What TV series are you currently watching?

[Cato]

I'm almost finished with my Austrian Tatort, which I have enjoyed muchly.

   

The title translates roughly as Scene of the Crime.  I have not seen the Austrian version, but earlier manifestations were very good.

Like Doctor Who, the series goes back 50 years or so!

[Daverz]

Fun show.  A sort of mashup of The Fugitive and Columbo.

Peacock are real weasels: the first 2 episodes were pretty light on commercials.  But by the third episode the number of commercial breaks became obnoxious.  So of course I had to buy the premium, commercial free service at twice the cost.

[Brian]

Fun show.  A sort of mashup of The Fugitive and Columbo.

Peacock are real weasels: the first 2 episodes were pretty light on commercials.  But by the third episode the number of commercial breaks became obnoxious.  So of course I had to buy the premium, commercial free service at twice the cost.

You're making me glad that a friend of ours illegally acquired a copy. Fun show - not a full Columbo replacement, but certainly fun to watch.

[DavidW]

Fun show.  A sort of mashup of The Fugitive and Columbo.

Peacock are real weasels: the first 2 episodes were pretty light on commercials.  But by the third episode the number of commercial breaks became obnoxious.  So of course I had to buy the premium, commercial free service at twice the cost.

I picked up some cheap streaming service plans as a Black Friday special.  Max and Hulu are ad supported, Apple+ is not though.  Hulu was fine with the ads, they don't have many, and they're mostly early on, and they are long enough for me to do something and come back.  Nonintrusive.  How it should be, well done.

But Max is awful.  They have ad breaks every 10 minutes or so, and they are calculated to be just long enough to be annoying but not long enough for you to go do something.  I'm going to pay extra to go back to the premium sub because I want to watch the new True Detective and catch up on Doctor Who.

Later this month prime will be adding ads, and I'll see if they are on the Hulu side or the Max side.

Youtube is still the worst though.  They have so many ads on even short videos, sometimes the ads run longer than the videos themselves, the premium account is way too expensive now for what it is, and they are deliberately slowing down loading and putting up obnoxious warnings if you use an ad blocker on a pc.  You know I used to watch YT way too much, but they made me realize that I don't need them in my life.  I hardly watch them anymore.

btw Max is a huge cultural wasteland now.  They've de-emphasized premium HBO content and push awful reality tv.

[DavidW]

You're making me glad that a friend of ours illegally acquired a copy. Fun show - not a full Columbo replacement, but certainly fun to watch.

These services need to be careful.  If they try it walk it back all the way to cable days of too many commercials and overpriced plans, piracy will just increase.  As you've just illustrated!

[drogulus]

    I have Premium YT and use AdBlock with it. The only ads I see are the ones creators use to support their channels, and those are easily skipped.

    I've been following the custerfluck that is ATSC 3.0. It's a nightmare of DRM restrictions and presently it looks like you'll need an active internet connection to view the encrypted channels. That's insane, and it might not last. It looks like all avenues of escape from the cable/streaming duopoly are blocked.

     

     I would gladly buy HQ downloads of my desired videos if they were offered, and in fact I do exactly that when I can find them for sale. Right now I'm buying the Love for Lydia dvd box set for £30 plus shipping. I can understand the rights holder not running off dvds of such old programs, but then why not offer downloads at the minimal cost to make them available?

[Irons]

Mr Bates vs The Post Office.



Not since Cathy Come Home a 1966 drama shining a light on homelessness, has a TV programme shook the foundations of what is right and wrong in Great Britain.
The hero Alan Bates, until he was wrongly dismissed for dishonesty by The Post Office, was a village postmaster. Step forward the man who took on the rotting edifice of the British establishment and won! A drama based on fact, discloses shocking details how hundreds of postmasters countrywide lost everything. Lives ruined, with many serving time in prison and four taking their own life. All due to a newly installed faulty IT system. Rather then admit a system costing millions was a wrong one, the powers-to-be chose to prosecute their employees.
A scandal that has created much anger in the UK.   

[DavidW]

I started Shetland season 8.  Early days, but I've noticed that they've changed the visual aesthetic to be more bright and cheerful, which goes hand in hand with Perez leaving the scene and Tosh taking over.

[Bachtoven]

I started Shetland season 8.  Early days, but I've noticed that they've changed the visual aesthetic to be more bright and cheerful, which goes hand in hand with Perez leaving the scene and Tosh taking over.

I was hugely disappointed! For me, Tosh isn't a strong enough character/actress to carry the show. I also thought there was too much padding: the show could have been condensed to 4 or 6 episodes.

[Bachtoven]

Speaking of disappointments, I was not thrilled with the new 4th season of True Detective. The acting seems sub-par and I disliked every character! Does every detective show have to have detectives/cops with massive amounts of baggage? I hope it gets better, but based on the NY Times' review, it just gets more preposterous.

