The TV Thread

fretmeister

I'm currently going through Man Men.

I missed it on release. I'm really enjoying it - it tracks the events and attitudes of the day as it moves through time very well.
The casting is spot on. The social attitudes from season 1 are quite shocking these days but of course accurate for the time. It's great. The little things are done as well as the main points. The delivery of their first photocopier was spot on, about the size of a car, taking up most of an office.

I'm in season 6 at the moment so about 1.5 seasons left. 

I'm also watching the new series of Jack Ryan. 
It's almost back to the form of season 1 after S2 and 3 being a bit crap considering the source material.

Philly_Q

As usual I'm about ten years late, but I'm watching Banshee.

I wasn't too sure at first, there's lots of nudity and violence - so that's good - but I was finding the characters unlikeable and various subplots irritating.  But it seems to be rapidly gaining some layers of sublety and complexity, and I've been told the later seasons are better than the first.

usedtobe

Haych said:

So we've just finished watching Catastrophe on Netflix.

When we started I didn't realise that it's a couple of years old now, but it hasn't aged at all.

Four seasons so would make a good binge watching sesh.

In a nutshell, Sharon (played by Sharon Horgan) is a primary school teacher who meets an American businessman, Rob, at a bar in London on a night out (Rob is played by Rob Delaney) and they have a week long fling with lots of sex.

At the end of the week they go back to their respective lives and Rob clears off back to America.

Then he gets a phone call from Sharon to say that he's got her pregnant.  Rob flies back to London and meets with Sharon, they decide to get married and start a life together and the rest is just a story of them trying to make a life together.  Rob and Sharon have some very strange friends, too, to make things a bit more interesting.

It's brilliant.  It's funny, well written and the on screen chemistry between Horgan and Delaney makes it sad to think they're not an actual real life couple.

Highly recommended, if a bit sweary in places.

Watched Catastrophe ages ago - at least it feels like ages ago.. we loved it..
Recently watched Colin from accounts, which we really enjoyed, and Deadloch, which was really funny, but extremely sweary, which were fine with, but won’t suit everyone..

BluesLover

I agree Deadloch (Amazon prime) is funny and sweary. I needed subtitles on to understand some of it!
Recommended. Stick with it as it gets better as it progresses.
Just started season 2 of Star trek: strange new worlds on Paramount (via Amazon) and that's really good too.

Chalky

Philly_Q said:

As usual I'm about ten years late, but I'm watching Banshee.

I wasn't too sure at first, there's lots of nudity and violence - so that's good - but I was finding the characters unlikeable and various subplots irritating.  But it seems to be rapidly gaining some layers of sublety and complexity, and I've been told the later seasons are better than the first.

Very flawed at times (plot holes, how did that character get there, where is character X and how could they not be in this scene, character Y just happens to be an expert? Etc.) But truly brilliant at other times with some great characterizations.  Occasionally outrageous and you can see how Anthony Starr moved to his Homelander role in The Boys (more outrageous).  Will rewatch it in future.

Have you tried Justified with Timothy Olyphant?

Philly_Q

Chalky said:

Have you tried Justified with Timothy Olyphant?

I haven't, is it any good? 

I'm much more into films than series really - I don't like to commit to anything with dozens of episodes - but my brother's been telling me for years to watch Banshee.  And I am a fan of The Boys so the presence of Antony Starr is a selling point.

damodai

Really enjoying "Mayor of Kingstown" on paramount+.          

Dav275

Just watched the first episode of David Jason's Secret Service (Amazon Prime).  Interesting info about the origins/background of spying, with a touch of gentle humour from Jason. 

munckee

damodai said:

Really enjoying "Mayor of Kingstown" on paramount+.          

It’s on my list to watch but had never heard from anyone who’s seen it before. I like Jeremy Renner and it’s written by the guy who writes everything on Paramount, Yellowstone and its prequels and tulsa king among them. 

fretmeister

I finished Mad Men.

Loved it. 

