# Series you've recently watched, are now watching or have given up on **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** tv-shows-scripted\ **Created:** [July 9, 2021, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/series-youve-recently-watched-are-now-watching-or-have-given-up-on/946108 "2021-07-09T17:50:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 442
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2026, 1:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/series-youve-recently-watched-are-now-watching-or-have-given-up-on/946108/8828 "2026-04-20T13:41:41Z")
Stephen King’s proclivity for extreme violence is evident in all his stories. It’s not only his horror stories like _Carrie_ and _Pet Sematary_. _11.22.63_ uses time as a forbidding character. Al describes it as push back whenever his investigation got close to interfering with history. That’s a mild way of putting it. 😉 Stephen King’s approach to interfering with time events is immediate and quite severe. That’s what makes Stephen King so much fun to read. The most ordinary events can quickly become nightmarish at the turn of a page. ---
**Author:** ![Thumper668](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thumper668/32/20803_2.png) [@Thumper668](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thumper668)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2026, 1:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/series-youve-recently-watched-are-now-watching-or-have-given-up-on/946108/8829 "2026-04-20T13:54:59Z")
> [@Railer13](#): > > And Thumper claimed otherwise. And they’re the only one in this thread to have seen the series and read the book. And I stand by it - with the caveat that it’s just my opinion. I watched the series 5 years after reading the book. I did not go back to fact-check, but the series _felt_ faithful to the book because it was just as engaging. I can’t imagine being such a stickler that I would go back and check for differences, much less compile a list of them. ---
**Author:** ![TRC4941](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trc4941/32/6792_2.png) [@TRC4941](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TRC4941)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2026, 2:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/series-youve-recently-watched-are-now-watching-or-have-given-up-on/946108/8830 "2026-04-20T14:08:51Z")
My husband and I started watching _ **11.22.63** _ last night. We’ve only watched E1, but I’m in! My husband is harder to please, and he didn’t move or talk the whole time we watched. So I think he’s in too. I have a few sitcoms that I watch that I’m really enjoying: _ **St. Denis Medical, Animal Control, Abbott Elementary, and DMV.** _ I find myself laughing out loud a few times in every episode. I like having something to watch that’s not so heavy. Oh, and _ **Ghosts** _, but it’s been discussed on here quite a bit. ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2026, 2:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/series-youve-recently-watched-are-now-watching-or-have-given-up-on/946108/8831 "2026-04-20T14:09:33Z")
> [@TRC4941](#): > > Oh, and _ **Ghosts** _, but it’s been discussed on here quite a bit. UK or US version? ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2026, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/series-youve-recently-watched-are-now-watching-or-have-given-up-on/946108/8832 "2026-04-20T14:16:07Z")
> [@Gyrate](#): > > UK or US version? Or German. Or Australian. ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2026, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/series-youve-recently-watched-are-now-watching-or-have-given-up-on/946108/8833 "2026-04-20T14:27:30Z")
> [@Gyrate](#): > > UK or US version? Both are good. US has way more episodes, but I feel this current season of Ghosts(USA) has been a significant drop in quality. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2026, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/series-youve-recently-watched-are-now-watching-or-have-given-up-on/946108/8834 "2026-04-20T14:34:18Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > > [@Gyrate](#): > > > > UK or US version? > > Or German. Or Australian. French? ---
**Author:** ![carrps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carrps/32/2957_2.png) [@carrps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carrps)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2026, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/series-youve-recently-watched-are-now-watching-or-have-given-up-on/946108/8835 "2026-04-20T16:33:59Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The\_Body\_(King\_novella)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Body%5C_(King_novella)) Within the quote box: twelve-year-old Gordie LaChance. Heh, interesting. My brother-in-law is from Maine. He’s of French Canadian ancestry whose people migrated to Maine generations ago. His last name is a corruption of LaChance (and my brother’s name is Gordy!). We’re watching a series on Accorn called _Dead Still._ The protagonist is a photographer in late 19th century Dublin whose specialty is making portraits of the dead. Sadly, there are only six episodes, and the show was not picked up for additional seasons. We really like it. It’s serious _and_ seriously funny. Quirky in the best sense of the word. Why do shows that really appeal to me always have short lives? > [@TRC4941](#): > > I have a few sitcoms that I watch that I’m really enjoying: _ **St. Denis Medical, Animal Control, Abbott Elementary, and DMV.