tv_talk | Speak Up Saturday

I finished the first season of Twisted Metal and it was nuts until the end lol
It's so violent and disgusting (check doesthedogdie.com!), but also fun. A wild ride and I'm surprised that it was green lit in the first place. The first season was pretty much an elaborate set-up for a second season (which will happen, at least). But it was an episodic road movie, so I'm not mad that there wasn't a big payoff at the end. I will definitely come back for S2.

The first two episodes of Agatha All Along were great and I'm finally excited about an MCU project again. They also managed to release it at the perfect time with the last two episodes coming out on October 31.

The first season was pretty much an elaborate set-up for a second season

Huh. Interesting.

I liked the road movie aspect, but it very much felt like "this was not the main event."

I finished S2 of Interview with The Vampire, which was amazing and a lot better than the first season. Definitely got me excited for S3 to see where things go from here.

Currently watching LOTR: Rings of Power and even though this season is also better than the first one, I'm still not fully into it. There are too many storylines at the same time, which leads to poor character development and no sense of direction. The "hero" characters do stupid decisions all the time and lack any thinking whatsover and the "villains" have no real depth, we don't know why they are villains and what motivates them. But it has stunning visuals, so at least there's that.

I'm also halfway through S1 of Sandman. Again, stunning visuals, but this time destroyed by someone's stupid idea to release the show in an awful aspect ratio for no reason. Also most of the episodes so far had the feeling of standalone episodes instead of following some kind of a main storyline, but at least they're good.

I'm excited to have back 9-1-1 and 9-1-1: Lone Star soon, which at this point are the two network shows I follow regularly. I just hope Lone Star writers had a heads up it will be a final season and not end it on a stupid cliffhanger. I watched the trailer for Rescue: HI-Surf and it got me nostalgic about Baywatch, so I'll definitely watch some episodes and see if I'll stick with it. And planning to finally watch 4 Minutes, which just finished and Dead Boy Detectives.

Edited 2024-09-21 12:48 (UTC)

Have you watched the S3 teaser for Interview with The Vampire? It's going to be very different again and I'm excited :D

The Sandman was one of my favorite things I watched last year and I enjoyed the more episodic approach. It felt refreshing compared to most other streaming shows.
I really want to rewatch it before the new season comes out.

Yeah, I watched it. It definitely has different, more comedic vibe and I'm here for it. More Lestat next season, please.
RE: Sandman. I enjoy the episodes too, but still can't get over the fucked up aspect ratio lol That's my main problem with it. Why spend millions on visual effects and then offer us "that"? I hope they change it next season.

Oh yes, 4 Minutes! I haven't watched it myself yet, but I've heard many things about it, plus seen the gifsets, and it intrigues me very much.

I only watched the trailer and it seemed very high quality production, but it's from the same studio as KinnPorsche and that was definitely the best BL drama in terms of pretty much everything, so not surprising. And Bible was my favourite in KinnPorsche, so that's another plus :D

I agree on Sandman - the aspect ratio is too dark - I had to watch at night, with all the lights off in my apartment. Netflix has too dark an aspect ratio on their series. Also, it like the comics was more a series of stand-a-lone episodes, with the connecting arc being well the Sandman character and his relatives. Kind of like 9-1-1 in a way?

The lighting was fine by me, but I have watched Game of Thrones, so everything is pretty much well lit compared to some of GOT episodes lol
By aspect ratio I meant that their faces are squashed like everyone was hit by a shovel in the face lol
I'm not familiar with the comics, but I still don't see a connecting arc. At first it seemed like the Corinthian was the big bad for a few episodes, after that he was nowhere to be seen and we see Desire out of nowhere plotting against Morpheus, and after that Corinthian again... It goes all over the place and at the same time introduces new characters every episode, instead of fleshing out the characters we already have. 9-1-1 has their case of the week, but between that we see the interactions between everyone and who they are as persons. In Sandman I have no idea who anyone is and what they want and who they want to be. Even Morpheus, besides being the King of Dreams, what's his purpose, what's he fighting for, what does he want to accomplish... I'm 8 episodes in and I still have no idea :D

The arc in Sandman is Dream aka Morpheus trying to escape, and taking revenge on those who entrapped him, and fixing the dreamscape that got chaotic in his absence. The Corinthian is one of Dream's "nightmares" or employees - who went rogue when Dream was held in captivity for years. So each of these nightmares you are seeing are because Dream was held in captivity for so long and the people who took control - went rogue and took advantage.

