I watched it on a screen: rolling TV and streaming media 2026

New year, new thread - mostly for TV but really anything you watched on a streamer/at home/etc is fair game.

January is chock full of new and returning shows. Some stuff I'm looking forward to:

The Pitt s2 (HBO) - Jan 8
The Traitors s4 (Peacock) - Jan 8
His & Hers (Netflix) - Jan 8 (new mystery show with Jon Bernthal and Tessa Thompson)
A Thousand Blows s2 (Hulu) - Jan 9
The Night Manager s2 (Prime) - Jan 11 (10-years-later followup to the John Le Carre adaptation w/ Tom Hiddleston and Olivia Coleman)
Industry s4 (HBO) - Jan 11
Hijack s2 (Apple)
Star Trek: Starfleet Academy (Paramount) - Jan 15
Ponies (Peacock) - Jan 15 (new thriller with Emilia Clarke and Haley Lu Richardson)
A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms (HBO) - Jan 15
Wonder Man (Disney+) - Jan 27
Shrinking s3 (Apple) - Jan 28
Bridgerton s5 (Netflix) - Jan 29

will def watch the pitt and traitors and knight of the seven kingdoms. been meaning to watch both industry and shrinking

The Pitt and Industry for sure. Maybe The Night Manager as well; I liked the first one and didn't realize it had been 10 years.

Just realized I've been conflating the Night Agent and the Night Manager (haven't seen either)

I really liked Night Manager when I watched it years ago. I’m a sucker for the Le Carre brand of espionage shows. Which is definitely NOT what Night Agent is.

Haha same - I was getting really confused by the excitement around the new season of the Night Agent

Haha same - I was getting really confused by the excitement around the new season of the Night Agent

Bad: We watched the first two episodes of Night Manager 2, and it is some pretty generic and implausible stuff. Might not bother with the rest.

Good: We're also three episodes into Néro on Netflix, a French drama set during the early 16th century, which has assassins and witches and people fighting their way across hostile countryside. It's pretty good.

Sad: I've had to give up on Culinary Class Wars. During episode 4, one of the chefs started grilling crabs over coals, and it was immediately apparent that one of the crabs was still alive while this was happening. And they didn't just show it once: a couple of times they cut back to the crab trying to climb off the grill and the chef hooshing it back on there. I'm aware that attitudes to marine animals differ across the world, and I know that it might make me a hypocrite or whatever, but if I'm watching something purely for entertainment purposes, I don't really want to see that, so I have parted ways with this otherwise excellent show.

yeah that was a bit grim.

Futher ahead, looking forward to the second season of Beef which is around April I think.

All new cast (and beef) this season

Looking forward to His and Hers, hope it's good, plan to start that as early as today. I just finished The Lowdown last night so I have a bit of a void (watching The Beast in Me and Death by Lightning with the wife so our schedules/appetites have to align before I move forward with those).

I liked season one of the Night Manager well enough but tbh the trailer for season two looked incredibly trashy and bad and was enough to put me off for now. Reading the comments above won't drive me on to watch it.

Task is decent but should have been a single half hour episode because that guy wouldn’t have survived robbing a single drug house.

This looks reeeeeally stupid. I'm in. On Amazon January 28.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v8R0xDczERo

I watched one episode of His & Hers and don’t think I’ll continue. I hope Bernthal and Thompson got big paychecks.

Very late to the party, but finally gave the Lowdown a shot last night. The whole lovable screw-up who stumbles upon something bigger than himself, while trying to fix stuff at home, all felt bit played out. Still, the Tulsa backdrop is interesting/intriguing. Will try one or two more episodes before deciding whether to pass.

I watched the first episode of Lowdown and it felt a little forced and cutesy -- and yet another show/movie to trade in on Keith David's innate likeability without giving him anything interesting to do. But maybe it gets better?

agreed on His & Hers, I couldn't even make it all the way through one episode. very soapy, which isn't my speed. that makes two Tessa Thompson projects in a row (also Hedda) that I've quit after roughly a half-hour. I don't think the problem is her, but I'm a little wary.

also, Keith David has plenty to do in The Lowdown, I'd advise you stick with it. I know YMMW with Ethan Hawke and sometimes he does seem extremely try-hard, but ultimately he won me over, plus it's got lots of other great folks like Jeanne Tripplehorn, Kyle McLachlan, and especially Tim Black Nelson.

*Blake

Yeah, I will watch a few more.

Tessa Thompson is a terrible actor imo. I mean, she's okay in Thor, where she's supposed to be a little blank and aloof. But she's always somewhat wooden, like she's rehearsing for a Hal Hartley movie.

Lowdown is loosely based on a real person and story, which adds some perspective.

https://slate.com/culture/2025/11/the-lowdown-show-fx-ethan-hawke-sterlin-harjo-lee-roy-chapman.html

I'm really enjoying The Lowdown but would be sticking with it anyway just for all the JJ Cale on the soundtrack

The Lowdown is a great hang! to me it’s like a cross between Inherent Vice & Long Goodbye where it’s more journey than destination, but even more shambolic & lazy-river. The vibes are SO good though.

lowdown was my favorite show of last year. perfect vibes. incredible cast too, just a murderer's row of character actors. like i tell my friends that the ethan hawke show also has kyle mclachlan and keith david and tracy letts and tim blake nelson and they are like "why have i not heard of this show before now"

About halfway through Lowdown and loving it

You know what's pretty good? The Joel Coen version of MACBETH on Apple TV! (Particularly recommended to ANDOR fans. You'll be shocked why.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ptqe7s6pO7g

I watch that every year with my students when we do our Macbeth unit. It generally goes over pretty well, though I do end up having to explain what film noir is because they've never seen any.

yeah i kinda liked that one too! odd that they made Mac & Lady no longer able to have children, kinda removes the point of the whole thing i thought

I didn't realise there was a wait for the culinary class wars final! I feel like there was a slight slump in the middle and 70 min episodes are a lot, but endless cooking paradise (surely "heaven") and hell were great. Loved the guy rushing out multiple dishes like they were being scored on quantity not quality, felt like he didn't give a shit about getting to the final; and the calm but not arrogant confidence of Culinary Monster. Sad but not too surprised to see Brewmaster Yun go.

I do like the show but here's my impersonation of Culinary Class Wars

Shot of dude making bibimbap

Black Spoons chatting amongst thrmselves: What is he making? Bibimbap?

White Spoons doing same: he is very fanmous for his bibimbap!

Cut to interview with guy: I will be making bibimbap.

Caption: THIS GUY - BIBIMBAP EXPERT

also:

The mystery ingredient is... KIMCHI!

Shot of assembled chefs gasping

KIMCHI!

Different shot of gasping chefs

KIMCHI!

Different shot of gasping chefs

I watched Heated Rivalry and found it very addictive and compelling TV. Went back and forth on whether it's actually good, whether something that's by definition a romance novel can *be* good, etc. Concluded that it's really well-made in all the details; acting, cinematography, lighting, music, etc. are all very high quality and the guy who plays the Russian is star material. Still can't quite tell whether that adds up to Good, Good Bad, Bad Good, or what.

It doesn't strike me as fetishizing in the way that Red, White and Royal Blue did; the characters are much more realistic, and it's the kind of difficult relationship situation (two people who get stuck in a situationship for almost a decade because the homophobia of their environment doesn't let them conceive of having an actual relationship) that seems worth spending a season on. Definitely seems to be made for a variety of audiences, not just women (though as a woman it's hard for me to say for sure.)

I’m guessing the source novels are fluff, but the filmmakers have clearly approached the material with the intention of making a quality production, which separates it from the pathetic Red, White and Royal Blue. I love the (Van Sant-inspired?) closing-credit sequence of the finale. And yeah, Conner Storrie is a star.

To me, the really big issue with Red, White, and Royal Blue wasn't even the quality, abysmal though that was; it was the way these two characters interacted in ways that seemed designed to make them as cute and unthreatening as possible to a straight audience. Their emails get leaked and what's in them? No sex videos, nothing embarrassingly dirty, just poetic long-form love letters full of literary quotations. That's not character; that's someone mashing two Ken dolls together.

With Heated Rivalry, the characters seem like actual twentysomething guys who have known each other for years but have never had a real conversation and don't know how, and it's genuinely interesting to watch them figure it out.

xposts i've only watched a couple of episodes but those descriptions of culinary class wars basically describes what happens on 99% of all SKorean reality shows

it's just their standard filming trope/style... like americans on a TV competition show and going "i'm not here to make friends, i'm here to win"

anyway, i'm here to echo others upthread - do not watch His&Hers. I watched it to the end against my better judgement, but it was very bad throughout and the final twist is incredibly stupid

All Her Fault was enjoyable though! Also a cheesy soapy thriller but it helped that the characters were various levels of sympathetic, even when they were being dumb.

My only problem with Heated Rivalry was that the actual heated rivalry part of it wasn't shown all that well. Like, every so often someone would go "don't you hate him?" but there was never any real footage of them hating each other on the ice (because the show couldn't afford to spend very much time on the ice, I guess), or any real feeling that they interacted at all beyond a lot of round-bum shagging in private. But otherwise, knowing some sporty guys, I found their relationship sort of realistic. In that one says "you're so boring" and the other says "you're an asshole" and they play video games and they watch a lot of hockey, and they basically do this for years, because that's what they do. They don't suddenly become incredibly articulate just because they're together.

Is anyone watching new season of Fallout? We enjoyed season 1. Two episodes into season 2 - not quite feeling it, too many plot lines.

yeah i like it okay but it is a lot to keep track of, i think mr veg enjoys it more than i do perhaps bc he played the games

I find myself increasingly getting annoyed by so many shows so I wind up just watching Fisk, I hope there's another season coming considering the success it seems to have had with stateside audiences via Netflix.

I’m 4 episodes into His & Hers … the Sobotkas + Bernthal … apart from them, the best characters are the kid and Alzheimers mom

I gave up on season two of Fallout after two episodes. It seemed to be going for maximum grossness over minimal entertainment and I just couldn't be bothered. Similarly, husband is still watching it because he played the games.

Last week's episode of Fallout was pretty good where they finally introduced deathclaws

Okay I finished His&Hers … it wasn’t horrible… but I had low expectations going in based on the “dead baby trauma” in episode 1.

Also, I swear that there is a scene in Walking Dead where Bernthal has the exact same lines & delivery as in one of the last two episodes.

I am watching The Traitors US season 4 but not opening the Traitors thread and posting about it because the UK version is also airing right now and Peacock won't show that until sometime later this year. Am I missing out on any discussion of the US version, or is it all just about the UK version?

(I get the impression that The Traitors, while certainly a successful show in the US, is a bigger deal in the UK. Or at least watched not just by gay men.)

Fallout S1 was overstuffed on plotlines too, I didn’t remember a third of the recap.

My mom is a big U.K. Traitors fan but hates that the US version is all reality TV losers.

Yeah, I was very resistant to the US version for precisely that reason, but I got hooked on the UK version recently and now I just want more Traitors.

(I get the impression that The Traitors, while certainly a successful show in the US, is a bigger deal in the UK. Or at least watched not just by gay men.)

Yeah, it's a total watercooler show here.

People try to talk to me about it and when I tell them I don't watch it they can't believe it!

It's almost exclusively chat about the UK version xps

thank u groovypanda, that's what i expected. i will stay away for the time being.

I guess the main reason the US version is more niche is that it only airs on Peacock, not on broadcast TV.

I think NBC has run past seasons on network tv, after they run on peacock.

I'm a couple episodes in to Amsterdam Empire and it's tonally all over the place yet trashy fun like a vintage prime time soap. On a bonkers scale of 1 to 10, Famke Janssen's acting and costuming scores a 12.

Which dumb, "prestigious" but commercially underperforming biopic should I watch this weekend: Bruce Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere (on Hulu) or The Smashing Machine (on HBO Max)?

Turns out Homicide: Life On The Street is on Tubi, so that's the weekend sorted.

I'll be interested to hear what you think of the streaming version of Homicide. I tried it and ended up going back to my DVDs because they didn't get the rights to all the music so some of it's different, and the crisp, high-def look seemed wrong for Homicide and didn't pair well with the shaky camerawork for me. But if I didn't have the box sets I'd probably still watch it on streaming.

yeah i had the same issues w streaming, the music substitutions really took me out - mr veg got me the dvd set for xmas

I watched it on Friday nights when I was in high school, 35+ years ago. I have no memory of what the original music may or may not have been.

Sorry, that's not fully accurate; I thought it aired earlier than it did. But I did watch it in its original late 90s network run, which was 25-30 years ago.

Drafting off my brother’s MGM+ subscription I found an adaptation of Jordan Harper’s She Rides Shotgun.

It’s got some good points (the acting of the father and daughter, primarily) but they cut out the best elements of the novel (the bonding of said father and daughter, the process of getting to the big action climax) and yet it’s still two hours long.

Yeah, I was reeeeeally disappointed by that. The book rules (as does its half-a-sequel, The Last King of California), but the male lead wasn't nearly hardass enough and they really did leave out the best parts of the plot.

I rented it from Amazon, ftr.

Speaking of Storrie, I watched a film he was in yesterday— ‘Riley,’ about a closeted gay football player who has an affair with the arty boy, played by Storrie. The film was awful but Storrie stole every scene in it, very glad he has become a major star.

