SCFZ

What are you watching?

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EDIT: I just finished all of Series 2 of The Good Fight. Before that, Sharp Objects, a limited crime-thriller series set in a small southern USA town. Great cast. If Amy Adams wasn't on my radar before, she definitely is now.

I think I saw more tv series in 2018 than ever before.

2018 TV. Most recently completed first:

The Good Fight (Series 2, 2018)
Sharp Objects (Limited series, 2018)
The Little Drummer Girl (2018)
Younger (Series 5, 2018)
Younger (Series 4, 2017)
Younger (Series 3, 2016)
Younger (Series 2, 2015)
Younger (Series 1, 2015)
Bodyguard (Limited series, 2018)
The Handmaid's Tale (Series 2, 2018)
The Good Fight (Series 1, 2017)
Patrick Melrose (Limited series, 2018)
The Handmaid's Tale (Series 1, 2017)
Lost in Space (Series 1, 2018)
Babylon Berlin (Series 2, 2018)
Babylon Berlin (Series 1, 2018)
The Young Pope (Series 1, 2016)

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The best of 2018:

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BABYLON BERLIN was a lot of fun, had an excellent cast, plus it offered a good look at the many problems facing Germany and German society between WW1 and WW2. It showed the rise of nazism and offered cogent explanations for its root causes. Best TV series of 2018!

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Just plain fun:

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...................................................Younger

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Patrick Melrose and The Haunting on House Hill were the two best TV shows I watched this year.

The dialogue in Patrick Melrose was what I enjoyed the most. So many great quotes and monologues.

Haven't got any TV shows on the go at the moment.

who has time for television

I watch parks and recreation on the treadmill. I’m midway throug season 5. The show is fun. The cameos normalizing ghouls like McCain and Gingrich are not much fun though.

I recently finished The Bodyguard and didn't like it much tbh. I thought it was too convoluted and incoherent. Also I disliked it ideologically, which is something I try not to hold it against a series, but in this case it was a very important part of it thematically.

Right now I'm 2 chapters into the first season of Ozark and I'm liking it. Also rewatching The Sopranos with my wife on the weekends, and Full Metal Alchemist (original series) because it was in Netflix and I got nostalgic (it's not as good or interesting as I remembered it to be).

I recently finished Beat(2018) and Dogs of Berlin (2018), both of which were quite good (especially Dogs..) and will watch the third season of Frontier next (Jason Momoa ).

BETTER CALL SAUL remains the highest accomplishment in contemporary television. Nothing else that I've seen comes close. Nothing.

KING LEAR on Amazon prime, with Anthony Hopkins as Lear, and a splendid cast all doing very fine work. Heavily trimmed to run just under two hours and set in contemporary England, some scenes feel a touch glossed over: you might find yourself wondering what the fuss is over that storm scene you might have heard of. Emma Thompson and Emily Watson are marvelous as Goneril and Regan, respectively, sinking their teeth into their monstrous roles, but it's Jim Broadbent who just plain walks away with the show as Gloucester. Broadbent is one of those actors who delivers Shakespeare with a clarity that makes you wonder why anybody finds Shakespeare hard to understand, and he offers a tasty take on Gloucester, summoning a straight-up honor and decency that doesn't preclude some really straight-up dreadful behavior toward his own illegitimate son. He's just marvelous.

I'm halfway through the second season of Westworld. It doesn''t have anywhere near the suspense of season one and has unraveled into an action rather than character driven show. Ed Harris' character and storyline remain the most interesting part of the series for me. Another highlight of S2 is a cameo by Peter Mullan.

My entry into 2019:

Currently watching Elizabeth R (BBC, 1971), with the mighty Glenda Jackson playing lead. Fearless, fearsome and strong, such a commanding voice and presence.



and, for contrast, Russian Doll, which premiered on Netflix only yesterday and contains all the qualities I like about the New York I love in the films of the '60s, '70s and '80s: dark, shadowy, grimy and dirty.



So far, both are very good. Coincidentally, both series have redheads as leads.