I need something new now.

duotone

I just started The Bear: Season 2 on Disney+. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt14452776/

 I really enjoyed Season 1 & this is more of the same.  Really easy to watch 30-40 minute episodes in the evening about them opening up a new restaurant, with their target of achieving a Michelin star. Recommended!

EricTheWeary

fretmeister said:

I finished Mad Men.

Loved it. 

I need something new now.

Good Girls? 

Maybe not a natural follow on but more Christina Hendricks.

bobblehat

Haych said:

We've just watched FUBAR on Netflix, Arnie's latest thing.

It is completely ridiculous!

Arnie pretending to be much younger, and failing.  The amount of belief one has to suspend to just imagine the stunts, tech and plot are remotely feasible, and the stupid interpersonal relationship bollocks that we are meant to believe is happening in an elite CIA squad - give me a break.

But, I really enjoyed it.  Arnie still cannot act and that's worth watching just on its own.  Despite its ridiculousness it also quite funny and highly entertaining.  Unless Arnie dies in the meantime there is almost certainly going to be a season 2, and I can't wait.

Just watching this now. Yes the plot/concept is nonsense but it is very entertaining nonsense.I also like the fact that there's no annoying intro or recap to skip through at the start of each episode.  

RocknRollDave

Ms RocknRoll has been watching Wolf on the iplayer tonight.

Absolute drivel. Trying so hard to be edgy and clever, but so badly done.
It’s like a teenager has tried to rip off Killing Eve and set it in Wales.

Haych

On the topic of drivel, we have tried watching the TV series remake of True Lies on Disney. 

Utter garbage!  Badly written, badly acted and unconvincing characters, every single one of them!

And the stunts are laughably bad, just how slow they were filmed is painfully obvious because they still look slow. 

Please, don’t bother. I gave up after two episodes. 

EricTheWeary

RocknRollDave said:

Ms RocknRoll has been watching Wolf on the iplayer tonight.

Absolute drivel. Trying so hard to be edgy and clever, but so badly done.
It’s like a teenager has tried to rip off Killing Eve and set it in Wales.

I really enjoyed Hinterland, crime series set in Wales and starring a @RocknRollDave lookalike. Slightly gobsmacked that it was nearly ten years ago. Filmed in Welsh and in English and Welsh. 

Most of the way through The Last of Us on Sky/Now. Standard US post apocalypse stuff mostly but very well done standard US post apocalypse stuff. 

Just to give myself some gravitas: David Harewood on Blackface (BBC2/ iPlayer) well worth a watch. Some of it was obviously filmed toward the end of covid restrictions which makes it look a bit odd and it’s more specifically about minstrels rather than all blackface but really interesting and informative watch. 

guitartango

Anyone watching Wolf on BBC1? It's really weird in a good way

Philly_Q

guitartango said:

Anyone watching Wolf on BBC1? It's really weird in a good way

Just look a couple of posts above...

I was reading about it and thought it sounded vaguely interesting, but I'm not sure I can be bothered.

Nitefly

Philly_Q said:

guitartango said:

Anyone watching Wolf on BBC1? It's really weird in a good way

Just look a couple of posts above...

I was reading about it and thought it sounded vaguely interesting, but I'm not sure I can be bothered.

If it helps, @Philly_Q , Our Maud has been bingeing it this week, and she says it's a dark comedy which she's finding very funny - due to the incompetence of the protagonists.

YMMV of course! 

Kittyfrisk

PSA.  
For the first time since 1976, the BBC is to be repeating the groundbreaking TV series 'I Claudius' ( often called  'I Clavdivs' at the time) on BBC Four.
Starting on August 16th at 22.50  https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006mhmk/broadcasts/upcoming

Given that BBC R4 regularly repeats programmes multiple times, sometimes on the same day (grrrrrr!) it's astounding that it has taken them so long to get to this point.
Hope that it has aged well, as it had a really stellar acting cast. I can still remember the storyline & many of the scenes with great clarity today, it really was a hugely important TV milestone IMHO.