What TV series are you watching right now?

[Maggie Ann]

Some here may have been around long enough to remember Hugh Howey from the other forum. He made it early on with some great books, including Wool...



And now, after ten years, he finally made it to film.



And it's good!

 

I was wondering if Silo was based on HH's work. Great book, although it's not a genre I usually read.

[Maggie Ann]

Watching Shetland while I wait for the final series of Endeavor. It's pretty good. It's set on the Shetland Islands, and though they have cell phones, catching a signal is pretty iffy. Makes for a bit more tension.

Watched the second series of Sister Boniface. Sometimes I wish the British would make more than ten episodes (or 3 or 4 or 6) in a series.

Might watch the final season of Mrs. Maisel. Reading the synopsis, I'm afraid I will be disappointed. I'm going to wait until all the episodes are released anyway.

[R. C.]

Surprisingly good for propaganda.  Keri Russell never disappoints and Rufus Sewell is his creepy self.

The Diplomat

R.C.

[Bill Hiatt]

I just finished the OA on Netflix. It's a little hard to describe because a lot of it is told from the viewpoint of someone who may or may not be sane. Consequently, it's either a somewhat dark fantasy or a psychological drama. I can't say much more about it without spoilers.

I also recently finished Queen Charlotte on Netflix. It's a spinoff from their N's popular Bridgerton series. It's also hard to categorize. I guess it's historical fiction, emphasis on the fiction part. Both Bridgerton and Queen Charlotte occur in some alternate reality in which the British royal family decided to promote national unity some time around the American Revolution by marrying George III to a woman with some African ancestry and simultaneously creating some titles of nobility for black people. The real Queen Charlotte may have had a little African ancestry--historians argue about that point--but the "Great Experiment" described in the series is sadly, completely fiction. Though the British did abolish slavery before the Americans, even that wasn't quite that early. So yes, pretty much fiction, but entertaining fiction, and there is a lot of good drama revolving around George's historical mental illness, which no one in the time period knows how to deal with.

[PJ Post]

Go watch Silo and celebrate indie publishing.   

___

Oh, and this one...



For better or worse, she helped to create/popularize an entirely new Romance genre, and finally made it to film as well:



___

We need to remember our history and how we all got here.   

[Dormouse]

Slavery was made illegal in England by the Normans.

[Bill Hiatt]

Slavery was made illegal in England by the Normans.

That's interesting to know. It's too bad it didn't stick.

George III signed the law banning the slave trade in 1807, beating the US by one year. Slavery itself was abolished in 1833 (with the Slavery Abolition Act), beating the US by about 33 years, depending upon how one counts. British abolition was accomplished without war, though it did also involve a huge payout to slaveowners, as the system adopted was compensated emancipation. (American slaveowners almost universally rejected suggestions for compensated emancipation in the years leading up to the Civil War.)

It's also interesting that, although slavery was widespread in the ancient world, there was some abolitionist sentiment even then. In one version of the story of Jason and Argonauts, which unfortunately survives only in fragments, the talking prow of the Argo announces that slaves cannot be used for rowing or other menial jobs on board. The heroes have to do their own work!

[Bill Hiatt]

I just finished the OA on Netflix. It's a little hard to describe because a lot of it is told from the viewpoint of someone who may or may not be sane. Consequently, it's either a somewhat dark fantasy or a psychological drama. I can't say much more about it without spoilers.

Yesterday, I discovered I'd only seen Part I. Part II is less ambiguous in its genre but still very interesting.

[Jeff Tanyard]

Surprisingly good for propaganda.  Keri Russell never disappoints and Rufus Sewell is his creepy self.

When reading your post, I recognized the name Rufus Sewell, but I couldn't bring his face to mind, nor could I remember what I'd seen him in.  So I did some Googling, and then I remembered.  I'd come across him as King Charles II in a video on YouTube.

And while we're on the subject of Stuart kings, here's Alec Guinness as King Charles I and Richard Harris as Oliver Cromwell.

Unfortunately, no light sabers or Hogwarts spells appear in the scene.   

