# 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:** 484
**Author:** ![Stephe96](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Stephe96](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stephe96)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2026, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/series-youve-recently-watched-are-now-watching-or-have-given-up-on/946108/9668 "2026-09-21T02:53:42Z")
Whatever its politics, Lioness has some of the best action sequences I’ve ever seen on a TV show. ---
**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:** [September 21, 2026, 11:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/series-youve-recently-watched-are-now-watching-or-have-given-up-on/946108/9669 "2026-09-21T11:04:49Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > Watched the first episode of “Beef” because of all the attention it got. It nearly put me to sleep. Which season? It’s an anthology with each season being entirely standalone. I watched the first one or two episodes of the current season (2) and didn’t care for it. The first season, however, was great. Consider watching another episode or two before making up your mind as the tension ratchets up pretty quickly. ---
**Author:** ![Red\_Wiggler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/red_wiggler/32/13190_2.png) [@Red\_Wiggler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Red_Wiggler)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2026, 12:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/series-youve-recently-watched-are-now-watching-or-have-given-up-on/946108/9670 "2026-09-21T12:11:15Z")
Yeah, I keep watching, too. It’s a fun show full of fierce action and Zoe Saldana is gorgeous. ---
**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:** [September 21, 2026, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/series-youve-recently-watched-are-now-watching-or-have-given-up-on/946108/9671 "2026-09-21T14:38:39Z")
**Chernobyl** Recommended. I waited a long time on this one and it more or less meets the hype. It’s a great, 5 episode series that goes over what happened at the Chernobyl plant when it metled down. It’s filmed like a horror show and that works very well. What a tragic event and also a highl avoidable one. The aftermath was so poorly handled at first, many people likely died who could have lived had they been evacuated. The area is still uninhabitable and we just passed 40 years. Might be many more decades. ---
**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:** [September 21, 2026, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/series-youve-recently-watched-are-now-watching-or-have-given-up-on/946108/9672 "2026-09-21T14:55:25Z")
> [@Joey\_P](#): > > Consider watching another episode or two before making up your mind as the tension ratchets up pretty quickly. First season. I will try E2. If it doesn’t go where I think it’s going, I’ll be amazed. ---
**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:** [September 21, 2026, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/series-youve-recently-watched-are-now-watching-or-have-given-up-on/946108/9673 "2026-09-21T19:35:10Z")
> [@Mahaloth](#): > > Chernobyl One of the best things I’ve ever watched. Pretty much flawless. ---
**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:** [September 21, 2026, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/series-youve-recently-watched-are-now-watching-or-have-given-up-on/946108/9674 "2026-09-21T22:04:24Z")
I’m working my way through _The Great North_ on Hulu. It’s a fun show with great interactions between the family members as well as the oddball townsfolk. It’s unfortunate that Fox cancelled it. ---
**Author:** ![Precambrianmollusc](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/precambrianmollusc/32/63_2.png) [@Precambrianmollusc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Precambrianmollusc)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2026, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/series-youve-recently-watched-are-now-watching-or-have-given-up-on/946108/9675 "2026-09-21T22:17:18Z")
We worked our way through Silo season 3 and enjoyed it. I heard that it deviates fairly heavily from the books, which I haven’t read so I don’t have any mental ‘ wait what nooo’ moments (cf. Foundation, Rings of Power etc , although I am still going to watch those) . After that we binged the two seasons of Your Friends and Neighbors. Fun engaging show, almost all the characters are despicable, and sure it gets more outlandish, but switch off the brain and enjoy. I have been struggling to finish up ‘ For All Mankind’ season 5 and Star City. It’s my show for when rowing , but I really don’t care much about any of the characters left on FaMK and Star City is kind of grim and cheerless. I tried Landman, and whilst Billy Bob Thornton is always watchable chewing up the scenery , my brain couldn’t get past the ‘ nope that’s not even possible or close to reality , yeah I know it isn’t a documentary but just nope. We are watching Widow’s Bay. We were not sure quite what it was about, we knew it was a comedy , I thought I was going to be in the Murder caper type thing. I am enjoying it, Mrs Mollusc has decided no as not really into the suspense horror genre. Oh finished up Slow Horses and waiting on the whole new season to drop. I think as others have mentioned they tend to start a bit slow but pick up the pace later. We are also waiting for the whole of Ted Lasso to drop , and eagerly waiting for The Diplomat season 4 . Keri Russell, Rufus Sewell, Allison Janney and host of other great actors, and some great writing, what’s not to love ? ---
