Heh. I just started Season 2 which introduced Vera, his wife. I want to see what happens to her!
One issue- Fellows “fell in love” with one of the character- a male gay servant, and let that character get away with all sorts of crap that could never actually happen.
God, I hated Downton Abbey…and I never missed an episode.
Fellowes rehashes so many Downton Abbey characters and storyline beats on The Gilded Age that you, having seen all of DA but only 10 minutes of TGA, can safely say you’ve seen TGA.
That said, I don’t think many people are watching it for the historical accuracy. Not including, of course, the deeply engrossing conversations we’ve had in the TGA thread pertaining to the very important question of what exactly is the appropriate number of horse shit piles portrayed in the streets of that era.
But she was never actually shown on-camera.
Well, less of an issue in Season 1, but it definitely not later, as it was a success and started to try and liven up the storylines. The first season was very much a bland and the outrageousness would be whether someone wasn’t dressed correctly for dinner.
Later they threw other storylines in, but it was very much a modern attitude thrown into a 1920s setting, and there is absolutely no way than an Irish man, never mind a black man, would have been allowed to date one of the daughters, the reality would be to be beaten to within an inch of their lives by whatever local employee they had, and their friends…
Just started (this has to be my fourth or fifth time through) all four seasons of The Librarians.
I want to re-vist one of the issues with Hacks and in particular with the Ava character.
She is supposed to be a comedy writer. In particular, writing jokes for Deborah.
Q: How often do you see her actually doing this job?
You see Deborah doing her job. You see Jimmy doing his job. You see Marcus doing his job. You see Kayla doing her job. Scratch that. She’s there specifically not doing her job for poorly contrived reasons. You even see Josefina doing her job. Etc.
But Ava, just a few small bits here and there. You don’t even see her really doing her writing job for that TV show she works for. She barely even tells a joke at all.
In reality, good comedy writers spend a lot of time pitching jokes, telling jokes, etc. This person is not a comedy writer.
In terms of the main storyline, she’s barely there yet she is on screen a lot. Why? It’s like watching Cheers where the two main characters are Sam and Cliff.
I overall liked DA, but you are spot on with the Mr. Bates portion. I was close to gouging my ears out at hearing Anna slobber all over the name “Mr. Bates” every freaking time she said it. And she said it way too much.
I did write a short Downton Abbey vs. Predator scene… here it is for everyone’s slight amusement:
Rewatching The Expanse. Something that bothered me on my first watch still bothers me.
The universe at the start is a brilliant portrayal of how the solar system could look after several hundred years of colonization with semi-realistic space craft. There’s loads of compelling characters. The guy playing Holden is a bit bland, but otherwise the acting is generally great. There’s lots of little details, like pouring liquid in a rotating habitat behaving weird due to coriolis forces, or older belters having scars around the neck from a common defect in space suits.
But then there’s the protomolecule. This is like a big stew of “not a lot of science, but a lot of fiction” scifi tropes. It can infect human physiology even though it’s extra solar. It can infect inert matter too. It’s a zombie virus. It gives super strength. It’s a hive mind. It has reactionless propulsion. It can create megastructures. It’s an ftl/wormhole technology.
Now the protomolecule is an instigator to the whole plot, and it’s a compelling plot. For long stretches it’s how the leaders and the lowlifes react and struggle with each other in the face of a political crisis while more or less constrained to natural laws. But the more Rocinante and crew and the rest of the gang are in direct contact with the protomolecule, the more the series slide into space opera territory. It’s a very watchable space opera, though.
I stopped reading the books when the magic properties of the protomolecule became too much.
The series was more digestible and I did watch most of it.
Cassandra (Netflix, 2024, Limited Series, 6 ep.) My wife and I are 4 episodes into this Black Mirror-esque German series. It’s about a maid robot from the 70’s who is switched on again to help a modern family but it seems the A.I. is…sinister!? DUH DUH DUMMMMMM!
The dubbing is alright and production values are just fine even if the plot has been beaten to death and some of the character’s decisions strain credulity. It’s been a fun ride so far and I am looking forward to finishing up the show this weekend.
We just finished watching the first season of The Change. Season 2 is supposed to happen. Only 6 episodes. It’s an actually funny/heartwarming comedy show.
A woman turns 50 and encounters the title event. Deal with change with change.
You know “outsider dropped into the midst of some goofy people” series. E.g., Northern Exposure, 800 Words, Doctor, Doctor (Aus) etc.? Well, this is another one.
But it more or less works well. The radio DJ character who plays folkie songs is esp. good. The Eel Sisters who run an eel and mash place out in the woods not so much. (Think of Susie from Mrs. Maisel but 2 of them going over board.) It’s the star Bridget Christie that makes it click. (The only thing I’ve seen her in before is 2 episodes of Ghost, UK.)
One really strange aspect is if your dropped into the middle of an episode you’d think this was an Aussie show. A woman goes off to do a walkabout in the bush but a forest instead. It definitely has this feel. But it’s set around the Forest of Dean in England.
I have to disagree with you there; I found the dubbing to be atrocious, such that it was one of the reasons I’m still on the fence about finishing the first episode.
Today I was taking with my granddaughter, who is in her first play, and talking about good acting. While the original German acting was probably fine, the English dubbing sounds like they were just reading from the page. We talked about how different it sounds when you are actually speaking to someone versus just saying the words. You know, acting.
That said, I’ll give it another chance.
I was considering giving Cassandra a chance but subbed only.
The reading vs acting thing is one of my pet peeves about cutaway explanations in shows. Like happened in every episode of Numb3rs, if you are familiar with it. Almost always the actor will just read theines in a flat tine that sounds nothing like acting.
Three episodes left in Game of Thrones. Of all the shows I’ve binged in the past few years, none made me more regret missing the real-time SDMB experience than this one. Not too sure what I’ve seen is quality camp which sometimes aspired to Art, or a piece of Art which too often sunk into camp to really be Art*, but what a ride!
- I had the same problem with Baz Lurhmann’s Moulin Rouge!
I guess my two years of Junior High German 30 years ago was enough to convince me ANY English voice to German mouth movements would be ridiculous.
I would like to say again, I am 4 episodes of 6 in so far of this limited series, it’s good not great. I want to see how it ends and I have been scouring the web for the name of the German nursery rhyme they keep singing cause I don’t know much German but I know foreshadowing when I hear it sung repeatedly in a different language in an ominous child’s rhyme.
I liked it a lot when it was new. Maybe I was the right age that it resonated, but I think it was the way they wrote it more than the 30-something mentality. I own S.1 on DVD,
Eventually, as with all things, they started assassinating all their characters, jerkifying everyone.
Historical note: one episode had two gay characters shown in bed together. Not having sex, not even touching, just sitting up talking. It nearly gave half the US the vapors. You watch it now, and you won’t even notice.
“Light Shop” is a Korean series, streaming on Disney+. It is a drama; unlike anything I’ve ever seen. It is not a horror story, yet it’s often eerie, atmospheric, frightening and unsettling. The story is complicated, and there are many characters, the living, the dead, and those in between. They seem to have nothing in common. The single incident that links them isn’t revealed until episode 5, and then you still have 3 episodes to go. I’ll admit to being baffled by the final episode. I found a long explanation online, and even then, had to read it a couple of times to put all the pieces together.
Highly recommended.