tv_talk | Speak Up Saturday

Started watching the final season of Outlander (Starz), first ep dropped on Friday. Apparently they've filmed three different endings, so even the cast isn't entirely sure how it will end. At least, that's what they're all saying in interviews.

Also started season 3 of The Night Agent (Netflix), but have only watched the first 4 eps.

The third season of Law and Order Toronto: Criminal Intent started, so fun to have that back.

Checked out a new US network series with ties to the FBI series -- this one's called CIA. Still undecided. Stars the dude who played Lucifer in Lucifer and I find him annoying, so...

I watched the Prime documentary Paul McCartney: Man on the Run, which covers Paul's post-Beatles career, but only up until 1980, and the murder of John Lennon. Not sure why it ends there -- McCartney has lots of career after that. Maybe because John's death put an end to the hope/speculation that the Beatles might reunite, even if only for a one-off charity gig? The Beatles (and John) certainly loom large over everything Paul set out to do, anyway.

Otherwise it was weekly stuff (Allegiance, Curse of Oak Island, FBI, Will Trent, Starfleet Academy, The Pitt) and sports (curling, baseball, tennis).

Quite a few potentially interesting series coming up/or have started: DTF St Louis has gotten good reviews. There's also the 3rd series of The Capture. The Rooster looks like it might be fun. I'm also going to check out Scarpetta starring Nicole Kidman and based on the book series by Patricia Cornwell. I've read some of the Scarpetta novels, but certainly not all of them and it was ages ago.

I tucked CIA into my watchlist out of curiosity, so I'll be interested to see what people think of it.

Maybe they'll do a Pt 2 re: McCartney? For me it would be more interesting to know about the post-John years because he had less of a musical impact in that period. Would want to know how he dealt with that when, on the one hand he had been so musically famous that pretty much anything he did would sell, to where he was more legend than present artist.

I notice this trend is common in musical bios. Of course in some cases they end with the artist's death. But for Elton John, for example, I would really have liked to know more about his post-80s life.

I've never read Cornwell but am also interested in seeing what might come of that series. Seems a strange casting choice though -- how old is Scarpetta supposed to be?

Back to Hulu. Disney+ and Paramount now. Started Starfleet Academy and though only 2 episodes in am rather liking it. A bonus, I'm sure, is that placing the show at Starfleet Academy makes it possible for all sorts of shoutouts to other shows and events.

Also tried out Bookish on PBS. Not sure I'll stick with it. It seemed to have all the elements of a good story but was just dull somehow, despite its cast.

Also tried out The Gold, which is apparently a Paramount+/BBC production which is, surprisingly, not on Paramount. At least there, "fuck" wouldn't be censored. It seems promising.

I've watched a documentary on the Lilith Fair. I was aware of it but really out of the music scene (and a lot of things, see below) in the 90s. I wonder if girls today would find it so shocking to see the misogyny in the industry given that some of today's biggest musical acts are women, and a job in music doesn't seem at all out of reach.

I also am caught up on the JFKJr/Carolyn Bessette story. I almost quit it an episode in because it seemed cheesy and I was not interested in the lifestyles in it. However I think they took a wise tack of making Carolyn particularly unknowable. Kind of a "feature not a bug" element, since I'm sure it was particularly difficult to know much about her. But I think it comes from reading a thriller genre into the story, where one expects a reveal or twist. I still keep thinking the show's going to surface a manifesto on who she was.

Also watched several episodes of Paradise, and have some thoughts about that which I hope to write about a bit this week.

By contrast, saw the Muppet Show (special? Apparently a one-off?) and found it a delight. Disney has definitely struggled in finding a way to utilize the Muppets and two shows have now failed. I'm glad they tried to do something different, but maybe these days a return to the past would be particularly welcome (and surely there's still a lot of appeal for kids).

Also tried out Bookish on PBS. Not sure I'll stick with it. It seemed to have all the elements of a good story but was just dull somehow, despite its cast.

Yeah, we watched the whole season and enjoyed it well enough, but it never really coheres. The backstory is poignant, though, once you get to it.

We might still get to it at some point, but it depends on what else grabs us in the meantime.

We have one more extra to go on the extended edition of Return of the King and then we're done. Thinking of watching the theatrical releases of The Hobbit movies next, but we'll see.

The Pitt continues to be highly engaging. A couple of episodes of Dinosaur, a UK sitcom that someone mentioned here last week, about two sisters; I really liked it. Planning to watch more of that, but then we got distracted by the fact that one of our streaming services has just acquired Cheers. We randomly took a look at the first few episodes -- which have aged surprisingly well. So we'll probably keep going with it for a while.

In Kdramas, I finished One Spring Night and then accidentally started again from the beginning and am now up to episode 6 again. (Has anyone else here seen it?) I'm sure at some point I'll emerge from this Jung Hae In fever dream and start something different.

My friend and I finished Family By Choice and are starting Love Scout next week (another rewatch for me, and one I'm very looking forward to).

I totally understand. Once we lose momentum on a show, it can be pretty hard to get back to; it's always easier to remember the flaws than the bits that appealed to me.

Watson is back from its break and it was ridiculous but entertaining as always. Apparently the ratings aren't too great, so it might get canceled. I still enjoy it, but it's just not a good show.

I mainly finished His & Hers last week. It was a good miniseries. Nothing groundbreaking, but a satisfying watch. I never completely loved the characters, but I liked them a tad more by the end.

spoiler for the ending

I didn't see that final twist coming. I was totally on board with the explanation of "the girl who was bullied did it. She also killed her sister." The fact that it turned out to be Alice who wanted revenge for her daughter makes sense though. However, faking dementia as an alibi and now totally committing to it seems a bit far-fetched. I feel like a nurse living with the patient would notice it.

