Topic: What's your favourite TV program of the moment?

[6pairsofshoes]

Thanks.  Since I have no interest in pursuing the series or the book, do they ever explain how the dome got there?

I've seen the tv adaptation of The Dead Zone (maybe it was a movie?  idk as  I saw it on tv) with Christopher Walken, who did a creditable job with the part.  It was sad, but satisfying.

[8ullfrog]

Dome was a one off, and yes, and it's stupid.

The Walken movie Dead zone was fantastic, the TV show was horrible, even though it had the super cute ezri dax in it.

It was like they were trying to blend a police procedural with 7th Heaven. Schmaltzy poo.

The movie is straight up horror, and almost seems too good to be King.

Rare straight up hero role for Walken too. I feel like his absurdly skilled acting has relegated him to "HOLY poo IT'S CHRISTOPHER WALKEN" roles.

Or maybe he just likes small parts? He has a standing invitation to host SNL whenever he likes. So does Alec Baldwin.

[6pairsofshoes]

I read the Wikipedia synopsis and it sounded really idiotic.

Just finished Counterpart, a Starz program.  It was interesting and intelligent in riffing on the split Berlin situation.  A kind of science fiction post cold war thriller.  The acting was decent.  I think they could have lightened up a bit on the sad string music, but otherwise it was well done.

[6pairsofshoes]

Umbre, a Romanian series via amazon prime.  It seems really good.  Cab driver/bag man for some gangsters and his adventures.  So far, it's been really entertaining.  The main character is quite laconic, doesn't talk much, but he's a smart guy, kind of restrained.

[goldshirt*9]

Endeavour, another series finished. another year to wait 

[6pairsofshoes]

We love Endeavour.  I was just commenting to my husband that it does such a great job of laying out the back story to the guy that eventually becomes the cantankerous, frustrated, and lonely Morse.  The episodes are all well done and compelling.  We're rewatching it now.

I just finished another one of Amazon Prime's euro fest tv shows.  This one was done by TnT Europe.  "Four Blocks."  About a family of Islamic immigrants who have been in Berlin, Germany for 3 decades, and prevented from earning a legitimate living until they achieve legal resident status, something that they long for as they'd prefer to go straight.  But, in the meantime, they've resorted to selling drugs, protection schemes and other nefarious activities.  An undercover cop infiltrates their group and we follow their developments.  Conflicts within the family as the women disapprove of the violent and illegal activities of their husbands (who tell them to shut up and go clean the house or whatev'); as the men disagree about how to deal with problems from rival gangs -- there's a particularly creepy and ruthless American style motorcycle club called the Cthulhus who are more than prone to violence and who are constantly fighting over drug turf with the Islamic family.  There's plenty to keep you occupied in terms of plot development and the acting is really good.  The bad guys really make your skin crawl and there are internal conflicts within the more virtuous characters.  I just finished Season 1.  I was pleased to see there's another one.  It sort of reminds me of The Wire, the David Simon series that is based in Baltimore.

I was annoyed that seasons 2 & 3 of Shadows (Umbre), the Romanian gangster series, is not available on Prime or anywhere else for that matter.  I guess I could find it in a video store in Bucharest, but that's a bit far to travel for late night entertainment.

[6pairsofshoes]

Back to American Gods.  I don't know the book but the show is pretty entertaining.

[goldshirt*9]

read the book, mmmmmmmmm

[Beatrix]

I've been rewatching inuyasha until recently when I caught up with what I've seen last night.  So, now I have much to watch that I haven't seen yet.  It's pretty nice, kinda like some of the books and comics i haven't read in forever and now there's more to read because more has been released since I took hiatus.
Wish I could do this with my shows, but alas, I am eagerly waiting for game of thrones final season like the rest of us.  I have been saving walking dead though, haven't watched the newest season yet.  I'm pained that Vikings was canceled.

[6pairsofshoes]

Ran out of things to watch, so I found more of You're the Worst.  That show jumped the shark a while back and I thought it was over, but it's back for one more revenue producing season, because we have to wring every last cent out of our investment, right?

