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You got beef Noob, take it up with the mods. Don't whine and cry to me about your feefs.
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What was the last TV show you watched?
- Thread starter Lady Day
- Start date
The Lost Cowboy
Call Me a Cab
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Putting this thread back on track:
I recently tried an ITV series called "The Frankenstein Chronicles" - another police procedural but set in 19th century London. Season 1 was satisfying until the end but season 2 lost me from the first episode. Critics seem to have liked s02 but once the mystery was gone I lost interest.
What I particularly liked about s01 was the inclusion of Mary and Percy Shelley, as well as an appearance from William Blake. The use of these historical characters was smart and drove the plot in a believable manner - in s01, anyway.
I recently tried an ITV series called "The Frankenstein Chronicles" - another police procedural but set in 19th century London. Season 1 was satisfying until the end but season 2 lost me from the first episode. Critics seem to have liked s02 but once the mystery was gone I lost interest.
What I particularly liked about s01 was the inclusion of Mary and Percy Shelley, as well as an appearance from William Blake. The use of these historical characters was smart and drove the plot in a believable manner - in s01, anyway.
Mister Cairo
I'll Lock Up
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I kinda wished this had continued, but alas, it is well done and over.
Mister Cairo
I'll Lock Up
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Starting the Cairo Cavalcade of Hallowe'en Horror early this year, I have seen two episodes of my yearly watch, series 1 of Penny Dreadful!
Gothic mashup of Dracula, Frankenstein, Werewolves, Dorian Gray and many other stories.
Oh, and two words: Eva and Green.
Gothic mashup of Dracula, Frankenstein, Werewolves, Dorian Gray and many other stories.
Oh, and two words: Eva and Green.
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Alvarez vs. Crawford - Best BOXING match I've seen since the glory days of Hagler, Duran, Hearns and Leonard. Styles make fights, unfortunately so do other less savory things in these troubled times. At least when all was said and done both warriors conducted themselves as gentlemen even if some of their countrymen did not.
Worf
Worf
Edward
Bartender
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Netflix's House of Guinness.
A ten-episode series; I watched the first half yesterday and have enjoyed it so far. The action opens in Dublin, 1886, with the death of Benjamin Guinness, and the squabbles among his four children with the fallout over the nature of his will. Interwoven into this are the politics of Dublin at the time, with the Guinness family being very much associated with the pro-Union, Anglo-Irish "protestant ascendency" of theera, and the Irish Republican Brotherhood ('Fenian') movement on the other side. As important as the struggle of clashing national identities which was on the rise some seven decades after the dissolution of the Kingdom of Ireland (1542-1800) into the United Kingdom is the material, social struggle, with the privileged, aristocratic side and the penniless poor, many in rural areas being little better off than they had been during the Famine twenty years previously.
The show is written by Steven Knight of Peaky Blinders and SAS Rogue Heroes fame. Very much within his stylistic template: heavy on character, iconic costume, intrigue, crossovers between the aristocratic classes and the criminal underworld, and the use of modern, alternative music for atmosphere. A wide range of artists who wouldn't have sounded out of place in the Peakies show are heard here; within the first couple of episodes we get both the sound of a traditional Orange marching band and a snip of Kneecap. If you liked Peaky Blinders this show ma appeal - if you hated it's style, don't bother with it here.
