The TV Thread

Dontgiveupyourdayjob

goldtop said:

Finished watching Succession (Sky/Now) last night. Great series with an inevitably annoying ending. To be honest, though, the double-helicopter crash I was hoping for would have been a cop-out. 

We've got Sky's Chernobyl series lined up next - any good?

Terrific, yet also completely terrifying. I'm actually quite envious; I've seen both Succession and Chernobyl twice, they're that good. Wish I was lucky enough to be in the position of watching them both for the first time again!

I was all set to start 3 Body Problem tonight, but now I've seen the reviews out for Ripley I'm torn. Both look fantastic, and I'm a huge fan of first two 3BP books, and I've always loved Patricia Highsmith's novels. Decisions, decisions....

Philly_Q

Dontgiveupyourdayjob said:

I was all set to start 3 Body Problem tonight, but now I've seen the reviews out for Ripley I'm torn. Both look fantastic, and I'm a huge fan of first two 3BP books, and I've always loved Patricia Highsmith's novels. Decisions, decisions....

Which has fewer episodes?  I'm considering both, but I hate watching anything which is going to take weeks, I'm always glad to see the words "limited series".

Dontgiveupyourdayjob

Philly_Q said:

Dontgiveupyourdayjob said:

I was all set to start 3 Body Problem tonight, but now I've seen the reviews out for Ripley I'm torn. Both look fantastic, and I'm a huge fan of first two 3BP books, and I've always loved Patricia Highsmith's novels. Decisions, decisions....

Which has fewer episodes?  I'm considering both, but I hate watching anything which is going to take weeks, I'm always glad to see the words "limited series".

Both have 8 episodes, so that doesn't help making a decision!

Philly_Q

Dontgiveupyourdayjob said:

Philly_Q said:

Dontgiveupyourdayjob said:

I was all set to start 3 Body Problem tonight, but now I've seen the reviews out for Ripley I'm torn. Both look fantastic, and I'm a huge fan of first two 3BP books, and I've always loved Patricia Highsmith's novels. Decisions, decisions....

Which has fewer episodes?  I'm considering both, but I hate watching anything which is going to take weeks, I'm always glad to see the words "limited series".

Both have 8 episodes, so that doesn't help making a decision!

boogieman

goldtop said:

We've got Sky's Chernobyl series lined up next - any good?

Yes it’s excellent, although it’s not 100% factual.

goldtop

^ Thanks. We've got Veep in the watchlist, too, but want to steer clear of political American drama for a while.

fretmeister

boogieman said:

goldtop said:

We've got Sky's Chernobyl series lined up next - any good?

Yes it’s excellent, although it’s not 100% factual.

Although the inquiry bit when he's using red and blue bits of wood to explain how a nuke power station works is fantastic to the point I know 2 physics teachers who have pinched it for class. Such a wonderfully simple explanation!

Even with a few liberties taken, it's a brilliant series.

The liberties aren't that bad. I think the main one is that they amalgamated several real life scientists into 1 character to make it easier to follow. That was very sensible really.

Timcito

Speaking of Vikings, there was a rather odd scene in season 2 last night. It depicted an extreme punishment called the 'blood eagle.'

Ragnar, the earl who performs this ritualized ordeal on ab enemy, explains the process to his son beforehand: it involves cutting open the victim's back, breaking the ribs off the spine with an axe, and then pulling the lungs out and depositing them on the opened ribcage. Yikes!

I googled this punishment, and apparently there are no records of it ever actually taking place, so some historians have concluded that it may well have been nothing more than a myth. 

According to legend, if the victim can endure all of this without screaming, they can enter Valhalla (the Viking afterlife equivalent of Club Med). And that's what our victim does. We see him from the front while all these barbarities are being visited upon his person, and he doesn't make a sound! Like, really?! He also stays fully conscious even when his lungs are laid out on his ribs. A few moments after that, he expires, and that's that.

