Good TV (aka, the TV series spamthread), the second series

Small Screen. Bigger Screen.
User avatar
Achtung Englander
Posts: 2196
Joined: Sun Aug 12, 2018 6:37 pm
Location: Wokingham

Re: Good TV (aka, the TV series spamthread), the second series

Post by Achtung Englander » Tue Oct 23, 2018 9:13 am

Narcos season 1

That was an extraordinary 10 hours of TV. If it was not for the fact it is based on real events you would hard pressed to think this is credible. The guy who plays Escobar (Wagner Moura from Elite Squad) does an amazing job in making a complete asshole into an almost loveable rouge. The use of real footage spliced into the drama is superb and the film makers are clever enough to use Escobar real image in some shots, never taking you out of the immersion and only reimposing the fact that what you are seeing is a dramatised version of actual real, fucked up, events.

This is definitely re-watchable as it never dips in quality or every get boring. For me this is as good as season 1 of Gomorrah and the season arc of Breaking Bad

9/10
Games playing : Bioshock (Remastered) / Total War Britannia / Dirt 4

User avatar
Tichinde
Posts: 354
Joined: Thu Aug 09, 2018 11:28 pm

Re: Good TV (aka, the TV series spamthread), the second series

Post by Tichinde » Tue Oct 23, 2018 10:50 am

Sly Boots wrote:
Fri Oct 19, 2018 10:48 pm
Tichinde wrote:
Fri Oct 19, 2018 10:08 pm
2 episodes in.
Holy shit, this is good.....
Keeps getting better too ^_^
Right up until it doesn't......finished it last night and the ending left me underwhelmed.
Not disappointed, just a bit flat.

Started Final Space too, which is just the right blend of silly and fun to lighten my viewing after Hill House :)
"Religion, shit it" - Stephen Fry

User avatar
Sly Boots
Bar Staff
Posts: 6277
Joined: Thu Aug 09, 2018 8:34 am
Location: Hampshire
Contact:

Re: Good TV (aka, the TV series spamthread), the second series

Post by Sly Boots » Tue Oct 23, 2018 12:03 pm

Tichinde wrote:
Tue Oct 23, 2018 10:50 am
Sly Boots wrote:
Fri Oct 19, 2018 10:48 pm
Tichinde wrote:
Fri Oct 19, 2018 10:08 pm
2 episodes in.
Holy shit, this is good.....
Keeps getting better too ^_^
Right up until it doesn't......finished it last night and the ending left me underwhelmed.
Not disappointed, just a bit flat.

Started Final Space too, which is just the right blend of silly and fun to lighten my viewing after Hill House :)
I feel the same, as we too finished it last night. No scares to speak of in the final episode, just a lot of wrapping things up. In the context of the story of this family and their different issues I felt it reached a satisfying end, but for a finale I'd hoped for more thrills and spills, of which there were precious few.

Still, overall a very good series.

User avatar
Achtung Englander
Posts: 2196
Joined: Sun Aug 12, 2018 6:37 pm
Location: Wokingham

Re: Good TV (aka, the TV series spamthread), the second series

Post by Achtung Englander » Wed Oct 24, 2018 10:59 am

Generation War

This has been on my watch list for some time, you can find it on Netflix. Some have said it is the German Band Of Brothers. I would not go far as that. It is 4.5 hour film split over 3 parts. It is certainly engaging and has some action scenes that are riveting. The story covers the fortunes (or lack of) 5 friends over the course of 4 years, from 1941 to 1945, and the story arc of all 5 friends is very interesting.

I could happily watch this again sometime in the future. It has a lot of "coincidence" meetings and suffers from a lack of big sets, but it is a TV show, so yeah. At the end credits there are flashcards of the survivors and when they died, which confused me as it seemed these were real people ?