I like to see some things through to the end.  I need a break from the maths now.  Fun but hard, so I watch crap tv sometimes to blow out the cobwebs.

[8ullfrog]

I'm still on Season 1 of my SG1 rewatch. I suck at this.

[6pairsofshoes]

I started watching "Fortitude," set in a northern island town of the same name in Norway.  Why would anyone want to live in this godforsaken place?  It's cold and grim.  Soap opera ensues and spiced up with horror movie variety parasite coming from wooly mammoth unearthed from the permafrost.  Of course it makes people murderous and crazy, hence the horror movie aspect of it.  I got tired of it about episode 8 of season 1.  Life's too short.

It was promising.  It has some decent actors, but it just got to be too stupid for my tastes.  Of course, I'm sort of intolerant of dull zombie series where people just go around shooting others in the head.  This did not necessarily take that tack but it tracks in a parallel direction.

Also on my list for tv series to disdain:  "A Very English Scandal."  Think:  Walt Disney decides to make an upbeat tv show about closeted gay people in the 1960's starring Hugh Grant, an actor who seems to have been out partying when they were handing out gravitas.  Lite n laffy.  The other actors are much better.  The contrast of talent is especially glaring when one sees Ben Whishaw opposite Grant.  The former can act rings around the latter.  Grant seems to have one speed, whether he's in "Lair of the White Worm," "Four Weddings and a Funeral" or this farce.  For a while, I thought I'd accidentally tuned into a Harry Enfield skit,

  The whole thing is sort of flippant and verging on incredible, despite the claims of having been based on a true story.  We will probably watch more of it, because of Whishaw and Alex Jennings, who plays a credible supporting role, but it could have been much better.

[8ullfrog]

I think there was a show that had a similar parasite premise set in DC, but reality made the show redundant, so they canceled it. I can't remember the name of the show, dead something. Impossible to google, you just get stupid walking dead poo. God I hate Walking Dead.

[6pairsofshoes]

I tried to like that series, and I just can't.  It's stress fest and when will yet another zombie appear that you have to dispatch by gore laden gunshots to their noggin?  How many exploding heads can one person watch?  It's like some kind of WPA program for the animation department so they can depict the carnage.  Snore.

I'm still enjoying the Man in the High Castle, which I'm restrained from consuming quickly because I have promised to watch it with my husband.  Don't know that I'll have much late night viewing to watch except for American Gods.  There should be another episode of that out tonight.  And of course I'm counting the days until the return of GOT.  Odd that they'll wrap up the show before George RR Martin writes the next book.  What's he waiting for, anyway?

That also reminds me that the next volume in the Expanse series is supposed to have been published in March.  I just checked and it's out!  Tiamat's Wrath.  I'm reading a couple other novels so it will have to wait but I'm psyched.  I'm also curious to know how that series will develop now that amazon is producing it.

I've never seen Stargate SG-1.  You are watching it again, so I assume you liked it the first time around?

[8ullfrog]

eh, I feel like a lot of characters became idiots in the last season because they ran out of source material. Tyrion and Littlefinger especially.

Varys and Melisandre have basically been put on a bus.

I liked Kit Harrington on SNL, but he kept doing this wheedly American Accent in the sketches, and I couldn't for the life of me understand why.

In the monologue, Emilia clark implied she bent him between episodes, and it was filmed. Not Jon Snow / Daenerys. Also, Rose Leslie was like, 20 feet away, and demanded spoilers.

Also John Bradley implied he dies by dragon fire, which was super funny.

The highlights of the entire show were the monologue and first sketch, which was GOT spin-offs. Most of them were garbage, but they got Mariska Hargitay and Ice-T to do a GOT - SVU segment. Mariska kinda rushed Ice, who was having fun with it. She should have rolled with it more. Still, it was funny. Also nerd compliant, they were working Flea Bottom.

Damn, how the hell did I get her name right on the first try?