Watchable telly

[Anag Ram]

I can add an entry for unwatchable telly - Comedians watching football with friends on Sky.

What a waste of electricity.

Your mates would produce a better version.

[Kinder]

Just finished watching both series of Stranger Things on Netflix. I absolutely loved it, it’s like The Goonies but scary and sinister.

[Boycie]

Happened upon Blacklist on Sky.

very good.

watched all the excellent Tin Star, both series, are they holding back episodes 10 S2?

Edited March 12, 2019 by Boycie

[Mafiabob]

Cheat on ITV, still love good English Drama 

[BathRam72]

On 03/01/2019 at 09:20, StivePesley said:

I'm watching Tin Star on Channel 4 (although this may be old news as it was on Sky Atlantic a year ago). Good kind of Fargo/Twin Peaks/Breaking Bad feel to it, and Tim Roth is excellent at swearing

Has anyone watched the Narcos Mexico spin-off? Any good?

I enjoyed the first series/season. I got 3 episodes into the second season and gave up. Far too silly for me. How a sheriff can

a. get away with what he does.

b. Be so stupid.        Each to their own.

I did however enjoy Afterlife on Netflix. (Again a dark subject handled very well)  Each to their own again of course

Edited March 13, 2019 by BathRam72

[Stive Pesley]

2 hours ago, BathRam72 said:

I enjoyed the first series/season. I got 3 episodes into the second season and gave up. Far too silly for me. How a sheriff can

a. get away with what he does.

b. Be so stupid.        Each to their own.

I did however enjoy Afterlife on Netflix. (Again a dark subject handled very well)  Each to their own again of course

Not seen Series 2 yet, but the trailer did leave me to similar thoughts as yours. I'll give it a go when it comes to a channel where I can watch it, but yeah, even the first series was getting a bit beyond the realms of believability

Not watched Afterlife yet, but it's on the list. I always give Gervais a go even though I've hated pretty much everything since Extras.

Russian Doll was erm...interesting - not sure why it got quite so much hype

 

[Alph]

I'm watching After Life and Warren. 

Warren's alright. My kind of comedy but it's still only alright. If you don't like miserable feckers then stay away

Can't decide on After life. It goes from funny to depressing every few minutes. 

[Smyth_18]

49 minutes ago, Alpha said:

 

Can't decide on After life. It goes from funny to depressing every few minutes. 

Sort of the point i reckon.

The only negative i can think of is the very end wasn't the best. Nothing can be perfect though but this was as close as i've seen.

It gets your emotions going, your mind thinking and gives you the will to make a change. What more could you ask for?

[Alph]

1 hour ago, Smyth_18 said:

Sort of the point i reckon.

The only negative i can think of is the very end wasn't the best. Nothing can be perfect though but this was as close as i've seen.

It gets your emotions going, your mind thinking and gives you the will to make a change. What more could you ask for?

I just found that I didn't laugh as much at the funny stuff because the sad stuff put me on a downer. Still funny but probably would have laughed more if it was slightly less back and forth during the show. 

The boring woman in the office, the exchange with the postman and the "you'd be safe anyway, you tubby little ginger see you next Tuesday" were highlights of the telly year so far. ?

It does make you think, definitely 

[May Contain Nuts]

After Life is to Netflix shows what RDR2 is to gaming, enjoyable but massively overrated and nowhere near as deep or interesting as it thinks it is.

I didn't feel it offered any real insight to the mind of someone who's suffered such a personal loss and a lot of it felt like it had been written by committee and hit on a few too many obvious/standard emotional manipulation tropes, almost like there was a brainstorming session asking "What do we think people in this situation would think/feel/say" rather than drawing on any deeper, more personal experiences.

I don't think Gervais' character was particularly three dimensional. We're told he's a good man, a very nice man through videos made by his dying wife but that's the point, we're TOLD it, we never actually see it - the only thing we're really shown of his life with her is that he loved to play (generic, borish, annoying) practical jokes.

To me that doesn't show character depth, it shows that he was always a bit of an ********, and now he's being.... an even bigger ********? So again we're just relying on her word. He bought her a dog though (probably one of the biggest, most basic plays of audience manipulation), so he must have been a great guy deep down? Nah, I don't think so.

