Current Watching

[Hot Pepsi]

I’ve come around on The Nevers. It requires some attention to follow, but it’s a well-written urban fantasy. It’s basically the X-Men set in Victorian London. But more subtle and character-oriented than that sounds and most of the lead characters are women.

[Amor de Cosmos]

Most of the lead characters on everything we watch these days are women it seems: The Nevers, Mare of Easttown, Pretty Hard Cases, Orange is the New Black, Teenage Bounty Hunters, Flack, Sky Rojo, and that's not even a complete list.

[ad hoc]

So, we finished Marcella. Series 1 was pretty good, series 2 was possibly slightly better, but series 3 was bollocks. Too many extended scenes inside Marcella's head and an utterly ridiculous final episode. We saw it through but I kind of wish we hadn't bothered.

[Tratorello]

Really behind the curve on this but Cobra Kai is a lot of fun, isn't it?

We'd had enough of "dark" and "serious" stuff so we gave it a go expecting it to be complete tosh but its surprisingly good, whilst also still being utter tosh.

The guy who plays Johnny is great, his deadpan delivery makes for some real laugh out loud moments. We've burned through 75% of it in 4 or 5 evenings.

[Simon G]

We completed How to Get Away with Murder last week.

I like how they wrapped everything up, but it did feel a bit rushed in the end.

[Walt Flanagans Dog]

I'm watching the new TV adaptation of Wir Kinder vom Bahnhof Zoo , so you don't have to.

They have spent far too much money on it, and while I'm sure there is some pay off happening later in the series, so far all of the heroin usage is a bit of a jape.

The scenes around the Bowie concert have to be seen to be (not) believed.

[Sits]

Continuing to thoroughly enjoy The A Word; well into S2 now. Recommended.

[Hot Pepsi]

Watching the doc about the death of Blockbuster.

I liked Stowaway on Netflix. It’s one of those small, self-contained sci-fi stories that still get published as short stories in nice publications like Clarkesworld. I hope Netflix makes more things like that.

[Uncle Ethan]

So, we finished Marcella. Series 1 was pretty good, series 2 was possibly slightly better, but series 3 was bollocks. Too many extended scenes inside Marcella's head and an utterly ridiculous final episode. We saw it through but I kind of wish we hadn't bothered.

Is three the one based in Ireland?

[Uncle Ethan]

Is anyone else hanging in with Line of Duty as it becomes ever more ridiculous? If they have does anyone understand why the fact that the same prison officers have been hanging around every time one or other of the suspects gets attacked or knocked off doesn't seem to have been noticed by our skilful detectives?

[ad hoc]

Is three the one based in Ireland?

Yeah

[Uncle Ethan]

Thanks - that makes me feel better about binning it.

[Sean of the Shed]

Is anyone else hanging in with Line of Duty as it becomes ever more ridiculous? If they have does anyone understand why the fact that the same prison officers have been hanging around every time one or other of the suspects gets attacked or knocked off doesn't seem to have been noticed by our skilful detectives?

Rogin has started a dedicated thread.

[Uncle Ethan]

Thanks

[Gerontophile]

Most of the lead characters on everything we watch these days are women it seems: The Nevers, Mare of Easttown, Pretty Hard Cases, Orange is the New Black, Teenage Bounty Hunters, Flack, Sky Rojo, and that's not even a complete list.

That's a good thing, no?

Not forgetting "Unforgiven", because that was amazing. AGAIN.

[Sits]

And The Bay with the excellent Morven Christie.

[Gerontophile]

Current watching, is literally, re-runs of "Mom". I'm glad I do. The ensemble is excellent, and the good lines are equally shared. (Except 'Wendy'.)

Aside from this (and "How The Universe Works" et al) it's sport or Create TV. Cookery, travel, old guys doing woodwork, and Julia Child, what's not to love? Oh, and sewing and quilting, and "The Joy of Painting".

I nap in front of the TV, a lot.

[Patrick Thistle]

Watched the last episode of The Falcon and The Winter Soldier. I enjoyed the series tremendously, but spotted the Power Broker a mile off (i.e. as soon as we got to Madripoor) , and fun as it was, it was very traditional Marvel fare. It didn't have the "What the fuck is going on? I am not going on social media in case of spoliers" that WandaVision had. That was genuinely compelling.

