What are you streaming at the moment…

[T42]

Wolf Hall again. If memory serves, it doesn't end well for any of them.

Now picturing Mr VIII as a secret Muslim.

Googled Wolf Hall to see who was streaming the serial.  Further down the page: "Why is Wolf Hall so hard to read?"  Maybe because it's words in a line, Dumbo.

We've got it on DVD.

[sam]

"Why is Wolf Hall so hard to read?"

I remember there being complaints it was hard to see what was going on half the time because of all the dim lighting.

We're just past the anniversary of Hilary Mantel's death, is how I came to be rewatching it. I was surprised and pleased to learn there's going to be another series.

About 4 years ago I caught Mark Rylance speaking in Parliament Square.



Anyone aware of his most notorious role will find an Easter egg in that pic.

[ian]

Tried Black Summer, realised it was zombies, but hey, gave it two episodes. I won't get that time back. If you like dumb people running around and doing dumb stuff while chased by literally brainless corpses, it's probably for you. I don't ever get why the good people of modern America always, in such shows, seem entirely unaware of the entire zombie genre. Surprise! What can be happening? Shoot them in the head, you say, why would we do that, do you think it would stop them??

Anyway, of course, civilization goes feral almost immediately because it always does and everyone who started the show dumb suffers a precipitous decline in their remaining IQ. IQs descended so fast in the first two episodes that I imagine their ears popped. The only consistency was the default set of unlikeable characters who will be guaranteed to stick around like a bogroom stink for too many episodes before being killed off. 9/10 mehs.

Don't bother. Switched to Invasion on Apple TV. The first series ended up around 5/10 mehs after a strongish start. After episode one, it seems they're on a strong 5/10 meh theme already. Same old tropes, there's always a psychic kid who can connect with the aliens, obligatory supergenius with personality disorder, aliens who can travel across the galaxy but can't maintain air superiority over a small town when they get here. Etc.

[fd3]

Rewatching the Lupin serial on Netflux to prepare for the next season in October. Good story, must read the books some time.

Watching the new series as watched the last two.  Isoaky, but nothing to write home about.  I read the books as a kid, until they started to get a bit samey (and this from a 15 yo).
Watched "Who is Erin Carter" which was pretty good, a bit formulaic but had a nice twist (or two) which made it watchable.  But then the last episode was disappointing.
Back to Arabic movies for me.

Tried Black Summer, realised it was zombies, but hey, gave it two episodes. I won't get that time back.

Why do you do it to yourself?  Nothing can be so bad that they can't make it worse with zombies.  Sure, there are notable exceptions, but any zombie flick/series gets a double veto in our house.

[T42]

Tried Black Summer, realised it was zombies, but hey, gave it two episodes. I won't get that time back.

Why do you do it to yourself?  Nothing can be so bad that they can't make it worse with zombies.  Sure, there are notable exceptions, but any zombie flick/series gets a double veto in our house.

The Dead Don't Die being one of the notables.  Quite fond of that.

[Asterix, the former Gaul.]

'Occupied' Norwegian, 2015

"The series depicts a fictional near future in which, due to catastrophic environmental events, Norway's Prime Minister has stopped the country's oil and gas production. Russia, with support from the European Union, occupies Norway to restore its oil and gas production, in response to a Europe-wide energy crisis."

"Vyacheslav Pavlovsky [ru], the Russian ambassador to Norway, told Russian News Agency TASS, "It is certainly a shame that, in the year of the 70th anniversary of the victory in World War II, the authors have seemingly forgotten the Soviet Army's heroic contribution to the liberation of northern Norway from Nazi occupiers, decided, in the worst traditions of the Cold War, to scare Norwegian spectators with the nonexistent threat from the east." The Russian embassy had been informed in an early stage of the work on the series."  Later on the Russians invade Ukraine.

The USA has so far proved to be, shall we say, 'unreliable', but I haven't got to the end yet. 

[ian]

Tried Black Summer, realised it was zombies, but hey, gave it two episodes. I won't get that time back.

Why do you do it to yourself?  Nothing can be so bad that they can't make it worse with zombies.  Sure, there are notable exceptions, but any zombie flick/series gets a double veto in our house.

A mistake. I had broken the zombie rule by watching the Resident Evil zombie series which I did survive, but mostly the zombies were a side project, and it was very watchable and featured the always awesome (and very recently sadly demised) Lance Riddick. 4/10 mehs.

Black Summer was badged as 'horror' but yes, was almost immediately the usual dumb people doing dumb things while being chased by dumb monsters. The promise of two entire seasons of that wasn't entirely enticing. I managed an entire season of The Walking Dead, which I can imagine exists so people can shout at the screen 'don't go into the dark room with only the single door' and waiting for characters to get so annoying that the writers have to kill them off.

