The TV Thread

TimmyO

RobDavies said:

Just started Succession on Sky Atlantic. 

It’s good, but everyone in it is a complete **** and there don’t seem to be any characters that I can warm to.  Even Tony Soprano had redeeming qualities. 

Stick with it - you're meant to find them all awful - it just builds and builds - such a great show. 

Offset

Philly_Q said:

I've been watching Alice in Borderland on Netflix but finding it quite dull.  Still, only three (and a half) episodes to go so I'll persevere.

We watched the first two episodes last night.  Really enjoyed it and I've formed a few theories as to the premise based on a few clues thrown in early on.  Looking forward to seeing if they hold up.  Obvious parallels with Squid Game.

Dontgiveupyourdayjob

ArchtopDave said:

BluesLover said:

Paris Police 1900 on bbc iPlayer. A french crime drama. I've been missing something like this since Spiral ended, so can recommend it.

I've started watching this series, partly so I can assess how my rather rusty knowledge of French is holding up ... not doing bad, as I'm finding I can follow quite a lot of the dialogue without referring to the subtitles.

I've been learning Italian for the last couple of years, as, up and until Covid struck, I'd been to Italy several times and felt very embarrassed at my lack of even the most basic knowledge of Italian. I like the detective series "Inspector Montalbano" (on BBC iPlayer) which is set in Sicily. Currently, I'm going through it a second time to see how much more of the language I can now understand.

Yes I've been watching Paris Police too, very good so far. I'm also doing it partly to improve my French, as I started learning in the first lockdown. Doing quite well with this drama, though picked up  a lot more French anti-Semitic slurs than I ever imagined I would need! 

The French stuff on iPlayer is definitely quite good for language skills, but Netflix is better in that you can turn the subtitles to French as well, so makes it more challenging. I've watched all sorts of weird and wonderful French/Belgian series and films on Netflix over the last 18 months. It's definitely helped my French massively.

 @ennspek I can give a big thumbs up for Duolingo. If you can put up with the adverts it's totally free to use, and makes it fun. Certain languages like French and Spanish even have their own podcast series on Spotify, which are really high quality learning tools. 

munckee

We just watched click bait. It was pretty good with some cheesy acting in places I liked how the story panned out. 

I started watching irregulars on Netflix. It’s like dramama form my youth but with swearing and special effects. Can’t see myself finishing the series. 

Based on someone’s recommendation on here have just started watching Rick and morty. What a great series. The episode where they bury themselves is demented genius. 

Moominpapa

"A House in Bayswater"  1960, on BBC iPlayer. (https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p00rzvq2/a-house-in-bayswater ) 

Another in the (excellent) London-focused collection curated by Simon Jenkins. This is a gem: one of Ken Russell's early tv pieces. The basic theme is the continued survival (at least at that time) of a cosmopolitan inner-city life and the advancing threat of homogenization with urban renewal and the destruction of old buildings. It is centred on a large old Victorian house in Bayswater, its colourful landlady Mrs Collings, and the odd assortment of tenants who live there. Very hard to categorize: it's sort of a documentary, but also sort of an art-house film, where Russell gets the tenants to be actors in highly stylized sequences about their lives and professions. 

It's really amazing television for its time, and fascinating to watch today. 

Mattharrier

Started The Good Place again - I've seen it before but the wife hasn't. It's a brilliant series, and although she's not entirely captivated by it, we'll persevere. The first few episodes set everything up, and once it really kicks into gear, it's fabulous.

It's funny, charming, clever and at times it gets surprisingly heartfelt. Highly recommended.

ennspek

The Tower. Distinctly average, didn't really make a huge amount of sense and not particularly believable.

Manhunt - Britbox. Old now but I hadn't seen it. Martin Clines stars as a copper heading up a hunt for a serial killer. Really enjoyed it, great understated performance.

Startup - Netflix - Season 3. Still completely bullshit mental, still good fun.

LastMantra

Just finished watching "Dave" (the series, not the channel). 
I thought it was quite good, but, like lots of programmes these days, the characters, IMO, were a really unlikeable bunch. I just couldn't sympathise with any of them, possibly a little for "gater(sp)". I just think these people are as bad as the yuppies from the 80's. So full of themselves. I suppose that was probably the point.
Some decent music though.

boogieman

ennspek said:

The Tower. Distinctly average, didn't really make a huge amount of sense and not particularly believable.

Manhunt - Britbox. Old now but I hadn't seen it. Martin Clines stars as a copper heading up a hunt for a serial killer. Really enjoyed it, great understated performance.

