2023 TV

[Rick]

Wife and I have been watching "I Love Lucy." Great comedy was written and preformed back then. 

[Ivanhoe]

2 hours ago, Rick said:

Wife and I have been watching "I Love Lucy." Great comedy was written and preformed back then. 

If you get a chance, read a thorough biography of Lucille Ball. She was amazing. 

 

[bd1]

 

one of my all-time favourite series , hope mk.3 will be as good as 2. coming was

[Skywalkre]

Just finished the first two episodes of Ahsoka.

First episode was kind of cringe, honestly.  MacGuffins, tropes galore, main character plot armor... just... not impressed (could go into specifics but I'll hold out a few days for spoilers in case anyone plans on watching it).  The trouble this show is going to have is that it's following Andor, one of the best shows of of any genre in years, and Andor it is not.  The first few episodes of that show were slow... but still good.

The second episode was... tolerable... but still had issues.  When watching it I was reminded of one of these YT critics I was watching a few weeks ago who highlighted that too many of these Star Wars shows make all parties, but particularly the bad guys, complete morons.  Andor (it's hard not to come back and compare to this masterpiece) made the bad guys smart and capable thus the victory over them was impressive and actually had some oomph to it.  This show so far... it's a glorified kids show that's just live action and has a bigger budget.  I was hoping for a more mature and interesting story (not necessarily Andor level... but at least OT level).  (And yes, I'm aware all the main characters in this are from various cartoons meant for kids... but the advertising for this live action show didn't give the hint that was still their focus.)

Lastly, for a show featuring a Jedi one of the allures would be the lightsaber fights... but so far they feel forced and are frankly boring.  Maybe there's hope they'll get better.  I'd give the first two episodes a 2.5/5 stars... solidly on the border of being terrible but not so bad I won't watch the next episode.

ETA - Forgot to mention I'm curious how this show will handle the 'Avengers dilemma'.  In a lot of Marvel movies with lesser heroes there's always the giant elephant in the room of, "umm... why don't they go grab the Avengers to help out?"  In Star Wars the issue is if the problem is big enough why doesn't someone go grab Luke?  So far in the first two episodes the apparent threat isn't big enough for this to be a concern... but the potential is there.  I'm curious how they'll handle this or if they'll just do what Marvel does and ignore it completely (I'm betting on the latter with the quality of the show so far).

ETA2 - From the credits and reading online this series is all Filoni and Favreau... two guys who I was told are supposed to be the saviors of SW.  Not impressed so far... not in the least.

Edited August 23, 2023 by Skywalkre

[TrustMe]

A new John Wick TV spinoff show on Amazon Prime came out today. Haven't watched it yet but I intend to.

 

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6486762/?ref_=ls_mv_desc

[Ivanhoe]

Apparently there will be another season of Futurama on Disney+. 

 

[Stefan Fredriksson]

Nedsläckt land / Blacked out country.

Premise: No prize-sum. No one gets voted out. 10 people are invited to take part of an experiment that will last 14 days. They get no details. 5 of them are placed in a top-modern house (all gadgets and stuff) the other 5 in a less modern house, that has modern stuff but also wood-stoves etc.

They get settled in, even go shop in the local store. During night 1 power and all cell-services are cut. The participants in old house has an fm-radio, and gets some info, modern house gets no info (until later).

The power will be out for the rest of the stay. We follow the two houses trying to solve things. Even on day 2 one participant from modern house decides to leave for good (she was not informed there would be no internet-service). On day 2 or 3, modern house moves in with old house, since the modern house is next to useless without power.

Mostly done to see how people react and act, and get the rest of us at least contemplating how things would work of things such as power is blacked out.

 

Similar done in other countries?

[Stuart Galbraith]

No, we havent done that. Id like to see it though, if only for the gnashing of teeth.

The nearest we have done was two series on living in a bronze age round house, with ordinary people trying to live according to their ancestors. The first series was filmed back in the mid 1970's. A time of a lot of black outs, but also still quite a lot of socialism. People mucked in, got along, had a laugh, and everything seemed to work out.

They made a remake, sometime in the  1990's. People had changed. Most people were insular, didnt know how to interact with other people peacefully, and worst of all, didnt know how to work together towards a common end. Lots of arguments.

Of course, television executives played around with the second series, but for all that, it seemed depessingly predictable. Somewhere since the 1970's we all turned into snowflakes.

The only ever thing Ive seen that came close was a group of modern brickies building a roman bath according to original roman methods. There were some arguments, they had arguments with the head historian, figured out how to do it, they cracked on, and got it built. Made a really nice job in the end.. Interestingly the only major concession they made to modern technology was using wheelbarrows. They couldnt figure out how Romans could carry so many heavy weights up the building using just a pack. Of course, they had lots of slaves...

[R011]

7 hours ago, Stuart Galbraith said:

No, we havent done that. Id like to see it though, if only for the gnashing of teeth.

The nearest we have done was two series on living in a bronze age round house, with ordinary people trying to live according to their ancestors. The first series was filmed back in the mid 1970's. A time of a lot of black outs, but also still quite a lot of socialism. People mucked in, got along, had a laugh, and everything seemed to work out.

They made a remake, sometime in the  1990's. People had changed. Most people were insular, didnt know how to interact with other people peacefully, and worst of all, didnt know how to work together towards a common end. Lots of arguments.

Of course, television executives played around with the second series, but for all that, it seemed depessingly predictable. Somewhere since the 1970's we all turned into snowflakes.