** _ Sadly, the only one on the list we like is _Abbott Elementary._ We gave _St. Denis Medical_ and _DMV_ a couple of tries each, because they had good casts, but found both pretty awful. I haven’t watched _Animal Control._ ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2026, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/series-youve-recently-watched-are-now-watching-or-have-given-up-on/946108/8836 "2026-04-20T16:47:17Z")
Over the weekend I started Beef and St Denis Medical. St Denis Medical was fine. It mostly caught my attention because of the casting. Allison Tolman, David Allen Grier and Kaliko Kauahi are in it as well as Wendi McLendon-Covey (Clementine from Reno 911) and a handful of other names I recognized. Like I said, it’s fine. I’m sure a lot of medical comedies run into this problem, but it’s not as good as Scrubs. I think the show would do well to not try to be like Scrubs, or if they’re not doing it on purpose, then maybe they need to go out of their way to be more different so people aren’t looking for the comparisons. I’ll probably watch a few more episodes and see if it holds my attention. Beef, I watched the first episode and the first few minutes of the second. I went into the first season not having any idea what it was going to be about. Now that I know the premise, it feels a bit cringy as I’m sitting here waiting for things to escalate. Has anyone finished it? Is it as good as the first season? I’ll give them some credit for the first few minutes of the first episode. They got me with the two cars almost hitting each other with the implication that this season was going to start off in the exact same way the first one did. (I don’t think that’s really a spoiler). ---
**Author:** ![Smid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/838e76/32.png) [@Smid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smid)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2026, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/series-youve-recently-watched-are-now-watching-or-have-given-up-on/946108/8837 "2026-04-20T21:56:36Z")
> [@Mahaloth](#): > > We loved season 4 of YOU, but not season 5. We did like the ending, which we won’t get into until you(heh) are there. Watched it now. As expected, I guess, I thought Him being alive was as he deserved. However there seemed loads of plotholes in it at the time, like anyone escaping that bookshop fire, Kate not being rescued because she was actually still alive. It did appear you couldn’t phone 911 from a lock screen, but I think… she did. Anyway, I did notice one of the few people to not return on the guest star roles was Jenna Ortega, as the daughter from Season 2, which I guess was probably couldn’t get her now. ---
**Author:** ![N9IWP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/n9iwp/32/3154_2.png) [@N9IWP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/N9IWP)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2026, 10:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/series-youve-recently-watched-are-now-watching-or-have-given-up-on/946108/8838 "2026-04-20T22:40:19Z")
I think of WM-L from her time as Beverly Goldberg. Brian ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2026, 12:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/series-youve-recently-watched-are-now-watching-or-have-given-up-on/946108/8839 "2026-04-21T12:12:21Z")
Kinda slogging through Return to Lonesome Dove. It’s okay, but nowhere near the quality of the original series. A few of the cast from that series are in this one, notably Newt, July Johnson and Pea Eye. Jon Voight does a decent job of being an annoying Woodrow Call. It’s not bad, but it doesn’t really connect like the original (with Robert Duvall and Tommy Lee Jones). ---
**Author:** ![Intergalactic\_Gladiator](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/intergalactic_gladiator/32/112_2.png) [@Intergalactic\_Gladiator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Intergalactic_Gladiator)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2026, 1:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/series-youve-recently-watched-are-now-watching-or-have-given-up-on/946108/8840 "2026-04-21T13:33:44Z")
> [@Joey\_P](#): > > Over the weekend I started Beef and St Denis Medical. > St Denis Medical was fine. It mostly caught my attention because of the casting. Allison Tolman, David Allen Grier and Kaliko Kauahi are in it as well as Wendi McLendon-Covey (Clementine from Reno 911) and a handful of other names I recognized. Like I said, it’s fine. I’m sure a lot of medical comedies run into this problem, but it’s not as good as Scrubs. I think the show would do well to not try to be like Scrubs, or if they’re not doing it on purpose, then maybe they need to go out of their way to be more different so people aren’t looking for the comparisons. > I’ll probably watch a few more episodes and see if it holds my attention. We watch _St. Denis_ at my house and we enjoy it. We like the characters and the actors. The only real drawback I think is that it feels a bit derivative of _Super Store_ and _Super Store_ feels a bit like “_The Office_ but Retail,” so it can feel like a derivative of a derivative. Despite that, I enjoy the interactions and the characters. ---