Sandman is kind of a dark fantasy/horror anthology with the interlocking thread being the enigma, Morpheus aka Dream, who is your guide and kind of responsible for most of it at the same time, and either trying to fix things or causing them in retribution.

Oh, then, I haven't had any problems with the aspect ratio - have you checked the settings on your television? The only times that I've had the squashed faces issue is when my television settings are screwed up.

Yeah, I agree on Game of Thrones - that was horrible in terms of lighting. I couldn't see most of the fight scenes in the Seventh Season. The first two episodes were abysmal because of the lighting situation. And I had all the lights off in my apartment and was watching it at night. Not enjoyable.

Game of Thrones - that was horrible in terms of lighting.

If I recall correctly, there was nothing wrong with the lighting in the way it was filmed. The main issue was compression. All that video and audio is a lot of information and in order for the signal to make it over the airways, or over the Internet, it has to be compressed. When done well, this compression goes unseen. However, it seems HBO has long been behind the curve when it comes to its compression showing, and it shows up even more with dark images. (Or an 82-minute episode that takes place entirely at night.)

How the content gets to your home has the potential to degrade that signal even more. Satellite and cable have added compression as does streaming from an app. If the bandwidth of that stream isn’t high enough it’s even more likely to show artifacts in the video signal. Sometimes what platform the app is on can affect the stream.

Interesting - I wondered why certain shows are brighter than others. I tried everything on my television set. And some could see it - but many couldn't and complained it was too dark. I had similar issues here and there with True Detective: Night Country, and definitely House of Dragon.

I watch it through an app on my Smart TV - the Max app. I didn't see it through cable or on the computer. Although when I tried it on the computer, it wasn't any better. Worse actually.

Netflix - I've noticed has a similar problem, not so much Amazon or Disney, although they don't show up that well either - if filmed at night. I've considered getting a new television, not sure it would help.

I watched a BBC limited (?) series called Nightsleeper about a night train from Glasgow to London that gets hackjacked. It's six episodes in real time, sort of like 24, or more recently, Idris Elba's Hijack. It was a bit silly at times, but still fun.

I did watch the first episode of a new US network series called High Potential, starring Kaitlin Olson. It wasn't horrible, so I'll probably watch at least a few more episodes to see how it goes, if it gets better or worse, etc., but it's standard US network fare, so nothing special. I think it's on ABC in the US, maybe? CTV has it in Canada.

Other than that, it was the weekly episodes of Who do you think you are? and The Ark.

Season 2 of The Traitors Canada starts this week -- I am looking forward to that. There's also a new BBC series starring David Mitchell called Ludwig which looks fun. That starts in the UK on the 25th, so I will keep an eye out for that as well.

High Potential is definitely ABC series. It's advertised incessantly on the network as ABC. ABC apparently is trying to get into the police/mystery procedural biz again.

The Circle S7: I'm mainly enjoying the female contestants (including Gianna). So far, the eliminations were beautifully done.

Du gewinnst hier nicht die Million bei Stefan Raab: Not worth 90 minutes of screen time. The tire-change task was the most boring thing I've seen in a while and the quiz questions were absolutely unnecessary.

Kaos: I liked the first episode.

Love Next Door: Only skipped through the last couple of episodes and we still haven't moved past the angst. Slowly losing interest.

No Gain, No Love: After a weaker fifth episode, it improved greatly in episodes 7 and 8. KYD has finally started to shine as Ji-uk and I'm really enjoying his OTP chemistry with SMA. The second-lead couple remains my highlight of this show which is why I'm overjoyed that the two are getting a two-episode isekai spin-off called Spice up Our Love set in the world of our 2FL's web novel.

Only Murders in the Building S4E3: Cannot wait to catch up on the newest episode!

Represent (En Place): Still very funny!

Taskmaster UK S18: Very funny! Rosie's E2 prize task item was utterly magnificent.

I've heard good things about Kaos. I really need to make some time to watch.

Finished The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes, which was a mixed bag throughout. Also saw An Inspector Calls, which I assumed would be a murder mystery but was something quite different. Adapted from a play apparently. It was alright, I thought David Thewlis underplayed his role quite well.

Also watched Royal Celebration with a very young Rupert Graves (and an unrecognizably young Keira Knightley). It was fine, a block party drama centered around the day of Diana and Charles' marriage.

