Now Watching on TV

[Tom Waits For No One]

Beautifully written, beautifully acted.

Seconded.
A wonderful series, really well written and exceptionally well realised.

[Snarfyguy]

This is great, just really, really fun.

[Samoan]

If you need a defence barrister, Maxine Peake QC is your choice over puppy dog Rupert Penry-Jones but you first have to get through the gatekeeping of the barristers' clerk of all time clerks, the oleaginous, corrupt and Machiavellian, Neil Stuke.

[Tomahawk Kid]

Just coming to the end of Series 2. A grower this one, I nearly didn't get past episode 1 series 1, but stuck with it and loved it.

I still can't get my head round seeing and listening to Peterhead born actor Peter Mullan playing a redneck gangster.

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[Copehead]

Everyone (apart from us) seems to be talking about this:



after my cousin badgered me for the umpteenth time to watch it, I finally saw the very first episode. It looks interesting (I mean that genuinely). Ted Danson is great in everything, isn't he? The only thing that bugged me, strangely, is the high production values - you almost long for a bad shot, or a fluffed line. Every scene looks like it cost millions. Squeaky clean, flashy. Anyway I'm looking forward to watching the rest of the first series.


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Watched all 3 series back to back and just getting to the end of series 3.

A great comedy with plenty of real laugh out loud moments rather than just smiles.

Danson is great, they all are.

Life, death, philosophy, morality, ethics, heaven, hell and a forking shirt load of great writing and high production values.

It has occasional poor episodes, what great comedy doesn't, mainly the ones with too many demons in especially Trevor, but Mindy Sinclair is one of the most inspired bit part comedy characters ever, with Derek a tiny step behind - There are wind chimes where my ding dong should be; we'll work with that. And what about Donkey Doug and Pill Boy?

I thought the first few episodes were a little slow but when it blossomed it really blossomed.

Recommended.

[Jimbly]

got halfway through the first series, just didnt grab me enough. Our David loves it.

[Samoan]

Hatton Garden, so great I'm watching it twice

[pcqgod]

Filling the void in my life left by the conclusion of "Game of Thrones."

[Geezee]

got halfway through the first series, just didnt grab me enough. Our David loves it.

You really should watch at least until the end of that first series if you can - i found it a bit lost sometimes, but they really bring it all together in a pretty incredible way and set up a great season 2. Reminds me a bit of Bojack in that way.

[Samoan]

Now streaming (from Walter Presents) Deutschland 83 which is even more gripping than when it first aired on C4 TV 4 years ago.



There's a scene where Martin finds himself on the run in a Bonn supermarket, utterly stupefied by aisle upon aisle of delicious goods and the sheer range of fresh fruits and vegetables on offer, switch to his Mother in the East forlornly placing wafer-thin slices of gherkin onto rye bread for her breakfast.

[Flower]

The Antiques Road Trip .. Series 20

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000d2q8

I love this show. My wish is that there will be a segment with Paul Laidlaw against Phil Serrell and/or Anita Manning against Margie Cooper.

[Snarfyguy]

The Deuce, season 2

Not as good as The Wire, but what is? Fabulous production values, wardrobe, etc., very good cast. the plot lines are not terrifically compelling though.

[Sam Stone]

Filling the void in my life left by the conclusion of "Game of Thrones."

Bing-watched it last week. Absolutely fantastic show - one of the best of last year.

[Sam Stone]

The Deuce, season 2

Not as good as The Wire, but what is? Fabulous production values, wardrobe, etc., very good cast. the plot lines are not terrifically compelling though.

Just seen the third and final series of this - for me it ties with Show Me Hero as the second best thing he's done after The Wire.

My only criticism of SImon is that he can never quite seem to achieve a good balance of characters and plot. As a result, I struggle to keep up and end up liking rather than flat out loving the shows.

In Treme, there were just too many characters jostling for my attention so the plot never seemed to go anywhere. In The Deuce, he can't do what Chase did with The Sopranos and Gilligan did with Breaking Bad and get you to forget the unpleasant ways characters made (or were forced to make) their living and sympathise with them as living, breathing - if seriously flawed - human beings.

