Speak Up Saturday: What are you watching?

[yourlibrarian]

Last Saturday we did a poll to see whether readers wanted to keep this day just for talk about current watches. Most people had no preference but of those who did, they were fairly evenly split in terms of wanting other topics or only current watches discussion.

However as the biggest alternative was to split "current watches" into a separate weekly post, we'll keep Saturdays only for that topic and will instead use TV Tuesdays for additional discussion topics.

Please remember you are also free to post discussion topics or other types of posts yourselves each week (though we ask that -- for now -- you use other days besides Tuesdays or Saturdays for them so as to spread out community activity).

So let us all know, "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

[feurioo]

Finished Deadloch. Would definitely watch a second season but I didn't really enjoy the solution of the murder mystery because it robbed the case of everything that had made it interesting for me in the first place. The story worked, I guess, just not in a way that I found particularly engaging, funny, or insightful.

Started watching Fisk. For a show about an attorney, it doesn't really offer the kind of stuff that I typically enjoy about a legal drama. It's not a bad show at all, but currently, its quirky tone is not something I'm in the mood for.

Decided to give Destined with You a chance, simply because the posters looked pretty and people said that the male lead is one of those super mean ones. What can I say? If it's written/played well, I'm an absolute sucker for mean, male characters in a romantic comedy (provided he makes an absolute fool of himself later on). Not a fan of the fantasy premise but beggars can't be choosers. (That said, I've been planning to finally start watching Moving for a while. Maybe next week on my work trip!) No solid opinion yet as I've only watched the first half of the episode before I became distracted by packing my suitcase.

TV highlight of the week: Netflix added Call My Agent. Previously, it was on Prime Video, only with German dubbing. Maybe I'll give it one more chance. Stopped watching it there when [Andréa spoiler] because, to me, it wasn't a development that I wanted to see for the character.

More thoughts:
- If I had Broadchurch with subtitles, I'd be rewatching it at this moment. It's the only reason why I'm still hesitating. (Never completed the second season because I found Eve Myles's character irritating for reasons I don't remember. I was also quite unhappy with S3 when it aired but I might try soldiering through it for Ellie/Hardy -- and nothing else.)

- I've tried ignoring my festering crush on Michael Sheen for a while now but recently, it's getting bad again. I would consider watching Prodigal Son or Masters of Sex for him but both aren't streaming on any of the services I've subscribed to. That said, I've finally managed to find Staged on Dailymotion (aka googled it for the first time) and thought the first episode was hilarious. Curious about whatever wacky direction the writers take the premise and, of course, the fictionalized David Tennant-Michael Sheen friendship.

- Really looking forward to the new Taskmaster season. I was thinking about who I'd love to see on the next season and two of my top candidates remain David Mitchell (I know he already turned it down) and Rob Delaney (who gives me serious Rhod Gilbert energy).

[yourlibrarian]

I watched all of Prodigal Son. I found it ok, I don't know if it was a limitation in Michael Sheen's schedule or just that they needed to stretch out the show to U.S. lengths, but I didn't think they focused on that relationship as much as I expected from the show set up.

Glad you found access to Staged! It was a fun view.

[shadowkat]

I watched the first season of Prodigal Son, and would agree. While I found the relationship interesting, it's not that much of a focal point. Also, there's more focus on resolving the cases of the week. If you are just watching for Sheen? Be aware that he's not in every episode.

[yourlibrarian]

I think they use him more in S2 from what I can recall, but I agree that it doesn't revolve around him the way one might expect.

[feurioo]

Good to know! I already got suspicious when I saw that Sheen's character doesn't seem to have a popular AO3 pairing despite there being quite a lot of fic dedicated to the show. That's usually the first indicator that there's not a lot/enough there to really inspire fannish interest.

[shadowkat]

Had the same reaction to "Fisk" - I found a bit too quirky, and I was basically doing alot of surfing or other things during it.

"Deadloch" - the first episode was hard to focus on, it seemed to be more interested in quirkiness and a quirky humor than in the story or characters? I got bored quickly and jumped elsewhere. It may be a mood thing.

[feurioo]

I could deal with Fisk's quirkiness if they were more serious about the legal stuff. Several of TGW's cases were quirky as well but the show always relished in taking them apart on a technical level. That's what I'm missing here. It seems as if Fisk simply picks outlandish ideas for cases in order to force a laugh... which feels kind of cheap if you're not primarily watching for that kind of laugh.