Still watching Invasion on the Apple TV, or was till I noticed they're doing an episode-a-week thing, presumably because giving customers what they want (bingable tv) isn't really their game plan. Up to 6.5/10 mehs and not much hope of redemption. Now in the mode of the characters doing stuff for no other reason than to move the plot forward, which is the most annoying thing about modern TV. Obligatory annoying characters too (I'm not sure who invented the rule that every show has to have a deeply annoying teenager, but really I can't imagine the average parent rejoices a whiny teen in real life, so I'm not sure the value of featuring them in every TV show, maybe it's to share the pain).

Sampling Silo, episode one was entertaining enough, though I suspect the arc will be predictable.

[fd3]

Your tolerance for bad zombie flix must be harnessable in some ways, possibly a new energy source?

[fd3]

The Dead Don't Die being one of the notables.  Quite fond of that.

I was not aware of it, but it's a Reeves and Mortimer Jim Jarmusch production, so it must be good.

[SoreTween]

(I'm not sure who invented the rule that every show has to have a deeply annoying teenager, but really I can't imagine the average parent rejoices a whiny teen in real life, so I'm not sure the value of featuring them in every TV show, maybe it's to share the pain).

I don't recall the bar stewards name but I believe it was the writer wot came up with the character yklept Wesley Crusher.

No comment upon the rumour they're also responsible (and still serving time I hope) for Jar Jar Binks.

[ian]

It's a bizarre phenomenon, admittedly, I sure they have focus audiences etc. who can't rejoice the annoying teenagers.

Currently on episode 3 of Silo, which looks like the usual dystopian nonsense, but is currently surprisingly gripping. If might go off-kilter. Probably best to avoid if you're an engineering pendant, because even I'm sure that's not the wise way to fix a massive steam turbine though.

[ian]

Enjoyed Silo, ends on the sort will-they-or-won't-they-renew cliffhanger that subverted the obvious outcome. I'm giving it an uncharacteristic 2/10 mehs. Yeah, I know it's nonsense and it doesn't stand thinking about too much (I mean, seriously, has no one just like held their breath and looked outside, and where exactly are the mines if no one can leave the silo? Et cetera, et cetera).

Invasion got 9/10 mehs in the end. The first series managed to be a bit intriguing but the second is just a mush of the usual tropes and commits the cardinal crime of not moving the plot forward one single millimetre during the tenure of ten entire episodes. To the bin with that.

[ian]

Manifest on the Netflix. Basically, a plane load of people lands five years late, a feat even for Ryanair. Four episodes in and it's a wobbly 6.5/10 mehs. Suspect it'll go downhill like a drunk fat man on roller skates, the episodes are rapidly conforming to formula, with an occasional drip of plot, and those pointless flashbacks and sideplots are starting to predominate, even though I'm already sure they'll contribute nothing to the plot. Who really cares about who hooked up with who while the plane was missing, the only thing anyone is watching the bloody show for is the actually mystery of the missing plane.

[citoyen]

Bodies on Netflix.

The plot appears to be lifted from*…

(click to show/hide)

…Back To The Future 2, with elements of Terminator - although while it does have robots, they’re not the fun kind that steal your boots, clothes and motorcycle, just the boring kind that perform menial tasks.

Entertaining enough but after three episodes it’s becoming all too obvious where it is going.

*I’ve put this in spoiler tags but it’s all so derivative that you’ll spot what’s going on long before it’s made explicit so it’s hardly a spoiler at all.

[Auntie Helen]

Manifest on the Netflix. Basically, a plane load of people lands five years late, a feat even for Ryanair. Four episodes in and it's a wobbly 6.5/10 mehs. Suspect it'll go downhill like a drunk fat man on roller skates, the episodes are rapidly conforming to formula, with an occasional drip of plot, and those pointless flashbacks and sideplots are starting to predominate, even though I'm already sure they'll contribute nothing to the plot. Who really cares about who hooked up with who while the plane was missing, the only thing anyone is watching the bloody show for is the actually mystery of the missing plane.

I watched 2-3 series of this last year on German Netflix. I liked it initially but it then got a bit too samey and I found the perfectly-brushed hair of the Indian scientist lady hard to believe. Also the jawline of Michaela the heroine, and the dull worthiness of her worthy brother. But Zeke was good.

[Kim]

Enjoyed Silo, ends on the sort will-they-or-won't-they-renew cliffhanger that subverted the obvious outcome. I'm giving it an uncharacteristic 2/10 mehs. Yeah, I know it's nonsense and it doesn't stand thinking about too much (I mean, seriously, has no one just like held their breath and looked outside, and where exactly are the mines if no one can leave the silo? Et cetera, et cetera).

