tv_talk | Speak Up Saturday

Grosse Pointe Garden Society was canceled and I am not surprised. I was entertained and liked the cast, but can knowledge that it wasn't a particularly good show. Still, I would have liked to see a second season.

Ironheart is fine, although I don't think I'm really the target audience (which is a feeling I also had with Ms. Marvel). It also feels like this show comes too late which is also not new for Marvel. It would have been a great show to have one or two months after Black Panther 2 or shortly after its debut on Disney+. Did Disney really gauge people's interest in a show based on Riri's (small) role in that movie? I kinda doubt it. I'm also not a fan of dropping a six-episode miniseries in two batches of three episodes. It worked with Andor, but that had more episodes. Either drop six episodes at once or stagger them over the course of six weeks. I guess more services are doing that now, start with three episodes to get people's attention and then release weekly episodes, but for a miniseries it's a weird approach. That's one of the reasons I haven't started Countdown yet, even though I'm interested. There are three episodes already, but it's not my top priority, so I'm immediately far behind :/

S4 of the acclaimed comedy series The Bear is also out which I will get to eventually. I'm not in the mood for a anxiety-inducing/stressful show right now...

It is an odd release decision. To me it just indicates a lack of faith in the series. I also agree that it seems to have taken a long time since the BP2 release, but wasn't that film affected by Covid delays? I'm guessing nothing new was getting planned for a while, and this may have been intended as a movie that got shifted to a series because she'll have a role in an upcoming film.

I watched:
- The new Murderbot episode. I find the throuple storyline a lot more annoying than the short episode length. Whatever Gurathin and Murderbot have going on remains my favorite aspect of the show.

- Slow Horses S1. I like none of the characters (except for Catherine), so I don't think this show is for me.

- Two episodes of The Buccaneers S1. Very pretty, but I can't see myself rooting for any of the main characters.

- Two episodes of Mythic Quest S1. Not really feeling it, particularly Pootie Shoe and Jo. I'm giving it one more episode.

- One episode of The Studio. Didn't feel it.

Edited 2025-06-28 17:38 (UTC)

Just couldn't get into the Studio either. Agree that Buccaneers makes for a pretty view but I'm not very taken with it as a romantic series. We haven't yet finished S1 but perhaps we'll feel differently.

Slow Horses does indeed start rather unlikable. I'm not sure they really change but they do broaden.

Slow Horses does indeed start rather unlikable. I'm not sure they really change but they do broaden.

It has quality writing, but I just don't care about anyone. Plus, I've already been spoiled about the fates of some of the characters, and that doesn't entice me to "wait and see".

S1 spoiler

Sid's disappearance really put the nail in the coffin. :/

- One episode of The Studio. Didn't feel it.

Yeah, we only lasted about 20 minutes. But then recently I heard about the Tetris movie, which sounds not completely unlike "Scorsese does Kool Aid" in concept, and that made me wonder if I should give it another try. ;-p

I actually liked the Scorsese episode! It's simply that episodes 3 and 4 didn't feel as strong as the first two. :/

I finished watching The Kollective (which might be on Netflix, I honestly don't know) and really enjoyed it. It's about a group of freelance investigative journalists who "expose government corruption and lies through a dangerous investigation; uncovering rogue governments' illicit activities worldwide." Don't know if there will be a second series/season, but if there is, I will watch.

I also watched the first two seasons of Whitechapel, which is an older (2009) British police procedural in which detectives in London's Whitechapel district deal with murders which replicate historical crimes. The first series dealt with, of course, a Jack the Ripper copycat. The second series dealt with a Kray Brothers copycat. The first two series are very short, only 3 eps each, which is why I was able to get through them so quickly. A bit surprised I've only just heard/learned about this series, but it's a bit of fun. Kind of violent, bloody fun, but fun.

Watched this week's eps of Murderbot, Criminal Minds, and Welcome to Wrexham (which I'm guessing was probably also the season finale).