I'm usually very squeamish about screen violence and typically have to squeal to my wife, "Is it over yet?!" if something gruesome is going on. There were parts at the end of Ken Russell's The Devils, for example, that I really couldn't watch. Oddly enough, though, this execution, together with the victim's astonishingly stoical response, seemed preposterous to the point where I felt very little. The man wasn't even strapped down! Not very believable, if you ask me. 

swiller

Amy winehouse night on BBC4 right now is superb.

Hurling_Fruitmig

goldtop said:

^ Thanks. We've got Veep in the watchlist, too, but want to steer clear of political American drama for a while.

We enjoyed it a lot, but we did watch it as as a comic counterpoint to Madam Secretary.

AlbertC

Watched the first two episodes of Ripley tonight on Netflix.
Very classy production. It looks absolutely fantastic - almost every scene is a work of art.
I've seen the film before but so far this is far better. Good acting, excellent script and there's just a terrific sense of tension present all the time. 
Just hope it keeps up like this for the rest of the episodes.

AlbertC

Dontgiveupyourdayjob said:

I was all set to start 3 Body Problem tonight, but now I've seen the reviews out for Ripley I'm torn. Both look fantastic, and I'm a huge fan of first two 3BP books, and I've always loved Patricia Highsmith's novels. Decisions, decisions....

So far Ripley seems far better - 3 Body Problem started out kind of okay but the plot is full of holes and ludicrous scenarios 

boogieman

Timcito said:

Speaking of Vikings, there was a rather odd scene in season 2 last night. It depicted an extreme punishment called the 'blood eagle.'

Ragnar, the earl who performs this ritualized ordeal on ab enemy, explains the process to his son beforehand: it involves cutting open the victim's back, breaking the ribs off the spine with an axe, and then pulling the lungs out and depositing them on the opened ribcage. Yikes!

I googled this punishment, and apparently there are no records of it ever actually taking place, so some historians have concluded that it may well have been nothing more than a myth. 

According to legend, if the victim can endure all of this without screaming, they can enter Valhalla (the Viking afterlife equivalent of Club Med). And that's what our victim does. We see him from the front while all these barbarities are being visited upon his person, and he doesn't make a sound! Like, really?! He also stays fully conscious even when his lungs are laid out on his ribs. A few moments after that, he expires, and that's that.

I'm usually very squeamish about screen violence and typically have to squeal to my wife, "Is it over yet?!" if something gruesome is going on. There were parts at the end of Ken Russell's The Devils, for example, that I really couldn't watch. Oddly enough, though, this execution, together with the victim's astonishingly stoical response, seemed preposterous to the point where I felt very little. The man wasn't even strapped down! Not very believable, if you ask me. 

I just thought it was a really grim scene, I didn’t really think about all the technicalities, although it did seem a bit unlikely that he stayed conscious throughout. 

boogieman

fretmeister said:

boogieman said:

goldtop said:

We've got Sky's Chernobyl series lined up next - any good?

Yes it’s excellent, although it’s not 100% factual.

Although the inquiry bit when he's using red and blue bits of wood to explain how a nuke power station works is fantastic to the point I know 2 physics teachers who have pinched it for class. Such a wonderfully simple explanation!

Even with a few liberties taken, it's a brilliant series.

The liberties aren't that bad. I think the main one is that they amalgamated several real life scientists into 1 character to make it easier to follow. That was very sensible really.

I think I also read somewhere that the guys who were sent down to shut off the water valves under the reactor pond didn’t actually die in real life. (Or is it the other way round? Whatever, the tv version of events was changed). 

Agreed on the inquiry bit, brilliantly done and explained .  

goldtop

boogieman said:

fretmeister said:

boogieman said:

goldtop said:

We've got Sky's Chernobyl series lined up next - any good?

Yes it’s excellent, although it’s not 100% factual.

Although the inquiry bit when he's using red and blue bits of wood to explain how a nuke power station works is fantastic to the point I know 2 physics teachers who have pinched it for class. Such a wonderfully simple explanation!

