TV Shows You're Watching

Yes, in the 2000s. I didn't like what I saw of that, I haven't seen the original before.
Heh, I've just started watching Only When I Laugh, I haven't seen it since I was a kid, it's still pretty good actually so far! Always liked Peter Bowles, he's always showing up in The Avengers and Department S etc! I may have to get To the Manor Born sometime as my acquisition of retro TV continues apace...

Only When I Laugh is indeed excellent & sadly underrated - proof that ITV did more good sitcoms than just Rising Damp. Maybe the jokes at Gupte's expense mean that it's seen as a bit outdated now, but they were quite rare and jokes generally have to have a target.

Saw the opening episode of RTD's A Very English Scandal : not exactly new territory for him. It wasn't awful by any means (Ben Wishaw was excellent as Norman Scott) but Jason Watkins didn't get to say so much as a word and Hugh Grant's Jeremy Thorpe seemed like a cross between his turns as Daniel Cleaver and his panto-style crowd pleasing in Paddington 2. I also thought RTD's tendency for telling the audience what to think and having melodramatic twists (in the same scenes!) kept coming across, particularly the final scene where Peter Bessell's character talks to Grant's in great lengths of how brave Scott is to be openly gay in public, before they plot to murder him.

Started watching Preacher, only first ep so far. Not really sure what to make of it but it's zany and gory so it has got to get better, right?

The Incredible Hulk: The Snare. David comes to regret accepting an offer by a friendly rich recluse to spend some time on his island when he turns out to be a psycho killer who's traded in hunting animals for hunting people instead. Of course, in true Arnie movie style, this time this psycho really has picked the wrong man... The Incredible Hulk does its own version on the infamous short story "The Most Dangerous Game", and does it pretty well too in this entertaining and gripping installment.

Mr. Robot is an excellent show, try that if you can. Sam Esmail's political injects are frustrating, but the show is wonderfully well-made, written, acted, scored - with a ridiculous attention to detail.

Elementary, a great meditative cure for these bullshit times

I have been watching the first series of the Battlestar Galactica remake. It's still supremely silly but in a more serious/less campy way. The Cylons look human now, I think I might have missed an explanation as to why they don't have suitable X-ray technology that could detect them, everybody seems to be boinking each other and Gaius is acting absolutely off his rocker and everybody seems to handwave it away as eccentric rather than wondering if he is hiding something, like being a Cylon or one of their agents. It's bonkers - but in a rather good way. The old series was just naff!

Glitch on Netflix. A solid Australian mystery drama about a police officer and a small group of individuals who rise from their graves.

I usually play things in the background whilst I work etc. meaning that I get through a lot of TV. I have to say I've completely ran out of things to watch on Netflix/Amazon at this point. I'll probably end up watching Doctor Who through again.

I saw Manhunt: Unabomber on Netflix, that was very good.

The Marvel shows bore me. I saw the first batch which had some good parts but I have no enthusiasm to watch the next.

Most of Netflix is shit. I've viewed the Attenborough documentaries around 10x each because there's nothing else there. I'd cancel it if it were my own. I'm looking forward to Better Call Saul but that's about the extent of it.

Amazon is probably better by this point: better films especially. If 24 and the X-Files are still on I might have another stab at those.

Drake & Josh.

Good show I grew up with that I'm happy to say holds up very well.

Having a run through of Primeval again. Still holds up, though I'm only at the Mosasaur ep. Forgot how sexy Helen was. I'd definitely have taken Helen up on her offer. Juliet Aubrey would have been a brilliant Rani too BTW.

Primeval was always better Nuwho. Helen was great but Abby was the one that really got me going!

Commander Maxil wrote:Primeval was always better Nuwho. Helen was great but Abby was the one that really got me going!

Abby was pretty. She and Emma Bunton could be twins. Seriously they are so alike.

Claudia Brown was gorgeous too. Kind of a bit like Ingrid Oliver.

Just finished the Pteranodon episode. Big favourite of mine. People should use smaller Pterosaurs more often IMO. They are like Raptors of the sky.

The end sequence where we see the Pteranodon fly home was always spectacular too. Really there was no contest between Primeval and New Who.

Its like comparing Amy Winehouse to Beyonce. One heartfelt, old style but updated, the other brain dead, populist, phoney feminist bullshit.

Onto the Raptor in the shopping mall episode. LOVE this one.

I went bowling the night it aired but managed to catch the end as we were coming in.

What's this Love Island nonsense? Everyone I know seems to be watching it.

Commander Maxil wrote:I went bowling the night it aired but managed to catch the end as we were coming in.

What's this Love Island nonsense? Everyone I know seems to be watching it.

Don't care about Love Island.

Onto series 3 of Primeval now. Forgot all about Laila Hotass. I should have put her on the most beautiful actresses list.