I am mostly looking forward to Wimbledon! I've booked the next two weeks off from work so I can just stay home and watch tennis all day. Don't tell me I don't know how to have fun!! I also want to check out the new Apple series, Smoke, of which the Guardian said "no TV show has been worth sticking with more" and gave 4 stars. Apparently the first couple of episodes have a few inconsistencies and bad characterization, but the reviewer guarantees those disappear and the rest is brilliant.

Kollective sounds very interesting. Watched Whitechapel some years ago and liked it, but mostly because of the working relationship between lead and sergeant. Agree that it must have been the season finale of Wrexham.

Finished various series this week thanks to having the TV to myself and a jigsaw puzzle going on in the background.

Watched all of the documentary Deaf President Now! Am surprised that I recall nothing about this protest but it was fascinating to hear about and had a wonderful finish, which feels hopeful even in today's climate.

Caught up on The 1% and finished Welcome to Wrexham. Wonderful final episode -- the goal at 17 minutes in was wild, and it had all the feels in the conclusion.

Also finished Silo season 2 and I have to say that I found it remarkable that I watched all of Severance S2 but couldn't do it with Silo. I ended up watching the first two and last two episodes and then just the "previously on" for the other episodes. I wanted to see where things were going but it always seems to take so long and spend time on things I don't really care about.

That said, the ending was interesting and not what I was expecting, so I'm curious where S3 will pick up.

Severance S2 seemed much better paced than S1. Perhaps it's because S1 had so much set up of both characters (inner and outer) as well as plot and mystery. I managed to stick with each episode. However I was also disappointed with where it headed. I felt like S1 had a Scientology aspect to it but it was also just "ominous capitalist corporation" taken to an extreme along with potentially interesting questions about integration of self. Instead S2 leaned into religious zealotry which is, to me, both boring and a lot less challenging a storyline because then it can be weird just for the sake of weirdness.

I also tried out the first 3 episodes of Ironheart and found it ok. I watched all of Prime Target which was also ok. It tried to be a mix of things, and I thought the ending made sense but it was one of those shows where you're way ahead of the main characters in terms of conspiracies and who can be trusted, which makes it less interesting.

Am up to S12 of Last Week Tonight which picks up after Trump's re-election so I can imagine a lot of them will be bigger downers than usual.

Instead S2 leaned into religious zealotry which is, to me, both boring and a lot less challenging a storyline because then it can be weird just for the sake of weirdness.

Oh, that's a great point. Yeah.

Instead S2 leaned into religious zealotry which is, to me, both boring and a lot less challenging a storyline because then it can be weird just for the sake of weirdness.

Huh, sounds like I don't need to rush to finish that season. ://

Ironheart - watched the first couple of eps and quite enjoyed it. It didn't feel very "marvel" even though there were some references.

Countdown - watched the first few eps. Its not grabbing me, but I'll give it another ep or two.

Criminal Minds - I had to laugh when Emily spoke for most of us when she said, "you know what I am tired of the most? I'm tired of him" and indicated Voit. haha! you and me both Emily. I also have a theory that Budget Ryan Reynolds is a bad guy. I'm not really sure why, I just get that vibe from him every time I see him and nothing so far is shaking that.

Art Detectives - a mystery detective show - based around a detective in the Heritage Crime Unit which focuses on crimes involving art and culture etc. Its quite good, a little cozy, but the art focus makes it interesting.

Smoke - watched first two eps and well, it was kinda obvious wasn't it?

and speaking of obvious...

Squid Game S3 ended how I think we all expected it to. Although I did say WTF out loud at who was playing the recruiter at the very end. lol I guess going by the location, we can look forward to a US based spin off?

Binged S4 of The Bear and while I thought it was better than S3 by a mile, still not a great deal happened in it. And by the end, it didn't seem like anyone was happy. Not that people need to be happy for it to be a good ending. I just wish someone was though. It didn't really feel like an end of a show though so I hope there is a season 5?

there's a few other weekly things, but nothing of note this week.

Squid Game is already on S3! I guess it's been a while since I had Netflix. Art Detectives sounds enjoyable.

yeah they filmed it back to back with S2. S3 is the final season though, no more after that.

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