Speak Up Saturday

[feurioo_nospoilers]

Welcome to the weekly roundup post! What are you watching this week? What are you excited about?

Comments

[bleodswean]

ETOILE! ETOILE! ETOILE!

I'm loving this. I do love all things DANCE so there is that, but I just adore this show, the characters, the storyline, the dancing, the dialogue!

[starfleetbrat]

Love Death and Robots: binged them all yesterday and they were pretty hit or miss for me. A few I really didn't like at all and a couple I really liked but most were kinda average, especially compared to previous seasons.

Doctor Who: - I haven't really liked the new episodes. I love the New Doctor, but the stories haven't really grabbed me, until this week. I really liked this one for some reason, and then at the end... holy crap! I am so excited to see where they take that.

Murderbot: watched the first two eps and I'm kinda... I dunno. like, the character of Murderbot is not at all how I pictured it in the books. But I think they did an ok job of the show so far. I'll keep watching.

Amazing Race: SO GLAD about who won. I was hoping it would be them or the people that came in second. Not a fan at all of the people who came third. Or should I say, not a fan of the dude in the relationship. I feel like saying anything more spoils who wins, so I'll leave it at that.

Gruen: this is an Australian show about ads hosted by Will Anderson and they have a panel of people in advertising who discuss current adverts and how they were made and why etc. Its genuinely interesting but also entertaining. Season 17 started this week. One of my fav shows!

Will Trent: Loved this last ep, but let me tell you, if they kill off anyone Will called family in this episode (iykyk), I will be CRUSHED.

Otherwise... its just been weekly stuff. A lot of finales. A lot of cancellations. Soo many cancellations. sigh.

[feurioo]

I watched (in order of enjoyment):
Taskmaster AU S4: This remains my favorite TM version! I simply love this season's cast.

The Devil's Plan S2: I binged this as soon as the new episodes were released on Tuesday.

Drunter & Drüber: One of the most original comedies I've watched this year.

Taskmaster UK S19: Fatiha El-Ghorri remains a favorite.

Tastefully Yours: Didn't really feel the first episode because it mainly focused on our bastard ML. The second episode had a better vibe.

The Genius S1: This is only so low because I still have to get used to the show spoon-feeding me the social interactions between the contestants. It's also hard to judge some of the tactics because I have no idea who these people are in the South Korean entertainment hierarchy.

The Four Seasons S1: Finally watched the S1 finale. I guess it was okay? Pretty average.

Movie-wise: Talk To Me. Liked the first half a lot more than the second half.

Edit: Has anybody watched David Tennant's Genius Game?

[jo]

I watched the first two episodes of Murderbot and loved them! So much fun to see it brought to life.

I finished watching the 2nd season of Malpractice and enjoyed that. I also watched a 3-part true crime documentary, Bibaa and Nicole: Murder in the Park, which was quite well done, I thought. I also watched more of a show I forgot to mention last week, The Assembly, which is really lovely. Each episode has a celebrity being interviewed by a group of individuals with autism, other forms of neurodivergence and/or learning disabilities. Every episode to date has made me weepy at one point or another. Guardian review here: https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2025/apr/26/the-assembly-review-this-celebrity-interview-show-is-going-to-be-massive

Otherwise it was my usual weekly stuff, some of which are nearing their season's end, or it was the last ep of the season. And more tennis and baseball, but the Jays are have been pretty crap of late, so mostly tennis when I was home in time to catch any.

ETA: Forgot to add -- Welcome to Wrexham!! Watched the first two eps of the new season!

[yourlibrarian]

ANDOR. Expectations were so high after S1 that I worried it wouldn't be able to deliver. But it sure did. What I wish is that we could get a prequel series for the other (non-Jyn) characters, which are as carefully thought through and delivered as Andor was.

Finished Stolen Girl which had some good twists and turns in it. Well paced too.

Watched a docuadvert for Disney's new Treasure cruise ship. I really enjoy behind the scenes on this sort of thing though and have to say it looked very impressive and fun. One of the things they showed was the development of the Moana stage show. My favorite thing was probably the Haunted Mansion bar, both in terms of the special effects and the thought that went into the drinks.

Watched a little more of Doctor Odyssey, Brokenwood Mysteries, Miss Austen and finished off L.A. Law. I was not particularly fond of the show but it was good background stuff. Thing is, you spend hundreds of episodes with characters and you kind of miss them when it's over.

