What is the last Television series you watched?

[Naïve Old Fart 11,393]

Some "political" nonsense, called THE POLITICIAN'S HUSBAND.

It concerns an abortive attempt by an MP, to run for PM, and getting revenge for the people who screwed him over.

Despite a decent cast - David Tennant; Emily Watson; Roger Allam - it's pretty sterile.

None of the characters, including an older son with autism and a halfway-sympathetic granddad, were endearing, and I ended up not giving a single gorram about what happened to any of them.

There was lots of sex, but no love, and there was an awful lot of drinking alcohol.

Ultimately, it was all beneath both their talents, and my time and energy.

Maybe I'm hard to please, but... 3/10

[Jay 41,830]

3 hours ago, Tom Guernsey said:

it reminded me of that camera that effect that makes things look like a model that was super popular some years ago (tile scan or something?)

 

Tilt Shift!

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tilt–shift_photography

 

Used notably in Game Night

 

 

[Marian Schedenig 10,000]

4 hours ago, Jay said:

Tilt Shift!

 

Often faked by simply heavily blurring the top and bottom of a picture. Whereas shallow focus (generally) isn't a vertical gradient.

[Quintus 5,617]

S01E04 of White Lotus. Love it!

[Bespin Copilot 9,473]

I didn't like the finale... it felt too rushed and unsatisfactory. What a waste of time.

[Quintus 5,617]

I'm probably months away from the ending.

[Mr. Lovejoy 7,903]

The latest HBO series I can happily ignore while everyone else watches it. Like Game of Thrones. "You've gotta see this!"

 

*flicks on 30 year old show*

[tomsmoviemadness 4,042]

Hacks: Season 4 x Episode 1 & 2

 

This show is soo good!!

Both Jean Smart & Hannah Einbeinder are incredible here. I knoe Jean Smart has won a bunch of awards for her role, but I seriously feel Eindbeinder should win for her performance as well. She should've won for last season, but she remains stellar here.

 

The writing also remains fantastic. Love how Eva & Deborah are pitted against each other, while still showing there is some love between them.

Jimmy also remains to be a great character.

 

Together with Shrinking, these are the 2 best comedy show out there right now in my opinion.

[Quintus 5,617]

On 09/04/2025 at 11:36 PM, Mr. Lovejoy said:

The latest HBO series I can happily ignore while everyone else watches it. Like Game of Thrones. "You've gotta see this!"

 

*flicks on 30 year old show*

 

That's great, but there's nothing or less to talk to you about then 🤷‍♂️

[Quintus 5,617]

Let's bump this dead thread again then.

 

Finished White Lotus season one. Was late to this (only learned of it about a month ago and watched it on an impulse), but I bloody loved it. The guy who played the resort manager was a force of frickin' nature, a magnetic presence on him; a sort of Basil Fawlty meets Sean effin Connery, the dude was incredible. Gutted he's only in this season.

 

Only complaint was the constant choral mosaic on the soundtrack, which while effective, I eventually just found grating.

[Lady Dimitrescu 9,636]

The music felt like it was parodying the pompous personalities and the poshy hotel itself.

[Quintus 5,617]

It's definitely taking the piss.

[crocodile 9,056]

It's one on my list. I've seen some bits from season 2, I think, and it was pretty good.

 

Between this and Succession, which one would you guys recommend to watch first?

 

Karol

[Lady Dimitrescu 9,636]

I didn't enjoy Succession at all and gave up midway Season 1, but I watched all of White Flatus just fine.

[Quintus 5,617]

Succession I burned out on due to binging. It was that compulsive, I couldn't stop watching another one or two episodes every night. I eventually got a few episodes into the penultimate season and decided to have a break, but I'm yet to get back to it. I definitely will do though. I shouldn't really binge stuff and I don't normally, but that might tell you something about Succession's quality.

[Holko 11,231]

Somehow I've never gotten around to watching Black Mirror, only now, without knowing that a new season would arrive pretty much when I would finish with the rest. Worked out great!

 

Loved most of it. The early stuff might have had a stronger identity and it may have softened up later, but I can be a big old softie and happily took all that stuff too. I only started to get mixed on S5 and especially 6, the execution, idea quality and exploration depth started to really slacken in many episodes. So I'm very glad 7 is a return to form, I really enjoyed 5 of the 6 new episodes!

[Marian Schedenig 10,000]

Yes, I've always thought that it obviously changed through the series, but (mostly) not for the worse. Curiously, I found everyone's favourite episode from the previous series one of the more disappointing ones, although I (again unlike most) mostly still liked the series very much. Haven't seen the new one yet - I didn't have time for it before, and now I'm slightly anxious to start because apparently the opening episode is a massive downer (and I'm not sure I'm in the mood for a Requiem for a Dream style depression right now, in case that is what it is).

[Holko 11,231]

11 minutes ago, Marian Schedenig said:

and now I'm slightly anxious to start because apparently the opening episode is a massive downer (and I'm not sure I'm in the mood for a Requiem for a Dream style depression right now, in case that is what it is).

It is a big downer but it's pretty heavyhanded and unsubtle with what it criticises, almost in a "just how absurd can this get" kind of pitch black tragicomedy way, so that spices it up.

It made me more angry than depressed.

[tomsmoviemadness 4,042]

Hacks Season 4 x Episode 4

 

This show remains to be stellar!

Great writing and the performances also remain fantastic.

 

Loved the two cameos this episode of Randy Newman & Carol Burnett. Burnett's appearance was especially wonderful and had an impact on the story.

 

Loved how Burnett told Deborah that she always chooses one person in the audience and does the entire show for them. To later see Deborah having a hard time and then chooses Ava to that for was so sweet!

