Can't think of any new shows I'm watching. Doctor Who and Gotham are on hiatus and I'm losing interest in them anyway.
Crappy quality I know but I'm finding a wealth of nostalgia television on YouTube. Tenspeed and Brownshoe, Space 1999, Invaders, old anime, science documentaries.
That last series of Gotham - breaking into arkham, escaping from arkham - in the end i wanted to take a flame thrower to the lot of it. Oh and everyone who dies simply gets reanimated. Yawn.
Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, inexplicably not bought by an UK TV channel*, but their loss is Netflix's gain. Very funny, tuneful and emotional, and Rachel Bloom is a gem (it doesn't hurt that she's extremely easy on the eyes). Some of the musical numbers are on YouTube.
Started A Touch of Frost. It looks like a show I will enjoy quite a bit. I don't have the "Del Boy" baggage/association that many UKers do regarding David Jason in a different role, so he's been nothing but Inspector Frost to me.
Love the not-in-London locations, despite what the box art depicts, unless Frost moves to Lndon later on.
I tried bumping the lone Frost thread at this board but of course it died like a Stormtrooper trapped on one of the infinite number of Death Stars in that film series.
Have been impressed with the writers of Billions, sharp dialogue at times, and plenty of film references and dialogue, little clips of Goodfellas script and all sorts. In the finale episodes...
At one point the district attorney tells his team they are dropping a case. They are frustrated and dont understand. One of the team shrugs and says "Its chinatown, Jake"
then in another conversation one advisor is saying to the billionaire owner "Im just trying to be Omar Bradley to your Patton" "What, safe?" "just remember one died a well-repected General and the other died a legend!"
My wife loved Babylon 5 back in the day and had wanted to see it again, and I had really enjoyed the initial 2 1/2 seasons or so that I got to see before life got in the way; I've been meaning all these years to pick it up again, but just hadn't ever gotten around to it. As we both wanted to see it again, we looked for ways to watch it, but there seem to be no streaming options available through Amazon, where it's still pay-per-episode anyway, so last Christmas I saw to it my wife got a big chunk of it on DVD, and for Valentines Day I gave her everything else she didn't already have, so we now have the entire thing - all five seasons, the TV movies, the Crusade spinoff, The Lost Tales, everything, and a few months ago we began going through it all. We're currently in Season 3 - at roughly the point I left off the first time, actually - and taking a bit of a break, but we're going back to it shortly. After Jerry Doyle's recent passing we decided to stretch the break out just a bit longer and not be hit with seeing him again right away.
She also started me on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, which I was of course aware of when it aired, but never really watched it myself, even though practically all of my friends were into it. We're on a break from that one right now, too, though.
For new stuff, we just finished and loved Stranger Things, and are hoping to see a second season. There are a number of other current shows we watch together, but most of them are in a break between seasons - all the MCU shows, plus Bob's Burgers, Superstore, and Doctor Who (on which we're a full season behind). There are various other things that one or the other of us is current on and the other is a bit behind on, and mulling over continuing - Sens8, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. I'm loving the latter, and really looking forward to next year's movie.
I'm watching Preacher, which i'm enjoying a lot. I'm on to season 4 of Breaking Bad, which is great. I'd never seen even a clip of it before i started watching it last week.
I tried watching Wolf Lake (see post above if ya wishes to) but it was so awful I stopped two episodes in. So then I moved on to...
The Returned (2015)
A truly awesome show from the combined exec producers of Lost, Bates Motel and True Blood, based on the French series "Les Revenants." This program showed tremendous promise and was flat-out excellent, marred only by the fact that it ran for only one season and has been cancelled. Mark Pellegrino (criminally underrated) and Jeremy Sisto, two compelling actors, were fantastic in a remarkably accomplished ensemble cast and a wonderfully entertaining story. The season ended on a very non-resolute cliffhanger, so that was a bummer, as it will not be wrapped up, but I still enjoyed the journey...it is better to have loved and lost than to never have loved at all.
