TV worth watching

[agent999]

I think he was one of the writing staff, but not the head honcho.

[Dom D]

I haven't seen a huge amount of Shameless so missed anything like that. I believe they're from the same showrunner?

[agent999]

I enjoyed the first series of Brassic, but haven't watched the others. The finale of the first series ripped off Shameless a bit too much for my liking, it's twisted but strangely lightweight as well. Take away the more lurid and salacious aspects and it's like Last of the Summer Wine!

[Dom D]

BRASSIC:

How the hell have they made 4 seasons of this and I've never heard of it?

This is smashing television. Imagine if Snatch was a TV series and a lot better than Snatch was.

Vinnies a very small time thief who has a band of loser mates with whom he steals tiny ponies, does bare knuckle fights, fakes his own death and narrowly avoids having his Johnson cut off with gardening shears.

It's frequently repugnantly disgusting- in the episode I was watching last night they were trying find a replacement body for a head they'd accidentally decapitated and it got very squealchy and messy and that sort of thing is just par for the course. The accents are also super thick. Subs might be in order for many.

But very fast, very funny and highly recommended.

[The Silly Swede]

A spy among friends based on the true story of Kim Philby, the soviet spy in the UK back in the 50s and 60s. Guy Pearce is Philby and Damian Lewis is his friend.

[Dom D]

The Grand Tour boys are back with a Scandi trip where they take a bunch of rally cars out on the snow. Poor choice of release date given Clarkson is bidding to have himself cancelled again but I'm guessing the core audience for TGT aren't bothered by that sort of thing.

I was just bemoaning how safe the show is these days when James May slams his car into a cave wall sending him on a short trip to hospital. That looked to be caused by a stupid bit of daring-do that would have benefited by a bit more thought.

It did make for a nice break though from the obviously scripted parts that dominate. There's another bit where Mays car goes through the ice that initially looks absolutely terrifying though the way its dealt with suggests that it was staged.

Smashing scenery if you are into that sort of thing but otherwise the boys are feeling a bit tired.

[Dom D]

Just a heads up that Alice In Broderlands Season 2 just dropped. I don't know if anyone else is watching this but season 1 was most excellent. It starts off as a scifi survival horror show as young Japanese are thrown into a series of life and death games and then progresses into being more of a Lord Of The Flies story when the survivors start trying to form a society. But Lord Of The Flies with Japanese babes in bikinis doing Kung fu. The trailer for Season 2 is pretty weak but I'm going to assume that that's just a poor trailer editor:

[Dom D]

The Patient: This one seems to be sneaking under the radar but I think it's very, very watchable. Domnhall Gleeson plays a serial killer who wants to stop with all the killings. Steve Carell is his therapist. Therapy sessions aren't really getting anywhere so Gleeson decides to kidnap Carrell and keep in his basement until Carrell can fix him. As you do. Pretty tense stuff. Might have been better as a movie but is still working just fine as a show. Still a couple episodes to air here. Not sure if it's all available overseas.

[JonesyTheCat]

A little bit of tv not worth watching: Paper Girls. This is being pushed as the tv program to scratch your Stranger Things itch while we endure the couple year wait for season 5. The critics are all giving it the thumbs up and it sits at a healthy 89% on Rotten Tomatoes.

I do not compute.

This is zero budget tosh with people wandering around in silly spacesuits and a group of teenage protagonists who only communicate by yelling at one another. This seems to be very specifically aimed at the 10-15 year old market. Plays exactly one of the YA books I read to my brother. When I was 12 years old I imagine I would have thought this was good telly but things have moved on and I have no idea why this is somehow considered viewing for adults.

Anyway putting a bunch of kids on bikes and turning the sky a funny colour does not a Stranger Things make.

It's from a comic book that is very very good. Sad. Great book, shit show.

[The Silly Swede]

Kleo.

Netflix german original. Much funnier then it ought to be allowed to be about an east German assasin who after her last mission is sent to prison and forgotten, only to be released 3 years later after the fall of the eastern block and the Berlin Wall. She naturally goes on a rampage to find out who betrayed her and why.

[JLG]

A little bit of tv not worth watching: Paper Girls. This is being pushed as the tv program to scratch your Stranger Things itch while we endure the couple year wait for season 5. The critics are all giving it the thumbs up and it sits at a healthy 89% on Rotten Tomatoes.

I do not compute.



Anyway putting a bunch of kids on bikes and turning the sky a funny colour does not a Stranger Things make.

totally agree. did not make it through the second episode.

came across the comic after the first season of Stranger Things. gave up on that too. just didn't like it

[Dom D]

A little bit of tv not worth watching: Paper Girls. This is being pushed as the tv program to scratch your Stranger Things itch while we endure the couple year wait for season 5. The critics are all giving it the thumbs up and it sits at a healthy 89% on Rotten Tomatoes.

I do not compute.

This is zero budget tosh with people wandering around in silly spacesuits and a group of teenage protagonists who only communicate by yelling at one another. This seems to be very specifically aimed at the 10-15 year old market. Plays exactly one of the YA books I read to my brother. When I was 12 years old I imagine I would have thought this was good telly but things have moved on and I have no idea why this is somehow considered viewing for adults.

Anyway putting a bunch of kids on bikes and turning the sky a funny colour does not a Stranger Things make.

[Dom D]

Knocked over the rest of the ILM doco today. That was really good. Best bits are the pioneer days and then the inevitable fractious transformation into a digital studio. All of a sudden all those incredible matte painters and model makers get told to learn to code or fuck off. The model making days looked a hell of a lot more fun.

Saddest story goes to Phil Tippett who was creating the original plan to do the animations for Jurrassic Park in stop motion. He built amazing models and rigs and his work was looking brilliant. A couple the boys in the digital division are feeling put out that they weren't called in to run the show and over months, in the back rooms, build a CGi TRex. Bye bye Phil.

George Lucas is an interesting figure in this. He's not building anything himself so, you know, he's just lurking in the background while leading from the front. I definitely have a new respect for him. You can't question his visionary status as he's driving everyone, for better or worse, to an digital future even as his model makers rule the industry. The foresight is quite extroidinary. Above Steve Jobs type extraordinary.

Because of that I kind want to just write him off as just a tech visionary. So much of what he did was so empty. THX1138 and the non original Star Wars trilogy suck in a very profound way. But then he did make Star Wars and Indiana Jones. Those are myth making movie which is what is sorely lacking in Hollywood these days. I've been loving that in the Indian blockbusters I've been watching recently where they are so ready to create new myths. Reminds you of what you're missing from Hollywood where your hero is your hero because he got bit by a radio active spider. Yawn. Anyway fairly amazing guy.

[Dom D]

Big thumbs up for Light & Magic on Disney+. It's a doco on the early days of ILM. Looks at first like you're standard puff piece. We've all seen a ton from behind the scenes on Star Wars over the years after all. But, after starting out in puff piece fashion it does get interesting. Gets into some of the personalities and the dramas behind the scenes. I'm 3 episodes in which gets it to halfway through Strikes Back and it's a damned good watch if you're into this sort of thing.

[Newt Cox]

Been loving Sventoonie. Every week after Svengooolie on METV is Sventoonie. A Tuna Puppet version of Sven that shows way edited down films and is just a goofy mish mash of stuff.

Got on an episode from a few weeks back and this week's film is Carnival Of Souls. So far Sventoonie has only shown PD stuff. But him and the rest of the cast,including a zombie video store clerk and a blob fish,add enough to each film that I don't mind seeing the movies for the 100th time.