What TV series are you currently watching?

[George]

Which show of his is this? I can't keep them straight.

The first one.

[Karl Henning]

The first one.

Thanks. It speaks to Newhart's talent that he's had multiple series.

[Wanderer]

Leisurely re-watching The Witcher, an episode a day or every two days, in order to watch the new episodes afterwards with my memory of what transpired duly refreshed.

[DavidW]

Which show of his is this? I can't keep them straight.

btw simple method-- he is a shrink in Chicago in the first, owns a Vermont inn in the second, and is significantly older in the third show!  He is sitting in the doctors chair in the picture which means it is the first.

[Karl Henning]

btw simple method-- he is a shrink in Chicago in the first, owns a Vermont inn in the second, and is significantly older in the third show!  He is sitting in the doctors chair in the picture which means it is the first.

Good sleuthing!

[Karl Henning]

Just finished off 11.22.63, which my friend Robert Jan August told me about. I enjoyed it thoroughly. I was more than a little tickled, considering how Stephen King is on record scorning The Twilight Zone, that his story here is, in a way, Rod Serling's story, "Back There," built out, and transposed from the Lincoln assassination to that of Kennedy. As a result, I anticipated the Twilight Zone-like twist at the end. Really a fine series.

[Todd]

Yellowstone and its origin story 1883.  (I went the free torrent route using Plex.)  Yellowstone strikes me as Dynasty meets The Big Valley.  It's a mixed bag.  Some of the dialogue is atrocious; some is good.  Some of the plotlines are stupid; some compel.  Ultimately, it entertains, and that's all one can ask for from a television show.  Most of the credit ends up going to Kevin Costner, playing a grizzled, aged rancher with rather immense power.  All the other actors are game and more or less do OK or good work.  As a male viewer, I approve of the producers' decision to use only gorgeous actresses for all recurring female roles, including Michael Landon's kid.  The show could have been better yet had the female characters been better written.  If/when the remaining episodes become available for free, I will watch. 

1883 is a different kettle of fish.  It's orders of magnitude better.  It's a modern, brutalist take on the traditional western, and it works well.  I have no way of knowing for sure how people in the late 19th Century talked, and partly as a result, the dialogue works better.   The only bad guys are the thieves.  It offers proper Native American dialogue and relies on Native American actors and characters about as generously as Yellowstone.  And the acting is better.  When Billy Bob Thornton and the Hankses make guest appearances, that's a good sign.  At the show's core stand old hand Sam Elliot and, of all people, Tim McGraw, who turns in strikingly good work.  He was in a little snippet in Yellowstone, as was Faith Hill, but here he fills out his role.  He ought to do a proper western movie.  The few prominent female characters fare better here, with young Isabel May filling out her melodramatic role nicely.   There will not and really can't be a second season, and that's fine.  It's a good one and done show.

Now I must decide if I want to try to watch Harrison Ford and Helen Mirren in 1923.  I have doubts.

[DavidW]

Todd, I think you've convinced me to watch 1883.  I was hot and cold on Yellowstone and didn't get into it.

[SimonNZ]

Started this but not sure if I will persevere. They've taken an unfinished Austen fragment as their starting point, and rather than creating something new are reheating a list of what are now Austen character cliches from across her previous work. Doubtless there's a market for that, but it seems it's not me.

Can someone tell me if it gets better?

[George]

[Pohjolas Daughter]

Yellowstone and its origin story 1883.  (I went the free torrent route using Plex.)  Yellowstone strikes me as Dynasty meets The Big Valley.  It's a mixed bag.  Some of the dialogue is atrocious; some is good.  Some of the plotlines are stupid; some compel.  Ultimately, it entertains, and that's all one can ask for from a television show.  Most of the credit ends up going to Kevin Costner, playing a grizzled, aged rancher with rather immense power.  All the other actors are game and more or less do OK or good work.  As a male viewer, I approve of the producers' decision to use only gorgeous actresses for all recurring female roles, including Michael Landon's kid.  The show could have been better yet had the female characters been better written.  If/when the remaining episodes become available for free, I will watch. 

1883 is a different kettle of fish.  It's orders of magnitude better.  It's a modern, brutalist take on the traditional western, and it works well.  I have no way of knowing for sure how people in the late 19th Century talked, and partly as a result, the dialogue works better.   The only bad guys are the thieves.  It offers proper Native American dialogue and relies on Native American actors and characters about as generously as Yellowstone.  And the acting is better.  When Billy Bob Thornton and the Hankses make guest appearances, that's a good sign.  At the show's core stand old hand Sam Elliot and, of all people, Tim McGraw, who turns in strikingly good work.  He was in a little snippet in Yellowstone, as was Faith Hill, but here he fills out his role.  He ought to do a proper western movie.  The few prominent female characters fare better here, with young Isabel May filling out her melodramatic role nicely.   There will not and really can't be a second season, and that's fine.  It's a good one and done show.

Now I must decide if I want to try to watch Harrison Ford and Helen Mirren in 1923.  I have doubts.

Do you happen to know if they've finished showing the rest of the *fifth season of Yellowstone?  I've watched up through the midway point of that (and the *last season).

PD

[Todd]

Do you happen to know if they've finished showing the rest of the *fifth season of Yellowstone?  I've watched up through the midway point of that (and the *last season).

I do not know.

[Pohjolas Daughter]

I do not know.

This is from a TV Guide article dated June 21, 2023:

"Paramount Network's Yellowstone has just as much drama behind the scenes as it does in the show, which has led to the neo-Western ending a bit prematurely after news that star Kevin Costner wanted out in order to work on his own set of Western films. Season 5 will be the show's last, and with the second half of said season yet to air — it's tentatively scheduled to air its final six episodes in November — fans are impatiently waiting to get back to Montana. However, the ongoing feud between television studios and TV writers has led to a work stoppage that may disrupt that schedule, delaying the inevitable end to the modern-day Duttons' story. But that might be a good thing for fans; creator Taylor Sheridan now says he may add extra episodes to this back half. "

And, apparently, the actors have decided to join the writers in striking.

PD

[drogulus]

     

     I watched the first 2 seasons before. Now I see there's a third season and I'm starting over. It's on Prime and other services.

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

Sabrina, The Teenage Witch.

[VonStupp]

The Blacklist
Season 10 (2022-23)

Made it through a decade of seasons, each with 22 weekly episodes, spread across the fall and spring. Couldn't have done it without a DVR at many points. The Blacklist will probably be the last TV Show I see that follows a traditional airing model.

Kudos to James Spader and his writers, for a memorable character that my wife and I always wanted to return to.

VS

[Pohjolas Daughter]

     I watched the first 2 seasons before. Now I see there's a third season and I'm starting over. It's on Prime and other services.

So, who plays Catherine? 

PD

[KevinP]

Just finished Reacher. It's not the kind of show I usually watch (big conspiracy, most characters you meet turn out to be part of it, etc.), and it devolved into a typical action movie in the final episode (I just can't do action movies), but nonetheless it was well done and kept my interest more than these things usually do.

Apparently, people who've read the books it's based on have complained that it's too faithful--not a criticism you hear often.

[drogulus]

So, who plays Catherine? 

PD

     It's a Russian TV production. I don't know any of the names.

[DavidW]

This season had one mystery, and also wasn't based on any of the novels.  While I liked it, there is a big plot hole and there is an incident that happens to one of the main characters that shouldn't have happened, it wasn't handled well.  The overall tone is just darker, and is approaching Elizabeth George in complexity.  But unlike George, I'm not convinced that the writers are keeping all the balls they're juggling in the air.  They really needed to double check their scripts.