Would still rather watch one of his show's than 99% of whatever else is on though.

[Geezee]

Jonestown- Terror in the Jungle

saw this two-part documentary over the weekend on the BBC iplayer and it's stomach-churning stuff, as you'd expect given the subject matter. I'd never heard "the death tape" before. The voices of some of those people (well, the children) will haunt me for some time.

I was hoping to get a bit more understanding of what on earth happened, but I don't know if it's truly possible. While the documentary has both remarkable footage from the time (including a surprising number of recordings of Jones' sermons/interactions/beatings from across his career) as well as very moving current interviews with survivors who are still alive, I still can't get to grips with it at all. Not even close. And that's likely because there simply is no easy answer, and there are a couple of interviews that point precisely to that...but (while I appreciate it is a - to say the least - delicate subject) I wish they had perhaps pushed some of the survivors a bit more to explore the role of Jones' leadership/inner sanctum, and point out some of the specific perpetrators beyond Jones himself. It's already exhausting at 2 episodes, but it feels like it might have needed another 1 or 2 to flesh out some of the people, their motivations, and dig a bit deeper into precisely what happened - which is perhaps an odd thing to say given that we actually have footage and recordings of almost everything...but ultimately while you can see and hear the mechanics of what is happening, it feels unreal and impossible. I've read one or two reviews that appear to disagree with me entirely - that by the time of Congressman Ryan's visit there is a sense of complete inevitability of what is about to happen...but I didn't find that. and wow, Ryan was one brave person.

[slightbreeze]

Just coming to the end of Series 2. A grower this one, I nearly didn't get past episode 1 series 1, but stuck with it and loved it.

I still can't get my head round seeing and listening to Peterhead born actor Peter Mullan playing a redneck gangster.

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Season 3 in March. Can't wait.

[Neige]

Started watching this with Lady N last night, as we both love the setting (Calder Valley, West Yorkshire).

Turns out the series is way too black, bleak and depressing for cosy viewing, all characters have serious flaws and especially the males are either weak, stupid, driven by greed or envy or downright evil.

Lady N takes fiction much more to heart and got fidgety by Episode 2.

I, on the other Hand, am quite taken by the acting and the "Fargo oop North" vibe... I suppose I'll watch the rest on my commute.

[Copehead]

Filling the void in my life left by the conclusion of "Game of Thrones."

I'm really enjoying that.

I love the way it wound up all the fanbois with its opening but is now steadily becoming much more like the source material with flash backs to other times with Hooded Justice ( which turn out to be TV shows in the current time ) and the introduction of the squid.

It also does the modern TV thing of turning everything on its head every few episodes, with good guys becoming bad guys etc not as bad as the ridiculous levels that 24 ended up tying itself in knots with to the point of farce but I hope that settles down a bit.

Jeremy Irons as Adrian Veidt is an absolute hoot catapulting Ms Cruikshanks into the sky endlessly, held just off Saturn by Dr Manhattan at a guess.

[Samoan]

Doodlebug Summer

This popped up this morning on Channel 8, London Live and it stupefied me.

As Hitler faced certain defeat, he turned to his V weapons and launched them in a vengeful and bloody campaign against Britain. This is the story of the havoc caused by the V1 `doodlebugs' and V2 rockets, and of the deaths that undermined the morale of a war-weary civilian population.


"At frequent intervals we heard the dreaded staccato burble of an approaching V1 and it was our job to warn the neighbours if it was thought there was a threat to the immediate vicinity.

The V1 had a peculiar technical characteristic inasmuch as that, when the guidance system tilted the craft downwards, the engine completely cut-out due to fuel shortage, giving a few seconds silent warning that it was about to plummet from the sky."

https://tv24.co.uk/b/q4pjq0-1tj2

[Tom Waits For No One]

Filling the void in my life left by the conclusion of "Game of Thrones."

Bing-watched it last week. Absolutely fantastic show - one of the best of last year.

What do you think happened to the guy that squirted 'lubricant' over himself before slipping down the drain?
Series 2?