TV Series - Reviews and Recommendations......

TheBigBean

seanoconn said:

Alone fans help please. Would Alone by good family viewing? Jump in from the start or which season?

Depends on the age of the kids. The language is not censored in the UK version, so I'm not sure that would be ideal.

Otherwise it is unlikely to appeal in the way that Disney does, but I think bits of it may be interesting to some kids eg. Fire starting, shelter building, primitive hunting. Other bits such as emotional monologues about missing family less so.

I'd always say start at the beginning, but season 6 and 7 are the best, so if you only plan to watch one then pick one of those. They are also available on channel 4.

daniel_b

Talking of family friendly (to some degree) but still interesting programs, my 8/9 year old loved the entire Simon Reeve travel/exploration series, which is fairly educational I thought, as he tends to seek out the more troubled aspects of a countries existence, so it doesn't just show all the nice touristy stuff etc.

Additionally, she really enjoyed the BBC's race across the world series, all 3 in fact:
https://bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0002tvs

Myself and my partner mostly enjoyed it, but there are some marmite people in there, but there's generally a few people you will warm to by a few episodes in.

Series 3 was probably the weakest to be fair (Though if you liked 1&2 I'd still watch it), as it was wholly set in Canada, and travel options were far and few between - Series 1 & 2 had much more variety I thought overall.

Pross

daniel_b said:

Talking of family friends (to some degree) but still interesting programs, my 8/9 year old loved the entire Simon Reeve travel/exploration series, which is fairly educational I thought, as he tends to seek out the more troubled aspects of a countries existence, so it doesn't just show all the nice touristy stuff etc.

Additionally, she really enjoyed the BBC's race across the world series, all 3 in fact:
https://bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0002tvs

Myself and my partner mostly enjoyed it, but there are some marmite people in there, but there's generally a few people you will warm to by a few episodes in.

Series 3 was probably the weakest to be fair (Though if you liked 1&2 I'd still watch it), as it was wholly set in Canada, and travel options were far and few between - Series 1 & 2 had much more variety I thought overall.

I've only seen bits of a couple of episodes but found him to be a very good presenter.

daniel_b

Pross said:

I've only seen bits of a couple of episodes but found him to be a very good presenter.

I didn't watch him for ages, until we got onto him after my daughter was enthralled by the Palin travel programs, which made me look for something a bit more recent.

Imho he's an excellent presenter, and the way he deals with the people he meets along the way seems wholly genuine & thoughtful.

Probably 20 odd series here: https://bbc.co.uk/iplayer/search?q=simon%20reeve&page=1

I printed off a list and stuck it on the fridge, and we just went through them randomly.

We've bought tickets to go and see him in a couple of months, talking about his exploits, should be good hopefully

We're also going to see Ellie Goulding in the same month, think I'm a tad more excited about those tickets
Will be my daughters first concert as well.

pangolin

Alone UK: We haven't really done ourselves proud vs the Americans have we. 3 weeks in and they were dropping like flies.

The text to the contestants saying they were in the final 4 felt like a bit of a desperate attempt to make them stay longer.

ddraver

Alone UK e6 - Finale (on 4od, not yet on telly)

Noooo Naomi! You were the one!

Don't think we saw anything of the winner until the last few episodes. He'd make a great sprinter...

And the winner takes 100 large a fucks off to Portugal. Brexit Bonus...

pangolin

ddraver said:

Alone UK e6 - Finale (on 4od, not yet on telly)

Noooo Naomi! You were the one!

Don't think we saw anything of the winner until the last few episodes. He'd make a great sprinter...

And the winner takes 100 large a fucks off to Portugal. Brexit Bonus...

Felt like a really rushed last couple of episodes I thought, they all just gave up.

TheBigBean

pangolin said:

ddraver said:

Alone UK e6 - Finale (on 4od, not yet on telly)

Noooo Naomi! You were the one!

Don't think we saw anything of the winner until the last few episodes. He'd make a great sprinter...

And the winner takes 100 large a fucks off to Portugal. Brexit Bonus...

