tv_talk | Speak Up Saturday

1. Slow Horses S5 - three episodes in - Apple +. It's hilarious. I've not read the book or books, so not an issue. For those who've not seen or heard of it? It's a British satire about spooks. It's about Slough House - which is where the loser spooks or failed spooks from MI5 are sent, under the guidance of Lamb (Gary Oldman). They somehow, through various mishaps, manage to solve the case while MI5 gets entangled in its own political web.

2. Dancing with the Stars S20 - been watching on Hulu without the commercials. It's a fun reality series. I think it spends a wee bit too much time on interviews and scoring and chatting, and not enough on the dancing. But "reality show" - comes with the territory. The dancing this season is excellent though. I already know who won.

3. Angel S2 Rewatch - it's better than I remembered? I forgot so much of it. I honestly thought the second episode "Are You There or Have You Ever Been" was about the McCarthy Hearings, or more so than it was - but apparently that's just the title - which is a reference to the hearings and nothing about the episode, except it flashes back to the 1950s, and it's about paranoia.
In Angel the Series - we get to see that Angel wasn't exactly hobbling about in the gutter feeling sorry for himself for 80 years prior to meeting Buffy like we're told in Becoming. In reality, he was struggling to stay sober, and every once and a while fell off the wagon metaphorically speaking.
Sometimes he tries to help people, sometimes he just lets them die, kills them himself, or does it as a means to an end, or enables it. It varies. If you like noir horror detective series - you can't do better than Angel, every episode has a twist, and it's pretty clear the characters are all doomed. It was by no means the first or last of its kind, but definitely better than most in the genre.

Buffy S5 rewatch - I'd forgotten some of it, although remember this season better than others. (I rewatched it more). Didn't realize the degree to which the writers foreshadowed Dawn's arrival until now - they mention it in the dream at the end of S3, in Faith's dream in This Year's Girl, and in Buffy's Dream in Restless - so much so - that Buffy actually visits her mother's spare room to see if Dawn is in it, or if it's changed or if it is just a spare room in Restless. Buffy is also restless post that episode. She's hunting more at night during the summer months - and doesn't pick up on it as odd - until Dracula points it out to her. The Dracula episode is most likely when the monks did the spell and created Dawn. So Dawn was planned. My guess is Whedon had a rough outline of the first five years of the series, then some ideas for the next two years - if it lasted, but was thinking it would probably just be five years.

4. Looking forward to - the Emma Thompson mystery series on Apple + and The Dry flick. Also the latest Kate Bigelow film, on Netflix. And Stranger Things - Final Season.

I've got Apple+ now, and we've also started the latest Slow Horses season. Just an incredibly entertaining show. Looking forward to trying out the Emma Thompson one.

I just re-upped Apple+ Tv! My plan was for a Slow Horses marathon on Thanksgiving, but I ended up watching the first episode of Ted Lasso S3 instead.

I kind of liked Severance S1 so will definitely watch S2, but I still haven't figured out how the whole thing actually benefits the bad guys beyond "they're evil."

It's our third Apple viewing this year, though the second one was due to a free week they were having where we marathoned the (at the time) latest Horses season. We only plan to do a month this time, as we expect to finish Slow Horses by Monday, and I have about 4 other shows to see the new seasons of.

I'd been saving Slow Horses for Thanksgiving, so marathoned it. It's shorter than Ted Lasso and Severance, only 6 episodes per season.

It takes a little while to get into - but it's really entertaining once I did. Also far too short. By the time I get into it, it's over. Next season looks really good.

Sorry dropped a tag on the bold, can't fix it now.

I started watching Peter Jackson's restoration of 1995's The Beatles Anthology and it's marvelous. If you're a Beatles fan, I can't recommend it enough. I've been feeling a bit miserable all week, but watching the first three episodes just lifted my spirits so much. It's impossible to not feel happy inside while watching/hearing the Beatles -- particularly the cheeky early 1960s versions. I never saw the series when it aired in 1995, so I can't compare this one to the original version, but I will say that the visuals -- old film footage of them performing, being interviewed, etc. is, with few exceptions, crystal clear, and the audio -- wow! I mean, their old concert footage which I've seen in the past, sometimes you could barely hear the actual music over all the audience screaming, but that's not the case here. The music just pops. The original series had 8 episodes, but Jackson's added a new 9th episode.

