The TV Thread

Philly_Q

boogieman said:

westford said:

Philly_Q said:

I found out today that Disney+ have an upcoming series based on C.J. Sansom's Shardlake books. 

From the trailer it doesn't look that promising, to be honest, but I liked the books so I'll give it a go.

Don't know the books, but my husband will watch anything historical/anything with Sean Bean in it, so we'll check it out.

The earlier Shardlake books are excellent, but the last one he wrote is awful. The author had taken a long break from writing because he’d had cancer and it was almost like he’d got writing diarrhoea, trying to make up for the forced absence. 

If the character that Sean Bean is playing is who I think it is, at least he won’t die in episode one! It’s a great pity this is only on Disney though, I’d like to watch it but don’t want to subscribe to yet another tv platform. 

Bean is playing Thomas Cromwell.  I only found out about the series because I was talking to a friend of mine and we somehow mentioned Oliver Cromwell... then he said about Sean Bean playing Oliver Cromwell in a new series, and started describing the scenario... I said that sounds like the Shardlake books, it must be Thomas Cromwell!

I didn't know Sansom had taken a break from writing.  I bought the first four (or maybe five) books, all in different-looking and different-sized paperbacks (there was never any consistency!) and then I sort of lost track... the titles are quite confusing, I can never remember which is which, so I didn't buy the later ones in case I had them already!    I also read his Spanish civil war book Winter in Madrid, but I don't think I've read Dominion.

boogieman

Philly_Q said:

boogieman said:

westford said:

Philly_Q said:

I found out today that Disney+ have an upcoming series based on C.J. Sansom's Shardlake books. 

From the trailer it doesn't look that promising, to be honest, but I liked the books so I'll give it a go.

Don't know the books, but my husband will watch anything historical/anything with Sean Bean in it, so we'll check it out.

The earlier Shardlake books are excellent, but the last one he wrote is awful. The author had taken a long break from writing because he’d had cancer and it was almost like he’d got writing diarrhoea, trying to make up for the forced absence. 

If the character that Sean Bean is playing is who I think it is, at least he won’t die in episode one! It’s a great pity this is only on Disney though, I’d like to watch it but don’t want to subscribe to yet another tv platform. 

Bean is playing Thomas Cromwell.  I only found out about the series because I was talking to a friend of mine and we somehow mentioned Oliver Cromwell... then he said about Sean Bean playing Oliver Cromwell in a new series, and started describing the scenario... I said that sounds like the Shardlake books, it must be Thomas Cromwell!

I didn't know Sansom had taken a break from writing.  I bought the first four (or maybe five) books, all in different-looking and different-sized paperbacks (there was never any consistency!) and then I sort of lost track... the titles are quite confusing, I can never remember which is which, so I didn't buy the later ones in case I had them already!    I also read his Spanish civil war book Winter in Madrid, but I don't think I've read Dominion.

There’s seven Shardlake books so far, the last one is called Tombland, about the Jack Cade rebellion around Norwich. Seriously don’t bother with that one, it’s massively overlong and rambling. I’ve read Winter in Madrid and Dominion as well, Dominion is basically a rehash of Len Deighton’s “SSGB” with a “what if the Nazis had won WW2?” plot. It’s ok but I wouldn’t bother with it unless you’re a completist. 

boogieman

@Philly_Q did you see that CJ Sansom died just the other day? 

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2024/apr/29/cj-sansom-author-of-the-shardlake-novels-dies-aged-71

Timcito

Kurtis said:

Timcito said:

I'm at the end of season 4 of Vikings now, and I've found it to be quite a gripping series. One of the many features that intrigues me is the way that, in an environment where life is cheap and virtually every major character is guilty of murder by our standards, there remains a sense of fundamental right and wrong and characters that I think most viewers would be rooting for. For example, I think most of us like Ragnar Lothbrok, his first wife Lagertha, their son Bjorn, and even Floki, the unhinged boatbuilder, and yet all of them have killed people and sometimes for ugly reasons. The purest characters seem to be Helga, Floki's wife, and Athelstan, the Christian who becomes Ragnar's most beloved friend.

I liked Norsemen on Netflix.

A bit like horrible histories but more adult, and Scandinavian. 

I'll check that out. I'm a sucker for this kind of thing.

munckee

Halo, I barely got through season one I didn't think too much of it.  I had nothing to watch so thought I'd try season two and it seems a big improvement to me, the series is mostly one long war film with lots of end of days jeopardy but I liked it much more.

Still not saving private ryan of course but watchable.

goldtop

I've been trying The Regime (Sky/NowTV) with Kate Winslett as a germophobic dictator doing a supposedly satirical take of some central European state. It's The Death of Stalin set in the Grand Budapest Hotel, but lacking Iannucci's wit and Anderson's talent. 1/10

bobblehat

goldtop said:

I've been trying The Regime (Sky/NowTV) with Kate Winslett as a germophobic dictator doing a supposedly satirical take of some central European state. It's The Death of Stalin set in the Grand Budapest Hotel, but lacking Iannucci's wit and Anderson's talent. 1/10

Got through one episode of this last week but wont be going back fro episode 2. Its not great. So few laughs that my wife thought it was a drama.

RocknRollDave

Passenger ITVX

Cast of decent actors but the story is absolute risible nonsense. 

Ends with a cliffhanger that will surely never get a second series to resolve.

