What Are You Watching

[kinuta]

2 hours ago, sidewinder said:

Beats me - I never watch it. Enormously popular though, appealing to the same demographic that gets equally worked up and manic over Strictly Come Dancing..

While some of us are spinning our Tina Brooks disks the rest of the country is praying at the altar of Mary Berry and Darcey Bussell.

Thanks Bob.

Mary Berry and Darcey Bussell?  Never heard of them. 

[sidewinder]

Mary Berry - well into her 80s, vintage writer of cookery books turned TV superstar (well, UK superstar).

Darcey Bussell - ex ballerina lead with Royal Ballet and poised to be the new head judge on 'Strictly' (so they tell me ).

Both of the above extremely popular over here !

[jazzbo]

Watched the exceptional Season 3 of Black Sails on Blu-ray

Watched Game of Thrones Season 6 on Blu-ray

Watched The Expanse on DVD (looks like Blu-ray with excellent upscaling)

Watching X-Files Season 2 on Blu-ray (amazes me how well-done and beautiful appearing and sounding these X-Files seasons look on Blu-ray)

[kinuta]

The Witness For The Prosecution BBC

I really enjoyed this dark, noirish adaptation , which is a far cry from Billy Wilder and Miss Marples.

[A Lark Ascending]

Never really paid much attention to Alan Bennett but really enjoyed both the documentary on BBC2 and the film that followed. What a nice man - and some splendid music too (Walton, Elgar....). Loved the section where he talked about being educated by the state, had his health looked after by the state, was sent to university by the state and could not understand how the term 'the state' had become such a term of abuse when used by the right. My experience precisely. Lovely scenes of rural Yorkshire too. 

'The Lady in the Van' was desperately sad - nuns have a lot to answer for. 

Saw this when it first came out in the cinema (1989) - amazed that rewatching it 30 years later I could not recall a single scene. Sentimental and follows the standard Hollywood template of a group of blokes at odds with one another, gradually forged into a unit of mutual respect and great courage. Enjoyed it - the final scene (storming the fort) was harrowing. 

[A Lark Ascending]

'To Walk Invisible' (BBC1)

Sally Wainwright's telling of the Bronte sisters' story. Ee but its grim up't North. Very enjoyable if more conventional than what you usually get from Wainwright.

Spent the first half wracking my brains wondering where I'd seen the actor playing Anne (far right) before. Then it clicked - she was the young PC in 'Happy Valley'. Wouldn't want to meet Emily Bronte (middle) on a dark night....scary! 

Edited December 30, 2016 by A Lark Ascending

[A Lark Ascending]

This was recommended here a number of times. Enjoyable couple of hours but it made me feel about 98. I think I've more in common with Haworth in the 1840s than the bizarre culture on view here (there's a potential Attenborough series!). I do like Anna Kendrick's voice (first noticed her in 'Into the Woods') - I love the 'When I'm Gone' song which was recently used as a UK TV theme ('Mum').  

Edited December 31, 2016 by A Lark Ascending

[jazzbo]

Moving on to season 3 of X-Files on Blu-ray (had to after that cliff-hanger!) I really never saw all these episodes of X-Files and it was about season 4 where I had to stop watching broadcasts as my wife's clinical paranoia made it something best not to have played back. . . .

But man they did a fantastic job with these transfers, the show looks astonishingly good.

[kinuta]

Sherlock The Six Thatchers

 

Comic book balderdash.

The script writing chaps were on holiday so the tea lady, assisted by Guy Ritchie, took up the reins.

I'll stick to Elementary, at least it has half decent stories.

[JohnS]

2 hours ago, kinuta said:

Sherlock The Six Thatchers

 

Comic book balderdash.

The script writing chaps were on holiday so the tea lady, assisted by Guy Ritchie, took up the reins.

I'll stick to Elementary, at least it has half decent stories.

The new Sherlock is not for me.  More nonsensical than ever.

