Favourite TV Series

An acquaintance of mine (a comedy writer) was waxing lyrically about the standard of dialogue, the line (gag) delivery and timing in C4's "Catastrophe". Series three is just ending but all of it's on C4's iplayer-thingy and is well worth a binge watch.

 

Yeah still watching and still very good. Probably one of the best series we're currently watching. A great Police show with a mix of a bit of dry comedy with some emotional stuff thrown in.

Feels like the Lethal Weapon films mixed in with a pinch of the 80's Miami Vice series.

 

Just watched Series 1 of American Horror Story. Great first half of series but tailed off terribly in my view

Spoiler

Started off with an intriguing mystery about the house and the reason why people who died there remained there as ghosts (though apparently, unlike normal ghosts, these ghosts are just the same as normal people except dead).

Why did the maid age after death?

I know it was a big house, but there were like 30 odd dead people living there. People would've been falling over each other.

Was the psychic who told Violet how to rid the house of spirits really a psychic?

Why was Ben sleepwalking when his wife was raped by Tate?

Was Tate bad or did the house make him bad?

Why was the house so cursed?

What was the deal with the freak chained in the attic?

Overall, it seemed to me that they started off with a sort of Amityvlle story, unfolded it over the first 6 episodes, had nowhere further to take it and then just went full Beetlejuice

 

Not sure how I feel about the season finale of Homeland...kind of disappointed with the season as a whole.

The Walking Dead season finale annoyed the crap out of me as well as the whole season.

Can't believe GoT starts in July...I want it now, all 10 episodes...at once.

 

The current series of Homeland is definitely a recommend. The previous two series were not great but you would probably have to watch just so that you understand the plotline. Final episode of the series is this Sunday so I am sure it will be a box set very shortly.

 

New episode of Prison Break was decent.

Spoiler

Must have been a difficult job to fit everything into that first episode, i.e. reintroducing the characters and having Michael appear in the last scene but they managed to fit it all in quite nicely to set up the rest of the season.

Michael claims his name is now Kaniel Outis and doesn't know who Lincoln is, but we all know it's part of his plan and that he did drop a few hints out there which I'm sure Lincoln will figure out. His new name apparently means 'nobody' in Greek, and the eye tattoo on his hand which the camera focused on suggests Michael is trying to say you're being watched? I suppose we'll find out soon enough how the hell he's still alive and how he ended up in Yemen.

Good start.

 

Just watched these and would highly recommend. Not a lot of things make me laugh out loud because im a miserable sod, but this did and you want the characters to be successful in their detectoring. Love the rubbish they find and you really feel their passive agressive anger at finding for example a new pound coin in a remote field when they think its gold.

There was a Christmas special as well if you missed it.

 

Third series now confirmed..

http://www.radiotimes.com/news/2017...rists-is-returning-for-third-and-final-series



Sadly it looks like it will be the last but i'm pleased to hear anyway. I feel like doing the gold dance!

 

Line Of Duty has been good again. perhaps not the suspense of the previous series, but still very, very goodi

 

I had to stop watching Line of Duty when I realised the scriptwriters were rubbish. One example of dozens: A woman lies "dead" on the floor with a bloke about to cut her up at the end of one episode and the next she has miraculously recovered consciousness and now it is her attacker who is dead. Please - any fool can create suspense but a good writer finds clever ways to explain what they do. I have always hated programmes where either the heroes or villains are able to get from point A to point B in seconds while the other side take hours. I don't mind ridiculous escapes etc in things like Bond or Mission Impossible but in dramas that want to be taken seriously the writers really need to be more clever. It always reminds me of a cartoon I read as a kid. At the end of one week the hero was bound in chains at the bottom of a deep well. The next week began with "casting aside his chains the hero leapt out of the well"
p.s. Silent Witness is also a bid dodgy on fake suspense.

 

Taskmaster started again last night on Dave. Bit mixed hopefully the contestants grow on me a bit. Noel fielding & Joe Lycett are stand out at the moment.

 

My favourite show! Alex Horne is a genius.

 

Did anyone see 'Don't Ask Me - Ask Britain' last night?

There were a panel of four people, including Wossy and that Brummy Skinner chap plus a severe looking woman with cut glass vowels and a chubby lad who I think is a comedian. Wossy and Skinner did quite amusing stand up routines for 5 mins or so in the middle of the live programme, but that was about the only good part.

The premise of the programme is that they ask a question with four or five options for an answer, us at home then type in our own answer on our portable telephones or tablets and then the celebs see whether they get the same answer.

The most obvious and standout thing from it was the information being given away by the gullible fools who'd signed up for this, especially since it was organised by hard-selling advertisers' friend ITV. Although (obviously) I don't have a portable telephone and wouldn't sign up for the thing even if I did, they must have taken a fair amount of details such as location, age and gender etc. This allowed them to shout out things like "So most women aged under 30 from Scotland like their eggs.....FRIED!!"

The collated answers to the multitude of questions about what to do if you overheard friends gossiping about you and your reaction to other various social situations must be marketing gold to the advertising men and advertising ladies whose red-framed spectacles were no doubt steaming up in delight at this freely volunteered psychological data on the poor innocent game players.

I wonder how many will receive specially targeted adverts for fried eggs aimed at those who just won't stand for idle gossip etc over the next few weeks?

