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.

Interesting! If I may ask: What was the topic of your paper? I had a course on gender and race in Twilight back in the day, haha! :D

How the vampires in True Blood are a stand-in for the LGBTQ+ community and it being set in the south. I wrote it after Ted Cruz was mentioned on the show and then tweeted about 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'm really curious about how much you'll like it after a certain point!

Agreed re: Kim Seon-ho. I'm glad that he overcame his controversy and can star as a leading man in new dramas. Dimples for days. :)

I'm a little apprehensive now, hee! I'll see how I go.

There was controversy? I didn't know! *rootles around on Wikipedia* Ugh, when there's stuff like that, I always wonder if the retraction is coerce or bought. :-/ Hopefully there was nothing to it.

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.

I love S1 and it has a complete story line! I actually thought it was a mini-series at first. You could easily just watch the first season.

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).

Finished the first season of The Night Manager which I'd never seen. The friend I was watching with warned me off of the second season though. I might watch it anyway, but that bumped it down the list.

Restarted (towards the end of the first season) Will Trent I'd stopped watching because I balked at the amount of police corruption everyone was okay with. But another friend said it gets resolved later on so I'm giving it another shot. I like the main character and of course the star is Betty the Chihuahua.

I'm kind of bouncing around now watching the first ten minutes or so of a bunch of shows which seem fine, but don't grab me. What I'm really looking for is a few seasons of a comedy I haven't seen. I need a murder/spy/drama break.

Edited 2026-01-18 12:37 (UTC)

I know what you mean. When we last had Britbox my partner asked if there was anything we could watch that wasn't a mystery or procedural. Comedies are hard too because they can be hit or miss for the viewer depending on their taste.

nothing non-Chinese for me this week.

On a rec from

c_ent, I started the Cross-Dressed Union last week, and I've barely watched anything else, oops. :D It's a costume drama about a man who's disguised as a woman who has to marry a woman disguised as a man. It's a new enough take on an old idea that I found it intriguing. By now I'm on ep 9 and adore both leads. They seem to be smitten with each other, and I just enjoy the way they smile at each other. So cute. (I skip all the politics otoh. I suspect this will bite me later when the leads get sucked into the politics, but right now I don't care. :D)

I watched one (or two?) more eps of The Company, now mid-ep 4, and I enjoyed those a bit more than the first two which seemed a bit repetitive and formulaic. At least now the leads are starting to show some personality. Or maybe I just liked the case-of-the-week with the mirror. I'm more motivated to continue it now than I was before, so that's good. (Except the Cross-Dressed Union was even more motivating. :D)

Edited 2026-01-18 15:08 (UTC)

Just copying & pasting what I typed up for my journal. Links lead you to gifspams/picspams on tumblr, just FYI.

Starfleet Academy - watched the first two episodes of it tonight and I enjoyed it. It was a little weird, 'cause it was a different set up than I was expecting (I did not watch any trailers going into it, nor any news articles other than the fact that Tig Notaro and the Doctor from Voyager would be in it - so I didn't actually really expect anything).

Anyway, the Doctor is great and I cannot wait for more with him, so is Tig's character. yay for Brit Marling (aka OA from The OA) as the Computer!! I thought I recognized that voice. I think I like Nahla Ake (aka Holly Hunter), she's a bit weird but... not bad? Not quite sure how to put it. I think I love all the cadets that are part of the "main cast".... but I doubt my dad would enjoy the show? I think he just barely enjoyed Strange New Worlds or Discovery but you never know - he at least watched them. It just would suck 'cause he's like my only RL person that likes Star Trek stuff. He's difficult to read though, even if you ask him point out what you thought of it (it's usually "it's fine" or something along those lines).

