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

mr_goo

Star Trek Discovery.
Just keeps getting better.
The Enterprise deck replication is awesome.
Great storylines. Great characters.
Best Star Trek series without doubt.

ayjaycee

Mr Goo wrote:

Star Trek Discovery.
Just keeps getting better.
The Enterprise deck replication is awesome.
Great storylines. Great characters.
Best Star Trek series without doubt.

Well said that man! Totally agree.

Wayne Plunger

I've enjoyed Great Anal Journeys with the women that was in Faulty Towers and her husband.

apreading

Might want to correct the typo there...

_jon_

Maybe it's not a typo :shock:

awavey

Mr Goo wrote:

Best Star Trek series without doubt.

its not Star Trek,science fiction it maybe, but its no Star Trek

ayjaycee

awavey wrote:

Mr Goo wrote:

Best Star Trek series without doubt.

its not Star Trek,science fiction it maybe, but its no Star Trek

So what about the others such as STNG, DS9 etc? Were they ‘Star Trek series’ or are you making the point that the original is the only one? Please expand.

mr_goo

awavey wrote:

Mr Goo wrote:

Best Star Trek series without doubt.

its not Star Trek,science fiction it maybe, but its no Star Trek

It's very much Star Trek.

awavey

ayjaycee wrote:

awavey wrote:

Mr Goo wrote:

Best Star Trek series without doubt.

its not Star Trek,science fiction it maybe, but its no Star Trek

So what about the others such as STNG, DS9 etc? Were they ‘Star Trek series’ or are you making the point that the original is the only one? Please expand.

everything up to and including Enterprise, which wasnt that good tbf, were what Id consider to be Star Trek series, they stayed true to the original series premise, wagon train to the stars, remember classic trek is about a hopeful bright future, they maintained the same tonal quality of the series largely throughout with characters, stories, dialogue and even the way each series was filmed on camera and presented on screen to the viewer, used the same setups, same camera shots, there literally was a visual language of making a Star Trek series, as well as tonal storytelling that links them all together.

Discovery, breaks all of those rules, deliberately, its shot very differently, shaky cam and constant cuts persists, in some scenes, even just dialogue heavy briefing scenes not action scenes, you can get down to a 2.5sec shot ratio, thats on a par with an Avengers movie fight scene cut ratio. The characters are always in conflict it seems, arguing,shouting, never listening to one another or respecting each other, which is totally against the ethos the 50 years worth of Star Trek prior to it had said Starfleet was about, the stories are very different its all about war, conflict and that plays back into how the characters react to each other, theres no reverence or care taken in the material, theyll just chuck in what they think is fan friendly easter eggs to bridge gaps, but its not a logical extension of what had gone before.

and I havent even mentioned the really nerdy Star Trek fan stuff, how theyve bulldozed their way through 50 years of established canon, Klingons, tribbles, space fungus drives or mentioned kelvin or prime timelines.

you want to watch a modern Trek take, watch The Orville.

mr_goo

awavey wrote:

ayjaycee wrote:

awavey wrote:

Mr Goo wrote:

Best Star Trek series without doubt.

its not Star Trek,science fiction it maybe, but its no Star Trek

So what about the others such as STNG, DS9 etc? Were they ‘Star Trek series’ or are you making the point that the original is the only one? Please expand.

everything up to and including Enterprise, which wasnt that good tbf, were what Id consider to be Star Trek series, they stayed true to the original series premise, wagon train to the stars, remember classic trek is about a hopeful bright future, they maintained the same tonal quality of the series largely throughout with characters, stories, dialogue and even the way each series was filmed on camera and presented on screen to the viewer, used the same setups, same camera shots, there literally was a visual language of making a Star Trek series, as well as tonal storytelling that links them all together.

Discovery, breaks all of those rules, deliberately, its shot very differently, shaky cam and constant cuts persists, in some scenes, even just dialogue heavy briefing scenes not action scenes, you can get down to a 2.5sec shot ratio, thats on a par with an Avengers movie fight scene cut ratio. The characters are always in conflict it seems, arguing,shouting, never listening to one another or respecting each other, which is totally against the ethos the 50 years worth of Star Trek prior to it had said Starfleet was about, the stories are very different its all about war, conflict and that plays back into how the characters react to each other, theres no reverence or care taken in the material, theyll just chuck in what they think is fan friendly easter eggs to bridge gaps, but its not a logical extension of what had gone before.

and I havent even mentioned the really nerdy Star Trek fan stuff, how theyve bulldozed their way through 50 years of established canon, Klingons, tribbles, space fungus drives or mentioned kelvin or prime timelines.

you want to watch a modern Trek take, watch The Orville.