Continued watching Silent Witness. I'm currently on S12 and thought The Lost Child was particularly well done. However only a few episodes later in season 13 the episode intent, was almost unbelievable in the careless way in which Harry and Leo involve themselves in a cover-up by either constantly ignoring requests or getting involved with an interested party. WTF.

About to finish S12 of Death in Paradise, so almost caught up. Rough season on Neville!

Began watching The Lady in White and skipped to the last episode after watching the first two. Just rather tiresome and melodramatic. Can't recommend.

Just about to finish S2 of Reyka, a South African series centered on a profiler who was kidnapped as a child. I have discovered that I find series with a troubled protagonist tough going. I also thought both seasons were about 2 episodes too long and various dumb decisions seemed designed to stretch things out.

Was Lady in White - the old one they did with a young Greg Wise back in the early 00s, or a newer version? The Greg Wise one was good, I thought. But I also saw it a long time ago.

THanks for catching that! It's the Woman in White by WIlkie Collins, although that has more versions. One thing that annoys me with Britbox is that it doesn't list release years on any of its content. I imagine part of this is to maximize older content by not putting people off when they see something is 50-60 years old, but it seems pointless to me since anything pre-2000 has distinctly different looks and even performances than post-2000.

I thought it might have been the 1966 version when I saw the list but it's actually the 1982 version. To me that says even more about the original book content. It's unfathomable to me that it has had so many adaptations, as there are 2 more TV versions after that, in 1997 and 2018.

I looked it up - Greg Wise was in the 2006 Masterpiece Theater version via the BBC. And there's been so many. The most recent in the 2018 with Dougray Scott. That's the one that is touted everywhere. There was one in the 80s, 90s, early 00s...

It's that interesting a story. I've read both - gad, Collins writing is flowery. But it is allegedly the first gothic mystery novel. Badly written gothic mystery novel.

Both have been adapted countless times. I don't know why - there's other stories they can adapt. Phyllis A Whitney was a whole lot better, as was Mary Stewart.

**

There's also a horror movie out there somewhere with Daniel Radcliff - I think it's the Woman in Black or the Lady in White, can't remember. It's actually better.

Edited 2024-09-23 01:52 (UTC)

Ah right, yes I watched that one with Radcliffe. My memory of it is hazy right now but I thought it was alright, certainly more interesting than the Woman in White.

I vaguely remember the Woman in White - but it's kind of Victorian Gothic? Which is not my genre to begin with. And Collins was nowhere near the talent of his contemporaries. Tended to be a bit too melodramatic and flowery. The Greg Wise early 00s version wasn't bad. Not memorable either.

The Lady in White - which is more modern times and not based on the Collins story at all...the 1988 film with Lukas Haas is really good. It's also a ghost story, while I think Collins is more a mystery than ghost story?

And the Woman in Black with Radcliff is terrifying ghost story, made all the more so by its creepy ending.

Yes, you've nailed it. Melodramatic and, I think, not mysterious at all to a modern audience. That's the problem with some early examples in a genre is that they don't hold up well after the genre has developed.

Melodrama can be done well (soap operas, and opera) but only if it is done in moderation and with respect to well the genre, or as parody. But Collins kind of did it for well...just to be melodramatic? And it felt a bit empty? And there's all this build up but no delivery.

The Brontes and Stoker had a better grasp of the genre, as did Edgar Allan Poe, Edith Wharton, Henry James and Nathanial Hawthorne (who I'm not a fan of, but that's just me). Collins, ugh.

I finished the first season of Somebody Somewhere and I have to take back what I said about Murray Hill, he's much better in those last two eps than he was before. As to the content of the eps, I liked #6 and disliked #7 in about equal measure. I'm glad I have the second season to continue with immediately.

I also finished Meet Me At The Blossom (or is it meet you? I keep confusing my cdrama titles), and I really liked the ending. It was nothing special, but it was a happy ending, and I don't care about much else. :)

I watched another ep of Spy X Family, but now they're back at school, and I like the political spy eps much better than the school-focused ones. Ah well.

Now that I've finished a few things, I'm planning on starting Bank on Me (cdrama with Bai Yu), The Time of Fever (Korean BL), and My Lady Jane soon. Or one of them, anyway.

I'm caught up on Only Murders in the Building and Slow Horses and enjoying them both in very different ways. Also watched a couple of episodes of How To Die Alone not knowing what to expect. As the lead character explores her life, where she's at and where she can take charge, it's going to be good.

