Speak Up Saturday

[feurioo]

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

Comments

[violateraindrop]

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...

[feurioo]

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.

[jo]

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.

[yourlibrarian]

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.

[starfleetbrat]

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.

[wendelah1]

My favorite shows keep getting cancelled. For now, I'm giving up on television and only watching shows that are old and done, or just done. Also watching people play Dungeons and Dragons on Dimension 20 with my son. I don't actually know much about D&D but he does and it's fun to spend time with him. And I'm reading more books, I suppose.

[shadowkat]

I started S4 of the Bear, which recently dropped on Hulu, on Friday - and ended up finishing it this morning. I was going to stretch it out - but it is so good that I could not help myself and devoured it eagerly. It's become a comfort show - it's hyper-realism, and much like The Pitt is to the ER, the Bear is to restaurants, and well family life in Chicago in general.

Four can be a series closer or a continuation - opening it up for new things. Not clear. While I can see Hulu and F/X renewing it - it's not clear if the writer/show-runner plans to continue, and the leads (Carmen, Ritchie and Sydney) are all heavily booked in future projects (their careers took off because of The Bear). I want it to continue - because it kind ends with some things unanswered?
But at the same time - I like open-endings because they are more realistic. It does have more closure than the previous seasons, and I can see this going on hiatus for a bit and coming back with a time jump.


Still rewatching Buffy, on S3, now. It's better than I remembered. In previous rewatches, I'd skip most of the episodes of S3, except for Lover's Walk, and as a result, I don't remember much of it. (My previous rewatches of this series - were usually Seasons 2,4,5,6 and 7, skipping over various episodes. And I often skipped 1 and 3. I like the characters better in the later seasons? Also the setting and issues better? I should probably state that I was 27/28 when the series started in the 1990s, and fell in love with it as a 30 something, not a teen? So much like the cast and writers - was relieved when it got past high school? The high school bit doesn't bother me - I don't remember high school, and I find most of it resonates on a more universal level? I think because those writing and working on it - were much older, and kind of just used it the horrors of high school for a metaphor for the horrors of live. Buffy isn't really a teen show, even though it was marketed in that direction. It was created by adults in their late 20s, early 30s, for a broad audience, and directed at teens, which is odd, I know, but there it is.)

Actually, I think S3 might be the best season that I've rewatched so far. They do a good job of keeping the real villain in the background - no one in the main cast realizes that he is remotely a threat until things kind of go kablooy. I think they learned from their mistakes in S1 - that less was more with a good villain.

Also unlike S2, the stand-a-lones are all watchable and well done. S1's problem was the Master being the main plot arc, and the stand-a-lones or episodic episodes were actually better than the main arc.
S2's problem was the opposite. With the possible exception of the Ethan Rain/Giles and John Ritter episodes - the stand a lones in S2 don't quite work and are skippable, they bog down the story. The main arc however, along with the main villains in S2, are wonderful.

S3 has figured out how to do both, and has finally gotten a good writing team that gets the process and the goals of the series.

Still to watch or complete:

Murderbot

Andor S2

Gilded Age

Sirens

Also complete Hacks and Ted Lasso.

And Iron Heart on Disney...

[tinny]

Man I forgot to post on the weekend...

I finally watched the latest Murderbot ep today, and it's finally moving the plot forward again a bit. I was mostly confused by the last two eps not doing what I expected them to do. All the romance aspects are still getting on my nerves, all the "Murderbot watches shows" aspects are very good, and all the Murderbot emotional things are good too, except for when they intersect with the romance aspects. I'm enjoying it, it's just not as riveting as I think it could have been?

I watched the first three eps of The First Night With The Duke, which is a transmigration kdrama with Ok Taecyeon - he's the only reason I'm watching it. It's not terrible, but also not really my thing, and of course the historic kdrama costumes don't do anyone any favors, not even Taecyeon. I'll probably watch a bit more of it, just because I've missed him.

My watchalongs: we finished Parallel World, and the last ep was even more weirdly paced than the previous ones, and almost none of it made any sense. We're glad we're done with it. We'll start watching When A Snail Falls In Love next week, which is a rewatch for me, and I'm interested in how well it holds up compared to when I first watched it seven years ago. My other watchalong has finished HPI (s4 - I'm still in the process of translating the subs for s5), and started North of North. Instant hit, as I expected. <3