What TV series are you currently watching?

[ando]

I think it is more of a feeling than overt. I was less sure about the series in Season 1, but it seems to be making positive strides.

If you like fantasy, it should go well.
VS

It could about frisbees. I like good writing. 

[DavidW]

The Wheel of Time, Season 2 (2023)
Rosamund Pike

Never read Robert Jordan's famously extended fantasy series.

Season 2 needed a better recap of the first; it took a good 2-3 episodes to feel like I was totally on firm footing. The show has really has come into its own, though, pushing ever so slightly into GoT territory.
VS

As a fan of the (book) series, I absolutely hated the first season.  They took the story and then threw it in the trash.  I expected a lot of changes, but they decided to make huge changes to the characters, plot, tone and themes.  If the writers and producers hated the series so much, why didn't they just adapt something else? 

[Iota]

I feel you; I think we are just coming at the show from different directions. For me, The Wire is like an ancient Greek tragedy, so all the characters are archetypal, by which I mean I'd never run into any of them on an actual street encounter, whilst The Corner is full of folks I know, have met, talked to in my life.

The mosr real person I can think of on The Wire is Frank Sobotka. All the gang members, I felt, were exaggerated - I've never run into any cats like Marlo, Avon, Wallace, Michael, and so on. The most real of the black characters, in my opinion, was Poot - I've met dudes like that.

But The Corner - that is a life I know, a life I remember.

I agree with you on the chess scene, but I also find that scene to be a near perfect encapsulation of the show - a metaphor which when stretched too far becomes too thin to maintain. Also, I found the police laughable, for the most part, both then and now.

I will say the politicians on The Wire have risen considerable in my estimation, especially Clay Davis.

Fair enough. David Simon does talk somewhere about the characters being composites of real characters he's known, which could indeed be described as an archetypal approach. But what an unforgettable cast of characters is born in the process, my list of favourites would be long!

I've talked myself into it - going to rewatch The Wire again. Lol.

  See you in 60 episodes!

[DavidW]

I started watching Ahsoka on Disney Plus.  Pure fan service, but with good enough writing that it might hold up on its own.  Anyway good first episode.  Absolutely wasted no time introducing the characters, plot and had some cool Jedi scenes that we couldn't see in the other shows.  I'm kind of amazed that all of these Disney Star Wars tv shows look as good as the movies!

I'm going to predict now that I think that it will be my second favorite Star Wars show (Andor is my favorite), perhaps third.  At the end of the season I'll have to revisit this post.

Can I just point out though that if this show takes place well after Return of the Jedi and she was Anakin Skywalker's padawan then she is REALLY OLD!

[VonStupp]

I started watching Ahsoka on Disney Plus.  Pure fan service, but with good enough writing that it might hold up on its own.  Anyway good first episode.  Absolutely wasted no time introducing the characters, plot and had some cool Jedi scenes that we couldn't see in the other shows.  I'm kind of amazed that all of these Disney Star Wars tv shows look as good as the movies!

I'm going to predict now that I think that it will be my second favorite Star Wars show (Andor is my favorite), perhaps third.  At the end of the season I'll have to revisit this post.

Can I just point out though that if this show takes place well after Return of the Jedi and she was Anakin Skywalker's padawan then she is REALLY OLD!

It really adds to have watched the 4 seasons of SW: Rebels before Ahsoka, although probably not required. This show seems a direct extension of that show, plus some threads from the last few seasons of Clone Wars.

As I understand it from friends who read the Star Wars novels, Ahsoka is involved in timey-wimey stuff, so her age is relative to whatever she was involved in involving weird time travel.
VS

[DavidW]

As I understand it from friends who read the Star Wars novels, Ahsoka is involved in timey-wimey stuff, so her age is relative to whatever she was involved in involving weird time travel.
VS

That is good to know because I presumed that her race just aged slowly.

[Pohjolas Daughter]

All 7 Seasons of Alfred Hitchcock Presents are currently streaming free on The Roku Channel. A simple blocker will take care of the ads. Peackcock has 'em programmed in.  I keep getting this series mixed with The Alfred Hitchcock Hour, which is pretty hit-or-miss in terms of writing (though Hitch's people were great at casting).

I remember watching his horror series growing up and also reading a bunch of his books which were collections of mystery and horror short stories which I would borrow from the library.

