Watchable telly

[Chester40]

House of Dragons - ita funny how you can put all the same ingredients into a tin and make an amazing cake, but slightly alter the amounts of each and cook it for too long....and you get something pretty disappointing. 

That's my overwhelming feeling.  Characters I don't care about, confusing storylines, long periods of endless chat that seem hideously overblown. It has all the same basic ingredients as Game of Thrones but is really testing my patience.

[Crewton]

I watched the Werner Herzog documentary "The Fire Within : A Requiem For Katia and Maurice Krafft" last night - it's a tribute to the two volcanologists and film-makers who died together, along with many others, in a pyroclastic flow event on Kyushu island in Japan in 1991.

The cinematography, all filmed by Maurice Krafft, is absolutely stunning and other-worldly. Available on i-Player. Recommended.

[Anag Ram]

4 hours ago, Chester40 said:

House of Dragons - ita funny how you can put all the same ingredients into a tin and make an amazing cake, but slightly alter the amounts of each and cook it for too long....and you get something pretty disappointing. 

That's my overwhelming feeling.  Characters I don't care about, confusing storylines, long periods of endless chat that seem hideously overblown. It has all the same basic ingredients as Game of Thrones but is really testing my patience.

It’s like an Iron Maiden song covered by the Pet Shop Boys.

[Tamworthram]

5 hours ago, Chester40 said:

House of Dragons - ita funny how you can put all the same ingredients into a tin and make an amazing cake, but slightly alter the amounts of each and cook it for too long....and you get something pretty disappointing. 

That's my overwhelming feeling.  Characters I don't care about, confusing storylines, long periods of endless chat that seem hideously overblown. It has all the same basic ingredients as Game of Thrones but is really testing my patience.

I agree. I’d file it in the “seemed like a good idea at the time” category.

[NottsRam]

15 hours ago, Rev said:

I urge everyone to watch tonight's Emmerdale, and perhaps watch the last couple on catch up.

To set the scene, a localised  hurricane has hit the Yorkshire dales, and chaos ensues.

Not least in the editing and special efforts department, where despite them employing really big fans, they obviously couldn't stretch to a rain machine, or be arsed to digitally alter the backgrounds. 

Hence people are being blown off their feet, while the clouds above them are gently rolling by, barely disturbing the glorious blue sky in the background.

Curiously, the immense gale doesn't seem to affect the grass in most scenes, which lies lifeless and listless, as if such action was filmed during a prolonged British heatwave, perhaps?

The final denouement was perhaps the highlight. 

A herd of cows break loose from their shelter, and rush, and I use the term loosely, towards two helpless protagonists.

Normally, a farm keep cattle for milk or for meat, so they tend to look pretty similar to each other depending on the circumstances. 

Not in soapland though, these cow's are poster boys and girls for the entire species.

It's like the cows held a meeting, and decided a stampede was the perfect way to declare their diverse ethnicity to a wider audience.

In the end, two fit and healthy farmlands, with a 100m start over the Bovine sprinters, for some reason don't immediately jump over the 4ft fence that's corraling them on the same journey as the evil cows, but try to outrun them, Pamplona style. 

One ends up trampled, but uninjured, the other not only jumps the fence, which he could have done at any point previously, but also a 10m hay bale before launching himself into the great unknown.

Where he subsequently impales himself on a tractor which for some reason had been parked with its forks 6ft in the air.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I have to agree it was a triumph of a tribute to the 70's disaster movie genre and as such will surely win awards and accolades at the British Soap awards.  In this day and age, to make the scenes so unrealistic and frankly laughable is some acheivement.

[NottsRam]

2 hours ago, NottsRam said:

I have to agree it was a triumph of a tribute to the 70's disaster movie genre and as such will surely win awards and accolades at the British Soap awards.  In this day and age, to make the scenes so unrealistic and frankly laughable is some acheivement.

Ahem, not that i actually watch Emmerdale of course ?

[Stive Pesley]

In 2010 we flew to Boston, MA on Icelandair and i remember watching a couple of episodes of an Icelandic sitcom set in an all-night garage on the in-flight entertainment. It was hilarious, and I forgot about it totally until yesterday. I've now ascertained that there were 3 seasons and a feature length film made of it, but it's not on any of the streaming platforms

I just located a torrent of the whole lot though, so that's my next binge watch sorted

I guess @ramit knows of it?

[ramit]

8 hours ago, Stive Pesley said:

In 2010 we flew to Boston, MA on Icelandair and i remember watching a couple of episodes of an Icelandic sitcom set in an all-night garage on the in-flight entertainment. It was hilarious, and I forgot about it totally until yesterday. I've now ascertained that there were 3 seasons and a feature length film made of it, but it's not on any of the streaming platforms

I just located a torrent of the whole lot though, so that's my next binge watch sorted

I guess @ramit knows of it?