That being said, I still marked out over Captain Falcon and the introduction of the US Agent costume.

I watched it, tuning in each week, and it kind of left me cold. I never got invested or cared. The actor playing Karli was the revealed face of "Enfys Nest" in Solo and she really didn't carry the Karli role for me either. She was too blank-faced and pouty instead of passionate and determined. It's as if staring into the middle distance is how leadership happens.

And then we had all the stuff about the shrimp boat and trying to keep it, and we were meant to care about LaMarr even though he was a sidekick to a side story. And I dunno. It felt like a mess tbh. Who were the good guys? Both sides felt like bad guys.

[Lang Spoon]

Watched I Blame Society last night, enjoyable.

[Patrick Thistle]

Is that series any good? There seems to be a dearth of really good comedy these days — I mean LOL stuff, rather than 'knowing smile stuff' — so any recommendations are welcome.

Well I like it and it's covered some interesting issues in the past about immigration and unionising in big retail companies.

If you want to watch a comedy, Kim's Convenience on Netflix is just wonderful.

[Patrick Thistle]

I watched the film Bewitched last night. Silly but quite a nice treatment of the original TV series and there were a couple of lines that really made me laugh.

[Gerontophile]

Is that series any good? There seems to be a dearth of really good comedy these days — I mean LOL stuff, rather than 'knowing smile stuff' — so any recommendations are welcome.

What have you already seen? TV series wise? And, have you done "Still Game"?

[Eggchaser]

I watched it, tuning in each week, and it kind of left me cold. I never got invested or cared. The actor playing Karli was the revealed face of "Enfys Nest" in Solo and she really didn't carry the Karli role for me either. She was too blank-faced and pouty instead of passionate and determined. It's as if staring into the middle distance is how leadership happens.

And then we had all the stuff about the shrimp boat and trying to keep it, and we were meant to care about LaMarr even though he was a sidekick to a side story. And I dunno. It felt like a mess tbh. Who were the good guys? Both sides felt like bad guys.

The Karli role needed someone who didn't end every sentence with a downwards inflection of the voice.

Battlestar's role was to push John Walker over the edge (in the comics, it's his parents getting shot by a eight wing militia). I liked the irony that the last thing the guy who idolised Steve Rogers as a child saw was the shield being used to kill him.

Hopefully the introduction of Lady De Fontaine does not lead to more double agent shenanigans, especially as the comic version of the US Agent is 100% Uncle Sam's soldier.

[Patrick Thistle]

I think it went beyond Karli being miscast though. There's a tendency for "conflicted villains" to look moody and speak in oblique sentences. Straight up villains, like Zemo, are usually charming and persuasive. The flagsmashers were supposed to be anarchist terrorists but it's hard not to root for the people who are sticking up for the misplaced and the rootless. So they couldn't make the leader of them too articulate and caring. She had to be a "supremacist" (to quote Zemo) otherwise Falcon et al were on the wrong side of history. I can see they wanted Falcon as Captain America to be the one fixing the problem by challenging authority in the right way ie by appealing to their conscience and sense of justice and fairness, which of course they had because they are the good guys, right? You couldn't have the rebels win, because that would imply rebelling is an acceptable response. It's not. The dispossessed need to accept their place and hope that the powerful make the right decisions when confronted by the virtuous self appointed spokespeople for the downtrodden like Captain America.

It's a very subtle message (sit down, shut up and wait to be saved) and I think that's why I didn't get on with the series.

[Amor de Cosmos]

That's a good thing, no?

Not forgetting "Unforgiven", because that was amazing. AGAIN.

Well it's more of an unconscious thing in terms of choice (I'd also add Ginny and Georgia (or the other way round?) They're just more appealing and interesting to us I guess. Though the notion that every police force in the Western hemisphere, is dominated by a female hard-ass is a bit of a cliche, not to mention really unlikely. The only male focused shows we've watch lately have been the Irish policier Bloodlands, and the Swedish hockey drama Beartown, both excellent BTW.