THE NIGHT MANAGER -- the absence of a capable or interesting lead actor makes the creaky plot feel even more familiar, for all the posh settings and scenery. Fine performances from Olivia Colman and Tom Hollander, and Hugh Laurie is having a great time doing some straight up menace, but the Replicant Known As Tom Hiddleston (Tyrell Corporation Blandly Handsome Leading Man Model 9556B) just can't rise to their level. Scenes of Hiddleston trying to be all tough and badass wind up purely laughable -- Maisie Williams can out act and outfight him.

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I'm watching three series at the moment, jumping from one to the other according to whim on any given evening, and getting through about two episodes from each series per week, though I tend to sneak in as many episodes as I can of David Starkey's MONARCHY (2004-2007) - a history of Britain's royal dynasties from about the 8th Century to today - whenever my girlfriend's out. Currently I just got past the first Norman kings and onto Henry II (12th Century), born in the old kingdom of Anjou, where he spent most of his life and where he was eventually buried. He was, as were quite a few "English" kings of that era, before and after him, actually as French as brioche.

I just wish Starkey didn't pronounce "year", "ya-orr". Makes me flinch every time he says it.


When I lose dominion over the remote control, we're watching GRACE AND FRANKIE (Season 2), which isn't my cup of tea, but bearable sometimes... I suppose...



And then A DISCOVERY OF WITCHES. It's kinda fun, but quite inane when you think about it for more than two seconds. No, best not to think about it at all. It's completely ridiculous.


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I finished watching the witches malarkey. Really stupid it was and I can't believe what a stickler I am about finishing something I've started watching, even if it's torture (and A Discovery of Witches was painfully silly, indeed. I've stopped watching films halfway, why can't I do it with tv series??)

I just started watching this 10 episode Italian crime series:



Suburra: Blood on Rome or Suburra - La serie (2017) (as opposed to the feature film of the same name that I haven't seen).

First episode was at times graphically violent, and it's quite flashy production-wise (shades of Sorrentino's The Great Beauty). If the rest is as good, I'll be more than satisfied.
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Need a new TV show to watch on the treadmill at work. Is Better Call Saul suitable for viewing in a public space, or am I going to offend someone?

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Best to ask Roscoe.
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BETTER CALL SAUL is suitable for viewing in a public space. Behold its genius anywhere you can.

Roscoe wrote: ↑Tue Mar 12, 2019 2:08 pm BETTER CALL SAUL is suitable for viewing in a public space. Behold its genius anywhere you can.

OK then, good to know. The beholding shall start tomorrow.

I mean, it can't be much worse than the time when I was watching Bojack and the sex toy robot showed up. That was not ideal.

LOL

so i got a free hulu sub w/my spotify premium account. anything worth watching there

maybe i'll try the handmaid's tale

Better Call Saul is not only a genius piece of drama but one of the more realistic depictions of the legal profession (and all its glorious paperwork) that I've ever seen on screen, small or large

bure420 wrote: ↑Tue Mar 12, 2019 7:24 pmone of the more realistic depictions of the legal profession (and all its glorious paperwork)

::chinscratchingcuriousemoji::

rhobh re: topic

After Life on Netflix. Ricky Gervais nails it again.

rischka wrote: ↑Tue Mar 12, 2019 3:09 pm LOL

so i got a free hulu sub w/my spotify premium account. anything worth watching there

king of the hill?

I've just learned there's a new series of Fleabag out, loved the first one from a couple of years ago.

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

greennui wrote: ↑Wed Mar 13, 2019 1:45 pm I've just learned there's a new series of Fleabag out, loved the first one from a couple of years ago.

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

Yeah, I just watched the first two eps of series 2, and yes, it's great so far.

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nrh wrote: ↑Wed Mar 13, 2019 1:04 pm

rischka wrote: ↑Tue Mar 12, 2019 3:09 pm LOL

so i got a free hulu sub w/my spotify premium account. anything worth watching there

king of the hill?

king of the hill is still on? i loved that show!

it's been off for 9 years. but still one of the better things on hulu.

gotcha. good to know. yeah their catalog looks pretty pathetic. i had them when they had criterion channel and they've been trying to get me back ever since

rischka wrote: ↑Wed Mar 13, 2019 4:38 pmi loved that show!

southwestern gal to the max