In which I think Heated Rivalry may have influenced me a bit, since I did not expect to come out of the first episode of Starfleet Academy and be shipping Caleb/Darem really hard (it started with "Bow wow" and finished with that ending to that scene - seriously THAT BITE LIP). They have real enemies-ROOMMATES-lovers type slow burn vibe even though I know canonically it'll probably be different (they are already putting Caleb with either Tarima and/or Genesis, I think Darem is trying with Genesis) I think they're my main ship for the fandom so far (I want that scene where they find out they are roommates gif-ed so badly). I kinda like Caleb/Tarima, Caleb/Genesis, and Darem/Genesis but right now all I can seem to focus on is Caleb & Darem. Hopefully we get more characters to enjoy as well! :)

The Hunting Party - Season 2 started airing, and I'm enjoying it so far, I really loved Season 1 so I was excited to see it return. I just did a rewatch it (first season is only 10 episodes so it's a semi-quick rewatch) - still love it! It stars Melissa Roxburgh (from Manifest and Tracker) as Bex Henderson, Nick Wechsler (aka Kyle Valenti from Roswell) as Oliver Odell, Josh McKenzie (from La Brea) as Shane Florence, Patrick Sabongui (David Singh from the Arrowverse) as Ryan Hassani and Sara Garcia (apparently also from The Flash) as Jennifer Morales.

They really push for the Bex/Oliver angle, but I absolutely adore the Bex/Shane moments more. Also, I'm not sure if I liked it before but with this rewatch, I am also shipping Bex/Jennifer, Shane/Jennifer, Bex/Shane/Jennifer, and I even like Bex/Ryan (although at first I wasn't sure because in my head he was married, I completely forgot about the episode 10 reveal).

The fandom for the show is super small but hopefully it grows more. I definitely recommend it if you enjoyed the Blacklist or Fringe (although it doesn't go scifi) or Mindhunter or other procedural type shows.

Animal Control - came to Netflix and it made me realize I missed a whole season (season 3), so I did a rewatch of the series and am currently up to date. I laughed out loud a lot with this show and I really enjoyed it. If anyone likes animals and enjoyed Community, I'd say you'd like this. This is also a small fandom? Not a lot of fanworks (gifs or fics that I could find). I did come out of this rewatch shipping a completely different ship

- Frank/Emily - their partnership was awesome. Also I miss Dolores from Season 1, while I do love Bettany - I was hoping for more Dolores/Frank scenes (even if they weren't romantic). If I remember correctly I did at first like Emily/Shred (and maybe Frank/Victoria? Idr), but now I'm kinda meh on those ships.

Stumble - NBC's newest show that reminds me a lot of early Glee (and weirdly Pitch Perfect). It's sitcom show filmed mock-documentary style for the most part I guess like the Office but it's about the cheer coach and her cheerleaders. Jenn Lyon (Esther Finch from Dead Boy Detectives) portrays the coach, Courteney and I absolutely love her (definitely on my favorite characters). Kristin Chenoweth is Tammy, former assistant coach to Courteney and even though her storyline is predictable - I like her. I think my favorite cheerleaders on the team are Peaches and Madonna though. But the whole team is great. Definitely check it out if you like sitcoms, although like Animal Control might not be for everyone. Again super small fandom.

DMV - enjoying this sitcom a lot and I am appreciating that it is not a mock-documentary type show - while I like Stumble, I do not enjoy that concept of a sitcom. Now this show reminds me of Parks & Rec, so I recommend it if you enjoyed that show or Community. Did I expect to like this show? No, but I'm glad I gave it a try.

Fallout - THE LATEST EPISODE MAN. So many feelings. Did I expect what happened would happen? Duh. It's not that huge of a surprise but the WAY it was shot was. Beautiful.

Doc - these last few episodes are so emotional, and I did not really expect to see where it took them.

EPISODE 11 of S2 guys! THAT ENDING. I did not expect that... ugh, it's heartbreaking. I am sad that Jake wasn't in the latest episode, but the cast is already big, so it was fine, plus I am definitely enjoying the Sonya/TJ scenes. Depending on how long they are going with the current storyline with Hannah, the next episode (or more) will probably keep being super emotional.

High Potential - I really liked this episode, and I enjoyed the Morgan/Karadec scenes of course.

I'm also happy they answered the Ludo/Morgan relationship (also Taran Killam aka Ludo is in Stumble as Courteney's husband so like that's fun!). I still have mixed feelings on the new captain (Steve Howey aka Van from Reba), I definitely hope they don't go with a romance between him and Morgan (while their chemistry isn't bad, it just feels off to me - maybe that's just 'cause I really like her with Karadec or maybe it's because I still haven't decided if I like him or not).

Speak Up Saturday

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject