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    Caught "The Big Sick" at last on Amazon, very enjoyable, and I might re-watch it.

    Star Trek Disco reaching it's end game.
    Actually the recent one (Episode 14???) was very messy, "too much" action. But at least the bloody Mirror Universe is behind us, I mean we didn't even get onto the Defiant and be all original series nostalgic - what was the point?
    Best part was old Saru stepping up to the plate - very acceptable - as opposed to being on the plate - see what I did there? - no, of course, if you didn't see the past few episodes.

    I'm glad there will be a second series; but they need to calm it down and develop some more characters a bit deeper. When they have done this (Stannis, Tilly), it's worked well; but others have been headlong skim the surface stuff.

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      I finished Britannia season 1. I might watch season 2, but I dunno. It's not great. It's trying too hard to be like Game of Thrones, but doesn't have the budget, the star-power, or enough going on to match that. Nor does it have much blood or boobs.

      It's sort of historical. The Romans show-up and are brutal and bad-ass and do some stuff to play the Cantiaci (or Cannti) and the Regnenses (Regni) off each other. Lots of wooo stuff with the Druids, but it's not really clear to what extent we're supposed to believe that the Druids really can do magic or if they're all just tripping on something. In any event, the Briton chiefs are sick of having to listen to them and are going to tell them to shove it, which is an interesting wrinkle, maybe. Or not.

      If it needs a model, it should be Vikings - try to stick more with history or, at least, legends so that we know who the characters are. Try to be less anachronistic with the language.

      But there's some good stuff to work with there. The sub-plot of the little girl who will become Budicca is pretty good, although the whole "SHE IS THE CHOSEN ONE" crap is unnecessary, given that its cliche and Buddica ultimately loses. Badly.

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        Counterpart is good so far, although I am only 1 episode in. The theme of the opener seemed to be that environment creates character, given that these men were the same person until 30 years ago but are now very different.

        J.K. Simmons has a strong resemblance and facial tics to Titus Welliver: no bad thing. Very watchable actor. Harry Lloyd is not bad, and has a good CV, such as Wolf Hall. The women had little to do in the opener (except the assassin) but will presumably come into play.

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          Phew! Watched the first couple of episodes of Babylon Berlin on Netflix, and I'm still coming back to earth. Berlin 1929 — which tells you a lot right there . The human wreckage of the war, battles between the Fourth International and Stalin's Soviet, vice, corruption, drugs and, of course endless night-life. I'm not sure what to compare it with. It makes Peaky Blinders and Boardwalk Empire seem low-rent and parochial. Though it shares their period, it's grittier than both but, at the other extreme more convincingly decadent too. The art direction is superb (it's a typographers dream, you could freeze-frame every street scene and find glorious graphics in signs, walls and windows,) but it's also so down-right ugly you can smell the sweat on people's collars. One particular scene grabbed me so much I had to watch it twice. Episode two, about half-way through. A musical number in a dance-hall. I can't, and won't even try, to judge it's authenticity, but it is seriously hot! Imagine Bowie at the Hot Club in Paris during the 30s. The music and choreography is just outrageously good. Tom Tykwer (Run, Lola, Run! etc.) is one of the writer/directors. He has musical as well as cinematic chops so I'm guessing had something to do with the fact that it runs about five minutes. Though not integral to the plot, it captures the spirit and ambience of time and place so well it made me want to stand up in my living room and applaud.

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            Is it subtitled or dubbed?

            Do Netflix have a decent number of non-Anglo series?

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              Loads, these days, and more all the time. It's a big part of their growth strategy (and looks set to become a legal requirement in Europe). In the last couple of months I've watched a German series, a Brazilian series and two Japanese shows. These are generally co-productions, mind. They don't generally have the likes of Heimat, though they do have more contemporary stuff like The Returned
              Last edited by Ginger Yellow; 01-02-2018, 12:32.

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                Watched the whole of Britannia - HP above summed it up pretty well. For some reason, it reminded me in a tangent way of "The Wicker Man"...good fun, instantly forgotten mind.

                I will now deffo watch Babylon Berlin after reading Amor paean to it, I downloaded the first two episodes ages ago.

                Otherwise, first episode of Gomorra and it's straight at the deep end....got whole boxset available, might have a busy saturday, with the gf out and the weather not conducive to outdoors activities!

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                  Hmmmm

                  This may cause me to revisit Netflix

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                    Re foreign series....If they have '1992' and '1993' on Netflix, catch them, in particular if you are interested in the pre-Berlusconi years, Mani Pulite, HIV infected blood scandal, Italian politics etc, etc, etc...

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                      Originally posted by ursus arctos View Post
                      Is it subtitled or dubbed?

                      Do Netflix have a decent number of non-Anglo series?
                      Yes. Essentially they're why we subscribe. Especially as their rates here in Canada are ascending rather rapidly. And they're all subtitled.

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                        Originally posted by Ginger Yellow View Post
                        I started on American Vandal this weekend. It's basically a pisstake of Serial and other true crime shows, but all done deadpan. The joke holds up pretty well over multiple episodes (they even do the Serial thing of having the success of the show feed into the show itself), but I'm not sure it merits full season length.
                        I started on this yesterday. It's surprisingly good. Utterly daft in places, but has held up well over three episodes. It helps that it's set in Oceanside, so they keep showing footage of places I'm pretty familiar with.

