Bob The Badger

I didn't know until this afternoon, but we have a tradition that I clean my wife's car on Christmas Eve.

1 minute ago, ThePrisoner said:

I imagine it's still all on All4, Sky Box Sets etc.

It was on Amazon as a pay per view, but couldn't see it elsewhere but I'll take another look.

On 17/12/2021 at 09:36, Wolfie said:

Catastrophe

I was just trying to think of the name of that. Very, very good.

On 16/12/2021 at 18:31, Unlucky Alf said:

Agreed, But it's the situations they get into that makes it a comedy.

It still doesn't make them sitcoms anymore than a burglar dying in the first episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm makes it a drama

On 16/12/2021 at 15:22, GboroRam said:

Friday Night Dinner, one that's not been mentioned so far.  

Just started to get into that when they took it of Netflix 

On 18/12/2021 at 02:27, Coconut's Beard said:

Boosh yes, never got Reeves & Mortimer, Shooting Stars etc, they're two comics beter off apart IMO

Plus they're not sitcoms!

On 22/12/2021 at 14:32, Anag Ram said:

I liked Alma’s not normal and it helped that it was largely autobiographical. 

I'm enjoying it, but stuck after episode two because the wife doesn't like it and I rarely watch TV without her.

I compared it to Flea Bag which she loves and you would have thought I'd have compared poached lobster to raw wood lice such was her revulsion.

Jim Gaffigan's latest comedy special on Netflix.

Gaffigan is the only comic I have seen live who used material I'd already heard before (if you know it, he did the hot pockets sketch), although he was still good.

He seemed a bit edgier in this than he normally is, even alluding to his dislike of Trump saying his wife blamed him for Trump getting elected as well as the Kavanagh hearings. 

Typical Gaffigan for me, some laugh out loud stuff interspersed with filler that didn't really go anywhere and possibly the most obvious call back to end a show I have ever seen a top comedian do.

Still well worth a watch though and whereas I often think he's missed an opportunity to take a good set into a great set, I've always had a good laugh watching him.

Family friendly too (with just one bar steward) which is a rarity for comedy specials.

Phil Gee/10 - great and not so great.

2 hours ago, Chester40 said:

I would read that thread. Mine are mostly mentioned already. Only complication is that... I enjoy series for different reasons at different times, whilst some hold up better to repeated viewing, some are more 'of their time' and have aged badly and some started off amazing then seriously tailed off.

Walking Day series 1 was amazing, 24 was brilliant for a time, Dexter I really love but it's a guilty pleasure in comparison to something weighty like The Sopranos.

Last thing, Gomorrah with no Ciro is a lesser being....

The first 2 or 3 of seasons of 24 were brilliant even if Chloe was the worst over-actor ever! I even bought the 2nd and 3rd on DVD because we missed them.

But you're right, drama has got so gritty and realistic, I think I'd find them cheesy now.

I never saw The Sopranos and when I went to try and get into it about 5 years ago I just couldn't.

I think it was a combination of low-def which really bugs me now, and it feeling dated.

I know I missed out with that.

Having said that, I bailed out of Breaking Bad a couple of times and I nearly quit Bosch after the first season and both turned out to be great.

I found Schitt's Creek the same, I thought it was a bit childish half way through the first season, but my wife liked it so I hung in there. Now I think it was brilliant and I'm gutted it ended.

Good characters and writing take time to develop. 

Well let's hope it was a Nigel Pearson/10 on an anger management scale rather than a managing a football team scale.

Happy birthday.

I shall be posting this when they not only don't get it but get told they've been relegated to a village and they've given it to Stanley in the Falklands Isles as their penguins are just nicer people..

Not that I'm bitter.

3 hours ago, NottsRam said:

Out of interest, what else is in your top 3 or 4 as we seem to have similar tastes Bob

The usual suspects that I'm *guessing* you like.

Breaking Bad

True Detective (I think it was you mentioned that too)

Mindhunter

The Wire

Now I realise how stupid it was to say I had a top 3 or 4.

We should start a separate thread where people can list their top 10, but even that would be tough

8 hours ago, Bris Vegas said:

The vaccinated?

Until the EFL impose a one vaccination penalty with the booster jab suspended until you an prove masks really do help save lives.

5 minutes ago, Chester40 said:

Totally agree.

Succession is a comedy at its heart for me, so it never resonates or hits home in the same way as a drama or thriller does. 

Its clever and kinda makes me feel good that I'm understanding it. Something like The Office was the same, where  I admired it's subtlety and patted myself on the back that other people thought it was boring or strange.

But I ultimately prefer action that is high quality drama and doesn't need me to think too much, I can just sit back and be blown away.

As @Mostyn6says the characters aren't 'real' in Succession because that's what gives it the satirical edge, Gomorrah has characters that just feel so real that you get totally immersed in a world that feels like you are living it yourself. 

It's my favourite series ever I think..only True Detective series 1 compares recently,  otherwise you are going back to the Sopranos maybe. I'm just saving this series cos when it's gone, its gone.

I've watched Narcos, Narcos Mexico   El Chapo...all great.

