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| carrobin |
 Posted: Sun Sep 27, 2020 11:55 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 7795
Location: NYC
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Flipping around the channels a few weeks ago, I ran across "Secret State" on Ovation--and was thoroughly hooked. Gabriel Byrne (who has aged remarkably well) is a British prime minister whose predecessor was killed in a plane crash, and besides figuring out what and/or who caused it, he's dealing with a factory explosion, a hostile banking system, a general who wants a war, a couple of suspicious deaths, and a curious journalist, among other things. I hope they run the whole series together at some point, because it's become so twisty that it's hard to keep everything sorted when seeing just one hour a week. In fact, I may end up buying the DVDs--Byrne is a pleasure to watch.
P.S. After catching repeats of the show, I can report that it's a four-part miniseries and works very well when viewed again (and paying close attention). |
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| bartist |
| Posted: Wed Dec 09, 2020 1:14 pm |
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Joined: 27 Apr 2010
Posts: 6958
Location: Black Hills
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Took me 21 years, but we're finally watching The West Wing. To borrow an adjective from today's post from Weeds, it's quite "talky." But quite entertaining, well-written (and in spots sometimes feels maybe a little too written), and with lovable characters. I was skeptical of people who told me they learned a lot about politics watching the show, but after one season, am less so. Also interesting to see how little the burning issues of our nation, and the world, have changed in 21 years.
It's orders of magnitude better than "Designated Survivor" or "Madame Secretary" or any of the other Beltway dramas.
If someone had told me Allison Janney has a central role, I might have started watching earlier. |
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He was wise beyond his years, but only by a few days. |
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| Ghulam |
| Posted: Wed Dec 30, 2020 2:25 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 4742
Location: Upstate NY
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After seeing the first five episodes of the first season of Mira Nair's BBC serial "A Suitable Boy", based on Vikram Seth's sprawling novel, one can appreciate that it is well made and well worth following. It is well directed and visually very pretty. It covers a wide range of India-specific topics ranging from inter-community love affairs, Hindu-Muslim friendships,, tawaifi, anti-Muslim hate propaganda, agrarian reforms, riots and a lot more.
Many of these topics are treated hurriedly and often superficially, probably on account of the length of the novel and the priorities of the screen-play writer, Andrew Davis, well-known for his script for "Pride and Prejudice" and several other TV productions. This is Mira Nair's first feature since her excellent movie "Queen of Katwe". She maintains the same high standards in "A Suitable Boy".
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| bartist |
| Posted: Sat Jan 23, 2021 11:19 am |
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Joined: 27 Apr 2010
Posts: 6958
Location: Black Hills
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| Syd |
| Posted: Mon Feb 22, 2021 9:46 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 12921
Location: Norman, Oklahoma
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| I'm watching "Resident Alien" on the Syfy network. You, know, I've been feeling the lack of a "Lost Girl" fix, and this may well do. I'm wondering how they'll handle the initial dead body, whose discovery is, of course, inevitable. |
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I had a love and my love was true but I lost my love to the yabba dabba doo, --The Flintstone Lament |
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| bartist |
| Posted: Tue Feb 23, 2021 3:22 pm |
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Joined: 27 Apr 2010
Posts: 6958
Location: Black Hills
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I know little of Lost Girl, beyond that it featured a succubus, so am unsure how that connects to an ET doc in a small town. If it reaches Netflix, will have a look.
The last Canadian series I watched and liked was Travelers. |
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He was wise beyond his years, but only by a few days. |
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| Syd |
| Posted: Tue Feb 23, 2021 7:25 pm |
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Site Admin
Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 12921
Location: Norman, Oklahoma
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| Well, they both have to keep their identities secret and start off by killing someone (deliberately in the alien's case--assuming the guy really is dead, since he hasn't retrieved the body), and our alien seems oddly attractive to women of our species. They haven't brought up whether he's attractive to males of our species. |
_________________
I had a love and my love was true but I lost my love to the yabba dabba doo, --The Flintstone Lament |
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| grace |
| Posted: Thu Feb 25, 2021 2:32 pm |
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Joined: 11 Nov 2005
Posts: 3214
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| If he hasn't recovered the body, whose corpse is in the freezer? I totally cop to not always concentrating on the show, so apologies if the question is irksome. |
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| Syd |
| Posted: Sun Feb 28, 2021 8:06 pm |
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Site Admin
Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 12921
Location: Norman, Oklahoma
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grace wrote: If he hasn't recovered the body, whose corpse is in the freezer? I totally cop to not always concentrating on the show, so apologies if the question is irksome.
