Favourite TV Series

Scorpio: By the way, Homer. What's your least favorite country, Italy or France?
Homer: France.
Scorpio: Heh-heh. Nobody ever says Italy.
(Changes weapon target)

 

Another party we're very late to is the Franco-UK joint production of 'War of the Worlds' (2019 - it was slightly overshadowed by the BBC's 'effort') - I only started to watch it because of news of the newly released 2nd series. Now we came to this knowing nothing - the first episode really 'dragged', some of the acting is very 'understated' (Gabriel Byrne and the bulk of the French cast I'm looking at you) but the plot twists really make-up for (we're on episode 5) and there are some quite unnerving scenes/story developments in it.

If your looking for tripods striding across the planet destroying all in their path - you not going to find it here. This is more like how original 'Fear the Walking Dead' was supposed to be a grand story focussed on telling how survivors coped and managed against an apocalypse they didn't fully understand.

 

Just seen this. That is a good one but - no, the best episode is Cape Feare. Homer wearing a t-shirt saying "Witness Relocation Program". The Sideshow Bob rakes gag. Bob re-enacting the entirety of HMS Pinafore to Bart.

Utter genius.

https://decider.com/2015/11/16/scorsese-cape-fear-vs-simpsons-cape-feare/

 

Fantastic stuff.

He remains an Eeeeeeeeeeenglishman!

 

I had no idea this was renewed. I stopped watching as I'm sure I read it was cancelled. It's just come onto Disney+ so I'll probably catch up

 

The BBC's effort got it right in respect of its artwork, but the drama was pretty awful. I'll look at this one to see if its better.

 

TBF to the Beeb it was a number of 'critics' who did not understand the phrase 'adaptation' and that Wells's pulp-fiction (it wasn't originally released as a novel) was written in the late 19th century when the concept of pathogens causing disease had finally became a wide-spread consensus and an awful lots of his prose is extremely turgid. If they wanted something 'just like the book' they should errr.... read the book (or listen to the album).

The UK-French one is a very different beast - we had guests last night and today we're just back from a day out (family crabbing competitions - I won "The First" and "The Biggest" competitions but lost "The Most" 87-79) and I'm a bit 'miffed' that we haven't seen any eps for two nights...as I said it has its flaws (mainly some of the acting) but the plotting more than makes up for them.

 

Ah, so it was the BBC version that was cancelled. Got you. Then again, most of what they turf out is geared towards the masses. Sounds like their version was very niche. And didn't cater for 15 years of people wondering who a mystery character was that The Sun and The Mirror could run with day in, day out.

 

@Moose

Sewing Bee!

Exactly the same here, seemed like a nice hour to set aside for some Football Manager on the laptop while she watches people sew (zzzzz)….

Turned out to be one of the few things where we both put our devices down and watch together and commentate on.

Serena is amazingly talented and she probably deserves to win regardless of what happens in the final.

I like Bakeoff and Masterchef but I do bake and cook myself so they’ve not got that element of ‘**** me how do they do that?!’ like Sewing Bee does. With cookery shows they’re aided by an incredible array of machines and tools too, not just some raw materials and a sewing machine.

And doesn’t Joe Lycett seem like a lovely person?

On the other hand, we’ve watched the first two episodes of the prison drama ‘Time’ on the iPlayer. Grim stuff, really good though.

Spoiler

I was out of my seat shouting ‘YEEEESSSS HE’S BIT THE ****’S EAR OFF!!!’ when Sean Bean finally confronted his bully.

 

Currently watching Deutschland 89 on 4oD, I didn't realise this came out a few months ago. I'm a couple of episodes in, OK so far. The 83 series was excellent, the 86 series less so.

 

Watched the first episode of Time. Brilliantly done, but well grim.

 

The first series was great. Really gripping. Didn’t finish the second, but may give it another go.

 

Yeah when we watched the first episode…

Spoiler

I asked my partner during the kettle scene ‘oh no did he just pour that sugar straight into the kettle?’ She didn’t know about the sugary boiling water trick and was absolutely mortified by that.