Also finished off Jeopardy Masters, and it made me laugh when twice I had the answer to something that stumped the contestants. Can't recall what it was now, but given their extensive knowledge of history and geography etc. it seems remarkable that I could come up with anything. I also liked the fun categories they did with W. Kamau Bell (Celeb Jeopardy champ) about bells and Aaron Sorkin about his works.

Also watched the China from Above documentary which had a lot of interesting features. There was one remote set of villages where people cross a river via zip line because there the cost of a bridge would be prohibitive. Nothing like seeing someone zipping across while a goat is strapped to them!

Also saw the first episode of Welcome to Wrexham's new season and am glad it's back!

[volkameria]

Not much this week!

Watching: Taskmaster S19 E1 - the newest one - was an absolute delight! Hubby and I watched it together and really enjoyed the humor and how the cast bounced off of each other and the hosts. Never seen Taskmaster before but will continue to watch this season for sure. Fatiha and Jason are my favorite contestants.

Looking forward to: I have A Place Further Than The Universe coming in from the library very soon. It's an anime about a group of 4 girls doing polar exploration, and after spending time reading Endurance I'm quite excited about more Arctic stories.

[olivermoss]

Murderbot! I am enjoying it so far, but also don't have a strong opinion on it yet. It's had a lot of adaptational reshuffling, so I don't want to judge until further in. There are a couple of moment I wished we'd had exactly like the book, but maybe they didn't work.

Your Friends & Neighbors - Since I have AppleTV for Murderbot, I watched the first season of this. I didn't expect to get caught up in it, but I did. Hopefully, since it's not a Netflix show the plotline will play out.

[violateraindrop]

I'm back from my vacation and have so much to catch up on. Last year I was away for two weeks and didn't have this much stuff to watch. I'll slowly get there. I have a long commute.

I managed to watch episodes 7-9 of Andor before my vacation. They were some intense episodes. Episode 8 showed us how truly evil the Empire is. That depiction was a lot less sanitized than what you usually see in the movies. This show is really something else.
With the time jumps between the episode batches, I feel like the show still glossed over how they managed to form such a well organized and fully equipped rebellion. Yes, it was built up over time, but this takes a lot of money and material. Where are they getting all that equipment to build a proper fleet? Surely everything is monitored by the Empire. In fact, we saw them track parts. I get being able to build or steal some spacecrafts, but an entire fleet?
The show did a good job of concentrating on the individual characters during these last few episodes. They didn't try to show everything at once, but instead had a whole episode without Cassian in it that, once again, showed us the evilness of the Empire from another perceptive.
This show was brilliant. The last episode built up tension to lead into Rogue One. I assume I'm not the only who will re-watch it.
Dedra's arc was extremely satisfying. We get an interesting and important character that has a complete story line and at the same time we know exactly why she is not in the movie.
The very last shot kinda broke me though...
I hope we'll get more like this in the future. Just let the same crew make something else set in the Star Wars universe.

The Studio had a Golden Globe episode and it was absolutely stacked with guest stars and cameos. The show has been renewed for a second season which is great. I'm really enjoying it.

I also watched the finale of Ghosts. I liked it. It didn't feel like they set up a huge cliffhanger? Jay's situation could either be resolved in an episode or it could hang over the majority of the next season. Either way, I think it is an interesting setup, but not in a "OMG! What happens now?"-way that most shows nowadays use.

In addition to catching up (including the finales of Watson and Grosse Pointe Garden Society), I also need to start S2 of Poker Face and want to check out Murderbot. I think I'll re-watch Rogue One first though.

[firecat]

Andor - Watched thru ep 9. Damn it’s good. Can’t remember where I saw an article trying to figure out why the character of Syril is so compelling, and can’t remember their theory, but they left out “because Kyle Soller is a brilliant actor.” If you like him in Andor, check him out in the time-travel/crime show Bodies, where he plays a character who’s a little bit similar to Syril and also very different.

Grand Sumo Highlights - Niche interest, but there’s a two-week sumo tournament six times a year in Japan and provides a 30-min synopsis of each day. There are problems in the sport (e.g., abuse of the athletes), like other sports. But I love the fat-and-VERY-athletic dudes wrestling almost-naked in bouts that usually last less than a minute, and the spectacle, and the dedication of their fans.

