tv_talk | Speak Up Saturday

I found out last weekend that a new series of Karen Pirie was out, so I got ahold of that. And watched it all, which kind of surprised me. It's only 3 episodes, but each episode is 90 minutes long, so that was like watching three movies last week -- which I would never have done. Anyway, very much enjoyed it. It's based on the books by Val McDermid and stars Outlander's Lauren Lyle -- as a DI who investigates cold cases. Lots of cold case shows out these days, it seems.

I also watched the first episode of Assassin (Prime), starring Keeley Hawes as a retired assassin who has to go on the run with her adult son. Very much enjoyed the first episode, looking forward to the rest. The Guardian loved it and gave it 5 stars.

Also watched: the rest of Bookish; the second and final part of the Billy Joel documentary, And So It Goes; and this week's episodes of Smoke and Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. And tennis and baseball.

I am looking forward to the new mini series coming to Apple TV+, Chief of War, but it starts on August 1 and I will be out of town Aug 1-5, so won't be able to check it out until I'm back home.

I'll have to see if I can watch Karen Pirie. Britbox is our next subscription. Hoping Bookish comes our way as well. Haven't yet started the Billy Joel doc.

I started Billy Joel doc and it's good. It's been rec'd to me now by four different people.

I just watched the Chief of War trailed on YT, thanks to your comment. Ooh!

Apparently they've taken great pains to get the history right, so I am looking forward to it.

Okay, I looked for Assassin and could not find it. Instead I found five different shows called Assassin on Prime. (Sigh, Prime is very hard to find television shows on).

It's actually called "The Assassin" -- I only realized that after I'd posted and someone commented, so I couldn't edit.

https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2025/jul/25/the-assassin-review-keeley-hawess-menopausal-hitwoman-drama-is-perfectly-crafted-tv

Oh thank you! That looks really good and is right up my alley - taste wise.

ETA: sigh, not available in the US apparently. Ugh. (I don't know why. Guessing rights issues.)

Edited 2025-08-03 16:49 (UTC)

This week I watched The Sandman, the second season of Survival of the Thickest, and Happy Gilmore 2. I enjoyed all of them, but The Sandman was my favorite watch of the week. Sad but satisfying.

Resident Alien was canceled and S4 will be the last season after all. I still have no idea why I was convinced that S4 was announced as the final season ages ago. That said, I like this season. D'Arcy's arc came a bit out of nowhere though and I don't think it really fits the tone of the show.

I watched three more episodes of The Bear that I liked. Claire is still such a non-character for me. Everyone loves her and says how awesome she is, but the show actually never shows us?
The episodes focusing on one character are always great. The Sydney episode was no exception.

The Institute continues to exist. I feel like the premise has potential, but it's kinda struggling to make it interesting. To be honest, I am far more interested in the town surrounding the facility and how Ben Barnes' character connects to all of this. (No, I'm not biased...)

I haven't started the second half of The Sandman's second season yet. So that's for next week, probably. I was kinda spoiled for something, but without context it didn't tell me anything lol

Haven't seen RA's final season yet but I wonder if they'd planned that for her all along and it just got grafted in too early.

It seems like a really abrupt change for the character. I guess they tried having a more serious story line for her bringing up the short skiing career, but the current one just seems to depressing for the show.

You're not alone there - I thought RA was supposed to be just four seasons or five at most, as well?

I don't think Claire is supposed to be more than a prop or supporting character for some of the leads? But I agree the character isn't developed well and almost a non-entity? It may be because she's seen through the perspectives of a bunch of other characters, and we're never really in her perspective?

It is based on a comic, but I have no idea how faithful the adaptation is of if the comic series is even finished.

I think my problem is that she seems to be the only character like that. Yes, the Faks are pretty much a running gag, but at least they are not supposed to be more.

Lots of DropoutTV this week - finished Seasons 1 and 2 of Game Changer with Hubby, and we just started Season 7 of Dr. Who. He's also been watching Strike Back and finished Season 1, and is still feeling out if he likes it or not. (I tried 2 episodes and was really not feeling it.)

Probably going to give The Blacklist another shot. And I still need to finish Bocchi the Rock.

As much as I love Richard Armitage, Season 1 of Strike Back was really boring to me. The good thing is that it's only 6 episodes. Season 2 felt like a different show, but in a good way. And S2 through S5 were excellent imo. Haven't watched the later seasons after the cast change.

I watched:
S Line: This show had a lot of promise, but parts of episode 6 were disappointing.
Takopi's Original Sin: I was already spoiled for the plot twist. Still very good!

