tv_talk | Speak Up Saturday: What are you watching?

I watched all of S1 of Ekaterina, a Russian production on Catherine the Great. Not really that captivating though the occasional sets and costumes were nice to look at. Having watched all of The Great it was interesting to see how little those stories overlapped.

I also watched all of The Wilderness, which I wouldn't call "twisty" so much as suspenseful. I find twisty stuff to be more unpredictable and this went down expected roads, but not knowing where the turns were kept things interesting. From the description I expected this to be a lot more "road trip" stuff whereas that's only a small part of it.

Otherwise there's nothing that was new, just more progress on some shows I'm watching together with my partner. This next week we'll be finishing all of them, just in time for our Prime membership to end. I also started watching Tin Star but I suspect I'll be forwarding through a lot of it. I think the premise would have been a more enjoyable comedy-small town drama. Instead it's more political murder drama which I'm finding a downer. I might try out something else this week as I still have time to get through a whole season of something.

I watched:
- Fallout E1: Great visuals and music, but a little too slow for my liking. Probably my own fault because I jumped in blind, knowing next to nothing about the game universe.

- Parasyte: The Grey: Surprisingly watchable. Didn't expect much but I'm actually a little invested. Love the lead actress.

- Ripley E1: Enjoyed it. However, I'm simply not a white-and-black fan, so I haven't watched more already.

- Taskmaster UK S17 E3: Starting to like the contestants. No clear favorite yet but I find Nick Mohammed so, so charming.

I still intend to finish Three-Body but I was on a very stressful business trip and didn't feel like continuing.

New on my to-watch list: Monster (anime)

I haven't played Fallout either, but slowness doesn't sound great. Even for shows I end up liking, I often find the first 2 episodes slow to develop.

You don't need to know the video game to see Fallout. I read an article/review on it recently - and it doesn't follow the video game at all. It creates its own story within the universe.

I saw the first episode, and it is a satire, not an action/adventure. Told from three points of view: Maximos, Lucy, and The Ghoul (Walter Goggins). The violence is kind of comic-book style or satirical? And it has lots of references to 1950s films. If you don't like satire - it may not be for you? It's not like most things adapted from video games - in that it focuses on "the action", this focuses more on characters, and is more of a political satire.

I liked it better than The Last of Us and The Ark, also video game adaptations. (I'm not familiar with their game verse either - I'm not a vidder - I think the only video game I've played is Redecor.)

Again, my general assessment is that its good, but something isn't quite grabbing me about it and I can't put my finger on what it is? But I have that problem with everything but my soap opera and X-men 97, and movies at the moment - so I'm not sure you can go by me on this.

I don't generally dislike slowness. It's just that the show felt like a slog without providing me with something that was actually engaging and/or enjoyable beyond the visuals and soundtrack. I'm definitely giving it one more episode.

I hadn't heard of Parasyte: The Grey, but I think I should watch it! Thanks for mentioning :D

Hope you enjoy it!

I watched Fallout. Binged the season because I like to be able to chat about media without worrying about spoilers. My overall take is 'it's ok'.

I said basically that but with a lot more words in my journal

I didn't realize the whole thing was already available! Given what you wrote about it I guess I could give it a shot but not expect much.

Some people love it, it was well reviewed. But, yeah, mostly what I am seeing from fans is defensiveness and that's not a great sign.

I saw the first episode - is it worth continuing? It has a good cast, both Walter Goggins and Michael Emerson are in it. But it appears to swing heavy towards "satire" almost too heavily? And I was struggling to care about anyone other than Maximos in the first episode. It's watchable but not quite compelling and I can't figure out why exactly? I didn't feel the need to go back immediately at any rate or continue watching after the first episode, even though I liked it well enough?

Fallout's setting is deeply satirical and symbolic. That's why the currency is coca-cola... err... nuka-cola bottle caps.

The show didn't work for me because they never did anything to ground the show in reality. It just feel very floaty to me.

I'd agree - the first episode has this kind of floaty video game aspect? I don't believe it? There's too many things that jar. Such as the vault - it looks like a cheap set? Also, 219 years later and they are still stuck in 1950s rhetoric? Really? That's not very believable.

That's not very believable.