I also watched The Rip last week (and how often can you say "rip" in one movie!?). The twist in that movie was not subtle and I saw it coming from a mile away which usually doesn't happen.

It's interesting what you said about Cheers and aging well. I never used to watch Cheers, but I think comedies run a bigger risk over time than dramas do. Some things about humor remain universal but the subjects can become delicate.

Regarding His & Hers what I couldn't get past was

spoiler

that the mother happening to have the timing to pull off some of the murders was hard to buy, but what I thought was really ridiculous was that Tessa Thompson's character should have just gotten in the car with her cameraman when she was STANDING BY HER CAR. Any normal person would have just driven their own car to someone's remote cabin and followed him, but no, she had to be trapped there with no transportation or cell service.

how old is Scarpetta supposed to be?

She was around 40 when the Scarpetta novels started. From what I've read, the TV series starts with her returning to her original post of Chief Medical Examiner of Virginia. The novels start with her in that post, which she resigns from in the 11th novel, and then resumes the position in the 13th novel after a brief (one novel) stint working in Florida. I don't know how old she's supposed to be in that 13th novel, but the first novel appeared in 1990, and the 13th in 2004, so either way, she's not super young. Kidman's 58, so I don't think her age is an issue.

Yeah, I was worried there'd be continual sexual harassment. Maybe that does develop over time, in which case we'll stop watching, but so far Diane holds her own, and Sam isn't toxic. (I'd forgotten he was three years sober at the start.) There was one gag about a man upset that his son's new partner was Black, which made us tense up a bit, but it resolved better than we feared.

Boyfriend on Demand: The first episode was a bit meh, but the second one already started better.

DTF St. Louis: First half of the episode was boring, then it got intriguing for a bit, only to get boring again. Spoilery explanation below.

Two guys want to cheat on their wives. Boring! Then Guy 1 dies, and a police investigation ensues. Intriguing! Guy 2 is a suspect, and we learn that he had an affair with Guy 1's wife. Guy 1 knew. Boring again! (It doesn't help that David Harbour, who's playing Guy 1, is currently living out his own cheating scandal. YMMV, of course!)

Kacken an der Havel (Crap Happens): Finally an interesting German comedy! The only thing I actively dislike is the son's storyline.

Sharp Objects: After 3,5 episodes, I'm still barely interested in the story.

Vladimir: The first episode was better than expected (disclaimer: I expected very little). Rachel Weisz is charming and beautiful as hell, but I'm not sure if she's enough for me to watch/finish this.

Movies:
Crash (1996): Loved it!
Ehrengard: The Art of Seduction: Based on the title, I expected a bit more seduction.
The Reflecting Skin: Beautifully shot, but all in all, I didn't care for it.

Edited 2026-03-07 21:31 (UTC)

Oh man, I started His & Hers and it...felt like a book more than it did a show, if that makes sense. I kept waiting for a stronger inner life for each character that never felt like it happened.

I've been an awful TV watcher (read: keep starting shows and not finishing them).

Finished: Karen Pirie S2. Not sure if S2 was as strong as S1, but still really loved it, and Karen/Lauren Lyle was as great as ever. Helen walked in Prime Suspect so Lauren could run!

Started and have yet to finish (oof): Adolescence, Blossoms Shanghai (not sure I will continue, it's essentially Wong Kar Wai shooting a soap opera...so it's gorgeous, but...a soap opera), The Diplomat, and Slow Horses. This is starting to become a bad habit. I also want to finish Lower Decks or pick up a different ST show since that's emotional comfort food at the mo. Pray for me, lol

I look forward to seeing Pirie the next time we have Britbox.

Also tried out Bookish on PBS. Not sure I'll stick with it. It seemed to have all the elements of a good story but was just dull somehow, despite its cast.

My family likes the intro, but we were kinda Eh on the season.

Contains spoilers.

On the one hand, it fits with other PBS murder solving shows in that each case only took up two episodes at a time [while watching live; streaming might combine them], so it's not like we felt it got too convoluted by juggling too many cases that were all solved in the end. On the other hand, the interaction between Mr Book, Mrs Book, and Jack between the cases was more okay than actively drawing us into the 'what is The Secret here' plotline. (Mr Book is written as a bit of an eccentric secondhand book seller, so we were expecting a certain amount of 'Mr Book will dramatically reveal his niche knowledge to solve the case at the end'.) Mr Book and Mrs Book are in an open lavender marriage, and I feel like I ought to like the element of what we see with companionship (Mr Book reading to Mrs Book in bed) and the separate bedrooms as a queerplatonic element.

However, the reveal was personally underwhelming. Jack seemed to have really grown attached to his assumption that Mrs Book might have been his mother awfully quickly, but also, he seemed to be written as the weird one who showed a glimmer of 1940s era homophobia that Mr Book and Jack's biological father were lovers. I know Jack wasn't getting the same info as the audience, but it just seemed like a moment where the Books had a 'what a shame that some people are so small-minded' reaction as an appeal to modern viewers instead of carefully broaching the subject before the big reveal so they wouldn't have been so shocked at how Jack reacted. Was Mr Book worried that Jack might tell someone? Eh, not the point, we jumped forward a few weeks, and Jack never said anything while stuck in the 'I just don't understand' stage.

Also tried out The Gold [...]. It seems promising.

My family gave it a try because The Gold was on after something else we were already watching on PBS that night. Some of my family was technically alive for the initial Brink's-Mat robbery and ensuing trials (without paying much attention to it), but we were all mostly entertained without knowing much about the actual trials to lead us in certain directions. In some ways, it felt like a large neon sign called 1980s UK Classism 😬.

Yes, I could see that about The Gold even from the first episode.

It seems my "eh" about Bookish is not out of step.

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