YMMV re: Deadloch but I actually liked Dulcie, Eddie, Abbie, and Sven. I just think that they, as characters, were not always used in the best ways to really complement the murder mystery premise, particularly Eddie. It's a mixed bag for me but, overall, I really appreciated the queer angle.

[shadowkat]

I just couldn't focus on it. Part of it - was an inability to see what was going on - the light in my room made it difficult. The other was I couldn't get into the story. I may try again at night, and when I'm in a different frame of mind. The queer angle? I'm ambivalent about. (Don't care either way? I mean, it's nice to see it - because we rarely did in the past, if at all, but overall I'm ambivalent.)

Fisk - was okay, it just didn't pull me in.

[adafrog]

I binged all of Hack my House. Except for egregious use of the word 'hack' I thought it was clever and fun.

Didn't have time to watch much else besides Antiques Roadtrip (not roadshow) that I watch/keep in the background when I want noise.

[rionaleonhart]

I went to the Death Note musical yesterday and loved it, so I've embarked on a rewatch of the anime! It's great to revisit it; it's still so good at drama and tension. Light Yagami is absolutely terrible and I love him with all my heart.

[jo]

Still mostly baseball and tennis. So so so much tennis (US Open), but that will be ending tomorrow. Not sure what the next televised tournament will be -- probably the Laver Cup, so I'll have more time to catch up on non-sports.

But I did manage to squeeze in some non-sports watching. I blew through season 2 of Dark Winds (only 6 episodes), and loved it. Highly recommend the series.

Major achievement was getting my husband to actually sit down to watch the first ep of season 2 of Foundation!!! My husband does not like watching TV, but there are a handful of shows that he does like, and Foundation is one of them. So he wants to watch it with me, but that means it can take months to get through the season because it's such a struggle to get him to commit to actually watching an episode.

Star Trek: Lower Decks started up this week with two episodes, so I watched those. Also this past week's episode of Annika. I watched the first episode of Fisk, and enjoyed it enough, but haven't watched any more of it yet. I think that's mostly it.

[yourlibrarian]

Started watching this season of Dark Winds as well, and got through Ep 3. I'll be interested to see S1 at some point, perhaps it will get rerun on AMC.

Apparently Annika begins Oct 15 here in the U.S. so will have to wait a bit.

[jo]

I can't imagine starting with season 2 as it's so much fall-out from events in season 1.

[yourlibrarian]

Turns out we didn't! I thought that we had picked up only S2 recordings but it turns out we had access to S1, so we're only up to episode 4 on that.

[shadowkat]

You can do it - you just have to figure out in a round about way why Chee is a PI and Bernadette is hunting a new job, and Emma and Leaphorn have a girl and her baby living with them.

[shadowkat]

S1 Dark Winds is on MAX, apparently. Assuming you want to try MAX again.

[impala_chick]

Sad that baseball season is winding down, with my team dead last in their division :/ Hope the season has been better for you!

[jo]

Which unfortunate team is that? My team's the Jays, and they've been very frustrating this year -- our broadcasters have finally stopped saying "When this offense gets going" because it's September and it still really hasn't. I had made peace with the idea that we weren't going to make the playoffs this year because they were just so disappointing in August. But lately they've been playing better (or maybe just a couple of other teams ahead of them have been losing more consistently), and now we're back in contention for the last wild card slot and things are all stressful again. We have a 4-game series with the Rangers starting Monday and that will likely make or break the season.

[impala_chick]

The Oakland A's. Morale is so low this year with all the Las Vegas talk :/

Oh man, I guess this week wasn't great then.

[impala_chick]

Watched the first three episodes of 1883, still deciding if I'm going to finish...

Also watching s3 of The Great. I think it's a masterpiece but also so sad that I'll be getting through it slowly.

[goodbyebird]

Haven't seen any of s3 of The Great, but happy to hear it's holding up.

[jo]

The Great is really excellent. So sad that it's been cancelled.

[impala_chick]

Oh nooooo I just saw that :( Sad indeed.

[goodbyebird]

Keeping up to date on Wheel of Time, season 2 is very good so far. Some book characters have received a massive glow-up on the show, and I'm loving the additional depth added to characters and relationships. Plus the villains are great :D

Ahsoka is giving me stoic Jedis and Samurai-esque fights, which I'm enjoying, but hopefully something interesting will happen soon. Especially regarding the witchcraft.