Er... it's not supposed to be. That's the point.

Yeah, I know, satire. I'm not a fan of that type of satire. But other's are.

From what I know of Fallout, that is all very intended, that's just the vibe of the franchise and why I never really got into the games. It started as Bethesda wanting to do something completely different for their other RPG series to not get bogged down by doing the same things over and over and not be doing what other companies were doing.

Yeah, it's satire - which doesn't work for me, but works for others. I may go back to it, or give it a pass. The problem is there are about 1000 other shows to watch so if it doesn't grab me, I tend to forget about it.

Yeah, all 8 episodes are up on Amazon Prime. They are a little over an hour in length. I saw the first one, on the fence about watching the rest.

Hm. The grounding realism you mention is also something that I'm missing. Thanks for linking!

Welcome!

My partner and I spent most of the week watching Guy Ritchie's The Gentlemen (Netflix), which was a fun ride. It didn't end with a huge bang -- more like a set-up for a possible season 2 -- and the main characters are both kind of inaccessibly capable and hard as nails. But yeah, overall fun, quirky, violent.

We watched episode 2 of Shogun (weekly TV date with a friend). I'm still finding my feet with the cast and politics. Also Krapopolis and Ted Lasso 2.01 (rewatch; not sure if we'll continue on to season 3 as well).

Last night, we watched the first three episodes of Boston Legal.

Oh, also, a couple of episodes of a UK science/tech/magazine show called The Secret Genius of Modern Life, which is fun! It's presented by a maths professor, Hannah Fry. The first episode is about all the technology that goes into a bank card, and episode 2 was about food delivery apps. Will definitely be continuing.

The Secret Genius series does sound interesting.

Oh, Boston Legal! I have fond memories of it because I used to watch it with a late friend of mine. The show has its flaws but, to this day, I'm still very fond of the Alan/Denny friendship.

It's lasted surprisingly well! We're already onto disc 2. :-)

Heartbreak High - binged Season 2 and loved it. I don't think it was as good as S1, but I still enjoyed it.

Fallout - Watched Ep 1 and it was ok. I will watch the rest, but it didn't leave me feeling "omg this is so good I have to binge it all now" so I will watch it bit by bit I guess.

Is it cake? watched season 3 of this show which I enjoy. The host is funny but a bit over the top.

Hunted UK - Binged a few seasons which was fun. I love it when the contestants make it to the extraction point.

Otherwise its just been weekly stuff.

About to watch the new series Baby Reindeer on Netflix which looks pretty interesting.

Lots of people trying out Fallout it seems!

Had the same reaction you did to Fallout. Exactly the same.

Hmmm...Hunted UK looks interesting.

I like Is it Cake, but agree on the host. It's a fun show.

Curious about Baby Reindeer...which looks interesting...but odd?

I'm trying shows but not really sticking with anything? (Outside of my normal fair. My soap all of a sudden got good with new writers. Oh this is a separate discussion topic? When new writers take over a long-running series, they love to fix everything they think is wrong with it. This only happens with really long-running serials or comics. Things that have been going since the 1960s and have had a lot of writer turn-over over the years. The cast and characters are usually the same in most cases but the writers aren't. It's kind of like having someone buy your house and decide to refurbish it, remodel some rooms, knock out walls, build a deck, repaint, etc. I love watching them do it with television shows and comics - I'm highly amused by what they decide to fix, and what they leave alone. Also X-men 97 - which kind of did the same thing - it's a reboot/continuation of the 1990s X-men animated series but oh so much better.)

What I've tried?

* Fallout on Amazon Prime - I made through the first episode. Which was okay. I really like Maximos, a guy who is a squire to a knight in a big suite. But outside of that? I'm kind of ambivalent, and he's not enough to pull me in? I probably will continue with it, but on the fence.

* The New Look on Apple TV - It's about Christian Dior (Ben Mendlesohn), Coco Chanel (Juliette Bionche) in WWII Nazi occupied France - as told by Dior in flashbacks. I'm having troubles following it? My attention keeps wandering. So gave up after about twenty minutes.

* Resident Alien - finished S1, but on the fence about S2. It's getting a bit dark?

