RugbyRebels

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Same studio as His Dark Materials as well - so I think it's fair to get hopes up

David Simon latest effort out April 25th

Terrible loser for Upstart Crow. Just a fantastic ensemble cast.
Could it be any better ?

Which Tyler wrote:

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[/teenagegirl]
Same studio as His Dark Materials as well - so I think it's fair to get hopes up

Is this fantasy or realistic-ish dark ages action?

Son of Mathonwy wrote:Is this fantasy or realistic-ish dark ages action?

For the TV - no-one knows yet.

For the novels - it's Bernard Cornwell at his very best - which is a real stamp of quality. It's as true to life as you can really get for mythical figures i an era essentially without an historical record.
Much less sensationalist than his Sharpe books (think Sean Bean), and much more condensed than the Last Kingdom (recently finished on TV), without the character churn, as it can take place over a couple of decades, rather than a century. Similar set-up to TLK in that our narrator is a step down from the names you'd know, in this case, could easily be a lesser knight of the round table.
Expect a lot of religious cynicism, and hostility between pagan and christian, magic to have more down-to-earth explanations and the occasional dabble of luck and credulous observers etc. As ever, expect TV to screw up shield walls, armour and battlefield tactics etc.

The books are at the top of most lists of historical fiction.

I've just finished watching Heartstopper on Netflix and it was seriously the loveliest piece of television I have ever had the pleasure to watch.

It's a teen romance story featuring the most adorable LGBTQ babbies, with the main couple being gay nerd Charlie and what he thinks is his hopeless crush on cool, popular, rugby-playing Nick. While Nick's just really excited about his new close male friend who he really likes in a very platonic friendship definitely not romantic way cause he's liked girls before and that means he's "straight".

I kept being really nervous watching it, expecting the other shoe to drop and something horrible happen to the characters - I was waiting for a parent be really homophobic, or the trans girl going to her new school to get horribly misgendered and bullied, or the "straight" guy to say something horribly bigoted by mistake, and none of it ever happened. I mean there was drama and obstacles and some villainy (because we need a story), but none of the usual tropes of "bad things must happen to the gays" came out. It was just nice. Nice people got good things and the adorable baby gays mostly got together and it was all utterly lovely. It took me a long time to trust that it wasn't going to have horrible things, cause I'm so used to torturing the queers being a trope.

I really, really needed a bit of fiction where nice people got nice things and everyone lived in a better world than the shitheap that we currently have. Go watch it if you too need cheering up.

Puja

Outer Range is maybe worth a watch. As with these things, it starts strong but then needs the characters to act more and more insanely as the story goes on in order to keep the plot going. Very strong cast let down by what is probably far less than meets the eye in terms of the mystery.

Finally finished Lovecraft Country. It's not great. Thematically it echoes the Watchmen series by taking an existing story (extremely loosely in this instance) which was nothing to do with race, and making it all about race. Unlike Watchmen this is not well written, or even acted (in the case of the lead).

Son of Mathonwy wrote:Finally finished Lovecraft Country. It's not great. Thematically it echoes the Watchmen series by taking an existing story (extremely loosely in this instance) which was nothing to do with race, and making it all about race. Unlike Watchmen this is not well written, or even acted (in the case of the lead).

Bet you a lot of people hadn't heard of Emmett till or Tulsa before watching that.

morepork wrote:

Son of Mathonwy wrote:Finally finished Lovecraft Country. It's not great. Thematically it echoes the Watchmen series by taking an existing story (extremely loosely in this instance) which was nothing to do with race, and making it all about race. Unlike Watchmen this is not well written, or even acted (in the case of the lead).

Bet you a lot of people hadn't heard of Emmett till or Tulsa before watching that.

True, so it did some good. In an ideal world, both of those, particularly the almost unbelievable Tulsa deserve a series of their own, without the distraction of SciFi or fantasy.

I binge watched We Own the City last night, well worth a watch.

Hellbound is unfortunately not the TV version of Hellraiser II. But if you want more Korean fun, it's pretty good. The CGI lets it down a little (in design, not technology) but there's much apocalyptic enjoyment to be had here, and some shades of Death Note.

I got round to watching The OA recently. Not all may agree but I liked it. A brilliant first episode, and an end which was pretty satisfying considering the series was axed 3 seasons early. The explanation could never live up to the show's initial promise but it was highly distinctive.

https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radi ... -sturridge

Only 2 episodes in so far, loving it.

loving slow horses...........2 episodes in........

Which Tyler wrote:

Binged that yesterday, good viewing.

Numbers wrote:

Which Tyler wrote:

Binged that yesterday, good viewing.

Good stuff, one of the better episodes.

In general, it's a very good show (assuming Gaiman is your cup of tea, that is . . . I expect plenty would think it's a load of nonsense), pretty close to the comic, very rich in material and, as a result, highly varied from one episode to the next.

The only real problem is Dream himself, the actor looks the part but is too wooden.

Lots of great shows out there.

House of the Dragon and The Rings of Power are both hitting the mark. HOTD is Game of thrones with a complete set of new characters and a lot more dragons. No surprises, but I'm not tiring of the format while they keep the quality up. TROP is a little more surprising - it's not simply a remake of Lord of the Rings - and I'm interested to see where it goes (or how it gets to where we know it goes in the end).

Better Call Saul is finished, and it's excellent. Not quite as good a Breaking Bad, perhaps ran for a season too long, but great TV.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, is IMO the best ST since the original. This is partly because it unashamedly follows the formula, but also because the characters are well-written and the cast bring warmth and humour to roles. This is in total contrast to the humourless ST: Discovery, which spawned this spin-off.

Obi-Wan Kenobi is great. More in the mould of Rogue One than the main Star Wars films it's a worthy addition to the story. Not exactly free of plot holes (it's Star Wars after all) but it's still vastly superior to the new trilogy.

The Haunting of Bly Manor is worth watching. Not a scary as Hill House but a good, solid story and cast.

Night Sky is unusual (although similar to Outer Range in some ways). Slow-paced but worth the ride.

Foundation is very good. It looks great and the storyline is quite unusual. The plot is not without some highly unlikely occurrences but the mature tone (presumably due to the source material) makes this well worth watching.

The Looming Tower on Prime is pretty good.

Numbers wrote: ↑Wed Sep 21, 2022 10:17 am The Looming Tower on Prime is pretty good.

Yeah, it's good. I saw it on BBC2 a year or 2 back.

Currently watching Shetland; Rising Damp and Persuaders.

Just finished McDonald & Dodds. All good.

Caught up with Colin Murray's Coynt-doyn ( a big lift from Ann R )
with his mates naughty Rachel & Suzie-dictionary.
Some unassuming young guy from Shropshire studying in Wuss,
has just completed his 'octochamp' run (8 wins, then leave) in which he was undefeated in all of his 120 rounds (first ever), joined a select group of 4 to have passed 1000 points in his 8 games, and bagged the highest ever score on the show in the current format, of 154. Wemarkable.

The Rings of Power ends its first season well. Although I saw the reveal coming, it was quite satisfying.