(I have not watched Heated Rivalry, waiting for the hype to die down)

WTF?

https://www.avclub.com/vertical-dramas-style-popularity-cost-reelshort-dramabox-exploitative-addictive

That is absolute insanity.

it’s not great but at the same time i get nostalgic for the days of pulp trash comics and movies and i wonder if maybe there are new pulp geniuses waiting to be birthed in this new vertical world

Speaking of Storrie, I watched a film he was in yesterday— ‘Riley,’ about a closeted gay football player who has an affair with the arty boy, played by Storrie. The film was awful but Storrie stole every scene in it, very glad he has become a major star.

Oh yeah, Riley is just about the most banal possible version of the 'tragic closet jock' trope in Queer YA, and I've seen and read plenty of 'em. Storrie is indeed the only good thing in it.

The typical vertical drama is a three-act feature between 90 and 100 minutes, chopped up into 60 to 80 chunks

Suicidal Tendencies are side-eyeing this shit.
Also I refuse to believe multiple million ACTUAL people are PAYING for something like this. Watching it? Maybe. Not paying.

https://www.avclub.com/vertical-dramas-style-popularity-cost-reelshort-dramabox-exploitative-addictive

on FB i'm constantly getting pushed reels for some moderately high production lesbian 50 shades of grey looking drama.

RIP quibi

Started Ponies - tonally it’s kind Spy Poker Face, it has promise. Denaerys is almost unrecognizable as a brunette.

moderately high production lesbian 50 shades of grey looking drama

ysi?

This guy makes a lot of assumptions, and he focuses on Disney, but he also brings up some good points about the general state of streaming relative to physical media:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4O0PoDVCmQI

I've seen a few people suggest that the reason Disney, or Netflix, or Apple et al. don't release their shows or movies on home video is that they would prefer people subscribe to their respective services. I don't doubt that, but I suspect there is more to it than that. All the same, this whole system feels so precarious at a time when a legendary studio staple like Warner Bros. is in the middle of a (politicized) bidding war/takeover, or when even standard-bearers like the Washington Post or CBS are teetering on the brink. Just yesterday I heard a piece on the radio about Disney growth being flat for a decade, and the prospect of spinning off a couple of their streaming services (like Hulu or ESPN). And of course this comes not too long after Disney itself absorbed another studio mainstay in Fox. A lot of these companies are growing too big to fail and yet also ... failing. And it's already started to affect the availability of films and shows, from Looney Tunes to Ewoks, any or all of which these companies can make unavailable at the flip of a switch, sort of a distant echo of Disney's old "vault" strategy.

Holy shit the Muppet Show special is extraordinary. Please please bring this back as a full series.

yeah it was fantastic

very disappointed to realise today there isn't a new one this week. I thought this was a full relaunch.

Y'all are selling me on this.

Muppet Show is the first thing since Get Back that has me thinking about reactivating Disney+

the last reboot was so flat & unfunny, i’m glad this time round the vibe was if it aint broke dont fix it ie what if we just did The Muppet Show

and utilizing that deep bench of so many classic Muppets, even just spying them waiting around in the wings or in the audience AH! so great

i got weirdly teary just with them doing thr opening theme song

*the

Yeah, same here - I did briefly think "are they really going to not open with the world's greatest opening theme?" but then they got on it.

I'm amused there's a lot of muppets from Muppets Tonight, who at the time I was very "you're not a real muppet, you don't count!" about but now I've softened on - also inevitably Muppets Tonight is now closer to the original Muppet Show than the current day.

(Ooof, I just checked and there's been three other TV series since then? Four if you count the 3-d Muppet Babies, which is the only one I have any recollection of)

I was just about to post the same thing Andrew! Part of me wants to be "hey, Bobo and Pepe are 'new' Muppets, they never worked in this theater! What are they doing here?" but I'm happy to see them regardless.

The only thing keeping this from being an A+++ episode was Rizzo doing a Weeknd song, which was fine but I'd have happily swapped that out for Pigs in Space.

Also missed Lew Zealand and his fishes, and Crazy Harry bombing something but I think maybe they got rid of his bombs after the Unibomber or Manchester?

and, as someone lukewarm on Sabrina Carpenter's music, she is the perfect person to work with the Muppets.

Finally got around to watching the first episode of PONIES and enjoyed it!

Emilia Clarke has cartoon character-expressive eyebrows.

rotation:
just finished Eureka - some poor choices over the last couple of seasons but it remained
Resident Alien - can't believe they cancelled it when season four is the best yet
Warehouse 13 - still very good
PONIES - enjoying this but there are some anachronistic music cues that might drive other people nuts
The Pitt
Fallout - enjoying Goggins and some of the set pieces but overall meh
Lowdown - makes Tulsa look way cooler than it should
one episode of the The Mayfair Witches so far - not sure I can deal with the protagonist having creepy husky blue eyes the whole time

remained fun

also watched one episode of The Night Manager S2, not feeling compelled to go back for more

ugh Mayfair Witches was a miss for me, loved those books, bailed after 1st ep

also watched one episode of The Night Manager S2, not feeling compelled to go back for more

Agreed. I can't be bothered to continue. In The Mud was a total miss after one episode also - skipping it.

The first episode of Night Manager S2 is by far the worst, but the whole thing is a pale imitation of the original. Like, it’s a background watch at best.

I am currently watching Guy Montgomery’s Guy Mont-Spelling Bee on iPlayer, and it’s a surprisingly good time.

surprisingly bcz you thought it would lose the odd combination of intimacy and intensity that made the lockdown version so compellling?

(it did for me, but I’m always happy to see him get any pro work

)

Surprising because I'd never heard of it and I didn't think a spelling-based panel show would be so engaging. The Seventies vibe is outstanding.

I thought the first season of the rebooted Night Manager was like... decent, three out five or maybe a little more. But for the new one the trailer was enough to convince me this is gonna be shit modern telly.

When you say first of rebooted you mean the second overall? The Colombia one? Is there a trailer for the next one already?

There was a first season of this one right? And this is the second season?

Idk if they ever made a TV The Night Manager before tho, so maybe I'm confusing things by calling it a reboot.

The trailers for the one currently showing were enough for me to feel very sure it would be bad.

The first season was like 6 years ago and while it was a bit silly in places I thought it was pretty riveting. huge sense of danger, tom hollander playing a surprisingly menacing toady. There was a kind of morality at work that might feel obsolete now. Hugh Laurie plays a weapons broker selling arms to the bad guys. Today none of it would be secret.

theres an A&E show called crime in progress --its basically major crimes cops, stitched together body cam footage of, as the title would imply, crimes in progress and the pursuit etc of the perpetrator; its generally the most dramatic thing ive maybe ever seen

PREDATOR: BADLANDS is on Hulu now and I watched it last night. It suuuuucked. This morning I told my wife that she should have watched it instead of me, because it's a coming-of-age movie (her favorite thing) with a subplot about sisterhood. Also, it's PG-13 and there are no people in it at all; all the violence is directed at synths, and they don't even bleed milk like the ones in the Alien movies, they just give off sparks and fall down when you stab them through the head with your glowing red Predator sword. I can't believe people (and by people I mean critics) fell for this tripe. Have our standards dipped so low?

Have our standards dipped so low?

come on, are you seriously asking that question?

everybody seems to say the new predator movies are amazing, which i will admit kinda surprised me

Prey (which was directed by the same guy) is amazing. (He also did an animated Predator movie in between that I haven't watched.) This one is not.

PREY was a solid (if not ultimate memorable) action movie. I didn’t bother with BADLANDS because the trailer made it look too much like a video game.

"Badlands" is basically a "Star Wars" movie, more or less for younger folk, but I thought it was surprisingly solid, actually, if tonally at odds with the franchise.

Watched one episode of How to Get to Heaven from Belfast, and that was more than enough.

Watching that Ryan Murohy JFK Jr “Love Story” show on FX and damn if it isnt working on me already

i was a bit too young to be very invested in him except as a vague pop culture figure in Seinfeld & Murphy Brown but it turns out i remember more than I thought

*murphy

Watched one episode of How to Get to Heaven from Belfast, and that was more than enough.

I assumed this would be abysmal, lol. Be glad when the Irishcore fad has gone away.

I really enjoyed Badlands. Watched with my son who loved it so perhaps coloured by that somewhat but thought it was an inventive take and Elle Fanning was excellent.

"Badlands" is basically a "Star Wars" movie, more or less for younger folk, but I thought it was surprisingly solid, actually, if tonally at odds with the franchise.

― Josh in Chicago, Friday, February 13, 2026 5:06 PM (three days ago) bookmarkflaglink

Started reading this thinking you were talking about the 1973 Badlands and was gonna congratulate you on masterful trolling.

Deadloch S2 coming in March ... hyped

new series of industry is so corny

new series of hijack is so corny

new series of Dark Winds features Lady Solid Snake which could be corny but I'm down for it

Strip Law on Netflix is very funny. I’m not usually much of a one for the adult swim style stuff, but this is joke-dense and the jokes are good.

just saw ep 1 of it not expecting anything at all and had some actual lols. art style reminds me of Metalocalypse and i’m up for anything with adam scott & janelle james in it! The creator wrote a bit of Lower Decks as well.

Yes, that’s the rhythm it has, alright.

I'm late as usual, but we raced through both seasons of Culinary Class Wars (thanks to those here who talked it up!). Probably my favorite cooking show ever, a total thrill

I saw someone recommend Vigil (Peacock) - Scottish procedural set on a nuclear submarine! Banger of a cast, Includes Rose Leslie aka Ygrttie from Game of Thrones, Shaun Evans from Endeavour & Martin Compston from Line of Duty. Barely started but p good so far

I loved it. p sure there's a thread somewhere. maybe a rolling iPlayer thread.

Yeah Vigil was good. I had not realized there was a second season and soon to be third??

The prospect of there being a second season was so ridiculous when I heard about it that I just pretended it didn't exist - idk maybe it's good?

Apparently it doesn't take place on a submarine, which is probably the right way to go. VG, if you get that far, please report back lol

Netflix has been recommending us the Lincoln Lawyer for some time, which looked pretty silly. But we finally gave in... and really liked it. Not gonna win awards for realism or originality but they hit a great balance of tension and fun, feeling like a high-stakes hangout show. I love almost all the main characters

I remember enjoying Vigil but that it got too silly by the end, as Jed Mercurio prods are inclined to do

the one thing i remember about Virgil is that there were more cardboard boxes than you'd normally expect on a submarine.

(Vigil)

The first episode of Vigil, my husband saw Suranne Jones being afraid to go into the submarine and joked "Oh no, not an enclosed space! My husband was killed by an enclosed space!" And, well.

I tried to watch some of season two, but gave up. It was just too lazy. Although both of those seasons are great COVID artifacts, I think. Lots of people having secret conversations in the middle of the street because they had to do as much filming as possible outdoors.

xpost Lincoln Lawyer, agree with Vinnie's description. we enjoyed it as well.

Scottish procedural set on a nuclear submarine! Banger of a cast, Includes Rose Leslie aka Ygrttie from Game of Thrones, Shaun Evans from Endeavour & Martin Compston from Line of Duty. Barely started but p good so far

missing out Captain Johnson.

IIRC Shaun Evans is really good in his weird role. Was impressed by his un-Endeavourness. He's a good actor! Not sure why he's always in cheeese.

What is it with the Brits rolling out the same batch of actors for every bloody procedural they do. The amount of times I've seen the same actors in Line of Duty/Silent Witness/Wire in the Blood/Vera/Happy Valley etc etc

And so many of them also did all the voice acting in Elden Ring. Which is rather odd.

you say this like its a bad thing lol

Ha yeah it isnt! Its just I get distracted by going "oh thats... that guy! from the other thing!" constantly.

the Danish tv industry is the same, the same 4 people in everything. you sit there wondering when the guy from Borgen and a dozen other things is going to turn up and then there he is, sometimes playing the bad guy for a change, sometimes in period costume, but always there

Started Love Story, how much of the budget did they blow on music rights for this?

yeah the soundtrack is pretty good!

I mentioned it on unperson’s “violence is a universal language” thread, but I highly recommend Mercy For None on Netflix, a Korean limited series which comes off like a more violent John Wick mixed with a rival gangs at war story. The lead character is almost comedically stoic and weary in his quest for revenge. It’s made with an incredible amount of skill.

Surprised there is no Nirvanna the Band thread. Anyway, those nerds have been so prolific, and so matryoshka doll meta that they have left an endless trail of digital detritus. In fact, afaict the original website has been pretty close to scrubbed, or is on its way there. Neon (who released the movie) is supposedly working with them on a giant boxed set that may or may not include everything, so now is the time to seek it out for storage/collector purposes in case the rumors don't entirely pan out.

i'd never heard about that until the movie came out and I was very confused about what people were referencing. Worth looking into then?

Still not sure what we’re talking about? A Nirvana doc?

no

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nirvanna_the_Band_the_Show

The movie (out now) is one of the funniest, most clever things I've seen in ages. It's both a good place to start, if you are new, and a good place to end up, if you've followed them for the last 20-ish years.

(I came to it/them new, btw. No doubt because I was confused by the novel(ty) name, too.)

the movie is indeed very funny and I was also previously unfamiliar with the show -- though I did know and like the movie Blackberry (also directed by Matt Johnson).

So am I right that we have no thread for the show/guys/series/universe? Does it deserve one? Not many mentions of it at all that I could find on ILX (though lots of the actual band spelled incorrectly!).

Netflix officially backs out of WB deal, which means Paramount is likely going to buy WB. So I guess expect a bigger budget sequel to the Melania movie.

Christ we're fucked. What's happened at CBS is even worse than predicted, and now that's coming for CNN. Add to what's happened at the Washing Post and WGN (or what was formerly known as WGN), and what else is there to say?

