What was the last TV show you watched?

[Julian Shellhammer]

Episode 1 of Season 3 of When Calls the Heart, on Netflix.

 

[Ernest P Shackleton]

Mercy Street canceled. No season 3. In great part due to funding. season 2 didn't have stellar numbers, but it had the highest numbers since Downton Abbey and good enough numbers to warrant another season. Funding. PBS is clearly hurting. If you notice, they're using every opportunity to fund raise. During the Patsy Cline American Masters, it was broken up to fund raise and offer the DVD sets as enticement. After the final episode of Victoria, they ran a 30-minute program that was basically an opportunity to fund raise and sell DVD sets. It's sad to see PBS in this position. Some say it is a good and right thing that it has to compete in a more normal way, but I don't agree. Quality programming. Substantive programming. Where children, young people, and adults can learn and enjoy without the constant barrage of advertising. It's a good example. It's a necessary example in a world where everything is made to be about commerce and consumerism. It's one of the last examples of programming that demands an attention span. You don't get the opportunity to tune out every 3.5 minutes for another 3.5 minutes of commercials. That alone should be valued on some level, correct? Apologies for the rant, but screw politics.

 

[Touchofevil]

Too bad you didn't like it...

I will probably give it a shot again at some point. It was weak in so many ways so it will be some time before it gets that chance.

 

[Touchofevil]

A few episodes of The People V. O.J. Simpson. Not the best of what I have watched recently, but the show gets better and more interesting with each episode.

 

[HoosierDaddy]

UFC Fight Night

 

[Fading Fast]

"Victoria" season finale.

IMHO, the show seemed to lose energy and thoughtfulness in the last few episodes.

The departure of Lord M was a big hit - he had more on-screen chemistry with Victoria than sap-the-life-and-joy-out-of-everything Albert has. Also, the assassination attempt was treated almost casually while some of the "below stairs" conflicts seem forced and almost like filler (the whole "who gets the Queen's mail first" was sloppily handled).

Hopefully, next season, the show can recapture some of its focus and enthusiasm.

 

[Touchofevil]

UFC Fight Night

Nice fight by Shogun, but overall the card did not go my way.

 

[Touchofevil]

A few episodes of Fear the Walking Dead and a couple of episodes of The Walking Dead. FtWD is getting much better. TWD is getting dumber. What's with the Junkyard Gang's verbage and silent but creepy bit?

 

[MisterCairo]

Two more episodes re-watched from season two of Peaky Blinders. What a rush...

 

[Ernest P Shackleton]

The Americans. season 5 opener. so, so glad it is back. Good, new relationships with plenty of room to play. I don't think there is a single relationship I don't like.

 

[Ernest P Shackleton]

while some of the "below stairs" conflicts seem forced and almost like filler (the whole "who gets the Queen's mail first" was sloppily handled).

Agreed. It really does feel like filler, and even if it is indeed considered filler by the makers, it is their job to make it not feel so. I like all those characters in the downstairs, so it is a shame they're getting used like they are.

 

[Touchofevil]

Two more episodes re-watched from season two of Peaky Blinders. What a rush...

Yep! It so is.

 

[Stearmen]

Sun Records. Any way you look at it, Colonel Parker was a first class con man! I always wounder what if Elvis had cut off Parker, and later, The Memphis Mafia?

 

[Ernest P Shackleton]

Big Little Lies. I'm still finding the acting to be pretty damn amateurish, but I'm somehow getting sucked into the story despite of it. It still feels like an early rehearsal and before the editing room.

The Catch. I think that is what it was called. I don't know how people watch shows edited like this. Quick shots. Quick lines. Made to feel high energy and with clever people. It just gives me a headache from a 60-minute quippy soundbite race. Just when I think I want more content than 40/60 minutes, I'm proven wrong.

Feud. I don't know anything about these two women, other than seeing Mommie Dearest and not remembering anything about it other than Dunaway being bona fide scary. I'm enjoying the story. Is Kiernan Shipka already typecast? They might as well give Ryan Murphy his own network.

 

[Touchofevil]

More Fear the Walking Dead

 

[handymike]

OK, I know we shy away from politics here, but I just watched Cries From Syria on HBO...
OMG, I'm floored...
It is a mind-blowing and intense documentary.

 

[Fading Fast]

"Feud" Episode Two

I like it don't love it. The over stylization basically works as this entire effort is a bit campy. The acting improved in this episode (or maybe the writers found more of a grove). But the story is flat / not inspiring / honestly, boring. I want to like it more and I appreciate what they are trying to do, but I think they are stretching two or three hours of material out to a season or two and there's just not enough there to support it.

Sarandon continues to kill it as Davis - she seems to have even nailed Davis' walk-with-a-swagger. However, Lange's Crawford is weak - you either emit low-grade fear all the time that can ramp up on the spot to sheer terror or you are not playing Crawford right and Lange's Crawford inspires, almost, pity not a flight response in others.

 

[Doctor Strange]

I also enjoyed the second episode more than the first. Yeah, it's campy and sometimes overwrought, but the production is gorgeous and much - not all - of the acting is good. I agree that stretching it out to eight episodes seems like overkill.

Best bullet point I saw on an episode recap: Kiernan Shikpa - tormenting sixties mothers since 2007.

 

[Fading Fast]

I also enjoyed the second episode more than the first. Yeah, it's campy and sometimes overwrought, but the production is gorgeous and much - not all - of the acting is good. I agree that stretching it out to eight episodes seems like overkill.

Best bullet point I saw on an episode recap: Kiernan Shikpa - tormenting sixties mothers since 2007.

Agree on all ⇧. And that was quite the broadside Shikpa fired at Davis - she never took down Betty Draper that hard.

 

[Ernest P Shackleton]

Agree on all ⇧. And that was quite the broadside Shikpa fired at Davis - she never took down Betty Draper that hard.

I'm beginning to think Shikpa is lesser of a young actor than I realized. She's been the blessed benefactor of great to good writing, and it has created an illusion. I often feel she's acting to a mark, rather than creating the feel she's in a conversation or situation with another actor. The episode of Mad Men where she and her father were in a diner, having an argument (she doesn't want anything to eat and then takes a bite of his burger?). The way they filmed that scene was him, then her, then him, then her. I don't think they showed them together in a single shot until panning out. She was acting to a mark, short phrase after short phrase. That scene reminded me of this bite at Serandon. She's not making me believe she's reacting with the other actor. She's not making me wonder if she's talking at the camera. Maybe it's her phrasing, because it never feels natural or fluid. It's robotic and strange.