tv_talk | Speak Up Saturday

I always seem to be first to reply of late...

This week, I watched Linley, a new an adaptation of the Inspector Lynley novel series by Elizabeth George (there was an earlier series in the early 2000s). It's about a mismatched (as usual) crime solving duo team-up - an aristocratic police detective and sergeant from a working class background. The first series is only 4 episodes, but each is 90 minutes long.

I also started another series, this one from New Zealand, called A Remarkable Place to Die. It too consists of 4 90-min episodes. This one is about a detective who returns to her home town, and has to deal with ghosts of the past and what is looking like a major cover-up.

Special treat this week: The Celebrity Traitors started in the UK and I am anxiously awaiting ep 2.

Other than that, it was mostly baseball, and the weekly episodes of Brilliant Minds, High Potential, Murder in a Small Town, and Bake Off. And the season finale of Outlander: Blood of my Blood. I ended up greatly enjoying this spin-off series, and am looking forward to season 2 (it was renewed for a second season before the first even started airing).

I have a bunch of series that I've started watching but haven't made any progress on, so I should maybe try to finish off a couple of those this weekend, as it's a long weekend (Thanksgiving). Or at least decide if I want to bother finishing them.

Season 3 of The Diplomat drops on Thursday this week, so looking forward to that, but mostly looking forward to -- and simultaneously dreading - so stressful! -- more baseball play-off action.

What did you think of Lynley?

I finished the fourth season of The Dog House, which threw me during its last season episode with a memorial to a man in the episode with Alzheimers who died in 2021. I was sure, given the periodic Christmas episodes, that this was the 2024 season.

I got even more confused when I looked up the episodes on Wikipedia. There are 2 seasons listed for 2024 and it seems like episode order and number got changed up for the HBO run with some episodes not shown. But it also appears that this family's segment never got aired during its actual filming year and was instead delayed until 2024. My best guess is that it coincided with the Covid lockdowns, because they said on the show that he had entered the hospital just a few months after they adopted the dog and then apparently died. Perhaps because of the situation the show decided not to air the segment until well after the event?

Also realized that I had not seen the last 2 seasons of Hacks and binged those.

Also watched Juror #2, an HBO production. Had an interesting story idea and it was told well enough. Definitely a morality tale revolving around what the definition of justice is.

Continued watching Dancing With the Stars, resumed watching High Potential, and am trying out Cold Case and Full Circle.

I tried out various DC animated series (2 Justice Leagues, 2 Batmans) and just found them too juvenile viewing for me.

I enjoyed it. I mean, I watched four 90-min episodes in a matter days -- pretty amazing for me. I rarely watch films because I have trouble committing to anything longer than 60-min (and even that's a struggle sometimes). I've never seen the original or read any of the books, and I've seen comments online from people who have done one or the other (or both) and they are far more critical of the show. Sometimes it's nice to not have that sort of baggage! I found it nice to have a show where neither cop has "super powers" -- highly gifted/on the spectrum/other gimmick, etc. They're just really, really good at their job. Each episode is a self-contained mystery, and they're well-scripted, IMO. I never once guessed who done it 20-minutes into the show.

The mismatch between the two partners leans on gender, race and class, but that fades once the two recognize how good the other is at their job. There's background tension with the DCI who's known Lynley since their days together at the Met and has it out for him, and I found that bit the most annoying thing about the show. He's played by Daniel Mays, who I generally like in other things he's been in, but I don't think it was ever made clear what his issue with Lynley is? Or else I missed it if they did.

But yeah, overall, I really liked it and will definitely watch a second series if there is one.

Thanks for the take! Yeah, I'm hampered by both books and previous series, but I thought the first ep was remarkable for the way it took advantage of the beauty of the landscape and utilized its setting. I think more shows are doing this (certainly Death in Paradise did it for ages) but I think that it helps set the shows apart.

Certainly in their wrap up of Vera there was a lot of discussion of how its regional setting was an important element of the show.