I am also looking forward to the new The Summer Hikaru Died episode. Definitely one of the most promising shows for me at the moment.

I also watched Companion (2025). Solid movie.

Edited 2025-07-26 18:05 (UTC)

About to finish S4 of Brokenwood. Wondering whatever happened to Jared and if they'll bring back to kill him off a la Death in Paradise.

Watched another episode of Grantchester's latest. Also watching the most recent Last Week Tonight so we'll be caught up there and we've watched all the Daily Show and Late Show episodes we were behind on, so we were able to see all the reactions to the Late Show cancellation news.

Still watching Dog House, now on S3. I imagine like most people I started watching for the dogs and have become kind of fascinated by all the varied human stories of potential adopters. Also tried out Too Cute, which began with an episode about 3 different cat births and I swear little could be cuter than a newborn kitten with the hiccups.

Finished watching Girls on the Bus. It was apparently meant to go on for another season though I think it ended in a good enough place. Shame though as it really came together as a story of four different women in the same professional arena and the political angles are very familiar.

In movies, watched Farenheit 451 because I never read the book. Had Michael B. Jordan not starred I don't know as I could have gotten through half of it. Depressingly topical yet also doesn't make a lot of sense, since they apparently tried to update it to account for current events.

Have you seen the original film? 1966 Farenheit 451 starring Julie Christie? It's good and very close to the book. (I read the book and saw it in the 1980s.)

I have not but I'll keep an eye out for it.

I take it you're enjoying Brokenwood? (I haven't seen it because it's not really my genre, but you know, it's local.)

We are! One of the things I like is how they bring back characters involved in earlier cases into later ones. Which makes sense if you live in a relatively small place, though given how long the show has gone on makes me think that sooner or later everyone there will have committed a murder!

Hee! That's great, though -- like community theatre. :-)

1. Finished White Lotus S3 - which I enjoyed more than S2, and well I haven't made it through S1. S3 had the advantage of a good cast, and I actually liked four of the characters, which made all the difference? And Thailand, which is a lot more interesting location wise. I found it haunting, and weirdly compelling. Some excellent performances from Walter Goggins, Carrie Coon, and Jason Isaccs. It's hyper-realism, make-up muted, people aren't that attractive, the colors are muted. And has realistic dialogue.

2. Also finished Adolescence - the British acclaimed limited drama series currently playing on Netflix. It's only four episodes, each one hour long, and it blew me away. It's hyper-realism, so it's gritty, the lighting tends to be more muted, and the actors look like folks most of us would see on the street, bus, on in the grocery store, which makes it more haunting and painful. It is a biting critique of social media, the educational system, and our society from the British perspective. And I'd say universal - I can see that in the US too. It's probably best to go in blind - and not know all that much about it? Like I did. It's not a procedural. Nor is it a documentary. Not really. But it is compelling, and emotional. With realistic dialogue, and people talking over each other.

Apparently, I'm in the mood for hyper-realism at the moment?

******

EAT: Started watching Untamed (Netflix US) - which is a murder mystery located in Yosemite, National Park, the investigators are a Federal Park Ranger, and State Park Rangers. Stars Eric Bana and Sam Neil.

Still watching Andor S2, The Gilded Age S3, Buffy the Vampire Slayer S3,Outlander S2, and General Hospital, also watching The Great Sewing Bee (on Roku Channel).

After the Late Show got cancelled - I cancelled my subscription to Paramount Plus, although I think I have it until August. So I might check out South Park.

Flirting with:

* Sandman S2 - mainly I'm curious about Pumpkinhead who is voiced by Mark Hamil

* Succession - which I keep trying and flailing. I managed to finally watch the first episode

* The Boys

Edited 2025-07-27 15:51 (UTC)

Ah yes, I heard about that South Park episode. As I recall Paramount just spent a good deal of money extending their contract with the creators so they're probably not going anywhere.

I don't think they can afford to - cancel South Park or The Daily Show. Skydance Media would have to be insane to do so. Skydance Media doesn't have that big of a media presence. I never heard of them - of course I'm not conservative or a video gamer...

Update:

I finished "Untamed" - it's relatively short, like adolescence. Not bad, I enjoyed it. Has multiple mysteries to be solved, everything is wrapped up and explained at the end, and all the character arcs completed in a satisfying manner. Also great scenery. It's a modern Western mystery.

Started watching the Billy Joel Documentary - that will take a while. I think I may watch in snippets over the week. I rather like the music documentaries.