Startup - Netflix - Season 3. Still completely bullshit mental, still good fun.

Which one, the Levi Belfield series? There’s a follow up that’s not long been on, The Night Stalker. Martin Clunes as the same character. T’is good. 

Haych

We've started watching Designated Survivor on Netflix.  It's a political drama/thriller series and it's actually a lot better than I thought it would be.

It also gives a bit of insight into how the US political system works, or doesn't work.  

It's completely over-the-top BS but I'm enjoying it, didn't think I'd be this hooked, but I am.

Philly_Q

I'm watching Daredevil season 3.  Then just Jessica Jones season 3 to go, and I've watched all the Netflix Marvel series.

Might catch up on the new series of Into The Night and Locke & Key soon.

goldtop

In news that will surprise precisely no-one ... there WILL be a second season of Squid Game. Creator claims he has 'no choice' about it.

I'm conflicted. It was over-rated and became predictable, but I somehow liked it enough to want to watch more.

boogieman

At least they will have to think outside the box for the second series, they can’t just do a rerun of Running Man again. 

Moominpapa

"Francis Bacon: Fragments of a Portrait" (1966) On BBC iPlayer

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p02t7ck5/francis-bacon-fragments-of-a-portrait

Another killer piece from the BBC vaults. This programme from the mid-60s is fascinating for two reasons.

First is that Bacon comes across as unpretentious, articulate and thoughtful about his work. It helps that he's being interviewed by art critic David Sylvester who knows what he is talking about. Ifd you are interested in modern art, this is a must-see.

The second thing that makes this so interesting - and it has been the same with all these old programmes I've been watching on iPlayer - is the affect of watching at nearly sixty years' distance. The interest in this particular case is how the programme doesn't-treat-but-sort-of-does Bacon's homosexuality. Crucial to remember that although it was 9 years since the Wolfenden Report, homosexuality was not de-criminalized until the following year with the Sexual Offences Act 1967. So how do you make a programme about an artist who paints so many male nudes (and whose sexuality was surely an open secret in the London art world and Soho scene)? The programme script doesn't broach it at all - Sylvester asks his questions as if it were just an item of art historical interest that Bacon paints lots of nude male portraits. But the director cuts in some shots of men walking together that make the point - subtly but unmistakeably if you know what is being skirted around. I was seven when the programme  came out. If I'd been watching it then (or if I had been a naive adult) I would not have picked up on what was going on at all, but looking at it now it is very obvious.

One other thing of note. Bacon's studio in the show is simply the most messy and cluttered workspace I have ever seen in my life. If you recreated it for a film, people would complain that the set design was ridiculously over the top, and that wass preposterous to think that a famous artist would live in such a chaotic squalor of dirty brushes, canvases, paint tubes, jam jars, etc. etc. You have to see it to believe it.

Nitefly

@Moominpapa I am not at all "arty" but I must say that was a really well-written and articulate review.  Thank you.

hollywoodrox

Last couple of weeks I treated myself to watching “snowfall” season 4  excellent 

hollywoodrox

Haych said:

We've started watching Designated Survivor on Netflix.  It's a political drama/thriller series and it's actually a lot better than I thought it would be.

It also gives a bit of insight into how the US political system works, or doesn't work.  

It's completely over-the-top BS but I'm enjoying it, didn't think I'd be this hooked, but I am.

That’s great I was watching it a few years ago ,it’s really really good 

hollywoodrox

I used to watch that I don’t know where I got up to though ,same with arrow 
  Daredevil was ace though , I could actually watch it again as I’ve forgotten a lot .
  Same with the blacklist ,Hawaii five o etc  and the flash .

I really enjoyed   The punisher series . I’m getting a bit fed up with marvel they just totally saturated the telly ,iron fist was good 

menamestom

Ted Lasso on Apple TV.

An English Premier League football team appoint an American manager who doesn’t have a clue about soccer.  The team owner hires him to sabotage the clubs chances to spite her ex husband and previous owner of the club.

But Lasso, even though he doesn’t know anything about the game has a certain way of bringing the best out of people and begins to have a positive effect on the team, the press and everyone around him.

Excellent so far, original, funny and uplifting..

Philly_Q

Into The Night series 2 on Netflix.  I struggled slightly in the first episode because I couldn't quite remember who everyone was, but soon got into it. 

At times I was thinking "could they not get through a single day where not everything turns out disastrously?", but it's gripping stuff.  I watched the whole series in one go.  Now I have to find something else!