Whatcha Been Watching?

[The_reviewist]

I finally watched Mr.Bates vs the Post Office.

If anyone needs me, I'll be over in a corner fuming at the State and the corruption on all levels of bureaucratic power.

[Alex79]

Watched a bunch of stuff in the last month or so:

Adolescence: sure most people have heard of this by now, but it's good and Stephen Graham continues to be evolving in to a national treasure. Excellently shot with four long continuous takes across the four episodes, the show explored the incel culture and the pressure on teenage boys nowadays. It was interesting from a social work point of view, too.

Long Way Round/Down/Up: I absolutely love these shows and can't remember how many times I've seen them. LWR features a motorcycle trip around the world from London to New York, the long way round, with Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman. Just really good adventure television. LWD is filmed a couple of years later and sees them travel from Scotland to South Africa, and is excellent too. LWU (the best part of 20 years later) sees them navigate the most southern tip of Argentina up to Los Angeles on electric motorcycles, and loses a little of the charm of the first two series, being funded by Apple and clearly with a bigger budget. You got the feeling the first two series were done because they were desperate to do the trips, whilst this was always planned as a TV show. But it's still really fun.

I rewatched these in preparation for Long Way Home, the fourth long trip series from the pair, in which they'll ride some vintage motorbikes around Scandinavia. Starts in May and I can't wait!

Red Rose: Watched on Netflix, although it's also on BBC iPlayer. It's billed as a horror, but it's more of a thriller. 8 part series about a group of UK teenagers who get involved with the Red Rose app, which seems to be a positive thing at first but quickly turns more horrific. There are a few plot holes, but it was pretty compelling viewing.

And finally, Severance: Making the most of my three month Apple TV trial! I'm only four episodes in but it's hooked me and I'm excited to see what happens next!

[Truk_Kurt]

Watched a bunch of stuff in the last month or so:

Adolescence: sure most people have heard of this by now, but it's good and Stephen Graham continues to be evolving in to a national treasure. Excellently shot with four long continuous takes across the four episodes, the show explored the incel culture and the pressure on teenage boys nowadays. It was interesting from a social work point of view, too.

Long Way Round/Down/Up: I absolutely love these shows and can't remember how many times I've seen them. LWR features a motorcycle trip around the world from London to New York, the long way round, with Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman. Just really good adventure television. LWD is filmed a couple of years later and sees them travel from Scotland to South Africa, and is excellent too. LWU (the best part of 20 years later) sees them navigate the most southern tip of Argentina up to Los Angeles on electric motorcycles, and loses a little of the charm of the first two series, being funded by Apple and clearly with a bigger budget. You got the feeling the first two series were done because they were desperate to do the trips, whilst this was always planned as a TV show. But it's still really fun.

I rewatched these in preparation for Long Way Home, the fourth long trip series from the pair, in which they'll ride some vintage motorbikes around Scandinavia. Starts in May and I can't wait!

Red Rose: Watched on Netflix, although it's also on BBC iPlayer. It's billed as a horror, but it's more of a thriller. 8 part series about a group of UK teenagers who get involved with the Red Rose app, which seems to be a positive thing at first but quickly turns more horrific. There are a few plot holes, but it was pretty compelling viewing.

And finally, Severance: Making the most of my three month Apple TV trial! I'm only four episodes in but it's hooked me and I'm excited to see what happens next!

I should watch the Long Way Up as I enjoyed the first two. Depending on your tolerance for Clarkson, Hammond and May, the Grand Tour specials on amazon are good for the whole long road trip adventures genre of TV.

[Alex79]

I did used to like Top Gear when those three presented it, and much as I'm not really a fan of Clarkson, I found his farming show on Prime quite enjoyable too. I'll have to check out that Grand Tour show, thanks.

[Truk_Kurt]

I did used to like Top Gear when those three presented it, and much as I'm not really a fan of Clarkson, I found his farming show on Prime quite enjoyable too. I'll have to check out that Grand Tour show, thanks.