Oh yes, i know it alright.  Næturvaktin, (Night Shift)  Wickedly funny.  There was also Dagvaktin (Day Shift) set in the same gas station and Fangavaktin (Prison Shift) plus the film Bjarnfreðarson

 

Edited October 18, 2022 by ramit
typo

[BaaLocks]

I just find myself despairing at most of the series on tv at the moment, we certainly live in an era of "quantity over quality" thx to Netflix et al. Latest example is Inside Man on BBC - the basic premise is great, the actors are top drawer but it's just utterly flawed in it's outline. For example, a vicar gets caught with an incriminating flash drive - that isn't his - so instead of just saying "it's all in hand, I am talking to the police about it" he goes and does something so far in excess of what would be reasonable. Then someone follows up on this based on nothing more than the fact she gets a blurred photo on her phone. It's just farcical, no matter how good the rest of the acting or plot is.

[Tamworthram]

On 19/10/2022 at 10:28, BaaLocks said:

I just find myself despairing at most of the series on tv at the moment, we certainly live in an era of "quantity over quality" thx to Netflix et al. Latest example is Inside Man on BBC - the basic premise is great, the actors are top drawer but it's just utterly flawed in it's outline. For example, a vicar gets caught with an incriminating flash drive - that isn't his - so instead of just saying "it's all in hand, I am talking to the police about it" he goes and does something so far in excess of what would be reasonable. Then someone follows up on this based on nothing more than the fact she gets a blurred photo on her phone. It's just farcical, no matter how good the rest of the acting or plot is.

I gave up on it very early. I also found the premise of an inmate on death row helping police solve cases a little unoriginal 

[Crewton]

1 hour ago, Tamworthram said:

I gave up on it very early. I also found the premise of an inmate on death row helping police solve cases a little unoriginal 

"And how did that make you feel, Clarice?" 

[Anag Ram]

On 04/09/2022 at 11:03, Bob The Badger said:

Anybody seen Industry, the series about the banking industry in London? I heard the writers interviewed and it sounded a lot like Succession (in fact the person interviewing them said that) but I missed the first series entirely and was thinking of going back now the 2nd one is out.

Half way through Deceit on Channel 4 about the Rachel Nickell murder in London in 1992.

I'm finding it a bit disturbing tbh, even though it's well acted.

Just finished the first series and looking forward to the second.

Not a clue what they are talking about when discussing trade options but the drama that surrounds it is great!

[Tamworthram]

3 hours ago, Anag Ram said:

Just finished the first series and looking forward to the second.

Not a clue what they are talking about when discussing trade options but the drama that surrounds it is great!

I watched series 1 and half of series 2 but got irritated by the annoying characters, none of which I warmed to, and the extreme workplace bullying. I'm sure it really exists in that environment but, if to that degree the real individuals need to have a word with themselves.

[NottsRam]

Gangs of London series 2 out now, enjoyed the first series so will give it a go.

[Bob The Badger]

On 21/10/2022 at 14:11, NottsRam said:

Gangs of London series 2 out now, enjoyed the first series so will give it a go.

We're half way through episode 3 and it's utterly preposterous and ultra violent.

Season one stretched credulity, but this stretches it, sets first to it, stabs it in the throat and then drowns it.

I'll stick with it I think, but I have no clue why.

[Gee SCREAMER !!]

On 18/10/2022 at 04:23, Chester40 said:

House of Dragons - ita funny how you can put all the same ingredients into a tin and make an amazing cake, but slightly alter the amounts of each and cook it for too long....and you get something pretty disappointing. 

That's my overwhelming feeling.  Characters I don't care about, confusing storylines, long periods of endless chat that seem hideously overblown. It has all the same basic ingredients as Game of Thrones but is really testing my patience.

Haven't seen it et but certainly heard it's disappointing.  I assume the writers are the same ones who put together the last series of GOT however and that was a right rushed bag of old s****. 

[Alph]

I like House Of The Dragon. Very much actually. I think it slots in nicely with the early seasons of GoT. 

It's a lot better than the last couple of seasons of GoT which went all Tony Pulis and relied on set pieces. 

[Bob The Badger]

I gve up on the preposterous Gangs of London and went to Inside Man.

I should have listened to @BaaLocks and @Tamworthram because it's not very good.

There are some funny one-liners, almost all from the serial killer on death row, and it is a black comedy so deserves some leeway, but I'm not sure I can get past the first episode we just watched.

[Gaspode]

Heads up folk - just seen a trailer for a new series on Netflix - 1899 - from the makers of Dark which I know a lot of us enjoyed. Available from the middle of November…..

[Chester40]

On 23/10/2022 at 21:50, Bob The Badger said:

We're half way through episode 3 and it's utterly preposterous and ultra violent.

Season one stretched credulity, but this stretches it, sets first to it, stabs it in the throat and then drowns it.

I'll stick with it I think, but I have no clue why.

I think it's pretty much identical to the first series.

Lots of talking, ropey dialogue and some hard to believe acting....followed by an action set piece that's ultra violent and good fun in a gory way. Definitely an adolescent boy-type of series which just moves from one violent scene to another with 'filler' that's hard to care much about.

I still enjoyed it. Probably says a lot about me!