Well I liked it.

shirley_basso

Just watched After Life. 6 x 30 min episodes so doable in one sitting.

Not too sure how I feel about it. I didn’t really resonate with any of the characters and it didn’t really make me get all teary eyed but it was really really well done.

ayjaycee

awavey wrote:

everything up to and including Enterprise, which wasnt that good tbf, were what Id consider to be Star Trek series, they stayed true to the original series premise, wagon train to the stars, remember classic trek is about a hopeful bright future, they maintained the same tonal quality of the series largely throughout with characters, stories, dialogue and even the way each series was filmed on camera and presented on screen to the viewer, used the same setups, same camera shots, there literally was a visual language of making a Star Trek series, as well as tonal storytelling that links them all together.

Discovery, breaks all of those rules, deliberately, its shot very differently, shaky cam and constant cuts persists, in some scenes, even just dialogue heavy briefing scenes not action scenes, you can get down to a 2.5sec shot ratio, thats on a par with an Avengers movie fight scene cut ratio. The characters are always in conflict it seems, arguing,shouting, never listening to one another or respecting each other, which is totally against the ethos the 50 years worth of Star Trek prior to it had said Starfleet was about, the stories are very different its all about war, conflict and that plays back into how the characters react to each other, theres no reverence or care taken in the material, theyll just chuck in what they think is fan friendly easter eggs to bridge gaps, but its not a logical extension of what had gone before.

and I havent even mentioned the really nerdy Star Trek fan stuff, how theyve bulldozed their way through 50 years of established canon, Klingons, tribbles, space fungus drives or mentioned kelvin or prime timelines.

you want to watch a modern Trek take, watch The Orville.

Not sure that I agree with much of what you have said there. As to Discovery not following the principles of the original, call me a heretic and light the bonfire but I reckon that's a good thing as I find the original almost unwatchable nowadays. On The Orville, you're obviously entitled to an opinion. I really wanted to like it and got through the first episode still willing to give it a go, struggled through the second and gave up completely mid-way through the third as I thought it was just puerile tosh - maybe I was just missing the deeper messages and should have persisted but times to precious and there is a lot of better stuff competing with it.

We'll just have to agree to differ this time.

step83

Not sure if mentioned but it's on the SciFi ilk, The Expanse, really well put together an for me at least an engaging story line, also the books its based on a very good.

meursault

Shirley Basso wrote:

Just watched After Life. 6 x 30 min episodes so doable in one sitting.

Not too sure how I feel about it. I didn’t really resonate with any of the characters and it didn’t really make me get all teary eyed but it was really really well done.

Agreed, I'm not really a Gervais fan. At least your post got in-between all the star trek talk. I F**cking hate it and all star wars related shite.

And relax...

bendertherobot

ayjaycee wrote:

awavey wrote:

everything up to and including Enterprise, which wasnt that good tbf, were what Id consider to be Star Trek series, they stayed true to the original series premise, wagon train to the stars, remember classic trek is about a hopeful bright future, they maintained the same tonal quality of the series largely throughout with characters, stories, dialogue and even the way each series was filmed on camera and presented on screen to the viewer, used the same setups, same camera shots, there literally was a visual language of making a Star Trek series, as well as tonal storytelling that links them all together.

Discovery, breaks all of those rules, deliberately, its shot very differently, shaky cam and constant cuts persists, in some scenes, even just dialogue heavy briefing scenes not action scenes, you can get down to a 2.5sec shot ratio, thats on a par with an Avengers movie fight scene cut ratio. The characters are always in conflict it seems, arguing,shouting, never listening to one another or respecting each other, which is totally against the ethos the 50 years worth of Star Trek prior to it had said Starfleet was about, the stories are very different its all about war, conflict and that plays back into how the characters react to each other, theres no reverence or care taken in the material, theyll just chuck in what they think is fan friendly easter eggs to bridge gaps, but its not a logical extension of what had gone before.

and I havent even mentioned the really nerdy Star Trek fan stuff, how theyve bulldozed their way through 50 years of established canon, Klingons, tribbles, space fungus drives or mentioned kelvin or prime timelines.

you want to watch a modern Trek take, watch The Orville.