I started watching S2 of Gen V, but only the first three episodes. It's still violent and kinda disgusting, just like The Boys. Although, I feel like the writers just need to watch the news now and make it fit their universe, the need to exaggerate is nearly gone...

No idea why I haven't managed to watch all four episodes of Marvel Zombies by now, but I at least watched the first two. I'm not a comic reader, but I really love the What If...? concept. A whole mini-series set in one of the universes is a nice addition. They obviously focused on their more recent/current main characters here, like Kamala, Riri, and Yelena, but I don't mind. I love seeing these team-ups that haven't happened (yet).

The most recent episode of Only Murders in the Building was probably my favorite this season. They actually worked on the case and it was funny. I kinda lost it whenever the kid appeared.

The third season of The Diplomat will be released next week, but I don't think I'll get around to it right away since I'm away for work and tend to catch up first before starting something new. Ghosts and Watson are also starting up again.

Oh I hadn't heard of Marvel Zombies. Will have to take a look.

We finished season 1 of The Newsreader, which continues to be great. We're enjoying all the 1980s news stories that come up, too.

Finished Bon Apetit, Your Majesty, which was a lot of fun as a cracky cooking show, but didn't work at all for me as a romance. The King was just so very bad at his job. ;-p My partner was disappointed at the characters' total lack of curiosity about how the time travel worked and its wider implications, heh.

Still watching: Low Life (another Kdrama, set in the 1970s), with lots of scam-artists and opportunists conning each other; BBC Connections (1979) with James Burke; Mystic Pop-Up Bar; Bluey; You and Everything Else, very slowly -- I think I'm still on episode 1; and A Hundred Memories, also slowly.

PBS has a Maigret series that is set in the present day. He is a young, lean, ruggedly handsome go-getter. I found it kind of silly. I'm watching because I like one of the supporting players. Otoh, PBS has another show,period piece, British, about a gold heist "The Gold" which has Hugh Bonneville that I'm enjoying.

Oh I think I have Maigret in a watchlist somewhere but haven't gotten to it. I'll keep an eye out for The Gold.

Bonneville gets so much work!

It's a continuation of the S1 What If...? Zombie episode, taking place a couple of years later. I like it so far :)

I continued A Moment But Forever and it bored me a bit in the middle there (eps 8-13), but now the ML is slowly starting to a) clue in to the FL's actual identity (she's a goddess but is forbidden from telling him) and b) fall for her, so it's getting a bit more interesting again. The humor has devolved into more ridiculousness, but it's still okay so far. I'm on ep 16 (of 36) now. I'm not really confident I'll stick it out until the end.

I started Glass Heart on Netflix, the Japanese "drummer girl joins a band" thing which friends have recced to me as nice romance and found family. So far I think it's nice, the FL is interesting, and the music is great, and there's lots of rain with beautiful imagery, and a genius composer who I'm not quite sure about whether I like him or not yet. I've only seen a little over half an ep (of 10). I'm too stressed (back at work after my vacation) to have a long attention span :( but I'll definitely try to continue that show.

Plus a movie: Deep Cover - a British comedy about a group of improv comedians going undercover for the police. It's very absurd, and I loved it. A little dark in places - the film plays it off as funny but I imagine it must be pretty traumatic for the characters. It stars Orlando Bloom and Sean Bean (half of lotr right there) and Nick Mohammed (from Ted Lasso). It's a rec. I also liked the blues guitar soundtrack.

Finished Bon Apetit, Your Majesty, which was a lot of fun as a cracky cooking show, but didn't work at all for me as a romance.

I still havent started that, but I think this is enough of an endorsement for me to try it.

(I mentioned dropping My Youth in last week's post in case you didn't see that.)

Deep Cover definitely sounds like an intriguing concept!

(I saw that, thanks. ♥ I was tossing up whether to ask you for more details about what hadn't worked for you, but I decided to remain unspoiled and see for myself when I get back to it, if I ever do. (Probably not at this stage, tbh -- there's so much to watch!!))