What really took over my weekly viewing is a direct result of working on the

festivids team that reviews nominated fandoms for eligibility. For the second year in a row I've looked for vids of the Edgar Allen Poe movies made by Roger Corman and starring Vincent Price. This year I decided to watch the movies I could find streaming (listed below) along with reading the relevant stories or poems they're based on. It's been a lot of fun. I think The Raven and Tales of Terror were my faves. I watched an additional, non-Poe movie just because Peter Lorre and Vincent Price are so great as a team.
The Masque of the Red Death
House of Usher
The Pit and the Pendulum
Tales of Terror
The Raven
The Comedy of Terrors

because Peter Lorre and Vincent Price are so great as a team

Oh my! Dream team!

BTW, just noticed your icon as I put the Peter O'Toole documentary on Britbox into my queue and that's the main photo for the series.

Ha! I hit "random" and that was the icon that came up. I usually try to find a tv specific icon for this post!

So far this weekend?

1. HACKS (episode 3) - Not as good as the first two. It was mainly a roast of the main character and lots of insult humor. I don't like insult humor, so it didn't work for me.

2. The English Teacher - new comedy similar in set up and writing style to The Bear, with overlapping dialogue. The first episode is a bit weak, but the second was hilarious. It's about a homosexual English Teacher at a suburban Texas high School - in Austin, Texas.

3. Monsters: The Erik and Lyle Mendez Story - Netflix - this is a Ryan Murphy True Crime drama. So heavy on the satire. I watched the first episode - which details the crime, and involves Erik's confession to the psychiatrist. It also has a moment that surprised me - mainly because I don't know. the story that well, and vaguely paid attention to it when it occurred back in the 1980s. There's a lot of 1980s references. Mainly it reminded me of why I'm not a fan of the true crime genre or Murphy's satire. My attention kept wandering.

4. The Boy and the Heron on MAX - it's good, but it reminded me of Howl's Moving Castle, Grave of the Fireflies, and Spirited Away - which I preferred? This one concerns a little boy (Mahito) who lost his mother in the bombing of Tokyo during WWII. He travels in grief to the country with his father, who has married his mother's sister who is the spitting image of his mother apparently. (Yes, I thought the same thing.) And discovers a Heron, who leads him into another world.
Like it's predecessors - it has a heavy anti-war, anti-bomb, anti-imperial, and grief imagery. If you want to know the effects of WWII on Japan? Just watch Japanese films.

5. Kaos - I watched the first three to four episodes of this last weekend, and its not for me. I didn't care about anyone. I think it may be the focus on the Greek Myths, which I liked better with Percy and the Olympians. IDK. My attention just kept wandering. Basically - Zeus's is doing a crappy job, and the people have decided to revolt. It's heavy on workplace and political satire.

I think I saw the English Teacher one promoed on Hulu but I was leery about it given the setup. I am not fond of true crime either, though I may check out Monsters when I get Netflix again. I never learned that much about the Menendez case because I just wasn't interested and hated the way the media was leaning into big court cases. I could use some satire for that sort of content.

Yeah, the Mendez case - only really works with satire, which Ryan digs heavily into along with bits on the 1980s. But I still found it difficult to watch.

The English Teacher is worth a watch - not at all what you might think. I was leery too and promptly forgot it existed.

I have finished series five of Outlander and am also going to start on the sixth season later today (the last one I can watch right now, as I have no Netflix at the moment). And I think it's official now that Roger is now definitely my favourite male main character. Largely because I think he has a more interesting arc in season 4 and 5 than Jamie has. At the same time, his trauma and trauma recovery arc shows that the show could deal with these themes without making sexual assault its "go-to trauma" and *that* meant the ending of the season really bugs me.

I did a rewatch of Hetty Waintropp. It was good because I'd forgotten all the plots.

PBS has three new shows on mystery Sundays and I look forward to them every week.

Acorn added one of my favorite series of all time a few weeks ago. It's Australian and has a punk rock ghost. I like ghost stories where the ghost is just trying to get by and doesn't want to kill anybody.

What's the title of the ghost one?

Spirited.

My only change from last week is that I'm watching The Time of Fever (short Korean BL series) on iQIYI. It's nicely made and I'm enjoying it, but it's high school friends-to-lovers, so probably not for everyone. :-)

Speak Up Saturday

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