Not sure that I agree with much of what you have said there. As to Discovery not following the principles of the original, call me a heretic and light the bonfire but I reckon that's a good thing as I find the original almost unwatchable nowadays. On The Orville, you're obviously entitled to an opinion. I really wanted to like it and got through the first episode still willing to give it a go, struggled through the second and gave up completely mid-way through the third as I thought it was just puerile tosh - maybe I was just missing the deeper messages and should have persisted but times to precious and there is a lot of better stuff competing with it.

We'll just have to agree to differ this time.

Stay with it. It gets better and better. And Season 2 absolutely blows Discovery out of the ionosphere.

And I LIKE Discovery.

Pross

Pross wrote:

Just finished watching The Looming Tower On Amazon. Really good insight into the background to 9/11 and the way the CIA / FBI infighting may have prevented the attackers being caught. I appreciate that it's a dramatised version of events but I'm amazed some of the CIA in particular weren't jailed for their behaviour.

This is being heavily advertised as starting on BBC soon (BBC 2 I think). Worth a watch for anyone without Amazon.

tailwindhome

Nothing better than catching something you missed the first time round.

Currently watching Life on Mars on Iplayer
3 episodes in and addicted

Pross

TailWindHome wrote:

Nothing better than catching something you missed the first time round.

Currently watching Life on Mars on Iplayer
3 episodes in and addicted

One of my favourite series. I was a bit disappointed with the sequel, Ashes to Ashes.

pblakeney

Pross wrote:

TailWindHome wrote:

Nothing better than catching something you missed the first time round.

Currently watching Life on Mars on Iplayer
3 episodes in and addicted

One of my favourite series. I was a bit disappointed with the sequel, Ashes to Ashes.

In agreement in two posts within the space of a minute.

daniel_b

Pross wrote:

TailWindHome wrote:

Nothing better than catching something you missed the first time round.

Currently watching Life on Mars on Iplayer
3 episodes in and addicted

One of my favourite series. I was a bit disappointed with the sequel, Ashes to Ashes.

I in contrast was not, loved life on mars, and the sequel (for me) was every bit as good.
Big fan of Keeley of the Hawes, and wide bodied quattros

crumbschief

Ash vs Evil dead,missed it when the series first came out but i am glad to have caught up,makes me laugh every episode and there is also good horror and tunes too,groovy.

daniel_b

Just watched all 5+ hours of Chernobyl on a 12 hour flight.

Fascinating to see a lot of the inner detail of what happened in what is still recent times.

Great acting and filming as well.

shortfall

The Missing Crypto Queen. It's in BBC iPlayer/Sounds and tells the story of a woman who created a currency she said would rival Bitcoin. Investors piled in and then she disappeared, as did the cash. It's utterly fascinating.

cougie

Have you heard the BBC podcast Death in Ice Valley ?

shortfall

cougie wrote:

Have you heard the BBC podcast Death in Ice Valley ?

Downloaded episode one on your recommendation. Excellent!

morstar

For light hearted, slightly quirky entertainment, can strongly recommend 'Living with yourself' on Netflix.
Easy to follow but an ever present uncertainty about exactly where it is going.
A blokes career and marriage are pretty flat and he tries a spa to reinvigorate himself following a personal recommendation. After this, things get a little bit weird.

[Deleted User]

Watched Bosch after reading recommendations further up the thread. Blew through all 5 seasons/50 episodes in a few weeks. Very good telly. Recommended.

mrb123

Giri/Haji.

I'm 5 episodes in so far and it has been superb.

mr_goo

The Spy (Netflix mini series).
Based on the life of Mossad agent Eli Cohen who was a very deep cover spy in Syria during the 60s.
Sacha Baron Cohen plays the part superbly.
Nearly finished, it does have an obvious ending.

Only criticism is that the cinematography for scenes in Israel is washed out to give it a 60s cine film feel. Yet all the action in Syria is full glorious colour. Not sure of the thinking behind that.

elbowloh

I read a lot of Tom Clancy's books when I was younger and of course loved some of the subsequent films (Hunt for Red October and Patriot Games especially), so wanted to like the Jack Ryan series on Amazon. I just couldn't get into series 1. Not sure why. I think a lot of the Amazon and Netflix crime/dramas are all very samey in tone and this one was no different.

However, I decided to give series 2 a go and have found it much better. Have watched 4 episodes in the last 24 hours!