What was the last TV show you watched?

[Edward]

Started watching the forth season of Better Call Saul at the weekend. Excellent stuff. I'm enjoying how they're keeping it very much character driven; while it is in many ways much gentler than Breaking Bad, the writing is often even better.

 

[Doctor Strange]

I finished off The Miniaturist... and was disappointed overall. The big revelations about the miniaturist made no sense, and the entire situation and how the characters dealt with it felt much too contemporary for the period. It all looks smashing, though.

 

[Fading Fast]

I finished off The Miniaturist... and was disappointed overall. The big revelations about the miniaturist made no sense, and the entire situation and how the characters dealt with it felt much too contemporary for the period. It all looks smashing, though.

Cool - your review means a lot to me. We made a call to pass as it seemed too contrived and knowing we'd always have a chance to see it later in one of the thousand replays or when it pops up on a streaming service. All that said, if time and place come together by chance, we'll take a look, but no effort will be made.

 

[Ernest P Shackleton]

I finished off The Miniaturist... and was disappointed overall. The big revelations about the miniaturist made no sense, and the entire situation and how the characters dealt with it felt much too contemporary for the period. It all looks smashing, though.

Agreed. I came here today to give my final opinion of it. On a good day, it is light. On every other day, it was pretty terrible. They had almost three hours to tell a story, and they did very little of that. The relationships didn't make much sense, and they did little to explain or remedy any of it. The characters themselves were poorly developed as well. Marin was here, then there, within minutes. The Miniaturist herself wasn't even a plate of wet noodles thrown against the wall to see which ones would stick. Wait? Huh? Who is she? It wasn't just the audio that was difficult to hear. There were a few times each episode when I had to go back and make sure I understood because they either flew right by should-be key details or they made no sense at all. I don't think you could even blame arty farty. The whole thing was so poorly told that I wondered if it had be intended for a very young audience that wouldn't notice or care, but then...no. Obviously not. I can't imagine how something like this got pitched, made, and then bought by PBS and stations in four other countries. A lot of people really suck at their jobs. I know this is harsh, but the whole thing surprised me in not-good ways. I don't expect this out of Masterpiece. It was quite the opposite of that. Relatively speaking, this makes Poldark seem profound and well thought out.

Speaking of PBS and Masterpiece, are they so rich in content that they can afford to air both Poldark and The Durrells in Corfu at the same time of year? Seems odd.

On a good note, Kidding is turning out to be an interesting series.

 

[Doctor Strange]

I only made it ten minutes into Kidding, it didn't hold me. Great cast, but just too immediately distressing and cringe-inducing.

You're right about The Miniaturist, it's just a mess.

I watched the first half of the new Netflix miniseries Maniac, with Emma Stone and Jonah Hill. It's promoted as being weird and psychedelic, but it's pretty straightforward compared to Legion (which was so weird I gave up halfway through the second season). About experimental drug tests that send you on bizarre trips in an effort to confront and deal with your deepest pain... and set in a weird mélange of the eighties and the present (with mainframe computer terminals and tube TVs). I'm really not so impressed with it yet, but the costuming is very nice in the 1947-set trip in episode 5.

 

[MisterCairo]

Binged three episodes, season two, of Boardwalk Empire last night.

If three is a binge by today's standards...

 

[Doctor Strange]

I finished off Maniac. I'm not sure if I actually liked it, but it held me for all ten episodes. I don't know that "it didn't all make sense" is a valid criticism for a SF story mostly set inside people's hallucinations, taking place in a slightly different world from ours (with a "Statue of Extra Liberties" in the East River). Certainly, it's a good looking production, and the cast is impressive... Besides stars Jonah Hill and Emma Stone, it's got Sally Field, Gabriel Byrne, Justin Theroux, Julia Garner, Hank Azaria, Jemima Kirke, Billy Magnuson... Anyway, it's not great, but it's certainly different. Give it a try if you're in an experimental mood.

 

[Zombie_61]

The newly re-booted Magnum P.I. starring Jay Hernandez. Meh. Not quite as bad as I was expecting, but not much better.

 

[Fading Fast]

The new-to-Netflix season of "The Great British Baking Show."

The personality and business battles and politics behind this successful show seem to have been quite complex (from a legal perspective) and brutal (from a people perspective). I don't know the details and don't care - I have, like most of us, too much going on in my life to follow the ego-and-money-fueled imbroglios behind a TV baking show. However, as fans of the show, my girlfriend and I were glad to see it was back on but hesitant to see if the changes - the two hosts and one of the two judges had been replaced - would remove the magic that made the show enjoyable and not frenetic.