Even with a few liberties taken, it's a brilliant series.

The liberties aren't that bad. I think the main one is that they amalgamated several real life scientists into 1 character to make it easier to follow. That was very sensible really.

I think I also read somewhere that the guys who were sent down to shut off the water valves under the reactor pond didn’t actually die in real life. (Or is it the other way round? Whatever, the tv version of events was changed). 

Agreed on the inquiry bit, brilliantly done and explained .  

We just finished it. IIRC the epilogue text that the director added right at the end said that two of the three lived for a surprisingly long time afterwards.

westford

We're halfway through The Dropout on iPlayer. Mr W works in the medical devices field, so he wanted to watch it for nerd reasons, but it's a really good, gripping drama. Amanda Seyfried and the whole supporting cast (including Stephen Fry who I've not seen acting in anything for ages) are great.

Timcito

boogieman said:

Timcito said:

Speaking of Vikings, there was a rather odd scene in season 2 last night. It depicted an extreme punishment called the 'blood eagle.'

Ragnar, the earl who performs this ritualized ordeal on ab enemy, explains the process to his son beforehand: it involves cutting open the victim's back, breaking the ribs off the spine with an axe, and then pulling the lungs out and depositing them on the opened ribcage. Yikes!

I googled this punishment, and apparently there are no records of it ever actually taking place, so some historians have concluded that it may well have been nothing more than a myth. 

According to legend, if the victim can endure all of this without screaming, they can enter Valhalla (the Viking afterlife equivalent of Club Med). And that's what our victim does. We see him from the front while all these barbarities are being visited upon his person, and he doesn't make a sound! Like, really?! He also stays fully conscious even when his lungs are laid out on his ribs. A few moments after that, he expires, and that's that.

I'm usually very squeamish about screen violence and typically have to squeal to my wife, "Is it over yet?!" if something gruesome is going on. There were parts at the end of Ken Russell's The Devils, for example, that I really couldn't watch. Oddly enough, though, this execution, together with the victim's astonishingly stoical response, seemed preposterous to the point where I felt very little. The man wasn't even strapped down! Not very believable, if you ask me. 

I just thought it was a really grim scene, I didn’t really think about all the technicalities, although it did seem a bit unlikely that he stayed conscious throughout. 

As I said, I'm usually pretty squeamish; in fact there was a scene just last night in season 3 where a young missionary hopes to show a group of 'pagan' Vikings the power of the Christian god by walking several paces holding a red-hot iron bar. He expects his god to protect him, but of course he ends up in appalling agony after the bar horribly burns his hands. It was hard to watch for me. However, that blood-eagle scene I had no problem with. What was happening to him seemed kinda preposterous, and his facial expressions and silence registered little more than mild discomfort.

It's a great series, though. Aside from the evocative settings, exciting story, and strong characters, It posits an enduring theme in human endeavour: what happens when a person ahead of his or her time attempts to realize their vision among people whose mindsets are stuck in traditional beliefs and ways of reacting. Ragnar can see the benefits of tolerance and cooperation for both Vikings and Christians through tolerance, but the rigid and destructive habits of those around him serve as a relentless obstacle to his vision. 

markj

AlbertC said:

Watched the first two episodes of Ripley tonight on Netflix.
Very classy production. It looks absolutely fantastic - almost every scene is a work of art.
I've seen the film before but so far this is far better. Good acting, excellent script and there's just a terrific sense of tension present all the time. 
Just hope it keeps up like this for the rest of the episodes.

Yes wonderful from start to finish.

mikeyrob73

im rewatching Breaking Bad 

bloody brilliant , even the 3rd time around 

Dontgiveupyourdayjob

Two episodes in to Yellowjackets on Now TV. Anyone else watched it? 

Completely bonkers so far - kinda Lord of the Flies meets Mean Girls! Can't work out if it's bonkers in a good way or bonkers in a naff way - the jury's out for now!