It should really come with a health warning this show.

 

Alex Horne is inventor of the world's greatest earworm. He stood in front of his band and asked them to play a "C", then an "A", followed by a "B" and another "B" and again an "A", a "G" and finally an "E". He asked the audience what have we got - well the answer's simple: "cabbage". This lead into a the chant "C - A - B - B - A - G- E" with accompaniment while he told a story about going to a "C - A - F - E" for some "B - E - E - F". It was fantastically funny and showed what great musicians him and his band are.

Spoiler

"Alex Horne Cabbage" is often searched for on youtube but never found.

Three episodes in and Better Call Saul is mesmerising,

 

Line of Duty is very melodramatic, verging on the silly at times, but always enjoyable. The best bit is always the extended questioning scenes. Cracking dialogue and tension. The action is a bit tame by comparison.

 

If you're a fan they're repeating his radio show on BBC 4 extra atm, it's all on iplayer

 

Maybe you shouldn't jump to conclusions quite so quickly. That particular incident is likely to be explained in the final episode. The scriptwriter aims to keep the audience guessing, with twists and turns - and it has obviously been a successful formula according to the viewing figures. There are a lot of people that disagree with you about rubbish scriptwriting.

If you prefer to be spoon fed throughout, maybe "Vera" on the other side may have been more your cup of tea.

 

We will see if you are correct and that the final episode atones for the rubbish I watched. It failed to in the last series though. I thought I would give it another chance but one episode and five minutes convinced me I had jumped to no conclusions. Do you need me to point out the inconsistencies and flaws in the first series - perhaps you should watch Vera as you do not seem to have much of a critical facility. I want less spoon feeding and more credibility - you clearly don't. I do not appreciate scriptwriters who go for "easy" thrills and fake suspense.
I wanted to like Line of Duty but if I am to watch fantasy and farce I will stick to Mission Impossible and Bond thanks.

 

Sometimes I just like to be entertained rather than be critical, so I don't search for flaws that often.

No need to get all defensive. All I'm saying is that expecting everything to be made clear after one episode is expecting too much in a 6 part police drama. ;D

 

Read your comments and see why I defended myself.
I like to be entertained too and happily watch some things like Criminal Minds or CSI occasionally just for fun. However some series are supposed to be clever - and get critical acclaim yet when you examine them they are written lazily. I can overlook it if it is not significant to the plot but when the plot hangs on something pretty daft I get annoyed instead of entertained - and switch off. Is that so hard to understand. I realise lots of people like LoD and good luck to them. My wife even has continued to watch it but even she admits it is not really very clever as it is supposed to be.

 

Anyone watching the new series of Prison Break? What do you think so far?

There's an Australian comedy I've been watching called Rostered On - it reminds of me of Phone Shop (E4) and Inbetweeners a bit, anyone who works/worked in retail will be able to relate.

[video=youtube;Ejl3_mK2t6c]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ejl3_mK2t6c[/video]

 

I'm enjoying the new Prison Break so far, personally. It was the first big, American show I got into when it started so there's a nice nostalgia element to it and even though it's always been a bit farfetched and silly (more so now than ever, obviously) it at least has intensity, mystery and a bit of heart.

 

Bloody brilliant this new series. The way they've brought it all back from such a long time since the last series AND made it work is testament to the brilliant writing and acting!

Still not sure if Jacob is Poseidon or not. Rumours are that it could be an old character from the original series but no idea who!! Jacob would make more sense but this is Prison Break and anything could happen! Have you watched episode six yet?

 

Following seeing the ad in the trailers before the Guardians of the Galaxy fillum, I've just watched the first two episodes of American Gods and have to say it looks very, very interesting. At the start of the second ep, Anansi's speech to the slaves being transported to America has to be one of the most powerful pieces of television I've seen in a long while. Very, very good.

Be warned: it's very sweary and there's lots of gratuitous sex and violence )) so perhaps looking for clips of it a work could be, ahem, problematic.

 

Just watched the latest one, another very solid episode! Only complaint I have so far is the lack of Sucre involvement, was hoping/expecting he'd be a series regular, but other than that it's been classic Prison Break and very enjoyable!

If Poseidon does end up being someone from the past I hope it's Mahone - would be tough to see him as a bad guy again but would be great if he had a part in the show.

 

I'm quite enjoying Jamestown so far.

 

As a fan of the book, they've done a very good job of translating it to the screen so far.

 

What channel is it on and when?

 

Person of Interest.
The last ever episode was screened last night. It was brilliant. Something different for the good vs bad action sci-fi genre with the Bonus that it has Amy Acker in it.

Well worth looking out for.

 

I'm enjoying the current series of Better Call Saul, just 4 episodes to go in this series but so far the best in my opinion.

 

Twiddling my thumbs waiting for House of Cards return, I've watched the first 3 episodes of designated survivor, good premise and enjoyable, just a touch unbelievable how Tom goes from being a nobody under pressure looking like he's about to crack, to giving orders left right and centre so assured with no explanation in the space of less than 12 hoursish.

 

Has anything happened in it? I watched the other seasons but got bored because nothing happened.

 

My favourite ever show. Hard to believe I saw that final episode over a year ago. Still miss it. Although The Expanse has shown me I can love again.