Current Watching

[Hot Pepsi]

Without belaboring what might be obvious, Wonder Woman 84 was quite possible one of the worst movies I've seen in a long time. I'm not sure how they (producers, directors, actors) could miss the mark so completely.

Yeah. It's rare that a franchise like that will do very well with the first one, bring back all the principals, and totally shit the bed with the sequel. Yeah, Temple of Doom was a step down, but not like WW84.

[Sits]

I need a new series to watch. I haven't watched anything for a couple of weeks now since finishing Squid Game and It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia (all 14 seasons in about 10 days) in the same week.

Maid. Which we are about to finish, but don’t want to end.

Meanwhile we finished S3 of Sex Education which seemed to recover a lot of its mojo from around half way.

[WOM]

Yes, Maid. We have one episode left but deliberately left it for tonight for the same reason. It's exceptional.

[Uncle Ethan]

Watching Summer of Soul. Brilliant.

[WOM]

Yes, Maid. We have one episode left but deliberately left it for tonight for the same reason. It's exceptional.

This was one of the best things we've seen in a long while. 10 parts with very few dull patches and a good story well told. It will make you angry and frustrated and also give you hope.

[tracteurgarcon]

Yeah. It's rare that a franchise like that will do very well with the first one, bring back all the principals, and totally shit the bed with the sequel. Yeah, Temple of Doom was a step down, but not like WW84.

Ghostbusters 2.

[Hot Pepsi]

False. Ghostbusters 2 is fine. Underrated, in fact.

[Ray de Galles]

Without belaboring what might be obvious, Wonder Woman 84 was quite possible one of the worst movies I've seen in a long time. I'm not sure how they (producers, directors, actors) could miss the mark so completely.

Preach, brother.

I'm still shocked at how bad it was nearly a year after seeing it.

[Nocturnal Submission]

I'm enjoying watching The Man Who Shot New York, a documentary about photographer Harold Feinstein.

[Sunderporinostesta]

I’m really enjoying The Outlaws now. Two great laugh out loud moments last night. I think we’re up to Ep5 of 6. It’s not gone where I expected at all so I’ve no idea where it’s going. Give it a go though be aware it’s not annals of TV history stuff.

[Discordant Resonance]

Is there anything actually worth watching on Apple TV - the telly provider upgraded our boxes and that came as an add-on? Foundation sounds like it could be promising, but whether I want to commit myself to a multi-season epic if it's a really slow burner is another matter.

[Tony C]

Enjoying ‘The Tower’ on ITV. It’s a fairly standard police procedural but I’m intrigued enough to watch it through three parts and I like Gemma Whelan.

[Hot Pepsi]

Is there anything actually worth watching on Apple TV - the telly provider upgraded our boxes and that came as an add-on? Foundation sounds like it could be promising, but whether I want to commit myself to a multi-season epic if it's a really slow burner is another matter.

I'm not 100% sold on Foundation yet.
Ted Lasso and For All Mankind are great, for very different reasons, but both are very among my favorite shows um.... ever, I guess.

Dickinson is really good. It is, of course, about Emily Dickinson, her poems and romantic relationship with her sister-in-law (which may not be historical or maybe it is). The poems are real, most of the characters and issues they deal with are historical, but a lot of it is written with modern music and vernacular to draw the parallels between then and now, of course. It isn't as much of a gimmick as that makes it sound like. It's usually pretty subtle, except when Louisa May Alcott, played by Zosia Mamet says, "Hawthorne can eat a bag of dicks, am I right?" John Mulaney plays Henry David Thoreau as the 19th century's version of a "lifestyle influencer," which isn't quite fair to the real guy, but is funny.)

And the title character, played by Hailee Steinfeld, frequently talks to Death, played by Wiz Khalifa.

There's another Tom Hanks movie on there I plan to check out.

The Morning Show is entertaining in that it's a total trainwreck with a lot of very good actors trying to make it work and riding the line between so bad it's good and just bad.

