What TV SHOWS are you watching?

I’ll second that opinion on Dirk Gently. I wasn’t entirely enamoured with all of the first season either, but it’s better than the BBC stab at an adaptation from a few years back. I get the feeling that Adam’s work is just resistant to decent adaptation.

Watched the Detectorists special and I hate to say that I found it disappointing. I won’t spoil anything here with details, I think it was just the tonal shift required to get our characters back to being themselves which results in everything having a negative feel opposed to the high positivity of the season three finale. I really hope there is another season greenlit as this doesn’t feel like the right ending for the show.

I got my hands on the detectorists special too. The arc in the show felt pretty artificial before it picked up in the second half. I liked it but didn't love it, I would watch more. It's tough because as every other person said, the S3 ending is perfect and somewhat definitive feeling.

I loved the S3 ending but it did leave me with questions about the reward that this episode answered. One of the things I liked about this episode is it opens the door for more. Also, we got to hear Varda say something.

I think you are correct with your summation there, and the episode might well sit better on a rewatch with that in mind. The negative tension in the episode is still a bother for me, particularly that ‘one year later’ segue...

^I agree, you couldn't really have gone on from the S3 arc but that also means you have to undo it if you're going to make more in any way, even a one-off. The conflicts are basically resolved.

Why must they fiddle with The Detectorists? I thought the Brits could handle clean endings and permanence.

I was watching The Peripheral and started rereading the book, and ended up rereading the whole thing and understanding it much better the second time around. I finally got back to watching the final two s episodes of season one and it feels like the shrinking special effects budget has shaped the plot along the lines of a WB crime soap opera with some plot twists


I mean, I’ll watch the next season, but it will leave me feeling the same sort of self-loathing that I had tonight after honking down half a bucket of slightly burned homemade toffee while talking to friends for two hours



Doing stuff on the iPad always feels like a hassle

Pawn shop chicken

The UK like a Christmas special and have certain expectations, I think, about what gets delivered in them
They tend to have a bit more room (the specials) for being both more canonical (in terms of stereotypical characterisation) and less (in terms of plot), if that makes sense.

Well it makes a change from “the gang all go to Ibiza” which is the typical go-to for a sitcom holiday episode.

Been watching the first season of Spy x Family. It’s delightful.

I have never liked Nicholas Winding Refn's work. I love his visual style, and his soundtracks. But the story or characters always leave me cold. Yet, I keep trying.

So I watched episode 1 of Copenhagen Cowboy, new on Netflix. It seemed like it was going to be interesting, and then... a character who only speaks in pig noises shows up. No explanation, and everyone around them seems to think this is normal. The character in question is a "pig" in the moral sense, but to also have them speak like a pig is.... well perfectly normal if you are Nicholas Winding Refn.

It's no wonder this guy gets along with Hideo Kojima so well.

Finished up Willow on D+. Quite a mixed bag, as they have some really really weird deviations into scenes that just don't make any sense, or bits of dialogue that feel quite preachy. But then they forget themselves and dive into a Willow world and it is FANTASTIC. The last few eps in particular are just visually incredible, whoever made the call to us ethe Volume or however they did it was 100% correct. The night scene on the glassy sea was one of the best looking scenes I've ever watched. Plus they finally leaned into the magic aspect of the show and WOW, was that some wild shit.

Does seem a bit silly that Willow has this imposter syndrome for most of the show but then can throw down like a heavy machine gunner when he wants.

Each character gets a nice growth arc, though they spend FAR too much time on the "mystery of Mad martigan" and his macguffin quest for my tastes.

Not sure this show was much of a hit and it will probably be a victim of the upcoming streaming collapse, but I liked more than I disliked and want to see more, especially if they can reign in the very modern sounding diatribes and get in their "trope subversion" through actions, not words. There was some really nice stuff in there with how the characters did or did not follow the "typical path" but it works much better when we see it, not get lectured about it.

The Last of Us is exceptional.

New season of All Creatures Great and Small is starting to come out, so my spouse and I are looking forward to catching those episodes.

We started watching Scarlet and the Duke and it just didn't work for us. The Duke is so hatefully shitty that even though I suspect they'll work pretty hard to make him tolerable as the seasons go on we just weren't interested. It was soooo one note and boring. "This man is a sexist and will block what she wants to do!" in every single scene. We get it! Don't fill up the first 3-4 episodes 50% with this! Also, I do not know for sure, but this really felt like they were building some sort of future romantic relationship for them low key and it felt like disgusting shipping fan culture bullshit. Like "yes, he questions her personhood on a regular basis. But these are both hot people so they need to get together, right? This is TV in the 2020s." I hope not but I won't be finding out. Bad vibes.

I started WOLF HALL which came out a few years ago on PBS/Masterpiece Theatre/BBC etc. I liked the books and love the topic, but Rylance's performance as Oliver Cromwell so far is not really doing anything for me. He seems very stoic and meek, and that's not how he came across to me in the books. He's deferent, but that's not the same as timid.

charlest wrote: The Last of Us is exceptional.

I thought it was solid. I'm a fan of basically anything post-apoc, but have never played the game (console games, in general, just haven't been my thing since the Sega Genesis) so I had no grounding in its original mythos. I liked the wholeness of most of the characters. They have a basis in their reality and aren't just tools to propel the story. I'm a little less enthused with Bella Ramsey's character because she does seem to be Walking Plot Point in that first episode, but I'm willing to give it some time and see how she plays out. I was initially inspired to watch it, not only because it's a post-apoc setting, but also because it's produced and mostly written by Craig Mazin, of Chernobyl fame (I've watched the latter series five times, to date.) So my expectations remain quite high.