Now Watching on TV

..and why not?
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The Modernist
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Re: Now Watching on TV

Postby The Modernist » 11 Feb 2019, 17:00

Darkness_Fish wrote:Cheers. I never think of watching YouTube for anything other than music videos.


It's actually a treasure trove of 60s and 70s horror films - you should have a trawl.

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Re: Now Watching on TV

Postby Neige » 11 Feb 2019, 19:21

caramba wrote:
Neige wrote:Image

Picked up this after someone on here endorsed Hugo Blick - can't remember who it was and the search function doesn't work properly, but thanks!

Fabulous series.

And being used to US productions with multiple screenwriters, directors and producers, I find it exhilarating to see one single guy behind such a great show.



If you liked that one, you'll love Black Earth Rising and Shadow Line


Already got The Shadow Line lined up next...

and I see that Black Earth Rising is on Netflix (which means that I'd have to buy a tablet to watch it on my commute).
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Re: Now Watching on TV

Postby Geezee » 14 Feb 2019, 13:12

We've been watching the netflix series You. As with so many of these kinds of series, it starts out with a pretty good and interesting concept, and the production and performances from the two leads are very good. But to extend the storyline across 10 episodes creates far too much room for the ridiculous - and there is plenty of that here. The series is by far at its best when it focuses on the obsessiveness of its lead character in finding out all details about his girlfriend, and compares that with online social media behaviour. And it is by far at its worst when it turns all that into some kind of thriller. In particular, the initially interesting antagonism between Joe and his girlfriend's best friend Peaches becomes a parody, culminating in the faintly ridiculous attempted murder, then faked suicide attempt, and then actual murder, all happening in the space of about three days. Then it gets back onto a much better track when the relationship again, both when it is working and when it is not.

I'm amazed at how this show has been promoted/reviewed - almost every review talks about how the story is about the "fine line between love and obsession", or whatever. No, it is absolutely not about that! There is nothing in Joe's behaviour which is about love - it is total and utter mania, and the obsession is clearly psychotic! But of course they have to make his character sympathetic - and the storyline around Paco etc is designed precisely and deliberately to do that, so we are still meant to root for him. Doesn't make him any less of a creep though!

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Re: Now Watching on TV

Postby ` » 14 Feb 2019, 14:09

Geezee wrote:We've been watching the netflix series You. As with so many of these kinds of series, it starts out with a pretty good and interesting concept, and the production and performances from the two leads are very good. But to extend the storyline across 10 episodes creates far too much room for the ridiculous - and there is plenty of that here. The series is by far at its best when it focuses on the obsessiveness of its lead character in finding out all details about his girlfriend, and compares that with online social media behaviour. And it is by far at its worst when it turns all that into some kind of thriller. In particular, the initially interesting antagonism between Joe and his girlfriend's best friend Peaches becomes a parody, culminating in the faintly ridiculous attempted murder, then faked suicide attempt, and then actual murder, all happening in the space of about three days. Then it gets back onto a much better track when the relationship again, both when it is working and when it is not.

I'm amazed at how this show has been promoted/reviewed - almost every review talks about how the story is about the "fine line between love and obsession", or whatever. No, it is absolutely not about that! There is nothing in Joe's behaviour which is about love - it is total and utter mania, and the obsession is clearly psychotic! But of course they have to make his character sympathetic - and the storyline around Paco etc is designed precisely and deliberately to do that, so we are still meant to root for him. Doesn't make him any less of a creep though!

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Dexter meets Gossip Girl.

Lasted one episode

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Re: Now Watching on TV

Postby Geezee » 15 Feb 2019, 15:47

Having seen neither of those I can’t really comment - actually to me it bears some striking resemblances to the Ted Bundy documentary that’s also been released on netflix recently. It’s certainly very zeitgeisty, or at least tries to be (although I’m not sure these days a lot of people, especially young kids, use Facebook as extensively as is shown).

We saw the last two episodes last night and unusually it does wrap things up pretty well. A lot of these series don’t seem to be able to tie all the threads together (eg The Sinner) but here everything comes together very well (and quite unexpected).
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Re: Now Watching on TV

Postby Samoan » 19 Feb 2019, 20:09

Flu bug bitten at home but I've stumbled upon a treasure trove of old Coronation Street youtube footage from before my time when my flatmates Julie from Cornwall and Ali from Southport, introduced me to The Street and it's characters.

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Re: Now Watching on TV

Postby Geezee » 08 Mar 2019, 15:41

Saw the Go-Betweens documentary last night. Knowing very little about the band beyond their music I found it very illuminating, even if it seems to skate over a few things - notably really only skimming over Grant McLennan's drug abuse, which I guess is fine and ensures that it doesn't get too salacious. But there's a nice mix of appropriate (and often very funny) talking heads as well as very good interviews with the various band members. The break-up of the band is truly jaw-dropping - I really had no idea. One truly wonders what Grant actually said to Amanda..."so listen hun, you're out of the band, we're breaking up the band...but you're still cool with being my girlfriend right!?" And then Robert and Grant don't actually go ahead with the project that they broke up the band for! :shock: :?
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Re: Now Watching on TV

Postby Snarfyguy » 29 Mar 2019, 20:10

Image

Very good.
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Re: Now Watching on TV

Postby mentalist (slight return) » 31 Mar 2019, 11:23

Geezee wrote:One truly wonders what Grant actually said to Amanda..."so listen hun, you're out of the band, we're breaking up the band...but you're still cool with being my girlfriend right!?" And then Robert and Grant don't actually go ahead with the project that they broke up the band for! :shock: :?