[Bill Hiatt]

I hadn't seen him as Charles II, but I've seen a lot of his creepy parts.

His best known roles are in movies rather than TV shows--and he isn't always a creep. John Murdoch in Dark City, for example, is a very relatable hero.

[She-la-te-da]

I'm catching up on "The Handmaid's Tale". I've been wanting June on the wall since halfway through season one. Does that make me awful? Never mind, I don't care. lol I'm about a third of the way through season three.

[Bill Hiatt]

I just finished All American and All American Homecoming on Netflix.

The first in particular taught me the difference between "based on a true story" and "inspired by a true story." AA is definitely the latter, much to my surprise.

Having worked for so many years at Beverly Hills High School (and knowing the family of Spencer Paysinger, the theoretical basis for the Spencer James character), I was surprised by how little of the "true story" made it into the series.

The real Spencer's father was a coach at Beverly, and his uncle was the head football coach (later vice principal and then principal). Spencer attended Beverly on a staff permit. In contrast, Spencer James has been abandoned by his father, who at the beginning of the series is coaching at a Nevada college. The fictitious Beverly football coach on the series, who was also the high school sweetheart of Spencer James's mother (cue soap opera music), has to pull some shenanigans to get Spencer a permit to play at Beverly, a process he goes through because Spencer's mother is concerned about his getting into fights at his neighborhood school(cue Fresh Prince of Bel Air music). When that falls through, Spencer ends up living at the coach's house. That's quite a bit more elaborate than just going to Beverly on a staff permit, which is what actually happened.

Even when the series could have stuck with real details, it threw them out in favor of fiction. So the Beverly Hills Normans became the Beverly Hills Eagles, I think so that they could have red, white, and blue uniforms--the real uniforms are orange and black.

Despite how disorienting all of that was, I enjoyed the series and its spinoff very much. It makes the very soap-operaesque personal issues seem believable, it tackles real issues in a non-preachy way. It has several subplots with different rhythms, so if someone is overwhelmed by disaster, someone else is triumphing in each episode. On the whole, it was a very moving blend.

Spencer Paysinger, who is one of the producers, also makes occasional appearances as Coach Davis, the assistant football coach (which is one of the roles his own father played in real life). 

[Bill Hiatt]

I just finished Jane the Virgin on Netflix. It's an interesting combination of elements.

In the same way that the various iterations of Scream both celebrated horror movies while analyzing them and ridiculing their excesses, Jane the Virgin, based on a Venezuelan telenovela, celebrates telenovelas while analyzing them and ridiculing their excesses--but also like Scream, rather affectionately.

The telenovela genre is close kin to the soap opera, but it has a reputation for pushing tropes even further. Due to confusion at the hospital, Jane, the title character, who is saving herself for marriage, accidentally gets artificially inseminated, making her a pregnant virgin. This sets up an ever-shifting triangle with the baby's father and Jane's fiancé. But that's only one of several threads, including the return of a long-lost relative (who also turns out to be a telenovela star), evil twins--maybe even triplets, people presumed dead turning up with amnesia, and crime lords with unlikely allies who may be working for or against the crime lord, like double or triple agents.

Alternately funny, sexy, moving, and suspenseful, the show works despite it difficult-to-believe plot. 

[LBL]

I switched to Apple TV+ for Idris Elba.

When I'd heard he was starring in a new series called 'Hijack', set on a transcontinental flight... easy sell for me.

Anyway, it's a decent high-concept show, and you may really enjoy it; I give it a solid 3/5.

[She-la-te-da]

Idris Elba. Sigh.

I used to watch telenovellas when I lived in Tucson. I knew just enough Spanish to follow along and actually "get" the story. They were fun!

So, I finished The Handmaid's Tale. Waiting for the final season, still want Jane on the wall. It's sad, I know it's sad, but holy moly, she is so fricking crazy. :D

Let's see. Have the final episode of Babylon 5 to watch tonight. Finished Lost in Space (Netflick version, saw the other when I was a kid). Finished Picard. Watching the other Star Trek thing -- Strange New Worlds? I'm having a Covid brain moment -- and waiting for new episodes of Discovery.

