tv_talk | Speak Up Saturday

I binged The Traitors Ireland this week, watching the finale episode this morning, in fact. It was fun, and follows my fave format -- all normal people rather a mix of normal and "celebs" or, the worse -- all "celebs". Siobhan McSweeney, of Pottery Throw Down fame, was the, er, host? The Irish Claudia Winkleman, anyway.

The only other new show I started was The Lowdown (FX in Canada), starring Ethan Hawke. Only the first two eps this week, but it's a good romp.

There were also this week's season finale of Alien: Earth, and the penultimate episode of Outlander: Blood of my Blood. US network show Brilliant Minds returned, as did the new season of Murder in a Small Town, so I saw that, along with this week's eps of High Potential and The Great British Bake Off. I made no progress in watching The Clearing or Dexter: Resurrection.

I HAD been looking forward to Apple TV+'s The Savant, which was supposed to start last week, but then Apple decided the show's subject matter (fighting right-wing domestic terrorism) was a bit too risky given the shitshow happening in the US, so they've "postponed" it. A new series of the BBC's Blue Lights starts this week, so I am looking forward to that. I think a new season of All Creatures Great and Small has also started in the UK. Always nice to have a comfort blanket-type of show in these times.

Saw more of the Jennings Jeopardy run, and tried out Match Game, Weakest Link and Who Wants to Be a Millionaire. I saw a few episodes of the latter with Regis Philbin back in the day, but now that I'm looking for game shows to exercise to, decided to try it again and quite liked the first episode (no doubt being promoted because of Jimmy Kimmel hosting). He did a good job though, and Drew Carey and Aisha Tyler were such a great team! Will watch more.

Unfortunately Match Game should have been great given its panel and Martin Short as a host, but I barely finished it. The repetitiveness of the questions dragged, the delays by the panel dragged, the contestants weren't terribly clever, and even Short was not particularly funny. Not my cuppa.

I might watch more of Weakest Link given there's only a few episodes available. I saw the first two, the Glee reunion (which proved that Chord Overstreet was one of their brightest and another actor didn't have enough brains to fill a walnut) and one with TV moms where one of the better contestants got voted out at the end because it was about less competition rather than more. I just forwarded through all the elimination aspects and watched the questions.

Caught up to S28 of Silent Witness, but given I won't get to see past episode 1 before we cancel, I figure I'll wait for next time. Also caught up on all of Sister Boniface, same issue.

Watched Ep 2 of Dancing With the Stars. Tried out one episode of Bliss and noped out before it even finished. Started Mind Games and Cruel Love. Will try to finish Cruel Love by Monday.

Also saw the latest Superman movie, which I liked.

Thanks to whoever posted about it last week, we've started The Newsreader (Australian, stars Anna Torv) set in a TV newsroom in 1986. It's great so far -- Torv's character has a lot of emotional range, and the other lead is also interestingly complex. (TW: depression, anxiety.)

Also, we watched one episode of Skeleton Crew, which is just as The Goonies-ish as I've heard, and also very American-seeming for a space show. We'll give it another episode and see. More of Prehistoric Planet, which is really good. Just lovely animation and creature work. And more Bluey -- how is this little kids' show so consistently excellent?? We're ploughing through season 3, and then there'll be none left. Oh no!

On top of that, a ton of Kdramas:

A bit more My Youth, but I suspect I've drifted off, due to lack of romantic or dramatic tension.

Now I've started A Hundred Memories, set in the 1980s, about female bus attendants. This instantly grabbed me. Lovely energy. So I guess that's what I'm solo-watching.

More Low Life (Disney+) with Andrew and our friend. It's like a slow trainwreck, with everyone trying to scam everyone else. A lot of macho posturing, too, but we're enjoying it. (I'm so interested that there are all these shows set in the 1970s and 1980s atm. Life under authoritarianism, eh?)

More of Mystic Pop-Up Bar, a contemporary fantasy with fun afterlife cosmology. Wow, this show doesn't hesitate to tackle the heavy topics! And then it immediately gets incredibly goofy. (Kdramas are not afraid of tonal whiplash.)

And then my partner and I started Bon Appétit, Your Majesty (Netflix), about a time-travelling chef. It's a huge hit atm, and it really is delightful! I thought the male lead being a tyrant would be an impediment to my enjoyment, but there's no romance so far, so that's okay. Just lots of enjoyable food porn.

Thanks to whoever posted about it last week, we've started The Newsreader

*waves* Me! Me! That was me!! Glad you're enjoying it!

