Author Topic: Television tonight: what's worth watching?  (Read 333384 times)

Oscar's dad

  • aka Septimus Fitzwilliam Beauregard Partridge
Re: Television tonight, whats worth watching
« Reply #1175 on: 18 January, 2018, 11:24:07 am »
It's not that I don't want to watch it, I just have commitment issues. It'll take months to watch them all.

It does.  You have to commit to sitting on your sofa for hours on end drinking your drink of choice and eating your snack of choice.  During the winter, whilst the weather is rubbish, we don't have a problem with this level of commitment.

Mr Larrington

  • A bit ov a lyv wyr by slof standirds
  • Custard Wallah
    • Mr Larrington's Automatic Diary
Re: Television tonight, whats worth watching
« Reply #1176 on: 18 January, 2018, 11:28:09 am »
Ah, OD, but you're not a jetsetting Tidy-Haired Thought Leader :demon:
External Transparent Wall Inspection Operative & Mayor of Mortagne-au-Perche
Satisfying the Bloodlust of the Masses in Peacetime

ian

Re: Television tonight, whats worth watching
« Reply #1177 on: 18 January, 2018, 11:41:25 am »
With a limited attention span. I can't watch more than two hours of telev... oh look, a squirrel.

Maybe they could break it up into Powerpoint slides. Bullet point those plot elements.

Oscar's dad

  • aka Septimus Fitzwilliam Beauregard Partridge
Re: Television tonight, whats worth watching
« Reply #1178 on: 18 January, 2018, 11:45:17 am »
Ah, OD, but you're not a jetsetting Tidy-Haired Thought Leader :demon:

Sometimes it helps to be as shallow as a puddle.

Oscar's dad

  • aka Septimus Fitzwilliam Beauregard Partridge
Re: Television tonight, whats worth watching
« Reply #1179 on: 18 January, 2018, 11:46:37 am »
With a limited attention span. I can't watch more than two hours of telev... oh look, a squirrel.

I'm not noted for my ability to sit still for long but I can when it comes to Netflix, go figure...

Eccentrica Gallumbits

  • Rock 'n' roll and brew, rock 'n' roll and brew...
Re: Television tonight, whats worth watching
« Reply #1180 on: 18 January, 2018, 12:44:33 pm »
The second part of the BBC's Big Cats thing is on tonight. The footage is great, but the narration is dire. And Pete would like it to be known that the black-footed cat does not have the highest kill success rate of all cats at 60%. Pete manages to kill his glittery spider at least 90% of the time, and his catnip hedgehog about 80% of the time but sometimes he just licks it and gets too stoned to kill it.
My feminist marxist dialectic brings all the boys to the yard.


Oscar's dad

  • aka Septimus Fitzwilliam Beauregard Partridge
Re: Television tonight, whats worth watching
« Reply #1181 on: 18 January, 2018, 02:46:46 pm »
Pete and a mate need to make a feline version of Breaking Bad where they buy a beaten up Winnebago and manufacture 100% pure synthetic catnip.

Oscar's dad

  • aka Septimus Fitzwilliam Beauregard Partridge
Re: Television tonight, whats worth watching
« Reply #1182 on: 29 January, 2018, 07:22:52 am »
on netflix...
Narcos is excellent.  3 seasons of gripping stuff.  Hard hitting at times.  You get used to the high spanish subtitle content.

An update...

Yesterday afternoon we had time for a Netflix session. We tried MAD Men but after half an hour decided it wasn’t for us. Then we tried Narcos and enjoyed the first two episodes of Season 1. I think we’ve found our next fix!

Re: Television tonight, whats worth watching
« Reply #1183 on: 06 February, 2018, 02:31:17 pm »
Horizon last night.  I think I might have got something in my eye towards the end. 

Kim

  • Timelord
    • Fediverse
Re: Television tonight, whats worth watching
« Reply #1184 on: 06 February, 2018, 03:46:41 pm »
Yesterday I discovered http://www.channel4.com/programmes/the-biggest-little-railway-in-the-world

It's got that tedious mission documentary style, but the fundamental eccentricity of the idea (like that James May programme with the 10 mile Hornby railway, but more ambitious) is pleasing enough that it's eminently watchable.  Confirms a few stereotypes about model railway enthusiasts and engineers... kind of thing that makes you proud to be British.