The only time it ever really got dark was when he gave the homeless character 'enough' money, the only moment when I thought "Oh, this went deep, I want to see the rest, how dark it can get?", but it was pretty much brushed aside within half an episode. I suppose it would have to be, because it is a comedy show, afterall, but the problem is it's just not that funny.

Because there's not any real depth there's no real reason to invest in the character -  essentially you're just watching Ricky Gervais playing Ricky Gervais saying slightly outrageous things. Nothing new there.

It's not particularly clever either, there's one scene where they're in the newspaper office discussing whether God exists and it falls back on "If God created everything, who created God?".... seriously? Is that supposed to be an example of clever writing? It's primary school level discussion.

Don't get me wrong, it was an enjoyable watch, but nothing to go crazy about. I think ultimately the message it was putting across was quite basic, quite simple, but positive and worth taking on board.  That doesn't make it an outstanding piece of work though.

[jono]

Loved Tin Star initially, but the final series was a drag after 3/4 episodes we skipped to the denouement. Which was quite good but we didn’t miss the 6 episodes in the middle ? 

Absolutely hooked on Americans .. Reagan era Russian sleeper agents living “normal” lives in the states. Wonderfully measured and balanced. Great acting and scripts. clever and immensely watchable. 

[Angry Ram]

Bad Blood on Netflix has me hooked. Canadian Soprano's with a bit more bite.

[Chester40]

On 13/03/2019 at 14:18, Coconut said:

After Life is to Netflix shows what RDR2 is to gaming, enjoyable but massively overrated and nowhere near as deep or interesting as it thinks it is.

I didn't feel it offered any real insight to the mind of someone who's suffered such a personal loss and a lot of it felt like it had been written by committee and hit on a few too many obvious/standard emotional manipulation tropes, almost like there was a brainstorming session asking "What do we think people in this situation would think/feel/say" rather than drawing on any deeper, more personal experiences.

I don't think Gervais' character was particularly three dimensional. We're told he's a good man, a very nice man through videos made by his dying wife but that's the point, we're TOLD it, we never actually see it - the only thing we're really shown of his life with her is that he loved to play (generic, borish, annoying) practical jokes.

To me that doesn't show character depth, it shows that he was always a bit of an ********, and now he's being.... an even bigger ********? So again we're just relying on her word. He bought her a dog though (probably one of the biggest, most basic plays of audience manipulation), so he must have been a great guy deep down? Nah, I don't think so.

The only time it ever really got dark was when he gave the homeless character 'enough' money, the only moment when I thought "Oh, this went deep, I want to see the rest, how dark it can get?", but it was pretty much brushed aside within half an episode. I suppose it would have to be, because it is a comedy show, afterall, but the problem is it's just not that funny.

Because there's not any real depth there's no real reason to invest in the character -  essentially you're just watching Ricky Gervais playing Ricky Gervais saying slightly outrageous things. Nothing new there.

It's not particularly clever either, there's one scene where they're in the newspaper office discussing whether God exists and it falls back on "If God created everything, who created God?".... seriously? Is that supposed to be an example of clever writing? It's primary school level discussion.

Don't get me wrong, it was an enjoyable watch, but nothing to go crazy about. I think ultimately the message it was putting across was quite basic, quite simple, but positive and worth taking on board.  That doesn't make it an outstanding piece of work though.

Few people at work were watching this and saying how great it was. The missus asked me if I liked it... I said pretty much what you said, but nowhere near as well. Agree with every word!!

[sheeponacid]

Watched a one off programme on bbc4 on Sunday night, called Arcadia...a look at Britains relationship with the land.

It was absolutely surreally nuts, yet fantastically captivating, with a powerful message...it almost bordered on LSD TV....I'd highly recommend giving it a watch.

[Chester40]

For the first time ever I am re-watching a whole series. And it's even better second time round. 

Gomorrah.

Its soooo frickin good. Makes everything else I have watched recently seem so flimsy and lame. If you havent tried it, then settle down and enjoy.  If you don't like subtitles then that is firstly ridiculous and anyway you don't deserve an opinion in the first place!

Basically its an Italian gangster/drug war series (3 so far, and according to internet 4 and 5 are in motion and London may feature). 

It is engrossing, cool, realistic...you really get sucked into it and almost feel like you have driven round Naples on a moped with a machine gun! 

[BaaLocks]

30 minutes ago, sheeponacid said:

it almost bordered on LSD TV....I'd highly recommend giving it a watch.

Given your username we believe you.....