I also, this morning, checked out the first two episodes of a new Canadian sports romance television series, Heated Rivalry streaming on Crave (Canada) and on HBO. It's based on a series of books I'd never heard of about, but kept seeing promos for it during Black Friday ads for Crave. It follows the burgeoning romance between hockey rivals Shane Hollander and Ilya Rozanov. The internet is all abuzz over how steamy the sex scenes are. I guess they are -- I'm not the target audience. I think Outlander had/has hotter scenes, but I'm rather indifferent to sex scenes anyway -- am fine with them being more implied than graphic. It was more the premise of gay hockey players that caught my attention because it's such a stupidly macho sport -- not a single NHL player has ever come out as gay.

Otherwise, it was this week's episodes of Shetland, Traitors Canada, Murder in a Small Town (which I keep thinking I'll stop watching, but at this point, I may as well finish off this season), Brilliant Minds, Curse of Oak Island, Graham Norton Show, and... I think that's it? I still haven't made any further progress with a couple of series I'd previously started -- and have only 2-3 eps left to watch. Really need to get those out of the way.

There's nothing on the horizon that I'm looking forward to until Fallout season 2 arrives on December 17. So plenty of time to finally finish my half-watched series...

I believe I saw the original Beatles anthology (there's so much Beatles stuff and it's been so long I can't be sure), but I've put it in my watchlist because I'm curious about the new episode.

I've not heard of the books either, but there's so much hockey RPS fanfic that it may well have begun that way. I've read some hockey AUs from other fandoms -- I tend to like sports AUs of other fandoms, even though I see almost no sports myself.

Mostly been rewatching bits of Bar Rescue and Kitchen Nightmares as this has been kind of a bad week for me aside from Thanksgiving. All the movies I'm super excited for aren't even gonna be out until either December or February next year, auuuugh. And nothing on Netflix is really calling to me right now. If only I had cable... then maybe I could catch Brilliant Minds...

Looks like that's the new NBC series? I'm curious to hear what others have thought of it. Looks like Apple is partnering with Peacock to do a bundle. I've got too much to see right now but might consider it next year if it's a long-term association.

the new NBC series

Not that new -- it's season 2. Loosely (very loosely) based on Oliver Sacks. It's OK. I mean, it's a network show, but it's one of the better ones. Doesn't treat the viewers as total morons.

Ah, maybe I was confusing it with something else.

I discovered that via Hulu I can get the latest week of current Jeopardy, but it doesn't go back farther than that. So that's a big plus for the exercise slog!

Got a month of Apple so we could do some catch up over the holiday. We started the latest seasons of Loot and Slow Horses. I've also gone through most of the latest Morning Show. This season is probably the most painful to watch, in that it seems every character is going through a moral dilemma between friendships or keeping promises, and ambition, or even just keeping what they've got. Chock full of plot to be sure.

Also watched the finale of Dancing With the Stars which was quite a strong set of performances and one more episode of Gilded Age.

Besides that, watched the Fantastic 4 and The Roses films (which I wrote about) and am most of the way through Mustafa which is ok, but then I also didn't care for the live action Lion King.

Back from my vacation and the only show I'm caught up on is Ghosts which only had one new episode. I really liked the episode though, it was cute ;)

I have continued watching Stranger Things. Right now, I'm on episode 5 of season 2. During the first few episodes it seemed like nothing really happened or rather that it could have been a lot more condensed. The pacing of this show is weird. It is obviously made to be binge-watched (duh). I'm watching the show with my mother, so we do one episode per day (even fewer once I'm back at work), and that seems slow.
Also, thanks to the replies on my previous comment, I think I now understand the 80s setting a lot better ;)

Twisted Metal was renewed with a new showrunner. I still think making a well-planned third season its final one would a good idea.

I need to finish Talamasca and catch up on Watson to finally get to S3 of The Diplomat and S2 of A Man on the Inside. I'm happy that Fallout will only be one episode per week.

I agree that the pacing of a "season drop" show may well very from that of one who has to keep people coming back weekly. I was caught up on Ghosts a few weeks ago so I'm not sure if I still am.

Yeah, Stranger Things would not work as a weekly show. Nearly ten years for five seasons is bad enough. Starting the show now that it's nearly over was a good idea.

There was no new episode due to Thanksgiving. There are going to be two (Christmas?) episodes on December 18 and then nothing until February. I guess that's one downside of having a weekly show. At least it's only a couple of months between seasons.

We've cancelled Apple+, so we're tearing through things there before the subscription runs out:

Down Cemetary Road -- this is really good (very violent and tense). Has some humour to it, and of course the cast is excellent.

Prehistoric Planet -- dinosaur nature doco with David Attenborough narrating. I love how they replicate some of the standard nature documentary photography tropes.

Pluribus -- we're three or four episodes in, and it's interestingly morally complex, and also weird and creepy. It feels like the lovechild of Severance and Mrs. Davis, maybe?