LEE

  • "Shut Up Jens" - Legs.
Re: Television tonight, whats worth watching
« Reply #1185 on: 06 February, 2018, 04:03:15 pm »
Yesterday I discovered http://www.channel4.com/programmes/the-biggest-little-railway-in-the-world

It's got that tedious mission documentary style, but the fundamental eccentricity of the idea (like that James May programme with the 10 mile Hornby railway, but more ambitious) is pleasing enough that it's eminently watchable.  Confirms a few stereotypes about model railway enthusiasts and engineers... kind of thing that makes you proud to be British.

A 1 hour program, stretched to (what feels like) a hundred 1 hour programs.

Every now and then I like to remind myself of the TV shows suggested, in a blind panic, by Alan Partridge.  Steve Coogan says he thought of the most ludicrous ideas he could.  A couple of decades later and they have either been made or sound like they could have been made....

Alan Partridge: [Opening a file] Right, OK. Shoestring, Taggart, Spender, Bergerac, Morse. What does that say to you about regional detective series?
Tony Hayers: There's too many of them?
Alan Partridge: That's one way of looking at it, another way of looking at it is, people like them, let's make some more of them. A detective series based in Norwich called "Swallow". Swallow is a detective who tackles vandalism. Bit of a maverick, not afraid to break the law if he thinks it's necessary. He's not a criminal, you know, but he will, perhaps, travel 80mph on the motorway if, for example, he wants to get somewhere quickly...
[Tony shakes his head]
Alan Partridge: Think about it. No one had heard of Oxford before Inspector Morse. I mean, this will put Norwich on the map.
Tony Hayers: Why would I want to do that?
Alan Partridge: Yep, fair point.
[He turns to another page]
Alan Partridge: OK, right. "Alan Attack!". Like the Cook Report, but with a more slapstick approach.
[Tony shakes his head again]
Alan Partridge: 'Arm Wrestling with Chas and Dave'.
Tony Hayers: I don't think so.
Alan Partridge: Pity, because they were very keen on that one. Right, now you'll like this... "Knowing M.E., Knowing You". I, Alan Partridge, talk to M.E. sufferers about the condition. You know, we intersperse it with their favourite pop songs, make it light-hearted, you know, give them a platform, you've got to keep the energy up, because...
[Tony shakes his head, horrified]
Alan Partridge: You don't like it? That's alright, that's OK... "Inner-City Sumo".
Tony Hayers: What's that?
Alan Partridge: We take fat people from the inner cities, put them in big nappies, and then get them to throw each other out of a circle that we draw with chalk on the ground.
Tony Hayers: [laughing and shaking his head] No, no, it's a bad idea.
Alan Partridge: Very cheap to make. Do it in a pub car park.
Tony Hayers: [laughing] No.
Tony Hayers: If you don't do it, Sky will.
Alan Partridge: Well, I'll live with that. Is that it?
Alan Partridge: Well, no, no, um... Cooking in prison.
Tony Hayers: [laughing] Oh, no.
Alan Partridge: Uh, uh... "A Partridge Amongst The Pigeons".
Tony Hayers: What's that?
Alan Partridge: Well, it's just a title, I mean... Erm... No, uh-uh-uh, opening sequence, me, in Trafalgar Square, feeding the pigeons, going "Oh God!"
Tony Hayers: [Holds his hands up] No, I'm sorry, no! Stop!
Alan Partridge: [Stammers] Erm, erm... Youth Hosteling with... Chris Eubank.
Tony Hayers: [laughs] No!
[a pause as Alan tries to think of something else]
Alan Partridge: Monkey Tennis?
Some people say I'm self-obsessed but that's enough about them.