 

Smart & Einbeinder remain a stellar double act.

 

Excited to see how Ava's adventures eith that couple turn out

[Marian Schedenig 10,000]

On 20/04/2025 at 8:09 PM, Holko said:

It is a big downer but it's pretty heavyhanded and unsubtle with what it criticises, almost in a "just how absurd can this get" kind of pitch black tragicomedy way, so that spices it up.

It made me more angry than depressed.

 

Finished the new series yesterday. Common People turned out to be indeed a very Requiem for a Dream take on subscription models (an obvious, but still clever concept). Without the emotional impact of that film, fortunately - which might be a shortcoming of the episode (despite everything, it was more invested on a conceptual level than an emotional one), but in this case one I'm grateful for.

 

I very much liked the rest of the series too - to varying degrees as usual, but I found all the episodes satisfying in their own way. Eulogy is the standout, and will hopefully join the likes of San Junipero as one of The Classic Black Mirror Episodes - and with a brilliant Paul Giamatti, too. Cristin Milioti also deserves a mention for her return in the second part of what will hopefully become the USS Callister trilogy.

[Holko 11,231]

Yes, Eulogy was fantastic, and I also really liked Hotel Reverie. I did have slight problems with some episodes earlier where they seemed to hinge on "oh look at these poor simulated nonreal people", but these are back to focusing on real people and how they're affected by these simulations.

 

The adventure and cast and fantastic TOS parody carried the original USS Callister for me despite this problem, but now this new one went a little deeper and explored some elements a little better which I really liked.

 

Ooo and I liked the setting and slow unraveling of Bête Noire even if I didn't think it successfully stuck the landing at the end and thought it was funny that EEAAO ended up being harder scifi than a Black Mirror episode on the same concept

[Marian Schedenig 10,000]

22 minutes ago, Holko said:

Yes, Eulogy was fantastic, and I also really liked Hotel Reverie.

 

I liked Reverie with all its Casablanca references. The funny thing is that once again it seems to be - aside from the general holodeck setting - at its core a remake of a Star Trek episodes: In this case, one of the great STTNG classics (The Inner Light).

 

22 minutes ago, Holko said:

I did have slight problems with some episodes earlier where they seemed to hinge on "oh look at these poor simulated nonreal people", but these are back to focusing on real people and how they're affected by these simulations.

 

The adventure and cast and fantastic TOS parody carried the original USS Callister for me despite this problem, but now this new one went a little deeper and explored some elements a little better which I really liked.

 

Also, at least in the case of the Callister episodes, the point is: Those simulated people are "real" in most aspects that count. It would be interesting (although perhaps overkill) if a future Callister sequel reveals that the assumed "reality" is also just a simulation.

 

22 minutes ago, Holko said:

Ooo and I liked the setting and slow unraveling of Bête Noire even if I didn't think it successfully stuck the landing at the end and thought it was funny that EEAAO ended up being harder scifi than a Black Mirror episode on the same concept

 

The ending was abrupt, and maybe slightly rubbed me the wrong way, but it fits - I think it's the right ending (and Plaything's ending is right for the same reason). In general, the episode was very successful in conveying a feeling of absolute helplessness. Also, a nice little tech twist:

(From IMDb)

Spoiler

Adding to the "Mandela Effect" theme of the episode, two different versions of scenes are played for viewers. The logo for the chicken company on the hat seen at the beginning of the episode, as well as later when the office is arguing over the name of the restaurant is different... (Barney's & Bernie's) complete with alternative dialogue. Viewers are presented with one version or the other (seemingly at random). This is a very "meta" Easter egg which adds another layer of differing memory beyond the actual episode and onto the viewer themselves, perfectly in line with the themes of the episode and the series as a whole.

 

I find it ironic how Black Mirror occasionally makes creative use of streaming's potential (cf. Bandersnatch - although that could be done with Blu-ray technology as well) while generally regularly basing episodes on its problem and dangers (Common People applies here to some extent).

 

Speaking of which: Either my internet connection has issues or Netflix is becoming worse, but several episodes had rather awful compression when I watched them. Also, Netflix seems to have problems with compressing B&W content - I noticed that last year when watching Ripley, and now it was so obvious in Hotel Reverie that I wondered whether they deliberately added bad compression to the film-in-film parts (but I don't think they did).

[Naïve Old Fart 11,393]

THE NEWSROOM 

S1, E1.

Well, you gotta start somewhere 

It's snappy, sassy, and intelligent. Jeff Daniels' speech at the beginning is worthy of an Emmy, right there. It's as if Tom Grunik grew up, and grew a pair.

It's also very, very fast.

Did the cast all have three double espressos in-between takes? I had to rewind the DVD just to catch all the dialogue.

I liked Sam Waterston's oblique nod to THE KILLING FIELDS.

The main title is lovely, bucolic, and very American.

It remains to be seen if this is the finest drama about TV (at the moment that accolade is shared between NETWORK, and BROADCAST NEWS), but it has great potential.

We will watch this show with great interest.

[Quintus 5,617]

In the end I didn't mind And/Or when I watched it last summer, so I pressed play on the new season that recently began. Unfortunately the whole scene right at the start with the bouncy tie fighter just put me right off the whole thing this time, so I bailed. Oh well.

 

I hate that increasingly invasive Loony Tunes shit that happens with CG action nowadays.

[Yavar Moradi 3,462]

I think The Newsroom is the most polished Aaron Sorkin show, with certainly the best music (and look). But parts of it (like that monologue) haven't aged well, for me. In terms of even just Sorkin shows about TV (and there are three), Sports Night has no competition IMO.

 

Yavar