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                          This is old news but I've just been reminded of it. Wong Kar-Wai is filming a TV series for Amazon set in 19th Cent. San Fransisco called Tong Wars. I am far too excited by the idea of this.

                          I've not signed up to a streaming service but am getting more and more tempted. Is Amazon or Netflix better in the UK?

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                            Depends what you're interested in. I think I discussed the subject not long ago in this thread, unless there's another streaming thread.

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                              I'll have a search. Thank you.

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                                Originally posted by Levin View Post
                                I've not signed up to a streaming service but am getting more and more tempted. Is Amazon or Netflix better in the UK?
                                Both do a free one month trial so you can check them out yourself. FWIW we've had Amazon for over a year and have just started paying for Netflix after the free month.

                                Edit :

                                We watched the latest Silent Witness two parter yesterday, still enjoying it after all the many seasons.

                                Today we have started Vikings season five part one on Amazon.
                                Last edited by wiblflibl; 01-02-2018, 19:55.

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                                  As much as I like Netflix, I'm starting to wonder if they've just given up on movies, in order to concentrate on series. The current collection is looking very threadbare.
                                  Last edited by Stumpy Pepys; 02-02-2018, 10:29.

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                                    Anyone been watching Derry Girls? It's a grower, and full of good little gags and observations, even if the foppish English kid is played a bit too obviously for caricatured laughs

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                                      As much as I like Netflix, I'm starting to wonder if they've just given up on movies, in order to concentrate on series.
                                      Yes, they have. Or at least, they've decided its more cost efficient in the long run to spend money on original content that to compete for the first window releases or the things like Disney/Marvel movies that the owners would rather keep locked up on their own platforms. They see the initial cost of the original/co-production as amortising over 10-20 years, whereas the movie deals keep getting more expensive and only last five years or so. If you look at their financial releases, they almost never talk about new movie third party deals any more, and they're devoting ever larger shares of their cash burn to self-produced content.
                                      Last edited by Ginger Yellow; 02-02-2018, 11:01.

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                                        I’m agreeing with MS on “1992” and with E10 on “Derry Girls”

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                                          We are still watching Knightfall. So bad it's good. It bothers me though that they found such woeful actresses for the Queen and her daughter and some very dodgy ones among the knights, whereas they recruited some good quality for the male lead, the Pope and (arguably) the King, who at least knows not to overact.

                                          The Flashing Blade might have had more convincing French characters. It's like a Disney version of medieval France with occasional sex and violence.
                                          Last edited by Satchmo Distel; 03-02-2018, 19:22.

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                                            Watched the first few eps of Altered Carbon, Netflix's new cyberpunk adaptation. Not really convinced by it as a drama, but holy crap it's an amazing advert for 4K HDR TVs.

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                                              Happy! finished on Wednesday, but they announced that there would be a season two 'coming soon'. Hot Pepsi, you should go back and finish watching it. The end was good.

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                                                Originally posted by Stumpy Pepys View Post
                                                As much as I like Netflix, I'm starting to wonder if they've just given up on movies, in order to concentrate on series. The current collection is looking very threadbare.
                                                Yes, can't say I'm overly impressed with Netflix. It's good, but it has the same strengths and failures as Amazon and Now TV, from what I've seen so far.

                                                Spent yesterday at home on the sofa with a poorly sra. stev9e. We watched the first episode of The Amazing Mrs Maisel, which was as good as everyone has said it would be. We then watched Jules and Jim, which was f*cking superb. I've said it before, but Amazon Prime really has some great films hidden away in its depths. I think we're going to watch Delicatessen today.

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                                                  It's good, but it has the same strengths and failures as Amazon and Now TV,
                                                  No, that's definitely not true. For the Amazon comparison, Netflix's stable of originals is vastly more extensive and generally better. It also, at least in the UK, is much more aggressive in getting new run US TV either contemporary with the US airing or very soon after the season ends. Amazon is starting to catch up, but it's not there yet, and it doesn't seem to do the international distribution thing anything like as much. For NowTV, Netflix is just massively superior as a service (and cheaper if you're getting both movies and TV). NowTV tops out at 720p. It doesn't have HDR. It doesn't have 5.1 audio. It inserts stupid NowTV bumpers into shows. You have to authorise each device you use it on. It's still worth considering just as a relatively cheap way to get HBO shows, but it's the worst of all the paid streaming services, as a streaming service.

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                                                    I just subscribe to Now TV entertainment, don't do movies. I don't have a HDR TV or any special audio boxes, so all that tech stuff doesn't bother me. I definitely don't get Now TV messages coming up in the middle of a show.

                                                    But my take on what's available in each service:

                                                    Films - Amazon is the best by a long distance. Has good selection of new, old and foreign films.
                                                    Original drama - Netflix is best but not by a massive margin.
                                                    Non-original drama - Now TV has the stuff I want to watch by some distance.

                                                    Biggest criticism of Now TV is the lack of subtitles, that's really frustrating. Netflix is excellent in that respect. But overall, none of the 3 are good enough to be a single solution, but they've all got enough on them at a reasonable enough price to subscribe.

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