 

Have you seen Spiral, the French cop drama? I intend to but haven't yet because there's something like 15 seasons and since I got back fro the States there's always other stuff I want to watch where I don't have to hand over the next 3 months of TV watching.

My sister reckons it's the only thing she's seen that's better than Gomorrah and it get's an insanely high (for something that's not currently running) 8.5 on IMDb.

There is so much high quality accessible drama at the moment that it's mind blowing. I'm frequently wondering to watch, not because there is nothing, but because there is so much amazing choice.

7 hours ago, Anag Ram said:

I’m holding back on watching the whole series as I’m still pining for Succession.

Everything else will seem very mediocre ?

Succession was great although not watched Season 3 yet, but Gomorrah is better imho. In my top 3 or 4 of all time.

Just finished the latest Narcos - 8.5/10 - every single season has been outstanding with some absolutely world-class acting. Nothing has quite matched the first 2 with Escobar, but that's like complaining Igor Stimac wasn't quite Colin Todd.

20 hours ago, IslandExile said:

Do I think Rooney is a tactical genius?

No, but he's learning and has improved over last year.

Do I think he's getting the best out of the players available?

Mostly yes. Sibley and Jozwiak are possible exceptions but there may be other reasons for that. All players appear very motivated despite the club's position.

Has Rooney had long enough to prove his credentials?

It's not the time so much as the circumstances. These are exceptional times and it's nigh on impossible to judge.

Could another manager do better with the club in its current plight?

Maybe. We will never know. Without a goalscorer and with a 21 point deduction, it's hard to see anyone doing "well enough" (also note what's happened to many people's oft touted candidates: Hughton, Cook and Jokanovic).

So what's so good about Rooney?

The way he has conducted himself throughout this whole sorry process. By all accounts his approach to the players and staff has been empathetic, considerate and thoughtful. He has surprised me with - for the want of a better word - his "class". He thoroughly deserves our support.

Let's judge his football management when (if) the club is ever stabilized. Once he has truly been able to assemble his squad and started playing his preferred tactics rather than those dictated to him by squad availability and the quest for survival.

Come on Derby. Come on Rooney ?

What he said. 

14 minutes ago, Andicis said:

This is excellent news.

It is excellent news.

As is the reason.

Two excellent bits of news.

Group hug.

Interestingly when I posted. a link to an article saying it was a lot less dangerous in The Conversation it got no response.

BBC 5Live Drive got an expert from some university or other (I missed it but it could be the same one I guess) on now saying it may be 80% less dangerous and Tony Livesey said 'that's great news' (he'll be fired by the BBC no doubt for saying something so outrageous) and the Professor said 'it is but we need to be careful'.

He went on to explain that thy think the high transmission is because it's hitting younger people who are out socialising more at the moment and who are much less likely to be double vaccinated and had the booster.

He then said that we must get more people to take the booster.

Biased BBC naysayer and lunatic Livesey responded with ' but the uptake rate looks very impressive' in an almost happy voice.

To which the pretend scientist said 'it is, and as one supermarket chain says every little helps, but we need moe'r

So you can hear:

It's a lot less aggressive than was feared. Told you so.

Or:

The vaccine is working. Told you so.

Or you can be a grown up and take from it that it's a lot less aggressive than we thought and the booster is helping with that, so the advice to get it, is solid advice

Best keep to the half of the story that we most want to hear though.

21 minutes ago, i-Ram said:

Jordan Henderson: Liverpool captain concerned player welfare re. COVID not taken seriously.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/59750312
 

I heard that interview.

I'm not sure what he was thinking of tbh.

The epitome of tone deaf.

38 minutes ago, sawley_ram said:

My two pence on the whole pandemic has been (for the past year now) that our reaction to Covid is worse than Covid itself.

I lost two relatives prematurely to cancer last year because their cancer treatment was stopped for too long. They were 58 and 73, both mothers. We don't know the true number of people 'killed by Covid' because the metric is so vague, and we'll certainly never even have a guess at how many died from missed treatments and operations. Deaths are certainly above average, but that's because it's new. The flu kills tens of thousands and sadly the suffering is much the same. My 95-year-old Grandmother had Covid last year and survived it with no symptoms, passing away earlier this year due to frailty of old age. She was a very sociable woman but the last year of her life was spent distanced from family, even after a year of living with and learning from this seasonal virus. I will never forget being crouched down by her death bed, wearing gloves, a mask, an apron and having to have the door wide open and her asking why it had to be like this. The loneliness and distress from not seeing her own family is what killed her. 

As it happens today is my first day post-isolation, as I caught Covid at a works' Christmas party a few weeks ago. My symptoms were very mild but because I was positive, I had to become economically inactive for 10 days and stay at home, as did most of the team. As a result of this we now have a backlog of around 1000 patients whose tissue samples are awaiting analysis -- some of those eventual diagnoses will determine cancer and these will be late diagnoses. My fiancee is a District Nurse and although she had no symptoms, she too had to stay at home and an already stretched NHS Trust suffered even more.