I read the soilers (apparently it's based on a prolific series of novels) and concluded that not being renewed was probably optimal.  I was expecting the Ascension reveal, but there's nowhere to go that even begins to make sense.  Not that the third episode didn't serve as a warning, in that respect.

[citoyen]

Bodies on Netflix.

The plot appears to be lifted from*…

(click to show/hide)

…Back To The Future 2, with elements of Terminator - although while it does have robots, they’re not the fun kind that steal your boots, clothes and motorcycle, just the boring kind that perform menial tasks.

Entertaining enough but after three episodes it’s becoming all too obvious where it is going.

*I’ve put this in spoiler tags but it’s all so derivative that you’ll spot what’s going on long before it’s made explicit so it’s hardly a spoiler at all.

Finished it yesterday. Despite being derivative and predictable, it's actually very enjoyable and comes to a satisfactory conclusion (mercifully, the producers have already said they have no intention of making another series, although it is left slightly open-ended just in case the financial imperative becomes too compelling).

Star of the show is undoubtedly the endearingly quirky Shira Haas.

[ian]

Manifest on the Netflix. Basically, a plane load of people lands five years late, a feat even for Ryanair. Four episodes in and it's a wobbly 6.5/10 mehs. Suspect it'll go downhill like a drunk fat man on roller skates, the episodes are rapidly conforming to formula, with an occasional drip of plot, and those pointless flashbacks and sideplots are starting to predominate, even though I'm already sure they'll contribute nothing to the plot. Who really cares about who hooked up with who while the plane was missing, the only thing anyone is watching the bloody show for is the actually mystery of the missing plane.

I watched 2-3 series of this last year on German Netflix. I liked it initially but it then got a bit too samey and I found the perfectly-brushed hair of the Indian scientist lady hard to believe. Also the jawline of Michaela the heroine, and the dull worthiness of her worthy brother. But Zeke was good.

I confess I'm losing my enthusiasm quickly so will probably call it a day (and I somehow managed the entirety of Lost, which no one should) – it's all filler with a whiff of tease about the central premise of what happened. Watching the usual character stereotypes do little of interest (and some of the acting is borderline). It's another one of those series where they have a simple plot that might have powered, at best, a short movie, so they are forced to fill screen time. It's that slow pacing – fine if you're using it to develop characters and build towards something – but the writers are treading water. We're at the obligatory government conspiracy phase because no one has ever done that before. Everyone seems to take the longer format available on streaming services and just use it as an excuse for stretching out basic, regurgitated plots. Those godforsaken Star Wars spin-offs are good examples, completely underwritten. There's one episode of The Mandalorian where he does a little Indy quest and then gets captured by a giant robot spider, so the Baby Yoda thing instead of saving him with the Force or whatever, flies across the galaxy to get someone else to help him, she says yes (having previously said no), so they fly all the back, do the Indy quest again, kill the robot spider and free him. And then Bagpuss says it's for bed. People seem to love them, but they're all like this. I hold to my theory that Star Wars is for children and not grown-ups.

[fd3]

Hard agree with ian here. 
Watched a couple of episodes of manifest and then checked to see How Many? Series with How Many? episodes? Pass.
Star wars is great for kids, I has a couple who are getting into the movies.  It's as much for old men like me as disney musical animations.

[Kim]

Star wars is great for kids, I has a couple who are getting into the movies.  It's as much for old men like me as disney musical animations.

Star Wars, like Disney Musicals, isn't as good as it used to be.

[ian]

Having grown up when Stars Wars was a thing for the first time and all I ever wanted was a Millennium Falcon (never got one, I got a Starship Enterprise that fired photon torpedoes instead which wasn't even nearly as good), it has a place in my heart. The Empire Strikes back was excellent. But I think, even as a teenager, I sensed diminishing returns in Return of the Jedi. The subsequent prequels are movies I have no urge to ever repeat. As for the series, some people rave about them, but really at their best, they're anodyne. Even Andor, which seems to be the critics' favourite, is pretty basic and they could have done it in half the time without breaking a sweat. They're either trying to destroy the legacy of the movie, or beyond the nostalgia it perhaps never was that great.

[IanDG]

Scot Squad series 6 episode 5 

IGMC 

[fd3]

Star wars was good when you were a kid, maybe the series is good on a kid level and us old folks should not expect it to appeal to us.

[T42]

Started watching Netflux's All the light we cannot see last night but the mispronunciation of everything French and the cliché SS officer were so vile that we baled out after 15 minutes and watched The Killer instead.

[T42]

Watched The Railway Men on NF over the last two days.  Good coverage of the Bhopal/Union Carbide methyl isocyanate disaster in 1984, and what railway personnel did to get people out from under.  Striking but some of the incidents were a bit too good to be true, and some of the characters a bit too cardboard. Well worth a look all the same.