tv_talk | Speak Up Saturday

I always feel as if I want to answer with what I want to start watching -- but haven't yet because I need more episodes to drop before I begin (hate the one ep/week thing). That would include, among others, the latest seasons of Slow Horses and For All Mankind. But since I've not started watching those...

I did start watching season 1 of an Australian series called The Newsreader. It's set in the mid-1980s, and follows the journalists and crew of an Australian TV news team. It stars Anna Torv (Fringe), who is always excellent, but the actor playing the cub reporter is also quite good. He's played by Sam Reid, who I was not previously familiar with at all, but apparently he's in that Interview with a Vampire series (which I've not watched as I don't really find vampire stuff interesting).

I also started in on a new 6 episode British series called The Couple Next Door (which is apparently a remake of a Dutch series?). I've only watched the first episode and part of the 2nd so no one's really a standout for me yet. The only actors in it I am familiar with are Sam Heughan (Outlander) and Eleanor Tomlinson (Poldark). Oh, and Hugh Dennis, but not so much as an actor, but as a regular on various British panel quiz shows, e.g. Mock the Week. The Guardian gave it a really great review, but flagged Sam as the weak link due to his accent, saying he was working too hard to hide his Scottish accent. I'd sort of have to agree because I have no idea what accent he's trying to go for -- Aussie? Generic English?? Yorkshire (it's set in Leeds)?? No clue.

And there was the usual weekly stuff, and most of those are reality-type shows, so no standout actors.

I watched:
The Big Family Cooking Showdown S2: Finally finished this season. My favorite family made it to the finale and won. Yay! Might watch season 1 sometime in the future when I'm no longer mourning the loss of everything that made the second season great.

The Curse: Didn't think I would continue this... but I did. If you're curious about the show, I'd recommend watching the first three episodes because, by then, it all starts slowly coming together. That said, episode 4 didn't do much to develop the plot. In general, very little happens and it remains an extraordinarily uncomfortable show.

Work in Progress S1 & 2: Season 1 was truly excellent and I loved every second of it. In contrast, to me, season 2 seems a lot more unfocused and simply doesn't continue the emotional beats of season 1 in a way that feels authentic and fully coherent. I love the Abby/Campbell dynamic but I couldn't care less about Abby's family issues or the fact that they're suddenly trying to shove Covid into the second half of the season. (But, I guess, the latter makes sense for Abby's character considering that she is suffering from OCD.)

The Burning Girls: Gave it one episode for Samantha Morton, then read all the (unspectacular) spoilers because I knew I wouldn't continue. But, to be fair: Sam Morton looked pretty rad in her vicar outfit.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds: Watched it because I heard a lot of good things. Liked the first episode but the next two left me pretty cold. Spock has a nice voice, Uhura is super cute, Chapel has spunk, La'an is cool. I just don't get why they keep pushing all these M/F relationships. I've googled if there are any queer pairings and there aren't, so it irks me to read about (future) [het spoiler pairing 1] and [het spoiler pairing 2]. Maybe it's done well, okay, but I can't help but feel instantly (and maybe unfairly) turned off by this. I guess I will have to wait and see what they're doing with Spock in 01x05 before I make any rash decisions.

The Doctor Who Special 1: Corny but cute. Probably wouldn't watch this show long-term because it simply isn't my style but I appreciated the pro-trans message. (Haven't watched a single DW episode after Nine left, so this is merely me checking out Ten and Donna after listening to people raving about them -- together and separately -- for over a decade.)

I don't have any acting standouts but I thought that the winning family of The Big Family Cooking Showdown S2 was unique in the way they approached cooking and the contest as a whole. It was a real pleasure watching them.

I've only had a chance to watch season one of Strange New Worlds so far, and I really enjoyed it, but yeah the het pairing was the least interesting thing about it to me. I thought the episode plots were generally entertaining though. I appreciated a break from heavily serialized storytelling

Finished The Americans, and also a Netflix series Five Star Chefs. I found it more interesting than I expected. It seemed that several participants were eliminated as much for their personalities as for their food, but it also meant that only one of the three finalists was actually any good at directing a kitchen during service. Yet he didn't win. I'm thinking his desserts did him in. It seemed to me that it would be good for two to have won, one for the better dishes and one for better management.

