Speak Up Saturday: What are you watching?

[yourlibrarian]

Although Speak Up Saturdays will include other topics for discussion, our main questions each week will be: "What have you watched last week?" and "How are you liking it?"

Because a variety of shows may get referenced here, please do not include any spoilers in the comments. Thanks!

Comments

[rodo]

I just finished the third season of Warrior and loved it (mild, general spoilers)! (And I spent the afternoon drafting some ficlets to satisfy my yearning for MORE.)

[8hyenas]

I've been watching The Diplomat and really enjoying the irreverent humor. I'm always a sucker for serious topics treated lightly. I wouldn't quite call it a dark comedy but it's a successor to Veep. I'm not quite finished so I haven't checked but I hope there's a second season!

[yourlibrarian]

I have seen several recs for The Diplomat! Don't have Netflix right now but am looking forward to it.

[yourlibrarian]

Woohoo for happiness with how a season wraps up!

[shadowkat]

At the moment? Daisy Jones and the Six - and it's sigh, boring. I'm on episode 8. And honestly, Timothy Oliphant's Manager is possibly the most interesting thing in it, along with Maybelle, the singer who reminds me of cross between Nina Simone and Donna Summer. It's very cliche ridden - I think? (To say more requires spoilers.) I keep dabbling - every once and a while I'll watch an episode thinking - okay maybe it improved? And no, it hasn't. But hey, it has 9 emmy nominations, so what do I know?

I don't understand the Emmy Nominations on this one.

Also watched The Great American Barbecue Showdown on Netflix (S2). I liked S1 better. But S2 is interesting - it featured one woman who is so addicted to barbecuing, she lost her house, her canoe (yes a canoe), car, husband, and has moved back in with her parents - who are insisting she stop doing the barbecuing. (She's not a young woman - she looks like she's in her 50s at least). There's some drama in the second episode - where the contestants are told to use peppers, and the Carolina reaper and habaranoes are put on the menu. I honestly think the Judges got what they deserved for doing that one.

Now, I think I might move on to either another episode of Good Omens, which is quite good. The first episode of Season 2 was hilarious in places, or a Cillian Murphy or Chris Nolan flick.

[yourlibrarian]

I didn't realize Oliphant was in that series. I agree, it got a lot of buzz.

Wow -- I didn't realize one could go in debt over barbecuing!

[rodo]

Yes! I'm especially pleased because the series basically got un-cancelled for this season, and there's usually a certain drop of quality that I associate with un-cancelling, long hiatuses, and later seasons. But it was really good.

[violateraindrop]

I watched it recently and loved it! Keri Russell is awesome.
It has been renewed for a second season, but who knows what will happen with the strikes going on :/

[olivermoss]

I'm catching up on Nancy Drew, but I haven't seen the latest episode yet. I need to get on my Stranger Things rewatch for fall... just need to finish this video game first!

[feurioo]

Tried getting into some newly released K-dramas:
- Behind Your Touch: Super silly premise (some people call it the "butt telepathy" drama). Great leads: Han Ji-min and Lee Min-Ki, so I had to check it out immediately. It struck me as something I might have liked if I was in a better mood, so maybe I will revisit it later on.

- Cold-Blooded Intern: Liked the first episode. Depending on how cold-blooded the intern character is going to be, I might continue or stop watching. Love the fact that we are seeing more shows about older women rejoining the workforce.

- The Killing Vote: Mainly giving this one a chance for Park Hae-jin. Currently watching the first episode and I'm already positively intrigued by Lim Ji-yeon's character. Here's hoping they know how to use her well. She was so good in The Glory.

Other Shows:
- This Fool S1: Started it because somebody mentioned it in relation to The Bear. Don't see the similarity but I think it's quite cute and feel-good. (Edit: "Cute" and "feel-good" specifically in relation to the fact that the protagonist is a member of an organization that helps to rehabilitate ex-gang members.)

- Heartstopper S2: Two wolves inside me: 1. All that queer rep gives me euphoria to the max. 2. They are all so young and bright-eyed, and there's just a part of me that cannot identify with that anymore, so yeah, it makes me feel old.

- I'm A Virgo S1: This show is really something else and I wish more people talked about it. That said, I find it hard to simply finish it because Prime Video suddenly doesn't show me anymore which episode I stopped watching. It really is a chore and a half to always go and find where I left off (particularly on low-spoon days). If anybody is into off-beat, highly surreal satires with social commentary, consider watching this one.

- Only Murders in the Building S3: Not really feeling it, so far. I hope the next episode gives us some more intriguing clues.

[yourlibrarian]

Let's hope there's a lot more of that once the writer's strike ends.

[yourlibrarian]

This is the last season for Drew, is that right?

[yourlibrarian]

I've seen various recs for Heartstopper. I plan to look it up on my next Netflix round.

I remember hearing about I'm a Virgo. It was your comment about not saving your place that caught my attention though. One real drawback about YouTube TV is that it doesn't save your place in a recording -- so you not only need to remember episode but how many minutes you were into something (of particular joy with long sports games).

