tv_talk | Speak Up Saturday

I had a more productive week in terms of show consumption than I did the previous week. I managed to binge the most recent series of two different shows.

First up was the 5th series of All Creatures Great and Small. Everything everywhere in the world is just so absolutely shitty, with a capital S*H*I*T*T*Y, that I needed something totally feel good. All Creatures fits that perfectly. And before anyone asks, no, it's not available in North America yet. I got it from my good pirate friend.

The other was the most recent series of Slow Horses. I had not expected to finish that in a weekend -- I thought there would be more than 6 episodes, but there you go.

I attempted to start series 2 of The Diplomat, but quickly realized that I have almost zero memory of what happened in series 1, and was just getting more and more confused, so stopped. I will have to track down a recap of the first season to refresh my memory before I start that one again.

I also watched a FILM!! I think that's my 4th this year. It was an oldie but a goody -- Threads. That's the brilliant and horrifying nuclear war film that aired on the BBC back in 1984 or 85 and scared the living daylights out of everyone. Not the first time I've seen it, but the first time in a very long time.

I also watched more Lincoln Lawyer, and the weekly episodes of the Canadian and British bake offs, Star Trek Lower Decks, Ludwig, the last episode of season 4 of Only Murders, and FBI. Sort of. I started watching this week's episode of FBI, but apparently dozed off about 10 minutes in, and woke up with my PVR telling me the episode was done, did I want to delete it. I debated if I wanted to rewatch it (on a different day) but decided, nah, not important, so deleted it. I have zero clue what happened in that episode.

Also watched bits and bobs of the World Series (don't like either team, but hate the Yankees more, so glad they lost), and some tennis (Paris Masters).

In terms of what am I looking forward to, Day of the Jackal, starring Eddie Redmayne starts this week and looks quite good. Also, I do need to start my rewatch of the first half of season 7 of Outlander before the second half starts later this month.

Oh, I need to watch season two of The Lincoln Lawyer! I keep forgetting about it.

Started Hysteria! and quit after 3 episodes because I could not stand the male teen protagonist. That was disappointing since the rest of it was pretty cool: satanic panic, metal, an actual real demon (I think!).

Finished Uzumaki. My conclusion is that only the first episode exists. It's shocking how they dropped the ball on this one and basically massacred everything that was good and horrifying about the manga. A nightmare on itself.

Back with What We Do in the Shadows for the final season! I've watched the first 3 episodes and I love everyone :'D I'm going to miss this show so much when it's gone because the dynamics are just *chefs kiss*

I finished watching S1 of Teacup on Peacock. It was soooo good. I need it to get a S2 or I'll be seriously bereft.

I started a rewatch of S4 of Buffy, the Vampire Slayer for one of my groups. Enjoying it all over again.

I started S2 of Superstore. OMG, that show is so funny. I love every single character and that is so rare for a TV show.

I started watching Servant on Apple+ with a trial. It's an M. Night Shyamalan production and it's weird AF. Not what I was expecting at all. If I keep the Apple+ subscription, I want to try out the horror series Before with Billy Crystal.

I've heard very good things about Severance on Apple, though it's not horror just very psychologically dramatic? If you like spy stuff, Slow Horses is excellent.

This week I went back and rewatched all of Scooby Doo: Mystery Incorporated while petsitting for my parents.

I also watched some of Untold Stories of the ER and Forensic Files for nostalgia.

Also started Series 6 of GBBO: The Professionals on Netflix and I was so fucking excited to see and hear Liam on screen after he got booted from the main show. He makes a fun co-host!!

I watched the last two episodes of Only Murders in the Building, the finale of Moonflower Murders, and a lot of HGTV reruns. I love to watch people fixing up houses. My favorite is Bargain Block.

I watched Taskmaster AU, Das Sommerhaus der Stars, Sweetpea, Only Murders in the Building, and a couple of Twilight Out of Focus episodes. Mickey's Mouse Trap was even worse than expected. Not just terrible but also mind-numbingly dull. Looking forward to Terrifier 3 and Smile 2.

Smile 2 was a wild ride, oh my GOD. I really gotta do a second watch of it to really get what is happening but it is a wild ride.

Terrifier 3 on the other hand I have heard less positive things, but I liked the last movie and am still excited to give its sequel a try!

And... man I dodged a bullet when it comes to Mickey's Shite Dump. Everyone says it is bad and I am skipping it, oof.

I haven't started The Diplomat yet, because I was afraid that was going to happen to me, too. Now I'm thinking I might have to re-watch S1 first.

I continued with Sweetpea and now have two episode left. It's fine, but I don't love it.

There are also only two episodes left for The Franchise. I'll finish it now, but it never lived up to its potential. I hate that they wasted a really good cast. Daniel Brühl is great though.