*Washington Post

And fuck James Cameron, throwing the fucking world under a bus because of his paranoid delusions that people won't be able to see bloated crap monstrosities in a movie theater.

(tbf I doubt he held a lot of sway with his letters but still disgusted he would make that argument in writing)

i did not realize that dtf st. louis was created by steven conrad, who made patriot. that alone is enough to make me probably check it out.

Thanks for connecting the dots between dft St. Louis and Patriot. That’s sufficient to give the new show a try

I'm cautiously interested in DTF... I feel a little burned by Bateman, most recently of the just-OK Black Rabbit (and I'm put off by everyone involved in the Smartless podcast). And of course watching David Harbour in a show at least in part about sexual affairs, post-Lily Allen, is icky.

I’ve started watching Tell Me Lies on Hulu and i really am pretty into it? triggering for 00’s needledrops & insanely oversexed college students. i’mkind of repelled by the incessant fucking but i cant stop watching all the plotting & scheming & DRAMZ lol

steven = what if eminem
but patrick bateman

and lucy looks like shailene woodley’s doppelganger its very disconcerting

that's Grace (daughter of Tim) Van Patten

oh idk why i didnt clock that

this is apparently a show that has been on for 3 seasons but for some reason I never saw Hulu put it front and center until now. Another mystery of streaming services.

Xpost DFS St Louis - watching the trailer and reading the review in Slate, now not so sure. I didn’t know anything about David Harbour and Lily Allen - yikes

I didn’t know anything about David Harbour and Lily Allen - yikes

I remember hearing about it last year and being kinda baffled, like they were put together by a random celebrity name generator.

xpost yeah i hadnt heard of it! CR on The Watch podcast talks about how crazy/fucked up it is from time & i thought i’d check it out

(Tell Me Lies, I mean)

First episode of DTF St Louis is good. Cautiously optimistic for the rest now.

agreed, i enjoyed it!

watched it last night, lotta curveballs, into it. it's funny how utterly typecast even the biggest stars get. not that i'm complaining - they're great at doing The Thing They Do. but that always slightly turned me off about acting when i was doing it - that you get pegged as a type and that's all the work you get. that's life, i guess. i always felt like - hey i'm good, i can do anything, i can be anybody! but that's not how it works apart from a few curious exceptions like idk Philip Seymour Hoffmann.

It's kinda mad that way. When I did bits of acting I only started getting roles i auditioned for once I knew what my typical part would be. There's a weird sort of typecasting even at the most amateur level. Maybe some of that is the suggestions or limitations of our physicality or bodies but I'm sure some of it also just sort of weird preconceived casting ideas.

Finished Vladimir yesterday. Very weird watching experience from the standpoint that none of the protagonists are particularly likable and Rachel Weisz’s character in particular is absolutely maddening but that feeds into the narrative in a very satisfying way. Plus they make excellent use of the unreliable narrator.

Rachel Weisz remains v v pretty, while John Slattery is beginning to look like a handsome slab of salt cod

it's funny how utterly typecast even the biggest stars get

Ironically, typecasting is often what opens the doors to against-type breakthroughs. Think Michael Chiklis in "The Shield," or Bryan Cranston (and Bob Odenkirk) in "Breaking Bad." I guess that's where a good agent comes in, someone that keeps an eye out for smart opportunities.

Watched Dead Of Winter on HBO and F1 on Apple TV last night.

Dead Of Winter stars Emma Thompson in the Liam Neeson role; she's a widow headed out to a deserted Minnesota lake (yes, she does the accent) when she spots a younger woman being held captive by a scary-looking man and decides to rescue her. It's a tight 95-minute thriller that shows/tells you everything you need to know, and doesn't waste time with anything you don't (we never even learn the villains' — there are two — names).

F1 is the Brad Pitt movie about Formula 1 racing; Damson Idris, from Snowfall, is the cocky young driver grizzled veteran Pitt has to mentor, and Javier Bardem is the owner of the racing team. Tobias Menzies plays a rich prick. It hits every beat right on cue; the only thing that surprised me was that the closing credits song wasn't Lenny Kravitz's "Fly Away." It's at least half an hour too long, but it suited my mood.

Also watched the first episode of A Knight Of The Seven Kingdoms and WOW. Won't be making that mistake again. That was the longest 45 minutes of my year so far. Gave me the strongest "Really? This? You love... this?" reaction I've had in forever. (Said this on Bluesky and now I'm being barraged with "It gets really good after episode three!" bullshit.)

yeah but you hate everything lol <3

also we duel at sunrise bc KOTSK fucking rules

I'm catching up on a bunch of streaming stuff I had originally missed out on, so I've recently watched S3 of Yellowjackets, both seasons of Silo, S1 of Severance and all of Pluribus.

I was middling on a lot of GOT and house of the dragon but I thought 7 Kingdoms was great right out of the gate! It focussed on the smaller, quieter story and was all the better for it, frankly.

I’ve been very slow on tv shows lately. This afternoon I watched the first episode of the new season of SHRINKING. That show is so wholesome and clean, like a pre-furnished condo. But it’s so effing pleasant with just enough laughs and pathos that it wins.

typecasting is often what opens the doors to against-type breakthroughs. Think …Bryan Cranston (and Bob Odenkirk) in "Breaking Bad." I guess that's where a good agent comes in, someone that keeps an eye out for smart opportunities.

Gilligan cast Cranston (pushing to get him an audition when the casting director had already settled on someone else) in “Drive” in 1998, based on his extremely varied 18 years of film & TV credits to date, because the episode “ needed a guy who could be scary and kind of loathsome but at the same time had a deep, resounding humanity… We had this villain, and we needed the audience to feel bad for him when he died. Bryan alone was the only actor who could do that, who could pull off that trick.”

Cranston had done five episodes of Seinfeld in four seasons, but afaik had no other recurring sitcom roles.

Gilligan again cast Cranston himself in Breaking Bad, and used Drive to convince network execs who only knew him for one job across a now 26-year career.

Odenkirk was cast as a comic relief character for four episodes (following an initial suggestion by Gould’s wife), and offered the part directly by Gilligan with no audition.

Cranston had done five episodes of Seinfeld in four seasons, but afaik had no other recurring sitcom roles.
I assume you mean at the time of the 98 hiring, because surely you didn't overlook MitM.

xpost we just finished Shrinking S2 and yeah I really love it. Really good quality laughs but also digs into real shit too - love the way they balance that tone. And Harrison Ford is deployed so perfectly!

Rolling not 2026 - just finished watching Band of Brothers. Never seen it, fantastic show and shocking to see how things have changed since it first aired in 2001 (25 years ago yikes). And, for a change of pace, watching Veronica Mars. Finished S1 and just starting S2. Great watch, way better than it could have been. Band of Brothers doesn't have a dedicated ILX thread but have enjoyed following along with Veronica Mars thread.

now you can listen to the podcast Dead Eyes, about comedian Connor Ratliff's failed Band of Brothers audition.

Band of Brothers and Veronica Mars are both all-time (I just pretend the last VM season, the one after the movie doesn't exist).

Am re-watching The Wire now, cause Mr. Roz hasn't seen it - we're midway through s4.

Band Of Brothers one of my most-rewatched favorites, i love it soooooooo goddamn much

Totally get rewatching Band of Brothers. I’m sure I missed a lot first time thru. Though we did wiki some of the battles and followed along on Google Maps. But the concentration camp scenes were so heartbreaking, not sure I want to rewatch those anytime soon

yeah they still destroy me every time

I love VMars. and also pretend the last series doesn't exist

> Gilligan cast Cranston ... in “Drive” in 1998

this was one of the 6 'best' x-files episodes they showed on uk tv just last week. i saw cranston's name in the end titles and had to rewind to confirm... (i wasn't paying that much attention tbh)

It’s a good one!

He also had a small, but quite moving, serious role in a Babylon 5 episode where his ship of rangers went off for an almost certain-death mission knowing that was what faced them.

Absolutely loved second episode of DTF St Louis. Just a lovely tone and blend of humour with melancholy. Great use of music also.

The Lowdown - should have been a two hour movie

Our household really enjoyed the first two episodes of Steal on Amazon Prime. Tense and speedy. It has time to go off the rails yet, though.

Beast in Me was solid B+ tv — I kept mentally calling it “Dexter the Developer”

Season 4 of Hidden Assets — the plot is good. Many of the supporting characters are good. The actress that plays the main detective is a candidate for the “Bar is (Orlando) Bloom” thread that deems started years back.

I'm enjoying how often I have never even heard of some of the shows posted itt

that maybe sounds a bit "I don't even own a streaming service" but it's not that, I watch shows I swear

kudos to Paradise season 2 for having the characters hang out in Graceland during the end of the world.

I'm on season 1 of that and it's fine, better than I expected in some ways, but whoever decided to put a slowed-down moody cover of a famous older song in every single episode should be publicly executed

I forgot about the President who was obsessed with 80s music.

yeah some extremely clumsy screenwriting, it's in (nearly?) every episode of S1, like they made a two-item list of traits for him: 1) daddy issues; 2) likes lol old music

I'm on season 1 of that and it's fine, better than I expected in some ways, but whoever decided to put a slowed-down moody cover of a famous older song in every single episode should be publicly executed

Fucking hell people are still doing this?

The "Another Day in Paradise" cover was hilarious. It's already slowed-down and moody!

the worst

S2 has been as corny and ridiculous as ever but also surprisingly watchable so far with some excellent moments

i watched the flashback episode

(in S1 of Paradise)

Vladimir is weird. Mostly it reminds me of classic 1980s British programme A Very Peculiar Practice. I'm not sure it's any good at all, though.

The bottle/flashback episodes have been the best things about S2 so far xp

trishyb I felt the same way about Vladimir initially. At some point I just accepted the tone for what it was and that’s when I really started getting into it. I also loved the tension between what Weisz tells us as the narrator of her own story and what the show shows of how people are actually reacting/responding to her; that tension makes the last two episodes sing.

I do love that she’s such a weirdo.

The "Another Day in Paradise" cover was hilarious. It's already slowed-down and moody!
I fucking WISH people would stop doing this!! And that example was particularly egregious. I call it "fuck you donnie darko".

Paradise is going ok though - interesting move for the start of the new season and tbh I could barely remember the last one.

There's an Amazon Prime show called Steal starring Sophie Turner (ex-Game of Thrones, ex-Mrs. Jonas Brother). It's kind of like Industry crossed with a heist movie? Seen 2 episodes of 8 so far and it's pretty good.

i just navigated a browser tab and this exact same comment from you on bluesky and I am high and it was weird

Made my mom’s day texting her a link to the Amazon Kay Scarpetta series.

Paradise S2 E1 talks about the supervolcano killing 2/3 of the population. That leaves 110 million people! That’s not a sparsely populated post-apocalypse, someone would have wandered into Graceland. Memphis would have a population of at least tens of thousands.

Yeah, but all the survivors were Beatles fans.

That was just one guy though (Link) so I generously assumed he was talking out of his arse rather than the writers fucking that figure up (even though it's almost certainly the latter) xp

Binged Steal - started very good i thought but lost halfway through what made it special (finance world, doubts over who is in on the plot)

hat’s not a sparsely populated post-apocalypse, someone would have wandered into Graceland.

I did wonder about that - she holed away there for what, years? And no one ever tried to get in? Its not like there were zombies or plagues or even radioactive fallout -if you could survive the cold, you might do ok.

Just caught half of an episode of The Capture on the BBC and it was pretty good, anyone know if this is something worth getting into?

Watching Hijack on Apple TV. You know what I hate? When movies or TV shows about planes (or trains, or whatever) being hijacked include pre-hijacking scenes with children on board. We know the hijackers aren't gonna kill a kid - it's against Screenwriting Law. So why get my hopes up by showing me an annoying asshole kid who absolutely deserves a bullet?

Also, it's hilarious to me that there's a second season of this show. If the season premiere doesn't include a shot of Idris Elba rolling his eyes and saying, "Fuck, this shit again?", someone's fucking up.

I couldn’t bring myself to bother with season 2 of Hijack. First season was enjoyable if nothing special.

Just caught half of an episode of The Capture on the BBC and it was pretty good, anyone know if this is something worth getting into?

The first season is fun but it gets too silly by the end, in that the way that BBC thrillers tend to (e.g. Vigil, Bodyguard, Line of Duty, Years and Yearsd...)

regret to inform you that there were no later seasons of Years & Years, that stuff on TV is really happening

Is there a thread talking about Louis Theroux’s new manosphere doc?

Just watched it and it’s some grim shit. These dudes and women who like them seem like they just have really empty lives. Everything is performative and surface level. There’s really just.. nothing there.

actually can't bring myself to watch it!

I watched it, they are just such pathetic losers that I had to keep reminding myself that they were dangerous because loads of boys take them seriously.

There's a bit here on Rolling Maleness and Masculinity Discussion Thread

Kinder, I don’t recommend it. While I found the framing pretty funny - instead of “look at these fuckin psychos”, it was more “look at these sad sacks, desperately trying to find meaning in toxic masculinity because they don’t have good dads”, there’s very little substance there. None of these dudes are able to talk honestly, and every snippet of talking (because there was no real interview of anyone) was just these dudes selling their shit like they do on social media. They’d all probably spoken to PR people and lawyers beforehand (implied by Theroux mentioning several times that lengthy negotiations were held to get these guys to agree to be in the doc).