**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:** [September 22, 2026, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/series-youve-recently-watched-are-now-watching-or-have-given-up-on/946108/9676 "2026-09-22T01:14:10Z")
> [@Precambrianmollusc](#): > > We are watching Widow’s Bay. We were not sure quite what it was about, we knew it was a comedy , I thought I was going to be in the Murder caper type thing. I am enjoying it, We are up to episode 3 in a soft binge. Episode 1 had me laughing harder than I have in months. One that really got me, from a pure, unexpected standpoint (paraphrasing from memory) was: (local history museum, docent speaking) Oh, and we are very proud of this (referring to a print); we found some witches…and we burned them… ---
**Author:** ![Precambrianmollusc](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/precambrianmollusc/32/63_2.png) [@Precambrianmollusc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Precambrianmollusc)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2026, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/series-youve-recently-watched-are-now-watching-or-have-given-up-on/946108/9677 "2026-09-22T01:53:32Z")
Yep , and the cannibalism stuff probably didn’t happen. . .. Well not immediately Good laughs, but also fairly creepy . ---
**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:** [September 22, 2026, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/series-youve-recently-watched-are-now-watching-or-have-given-up-on/946108/9678 "2026-09-22T01:59:10Z")
Ah, yes; in that same museum the cannibalism references and associated denials remind me of the Monty Python skit, with Graham Chapman as a senior officer in HM Army: _There is absolutely, positively no cannibalism in her majesty’s Army. And when I say “absolutely positively” none, I mean very, very little…_ And it degrades from there. ---
**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:** [September 22, 2026, 5:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/series-youve-recently-watched-are-now-watching-or-have-given-up-on/946108/9679 "2026-09-22T05:55:52Z")
**100 Years of Solitude** Good rendering of the novel, on Netflix. **Firefly** Just starting this one, oddly enough, I do not think I ever watched it all the way through. Disney+, but I think it is on the Hulu side of things. Hasn’t grabbed Inna. I don’t think it will, either. **Andor** So, this is not going to be a popular opinion, but the Empire seems to be a pretty rockin’ place to live as long as you’re not a criminal or actively trying to overthrow it… and for the latter, it’s still pretty awesome. OK, the Empire is so fantastically wealthy and vast that a broke-assed rebel, _WANTED CRIMINAL_, has amazingly easy access to _ **interstellar travel** _. He goes from beautiful lush world to beautiful lush world to Coruscant to beautiful lush world… and what worlds! There was this one scene set in some sort of Coruscant park and there were just 3 people in this vast space. Empty hallways, hospitals with, like, 7 employees, literally all the space you need. Oh, and if you need a getaway from an apartment to interstellar space, escaping from the Capital planet, one with 50 billion+ people on it, there’s an interstellar craft (check) available and it’s apparently easy to just… you know… fly away. The other planets had great scenery - jungles, plains, oceans, just stunning vistas with, again, few settlements and people in sight. Andor had no money problems. He was well fed. He has great teeth and puppy-dog, Paul McCartney eyes, meaning he got laid a lot. He planet-hops like he’s taking the bus on the annual pre-paid pass he got from his momma when he got his first job, and his civilization is so vast that people don’t know the names of all the star systems contained within it. Everyone looked healthy and well-fed. There was no homeless problem. You could go to the spaceport and go on an interstellar cruise, celebrating your alcoholism. I mean, yeah, the Empire is hard on their prisoners. Well, in our world, Andrew Tate is bitching about his cell conditions and I’m not exactly trying to topple the American Way of Life to help him. Yeah, the Empire is a complete shit for fucking over planets for Star Wars’s version of unobtanium, but I just saw _100 Years of Solitude_ where an American company fucks over South America for _bananas_… but, again, I did not (and nobody ever did) overthrow Jeffersonian Democracy because of United Fruit\*. Anyway, _Andor_: the Empire is cool, Andor should really drink 12 cold ounces of Settle-Down Juice™, and Empire security is really suck-ass, so if you’re dumb enough to be captured by them, that’s on you. Disney+ \*ETA: Really, it’s the same story line. _100 Years_ had Macando being destroyed because of resource exploitation, and _Andor_ has whole planets being destroyed because of resource exploitation. The difference is that _100 Years_ was done artfully, and _Andor_ was… not. ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2026, 6:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/series-youve-recently-watched-are-now-watching-or-have-given-up-on/946108/9680 "2026-09-22T06:11:27Z")
> [@Mahaloth](#): > > **Chernobyl** > > Recommended. I would change that to **highly** recommended. Excellent mini-series. ---
