Current TV Boxset Addiction

[Tiplodocus]

...you're getting killed/bummed in the gob...

I'm still trying to work out EXACTLY how this works.

[Professor Bear]

I believe the youngsters call this "ass to mouth", and it even has its own Wikipedia page that I shan't link to because the forum rules on filth are not entirely clear where encyclopedic/educational material is concerned.

[The Legendary Shark]

"Educational."

...Riight...

[Tiplodocus]

MINDHUNTER on Netflix continues to be all round excellent. Grim but not without humour and Tench and Holden are an excellent double act.

[radiator]

I wouldn't get too attached - i think it just got cancelled.

[Dark Jimbo]

I wouldn't get too attached - i think it just got cancelled.

'' On indefinite hold' rather than cancelled.

[Proudhuff]

I wouldn't get too attached - i think it just got cancelled.

'' On indefinite hold' rather than cancelled.

There's oceans of mindless drivel out there, nonstop crud, and something like this comes along and its put on hold FFS! WHY?

[Proudhuff]

On a different note, I've been enjoying October Faction, there's a bit too much High School soap opera for me but its and enjoyable romp...

[radiator]

MCMillions - HBO documentary about the McDonalds Monopoly promotion scam.

It is.... nowhere near as interesting as the people making the documentary seem to think it is.

[karlos]

Altered Carbon season 2 trailer has just popped up online, ahead of it's February 22nd release date on Netflix.

I honestly loved the first season - apart from a very wonky final 2 episodes - and this looks fantastic.

(I'm presuming everyone has seen season 1!)

[Professor Bear]

Blakes 7 (no apostrophe), which I finally decided to get around to polishing off after the recent passing of Paul Darrow, who's holding the whole thing together when Gareth Thomas buggers off in season 3.  I like that Avon and Blake both become rebel figureheads for the same reason (they realise that either they or the Federation must die) but Avon is a more interesting character because he's ultimately just out for number one, and unsurprisingly that's what kills him when he just can't bring himself to trust that Blake isn't.
The "oh vicar, what are you doing here?" comedy of errors finale is unjustly revered, IMO, as despite accommodating a little unpacking if one is wont to do so (was Blake's final ruse to draw out Servilan?), it's a standard episode of the week potboiler about the crew being stranded that just happens to pay off on what would usually be fake-out moments by not being renewed for another series, but even so, the deaths of the main characters are remarkably bloodless, especially compared to Blake's kiss-off.

All the running around power plants and quarries made me wistful for days when alien planets weren't required to have a splurge of CGI noise going on, though some of the in-camera effects are distractingly dreadful.  Its casting decisions are surprisingly diverse for something made in the middle class tv era of late 1970s Brittin, but it still manages to let the side down now and then by being very of its time in some of the dialogue.  There's some tonal dissonance between the camp look of things and the grim plots, though overall I enjoyed it.

[Dandontdare]

I've never decided whether Darrow was good actor playing a character prone to hammy, overblown enunciation, or just not a very good actor, but as a kid I thought he was terrible.

[Greg M.]

  Its casting decisions are surprisingly diverse for something made in the middle class tv era of late 1970s Brittin, but it still manages to let the side down now and then by being very of its time in some of the dialogue.

Been watching the Ben Steed episodes, have you?

There's some tonal dissonance between the camp look of things and the grim plots, though overall I enjoyed it.

That's surely part of what makes the series so good though - that collision of camp and bleak. Case in point, the much-derided 'Stardrive', which is relentlessly silly and then pulls out one of the darkest and most brilliant episode endings of the series. I actually do agree about 'Blake' though - I've said this before (possibly here, possibly elsewhere, I forget) and been profoundly disagreed with, but I never watch it and think "Oh, Avon's dead." I'd have been more than fine with the proposed Series 5 patterned around 'Gold'.

As for Darrow - it's very interesting to watch him evolve over the course of the series. It's very noticeable if you watch them back to back - he's much more controlled in Series 1 & 2, and for the early part of 3 he's adapting to being the lead. But series 4 is a totally different performance - Heavy Metal Shakespeare Avon - with everything exaggerated to the nth degree, and no bit of scenery left unchewed. There's a fan theory that Avon's started to go mad in between 3 and 4, and is a complete nut by 'Gold'.

[Gary James]

(I'm presuming everyone has seen season 1!)

It is on The List. How soon I get around to it, however...

I need more hours in the day.

...Avon is a more interesting character because he's ultimately just out for number one, and unsurprisingly that's what kills him when he just can't bring himself to trust that Blake isn't.

That character decision is about twenty years ahead of its time - he would have been viewed as completely heroic and noble when compared with some mid-90s characters. It was jarring to have the entire show thrown away for a shock ending at the time, and it still - even after so many shows have attempted similar "twists" - works magnificently.

[Tiplodocus]

Made it to the end of THE GOOD PLACE which finished pretty much perfectly. Sure Seasons 3 and 4 struggled to match the first two but it was a brill show with fantastic cast.

I wasn't crying at Chidi and Eleanor's last scene. I wasn't.