I've also noticed that Paramount+ will often not finish off those final minutes in an episode so that when you start up again it insists on popping into the last 3 minutes of credits.

[shadowkat]

I didn't either - but she went insane over it. Does nothing but barbeque. And when they told her not to or to stop, she'd sneak off and do it. It's become her life. (And she wasn't very good in this contest. So it's kind of sad?)

[shadowkat]

Yeah, it is the final season of the show. It got cancelled - this year, so they are wrapping it up.
CW went cancelled a lot of series this year. It's struggling apparently.

I have a bunch of Nancy Drew episodes in my DVR queue as well - that I'm debating watching. I kind of skipped over a bunch - from the first half of the season, maybe 4? That got deleted. You can watch for free on the CW app - but with commercials.

[shadowkat]

Amazon Prime has this problem too - it's how I ended up skipping from episode 1 of Vox Machina to S2 episode 1 without knowing I did it. They also did that to me in Paramount + with Picard - I ended up half-way into S2, without realizing it. It's very annoying. Bad interface. Netflix has a better interface.

Oh - reminded me of two K Dramas that I have to hunt down. One is the Alchemist? I have to ask this woman on FB who rec'd them ages ago. Ah found her rec: Flower of Evil is a contemporary psychological thriller about a psychopathic killer and his police detective wife that does not go at all the way you might predict. Alchemy of Souls is a wuxia historical with magic and martial arts. both made by the consistently-great Studio Dragon, which leans toward expanding the genre with everything they make, these entries are both outstanding in their character development and strong storylines.

I like K dramas. Netflix has a ton of them.

Felt same about Heartstopper - it makes me feel very old. Still need to watch all of S1. Saw first episode. People are raving about it online.

[olivermoss]

Yup, we are down to the last few episodes!

[feurioo]

Let us know what you think about Heartstopper!

The thing is: Prime Video has a "continue watching" feature but it only offers the option for shows I stopped watching a while ago. I'm A Virgo simply doesn't register regardless of how often I look the show up. It also doesn't list Good Omens 2 as a finished title, even though I watched that in its entirety shortly after it was released. Probably a bug. :/ I'm already not the biggest Prime Video fan (using a family member's account) but this actively hinders my watching experience.

Wtf, YouTubeTV? That would make the service completely unusable to me. How do you do it? Passion? Patience?

I think the worst service I use is WOW TV. 1. It doesn't remember your preferred language settings, so you always have to choose English sub/dub (separate choices) when watching a new show. It also doesn't remember those settings once you've finished an episode and are about to start a new one. 2. You can only download things once and they get deleted after, I don't know, two days or so? I always have some stuff on my mobile in case I get stuck during my commute. 3. You cannot delete titles from your watch list. Instead, you have to wait for them to disappear on their own. I'm only using the service because it offers several HBO titles.

[rocky41_7]

Making my way through Black Sails for the first time! I just finished S1 last night and I've got a library hold on S2 so hopefully I'll get to that soon. I also need to finish part 2 of The Witcher S3 but...not feeling very motivated for that.

[feurioo]

Of all the services I'm using, Netflix definitely has the best interface, I agree.

I've seen Flower of Evil recced many times but, from what I've read, it didn't manage to push enough of my buttons to put it on my to-watch list. Same re: Alchemy of Souls. Sageuks are generally not my thing and fantasy generally tends to be hit-or-miss as far as I'm concerned. However, it's a Hong sisters drama and they tend to be popular for a reason.

I'm really glad that Netflix hopped onto the K-drama train, even though I never truly understood the Squid Game hype.

[yourlibrarian]

Ooh, Black Sails was a big favorite of mine!

[rionaleonhart]

Having watched Lost earlier this year and loved it, I found myself in the mood for more protagonists who are named Jack and have severe emotional problems, so I'm having another crack at Stargate SG-1! I've just watched the feature-length first episode.

My main recollection of this show, having drifted away on my last attempt to watch it, is 'strong characters, wildly variable episode quality'. I'll be interested to see whether my fondness for the SG-1 team can pull me through the questionable episodes this time. For now, it's definitely scratching the 'characters named Jack with emotional problems' itch.

[yourlibrarian]

Hmm, that does sound like a bug. Well with YouTube it's really a shortage of options. I think there are only 5 cable alternatives and only DStream and Hulu Live offer anything near what YT does. We've used both before and the pricing ended up better with YT.

WOW TV deserves its name, but not in a good way. Although when we record content we can't delete individual episodes from YT after we watch them. Not the biggest problem but annoying.

[yourlibrarian]

I watched SGA but never saw SG-1 -- a bit of a problem when reading fanfic given the crossovers!

[jo]

Mostly baseball and tennis (mostly tennis to be honest -- the Jays are just SOOOOOOO frustrating this season), but in terms of non-sports, I started watching The Afterparty on Apple+, which I'd never heard of until someone on DW kept mentioning how much they were enjoying the 2nd season. It is quite amusing, fairly light, so I don't have to concentrate too much, which is about all I can handle in the evenings. Also the 2nd series of Men in Kilts (Starz or your fave torrent site), but that's a weekly thing.