Current TV Boxset Addiction

[Rately]

Rewatch of The Shield.

Can remember being absolutely blown away by the pilot when it originally aired on Channel 5, and the subsequent frustration of the stop-start airing by Channel 5. Was a brilliant series, though, and can't wait to watch it in one sustained burst.

Cletus Van Damme, be damned!

[Professor Bear]

Crossbones - short-lived attempt to do a mainstream version of Black Sails, but without the tits, swearing, gore, or basically any of the juvenile trappings that people really tune into cable shows for.  John Malkovich portrays the scheming Blackbeard as he builds a secret nation of pirates in the Caribbean while the town's new doctor secretly plots Blackbeard's undoing on behalf of The King.  Lots of double-crosses and backstabbing ensue, with Malkovich clearly being told not to play things as panto but deciding from the off that he knows better - and who am I to argue with scenery-chewing of this caliber?
Only 9 episodes long, I recall the first couple of episodes suffering for their similarities to the aforementioned Black Sails, but once it goes its own way, it's an entertainingly daft romp.

Also the second season of Chuck Lorre's Mom, in which Hollywood continues its bizarre inability to come to terms with poverty in modern America as the show follows the inherently rotten scum-of-the-Earth poor people who scam their way through debt, illegitimate children, teenage pregnancies and addiction - basically, the things that don't happen to the rich people in Lorre's other sitcom works like Big Bang Theory, although it's intriguing to see the stark difference between how situations resolve across different works from the same creative mind: a teenage pregnancy, for instance, in Two and Half Men is resolved when the middle class mother can't bear to be parted from her new child and decides not to give it up for adoption, but in Mom, the same story resolves with the poor kid deciding that she can never be good enough for the child and giving it up to a rich couple to raise better than she could.
More sociologically fascinating than funny, but then that's Chuck Lorre for you.

[Theblazeuk]

Finally getting around to Legend of Korra, which I bounced off several times. Korra never wins me over like Aang & co did and the set-up is inherently less dramatic than Fire Nation war - but Republic City's jazz age, elemental steampunk world is beautiful. The fights are wonderful once more and the characters have grown on me in time, and now that the first (and only originally planned) series has wound up I'm hungry for more. Great weekend material and I hope kids get something of its calibre again soon, as I'd put Avatar up with Batman TAS (and the general DCAU) as the classics of all-ages animation.

Aqua Teen Hunger Force Season 1.

Number one in the hood, G. (definitely not all ages)

[Mardroid]

I've been watching the third series of Bates' Motel on Netflix.

It's really interesting, gripping stuff. I liked the first two series and this one didn't disappoint. Yet, anyway.

[Tiplodocus]

Just consumed three seasons of LUTHER.

Why had I missed this magnificent piece of batshit bonkers telly before.  He gives collateral damage a bad name!

Oh and finally finished HOUSE.  I right enjoyed that pretty much all the way through to it's  happy-as-you-are-gonna-get ending. 

The formula and DDX team was shaken up often enough to keep it interesting.  Park in the last season was hilarious; especially watching her friendship with Chase develop. (Not often you see a genuine friendship develop on telly, normally people are presented as best buds even though you think "what? why?"). 

I do wonder what (off screen) contractual obligations kept Cuddy from attending the memorial service though.

[radiator]

On a Ken Burns binge at the moment.

Just watched his miniseries on Prohibition (I'm realising that I'm kind of fascinated by 1920s New York - what a time and place to be alive...) and am slowly working my way through The National Parks: America's Best Idea. I visited Yosemite last year and am taking a trip to Yellowstone this summer. I had no idea about the history behind the parks, or how much of a struggle it was to establish protect them.

Wonderful, wonderful stuff. Burns is kind of America's David Attenborough, isn't he? A national treasure.

[Hawkmumbler]

Finally getting around to Legend of Korra, which I bounced off several times. Korra never wins me over like Aang & co did and the set-up is inherently less dramatic than Fire Nation war - but Republic City's jazz age, elemental steampunk world is beautiful. The fights are wonderful once more and the characters have grown on me in time, and now that the first (and only originally planned) series has wound up I'm hungry for more. Great weekend material and I hope kids get something of its calibre again soon, as I'd put Avatar up with Batman TAS (and the general DCAU) as the classics of all-ages animation.

Aqua Teen Hunger Force Season 1.

Number one in the hood, G. (definitely not all ages)

The Avatar TLA and Korra team have been working on a Voltron reboot, due out on Netflix in the upcoming weeks.

[HdE]

That Voltron reboot was the subject of a rather positive article over on Anime News Network.

Fun fact - Rhys Darby is doing voice work for the series. YES! MURRAY HEWITT IN A GIANT ROBOT LION!

That's interesting, isn't it?

[Definitely Not Mister Pops]

The Detectorists

Discovered this on Netflix. Toby jone is in it, 'nuff said.

[TordelBack]

The Detectorists

Discovered this on Netflix. Toby jone is in it, 'nuff said.

The first season is simply perfect. Warm, funny, strangely uplifting (for a show about treasure hunting vandals).

[von Boom]

The Detectorists

Discovered this on Netflix. Toby jone is in it, 'nuff said.

The first season is simply perfect. Warm, funny, strangely uplifting (for a show about treasure hunting vandals).

Well said TB.

[ming]

Detectorists is one of the best things ever.

The start of this clip is one of my favourite moments; so silly but just so.... right.  Never fails to bring a stupid smile to my face.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1hFadNEITqY

[von Boom]

One of the funniest bits in The Detectorists was the first time Simon speaks.  I laughed so hard I had to rewind to catch the stuff I missed. I can't seem to find a clip of it though.

[Trent]

Detectorists - best comedy (and so much more) in ages. Bought the boxset for each of my brothers for Christmas, seemed the best kindness I could think of.

[Tiplodocus]

Just Started GAME OF THRONES.

Yes, I'm six years late to the party.

First episode is a bit slow but does a reasonable job of setting up lots of characters and their relationships - some of them actually seem likeable. 
(cf with the new Beeb historical boobs thing Versailles - which won't be getting anoher watch).

Only another 49 to go in this box set - then onto Season 6!