I couldn’t stand it, the endless battles killed it for me.
Do you like it? I’ve heard mostly negative reviews but I really like the two leads.
I’m really not sure! Nothing really exciting happens…so far anyway. It’s taken me months to watch it. I kind of forget about it and then I’ll notice it on my list and watch a half of an episode or so. The husband makes me nervous. He does/says some really stupid things. So far it’s just a couple with some issues living their lives.
Well, I slogged through all 8 episodes of True Detective: The Night Country to see if they would tie up all those loose ends and red herrings in a neat package with a bow. Uh…no. More like they hit it with a staple gun and some duct tape and called it Done. In other words: it was a mess.
I feel like I’ve spent a lot of time watching HBO/MAX since Game of Thrones went off the rails and it’s mostly ranged from disappointing to annoying. The only thing they’ve done I unequivocally enjoy is John Oliver.
I haven’t re-subscribed for a long time. Probably since Barry.
We’re watching two very different series.
Netflix’s Alexander, The Making of a God, is a hybrid docu-drama, with noted historians talking about Alexander the Great’s conquest of Persia, interspersed with extremely well-done dramatic re-enactments of scenes from his life, battles, etc. Very high production values, great sets, costumes, huge battle scenes with hundreds of extras, horses, and so on. And he is, of course, a fascinating character. (After we started I realized that I know one of the series directors!)
The other show is Monsieur Spade on AMC. Twenty years after The Maltese Falcon, Sam Spade, played by Clive Owen, is living in France and has to solve a complex and gruesome crime.
It’s created and written by Scott Frank, writer and director of The Queen’s Gambit, writer of Get Shorty, and subject of a recent New Yorker profile, which is what got me interested in this and other works of his. (I don’t know if you’ll be able to read this without a subscription. There was no option for a gift link.)
The series is well written and acted, with a intricate story line and nice locations and period feel of early 1960s’ rural France. (You might want to bone up a little on the Algerian War of independence from France, which figures in the plot.) As long as you don’t expect Owen to do an impression of Humphrey Bogart, his version of Spade is appropriately witty and world-weary.
We’re only a couple of episodes in, and are finding it very engaging. Let’s hope it maintains this level throughout the six episodes.
Because of the hybrid format I found myself wondering if the noted historians are real historians, or actors playing historians. 
We started Mr. and Mrs. Smith. I did not like the first episode at all. The leads have zero chemistry, their budding ‘romance’ is lame, and the whole setup is kind of silly.
Mind you, the movie also sucked, so my expectations are not high. My wife likes it, though.
We finished this season of Fargo. It started okay, and went rapidly downhill. It was a slog to finish it. Jodie Foster was not believable in just about anything she did. Her romance with her ‘boss’ seemed forced, etc.
We are a few episides into Hazbin Hotel. I like it, my wife is more ‘meh’, but we’re still watching.
I’ve seen the whole series, and while it’s not the best series I’ve ever seen, I liked it quite a bit. As you mention, the feel of it is very real and engaging, as are the characters. There’s quite a lot of threads, so you have to pay attention, but that didn’t bother me.
I had The Battle of Algiers and Le Petit Soldat bouncing around my head while watching. It definitely needs a basic knowledge of the Algerian situation.
You mean True Detective, right?
I think it was 6 episodes, but should have been 8, imho.
Ack! Yes, of course. Fargo was great. Sorry, Fargo.
The Algerian War documentary from 1984 still holds up. Although I don’t think Americans in 2024 would watch a five-parter on Vietnam much less Algeria. OTOH, a weird retelling of the War of the Roses with dragons added went over well.
Romance? That was no romance.
For some reason we just never picked up watching True Detective until this season, the one with Jodie Foster (I loved her in Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore; has she done anything else since then? ). It reminded us of Hillary Swank’s Alaska Daily at the start, but got so weird that we were wondering why everyone raved about the show. Well, they were raving about the three first seasons; the ratings on IMDB for those seasons are consistently 8+, until this season.
So we started watching the first session just last night, the one with Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson. Wow! So much better! (I don’t think I’d be aware of it if this thread didn’t exist - thanks guys!)
15 episodes in now. I like it.
We’re finally watching the latest season of Fargo. My opinion: they tried too hard. It has its moments, of course, but I’m now going into episode seven and I just wish it was over.
We finished watching season 1 of the Netflix series House of Ninjas, a Japanese show about a modern Shinobi family and their past.
It’s awesome. One of the better shows we’ve watched this year.
We’re also watching Tokyo Detective, which is also good. We’re only on the third episode, thouh.
I have to admit that if you’d asked me ten years ago who my daughter’s teen obsession would be, I would definitely not have chosen “middle-aged Welshman”. But here we are, in the middle of a Michael-Sheen-a-thon.
Recently finished The Way, which was well-made but depressing and left with a lot of loose ends. And I don’t think there’s a follow-up planned to resolve any of them. Watch if you like miserable people (and watch out for Georgia Tennant in an awkward four-way).
Now watching: Prodigal Son, your usual crime procedural involving a brilliant police consultant with a metric shit-ton of baggage. In this instance the baggage is the fact that his dad is a notorious serial killer (played by you-know-who with quite a good American accent). The individual cases are pretty much what you expect from the genre, but there are some good performances in it and the protagonist has some deeply creepy eyes.
I just started the 3rd episode of The Program, a episodic documentary about Ivy Ridge, an oppressive school program for troubled teens in the 90s. I am not sure why I continue to watch it because the creator/narrator and main driver of the documentary is very annoying and unprofessional. I completely agree that the program seems abusive, problematic and manipulative but I keep getting distracted by her tactics. She was a former student so I understand her crusade but I wish she would let the evidence speak for itself.
For example, starting off an interview with telling one of the former main players that its “judgement day” just didn’t sit well with me. The guy sounded like he would have tried to answer some of their questions- let the viewer decide if he was sincere or not and don’t put him on the defensive and ruin any chance to get his perspective.
The content is good, it could be great, but it feels like a high schooler is running the circus.
I’m about halfway through The Act (mini-series on Hulu). It’s based on the true story of the whackadoodle mother that pretended her daughter had every disability and ailment under the sun in order to get money, prizes, awards, etc. Patricia Arquette is the mother and Joey King is the daughter. It’s pretty good but sometimes hard to watch, just knowing a young girl actually went through it.