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What Are You Watching Now? - 2021


Athena

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This topic is for posting about any TV /shows/programmes/videos/documentaries/things you've watched recently that are not films (we have a separate thread for that, but most of you know that as you've been here for years).

P.S. No spoilers in this thread except in spoiler tags (like in the bookish threads).

 

The last show I saw were two episodes of Fruits Basket, which were quite enjoyable. I'm also watching season 3 of Star Trek: Discovery. It's Friday here today so there may be a next episode up as they are weekly uploaded to Netflix here on Fridays. Not sure though if there will be a new episode today, since it is New Year's Day. We shall see, I'm probably too tired to watch it today anyway.       

 

I'm usually kind of a wreck on New Year's Day actually, because the noise of the fireworks keeps me from sleeping. I slept from 22:00 - 0:00, then the fireworks woke me up (and then from 1:ish - 4:30). This year, for the first time in the Netherlands, there is a ban on fireworks, because our hospitals are overloaded with Covid-patients already, and do not need extra injured victims from lighting off fireworks (and yes, despite many warnings and campaigns over the years, still every year people injure themselves). So gladly there were not as many fireworks as usually, at least the ban seemed to have deterred some people.

 

Anyway... sorry for rambling / going off-topic a bit.

 

Most memorable TV things I saw in 2020 (not in any particular order):

 

Good Omens (much better than the book, loved this)

Death in Paradise S9 (loved it, looking forward to S10)

Doctor Who (S1 -5 ish) (very good, I have not finished S5 yet*)

Star Trek: Discovery (very good, with a few things they should have been done differently, *not finished yet)

Picard (very good, again a few things should have been done differently, *waiting for next season)

Star Trek: TNG, DS9, VY (re-watch of some episodes we really liked)

Himouto Umaru-chan (partial re-watch) (loved it)

The Grand Tour (S1-4?) (enjoyable)

Rick & Morty (2nd half of S4) (loved it)

Death Note TV anime series (partial re-watch) (*after reading the manga)(* figured out why I was confused and stopped watching last time, liked it much better this time around, understanding stuff. Manga is also very good.)

The Baby-Sitters Club (S1, loved this so much)

QI (some eps)

Ai Yori Aoshi (partial re-watch)(very good)

The Social Dilemma (documentary about social media, very interesting)

Dash & Lily (so much better than the book!! Very good.)

Fruits Basket (very good, *not finished yet)

 

Because.. then at least something is on-topic in this post :grinhat:.

 

 

 

 

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We had fireworks from 3.00 yesterday, despite it still being daylight!  Then a massive barrage at about 2200, and then a lot at midnight, I stood and watched them for a while, then it went quiet and stayed that way, normally there's another load around 0100 but not this year.  There were some lovely ones, including a gorgeous rainbow one from a few doors down.

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7 hours ago, Athena said:

 

Star Trek: Discovery (very good, with a few things they should have been done differently, *not finished yet)

Picard (very good, again a few things should have been done differently, *waiting for next season)

 

 

I've not been very impressed with the two most recent Star Trek series. 

 

I really enjoyed series one of Discovery, especially after the plot twist they dropped half way through, and I really enjoyed Anson Mount playing Captain Pike in series two, but this year - with two episodes left to go(?) - has been a bit of a mess.   

 

The 32nd century could have been really interesting; a future without Star Fleet or the Federation, with Discovery and her crew struggling to find their place in this new universe, but within a few episodes they are back in the fold and it's business as usual. 

 

The Burn could have led to something interesting too, but the cause of that (as revealed last week) was a massive anti-climax (unless it was misdirection... I've not seen this week's episode yet!).  

 

For a series that seems to be character driven, it is also oddly lacking in actual character growth, unless that character is Michael Burnham (or, to a lesser extend, Saru).  I also don't like the way she has to be at the centre of events all the time; I really like Sonequa Martin-Green, she has done a great job in the role, but there are other characters in the show who should be getting more to do.

 

I also don't remember people in the earlier versions of Star Trek crying as much as they do in Discovery.  The writers seem to be using it as a way of underlining a point ("Look! They learnt something! You can tell, because they are crying!").