-----
After that I watched Season 1 of 2015's AMC show Humans, which was no doubt one of the best shows I've ever seen in my entire life. Engaging, smart, fascinating, thought-provoking, well-acted, and brilliantly written, it's sci-fi that doesn't dumb-down for its American/British audience (this U.K. show, set in London and featuring an all British cast save for William Hurt, was also based on Euro-original, this time Swedish program "Real Humans"). It doesn't resort to violence, mindless action and special fx, one-liners and chases. It remains sci-fi that provokes mind-bending ideas and time-honored debates in a new light, interspersed with wholly original stories, concepts and notions which is really quite a feat to accomplish in this day and age when so much has been said in the genre. The actors are too numerous to single out as it is a rich, impressive ensemble, several diverse storylines that interconnect and multiple fantastic performances. It should be noted that the actors that play the synths have extra acting "lifting" and they all acquit themselves admirably.
The first season runs a mere 8 episodes so is basically a quick miniseries but wraps up pretty neatly with storylines concluded, but you do get glimpses of where the show could go in the future in the larger picture (and indeed it has begun shooting the second season). HIGHLY RECOMMENDED TO ANYONE AND EVERYONE! *Also, the electronic score by Cristobal Tapia de Veer is nothing short of genius*
I'm on season 6 of Breaking Bad. It's really good. I'd heard it was, but had somehow never even seen a clip of it and know nothing of the plot outside he was a guy who has cancer and cooks meth. Hopefully this last season will lead to a strong resolution.
I'm also watching Stranger Things, which i'm not a huge fan of and would have bailed on after 2 episodes if i wasn't watching it with friends. Currently stopped after episode 4 which was starting to tie some things together with a potentially more interesting second half of the season. The music is decent enough, i really love the opening credits sequence. The child actors are good, i just don;t recall the kid who went missing and Winona Ryder is lumbered with a hysterical mother who started off pretty much on edge anyway. I'm finding it very difficult to warm to her in any way. The many references to 80s films and TV are okay, some very blatant, some not so much, but i don't think they harm it. Can't say i'd recommend it though.
The Ambassadors - from the team who brought you the excellent Peep Show, this is about an ambassador to some sort of ...menistan country and the shenanigans that go on there. It's pretty funny and i like the two leads. No many episodes to it either.
Finished Breaking Bad. It was very good. Brave decision to make Walter almost completely unlikable the last season. They went soft on his wife though. Hank was the best character in it and Mike was enjoyable too. There were a couple of lulls through the series and I didn't like the last episode. His solution reminded me of some plan in Exterminator 2.
Followed it up with the lighter Better Call Saul shiva took a bit if time to get going but was certainly better in the second half if the season. The best episode focused on Mike. Odenkirk I had never liked before Breaking Bad but he's great as the lawyer.
Finished Stranger Things. It too picked up in the last half of the season. Some good characters and moments but it felt like there was sloppy writing. Modine was wasted outside of his peroxide blond hair . The monster turns out to be a generic CGI computer game monster. The child characters were well acted and written. And Barb' high jeans were a highlight.
Ash vs Evil Dead. Oh dear. There's a watchable 2 hour film buried in there I'm sure. But as the series plays it's repetitive, dull, and slammed with unengaging CGI. The writing is really quite bad, profanity is used frequently and lazily and witlessly outside of Campbell's drawn out "faaaaahhhk" in the first episode. The lovely cop lady is particularly poorly written and not particularly well acted.
The very few plus points are that Campbell is okay, his sidekicks are fun, there's some decent action direction and LoDuca's score is frequently good. And when they get back to where it all began there's some nice moments and the old films are nicely tied in. But I'd give it a 3/10 maybe a 4 but there's a decent film probably in there.
S.2 is pretty bad (still to watch the finale). Tons of gore, lots of villains (including the awful Electra) innumerable plot twists etc, Ihad hopes it might get better when Kingpin returned but it turned out to be a short appearance.
