tv_talk | Speak Up Saturday

I was productive this week on the TV watching front! Mostly because I worked from home the entire week and so managed to watch stuff early in the morning, between 6:00 and 8:00, before I had to log into my work stuff.

Anyway, I finished watching season 3 of Vikings: Valhalla. It's unfortunate that it's also the final season because they didn't quite wrap up all the story lines, and you could tell where a season 4 was going to go. Oh well. C'est la vie, as they say.

I also started AND finished three other limited series:

1. After the Party, which is a New Zealand 6-part psychological drama, I guess you'd call it, about a woman who believes she saw her ex-husband sexually assault a minor. The story takes place five years after the incident, when said ex moves back into town, and things unravel from there.

2. The Tower season 3: The Tower is a British police procedural television series based on Kate London's Metropolitan trilogy book series. This is based on the last book, so I assume it's the end of the series as well and they won't try to milk it by coming up with non-book based content. I'd read the first two books in the series, but not the third, and it's a pretty faithful adaptation.

3. The Jetty: is another British police procedural/crime drama (honestly not sure what the distinction is), but not based on any book. The Guardian described it as "...a dark, funny and moving look at how women navigate the brutally male world." Not sure about the funny part, however.

I enjoyed all of them (as much as one "enjoys" rather dark subject matter), but have to admit that the main characters in both After the Party and The Jetty made me want to scream at times because they kept deciding to do things that inevitably just made everything worse. But then again, I've never been in the position either of them were in, so who knows, maybe I'd act equally stupidly.

Other than that, it was more tennis (still the US Open, but that ends this weekend), and the only weekly episode show I'm watching at the moment: The Ark.

Not specifically excited about anything at the moment. I do want to start watching the latest season of Slow Horses, but need more episodes to drop first as I don't want to wait a week in between each. Likely won't start that one before October. Ditto the latest season of Only Murders. I did watch the first ep of KAOS so I guess I'll get back to that one.

Oof, After the Party looks grim (I just watched the trailer on Youtube), but otoh, Robyn Malcolm is always awesome. Hmm...

The weekly release of Slow Horses is so frustrating! *makes grabbyhand at the screen*

I was not at all familiar with her, but her performance in this is the entire show, really. The Guardian review called it one of the greatest performances in any TV show in years. Hard to disagree.

I've seen the first 2 seasons of The Tower. I'd give a S3 a go but I'd also be satisfied with that being the end.

Where is The Tower airing?

And where is After the Party airing?

The Tower aired on ITV or something in the UK, no idea about After the Party -- I torrented both shows (and The Jetty). I torrent most of what I watch as I only subscribe to Apple+ for streaming (and also have cable TV).

See this is the problem with discussing television in the 21st Century - no one is watching the same services. Although to be fair, we weren't before either - for different reasons.

I'm streaming and cable only. I can't do torrent.

I saw The Tower on Britbox.

Ah makes sense now. I can't subscribe to that - I have too many as it is. I need to get rid of Peacock and possibly Max first.

I'm pretty sure it is the end -- all the story lines get resolved so it felt pretty final.

I managed to do some TV watching today as well (before going back to writing fic and a recs post tomorrow).

I've just finished Season 4 of Outlander , and I really enjoyed all the Native American plots. Sure, they could have been better still, but I've seen much worse in my time. As far as I can tell as a White person with a layman's interest in Native American history, you could describe the plots as accurate enough. Also, Roger is really growing on me as a character, and I really don't get what the main fandom outlets' beef is here?

As I'm slowly coming near the end of the seasons I have access to right now (we are not subscribing to Netflix right now, which means I have to wait until the winter before I watch season 7), I am trying to decide what to watch after Outlander and before I begin my fic related rewatch of Black Sails , Turn and Sharpe .

I've narrowed the choice down to either season 1-4 of 9-1-1 or Criminal Minds: Evolution , but now cannot decide between the two. So any arguments in favour of either are more than welcome *g*

I really enjoyed all the Native American plots. Sure, they could have been better still, but I've seen much worse in my time. As far as I can tell as a White person with a layman's interest in Native American history, you could describe the plots as accurate enough.