I hadn't gotten that far. Yes the doctor is dead.
It occurred to me around episode for that it is more like Northern Exposure if the pilgrim had been an alien out to kill off the human race. |
_________________
I had a love and my love was true but I lost my love to the yabba dabba doo, --The Flintstone Lament |
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| carrobin |
| Posted: Sun Mar 14, 2021 10:07 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 7795
Location: NYC
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Has anyone else seen "Dickensian"? The BBC miniseries started last night on our PBS station, and it hooked me immediately, although I'm not really a Dickens fan (I find the movies generally much more appealing than the books, as the novels take forever to move the plot along--he was paid by the word, of course). The series starts with the murder of Jacob Marley, on Christmas Eve; suspects are numerous, as he was even less likeable than his infamous partner Ebenezer. Besides Bob Cratchit, we encounter Fagin and the Artful Dodger, Miss Haversham, Bill Sykes and Nancy, and other familiar folk; the only actor I recognized in the noir-like Victorian shadows was my old favorite Stephen Rea, as Inspector Bucket, who is searching for the killer. I think he's an original character, working for a new organization called the Detective.
Going by my old trick to guess the perp in Ellery Queen novels, I'd have to suspect the least likely person possible--so I'll put my money on the miraculously recovered Little Nell. |
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| Ghulam |
| Posted: Thu Apr 01, 2021 3:00 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 4742
Location: Upstate NY
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| bartist |
| Posted: Fri Apr 09, 2021 2:15 pm |
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Joined: 27 Apr 2010
Posts: 6958
Location: Black Hills
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| Watched the first miniseries of The Sinner, with Bill Pullman as an oddball police detective who helps a woman (Jessica Biel) accused of a bizarre murder and tormented by memory loss. Pretty good psychological thriller with two very fine actors. Biel has a knack for skating on thin ice, you feel her subconscious is lurking in the shadows waiting to drag her into its depths at any moment. One could say much the same about Pullman, in this role. |
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He was wise beyond his years, but only by a few days. |
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| carrobin |
| Posted: Mon May 17, 2021 1:11 am |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 7795
Location: NYC
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| Last night I watched "The Third Man" on PBS--it had been a long time since I'd seen it from the beginning, without commercials. Then, tonight, "The Simpsons" had a terrific parody. Beginning with actual film footage on a TV being watched by the animation characters, and using the famous zither music throughout, it concerned a British agent (voiced by Stephen Fry) who had been hunting an American spy for 50 years, whom he had finally tracked down--Grandpa Simpson. My favorite moment was when Orson/Harry turned up at the Ferris wheel. For a classic long-running series, "The Simpsons" just keeps on being brilliant. (I wonder how much it cost them to use the music and show that bit of the film...) |
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| carrobin |
| Posted: Mon Jun 14, 2021 3:38 am |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 7795
Location: NYC
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| Sunday night was the final episode of "Dickensian"--at least I think it was, since Bucket identified Marley's killer and most other plot strings were tied up (except for Miss Havisham, and we all know what happened to her). I wish they'd make it a running Dickensian soap opera, because everyone was interesting and the entwining plots were fascinating. And Stephen Rea proved again what a wonderful actor he is--watching his face as he listened to the killer's confession was heart-twisting. |
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| bartist |
| Posted: Tue Jun 22, 2021 2:24 pm |
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Joined: 27 Apr 2010
Posts: 6958
Location: Black Hills
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I really need to see the Simpson's take on The Third Man. It's such a great movie, it's too bad that it is so identified with that one famous line about cuckoo clocks.
A bad movie is often associated with a quote, like Mommy, Dearest and "no wire hangers, ever!" but a good movie should be appreciated as a whole.
On the tv front, I tried Netflix offering of an NBC series, "Manifest. " The eerie premise has such potential, and it could follow in the sandy footsteps of "Lost, " but the first few episodes I watched were fundamentally dull, zooming in on characters personal dramas in a cliched way that dampens the sense of wonder at a mind-blowing mystery. It's really just dumb.
Liking The Kominsky Method. I wasn't that enchanted with season one, but it keeps getting better in seasons two and three. |
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