The TV Series Thread

[jimbogumbo]

Watched a few episodes of Daria. Manages to be both funny and depressing.

We watched some as well and put it aside but will probably get back to it at some point.  I had watched it before and thought it was a pretty clever show at times, but I think it helps to be in the right mood for it.

Sun_Worshiper, that's good to know about Ted Lasso!

We finished Revenge a couple nights ago.  It was entertaining but certainly eyeroll-worthy at times.  I always have fun trying to figure out when during a series the situation might have changed, such as planning for one season but finding out a second was approved or thinking you have another season and getting canceled.  The fourth (final) season definitely feels like a throw-all-the-spaghetti-at-the-wall approach.  Anyway, we had fun with it, and it was a good prep for my husband to build his disbelief suspension muscles for shows like Pretty Little Liars. 

Since then, we've been watching Luther (Idris Elba), which I had seen previously.  That is a really engaging show.  One of my close friends who is like a mental twin tried it on my recommendation and didn't like it, but I think it's fairly highly rated and award winning and so forth.  It's also very dark and a bit brutal at times.  For those who are not aware, it's about a very perceptive and bright London police detective who doesn't always do things by the book and has some demons of his own.  That sounds trite, and it's been done before, but I think this show is still an outlier.  My husband agrees, and we are finishing season 2 tonight.  Unfortunately, the show isn't very long, just a couple seasons with a couple episodes per season (e.g., 6 for the first season, 4 for the second season).  At one hour each, the episodes almost feel like mini-movies given how much occurs, and I am often on the edge of my seat.  I don't even mind sitting through the (quick) credits to see the "next" scenes.   They do a good job of making me want to watch the next episode but not giving too much away.

Amazon Prime says it has five seasons of Luther.

[ab_grp]

Watched a few episodes of Daria. Manages to be both funny and depressing.

We watched some as well and put it aside but will probably get back to it at some point.  I had watched it before and thought it was a pretty clever show at times, but I think it helps to be in the right mood for it.

Sun_Worshiper, that's good to know about Ted Lasso!

We finished Revenge a couple nights ago.  It was entertaining but certainly eyeroll-worthy at times.  I always have fun trying to figure out when during a series the situation might have changed, such as planning for one season but finding out a second was approved or thinking you have another season and getting canceled.  The fourth (final) season definitely feels like a throw-all-the-spaghetti-at-the-wall approach.  Anyway, we had fun with it, and it was a good prep for my husband to build his disbelief suspension muscles for shows like Pretty Little Liars. 

Since then, we've been watching Luther (Idris Elba), which I had seen previously.  That is a really engaging show.  One of my close friends who is like a mental twin tried it on my recommendation and didn't like it, but I think it's fairly highly rated and award winning and so forth.  It's also very dark and a bit brutal at times.  For those who are not aware, it's about a very perceptive and bright London police detective who doesn't always do things by the book and has some demons of his own.  That sounds trite, and it's been done before, but I think this show is still an outlier.  My husband agrees, and we are finishing season 2 tonight.  Unfortunately, the show isn't very long, just a couple seasons with a couple episodes per season (e.g., 6 for the first season, 4 for the second season).  At one hour each, the episodes almost feel like mini-movies given how much occurs, and I am often on the edge of my seat.  I don't even mind sitting through the (quick) credits to see the "next" scenes.   They do a good job of making me want to watch the next episode but not giving too much away.

Amazon Prime says it has five seasons of Luther.

Yes, sorry if I was unclear, just listing examples for the first two.  There are also 4 episodes in season three, 2 in season four, and 4 in season 5.  At least, I think that's all of them!

[jimbogumbo]

Watched a few episodes of Daria. Manages to be both funny and depressing.

We watched some as well and put it aside but will probably get back to it at some point.  I had watched it before and thought it was a pretty clever show at times, but I think it helps to be in the right mood for it.

Sun_Worshiper, that's good to know about Ted Lasso!

We finished Revenge a couple nights ago.  It was entertaining but certainly eyeroll-worthy at times.  I always have fun trying to figure out when during a series the situation might have changed, such as planning for one season but finding out a second was approved or thinking you have another season and getting canceled.  The fourth (final) season definitely feels like a throw-all-the-spaghetti-at-the-wall approach.  Anyway, we had fun with it, and it was a good prep for my husband to build his disbelief suspension muscles for shows like Pretty Little Liars. 

Since then, we've been watching Luther (Idris Elba), which I had seen previously.  That is a really engaging show.  One of my close friends who is like a mental twin tried it on my recommendation and didn't like it, but I think it's fairly highly rated and award winning and so forth.  It's also very dark and a bit brutal at times.  For those who are not aware, it's about a very perceptive and bright London police detective who doesn't always do things by the book and has some demons of his own.  That sounds trite, and it's been done before, but I think this show is still an outlier.  My husband agrees, and we are finishing season 2 tonight.  Unfortunately, the show isn't very long, just a couple seasons with a couple episodes per season (e.g., 6 for the first season, 4 for the second season).  At one hour each, the episodes almost feel like mini-movies given how much occurs, and I am often on the edge of my seat.  I don't even mind sitting through the (quick) credits to see the "next" scenes.   They do a good job of making me want to watch the next episode but not giving too much away.

