Watchable telly

[therealhantsram]

On 07/05/2022 at 21:53, Anag Ram said:

The staircase on Sky Atlantic is very good. Colin Firth as real life novelist Michael Peterson, accused of killing his wife who was found at the bottom of the stairs. A fall? Maybe, but why so many catastrophic injuries?

I am gripped. 

FWIW, there is also The Staircase on Netflix. Same story, but a documentary. Maybe one to watch after.

[Comrade 86]

See Ozark has been mentioned though not in glowing terms. Have to say that I think after a great first season, an ok second and a meandering third, season four is a belter. Only issue being I thought it was the last season and now I have to wait for what season five to find out marty and co's fate.

Have started watching Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty. Insomnia really bad at the moment so ended up watching 4 episodes just last night, while the GF was sleeping like a baby. It's really good. John C. Reilly especially is brilliant in the role of American businessman, investor, chemist and philanthropist, Dr Gerald Hatten Buss who became the majority owner of the Los Angeles Lakers. Hopefully the second half of the series is as good as the first. On HBO and Prime for anyone fancying a look.

[Stive Pesley]

18 hours ago, 86 Hair Islands said:

See Ozark has been mentioned though not in glowing terms. Have to say that I think after a great first season, an ok second and a meandering third, season four is a belter. Only issue being I thought it was the last season and now I have to wait for what season five to find out marty and co's fate.

No spoilers, as I'm only half way through Season 4 Part 2, but I also thought this was the final season?!

It's certainly a gripping story, albeit entirely unrealistic, but was trying to work out why I'm not as emotionally invested in it as say - Better Call Saul, and I realise that it's because there are NO likeable characters in Ozark at all. Every single one is a murderer/criminal/liar/traitor/despicable person, so as the series heads towards the end I find I don't actually care what happens to any of them all that much

 

[Comrade 86]

2 hours ago, Stive Pesley said:

No spoilers, as I'm only half way through Season 4 Part 2, but I also thought this was the final season?!

It's certainly a gripping story, albeit entirely unrealistic, but was trying to work out why I'm not as emotionally invested in it as say - Better Call Saul, and I realise that it's because there are NO likeable characters in Ozark at all. Every single one is a murderer/criminal/liar/traitor/despicable person, so as the series heads towards the end I find I don't actually care what happens to any of them all that much

A few folk have mooted the notion that they can't be 'invested' in shows without likeable characters. Don't feel that way myself. I love Succession despite every character in the show being the type of individual I'd throat punch in real life, yet I think the show itself is utterly brilliant. 

[Mostyn6]

22 minutes ago, 86 Hair Islands said:

A few folk have mooted the notion that they can't be 'invested' in shows without likeable characters. Don't feel that way myself. I love Succession despite every character in the show being the type of individual I'd throat punch in real life, yet I think the show itself is utterly brilliant. 

I watched it all, based on the comments here, whilst I stuck with it, I think I've almost forgotten all the story lines! I found it to be a variation of Billions, which I preferred.

[BaaLocks]

On 07/05/2022 at 22:46, Eddie said:

The Memsahib's just started watching the second half of series 4 of Ozark (episodes released onto Netflix last week).

She loves it, I don't.

It just fell off a cliff about half way into series three - massive shame as Laura Linney is so watchable but the plot lines go beyond silly and keep going.

[BaaLocks]

Here We Go has managed to do something that is really unsual these days, be a mainstream BBC sitcom on a peak viewing time and actually be quite funny. Well done it.

[ketteringram]

5 hours ago, 86 Hair Islands said:

A few folk have mooted the notion that they can't be 'invested' in shows without likeable characters. Don't feel that way myself. I love Succession despite every character in the show being the type of individual I'd throat punch in real life, yet I think the show itself is utterly brilliant. 

I don't think I'd mind not liking any of the characters. I haven't tried succession, but I'll probably give it a go. I have more of a problem when I just have no interest in any of the characters, which happened in Ozark. I enjoyed the first episode, and the story line had promise, but just had no interest in any of the characters. I'm not sure if that's down to the writing or the actors. I stuck with it for 7 episodes, and just gave up. 

[Comrade 86]

24 minutes ago, ketteringram said:

I don't think I'd mind not liking any of the characters. I haven't tried succession, but I'll probably give it a go. I have more of a problem when I just have no interest in any of the characters, which happened in Ozark. I enjoyed the first episode, and the story line had promise, but just had no interest in any of the characters. I'm not sure if that's down to the writing or the actors. I stuck with it for 7 episodes, and just gave up. 

Yep, I think I'm in the minority here. I thought the first series was great, felt less enamoured with the second and pretty much gave up on season 3. That said, season 4 I've really enjoyed, but I won't go into why as I don't want to spoil things for others and it's hard to explain without doing exactly that. Very few shows seem to be universally acclaimed, though. On that note, some don't like Succession either, but for me it one of the best shows I've seen in years. Conversely, I tried Dexter and thought it was one of the stupidest shows I'd ever seen, but plenty of my lot (and a good few on here) absolutely love it. There's no accounting for taste! ?

