Current Watching

[Simon G]

Finished Squid Game last night. Watched with subtitles. Thoroughly enjoyable stuff. Though eventually a bit SAW? Didn't end quite how i expected - don't want to give away any spoilers.

Anyway, making a start on Money Heist. Looks promising so far...

I'd love the ending of Squid Game if my 15 year old hadn't spoiled it for me the night I started watching it.

[WOM]

I gave up on American Horror Story about five series' ago. They're just soooooo painfully dragged out. 5 episodes of content packed into 10, sort of thing. But this year's 'Double Feature' has been quite good, with two smaller tales moving along at a good clip.

[Hot Pepsi]

Y The Last Man has been cancelled by FX. Apparently, the way the COVID-19 delay worked out, they had to decide a few days ago whether to renew everyone's contract and decided not to.

It was kinda disappointing. I'd already become bored and annoyed with it. It was just dragging for no apparent reason. At the pace it was going, none of the central plots were going to be really advanced, let alone resolved in the first season.

Supposedly the writers planned five seasons!

[Amor de Cosmos]

We finished the second series of Into the Night (Netflix). It's utterly preposterous but very entertaining. Gotta say the writers have totally nailed cliffhanger endings, for individual episodes and each series. It's also the most multi-lingual show I've seen outside the Eurovision Song Contest. French is primary (it's a Belgian production) but English, German, Flemish, Russian are used, along with smatterings of Hungarian, and one or two other languages I've probably missed. I'm looking forward to series three already.

[gt3]

I'd love the ending of Squid Game if my 15 year old hadn't spoiled it for me the night I started watching it.

Oh man...

[Sheep]

I'd love the ending of Squid Game if my 15 year old hadn't spoiled it for me the night I started watching it.

I trust that you dock them 10 quid in your will for this sort of behavior.

[diggedy derek]

That long Jackie Collins documentary on iPlayer is absolutely fascinating.

[Cal Alamein]

We finished the second series of Into the Night (Netflix). It's utterly preposterous but very entertaining. Gotta say the writers have totally nailed cliffhanger endings, for individual episodes and each series. It's also the most multi-lingual show I've seen outside the Eurovision Song Contest. French is primary (it's a Belgian production) but English, German, Flemish, Russian are used, along with smatterings of Hungarian, and one or two other languages I've probably missed. I'm looking forward to series three already.

I finished it last week and while I certainly agree that it was preposterous, I did not find it nearly as entertaining as the first season. It seemed as if they were guaranteed a second season and did not have much an idea of what to write, so they threw in new characters (the 'seed' lady, the EU/NATO soldiers) that left me not nearly as interested as season one.

But, as the episodes run at 30 minutes or so, and w/ only 6 episodes, I'll likely stick around for season 3.

[Amor de Cosmos]

Oh, I dunno. Admittedly my critical expectations weren't on high alert but I didn't detect a particular drop in quality. The nasty NATO crew were introduced at the end of the first series, and we suspected right away they were up to no good. I admit the ending was ambiguous to confusing, and it took me a while to figure out how a submarine was surfacing in Hungary (I'd forgotten the seed store was in Finland.) Silly yes. Boring no.

[Sits]

Started Maid last night and really enjoyed it. Someone has found the perfect niche for Andie McDowell.

[Tony C]

I can’t remember the last time I was as genuinely horrified at a piece of documentary filmmaking as I was at watching BBC’s ‘Four Hours At The Capital’.

[San Bernardhinault]

First episode of the new season of Succession reminds me that it really is so much fun. It’s not the kind of bleak, dark, soul searchy, difficult “prestige TV”. It’s just a bundle of fun. Everybody is a terrible person. Greg remains my hero. The treatment of Kendall’s ex is hilarious. It just makes me happy to watch because I don’t have to have much empathy for anyone and therefore it’s fine to watch them be utterly horrible.

[diggedy derek]

Tony, yes, that documentary was punishing, as it had to be of course. I was a bit uncomfortable about them interviewing participants in the crimes at the Capitol but in the end it revealed their delusions quite starkly

[Tony C]

Got round to ‘The Trick’ on iplayer which aired last week. Well worth watching, not least for Jason Watkins’ excellent central performance.

[Hot Pepsi]

Todd Philips’ doc on The Velvet Underground is kinda cool. I have nothing to compare it to. I’ve never been especially into the VU except in the perfunctory “they influenced stuff I like.”

[Bored Of Education]

Just watched Outlaws, the Stephen Merchant vehicle. Really really good. At first, you think it is a comedy about Merchant and then you think it is about Christopher Walken who is amazingly in it. However, by the end, you realise it is a completely different and much better story involving what you originally thought were the incidental characters. It's almost a Bristol Tarantino. Only watched the first episode but it's an hour long.

[Felicity, I guess so]

Yeah, liked Outlaws too. Some really funny moments but it'll get quite dramatic by the looks.

[Felicity, I guess so]

Also went to the pictures late morning (only time it was on, wall-to-wall Bond) and saw a Polish film Never Gonna Snow Again - beautifully shot social satire, some very funny and very intriguing bits

[Giggler]

Just watched Outlaws, the Stephen Merchant vehicle. Really really good. At first, you think it is a comedy about Merchant and then you think it is about Christopher Walken who is amazingly in it. However, by the end, you realise it is a completely different and much better story involving what you originally thought were the incidental characters. It's almost a Bristol Tarantino. Only watched the first episode but it's an hour long.

I enjoyed it too. Like Peter Kay being credited with Phoenix Nights ahead of Dave Spikey and Neil Fitzmaurice but his other stuff being patchy, it's clear that the heart in The Office came from Stephen Merchant rather than the higher-billed writer. I'm looking forward to finding out how Darren Boyd's character got to be there.

[Bored Of Education]

Watched The Cleaner after, which was good but suffered only from me having watched Outlaws beforehand

[RobW]

Stath Lets Flats is back tonight on Channel 4 at 10.15pm. Excellent.

[Felicity, I guess so]

Alex Scott's Who do you think you are? episode was interesting

[Tony C]

Watched a Netflix New York art forgery documentary called ‘Made You Look’ which was fascinating. I’d often wondered about how galleries and auction houses fully authenticate pieces of work. Turns out they can’t.

[San Bernardhinault]

I watched The White Lotus on HBO. It was fine, but - as with a lot of prestige mini-series - thought it was a lot better and more important than it actually was. The guy who played the hotel manager was absolutely fantastic in it, though, and probably worth watching the entire show for. Everything else was obnoxious rich people, but not generally fun and entertaining obnoxious rich people like you get in Billions or Succession.

We've also been watching something called La Brea which might be the worst show I've ever seen. It like someone took all the worst bits of Lost, then mixed them with a promo video of cheap graphics from La Brea Tar Pits. I can't work out why we keep watching it other than the entertainment of quite how bad it is.

[Hot Pepsi]

Agree on White Lotus.
I watched about 20 minutes of La Brea.
Is that what network TV looks like these days?