[yourlibrarian]

I have to admit I'm watching Ahsoka as much from a nostalgic watch standpoint as for the show itself. I really enjoyed Rebels so it's nice to see all of that looped back into canon.

[shadowkat]

Late to the party.

Watched:

* Castlevania - almost through S2. It's better than expected. They resolve the problem or villain of each season within that season. Dracula is taken care of in S2. (Although honestly they could have just let the factions within Dracula's organization destroy each other and him.]
It does have strong female characters in there (my requirement if no one else's) but there's only two of them.

* Cook at all Costs - interesting reality cooking competition series - where the cooks change each episode. Each home cook (aka amateur cook) gets $25,000 to start. They then bid on ingredient boxes provided by a celebrity or guest professional chef around a specific theme or cultural cooking style. The boxes hide the ingredients inside. There's a SAVE (inexpensive box with inexpensive or lower quality ingredients), a SPEND (expensive and high quality ingredients), and Mystery Box (with weird ingredients that's the one left over). Also they can bid on add on's, and surprises. The contestant who wins the challenge, gets to leave with the money left over in their bank. So the challenge is A) not to spend that much and B) cook a meal that impresses the judge.

The host is kind of annoying (sigh aren't they all?) but the concept is intriguing.

[Only saw one episode - it's on Netflix]

* For All Mankind (Apple TV) - I got bored. I tried two episodes and my attention kept drifting. It's hard to tell the people apart. I may get better as it goes. I actually like two characters, but I rarely see them. A woman who lives out of her office, and Deke. There's also a depressed astronaut. Not sure who he is? Anyhow - he whines to a journalist about how wimpy NASA is.
The plot is mainly about how - the Russians got to the Moon first and how depressed and upset the US is, and whether they should continue or what they can do about it.

* Deadloch - co-worker recommended. It's on Amazon Prime. I got bored. It's another quirky show from Australia. Similar to Fisk, with quirky characters, and a kind of in your face sense of humor. This one focuses on a small town that is largely run by women. The head of police is female, the Mayor is, and the choir sings songs for women and mainly lesbians. I'm sure it's good - but I found it a bit hard to watch (it's filmed either during cloudy days or at night), and hard to follow or get into. The new head of police is kind of annoying, although I'm guessing she's supposed to be.
It made me miss Broadchurch.

***

Flirting with?

* One Piece - there's a live action version of the anime, I'm curious about the anime that appears to have 15 seasons?

* Guardian (if I can find it - it looks interesting) - also anime.

Virgin River (is back), as is The Witcher (which I still have to make it through S2), Wheel of Time,
Superman & Lois, The Changling, Foundation (I couldn't get through S1), sigh....and I plan to finish Dark Winds this weekend if I can. Discovery of Witches has landed on Max with it's final Season, and Interview with a Vampire has popped up on Max.

[feurioo]

Haha, Deadloch is definitely a big reason why I'm currently flirting with a Broadchurch rewatch. I got really into it around episode 4 but that high only held for about two episodes. While I enjoyed some parts of it immensely, ultimately, it felt as if the show's main priority was to make a point instead of telling a good story.

Added Cook at all Costs to my Netflix list because it sounds like fun.

[shadowkat]

Yeah, I had the same reaction to Deadloch after two episodes. It's a bit too preachy or on the nose for my taste.

Cook at all Costs is kind of fun. I was surprised by it.

[lycomingst]

A couple of weeks ago I rewatched some Elementary episodes, from the later seasons. Lately I started a rewatch from the beginning. I love this series. A male/female platonic working together storyline is one of my favorite things.

The local PBS station has started three British mysteries every Sunday night. Must see TV.

[yourlibrarian]

We're big Mystery watchers as well. I've found it frustrating for recording purposes that both Mystery and Masterpiece are now in TV listings under the names of the particular shows rather than the two series so that we can't just set those to record.

Which are the ones you've been seeing?

[lycomingst]

Professor T - Ben Miller doing his grumpy guy stuff
Unforgotten - Which surprised me by coming back. A new female lead.
Van der Valk - Because Marc Warren

[yourlibrarian]

Yes, I was surprised that Unforgotten got another season! It seemed like a natural close to it but I guess the show was too popular to end.

[saddlerfan]

I finished my Breaking Bad re-watch last week. I also watched El Camino, and I must say I liked it much better this time around (last time I watched it I hadn't re-watched Breaking Bad beforehand). Still one of my all-time favorite TV shows.