Ah, that's right! Thanks again! :D

The other lead, Sam Reid, is Lestate on Interview with a Vampire (on AMC and Netflix). And the older anchor - Geoff, is played by Robert Taylor (who was the lead in Longmire - Netflix). It has three solid leads on that series - I started watching it too.

I also think the revisiting of the 70s/80s is life without technology. No smartphones/watches, old computers, no lap-tops, no social media.

Edited 2025-09-28 14:12 (UTC)

I also think the revisiting of the 70s/80s is life without technology. No smartphones/watches, old computers, no lap-tops, no social media.

I was thinking specifically of all the Korean 70s/80s period dramas, where society is very different in other ways, too (politically, socioeconomically, etc). But yeah, the absence of cellphones, especially, changes how narratives play out.

A bit more My Youth, but I suspect I've drifted off, due to lack of romantic or dramatic tension.

Oh noes, that does not bode well. I only just started it today. I still love the ML from ages ago and thought I'd enjoy watching him in something romantic for a change. Lets see if it'll work for me.

Bon Appétit, Your Majesty

Ooh this has come out? Cool! I saw the trailer ages ago and wanted to watch it, I guess that'll go on the list immediately, too.

I'd love to hear what you think of My Youth. I'm open to watching more, because yeah, Song Joong-ki! But it wasn't gripping me. (I may just not have given it enough of a chance.)

Binging Newsreader on Prime (because S1 is going to leave in 4 days). It stars some major Australian Television actors: Anna Torv (Fringe), Sam Reid (Interview with a Vampire - Lestate), and Robert Taylor (Longmire - Walt). First episode is rather slow, but it takes off after about the second episode. It's about a hustling Melbourne, Australia Broadcast News Station in the mid-1980s, specifically 1986. Starts with the Challenger disaster, and goes through the Lindsey (Dingo Ate My Baby), the Comet, Terrorism, and the AIDS crisis in Australia (along with homphobia) in the 1980s. (I remember that - the homophobia in the 80s associated with the AIDS crisis was horrible in the US and around the world.)

It's well done - very 1980s. If I didn't know better - I'd think it was filmed and made in the 1980s.
Watching things about the 1990s and 80s is very odd - because I remember that period clearly as if it were yesterday. And so, I forget it's a long time ago. Also, I forget how different everything was before the tech wave - smart phones, MP3 players, DVDs, Streaming, lap tops, and basically being able to travel with just about anything.

Different time. I was lucky to experience a world without social media, tech, smart phones etc. Sometimes I miss it. It was...quieter? Less noisy. Less stressful. Less busy. But not as convenient, and often more boring? Things don't really get better or worse

***

Also started re-watching Angel the Series - and got surprised by a few things. Apparently, Whedon and Greenwalt wrote the first episode, and Whedon directed it. Also they both wrote in the PTB, but with the view that Doyle wasn't really clear it was the PTB and just assumed it was - sending him the visions. And Tim Minear was a producer and writer at the beginning. But the executive producers who held the rights? Sandy Gallin, Gail Berman, and the Kuzuis, not Whedon and not Greenwalt. Which basically means that neither Whedon nor Greenwalt have any say on what they do with Angel going forward, nor get paid any royalties. Interesting. I wasn't sure about that.

The first episode is actually pretty good, and there's some good bits in the second. But I can tell they are still struggling to figure out the show - the writers aren't really good at stealth anthology/episodic format. They want to tell layered character stories and you simply cannot do that with the stealth anthology/episodic format. It's impossible. It can only be done with serial method. There's simply not enough time in a 6-22 episode - stealth anthology, 43 minutes, television series to tell a layered story that character centric. You spend too much time setting up the case of the week or problem of the week, the guest stars/non-recurring characters. So only get snippets of the main characters - who for the most part are window dressing for the meat of the story.