Edited May 12, 2022 by 86 Hair Islands
typos

[Stive Pesley]

5 hours ago, BaaLocks said:

Here We Go has managed to do something that is really unsual these days, be a mainstream BBC sitcom on a peak viewing time and actually be quite funny. Well done it.

I was thinking similar about "The Other One" which has just started a second series. Some laugh out loud funny one-liners, and always good to hear a proper Derby accent from one of the characters

[BaaLocks]

2 hours ago, Stive Pesley said:

I was thinking similar about "The Other One" which has just started a second series. Some laugh out loud funny one-liners, and always good to hear a proper Derby accent from one of the characters

On 23 January 2012, it was reported that Socha had been charged with racially aggravated assault in connection with an incident involving a Derby taxi driver the previous October. On 2 May 2012, Socha pleaded guilty to the charge, and was sentenced to four months in prison, suspended for 12 months. The taxi driver had an eight-minute voice recording of Socha's rant, and said to reporters after the verdict: "She called me a P***, a dirty b****** and said: 'You're Asian, f*** off back to where you came from.' She said: 'Do you know who I am? I'll have your family lifted.'"

Hmmmmm.......

[Stive Pesley]

1 hour ago, BaaLocks said:

On 23 January 2012, it was reported that Socha had been charged with racially aggravated assault in connection with an incident involving a Derby taxi driver the previous October. On 2 May 2012, Socha pleaded guilty to the charge, and was sentenced to four months in prison, suspended for 12 months. The taxi driver had an eight-minute voice recording of Socha's rant, and said to reporters after the verdict: "She called me a P***, a dirty b****** and said: 'You're Asian, f*** off back to where you came from.' She said: 'Do you know who I am? I'll have your family lifted.'"

Hmmmmm.......

Ah but in a Derby accent! Makes ya proud eh? ?

[DarkFruitsRam7]

10 hours ago, BaaLocks said:

On 23 January 2012, it was reported that Socha had been charged with racially aggravated assault in connection with an incident involving a Derby taxi driver the previous October. On 2 May 2012, Socha pleaded guilty to the charge, and was sentenced to four months in prison, suspended for 12 months. The taxi driver had an eight-minute voice recording of Socha's rant, and said to reporters after the verdict: "She called me a P***, a dirty b****** and said: 'You're Asian, f*** off back to where you came from.' She said: 'Do you know who I am? I'll have your family lifted.'"

Hmmmmm.......

I was worried that was Michael Socha for a minute. Would have been very disappointed as I love This Is England.

[BaaLocks]

7 minutes ago, DarkFruitsRam7 said:

I was worried that was Michael Socha for a minute. Would have been very disappointed as I love This Is England.

Brother and sister - I never knew. Thx for that.

[Bob The Badger]

On 12/05/2022 at 12:27, 86 Hair Islands said:

A few folk have mooted the notion that they can't be 'invested' in shows without likeable characters. Don't feel that way myself. I love Succession despite every character in the show being the type of individual I'd throat punch in real life, yet I think the show itself is utterly brilliant. 

I tend to agree although Wendy in Ozark makes me puke.

A bit like you I loved Ozark season 1 and 2 and 3 dipped. But unlike you I didn't rate 4 that much but stuck with it for Mrs Badger. I had no clue they were doing a fifth. I wish they'd not bothered.

[Bob The Badger]

Better Call Saul. Jeez can they make it more complicated and more reliant on remembering every plot twist from not just previous serious but previous series of another show?

Especially as characters get progressively older than when they should have been older.

We're 2 episodes in and I'm getting fed up with having to think too hard.

[TomTom92]

Winning Time is decent. The pilot is probably the best episode or at least the most comedic. Well worth a watch. 
 
I wonder what the next big series will be? I’m talking Game of Thrones level big.

[Comrade 86]

1 hour ago, Bob The Badger said:

I tend to agree although Wendy in Ozark makes me puke.

A bit like you I loved Ozark season 1 and 2 and 3 dipped. But unlike you I didn't rate 4 that much but stuck with it for Mrs Badger. I had no clue they were doing a fifth. I wish they'd not bothered.

It's a bit marmite! Laura Linney actually made me shout at the telly on occasiosn much to the amusement of the GF but I have to admit she's absolutely brilliant as a character we're clearly meant to detest. 

[Stagtime]

A good doco about Bon Scott on Australia Story the other night.

 

[r4derby]

Very excited for Stranger Things season 4, with the first 7 episodes coming this Friday. The runtimes look ridiculous. It is rumoured that 2-3 of the episodes will be as long as feature films, with the last episode being 2 and a half hours long.

I’m not complaining, but it asks the question - should there be a maximum length to TV shows? The whole point, in my opinion, is that they are shorter that a movie, but with more of them to unpack a story in short chunks. I won’t know until I’ve watched the whole series in early July, but looking at the timings, could they just have made the series from 9 to 12 episodes? It’s not an issue when the series is good, but could be an issue if shows that are not as good interesting start doing it.