Considering I was on vacation, you'd think I'd have had more time to watch things. But...

I finished To Ship Someone, and it really dragged towards the end. How cdrama always manages to mess up the pacing of their shows remains a mystery. Still glad I finished it, even though the ending was a bit too saccharine. (Still better than no happy ending, so yay.)

I watched two more eps of Scavengers Reign. I'm having the problem I always have with animated series: I don't really engage with the characters - I don't care what happens to them. But I'll probably keep watching for the weird symbiotic alien life. And the robot. *g*

I kept rewatching My Lady Jane and going through all the fanvids for it, and making caps in preparation for the iconbattle

violateraindrop and I are running for it. I'm still very attached to the show.

I watched three more eps of Spy X Family, now only 4 to go. Nothing new to tell here, the spy stuff and the family stuff is fun, the school stuff is boring. Sadly, the psychic dog had nothing at all to do in those last few eps.

I managed one whole ep of We Are Ladyparts season 2 - I really enjoy this show a lot.

That's all, it really wasn't a lot.

I don't really have the inclination to rewatch s01. I have read a couple of season recaps online this weekend, and that cleared up the bits I did see in the first 20 minutes of s02e01. So I think I'll be OK going forward with the rest.

Finished watching Agatha All Along and though it had a strong finish. What I quite liked about it was how intentional the early choices in the series turned out to be, and that it was a kind of magician's trick that we thought it was one thing when it wasn't that at all.

Watched more documentaties, incuding David Bowie the man who changed the world (so-so, new stuff to me as I don't know much about his history, but not in depth). Also finished Icons Unearthed Star Wars (had a few new details I didn't know about), and am finishing the one on James Bond (similar approach, some nice humor, some interesting details but not a lot of depth. That said, long history to cover). Also saw the one on Different Strokes which ends with her co-stars at Dana Plato's grave. I'm guessing her death prompted the creation of the docu-drama -- one of those ones that has interviews interspersed with acted out scenes. Wouldn't say it was worth watching, but interesting in that Gary Coleman was still alive for it.

Have also been really enjoying Rutherford Falls. Will finish S1 for sure and maybe S2 before we cancel Peacock. Seems a shame it's so short but then again I don't know where it's headed.

Have surprisingly not been enjoying Poker Face. On the one hand, I do think it's a well done series and I can understand why people do like it and especially why Columbo fans would. Unfortunately, that style of mystery doesn't work for me. Instead of solving things along with the detective, one knows the who, how and why from the start. To me, that's a big problem, because even if one would like to see the killers get their just desserts, the show revolves around discovering how they're going to slip up and what mistakes they made, or else just waiting for the discovery to happen. What's more I, at least, tend to have a sympathy for the fox in the fox hunt or the villain trying to escape the posse. I guess it's an underdog thing where I'd like to see them slip away (even more so because in this series, our detective is herself escaping pursuit). My partner is enjoying it so I'm sure he'll watch the whole season, but for me it's turned into background viewing when he's watching.

I'm going to start re-watching the show for the battle on my train ride tomorrow 🤣

We are still a few episodes from the end of Only Murders. I was so upset that the DVR didn't record Moonflower even though I set it to record ... no idea what happened. A search in YouTube TV doesn't even turn Moonflower up as if it never existed.

Always a good choice! <3 I'm also watching it with the SO this week, since we've finished Bridgerton S2. \o/

I'm mostly hyped for Terrifier 3 because it happens to be a Christmas horror movie, and I live for Christmas horror at the end of the year. :D

And... man I dodged a bullet when it comes to Mickey's Shite Dump.

It was just a quick cash grab. I'm glad that I didn't pay for it. Blood and Honey was a total mess as well, but at least that movie had a vision.

I couldn't get into Poker Face either, in part for the reasons you mentioned, but also because I've decided Natasha Lyonne annoys me.

The NY Review of Books recently had a retrospective article on Columbo that pointed out the villains tended to be rich and obnoxious so that you wanted to see them get their just desserts. And that Poker Face had exactly the problem you pointed out.

That's curious as they have the same sort of setup. In fact, I find Poker Face an intriguing sort of update as there's an element of The Fugitive to it. Also it's a stealth anthology series, more so than Columbo because she's always changing jobs and locations.

I thought she was a pretty good choice as an updated Columbo character. However I do agree that if she doesn't work for you the series is pretty difficult to watch -- it's the sort of performance that is likely to produce a strong response.

I binged Diplomat S2 with my brother this past weekend. And it took us a little while - but we caught on by the third episode. I do suggest watching just the last two episodes of S1? After I binged the Diplomat S2 (there's only 6 episodes in S2), I rewatched S1 episodes 7 and 8, and a lot of stuff that didn't quite make sense in S2, did? (You need to remember/know who Ronnie is and what their role is. It took until the second episode for my brother and I to remember who he was.