PD

[Fëanor]

The Wheel of Time, Season 2 (2023)
Rosamund Pike

Never read Robert Jordan's famously extended fantasy series.

Season 2 needed a better recap of the first; it took a good 2-3 episodes to feel like I was totally on firm footing. The show has really has come into its own, though, pushing ever so slightly into GoT territory.
VS

I haven't read the books and won't.  I find reading the books before watching the video adaptation is a sure why to find fault with the latter.

I enjoyed Season 1 and have completed Season 2 thru Episode 8 which I've enjoyed even more.  Looks like there will be a 3rd season and I look forward to that.

[Spotted Horses]

When I was an adolescent I remember loving the theme music and the show.

Revisiting, I find Hawaii Five-O less attractive than, for instance, Columbo, because McGarret, the central character in Hawaii Five-O is portrayed as a sort of superman, whereas Columbo is the unassuming, self depreciating guy who takes advantage of the fact that everyone tends to underestimate him.

Example, in the season 1 episode "...and they painted daisies on his coffin" McGarret gets into a fistfight with 5 young thugs, and wins.

I had to skip the previous episode, because watching Ricardo Montalban play a Japanese crime boss in weird eye makeup went beyond my tolerance for absurdity.

They get some props for using some local people in supporting roles, a local police officer named Kam Fong as Detective and a local DJ, stage name Zulu, who played Kono Kalakaua.

[DavidW]

Looks like there will be a 3rd season and I look forward to that.

Well hopefully for your sake they'll pick up the pace.  No matter how much streamlining is done I don't think they can take the entire story in anything less than seven seasons.  If they take 2 years per season the actors will either age out of it or wander off to do other projects, if an audience can even be retained for so long.

[VonStupp]

Well hopefully for your sake they'll pick up the pace.  No matter how much streamlining is done I don't think they can take the entire story in anything less than seven seasons.  If they take 2 years per season the actors will either age out of it or wander off to do other projects, if an audience can even be retained for so long.

That was my feeling for ABC's Legend of the Seeker, based off of Terry Goodkind's Sword of Truth series.

Bruce Spence's Zeddicus Zu'l Zorander made that one worth my time, but came to an abrupt end. It was probably too much money for the New Zealand location and fantasy effects without going down the low-budget road of Xena or Hercules.
VS

[Irons]

Reached the final episode of The Long Shadow a seven part series based on the true events in the 1970's of Britain's most famous serial killer, Peter Sutcliffe aka The Yorkshire Ripper. Transmitted on ITVX.



Yorkshire CD do not come out of this at all well. It was only a great stroke of luck that Sutcliffe was finally captured after 13 plus murders of women lasting a period of over four years. The production is top draw capturing the bleakness of 1970's England and the same goes for the acting led by the excellent David Morrissey. 

[VonStupp]

Only Murders in the Building: Season 3 (2023)
Steve Martin, Martin Short, Selena Gomez
Paul Rudd, Meryl Streep, Matthew Broderick

I am not finding the humor hitting as strongly as in previous seasons. Meryl Streep is a pleasure, though.
VS

[Karl Henning]

I recommend Crime And Punishment (1979) with John Hurt, Sian Phillips, and Timothy West.

I'm one episode in, and keen to watch the rest.
Curiously, in searching for "C & P, John Hurt," I found a 2002 adaptation with Crispin Glover as Raskolnikov and Hurt as Porfiry. Just starting it now. This one is set in our day, which at first I found mildly disorienting. John Neville is Marmeladov, and it's cute hearing his wife complain of his lying all the time, as of course he told tall tales as Munchausen. Theodore Bikel is in this 'un, too. This may be the first thing I've seen Glover in other than Back to the Future. He's okay. Oh, they've relocated the story to Moscow. I'll accept that.

[George]

[George]

Good silly fun.

[DavidW]

While I subscribed to Disney Plus to watch Ahsoka... I found myself starting, binging and finishing Loki in record time.  The show really worked for me.  It reminded of Doctor Who.  And the villain is a great contrast to the ultra dour Thanos that came before.  I will be watching S2.

[VonStupp]

Good silly fun.

Yes! ala Naked Gun ridiculousness.
VS

[DavidW]

Yes! ala Naked Gun ridiculousness.
VS

I will have to watch it then!

[George]

Yes! ala Naked Gun ridiculousness.
VS

Yeah, ala Airplane! too. And they have an episode on an airplane.