Television tonight: what's worth watching?

[rogerzilla]

Watched the last episode of Vigil.  All utter tosh, of course, but quite enjoyable tosh.  Like all submarine dramas, men with huge spanners attend to gushing water.  I still think Paterson Joseph should have played the commander exactly as Johnson from Peep Show.

[mrcharly-YHT]

We have just started with Vigil.

Trying to ignore the stupid bits. (Would they really let someone fly offshore without even basic ditch training?)

Playing the game of "who is actually the baddy and why" is quite fun.

It does emphasize that you have to be truly weird to want to serve on a sub. Stuck in a small tin can, no fresh air, very very limited room, for months at a time. I'd go bonkers. Bet they all end up with eye problems (it is bad for eyes to not look at varied distances).

[orienteer]

Hornby - model railways etc, first episode on Yesterday (ch26 on freeview) at 21.00.

[Auntie Helen]

What channel is vigil on? My GerMan and I are very keen on submarine things…

Edit - my GoogleFu says BBC1

[pcolbeck]

Missions - French SF series about a Mars mission, series 1 and 2 on iPlayer.

Nicely done with some good plot twists.

The series three which will be the last and wrap it up is in production at the moment apparently.

[fd3]

^ Enjoyed that.  The 20 min episode format meant that we re-watched all of S1 in a couple evenings after realising we had no clue at the start of S2.  Does what you want from a foreign series, in that it's actually new and different.  Very cleverly done due to their limited/non-existent budget.

[Nuncio]

Succession 3 on Monday. I've been rewatching 1 and 2 in preparation and feel a bit dirty.

[Hot Flatus]

^ Is it as good as its cracked up to be?

I've never seen it, nor The Wire, as I refuse to put money into the hands of Murdoch.

[Nuncio]

IMHO, yes. Strange you should mention the Wire, as I was idly thinking that currently that would be my #1 and Succession would, appropriately, follow on from it at #2.  (I've never seen the Sopranos which is also mentioned as being up there in similar lists). And the irony that it's a Murdoch-type family/business satire and I'm wathcing on Sky is not lost on me.

[Hot Flatus]

Yeah, I'd really like to see them both but 20 years ago I told my left-wing anti-Mugdoch "I was on the picket line at Wapping" cousin that his 'values' meant nothing if he didn't live by them. He had Sky for premiership football.

So it's either no Wire for me, or I embrace fascist oligarchy

[fd3]

^ Yeah, I hate it when that happens.  I ended up vegetarian because I was contrary with a friend of mine who only ate free range eggs, but not free range chicken.
You could always illegally download it.  this way you steal from Murdoch which should be oay with your ethics (though you will be DIRECTLY FUNDING THE TALIBAN).

[rafletcher]

^ Yeah, I hate it when that happens.  I ended up vegetarian because I was contrary with a friend of mine who only ate free range eggs, but not free range chicken.
You could always illegally download it.  this way you steal from Murdoch which should be oay with your ethics (though you will be DIRECTLY FUNDING THE TALIBAN).

Googling how to download The Wire threw up that it’s available as pay to view on a number of non-Murdoch platforms apparently. Not cheap mind - iTunes has every episode for £70.

[IanDG]

Guilt (season 2) on I-player - catch up with season1 if you haven't seen it before. Mark Bonner is excellent.

[perpetual dan]

We've been watching "the cleaner" on iplayer recently. Very funny, if you don't mind that he's cleaning (fictional) murder scenes.

[citoyen]

We've been watching "the cleaner" on iplayer recently. Very funny, if you don't mind that he's cleaning (fictional) murder scenes.

I saw the first episode of that and enjoyed it very much. Must watch some more of it. The role seems tailor made for Greg Davies.

HBC was suitably bonkers too.

[citoyen]

Guilt (season 2) on I-player - catch up with season1 if you haven't seen it before. Mark Bonner is excellent.

Interesting. Enjoyed the first series but wasn’t aware there was a second. Is it a continuation of the same storyline or a completely new one? I can’t remember exactly how the first one ended but I seem to recall the main plot being pretty much tied up.

[citoyen]

^ Is it as good as its cracked up to be?

Yes. Unequivocally. The last episode of series two is the best single hour of TV drama I’ve seen in years. (Though it will only make sense if you’ve watched the rest, of course.)

Like Nuncio, we’ve been recapping the first two series for a reminder. There’s so much in it, so much I’d forgotten… especially I’d forgotten the shooting party episode, which is horrific - kind of amusing but also unbearably awful. Succession is very, very funny at times, but it is most emphatically not a comedy.

I've never seen it, nor The Wire, as I refuse to put money into the hands of Murdoch.

Get it on dvd second hand. It’s still worth seeing.

[mrcharly-YHT]

Mrs C was not taken with 'the cleaner'. Lasted 10min.

We are working on 'Sex Education'. Some brilliant performances by young actors in their first roles.

[rafletcher]

Mrs C was not taken with 'the cleaner'. Lasted 10min.

A very variable series. I enjoyed the first (with Helena Bonham-Carter) and the fourth (with Stephanie Cole). The others I didn't get beyond the first 5 minutes.  The sixth was pulled because David Amess  .

[Hot Flatus]

Get it on dvd second hand. It’s still worth seeing.

What is dvd?

 

[citoyen]

Fair point! I still seem to have shelves full of the darn things (including all five series of the Wire), but come to think of it, I'm not sure I actually have anything to play them on - we have a PS3 but the controllers are knackered (chewed to bits by the dog) so it's almost impossible to use it.

[Hot Flatus]

I have loads too from when those cheap postal dvd rental services were a thing in the 2000s. I used to burn them onto recordable dvds. Looking back, I'm quite dismayed at my taste in films then, and secretly pleased that within a few years the means to play them will completely disappear...just in time for when my kids start getting curious as to what is in those dvd wallets at the back of the cupboard.

[ian]

My office still has shelves of DVDs too – including a still shrink-wrapped Wire (will get around to it and The Sopranos one day, honest).

I've moved the CDs to the garage, the DVDs should probably eventually follow, it's not space I desperately need, though it's making me look retro on video calls. Wait till they hear about my collection of audio cassettes in the loft. I think we must have some VHS up there, though I think most of that went to charity.

[citoyen]

I've got the Sopranos on DVD too but still haven't got round to watching it. I've seen occasional episodes from having to review it for work back when it was on telly first time round, and I've always liked what I've seen, it's just too much of a time investment to go back through the whole thing from the start.

[ian]

Reminds me, I've still not done Breaking Bad either, though that's not on DVD, of course.