Television tonight: what's worth watching?

[Kim]

I think you're supposed to knowingly disparage Stranger Things to be cool these days.

Not so much that as it is enjoyed by my 12 year old daughter and her friends, which accords with my limited exposure to it.

Very teenage.

That said, production quality on anything Netflix is pretty stunning. I'm sure there is something in it for adults. Just not this one in his mid 50s

I think Stranger Things is squarely aimed at people in their mid 40s, on account of being lovingly crafted 80s childhood nostalgia.  See also: The latest Ghostbusters film.

I find it eminently watchable, if hardly ground-breaking.


I've never seen (or read) Harry Potter, on the Day of the Triffids principle.

[Hot Flatus]

18-29 according to US viewing figures.

[ian]

The 80s is a curiously and persistently attractive era. Do grubby pubs still do 80s disco nights for students to get pissed and have bad sex in the toilets? Asking for a friend, who's got no plans for the weekend.

[Hot Flatus]

If you lived it, there's nothing particularly attractive about the 80s

[woollypigs]

I watched many a tv-show, where between seasons. Especially the boys hit puberty. Though the story line only moved along a few hours between seasons

[fd3]

I never saw Harry Potter, but I'm sure the 'kids' were about 40 when the last one aired. Prince Andrew would be disappointed.

I think that's why they had a schedule to make a film a year.  The books are set one every year as well so the kids growing up matches the characters.

[Tim Hall]

Last night but available on iPlayer "Our Falklands War: A Frontline story".

Incredibly moving and rather harrowing account from British veterans of The Falklands War. 

It's a series of interviews with blokes about my age, who came back very changed.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m0018c8n/our-falklands-war-a-frontline-story

[Sergeant Pluck]

Just catching up with Jim Al-Khalili’s Secrets of Size on iPlayer. Excellent as always. Imperial College featured quite a bit in Ep2, presumably the team TimO is involved in.

[rafletcher]

Saturday, BBC4, 9pm, the last ever Montalbano, one not broadcast before. So, no “characters based on” follow-ups.

And for those wanting to record this, note that BBC4 HD channel was switched off 2 days ago.

[rafletcher]

Hopefully to be repeated, “Inside Japan’s War” on PBS. Fascinating.

[rafletcher]

And Friday, 10pm, Quest - La Vuelta a Espana highlights. 

[Basil]

Edgar's Celo Concerto just starting from the RAH on BBC 4.

That's me over there, weeping.

[Nuncio]

In disapppintment that it's not the Elgar one?

[Mr Larrington]

J Edgar Cello's Hoover concerto?

[Basil]

   
Fecking auto carrot.   

[Woofage]

The Better Call Saul finale is now available on Netflix.

That's my viewing sorted for the foreseeable as I'm going to re-watch both series (BCS & BB) plus the fillum El Camino in that order (real time, so to speak).

[citoyen]

I need to get back into Better Call Saul. Stopped midway through S4 for some reason and haven’t got back to it.

In the mean time, I’ve watched the first episode of Sandman this evening. Only been waiting 30+ years for this to come to the screen. It was worth the wait. Breathtaking. And if reports are to be believed, it only gets better as the series goes on.

[fd3]

Guy's Grocery Games on the food network; Supermarket Sweep meets Ready Steady Cook!
(In Norwegian with English subtitles, not)

[rogerzilla]

I've started watching Red Rose, which promises to be a teen slasher series set in...Bolton.

The music is oddly anachronistic, though - all from the 90s, although it's supposed to be set in the present day.

[andrewc]

I'm currently about a third of the way through "The Jewel In The Crown".  This was on ITV when I was 20,  it was the sort of thing my mother watched & I devoutly ignored. 


It's bloody good,  excellent acting, a decent story & lovely location photography.  The snobbery, prejudice & bitchiness is unbelievable,  and that's just amongst the British!

[rafletcher]

We're halfway through Sherwood. (Edit) Mostly excellent. The details around the reveal in episodes 4 & 5 didn’t quite stack up for me

On a lighter note, we caught a series on Sky Arts, "The Art of Drummimg".  An exploration of modern rock/pop drumming from the '50's omwards.  You really get an appreciation of the drums as an instrument, and the skills of those playing them.                                                                                                                                                                                             

[andrewc]

The final episode of "The Jewel In The Crown", the slaughter of partition.  Superb TV, and probably the closest a lot of people would have got to that part of history. Can't remember it at school, though I dropped history at 14.


I've got a boxed set of Dalrymple's "Company Quartet" on the "To Be Read" pile...

[rogerzilla]

Was it The Two Ronnies that did The Jewel In India's Passage?

[andrewc]

Tonights entertainment was the first episode of "Anna Karenina".  A BBC adaptation from 1978.   My god!  The stick on whiskers !


I've an unread copy of the book somewhere.

[andrewc]

https://www.arte.tv/en/videos/083277-001-A/a-mediterranean-journey/


A series of short and probably superficial portraits of some of the Eastern Mediterranean countries.  The first one is Lebanon & has a section on a cycling advocacy group.