Favourite TV Series

Think I watched the first series with Ron Pearlman in it?

 

Yes. He is still lurking around in it.

 

Found lotr boring and turned it off half way through ep1

 

Ep1 is slow and scene-setting. Ep2 gets a lot more exciting. A tramp arrives in a meteor (kid you not) and I suspect it is Gandalf.

 

That's nuts

 

Read that it’s basically the plot of ET, and now I bet anybody who watches won’t be able to shake that.

 

I find the elves really off-putting. They just look like humans with pointy ears. Not sure whose idea was to give them all mullets/pompadores, but it just looks lame after the great job that the Jackson movies did with the elves.

Nailed the dwarves though, they look great (as does most of the scenery/backdrops/towns, which are often stunning).

 

TBF it'd be more accurate to say that E.T. ripped Tolkien off.

 

Well, as my mother used to say, as long as you’ve got yer elf.

 

Talking of Spock.

 

I believe that more 'specialist' websites are available.

 

I understand lotr is very popular but I never got into any of this type of fiction. The only kinda simular thing I've read and enjoyed in the past is mainly HP Lovecraft @Cthulhu type shenanigans with evil wizard shizz and evil spells.

As for Netflix, I know it's old but I enjoyed Maniac.

 

Live long and prosper is a neat summary of Craig's endless contract extensions

 

Five year mission, just renewed every five years.

 

Hey, it's a Rings of Power elf!

 

I’ve been working my through The World at War during nightfeeds with my little lad and the times when he won’t let me go back to sleep.

What an absolute triumph of documentary making. Just phenomenal to see characters like D*nitz, Speer, Dutch resistance fighters, Japanese pilots, extermination camp survivors and Hitler’s secretary and valet* telling their stories.

*The first hand account of how there was too much of a draft in the bunker to put a light to Hitler’s and Braun’s doused bodies so Goebbels had to twist up some paper to light first is incredible. Told by the man that actually put the flame to their bodies. Goebbels young son apparently said ‘that one sounded like a bullseye!’ When the sound of Hitler’s shot rang through the bunker, thinking it had come from outside.

 

Mine preferred Teletubbies at that age

 

The silver lining to not being able to get rid of the little ****er for 10 minutes is that he doesn’t have a clue what’s going on.

 

That's the sort of thing I'd love to watch. I ended up mostly watching re-runs of Monty Python and Wonder Woman in the middle of the night when my son was tiny. Not that there's anything wrong with either of those - Lynda Carter: swoon.

 

All available on demand on Sky. Might do the Ken Burns Viet Nam doc again next. You know, for the lolz.

….


Good lord

 

If you really want sh*ts and giggles, try the Death of Yugoslavia. Basically every key person involved in the break up and wars all interviewed along the way.

 

Thanks for the suggestion.

I started one on Netflix about Einsatzgruppen and well… I think you need to be in a certain frame of mind for that kind of thing.

 

Woah just googled it.

Interviewees including Radovan Karadzic?!

I’m watching that ****. I remember when he was arrested, I was 16 and knew NOTHING of what had gone on. Blew my tiny mind. Still know very little so keen to learn more.

 

Is that the DVD 'extra' that contains the well respected dental-school professor (facs max?) talking about Hitler's skull and bridge-work; the history of the Shoah* and the long look at life on the German home front throughout the war?

I lent it to my german best mate who watched 'the latter episode' and translated for his Dad - who was press-ganged as flak-cannon operator aged 14 in 1944. So impressed was his Dad that my mate ended doing the same for quite a large audience of elderly Germans in a local community centre.

*I was in Vilnius when historians were first reporting what their access to the immense Soviet archives (in Riga) showed. Literally, overnight, the many US descendants of Lithos who 'emigrated' over the war weren't so forthcoming about their fathers' and grandfathers' service as 'Auxillary Policeman' (Ordnungpolizie) during the war and escaped being hunted down by the Soviet invaders...

 

I haven’t seen the dentist yet so maybe that was a DVD extra. It does include an episode about the German home front, the series is about 25 hour long episodes so it touches on pretty much every corner of the war.

 

I'm enjoying the Rings of Power. I did cancel my Sky sub a couple of months ago so not watched House of Dragon. I'm still miffed that GRRM can't be arsed to finish off the ASOIAF books.

 

I think it was made in about 1996 before the war crimes arrest warrants were served so they managed to get time with all the main players.

I remember the war being on TV when I was about 15 and having no idea what it was happening for. About 2004 I started reading about as the images had stayed in my head. Soon after I developed an obsession with it all - nearly 20 years later I've visited the region about 15 times, read over 300 books and partly learnt the language. Just be careful you don't go in that deep.

My only criticism of the program is that it doesn't spend enough time scene setting. You have to go back to the first Balkan war in 1912 through to 1992 to really understand things. The second world war there was what defined a lot of the events of the 90s, as it was so brutal and certain groups did terrible things to others.

 

Wow that’s amazing mate. Do you have any family connection to the area or did it just grab you?

If you get a minute then a few book recommendations would be much appreciated.

I’ve read a tiny bit around the Balkans and the first world war but really it’s a huge black spot for me.

 

The current bestselling book by Jonathan Dimbleby "Barbarossa :How Hitler lost the war "
Is a tad more detailed than the World at War TV series.
Just sayin'.

 

Is it? Just a tad?

Who’d have thought?

 

Exactly. Who knew?

 

You’re an absolute nutter. First, you’re watching documentaries while feeding your kiddo in the middle of the night, rather than reading long, text-heavy historical works.

Then to top it off, you post about it in the TV Series thread.

Losing the plot, mate.

 

Must be the lack of sleep, hopefully in a couple of months I’ll be back to reading books and being a smug ****.