The other problem with making Angel - episodic (which is what the network and studio wanted at the time - it was the late 1990s early 00s, and at that time - they wanted just that format) - is it is hard to make it new and distinctive from the 100 other series that are basically the same format.
It's also taxing on the writers. It's actually easier to write a long-form serial that is character centric then a long-form stealth anthology that is centered on different forty-three minute stories each week. Imagine coming up with 22 - forty-three minute short stories, featuring three lead characters - that are about a different monster. I'd be burnt by episode 6. Short stories are harder to write than people realize. Rod Sterling - the master, got burned out after writing 10 Twilight Zone stories...back to back. Also it's been done so many times and for about 70 years, it's kind of hard to come up with something new or a new twist that will surprise an audience. (We had Alfred Hitchock Presents, Twilight Zone, Kojack the Night Stalker, Brimstone, The Profiler, Outer Limits, Night Gallery, Playhouse 90, The Kraft Theater, Have Gun will Travel, Gunsmoke, Star Trek, STNG, Voyager, Space 1999, Amazing Stories, Nightmare Cafe, Friday the 13th, Star-Gate...) So, I can see why they began to move away from that format as did Buffy by around the second season. They'd cater to the network - yes, yes, we'll do the episodic show, then straight to supernatural serial, then go back to episodic show - then straight to episodic.

Why did the network want the episodic? Because the network doesn't care if it is innovative - they just want something to bring in viewers and sell ad space. And episodic series are very popular with most viewers - specifically the mainstream viewers - aka the ones who are in the majority, buy the stuff in the ads, and are Neilsen (back then we didn't have streaming - or DVR's and Neilsen ratings still mattered.) Networks love episodic/stealth anthology series - they are cheaper to make, they don't have to pay the actors all that much, or that many actors, and if an actor drops out, it's easy enough to replace them. Actors don't need to work that hard. Also, you can switch out the writing staff periodically. Easy and cheap. Plus the viewers don't need to watch all the episodes and can drop in whenever. And they series can last forever, without having to work that hard to replace it.

Both Buffy and Angel attempted to be stealth anthology/episodic, and drifted away from it pretty quickly.

***

Also watching Great British Bake Off - which is dropping slowly on Netflix. Netflix is giving me a headache. This has got to be the worst streaming channel. I can't rewind. I can't stop. I can't jump out of it. It freezes. I'd say it was my internet or cable setup - except I don't have this problem on Hulu, Disney +, or Prime. Just Netflix.

Finished Wednesday S2 Part 2 - on Netflix. It's set up for a 3rd season - but I don't know if we'll get it - since it dropped in viewers. And Netflix is fickle and cancels things if their viewers drop. It has no loyalty. (Proof that yes, things get cancelled - without warning or closure - on streaming. See Netflix as an example. It cancels all the time, as does Disney, Max, Hulu, and Amazon (who cancelled Wheel of Time before it was finished). And there's horribly long waits between seasons. Which is why I often wait until all have dropped before watching.

Newsreader by the way - has three seasons, only two are on Prime, and one is leaving after 4 days. Ugh. Streaming has NOT made television more reliable or easier, just different. Worse - we can't really discuss it any longer (even within our own little locale - say NYC or even a little broader such as the US) - because everyone has access to different streaming systems.

Anyhow Wednesday Part 2, while in some respects more entertaining than part 1, also fails in some of the same ways - style over substance. And too many character threads. I kind of lost Enid, and as a result wasn't as emotionally invested in the character. The actress did however surprise me by how well she portrayed Wednesday, during a body swap episode. Also Jenny Ortega handled Enid well. I like Charlize Theron better as Morticia than Catherine Zeta Jones, and the father should be more of a swashbuckler than he's played. I miss the film version. Other than that - it was entertaining, Part I was more compelling than Part II however.

Hit pause on the Alien:Earth viewing - it's getting a bit too gross and too into body horror for my viewing sensibilities. I don't like body horror and parasites. So I just can't continue. Also, I'm not thrilled with the characters. That said? Timothy Oliphant (who was in Justified and Dead Wood) is unrecognizable as Kirsch, in this series. Honestly I didn't know it was him - I just kept thinking he looked familiar, then I saw the credits, and thought who is Oliphant playing? I don't see him? Looked it up and ...just whoa. Kudos. He's a much better actor than I gave him credit for. With quite a bit of range. Also is apparently related to Anderson Cooper and Gloria Vanderbuilt. Who knew?

Newsreader by the way - has three seasons, only two are on Prime, and one is leaving after 4 days.

The third series is recent -- aired in Australia in the spring of this year, so maybe just takes a bit more time before it ends up on a streaming service for viewers outside of AUS.

Ah. Thanks.

I wish Amazon Prime would keep the first season around, and just add the third. But alas, no. It doesn't make sense to me that the first season is leaving, but they are keeping the second? Maybe it's leaving too...but wouldn't they say that?

Oh well, it won't matter soon. I have one episode to go in the first season. I don't like how the streaming does this though? Interview with a Vampire has the first two seasons available on Netflix, the third may or may not appear on it. I've been waiting to watch until most of the seasons drop - also I'm admittedly more interested in the third season which focuses on Lestate.