As with both of Knight's other mentioned shows, HoG weaves its story in and around real events. Like SAS:RH, it carries something of a disclaimer to the effect that it is a fiction inspired by real events. It may yet (on the basis of the first half of the series) escape allegations of twisting the portrayal of the real people (which SAS RH has in particular received). It certainly all strikes as plausible (and has the bonus that all concerned being long dead, there's zero potential for a libel suit). For example, the issue of Arthur Guinnesses ***uality. Arthur is probably the closest we've seen to a main protagonist in the villain role of the central cast. Eldest son of Benjamin, this Arthur (not the Arthur Guinness- that was his grandfather who started the business) is secretly ***, ends up in a lavender marriage with the wife recruited as well aware of the score, and when he runs for Parliament (for the Dublin Westminster seat vacated by his father due to his death) wins, having bribed voters at £5 each (just under GBP500 in today's money) to back him. In the show, he loses his seat when the bribery scandal comes to light, however he personally is cleared of wrongdoing as all the evidence points to the conclusion that his election agent set it up without his knowledge. In reality.... Arthur was indeed ejected from his seat over election bribery, and the court came to just that decision. In 1874 (still ahead of us in the show's time line at halfway through the series) he ran again for Parliament and was elected. As a Conservative MP, Guinness was of course pro-union, though historically he and the Guinness family were very much supporters of social reform and what is now termed "constructive unionism" of the period - i.e. making the Union work in Ireland's favour, for the people of Ireland, many of whom were only at this point able to vote for the first time in history, as the Reform Act of 1867 permitted some working class men to vote for the first time (although nothing like the sea-change in Irish voting patterns that would come with the Representation of the People Act 1918). The Guinesses were well known for various philanthropic acts in the nineteenth century, among them non-sectarian hiring policies (at a time when they would have been perfectly legal), and introducing pensions for their workforce. The show has a lot of fun with speculating how this sort of thing might have played out behind the scenes, with Arthur's public character - from "real history" being rounded out with speculation about the influence of his younger brother (and co-inheritor of the brewery) Edward.
In terms of his ***uality, it is of course lost to history whether Arthur did prefer men, although it's a reasonable interpretation given that he married in 1871 and remained married to the same woman in what history records as a happy marriage, but one that remained without children - a highly unusual factor in Irish society in those days, particularly given the lack of any form of reliable contraception at the time, as well as that finances would not have been an issue. Of course there may have been others reasons for this too. For all the Arthur of the show may have his less noble side, though, his ***uality is portrayed in a very sympathetic manner, its being under wraps being purely a matter of avoiding the prison sentence. At this point in time the 1861 Offences Against the Person Act had removed the prior death penalty for *** men, reducing it to a ten year term of imprisonment with hard labour (the fate that befell poor Oscar Wilde). The Criminal Law Amendment Act of 1885, however, had amended the law to make what constituted punishable *******uality so broad that prosecution could arise over activity between two men in a private place, or even something as simple as a letter expressing the "wrong sort" of affection between men. This aspect of the show is dealt with in a quite matter of fact way. I'm sure some critics will accuse it of inserting "modern thinking", though of course even back then there were people who didn't have an issue with it and would have helped cover for a friend or family member; and others who would have had an issue with it but similarly helped in order to avoid what they would have seen as a public shaming.
I went into the show wary, as a number of critics in the Irish press have been very damning of it. Much of the criticism has been of dumbing down a complex set of politics, though I personally find that a little unfair. All done and said, it's entertainment, not a documentary. The broad brushes are close enough that it cold serve to spark a genuine interest in the real history among many, and any embellishment is primarily within the ballpark of what we know to be the established facts such that it's hardly a politically motivate revisionism or distortion in my view. The charge that some of the costumes are overly Leprechauny is, I feel, ill-made. I'll defer to how accurate to the period they are to those more expert than I. For myself, I found them to be wholly evocative of what I've seen of the period (still an era when relatively few working class people were ever photographed, and when photography was still mostly something done at formal occasions). Of course they are ultimately costume rather than actual 'real' wardrobe, and there is an element of some being of a heightened style - again, back to the resemblance to Knight's previous shows.
All in all, based on the first five of ten episodes, worth a look as long as you can accept it for what it is and don't expect a living history documentary. I'll be interested to see if it spawns a second series. Netflix hit hard very early o with the success of their House of Cards, the first really big show to appear as an original, streaming show, marking the maturing of the streaming concept to a primary source of entertainment rather than an online replacement for the video hire store. In recent years for whatever reason (I'm sure the financial challenges of having a level of competition from Prime, Hulu, Disney+, AppleTV.... that they didn't have in 2012 is a big part of it) they've not done so well at producing quality, original English language content (Stranger Things has had so long between series I struggle to imagine how they're going to be able to credibly pass off the players as being the age they should be in the story). This show feels to me they still have what it takes to make something big and entertaining. Also interesting to see this coming now from Knight working with Netlfix, given their announcement of the last couple of weeks teasing two seasons of a sequel show to Peaky Blinders to be made, following the still-to-be-released Peakies film on Netlfix (it's in the can, apparently).
