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    Letterkenny is so good.

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      Knightfall is proving to be lightweight stuff, very shallow characters. I am impressed by Tom Cullen in the lead role but the rest of the cast are phoning it in; the high number of Downton Abbey supporting actors being recycled through this is odd, suggesting that the head of casting didn't look very far.

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        Originally posted by Satchmo Distel View Post
        Knightfall is proving to be lightweight stuff, very shallow characters. I am impressed by Tom Cullen in the lead role but the rest of the cast are phoning it in; the high number of Downton Abbey supporting actors being recycled through this is odd, suggesting that the head of casting didn't look very far.
        I heard that was weak. Shame.

        I’m going to try Outlander.

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          The first season (or double season) of Outlander is sensational. But it drops off a cliff after that.

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            The second season of High Maintenance started in the US on HBO last night. Amazing episode; it was like watching a very smart short film. I won't say more than that to avoid various spoilers.

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              Enjoyed watching Sicario last night on Channel 4. Felt very much like an introduction to a franchise of movies, but del Toro's character had so much hidden depth I'd be happy to see a few sequels.

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                Vikings seems to get even darker. I have just finished episode 7.

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                  I just found out that Burnistoun is on Netflix here, but I can't sit here and watch it all day or nothing will get done. I want a Radio Burnistoun t-shirt now.

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                    My wife and I have belatedly discovered Turn - Washington's Spies. Not bad at all in the writing and act; I'm less sure on plausibility.

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                      Finally started watching The Marvelous Mrs Maisel this weekend. Cracking stuff.

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                        Originally posted by Satchmo Distel View Post
                        My wife and I have belatedly discovered Turn - Washington's Spies. Not bad at all in the writing and act; I'm less sure on plausibility.
                        It's fairly plausible. I read the book it's based on which is fairly dry, real history sorta stuff. A lot of the commentators think it makes Simcoe out to be too much of a villain, especially since he's kind of a hero in Canada. But the book backs this up, I think. He did lead a at least one massacres and, in general, is standing in for the rampant corruption and abuse of the Long Island locals by the British Army which was very much a real thing and contributed to their ultimate failure to persuade colonists to the Tory cause.

                        Also some of the stuff about the servant characters etc is made-up. They had to somehow show the plight of black people during the whole thing - which is critical - but those specific characters were made up, I think. As it is, the show underplays the extent and economic importance of slavery to the colonies, which is always a problem when trying to dramatize the colonial period and still have white heroes. Of course, we don't have a ton of written accounts from black people in that time and place.

                        The stuff between Andre and Peggy Shippen is played up too, I think. I believe there is some reasons to think they were lovers before she married Benedict Arnold, but I don't think that's 100%. It also shows Andre, among other British officers, as sympathetic characters, which is fair I think, and does a pretty good job of trying to humanize Arnold without excusing his treachery.

                        What isn't at all real is the love-triangle stuff. Anna Strong was real and involved in the ring as it showed, but she was 10 years older than Abe Woodhull, and Woodhull didn't get married at all until just after the war, when he married his first cousin (which would look bad in this day and age). Another of his cousins was killed/murdered by the British, but I don't think he had a brother, as the show alludes to, and the stuff about his dad being a Tory and then switching isn't historical - at least, it's not recorded, IIRC. But I suppose that sort of thing - arranged marriages, political conflicts within familes, etc, was all pretty common.

                        Much of it is filmed in Williamsburg, especially the stuff pretending to be Philadelphia. The scene in George III's throne-room, or whatever it's called, is a room in the Wren Building, where I had several classes in college (not that room, but in that same building - the oldest university/college building in the US. That room is used for special events and isn't usually festooned as it is in that scene).

                        There's some other stuff that's moved around chronologically, characters combined, etc, but it's a lot more historical than most series.

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                          This weekend, when I was feeling bad, I watched a bunch of Patriot on Amazon.

                          Remarkable. It was supposedly about a spy who has to pretend to work for a midwestern pipe company, and it is about that, but it is WAYYYY weirder and original than what that simple set-up would suggest. I'm not sure how much more of the weirdness I can take, so I'll take a break. Well worth a look, however, if you want a show set in Luxembourg or just something unlike anything else. It's part funny, part tragic, and part spy caper. But mostly the first two. Has a few people you'll recognize - like the guy who played Red Foreman on That 70's Show and the bald guy from Lost - but a lot of people I don't recognize, including the lead. The actor is from NZ, playing a guy from Texas.