Mainly movies this weekend.

* Steve -character piece or movie based on a play on Netflix with Cillian Murphy and Tracy Ulman, about a Irish headmaster for a school of troubled boys, that is shutting down.

* Hostiles - Prime with Christian Bale and Rosamund Pike and Wes Studi (also a young Timothee Chamolmete (who dies early on), Jesse Plemmons, and Jonathon Majors. It's about an army captain taking a bunch of Cherokee prisoners back to their homeland. Intense, uplifting, violent, with lots of excellent cinematography. I was surprised by how good it was.

* Call the Midwife, the season premiere of Grey's where they killed off yet another character that I liked but they had no idea what to do with, 911 - Nashville (it's a bit on the soapy side...), and continuing with my...Buffy and Angel rewatch

- Buffy S4 (Bye Oz, welcome Spike and Riley). Tara doesn't show up until I think Hush. Not sure yet.
I won't miss Oz, and I'm considering thanking Seth Green for taking off - or we'd have had to suffer through a whole season of OZ and Veruca. One episode was enough. (She's in three - but the first two appearances barely register). I'm really enjoying S4 - far more, actually, than seasons 1-3. I don't know if this is an age thing? Or a me thing? I thinking maybe both? I don't know?

Angel S1 - doesn't hold up as well. It's spotty. So far I've only liked three out of six episodes, Rm with a View, In the Dark, and City of. I skipped one of them. Buffy is kind of winning in the rewatch. Although, admittedly, Buffy S1 had some cringe-inducing/skippable episodes. It could just be the writers require about twenty-thirty episodes to get their footing? Good thing this was the 1990s early 00s and they started on WB and not streaming.

I've read most of the Inspector Lynley books, and the whole point of the damn thing is that Lynley is aristocratic (literally, he's an Earl), rich, handsome, and elegant.

Barbara Havers is white, working class, not young, and although a very good detective is such a slob that she would be sent out for a wardrobe makeover if she were sent to Slough House. (If I could plot worth a damn I would definitely be writing that crossover.) Havers is the kind of person who at any given time owns two pairs of trousers. One has split in the crotch and the other one is covered with cat hair and the hem is stuck up with scotch tape.

So of COURSE the TV show casts a young, beautiful, and elegant Black British actor to play Havers.

I wouldn't recommend it to everybody, but I've started a new Nice Person Competition Show, the Big Painting Challenge. I saw the first season on Kanopy, now watching the second (of four) on DailyMotion. They have ten amateur painters (some of them very amateur indeed) and six episodes per season. In S2 they added a new feature, where they have two coaches who watch the painters at work and make suggestions. As somebody who draws, albeit badly, every day, I am there for the struggles of people who paint.

Just finished that now -- thanks for the rec! It was well done, and was a good story for Kamala. I liked seeing all the characters tying into it (though I have to say I was startled to see at the end that Paul Rudd did his own voice because the character was not only an afterthought but was the one that looked least like his live action counterpart.

Shaun and Katy were great, I'm glad we got to spend so much time with them.

That sounds like a great idea for a show!

In the second season they added a new twist: the paintings are shown to members of the public, or people who have a connection to the subject they painted, and the members of the public vote for their favorite painting. Whoever painted that one can't be sent home that episode. There was one painter whom the judges obviously loathed but she won the public vote two weeks in a row so they had to keep her.

Good idea then!

I've also finished it by now. I like that they focused on a different set of characters, like Shang-Chi, Katy, and Kamala.

It's been a while since I watched the original zombie episode, so I can't remember what happened to their characters, but Tom Hiddleston and Sebastian Stan also seemed to have fun with voicing their characters. It's probably the same for Paul Rudd. Just happy to be there lol

This is the first time I'm hearing anything about Deep Cover. I've seen the banners on Amazon, but nobody talked about it online. I might check it out.

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