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Crispy78 wrote:

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:


If you’re in the mood for a comedy about a Never-was-been start of stage and screen, watch Toast of London instead.

Seconded, Toast Of London is a thing of mad beauty. Possibly Matt Berry's finest hour.

Thirded, a great comedy with some fantastic surrealism.

Speaking of fantastic comedy with a slight surrealist edge?

Here’s the inestimable Harry Hill doing what he does best. Being a very silly man, in a worryingly clever way.

Second only to Bob Mortimer in my comedy rankings.

Comedy is of course entirely subjective, but do give him a whirl.

The Beauty

Is on Disney+/Hulu.

Only on the first episode, and I’m enraptured. It’s creepy. It’s grotesque. It’s wonderful.

What is it about?


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We’ve watched Fallout and enjoyed it.

Now we’re starting a series called Edge of Sleep which looks creepy and weird. The protagonist has parasomnia, terrible possibly prophetic nightmares and sleep walking/self harm…and he’s been awake already for 36 hours already when some event causes everyone who falls asleep to die. The nightmares and hallucinations (?) are a treat. Everything else is kind of average. At least the characters have the excuse of being exhausted when they do stupid things.

So…it’s hard to say, and hard to explain.

There’s some kind of illicit product, which causes the user to become beautiful. But, it seems to be deadly.

Two FBI agents are investigating what I presume to be deaths linked to said product - but I don’t think they’re aware of said product just yet.

It’s very atmospheric though. And from Ryan Murphy.

A fine 2nd episode of Knight of the Seven Kingdoms.

Legitimately funny and heartwarming, in a setting that is 99% of the time neither of those two things. But it definitely not a kids show, as the foul language and a gratuitous peen shot really hammers home.

Might have to reread the novellas.

 nels1031 wrote:
A fine 2nd episode of Knight of the Seven Kingdoms.

Legitimately funny and heartwarming, in a setting that is 99% of the time neither of those two things. But it definitely not a kids show, as the foul language and a gratuitous peen shot really hammers home.

Might have to reread the novellas.

It wouldn't be Game of Thrones without a gratuitous crotch shot or two.

It’s not even a subtle one. As is the wont of such shows. It is offset by how creepy Egg looks.

It does a good job expressing what I understand to be a more stable period of history in the Seven Kingdoms. The Lords and Ladies feel pretty indolent rather than scheming.


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Random aside?

Is anyone else baffled by televised “podcasts” dedicated to big budget shows?

I mean, I get they’re a form of advertising. But when they air just after an episode, it feels a bit like being told what to think. And artificial hype.

I mean, if fans want to do a pod cast and go live just after the episode aired? Cool Beans. Crack on and good luck to you.

But when it’s the same studio or channel or what have you producing it? Seems awfully self congratulatory. And even more drivel than tripe like Gogglebox (why would you want to watch other people watching telly? Just watch telly and then chat to your friends about it. And please stop giving the brain donors involved a career beyond that).

A Thousand Blows

Saw the second season being promoted on D+, and decided to give it a whirl.

I’m genuinely impressed! It’s essentially a Period Crime Drama. We follow the fictionalised 40 Elephants, based on a historic women only organised crime gang from That There London, Hezekiah Moscow, a Jamaican Boxers, and the Goodsons, a feared London crime family that are essentially the law in their little area of the East End.

It’s really well made, letting the drama do the heavy lifting among really nice sets.

Two seasons of 6 episodes each, and definitely worth your time.

Watched the full Stranger Things now.
I stand by my statement that season 1 is by far the best season of the series, it's just much more grounded, less caricature, just some nerds that experience some funny stuff while having to deal with their everyday lifes.
Season 5 tried to tie together a lot of stuff and did it quite successfully I'd say. After season 4 there was no way back but to further escalation and it's good that anything about the USSR was dropped and never mentioned again because it was the worst of seasons 3 and 4. The whole military stuff in all seasons was more cliché than anything and didn't really lead anywhere.
I like that they gave the characters some time to solve their personal stuff in between all the action, the last two episodes might have overdone the emotional scenes a bit, but actually I like a proper emotional ending like lotr had or DS9, and they did something similar here.

So, overall a nice finale for a series that didn't really live up to my expectations after season 1 and traded logic for silliness.

Beauty & The Beast.

Late-80s urban take on the classic fairy tale, starring Linda Hamilton and Ron Perlman. Being patient with the lovey-dovey sappy moments and one is rewarded with great makeup effects and a bit of action.

Extraordinary (Disney Plus)



A sexy, raunchy, superhero-adjacent comedy. In a world were (almost) everyone gets powers when they turn 18, Jen is 25, powerless, no degree, dead end job, and hopeless. Her friends are Carrie who can become possessed by the dead, and Kash who can rewind time a few minutes. And her cat Jizzlord. Who turns out to be a shapeshifter who was stuck as a cat for several years.

The superpowers angle is played for laughs most powers are semi-useless. The ability to mind control anyone with the same first name as you, a living magnet who just attracts metal, a vet who can talk to animals and finds they're mostly whiners.

Just 2 seasons, 8 episodes each, then cancelled on a cliffhanger. As one does.

The stand out is really Luke Rollason/Jizzlord who I swear was cast solely for his popped out eyes.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luke_Rollason

If anyone looked like an alley cat turned into a man it's him.

But don't get me wrong, the rest of the cast is great too.

Recommend watch, but know it's incomplete.

I've started watching the netflix Lost in Space-series.