Oh if you haven't seen any Grand Tour, I would reccomend both the road trip specials and normal episodes which were more just like an episode of Top Gear in all but name.

[Truk_Kurt]

After finishing White Lotus season 3 which I thought was a bit of a step down from the impeccable first two seasons (season two being my favourite season of TV ever), I started Mad Men. It's pretty good, though I'm perhaps not as into it as others seem to be but maybe it comes into its stride even more in subsequent seasons.

[Truk_Kurt]

Right, I have now finished Babylon. Overall It was majorly disappointing to me given how much I love Chazelle's other films. There are some things I like about it which are all related to Chazelle, so the use of cuts, the use of the Jazz soundtrack and I think the core theme about purusing your dreams and nostalgia for a certain time in your life (which I think is common through all his films) resonates with me a lot and gets me more emtional. But everything else about the film I didn't like. It feels like someone asked Chazelle to make a Tarantino film but he just created a poor imitation. It just felt like a lot of scenes were there just trying to shock the viewer, I think you could have told the same story in a less disgusting way, even if all that stuff was happening in that time in Hollywood. My favourite bit was the end scene in the cinema, that was nice. I'd give it a 2/5 but still glad I watched it.

[Alex79]

Finished season one of Severance recently and have never felt more anxious watching TV, absolutely exceptional television. Need to get season two watched before my Apple trial runs out.

Watched the first couple of Long Way Home, also on Apple, and it's as pleasant viewing as ever.

We've also picked Handmaids Tale up again after bailing when season four finished. Just started season five before watching the sixth, and final, recently released season. Can't remember a jot about what happened in season four so a bit lost at the moment.

Also, just finished both seasons of Detroiters. Outstanding comedy and any fan of I Think You Should Leave with Tim Robinson really needs to check it out. Every episode is like an extended sketch from that show. I'm really hoping Robinson's film, Friendship, gets a UK release date soon.

We watched The Walk-In on Netflix, which is a Stephen Graham series where he works for Hope Not Hate and works with someone passing them information from a banned right wing organisation. It covers the murder of Jo Cox and the planned murder of another politician. It's based on a true story - all the characters are easily Googleable - and was really interesting.

Finally, some easy viewing was Last One Laughing on Prime. Just a load of comedians in a room and if they laugh they're eliminated. National treasure, Bob Mortimer, was one of the players, so it's obviously worth watching and more funny that a gameshow hosted by Jimmy Carr has any right to be.

[The_reviewist]

I'm in the pleasant swing of three shows of differing levels of enjoyment.

Andor: which I'm about 3/4 through and is now teetering on the brink of being, in my opinion, THE BEST Star Wars. That's it. The best thing that ever Starred a War. Absolutely staggeringly great writing, acting and beautifully made. Especially for us olds who grew up watching the OT and thought the WW2-esque Rebels vs Empire stuff was more fun than the Space Wizard samurai hokum.

Doctor Who: Not fully in love with this, but enjoying it more on a general level that Ncuti's first season. There is definitely some serious clunk with the show feeling really rushed and badly paced almost every week, but it has that classic Dr Who charm, as well as some of the old 2005 NuWho fun.

The Last of Us: I wish I was enjoying this a lot more than I am. I'm firmly in the quiet camp of people who really enjoyed the concept, and the mechanical and artistic aspects of TLOU2 but didn't love the storytelling and structure. The show seems to be taking the worst aspects of how that story was told, and doubling down by chucking the pacing out the window, and dumbing it down for the slowest members of the TV audience.
It's not great, but it's not terrible. I do wish it was a LOT BETTER though. Next season when they

Spoiler: show

cover Abby's side of the story, which was always the part I prefered to play

I'm hoping it will be a bit better.

[therealdeadaim]

Agree about Andor. It's the best star wars made (besides the OG film). Once the series ended made me rewatch R1 and the OG trilogy. Everything was great about it, but it was just the writing the really made it stand out. I don't understand why these 100m+ TV shows don't spend more time on making a good script.