Speak Up Saturday

[misbegotten]

Welcome to the weekly roundup post!

What are you watching this week? And how would you describe it (without plot spoilers!) to someone who has never heard of it?

Comments

[goodbyebird]

I watched 2x05 of Wheel of Time on Friday.

Horny villains. A plethora of middle aged and older ladies. Very cool designs for the various factions. Magic.

[feurioo]

I'm currently on episode 4 of Destined with You... and not sure I would recommend it.

How I would describe it: Curses and spells wrecking the romantic lives of our attractive protagonists. A little slow for my liking. By this point, I expected more answers and loads more fun. But it seems to be headed in that direction.

Might have a look into 7 Escape: War for Survival (pro: Hwang Jung-eum, con: makjang) and Live Your Own Life (pro: Uee and Ha-Joon, the cutie second male lead from Destined with You; con: weekender) this weekend.

[jo]

I had a couple of extra days available to me this week as I had to prep for, and undergo, a medical procedure, so I was able to get through two limited series. The first was The Killing Kind (6 eps) -- the adaptation of Jane Casey's novel of the same title. This isn't one of her Maeve Kerrigan series novels, it's a standalone. I torrented it -- it's on Paramount+ in the UK, no idea what, if anything, it's on anywhere else. I think it might end up on CTV in Canada at some point because I saw it referenced in a press release from earlier this summer. Anyhoo... when I saw the trailer, I thought it looked like a very faithful adaptation. It might well be -- I realized as I was watching it that I didn't remember all of the intricacies of the plot. There were bits where I thought "that wasn't in the book?" but maybe it was -- I honestly just don't remember. Saw comments on Twitter from others who said it was a very faithful adaptation, so there you go. Anyway, I really enjoyed it. It's a psychological thriller, I guess you'd call it.

The other series was Bali 2002 -- a 4-part dramatisation of the terrorist attacks in Bali 21 years ago. I thought it was quite well done. Each episode sort of retold events from the POV of a different victim, interspersed with the police investigation and the medical treatment and rehab of the victims.

Other things watched included the season 2 finale of Annika, the premiere of season 2 of Welcome to Wrexham, and more progress made on season 2 of The Afterparty. At one point I started watching the first episode of Spy Ops (Netflix), then realized halfway through that I was paying zero attention to it. The first ep was about the hunt for Bin Laden immediately after 9/11, which has been told to death, so maybe that's why. Each ep is about a different intelligence operation, so maybe I'll find one of those more gripping. Or not.

Some evenings I was too tired to focus on new episodes of shows, so I mostly watched reruns of various Trek series on Canada's Sci Fi channel. No brain power required.

The Jays were horrible so I did not watch baseball.

[violateraindrop]

I finally started Only Murders in the Building S3.

It's still murder in a beautiful building lol
Two older gentlemen and a millennial, that are connected by their love for true crime podcasts (and all live in the building), solve that murder.

[bleodswean]

Can't find a series to "stick". Did watch Melancholia and Inside on Prime. And in a strange synchronistical twist, they could be taught side-by-side in a symbolism in film class. I cannot recommend them enough. Beautiful, painful, and deeply deeply thought-provoking.

[rodo]

This week, I watched the third season of Starstruck, which I really loved. I especially have a fond spot for Jessie's wacky friends and their weirdness. But also, how everyone can be a mildly bad person but still likable - that's something I've recently realized I really love.

[yourlibrarian]

I caught up on it this week. I like how each season has been a bit different.

[yourlibrarian]

I've started watching Welcome to Wrexham on Hulu and have found it such an enjoyable mix of local color, history, Hollywood pals, bureaucracy and painful expensive costs. I'm just halfway through S1 and have no idea where things are going to go.

Oops, forgot to describe. Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney became owners of a Welsh football club which was in dire need of investment -- real-life, not fiction! So it's a documentary series.

[rocky41_7]

I have got ahold of Black Sails S2 so we're working through that. Exciting stuff so far! Flint and Miranda have just arrived in Charlestown so I'm VERY interested to see how this goes...

[violateraindrop]

S3 definitely feels different. Makes sense though. There is only so much murder that can happen in one building.

[yourlibrarian]

Just to let you know there is a post for discussing the season here tv_talk in case you're interested: https://tv-talk.dreamwidth.org/187798.html

[violateraindrop]

Thanks! I'll keep this in my inbox since I'm going to stay away until I'm caught up ;)

[adafrog]

The new Glow Up season dropped on Netflix. I binged three episodes today. :)
It's a make up artist competition based in the UK, but they do all sorts of makeup from beauty to special effects. The two main judges are wonderfully quirky, but very knowledgeable.

[shadowkat]

* Next in Fashion - Netflix. Right now on S1 - it has two seasons. This is similar to Project Runway, except with professional and seasoned designers from around the world competing for $250,000, with hot name designers as judges, and a real runway. Focus is on the creation, little on the personalities. More like Great British Bake Off Professionals - than The Apprentice, so everyone is very nice, and the drama while there, isn't negative for the most part.

Some cool designs, even if you are like me and could care less about fashion. (I'm a pragmatist when it comes to fashion - I wouldn't wear any of this.)

* Good Omens S2 - Amazon Prime - it's fun. Not a lot of plot, mainly focuses on the relationship between Crowly and Arizaphale through the ages and their issues with Heaven and Hell who well don't want the star-crossed pair together. It's also wryly funny. But you kind of have to hand-wave the plot, as is true with most of Gaiman's work. Heavy and good on the characters and world-building though. [It's the Second Season. If you've never heard of it - it's adapted from Good Omens novel by Prachett and Gaiman, about a Demon (Crowley) and an angel (Arizaphale) who attempt to save the world with difficulty.]

* Foundation - Apple TV - I went back to it, based on Rec from a television sci-fi writer via Blue Sky. It gets better as it goes. I went to sleep during the first two episodes, but after Episode 3 - it kind of takes off in S1. And I've been told S2 is kind of brilliant. This is adapted from Issac Asimov's Foundation series. It's kind of hard to explain? It's about a group of people trying to fight a set Empire that has been in place for centuries, and is controlled by Clones of the Empire - Brothers Dawn, Day, Dusk. That's the simplest explanation I could find - but it's more complex than that. Stars Lee Pace, among others.

In queue?

* Virgin River S5 -Netflix adapted from Robyn Carr's novels. On Netflix. Kind of a soapy romantic drama set in a small town in Northern California Mountains. Concerns an LA ICU nurse who relocates to a small town after a painful miscarriage and losing her husband in a car crash.

* Changeling -Apple. TV - dark fantasy horror story adapted from Victor LaValle's novel. After a mother disappears after she does a horrible thing, her husband is left reeling and struggles to find her and understand what happened. Ends up pulling in elements of urban and European folklore.

* Discovery of Witches S3 - MAX - I've seen the first two seasons on AMC. But the third never popped up, it is now available on MAX. Adapted from Deborah Harkness's novel of the same name. It's about a woman who finds out she's a Witch, and holds the secret to joining a variety of supernatural creatures and changing the power structure - which results in various parties trying to stop her. Also focuses on a romance between her and a vampire (played by Mathew Goode).

[8hyenas]

Late to the post per usual... but I am unexpectedly really enjoying the first two episodes of The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon. I am a person who never even finished the original Walking Dead, and have seen none of the spinoffs but I gave this a shot.

It's really beautiful, shot on location in France with quite a bit of French. As you might expect a decade or so into the apocalypse, zombies are no longer the main threat. It's not gory or going for shock value either.