MetaWhatAreYouWatchingLately? 📺🎞️📽️📱💻 August 30, 2019 7:39 AM   Subscribe

End of another week, let's talk about something else that is not related to politics. Let's talk about what you're watching. Have you started any new shows? Have you been to the movie theatre lately? Any disappointments? Any surprises? Maybe you have been working your way through a filmography or a series? Maybe you're actively taking a break from film or television watching, that's cool too. Whatever it is, let's dish about some media. As always be kind to yourself and others. Cheers.
posted by Fizz to MetaFilter-Related at 7:39 AM (96 comments total) 14 users marked this as a favorite

Jim Henson's prequel to Dark Crystal, Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance, just released on Netflix and I am looking forward to checking that out. I'm also in the middle of a LotR trilogy re-watch and will be tackling Return of the King later this weekend (extended edition of course). There's also a new season of Great British Bakeoff that is out and I'm still catching up to last season, so that's me in a nutshell.
posted by Fizz at 7:43 AM on August 30, 2019 [8 favorites]


I just finished ""The Break/ La trêve " which is weird and complicated, and pretty excellent, but also easy enough to follow along that it was satisfying to watch on week nights one episode at a time.

Netflix has apparently been catering to my weird Northern European foreign cop drama passion aka "Nordic Noir" for the last 2 years and I am HERE FOR IT.

I strongly recommend: the Fall (UK) with Gillian Anderson, Marcella (UK), Bordertown(finnish), Dicte (danish), Fortitude (Greenland?), Trapped (iceland) among others.

You'd think "Dark" would have been up my alley, but I struggled to keep track of it. *shrug*
posted by larthegreat at 7:55 AM on August 30, 2019 [7 favorites]


Steven Universe: oh my goodness this is the most amazing show. Now eagerly awaiting movie + new season.

Veronica Mars season 4: disappointing on pretty much every axis.

Star Trek: Discovery season 1: Star Trek via Farscape! Watched season 1 all the way through and have bounced off season 2 so far, will try that again maybe in a few months.
posted by curious nu at 7:55 AM on August 30, 2019


Ooh forgot to mention, I'm right in the middle of watching Gilmore Girls. We just hit Season 3 and lord knows my tolerance for Rory's interest in Jess diminishes with every subsequent episode. Emily Gilmore and Loralai both carry me through the rest, along with my wife's commentary and enthusiasm for this show. It's so well written (despite some shitty boyfriends who are thrown in), and I'm glad I'm watching this with a super-fan.

She's given me Gilmore Girls and I've given her The West Wing. So much walk/talk. :)
posted by Fizz at 8:00 AM on August 30, 2019 [10 favorites]


I know I am super behind the times but I started Broadchurch last night. I like it more than I was expecting to (hence the delay). Everyone's in it! Whoa.
posted by wellred at 8:01 AM on August 30, 2019 [13 favorites]


I’ve started and given up on a bunch of things and have had to admit to myself that my expectations from media are far too high to be met. The last two things I’ve truly enjoyed were Fleabag and Chernobyl. I think it’s a reflection of what a pleasant, lighthearted person I’ve become in these carefree times.
posted by iamkimiam at 8:02 AM on August 30, 2019 [12 favorites]


Season 3 of The Good Place is on Netflix finally, so... Duval!
posted by asperity at 8:13 AM on August 30, 2019 [10 favorites]


The latest season of The Great British Baking Show is on Netflix, as of today.
posted by theora55 at 8:17 AM on August 30, 2019 [13 favorites]


We just wrapped up season 3 of GLOW. It's probably my favorite thing on television right now, I love every second of it.

We also finally picked up Parts Unknown again. I had a hard time going back to it after Bourdain died, and it can still be a painful watch sometimes. Every now and then he lets some really dark humor slip through in the episodes, and... ugh.

Finally, there's a person on YouTube who maintains a playlist of 8 Out of Ten Cats Does Countdown which was recently updated, so I got to catch up on the spring and summer episodes. YouTube is the easiest way I've been able to watch British panel shows, I don't know why they're not really available elsewhere.
posted by backseatpilot at 8:27 AM on August 30, 2019 [4 favorites]


I’ve been taking breaks from the news to binge watch past seasons of Project Runway. I don’t sew or do crafts and I don’t pay attention to fashion trends, so this is pure escape for me. After I get tired of this I’m going to FINALLY dig into Great British Baking.
posted by bookmammal at 8:36 AM on August 30, 2019 [3 favorites]


I started watching the most recent season available (17) of Top Chef on Hulu or Netflix, and it made me remember how much I enjoy that show.

Noname (an awesome rapper from Chicago, whose music you shoud definitely listen to) started a Book Club , and from that I'm currently reading 'We Are Never Meeting in Real Life', which is hilarious and I love it.

The last workday before a holiday weekend is sooooo brutal. I know it's month-end and all, but gah. Nobody is at their most productive, we should all just go home early. That, and whatever pollen is circulating around right now is not playing nice with my sinuses, so i'm all snotty and mouth-breathy. Time to go home and watch Top Chef, I think.
posted by Sparky Buttons at 8:42 AM on August 30, 2019 [4 favorites]


I watched the first episode of the Netflix-rebooted Charmed on a flight home last night.

It is so silly and I greatly enjoyed it. The first episode didn’t have any great depth, but then neither did the original series iirc. (Which I admittedly haven’t watched in about 13 years.) Looking forward to swing what they do with it.
posted by a device for making your enemy change his mind at 8:42 AM on August 30, 2019 [4 favorites]


Steven Universe always and forever. Waiting for S4 of The Good Place and now Stranger Things. A terrible reality dating show called Are You The One on MTV.

