# 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:** 466
**Author:** ![Tamerlane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tamerlane/32/7602_2.png) [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2026, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/series-youve-recently-watched-are-now-watching-or-have-given-up-on/946108/9308 "2026-07-07T18:23:05Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > I’m assuming it’s the garish makeup. Well, she’s also 68 years old. She purportedly has avoided any serious cosmetic surgery (though she has indicated she is not opposed to very minor non-invasive work) and mostly sticks with clean-living and a vegan diet. For that matter Nicole Kidman is now 59 and claims the same. I enjoyed Margo. I preferred Fanning’s last role in The Great, but she has a lot of charisma and I think does a fine job in this one. The ensemble cast is also pretty solid to quite good. Any let downs are minor and seem more down to the slight source material and IMHO some plot choices. It’s not top tier IMO, but it’s entertaining. ---
**Author:** ![GargoyleWB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gargoylewb/32/199_2.png) [@GargoyleWB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GargoyleWB)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2026, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/series-youve-recently-watched-are-now-watching-or-have-given-up-on/946108/9309 "2026-07-07T18:28:07Z")
May and Hammond both have their own respective YouTube channels that evoke the spirit of classic Top Gear. They both include their daughters in many episodes that are wonderfully funny comfort-watching. [James May Drinks](https://www.youtube.com/@JamesMayDrinks) [Richard Hammond Drivetribe](https://www.youtube.com/@Drivetribe) ---
**Author:** ![iamatractorboy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iamatractorboy/32/21261_2.png) [@iamatractorboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iamatractorboy)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2026, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/series-youve-recently-watched-are-now-watching-or-have-given-up-on/946108/9310 "2026-07-07T20:06:55Z")
Thanks, I’ll have to take a look, particularly at May’s, I think he’s a good bloke and entertaining to watch. Have you seen the travel series he has done on Prime? The first one in Japan was superb, Italy was also good but India was a bit of a letdown. I’m still hoping he does some more but it’s been a bit sporadic so I’m not holding my breath. That thing be did where he looked at machines and took them apart before rebuilding them was quite good too, and when he built giant lego bridges and miniature railways etc. He’s the nerdiest/geekiest of the three by far and that’s probably why I like him. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2026, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/series-youve-recently-watched-are-now-watching-or-have-given-up-on/946108/9311 "2026-07-07T20:31:13Z")
James May doesn’t have any children, so whoever you’re seeing is likely just a production assistant. > [@Smid](#): > > Note: I have not watched it, but I think you need to take it with a pinch of salt Absolutely, I think everything we see on camera is really happening (i.e. unscripted), but if we don’t see it on camera, someone else is doing it. I still think it’s valuable for understanding the struggles of farming. I recommend you watch it, though, because it’s better than you might expect. ---
**Author:** ![GargoyleWB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gargoylewb/32/199_2.png) [@GargoyleWB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GargoyleWB)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2026, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/series-youve-recently-watched-are-now-watching-or-have-given-up-on/946108/9312 "2026-07-07T20:56:45Z")
Ah thanks, Eve and Lucy are apparently siblings to each other, but not daughters of May, I stand corrected. They all interact with each other in perfect relation-weary exasperation so it fooled me 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Gordon\_G](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/3da27b/32.png) [@Gordon\_G](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gordon_G)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2026, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/series-youve-recently-watched-are-now-watching-or-have-given-up-on/946108/9313 "2026-07-07T21:15:05Z")
I just binge-watched _The Bear_ Season 2. It definitely rates as one of the all-time great TV drama series. If you’re short of time just watch the amazing Episode 6 with its great acting and dialog. I don’t know how to describe _The Bear_. Wikipedia calls it a comedy-drama but any comedy is laughless black comedy. (I’m afraid that laughless black comedy is my favorite genre.) IMDB calls it psychological drama. ---
**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:** [July 7, 2026, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/series-youve-recently-watched-are-now-watching-or-have-given-up-on/946108/9314 "2026-07-07T22:57:16Z")
> [@Gordon\_G](#): > > If you’re short of time just watch the amazing Episode 6 with its great acting and dialog. Without even looking, I’m assuming that’s Seven Fishes. > [@Gordon\_G](#): > > Wikipedia calls it a comedy-drama but any comedy is laughless black comedy. (I’m afraid that laughless black comedy is my favorite genre.) IMDB calls it psychological drama. That’s not unheard of these days. Some shows will classify themselves as comedies for awards reasons. Calling themselves a comedy lets them go up against shows like Abbot Elementary and Only Murders In The Building and Wednesday instead of being in the Drama category and going up against shows like Severance or Squid Game or Better Call Saul. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2026, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/series-youve-recently-watched-are-now-watching-or-have-given-up-on/946108/9315 "2026-07-08T00:08:07Z")