She is so gorgeous! Going to miss Stephen though. I don't know why they killed him off? I'm just prepping myself for losing Dougie. He'd have made a not bad Doctor. Got a kind of a Pertwee grumpy bastard vibe to him.

Just watched Dougie get killed off. going to miss his grumpy Dinosaur expert. I still don't know why he quit? He's like a 21st century Gareth Thomas leaving a classic sci fi series for no reason part way through.

Onto the G-Rex episode now. This is a HUGE favourite of mine. Top 5 episodes for sure. What's not to love? A giant, badass meat eating Dinosaur, and members of the press getting horribly killed!

Danny Quinn I remember not liking as much as Cutter, but Jason Flemying is a great actor and I like the way he was more of a physical hero. He brought a different, more laid back dynamic.

Just finished the Fungus episode. Brilliant ep. Very like The Seeds of Doom, and there were even shades of The Silurians when we see the infected guy wandering down the street.

Already over Dougie LOL. Danny Quinn is a great leading man. Only thing I'm pissed about is Jenny Lewis leaving. Why they hell did they do that? Not only was she absolutely gorgeous (she is another one that looks a hell of a lot like Ingrid Oliver. That really is the best look to have.) But they also seemed to be building up an interesting relationship between Jenny and Danny.

They had a lot of great chemistry with each other, and on top of that we never do find out why she changed from Jenny to Claudia.

Christine Johnson is also really sexy. She'd be a great Servalan in the remake of that series (though from what I can remember she's no match for Helen )

burrunjor wrote:Just watched Dougie get killed off.

I found that to be very WTF. I remember discussing it with a friend at school who said he found it to be really shocking. Primeval was the talk at lunch, not Nuwho.

Maxil wrote:

burrunjor wrote:Just watched Dougie get killed off.

I found that to be very WTF. I remember discussing it with a friend at school who said he found it to be really shocking. Primeval was the talk at lunch, not Nuwho.

Glad to hear it.

There really is just no contest between Primeval and New Who. I'm only half way through Primeval now, and its already with the possible exception of Matt's first year, streets ahead of ANY era of New Who.

It baffles me that New Who fans looked down their nose at Primeval like Caitlin Moron. Primeval had proper, clever stories, it actually did educate the children watching it and got them interested in science, and it came up with far more new and exciting monsters like the Future Predator than New Who has.

As for Dougie, I remember so hoping that he would come back right up until the end of series 4. Me and my friends used to call Primeval Dougie instead of Primeval LOL. Though I remember one of my friends started calling it the Dougieless Dougster after he left. We weren't the wittiest bunch.

Having said that though I am already used to Jason Flemying. I wish he had got another series actually as sadly we only have another few episodes with him as the lead, though its cool that we have three different leads to enjoy too.

Latest one I just finished was the Terror Bird ep. I will say this started out a bit slower, but it made up for it in the end.

Finished the one with Abby's annoying brother. He was a very unsympathetic character, but the bits in the future were good.

I will say of all the character departures I think Laila Hotass was the most wasteful.

Now obviously the fact that she is one of the most beautiful women ever to have existed ever, is part of why I didn't want her to leave the series, I admit LOL.

Still I do think that she was a better female lead for the series than Claudia Brown. She opened up a new dimension to the show with her interest in mythology and ancient history. There were so many stories they could have explored with her. Why they killed her off screen I don't know. They should have just had her get transferred to another department, then they could have brought her back at another date.

Laila Hotass' character would have made an excellent companion to the Doctor come to think about it. Certainly much better than Smug Pants, and Bill, and though I haven't seen them in action yet, I don't doubt she'll be better than the new trio too.

I will say though that I think since Dougie left Primeval is more of an ensemble piece. When Dougie as there he was basically the Doctor and Bernard Quatermass. He knew everything about the Monsters and he could handle himself (like when he punched out the Raptor.) The others were just his sidekicks.

Danny however is an action hero who doesn't know about Dinosaurs, so the other members have to kind of step up a bit.

I suppose the Dougie years, are like DW, where as the Danny Quinn years are like Blake's 7 where the whole cast is essential.

Very undignified death for Johnston. Shame she was unbelievably sexy, but it was great seeing Helen be such an unbelievable badass. Johnston was pitifully out of her league. It was cringey watching her try and bargain with Helen.

Really love Juliet Aubrey. She's such a brilliant villain. Don't get why she's not in more things?

Onto the season 3 finale now. Another classic episode. Future Predators, Raptors, and a Dinosaur saving humanity. (Always loved that twist.)

Just finished the season 3 finale. Great ending to a fantastic series. Loved Helen's death. Very fitting that she was killed by the animals she wanted to protect rather than a human.

Going to miss Helen though. It was such a great performance. Also sad to see Laila Hotass and Danny go too. They really should have done another series with the season 3 cast. I know its not their fault, but still that was a real waste IMO.