Surprisingly, the changes hardly matter at all. The two former hosts, who had a much smaller role than many TV show hosts, were fine but unspectacular as are the two new hosts (IMO, they could take it down to one host and nothing would be lost). The modest hit to the show is that one of the former judges, Mary Berry, has been replaced by Prue Leith. Berry and extant judge Paul Hollywood (how do you get a last name like that?) had wonderful chemistry and only time will tell if Leith and he will develop something similar - the first few episodes were promising. And it's good to see Leith is not shy with her opinions and will not be run over by Hollywood, something Berry sometimes allowed to happen.

But the key to this show has always been the contestants and the baking. While, sure, they build some fake drama as all these half-baked (tee-hee) reality shows do, you can watch this one not on the edge of your seat and just enjoy the passion these impressively skilled amateur bakers have for making an incredible array of breads, cakes, pastries and biscuits. Which segues nicely to the other star of the show - the baked goods. It's just fun to see - assuming you like baked goods - the variety of items they bake (from smartly simple to insanely complex), the techniques and processes behind creating them and the impressive outcomes (and occasional flops). So far, hosts and judges come and go, but the show remains top notch as the stars, the passionate bakers and sumptuous baked goods, carry the ball (sure, hackneyed metaphor, but hey, at least I didn't go with "light the oven").

 

[DesertDan]

Ash vs Evil Dead season 3

 

[Worf]

"Extraordinary Homes" - This series on Netflix takes us inside some truly amazing homes. Unfortunately 90 percent of them are weekend or vacation homes... more like show pieces than homes except when they got to Japan. Everyone of the homes shown there were/are lived in on a daily basis. Some amazing stuff there.

Worf

 

[Edward]

The new-to-Netflix season of "The Great British Baking Show."

The personality and business battles and politics behind this successful show seem to have been quite complex (from a legal perspective) and brutal (from a people perspective). I don't know the details and don't care - I have, like most of us, too much going on in my life to follow the ego-and-money-fueled imbroglios behind a TV baking show. However, as fans of the show, my girlfriend and I were glad to see it was back on but hesitant to see if the changes - the two hosts and one of the two judges had been replaced - would remove the magic that made the show enjoyable and not frenetic.

Surprisingly, the changes hardly matter at all. The two former hosts, who had a much smaller role than many TV show hosts, were fine but unspectacular as are the two new hosts (IMO, they could take it down to one host and nothing would be lost). The modest hit to the show is that one of the former judges, Mary Berry, has been replaced by Prue Leith. Berry and extant judge Paul Hollywood (how do you get a last name like that?) had wonderful chemistry and only time will tell if Leith and he will develop something similar - the first few episodes were promising. And it's good to see Leith is not shy with her opinions and will not be run over by Hollywood, something Berry sometimes allowed to happen.

But the key to this show has always been the contestants and the baking. While, sure, they build some fake drama as all these half-baked (tee-hee) reality shows do, you can watch this one not on the edge of your seat and just enjoy the passion these impressively skilled amateur bakers have for making an incredible array of breads, cakes, pastries and biscuits. Which segues nicely to the other star of the show - the baked goods. It's just fun to see - assuming you like baked goods - the variety of items they bake (from smartly simple to insanely complex), the techniques and processes behind creating them and the impressive outcomes (and occasional flops). So far, hosts and judges come and go, but the show remains top notch as the stars, the passionate bakers and sumptuous baked goods, carry the ball (sure, hackneyed metaphor, but hey, at least I didn't go with "light the oven").

The Great British Bake Off's changes were big new here in the UK for reasons that probably don't translate to US viewers watching on streaming services. It was incredibly popular as an archetypal BBC show until it came up for contract renewal, and the independent production company that made it got greedy because it was a huge hit, and opened it to bids from elsewhere The BBC, ever mindful that its money is really 'public money', bowed out when Love Productions had the bidding at over 20 million sterling (previously the BBC had paid five million for the contract first time around). So Channel 4 got the format. This inevitably meant big changes in and of itself - Channel 4 is publicly owned (so far, though there is talk of a sell-off) *but* it is self-funding, the upshot of that being the introduction of advertisement breaks into the show. Channel 4 also quickly discovered that while they had bought the format, this did not guarantee them the talent - they ended up having spent the money on a tent and Paul Hollywood, The Judge Nobody Liked. Mel, Sue, and Mary Berry indicated quickly that they did not wish to follow the show to Channel 4, preferring to remain with the BBC for other projects. Hence the changes. I'm sure it still works well as a show (I'm otherwise a fan of Noel already), but I've not seen it. Herself loved it as was and doesn't want to 'ruin' it by it being different. I think most of the folks I know lost interest at that point, though clearly it's maintaining enough of an audience to still be popular. Hopefully for them they'll not make the mistake most reality formats do of going for 'freakshow' if viewer numbers start to fall, as a huge part of the show's original appeal was the very 'ordinariness' of the contestants, even the unlikeable ones, like the final BBC winner.