A ten-episode series; I watched the first half yesterday and have enjoyed it so far. The action opens in Dublin, 1886, with the death of Benjamin Guinness, and the squabbles among his four children with the fallout over the nature of his will. Interwoven into this are the politics of Dublin at the time, with the Guinness family being very much associated with the pro-Union, Anglo-Irish "protestant ascendency" of theera, and the Irish Republican Brotherhood ('Fenian') movement on the other side. As important as the struggle of clashing national identities which was on the rise some seven decades after the dissolution of the Kingdom of Ireland (1542-1800) into the United Kingdom is the material, social struggle, with the privileged, aristocratic side and the penniless poor, many in rural areas being little better off than they had been during the Famine twenty years previously.
The show is written by Steven Knight of Peaky Blinders and SAS Rogue Heroes fame. Very much within his stylistic template: heavy on character, iconic costume, intrigue, crossovers between the aristocratic classes and the criminal underworld, and the use of modern, alternative music for atmosphere. A wide range of artists who wouldn't have sounded out of place in the Peakies show are heard here; within the first couple of episodes we get both the sound of a traditional Orange marching band and a snip of Kneecap. If you liked Peaky Blinders this show ma appeal - if you hated it's style, don't bother with it here.
As with both of Knight's other mentioned shows, HoG weaves its story in and around real events. Like SAS:RH, it carries something of a disclaimer to the effect that it is a fiction inspired by real events. It may yet (on the basis of the first half of the series) escape allegations of twisting the portrayal of the real people (which SAS RH has in particular received). It certainly all strikes as plausible (and has the bonus that all concerned being long dead, there's zero potential for a libel suit). For example, the issue of Arthur Guinnesses ***uality. Arthur is probably the closest we've seen to a main protagonist in the villain role of the central cast. Eldest son of Benjamin, this Arthur (not the Arthur Guinness- that was his grandfather who started the business) is secretly ***, ends up in a lavender marriage with the wife recruited as well aware of the score, and when he runs for Parliament (for the Dublin Westminster seat vacated by his father due to his death) wins, having bribed voters at £5 each (just under GBP500 in today's money) to back him. In the show, he loses his seat when the bribery scandal comes to light, however he personally is cleared of wrongdoing as all the evidence points to the conclusion that his election agent set it up without his knowledge. In reality.... Arthur was indeed ejected from his seat over election bribery, and the court came to just that decision. In 1874 (still ahead of us in the show's time line at halfway through the series) he ran again for Parliament and was elected. As a Conservative MP, Guinness was of course pro-union, though historically he and the Guinness family were very much supporters of social reform and what is now termed "constructive unionism" of the period - i.e. making the Union work in Ireland's favour, for the people of Ireland, many of whom were only at this point able to vote for the first time in history, as the Reform Act of 1867 permitted some working class men to vote for the first time (although nothing like the sea-change in Irish voting patterns that would come with the Representation of the People Act 1918). The Guinesses were well known for various philanthropic acts in the nineteenth century, among them non-sectarian hiring policies (at a time when they would have been perfectly legal), and introducing pensions for their workforce. The show has a lot of fun with speculating how this sort of thing might have played out behind the scenes, with Arthur's public character - from "real history" being rounded out with speculation about the influence of his younger brother (and co-inheritor of the brewery) Edward.