The one guy, Harrison/HS, whose mother is apparently very anti-bigotry, wasn’t capable of saying more than “well you don’t have to agree with all of your child’s opinions”. I guess the money he’s giving her is worth more than telling him to knock that shit off. He also claimed he’s not a homophobe because he has a gay friend, but also said he would disown his son if he was gay. And he also isn’t a antisemite because his buddy is Jewish, but also fuck the Jews and they’re the source of all the world’s problems.

I regret watching this. I learned nothing new and just got really bummed out.

Thanks, that's really helpful!

None of these dudes are able to talk honestly

Someone also recommended me a podcast on being a parent of boys which I think is going to touch on this stuff (but the one episode I listened to on how to respond to aggressive behaviour was pretty good).

Laura Bates' 'Men who hate women' is a book I read quite a while ago, written in response to her seeing this rise up in schools in the UK almost all at once. It's from 2020 so I dunno how things have changed since then.

And his dad is ex-England rugby international Victor Ubogu apparently xps

i was wondering which player it was.

Theroux also never addresses how this rhetoric they spout is related to the insanely high number of assaults and murders of girls and women.

Hijack S2 was absolute dreck (though tbh I think I preferred the subway setting to the plane), but I watched the whole thing anyway. I look forward to Idris Elba ending up in a third hijacking scenario, during which there will be surprisingly little commentary on that fact

It's """"Die Hard on a bus" on a boat" on a plane" in the subway" in a driverless taxi."

I know, also, that it's a stupid criticism to make of a show like Hijack, but I was annoyed that it had subtitles. No, I'm sorry, I wanted a trashy Idris Elba show that was just in English that I could half-watch while I knitted. I have plenty of proper subtitled shows to watch, thanks. Only made it two episodes into season two. I'm relieved to hear it was rubbish and I didn't make a mistake in ditching it.

That isn't stupid! It had absolutely zero reason to be set in Berlin instead of London (I assume the reason was financial)

I was reluctant to watch the new Theroux and now I'm even more reluctant.

Scarpetta is bad. I could not advance further than the first episode. Woof.

Theroux did such a good job of making them seem like horrible losers, I felt like – well, these losers are obviously doing something right – what is that? It would've been useful to understand a bit more about how their various financial scams worked. Even if they were all completely miserable, they seemed to have a lot of disposable income – where did that come from? Though I guess that's not the sort of reporting that Theroux does.

My partner works at a high school – she said these guys are extremists and even teenage boys can see they're idiots. She said the real danger was the smaller-scale fitness/relationship influencers with lower audience numbers, who do a better job of seeming "normal" even when their content is just as harmful.

Unrelated - I thought the first season of Platonic was very good. I hated The Studio, wasn't expecting to enjoy it so much. I've started the second season - also funny but the lifestyle porn is getting too much.

As someone who doesn't have kids I've been wondering how common it is for teens to actually like or believe the stuff these guys say.

My four nephews seem to find it completely ridiculous, at least as far as I can tell when it's come up, but it's quite hard to wonder about it from afar. Like how do I know what's true, what isn't being reported, what's the usual media thing of predicting doom for young people, or whether to second guess my own views about that.

I also often feel like it's an easy thing to isolate when discussing crime or violence as compared to all the other systemic factors which governments are less keen to examine or be blamed for.

Anecdotally I have two teacher friends who struggle with their kids bigging up this shit, also a woman in my book club says a lot of kids in her boy's class.

As someone also without kids tho I don't really see any reason to watch that Theroux thing, I accept this stuff evolves with time and as a parent you have to keep up but there's been endless discourse and analysis of incels for at least a decade now, kinda feel like I get it.

And yes of course it's very convinient for govts.

My partner said something interesting - she said, it's not that kids weren't racist and misogynist before, but the nature of it has changed.

Before it might have been "Group X is stupid, white men are less stupid, let's play football anyway"

Now it is more nakedly supremacist, like "Anyone who is not white is not allowed to play football"

ime it's the very young kids who are most susceptible because they just haven't formed enough centres of judgement in their brains. like 10-12-year olds are the real Andrew Tate sweet spot. once my kids got a little older they realises it's lots of fun to clown on these guys and i think it makes them feel powerful to reject these guys they once put on a pedestal.

I felt like – well, these losers are obviously doing something right – what is that? It would've been useful to understand a bit more about how their various financial scams worked. Even if they were all completely miserable, they seemed to have a lot of disposable income – where did that come from? Though I guess that's not the sort of reporting that Theroux does.

I am also far more interested in this aspect than I am in listening to their opinions. I once watched a short BBC documentary following a prominent make-up influencer around, and it was really interesting to see the mechanics of what she does all day and how she gets paid. Like, she got flown to some influencer meetup in California, and she spent what seemed like about two hours trying to come around the corner on a bicycle the exact right way to seem breezy and nonchalant. It looked like a lot of work.

Scarpetta is bad. I could not advance further than the first episode. Woof.

WTF is with Jamie Lee Curtis in this? How was this even a crime show? The whole episode was just JLC screeching drunkenly at Nicole Kidman while wearing terrible outfits, interspersed with very confusing flashbacks cast by actors so much alike their slightly-older versions that I couldnt work out what the hell was going on most of the time.

yeah it’s a whole mess

I like Kidman but I can’t recall anything watchable she’s been in since the first season of Big Little Lies, which seems like a lifetime ago.

Yes, it's bad (have watched five eps so far, unfortunately). There is so much wrong with it, but Cannavale and Ariana DuBose are good. Cannavale's son is pretty good too.

David Gordon Green directed a few episodes (incl the first one) - i duno how much of the tonal problems can be laid at his feet but … then again, if it looks like a duck, etc

idk what happened to him but i think the Halloween reboots broke his brain lol

LOL. That's who that is! I was mistaking him for Keith Gordon! At this point, I would expect David Gordon Green to have a hand in this.

Cannavale and his son were also a great double-act in Nurse Jackie.

second half of second season of Beauty In the Black starts tomorrow. so over the top. debi morgan's matriarch character scares the crap out of me.

I made it about twenty minutes into Scarpetta and that was quite enough.

I did, however, finish Cross Season Two, which is terrible but also quite fascinating as an artefact of post-Epstein liberal fantasy.

I am watching State of Play on streaming for the first time and thinking the Blairite MP did it.

Actually funny how everything is so on point: the interplay between government and media, lobbying, journalism and police. Just things that have been with us always and are a permanent part of the corrosion of everything, and when people don't really have a say.

Holy shit, I had no idea there was a semi-sequel to "Jury Duty"!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K4q_0DtugOA

We're watching this right now and man, I dunno... it feels like they all want to be in The Office. I can't work out how he'd fall for this, but I guess we'll see. It feels too much like they're "acting" compared to what real office ppl would be like, in this first episode.

just watched ep1 yesterday and same

i am enjoying the Rooster despite myself

Yeah, Rooster is not a particularly smart show and I'm not a big Steve Carell fan (though I liked him in that movie about the billionaires on their mountain retreat), but I'm enjoying it too. Just make me laugh for 20 minutes; I don't need anything more.

i enjoy the lush new england campus setting (although apparently the outdoor scenes were shot at UoP in Stockton), nice comfort show for a world that doesn't exit outside of movies and tv

I liked the first 3 episodes of DTF St. Louis-- Peter Sarsgaard talking about the Bowie pic on his dating profile was cool.

OK, the third episode of Rooster has escalated from mildly entertaining to genuinely fucked-up and funny as shit.

why am I watching a second season of The Last Thing He Told Me?

Luke Kirby? That's the only reason I would watch it.

watching current season of Dark Winds but it is kinda meh for reasons i cant quite pinpont :/

Reggie Dinkins (Peacock) is very funny, still enjoying

The Burbs (Peacock) is good but i keep forgetting to watch

Shrinking S3 so far is lovely, man i enjoy this show so much!

Scrubs reboot: i told mr veg to finish this one without me. hard pass. I enjoyed the original series at the time! But theyre all doing the ~exact~ same things as before & now i hate it.

Still need to check out Ponies, Steal, and a few others.

Holy shit, I had no idea there was a semi-sequel to "Jury Duty"!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K4q_0DtugOA

i suspect this is going to be awesome. of course the way they edit it is going to be very punchy and TV-like, cause it's TV, and the trailer even more so but i absolutely trust the producers after Jury Duty and this patsy is extremely winsome imo

Luke Kirby? That's the only reason I would watch it.

he is definitely cheesing it up every chance he gets

Angourie Rice is a good actress. David Morse is great. We did get at least one Jennifer Garner kicking ass Alias style scene too. But everything about this show strains credulity

I watched the generational Nakba tragedy drama movie All That's Left of You. Was really moved by it at times, but it was a bit sketchy and episodic. The characters needed more time to bed in before it kept abruptly jumping forwards to the next era.

Scrubs reboot: i told mr veg to finish this one without me. hard pass. I enjoyed the original series at the time! But theyre all doing the ~exact~ same things as before & now i hate it.

Agreed. They shoehorned in reasons for them all to be back at the same hospital 20 years later which, come on now. And yeah JD and Turk still acting like nobs. And I don't know if I just didn't notice it before, but what is going ON with John McGinley's TEETH.

i said to Mr Veg watching the reboot that I used to find JD funny & now i think there’s a gas leak in the hospital like he is UNWELL

There is obviously a weird dissonance between JD acting like a 20 year old and looking like a 50 year old. But I don't mind it! I think it has captured the old rhythyms quite well and the three leads are still fun to watch. Its not great but it's fine, as was always the case. I don't mind stuff that's fine!

Annoyingly there's a bunch of new stuff on Amazon I want to watch: Last One Laughing, the Paul McCartney documentary, Bait, and most importantly season 2 of Deadloch (!!!). But I don't want to give money to Amazon ever again.

Free 30 day trial, binge, cancel sub?

We use my father-in-law's sign-in on Prime. Amazon don't seem to care.

just pirate them. the mccartney doc is great

yeah loved the McCartney doc

I've been watching RJ Decker and Best Medicine neither of which I can particularly defend as great shows but they ask very little of me and are very enjoyable (the latter particularly if you watched Doc Martin to see how they translate the setting and characters)

Highly recommend BAIT on Prime - Riz Ahmed as struggling actor auditioning for Bond - great cast, v funny, cool, thoughtful, obligatory Dev Patel joeks
just premiered today iirc

As I didn’t realize Bait was a Prime movie. I killed my subscription.

is it a movie or series? I just watched something called In Camera which tbh has put me right off anything about struggling Asian actors :-)

Watched the first Wonder Man and quite liked it. My Disney sub expired yesterday though but might pick it up again in the Summer.

I just watched something called In Camera which tbh has put me right off anything about struggling Asian actors :-)

Oh, is that the film with Nabhaan Rizwan? Is it not good, or too grim, or what?

Wonder Man rules

DTF St. Louis: I loved the post kiss shot of Harbour’s face gliding forward with the camera as if he is walking on air and then the reveal that he’s on the wack bike.

xxp yes that's the one! I was being a bit flippant... I enjoyed it to an extent but it was too subtle/he was too deliberately blank for me. definitely some good points made but went a bit Lynchian and I didn't get as much out of it as it seemed to be giving.

I was possibly expecting it to be more like what I've read about Bait so that possibly coloured it!

Bait is a series: only 6 x 30 min episodes, nice and short

I'm a certified MCU hater (former MCU-enjoyer division), and I really liked Wonder Man

Wonder Man rules, I love it

A lot of struggling actor shows these days tho

that doesnt bother me tho. like if it’s a good take & well written, acted, it differentiates itself from the others anyway

I am watching The A Word on Netflix, and this Alison woman is a fucking nightmare. I don’t know how anyone stands her.

Last One Laughing is glorious!

I love Sam Campbell so much.

Impressed Mel has made it so far, I though for sure she'd be the first to fall.

I always wonder how Sam Campbell goes over with other countries, his delivery is so dryly weirdo.

Dryly weirdo is my favourite comic archetype, think there's guys like that everywhere honestly.

highly recommend the original documental that LOL is based on (i think it might be or used to be available on amazon prime?) although warning that it gets extremely puerile at times

probably the hardest i've ever laughed at anything!

Yes it has a lot to recommend it. I like that the contestants react to each other's appearence with nothing but anger. Also it's the most hardcore version of the show, some versions allow way too much smiling, in the Japanese one the slightest hint of that shit and you're caught.

I regret to inform though, and of course Jimmy Carr is not a good guy either, but the host of Documental is now a cancelled sex criminal. Takeshi Kitano, whom he always clearly wanted to be, even showed up for a tv appearence just to say "fuck this guy".

HOW IS THIS REAL?

(It's an Amazon movie, premiering in April.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S9uWqgD9cR4

Sam Campbell is my guy, haven't seen LOL properly because I don't do Amazon, but I've been enjoying the clips.

(this made me watch his rap song from TM Champion of Champions yet again, and it keeps getting better)

You've seen the extended version on youtube, right Jordan?

"Who are you betraying with this song?"

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN"

Paradise seems like it’s about go into Fringe territory (a la Walter stealing Peter from another dimension.)

Yeah, I saw an insane theory about Link a few weeks ago but after the last two episodes it's suddenly looking a lot more reasonable

I was watching Ronnie Ancona completely fail to fold laundry convincingly on Eastenders and it reminded me that one of the things I liked about Steal was that Sophie Turner did a good impression of someone who had lived in an ordinary flat and worked an ordinary job and generally just lived in the world.

joining this thread just to post about how goddamn good DTF St. Louis is and it just keeps getting better. Everybody's at the top of their game. Harbour has won back a great deal of good will here.

It's so great, I love it.

