tv_talk | Speak Up Saturday

I missed the past two weeks of these posts -- just too tired to write anything. So let's see if I can remember what I've managed to watch in that time...

Watched and finished:

Blackshore: an Irish police procedural featuring the "troubled detective returns to home town/scene of their traumatic past" trope, but still fairly well done and I enjoyed it. Somewhere it was described as better than Line of Duty. It is not, but still good.

Girl Taken: This one was really good. It follows the story of twin sisters Lily and Abby, whose lives are shattered when Lily is abducted from their quiet rural English town. Alfie Allen ("Theon" in Game of Thrones) stars and is incredible. It's an adaptation of a novel that I've not read, Baby Doll by Hollie Overton.

Steal: starring Sophie Turner ("Sansa Stark" from Game of Thones), who plays office worker, Zara, who finds herself at the heart of a heist; a typical work day at a pension fund investment company is upended when a gang of violent thieves burst in and force Zara and her best mate Luke to execute their demands. It's on Prime, and loads of fun -- quite twisty.

After the Flood: series 2 of this show that premiered in 2024. It picks up a year after the events of season 1. While it's a new murder mystery (obviously -- can't kill the same guy twice!), most of the subplots arise from the revelations of series 1. So you do have to have seen the first series to fully get the 2nd.

Started watching:

The new series of Silent Witness. Maybe series 29? I've lost count.
The reboot of Mock the Week, which the BBC axed 3 years ago, but TLC (a UK network, not the TLC we know in North America) has revived, and it's an hour long now (well, 45 minutes because TLC has ads).
Under Salt Marsh, a gorgeous Welsh crime drama about the murder of a young boy.

Continued watching: The usual weekly stuff, although the Olympics has interrupted that schedule in some cases. The people behind Star Trek: Starfleet Academy need to sue whoever made the trailer for that series because it did it ZERO justice. It's so much better than I thought it would be. Still not up there with Strange New Worlds for me -- my fave bits of the show are usually those between the adults, not the students -- but still very worth watching. And also the Olympics, and tennis, and this weekend, FA Cup matches.

Looking forward to: A new season of Dark Winds starts this week, as does series 3 of The Night Agent.

I am making a note of Girl Taken. I saw After the Flood and it seemed that there wouldn't be another season so I'll make note of that as well.

I have Dark Winds in my Netflix watchlist -- I think we saw the first 2 seasons, but I don't know that we'll have time for one more before month's end since I'm watching that with my partner. Hopefully yes and it seems we'll have catchup to do.

I watched:
The Leftovers: Currently in the middle of the second season. I never really knew what this show was about, and I am glad that I went in blind. A great watch that gets more intriguing with each episode!

Movies:
Infinity Pool: I liked it. A great juxtaposition re: ASkars's performance in Pillion, which I watched on the same day.
Pillion: A wonderful performance by Harry Melling. I recommend it.
Wuthering Heights: Nice to look at, but considering all the racy promo, I found it pretty tame.

Late Show seems to be on break so just saw The Daily Show, Jeopardy and a few episodes of The 1%.

Also began S4 of Bridgerton and finished S3 of The Diplomat. They know how to do cliffhangers! Looking forward to S4.

Another episode or 2 of Man on the inside and am on the latest season of Great British Baking Show now.

Finished Sandokan: The Pirate Prince. Not sure if there will be more but I would watch. Saw all of Hostage, which was a limited series. It was ok. I did like that there were two female leaders of England and France.
Also saw another limited series, His and Hers, which was a fairly good mystery. The resolution only made sense if you suspended disbelief -- part of it depended on people making weird decisions.

Also finished another limited series, The Leopard. Am always interested in historical fiction. Not sure I'm really up for feeling sorry for dispossessed aristocrats, but it was interesting to see the wheel of history turn in Sicily.

Saw all of Kaos. It's cancelled anyway but I thought it was a more interesting concept than an enjoyable watch. Still, given where it ended I'm sorry there won't be another season.

Am almost finished with S1 of Marcella. Am liking it so far. A lot of different strands, still waiting to see where some come together. It must have done well as there are 5 seasons available.

The Diplomat might be my favorite Netflix show. Yes, they do cliffhangers very well, but I really hope it'll get a proper ending one day.

I loved Kaos. Mainly the world-building. It reminded me of Kings which was also canceled too soon.

Someone recommended Bodies on Netflix for after Andor ended for more Kyle Soller. I watched episodes 1-4 last week and I really like it. Weirdly enough, I'm mostly interested in the 1890 and 2023 segments. Everything set in the future isn't really my cup of tea, although I suspect it'll become even more important later on.

I'm also re-watching Lockwood & Co. with my mother at the moment. I loved the show/season the first time around. Too bad it's another Netflix show that was canceled after one season.

Edited 2026-02-14 21:15 (UTC)

Still watching The Pitt and SurrealEstate (slowly). A couple of episodes of Star Trek: Starfleet Academy, but I don't think it's for us.

Dancing the Invisible, a documentary about Jill Bilcock, an Australian film editor who's worked with Baz Luhrmann and many others; fascinating, full of close creative friendships and competence porn.

And last night we started a rewatch of The Lord of the Rings -- we're about halfway through Fellowship. It's been a long time, and it's interesting seeing it with relatively fresh eyes. Love the soundtrack.

In Kdramas, I've drifted away from Beyond the Bar, dabbled in a few things, and finally picked up One Spring Night again. The cast is fantastic, but I'd prefer something more... upbeat? So I'd welcome Kdrama recs, especially silly or swoony romances. (This is my only-two-months-out-of-date Kdrama list, on the off-chance anyone's curious.)

That's a good comparison. I think Kaos had more dark humor whereas Kings was more straightforward a modernization. But there is definitely overlap there.

The Leftovers was a show I wanted to like but the first season was just so unwatchable for me. I know it gets a lot better in subsequent seasons, and I've tried and tried to get through the first so I can (hopefully) actually enjoy the rest of it, but I just can't. Maybe I should just read a summary of season 1 and move straight into watching season 2...

You might like Spring Fever! I currently find it hard to stick with K-dramas, but the first couple of episodes were cute.

Oh cool -- thanks! :-)

I did this with Supernatural (because it had so many jump scares in s1 that I could not watch it for the life of me. It got much less horror-focused later.), and had a good time of it from season 2 to season 10. :D

I thought I would have much more time to watch things, because I had a few days off work this week. But apparently my energy levels were so low from the last five weeks of work nonsense that I slept much more than I usually do, and at least half of that during the day. So... barely any watching was accomplished.

In particular, we did not get around to another episode of Bridgerton. :/ Hopefully today.

In cdrama: I watched five episodes of the Cross-Dressed Union (now on 22/24, almost done), and two more episodes of Our Times (5/36). I still just find Wu Lei and Hou Minghao in (ugly!) period dress and hairstyle very very adorable. The bromance vibes are through the roof. (I now have an active icon for it. That escalated fast. :D)

Edited (forgot the bolding) 2026-02-15 11:42 (UTC)

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