I'm going to have to look around, find something else to binge. I'm considering Black Mirror.

[Bill Hiatt]

I haven't quite finished Black Mirror, but I've liked what I've seen of it.

I just recently finished Atypical, the Netflix series whose protagonist is an autistic high school guy.

Portraying autism is not always easy. I know The Good Doctor has gotten some hits for allegedly portraying autism in a negative way. But I think Atypical strikes a nice balance. Of course, there are a lot of variations among autistic people, just like any other group, but the protagonist does have certain things in common with autistic people that I've known.

An especially interesting twist is that, while the autistic character faces a lot of challenges, there are times when he seems to have a better grip on reality than some of the people around him. It's also nice to see someone dealing with his challenges in a realistic way.

[PJ Post]

+1




Had to post again, this show just keeps getting better and better.






  - ish (so far)




 

Especially, if you like Tom Holland and Amanda Seyfried.




  +

This one looks amazing, and it has it's moments, but it deviates so far from the books that it's a bit of a struggle. I'm told that there's a pay off at the end of season two. I have no idea what that means, a critic said it.   

[She-la-te-da]

Yes, still liking Strange New Worlds, last episode was awesome (no spoilers!).

I'm still thinking about Dark Mirror. Finished Babylon 5, hated that last episode. Made no sense, the one before was more like the final one.

I've seriously considered getting AppleTV+, they seem to have some SF shows that look good. My late brother was a huge Asimov fan, it's a shame he can't see the Foundation show.

[Post-Crisis D]

Finished Babylon 5, hated that last episode. Made no sense, the one before was more like the final one.

Hated it?  You're a monster. 

It was filmed during the fourth season because a fifth season was not a certainty at that point and JMS wanted to have the ending done in case it did not get renewed.  But, it did get renewed and so they saved it for the end of the fifth season.  But, during the period when it was uncertain whether it would be renewed, they lost Claudia Christian.  I imagine if they had had Ivanova for the fifth season, she would have been running the station instead of Lochley.

So, anyway, that's why it seems a bit out of place.  But that was the intended ending.  Well, probably the second ending because if Michael O'Hare had been able to stay all five seasons, it would have probably ended with Sinclair going back to, well, you know.

[She-la-te-da]

Yeah. I know. GRRRRRRR Rend. Maul. Sling bloody spit.

The way season 4 ended, it was clear it was meant to wrap it all up and make it a nice ending. Or, as best they could with the story line. I didn't even mind most of season 5, but the last episode was odd. I never did see what really happened to Lennier, or any mention of the psychic one (Talia? I can't remember now). And I guess all the foreshadowing of how it ended for Londo and his people, and G'Kar was how it actually went down.

Oh, well. I did enjoy it.

I'm finishing up -- finally! -- Gene Roddenberry's Earth:  Final Conflict. I vaguely remember watching it when it was originally on, but I've forgotten most of it. I am getting old, man. I have found I like binge watching stuff, which before I never could.

Catching up on the latest of Fear the Walking Dead, still have The Flash, and The Rookie, to watch.

Strange New Worlds is done for the year at ten episodes. I'm really hating these short seasons, and having to wait a year or more for the next. I mean, I guess we don't need like, 25 or more for the year, but ten?

[Post-Crisis D]

The way season 4 ended, it was clear it was meant to wrap it all up and make it a nice ending. Or, as best they could with the story line. I didn't even mind most of season 5, but the last episode was odd. I never did see what really happened to Lennier, or any mention of the psychic one (Talia? I can't remember now). And I guess all the foreshadowing of how it ended for Londo and his people, and G'Kar was how it actually went down.

The Telepath War was kind of touched on in Crusade which is another series the network suits screwed up.

I'm finishing up -- finally! -- Gene Roddenberry's Earth:  Final Conflict. I vaguely remember watching it when it was originally on, but I've forgotten most of it. I am getting old, man. I have found I like binge watching stuff, which before I never could.

That was good until the one guy was gone, then it kind of recovered until the final season where it just went off the rails.

