The TV Series Thread

[cathwen]

We have watched the following, all with Native/First Nations themes:

Three Pines—excellent.  Alfred Molina plays the lead role.  Amazon Prime.  Only one season, unfortunately.
Dark Winds—absorbing.  Almost all-Native cast.  AMC/AMC+.  Season 2 comes out July 30.
Longmire—my husband calls this "Wyoming 5-0".  We're hooked.  Lou Diamond Philips plays one of the main roles. Netflix. Six seasons.

[ab_grp]

We have Longmire, but I'm not sure when we'll get to it.  I'm looking forward to it, having seen a couple seasons previously.  Great cast!

Done with the penultimate season of Once Upon a Time, finally.  One more to go! They keep having some interesting ideas, but we're both getting a bit weary.  Now we're on the final season of Justified.

For comedy, we finished Wings and started Curb Your Enthusiasm from the beginning.  Oh my gosh, is it stressful to watch! So much shouting! I think it's very funny at times, but he can be so unlikeable.  Still, it's hard to stop watching.  I think I can be a little boisterous (belligerent?) at times as well, and man... this guy runs circles around me.  It's fun to try to guess how the situations will turn out.  Some you can see coming from a mile away and others, no way.  I seriously feel like I need to take extra blood pressure medication when we're watching, though.  Whew.

[AmLitHist]

Anyone watch Rabbit Hole? I watched the first episode on the free app and loved it, but haven't gone ahead and signed up for Paramount + yet.  Should I?

[ab_grp]

ALH, I haven't seen it but just watched the trailer.  It looks interesting, but it also looks like one of those shows I hope pays off and also isn't abruptly cancelled and etc.! I would be interested to hear what you think if you do end up watching.

As for us, we finished Justified, which I thought wrapped up nicely.  I may have raised my eyebrow or smirked once or twice, because of course they have to be cute about some things to make the fans happy, but I think it was an excellent cap on an excellent series.  For that slot, we now have Sons of Anarchy, which I have seen completely and my husband has not previously seen.  It follows a "motor club" (motorcycle gang) in California that's into a lot of bad stuff, but maybe not all members feel that it was supposed to be that way or should continue to be that way.  Despite the guns, drugs, and prostitution, I think a lot of the drama resonates pretty well for a broader audience.  I tend to enjoy books, shows, and movies that can portray familiar relationship dynamics in totally different settings than I'm typically used to.

We are alternating our comedy slot between Curb Your Enthusiasm (just finished season 2) and The Thick of It, which I think ciao_yall recommended.  We just started so are getting used to the characters and humor (sorry, humour).  The story so far follows the bureaucracy in the British Minister of Social Affair's office (and beyond, I assume).  It is hard for me to look away from Curb..., but that airport episode near the end of the season... I can't even with this guy.

[ciao_yall]

Current line-up while the writer's strike keeps The Daily Show and SNL off the TV...

Final season:

• Barry
• Marvelous Mrs. Maisel
• Succession

Quickie 30-minute shows:

• Bojack Horseman
• Dear White People

K-Romcom/Dramas:

• Her Private Life (kinda cringey but aren't they all?)
• Memories of the Alhambra (Sci-fi and amazing scenery of Granada, plus Hyun Bin.)

[ciao_yall]

We watched some Barry on our trips out of town for the surgery, but I don't remember much about them except that I thought they were reasonably entertaining.  Do you recommend that one, ciao_yall?

Yes, definitely! The final season takes a strange turn.

[jimbogumbo]

We watched some Barry on our trips out of town for the surgery, but I don't remember much about them except that I thought they were reasonably entertaining.  Do you recommend that one, ciao_yall?

Yes, definitely! The final season takes a strange turn.

Two thumbs up from me!!

[ab_grp]

Thanks for the Barry recommendations! We will definitely put that on the list.