In terms of his ***uality, it is of course lost to history whether Arthur did prefer men, although it's a reasonable interpretation given that he married in 1871 and remained married to the same woman in what history records as a happy marriage, but one that remained without children - a highly unusual factor in Irish society in those days, particularly given the lack of any form of reliable contraception at the time, as well as that finances would not have been an issue. Of course there may have been others reasons for this too. For all the Arthur of the show may have his less noble side, though, his ***uality is portrayed in a very sympathetic manner, its being under wraps being purely a matter of avoiding the prison sentence. At this point in time the 1861 Offences Against the Person Act had removed the prior death penalty for *** men, reducing it to a ten year term of imprisonment with hard labour (the fate that befell poor Oscar Wilde). The Criminal Law Amendment Act of 1885, however, had amended the law to make what constituted punishable *******uality so broad that prosecution could arise over activity between two men in a private place, or even something as simple as a letter expressing the "wrong sort" of affection between men. This aspect of the show is dealt with in a quite matter of fact way. I'm sure some critics will accuse it of inserting "modern thinking", though of course even back then there were people who didn't have an issue with it and would have helped cover for a friend or family member; and others who would have had an issue with it but similarly helped in order to avoid what they would have seen as a public shaming.
I went into the show wary, as a number of critics in the Irish press have been very damning of it. Much of the criticism has been of dumbing down a complex set of politics, though I personally find that a little unfair. All done and said, it's entertainment, not a documentary. The broad brushes are close enough that it cold serve to spark a genuine interest in the real history among many, and any embellishment is primarily within the ballpark of what we know to be the established facts such that it's hardly a politically motivate revisionism or distortion in my view. The charge that some of the costumes are overly Leprechauny is, I feel, ill-made. I'll defer to how accurate to the period they are to those more expert than I. For myself, I found them to be wholly evocative of what I've seen of the period (still an era when relatively few working class people were ever photographed, and when photography was still mostly something done at formal occasions). Of course they are ultimately costume rather than actual 'real' wardrobe, and there is an element of some being of a heightened style - again, back to the resemblance to Knight's previous shows.
All in all, based on the first five of ten episodes, worth a look as long as you can accept it for what it is and don't expect a living history documentary. I'll be interested to see if it spawns a second series. Netflix hit hard very early o with the success of their House of Cards, the first really big show to appear as an original, streaming show, marking the maturing of the streaming concept to a primary source of entertainment rather than an online replacement for the video hire store. In recent years for whatever reason (I'm sure the financial challenges of having a level of competition from Prime, Hulu, Disney+, AppleTV.... that they didn't have in 2012 is a big part of it) they've not done so well at producing quality, original English language content (Stranger Things has had so long between series I struggle to imagine how they're going to be able to credibly pass off the players as being the age they should be in the story). This show feels to me they still have what it takes to make something big and entertaining. Also interesting to see this coming now from Knight working with Netlfix, given their announcement of the last couple of weeks teasing two seasons of a sequel show to Peaky Blinders to be made, following the still-to-be-released Peakies film on Netlfix (it's in the can, apparently).
Mister Cairo
I'll Lock Up
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Cairo Cavalcade of Hallowe'en Horror continues as I have advanced to series two of Penny Dreadful!
The night comers have arrived in full force, Van Helsing has arrived, and, well, may not be back again, and Ethan Chandler is dealing with the full effects of his father's affections!
The night comers have arrived in full force, Van Helsing has arrived, and, well, may not be back again, and Ethan Chandler is dealing with the full effects of his father's affections!
Edward
Bartender
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Only seen series one thus far, but it was excellent. It doesn't look likely to arrive on our streamers anytime soon, so we'll have to buy the next series.
Watched the end of House of Guinness last night - turns out I was wrong, it's eight episodes, not ten. Cracking stuff. While the ending isn't entirely a cliffhanger if we assume they're following the real history, it deals out the dramatic tension perfectly, and really sets it up for a second series. Netflix hasn't announced, though it seems to be on the cards. Knight himself plans to take the story across four series up to the 1960s, which may get trickier legally and politically, but I'll be interested to see it.
Mister Cairo
I'll Lock Up
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I own PD on blu-ray, so it is an annual re-watch!
Edward
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I remembered you were a fan. I suspect you'll find much to like in this.