[BaaLocks]

On 13/03/2019 at 15:18, Coconut said:

After Life is to Netflix shows what RDR2 is to gaming, enjoyable but massively overrated and nowhere near as deep or interesting as it thinks it is.

<snip>

Don't get me wrong, it was an enjoyable watch, but nothing to go crazy about. I think ultimately the message it was putting across was quite basic, quite simple, but positive and worth taking on board.  That doesn't make it an outstanding piece of work though.

Yup, a solid six out of ten and felt like he had taken everything else he had ever done (particularly that film Ghost Town) and put it in a blender. The practical joke clips were strange - if my idea of showing affection was to throw a glass of cold water over my wife while she was asleep I don't think I would have to worry about her making to the grave before me. It just felt rather rushed and frayed around the edges - the bit with the sex worket / prostitute seemed like they just thought 'wouldn't it be funny to pay a hooker to do the washing up' and then the whole storyline got built around that premise. Similarly, 'wouldn't it be funny if your postman was called Pat?'. It's a series of one line jokes padded out into a bearable waste of time but little more than that.

[Wolfie20]

1 hour ago, Chester40 said:

For the first time ever I am re-watching a whole series. And it's even better second time round. 

Gomorrah.

Its soooo frickin good. Makes everything else I have watched recently seem so flimsy and lame. If you havent tried it, then settle down and enjoy.  If you don't like subtitles then that is firstly ridiculous and anyway you don't deserve an opinion in the first place!

Basically its an Italian gangster/drug war series (3 so far, and according to internet 4 and 5 are in motion and London may feature). 

It is engrossing, cool, realistic...you really get sucked into it and almost feel like you have driven round Naples on a moped with a machine gun! 

Agreed - in my top one drama series on tv ever

Edited March 15, 2019 by Wolfie20

[Smyth_18]

On 13/03/2019 at 14:18, Coconut said:

After Life is to Netflix shows what RDR2 is to gaming, enjoyable but massively overrated and nowhere near as deep or interesting as it thinks it is.

I didn't feel it offered any real insight to the mind of someone who's suffered such a personal loss and a lot of it felt like it had been written by committee and hit on a few too many obvious/standard emotional manipulation tropes, almost like there was a brainstorming session asking "What do we think people in this situation would think/feel/say" rather than drawing on any deeper, more personal experiences.

I don't think Gervais' character was particularly three dimensional. We're told he's a good man, a very nice man through videos made by his dying wife but that's the point, we're TOLD it, we never actually see it - the only thing we're really shown of his life with her is that he loved to play (generic, borish, annoying) practical jokes.

To me that doesn't show character depth, it shows that he was always a bit of an ********, and now he's being.... an even bigger ********? So again we're just relying on her word. He bought her a dog though (probably one of the biggest, most basic plays of audience manipulation), so he must have been a great guy deep down? Nah, I don't think so.

The only time it ever really got dark was when he gave the homeless character 'enough' money, the only moment when I thought "Oh, this went deep, I want to see the rest, how dark it can get?", but it was pretty much brushed aside within half an episode. I suppose it would have to be, because it is a comedy show, afterall, but the problem is it's just not that funny.

Because there's not any real depth there's no real reason to invest in the character -  essentially you're just watching Ricky Gervais playing Ricky Gervais saying slightly outrageous things. Nothing new there.

It's not particularly clever either, there's one scene where they're in the newspaper office discussing whether God exists and it falls back on "If God created everything, who created God?".... seriously? Is that supposed to be an example of clever writing? It's primary school level discussion.

Don't get me wrong, it was an enjoyable watch, but nothing to go crazy about. I think ultimately the message it was putting across was quite basic, quite simple, but positive and worth taking on board.  That doesn't make it an outstanding piece of work though.

I don't think the show ever claimed that it was to go too in depth and if it did i think it would take a lot away from its simplicity.

I think the aim was partly to make the masses understand a bit more, and making it as simple and an easy watch as possible is a big help in that.

I've seen a few widowed men online saying that Gervais has hit the nail on the head. Plus i genuinely enjoyed it and wanted to be a better person for watching it. Can't really ask for much more can you?

[Leicester Ram]

New F1 documentary series on Netflix is excellent. I’m a big fan of sports documentaries and this is definitely one of the best, captures some really genuine behind the scenes moments.

Not even a massive F1 fan, just a really good watch.