The only ever thing Ive seen that came close was a group of modern brickies building a roman bath according to original roman methods. There were some arguments, they had arguments with the head historian, figured out how to do it, they cracked on, and got it built. Made a really nice job in the end.. Interestingly the only major concession they made to modern technology was using wheelbarrows. They couldnt figure out how Romans could carry so many heavy weights up the building using just a pack. Of course, they had lots of slaves...

Reality shows aren't real.  That they're looslely scripted doesn't mean they're spontaneous.

What's changed is that networks got more experience with reality shows and found what gets ratings.  People getting along without drama makes for lower ratings than people acting dysfunctionally.   Producers pick for conflict and thus entertainment.  You may occassionally still get producers interested in education, though.

[Stefan Fredriksson]

I think I saw the brick-builder series...

The Blacked-out country is made by Swedish national TV, and more or less scripted drama, for drama's sake, is not necessary. You can easily place yourself in their discussions, such as "What and how much can we give to the other group? What can be in it for us? If they come and want to live in our house, should we let them?"

It isn't "Single mother in Bachelor's paradise with unlimited booze". But still interesting.

[Harold Jones]

More of a wish than an actual in development series. I know I'd sub to whatever streaming series made it.  https://collider.com/master-and-commander-tv-show/

[Ivanhoe]

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2640044/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1

 

 

Series premiere

January 26, 2024

 

An Apple Original Series from Steven Spielberg, Tom Hanks, and Gary Goetzman - the producers of Band of Brothers and The Pacific. During World War II, airmen risk their lives with the 100th Bomb Group, a brotherhood forged by courage, loss, and triumph.

[Harold Jones]

9 hours ago, Ivanhoe said:

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2640044/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1

 

 

Series premiere

January 26, 2024

 

An Apple Original Series from Steven Spielberg, Tom Hanks, and Gary Goetzman - the producers of Band of Brothers and The Pacific. During World War II, airmen risk their lives with the 100th Bomb Group, a brotherhood forged by courage, loss, and triumph.

I'll have to add that to my list.

[Harold Jones]

I've gotten snared by Paris Police 1900, the story occurs during the time of Dreyfus's retrial at the turn of the century.  The production values are really good and the story is interesting, it does have some plot holes but overall it has been keeping me interested.  

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt10840070/

Edited October 26, 2023 by Harold Jones

[sunday]

25 minutes ago, Harold Jones said:

I've gotten snared by Paris Police 1900, the story occurs during the time of Dreyfus's retrial at the turn of the century.  The production values are really good and the story is interesting, it does have some plot holes but overall it has been keeping me interested.  

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt10840070/

Interesting times. Just before this: https://museeprotestant.org/en/notice/the-law-of-1905/

[Stuart Galbraith]

Its been out a while, but if anyone has any interest in the cold war or a sense of humour, watch Kleo on netflix. Just finished it (My TV jammed up my netflix account for 6 months before I could fix it), and it really is damn funny. Its everything Killing Eve was before theys screwed it up.

[sunday]

Shogun, again.

Looks promising

[NickM]

23 minutes ago, sunday said:

Shogun, again.

Looks promising

'Cept for that wymmyn warrior Mariko weilding a saber.

[sunday]

5 minutes ago, NickM said:

'Cept for that wymmyn warrior Mariko weilding a saber.

Yep, a naginata was more ladylike, but I think samurai ladies were trained in swordfighting.

There are historical records, also: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Onna-musha

[Stuart Galbraith]

So, been watching two shows on Netflix, largely because UK TV is abysmal at the moment. First one is Bodies, set in London. A dead body is found in 4 different era's, 1890, 1940, 2023 and 2053. But its the same body found again and again. You swiftly figure out that time travel is at work, but it also uses it as a method to explore the dark heart of British society. All the hero's are outsiders, and somehow, over a period of 163 years, have to overturn a plot to control Britain.

In truth it covers much of the same ground films like Looper or even Back to the Future did much earlier. But its a good plot, good acting, and the drama rattles along.

The other one is Oblliterated, which defies easy description. Its kind of what you would imagine you would get if 24 and Team America had a love child. Basically, a joint team consisting of the US Army, the US Air Force, CIA and NSA all has to work together to find an atomic bomb thats going to blow up in Las Vegas. So having done that in the first 10 minutes, they kick back and have a damn good party, which consists of lots of drink, drugs and a camel. Unfortunately halfway through the evening, whilst they are all still smashed, they discover that the bomb is in fact a fake, and the bomb is still primed to go off. So they have to do the rest of the series living off the effects of party poppers, drink, and a whole list of drugs that would have Hunter S Thompson nodding with happy approval. Its full of crude humour, shooting, lots of drugs, gratuitious nudity, and has enough of a plot, and is funny enough, that it had me running through the first 3 episodes. Highlights to me was C Thomas Howells drug obsessed Bomb disposal man, and Alyson Gorske's party girl, whom somehow ends up a vital asset to the team. But they are all good in it, and its well worth seeing.

Edited December 7, 2023 by Stuart Galbraith

[sunday]

After Band of Brothers, and The Pacific, it is time for USAAF in Europe

Eye candy looks good.

[BansheeOne]

"Memphis Belle", the series? I'm in, even if it's a CGI fest. 🤩

[sunday]

 

[TrustMe]

I remember as a kid in the 1980's watching a documentary of the Memphis Belle from the 1940's, by a film crew who flew with the MB on its final mission over Nazi Europe. It was an excellent documentary, much better than the 1990's film and I bet this new TV show.

[Harold Jones]

12 hours ago, sunday said:

 

As far as I remember the show doesn't come out till January, so is this just a review of the trailer?