What TV series are you currently watching?

[George]

[George]

[SonicMan46]

Well, Susan refuses to watch most of my movies, esp. the old B&Ws - SO, we've been on TV series: 1) Country Music - the Ken Burns doc which is excellent and she actually enjoyed!; 2) The Roosevelts - another outstanding Burns series w/ great coverage of all three shown; and 3) Scott Yoo's Great Performances shows which we are still watching - forgot how good these were!  Dave

[Karl Henning]

Well, Susan refuses to watch most of my movies, esp. the old B&Ws - SO, we've been on TV series: 1) Country Music - the Ken Burns doc which is excellent and she actually enjoyed!; 2) The Roosevelts - another outstanding Burns series w/ great coverage of all three shown; and 3) Scott Yoo's Great Performances shows which we are still watching - forgot how good these were!  Dave

I need to resume my place in Country Music. 

[SimonNZ]

[drogulus]

     Following on from Secret Army I'm continuing my exploration of '70s British series TV with Enemy at the Door, a story about the German occupation of the Channel Islands in 1940.

[drogulus]

     A commenter on Amazon Prime reviews Enemy at the Door as follows:

Truly gripping drama, made in the days when producers, directors and writers actually understood what drama is. This is a series aimed at adults with intelligently written scripts unlike the insultingly juvenile content that now fills cinemas and TV screens. It explores the political at the personal level, the correct way to write political drama. Though centred on certain key islander and German characters, the focus shifts week by week to examine various aspects of the problems of the different members of the island population and the occupying forces, in the light of their various obligations, perils and follies.

 The result is very dark, sometimes shocking and usually melancholy, this is in spite of the relatively low amount of violence portrayed. The series captures an all pervading sense of menace and threat, not just for the islanders, but for those Germans who fall foul of the interfering SS busybodies, so disturbingly represented by Simon Cadell. The acting in this series is superb. I highly recommend this series to anyone who wants to learn how to write real drama. It is full of suspense.

     Well all right, then.   

[DavidW]

I had been watching The Three Body Problem but I thought it was stupid and I just stopped.

A few weeks ago I was watching Constellation but once the real premise was revealed, I was disappointed and I stopped watching.

[drogulus]

I had been watching The Three Body Problem but I thought it was stupid and I just stopped.

     My gripe was how they depicted the main characters as immature dudes and dudettes, apparently so they would be relatable to an audience of similarly childish people.

     Benedict Wong helped, though, as did Liam Cunningham.

[George]

[Cato]

My gripe was how they depicted the main characters as immature dudes and dudettes, apparently so they would be relatable to an audience of similarly childish people.

    Benedict Wong helped, though, as did Liam Cunningham.

Yes!  Given the lack of true adults these days among the general population, your observation explains a good deal of why we have constant comic-book movies cranked out by the kulcheral poobahs!

Recently we have been revisiting In Plain Sight, a drama with a good amount of comedy about the Witness Protection program in Albuquerque, where Bugs Bunny famously should have taken a "left toin." 

In one episode (Season 2, Episode 7, Duplicate Bridge), the writers and actors reached the level of Greek tragedy with the story of an architect of bridges, who accuses a construction company of knowingly substituting cheaper and inferior materials for bridge, which collapsed and which he had designed.

The architect/engineer is positive that the bridge collapsed because of cheaper, inferior materials and not because of any flaw in his design.

Clarke Peters, a great actor, portrays the architect: I do not know if he received any awards for the performance, but he should have!

 

[George]

Clarke Peters, a great actor, portrays the architect: I do not know if he received any awards for the performance, but he should have!

I loved him in The Wire and Chance.

[Karl Henning]

I'm in season 3 of Mission: Impossible. Cinnamon (Barbara Bain) is caught during an op where she's taking photos of lists of enemy agents in "The Exchange." She's nearly broken (quite an uncomfortable show) but the team does spring her. Kind of wondering if this may be the occasion for Bain to bow out.

[Karl Henning]

Kind of wondering if this may be the occasion for Bain to bow out.

Apparently not: Cinnamon was back on duty the following week. Jn Vernon played her tormenter in "The Exchange," Col. Strom. I thought he looked familiar: he played Dean Wormer in Animal House.

[DavidW]

I did it!  I finished my project to rewatch/watch Modern Who to be caught up before I watch the return of David Tennant.

Season 13: The Flux... great story, it was a bit rushed due to covid with some dangling plot points.  The Sontarans were finally brutal, they were always a joke in modern Who.  The angels episode was the best since Blink.  And the Power of the Doctor had all the cameos that should have been in the 50th anniversary special.  It had multiple doctors and companions from classic who.  The season was actually very good.

RTD era: all hits, no misses hits character arcs and meaningful plots better than the rest
Moffat era: a mixed bag, but the great episodes were truly the best
Chibnall era: another mixed bag, but it did have plenty of good arcs better executed than Moffat but monster of the week episodes were terrible, definitely underrated by the fanbase




 

[George]

[Iota]

th

Season 1

I didn't know what to expect when I initially dipped my toe into this series, set against the dawn of crack cocaine in LA, but am finding it very good, very involving. Various tales run concurrently within it, with the occasional overlap of characters from them, and am looking forward to seeing where it all leads. A really well done thing.

[SimonNZ]

[Karl Henning]

"Doomsday" from season 3 of Mission: Impossible puts Barney in a really tight spot. And we see the Shaolin Master from Kung Fu, too.

[DavidW]

I finished season 1 of Doctor Who!  That was a long journey of rewatching and watching 20 years of TV.

This season saw several classic Who villains and an old companion.  The specials were great.  The first two episodes not so much, and then everything else was good to great.  Thumbs up!

I'll stop blathering on about Doctor Who now on this thread.