TV Series or Show You're Watching

Hobbit said:
we'll look to your well-reasoned comments
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Well, I thought that the pilot episode was OK. I imagine it's difficult to do 'everybody else is dead' in any particularly original way, so we've seen this before. I'll be up for the 2nd episode, at least.

Edit: DNF half way through episode 2. It's not that it's badly made so much, just that The Walking Dead without the walkers is not really very interesting.
 
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"Lost Hearts" (1973) dir. Lawrence Gordon Clark; starring Simon Gipps-Kent, Joseph O'Connor, Susan Richards

Part of "A Ghost Story for Christmas" anthology. A well-done adaptation of one of M. R. James' darker stories, of the same title. A show like this lives or dies on the child's acting, and Gipps-Kent was quite good as the orphaned boy sent to live with his cousin. Likewise, O'Connor, playing the much older cousin, handles his part well.


"Whistle and I'll Come to You" (1968) dir. Jonathan Miller; starring Michael Hordern

An episode of "Omnibus" based on M. R. James' "Oh, Whistle, and I'll Come to You, My Lad." I'm ambivalent about this one. What it does well, it does very well: The first intrusion of ... something ... on the beach, the final scenes (someone noted the illustration that went with, I presume, the story's initial publication) and Hordern's acting as Prof. Parkins. A good deal of the episode's effectiveness rests on Hodern's ability to shift from preoccupied to concerned to fearful. What this adaptation doesn't capture is the story's early light-heartedness as James skewers the main character's pompousness and pretensions. There's a stab at it, but I didn't find it effective.
 
Randy M. said:
"Lost Hearts" (1973)

"Whistle and I'll Come to You" (1968)
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Thanks. Both are available on YouTube and come up as frequent searches, so presumably are well known. Fetching now.

Here, I watched the pilot episode of

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Goliath (2016) , which I somehow missed back in the day. Very impressed so far.
 
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Watched the first season of, "The Rig". Sort of an anti-big oil / energy protest series where the crew of a offshore production platform battle a globe spanning bacterial intelligence bent on human destruction. Complete with evil oil company corporate goon trying to cover up it's attempt to kill the creature. I'm not familiar with any of the actors. My wife likes it better than I do.

Actually the first season was okay, I guess. The 2nd season is some of the same characters except they are now stationed on some sort of traveling semi submersible drilling rig on the arctic ice. Ostensibly to hunt / drill for hydrates but really still hunting bacterio-creature. Not a fan, but we are still watching it, lol
 
Finished the first season of, "The Originals". 1000 year old Vampires battle Werewolves & Witches for control of New Orleans. Talk about dysfunctional families. Only a 1000 years of it. Rather like a gory soap opera. It's an okay series though. Each season is 20-24 episodes. And there is 5 yrs worth. Ought to keep us busy for awhile. :)
 
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During the big sales at the end of last year, an annual subscription to the Peacock Steaming Service was offered for about $20. I figured what the heck, I’ll see if there’s anything worthwhile on it. Unless one is a fan of old NBC shows, there isn’t a lot. However, I did find one series from my childhood that has been proved to be worth the rewatch. This is Kolchack the Night Stalker. This series follows a Chicago reporter, Carl Kolchack, who becomes involved in investigating odd deaths and happenings. These end up having supernatural causes!

The series originally aired in 1974-1975 and there is only one season, but it has 20 episodes. It clearly was inspirational for later television series, like the early X-Files. It was unabashedly a monster of the week show, and covers many types of mythical creatures. It is a product of its time, so depictions of women are not everything we would expect today. There are also a couple of less than complementary episodes on Native American culture. Other than these, it’s not too cringeworthy. It’s great to see all the classic cars and locations in 1970s Chicago.
 
Prairie_Dog said:
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During the big sales at the end of last year, an annual subscription to the Peacock Steaming Service was offered for about $20. I figured what the heck, I’ll see if there’s anything worthwhile on it. Unless one is a fan of old NBC shows, there isn’t a lot. However, I did find one series from my childhood that has been proved to be worth the rewatch. This is Kolchack the Night Stalker. This series follows a Chicago reporter, Carl Kolchack, who becomes involved in investigating odd deaths and happenings. These end up having supernatural causes!

The series originally aired in 1974-1975 and there is only one season, but it has 20 episodes. It clearly was inspirational for later television series, like the early X-Files. It was unabashedly a monster of the week show, and covers many types of mythical creatures. It is a product of its time, so depictions of women are not everything we would expect today. There are also a couple of less than complementary episodes on Native American culture. Other than these, it’s not too cringeworthy. It’s great to see all the classic cars and locations in 1970s Chicago.
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I loved Kolchak as a kid. I should go back and watch it again some day.
 
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Watched the first season of The Agency - based on the excellent French spy series The Bureau. Normally I'd expect an American remake of an acclaimed European show to be inferior, but The Agency holds up pretty well, anchored by an excellent Michael Fassbender as the lead character. Not quite as good as the original (so far), but pretty close.
 
blailock said:
loved Kolchak as a kid. I should go back and watch it again some day.
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I found it by accident on the UK's ITV channels late one night in the 90's. It was something to fill up the space late at night before the stations closed for the night. I loved it, although it was definitely something from the 1970's.
And then of course came The X Files, which owed a lot to good 'ol Kolchak. Even Darren MacGavin (Kolchak) appeared in an episode. There was an attempt at a revival after the success of the X Files, but it did badly.
 
I decided to try Netflix for a month seeing as I am in a lot at the moment. Already seen some pretty good films but wanted to ask (too lazy to search, sorry!) if anyone here has seen The Three Body Problem and if it stands up to scrutiny next to the novel?
 
Horror's Greatest, a documentary series on Shudder. Lately I seem more disposed to listen to commentary about horror movies than watch actual horror movies.

Anyway, this is the second season. The first season consisted of 5 episodes covering "Tropes & Cliches," "Giant Monsters," "Japanese Horror," "Horror Comedies," and "Stephen King Adaptations." This season so far has 4 episodes covering "Animal Attacks," "Killer Dates," "Hidden Gems," and, the next one I'll watch is, "Film Scores." Each episode has clips from various movies and commentary from various interested parties, including actors (David Dastmalchian; Kate Siegel), directors (Alex Winter; Brea Grant), and writers (Tananarive Due; Joe Hill), among others. On the whole, fun viewing and a decent way of compiling a list of the ones I'd like to see, as well as those I would, under no circumstances, want to see.

Postscript: There is a 5th entry in the second season, "Space Horror".
 
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Ropie said:
I decided to try Netflix for a month seeing as I am in a lot at the moment. Already seen some pretty good films but wanted to ask (too lazy to search, sorry!) if anyone here has seen The Three Body Problem and if it stands up to scrutiny next to the novel?
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Ropie, I really liked it, but I haven't read the novel yet.
 
I am a huge Anderson fan, but even I thought that this one was odd! Stanley Unwin's gabble is a bit of a Marmite thing; I guess at the time it was mildly amusing, but now, over 55 years on, I wonder what new watchers make of it.
 
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