Felt like a really rushed last couple of episodes I thought, they all just gave up.

I've watched it now. I wasn't expecting much. It was ok. Some of the contestants were interesting and making it that length of time is a decent achievement for a novice, but like with sport, I'd rather watch the pros.

wakemalcolm

Traitors Australia was a compelling watch of 2 halves.

Having enjoyed the Claudia version and lasted 10 minutes of the US version I was sceptical about this.

The challenges are a reminder of how lame a significant proportion of the population are (& I fast forwarded through much of it) but the game play between the contestants when it came down to the murdering and expelling was top drawer. The host was on point too.

daniel_b

The Red Door series 2 is available now on the Channel 4 player - Italian ghostly detective series - first series was pretty enjoyable.
https://channel4.com/programmes/the-red-door

Also have started watching Lolita Lobosco, who is a deputy superintendent in the police.
https://channel4.com/programmes/lolita-lobosco

When I watched the first one, I thought it was a bit like a female Montalbano - it's set in Bari around the heel of the boot, where as Montalbano is set in the foot :-)

Anyway, after watching the first one, I looked up the cast, and realised that the lead actor is married to Luca Zingaretti, and he is a producer on the show as well.

They are two hour shows, fairly slow moving, beautiful scenery though, and it's not all about the investigation or investigations as it were.

It's not very deep, or thought provoking, but for a little bit of escapist enjoyable entertainment, I'd rank it pretty highly.

Oh and Lobosco drives a truly beautiful little car

Munsford0

^ is that a tiny car or a massive woman?

daniel_b

Munsford0 said:

^ is that a tiny car or a massive woman?

Mostly the car I think, which is only 3m long.

The main actor is apparently only 5ft 8, though she is normally travelling on a whacking great pair of heels.

rick_chasey

Only 20 years late but I am absolutely hooked on the Sopranos.

Halfway through series 3. Incredible stuff.

The consistency of how well drawn all the characters are is quite remarkable. I've not really ever seen a programme with such a deep cast where each character is believable and well rounded. Not even the wire comes close and I am an obsessive of that programme.

How comfortable the writers are with characters with a myriad of hypocrisies that make characters real.

The details, the foreshadowing ,the little phrases you hear once and then get repeated again in critical moments, all of it. Really good.

There's even the right level of fascination, likeability on screen but also repulsiveness about them all. Sometimes with these dramas you get to like the nasty characters too much or are irritated or dislike the character too much that you don't want them on your screen.

With this, I want to see them but I don't want to meet them, it's really very good.

mrb123

rick_chasey said:

Only 20 years late but I am absolutely hooked on the Sopranos.

Halfway through series 3. Incredible stuff.

The consistency of how well drawn all the characters are is quite remarkable. I've not really ever seen a programme with such a deep cast where each character is believable and well rounded. Not even the wire comes close and I am an obsessive of that programme.

How comfortable the writers are with characters with a myriad of hypocrisies that make characters real.

The details, the foreshadowing ,the little phrases you hear once and then get repeated again in critical moments, all of it. Really good.

There's even the right level of fascination, likeability on screen but also repulsiveness about them all. Sometimes with these dramas you get to like the nasty characters too much or are irritated or dislike the character too much that you don't want them on your screen.

With this, I want to see them but I don't want to meet them, it's really very good.

Absolutely. It only improves with repeated viewings too!

ddraver

rick_chasey said:

.
Not even the wire comes close and I am an obsessive of that programme.

Blasphemy...

daniel_b

Someone on here kindly mentioned Hidden Assets maybe a year or more ago, which was an awesome series.

Now there is a 2nd series, although not yet available on the beeb.

Even better news, is that the supremely talented Karine Vanasse (Cardinal\Pan AM) is in the cast

If anyone notices it makes it to the BBC, please post on here

Tashman

Working our way through the first series of DNA on IPlayer at the minute. Enjoying it so far and makes me actually watch with the subtitles rather than having 1 eye on another screen.

seanoconn

Pagan Peak. The Bridge-esque German/Austrian murder detectives noir. A ritualistic murder of the snowy Alps border leads to a reluctant partnership between a hard working German detective and an unconventional Austrian colleague.

