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Anyone know anything about David Duchovny's new show: Malice?

Sgt. Cortez wrote:

 Flinty wrote:
I really enjoyed seasons 1 and 2, but S3 lost me and I have t been back. If 5 is good I’ll maybe start again with S4

I found Stranger Things becoming constantly worse with every season so my hopes for S5 are quite low. I'll probably give it a try though. Season 1 was outstanding, maybe they can come back to that.

So far it's kind of just meandering about, and the fact that the 'kids' are all so old is a bit distracting.

Giving Dr Who spinoff The War Between The Land And Sea a whirl.

Not exactly excited for this one, as Russell Tovey has a bizarrely featureless face I find slightly unsettling. And of course it’s written by Master of Mediocrity, RTD.

Hopefully I’ll be pleasantly surprised.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
It’s heavy handed and preachy. Really not sure I’ll watch it further.

Water Pollution Bad.

Greed Bad.

Career Politicians Bad.

RTD Writing Bad.

 insaniak wrote:

Sgt. Cortez wrote:

 Flinty wrote:
I really enjoyed seasons 1 and 2, but S3 lost me and I have t been back. If 5 is good I’ll maybe start again with S4

I found Stranger Things becoming constantly worse with every season so my hopes for S5 are quite low. I'll probably give it a try though. Season 1 was outstanding, maybe they can come back to that.

So far it's kind of just meandering about, and the fact that the 'kids' are all so old is a bit distracting.

Sounds exactly like season 3 and 4

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
Giving Dr Who spinoff The War Between The Land And Sea a whirl.

Not exactly excited for this one, as Russell Tovey has a bizarrely featureless face I find slightly unsettling. And of course it’s written by Master of Mediocrity, RTD.

Hopefully I’ll be pleasantly surprised.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
It’s heavy handed and preachy. Really not sure I’ll watch it further.

Water Pollution Bad.

Greed Bad.

Career Politicians Bad.

RTD Writing Bad.

I don't know - I quite enjoyed it. My only criticism would be that episode 2 was stuck in the meeting hall. The Sea Devil response to the pollution was quite cool, I thought. My feeling was that the recent Doctor Who was below par because they spent all the Disney money on this. It's certainly better than the awful Torchwood: Children of Earth and Miracle Day. I do hope that the 'war' gets going in the next episode, though.

But I wonder.... what do the local Zygon population think about what's going on?

 Lathe Biosas wrote:
Anyone know anything about David Duchovny's new show: Malice?

Fishing for a Jack Whitehall rant from Mad Doc???

It got reviewed well in The Guardian, not got round to watching it yet though...

https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2025/nov/14/malice-review-david-duchovny-jack-whitehall-amazon-prime

Crispy78 wrote:

 Lathe Biosas wrote:
Anyone know anything about David Duchovny's new show: Malice?

Fishing for a Jack Whitehall rant from Mad Doc???

It got reviewed well in The Guardian, not got round to watching it yet though...

https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2025/nov/14/malice-review-david-duchovny-jack-whitehall-amazon-prime

Shhh! You'll ruin the fun!

It just need's a cameo from Jared Leto and Jimmy Carr and then we can look forward to minor explosion of rage from down Kent way.

I’m perfectly capable of not watching objectionable, talentless hacks, thank you.

Welcome to Derry

A prequel series to the recent IT movies. Helluva opening, as a weird family pick up a child hitchhiker, and their kookiness culminates in the Mum giving birth to a mutated, flying baby. Looks a bit like a Caryatid.

And it doesn’t appear to have been a dream sequence!

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
Welcome to Derry

A prequel series to the recent IT movies. Helluva opening, as a weird family pick up a child hitchhiker, and their kookiness culminates in the Mum giving birth to a mutated, flying baby. Looks a bit like a Caryatid.

And it doesn’t appear to have been a dream sequence!

Wonder if it's related to Gozu, my favorite bull God baby.

Nightmare Tenants, Slum Landlords

Usually a Poorsploitation show. But S6 E12 sees an old Church Building, home to squatters, returned to use.

In an unusually chipper and positive end to that story? The church offers free meals to the homeless, including the squatters.

Normally I’m hard pressed to feel any sympathy of Landlords. But there? The new ministry is at least doing the decent Christian thing as a community hub.

Stargate Universe

Haven’t really watched this show since it first aired. I remember the tonal shift being kinda jarring at the time, as it’s much closer to BSG than SG-1.

But it’s aged pretty well in my opinion. The lost in space angle, but with instant communication via the Ancient Communication Device is a nice touch. As is the crew not being exactly hand picked for this sort of mission. Certainly it’s much better than I recall from when I watched it episodically.

I have been watching the Outer Limits off and on using TUBI.

Anyway, some really cracking episodes. The OBIT episode is particularly prescient.

Definitely another show which has stood the test of time quite nicely. It’s currently on Prime in the UK.

LA Heat

Cop-buddy show from the USA with every single thing you expect from it. Every car is loaded with petrol ready burst into explosive flames at the slightest dent; characters will walk away from multi-car pile-ups; guns have no concept of ammunition limits; they will break protocol all the time; the chief will get angry at them for this. Cars will fly into the air; high speed chases will happen all the time;

It's just everything 90s action-film cop-buddy dramas you expect in a TV series.


Honestly there's a lot of great practical effects going on here. If you've seen it its very similar to the original Robocop TV series. Similar kind of style and wouldn't surprise me if it was the same or similar team behind it in terms of what they can do.

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
Stargate Universe

Haven’t really watched this show since it first aired. I remember the tonal shift being kinda jarring at the time, as it’s much closer to BSG than SG-1.