Murderbot - I love the queer energy, but I was turned off at the beginning because I thought the tone was too silly (it reminded me of Deadpool, of which I’m not a fan) and Murderbot was expressing too much emotion and Murderbot’s body and voice were too “male” and Sanctuary Moon was too Galaxy Quest, of which I am a fan but it doesn’t work without Rickman. (I did like that it had John Cho and Clark Gregg.) By the end of the second ep, though, I was cautiously optimistic that things would head in a direction I could live with.

[ecto_one_spengler]

Not much this week to report besides a rewatch of the Minecraft Movie (which is not actually too bad, lol - I obviously liked it enough to see it twice lmao).

However, my excitement to watch stuff is higher than my rate of watching!! For example, I'm planning on seeing Final Destination: Bloodlines next weekend or so after I get paid - it's going to be a very fun horror flick, I can tell. :)

Also wanting to rewatch Knuckles the TV show - it's a side series for the Sonic the Hedgehog live-action flicks, and I got it on DVD a couple weeks back and finally have some free time available to poke through some episodes again.

Also finally hoping to get through my rented flicks from the library before I have to return 'em next week - I started rewatching The Fall Guy (2024) but I didn't finish it since I fell asleep, and I've still got a copy of Kingsman: The Golden Circle as well as Doctor Who Series 12 to finish.. woogh. I've really got to get going on it.

[tinny]

HPI !!!! Season five started airing on Thursday, and I have managed to find a friend who gave the premiere to me, so now I've watched the first ep! I watched it at least twice now, mostly in short bits rewinding again and again because it's French only and there are no subs yet, but I think I understand most of it now. And it was very good! YAY new season! I am so happy!

I finished Doctor Odyssey, and the thing I had been afraid of happening did happen, so I'm likely out of there. I don't think they'll get a second season anyway, but... yeah. I might change my mind by September, but I am pretty miffed at where they took it in the end. It was very good in the middle there. Moving on.

Murderbot! I only watched the first ep, and then started rereading the novella, because I'd forgotten most of it. I think I'll finish that first before I'll continue watching more eps. I still don't like the fact that murderbot sounds and looks so decidedly male. Fwiw, I liked the first episode more than I thought I would despite that. It's really well done, great visuals, fun narration.

I tried two eps of Etoile, and while I adore the pervasive bilingualism - every character speaks both English and French and some of them codeswitch wonderfully - I actually don't like a single one of the characters. Some of them actively annoy me to a point I never want to see them again. A pity.

[sireesanwar]

I "discovered" Found. I can't say it is great but the whole crazy thing with Gabi and Sir is just freaky. Mark-Paul Gossler holds a special place in my preppy heart so I wanted to watch because he was on it. Crap he's insane on the show. Freaks me out. I love the helping others weekly case shows occasionally. I think I'm watching this show to see what happens with Sir. *shudders*

[china_shop]

Oh weird, I was sure I'd commented here already. Apologies if I'm repeating myself!

My sister and I are watching our way through season 1 of Fringe. (I've seen the first few seasons before.) It's gross but overall good-humoured. I wish Astrid got more to do.

My partner and I and a friend are watching season 4 of The Expanse (also a rewatch for me), which is so good, especially in terms of storytelling and characters. The whole season is like a bottle episode, and the walls keep closing in.

And my partner and I watched the first block of Andor season 2, which was okay. I'll probably enjoy it more on the rewatch. Also, some Poker Face, some Krapopolis, and all of the available Murderbot. The latter is weird, because compared to the books it feels outsider-POV-esque. Like, in the books, everything is filtered through Murderbot's disaffected/disassociative perspective, and it's hard to get that vibe across in the TV show, especially when all the humans are freaking out. I saw marcicat saying:

TV SHOW: SURVEY SUDDENLY INCLUDES SERIOUS RISK OF DEATH FROM MULTIPLE SOURCES, VERY SCARY book MB: literally no different than any other day; maybe a little nicer than most days, actually

which sums it up really well. Also, I wish Sanctuary Moon were less camp and relationshippy. I wouldn't have thought that would be the kind of thing Murderbot would be into -- more dramatic space adventure, please!

(I originally had issues with the casting, but then I saw this and revised my thinking.)