7/10
Games playing : Bioshock (Remastered) / Total War Britannia / Dirt 4

User avatar
Sly Boots
Bar Staff
Posts: 6277
Joined: Thu Aug 09, 2018 8:34 am
Location: Hampshire
Contact:

Re: Good TV (aka, the TV series spamthread), the second series

Post by Sly Boots » Fri Oct 26, 2018 10:35 pm

Finally worked up the inclination to finish watching Star Trek Discovery, having not picked it up again post-hiatus for the second half of the season. That was... actually pretty good! I binged the second half in two sessions. Went from pretty dull in the first half to pacy and interesting and surprised myself a bit by thoroughly enjoying it to the end. The big twist at the end of Vaulting Ambition did surprise me, and the whole mirror universe stuff was good (if an old ST cliche).

And does anyone else
Spoiler
feel like we've not seen the end of Lorca? I noticed the admiral made a point of saying "I guess my Lorca is dead, no-one could survive alone in that universe". Foreshadowing! As for evil Lorca, although it looked like he died he in fact fell into something known to be able to transport people across time and space at will, so who knows, maybe that version will make a comeback.

Tommy
Posts: 352
Joined: Fri Nov 02, 2018 2:46 pm

Re: Good TV (aka, the TV series spamthread), the second series

Post by Tommy » Fri Nov 02, 2018 3:54 pm

Been watching Ozark, not quite at the end of the second season yet but closing in.

It's really good, plenty of plot twists and not too precious with characters. Finds a happy medium between traditional American heroes and Game of Thrones ruthlessness.

Was thinking of starting The Last Kingdom to plug the gap between now and Vikings later this month. Any thoughts?

User avatar
Sly Boots
Bar Staff
Posts: 6277
Joined: Thu Aug 09, 2018 8:34 am
Location: Hampshire
Contact:

Re: Good TV (aka, the TV series spamthread), the second series

Post by Sly Boots » Fri Nov 02, 2018 3:57 pm

It's pretty good, although we kind of fizzled out with it somewhere in the second series. Keep meaning to go back to it sometime, but there's always something else coming out we want to watch more.

On that note, last night finished the second series of Making a Murderer. Avery is obviously a bit of a scumbag (even more so if you look into his history not mentioned in the doc), but despite that feel a bit sorry for him as imho it's quite clear he's innocent of the murder he was convicted of. A good watch, even if it doesn't really reach any major conclusions given the appeals are still being played out as we speak.

Tommy
Posts: 352
Joined: Fri Nov 02, 2018 2:46 pm

Re: Good TV (aka, the TV series spamthread), the second series

Post by Tommy » Fri Nov 02, 2018 4:04 pm

Sly Boots wrote:
Fri Nov 02, 2018 3:57 pm
It's pretty good, although we kind of fizzled out with it somewhere in the second series. Keep meaning to go back to it sometime, but there's always something else coming out we want to watch more.

On that note, last night finished the second series of Making a Murderer. Avery is obviously a bit of a scumbag (even more so if you look into his history not mentioned in the doc), but despite that feel a bit sorry for him as imho it's quite clear he's innocent of the murder he was convicted of. A good watch, even if it doesn't really reach any major conclusions given the appeals are still being played out as we speak.
Any suggestions?

Not Making a Murderer though, I have little to no interest in it. I've been part of too many discussions re. the subject when I haven't even seen the documentary. I'm exhausted by it. The fact that almost everyone I know comes to the same conclusion suggests there's little to garner from it, though I could be wrong.

User avatar
Sly Boots
Bar Staff
Posts: 6277
Joined: Thu Aug 09, 2018 8:34 am
Location: Hampshire
Contact:

Re: Good TV (aka, the TV series spamthread), the second series

Post by Sly Boots » Fri Nov 02, 2018 4:16 pm

Tommy wrote:
Fri Nov 02, 2018 4:04 pm
Sly Boots wrote:
Fri Nov 02, 2018 3:57 pm
It's pretty good, although we kind of fizzled out with it somewhere in the second series. Keep meaning to go back to it sometime, but there's always something else coming out we want to watch more.

