What TV series are you currently watching?

[Nostromo]

I really enjoyed The Blacklist. And I have seen the actor who plays Dembe a few times in my neighborhood. I said hello to him once, I waved and said "Dembe!" He smiled.

Wow, that pretty cool! I saw the series when it first aired, and I enjoyed it enough to watch again just a few years later. The writers always came up with such interesting and sometimes intricate plots, if not always plausible. I'm in the part where Elizabeth is a wanted fugitive, and Dembe just got shot by Paul Rubens!

[SimonNZ]

[Todd]

The algorithm pointed me to a useful educational video.  Very informative.

[Roy Bland]

it isn't beautiful like kung fu however amazing

[George]

Blue Bloods - Season 5
Sanford and Son - Season 5
Curb Your Enthusiasm - Season 12
Kill Tony

[prémont]

Somehow remembered the password to this account, lol.

So welcome back as your former I. 

[Todd]

The latest season of Sunny.  This is, by far, my favorite current sitcom.  How much do I like it?  My general ringtone is the opening theme ("Temptation Sensation").  Sure, it is far from its peak of about a decade ago, but this season still managed to include in its eight measly episodes the two best crossovers I've seen: one with Abbott Elementary (which I've never seen) and The Golden Bachelor (which I've never seen).  It's lost some edge and toned down the outrageous vulgarity of earlier seasons, but it's still a cut above other non-YouTube entertainments in that regard.  A sense of weak sauce nostalgia has crept in, with prior bit players appearing in meh bits.  Rickety Cricket should have been used with more edge, and The Lawyer didn't get enough to do, but whatcha gonna do?  I was hoping to see the McPoyles, but no.  Sigh.  Charlie Day and Danny DeVito carry the season, and who can resist seeing DeVito and Carol Kane reuniting for laughs.  Anyway, it's still good enough to watch.

[George]

Blue Bloods
Everybody Loves Raymond

[Irons]

For Better or Worse.



A series from Belgium which is one of our highlight viewings of the year. Ticks every box with acting, production and best of all script. In six parts centering around a "perfect" middle-class family. With only one fly in ointment being dad a secret serial killer. Mainly dark, but not without lighter moments with a particularly funny private detective and a most unusual defence barrister that will live in my memory for many a day.   

[Bachthoven]

Netflix recently added The Closer to its roster, so I'm enjoying watching it again.

[Florestan]

An Italian miniseries comedy on Netflix, lots of twists and turns that could have been taken straight from an opera buffa plot, starting with the subject matter: a dumpster which you enter in Catania, Sicily and exit in Milan, Lombardy --- really?  Yet, a good pretext to humorously explore and expose the eternal North-South cleavage and government corruption & inefficiency in Italy. Highly recommended  (especially for those already familiar with these issues).

[Bachthoven]

This is based on the true story of a Polish ferry that sank in the Baltic Sea in 1993, killing 55 passengers and crew--9 survived. It's quite a dark and harrowing story.

[George]

My second time watching through this great series.

[Kalevala]

My second time watching through this great series.

I enjoyed that series and was sorry how it ended (squabbling/disagreements between those involved in the making of it).   

K

[drogulus]

     Tonight I'm starting Arctic Circle, which is a Finnish/German coproduction. In Finland it's called
Ivalo according to some guy.

     

[Florestan]

Framed! A Sicilian Murder Mystery

Another Netflix comedy series by/with the Ficarra & Picone duo, this time set exclusively in Sicily and involving, of course, the Mafia. I was laughing with tears most of the time. Bravi, ragazzi!

[Bachthoven]

I'm rewatching this amazing show in preparation for season two, which begins January 8th.

[JBS]

Framed! A Sicilian Murder Mystery

Another Netflix comedy series by/with the Ficarra & Picone duo, this time set exclusively in Sicily and involving, of course, the Mafia. I was laughing with tears most of the time. Bravi, ragazzi!

I saw the title and immediately wondered if an incastrato was a type of Baroque singer I had not previously heard of.

[Florestan]

I saw the title and immediately wondered if an incastrato was a type of Baroque singer I had not previously heard of.

Hah! 

In Romanian încastrat means something (singular) which is contained within a frame, usually hidden from view: a cable within a wall, a light bulb within a ceiling, a flushing toilet within a wall.

We have no collective term for people who are framed in legal sense. The term we use is înscenare, which means framing people collectively.

[AnotherSpin]

The whole planet catches a strange virus from the stars and suddenly everyone becomes peaceful and united. No fighting, no jealousy, no "my money, my house, my lover, my pain." Just calm smiles and a feeling of being one big family, like the Earth wrapped in a warm blanket.

And then there is one woman, Carol, running around in panic. She shouts, "No, I will not join. I want to stay separate. I want my suffering, my anger, my little self." It is almost funny. She clings to her individuality as if it were the last piece of chocolate on Earth. This is the whole human tragedy in one scene. The ego is so afraid of disappearing that it prefers loneliness and pain to peace and connection. It says, "Do not take my problems away. I need them to feel real."

But existence does not live inside problems. It is something vast and quiet, pretending to be many for no reason at all. The virus did not create unity. It only forced people into it, like pushing someone into sleep. Real unity comes when you see the joke and laugh. You realize there was never a separate "me" to protect.

Poor Carol. She is the last defender of ignorance, bravely holding on to her confusion. And the others are happy, yes, but it is a shallow happiness. Like a child who ate too much candy and fell asleep. Comfortable, but not awake.

True freedom is not forced harmony. It is the wild laughter that comes when the idea of "I" falls away and only this remains, alive and dancing. So watch the story and smile. Ask yourself whether you are still running from happiness like Carol, or ready to drop the act and see what has always been here.