Really? I've been avoiding it because it just looks like grim suburban malaise porn. I do like Linda Cardellini, though...

She is GREAT in it too.

it's not grim, it's surprisingly sweet and wacky but in a way that I don't find annoying at all.

Batemen and Cardelini and Harbour and Richard Jenkins have never been better. And the other detective and the step-son, all top class.

It's a lovely mix of heartfelt pain and emotion, unlikely but very real human connection, and perfectly timed sex jokes. Refreshing stuff imo rather than more of the same.

You've seen the extended version on youtube, right Jordan?

Oh yes, that's the one I went back to, the 5 minute discussion afterwards is so good (and comparing it to the full ep version really makes you aware of the magic of editing).

I've not seen yesterday's episode yet but the scenes with Harbour and Bateman together last week were so good xp

dtf St Louis is one of the rare shows I've seen lately where I have absolutely no idea of where it's going and the friendship between harbour/bateman is genuinely sweet.

well I guess I know one thing about where it's going but have no idea how they will end up there

it all feels very open, the characters and the way it's written.

yeah, every now and then I notice a show is more of a "why done it" than a "who done it" and it's usually to it's benefit. There's still mysteries over exactly who and exactly how but it avoids all the clichés of the typical TV who-done-it mystery. While still letting the detectives play that game.

It’s very jarring seeing Joy Sunday play an age-appropriate character seeing as I only really know her from Wednesday, where she’s playing a teenager

yeah, every now and then I notice a show is more of a "why done it" than a "who done it" and it's usually to it's benefit. There's still mysteries over exactly who and exactly how but it avoids all the clichés of the typical TV who-done-it mystery. While still letting the detectives play that game.

yep and of like true crime or whatever, the plot is a sort of trick to lead you into the world of these v well-drawn characters. that said, while a lot of shows do time jumping and move forward and back, this show does it very boldly, like big jumps but somehow seamlessly achieved in the context of what's happening. hoping the final two episodes deliver.

Hmm y’all may actually get me to watch this show

It’s very good, I say go for it

Enjoying S2 of Deadloch - some very funny needledrops ("Slice of Heaven" accidentally blasting multiple times from a landrover, house remix of "Constant Craving" from Cath's campervan).

Wait there's a second season of Deadloch? Ugh I so do not want to renew my Prime subscription though

dunno where to post this but my daughter recently started watching Young Sheldon. I've watched it with her from time to time, maybe like a third of the episodes. it is genuinely one of the weirdest shows I've ever seen. it starts off as a sitcom but it slowly morphs into a soap opera with all sorts of serious storylines, one kid gets kicked out of the house and gets a girl pregnant, there's infidelity, the grandma goes to jail, meanwhile you've got an even more annoying version of the most obnoxious character in sitcom history doing Big Bang Theory style humor. the whole show makes no sense. like what is the audience for this? (besides 9 year old girls??) anyway during the last season they randomly kill off the dad, one of the last episodes is just the funeral and there's a scene where Will Sasso and Wallace Shawn offer their condolances

Wallace Shawn is in a ton of the series.

Yeah, there was a flurry on social media during the last presidential election (I think, or maybe it was during Zohran Mamdani's mayoral campaign) where some 18 year old influencer was canvassing and posted a picture of herself with Wallace Shawn and described him as "Wallace Shawn from Young Sheldon!" and when people got on her case about it she said, basically, I'm 18 years old and that's where I know him from, whaddya want from me?

hahaha yep he popped up so many times that I made my daughter watch The Princess Bride, her face lit up when he appeared

still can't get over how weird this ending was. like imagine a King of Queens episode where Patton Oswalt enters at the end with tears in his eyes saying Doug got pancaked by a mail truck. and the next episode was just all the characters earnestly saying "he irritated the hell out of me but god damnit I loved him". also Urkel is there. its like one of those lost media creepypastas, "Dead Bart" or whatever

Apparently the upcoming "Cape Fear" reboot on Apple (executive produced by Scorsese *and* Spielberg) is ... 10 episodes long!?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dSnichjB3-o

Maybe this would have better luck in one of the horror threads, but has anyone watched the netflix limited series Something Very Bad Is Going To Happen? I was home sick without my work laptop today and decided to give it a chance, and after two eps I think I'm hooked.

It's about an anxious young woman meeting her fiance's family at their isolated "summer house" in the woods of like, maybe northern Michigan?, where the young couple plan to wed. The family are unsettling Draculalian freaks of course, but the vibe was already freaky even before they entered the picture, during the road trip up. I'm on the edge of my seat (okay okay, I'm horizontal wrapped in blankets coughing hoarsely) waiting to see whether the groom-to-be is a mere pawn or the hand that moves the pieces.

I binged it at the weekend. Thought it had some good scenes at the beginning, but it got quite bad even a few episodes in, imo. By the end was properly terrible, I felt, just really stupid even for a show I wasn't expecting to be serious. Curious to see what you or others think along the way.

I started watching it the other day but was half asleep and nothing about it stuck with me, not sure i'll bother returning to it

Couldn't think of anything else I actively wanted to watch so I'm watching Ballard on Amazon. Got through two episodes and it's pretty good. LAPD as sinister street gang protecting their own.

I started watching Rooster, which is generally pleasant like most of Bill Lawrence’s shows.

xpost I watched Ballard last year - it was pretty good. If you liked the first 2 eps, it's worth sticking with it.

Heading towards the end of Culinary Class Wars - Culinary Monster is such a dick.

Can’t have a cooking show without massive egos. There’s a white chef who looks like a basic dad who had an equal opinion of himself. They faced each other, I think.

The new season on Top Chef just started, with the usual editing to highlight the egos prior to comeuppance. Did appreciate how this week’s ep knocked out a chef recognized by others as great, but who said they were now competing with other equally great chefs in a pressure environment. Everyone has a menu until punched in the face.

Very rarely watch anything on Netflix but am enjoying Something Very Bad Is Going To Happen so far. Camila Morrone is excellent.

I read all the reviews that said it was basically a Temu version of a Michael Mann movie, and CRIME 101 still disappointed me. Cannot recommend.

Last one Laughing - I'm not sure if I can warm to Sam at all because he seems cold and like a psychopath for not coming close to a smile throughout!

I started watching S1 of that quite randomly last night (it popped up on my Prime home page) and I ended up watching three episodes in a row. Quite funny.

Not familiar with most of the contestants, but I do know a few from Taskmaster/Traitors.

I really want to watch Julio Torres’ new special but for some reason it’s not available if you sign up to hbo max on prime. How hard does hbo make canceling if you sign up directly with them?

I can't answer that question, but I did see Color Theories on stage in NYC and found it delightful.

Last one Laughing - I'm not sure if I can warm to Sam at all because he seems cold and like a psychopath for not coming close to a smile throughout!

I had this problem with Ayoade in s1 but not Campbell - Ayoade's above it all shtick sometimes shaded over into seeming like genuine contempt. Sam meanwhile just seems like he's off in his own universe.

I find LOL strange as a viewer. As an experiment it's interesting, because a) comedians can't bear it if people are not laughing at them, b) people are conditioned to laugh and smile at each other even if the things they are saying and hearing are not really that funny, so it seems weirdly hostile when that's not happening and c) it's tough (for me anyway) to see comedians failing to make people laugh. It's like there's a mindset you can get yourself into where instead of being willing to laugh, you're actually thinking god, I feel sorry for you, look how desperate you are to make me laugh and I just am not, this is so feeble, where is your dignity? So I find the whole thing more awkward than funny. But fair play to Amazon for getting six half-hour shows out of one day of pretty cheap shooting, that's some House-of-Games level thriftiness.

I generally enjoy it as a social experiment first and foremost, yeah. Tho the UK version works better as comedy than most.

Color Theories was brilliant. Closest thing to HBO just airing straight up performance art.

trishyb, yep I agree with a lot of that. It's weird to be laughing yourself while watching them straight-faced. Much better when a few people have gone off and you get more shots of them all laughing. But most of them have the non-laughing face (Mel's gurning etc) that you learn to interpret as laughter...! Sam simply doesn't have that which is what throws me.

Sam meanwhile just seems like he's off in his own universe.

I think it's this, he would probably find conspiracy theory crackpots funnier than comedians trying to make him laugh. I'll bet Lucy Beaumont could crack him just by having a normal conversation. Or maybe if Bob dipped more into his truly surreal bag:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hGOUR26pLz0

Honestly I don't love the LOL format, I just like a lot of the comedians from Taskmaster. Haven't seen a real ep though, just a ton of clips.

I agree with everyone who says that Sam is unbeatable because he is in a world of his own. He just doesn't find ordinary things funny.

he was talking about listening to Hancock on the radio recently. and python. he didn't really know about Bob because that stuff never made it to Australia

(last half hour here if you can see this - https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m002rynj )

Just caught half of an episode of The Capture on the BBC and it was pretty good, anyone know if this is something worth getting into?

The first season is fun but it gets too silly by the end, in that the way that BBC thrillers tend to (e.g. Vigil, Bodyguard, Line of Duty, Years and Yearsd...)

― Chuck_Tatum, Monday, 16 March 2026 01:36 (two weeks ago) bookmarkflaglink

Watched the first series and yeah it was ok but nothing special. The one episode of series three that I caught was much better (so I'll keep on with it)

Deadloch is back, still delightful.

We’re finding Deadloch a bit exhausting this go round. So many words and characters and so much chaotic energy.

Xps Color Theories is suddenly available on hbo via prime now - I thought I’d double check before I signed up directly and there it was 🤷‍♀️ The Shapes special was so good, I got so excited when I saw the announcement for the new one.

OK I haven't watched LOL but I'm curious now. Sam is like the ultra-concentrated dry Australian mixed with a bit of ASD remove/weird that a lot of people here "get", but I can see it throwing people elsewhere? Actually there's prob even people here who think he's just a fkn weirdo. But I know people like him, who just riff in this completely bland-but-actually-fucked-up manner. He does such a perfect version.

I find Sam very funny on Taskmaster but don’t think he worked on LOL - up until the last 3 minutes when he was feeding eclairs to David Mitchell.

My fav Campbell LOL moment went under the radar - he picked up the phone, listened to Carr's instructions and went "guys, Vladimir Putin has been assassinated."

Ok I started DFT St Louis and glad I did, this is nothing like I thought it was going to be; for some reason (based on nothing) I thought this was a 30 minute sitcom about wifeswapping

Mine was when he'd been quizzing Alan on his interest in extreme sports and then 20 minutes later or whatever as he's walking past Alan just randomly throws out "So where do you stand on quad bikes?". xp

Binged Deadloch S2. Thought I wouldn’t love it. Ended up loving it.

I wasn’t super into it in the first half but it picked up in the later half. Hope there’s a third season!

Color Theories was hilarious btw.

Had no idea Patterson Hood was taking up acting with a guest role in Paradise

I don’t know how you can get away with a show like Something Bad is Going to Happen in a post Get Out world.

I'm halfway through it and enjoying it so far, I like that it seems to have pivoted away from the supernatural and more into 'this family is fucked up'. But I could see it pivoting back.

Only one more DTF left...

Yeah, they do a rug pull on the Get Out vibes a few episodes in.

The show kind of reminds me of Servant, the batshit Apple TV show M. Night Shayamalan produced, tonally anyway. Servant never decided what it wanted to be and went on too long and in the end made absolutely no sense, but I enjoyed it because of the sets and some of the performances. Same thing here.

Servant drove me fucking crazy. Really made me feel like the horror genre does not fit to serialized TV.

not in 30 minute segments, no. I kind of found the show hilarious

It reminds me of the Fall of the House of Usher show. Ultimately ridiculous and not that scary, but pretty fun.

Was the Fall of the House of Usher supposed to be scary, though? I watched it as a Gothic (as in overwrought) drama and enjoyed the hell out of it.

Well it was pretty gory, wasn’t it? A club full of people with skin melting from acid.

Yeah I feel like Ive seen plenty of what I'd class as horror on TV. Like House of Usher, American Horror Story, Haunting of Hill House, hell even parts of Stranger Things. Maybe I'm more easily queased out?

We're enjoying Steal (on Prime) -- it's a good thriller with Sophie Turner & Jacob Fortune-Lloyd. Have only seen 4 of 6 episodes so don't yet know if they will stick the landing.

ok finished Something Very Bad, scratch what I said about it tapering off the supernatural, that certainly comes back. I did like this show in the end. I can see people having major issues with the large number of red herrings or plot points that look important that turn out not to be.

S4 Dark Winds finale mostly confirmed that this season was kinda dumb?

i liked the idea of Franke Potente as the villain but jeez this character was a whiff overall

I liked the LA stuff kinda - i think the most interesting part of the whole season was Chee & his ghost sickness.

I can almost see how the season worked as a novel, more time to properly flesh out the exploitation system in LA, Chee’s ghost sickness, the passing of the torch stuff, relationship drama. In 8 episodes it was a half-assed jumble that focused on the dumbest part, a Nazi assassin working out her family trauma.

totally!

Supervillain Bosch… on screen for eight minutes.

Only seen three episodes of something bad so far and I’m enjoying it but there’s something so super stylized about it that just makes all the horror so predictable and on the nose that despite enjoying it I can’t help but keep thinking “man that might have actually been scary if it wasn’t so stylishly directed”

i just finished watching Jury Duty- Company Retreat... there's a special ep on Friday where he meets the S1 guy. Not a spoiler but I'll put it in spoiler tags anyway: Anthony seemed sweet and smart but I kinda feel there's no way he didn't suspect something was up? the situations seemed so dumb eg icey balls guy! But then would you ever actually come to the conclusion that you were in a Truman show? he's only 25 so probably not worked in a ton of workplaces but he has a kid so y'know, some adult life experience?!