The main things you need to know for S2 - are: who is Merrit Grove, who is Ronnie, why they were meeting up with Merrit Grove, why Merrit Grove contacted Hal, why Kate called Rowling, and what she told Rowling, and what Kate found out from the French - and how/why she found out. And how it all blew up (literally) in their faces. That's told in Episodes 7 and 8 of S1 (the last two episodes). So watch those two prior to S2, and you'll be fine.

Good news? S3 should air in Spring of 2026 - they are filming it now.

Edited 2024-11-05 02:06 (UTC)

Late to the party - because I was away from the internet this weekend - visiting my brother and his wife in upstate NY. As a result, they had sole control of the remote - so I watched the following bits with them:

* The Diplomat - S2. I think you need to remember what happened in the last two episodes of S1 for this to work? They do a recap - but S1 was convoluted. Do not watch without seeing S1 first. If you've already seen S1 and can't remember what happened? Just watch episodes 7 and 8 first. Or you can do what I did - binge all of S2, then rewatch S1 episodes 7 and 8 - which I did, because I was with my brother, and didn't get to rewatch until I got home. I may rewatch the whole thing at some point. It's a delicate, fast-pasted, rather biting political satire/thriller - think satiric West Wing with edge and as a political thriller.

It's on Netflix. S3 should air sometime in the apring of 2026, when I'll most likely rewatch the whole thing. It's not long. 8 episodes in S1, 6 episodes in S2, and apparently 8 in S3.

Stars the woman from The Americans/Felicity (Kerry...?) and Rufus Sewall, written by Deborah Cahn, directed by Alex Graves.

* Roller Jam HBO MAX - this is basically Dancing with the Stars except with teams and on roller skates, and with really crappy judges. It's a hoot. Sisinlaw was a disco roller skating queen in the late 70s early 80s, when she was 8-14 years of age. Made the front of the NY Times back then, along with the televised news. So she was into it. It made it a lot of fun to watch - getting hers and my brother's commentary.

* Abducted in Manhattan - two episodes of the three part alien abduction documentary on Netflix. The controversial one about Linda Napoltino who claimed she was abducted by aliens in Manhattan in the 1980s. And her story gets debunked by the documentarian's assistant and a new documentary is put together editing the two together. This is the re-edited documentary. Napolineto (sp?) sued Netflix and Carol Rainey (the assistant) to stop the release of the film, and for defamation of character. The first two episodes annoyed and bored me -I do not like television shows like this - documentary style with people talking to the camera irritate me. I can't focus on people who talk to the camera. I have similar issues with Zoom and video conferencing. I also can't watch any documentary style situation comedies such as Abbott Elementary or The Office for this reason.
So my attention kept wandering. My brother's did too. But my sisterinlaw was enraptured - she was in NYC in the 1980s and remembers it. When I told them the third episode probably debunked it all - they groaned in unison - "nooo".

A friend had similar issues with it. I chose not to try it when I had Peacock, mainly because Natasha Lyon (who my friend adores - hence the reason she watched it) tends to irritate me. Also I don't like the set-up. The difficulty with knowing who did it and why prior to the characters - is their inability to figure it out - can get on my nerves. Columbo worked because he was so clever about it - and you hated the culprits, it only works if you despise the culprits.

Wanting the culprit(s) to get caught is definitely a major issue. However the setup of the show, where we first learn about them and then the show sort of "rewinds" to reveal her involvement at a much earlier point, is a problem in terms of who the audience is invested with. (It can also make the timeline confusing). So while I get why they write it that way, it doesn't work for me. It just makes me feel tense and anxious when I'm watching instead of curious and invested.

I had not heard of Roller Jam but the concept amuses me. Good to know Diplomat's next season is available. I probably won't get Netflix until January or later but I'll be checking it out when I do.

My friend was annoyed by it - she was watching for Natasha Lyon, and gave up.

I mean, S1 only has eight episodes. I re-watching My Lady Jane (also 8) at the moment and I'm nearly done. It shouldn't take me too long. Usually, I have to re-watch first seasons if it's been a while and after that I'm good *shrugs*

Honestly, I don't remember a thing from S1...

I'd recommend watching S1 first then - I was a little lost for three episodes - although I did remember most of it, and they have a fast recap. But I could not until somewhere halfway through the second or third episode remember who Ronnie was - and that's kind of important. The Second Season isn't that long, just 6 episodes. I may rewatch both prior to seeing S3, due out sometime between now and 2026. Seriously, Netflix has too long between seasons - still this wasn't as bad as Bridgerton (I did rewatch the first two seasons prior to S3), and The Witcher.

Oh yes, I re-watched the first season of The Witcher before the second one. There is so much time between seasons now. At least Only Murders in the Building has a decent break length.

Speak Up Saturday

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