Have also been watching Our Planet Pt II on Netflix, and the first few episodes of The Diplomat.

We finished Lessons in Chemistry and found the ending really disappointing. But the cast were all good, especially Brie Larson as the lead.

Now on season 2 of The Man in the High Castle, and it's great. Ironically, the stand-out actor for me is Callum Keith Rennie, because it's Ray Kowalski from Due South, which is super distracting when he's not that major a player in the show. He has too much emotional weight, from my POV (if that makes sense?).

And the Doctor Who special, which was fine (I loved Donna's daughter), and Krakopolis. I think that's all.

I need a new Kdrama. :-)

Same re: needing a new K-drama but, at the same time, I simply can't be bothered to check new ones out after all my recent disappointments. :/ Do you like Ji Chang-wook? He has a new show out on Netflix, I believe.

What have some of your recent disappointments been? I started My Demon but didn't get very far. Mostly I've just been rewatching things lately.

But yeah, I'm a fan of Ji Chang-wook thanks to Healer, which is one of my all-time favourite dramas. (Have you seen it? It's so good!) So then I watched a lot of not-great shows for him. But yesterday I made it through the first episode of Welcome to Samdal-ri in more or less one sitting (which is a good sign for me! I often watch things in 15-minute bites), and I'm looking forward to more. I love Shin Hae-Sun, too, so it's a good match-up, and it's nice having stuff set outside of Seoul. Jeju is so pretty.

It's very romance drama, by which I mean, people having their emotions loudly, so it depends how you feel about that. :-)

Yeah, I meant Welcome to Samdal-Ri. Watched the first couple of minutes yesterday but the exaggerated kimchi revenge kind of put me off. I'm also not sure how I feel about the Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha vibes (liked it enough to watch a couple of episodes but never finished it) and the prospect of a friends-to-lovers storyline (in most cases, a personal turnoff, especially if it's framed as this fated thing). I remember starting Healer and really liking the mix of action, mystery, and romance, but for whatever reason, I never finished it.

Recent disappointments:
- My Demon: Here for the contract marriage and the immature bickering, less so for another stupid killer mystery. I think this one could actually be a lot of fun... if they'd put breaks on the unnecessary drama and paper-thin, tragic backstories.

- A Good Day to Be A Dog: Another show that should have been mind-numbingly dumb fluff but quickly devolved into needless drama. To be fair, it's based on a webtoon. Still. I had such high hopes because turns out, I could even stomach Cha Eun-woo's "acting" here.

- Castaway Diva: I mainly quit this one because they baited me with the second lead, then served me a friends-to-lovers storyline that felt more like trauma bonding than a believable foundation for a relationship.

I didn't make it through the pilot of Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha, despite liking the actors, because all the stuff with the expensive shoes put me off. I prefer this one, where the crisis point is about her career.

That said, I love friends-to-lovers, and am willing to tolerate fatedness in Kdramas, so... :D

I might pursue My Demon a little further, since Samdal-Ri is only two eps a week, and see how I go.

I just read the wikipedia summary for A Good Day to Be A Dog and shrieked. I loved Kdramas!!! So shamelessly silly. :D :D :D

I'm still just trying to finish Turn A Gundam before it disappears off YouTube. The main character is a naive little ray of sunshine, so he's fun to watch

I watched a few things but mostly I have been watching movies this week.

Doctor Who Special #1 and #2. Just finished #2 actually, and while it wasn't amazing it was pretty good imo.

Binged Season 3 of Family Law which was ok I guess. Its one of those shows where I like the show but all the characters are very flawed and so I don't like any of them.

Faraway Downs - I really liked this, but found it a little.. "safe" I guess. Very romanticised view of Australian history. And I say this as an Australian. But it sure was pretty. And I hadn't seen the movie (its a recut of the movie "Australia") but knew how the movie ends and was surprised by the different ending the show had. I can't decide which ending I prefer.

007: Road to a Million - this was a british competition show that was advertised as being a "real life james bond adventure" but it really wasn't. It was kinda like the Amazing Race. Teams of two people travel to different places and solve a puzzle or do an activity to get a briefcase and then they have to answer a multiple choice question. The questions were genuinely hard imo, but it didn't really feel like a James Bond adventure.

Otherwise it was just weekly stuff.

Speak Up Saturday

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject