tv_talk | Speak Up Saturday

OK, so it turns out that the new Star Trek: Starfleet Academy might not be as bad as the trailers and some reviews led me to believe it might be? It premiered this week with two episodes. I really enjoyed the pilot episode. Granted, I went in with really low expectations, so it wouldn't have taken that much to exceed them, but it was still a really enjoyable episode. I'd posit it might even be the strongest pilot episode of any Trek series to date. The second episode was less action-packed, more focused on the students settling in at the Academy, but it didn't veer into Beverly Hills 90210 territory. Not yet anyway. So I will continue watching to see how things develop.

The only other new show I watched was a 3-part cold case -- really, really cold case program from the BBC: Lucy Worsley's Victorian Murder Club, in which historian Worsley hunts for the Victorian serial killer responsible for the “Thames torso murders”.

Other than that, it was new episodes of weekly shows, including High Potential, Will Trent, Portrait Artist of the Year, The Pitt, etc.

The only thing I'm really looking forward to this week are the concluding episodes of The Traitors UK, although that will also make me sad, because then it will be over.

I saw the interview with Paul Giamatti on Colbert this week. Was amused by how he'd always wanted to play a Klingon and now he could. A Klingon/Tellarite though, that is extra alright.

Some of the usual -- Jeopardy, Daily Show, Colbert, and more of the Dark Side of the 90s, with an hour on The Spice Girls (really interesting formative story I hadn't heard about) and the development of tabloid TV (amazing how much of our current state of affairs we can blame Rupert Murdoch for).

Watched S5 E6 of Stranger Things, but weirdly when we tried to go onto episode 7 we just had 2 episodes labeled Ep 8 and they were both the same. Might have been a temporary glitch. We instead watched KPop Demon Hunters which I liked, and I can see why it has become very popular. However I think they really missed the boat in not including a Couch song.

Also watched Knives Out 3, which I found better than the first 2 but still not great on the mystery front. All of them suffer from having the obvious person be the murderer, and for the obvious reason. The setup for this one was more interesting because it seems most likely to have an unreliable narrator, lending some doubt. There's also the question of character histories which is a bit more complex. My favorite character however was Jeffrey Wright's. Would love to have him back in some way!

Watched all of Zero Hour which I liked and burned right through. Am also going through A Perfect Couple quickly, will likely finish it by Tuesday.

Finished 11/22/63, which I found a waste of time. It had an interesting setup, which was not just the time travel but the idea that history does not want to be reset. But as with all time travel stories, the traveler always has an easy time adapting to the past, and no one finds them particularly odd in the small ways. It also had what I'd call side stories but they never amounted to much. Instead the series was never one thing, but kept veering around in terms of what would go wrong, and what the best solution would be. So by the time the bodies started mounting up it became clear that there was not going to be a satisfying ending to the story.

By contrast I found the ending to Umbrella Academy a good one. I thought it had a slow start but it picked uo. I thought it was interesting that 5 finally got a romantic storyline, though maybe some of that is that the actor was finally old enough for one!

Saw S2 of Night Agent, and it was ok. I watched it on background just to see where it was going. I remembered enough of S1 to know that I had seen it, but I can't say if one is better than the other.

Started the latest season of Bridgerton, but that'll likely be a slow view. Also watched another episode of Maigret.

I absolutely agree about Jeffrey Wright's characters! I wish he had a bigger role. His delivery was perfection

Funny, I just finished that episode of Stranger Things.

It was! Boy do I relate to his "What an interesting time to be living in" line.

I watched (without much of an opinion): Boom Boom Bruno E1, Idol I E5, Love Through A Prism E1, and Spring Fever E3.

Shows I have an opinion about:
Can This Love Be Translate E1-7: So far, I have binged 7 episodes. Not sure I like the latest cliffhanger, but maybe it will make sense? In some aspects, the show reminds me of It’s Okay to Not Be Okay, but I'm still trying to figure out if I appreciate the parallels or not. (Apart from that, I have thoroughly enjoyed the ride!)

True Blood E1+2: I've never been big on vampires, so I never checked this one out back in the day. First surprise: Vampires are a part of society. Second surprise: Sookie can read other people's thoughts? After two episodes, I'm still intrigued, but I'm also waiting for ASkars to appear finally.

On my to-watch list:
- The Copenhagen Test
- Ponies
- The Seduction
- Undercover Miss Hong

Edited 2026-01-17 20:43 (UTC)

I'm looking forward to your comments on True Blood going forward! I only watched it once, because it got too messy for my taste. I wrote a paper on it though that allowed me to go to a student conference and I got a credit for a whole course for it.

I've just started Can This Love Be Translated? and am enjoying it a lot so far. high fives (Hee, I still remember Kum Sun-ho as geeky/dorky supporting cast in Good Manager -- so glad he's made it to the big leagues. :-) (I didn't get more than half an episode into It's Okay to Not Be Okay.)

I have only two episodes of Stranger Things left. The writing in is S5 is definitely weaker. There are some small things, like the jump scares. It was always a show with horror elements, but it never went for cheap scares. The last two episodes, there were a couple of jump scares that felt out of place. Then there is one scene that kinda bothers me. Earlier in the season it is established that Vecna can stop Max from fleeing his prison even when she can already see the exit in this red wasteland. In episode 6, Max and Holly take all the time in the world standing around having a (yes, very important) conversation which probably should not have happened right there. Even when she was stuck between rocks would have been a better time for this conversation.

Last week I caught up on Fallout. It took us four episodes to get to Vegas, I really hope we'll see more of it.
The season is good, I suppose, but there are things that I'm just not interested in, mainly the Brotherhood story line and I just want whatever Norm is doing to get to the point.

I have also finally started watching the season season of A Man on the Inside, currently halfway through the season. I was wary of starting it, because I haven't heard anything positive about it. So far the season feels weaker. The first season had so much heart and emotion which the second one lacks. There are also trying really hard to fit in joke after joke which is kinda exhausting. The first season might have been less funny, but worked better.
I'm never a huge fan of casting spouses in major roles. When Mary Steenburgen was in the final episode of The Good Place it was cute, but here it feels like Ted Danson and his wife are paid to spend time together. I get that this is probably just my problem.

Interesting to hear about Man on the Inside as I loved Good Place and was going to try this out soon. We aren't likely to finish it this month anyway so it sounds like it won't matter if we don't get to S2.

Finished The Guest, which continued in all the best horror traditions.

Started The Pitt season 2 (*hearts the ensemble*), started Younger (light, mid-2010s comedy about a 40yo pretending to be 26 to get an entry-level job; shades of Amy Sherman-Palladino, though afaik she wasn't involved; very white cast), rewatched some Bluey, watched a bit more of While You Were Sleeping (I love this show so much), and started Can This Love Be Translated? (which I'm enjoying a lot so far).

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