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Edward
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Netflix again, for the latest series of the Monster franchise, this time Ed Gein. Not a whole lot to ay, really. It's interesting to see if you have an interest in the Ed Gein case and how it has been portrayed in popular culture, but overall the show feels a bit of a mess. There are some nice ideas in there involving meta commentary on Gein's impact on popular cinema (Psycho, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Silence of the Lambs), but it's ham-fisted and appears out of nowhere. There's also a running thread with a largely invented love-interest for Gein which could have been a nice meta commentary on true crime fandom, but again clumsily done. It has the feeling of someone having had a great idea for a story but not being so much of a story-teller. Like a Dan Brow or George Lucas type: a ripping yarn badly told. Notably, one half of the pairing that wrote the better-received, previous franchise entries - I suspect we may have kept the ideas man and lost the storyteller. It's a shame, really, because if you are interested in the themes I've mentioned there's much here to hold the attention, though equally to frustrate that it could have been so much better done. Fashion-wise, the look of the whole thing is nice and it captures a certain period feel well (even playing in to the true crime representations of Ilsa Koch versus the truth as exposed in her trial). That they took liberties with some of the details of Gein's case, though, is I think absurd - it's not as if it needed jazzing up to make a story of it, and when it comes to the true crime genre I think moving away from the established facts while still presenting the show in a manner that suggests what is being depicted is how it rally went down can be somewhat dangerous. This is very different to a minor embellishment like Chariots of Fire's portraying Harold Abrahams as having successfully completed the Cambridge quad run. A final part of the meta-commentary towards the end implies that Gein (at his own instigation) played a Hannibal Lecter style role in helping to catch Ted Bundy. I think it's supposed to imply that this is a fantasy in Ed's head, but it's not made explicit (whereas his radio conversations with other outsiders including Ilsa Koch are explicitly confirmed as fantasy). The period look of the whole thing is nicely done, I'll give it that. Charlie Hunnam performs well within the confines of how he is directed, though why they instructed him to talk throughout like Herbert from Family Guy rather than copying Gein's actual voice from the recordings that are readily available I don't know.
As I say, if you're interested in how the Gein case has been portrayed over the years, this is an interesting, if flawed, depiction. It's not one to watch expecting an accurate depiction of the real history, though.
As I say, if you're interested in how the Gein case has been portrayed over the years, this is an interesting, if flawed, depiction. It's not one to watch expecting an accurate depiction of the real history, though.
minsoochoi
New in Town
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I am enjoying the latest season of Slow Horses. Another great spy genre piece with Gary Oldman as lead!
DogFacePonySoldier
One of the Regulars
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Reminds me Penny Dreadful great writing like Deadwood in Victorian London.
Last show I watched 2 episodes I didn’t really like was that Ed Gein show on Netflix. Liked the heritage menswear but thought it was an overall bad show and won’t watch the rest of it.
Doctor Damage
I'll Lock Up
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This youtube account has all 8 episodes of one my favourite tv shows, the 1990s Fox series "Profit" starring Adrian Pasdar. It's hard to describe but well worth watching if you like cleverly written corporate drama stuff mixed with some dark themes and led by a sociopathic star character with zero scruples but whom you can't help but cheer for. There's also a 1 hour documentary supposedly filmed a decade later. Due to my age, I love the 1990s business wardrobes. I can't recommend this strongly enough, just brilliant stuff.
https://www.youtube.com/@PCEntmt/search?query=profit
https://www.youtube.com/@PCEntmt/search?query=profit
Edward
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It's a stunning show. Quite timeless as well, in that while, yes, we have elements of modern tech, it's easy to see how any of the major storylines could be readily adapted to take place at any time in the post-war era. I discovered the show when we first took on Apple TV as a bolt on to Prime a few months ago, and devoured it all. I plan to pick up the books on which the show is base in the new year. Every series just tops the previous one, it's really something. And *that* reveal at the end of the latest....
Something I'd love to see would be a prequel series (books, TV, both...) giving us the back story of a young Jackson Lamb in East Berlin, though I wouldn't be surprised if Heron ruled it out, preferring to preserve Lamb's mythology from a definitive truth.
Mister Cairo
I'll Lock Up
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We are getting back into Slow Horses. We'd started to watch it earlier but I found it slow to grow on me. Back into it and it is now growing on me!
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UFC 322 early preliminary fights as well as p fights. Some really entertaining and skilled fights. Nice to see some good sportsmanship between fighters after the fights. 
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