On that note, last night finished the second series of Making a Murderer. Avery is obviously a bit of a scumbag (even more so if you look into his history not mentioned in the doc), but despite that feel a bit sorry for him as imho it's quite clear he's innocent of the murder he was convicted of. A good watch, even if it doesn't really reach any major conclusions given the appeals are still being played out as we speak.
Any suggestions?

Not Making a Murderer though, I have little to no interest in it. I've been part of too many discussions re. the subject when I haven't even seen the documentary. I'm exhausted by it. The fact that almost everyone I know comes to the same conclusion suggests there's little to garner from it, though I could be wrong.
It depends what you're after really. As a study of the American justice system and the injustices it's capable of it's well worth a watch. On similar lines is The Confession Tapes, one-off episodes about cases where law enforcement has obtained a false confession and how that can come about - it's pretty interesting.

The Haunting of Hill House is a very good series with some genuinely good scares and an interesting story (even the non-linear way in which it's told is pretty unique imo).

Mindhunters is another one I enjoyed - a dramatisation of how the FBI first began creating psychological profiles to catch serial killers. The Agent who led it is the same one who the character of Jack Crawford in the Red Dragon & Silence of the Lambs books was based on.

GLOW is really good, set in the 80s about the creation of a female wrestling group.

Black Mirror is one of my favourites - a couple of duff episodes (including the very first one) but mostly top quality.

Stranger Things, obviously.

Better Call Saul is ace.

In terms of animated series BoJack Horseman is really good, also (depending on your tolerance of gross-funny stuff) Big Mouth.

Comedy-wise American Vandal is a hilarious send-up of the true-crime documentary style of Making a Murderer etc, while A Good Place is one of the smartest, funniest shows I've seen for a long time.

Am sure I will think of more :)

User avatar
Snowy
Local
Posts: 2501
Joined: Fri Aug 10, 2018 6:57 am
Location: Ballhang

Re: Good TV (aka, the TV series spamthread), the second series

Post by Snowy » Fri Nov 02, 2018 5:51 pm

Tommy wrote:
Fri Nov 02, 2018 3:54 pm
Been watching Ozark, not quite at the end of the second season yet but closing in.

It's really good, plenty of plot twists and not too precious with characters. Finds a happy medium between traditional American heroes and Game of Thrones ruthlessness.

Was thinking of starting The Last Kingdom to plug the gap between now and Vikings later this month. Any thoughts?
I wholeheartedly recommend The Last Kingdom, a proper tale of the viking invasion of England instead of all the pseudo-mystical bollocks and Ragnar Lothbrok going googly-mad-eyes all the time that Vikings quickly became. The books by Bernard Cornwell are superb too, and will increase your enjoyment no end.
RCHD wrote:Snowy is my favourite. He's a metal God.
08/10/2003 - 17/08/2018
10501 :-({|=

elgaucho
Posts: 259
Joined: Mon Aug 13, 2018 7:50 am

Re: Good TV (aka, the TV series spamthread), the second series

Post by elgaucho » Sun Nov 04, 2018 7:16 pm

Oh wow - i am so losing track of time this year - weeks go by and i forget to update my watch list and what have you!

Anyway - have watched a fair few things in recent months - a few that you have, and a few others that i highly recommend:

Good TV as attested to by other comments here - i'm not going to disagree
Killing Eve
Altered Carbon
The Good Place
Killing Eve

Highly Recommended that I've not seen mentioned much in this thread:

The Tick -
I don't even know how to convince people to watch this, but they really should. They're ridiculous half hour episodes. It starts off absurd and.... well... tbh it gets more absurd as it goes along. But it's one of those shows with subtle subtexts and darker undertones than you initially suppose. I really love what they're doing with the show. Do give it a shot!

Into the Badlands -
Rapidly became one of my favourite shows this year. Absurd Martial Arts / physical combat post apocalyptic show with supernatural powers of some kind. Put simply - there's NOTHING else out there like this, which makes it GREAT! It IS ridiculous, but get over the sometimes cheesy set pieces and slightly OTT acting by some of the characters, and it actually tells a pretty fun story. Plus - come on! We have no more Black Sails for piracy - so let's go for something a little more physical instead! :P

Le Bureau Des Legendes / The Bureau -
French show about spies. This has a gritty down to earthness that you don't get on US shows. It has real character journeys with consequences. It's one of the more tense drama shows of recent years. Take Homeland and strip out all the crap and add in some real goodness, and you get this show. Anyone who likes a good drama should check it out.

