Television programmes

That was one prog I never got into, its not that I didnt want to, its just I didnt have time, life was crazy for me then.

Well worth a look if you can get the chance Azriel. I love it. A complete an utter subversion of the soap opera premise.

Firefly.

Pettytyrant101 wrote:Twiin Peaks is returning for its final 3rd series. Taken them awhile, but might finally find out what happened to Cooper!

Nine episodes all written by Lynch and Frost. Cant wait, huge Peaks fan.

Lynch himself playing the excellent, and near deaf Gordon Cole, FBI Chief-

That was brilliant! Not at all the type of guy I'd expect Lynch to be...

Bluebottle wrote:Firefly.

Hard to believe it was only 14 episodes. It deserved so much more.

Yes. Particularily as it did what a lot of TV-Shows never manage, which was get the feel right from day one.

I'm not claiming it's perfect in any way, it had it's faults and idiosynchrasies, but it somehow managed to turn a lot of those into strenghts.

A real shame it only lasted as long as it did.

I noticed Homeland is back again, yet another TV series I gave up on...

Apparently they are doing a second series of Fargo, a loose prequel to the first. If the cast/writing are anywhere near as strong as the first, I'll definitely be tuning in.

Not sure if I mentioned this before but a series called 'the fall' is about to have its second series on BBC 2.it is worth a shot if you can find the first series somewhere beforehand.

According to Wikipedia the second season stars Colin Morgan, so get ready for an influx of Merlin fans.

Eldorion wrote:According to Wikipedia the second season stars Colin Morgan, so get ready for an influx of Merlin fans.

Something else I never got round to watching, five years it ran on BBC, and I'd heard good things about it, but could never be bothered to tune in

The TV channel E4 showed Friends on a loop for months on end, and by the time I finally got around to watching it it had ended.

I guess I'm either lazy or very hard to please

I watched the first episode recently and was not very impressed by the writing or the production values, but I've heard it gets better so I might give it another try some time.  Most of the people I see talking about seem more interest in shipping Arthur and Merlin than anything else, to be honest. But I guess that would be true of Sherlock too if I had only heard of it through tumblr.

I was not a Merlin fan for its first few series- but it sort of grew up in the telling and the last two series were a marked improvement in every department over the previous series imo.

Figgy - it also has Christian Grey in it.

Not sure how much of this will be intelligible, but the Big Man from Chewin' the Fat, a Scottish sketch show.
The Big Man is a nickname of sorts in Scotland, given to guys who you don't mess with, or make eye contact with if possible and if you want to keep your face on your skull. And lots of guys think they are a Big Man, but aren't, so you might hear someone say of someone else, "aye, acting the Big Man," meaning you are acting the part but your just a wee chancer.

But there is only one true Big Man, and here he is-



(I think my favourite line is the poetic, "flattery's like pish in the pool tae the Big Man.")

I know it's pathetic but I am going in slow motion and am currently watching House of Cards Season 2 (yes, am still stuck on Season 2) Didn't follow any shows regularly for the past year and a half due to certain inevitable reasons and so I'm trying to catch up. Also, came across this very interesting show called Chicago Hope based on the medical fraternity so got down to finish watching that and hence got even more left back! Such is life.

I don't watch a ton of live-action TV, but I enjoyed House of Cards for what it is, although the compounding absurdities did grate at me a bit, especially in the second season. But I'll definitely watch the final season. I have a general sense of where it's likely to go from the British version, but I'm curious to see just how they play it out.

Having watched both I still prefer the UK version.
Spacey is good, but his take on the character is neither as likeable or as awful as the original. And the US versions doesnt take as much delight in making its audience complicit in his awfulness.

I just watched the 1981 BBC version of Day of the Triffids (well the first two episodes anyway as so far thats all thats on the BBCiplayer).
I have a weird releationship with the book- I read it when I was young and its kind of haunted me ever since, especially the opening chapter which to this day I find horrific and unremittingly bleak.

Previously I have seen the 60's Hollywood version, which is awful. And the more recent miniseries with Dougray Scott Scott, Joely Richardson, Brian Cox and Eddie Izzard. It has therefore the best cast and as it was made in 2009 its also the best looking version by far. It takes some severe liberties with the original book but does a good job of presenting he ideas in a modern context. What it doesn't do so well (despite all the special effects and plane crashes ect) is the books aforesaid unremitting bleakness and sense of despair, especially at the start.

Despite a typical BBC budget, effects and limited locations the 1981 version however I found was by the far the closest at invoking the sheer overwhelming despair of the book (in some ways its mood reminds me of another bleak bit of drama from the same time period of British tv- Threads).
More than the other versions it also embraces the point of the original book, which like most scifi is an excuse to take apart present society in order to comment on it. Of all three versions Ive seen the 1981 version is the one that will leave you thinking about issues in a similar manner to the book.

I'd definitely recommend it for a watch if you have access to the BCCiplayer (I believe its also on netflixs).

But for the sheer sense of horrific despair there really is no substitute for the book.
I recommend giving this audio version a go to, if you can take the sheer unrelenting misery, its excellently read (but be warned you might not shake the sense of despair in the opening off too easily I never did!)

You know its amazing I turned out as reasonable, respectable, and with such a cheery, sunny disposition as I did, considering what was kids tv in the UK when I was growing up.
Dramarama- I used to watch this every week, and every week it bloody terrified me. This was childrens teatime television back then-



Some very good actors cut their teeth on that show, like Gary Oldham.

But a favourite of mine is called Ghost Story, about a bunch of army cadets out on training on the moors, its on youtube if you are interested.

"Tales from Europe" used to worry me as a child, some of their faery tales are very dark, The dwarfs were menecing & creepy, a lot of things in it were

They really did used to put some weird and unsettling shit on for children back in the day.

I loved the Singing Ringing Tree as a kid. its such a part of my generations imagination that The Fast Show did a parody of it.

loved it, plinkin a plonking a boinging tree ( or whatever it was ! )