Because of some union-related issues, they ended up hiring Canadian First Nations' people (actors and non-actors) -- many from the area where I was born and raised. Here's a couple of articles about that:

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/sudbury/outlander-casting-call-north-1.4556576
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatchewan/outlander-sera-lys-rmcarthur-egina-actor-1.4990148
https://www.ellecanada.com/culture/society/what-auditioning-for-outlander-taught-me-about-indigenous-representation-on-tv

I never got the Roger beefs either -- I personally always preferred the MacKenzies as a couple over Jamie and Claire in the books. Both Richard Rankin and Sophie Skelton only get better and better as the series goes on. Season 5 in particular has some really strong Roger moments.

Can't really help much re: the 9-1-1 vs Criminal Minds: Evolution as I've never watched 9-1-1. I have watched both seasons of CM:E. It's alright. Not that different from the original (?) series except it's one main story line (through both series) rather than the old case-of-the-week thing. And they get to say "fuck" occasionally because it's not on network TV anymore. And Penelope is still annoying.

Because of some union-related issues, they ended up hiring Canadian First Nations' people (actors and non-actors) -- many from the area where I was born and raised. Here's a couple of articles about that:

Thank you! These articles look interesting. I'll check them out later.

I never got the Roger beefs either -- I personally always preferred the MacKenzies as a couple over Jamie and Claire in the books. Both Richard Rankin and Sophie Skelton only get better and better as the series goes on. Season 5 in particular has some really strong Roger moments.

Yes, I don't get why Sophie Skelton in particular gets so much hate in the fandom? Her acting's fine, and the fact that she struggles a bit with her Boston accent... it happens, and sure as heck does not justify the kind of vitriol I've seen. As for Bree being a bit less emotive than Claire and Jamie - that makes sense if you consider that Frank had a hand in raising her, too.

Honestly, I just don't get why the book fans are often so defensive and aggressive about the characters and scenes they love. Actually, the behavior of many of them (as well as Gabaldon herself) is making me reconsider reading the books after I'm done with the series. But your words regarding series 5 make me want to dig right in :)

Can't really help much re: the 9-1-1 vs Criminal Minds: Evolution as I've never watched 9-1-1. I have watched both seasons of CM:E. It's alright. Not that different from the original (?) series except it's one main story line (through both series) rather than the old case-of-the-week thing. And they get to say "fuck" occasionally because it's not on network TV anymore. And Penelope is still annoying.

I don't watch CM because I think of it as consistently high-quality television. Some episodes certainly are, but I mostly watch it for the characters. So, knowing that it's at the quality level of the old series is already helpful.

I had not read the books before I started watching the series. I was aware of them, well, of the first one anyway because I remember often seeing it in bookstores and after reading the blurb, dismissing it as a really massive Harlequin romance novel -- not my thing. I started watching the series after buzz about it amongst some people I followed on Twitter. That was during the hiatus between the first two halves of the first season -- I binged the first 8 episodes, and then, because I wanted to know what happened next, started reading the novel. Long story short, I read all the books that were available at the time during that break between the two halves of season 1.

The books are... good and bad. I almost never reread a novel. But I have read most of the Outlander books at least twice. I got really sucked in initially, but then on each reread, I noticed more and more "issues" with them. The first three in particular are... not great. Way too "perils of Pauline". I know the first one was never meant to be published -- Gabadon was just experimenting to see if she could write a novel. But there are so many things that happen to the characters (worse than in the show -- the show at least had to cut the more ludicrous ones out because of time, etc) I just got the feeling she was trying to see if she could write those sorts of events without worrying if they made any sense or added to the plot/main story at all. So, so many side plots that don't have anything to do with the main plot, never get referenced again, etc. Later books are more focused, but even then, they are really long, and a lot of it is just characters introspecting. If you reduced them to the actual plot moving along bits, they'd be much, much shorter. Book 5 and the most recent one are the worse for that, IMO. My fave remains book 8. I will read the last one whenever it is published as Gabadon says the show will end differently than the books will, but I won't reread it (nor did I reread the most recently published one).

Thanks for this description of the books. It helps me to have this sort of knowledge going in (and it looks like it's a good thing I like character introspection as much as plot-driven narratives. Even though I think stuff just getting dropped could potentially annoy me, depending on what gets dropped).

Forgot to add something re: Outlander and being accurate re: First Nations' representation.

Since you've finished season 4, this isn't a spoiler. In the show, the writers changed something that REALLY pissed off the hardcore fanbase (which is saying a lot because everything seemed to piss off the hardcore fanbase). So you know how Jamie, Claire and Ian go off to try to find Roger and bring him back? In the books, they do that and make it back to River Run and Bree in time for Claire to deliver the baby, and Bree and Jamie resolve their issues, etc. But the showrunners realized that in the real world, there is no way in hell that Jamie and co. would have had the time to travel to where the Mohawks were in what is now upstate NY and back in time for the birth because of the actual distances involved. So they changed it to what happens in the show -- with Bree delivering the baby without them. And man, were the "fans" PO'd about that. Personally, I appreciated the nod to reality.