On a similar note, a book recommendation, although it was a massive best seller a couple of years ago so it’s not much of a recommendation…

A Bit of a Stretch is the diary of a middle class, London filmmaker who ended up in a prison about five years ago for being implicated in some low level fraud. Really interesting and often very funny book, basically confirms everything you might already know about the levels of drug use and mental health problems in British prisons but fascinating none the less.

 

Sewing Bee ? Sewing Bee ? What is the matter with you people ????
.......Or does one of the contestants turn out to be the killer ?

 

Killer with a needle, yes.

 

I did find the A-Z list of 'Nicks' very interesting reading in The Good Prison Guide...Well worth six quid.

 

My favourite ever Simpsons episode

 

Sewing Bee, Pottery Throwdown, make up thingy, bake off, dog groomer battle royal, jewellery making melee hate them all


I'd love to see Partridge front a po faced competition for dry cleaners or key cutters with overly complex challenges and some pompous judge looking at the stain removal or accuracy of the filing of the keys before the elimination.

 

Yes. Prime Partridge territory.

From Diss, welcome to the Great Norfolk (and North- East Suffolk) Knit-Off.

Episode Six. Knit a replica of a famous sports stadium - ‘has everyone done Carrow Road? I mean what even is that? It’s just some wool’.

 

Knitting is almost too watchable. How about Britain's top gas safe engineer. Promised to be on BBC1 at 8pm but Lynne has to inform Alan it's going to digital only, missing his target demographic.

 

Inner City Sumo. Very cheap, could do it in a pub car park.

 

Lynne! These people are gas monkeys! They only have Freeview.

 

From Norfolk, international Carp fishing with Splash! Bang! Wallop! What a monster!

 

And now Edmonds has been given British Whittling World Cup, which is gonna be on BBC 2 at 9pm! I turned it down Lynne! It was mine if I wanted it. Now I'm doing digital only Gas engineering!

 

I knew I shouldn’t have listened to Eamonn Holmes, the man eats crisps on the toilet for goodness sake!

 

I could see Partridge spicing up well loved formats by introducing a competitive element to shows like Countryfile or Springwatch.

I’m hearing that is a badger, can you confirm that? That is confirmed. That is a medium mammal score…

 

What did we think of the latest series of This Time?

I thought it was an improvement on the first series, not so repetitive and the writers pulled together various strands from the old KMKY right up to the podcast series they did last year in a satisfying way. Still had a couple of weak episodes and the ‘pre recoded’ pieces can fall a bit flat. On the whole though, any Partridge is good Partridge. Strong ending too.

Spoiler

Gutted that Seldom the large brown dog has passed on though. rip seldy u r wiv da angles and da Chris Feather

 

I've only seen the first three so far but thought it was much better than series 1. Tim Key is underused though.

Any Partridge is good Partridge with the exception of series 2 of IAP which was God-awful.

 

I wouldn’t say god awful but it’s vying for my least favourite Partridge along with Alpha Papa. Series 2 of IAP is my old man’s favourite Partridge so we quote it a lot, especially the South African fella from Dante’s fireplaces.

The last episode of This Time is bang on the money. Absolutely textbook as the great man would say.

With a weekend ahead of nothing but lounging in the sun I reckon one of the books will be getting a reread.

 

YOU CAN’T!

 

There’s no need for that!

 

It just felt so stilted by comparison with the first series, which was superb. Such a disappointment. I have a feeling it conicided with the height of Coogan's drug issues so perhaps not surprising. The only thing I recall from the whole thing was Partridge running through the Bond oeuvre.

I like Alpha Papa although it's clearly a different beast to the TV programmes.

I started I Partridge at Xmas and must get back to it.

 

It was definitely a more grotesque and cartoonish version of the character.

The new writers have done a brilliant job of slotting him into the modern day. Can’t wait to see what they do next.

It’s worth getting the audiobook version of I, Partridge too once you’ve read it.

 

Not really a TV show, but Bo Burnham's Netflix special is very good. Worth checking out if you're a comedy fan. Loved White Women's instagram.