Favourite TV Series

Discussion in 'Taylor's Tittle-Tattle - General Banter' started by NathWFC, Mar 20, 2010.

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  1. Bwood_Horn

    Bwood_Horn Squad Player

    Two films I really enjoyed as a child and have subsequently forced my kids to endure brainwashed my kids with shared with my children when they were younger are Terry Gilliam's masterpiece 'Time Bandits'; George Lucas's early draft of Star Wars 'Willow' and Frank Oz's and Jim Henson's wonderful 'The Dark Crystal' (I would add to this list the fantastically bonkers 'Princess Bride' but my boys hate it whilst my daughter and I love it). Looks what's coming in August:
     
  2. WillisWasTheWorst

    WillisWasTheWorst Its making less grammar mistake's thats important

    I’m no great fan of fantasy, in fact most of it leaves me cold, but Time Bandits was a wonderful film with just the right balance of humour that appealed to adults and children alike. Near the end it included Sir Ralph Richardson uttering the great line: “I am the supreme being; I’m not entirely dim.”
     
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  3. Bwood_Horn

    Bwood_Horn Squad Player

    I don't want to be a pedant and correct your quote but there's loads of cracking dialogue in that film (David Warner as 'Evil' it just one of the great, if not greatest, not-quite-OTT performances):
     
  4. wfcmoog

    wfcmoog Tinpot

  5. Arakel

    Arakel First Team

    Never cared much for Time Bandits, but I think I can probably quote the entire Willow script from memory.

    "I stole the baby!"
     
  6. Bwood_Horn

    Bwood_Horn Squad Player

  7. HappyHornet24

    HappyHornet24 Crapster Staff Member

    That's a really interesting interview. Have you listened to the podcast? I've only just started watching the series and it's definitely compelling, but I've just got to the "bridge" scene. Don't want to give away any spoilers but I'd be interested to know how the series treats this event and whether or not the writer claims their version is the truth. Because the more sensationalist claims about the ramifications for those who went on that bridge are now widely recognised as being pure urban myth.
     
  8. Arakel

    Arakel First Team

  9. Moose

    Moose First Team Captain

    Stranger Things series 3 from Thursday. Great atmospherics, silly story. And then I realised what it is. It’s Scooby Doo for the whole family. Great characters, storyline unimportant.
     
  10. Bwood_Horn

    Bwood_Horn Squad Player

    I'm a fanboi of the Bernie Gunther series of books (although after 'Field Grey' they steadily got worse - much, much worse and with the death of Kerr there'll be no more), I did try to fill the gap with Luke McCallin's 'Gregor Reinhardt' (nope) and then Volker Kutcher's 'Babylon Berlin' (first in German - I found the Berlin slang / noire type dialogue too difficult - and the English translation was too clunky...) so out of curiosity I watched the first one of these. It was mesmerizing - for the screenplay they've taken great liberties with the book (cf 'Titties & Dragons') and produced something that's both highly engaging/engrossing and extremely evocative (cf 'Titties & Dragons') - it really captures the absolute mayhem/decadence of Weimar era Berlin...
     
  11. Bwood_Horn

    Bwood_Horn Squad Player

    Also "The Loudest Voice" - disgusting cast of characters, obscene setting and foul practices. It's hypnotically good...
     
  12. hornmeister

    hornmeister Tired

    Anyone watching the Restaurant that makes mistakes on CH4? I'm on catchup and a couple of episodes in.
    It's a bit sickly sweet playign the sympathy music when the voice-over tells you how difficult it is for the people in it, but it does well to educate how to deal with older folks that have dementia, alzheimers etc. It's helped me to summon up a bit more patience when dealing with my folks.
     
  13. Moose

    Moose First Team Captain

    Actually I need to correct this. The storyline is important. Series three is awful, the characters no longer likeable and jumps the shark when the fat lady eats the fertiliser.
     
  14. Otter

    Otter Gambling industry insider

    I've watched the first 3 episodes of series 3 so far, and I'm not really impressed.

    As with all of these things the first series being a fresh idea tends to be the best despite a few rough edges, second series tend to be more of the same but made the necessary adjustments. Series 3 onwards shows tend to slowly go downhill because story lines either get more ridiculous or a regurgitation of something that happened in an earlier series/episode.

    A lot of good programmes (whether drama or comedy) in the UK tend to be 2 or 3 series and stop. Line Of Duty and a few others are exceptions. In the US there are exceptions too such as the Sopranos, but I've watched a lot of things on Netflix over the past few years and sometimes you find latter series become a chore to watch. Homeland started off extremely well but I haven't watched much of the most recent series (seventh I think) because I just got bored with it.
     
  15. Robert Peel

    Robert Peel Squad Player

    I'm finding Stranger Things 3 to be more of a horror than sci-fi and I hate horror films / TV.

    I'll finish watching it and it's still good, but it's gone down more of a route that I'm not so keen on. Don't think the fat lady eating the fertiliser was anything too far, but the Russian base thing is pretty ludicrous.
     
  16. Knight GT

    Knight GT Predictor extraordinaire 2013/14

    I may have missed it but surprised the possibility of a new Blackadder series has not been mentioned. I'm a huge fan, apart from series 1, but I do wonder if this is a good idea. The way series 4 finished was just perfect
     
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  17. Otter

    Otter Gambling industry insider

    I know there was talk in the early 90s about doing a series based in the 1960s revolving around a rock band but the idea never took off.
     