**Author:** ![TRC4941](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trc4941/32/6792_2.png) [@TRC4941](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TRC4941)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2026, 1:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/series-youve-recently-watched-are-now-watching-or-have-given-up-on/946108/8841 "2026-04-21T13:45:22Z")
> [@Gyrate](#): > > UK or US version? Both! ---
**Author:** ![Raza](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/raza/32/213_2.png) [@Raza](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Raza)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2026, 1:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/series-youve-recently-watched-are-now-watching-or-have-given-up-on/946108/8842 "2026-04-21T13:48:11Z")
I was channel flipping and caught the last half of **Rooster** episode 7 on HBO and I really enjoyed it. A few old actors I haven’t seen in a while giving sweet performances. Now I have to start it from the beginning. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2026, 2:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/series-youve-recently-watched-are-now-watching-or-have-given-up-on/946108/8843 "2026-04-21T14:28:12Z")
I found Perry Mason 2020 on Max. Mathew Rhys is Mason. Perry Mason is a detective working for Attorney , “E.B.” Jonathan played by John Lithgow. Chris Chalk is Paul Drake a black patrol man with ambition to become a police detective. Mason is a alcoholic, WWI vet with severe PTSD. It’s a very weird, even bizarre revival of a beloved show with Raymond Burr. It couldn’t possibly be more different than what viewers expect from a revival of _Perry Mason_. Mason eventually becomes a Lawyer. I won’t spoil the details. I’m not surprised it was canned after two seasons. There’s only 8 episodes per season. I’ll finish season 1 only because I want to see the resolution of the murder case. ---
**Author:** ![Raza](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/raza/32/213_2.png) [@Raza](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Raza)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2026, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/series-youve-recently-watched-are-now-watching-or-have-given-up-on/946108/8844 "2026-04-21T15:09:52Z")
Hopefully someone who has read some of the books can chime in, but I’ve heard some say that HBO’s is closer to the tone of the books. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2026, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/series-youve-recently-watched-are-now-watching-or-have-given-up-on/946108/8845 "2026-04-21T16:14:32Z")
[Erle Stanley Gardner](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erle_Stanley_Gardner) was a trial lawyer. He also wrote for the Pulp fiction magazines. I would assume his pulp writing was typical of the other Depression era writers. Lurid and gritty stories were popular and sold well. The classic 30 minute tv show used to frustrate me. They used about 10 minutes introducing the characters and any conflicts. Perry spent 2 or 3 minutes to talk in his office with Della and Paul Drake. Then 10 minutes for the trial and resoultion. Plus commercials. The classic show is very formulaic. > [@](#): > > While the Perry Mason novels seldom delved deeply into characters’ lives, the novels were rich in plot detail which was reality-based and drawn from his own experience.[[13]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erle_Stanley_Gardner#cite_note-Pierce-13) In his early years writing for the pulp magazine market, Gardner set himself a quota of 1,200,000 words a year.[[14]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erle_Stanley_Gardner#cite_note-Hughes-14): 13 Early on, he typed stories himself, using [two fingers](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hunt_and_peck), but later dictated them to a team of secretaries. ---
**Author:** ![Smid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/838e76/32.png) [@Smid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smid)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2026, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/series-youve-recently-watched-are-now-watching-or-have-given-up-on/946108/8846 "2026-04-21T17:28:22Z")
That does sound a surprisingly thing that it isn’t very good with two very good actors, Lithgow and Rhys. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2026, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/series-youve-recently-watched-are-now-watching-or-have-given-up-on/946108/8847 "2026-04-21T17:38:54Z")
The actor’s performances are good. It’s the writing that didn’t impress me. Mason and the Attorney he works for are obvious alcoholics. Mason is so far gone that he could be homeless at any time Luckily, his boss tolerates the heavy drinking. I doubt Mason would last two days working for anyone else. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/series-youve-recently-watched-are-now-watching-or-have-given-up-on/946108.md?page=441) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/series-youve-recently-watched-are-now-watching-or-have-given-up-on/946108.md?page=443)