Casa de Papel / Money Heist -
I don't even know where this came from, but wow. Edge of the seat, and every episode leaves you wondering - where the hell does this go next? Perhaps the best bank heist show i've seen.

Detectorists -
This is just a wholesome comedy. So easy to watch, and it makes an impact. Only three seasons, but it was a fun journey to share with the characters!

Other shows:

Condor - Another US spy drama show - mini series of 8 or 9 episodes. I enjoyed it, and it had a couple of unexpected twists, but very US drama

Jack Ryan Shadow Recruit - very predictable. good production values. watchable.

Titans - No idea what's going on with this. I expect it will go the way of the other DC shows, and quickly absurd or ott. Does seem to like it's violence though.

Bodyguard - enough of the British press wailed about how good this was, so we watched it. I didn't enjoy it as much as I felt i should have, given it's reception. But it's decent, and nice to see British shows.

God Friended Me - newish US comedy. It's one of those feel good story ones. Atheist podcaster gets "friended" by a God facebook account. While he's trying to work out which prankster is behind it, the account uses him to help people. Suitable when you just want to unplug from daily life.

Ray Donovan - the first few seasons of this were... good. very watchable, decent drama, sopranos style. Season 5 was a mess though. Give it a go if you like the genre

Designated Survivor - The opening premise of this made it seem like it would be a different approach, but it rapidly showed it wanted to become a west wing or something. Season 1 was watchable, but season 2 rapidly reduced itself to ridiculousness which appears to have gotten it canned as a show.
Image
Proud PW Member since 15/10/2003
A lurktastic 2678 posts!

User avatar
Sly Boots
Bar Staff
Posts: 6277
Joined: Thu Aug 09, 2018 8:34 am
Location: Hampshire
Contact:

Re: Good TV (aka, the TV series spamthread), the second series

Post by Sly Boots » Sun Nov 04, 2018 7:30 pm

Yeah, The Tick is great. Recommended.

Agreed on S2 of Designated Survivor, I think we made it one episode before jumping ship. Any interest the series had had was abandoned by that point.

User avatar
Jez
Posts: 438
Joined: Fri Aug 10, 2018 9:54 pm

Re: Good TV (aka, the TV series spamthread), the second series

Post by Jez » Sun Nov 04, 2018 9:52 pm

Sly Boots wrote:
Sun Nov 04, 2018 7:30 pm
Yeah, The Tick is great. Recommended.

Agreed on S2 of Designated Survivor, I think we made it one episode before jumping ship. Any interest the series had had was abandoned by that point.
Same here. It just didn't have anything going for it. I think they probably tried to tap into the whole 24 thing somehow but it came off rather badly.

Just trash.
19-10-2003
12072 :-({|=

User avatar
Medicine Man
Bar Staff
Posts: 2625
Joined: Thu Aug 09, 2018 1:44 pm
Location: Under the Stairs

Re: Good TV (aka, the TV series spamthread), the second series

Post by Medicine Man » Sun Nov 04, 2018 11:12 pm

Medicine Man wrote:
Thu Sep 27, 2018 2:27 pm
All the good stuff is returning thick and fast. Season 3 of F is for Family next perhaps?

Image
November 30th for season 3!

User avatar
Drarok
Posts: 940
Joined: Tue Aug 14, 2018 10:12 pm

Re: Good TV (aka, the TV series spamthread), the second series

Post by Drarok » Mon Nov 05, 2018 12:40 pm

I assume people are on about The Tick from 2016 starring Peter Serafinowicz, not the other two options?
Raid wrote:
Thu Jan 28, 2021 2:24 pm
And that's the story of why I'm not allowed near pregnant women for the next few weeks.

Post Reply