 

As for Picard, that only really worked for me when it was playing on nostalgia for TNG; the rest of the story and the new crew were utterly forgettable (other shows have done the ill-matched crew with shady pasts thing much better and, sadly, they did it a very long time ago - which makes Picard look dated trying to attempt it - couldn't they have come up with a different dynamic?). 

 

Whilst it was great to see the old crew members again, I also felt that Picard himself had lost his authority; there were times when it was more like watching Grampa Simpson in space, than one of Star Fleet's finest. 

 

I only watched Picard as the episodes came out, though, so I may go back and watch it again at some point.

 

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Watching the animation Star Wars, Clone Wars, episode 1-4 so far.
 

Since I have only seen the original 3 Star Wars films, I need to find the plots and characters in the prequels. But have watched 1 & 2 recently, they have been such dreadful films. The scripts are excruciating painful to listen to, and the acting by Hayden Christens as Anikin Skywalker is...well, words fail me, but it’s so bad acting.

So the Clone Wars animation is slightly better!

Edited by Marie H
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2 hours ago, Marie H said:

 

Watching the animation Star Wars, Clone Wars, episode 1-4 so far.
 

Since I have only seen the original 3 Star Wars films, I need to find the plots and characters in the prequels. But have watched 1 & 2 recently, they have been such dreadful films. The scripts are excruciating painful to listen to, and the acting by Hayden Christens as Anikin Skywalker is...well, words fail me, but it’s so bad acting.

So the Clone Wars animation is slightly better!

 

 

The prequels are dreadful films. 

 

Hayden Christensen, Natalie Portman and even Ewan McGregor all turn in fairly wooden performances (my suspicion is that is because a large part of all three films was shot against green screen and they where acting against ping-pong balls on sticks most of the time).

 

It also doesn't excuse the story choices Lucas made when writing the films.

 

The Clone Wars series are better, but it tends to get a little repetitive in places (I'm working my way through them as well, and trying to stick with it as it and Rebels set up the background for a lot of what has happened in The Mandalorian).

 

Watched the latest episode of Discovery last night, nothing more to add to what I said above!  Last episode next week, then I can cancel Netflix again until the next series of Stranger Things.

 

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  • 3 weeks later...

Star Trek: Lower Decks has unexpectedly - for me, anyway - popped up on Amazon Prime, and I watched the whole series over the weekend (10 x 25 minutes episodes over 3 nights isn't that taxing!). 

 

It's basically Futurama meets The Next Generation, and moderately adult in content, but it has some good stories, some good jokes and overall I quite enjoyed it, although it did take a few episodes to get going. 

 

I'm pretty au fait with the various incarnations of Star Trek, but even so I'm pretty sure half the references went straight over my head. 

 

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7 hours ago, Raven said:

Star Trek: Lower Decks has unexpectedly - for me, anyway - popped up on Amazon Prime, and I watched the whole series over the weekend (10 x 25 minutes episodes over 3 nights isn't that taxing!). 

 

It's basically Futurama meets The Next Generation, and moderately adult in content, but it has some good stories, some good jokes and overall I quite enjoyed it, although it did take a few episodes to get going. 

 

I'm pretty au fait with the various incarnations of Star Trek, but even so I'm pretty sure half the references went straight over my head.

 

I wasn't expecting it either, but it was a pleasant surprise! I quite enjoyed it too :). I'm pretty sure a lot of references went over my head too, my partner recognised more of them as he has seen things more often than I have. But yes there were a lot of references and he probably didn't catch them all either.

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On 26/01/2021 at 6:48 AM, Athena said:

 

I wasn't expecting it either, but it was a pleasant surprise! I quite enjoyed it too :). I'm pretty sure a lot of references went over my head too, my partner recognised more of them as he has seen things more often than I have. But yes there were a lot of references and he probably didn't catch them all either.

 

 

I enjoyed the Roga Danar discussion at the beginning of one of the episodes (who is the biggest bad ass), and the punch line of episode 3 had me laughing for quite a while (I think more because I wasn't expecting it, than anything else).