Since you've finished season 4, this isn't a spoiler. In the show, the writers changed something that REALLY pissed off the hardcore fanbase (which is saying a lot because everything seemed to piss off the hardcore fanbase). So you know how Jamie, Claire and Ian go off to try to find Roger and bring him back? In the books, they do that and make it back to River Run and Bree in time for Claire to deliver the baby, and Bree and Jamie resolve their issues, etc. But the showrunners realized that in the real world, there is no way in hell that Jamie and co. would have had the time to travel to where the Mohawks were in what is now upstate NY and back in time for the birth because of the actual distances involved. So they changed it to what happens in the show -- with Bree delivering the baby without them. And man, were the "fans" PO'd about that. Personally, I appreciated the nod to reality.

That would have struck me as a normal thing that adaptations do? And it wasn't like Bree was alone when she gave birth - the show went out of its way to show that she was surrounded by women that cared about her while giving birth.

I watched:
Represent: Hilarious first episode! (I've also seen that Prime Video added Year of the Shark with Jean-Pascal Zadi, and I'm glad to see more stuff he's in because I find him funny, charming, and charismatic!)

The Great Canadian Baking Show S1: Very cozy show that I enjoyed a lot. Just the right kind of wholesome mixed with baking and jury judgments that are not too superficial.

Love Next Door: This is a slow watch for me, so I'm still stuck in episode 2. I wish they hadn't revealed Seok-ryu's reason for returning so early. It felt very underwhelming and cliché. I'm definitely curious about her friendship with Seung-hyo. How did they overcome their differences throughout the years? What keeps them together?

No Gain, No Love: Very sweet and silly. I'm really looking forward to each new episode because, surprisingly, everything works very well. There's one story cliché I'm not particularly excited about but this is still a K-drama... Another thing: Why are the Prime Video subs worse than those on other "streaming sites"? One joke didn't work because they translated the wrong name. I also hate that Prime always cuts off the next episode's preview.

Only Murders in the Building: A wild episode! Can't wait for the next one.

Taskmaster NZ S5: Another great season! I like Jeremy Wells's humor more and more and Paul Williams plays a great assistant character.

Movie: Cinderella's Curse was pretty mediocre story-wise, but I thought the actor who played the prince sold his part very well.

Edited 2024-09-07 19:35 (UTC)

Nothing this week, but it's fall (if you ignore the weather) and I am trying to find some good spooky picks. I might finally get caught up in Surreal Estate.

For All Mankind - nearing the end of season 2, and things are getting tense on the moon. I'm more interested in the interpersonal stuff than the international politics.

Bad Monkey - is really fun, but we've run out of episodes.

Finished a rewatch of Slow Horses season 3. Nearing the end of Ted Lasso season 2 (also a rewatch).

Last night my partner and I watched the first three episodes of Kaos, but I got bored and started doing crosswords. (Fun seeing Cliff Curtis as Poseidon, though.)

Still watching Love Next Door and a little bit of Romance in the House.

The Umbrella Academy I finished rewatching all four seasons. There are so many little things in seasons 1-3 that meant something more after having seen S4. And I do like how they made a proper end on the very last episode.

Kaos I watched the first episode and found myself googling Greek mythology as I watched. I may go back and watch more. Or maybe not.

Sunny I finished this and enjoyed it enough that I'd watch a second season. And they'd better have another since they ended with so many loose ends.

Only Murders in the Building has dropped the first 2 eps of the new season. Watched them both. Still love it.

Pointless I'm loving the fact that the Roku channel has over 150 old episodes of the show so that will keep me going for awhile.

Other than that I've watched a few things I'm thinking about offering to vid for Festivids, so I can't really say more. Plus I've on the team screening nominated Festivids fandoms for rarity, so that's taken up a lot of time.

The Commander, Aeason 1 was really irritating as the lead character seemed to make incredibly dumb decisions. But I decided to try Season 2 for other stories. It began with a story titled Virus, however there was no virus involved as the computer attack on hospitals was very specific to individual files, and was done by a person. The directing was awful with weird effects trying to make computer hacking seem dangerous and horrifying. And as is often the case with early 2000s stories, the general ignorance about the internet was reflected in the story. Finally gave up on it at 3/4 of the way in. I jumped to season 5 to see if it was any better but I wasn't taken with it at all.

