Current TV Boxset Addiction

[Jim_Campbell]

Well The Expanse Season 3 episode 5 certainly steps things up a notch! Best episode yet.

You haven't even reached my favourite bit in this season yet...

[Dandontdare]

Only watched the first episode so far, but Ragnarök on Netflix is intriguing - it's kinda like a scandi-noir Stranger Things, but with Norse Gods, a light dab of David Lynch and a heavy eco-message. Shy teen returns with his mum to his home village which has become a Company Town populated by eccentrics, and the glaciers are melting. Weird destiny shit ensues.

I'm not making any predictions, but it often seems to unexpectedly rain around this kid, and he gets all twitchy when he picks up his dad's old hammer .. just sayin'

The American dub didn't seem too bad based on a quick sample, but I always prefer the original sound with subtitles, more moody. Lots about it is predictable - we're not left in much doubt who the baddies are by the end of episode one - but it eschews the sentimental predictability an American show would have - there's one particularly brutal shock in this episode that really made me gasp. Oh, and the school kids all look about 25.

[Dandontdare]

And having re-read my oh-so-sarcastic thoughts on A letter for the King, I've got to admit it grew on me. Baddies were redeemed, friends became traitors, plot threads for a more interesting second season were left dangling. It may be groaning under the weight of sword'n'sorcery tropes, but I ended up enjoying it quite a lot.

[Funt Solo]

And having re-read my oh-so-sarcastic thoughts on A letter for the King, I've got to admit it grew on me.

I might give that more of a try, then. I switched it off about half way through the second episode.

I've been laughing like a drain through the first two episodes of Crashing.

[Colin YNWA]

Well The Expanse Season 3 episode 5 certainly steps things up a notch! Best episode yet.

You haven't even reached my favourite bit in this season yet...

Is that "I am that man."

That's the "I'm the man who knocks." of this show!

[Jim_Campbell]

Is that "I am that man."

Oh, yes. :-)

[Definitely Not Mister Pops]

Is that "I am that man."

Oh, yes. :-)

Point of order; Amos is "that guy".
Best characterisation bolied down to one line since Garak said "especially the lies"

[TordelBack]

Bridgerton. Somewhat to my surprise, very enjoyable. Its candyfloss visuals and modern soundtrack quickly establish it as a fantasy with only the loosest of nods to the social mores around the Regency court of Queen Charlotte, which means you can forget about any unpleasant real-world social or political context and just focus on the pretty people and their complicated if trivial woes. This is a bubble universe, with no more relation to its supposed historical setting than the average King Arthur* and this defuses a lot of the criticism I'd usually have for this kind of aristocratic pseudo-period thingie.

Going in ignorant of the books, I expected a big-budget Netflix Austen (and I really do dislike Austen) with requisite T&A, but it's far closer to a Baz Luhrmann Shakespearean comedy crossed with Gossip Girl (or if I'm being generous, Dangerous Liaisons), the titillation largely of the tight-breeches variety.

In a large cast Nicola Coughlan, of Derry Girls fame, is the standout, somehow still completely convincing as a teenager at 33. Polly Walker, of Rome and pretty much everything else, also does a fun turn as her mother.

Worth a go at least.


*Usually dressed as the 15th C, but 'set' an entire millennium earlier

[Funt Solo]

Also enjoying the fluff that is Bridgerton. The elephant in the room would be the decision to cast black people alongside whites as part of the ruling elite of the Regency era. I'm not that up on my English history, but I'm fairly sure that this is a modern casting decision with little bearing on the historical reality. Except that Queen Charlotte may have been mixed race, and is cast here as black.

Looking at online reactions, I've been disappointed that most discussions shy away from, well, actual discussion. On the one hand, there are the sputtering "but the Duke of Hastings wasn't black" and on the other a lot of "you don't think black people existed in the 1800s?"

The show does some interesting things with this: at first it seems that it's colour-blind - and has just cast people purely on a talent basis with no regard to their racial identity. But then they also play with our expectations - presenting a character in the first episode who is foreshadowed as being something shocking - but the shock isn't her race, but her beauty. It's a meta-statement, which begs a bit of debate (not least about why the viewer might be so laser-focused on everyone's race).

A few episodes in, the characters suddenly become aware of their race, where prior to this it's been played as if the world is (as I said) colour-blind. But out of the blue (sic), they're creating a narrative in which they've been allowed in to the aristocracy due to the influence of the black queen Charlotte. Now we're definitely in alt-history territory - but this is a love story, so that's quickly shelved in favor of more bodice-ripping yarnery.

It's by turns infuriatingly fluffy and terribly compelling.

[von Boom]

My wife has read all of the Bridgerton books so we've been watching it. As much as I want to ignore it, it does suck you in and I find myself enjoying it, which has my wife constantly smirking at me smugly. Since my wife has read the books I can say, according to her, that they've done an amazing job bringing the books to life.

[TordelBack]

. Now we're definitely in alt-history territory - but this is a love story, so that's quickly shelved in favor of more bodice-ripping yarnery.

The clues that this wasn't in any way historical, alt or otherwise, might have been the complete absence of a single horse poo, the perfectly lit interiors, the 1920s costuming and the fact that they are playing Maroon 5 and Rhianna at their formal balls. And that was just the first episode.

[Funt Solo]

. Now we're definitely in alt-history territory - but this is a love story, so that's quickly shelved in favor of more bodice-ripping yarnery.

The clues that this wasn't in any way historical, alt or otherwise, might have been the complete absence of a single horse poo, the perfectly lit interiors, the 1920s costuming and the fact that they are playing Maroon 5 and Rhianna at their formal balls. And that was just the first episode.

Right, but it would be odd to talk about the show without referencing the (pseudo) historical angle - given the (pseudo) Regency setting and the inclusion of a (pseudo) Queen Charlotte. What are the correct word combinations for referencing something that is period-draped but not accurately period-draped? Like that silly film about jousting starring the now-deceased blonde heart-throb of the time that mostly consisted of splintering lances, and also avoided horse poop (to a rockin' modern soundtrack).

A later episode of Bridgerton does include a Rue de Merde scene, in order that someone can be shown how the other half live and be warned against their folly.

[Tiplodocus]

Speaking of alternate history, made it to the end of Season 3 of BLACK SAILS. There's plenty upthread about how good it is but the switching of one character allegiance and an unexpected character death both particularly hit the mark here.

What's also funny is that Mrs Tips stopped watching after S1 because of the gratuitous nudity and shagging but I'd been telling her how little there was in later seasons. Naturally she walks in twice this series; once while Eleanor Guthrie is seductively stripping off and then later when Max is involved in some lesbian action. I had no defence.

[TordelBack]

What are the correct word combinations for referencing something that is period-draped but not accurately period-draped?

Very good question! I just call them "fantasy" and have done with it, but as that includes both Star Wars and Braveheart it may be a bit broad for our purpose. "Period Fantasy", maybe?

[TordelBack]

Naturally she walks in twice this series; once while Eleanor Guthrie is seductively stripping off and then later when Max is involved in some lesbian action. I had no defence.

Should have just held your hands up. Unless that would have revealed additional problems