TV Series or Show You're Watching

[Randy M.]

Finally catching up to last year's season of HBO's Perry Mason. It's so well-scripted, acted and produced that it boggles my mind that it's been cancelled after two seasons. Anyway, I have one more episode left.

 

[blailock]

Finally catching up to last year's season of HBO's Perry Mason. It's so well-scripted, acted and produced that it boggles my mind that it's been cancelled after two seasons. Anyway, I have one more episode left.

I really liked it, too. I was shocked when it was cancelled so soon.

 

[Ubergeek]

Started Stargate SG 1 . Hopefully complete the full seasons by this summer when the S.O. intends to end the subscription . No pressure !

Saw the first 3 seasons when originally broadcast on UK Channel 4 .
But had to live up to my name and watch from the start

 

[AtramentousFlux]

For this evening:

Masters of the Air episode 1.

 

[Prairie_Dog]

Just finished Season 4 of For All Mankind and what a conclusion that was! It will be interesting to see where they go next, now that they have been to Mars. Regardless, this series is amazing. I can’t believe they are doing all the things they are with this alternative history. Clearly, it’s a better timeline…

 

[AtramentousFlux]

Constellation (2024) Episode 1 - intriguing pilot episode.

 

[Westy]

Constellation (2024) Episode 1 - intriguing pilot episode.

Same.

 

[AtramentousFlux]

For this evening:

Shogun (2024) . Episode 1.

 

[Westy]

For this evening:

Shogun (2024) . Episode 1.

Also same!

 

[suciul]

Also same!

watched episodes 1-2 of Shogun and for once all the hype is deserved - extraordinary performances and visuals that made me forget Richard Chamberlain, Toshiro Mifune, (and the boisterous J. Rhys-Davies as Rodrigues too) from the original - while a fairly faithful book adaptation, it is far more Japanese oriented from the beginning (as the book gets to be later of course) and really looking for the next episode Tuesday

 

[Hobbit]

Waiting for a few episodes to build up before I start watching, but pleased that it sounds like Shogun is as good (so far) as I hoped it would be.

Currently catching up with Season 4 of For All Mankind. 3 episodes in and all good so far.

 

[AtramentousFlux]

Very silly, but fun.

 

[blailock]

I watched True Detective: Night Country. I thought this started pretty well, but I didn't like the last several episodes. It just wasn't my thing.

 

[Raule]

My husband and I started watching season 1 of Bosch on Amazon Prime. Our routine is choosing a show to watch on the weekend and watching 2 or 3 eps.

Prior to that we watched season 1 of Totems, which is a cold war thriller set primarily in Europe and Russia in the 1960s. Main characters are French and Russian. We enjoyed it.

I also watched the first episode of the new Shogun series last night. I read it was on FX and Hulu. I don’t have Hulu (nor do I want it) but FX is included with my cable. It took me a while to figure out how to find it on demand. Search was taking me to the program and telling me no eps available. Finally figured out I had to search by network to find it. Oddly, two choices come up: one for Hulu and one for FX. The one labelled FX on the image did not work. The one labeled Hulu did. Go figure. It also airs Tuesday nights at 10 pm Eastern Time, which is past my bedtime, hence the desire for On Demand.

 

[Randy M.]

I watched True Detective: Night Country. I thought this started pretty well, but I didn't like the last several episodes. It just wasn't my thing.

My wife and I watched this. She wasn't crazy about it, but I enjoyed it. Foster and Kali Reis were very good together, with a generally solid supporting cast. For me, it had X-Files vibes and harked back to The Thing in interesting ways. Definitely noir, though. If you don't like downbeat, this isn't for you.


Also finished Monsieur Spade with Clive Owen as an older Sam Spade, circa 1963.

This turned out to be very good. Well produced, scripted, directed and acted. And the dialog is great, Owen handling wiseguy with ease, and with actors who can dish it back.

Since Spade appears to be in his 50s, the show springs off the 1941 movie (Bogie was 40, but the character could have been 35 or so). Still, mention of the Flitcraft parable means some attention was paid to source material. Spade had a job delivering Brigid O'Shaughnessy's daughter to her father in France after WWII, but her father is a sh -- er -- not nice guy and doesn't take charge. A chance meeting and Spade stays, even marries. But France's post-war world has it's political turmoil, some of which visits the tiny village where Spade lives and threatens the life of the girl, of whom he has become unofficial protector.

Well worth your time if you have access, with a really fun short appearance by Alfre Woodard near the end of the series.

 

[Raf]

They've tried to make new versions of True Detective, but I've never seen one with the same gut punch and true creepiness of the original with Woody Harrelson and Matt McConaughey.

We've tried all of them, but never finished any of them but the original.

 

[Westy]

We've tried all of them, but never finished any of them but the original.

For me the original and latest are easily the best, in different ways.

 

[Trollheart]

I enjoyed all three series of True Detective, even the one with Conor Farrell, which I had expected to hate. I thought Night Country began very slowly but ended the first episode with the gut punch you need to keep watching, and I'm halfway through it now. I suppose given that most of it takes place in darkness does make it hard to watch, but I like how Jodie Foster is now the hardened, grizzled old cop, so different from the bright-eyed young Clarice.

Watched The Jury: Murder Trial on Channel 4. Interesting idea: they take a real trial, give a jury of ordinary people all the testimony, acting it out, and see what verdict they come to. Actually, they give it to two juries, but neither knows the other is there till the end. Pretty scary how cliques form and peer pressure basically forces people to change their minds. I always thought the jury system was fundamentally flawed, and now I know I was right.

 

[Hobbit]

Just finished Episode 10 of Season 4 of For All Mankind - wow, what a nailbiting ending! I wasn't convinced by the defection of Margo at the end of Season Three, but this improved matters. Looking forward to Season Five.

 

[Prairie_Dog]

I’ll call this a TV show, since it was a three-part BBC mini-series. It was of course War of the Worlds! This version was period sci-fi because this The War of the Worlds is set in Edwardian England. That’s actually only 10 years after the 1898 novel written by H. G. Wells. This is one of the better things about the production, because the BBC absolutely can do great period pieces!

The story revolves around Amy, a character played by Eleanor Tomlinson who wishes to be a researcher, and her boyfriend George (Rafe Spall), who are living in sin! It seems George is still married to his cousin with whom he had a very unhappy relationship. He and Amy however are deliriously happy, and she’s expecting his child. This is obviously not going over well with George’s family! Meanwhile, the Martians are coming, and what is thought to be a meteor lands nearby, chaos ensues…

We all know this story by now, and what stands out for me are the tripods. These are freaking huge! They seem like Godzilla and Kong in the new movies, too big to be believable. They look cool though! The Martians themselves are interesting as they too are depicted as tripods. They are shown with a leathery ”V” shaped beak like the books describes. However, they are not shown as having any hands, tentacles, or other manipulative appendages. How do they develop a technological civilization and war machines without these? They are also here to feed, which they have to get out of their giant tripods to do, very disturbing.

We all know how this turns out, but this version goes on with a form of environmental collapse caused partly by the Martian flora that comes along with them. Only when it is discovered that this flora has to be treated with Earth pathogens that the ecology can be saved and food grown again. This whole grim story line that occurs after the war itself I found too gritty and depressing for my tastes.

So, is this version good? Well it has its good parts, it’s a lavish production for sure. There’s a lot of modern sensibilities injected into a historical narrative. However, the original work had a lot to say about colonialism itself, so maybe the story having moralistic subplots isn’t out of character at all. The special effects are fair, expect high end Doctor Who and all will be well. One can stream this free on the Tubi app.