Dark, brooding, atmospheric, shot in the beautifully scenic Salzburg region in winter. Great cast, particularly the very charismatic Austrian actor Nicholas Ofczarek. While not strictly a scandi noir, probably the best I’ve seen since The Bridge.

Only downside is it’s not easy to find. 3 seasons but could only source the first so far. Sure to be picked up soon by likes of channel 4 or BBC.

daniel_b

That sounds excellent Sean, either BBC4 or WP might pick it up.

Can't recall if I mentioned how good the Marnow Murders was - really good WP series I thought.

7/8ths of the way through The Bank Hacker (De kraak) as well, this one is really rather good, and apparently inspired by real life events, though I have been unable to track down which real life events those are.



Gripping storylines, and in the main fine actors.

blazing_saddles

The 3 seasons of Pagan Peak are on Sky Atlantic under the name Der Pass.

It’s all about the atmosphere, the plot less so.

rick_chasey

Watched the first series of succession.

Will watch the second but can't quite see it justifying the hype it got.

What do people think is so good about it?

kingstongraham

rick_chasey said:

Watched the first series of succession.

Will watch the second but can't quite see it justifying the hype it got.

What do people think is so good about it?

If you didn't much rate the first series, I'd bin it off.

The opening credits are superb.

poweredbyidris

rick_chasey said:

Watched the first series of succession.

Will watch the second but can't quite see it justifying the hype it got.

What do people think is so good about it?

I really enjoyed it, but it's just a panto with a MASSIVE budget really.

One of those series that lends itself more to once-a-week escapism viewing rather than binge-watching

kingstongraham

The appeal for me was about the peripheral characters, and how much they will put up with or be drawn into to be in the orbit of the family members and their money. Who actually wins is completely irrelevant.

rick_chasey

You can definitely see the peepshow DNA in it.

The sort of unique contemptibleness that everyone has. You see bits of your worst side in various different parts of them but they're all universally awful, just in different ways.

(won't come as a surprise that I struggle with Peepshow as Mark is just waaaaay to close to the bone for me)

wilberforce

The Detectives: Taking down an OCG.
Three episodes in series. Think it is now on iPlayer.
Follows the police team in Rochdale investigating a major drug supply gang.
Has a few twists and turns, then a shock right at the very end.

me-109

Knightfall on Netflix. Knights Templars in dark/middle ages (post 1st crusade anyway) France with intrigue, double-cross and betrayal in the church and royal Court, set with the plot of regaining the lost Holy Grail. A good watch of a mostly English cast, I think.

daniel_b

10 episodes through Off Grid on Channel 4 / Walter Presents - really enjoying it.



Great actors and beautiful (If cold and foreboding) Dolomites scenery, at the moment the storyline is not (for me) laying any obvious pointers as to how it will pan out.

Claudio Gioè (Mafia only kills in the summer, Makari) is an excellent actor imho.

seanoconn

blazing_saddles said:

The 3 seasons of Pagan Peak are on Sky Atlantic under the name Der Pass.

It’s all about the atmosphere, the plot less so.

First two seasons are good, stand alone and are very watchable but would agree the third is all atmosphere and little else. Very slow and ponderous, finding it hard to get in to, shame.

daniel_b

Off Grid finished, 12 episodes - perhaps a little bit cheesy in places, however, I did not massively pick up on any of the twists and turns that occurred.

On the contrary, some where I thought it might be one thing, or someone might be linked to X people with Y motive, but I was totally wrong.

It's unusual, these things are quite often pretty obvious to everyone but the characters.

Also 5 episodes through of 'The Gold' on the beeb, and really enjoying it.
It's only 6 episodes, I feel it should have been 8-10 to explore it in more detail, it feels a little rushed unfortunately.

Stella cast, great script in my opinion, and I've now discovered Charlotte Spencer who I had never heard of/seen act before:


There is also an actual documentary on iplayer as well, which I will be watching afterwards.