Tried Armadillo starring James Frain, back in his ubiquitous days, along with the equally ubiquitous Hugh Bonneville. I gave it up after half an episode. It just didn't seem to be going anywhere.

Also tried Monday Monday for about half an episode and just gave it up. I do like workplace stories but I wasn't finding it humorous.

On the other hand I watched all of After the Flood in 2 days. A good mystery and well paced. I'm curious if there will be a S2.

Stonehouse was curiously upbeat. The Creators clearly meant it to be a quirky story. I could see why, but it just made the whole thing seem less interesting, and given this was a real life story I thought there had to be more to it.

Trial and Retribution, I Watched the first season of two episodes. Depressing and highly annoying the way they were constantly doing split screens. I started the second season, noticed the same tendency and just gave up.

I watched a special celebrating 100 years of Agatha Christie. Did pick up one interesting factoid about how she established the drawing room reveal of the murderer, although apparently it was the idea of some editor as she was originally going to set the finale in a courtroom. At any rate it made me curious to see The Mysterious Affair at Styles again. I thought it was very good although it exaggerated a bit much of Poirot's tendencies about order and method. However it also made clear and why I find it so annoying when revisions are made to the stories in a new adaptation. I recently we read The Pale Horse and was positive there had been many changes in the most recent mini-series. Turns out this was true. Apparently they wanted to update it for modern audiences, which never makes any sense to me when these are period pieces!

I watched almost all of the original Father Brown series -- just 1 season it seems and I'm on episode 8. The first one was quite dull but they got better. Very 70ish but I'm guessing these were drawn from the original books and there were interesting elements to the mysteries.

Started watching Rings of Power S2 on Amazon Prime, after trying various other series and not getting anywhere. I like this one - because I like Tolkien's world, and the characters are interesting to me, and I'm not a Tolkien purist. I read the books over a century ago, and while I loved them, I didn't read enough of the prequel or background material to pick up on where this adaptation varies. Also, I'm not a purist when it comes to adaptations anyhow.

Finished Pieces of Her on Netflix, which is ...okay? It stars Toni Collette, who I do like a great deal. But the writing and the rest of the cast aren't that great. It held my interest, and looked like it wanted to be a series, but I don't really see it going much further, and I'm okay with that.

Finished and adored The Magicians - wish there was a fandom for it, with icons and fanfic, but alas no. I also wish I could get more of Hale Appleman, but alas no. He's in nothing. I tend to do this a lot? I become enamored with obscure television actors who barely get any roles. It started with Davy Jones, then Richard Hatch, then Anthony Stewart Head, then James Marsters, then Jenson Anckles, and now Hale Appleman. You'd think I'd learn, but alas no. That said? I'm glad it only had five seasons and ended where it did. It aired from 2016-2020 on Syfy. So, no, not a Netflix cancellation. It ended well, all the characters were in an interesting place. But damn, it was set up for great fanfic.

I had to look up Hale Appleman after that ringing endorsement! He's very pretty.

Here's an icon for you if you want it:

ETA: There's also an alt. I'm too tired now to fix the text, alas.

Edited 2024-09-08 03:35 (UTC)

Thank you!

Finished and adored The Magicians - wish there was a fandom for it, with icons and fanfic, but alas no.

There are 5,000+ fanfics on AO3, with fics still being written. There's also some fan activity on Tumblr.

I'm not on tumblr. Really just on DW. But thanks.

Am now after my vacation caught up on 4 Minutes. The 7th (of 8) episode just made me laugh out loud it's so Shakespearean. If you're seriously into this show, you will not find it funny. I just thought it was hilarious, and I'm looking forward to the wrap-up next week.

I also finished Boom Boom Bruno, the German 6-ep series starring Ben Becker as a misogynist and homophobic cop having to solve the murder of a drag queen - together with his new young partner, who also happens to be a drag queen. I think it really stuck the landing. (The ending might not be for everyone, but I liked it.) I really liked how they made everyone a real character with complex motivations.

I watched another ep of Meet You at the Blossom, now on ep 10, two to go. The main couple are still apart, but I'm sure they'll resolve their differences soon. It's a cdrama, so there's always room for sucky endings, but I think this one's going for a straight-up happy ending.