  18. Otter

    Otter Gambling industry insider

    Regarding Stranger Things, I watched the 4th episode last night and at last the season is picking up a bit, but it's the halfway point.

    I get that the Soviets have an interest, what I don't get is they use a storage cupboard with obvious armed guards waiting outside. Once Steve, Dustin and the ice-cream girl realise they're Russians why didn't they go to Hopper or other authorities? No doubt if the US government got even the slightest sniff of possible Russian activity in Hawkins, they would have swamped the town with appropriate personnel.
     
  19. Keighley

    Keighley First Team

    Series 1 is not nearly as bad as people make out. Works very well as a spoof on Shakespeare.

    The Spanish Infanta episode is especially good.
     
  20. Bwood_Horn

    Bwood_Horn Squad Player

    The first series is a really odd mix: the first three are the 'clever' ones ("The Foretelling", "Born to Be King" and "The Archbishop") and the last three the 'funny ones' ("The Queen of Spain's Beard", ""Witchsmeller Pursuivant" and "The Black Seal") - I've also wondered whether this 'split' was due to the writing team of Curtis and Atkinson focussing on different halves of the series - Atkinson's never really made 'much' of his writing 'career'.

    It's interesting to note that the 'original' Blackadder was supposed to be the dry, caustic 'Blackadder' of later series...

    Seeing a new series requires funny writing - I'm assuming that Ben Elton's travelled so far up his own arse that this just isn't possible at present.
     
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  21. Knight GT

    Knight GT Predictor extraordinaire 2013/14

    I should probably try and watch it again as when I see series 1 repeated I tend not to bother so haven't seen it in years
     
  22. Keighley

    Keighley First Team

    It's a bit strange, certainly by comparison with the other series. But it's certainly not without laughs.
     
  23. hornmeister

    hornmeister Tired

    A new series of Blackadder? That would be a cunning plan.

    I think it's a generational thing. Most of the millennial snowflakes on here probably never heard of it.
     
  24. hornmeister

    hornmeister Tired

    At some point he'll emerge the other end, smelling a bit whiffy but may be able to produce something decent again.
     
    Last edited: Jul 11, 2019
  25. Keighley

    Keighley First Team

    Oh come on. That’s like suggesting people have never heard of Monty Python, or Dad’s Army. Plus it’s endlessly repeated on digital tv.
     
  26. hornmeister

    hornmeister Tired

    Chap I work with is 25 he hadn't heard of it. Nor the fast show, nor Kenny Everett. Doesn't watch TV apart from sport. Spends his life in-front of an iphone.
    They're out there.

    I think Monty python has a bit more coverage becasue of the films.
     
  27. Otter

    Otter Gambling industry insider

    I've been going through DVDs with my teenage son. In the last 6 months we've been through Blackadder, Father Ted, Red Dwarf and Fawlty Towers, we're currently on Phoenix Nights.
     
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  28. hornmeister

    hornmeister Tired

    Red Dwarf is a definite must. So many classic episodes. The JFK one is a personal favourite.
     
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  29. Otter

    Otter Gambling industry insider

    Regarding Red Dwarf, series 4 & 5 are the best, with a couple of very good episodes in the other of the early series. The JFK episode was the opener of series 7, which was overall a very poor series. Series 8 was a bit meh. I have to say though, that since Dave took over they have written some very clever episodes. At least it's not monster-of-the-week which somewhat plagued series 6.
     
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  30. Knight GT

    Knight GT Predictor extraordinaire 2013/14

    I'm a big fan of Red Dwarf although I preferred the series with the original Holly. Queeg was a great episode along with Polymorph with Rimmer wearing A Give Quiche a Chance t shirt and wanting to call the group that was trying to get rid of the Polymorph this
    [​IMG]
     
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  31. Moose

    Moose First Team Captain

    It’s a nice time that. My son didn’t get every single thing I liked but we shared all of those, (bar Phoenix Nights, though enjoyed Car Share) the Office, Dad’s Army, Friday Night Dinner and Alan Partridge. It was also great to revisit drama like ‘Life on Mars’.

    In return we got the Inbetweeners and all together Detectorists.
     
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  32. Moose

    Moose First Team Captain

    It’s awful, full of product placement and switching clunkily from nasty to sickly. The kids relationships are almost unbearable in ridiculous lovey dicey monologues at the height of danger. The grown ups are hammy and the monster is **** beyond all belief. I mean what’s his motivation? All the wooaaargghing. Got something to say, say it.

    The Russian base is tremendously daft. No one seems to have noticed about a billion tons of earth being excavated. It would have created a new mountain.

    Won’t be watching series 4 for sure.
     
  33. Arakel

    Arakel First Team

    I like how a TV programme based around the premise of opening up a rift into another dimension and horrible things coming forth to turn people into primordial soup before absorbing them into an amorphous blob is being criticised for an apparent lack of a visible dirt mountain.

    It's important to focus on the less realistic aspects of things.
     
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  34. hornmeister

    hornmeister Tired

    Agreed and agreed.
    Backwards is another favourite. The look on Cat's face after he goes to the loo is priceless.

    Gonna have to go through the DVD/Blurays now.

    They've just done an AA advert so wonder if there's another series in the offing.

    Edit: yep: https://www.express.co.uk/showbiz/t...iler-plot-Red-Dwarf-XIII-series-spoilers-Dave
     
    Last edited: Jul 11, 2019
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  35. Arakel

    Arakel First Team

    My favourite bits of Red Dwarf are the episodes involving Ace Rimmer.

    What a guy.
     
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