The effects and sets are really nice, but the series has some serious weaknesses imo.
Most of the characters are really annoying or stupid (or both). Everyone's lying or has some stupid "dark secret" blabla, stuff and characters you've seen noumerous times in US-productions over the years. Problems arise because people despite the situation they find themselves in just won't talk with each other. I guess the smuggler is one of the few likable characters because so far he hasn't done anything really dumb.

There's even some physics I was doubtful about, like the freezing in the very first episode. I wonder what someone with actual expertise would say about it but I don't think a sea starts freezing this way without Dementors arriving...

Extraordinary was fantastic. Gutted they cancelled it. Laughed harder at that than most things I've seen lately. The origin of the cat's name cracked me up.

Mum had a cold at weekend, so went round to keep her company. This meant showing her how to access her free netfic account and ordering Chinese. She opted for the Residence - eccentric superhumanly competent detective in the TV style solves murder in white house, with humour. Various devices as used to make it non linier. Approx 7 1/2 hours of stuff, but doesn't seem to drag like many netflix time fillers.

Watch if you like eccentric superhumanly competent detective in the TV style, solving a murder.

Black Sails

On the last season, not sure I’ll finish watching it.

It looks great and authentic. And who doesn’t love some Age of Sail Drama?

But it’s somehow just…..dull. I don’t feel engage or invested. I don’t feel empathy with any of the characters. Too much stuff happens off-screen in between seasons, which means we get exposition in the next few episodes. But said exposition is done quite poorly.

I am disappoint. I don’t hate it. But I am most definitely disappoint.

Watched back through The Promised Neverland (S1) with my daughter over the weekend. Such a frustrating situation as its so so good and even self contained and she desperately wants to watch the rest but S2 is just a disaster. She'll read the manga eventually but its so heartbreaking that this story didn't get to reach its potential.

Finished The Edge of Sleep season 1…and it ends on a cliffhanger. Season 2 appears to be in limbo. Greeaat.

Thanks for the recommendation on Extraordinary. That is mental

Is that the one where the guy has the unfortunate touch power?

If it is, I don’t need to explain further. If not, let’s just leave that there.

It is. It is well left alone…

Nuff said!

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
Black Sails

On the last season, not sure I’ll finish watching it.

It looks great and authentic. And who doesn’t love some Age of Sail Drama?

But it’s somehow just…..dull. I don’t feel engage or invested. I don’t feel empathy with any of the characters. Too much stuff happens off-screen in between seasons, which means we get exposition in the next few episodes. But said exposition is done quite poorly.

I am disappoint. I don’t hate it. But I am most definitely disappoint.

Agreed, the pacing definitely suffers, especially in the later seasons. Still worth at least one watch I'd say, as it's that rare show where everyone gets what they want, and the more they get it the less happy about it they are.

Ffffffffff…..rrrrrraaaaargh!

On the last disc of season 3 of Murder, She Wrote. And just discovered is has a bonus episode, which is the Magnum PI side of the crossover.

While the Murder, She Wrote half, the second half….is earlier in the collection.
Ok it’s not a big hassle to now watch them in order. But would’ve been nice for them to point out the Magnum PI one is there, and should’ve been in the right order on the discs as a whole.

 Gitzbitah wrote:

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
Black Sails

On the last season, not sure I’ll finish watching it.

It looks great and authentic. And who doesn’t love some Age of Sail Drama?

But it’s somehow just…..dull. I don’t feel engage or invested. I don’t feel empathy with any of the characters. Too much stuff happens off-screen in between seasons, which means we get exposition in the next few episodes. But said exposition is done quite poorly.

I am disappoint. I don’t hate it. But I am most definitely disappoint.

Agreed, the pacing definitely suffers, especially in the later seasons. Still worth at least one watch I'd say, as it's that rare show where everyone gets what they want, and the more they get it the less happy about it they are.

Agreed as well.

I didn’t notice a lot of the issues when it was shiny and new, as it was such a unique show and so well made across the board. But I’ve never been able to sit and rewatch the show in its entirety, despite trying probably half a dozen times since its conclusion. Awesome title sequence and theme song, though.

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
Ffffffffff…..rrrrrraaaaargh!

On the last disc of season 3 of Murder, She Wrote. And just discovered is has a bonus episode, which is the Magnum PI side of the crossover.

While the Murder, She Wrote half, the second half….is earlier in the collection.
Ok it’s not a big hassle to now watch them in order. But would’ve been nice for them to point out the Magnum PI one is there, and should’ve been in the right order on the discs as a whole.

I've only ever seen the M,SR crossover - I didn't even know it was a two-parter over both series.

Delving into old telly again, with a boxed of Thriller, an old ITV, well, thriller series. A collection of stand alone tv movies.

So far they’ve all been pretty solid. Decent mysteries with decent casts. With quite often a hint of the supernatural.

Each episode (and this confused the hell out of me at first, thinking my discs were wonky copies) is followed by the titles used for said episode in the USA.

Which isn’t a thing I think I’ve seen before. But I have to say, they’re somewhat more polished than the UK version. A nice little window into cultural differences.

Started watching HALO on Paramount+. I'm four episodes in and it's pretty good.

I noticed it's only 2 seasons, did season 2 go off the rails or something?

I can’t remember.

I watched it, as someone kind of aware of the games, and that the story is apparently a selling point.

And I remember, having watched the show? Wondering if my friends have no taste.

I’m assured that’s entirely the failing of the show.

As far as I recall, season 1 never got on the rails, and season 2 was unable to rescue it. I think it ran into the old “who is this for” problem. It’s not faithful enough to the core material to entice existing fans of the franchise, and it doesn’t really do anything for people who are interested in sci fi more generally.