Finished Stranger Things. It too picked up in the last half of the season. ... . The monster turns out to be a generic CGI computer game monster. .
Actually, it was 'real' - done with prosthetics (mostly) !!!!! bruce
Holy flip what did they do to make it look so bad? In the shadows it worked in the classroom it didn't. Was the mouth CGI at all? I think I better watch a behind the scenes.
Just finished Season 1 of AMC's American version of The Killing starring Mireille Enos and Joel Kinneman. Terrific! Gripping, poignant, mesmerizing.
Once I got caught up with The Walking Dead -- I started the show from the beginning in November and worked up to the most recent episode in mid-December -- and ran out of new episodes to watch after season 7's mid-season finale, depression sank in. I love that show. So I began a hunt for the next show and knew I would have a hard time following it up but settled on another AMC show that I'm hilariously behind on, The Killing, which premiered one year after TWD (although The Killing has ended its run). I'll continue my better-late-than-never-vis-à-vis-AMC streak with Breaking Bad eventually.
Just started Season 2 of The Killing. You know, I am pretty low-maintenance when it comes to TV shows! For example, I love The Walking Dead and don't have nearly the amount of problems with it that alleged "fans" (and non-fans alike) have cultivated and collected over the years. Thank heaven and earth I have the ability to just go along with most shows and just enjoy them without getting hung up with the "that person would never" or "it's lazy writing that" or "it doesn't make sense that this character would" or "it does this when it should do this".
Likewise The Killing -- apparently hordes of fans were up in arms when Rosie Larson's killer was not revealed at the end of Season 1 and the mystery carried over into Season 2 (or longer). It didn't faze me at all. I thought it was great storytelling and very organic.
Too bad the 4 seasons of The Killing get shorter and shorter as they progress (only 6 episodes in season 4). After that I'm deciding between The Good Wife or Extant (mainly because I'm on a Jeffrey Dean Morgan kick and it's a short 26-episode 2-Season Spielberg-produced gig).
I'm also looking forward to the return of Supernatural Season 12 January 26th, TWD Season 7 February 12th, and AMC's Humans Season 2 February 13th (with new cast member Carrie-Anne Moss). For my rave review of Humans Season 1, see my post several floors above this one, one of the most intelligent sci-fi shows I've ever seen. It's only taken Season 2 a year-and-a-half to return to American television!
Futurama Seasons 7/8 Goof fun. I've always enjoyed it. Haven't seen it in years. Theres seen to be more jokes revolving around sex than i remember when watching earlier seasons though. It's pretty risqué in spots.
Coming to the end of Season 3 of AMC's The Killing. What a special show. I honestly never know what's going to happen, it's so smart and well-thought out and labrynthine. I'm really impressed. Really, really good mystery. The first two seasons focused on one central mystery, and so far Season 3 (and possibly 4?) focuses on a new case, but of course there are plenty of satellite plot threads. The show has incredible depth and complexity, even throwaway lines and toss-aside characters have insight and are treated with respect. The details of the story and the atmosphere and the characters are so finely drawn it's really quite fascinating. There are a few plot conveniences but sometimes you have to make that sacrifice to the TV gods for the greater good and I am personally totally ok with that.
Loving this show. Peter Sarsgaard, man. I had no idea he had this in him. I've never seen skills like this in anything he's done. Also was surprised (and very pleased) to see one of my favorite character actors, Elias Koteas, join the cast along with Sarsgaard in Season 3, which really reset most of the cast.
Mark Pellegrino (criminally underrated) and Jeremy Sisto, two compelling actors, were fantastic in a remarkably accomplished ensemble cast and a wonderfully entertaining story. The season ended on a very non-resolute cliffhanger, so that was a bummer, as it will not be wrapped up, but I still enjoyed the journey...it is better to have loved and lost than to never have loved at all.
