TV Shows What are you currently watching?

The missus watches it, so I know it exists and I've seen the occasional c-lister wretch while trying to swallow a caterpillar, but I'm of the opinion that reality TV (or whatever they call it now) is the lowest form of entertainment; therefore, I avoid it like the plague.

 

Agreed. "Reality" TV really is the fakest of all TVs.

 

“Reality” has bugger all to do with any so-called reality tv.

 

BREAKING - Good Omens renewed for third & final season!!!

https://discworld.com/good-omens-season-three/

 

The Railwaymen on Netflix about the Bhopal junction chemical disaster, brilliant.

 

Although I'm struggling to keep my eyes open beyond about 2130h these days (or sometimes earlier) due to 0430 starts, Slow Horses has grabbed me after only two or three episodes (in about five-ish sittings) despite most of the first episode being predictable. Do like this one.

Silo is a bit slower and Becky has been a bit more gradual in her arrival to the party than I'd have liked, but going to stick it out as it's intriguing and I never got around to the comics.

Foundation also interesting but more measured in delivery and I've heard just renewed for another series so must be some legs there. Don't therefore know what it is about British spy dramas but they do something very right. Or Oldman does.

There was also a Tom Holland non-spider flick called Cherry that I had on the other night whilst drifting in and out of sleep but understandably it didn't grab me and shake me awake.

Punisher is playing on the treadmill at the moment; is decent but very slow-paced. The rest of the Defenders are lined up behind his second set of outings once I've looked up the correct order.

Got Indiana Jones tomorrow and Renfield on the go elsewhere too.

 

The original Foundation by Azimov was part of a trilogy so I'm damned glad the third's being made

 

The second season of (Jack) Reacher has begun.
(Not Tiny Tom Cruise - the title role went to an actor who looks like the character is described in the books, 6'6" & built like a brick outhouse)

 

Season one was great. Looking forward to this.

 

Mr Bates Versus The Post Office - 11/10

Bloody brilliant mini series, essential for any British person to watch/listen to IMHO. Now I want to go out and hang some Post Office/Fujitsu Executives.

It's up on ITV X for those interested. Was my first time using the service and it's fine. You can watch it for free and it's exactly like watching normal TV with advert breaks (wot I did) or pay for no ads.

 

its great that it has brought the issues with PO alot more in public eye.
RM (when it was the same company) and POL has history of badly treating postmasters even this day and age they are treated unfairly

 

Reacher S2 is, so far, not grabbing me. Rather like John Wick vs its sequels, a lot of the momentum, intrigue, sympathy and cast balance are weakened. All the new characters are not grabbing me, and having featherweight hipster looking randos win fights as easily as Reacher himself somewhat diminishes the sense that he's an exceptional force. As with John Wick, the establishment of baddies as acceptable targets takes a back seat once the audience are secured, and increasingly I find myself second-guessing the ethics of what the protagonists are doing and to whom.

 

Agreed, enjoyed the first series, but the second series is truly awful. Good point on the ethics too, there are a number of people Reacher kills on later episodes of season 2 that are really questionable and hard to justify.

 

Slow Horses Season 2.
Boy Swallows Universe.

 

enjoyed slow horses S2, 1st was better and the trailer at the end for season 3 has plot spoiler

as for Reacher S2, i am just watching like i do with 80s/90s action movies and not thinking too much about it. the violence means its lost the charm the 1st season had

 

1/2 agree, it's not as good as the first series, however it isn't a million miles away from the book it is taken from.
And having jumped 10 of the books going from series 1 to 2, you do miss out on a whole hell of a lot of character building which would in some small amount explain the ease / lack of guilt / questionable ethics and ease upon which he 'just' kills his enemies.

What's even more annoying (to me) is the 101 online reviews which bitch and moan about lack of characters from series 1 carrying over into series 2, which is one of the main points of the 28 book (so far) series, there is only ever 1 carry over aside from Reacher himself.
Since Child has been a co-author with his brother instead of sole author of the book series since 2020 they've gone down hill and become dull and formulaic, so I expect that to peter out soon.

 

Speaking of character carry over, that reminds me - having the likeable cop from S1 randomly appear for like 5 minutes and then disappear again was ridiculous, like yeah, he was a great character but either involve him or make it a clean break, this cast is cluttered enough already.

Off topic, but are the books good?

 

I have them all, which should be answer enough
They're not groundbreaking in any way and you know what you're going to get, as said above they have begone to tail off now Child is taking less of a writing role and it may be time to pull the plug on buying anymore

 

Since having the Apple free trial, I've been checking out:

Foundation
Which was doing well through series 1 and had me interested, but since series 2 it has taken a bit of a downturn due to its having been unnecessarily Pride-washed and its decision to get all unnecessarily sweary. I don't mind a good swear (especially if it's inventive) but its absence the first time out makes this feel like they've done it to be edgy. It also STILL cannot produce non-janky ground battle effects despite some awesome spatial ones. It can be a bit difficult to follow in places with all the time jumps and different actors playing the same character, but that probably isn't helped by watching it late at night with gaps between episodes. Strange plagiaristic Event Horizon vibe going on as well, with the

Spoiler

super star destroyer planet killer

In its defence though, it does have Demerzel. My appreciation of the robot form deepens.

Also, Slow Horses 1-3
Good, if incredibly predictable in places (incl the opening of series 1 and the end of series 2). First series was certainly engrossing - taken as a light touch effort it's most definitely watchable, mainly due to River and Lamb. Series 2 was somewhat daft but 3 was downright ridiculous. Shame.

I haven't started Reacher series 2 yet, mainly because the ending of the first series was so frustratingly poor. The whole warehouse bit was just embarrassing.

And for the gym, The Punisher series 1
Got better after giving it a second chance, but it's definitely a treadmill series due to the pacing. Which reminds me - all this talk about moral killing of bad guys is pointlessly ludicrous to me on a few counts:

- they're bad guys. Clue is in the name
- they took the money, they knew what the job entailed, thus they're legitimate targets when they hang about on the fringe of "the meeting" looking sinister. I don't believe Dave turned up for work last Monday unaware that he was in fact working for Global Nutcase Steve and as a result has been caught up in his nefarious schemes and thus doesn't deserve a bullet. It's a bit more likely that Dave went down the local Goon Centre or chatted to Alan in the back room of the pub about a possible opening, since those were the very dodgy circles he moved in, in which case he made his choice knowing full well what the "hired gun" job might entail. And at the point of the interview where they went "Here's yer sidearm, look menacing and shoot anything that gives you lip or looks a bit tasty," then Dave really should have either wrapped things up there and then or (more likely) thought of the hazard pay. So yes, valid target for someone taking on Steve because it's Dave's new job to get in the way
- they are literally there as album filler and to retain the pacing, otherwise everything would be over in ten minutes. No hidden subtext as far as I'm concerned. If there weren't a bunch of Daves in the way then it would be a very short story, because the route to Steve would be that much more direct and the hero would have very little struggle. It would just be a stand-up pub row.
- it's all pretend anyway

HOWEVER. If you do want to read into it and take umbrage with the whole thing, then point your finger at the Punisher, who seems to have no issue with flatlining guys that quite literally went to work for a security contractor in good faith without knowing what the boss was involved in and end up as blood donors for the walls and floor. He's a bit extreme (but then, clue is in the name again).

Without some MIB magic, I could never fit a whole universe in mine. Too painful.

 

How much, if any, resemblance does this have to Asimov's trilogy, sorry, heptalogy?