There's no denying the virus is real, just like other seasonal viruses, but we will never, ever, ever defeat it because it will continue to mutate, just like all the other seasonal viruses! We cannot continue to endure a never-ending cycle of shutting down and restarting sections of society. 

I'm sorry you had to go through that. My wife didn't get to say goodbye to her dad after we moved continents to be with him because we were stuck in quarantine after flying home. He went into a coma 2-days before we could drive down to Cornwall. That was cancer too.

But the flu analogy is so off the mark.

The flu almost disappeared last winter because of social distancing and mask wearing.

But those same measures struggled to contain Covid.

The flu is way easier to contain and it's not as deadly either.

I agree we will have to live with it, it's not about beating it any more (even if it once was before much was known about how ducking devious it is), it's about not allowing it to make the situation that we both went through even more common.

I just heard a doctor interviewed by Naga Munchetty and he said he's given up writing a rota because he has so many staff off ill and has just sent out a message, if you can come to work, come to work.

That can get much worse because omicron is clearly a lot more contagious. Or at least people on the cutting edge think it can.

I think there are different arguments going on here and I think the Government have done a shocking job of getting the message out.

2 minutes ago, Archied said:

Did your wife make a decision to follow that career path knowing she would have to accept those vaccines ? The sensible work around may be making these covid vaccines mandatory for new entrants into the profession with sensible testing regimes for those already in post who don’t want this NEW vaccine that they may feel they don’t need and is a needless risk ?

PMSL!

I can just imagine all the doctors and nurses saying, 'well I signed up for this job knowing I 'd need a flu jab and hep B and tetanus and MMR, but I never knew they'd add another one. I want my Uni money back I'm not having that!' 

I wonder if anybody ever decides to be a doctor and nurse, but then thinks they'd better check what vaccines they'll need first and then changes their mind.

1 hour ago, maxjam said:

So whats the alternative then?

Covid will continue to mutate, more than likely requiring a yearly booster as we have for flu.  The vaccine doesn't stop you from catching it or transmitting it therefore we are always going to suffer from 'pingdemic'.

At what point do we just agree that we vaccinate to protect ourselves and allow the asymptomatic and those with a sniffle to carry on working as we did pre-covid?

We could hit 100% vaccine coverage and give out 100% boosters every single year but this is not going away now - under current guidelines that means living under the threat of the Govt imposing restrictions every winter and the NHS (and the country at large) grinding to a standstill every year.

Sadly, the best alternative has been and gone to a large extent with people, worldwide, not just here, refusing to get vaccinated or wear masks.

Now, according to experts the alternative/advice, is to continue to wear a mask, continue to social distance, get vaccinated if you haven't etc.

I'm not calling for a lockdown, nor am I saying we shouldn't have a lockdown.

I'm just saying we should listen to the scientists and people on the cutting edge who know what the duck is really happening.

I do think medical staff need to shut up whining and get vaccinated though. Although I suspect from anecdotal evidence that of those 60k who are supposedly refusing (just quoting another poster) I doubt many are doctors or nurses.

You can barely move on Tik Tok and Twitter for medical professionals saying get vaccinated or trying to explain how bad it is yet I haven't seen anybody remotely credible saying the opposite. 

2 hours ago, G STAR RAM said:

Israel moving on to 4th jab aren't they, soon even the boosted won't be 'fully vaccinated'.

Tetanus jab wears off after (I think) about 5 years.

Shingles loses its effectiveness after about 10 years.

The flu jab only lasts a year.

They're not selling bus passes here, vaccines wear off, they're just trying to figure out the speed and how often is necessary to revaccinate. 

1 hour ago, G STAR RAM said:

As I am sure you are aware, I'm far from an expert in this field...but someone who works for the NHS said 3 is the magic number and it is the 3rd jab that will give you maximum protection from viruses.

And I'm far from an expert too (which is why I listen to experts).

But as I posted in here a few days ago, in my wife's department (colorectal oncology) they started giving a 2nd booster (4th jab) to the most vulnerable patients a few weeks ago because there is evidence that it continues to boost immunity incrementally. 

That each jab isn't to replace the previous one, it's to build upon it.

Ask @Archied I'm sure he'll tell you that when you're building a wall, placing one brick on top of another doesn't necessarily means the first brick failed. 

1 hour ago, rammieib said:

Or we could decide not to fire 60,000 health workers who have made a decision not to take the vaccine which I completely respect is their right.

Or we could say to NHS staff they don’t need to isolate/not go to work if a close contact is positive, instead ask them to conduct a daily test before their shift?

For me it’s the quite ridiculous decisions by Government that cause the problems.

I'm not going to say I disagree with the Government having made decisions, but t his is an instance where the public could bail out the people they elected to power by not refusing to wear a mask or get vaccinated.

Nobody has been fired yet, and as I have said ion here many times, health workers already have to have certain jabs. My wife who is a Doctor of Nursing , had to have 5 as terms of her employment. Why is that any different?

I'd like to ask ANYBODY who thinks they shouldn't have to get vaccinated, does that mean you're ok with scrapping all mandatory vaccinations for health care workers?