I guess this might belong here? I just finished watching a documentary on Amazon prime that appears to have been the start of a series.  Only the first four episodes seem to have been created.  The series is called Bug Out, but the reason I watched is because of a recent news story out of Philadelphia about vandalism at the Philadelphia Insectarium, an institution that I had no idea even existed.  Reading about the vandalism, which seems to have occurred as an eviction was about to take place, I found out about the largest bug heist in history (about $50K), which had occurred there in 2018.  This documentary (or, these four episodes) is about that heist.  I do not like bugs or anything else housed at the insectarium (butterflies are okay), but it was a really interesting tale, and the documentary certainly ratchets up the drama.  You can see the trailer here and watch for free if you have Amazon prime.  https://www.amazon.com/Bug-Out-Official-Trailer/dp/B09PRV52WJ  I listened to more than watched some of it because there are numerous creatures shown that I am not that interested in seeing, and I usually watched while eating breakfast or lunch.  It's only about 35 mins per episode, and there are ads that can't be skipped.  If you think you might watch it, I'd do that before reading the following article about the vandalism.  The documentary gives a pretty good sense of who the characters involved are.  https://whyy.org/articles/philadelphia-insectarium-evicted-building-damage/

[Langue_doc]

I've been watching the weekly Poirot series on one of our local PBS stations. Some of the adaptations are good, but others are terrible. Last week's The Clocks, which I'd seen before, wasn't too bad. The worst was Mystery of the Blue Train, where the female protagonist in the movie kept either braying like a hyena or acting like a teenage bimbo, instead of coming across as the very reserved character depicted in the novel. I'm looking forward to Elephants Can Remember, scheduled to start at 8 this evening. Hope the adaptation and the acting are both good.

[ab_grp]

We finished Sons of Anarchy last night (second time for me).  It's still one of my favorite series, though it is quite brutal at times.  There were a couple details I picked up on this second time that I missed the first, and I'm going through all the episode trivia now, and that's revealing additional interesting tie-ins. 

After the finale, we started Station Eleven, the mini-series adaptation of the book (which we've each read several times).  So far, so good.  I am glad that I had previously read the book, because I think the pilot could be pretty confusing for someone who hadn't.  Maybe not?

We're still watching Curb Your Enthusiasm, maybe in season 9 now? It is extremely funny at times.  I still don't like Larry very much, but I do agree with him on some of his rants, and that concerns me.  ;-) The supporting cast is really the star in my opinion, especially one particular character that came long a few seasons in.  Last night's episode had a guy who I swore was Damon Wayans but just could not be because of his youth.  Well, it was Damon Wayans Jr.  The resemblance is uncanny! Those are some strong genes.

And since I am alone for breakfast and lunch now, I decided to stick with documentaries for breakfast and am now watching Fed Up, which is a look at the food industry and obesity.  Some of the statistics (e.g., on increasing rates of adolescent Type 2 diabetes) are startling, and the history of the food industry's trends and influence is also pretty interesting. 

[hmaria1609]

On Sunday night, it's the 9th and final season for "Endeavour" on PBS's "Masterpiece Mystery!"
I watched "Morse & the Last Endeavour" special on Sunday night, featuring the lead cast members who were on the series and Kevin Whately from the original "Inspector Morse" and "Inspector Lewis" series.

[Sun_Worshiper]

We watched the last season of Better Call Saul recently. It really delivered and, having now watched the complete series, I think it may be the most consistent of the all-time great dramas.

[ab_grp]

Better Call Saul was an amazing series, and that final season... wow.  Some excellent episodes.

We finished the Station Eleven miniseries last night.  It diverged quite a bit from the book, making a lot of choices that changed the story and impressions of major characters, but we both thought it was very good.  Most of the actors were not well known to us and seemed well-chosen for their roles, including some real stand outs.  There's something about the way Emily St. John Mandel writes that's very pleasing, something about the transitions maybe? There was some of that present in the miniseries as well, somehow, especially when characters were having quick flashbacks to previous events.  There wasn't much trivia about it on IMDB, but it's kind of ironic that the story is about pre- and post-pandemic life, and this started shooting January 2020 but had to shut down until the following year due to the you-know-what. 

I think we're moving on to Lost now, maybe alternating with Prison Break.  I've seen both before.

[OneMoreYear]

We are excited that Season 2 of The Bear will begin this week, as hubby is from Chicago (Italian Beef!) and loves cooking; he has dreams of opening a bunny chow restaurant or food truck (likely to remain a dream rather than a retirement plan).  Season 1 episodes were so frenetic, we needed a calmer show after to lower blood pressure.

[ab_grp]

We are excited that Season 2 of The Bear will begin this week, as hubby is from Chicago (Italian Beef!) and loves cooking; he has dreams of opening a bunny chow restaurant or food truck (likely to remain a dream rather than a retirement plan).  Season 1 episodes were so frenetic, we needed a calmer show after to lower blood pressure.

Ooh, I forgot about this show after seeing the previews a while back.  Thanks for the reminder! It sounds pretty good.