Kim

  • Timelord
    • Fediverse
Re: Television tonight, whats worth watching
« Reply #1186 on: 06 February, 2018, 04:22:25 pm »
Yesterday I discovered http://www.channel4.com/programmes/the-biggest-little-railway-in-the-world

It's got that tedious mission documentary style, but the fundamental eccentricity of the idea (like that James May programme with the 10 mile Hornby railway, but more ambitious) is pleasing enough that it's eminently watchable.  Confirms a few stereotypes about model railway enthusiasts and engineers... kind of thing that makes you proud to be British.

A 1 hour program, stretched to (what feels like) a hundred 1 hour programs.

I must admit, I used my standard documentary-watching technique of obtaining a video file and playing it back at accelerated speed.  (Thwarted somewhat by lack of subtitles- there's only so fast I can go while still following the audio alone.)

Re: Television tonight, whats worth watching
« Reply #1187 on: 07 February, 2018, 09:06:14 am »
Yesterday I discovered http://www.channel4.com/programmes/the-biggest-little-railway-in-the-world

It's got that tedious mission documentary style, but the fundamental eccentricity of the idea (like that James May programme with the 10 mile Hornby railway, but more ambitious) is pleasing enough that it's eminently watchable.  Confirms a few stereotypes about model railway enthusiasts and engineers... kind of thing that makes you proud to be British.

It was OK but a tad old fashioned. I think they should do an updated one where they have to electrify the whole line and run a model 225 full nine coach train down it at full scale speed :)
I think you'll find it's a bit more complicated than that.

ian

Re: Television tonight, whats worth watching
« Reply #1188 on: 07 February, 2018, 12:23:41 pm »
Then maybe with the train half the way down the line, the people running the railway could decide it's not profitable enough and wander off. After taking your wallet.

Oscar's dad

  • aka Septimus Fitzwilliam Beauregard Partridge
Re: Television tonight, whats worth watching
« Reply #1189 on: 07 February, 2018, 12:50:23 pm »
Yesterday I discovered http://www.channel4.com/programmes/the-biggest-little-railway-in-the-world

It's got that tedious mission documentary style, but the fundamental eccentricity of the idea (like that James May programme with the 10 mile Hornby railway, but more ambitious) is pleasing enough that it's eminently watchable.  Confirms a few stereotypes about model railway enthusiasts and engineers... kind of thing that makes you proud to be British.

It was OK but a tad old fashioned. I think they should do an updated one where they have to electrify the whole line and run a model 225 full nine coach train down it at full scale speed :)

I haven't watched the programme yet.  Was the Daily Mail being sold on the train?

Torslanda

  • Professional Gobshite
  • Just a tart for retro kit . . .
    • John's Bikes
Re: Television tonight, whats worth watching
« Reply #1190 on: 08 February, 2018, 12:52:10 am »
I'm usually first in the queueueueueueueee... for docs like this. Anything with Dick Strawbridge and Claire Barratt is pretty much on the money, no?

In this case, no. Emphatically No. Just. No. It's only saving grace was it didn't feature Guy Martin. Because I like him, too . . .
VELOMANCER

Well that's the more blunt way of putting it but as usual he's dead right.

Re: Television tonight, whats worth watching
« Reply #1191 on: 08 February, 2018, 09:04:11 am »
My main beefs with it were the ridiculous amount of fake jeopardy:

If we dont get this bit line laid in the next 10 minutes its all over

Well no obviously its not as if it is the rest of the program and all of the next episode is going to be a bit pointless isn't it.

Secondly they didn't actually run a train they ran a locomotive, a very nice one but a train needs at least one wagon or carriage and this had non not even a coal tender.
I think you'll find it's a bit more complicated than that.

Kim

  • Timelord
    • Fediverse
Re: Television tonight, whats worth watching
« Reply #1192 on: 08 February, 2018, 01:15:04 pm »
They started off with a carriage, but gave up because it kept derailing.

Lack of testing on poorly-levelled track, I think.  The loco itself also suffered from being top-heavy.

What really impressed me was how poor a choice the emergency backup electric loco was.

Re: Television tonight, whats worth watching
« Reply #1193 on: 09 February, 2018, 10:06:30 pm »
If you’ve not seen it, catch up with Derry Girls. Superb throughout.
We are making a New World (Paul Nash, 1918)

tiermat

  • According to Jane, I'm a Unisex SpaceAdmin
Re: Television tonight, whats worth watching
« Reply #1194 on: 10 February, 2018, 08:23:16 am »
Back to OD's question.