> [@Gordon\_G](#): > > I just binge-watched _The Bear_ Season 2. It definitely rates as one of the all-time great TV drama series. If you’re short of time just watch the amazing Episode 6 with its great acting and dialog. My favorite is the seventh episode of the second season; called Forks. ---
**Author:** ![Gordon\_G](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/3da27b/32.png) [@Gordon\_G](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gordon_G)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2026, 1:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/series-youve-recently-watched-are-now-watching-or-have-given-up-on/946108/9316 "2026-07-08T13:26:01Z")
> [@Joey\_P](#): > > > [@Gordon\_G](#): > > > > If you’re short of time just watch the amazing Episode 6 with its great acting and dialog. > > Without even looking, I’m assuming that’s Seven Fishes. Yes. Synopsis: _Mother is excited to prepare a special Christmas dinner, while guests share their intimate feelings. Mother then goes for a drive in her car._ ---
**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:** [July 8, 2026, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/series-youve-recently-watched-are-now-watching-or-have-given-up-on/946108/9317 "2026-07-08T14:00:25Z")
I hated that episode and didn’t stick around much longer after it. ---
**Author:** ![liirogue](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/dbc845/32.png) [@liirogue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/liirogue)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2026, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/series-youve-recently-watched-are-now-watching-or-have-given-up-on/946108/9318 "2026-07-08T17:19:14Z")
**Smid** So I do think you’re making some assumptions that are unfair criticisms, in that a lot of your points are addressed in the show. He actually does make a big deal out of the fact that things such as the farm shop and restaurant (he’s trying to build it in season 2, which is where I’m at) gives his farm a leg up that other farmers don’t have. So he begins actively soliciting business from other farms in the area in order to buy their goods or give them space in his shop to sell and provide them with a better price than they could get through the normal channels. > [@Smid](#): > > Some of my friends visited his pub, (I think it was, perhaps it was the cafe), and he doesn’t sell anything which is not from farmed in the UK. So you can’t even get a cup of tea there. Which is sort of “appealing to a certain type”. Which further is a mark against him. And I am absolutely sure no real farmer would do that if they could afford to run such a thing. While you are correct he doesn’t sell tea, you’ve completely missed the mark on _why_. This again is a huge deal in the shop because he’s required by law (statue? I don’t know what the correct UK term is) to only sell things produced in the immediate local area. He gets in trouble for selling meat that came from Gloucester, he can’t sell t-shirts and hats because they weren’t locally made, etc. So no, he can’t sell tea or coffee because it doesn’t grow there. I know you’re (understandably) trying to make a point, but I’m afraid you let your preconceptions lead you in the wrong direction on some of this. ---
**Author:** ![Smid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/838e76/32.png) [@Smid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smid)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2026, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/series-youve-recently-watched-are-now-watching-or-have-given-up-on/946108/9319 "2026-07-08T17:38:27Z")
> [@liirogue](#): > > This again is a huge deal in the shop because he’s required by law (statue? I don’t know what the correct UK term is) to only sell things produced in the immediate local area. He gets in trouble for selling meat that came from Gloucester, he can’t sell t-shirts and hats because they weren’t locally made, etc. So no, he can’t sell tea or coffee because it doesn’t grow there. Having looked at this, it does seem to be a valid thing, and a local authority choice to do this. But the reality is that it is to stop using farmland to do something else, ie: some rich guy (him) deciding to use his farmland to not farm (he does), and he tries and bypass it, which apparently did not go well with the council (getting a free tee shirt from china when buying potatoes apparently). Ok, I’ll pass on this one, but get it on the restaurant. Sometimes you get so used to him being a dick in one way, you miss him being a bit of a dick in another way. ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2026, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/series-youve-recently-watched-are-now-watching-or-have-given-up-on/946108/9320 "2026-07-08T17:50:13Z")
Two episodes in **Andor** , will probably hang around for all 12 (season one) but it’s not grabbing us yet. ---
**Author:** ![Shoeless](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shoeless/32/7099_2.png) [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2026, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/series-youve-recently-watched-are-now-watching-or-have-given-up-on/946108/9321 "2026-07-08T18:25:17Z")
**Andor** takes a while to get rolling, but once it does it’s a hell of a ride. ---
**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:** [July 8, 2026, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/series-youve-recently-watched-are-now-watching-or-have-given-up-on/946108/9322 "2026-07-08T20:45:39Z")
> [@Spice\_Weasel](#): > > I like X-Men pretty well and everything vaguely reminds me of the comics. It’s a very well done animated show. It’s loyal to the characters and the stories. The only real issue I have with it, and my husband shares this, is the stories go by at a breakneck pace. How about giving each one a chance to breathe? There are a lot of dramatic moments that would have hit harder if there was more of a buildup. The speedrunning through the stories is the most annoying aspect of this show. The episode last season with the Goblin Queen, for instance, could have been stretched out two or three episodes and gotten us some more depth with the characters and pulled us in more. ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2026, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/series-youve-recently-watched-are-now-watching-or-have-given-up-on/946108/9323 "2026-07-10T19:31:00Z")