[Bill Hiatt]

I find myself rewatching Suits on Netflix. (I can't help myself. Gabriel Macht is a former student of mine.)

It's interesting legal drama with strong personal elements--if you can get past an initial premise that strains credibility.

It's also an unmissable opportunity to be reminded that Megan Markle is a better actress than she is a royal. Coincidentally, Suits is doing so well on Netflix that her team is reconsidering their earlier decision to keep her out of acting. Also of note is that, if the articles are wording this correctly, Netflix didn't just license Suits for a temporary run. It bought it, which implies the possibility that it might want to do something with it in future (movie, sequel, reboot).

[PJ Post]

lol, I re-watched the first episodes recently as well. It's not as good this time around, but it still has its moments.

[Bill Hiatt]

If you can get past that premise, it raises a lot of interesting moral questions, specifically about the extent to which the ends justify the means.

[She-la-te-da]

Yes, I enjoyed Booth in the first season of Earth:  Final Conflict. The guy who took his place is now a cruise director or something, not into acting for many years. I'll see it out to the end, then find something new. I need to look for the Babylon 5 Crusade thing, I'm not sure if I ever even saw that. :D

[She-la-te-da]

Oh, and forgot to complain that ST: Strange New Worlds is now over for the season. I am so sick of ten episode seasons, and then a year or more to get the next one. And then it just gets cancelled, like Nancy Drew just did, with 13 episodes. The ending didn't suck too bad, though, so there's that. Just too rushed.

[Bill Hiatt]

When I was young, I seem to recall a typical TV show was like 25 episodes or so per season.

The plus side is that we now have a lot more choices. But it's hard to get as invested in any one series, especially now that both Netflix and Disney+ are canceling things right and left. There's also the undesirable trend of taking down a canceled series completely (presumably in an attempt to make it a bigger tax write-off). It used to be that if you wanted to rewatch something produced by a streaming service, you knew it would always be there. It was only licensed content that rotated. But now, there's no certainty the streamer won't just make the series disappear.

Of course, you couldn't rewatch a "quick-cancel" in the old days of broadcast TV. Series with less than three seasons normally didn't get syndication deals. However, the rise of DVD brought some of those series back to life, at least if you were willing to pay for them. A series killed and buried by a streaming service is unlikely to be resurrected that way.

[She-la-te-da]

Yes, long seasons, but reruns in the summer through to October. If a show was gone, it was gone.

I don't want to have to subscribe to a dozen streaming services to watch one or two shows, which might be cancelled after one season. I can't afford to pay so much, and likely get so little. I share a Prime account with one son, so I can see some things (and Amazon's Freebee channel, or however they spell it). I have Roku TV, and Tubi, so I get some stuff through that. The same son gave me his old Fire Stick, so I can use that.

I'm currently watch SeaQuest. I have a vague memory it gets weird a couple of seasons in, but so far it seems okay. I think I may have watched it entirely when it first aired, but it started the year my youngest was born, so three kids and full-time job with no cable service left me with little time to watch much TV. I remember getting my oldest son to record things on our ancient VCR, and sitting in my bedroom twiddling with an antenna to get UPN. Oy. I'm old.

[Post-Crisis D]

I'm currently watch SeaQuest. I have a vague memory it gets weird a couple of seasons in, but so far it seems okay.

Season 2 is Star Trek: Deep Submergence Vehicle.

Season 3 is Ocean: Below and Beyond.

[Bill Hiatt]

As I recall, its nickname was SeaQuest: Voyage to the Bottom of the Ratings, not just a slap at Seaquest an homage to the much older and much more popular Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea

As I recall, they fought ratings drops by focusing more on the younger cast members. The ploy didn't work. But I thought it was at least a watchable show.

[PJ Post]

  ...so far




 



   - ish. For whatever reason, they just can't seem to get Star Wars right anymore. Makes me sad.

[She-la-te-da]

Quote from: She-la-te-da on September 15, 2023, 12:48:31 PM
I'm currently watch SeaQuest. I have a vague memory it gets weird a couple of seasons in, but so far it seems okay.