It's a weird one that. He wrote these touching and emotionally empathic lyrics but lacked some basic street smarts. A romantic and artistic sensibility.
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Re: Now Watching on TV

Postby Samoan » 07 Apr 2019, 19:44

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The Brokenwood Mysteries all action packed and ready to go in a sleepy New Zealand town.
Lead Detective Mike has a passion for Country and Western and drives a vintage Holden Kingswood which has a tape deck for his country music tapes. In the laboratory they're supported by pathologist Gina, a somewhat eccentric Russian émigré who's still adapting to but digging her new homeland. Lovely stuff.


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Re: Now Watching on TV

Postby Samoan » 10 Apr 2019, 20:13

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4 stars out of 5 so far for the first two (of eight) episodes of The Widow on ITV1.
You can really sense the heat, humidity, sweat, dust and cacophony of Central Africa. Alex Kingston co-stars alongside lead Kate Beckinsale which is a bonus as she's a fine actress.
There's also a role for the little dude who currently appears in Deutschland 86 as a German-speaking Angolan orphan, who in this drama plays a Congolese child mercenary.
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Re: Now Watching on TV

Postby Neige » 18 Apr 2019, 22:47

Been watching Season 1 of this and thought it was bloody ace!

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(the fact that I'm a fan of "the north" helped, of course... :P )

EDIT: Season 2 ist just as good, I really enjoy the fact that there are strong female characters also outside the police force.
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Re: Now Watching on TV

Postby Geezee » 07 May 2019, 11:38

I'm a sucker for most, if not all, true crime drama and clearly Netflix knows my interests are quite predictable - as soon as the Madeleine McCann doc came out it popped up on my recommended list...

And I've finished watching it. It's a case that I'm very oblivious too - the media onslaught was so horrifying at the time that I stayed well clear of it, and I knew next to nothing about the case. My wife couldn't watch it - as parents of two small children it comes a bit too close to the bone on occasion. Like most people (I think) I do find it hard to accept that they left their kids in the way that they did - but ultimately there are 4-5 families who did the exact same thing, and there is no way the parents deserve the kind of vilification that they got over this.

The doc itself is probably the weakest of any I've seen in recent years, even if the subject itself is compelling. There's an astonishing amount of fluff. "Here we are at the exact place where the McCann's gave their ninth press conference" - that kind of thing. And slightly ridiculous background stories to some of the characters involved, no matter how superfluous - when they start interviewing the son of the businessman who starts funding alot of the private investigation, who a) comes across as a bona fide muppet and b) ultimately has a really minimal role in everything, it all starts really falling apart.

More troubling perhaps is the amount of time they spend on a few theories around her disappearance, where they make it hugely obvious who the suspect is (they only slightly blur the face of one in particular but repeatedly show his very distinctive t-shirt as well as his voice, so even anyone with a passing knowledge of the person will easily identify them). They sort of highlight that they are no longer suspects - but they spend so much time on them, and ultimately an audience will easily forget who is a suspect versus who has been freed from suspicion that they really have dragged their reputation through the mud.

They also make very little moral commentary on some of the more outrageous aspects of this case. The media coverage is unforgiving and unforgivable, but the general line that the "public's interest wins the day" is pretty much taken at face value.

My god, in so many of these documentaries the cops really come across badly, but this guy might take the cake. What a self-righteous, pitiful human being this guy is - yes, he doesn't deserve the vilification that the british media sent his way initially, but his obstinate, stubborn accusations and character assassinations of the McCanns is really something to behold. Ugh.
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Re: Now Watching on TV

Postby Snarfyguy » 23 May 2019, 17:24

^^^ Yoiks!

Meanwhile,

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Stranger Things season two, a heck of a lot of fun.
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Re: Now Watching on TV

Postby Samoan » 31 May 2019, 19:30

Canny!


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I was away from home and TV as at uni when it was first aired in the early 80s so I'm only watching it properly for the first time. A smörgåsbord (staying European there) of English accents, I especially like the voice and character of "Bomber" Busbridge a brickie from Bristol.
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Re: Now Watching on TV

Postby joels344 » 01 Jun 2019, 06:52

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This is already climbing my all-time favorite TV series list pretty quickly. Each episode has topped the next in terms of cinematic quality and intensity. I'm curious what the ending episode has to offer, too. Monday can't get here soon enough.
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Re: Now Watching on TV

Postby pcqgod » 25 Jun 2019, 03:13

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The Tick (2017 - )

Yet another television adaptation of Bill Edlund's nigh-invulnerable nemesis of naughty-doers. This series is a pretty decent translation of this character to a darker and more adult format suited for streaming t.v. but doesn't quite match up to the loony, off-the-wall insanity of the 90's cartoon adaptation.

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Good Omens (2019 miniseries)

Relatively faithful adaptation of the Gaiman/Pratchett novel, with some inspired casting choices. It should go without saying that it's not as good as the book, but I can mainly overlook the flaws (like the overlong denouement) because I've been waiting for a large or small screen adaptation forever.
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Re: Now Watching on TV

Postby Snarfyguy » 27 Jun 2019, 23:04

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A hospital drama set in NYC in early 20th Century, this seems to want you to know that things then and now are more alike than different.

Pretty decent, but I had to look away at some of the surgery stuff. First episode, we'll see where it goes...
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Re: Now Watching on TV

Postby ChrisB » 28 Jun 2019, 10:37

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Beautifully written, beautifully acted.

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Re: Now Watching on TV

Postby Tom Waits For No One » 30 Jun 2019, 02:21

slightbreeze wrote:Image

Beautifully written, beautifully acted.


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