đŸ“ș GOOD SHOWS (no capeshit pls)

TV
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I didn’t want to spoil too much because I knew where you were in the series, but yep, John Smith is a great character, and the show is very interesting.

Dan Carlin, who does the Hardcore History podcast, pulls a fascinating comparison between Genghis Khan and Adolf Hitler. Completely different ideologies; Hitler was a racial purist while Genghis was a ruthless pragmatist. Both had mass murder in their lockers. Carlin makes the case that Genghis Khan benefits from seeing his legacy come to fruition, and Hitler will forever be reviled. Both get the tag of “historical arsonist”. He ponders on whether more moderate voices might have emerged once the flames had died out.

The Man in The High Castle is a fascinating show. It locks eyes on these moderates, or in the case of Smith, a true believer confronting the scientific indifference of the regime, and stays focused.

One of the best reviews I read of the first season made a big deal of who you’re actually rooting for by series’ end. The truth is that it’s loads of people, in different factions, for different reasons. That is a fairly smart achievement.

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I may have mentioned that The Brink is a show with no Marvel involvement (so Pap won’t watch it)

Well I’ve had family & mates over last few weeks and they all totally LOVED it. Go find it on Spotiflixs or whatever.

I also may have mentioned some HBO shows. One of them (Blindspot) is turning out to be thoroughly enjoyable. Take the Yank from Strikeback (ok the Aussie with the bad Yank accent), stick him in the FBI in New York and dump a naked amnesiac fiteh on a Times Square covered in tatoos with his name front & centre on her back.

First 2 or 3 episodes it is totally meh another Cop story with a twist, BUT, whiile never even pretending to get into Leftovers let alone True Detective areas it starts to develop an unexpected depth to it.

It is a glossy Action Cop thingy, but manages to build an affectionate X Files Marlboro Man level of Conspiracy Theory to it so it has a bot of depth and becomes damned good TV. In fact it is possibly the FIRST post Snowden era TV Show and implies him throughout

Oh sod all that, the chick with the tattoos is Jaimie Alexander who could quite simply be the best new fiteh on TV

Jaimie

And no Bear, no Bewbs even though there should be, gets a big :fills the shoot em up: gap at the moment

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re Blindspot, I read an article that says it takes 5 hours to do all the tats pre shooting and that the ink in them was starting to make her feel ill.

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That Narcos is good isn’t it?! On Episode 6 now. It’s a good job my memory is appaling as I read Killing Padlo by Mark Bowden some time ago but cannot remember any of it.

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Narcos next on my list, its too good to ignore! Have just downloaded Sicario to watch first though.

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A couple of things to report on. First, I’ve gotten through the second season of Fargo. It had a tough act to follow after the surprisingly excellent first season, but I think they did an even better job. Doesn’t feel like too many scenes are wasted, and the everyman couple that get way in over their heads are beautifully played. Kirsten Dunst is a particular revelation; her character is one of the most unsettling in the show.

I did wonder how they might top the malevolence of Lorne Malvo, or the damage caused by his misdeeds, but there is one malign presence in particular that gets to define how events play out, and the show still leaves motives a mystery, in the main. There is also some very weird shit that goes down, which might cause some to scream deus ex machina, but for me, it’s signposted well enough and the rest of the show is so good that you’re prepared to let the showrunners get away with anything.

Also, I’ve seen the first episode of Catherine Tate’s Nan, her best character in a full length sitcom. Hugely offensive, but very funny at the same time.

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Something that Pap and I don’t agree on - Catherine Tate’s gran character being funny. It’s good to not always agree with him all of the time. :slight_smile:

Whilst on that sort of subject (TV shows) could I ask people’s opinions on Mrs Brown’s Boys as I am slightly perturb at its alleged popularity.

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Mrs Browns Boys is shit.

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Looking forward to Channel Four showing Deutschland 82 starting 3rd Jan I think - subtitles but Spy/thrilller/drama/with some black comedy apparnetly when an a Young east German solider is recruited to head west


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Yep
Starts on Sunday 21.00.

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Blasted through Master of None, really enjoyed it. Very funny, quite dry (for an American show) and some interesting character.

Bit quirky, and possibly twee so maybe not for everyone.

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I’m looking forward to seeing Deutschland 83. Do I need to watch 82 before or are they stand alone programmes?

