What TV series are you currently watching?

[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.

[Karl Henning]

Curiosity will soon get the better of me: The Wild Wild West.
Despite high ratings, the series was cancelled near the end of its fourth season as a concession to Congress over television violence.
TD: Still easing along with MASH and Taxi, enjoying Keeping Up Appearances with the ladies, and I've even plugged back into The Twilight Zone. In fact, my curiosity re: The Wild Wild West was piqued past endurance by mention in a commentary on "The Four of Us Are Dying," as Ross Martin is one of the four.

[Karl Henning]

Curiosity will soon get the better of me: The Wild Wild West.
Despite high ratings, the series was cancelled near the end of its fourth season as a concession to Congress over television violence.

The main title theme was written by Richard Markowitz, who previously composed the theme for the TV series The Rebel. He was brought in after the producers rejected two attempts by film composer Dimitri Tiomkin.

[George]

More Yellowstone, Blue Bloods and Everybody Loves Raymond

[Karl Henning]

I've even plugged back into The Twilight Zone. In fact, my curiosity re: The Wild Wild West was piqued past endurance by mention in a commentary on "The Four of Us Are Dying," as Ross Martin is one of the four.

I'm chuckling because, lo! all these years I've lived with this Twilight Zone set, and it can still pose risks to me.

[drogulus]

     Now we both are watching an old favorite, The Jewel and The Crown. I think I have the DVD set somewhere but the ones I'm watching are from Amazon Prime and are 1080p quality.

[Philo]

School year is about to start, so my annual retrying to rewatch Season 5 of 24:

[AnotherSpin]

School year is about to start, so my annual retrying to rewatch Season 5 of 24:

Are you rewatching only Season 5? If so, why that one in particular?

I have always loved 24 as a whole. Some seasons more than others, of course, but I value the series when taken together.

These days I feel a little cooler toward it, yet I am almost certain that sooner or later I will pick a season and start watching again.

[Philo]

Are you rewatching only Season 5? If so, why that one in particular?

I have always loved 24 as a whole. Some seasons more than others, of course, but I value the series when taken together.

These days I feel a little cooler toward it, yet I am almost certain that sooner or later I will pick a season and start watching again.

I've seen most of the original show, but only Season 5 captured my full attention. That is due in large part that Vince Flynn was brought in as a story consultant, which was a coup in and of itself, but it also had a load of character actors I love in prominent roles: Peter Weller, Geraint Wyn Davies, John lln Nelson, Jude Ciccolella, Glenn Morshower, Sandrine Holt, Dennis Haysbert, D.B. Woodside, Julia Sands, David Dayan Fisher, Connie Britton, Brady Corbet, and Sean Astin.

[Fëanor]

I'm must admit for the 3rd or 4th time I'm rewatching Snowpiercer, the TV series version, 4 seasons: 2020-2024.

IMHO, this is a significantly underrated series. -- IMDB 6.9/10; Rotten Tomatoes 76% by critics, 80+% by viewers.  Presently there are 3 seasons available on Netflix Canada -- which I've viewed before.  I'm very much looking forward to Season 4 as soon as it's available;  apparently Season 5 was planned has probably been cancelled.

Big stars are Daveed Diggs as 'Andre Layton', Jennifer Connelly as 'Melanie Cavill', and Sean Bean as 'Joseph Wilford'.  There have been various screen writers and directors as is not unusual for series.

[Florestan]

About to finish:



Weird. Meh.

Just one instance: pretty much everybody speaks their native language (English, German, Danish, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Polish, Chinese) yet pretty much everybody understands everybody else. 

Just started:



Weird argument, but at least the leading female character is prettier than in the other. 

[George]

It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia
Blue Bloods
Everybody Loves Raymond

[Todd]

In the 90s and aughts, I used to watch Globe Trekker (aka, Lonely Planet and/or Pilot Guides) as various travelers, including a young Bradley Cooper, ventured to exotic and far-flung locales.  YouTube has many more options nowadays, very often solo or duo travelers handling everything themselves.  The latest one I'm fond of is Little Chinese Everywhere, which documents Yan and sometimes her German husband traveling the old Silk Road and other locales, mostly focused on China.  They also covered a partly German speaking town in Kyrgyzstan.  The channel offers nice vignettes of mundane life across Eurasia.

Other channels in a similar vein include Eli From Russia, who travels the vast expanse of Russia and former Soviet Republics (including a visually fantastic trip to Lake Baikal), and Mike Okay, a Brit who travels to and fro.  Evidently, Afghanistan has turned into something of an adventure destination for similar channels.  I think I'll pass on that one, though I would like to see Herat in person.  Amusingly, I've seen comments on the interwebs that claim these travelogue folks act as propagandists for this or that government because they generally avoid politics and focus on what it's like on the street.  How very bad.

[Mandryka]

Very good -- Lars Von Trier's The Kingdom. Twin Peaksy.

Do you know it @prémont ?  Was the hospital you worked at like that?

[prémont]

Very good -- Lars Von Trier's The Kingdom. Twin Peaksy.

Do you know it @prémont ?  Was the hospital you worked at like that?

I have watched some of the first series of "Riget," and it bored me quite a bit. It's indeed a crude and exaggerated caricature of the conditions in Danish hospitals. Thankfully, I have most often been more fortunate with the places I have worked.

[Karl Henning]

The end of Season 6 sees Mission: Impossible placing each of the team members in serious peril. Tonight is Jim's turn 

[Kalevala]

I've been watching some episodes of "The Big Bang Theory" which I hadn't caught in the past.

One tonight, which had me laughing outloud at times was the one in which Sheldon and Amy get married.  Loved the bit in particular in which Sheldon was retying and retying his bowtie and Amy asks him why, etc.  She tells him that in the renaissance the Italians had a term named "sprezzatura" and he responds along the lines of "But you know that I'm an enlightenmentist [philosophe?]; how are we ever going to figure out how to raise our children together?!"

K

[AnotherSpin]

I have watched some of the first series of "Riget," and it bored me quite a bit. It's indeed a crude and exaggerated caricature of the conditions in Danish hospitals. Thankfully, I have most often been more fortunate with the places I have worked.

I'm pretty clueless about proper film art. I just watch movies. Sometimes I enjoy them, but honestly most of the time it's just something to do in the evening. And lately, a way to escape the permanent background anxiety of war.

But even with my limited understanding, I feel that someone like Lars von Trier isn't really trying to show life "as it is".

I loved The Idiots once, watched it probably three times, or so. Melancholia actually reached something very deep inside me and shook me quite seriously.

A few other films of his I just couldn't stand, they felt insanely overdone.

[Mandryka]

I have watched some of the first series of "Riget," and it bored me quite a bit. It's indeed a crude and exaggerated caricature of the conditions in Danish hospitals. Thankfully, I have most often been more fortunate with the places I have worked.

It doesn't reflect well on Swedes!