[Brian]

Does every detective show have to have detectives/cops with massive amounts of baggage?

Hah! Good question. I remember being struck a while ago by how many of the great/famous detectives are single or widowed or divorced. Marple, Dalgliesh, Wallander, Marlowe, Jessica Fletcher, Monk, Jane Tennison, Morse, Foyle. In some cases, they have a partner who is also their best or only friend. Holmes, Poirot, Jim Rockford and his dad. And that doesn't even consider detectives whose characters are based on their huge/exaggerated flaws (Luther at the tragic end, Nick & Nora Charles at the comedic).

The major detectives who seem most free of baggage, and most able to have a happy relationship, are Columbo, Tom Barnaby, and (his name gives it away) Lord Peter Wimsey.

[DavidW]

Speaking of disappointments, I was not thrilled with the new 4th season of True Detective. The acting seems sub-par and I disliked every character! Does every detective show have to have detectives/cops with massive amounts of baggage? I hope it gets better, but based on the NY Times' review, it just gets more prep0sterous.

It is pretty cliche at this point.  For a blast from the past Perry Mason and his team do investigations without having any of the characters as dark and broody.  And for something more recent Detective Anna is a Russian show with a teenager detective set in I would like to say early 20th century rural Russia.

And of course the lighthearted mysteries like Psych, Monk, Death in Paradise etc.

[drogulus]

    Embrace the dark.

[George]

It is pretty cliche at this point.  For a blast from the past Perry Mason and his team do investigations without having any of the characters as dark and broody.  And for something more recent Detective Anna is a Russian show with a teenager detective set in I would like to say early 20th century rural Russia.

And of course the lighthearted mysteries like Psych, Monk, Death in Paradise etc.

Monk really grew on me. It was (or maybe still is) free on amazon Prime too. The reboot was fun, but not on the same level as the original series.

[JBS]

Hah! Good question. I remember being struck a while ago by how many of the great/famous detectives are single or widowed or divorced. Marple, Dalgliesh, Wallander, Marlowe, Jessica Fletcher, Monk, Jane Tennison, Morse, Foyle. In some cases, they have a partner who is also their best or only friend. Holmes, Poirot, Jim Rockford and his dad. And that doesn't even consider detectives whose characters are based on their huge/exaggerated flaws (Luther at the tragic end, Nick & Nora Charles at the comedic).

The major detectives who seem most free of baggage, and most able to have a happy relationship, are Columbo, Tom Barnaby, and (his name gives it away) Lord Peter Wimsey.

Lord Peter in fact had tremendous amount of baggage: PTSD from his service in WWI, enormous guilt when his hobby results in a murderer being executed, and he hated being an aristocrat who did nothing to deserve being rich.
[The PTSD is important in Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club but isn't fully fleshed out until the very last novel, Busman's Honeymoon.]

[Brian]

Lord Peter in fact had tremendous amount of baggage: PTSD from his service in WWI, enormous guilt when his hobby results in a murderer being executed, and he hated being an aristocrat who did nothing to deserve being rich.
[The PTSD is important in Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club but isn't fully fleshed out until the very last novel, Busman's Honeymoon.]

Oh goodness, thank you about the PTSD angle - I think I only remembered reading the books where he is merrily solving crimes and romancing his lady assistant. Hadn't gotten to those two.

[DavidW]

Monk really grew on me. It was (or maybe still is) free on amazon Prime too. The reboot was fun, but not on the same level as the original series.

I didn't know there was a reboot!

[DavidW]

Oh goodness, thank you about the PTSD angle - I think I only remembered reading the books where he is merrily solving crimes and romancing his lady assistant. Hadn't gotten to those two.

That reminds me in both Shetland and Vera, in the novels the characters have far less baggage and the stories are more like cozy mysteries than the tv shows are.

[George]

I didn't know there was a reboot!

https://m.imdb.com/title/tt27145269/

[steve ridgway]

Mr Bates vs The Post Office.



Not since Cathy Come Home a 1966 drama shining a light on homelessness, has a TV programme shook the foundations of what is right and wrong in Great Britain.
The hero Alan Bates, until he was wrongly dismissed for dishonesty by The Post Office, was a village postmaster. Step forward the man who took on the rotting edifice of the British establishment and won! A drama based on fact, discloses shocking details how hundreds of postmasters countrywide lost everything. Lives ruined, with many serving time in prison and four taking their own life. All due to a newly installed faulty IT system. Rather then admit a system costing millions was a wrong one, the powers-to-be chose to prosecute their employees.
A scandal that has created much anger in the UK.   

Yes, the TV drama has really stirred things up. There's a government inquiry in progress at the moment which I'm following on BBC News. I'm now feeling very relieved that the IT systems I worked on didn't have such appalling consequences.