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Before 84 I think 
 slip of the old keyboard fingering thingy 82/83 ‘‘What’s another year?’’

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OK some new ones inbound from the US on dowload netflix or Sky Atlantic for you I guess. Both are spin-offs from Movies.

  1. Minority Report.

OK we all know the movie and it’s funky touchscreen stuff. Well, the series is simply set 15 years after the movie. Without too many spoilers, Ton Cruise was a hero, Pre-Crime is no more and the 3 Savants were set free.

And so from that we move to the series, basically the Savants are hidden away and a Detective Meagan Good is solving crimes.

Now this shows HUGE promise, not least for the Wonderbra that the female Lead Detective seems to wear throughout Episode 1- it very seamlessly picks up a story most will know and runs into the future with it, with a few nice side takes to show it may have more to it.

Certainly enjoyed and waiting for Episode 2 later tonight, downside is that Fox cut the number of episodes from 13 to 10 and seems to have canned it. Ho hum

  1. Dominion.

OK a spin off from a film I did NOT see - Legion. Again, some years on from the movie and I assume following some of the characters. Basically Vega is a fortress almost Dictatorship keeping people safe from attack by Angels (yeah I really needed to see the film).

Having said that, it showed promise and will watch again, even though I know it only just scraped into a S2 and got canned before it had any form of ending

On the Bewbs count, unfortunately none in either (yet) apart from the two sizes too small running bra/vest in MR and the (I expect Evil Dictator in waiting) getting a BJ from some chick in a bath tub.

IF you saw Legion then I expect you’ll enjoy a grown up Buffy/Angel kinda thing. Me?

Which is in fact simply my way of trying hard to find shit to fill the time in until 18th January when we get


The X Files Mini-Series!!

Now THAT is worth waiting for

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Hmm, I wasn’t a fan tbh. I do quite like Aziz Ansari but I think the whole thing reeked of him trying to do a younger version of “Louie” but without any of the depth, warmth and genuine creativity that Louie has.

Speaking of Aziz Ansari, I watched the last series of Parks & Rec recently. The show was a bit hit-and-miss but it’ll be forever remembered by me for 2 of the best TV moments ever (although one of them never aired
)

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Fair enough I guess. I didn’t really know much about him, and I’ve never really watched Louie. So didn’t have much to compare it to.

I still really enjoyed Master of None, it wasn’t ground breaking but enjoyable nonetheless.

Guess I should crack on with Louie.

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Comparing MoN and Louie is a really douchey move that I feel almost guilty for, but Louie does everything MoN does, but better. You’ll like it!

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I have been watching Sense8 on Netflix. I took a look because I like the people involved. J. Michael Straczynski is the creator of arguably the finest ever sci-fi show; the Wachowski siblings have done some of the best looking sci-fi out there, as well as one of its iconic films. The show is about connections, and specifically about eight people that are connected to each other in ways that humans normally aren’t. In the pilot, they each experience visions of each others existences; most of them think that they’re going mad.

I don’t want to spoil too much, because it is by design, something of a slow burner - but the show only really has that one idea. The way it develops and plays with those ideas is sublime; I watched the first couple of episodes intrigued. The third episode has a fantastic climax, which coincides with having a bit of sympathy for all of the characters - I was hooked after that point. It’s adult; lots of nookie in it and plenty of blue language.

It certainly doesn’t hurt that it has some stunningly beautiful people in it, and the ease on the eye is not limited to the candy. The show has a global setting; it looks as if they’ve filmed a lot of it on location. Compared to the formulaic office bound stuff, it looks fantastic. Great supporting cast too.

Spoilery trailer here, but well recommended, even if the fuckers don’t pay their taxes. :lou_angry:

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hmm r u trying to get some capeshit in under the radar, pappington?

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Deutschland 83 showed promise - as someone who speaks the language, you get a lot more of the nuances and subtle humour - in effect there are sly pisstakes out of the German psyche
and not just teh east german paranoia which was very real at the time
worth seeing how it develops.

Also interested in C4s French political thriller/drama ‘Spin’ which starts this week.

Finally did anyone else catch series 1 and 2 of ‘Hard’? French comedy shown on Sky Arts about a women whoafter her husbands death discovered his actual business was making porn
 if came as quite a shock
 good smart comedy with plenty of nudity for Bearsy
 series 3 just started, again on Sky Arts.

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