                          I also got into Fortitude, being a fan of all things northern. It's a bit muddled and am not sure it's worth sticking with.

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                            Originally posted by Satchmo Distel View Post
                            Vikings seems to get even darker. I have just finished episode 7.
                            It's dark. It's about The Dark Ages, after all.

                            I'm way into it. A lot of it is based on legends that might not be true and they really play around with Alfred's family and chronology, but that's ok. It gets the basic gist of the characters right, I think.


                            BTW, to anyone who is caught up, what happened to Rollo? I can't recall, but it seems like he just stopped being in the show a few seasons ago, and yet, if I'm not mistaken, he's key to the link between the Vikings and the eventual Normans, right?

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                              I look at the last three posts and see "Patriot" "Vikings" and "Philadelphia". Were you having a subliminal NFL weekend, Reed?

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                                Originally posted by San Bernardhinault View Post
                                I look at the last three posts and see "Patriot" "Vikings" and "Philadelphia". Were you having a subliminal NFL weekend, Reed?
                                Hah! It just worked out that way.

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                                  Originally posted by Hot Pepsi View Post
                                  BTW, to anyone who is caught up, what happened to Rollo? I can't recall, but it seems like he just stopped being in the show a few seasons ago, and yet, if I'm not mistaken, he's key to the link between the Vikings and the eventual Normans, right?
                                  He became King of Normandy (you can look him up.) He was briefly in the last series, he joined Bjorn for a jaunt on his expedition to the Mediterranean. His army (though — significantly — not himself) is in the last episode of this half-season (shown tomorrow.) They've joined Ivar's army against Laegertha

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                                    Originally posted by Amor de Cosmos View Post
                                    He became King of Normandy (you can look him up.) He was briefly in the last series, he joined Bjorn for a jaunt on his expedition to the Mediterranean. His army (though — significantly — not himself) is in the last episode of this half-season (shown tomorrow.) They've joined Ivar's army against Laegertha
                                    Ok. So he's not dead yet. I wasn't sure if I'd forgotten. It's hard to keep track of that, while also knowing some of the history and trying to remember all the stuff that actually matters to my life.

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                                      Originally posted by Femme Folle View Post
                                      The End of the F***ing World on Netflix. Just watched a couple of episodes while taking a break from my cleaning to eat lunch.
                                      Just binged this (ok - it’s less than 3 hours in total). Bloody excellent.

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                                        I watched San Junipero (Black Mirror S3E4) last night and then went there in my dream. I was seriously freaked out about it this morning.

                                        What else is good from season 3? Actually, maybe I should just ask if there are any that aren't worth watching.

                                        I finished TEOTFW on Saturday. I really hope there's a season 2 because I need to know what happens next.

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                                          San Junipero may be the best, but I really like Nosedive as well. Shut Up and Dance, Men Against Fire, and Hated In The Nation were predictable but generally well done. Didn't care for Playtest.

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                                            Thanks, GY.

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                                              Did four eps of TEOTFW last night. Just f***ing fantastic.

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                                                I watched The Hood Maker, which is the first in the Philip K Dick's Electric Dreams series. Nicely shot, although too grimy blade runnery to feel original. It didn't have much of a twist and like most PKD-inspired work just stops when the story runs out.

                                                I enjoyed it though and will probably watch the rest of the series when I get time.

                                                I'm still watching Superstore, almost daily in line with the ITV2 scheduling. I'm watching on catch up so am a day or 2 behind.

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                                                  Originally posted by Patrick Thistle View Post
                                                  I watched The Hood Maker, which is the first in the Philip K Dick's Electric Dreams series. Nicely shot, although too grimy blade runnery to feel original. It didn't have much of a twist and like most PKD-inspired work just stops when the story runs out.
                                                  We did eight of the ten episodes so far. Quite entertaining in its own right, but not as good as Black Mirror.

                                                  The one with the acronym title K.A.O. is pretty grim and simultaneously quite close to the current state of the world. The one with Janelle Monáe is rather good.

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                                                    Only one episode of Happy! left in this series. Genuinely laugh out loud funny moments in the penultimate episode this week. I really hope there's a second series--but I hope it isn't disappointing, the way all of the Marvel series twos have been.

                                                    I guess if you open with a bang, it's really hard to follow up with an even bigger bang. Can anyone think of a series that had a better second series than its first?

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