her mother's killer and fails.

It tried to place her as a genius protégé to the "World's Greatest Detective" but neither of them seem to solve anything until someone says "I dunnit!".

Some neat deduction sequences and some twists I never saw coming, but fell a bit flat as you don't really care about the leads like I did with "Murder at the End of the World".

More sleuthing action in Only Murders in the Building S3 (D+).
Telling that my wife couldn't remember a single thing on the "previously on..." recap.

I struggled with OMitB at first because as a detective show, it's rubbish. Literally every piece of plot was handed to them.
However, it's mainly a character piece with the murders actually just an inconvenience.
S3 is even sillier and there's a murder, but mainly the story is about the play they're working on.
If you can get past that it's very silly and not a murder mystery, it's a lot of fun.

Best of this genre I've seen of late was Poker Face (NowTV), where I loved the premise, lead character and crime-of-the-week with an overarching linking story.

However, Columbo is on Prime, so I'm tempted to work my way through those.
It's a show that's on those digital channels buried at the tail end of the programme guide, so having this on demand might be nice, especially without those stairlift and incontinence adverts.

[Lebowski]

I gave up after season 2 of Only murderers, the first season was entertaining, the second was a real stretch of the format.

What I am enjoying is The gangster Action comedy series The Gentleman, the set-up is main protagonist Edward Horniman is called back from his UN peace keeper job as his father a duke is on his deathbed, he gets back in time to see him die and ends up inheriting his fathers title as well as a very large house and grounds. The twist here is he also inherits a secret weed farm that his father has been profiting from hosting under one of his barns. What follows is a kind of crime boss of the week caper with the duke getting into all sorts of scrapes as he tries and fails to remove himself from the seedy underworld of crime and drug lords. It has a great cast, Vinnie Jones as the kindly worldly-wise groundskeeper is a master stroke of casting. other highlights include Peter Serafinowicz as a Scouse crime family boss.

[fuse]

Watching through Fallout (quite liking it!) and Baby Reindeer (... we'll see) currently.

Did watch Big Mood (C4) recently, which I dunno, did not land with me? Two young women struggling with their own issues and generally letting each other down as a side consequence of that. For something that deals with mental illness, it does not paint a particularly sympathetic picture, but perhaps more crucially I don't think the laughs are very good either. Pass.