Season 2 is Star Trek: Deep Submergence Vehicle.

Season 3 is Ocean: Below and Beyond.

Oh, yes. It started going weird, like, three episodes in.  My favorite is the ending of season 2, which Roku apparently made even weirder by inserting an obviously earlier-season episode as the last one. Whew. Mind-bending! Then, almost no reference to anything that happened after the actual season 2 closure. Let's start over, shall we? WTF?

Season 2 was not like season 1 at all, and then the truncated season 3 was, well, a totally different show.

Anyway, started back watching Sanctuary. Might pick up Farscape later on. I'm hoping to remember to watch some things not coming back until next year (ST: Discovery, ST: Strange New Worlds, Wednesday and others0.

[She-la-te-da]

So, finished Sanctuary. Watching Travelers, which is I think a Canadian show set in the US (it has the FBI and so on). It's pretty good, only three seasons and I have five episodes left. I might watch Jericho and/or Jeremiah next, I remember those two as being fairly decent.

I'm still debating finishing Black Mirror. I think that was the one that had some weird sex thing with a pig? And then the next episode was some weird sex thing. I'm not really interested in that sort of thing. I fast forward through all the sex stuff, or skip it in books.

I need to make a list of all the shows I've binged, because I forget so easily.

[Bill Hiatt]

Sex with a pig? Pass...

I've been binge watching Grey's Anatomy on Netflix. (Speaking of book tie-ins, I think the title is inspired by the classic text, Kimber-Gray-Stackpole Anatomy and Physiology.) Somehow, I've never watched it before, with the exception of a couple early episodes in Season 1.

It does suffer from "soap opera syndrome"--an improbably high number of bad or at least dramatic things happening to the same group of people. But if one get past that, it's an enjoyable show. Since it ran for a number of seasons, you get to know the characters very well. At the same time, each season brings a new intern class, which then gradually work up to being residents, fellows, and if they survive long enough, attendings.

As with many long-running shows, there are some continuity and logic problems. In most hospital shows, the head is the chief of staff. Here, it's the chief of surgery. The main characters are all surgeons, so it makes sense that would be the focus, but apparently, there is no chief of staff. How the various departments are run or how they are coordinated isn't every really discussed. But the chief of surgery's word seems to be final unless the board becomes involved. Also, sometimes, a chief resident runs the other residents, but only when the plot seems to require it. Otherwise, the position is never mentioned. And one of the chief residents appeared to have been running the residents a year before she became chief resident.

Nor is the hierarchy the only area that has issues. There is a lot of sex going on (though fortunately, not with pigs). This is awkward in cases of residents having relationships with attendings (their supervisors). You'd think there would be a policy about that. There isn't one until there's a complaint. Then, once the plot moves on, the policy is forgotten, and everybody goes back to having sex with everybody else.

Of course, the sex is happening because no one has time to have a relationship outside the hospital. The series does raise the issue of how one balances a demanding job with home life. That's an issue that is never likely to become irrelevant. 

[Hopscotch]

Bingeing The Fall, a gritty (and I don't like a lot of grit) but intriguing British series from 2013-16 w/Gillian Anderson re: the hunt in Belfast for a serial killer viewed from multiple perspectives.

[Bill Hiatt]

I remember seeing that. As I recall, it was good. Interesting psychological twists.

[Hopscotch]

Also watching La Caza (The Hunt) (2019) about recovering two kidnapped children, set in a village in Spain's Pyrenees.  Lots of psych and psycho twists, every villager a suspect in turn revealing sprawling wickednesses.  If English mysteries persuade you that every pretty English village has a mad old lady w/a hatchet lurking behind every hedge, this will make you hesitate to wander Pyrenees villages.  But a grand mystery story, anyway.

[R. C.]

Bodies is quite entertaining. Especially, how well they mange the time shifts.

R.C.

[Bill Hiatt]

That's on my "to watch" list.

[She-la-te-da]

The Fall

I started to watch this one, but I had bad Internet at the time. I'll probably try again.