 

[Fading Fast]

The Great British Bake Off's changes were big new here in the UK for reasons that probably don't translate to US viewers watching on streaming services. It was incredibly popular as an archetypal BBC show until it came up for contract renewal, and the independent production company that made it got greedy because it was a huge hit, and opened it to bids from elsewhere The BBC, ever mindful that its money is really 'public money', bowed out when Love Productions had the bidding at over 20 million sterling (previously the BBC had paid five million for the contract first time around). So Channel 4 got the format. This inevitably meant big changes in and of itself - Channel 4 is publicly owned (so far, though there is talk of a sell-off) *but* it is self-funding, the upshot of that being the introduction of advertisement breaks into the show. Channel 4 also quickly discovered that while they had bought the format, this did not guarantee them the talent - they ended up having spent the money on a tent and Paul Hollywood, The Judge Nobody Liked. Mel, Sue, and Mary Berry indicated quickly that they did not wish to follow the show to Channel 4, preferring to remain with the BBC for other projects. Hence the changes. I'm sure it still works well as a show (I'm otherwise a fan of Noel already), but I've not seen it. Herself loved it as was and doesn't want to 'ruin' it by it being different. I think most of the folks I know lost interest at that point, though clearly it's maintaining enough of an audience to still be popular. Hopefully for them they'll not make the mistake most reality formats do of going for 'freakshow' if viewer numbers start to fall, as a huge part of the show's original appeal was the very 'ordinariness' of the contestants, even the unlikeable ones, like the final BBC winner.

Great background information - thank you. So far, the "new" show feels pretty much like the "old" show as - you noted - it was the "regular" guy and gal bakers that matter and that hasn't changed one bit. Also, they haven't, so far, gone freak show but kept it very, very similar to how the show was done when it was on the BBC.

I didn't realize Paul Hollywood wasn't liked. I had no idea who he was before the show - and no idea now other than that he judges this show.

 

[Edward]

Great background information - thank you. So far, the "new" show feels pretty much like the "old" show as - you noted - it was the "regular" guy and gal bakers that matter and that hasn't changed one bit. Also, they haven't, so far, gone freak show but kept it very, very similar to how the show was done when it was on the BBC.

I didn't realize Paul Hollywood wasn't liked. I had no idea who he was before the show - and no idea now other than that he judges this show.

To be fair to him, he just wasn't as popular as the others. The biggest joy was Mary Berry revelling in trading innuendoes with Mel and Sue - the friendship between the three of them is very genuine and ongoing. Hollywood was/is involved because he is an expert baker; he was never a celebrity before and isn't really known for anything else. That's one thing they did very well on GBBO, the mix of entertaining and genuine expertise.

 

[Fading Fast]

To be fair to him, he just wasn't as popular as the others. The biggest joy was Mary Berry revelling in trading innuendoes with Mel and Sue - the friendship between the three of them is very genuine and ongoing. Hollywood was/is involved because he is an expert baker; he was never a celebrity before and isn't really known for anything else. That's one thing they did very well on GBBO, the mix of entertaining and genuine expertise.

There's an offshoot of the show where Mary and Paul bake some of the recipes on the show. Two things come out in that: one, both are outstanding bakers and, two, they seem to really enjoy each other's company. Paul, having started in the hotel industry, has an impressive ability to work quickly and in large scale.

 

[MisterCairo]

Finally home for good (for now) from the horrors of the Ottawa Valley, and playing catch up. So far, have caught up on Fear The Walking Dead and almost caught up on The Mayans, Kurt Sutter's follow up to Sons of Anarchy. Loving it so far, my wife likes it even more. Wish she were a fan of FTWD.

 

[Touchofevil]

A few episodes of Call the Midwife and a couple of episodes of Lodge 49, but not much else as school has kept me exceptionally busy.

 

[Fading Fast]

A few episodes of Call the Midwife and a couple of episodes of Lodge 49, but not much else as school has kept me exceptionally busy.

Always good to see you posting again my friend. Your bacon passion is needed over in "Golden Era's" "Had Lunch Out At..." thread where I'm defending bacon's honor.

As to TV, I am consumed by two thoughts - Yankees-A's wildcard game and the return of "The Man in the High Castle."

 

[Touchofevil]

Thank you. It is always a good day when I am fortunate enough to be here posting with good people such as you. I feel as if I am always behind and extra busy with work. I do miss The Lounge and would like to be here more often, but all of this new curriculum is keeping occupied.

The honor of Bacon needs defending? Sacrilege! What is happening to this place?

 

[Fading Fast]

Thank you. It is always a good day when I am fortunate enough to be here posting with good people such as you. I feel as if I am always behind and extra busy with work. I do miss The Lounge and would like to be here more often, but all of this new curriculum is keeping occupied.

The honor of Bacon needs defending? Sacrilege! What is happening to this place?

Lizzie is just trying to stir the pot by elevating pork sausage at the expense of bacon, but - in truth - I think she's just bored and wanted to wind us up.