But it’s aged pretty well in my opinion. The lost in space angle, but with instant communication via the Ancient Communication Device is a nice touch. As is the crew not being exactly hand picked for this sort of mission. Certainly it’s much better than I recall from when I watched it episodically.

Really? I found that to be one of the most aweful series I've ever watched (never made it past season 1 though, don't know it if got any better after that).
It took everything I hated about BSG and forced it on the Stargate franchize where it didn't belong. Every character behaved like an idiot, stupid intrigues as if they had nothing better to do... After an awesome Stargate Atlantis series they killed the franchize with one season of SGU for me, and I've never really looked back.
It's been a long time though, maybe it's not as bad as I recall it because over time I've watched even worse shows, like Star Trek Discovery

No, I had the same reaction to it. I think it does suffer from being a really, really jarring shift in tone from SG-1 and Atlantis. There was just zero joy in it which meant it was hard to lock into especially back on a week to week schedule. And yes, the dumb intrigue and annoying underlying mutiny plot got old fast.

That was my original opinion. But watching it all these years later, said opinion has softened.

Oh noes! Stargate: Voyager is Lost in Space!

It was such a tired cliche of a show that tried to cram all other tired cliches together.

I found SGU was let down by the choice to largely ignore exploration in favour of focusing on the interpersonal dramas of a bunch of characters who were so unlikeable that it was impossible to care. Which was disappointing at the time, because the 'Lost in Space but with Stargates' concept was interesting enough, and the ship was cool.

 Hulksmash wrote:
No, I had the same reaction to it. I think it does suffer from being a really, really jarring shift in tone from SG-1 and Atlantis. There was just zero joy in it which meant it was hard to lock into especially back on a week to week schedule. And yes, the dumb intrigue and annoying underlying mutiny plot got old fast.

This was our experience with it, too. No fun and no reward for sticking with it. And if I recall, it came out after we’d already become sick of nBSG and the whole darker-and-grittier aesthetic. Who wants to spend their down time with nothing but a-holes?

 BobtheInquisitor wrote:

 Hulksmash wrote:
No, I had the same reaction to it. I think it does suffer from being a really, really jarring shift in tone from SG-1 and Atlantis. There was just zero joy in it which meant it was hard to lock into especially back on a week to week schedule. And yes, the dumb intrigue and annoying underlying mutiny plot got old fast.

This was our experience with it, too. No fun and no reward for sticking with it. And if I recall, it came out after we’d already become sick of nBSG and the whole darker-and-grittier aesthetic. Who wants to spend their down time with nothing but a-holes?

Exactly. I don't need my TV to be all silly and goofs but god damn, you gotta have something redeeming about the characters to make me want to stick with it. I couldn't enjoy a single character on that show back when I watched it. Now, could I maybe now. Probably. But will I bother with it? feth no. I've got other shows I'd rather revisit and new shows I want to watch. Bleh.

Well, if anyone does give it another watch, I’d be interested to hear further opinions

Fallout Season 2

It’s finally here, after what feels like forever!

 Hulksmash wrote:

 BobtheInquisitor wrote:

 Hulksmash wrote:
No, I had the same reaction to it. I think it does suffer from being a really, really jarring shift in tone from SG-1 and Atlantis. There was just zero joy in it which meant it was hard to lock into especially back on a week to week schedule. And yes, the dumb intrigue and annoying underlying mutiny plot got old fast.

This was our experience with it, too. No fun and no reward for sticking with it. And if I recall, it came out after we’d already become sick of nBSG and the whole darker-and-grittier aesthetic. Who wants to spend their down time with nothing but a-holes?

Exactly. I don't need my TV to be all silly and goofs but god damn, you gotta have something redeeming about the characters to make me want to stick with it. I couldn't enjoy a single character on that show back when I watched it. Now, could I maybe now. Probably. But will I bother with it? feth no. I've got other shows I'd rather revisit and new shows I want to watch. Bleh.

Indeed. It's a problem of newer shows, they always imply to be "superrealistic" and because of that let characters behave like idiots or 12 year olds or like random people on social media... when in reality people usually just aren't that bad.
I'd rather hang around with Beverly Crusher than with Beth Dutton.

Sgt. Cortez wrote:
Indeed. It's a problem of newer shows, they always imply to be "superrealistic" and because of that let characters behave like idiots or 12 year olds or like random people on social media... when in reality people usually just aren't that bad. .

No, an awful lot of people really are like that. The problem isn't verisimilitude, it's just that having an entire cast like that isn't particularly enjoyable to watch. You need at least one character that you would like to see survive the experience. I think that was supposed to be Eli, as the cast's resident 'everyman'... but he never quite managed to move far enough past that initial annoying phase into likeable, for me.

A Ghost Story for Christmas:- Whistle and I'll come to you

'Tis the season! (Sort of)
While I've always found the modern series extremely hit or miss, I was surprised to find this first entry in the original series so mediocre. It's basically 45 minutes of nothing followed by 5 minutes of very mild spookiness, They devoted more screen time to the main character eating grapefruit segments than they did to anything vaguely supernatural.

Hopefully the next one is a bit better.

I’ve got the originals on DVD somewhere. Might be my Christmas Eve viewing.

The War Between the Land and Sea

So I decided to finish this. Oh my this is utter drivel.

The acting is more or less fine, I guess. But it’s standard RTD nonsense script and plot wise. Heavy handed unsubtle messages we kind of already know and few would dispute (polluting our oceans and waterways is a stupid thing to do).

On a more positive Who-related note, we watched 'A Christmas Carol' for Christmas Eve. My girls' intro to Matt Smith and new-Who in general, as we've only watched classic stuff with them so far, and they absolutely loved it.

It's a very silly episode, but also peak Matt Smith Doctor.