2/10

Timcito

One small point of interest that comes out of Vikings as it did in The Last Kingdom is how Christianity managed to emerge with such force in the coming centuries compared with Norse beliefs. There seemed to be a time in Britain when opposing fantastical mythologies of life creation ran concurrently, and yet not only was Christianity the only one to win out back then, it has even managed to survive, albeit a bit roughed up, to the present day. You don't hear too many Norwegians these days relishing an afterlife future in Valhalla! What did Christianity have, I wonder, that Norse mythology did not? Maybe the Inquisition!  

boogieman

Currently wading through Red Eye on ITV. It started off ok but 3 episodes in and it’s getting more and more preposterous. The journalist sister of the lead police person spots some guys in suits taking boxes of unknown stuff from an office and loading it into a black Range Rover. She has no more information than that, but somehow knows they are “government agents clearing out evidence”. Then there’s the MI5/6/whatever officer who can somehow instantly conjure up multiple CCTV footage shots….from a private medical conference….. in China. 

Hmmm, okay. 

Also just started on Fall Out (Prime) which is waaaaaay better. 

sinbaadi

Tattooist of Auschwitz.  Sky something. 

A tough watch, but weird accents and a young/old actor choice which beggars belief spoil things somewhat.  Otherwise it portrays the horror, cruelty, inhumanity, barbarity, scale etc quite emphatically.

2 episodes in.  Other half says the book is brilliant.

VimFuego

just started Dark Matter on apple (I think); sorta quantum/different realities kinda thing. Only 1 episode in, it's got promise so will stick with it for a bit.

CavemanGrogg

Timcito said:

One small point of interest that comes out of Vikings as it did in The Last Kingdom is how Christianity managed to emerge with such force in the coming centuries compared with Norse beliefs. There seemed to be a time in Britain when opposing fantastical mythologies of life creation ran concurrently, and yet not only was Christianity the only one to win out back then, it has even managed to survive, albeit a bit roughed up, to the present day. You don't hear too many Norwegians these days relishing an afterlife future in Valhalla! What did Christianity have, I wonder, that Norse mythology did not? Maybe the Inquisition!  

Christianity had a huge advantage over paganism, namely the importance of ''the word'', in other words having a written and codified religion, don't forget the very first institutions of learning, in the UK at least, where setup by and for Christian monks, priests......., even before the invention of the printing press - Gutenberg's wasn't the first they had actually been around for quite a while before his vastly improved design was developed, ''Christianity'' had put huge emphasis on both reading and writing, just look at all the scribes that where copying books to be distributed to other Christian areas, and areas being converted to Christianity.  The power of the written word has and is truly underestimated in regards to history, culture, and even our daily lives.

What I didn't like about Vikings and the Last Kingdom, was all the leather that people where wearing, back then very little leather was worn, even by the very wealthy, nobility, and royalty, it was truly extremely expensive and a sign a great wealth.

Dontgiveupyourdayjob

Dark Hearts on BBC iPlayer.

Six episode French thriller set in Iraq, following a team of special forces on the hunt for a terrorist cell planning an attack on French soil. Not normally my cup of tea, but this was pretty good. Wasn't a macho, gung-ho type of army thriller. Had a quite a large focus on the more human elements of modern warfare - the mental health struggles of troops away in warzones, the moral ambiguities of the situations, addictions to prescription medications in the barracks etc. 

7.5/10


Fiasco on Netflix.

French farce about a first time film director/writer and the disastrous attempts to get his movie made. Quite a big-budget show with cameos from the likes of Vincent Cassel. Silly, quite juvenile, but very funny! especially the two central performances from Pierre Niney and Francois Civil. Good 'leave your brain at the door' entertainment. 

8/10 

Timcito

CavemanGrogg said:

Timcito said:

One small point of interest that comes out of Vikings as it did in The Last Kingdom is how Christianity managed to emerge with such force in the coming centuries compared with Norse beliefs. There seemed to be a time in Britain when opposing fantastical mythologies of life creation ran concurrently, and yet not only was Christianity the only one to win out back then, it has even managed to survive, albeit a bit roughed up, to the present day. You don't hear too many Norwegians these days relishing an afterlife future in Valhalla! What did Christianity have, I wonder, that Norse mythology did not? Maybe the Inquisition!  

Christianity had a huge advantage over paganism, namely the importance of ''the word'', in other words having a written and codified religion, don't forget the very first institutions of learning, in the UK at least, where setup by and for Christian monks, priests......., even before the invention of the printing press - Gutenberg's wasn't the first they had actually been around for quite a while before his vastly improved design was developed, ''Christianity'' had put huge emphasis on both reading and writing, just look at all the scribes that where copying books to be distributed to other Christian areas, and areas being converted to Christianity.  The power of the written word has and is truly underestimated in regards to history, culture, and even our daily lives.

What I didn't like about Vikings and the Last Kingdom, was all the leather that people where wearing, back then very little leather was worn, even by the very wealthy, nobility, and royalty, it was truly extremely expensive and a sign a great wealth.

Interesting point about books and religion. Mind you, what influence these had must have been autocratic in the sense that hardly anybody could read and write and the texts themselves were all written in Latin. This would make books an instrument of control, rather like the later brutal instrument of the Inquisition. In fact, much of the Christian church's leverage seems historically to have been based on fear, brutality, and ignorance. By comparison, the Norse beliefs, as far as I can glean from the series, seem to celebrate human passions and instincts rather than attempt to bind and suppress them through threats of terrible punishment. When Athelstan refuses Ragnar and Lagartha's offer to have sex with them and he refuses on grounds of religious obedience, they stare at him in appalled disbelief. Like, really?!

Kurtis

It would certainly be interesting to see what things would be like if the Romans and Christianity had never came to the British Isles.

Isn't hell from vicking folklore?

People talk about "control", but don't we all want some control? Is it not better than chaos? Think I'd rather be part of a Christian based society than a Celt based society. 
Society needs laws, trouble is power can be abused. 

Kurtis

Started watching Bodkin.

Not really sure yet, quite funny but not a comedy.