Amazon Prime says it has five seasons of Luther.

Yes, sorry if I was unclear, just listing examples for the first two.  There are also 4 episodes in season three, 2 in season four, and 4 in season 5.  At least, I think that's all of them!

Ah, I see. Boy, that is a limited number of episodes per season!

[ciao_yall]

HBO White Lotus 2 is really well-done. Interesting variety of characters!

[ab_grp]

We finished Veep last night.  Definitely an interesting counterpart to West Wing.  I told a friend how much we liked it but then sort of regretted doing so because the humor is very non-PC.  I guess I've come to realize that "wrong" is a type of humor that really gets me rolling on the floor laughing my head off (same for my husband), but others may find the show offensive for several dozen reasons.  I think that 98% of the time it was clever and absolutely hilarious.  Sometimes it tried a little too hard and the rather creative insults and expressions just didn't feel organic or believable.  The ensemble cast was great, especially some characters that I didn't think would become as front-and-center as they ended up doing.  There is a particular jackass (which may be the understatement of the year), among many bad guys, who is played very, very well.   And there are some good guys who really shine.  I wasn't crazy about the final episode and how things wrapped up, as not everyone got what they deserved.  Many did, though! Like West Wing, the show brought up political details that I enjoyed looking up and learning more about (e.g., electoral college possibilities), even if they did not appear to be completely accurate on the show.  I am already to watch the whole series again.  I also picked up season 1 of Alpha House, which I think ciao_yall recommended.

Now for our comedy we are back to Hot in Cleveland, which we had only gotten 1.5 episodes into previously.  It's a cute show and is certainly funny, but (so far) not to the extent that I think I may need medical intervention because I'm laughing so hard.  It is a good palate cleanser.

[Sun_Worshiper]

HBO White Lotus 2 is really well-done. Interesting variety of characters!

We're watching this as well. Great so far! I also appreciate that it is not just a retread of season one (which was also great).

[kaysixteen]

Been rewatching a number of 70s-era Doctor Who eps on Uncle Earl's Classic TV Channel.   It is remarkable how different they were to the 21st c iterations.

[Larimar]

Last night I saw the opener of the second season of Leverage: Redemption. It was an okay but not great episode, but all the same I'm really glad they're back! Leverage is so much fun.

Also I saw the beginning of season 3 of The Chosen yesterday. WOW!!!! It's as dense and deep and touching and relatable as ever. It's such a powerful show.

[hmaria1609]

I enjoyed "Miss Scarlet & the Duke" season 2 on PBS; the season finale was Sunday night.
Great news: Fans won't have long to wait for season 3--it will be back in January 2023! PBS Passport members can watch the complete season 3 starting tomorrow.

[ciao_yall]

Netflix K-drama /rom-com Crash Landing Into You. So far I'm hooked! Very sweet but also a great story.

[hmaria1609]

I'm a happy camper today: I read that "Miss Scarlet and the Duke" is a go for a 4th season and production underway in Belgrade, Serbia.  Yay!

[paddington_bear]

Over Columbus Day weekend the Sundance Channel was airing a Columbo marathon. I never saw it the first go around - a bit too young - but I started watching it and then scheduled it on my DVR. I really like it! It fills sort of the "cozy mystery" gap I've felt in my TV viewing, although it's not really a "cozy mystery." I like the structure of the show and Peter Falk is incredibly entertaining. 

[hmaria1609]

Over Columbus Day weekend the Sundance Channel was airing a Columbo marathon. I never saw it the first go around - a bit too young - but I started watching it and then scheduled it on my DVR. I really like it! It fills sort of the "cozy mystery" gap I've felt in my TV viewing, although it's not really a "cozy mystery." I like the structure of the show and Peter Falk is incredibly entertaining.

I remember A&E Channel airing "Columbo" in the 2000s.  It was Peter Falk's signature role.

[larryc]

I watched the Netflix series 1899. Produced by the same folks who made the German series Dark, it aims to be a moody and surreal historical drama about some folks on a transatlantic liner in 1899 where weird stuff starts to happen.

But by the fifth of the ten episodes, the weird stuff is just random. There is a hatch under the cabin that leads to a bar in Reykavik in 1930 and the patrons there are all mimes. Some characters have keypads that they can use to turn off other characters and now there is no such thing as tamales. The crew forgot to steer the ship in a storm for like three episodes and the first mate has a Nintendo Gameboy. Five characters are actually the same person but they don't know it and fish invented algebra.

Where anything can happen there can be no dramatic tension. By the time we get to the big reveal in the final moments of the final episode I was resigned to just another even more random denouement, which is of course what happened.

Do not recommend.

[kaysixteen]

The problem with the Columbo-model 'how's you catch 'em?' detective shows is that, ahem, there's no mystery....   The show was well, done, of course, but, well...