I just finished Space: 1999. Not too bad, a bit campy with all those special effects. I've watched some ReGenesis, a bit of Colony, and now looking for something else. I mostly like SF, not that interested in soaps or similar things. I've watched some Brit, UK and Canada shows, and I think one Australian, so I'm not totally against seeing other cultures, but I only speak English.

[Anarchist]

I mostly like SF...

I thought The Expanse was very good. It's on Amazon.

[PJ Post]

I thought The Expanse was very good. It's on Amazon.

I tried several times to get into this and just couldn't. I've heard from quite a few folks that it's very good. Perhaps it's just me. 

[Jeff Tanyard]

I thought The Expanse was very good. It's on Amazon.

I tried several times to get into this and just couldn't. I've heard from quite a few folks that it's very good. Perhaps it's just me. 

It's not just you.  I watched the first season, and it was certainly cool in the early going, but for whatever reason my interested simply dwindled as it went on, and I just wasn't interested in continuing on.   

[Anarchist]

Both of you are off my Christmas list.

[Jeff Tanyard]

Both of you are off my Christmas list.

 

 

[She-la-te-da]

I've got The Expanse on my list. I started watching it when it was on SyFy, but couldn't get into it. I know sometimes that can change for me, so willing to give it another try.

I just finished Space: 1999. It wasn't as bad as I feared, but those special effects left a lot to be desired. A lot like the original Lost in Space was so campy, both tried to play it serious. I do have a thing for Martin Landau, always have, so I soldiered through.

I'm about done with Primeval:  New World. Set in Canada, an offshoot of a UK show. Only one season, so no real development in the show.

I'm starting a list of what I've binged, and will add a column of potential shows. I'm hoping we soon get the final seasons of a few, like Handmaid's Tale and Star Trek Discovery. I think ST:  Strange New Worlds may be doing their final season, but hope it can go further. I like it, even though it goes contrary to cannon at times.

[Bill Hiatt]

I'm getting tired of a series ending on a cliffhanger which is never resolved.

I just finished Tiny Pretty Things on Netflix. It's a ballet-school centered mystery/soap opera with a lot of interesting twists. Unfortunately, it ends with a second murder (just hours after the first one is solved) which is revealed literally twenty seconds before the show ends. Sigh!

Theoretically, Gray's Anatomy has been renewed for another season, though the strikes have introduced an element of uncertainty. I hope at least one more season gets made, because otherwise, the series will be yet one more that ends on a horrendous cliffhanger.

[Post-Crisis D]

I'm getting tired of a series ending on a cliffhanger which is never resolved.

That was one of the reasons I stopped watching NBC and Syfy for several years.  Too many series I watched were cancelled and ended on cliffhangers.  (Or were cancelled because of executive level stupidity.)

And, still, I tend to skip over those channels.  I did make an exception for Resident Alien (Syfy) and Quantum Leap (NBC).  But, outside of that, those channels are dead to me.

[She-la-te-da]

I gave up on Resident Alien after season one. Just can't seem to get back into it.

I got a free three month trial of Apple TV+, watched the Tom Hanks movie. Awesome, made me cry (I won't say when or for what, no spoilers). Now I'm into season two of For All Mankind. It's pretty good, slightly AU history of the world if the space race never ended.

I'm thinking of doing Foundation next. Been a long, long, long time since I read the books. My late brother was a huge fan, re-read them every couple of years.

After that, no idea. I'll wait to see if the new year brings more shows or movies of interest, but will decide by my birthday whether to pay for it or not.

[She-la-te-da]

So, caught up with "For All Mankind". Wow, that's some show. I'm now watching "See", with Jason Mamoa, because, well, Jason Mamoa. 'Nuff said. The first episode, I was yelling at the TV "really?" about every other second. Some kind of woo needed to set up the premise, but it's actually not that bad. And did I mention Jason Mamoa? Because he's in it. *swoon*

I'm also working through ReGenesis. The end of the first season was a shocker that wasn't really explained, but they are carrying on with saving the world every episode. I'm not really watching anything on regular TV, since the new seasons haven't started (or nothing I normally watch has) due to the strikes earlier in the year.