 

 

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Finished the first series of Clone Wars on Disney+, though I won’t be starting anymore for a while, as the whole of Series 1 was rather dull and repetitive.
Definitely a curate’s egg, as most of the Disney Star Wars have made (apart from The Mandolorian, which have been spectacular!)

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Discovery was just endless noise and flashing lights.

Picard was a self-indulgent anti-Brexit fiddleathon which undermined almost the whole concept of Roddenberry's vison.

Lower Decks was inoffensive.

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On 1/31/2021 at 1:31 PM, Marie H said:

 

Finished the first series of Clone Wars on Disney+, though I won’t be starting anymore for a while, as the whole of Series 1 was rather dull and repetitive.
Definitely a curate’s egg, as most of the Disney Star Wars have made (apart from The Mandolorian, which have been spectacular!)

 

 

That's a pretty fair summary of the first series of the Clone Wars, in my opinion.

 

I'm currently about a third of the way through series two, but haven't watched an episode for several weeks now because it is yet more of the same, but there are some signs of plot development going on now, instead of it just being baddy-of-the-week stories. 

 

I know the latter series have garnered a lot of praise, and it seems to be being referenced quite a bit - both directly and indirectly - in The Mandalorian, so I'm trying to stick with it (and then Rebels that follows...)

 

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Soulmates

Six self contained episodes each with new characters and stories. In the year 2023, the soul particle is found which proves the existence of the soul and, in turn, allows a dating company to tell you who your soulmate is. All you have to do is take a test to find your match.

Some interesting ideas and themes explored, mostly concerning people who are already married or in relationships. The existence of the test obviously puts a strain on these relationships. Then there's an episode where people find out that their soulmate is dead which makes their lives meaningless. Then an episode where the soulmate is a very bad person etc.

Nothing that ground breaking but it was interesting.

It's an American show but virtually every actor in it is a Brit.

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Finished season 2 of The Clone Wars, which got better as it went along.

 

Also watching - and enjoying - WandaVision on Disney+ and Landscape Artist of the Year on Sky Arts (I really need to start drawing again...).

 

I have also noticed that the Starz adaptation of The Rook, by Daniel O'Malley is free of Amazon Prime at the moment, so I may take a look at that at some point.

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Tonight I watched a Documentary on "Muscle Shoals" Alabama. It is one of the great music documentaries that I have ever watched. Muscle Shoals is a small town and it is the site of many of the great moments in American music. Musicians from all over the world eventually came to record their music there as it was a magic place to perform. Percy Sledge recorded When A Man loves A Woman in Muscle Shoals, Aretha Franklin recorded her first big hit there, the Allman Brothers got there start playing there and on and on. I cannot say enough about the Documentary. Watch it if you get the chance.

https://www.amazon.com/Muscle-Shoals-Keith-Richards/dp/B00FGM0IEU

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Just finished WandaVision, which after a WTF? start turned out very well in the end (not one, but two post credits teasers!).

 

Looking forward to what I suspect will be the more straight forward Falcon and Winter Solider that they have announced will start on the 19th! (squee!)

 

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I watch Dark and Queen's Gambit on Netflix. I use vpn to get access to the US Netflis, I found vpn and started using it to unblock any website. So convy. As for me it's a must have tool these day.

 

 

Edited by Brian.
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55 minutes ago, luckyone said:

I watch Dark and Queen's Gambit on Netflix. I use vpn to get access to the US Netflis, I found vpn and started using it to unblock any website. So convy. As for me it's a must have tool these day.

 

 


I’ve edited your post as we don’t allow linking that could be advertising.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Allen v Farrow

 

Very interesting. Still not entirely convinced about Allen's guilt. If anything, this documentary series made Farrow look like a mad cat-lady who continuously adopted children because she desperately craved unconditional love. From anyone. 

 

All this documentary did was make me think we should ban celebrities from ever having children. 

 

 

Edited by Hux
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  • 1 month later...

Been catching up with a couple of things I missed first time round - just got the last episode of The Night Manager to watch, which I'm really enjoying, and I've started watching the first series of The Killing, another series I haven't seen - Scandinavian drama, it'll never catch on!  I have seen the 2nd and 3rd series so it's good to finally go back to the beginning.

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  • 4 weeks later...

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