We just finished watching Jury Duty also. Felt like a lesser version of the first season but the payoff was still fun to watch. I liked how different in personality Anthony was from Ronald last season, very fun and kind. I did think he seemed a bit smart to get fooled but they also had some neat tricks like the nosebleed and the time capsule video that would likely have made me second guess myself

Two episodes into Big Mistakes and it's a blast so far. Bit of a Righteous Gemstones vibe to it

God help me, I liked Hijack S2. despite many plotholes, paper-thin characters, and other problems. probably the Berlin U-Bahn setting does a lot of heavy lifting for me personally

DTF ended about how I suspected it would, at least mechanically.

I loved watching DTF St Louis but I came away with it feeling like the show was really trying to have it both ways in how it framed the sexcapdes between the main trio, particularly Jason Bateman’s character.

I don’t want to call it the Ted Lasso-fication of serialized media as that’s not the first show to do this (arguably Michael Schule has made an entire career out of it) but maybe that explains the vibe I’m talking about.

argh

Michael Schur

I'm not sure I totally follow. Maybe I view that as empathy for the characters rather than 'trying to have it two ways'.

There’s empathy for the characters and then there’s the characters are good people and you will love them, which I think DTF had a tendency to tip into. It didn’t affect my enjoyment of the show but I felt it.

I don't know. It felt earned due to Harbour and Bateman's performances imo

I think it rushed the ending a bit, I didn't dislike it just felt a bit like they were wrapping up a lot. Still some quite nice moments and character relationships we don't see a lot of on TV.

I still have a few episodes to go, but they don't seem to be trying to make Cardellini's character likeable.

Didn’t realize the Prime Young Sherlock was by Guy Ritchie and Youngish Sherlock at best. Very stupid but still better than the BBC Sherlock.

Currently watching Sugar on Apple TV, which is a show from 2024 where Colin Farrell plays a PI who (spoiler hidden) is actually an alien. The reveal comes at the end of episode 6 of 8, which I just watched last night, and I have to admit I laughed.

if you enjoyed DTF St. Louis at all and haven't watched Patriot, the other big steven conrad show, i'd highly recommend it. it's about a deeply traumatized/depressed spy who is recruited for a mission that is supposed to be straightforward but immediately starts to go wrong and continues to get worse, but also it's very funny. it's buried in amazon prime. amazing supporting performances by kurtwood smith of robocop/that 70s show and terry o'quinn from lost.

i still have only watched the first ep of DTFSL bc my wife wasn't into it but i'll circle back around to it eventually. bateman is in too much stuff but this seemed like a great role for him specifically.

Patriot is so great.

i'm struggling a bit to get through the first ep of DTFSL. not vibing with the two cops and their storyline. it gets better yeah?

i feel like their storyline in particular becomes more rounded and less cliched.

LG is stating what I’m trying to say about DTF St Louis much better than I am. I agree with his take (I liked it but the ending felt somewhat rushed).

I also don’t buy that David Harbour’s character never taught his stepson the sign for “I love you”.

yeah that was p dumb but i guess sort of amusing.

kid seemed only occasionally receptive to learning things tbf

I kept thinking, when I watch DTF, about a post I saw somewhere back when the gossip about Harbour was going around several months ago. Someone said their friend had been brought in give Harbour lessons for something (they wouldn’t say what it was, to protect the friend’s identity) for an as then unreleased project, and of course he was dickish and didn’t take anything seriously. I would guess now it was sign language lessons.

about DTF, it's a very subdued and thoughtful show. Harbour's sign language was pretty primitive. I haven't finished the whole thing yet, but it has not been at all what I was expecting. I like it

Re DTF StL: Is there any such thing as life insurance that pays out after suicide? I don't think Carol's as okay at the end as she thinks she is.

No, I was thinking that as well. The end result of this is Floyd’s dead, Carol’s a penniless widow with a life insurance policy she can no longer claim, and Clark’s lost his family, his job, and all of his furniture. A very bleak outcome for all of them, directly in opposition to the depth of connection all three shared at different points in the story. It’s a great narrative swerve; the juxtaposition between how positively they portray the Floyd/Clark relationship, as well as Clark/Carol and Floyd/Richard, and even under the anger and resentment there are still positive embers for Floyd/Carol scattered through the story, compared to how the ending just brutalizes all of them for it.

I watched the first episode of DTF SL and didn't like it at all. Maybe I just wasn't in the humour for that kind of atmosphere, but it just had a creepy vibe that I didn't want to see any more of.

Final season of Lidia Poet has just dropped on Netflix. Our household will miss it.

My wife likes that show a lot but we are not currently subscribed to Netflix.

We liked Linda Poet alright - at least the clothes and people are beautiful even if the sleuthing is eye rolling weak

Many xps but Young Sherlock was dumb but very watchable and enjoyable.

A very good friend of my partner was the chief make up artist for it and she said Hero Fiennes Tiffin was a genuinely lovely person, which is always nice to hear

Went back to watch both seasons of The Night Manager as I never saw the first. first season was totally gripping throughout, excellent TV. second season started weak got better as it went, and by episode four I actually thought it was great? the downbeat ending shocked me, as I didn't know the show had been renewed for another season. though if you were aware of that fact, it probably wasn't surprising

Is Beef 2 as bad as I keep hearing it is?

Pizza Movie is extremely funny if you are high

DTF St. Louis was not the show I thought it would be. It was much deeper and darker and more somber and interesting. It was about how we only get glimpses into other people's lives as we enter into middle-aged loneliness ourselves, about how we can become overwhelmed by isolation and self-loathing, and about how our choices can hurt other people

Nicely put.

I watched an ep and a half of Beef 2 last night. Soundtrack is v good! My appetite for Black Lotus-style “look at these contemptible people” shows has waned considerably but I don’t think it’s bad, at all, so far

I also watched the first few episodes of Beef 2 last night and also really like it.

Pizza Movie starts off pretty weak but the second half redeems it somewhat

(the star of the movie is Snackatron 3000)

Nearing the end of Beef 2. The character vectors are all off, this feels more like Haruki Murakami kind of cloud-narrative style structuring, instead of the ratchet-up-the-tension commentary of Beef 1. I find myself feeling bored and just wanting to know the end. Would neither recommend it nor dissuade a potential viewer away from it. Ojai looks like a weird place

I finished it and really liked it in the end. Best not to compare it to season 1, it's an entirely different type of story.

in fact I would say in the end this is much richer and deeper story than season 1. it's messier as result though.

It took me months to slowly work my way through a mere 8 episodes of PONIES. Not the fault of the show which seems perfectly bingeable, more just a reflection my more limited TV watching lately.

Anyway, finished it! It was a generally fun show. Hope it comes back for a second season if only to keep its cliffhanger conclusion from seeming too bleak.

Attempted to watch Amazon series Scarpetta starring Nicole Kidman and had to shut it off after about 20 minutes, the dialog was so poorly written. It's like a bad network TV series with added profanity and corpses.

Yeah me and Veg had words to say about that trainwreck upthread. I also gave up before the end of the first ep. Dreadful, and particularly ruined by JLC I think.

Dropped our HBO subscription and re-upped with Netflix; I'm catching up with shows I enjoyed but missed a season or two of, like The Diplomat (what if The West Wing was a bedroom farce?) and The Lincoln Lawyer (network TV law procedural with profanity) and The Recruit (idiot joins the CIA, hijinks ensue, cool foreign scenery).

lemme know if anyone is genuinely good on Netflix.

i like This Is a Gardening Show

I don't know if I do. We've tried two episodes, it's very information-light (though learning about apple grafting was cool) and it seems mostly like a kids show, except when he makes adult jokes.

It's the kind of low stakes show I need right now. In a world where broadcasting was still a thing it would be ideal 2pm television

I thought the same as ledge. The gardening stuff is barely there, there are too many adult jokes for my kids to enjoy the whole show, and ZG sounds overehearsed.

Also there are too many "make bad joke followed by awkward silence" bits, which is the worst form of humour. It's like watching a set of Bakeoff skits without the competition in the middle. How about - make good jokes, or just don't make a joke? Not everthing needs to be a joke!

It’s a shame as the interview bits with the kids are quite good.

I really liked This Is A Gardening Show because of his interactions with the kids. Also, the irascible corn farmer was amazing.

We've watched about half of the new Jury Duty ("Company Retreat" is too generic a title), and it's pretty amusing. Feels a lot more scripted, I guess, like someone upthread said, like "The Office," but it's got some funny bits. Even more so than "Jury Duty," t's so ridiculous I have no idea how any of the actors keeps a straight face.

My TV diet right now:

ROOSTER - started kinda whatever but has become a reliably pleasant show, much like SHRINKING

THE COMEBACK - was never a huge fan of this show but this season is striking just right

MAUL: SHADOW LORD - watching with my kids and enjoying it, even though I’ve never liked that Star Wars brought Maul back to life. The Star Wars people do really know how to do animation - almost always better than the live action shows (ANDOR excepted of course)

TOP CHEF - sort of a weird season so far but the formula works so well I still enjoy every episode

DMV - a good sit-com, not a great sit-com. But helps me fall asleep.

DAREDEVIL: BORN AGAIN - sigh. It’s better than the previous season but still doesn’t really feel like it needs to exist. Kingpin and Bullseye apparently the only compelling villains in the Daredevil universe. It’s getting stale!

SURVIVOR - somehow I’m rooting for Rizzo to win the whole thing?

HACKS - as solidly funny as ever. This show has never really faltered.

I guess I’m mostly just in a sit-com/reality mode right now. Have not seen any good sci-fi, espionage, or otherwise grittier fair that’s attracted me.

five episodes into Beef S2, and i just have to say it's really funny that Oscar Isaac's character is a Hot Chip superfan.

We saw a couple episodes of "Margo's Got Money Trouble." Great cast, but I was pretty ambivalent. Mostly feels very early '00s indie comedy to me, a la "Little Miss Sunshine," where everyone is some degree of high-concept quirk; I've never seen anything from David E. Kelley, so even though it's based on a book far all I know it's always like this. At least at the start it's all a bit much and simultaneously not enough, imo, but I always like Fanning, Pfeiffer and Offerman, so I'll give it another episode or two.

we’re watching through 7up (at 35up now) in advance of 70up this year - neil’s story is so sad

I've never watched those docs but have always wanted to. Are they streaming somewhere?

Widow’s Bay feels super promising

ooh Matthew Rhys! Directed by Hiro Murai?
sounds up my alley

It's a rough patch - finished a set of shows (PONIES, Warehouse 13, Deadloch, The Pitt, etc.) almost simultaneously.

Ash vs. The Evil Dead - I thought I watched at least the first season but remember nothing, first episode was great
British cop show on Apple TV that has Doctor Who, it's fine.
Young Sherlock Holmes - improved from the first episode on

7up is all on ITV player (in the UK)

British cop show with Doctor Who on AppleTV is actually pretty decent but hamstrung by having the most generic TV procedural name ever: Criminal Record

"British Cop Show" could have been the most generic TV procedural name ever.

The Great British Cop-Off

aka Strictly

British cop show with Doctor Who on AppleTV is actually pretty decent but hamstrung by having the most generic TV procedural name ever: Criminal Record

I almost made it to the end of Season 1 but bailed out during the penultimate Flashback Episode That Shows You Why The Villain Is Actually The Tortured Antihero.

Yeah first season of that show was ok but I haven’t felt compelled to try s2.

I’m very backed up on new or returning shows. Still haven’t started Euphoria. Interested in Big Mistakes and Margo’s Got Money Trouble but haven’t watched either. Never did get around to DTF St Louis. And feel no compulsion to return to Criminal Record or For All Mankind.

Somehow I did start watching the second season of Running Point? The Netflix show with Kate Hudson and Justin Theroux and the guy from The Other Two, where they are all siblings running a pro basketball team together. It’s hardly anything special but it goes down pretty easy.

Yellowjackets (Showtime show about a girls' soccer team whose plane crashes in the mountains and they start a cannibal cult?) is on Netflix and I watched the pilot. I think I might stick with that for another episode or two.

we have a thread for that one!

I'm watching stuff I missed back when I had young kids and was working all the time. Saw Band of Brothers, Veronica Mars, now watching Deadwood. The Wire is next. Only current show we are watching is Peacock.

i gave up on yellowjackets in season 2, did it wind up redeeming itself? did that show finish yet?

First season of Yellowjackets is terrific the whole way through. Subsequent seasons… less so. Somehow it’s still going - I think there is one more season still to come

Yellowjackets is a ton of fun but it's trashy and ridiculous and I have a feeling it's not going to pay off.

DTF St. Louis is one of the best TV shows I've ever seen.

Margo is very good.

The Rooster is very good.

Vladimir is not.

Yellowjackets was two very different shows playing at once: a good one set in the past, and a terrible one set in the present.

ha, totally.

Xpost lol we’re watching Rooster (agree, it is good) not Peacock

I really liked Rachel Weisz in Vladimir but I don’t think I would recommend the show to anyone

did anyone watch “bait”

We watched the first episode and decided not to proceed. We like him, the show was ok, but just...I don't know.

how about Half Man? I watched half an episode so far. It was good but I was tired. Think I'll finish it and watch the second one this week.