We watched The Residence, which was as fun as everyone said. Not one that will stick with me, but enjoyable.

Also, lots of Bluey, which continues to be adorable. Nearing the end of Fringe season 1 (rewatch).

And in movies, we watched Apple+'s Tetris movie, which was delightful -- funny and dramatic, with corporate back-stabbing and cold war hijinks going on. I enjoyed it tremendously.

In Asian dramas, I'm still watching Nothing But Love (AKA Nothing But You), which is a rewatch and I love it.

Edited 2025-07-27 00:46 (UTC)

I really liked that Tetris one as well.

Okay, this is going to get long. I binge-watched 27 (of 38) eps of Nothing But You (china_shop's rec, see above) in one week. Mostly because when I'm stressed I tend to drop all my shows and instead watch silly romance things that I hadn't planned on watching. But also because this one is just very good! 27 eps, I can't even believe myself. /o\

I love pretty much everything about it!

It's a romance between a professional badminton player who later switches to tennis (Wu Lei - you might know him from Nirvana in Fire, he's grown up now) and a sports company sales person/executive assistant (Zhou Yutong). He's 22, she's 32, and basically the whole obstacle to their relationship is that she thinks he's too young for her. That sustains the tension for a very long time indeed. :D I personally find both of them very cute (and I say that as someone who was indifferent to Wu Lei's looks before).

I love so many things about the show: A) there's not a single 'evil' character on it. Every character has their own valid reasons for doing the things they do. Some of those are callous or misguided, but nowhere near as cliched as I'm used to from other dramas, and overall, most of the characters are just wonderful all around. B) Many of the main characters are women, and I feel like the story is definitely told from a female perspective. The men aren't idiots either, though, which is just fun to watch. C) the sports environment makes for fun training montages and lots of superficial eye candy. (Much better than the firefighters show with Yang Yang I watched last year, because there's no propaganda associated with the sweaty men exercising. Yay.) D) there are quite a few tropes being deconstructed. My fave is the 'rich boy tortures poor girl and then expects her to fall in love with him', and she just tells him that "the quarreling couple may be a common trope in romances, but IRL it just turns people off". Yes! \o/ (I'm sure she'll end up with him anyway, I haven't seen the whole show yet. But I'm just glad she said it!) E) there are definite undercurrents between the main couple of "she said no but I will persist". But luckily, it's not done in an annoying way. He just keeps waiting for her to change her mind, without pushing her. Very much better than in many other cdramas I've seen. F) I love everything to do with the age difference and how it's handled. G) His name! His first name is Sanchuan: 三川 . cdrama characters tend to have meaningful names, but that usually goes over my head. Here, it's so obvious, no knowledge of Chinese needed to see that his name is very simple (and thus unusual and just visually pretty).

The business parts are the usual fare, a lot of talks about money, a lot of ritualized drinking (which I by now have so gotten used to from all Asian dramas that I can ignore it). It helps that I'm interested in the female lead, so it didn't get boring so far. Overall, to me, the drama doesn't have any boring lengths anywhere.

The only thing that bothered me/required some suspension of disbelief is the

aftermath of episode 21

They actually sleep together before really being in a relationship, which is unusual for a cdrama. But that's not the problem I have with it. The problem is that she treats it as shameful and tells him it didn't mean anything, and he still keeps on pursuing her. He stops playing tennis for a bit, but then comes back as if nothing has happened. After her telling him so many times that there is no relationship, and him always coupling his sports success with her acceptance of him, he really should have given up at some point, imho. Their relationship is so tangled up in both his professional sports career and her business career that any disturbance on one corner of the triangle affects both other corners. I couldn't believe he didn't take the (wrong) hint from her continued rejections and just left. Nor that she wouldn't take the (wrong) hint from him refusing to play for her team and tell him something cheesy only to make him come back to play tennis. But maybe that's just me who wouldn't be able to put up with so much rejection. :D In any case, it's a small complaint, and it's indeed my only complaint.

Long story short: I hope the last ten eps will not ruin my entirely unexpected enjoyment of this drama. Fingers crossed. If you want to watch it, it's on viki: https://www.viki.com/tv/39668c-nothing-but-you

Yay, I'm so glad you're enjoying it, too! (Ooh, icon!! <3)

One of my favourite things about older woman/younger guy romances is how supportive and smitten the younger guy usually is. It's such delicious wish fulfillment, and I enjoy it so much, and Song Sanchuan is such a fantastic example of that.

And yes, I really love the lack of truly evil characters. People are complicated!

Hope you enjoy the last ten episodes, too! <3

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