Prime likely has the rights for a specified amount of time. Series one came out in 2021, series two in 2023, and as I said earlier, the 3rd this year. So if series 1 is coming off, maybe Prime only had the rights for 2-3 years (not knowing when it first showed up on Prime)? So series 2 might be similar -- could be around for another year or so maybe? Obviously, I'm not an expert on international TV distribution deals, so who knows, but it's the likeliest explanation, IMO.

It only has the rights to S1 Newsreader, apparently, and a short time, while AMC has longer rights and to both S1 and S2. Reminds me of MAX with Interview with the Vampire. Netflix used to have a similar situation but has managed to get long distribution rights.

ETA: thanks for the rec, though. The first season works well on its own, and was very good.

Edited 2025-09-28 23:05 (UTC)

Thank you for going into detail about the difference between episodic and character-centric tv shows. I only vaguely knew about that, and not from the production pov. That was very informative!

I watched:
Alice in Borderland S3E1-3: I'm still on the fence.

Black Doves E1-4: Way better than I expected!

Only Murders in the Building S4E1: Not a huge fan of the Mafia setup.

Taskmaster UK S20E3: Love this season's cast!

Wayward E1-8: I really wish I were more impressed, but this show seems severely undercooked. Mae Martin's character is "just a guy" I don't particularly care about, and even Toni Collette cannot save the cliché villain she's playing. I have now finished the show. I found the ending more intriguing than the journey to reach it.

Edit: I also watched two episodes of Call My Agent Berlin. I'm afraid I prefer the French original.

Edited 2025-09-28 15:17 (UTC)

I caught up on Only Murders in the Building. I still really like this show. It's funny, especially Steve Martin and Martin Short do a great job. However, I can see that it's not on the level of the earlier seasons anymore. Sometimes the mystery, and even the podcast aspect, seems like an afterthought.

I also watched the German show Oktoberfest 1905 which is actually the second season of Oktoberfest 1900. The first season came out in 2020, so I remembered very little of it and their 1 minute recap didn't help. I also didn't want to re-watch the first season. When I posted about it five years ago, all I did was compare it to Hell on Wheels lol
The second season barely has a connection to the Oktoberfest anymore. While S1 took place before and during the event, S2 is pretty much just money, politics, violence, sex, betrayal, the usual. It felt very generic in a way.

I watched a couple of episodes of Casualty 1906 (also called London Hospital) about, well, an ER in 1906. I watched it on a free channel but apparently there are two seasons, both on Apple+ which I'm going to sign up for in a few days. so I'll watch the rest there. I find it fascinating, but fake blood has the same plurality of the budget that fetish leatherwear does for Blakes7, so beware. So far, the beautiful young nurse has been proposed to by a handsome doctor, and told him to get lost, she would rather take a promotion to Ward Sister than marry him. You go, girl!

Also waiting for Apple to finish watching The Mirror and the Light, an inadvertently prescient show about how little good it does you to enable an insane autocrat. What you might call Strictly Comey Dancing.

I continued binging (i.e. fast-forwarding through) Love Like The Galaxy, and do not regret it. The writing is terrible, the character motivations are all superficial, but luckily the emperor ships the main ship so they get saved from various political intrigues over and over. Yeah... the middle part was nicely romantic, and the last ten or so episodes were one long cry-fest with a few more assassination attempts thrown in. It served my purpose, in that it had lots of nice long shots of Wu Lei's face. Sometimes he got to kiss the FL, sometimes he got to smile, sometimes he got to cry, and in one notable scene both at once.

The final (*sob*) episode of HPI aired, and I liked it. Last week's ep was better, tbh, but as a last ep it wasn't bad. It leaves me with a good feeling at the end of the show.

When we tried watching more Phineas and Ferb eps, I realized that the numbering was completely off and I was missing three eps. *sigh* I hope I have them all now so we can go through them as intended. They are nicely self-referencing, that's their whole deal, so watching them in order is kind of important.

HPI has been cancelled? That seems a shame as it appears popular.

The one I'm watching is the French original.

They'd been talking about how long they wanted it to run for over a year now. (And by They I mean the cast. It always seemed in interviews that they had a say in this.) They agreed that the fifth season would be the last one, and they stuck to the plan. It was hugely popular indeed.

Edited 2025-09-29 17:05 (UTC)

Speak Up Saturday

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