Yellowjackets is completely unhinged and at times deeply stupid & off the rails but god the teenage girl angsty feels really hit for me -i love it so much

omg i watched ep 1 of Widow’s Bay and it is so completely my shit

(also: creator Kate Dippold was the one who had that viral tweet where she dressed as the babadook for a halloween party but noone else dressed up ie my actual hero)

Yellowjackets has a primo soundtrack at least.

Glad you liked Widow’s Bay! Was surprised by how funny it is. The wolf calendar bit killed me.

MAN FOUND DEAD BY HORSE cracked me up

but tonally perfect for comedy. it plays serious but its funny as hell
very atlanta/twin peaks humor that i love

just finished DTF St Louis.

Turns out the real crime was the loneliness they felt along the way.

yes, brief discussion re Bait upthread. It lost its steam imo

Anyone else watching The Dark Wizard in hbo? God I fucking hate this guy. Watched The Dawn Wall as a palate cleanser last night. Tommy Caldwell is a better climber and human being than Dean Potter could’ve ever hoped to be.

Half Man i have on the recorder but haven't watched it yet (it's on bbc1 Tuesdays). didn't see Baby Reindeer so I've no idea what to expect.

Finished "Jury Duty," it's sillier than the first season, but it still made me cry, because I'm a big softy.

God I am loving Widow’s Bay - should we give it it’s own thread? It feels worthy

Watched Man On Fire on Netflix. Not great. Had none of the visual flair of the movie (Tony Scott > Ridley Scott all day forever) and made the protagonist super PTSD-ed out for extra moroseness. But it took place in Rio, so there was a lot of good music on the soundtrack at least.

I like Matthew Ryhs, but there always seems to be three things with him in it, plus Widows Bay I keep confusing for another Mike Flanagan thing, too

Been hearing a lot of people raving about Widow’s Bay - need to check it out!

I started Big Mistakes, the new comedy with Dan Levy and Laurie Metcalf as his mother, on Netflix. It’s almost good… it’s short and goes quick so I’ll give it more time (in fact it’s only 8 episodes so might just watch it all). But so far it’s a lot of sniping between family members without much to counterbalance that tone. And I don’t but for one second that Dan Levy is a pastor. Still, I like his presence on screen (in fact I’ve been rewatching Schitt’s Creek and falling in love with that show all over again). And Laurie Metcalf is always fun to watch, so I’m hoping it will improve.

There is another actress who is the second lead alongside Levy, who I’m not familiar with. She’s good too. When I saw that the show was created by Levy and Rachel Sennot, it made me think Sennot was supposed to play that role - and this actress is very much a “Rachel Sennot type”.

Finished DTF and I’m not sure what to think about it. There’s a lot of good stuff in there and I especially like the exploration of lonely men trying to connect to others.

I wish it had been played a little straighter (less comedy) and entirely with the police procedural aspect. I liked the cop characters but that could be an entirely different show.

The show has a lot of unnecessary framing and too many little mysteries that aren’t worth the modest payoffs. The answer to “what happened to his dick?” is fine, but the delay in getting there felt contrived.

In the end Carol is the most interesting character.

Finished DTF and I’m not sure what to think about it. There’s a lot of good stuff in there and I especially like the exploration of lonely men trying to connect to others.

I wish it had been played a little straighter (less comedy) and entirely with the police procedural aspect. I liked the cop characters but that could be an entirely different show.

The show has a lot of unnecessary framing and too many little mysteries that aren’t worth the modest payoffs. The answer to “what happened to his dick?” is fine, but the delay in getting there felt contrived.

In the end Carol is the most interesting character.

God I am loving Widow’s Bay - should we give it it’s own thread? It feels worthy

― werewolves of laudanum (VegemiteGrrl), Sunday, May 3, 2026 9:56 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

cosign!

xpost I couldn't sympathize with any of the DTF characters and I think it was just directed poorly. Good cast, poorly executed.

New widows bay thread here

MAN FOUND DEAD BY HORSE: Let’s talk about Widow’s Bay on Apple (Matthew Rhys, Stephen Root)

We started Le Brea hoping it would be silly fun. We turned off the first episode within 20 minutes.

I don’t know who had the brilliant pitch of “Lost, only who gives a shit” but I hope that person is no longer working in television.

British cop show with Doctor Who on AppleTV is actually pretty decent but hamstrung by having the most generic TV procedural name ever: Criminal Record

I'm watching it, and it's quite good, but every episode has at least one totally stupid thing in it that Sally Wainwright would never stand for. I was particularly annoyed by Cush Jumbo getting beaten up in a lift by a huge man, including being throttled, and then two minutes later she was fine apart from a few dabs of blood. But Peter Capaldi is great.

“Lost, only who gives a shit”

I feel like there is an entire sub-industry of these shows (including "Lost," lol). Like, "Lost" is on one chart axis and "who gives a shit?" on the other, and the longer one progresses along the "Lost" line the closer you get to "who gives a shit?"

Lost, Fringe, and Heroes at least started out with interesting, compelling characters that you wanted to follow as weird things were happening to them. La Brea starts out with “what if we took a whole bunch of nondescript planks of wood and threw a nonsensical calamity at them” and I had absolutely no interest in seeing how they would develop that.

I bounced off of "Lost" pretty early for that reason, lol. Cast seemed fine, but as soon as there were polar bears and smoke monsters I (ahem) lost interest. Show was and still is massively influential, of course, for better or for worse.

I got a text from my sister the other day asking if I was watching the new "For All Mankind." I told her it was a low priority, since I didn't remember much about the previous season other than it was disappointing, and for that matter the show had been in steady decline since the second season. She told me once she starts a show she sticks with it, no matter what, and I thought: really? I don't owe these shows anything, lol, and as soon as they start getting dumb or silly or not enjoyable I stop watching. There are more than enough start-to-finish good shows to occupy my time to waste time on wheel-spinning nonsense.

Yeah, I find that's not so true anymore. Readin' a lot of books lately when there's nothing much on, is what I'm saying.

Although I am delighted that there's a new series of Guy Montgomery's Guy Mont-spelling Bee for me to steal all the way from Australia.

Got through Wonder Man last night, brilliant.

If La Brea had been less Lost and more Land of the Lost it could have been OK, but I remember bailing on it after the first few episodes. (It was on NBC before popping up on Netflix.)

i remember when that show debuted and the commercials for it were the cheapest looking shit, I couldn't believe that it was a network show.

they are repeating Lost on terrestrial tv at the moment, (midnight mondays, itv4) and it's hard to think back as to why it was ever must-watch tv.

(iirc it was one of those things that got poached by sky after a couple of series so i never saw the (terrible?) ending)

but as soon as there were polar bears and smoke monsters I (ahem) lost interest.

lol. I always have trouble understanding these attitudes. Like the people who loved Game of Thrones until there was a dragon.

My kid is watching Lost and despite having aged a bit it still rocks.

Lord of the Flies by that Adolescence fella on Netflix feels promising. Watched the first 1.5 episodes last night. Beautiful cinematography and great film score.

Lord of The Flies is good. Ripley-level cinematography (if you appreciated that). And yes, the score is great.

Intrigued! Is it faithful to the story, or is it trying anything new?

lol. I always have trouble understanding these attitudes. Like the people who loved Game of Thrones until there was a dragon.

Well, Game of Thrones (which I didn't particularly like, and definitely didn't finish) is set in a fantasy world with dragons, so one might expect dragons. So if you didn't like dragons, sure, not for you. But Lost is set in the/a real world, at least initially hinging on the mystery of What Is Happening, and (it's been decades) once the functionally impossible started intruding on the world I couldn't imagine any answer to the mysteries working to my satisfaction. It felt like stuff being thrown in there for the sake of being mysterious. It's one thing if you're Twin Peaks and embracing surrealism, it's another if it's a show set up as a conventional, corporeal, more or less sci-fi thriller/mystery, imo. Anyway, iirc one reason the series or at least the finale was ultimately so infamously disdained/derided was the full shift to the metaphysical, which many fans found disappointing and/or kinda desperate. But again, it's been decades. (fwiw I find Severance similarly perched very precariously between mystery and spitballed nonsense)

Well, I've never read the book (which is probably weird since I think it's standard reading in high school), but I saw the 1960's movie about a decade ago and it skews to the same story, but the four episodes are laid out by the different main characters and their perspectives: Piggy, Jack, Simon and Ralph (I think I got them correctly. I'm only two eps in.) I think it's been very good so far and not like Adolescence. Some excellent standout performances.

Ooh, only four episodes!? Count me in, love that it's compact. I'm dreading the 10-part (!) Cape Fear reboot.

They need two episodes for the thumb sucking scene.

The way I understand it, each episode is told partially through a different character's POV which seems to work from what I've seen. I also appreciate the creepy-early 70s vibe - reminds me of Picnic at Hanging Rock a bit.

ABC have a new comedy with Kitty Flanagan (Fisk) in it called Bad Company, about a failing theatre company and an uptight ultra-corporate finance lady (played with Flanagan's usual flair) who is roped in to fix their finances.

And it was really unwatchable. In one breath, it felt like a real mockery of the genuine issues the Arts has had in Australia for decades, and a mockery of people in the arts (lol! theyre all gay or over the top weird or completely up themselves!), but at the same time it was also an annoying watch because of that same thing, thanks to the other main actor Anne Edmonds' rather irritating turn as the ridiculous, overbearing control freak theatre manager. You're supposed to hate her, I guess? I mean they succeeded there if so.

I really struggle to enjoy much aus comedy, even when it seems liked elsewhere. I loved Aunty Donna, Fisk, Utopia and dont mind Guy's spelling bee, but I couldnt stand Colin from Accounts, or the Aus version of Ghosts or the Office (christ that one was bad).

Big Mistakes continues to be solid, Yuri is great in his frustration and impatience

I finally checked out Colin From Accounts … it’s ok but kind of annoying

Didn't mind the smog monsters and polar bears at all, but unlike others itt I found all the characters boring and the love triangle between generic dude, generic pretty lady and Southern guy made me wish I was reading Claremont x-men instead.

but I couldnt stand Colin from Accounts, or the Aus version of Ghosts or the Office (christ that one was bad).

I did hear that the Aus Office was bad. Haven't even looked at it. I really liked Colin from Accounts up until they introduced dudeface's family, who were all horrible, and then I stopped watching it. I'm so disappointed that a new show with Kitty Flanagan is bad. She's normally so funny (if a leeeetle bit one-note).
Another Aus comedy I have intermittently enjoyed is Thank God You're Here, although I suppose anything can be made to look good from clips on Youtube.

oh man i forgot all about that show! i think i even have a dvd box set somewhere

I read Daniel_RF’s post and the first thing that popped into my head was “frackles”

I loved Josh Halloway as Sawyer

We’ve watched every episode of us Ghosts every night for the last few weeks and are almost caught up. My 9 year old daughter likes relativelyvfamilybfriendly sitcoms(some stuff goes over her head) At first I thought it was just ok but now I pretty much totally love it.

oh man i forgot all about that show! i think i even have a dvd box set somewhere

I can't believe there isn't a UK version of it. It's such a good premise.

I don't know why I'm watching The Cage on iPlayer. There's a certain kind of tension I can't bear, and this show is FULL of it. I especially can't bear it when someone is in a room looking for something and someone might come in and find them. I just can't.

Loool yes! This stresses me out too

I was watching some murder thing recently, an abused wife waited for her husband to leave then hurriedly started packing things. Camera cuts to him standing in the doorway - he didn't really leave! Totally obvious, jeez just look out the window and wait till he drives away please.

Becky on Netflix - definitely not perfect but a 13-year old girl kills a bunch of Nazis in delightfully gruesome ways and it turns out that Paul Blart can play a highly convincing Aryan Brotherhood guy.

Gonna watch The Wrath of Becky tomorrow.

Bailed on Big Mistakes after ep2, I like everyone on screen but it just seems severely underwritten, feels like Dan Levy got really inspired by the Safdies or Anora or something.

Also tried to watch Aliens: Earth with my wife and that did not go well.

Aaron Chen's netflix special is very funny though!

Yeah he's in a similar mould to Sam, that dry awkward dork, he does it well.

Send Help (Rachel McAdams is marooned on a desert island with her shitty boss) is on Hulu. Watched it tonight; it was a lot of fun, old-school Sam Raimi in a lot of ways.

yeah I watched that last weekend, it's great!

E1 of the third season of The Terror felt a bit like a less campy American Horror Story.

started Legends on Netflix (early-90s-set British War On Drugs by undercover customs officers, with Steve Coogan). seemed a good start.

didn't know about the Terror. Was the second season any good? I watched the first because I loved the book.

Trayce, I only recently learned that he and Sam Campbell are friends, which made me very happy. Also, he adopts a very Trumpian affect in his bits between the jokes, and I truly couldn't tell if it was a meta-joke since he was filming his special in the U.S., or what. My wife and I turned to each other at the same time like "are you thinking what I'm thinking?"

Loved him on Taskmaster AU too.

The latest episode of Hacks had me just about rolling on the floor - the scenes of Ava just firing out explicit details was some of the funniest shit I’ve seen in a while. Leslie Bibb was incredible too.

I have now finished Legends and found it entertaining

Finally got around to Margo's Got Money Troubles, only the first three episodes, but this is a great show, so well written and acted by everyone. Michelle Pfeiffer's plastic surgery is so uncanny valley I can't tell if she looks amazing or horrifying but she's still a great actress.

We've more of less caught up to the most recent ep, but I was bummed to hear it's been picked up for a second season. I think the show is ... fine - good cast, good acting, boilerplate story - but I wish more than anything it would wrap itself up at the end. Like I presume the book it's based on does. Guess not.

one more episode this season and my wife who read the book said "oh there's a lot more" so def glad there's a second season. Most recent episode was enough of a tonal shift that I have some mixed feelings.