[Amor de Cosmos]

Invasion (On Apple TV) is potentially an interesting approach to a hackneyed sci-fi plot. Only four episodes in so the wheels could still fall off.

[Sits]

Finished Maid which delivered all the way to the end. Best thing we've watched in ages and totally recommended.

We have also now completed five series of The Great British Sewing Bee which is an absolute joy. Five whole series in which everyone is nice to everyone yet genuine competition is sustained. In the final of S5 all three contestants were helped by at least one of the others, and the two runners-up were genuinely happy for the deserved winner. Got something in my eye. We now have to await S6-7 reaching Britbox.

[Uncle Ethan]

Invasion (On Apple TV) is potentially an interesting approach to a hackneyed sci-fi plot. Only four episodes in so the wheels could still fall off.

On the other hand something might actually happen.

[Amor de Cosmos]

Possibly. Maybe even probably. I gotta say, and I can because I'm way to old to change now, the lead actor in the Japanese segment is the most gorgeous young woman I've seen in a long time.

[Sunderporinostesta]

Watched The Band documentary last night. Very good. Though very very skewed in Robertson’s versions direction. Once Were Brothers. Songwriting credits and royalties always rear their ugly lucrative heads eventually.

[diggedy derek]

I love the Great British Sewing Bee. The creations they make fill me with wonder, the way they create such beauty from so little with pure ingenuity. And as you say, the emphasis is on learning and experience not one-upmanship

it’s just a personal thing but Bake Off has never impressed me in that way but then again I’ve never been that arsed about cakes

[Hot Pepsi]

HBO Plus has a short series, originally on CNN, about the history of American late night TV shows. Apparently, we're the only country that really has these. Other countries have chat shows and talk shows, but we're the only one that has a lot of them that are on three to five times a week. And we've had them since the 50s.

They did a good job of getting interviews - or at least archive stuff - from all the major players as well as a handful of historians of this stuff. Like that guy at Syracuse and that guy at USC who always pop up in these things.

I wish it had been a few more episodes and covered a few more topics.

For example, it doesn't talk about the musical performances on these shows and how appearing on them has often had a big impact on the popularity of an artist or influenced the charts, or not.

It also didn't talk much about the guests and the evolution of how booking these shows works. In the 70s, Johnny Carson might just have Don Rickles on the show for like 45 minutes to an hour just because he was available. He wasn't plugging a movie or anything. But now, people generally only go on the show when they're in the middle of a press tour for a new film, movie, book, etc.

There are also a few talk show hosts that they didn't talk about much or interview, either because the subject is not with us any more (Tom Snyder) or unknown reasons (Craig Kilborn).

It also would have been nice if they'd tacked on just one more episode talking to Conan about why he decided to just stop doing a late night show altogether and switch to something new on HBO. Because that feels like the beginning of the end of the whole format.

They did get far enough in the history to talk to James Corden's producers who were the first to admit plainly that the show isn't really designed to be a show on TV, but a series of youtube videos. That's how most people, especially the target younger demo are going to see it, so at some point, there won't be a point in doing an actual show on TV.

Anyway, it's an interesting zip through 70 years of US cultural history.

[Sean of the Shed]

Outlaws has been fantastic, we're up to episode 5 so far.

[Sean of the Shed]

Just started watching Midnight Mass on Netflix, horror series based on a Stephen King story. We've watched the first two episodes and will definitely be sticking with it.

[slackster]

Close To Me (UK C4). Nordi-influenced psycho-drama sounded promising but complete nonsense. Makes Hastings look good, mind. And there’s some Grand Designs property porn to divert you from the preposterous slow burn story of a woman piecing together her memories after a fall down the stairs.

[ad hoc]

Just started watching Midnight Mass on Netflix, horror series based on a Stephen King story. We've watched the first two episodes and will definitely be sticking with it.

We started watching that but gave up after 3 and a half episodes

[DCI Harry Batt]

We just crashed through Mandalorian. It was enjoyable.