[jazzbo]

Nashville was okay. Rhiannon Giddens is joining the cast.

[A Lark Ascending]

Finished this superb four parter. Each episode focused on four or five lesser known figures to try to tell a story of the black experience in Britain (though Leslie 'Hutch' Hutchinson was one in the last episode known to followers of early British jazz and light music). About a year ago David Cameron was using the abolition of the slave trade as an example of British exceptionalism to wave about, desperately trying to out-chauvinise UKIP - episode three here really brought home the role of the British cotton industry in sustaining slavery in the States after abolition.

The series did use some of the annoying 'popularising' habits that can really jar -  David Olusoga (the presenter) weeping over the place he'd been driven out of by racist intimidation in his teens (he had every reason to weep but we've seen too many celebrities weeping over their great, great half-uncle twice removed to remain uncynical about such scenes), a little bit too much of the plaque celebrations (nice idea but gets repetitive) and those godawful recaps (now you may have forgotten what we told you five minutes ago...). But this was powerful TV. Hopefully we'll see more of Olusoga (and rather less of Lucy Worsley telling us about Tudor handbags). 

A timely series.

A couple of other series have returned - 'The Unforgotten' (interesting but the first episode hasn't yet got things airborne) and 'Endeavour' (the latter as creaky and mushy as ever but makes for undemanding Sunday night watching). 

Finally into the last series of 'The Good Wife' which I wasn't too excited by to start with but it's starting to grip; and Series 3 of 'Cheers' which is priceless. 

[jlhoots]

Taboo

[mikeweil]

Indispensable!!!

[uli]

passed Jan 16, 2017. RIP

[erwbol]

 

[kinuta]

Endeavour

So now we know the back story to Morse's George Medal.

Good to see Fred and his missus smiling again.

Look forward to the next series.

Apple Tree Yard

Pretty good little thriller with Emily Watson.

[Matthew]

The Mary Tyler Moore Show. Like many others, the death of Moore has caused me to revisit TMTMS, and I'm watching with a tinge of melancholy -- it was a wonderfully human show.

[jlhoots]

MSNBC - Rachel Maddow

[kinuta]

The Good Fight

Now that's how a sequel should be done. Classy, brilliantly written and rivetingly watchable.

Like seeing an old friend and finding they are smarter and more interesting than ever.

 

Edited February 20, 2017 by kinuta

[jazzbo]

I figured it would be good. I didn't watch it as I'm not going to pay CBS to watch it going forward.

[Jazzmoose]

Cool...Amazon Prime has Peter Gunn!

[kinuta]

Kubrick Remembered.

Really great documentary now available on You Tube.

 

 

[duaneiac]

I found this at the library and have been watching some episodes.  TBV was not a show I paid much attention to as a kid.  Even then, it seemed to me like an obvious rip-off of Bonanza, only with a grey haired woman as head of the clan instead of a grey haired man.  I had no idea that in addition to Jarrod, Nick and half-bother Heath, there was also another Barkley boy, Eugene.  He was quickly sent off to school and disappeared from the show as I guess they had no idea what to do with the character.  Linda Evans was a really lousy actress back then.  I don't know if she ever improved by the time Dynasty rolled around as I never watched that show.  Lee Majors must have been selected as the sex symbol because they did show his butt a lot and found ways to get him shirtless pretty often.

But of course the main reason to watch this show was the one and only Miss Barbara Stanwyck.  Thank goodness for TV, because even though she should have still been making major motion pictures at the time, she at least had the opportunity to work her craft on the small screen after the offers for roles on the big screen stopped coming.  Some of the episodes here don't give her much to work with, but in one episode, due to an earthquake, she is trapped underground with guest star Charles Bronson.  Well, in a head to head match up between Charles Bronson and Barbara Stanwyck, any smart person would know whom to put their money on -- and it ain't Mr. Majestyk.  When she finally has had enough of his attitude, Ms. S unleashes a verbal tirade upon him that is a wonder to behold.

[Shawn]