Huh, where else can it go? I don't want to google the book for spoilers, but it seems like ... more legal stuff and drug stuff and those sorts of melodramatic turns?

I don't know. I didn't read the book.

Started watching Nemesis on Netflix. It's an all-black Heat knockoff (obsessed detective vs. conflicted thief) but done in a network TV/basic-cable high-glam style that reminds me of early Empire. Some scenes are direct homages to/ripoffs of scenes from Heat and, amusingly, Belly. It's only 8 episodes, I don't know yet how far I'll get.

I quit Netflix and signed up for HBO and then binged The Pitt! I wish there was more of it!

So far my experience of HBO is that it's incredibly hard to find anything that isn't the 20 things they're currently promoting unless you search for it by name. That's really frustrating and I hadn't realized how bad it was going to be. But you all might have convinced me to try DTFSL, at least.

I didn't want to harsh the vibe on the Hacks thread but...I tried it and...the nicest thing I can say is that I think it's not for me. I probably don't really get "comedy" comedy. I don't want to watch two unlikeable women be mean to each other for many many episodes. I want better things from women in my life and in my fiction.

We do have a Pitt thread if you wanna join in!

Hacks eventually blooms into something more than that initial vibe, but I get that it may not an enjoyable watch. TBH I was that way with Schitts Creek, I gave up twice bc I hated everyone.

Hahaha I did hang on for SC and was well rewarded. The crassness of Hacks’ humor is maybe just not for me but I’ll keep it on the shortlist for a rainy day.

That creepy dude in the beginning on SC was so revolting to me that I couldn’t get past the first few episodes.

The mayor? As played by Chris Elliot? Yes, hard same, 100% my least favorite thing and extremely off-putting. I persevered and he appeared less over time and also softened but I hated him as a device for idk showing how far they had "fallen" in the world and what filth and commonness they would have to adjust to.

understandable but Chris Elliott becomes way less revolting after that, he exists to drive the Schitts insane upon their arrival but eventually it's toned down. there are a set of all-time performances and moments in that show the rest of the way.

hacks is worth sticking with. The main character's relationship gets repetitive and trying at times but also deep and warm at times, but all the secondary characters get chances to shine. To be honest I'm shocked how much Robby Hoffman is stealing this season. They're also stealing the Rooster. I found them really annoying in various contexts at first but you can't deny it.

Robby’s character has grown on me too. I’m also enjoying that Deborah and Ava’s relationship is so much warmer this season. When the salt and pepper shaker scene happened, I was like OH NO AVA 😩. So glad it didn’t play out how I thought it would.

Ok Omar, maybe I’ll give it another try xp

beef s2, while maybe not to the level of s1, was still v good imo.. sonny lee is a huge talent at writing characters, dialogue, scenes etc

I really liked it. that seems to be an unpopular opinion.

Young Sherlock has gotten even more enjoyable as it goes - Natascha McElhone is fantastic as Sherlock's mom, they're doing a great job of keeping Moriarty interesting even though we know what must happen eventually.

Netflix wanted me to watch a show called Everyone is Doing Great, so I decided to give it a go. Within the first ten minutes of this incredibly cheap sitcom where you can hear everyone's feet clomping across the floorboards when they walk, a guy is masturbating into a bathroom mirror while his friend approaches the door of the house and I just thought, ugh, no. Not another one of these. I'm not even sure what I mean by "these" in this context, but this is another one.

Also, I've realised that one of my problems with Margo's Got Money Troubles is Michelle Pfeiffer's uncanny ageless face, which I appreciate is a miracle of modern medical technology. How old is her character supposed to be, exactly? I get so distracted by it.

I saw that a new series of Berlin, the Money Heist spin off, was on Netflix and I realised we'd forgotten to watch the first one. Harmless fun so far. The biggest unintentional lol was the punk club, where the band were covering What a Wonderful World and the crowd were acting like it was the best thing ever.

Asura, a Japanese Netflix drama series from last year about 4 sisters who discover their elderly father is having an affair, written and directed by Hirokazu Kore-eda, is excellent. Great performances, very true-to-life relationships

I decided to watch Skins (UK) for the first time. I love the kid actors, tonally it’s a mess. maybe too many early 00’s triggers for me to comfortably bear.
so far Cassie, Sid & Maxie are getting me through it but the hijinks/comedy is a really rough go. (That Russian school trip ep? Jesus)

Also Tony is a psychopath

I've realised that one of my problems with Margo's Got Money Troubles is Michelle Pfeiffer's uncanny ageless face

you know Nicole Kidman is also in this, it's a plastic surgery bonanza. FWIW Pfeiffer's work is kind of crazy, her cheekbones are insane. But it's also not bad work. It's very well done.

Ok SkinsS1 saved by finale ending -I do love a big swing

Don't think I've seen it since it first came out but I loved the first two seasons of Skins. Nicholas Hoult has played a lot of unhinged characters but has never topped Tony, imo

you know Nicole Kidman is also in this, it's a plastic surgery bonanza.

This is true. Her weirdness doesn’t bother as much in this context because I don’t care what age she is supposed to be.

Richard Gadd's Half Man on HBO is really something else. The actors who play young Niall and young Ruben are great

Was wondering if anybody was talking about that here. It’s kinda fine a bit too far in a certain way that annoys me and it’s a hard watch but it’s really intense and the performances are great. I’m really into it. It’s just shy of great I think.

Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed is entertaining.

I'm watching S3 of The Diplomat as my work-out distraction and idk it feels like they really missed the moment politically, like these people are all actually horrific monsters? It's also confusing as hell to hear mention of the Abraham Accords, election interference, etc.

Yeah, when they decided it was cool for the Vice President to do a false flag terror attack because it's so important to keep US bases in Scotland or whatever I was like who cares about their cute relationship problems?

I suppose it's kind of instructive as a lurid depiction of what "liberal fascism" would look like

I finished up Big Mistakes, the Netflix show with Dan Levy. It was... okay. Probably not helped by the fact that I've been doing a Schitt's Creek rewatch lately and this just doesn't hold a candle to that. Too much sniping between Levy and his family, and not enough hijinks given the premise. Also I think most of the supporting cast (aside from Laurie Metcalf) is not that strong. And ultimately it felt like the first season was a giant preamble to season 2, where all the players are finally in place.

I've come around to Hacks as my work-out distraction. :) Agree re The Diplomat, I tried but it didn't hold up.

Ha ha ha, this looks SO BAD. (The book, by Nick Tosches, is one of the worst books I've ever read in my life.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ebPPz69zufc

That is not a compelling trailer.

You're not drawn in by the prospect of Martin Scorsese playing a wizened hermit from a Mel Brooks movie?

I was out the moment I saw the name Julian Schnabel

can't believe people are still casting Gal Gadot in things

The series finale of Hacks was wonderful

Strong disagree re rest of cast on Big Mistakes as thought Taylor Ortega was fantastic in it and felt like a real breakout role for her xps

I thought last week was the finale of hacks!

You've got a whole bonus episode!

It was starting to seem like every other show had a plot or subplot with someone doing Only Fans/online sex work, but I guess I was not the only one that noticed that:

https://www.newyorker.com/culture/on-television/the-stories-that-tv-tells-about-online-sex-work

Unrelated, we watched a couple of episodes of "Neighbors," which is basically just reality trash about feuding neighbors who are all strange lunatics. Kind of a cross between "Cops" and that "Perfect Neighbor" doc, only in this show the threat of violence is afaict played for laughs. Gross.

I almost watched Neighbors because the first episode was about something that happened in Montana, but I canceled my HBO subscription before I got around to it.

the last episode of Neighbors is really amazing

So worth it? Or amazing, as in, omg, you have to see this crazy shit?

the latter

I was too disgusted to watch the season finale of The Diplomat. Couldn't take another minute of time with such amoral monsters, so I went back to Snowfall lol. I think only unperson has ever mentioned it on here, but it's good maybe even excellent at times, though it comes with the unfortunate caveat that it takes a fairly long time to figure out how to focus on what it does well. i.e., I have never started caring about the CIA guy or his family life, and the Mexican thread with Oso et al isn't a turn-off like Reed is (though it has featured probably the worst actors), but it is a confused mess and currently in S4 I have basically forgotten how or why they're involved. The show definitely should have just made Franklin the main character — and Damson Idris should be a huge star, I might even watch F1, which I couldn't have much less interest in just for him.

He's just OK in F1; his job is to be the cocky young guy who learns the zen of race car driving from Brad Pitt.

I agree that Snowfall definitely devoted way too much time to the CIA guy's problems. On the other hand, I would have liked even more time with Franklin's aunt and uncle, Jerome and Louie, whose relationship was fascinating.

I watched the first three episodes of Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed but am only mildly interested in continuing. I like all the actors involved but I don’t really find the story believable.

Also funny that this is a weekly Apple TV show because the way they ratchet everything up in the last two minutes of each episode really feels like this was designed to be a Netflix binge.

Finished Race Across the World series 6, spectacular television.

If you're in the mood for gentle, low-stakes, slice-of-life Japanese comedy drama with a dose of magical realism, I can recommend Rebooting (Brush Up Life in Japanese) and The Hot Spot, both written by the same chap, who goes by the name of Bakarhythm.

If you’re watching the Four Seasons second season, which is quite funny, and are curious about the summer episodes, the boardwalk is in Point Pleasent and the pretty Victorian houses is Ocean Grove, the weird but beautiful Christian town just below Asbury park.

I actually was wondering about it. It looks so lovely.

It's really wild. I don't remember how we discovered it, it's literally JUST below Asbury Park and it's this huge christian community. The beach isn't even open for part of sunday morning so they can have services. There's a giant church, which you can actually see in the background of them hanging out on the porch, and this entire neighborhood of little summer tent cottages for the christians.

The beach is dry, there's no alcohol in the city, and it costs money to get on the beach, so the vibe is VERY different than Asbury Park. But it's really lovely to be in the ocean and looking up and seeing those lovely painted lady houses. We used to go to Ocean Grove, do the beach, walk around the cottages and houses, and then at the end of the day drive a few blocks up to Asbury to walk the boardwalk but lately we've been swimming at the north end of Asbury Park where there's a bunch of food trucks.

Was it here or somewhere else that someone called it "Ocean Snooze"?

funny, never seen that.

Anyway sundays are open now according to wikipedia:

"For the 2024 season, the camp meeting association began allowing Sunday access to its beach at weekday hours, while in a court battle with the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection.[27] This was later considered permanent after the department declared the camp meeting association could no longer restrict access on Sundays."

I agree that Snowfall definitely devoted way too much time to the CIA guy's problems. On the other hand, I would have liked even more time with Franklin's aunt and uncle, Jerome and Louie, whose relationship was fascinating.

― wipes chooser (unperson), Monday, June 1, 2026 1:50 PM (yesterday)

otm. Angela Lewis is probably my second-favourite cast member, but everyone in the Franklin orbit is generally good — with the possible exception of his parents who have become a little boring right now — or memorable, e.g., the drug-addled crazy gangster buy blasting Egyptian Lover [iirc] during the initial meeting. I basically wish all the other characters were on par with Avi, who I enjoy, in terms of import and screen time.

There's a giant church, which you can actually see in the background of them hanging out on the porch, and this entire neighborhood of little summer tent cottages for the christians.

Yeah, the church is very prominent.
I enjoyed learning this little travel nugget.

I had a travel thought about spring as well which is wondering if people thought that random little cutesy hipstery cabin with record players in the rooms was a real thing in the catskills and I'd say yes it absolutely is there's places like that all over hudson valley and the catskills. Just tiny little forest towns filled with trump voters and then there's some super cute little place for the people from the city to spend the weekend.

I know there are a few scenes that they've greenscreened, but it is refreshing to watch a programme that uses real locations and real sets. I get a kind of claustrophobia when it's all super-cheap green screen. The last few episodes of the recent-ish Matlock were the worst for this.

Watched the first 2 eps of the Cape Fear series on Apple - it’s kinda like the Presumed Innocent reboot, pulpy & dumb but I think this will be less fun. It’s way ott and plot wise doing WAY too much already, like they know they gotta stretch to 10 episodes and are doing theeeee most. So idk. It’s pretty trashy but lots of good ppl in it.
I’m going to keep watching because I want to see how they try to land this janky trash plane lol

I watched the whole of Rooster. It’s not Lawrence’s best but it’s extremely watchable. Phil Dunster is terrific as a horrendous dickhead, again. As per every Lawrence show, the cast is full of unusual but very good-looking people. I’m not sure why it doesn’t quite work but I’d easily watch a second season.

Veg I admire your commitment to stick with middling shows to see if they improve. I give up so easily these days.

I thought it was fun, if ridiculous. I liked that it didn't get all self-serious like too many other Lawrence shows. It revelled in silliness in ways that were often very funny.

Phil Dunster was great, a totally different kind of dickhead, I can't even imagine Jamie now.

And as annoying as she can be, somehow Robby Hoffman managed to steal every scene of Rooster AND Hacks she was in this year.

Chuck I feel the same about Rooster. It wasn’t a classic show but it was very pleasant. I will watch season 2 whenever it comes.

Rooster was like comfort TV: low stakes, warm colors, completely unrealistic depiction of a college lifestyle that doesn't remotely exist outside of TV. When it comes back could use more Alan Ruck

I didn't much care for the pregnant girlfriend character though that actress seems cool, she's also an artist.