**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:** [September 22, 2026, 9:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/series-youve-recently-watched-are-now-watching-or-have-given-up-on/946108/9681 "2026-09-22T09:44:54Z")
> [@JohnT](#): > > I mean, yeah, the Empire is hard on their prisoners. If you mean “Locking people up on spurious charges and sentencing them to years of hard labor and then not releasing them when their sentences are up and occasionally just murdering entire cohorts to cover up their corruption” then yes, they are hard on their prisoners. ---
**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:** [September 22, 2026, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/series-youve-recently-watched-are-now-watching-or-have-given-up-on/946108/9682 "2026-09-22T17:32:31Z")
> [@wolfpup](#): > > > [@Mahaloth](#): > > > > **Chernobyl** > > > > Recommended. > > I would change that to **highly** recommended. Excellent mini-series. One of the best limited series in my memory. I was slightly disappointed when I found out about the historical inaccuracies. I suppose that’s inevitable in any dramatization. ---
**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:** [September 22, 2026, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/series-youve-recently-watched-are-now-watching-or-have-given-up-on/946108/9683 "2026-09-22T19:15:34Z")
My wife, who was there, said it was largely correct. Yes, there are inaccuracies - for example, a search for the factual truth would have never occurred in the Soviet Union, and all major roles in this (including interviewing) would have been performed by men - but she said the show got the look and feel of late-80s Soviet-era Ukraine down very well. ---
**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:** [September 22, 2026, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/series-youve-recently-watched-are-now-watching-or-have-given-up-on/946108/9684 "2026-09-22T19:33:58Z")
The show relied heavily on a book that was basically an oral history compiled by a journalist. What it ignored was science and actual studies of the effects of the incident on people. The unborn baby absorbing radiation, the bridge of death, the suicide divers… all didn’t happen. But they were stories that were spread by others. Made for great drama but not accurate. There are other articles refuting the accuracy of the portrayals especially the “bad guys” but this goes into the science issues. It’s funny that in a different thread about a different topic I brought up the issues of relying on oral history books. > **[How HBO Got It Wrong On Chernobyl](https://www.ans.org/news/article-2143/how-hbo-got-it-wrong-on-chernobyl/)** ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2026, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/series-youve-recently-watched-are-now-watching-or-have-given-up-on/946108/9685 "2026-09-22T19:49:18Z")
> [@Loach](#): > > It’s funny that in a different thread about a different topic I brought up the issues of relying on oral history books. Whether or not oral histories- written down right after the incident- are better than “official” histories- often done for political reasons- is something that needs to be considered in every case. ---
**Author:** ![JacobSwan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a6a055/32.png) [@JacobSwan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JacobSwan)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2026, 12:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/series-youve-recently-watched-are-now-watching-or-have-given-up-on/946108/9686 "2026-09-23T12:54:24Z")
The windscreens on the buses stood out to me as they were all intact. In that era every bus in the Soviet Union had a cracked windscreen from standing passengers going flying. ---
**Author:** ![Cheesesteak](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cheesesteak/32/3694_2.png) [@Cheesesteak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cheesesteak)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2026, 1:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/series-youve-recently-watched-are-now-watching-or-have-given-up-on/946108/9687 "2026-09-23T13:22:15Z")
**The Penguin** on HBO. If you haven’t seen it yet, it’s worth a watch. Exceptionally well done, and shows multiple sides of a group of deeply broken, psychopathic criminals. Practically every person with screen time deserves to be in jail for the rest of their lives, yet you get to see them when they’re not evil, you see their internal justification for their actions. I want my mother’s approval, I want to please my boss, I want justice for what others did to me. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/series-youve-recently-watched-are-now-watching-or-have-given-up-on/946108.md?page=483) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/series-youve-recently-watched-are-now-watching-or-have-given-up-on/946108.md?page=485)