* The Ark - Prime, this is the Australian animated series - and it's okay? Not really pulling me in, gave up after four episodes. It's about a bunch of people who are pulled from various locations in history and around the world to a mysterious pre-historic island, and they are all attempting to get home or just survive on the island.

* The Gentlemen - it's okay, reminds me a little of Peaky Blinders with rich people? But its not.
Guy Ritchie has a kind of jumpy directorial style? And you either love it or hate it. I'm on the fence about it. Also on the fence about the cast. Theo James is okay, but he doesn't compel me like Cillian Murphy did in Peaky. Made it through three episodes, may go back to it.

***

Movies?

Dunkirk - really good. Highly recommend. Not at all what I expected. It follows various characters who all eventually interconnect, affect one another's lives and end up in the same space or help each other get there. I finally watched it because the book I'm reading - Yellowface by RF Kuang talked about it, and I got intrigued.

Is S2 of Resident Alien on your Netflix? Unfortunately, mine only has the first season.

Yup, it has both seasons. I made it through the first two episodes of S2.

I watched the latest episode of Will Trent, which was good. I watched this week's So Help Me Todd, which was cute and funny as always. I watched an episode of Poetry in America which I had recorded maybe last year? It was on Whitman's "The Wound Dresser." Great poem, great episode, too. And on Amazon Prime, I watched a handful of random episodes of different shows. The one I liked most was from 1990(!), BBC's The Inspector Alleyn Mysteries. This was episode one, series one, so there will be what, three or four more? I'm hoping for a Baker's dozen before it peters out. Each episode is 90 minutes so there's that. And I can always read the books, assuming I can find them.

Oh there was an Alleyn series? I don't think I knew that. I finished reading all of Marsh's books last year so I'm not sure I'd see this but I'll try and remember to find it as I'm curious how it was cast.

No, why would you? I mean, the first episode was in 1990, and then they waited so long to make another that the original guy wasn't available and they had to recast. I watched episodes 2 and 3 last night. The new guy is fine. A little less angsty, which is okay by me. The pilot made a point about how he'd "had a bad war," like that was unusual or something? Did anyone in the UK have a "good" war?

I'm just thinking that this may have run on PBS Mystery back in the day, but if it was that stretched out then maybe they never did.

And heh, yes.

The books were written starting in the thirties but the series is set postwar. Sounds like quite a few changes. The first book in the series is episode three. (I just looked it up.) Maybe I will watch the series, wait a few years so I will forget the plots and then read the books. There are audio books. So tempting.

I'm a couple of episodes into Ripley and ambivalent about it (noting imprinted on The Talented Mr Ripley at an age where I was probably too young to actually be watching it :p) I don't actually feel like the Ripley here is that into Dickie, and I should??

Also halfway through the Netflix 3 Body Problem now and enjoying it. Although I suspect I might not want to overthink some elements!

He's not that into Dickie?! I have questions.

I think he's *meant* to be, but maybe because Scott's Ripley is such a cipher it's hard for me to feel it? Idk it's weird!

I'm currently in episode 3, and the choice now makes a lot more sense to me considering *how* one major plot point happens. I've always liked the really tragic Minghella interpretation but this simply isn't a version of events in which...

Spoilers for episode 3.

...Tom would lie in the boat while hugging Dickie's corpse. Instead, he takes his ring using Dickie's blood. It's actually pretty interesting how detached Tom seems from everything and everyone including his sexual orientation. The kind of homoeroticism of the Minghella movie was simply never in the cards for this version of the character. I'm now really curious about what freeing himself of the Tom Ripley identity could mean for him concerning his sexual repression.

Chucky is back with episodes for Season 3! Episode 5 was a huge mess, as expected, but in a good way. Lots of blood and gore and I admit that I do love old!Chucky lol

Shogun episode 8 continues to stun me with its character and plot development! The political subplots are all so damn well written.

What Jennifer Did for this weekend's True Crime documentary about Jennifer Pan. It was pretty awful, but what shocked me most was the way she

spoilers for a real life case??

lied to her parents about being in college for 4 whole years and falsified a diploma for herself. Like???? Wow.

I am looking forward to getting back to Shogun

It's so good. I hope you keep enjoying it!

Speak Up Saturday: What are you watching?

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