Stick with Peaky Blinders, it does get good and the soundtrack is superb.
Narcos works very well, across all the series.
Black Mirror is variable, some good, some Meh.
Two series I have really enjoyed are:
La Casa de Papel and
Cable Girls
Both are in Spanish, but with English subtitles (the latter has both subs and has been dubbed, but they don't match, which annoyed me so I leave the original voice track on and use the subs)
For a good laugh, try Black Lightning, imagine Shaft, or Huggy Bear, as a superhero and you get the idea.
I feel like Captain Kirk, on a brand new planet every day, a little like King Kong on top of the Empire State

essexian

Re: Television tonight, whats worth watching
« Reply #1195 on: 10 February, 2018, 08:39:51 am »
I loved "Biggest little railway in the world" whereas CBH hated it.  The answer to my question concerning attending the model railway event at the showground last weekend was met with a resounding "NO".  :facepalm:

Anyway.... X Files Series 11 Ep 1..... I mean, what the hell was going on there???? I watched the first 10 minutes not knowing what the hell was going on until I realised that they had done a "Dallas" on us...... borrowed from the Guardians match report  :thumbsup:  It was like the time in "Buffy" when they introduced Dawn.  ???  Talking about Buffy, isn't it about time Channel 5 or the like rerun the whole lot from the start? Thursday evenings are just not the same anymore.

Of course being a Fanboy I will watch the rest of the series but frankly, I think I no longer believe.

Mr Larrington

  • A bit ov a lyv wyr by slof standirds
  • Custard Wallah
    • Mr Larrington's Automatic Diary
Re: Television tonight, whats worth watching
« Reply #1196 on: 10 February, 2018, 11:17:31 am »
I was mortified to discover I missed 11X01 the other night.  Time for thee Download ov Dubious Provenance.
External Transparent Wall Inspection Operative & Mayor of Mortagne-au-Perche
Satisfying the Bloodlust of the Masses in Peacetime

ian

Re: Television tonight, whats worth watching
« Reply #1197 on: 11 February, 2018, 06:51:30 pm »
I had assumed the X-Files had died. Colour me corrected.

We rewatched all the Buffies the other year, which was awesome (my god, they're so young, it's a bit of a shock since the standard US movie school kid these days looks about 25). It's aged well.

Finally finished Iron Fist. Entertaining enough, though really for a immortal kung-fu warrior he's not very good at kung-fu. That's the problem with superheroes, if they were that super, well. Jessica Jones, I've no idea what her thing was other than she was a bit strong and not especially bright (really, your great plan is to get the police to imprison a man who has complete control over anyone he talks to). Luke Cage was a lot better, but of of course, being indestructible requires the tedious kryptoniting plot line. Daredevil is OK, though he should cheer up and stop getting beaten up. He doesn't just get beaten up by the bad guys, he gets beaten up by their grans.

Anyway, I can watch Defenders now and The Punisher.

Karla

  • car(e) free
    • Lost Byway - around the world by bike
Re: Television tonight, whats worth watching
« Reply #1198 on: 11 February, 2018, 11:43:55 pm »
Is anyone watching Requiem?  So far it's quite Wuthering Heights and very Turn of the Screw.


Back to OD's question.

Stick with Peaky Blinders, it does get good and the soundtrack is superb.

That mostly depends on how much you like Nick Cave!

mattc

  • n.b. have grown beard since photo taken
    • Didcot Audaxes
Re: Television tonight, whats worth watching
« Reply #1199 on: 12 February, 2018, 10:18:33 am »
I've been enjoying Requiem a lot more than I expected!

It's all very well done, with lots of shots of nice welsh towns I've been to :) I'm always wary of "supernatural chillers"; so far they seem to have found the balance - everything is explicable by people just behaving understandably in bad situations, but there MIGHT be something else behind it all ...
Has never ridden RAAM
---------
No.11  Because of the great host of those who dislike the least appearance of "swank " when they travel the roads and lanes. - From Kuklos' 39 Articles