Another episode of Spy X Family - I'm in the middle of the psychic-dog-adoption plot, and loving it. Then I dug deep in the "never finished" closet and watched three eps of Brooklyn Nine-Nine. Netflix does this thing where it's really hard to tell which ep you're watching, so it ended up taking me across from season 6 to season 7 without me noticing. (Otoh, I'm happy it did or I would have been a lot more concerned about the "Terry has to leave" plot.) I still love it, and maybe I won't wait another three years before I finish this season. :D

What else? I checked up on Ok Taecyeon's upcoming works, and found out he's going to star in a BL next year. That sounds great! (Still a long time to go, but exciting anyway.)

Oh, Boom Boom Bruno sounds right up my alley (I have always liked Ben Becker's acting, for my sins). May I ask which streamer in our neck of the woods carries it?

He's great.

None of them, I'm afraid. :/

None of them, I'm afraid. :/

Well, that's a bummer!

Spy X Family - Hulu still? I'd finished the psychic dog adoption plot though. Are there any news ones?

And agree on Netflix - it has this habit of wanting you to gorge on television? Trying to turn it off is not easy. No matter what I do, Netflix crashes, and I have to reboot or switch. Also, I'll find myself speeding through Seasons without know where I am.

I think it may be the only streamer that does this.

Spy X Family - Hulu still? I'd finished the psychic dog adoption plot though. Are there any news ones?

I'm in Germany, I don't get Hulu. It's on Netflix here, and it says there are 25 episodes, no split into seasons visible. I'm on ep 15.

Also, I'll find myself speeding through Seasons without know where I am.

Yes, me too. It's making me uncomfortable. Writing up later what I've watched helps a little, at least. I haven't actually tried turning off the autoplay. I didn't know it was an option. /o\

It's interesting finding out what is available in other countries. The US is apparently a major content exporter, with an insane amount of content distribution channels? We have to date: Hulu, Amazon, Netflix, Max, Disney +, Peacock, Paramount +, Britbox, Tubi, Freeform, Pluto, CW, National Theater, MGM, Epix, and there about thirty more streaming channels that I can't remember the names of off the top of my head. I've limited myself to Amazon, Netflix, Hulu, Disney +, Paramount +, Max and Peacock for now - but most likely will kill Max and Peacock soon. I barely watch the ones I have.
I'm losing track of my subscriptions. They grab me with free trials and then I forget about them.

There's no way of turning off autoplay on Netflix - that I've discovered. Occasionally it will ask you if you want to continue watching...I wish there was a way to turn off autoplay.

It's very annoying.

You can turn off autoplay in Netflix. It's under "Manage Profiles".

https://help.netflix.com/en/node/121518

Thanks! didn't know this. I tend to watch on television not computer - so that may be the reason.

I honestly don't know what is available in Germany and what isn't, because I haven't watched much Western "tv" in the last five years. I know Prime and Netflix are available, because I have those two. I also know Disney+ is available because acquaintances with children have it. That's the extent of my knowledge.

I have watched a lot of cdrama these last five years though, so I know about streaming services that offer Asian drama, e.g. iQiyi, weTV, Viki, etc. Those tend to be available worldwide (but they don't have the same content everywhere, similar to Netflix).

cdrama is heavily offered in the US by Netflix, Hulu, Prime, HBO, and Disney (now - who is adding it).
A lot of it is admittedly kdrama or jdrama - with a heavy emphasis on anime (which I personally love - because I'm a fan of the genre).

It's just a matter of finding it on the service? They are badly indexed and Netflix is problematic in that it crashes on my television set whenever I search it.

You're right that kdrama - and to a lesser extent jdrama - is quite often available on Netflix. cdrama none at all, really. (unless you want to count The Untamed, which was five years ago, and there hasn't been anything new since.) For taiwanese and thai dramas, the situation is similar. Of course it would be great if one provider had all of them, but I really have to check all three I mentioned (plus youtube - cdrama is often officially available for free on youtube, just with bad subtitles) to get everything I want to watch.

It's no easier than with the multitude of western streaming services, really.

Edited 2024-09-17 17:18 (UTC)

I can't decide how much of that is just China? Or how well those country's export content? The US is a major exporter of media and content - more so than most. South Korea is a major exporter. Hong Kong - you can get a lot of films out of Hong Kong, and I've seen a lot of Chinese Films - particularly during the 20th Century. Taiwan - mainly films.

I think it may have to do with copyright and maybe export tariffs. The US has imposed massive tariffs on Chinese goods and services for various political reasons.

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