Still watching The Cleaner, a bit more of The Newsreader, Fringe season 2 with my sister, and The Lowdown with a friend.

In Kdramas, we're still going on Typhoon Family, which isn't quite living up to its promise but only has two episodes to go. Watching Family by Choice with a friend, and I started Knight Flower (a historical drama about a widow who leads a double life as a masked vigilante) on my own.

I love how they replicate some of the standard nature documentary photography tropes.

Yes, this was a clever approach. Plus the animation is often quite good. We're on S3 right now where they've switched to Hiddleston, but I find him a good replacement. I quite liked his work on the night nature doc series Apple has.

Plus the animation is often quite good.

Yes! My partner is an animator, and he's very appreciative of the quality of animation work on it. Glad to hear Hiddleston makes a satisfactory replacement narrator. (I can't remember if we watched the night nature doco series or not. I'll have to check. :-)

Pluribus -- we're three or four episodes in, and it's interestingly morally complex, and also weird and creepy. It feels like the lovechild of Severance and Mrs. Davis, maybe?

I've read a few pieces online tying it into the Covid pandemic/living with Long Covid. Couple of examples:

https://www.thegauntlet.news/p/pluribus-captures-the-isolation-of

https://www.theringer.com/2025/11/07/tv/pluribus-review-vince-gilligan-eddington-ari-aster-covid-pandemic

Oh, that makes sense, especially [thing I can't say because spoilers]. Thanks for the links! :-)

Great articles. I wasn't planning to watch but the breakdown in that first one makes total sense. It really is like the most bizarre mass delusion, especially when you look at other articles like that June one about long Covid in children.

The second one also addresses Eddington, which I watched 15 minutes of before noping out of it. I am not up for grim reality at this point.

I watched another episode of A Moment But Forever (still kinda cute), and then, in a fit of curiosity, wanted to check if Liu Xueyi is different in modern than period dramas, and started

Love at Night, a modern drama on viki with Liu Xueyi and Zhang Yuxi as his FL. I really liked her acting. His is... well. His mannerisms are pretty natural? The same thing I liked about him in AMBF as well. But the story OMG the story is so bad. I was delighted to see an actress (Zhao Yuanyuan) from When A Snail Falls in Love as the 2FL, and in true cdrama fashion she looks not a day older than she did in 2016. I am still watching this (now on ep 11 of 30) and still finding it preposterous. But my brain is gone (I blame work), so silly things are all I can watch right now.

I watched one more ep of The Long Ballad (40/49), and really really loved it. They've confirmed their love for each other. Okay, I ranted very much at the screen for them not giving us a kiss (when they had no problems letting the fricking 3rd couple kiss in close-up and slomo, ugh). I suspect Wu Lei's contract was to blame, nothing else makes sense. There haven't been any scenes at all of the second couple in a while, they'll probably hog some of the remaining ep screentime. I'll find out soon, but I'm going through it extremely slowly now because I don't want it to end.

In another attempt to do *anything* Wu Lei-related, I am now trying to read Jian Lai, variously translated as Unsheathed, Sword of Coming, and The One. Wu Lei just started filming the cdrama adaptation: shooting will take five months, and the drama likely won't be released until 2027. The novel is very wuxia cultivation-heavy, a paragon of the genre, and very much not my thing. :D I made it up to chapter 50 so far, and am trying to at least finish the first book (84 chapters), which just barely sets up the story of 1500 chapters and counting. You can read a (good!) English translation here: https://www.wuxiaworld.com/novel/unsheathed/

Aaaand I just finished the first ep of Heated Rivalry, and really like it so far. Interesting characters, good acting, some sex scenes. I hope I can manage to stick with it, considering the no brain situation.

I just read an article yesterday about Heated Rivalry because there's a lot of excitement about ~~hockey RPF~~ an adapted slash story as a series. We still have Max so I plan to check it out.

I haven't found any good articles about how unusual/exciting it is - do you happen to have a link?

Because it's high time someone noticed that there's a market for it! People (including me) have been flocking to Asian BL for years, but they don't usually give me what I want.

I would love for this to become a trend (although my hopes aren't all that high in the current situation).

Took me a minute to recall how I came across it, but here it is: https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-features/heated-rivalry-social-media-popularity-crave-hbo-max-1236432001/

I think every example feeds into more. For example, Royal Red, White and Blue did very well for Amazon and likely made people pay attention.

OOoh thank you! That's a really good article!

I think every example feeds into more.

I hope so! I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

SO psyched for Heated Rivalry! (I'm watching on HBO Max)

Edited 2025-12-01 00:12 (UTC)

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