Current TV Boxset Addiction

[Link Prime]

Nobody listens to me

The Shark who cried Tuunbaq.

[TordelBack]

Finished Season 2 of Icelandic celebration of small-town misery Trapped. Maybe not quite as strong as the wonderfully claustrophobic snowbound Season 1, due to a corporate/political plot that seems to have been simplified a bit in favour of an avalanche of grisly family secrets, but it makes up for it with some top-level beloved character murder.

Main attractions are monolithic detective Andri, a sort of Dirty Frank on a heavy chlorprozamine regime, and a superbly believable cast that never ever smile, except to signal their death by the end of that episode. Terrific lockdown fare with dramatic chilly backgrounds - cheer up, you could be living in Siglufjörður.

[The Legendary Shark]

...What We Do In The Shadows is fantastic.

It sure is - at least as good as the film, which is quite rare. I love the Cursed Hat - it [spoiler]chasing after the car in the background[/spoiler] made me laugh so hard I had to pause it.

Top telly!

[Andrew_J]

How did the Player run for you?
I had 9 of the 10 episodes stream without a hitch, but one was very choppy.
Fewer advert interruptions after 10pm too I think.
A definite improvement, but it still needs a lot of work.

RTE Player is surprisingly smooth on this occasion. I'm broadcasting it from the phone app via Chromecast to the tv and have had no problems. No ads at all either, I've realised.
Interesting, when I use the Player app on built into the tv there are ads. Go figure.

[TordelBack]

RTE Player is surprisingly smooth on this occasion.

This is a sentence that has never before been thought, let alone written. End times, I tells ya.

[Tiplodocus]

I watched two first episodes last night; THE SERPENT on iPlayer and IT'S A SIN on All4.

IAS by Russell T Davies was a riot from start to finish so I will definitely be back for more even though the tragedy is already baked in. RTD has a great knack for instantly likeable but flawed characters and this is coupled with great leads.

THE SERPENT? More like THE SHITPENT. Did they deliberately make it so slow to match the pacing of TV in the decade it was set? Jenna Coleman's nose is hypnotic. Sirely a special effect. If it's a 3 parter, I may stick with it. But any longer and I won't be bothered.

[Rara Avis]

I watched two first episodes last night; THE SERPENT on iPlayer and IT'S A SIN on All4.

IAS by Russell T Davies was a riot from start to finish so I will definitely be back for more even though the tragedy is already baked in. RTD has a great knack for instantly likeable but flawed characters and this is coupled with great leads.

This one is an absolute heartbreaker but 11/10 tv.

[ming]

Following numerous recommendations here, we've been getting stuck into Black Sails recently (now half-way through Season 2).  For reasons that are very much in-your-face, the missus and I have started calling it by a different name, though:

Tits Ahoy!
With the Occasional Cock.

[TordelBack]

Dipped back into some Inside No. 9 as comfort food to forestall a looming grump, and in the twisting ways of the internet this somehow led me on to Sheridan Smith's Wiki entry. And there I discovered that there's no mention of 12 Days of Christine* outside of the bald listing in her filmography table. I was expecting several nominations, maybe a even a win or two. Like fair enough, she was good as Cilla, but that episode, and her performance, is one of the great short pieces of modern telly - but her stint narrating Bear Grylls gets more coverage. Is this one of those Mandela Effect* things?     

Elsewhere, and in a vaguely similar vein, we've been enjoying Daisy Haggard's Back to Life. It suffers slightly from the habitual British comedy tic of situating its struggling protagonists in an insulating milieu of unexamined middle-class affluence (see also: Fleabag, Outnumbered), but it walks an entertaining line between suburban dark comedy and sort-of murder mystery. I have to ask though, does the English prison system really just chuck lifers out cold without any kind of preceding furlough/acclimatisation period? It seems like a plan guaranteed to lead to sitcom premises.

Entirely different is the fizzy confection of Call My Agent, which is a much gentler cross between Extras and Thick Of It, complete with a perfect French clone of Roger Allam, the magnificently-named (and coiffured) Thibault Charles Marie Septime de Montalembert (of The Tunnel fame). Some lovely rapid-fire French hiding behind the subtitles, homeschoolers take note.

Also did a few episodes of Summer of Rockets, which is a handsome and lusciously-cast late-50s-set period piece, but am distracted by a score which perpetually seems to imply a looming crisis which never arrives (possibly a musical Cold War subtext), and the fact that I expect Toby Stephen's mild-mannered hearing-aid manufacturer to explode into over-muscled piratical violence at any moment.


*I didn't actually watch the episode again at this time. C'mon, I'm trying to cheer myself up here, not reduce myself to racking sobs.
** Why do I find that term borderline offensive?

[Bolt-01]

I've just finished The Right Stuff on the Disney+ and found it to be a really well made show. I've not read the source book or even seen the earlier film, so can't compare but it has revived my interest in reading about the early days of manned space flight.

I'm also half-way through The Good Lord Bird on Sky - I'm not sure what I was expecting this to be, but it almost feels like a Coen brothers tale. Ethan Hawke steals every scene he is in which is unfortunately to the detriment of the storytelling.

Still working through Star Trek: Discovery, now in the second half of season 2. Very silly show that wants to be serious but to me the plot is just letting it down. Lots of fun though.

My highlight is Black Sails - into the second half of season three and just the most glorious storytelling. Even Jack Rackham is on top form.

[broodblik]

I've just finished The Right Stuff on the Disney+ and found it to be a really well made show. I've not read the source book or even seen the earlier film, so can't compare but it has revived my interest in reading about the early days of manned space flight.

I enjoyed the show but the movie is better

[TordelBack]

I've just finished The Right Stuff on the Disney+ and found it to be a really well made show. I've not read the source book or even seen the earlier film, so can't compare but it has revived my interest in reading about the early days of manned space flight.

I enjoyed the show but the movie is better

Agreed, although I think they work well as companion pieces, emphasising different aspects.

[broodblik]

The show felt more like a drama with the space flights more in the background. But yes it is a good companion to the movie

[Bolt-01]

Darn it! Need to watch the film now.

[The Legendary Shark]

Just started Black Sails on the advice of this thread. I'm struggling to engage with it at the moment but I believe it improves so I'll stick with it.

It's a long time since I read Treasure Island so I might dig out a copy and re-read that before I crack on.