I feel like season 2 is doing a little better with pacing. We just watched the Apocalypse part 1 and 2 episodes and I thought it was really well done. ---
**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:** [July 10, 2026, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/series-youve-recently-watched-are-now-watching-or-have-given-up-on/946108/9324 "2026-07-10T19:34:52Z")
I’ve been binging **Slow Horses** , and like it even more than the first time through. What a great production and cast. There’s a new season coming in the fall. I’m wondering if it will be the last. ---
**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:** [July 10, 2026, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/series-youve-recently-watched-are-now-watching-or-have-given-up-on/946108/9325 "2026-07-10T20:35:39Z")
> [@Spice\_Weasel](#): > > I feel like season 2 is doing a little better with pacing. We just watched the Apocalypse part 1 and 2 episodes and I thought it was really well done. So far I think so as well. And there was one sequence that was all kinds of awesome in ep2: Jubilee leveling up and kicking a bunch of ass to the tune of “Volcano Girls.” ---
**Author:** ![ASL\_v2.0](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asl_v2.0/32/3525_2.png) [@ASL\_v2.0](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ASL_v2.0)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2026, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/series-youve-recently-watched-are-now-watching-or-have-given-up-on/946108/9326 "2026-07-10T22:06:31Z")
> [@ASL\_v2.0](#): > > > [@ASL\_v2.0](#): > > > > > [@jsc1953](#): > > > > > > **The Testaments** (Hulu) A spinoff of Handmaid’s Tale, focusing on a school for adolescent girls under the tutelage of The Aunts. > > > > > > We hung in on Handmaid’s Tale for 3 or 4 seasons, but got bored and wandered away. (It felt like it had gone beyond the end of the original book and the writer’s didn’t quite know what to do on their own.) But this new one has me completely engrossed (3 episodes in). > > > > I’m on the fence after episode one. Still not sure if it’s a show I am “now watching” or something I have “given up on.” To me, it seems like more of the same shortcomings that made the predecessor dull and uninteresting in its final seasons. Too much plot armor (Aunt Lydia, for example) and Gilead is once more far too easy to infiltrate for me to take it seriously given how much control it is supposed to exercise over its people. > > Still just on the fence after episode 3. It just seems like Gilead as presented in **Testaments** suffers from the same weaknesses as it did in the latter seasons of **The Handmaid’s Tale**. As a societal antagonist, it’s like it’s only cosplaying as a totalitarian Christian nationalist regime. And Mayday is likewise only cosplaying as a resistance organization. Gilead is an oppressive police state with an iron grip on its population… until June Osborne decides she wants it infiltrated. Mayday is a super-competent yet decentralized resistance and espionage group… but only when June Osborne is personally calling the shots. Ok, so, I finished season 1 (all there is of the series so far), and… it was actually pretty good. From episode 4 onward, I was impressed. Until, that is, we got that completely unnecessary side quest for Daisy to see June. I think I can distill what I don’t like about this series and its predecessor (to the extent I don’t like things about them) down to a 90% pure solution of “Gilead’s projection of itself outside its borders.” Whenever we see Gilead from outside of Gilead, or Gilead trying to project power beyond its borders, it just breaks the suspension of disbelief for me. Gilead works best when viewed from within, as if in a vacuum with no outside world to speak of except what Gilead’s own propaganda machine might say about it. With the exception of the season of **The Handmaid’s Tale** that dealt with June’s arrival in Canada, scenes and especially episodes set outside Gilead have been both series’ worst. Because as I said above, the writers have a nasty habit of making it cartoonishly easy for just the right characters to pass in and out of Gilead. And then of course there is the problem with Gilead’s power projection. It’s one thing if we don’t really know WTF is going on with the rest of the world. It could be a dumpster fire for all we know. But the moment you show functioning societies with modern (to us) technology at their disposal, Gilead’s apparent reliance on little more than Planet of the Ape’s level weaponry (almost exclusively small arms) just seems ludicrous by comparison. I know, I know. There is one episode where it is established that Gilead does maintain air defense infrastructure. Trouble is, when it comes to what we actually see, even when it’s whats-his-name (June’s driver, an eye, who becomes a commander) on his way to the front to command forces in… Chicago (?) all we see are small arms. We never see any kind of a war machine, or even industry that would lead us to believe Gilead is capable of maintaining complex machines of war. Honestly, it’s a wonder they can even keep their cars running. But I digress. All that to say, I think **Testaments** was mostly good, and it can stay good if they are just wise enough to keep the focus on life inside Gilead. ---
**Author:** ![BlankSlate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blankslate/32/80_2.png) [@BlankSlate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BlankSlate)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2026, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/series-youve-recently-watched-are-now-watching-or-have-given-up-on/946108/9327 "2026-07-10T22:14:13Z")
Season 6 comes out in September and it’s been renewed for a seventh. There are nine Slough House novels plus several novellas, so who knows? Maybe they’ll just keep going. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/series-youve-recently-watched-are-now-watching-or-have-given-up-on/946108.md?page=465) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/series-youve-recently-watched-are-now-watching-or-have-given-up-on/946108.md?page=467)