Lots of kids' shows due to toddler: Let's Go Luna, Daniel Tiger, Sarah and Duck, Peg + Cat.

Finally watched Sorry to Bother You recently and I have since been bothering a LOT of people to rewatch it with me.
posted by sugar and confetti at 8:58 AM on August 30, 2019 [1 favorite]


So, my partner C. is a huge Maradona fan. She got me to go see the new Maradona film with her.

Overall she was skeptical as she believes that no mere film can do Maradona justice. Her overall verdict was that this film was good. Not great. good. Not sufficiently reverential, according to her.
For me and other Maradona neophytes and novices, the film does a good job of revealing his ascent to godhood by how he put Napoli on the football map. I really wasn't entirely sure before this as to why he was so famous.

Feeling unsated by the film, we went home and watched Maradona by Kusturica. Kusturica hangs out with Maradona and covers his politics (clips of him hanging out with Fidel Castro) and more about the Church of Maradona. So, I am still a novice and still a bit unconvinced but C. has been a good proselytizer.
posted by vacapinta at 8:59 AM on August 30, 2019


So a few weeks ago Twitter (or at least certain segments of it) had an impromptu Sean Astin Appreciation Day. It started when someone posted a few adorable pics of "Sean Astin from Stranger Things" in a pool with an otter. Whereupon all of Twitter (it seemed) rose up to point out that he was much more than "Sean Astin from Stranger Things" and ended up celebrating his various roles throughout the decades, many of them being heartwarming, wholesome characters.

All of this is preface to explain that this made me aware of Astin's latest work, Netflix's No-Good Nick. In some ways it's a throwback to 90s-era family sitcoms, right down to a live studio audience. In other ways it's not, for one thing being far more serialized, and more twisty, than most sitcoms. (In that respect I'm reminded of The Good Place, although NGN doesn't do it to the extent that TGP does.) There's one season so far, with twenty episodes which were released in two parts of ten episodes each.

Astin and Melissa Joan Hart play the parents of two teenagers, when Nick shows up at their door, claiming to be a distant relative whose parents have died. (Not a spoiler: she's conning them.)

I gave it a shot and found it pleasant enough, worth keeping on with, above average but not exceptional. Until a key flashback episode about three-fourths of the way through the season, with which the show turns...not darker... deeper. While still maintaining its share of goofy sitcom tropes. I was quite amazed at the show's ability to pull that off effectively and was suitably moved by the season finale. It's worth watching if you're interested in a show that starts out as a 90s-style family sitcom that turns into something more.
posted by DevilsAdvocate at 9:20 AM on August 30, 2019 [8 favorites]


I've been watching and just caught up with Chilling Adventures of Sabrina and was very surprised to find that I love it! I was very wary about where they were going with very cis-seeming feminism when I knew they had a trans character but it all went way better than I expected and I loved the gender politics, I loved the goofy over-the-topness, I love the characters. I liked reading back thru the fanfare threads as I watched.

Speaking of fanfare, A Black Lady Sketch Show has been so consistently hilarious and smart and I liked checking in on the threads every week.

And Pose just had a spectacular season finale after a stop-and-go second season. That show is such a comfort in representation (the number of times something's happened without comment and in the back of my mind, I think, jeez, that's the first time I've seen that represented on screen even though it's so true to life!) and the intentional care with which it handles trauma and heartache. It's so healing to watch and I'm already missing it ): I wish I knew more shows that felt like they were taking care of me like that.
posted by gaybobbie at 9:20 AM on August 30, 2019 [6 favorites]


Yes, Pose! I just watched the season finale last night and I'm sad there won't be more next week.
posted by lazuli at 9:24 AM on August 30, 2019 [1 favorite]


wellred I wish I had never seen Broadchurch, so that I would have Broadchurch to look forward to. So good.

I have some significant downtime (mental and physical) in my near future so I have bought up all the 80s/90s movies at goodwill - from Nigel Tufnel to Tracy Flick - to half-watch, half-sleep through in a nostalgic haze.
posted by headnsouth at 9:24 AM on August 30, 2019 [1 favorite]


We need a Pose Season 2 thread on FanFare
posted by roger ackroyd at 9:32 AM on August 30, 2019 [1 favorite]


Veronica Mars season 4: disappointing on pretty much every axis.

Oh no! I was coming here to say that my partner convinced me to start watching Veronica Mars with her, we needed a good zone out TV show to consume slowly but steadily. I didn't used to let myself be a TV watcher (I have never owned a TV myself, but lived with people who have) but now I let myself have that pleasure.

One of the TV-watching pleasures my partner has introduced me to is YouTube! (We watch via AppleTV.) We really love Evan and Katelyn. They're so enthusiastic about each other and encouraging. Very few of their projects are ones we'd want to make ourselves but their attitudes and cute editing makes it worth it.

Another YouTuber that I could watch all day long: Frank Howarth. His stop motion stuff blows my mind and his woodworking is incredible. He lives in Portland (OR, USA) and we went into a local hardware store once and were talking with an employee about something and mentioned that there was a YouTube person we liked and he lit up and said "Is it Frank? He comes in here! He's so great!" and I felt a ton of Portland pride.

Sadly everytime I go to the movie theater now I get so worried about a mass shooting that I can't enjoy it. The past two times I've gone there's been a man in the audience who gets up midway and then just stands near the entrance and keeps watching and both times I started panicking, and eventually they'd walk out (I assume they stood up to go to the bathroom or something and then decided to wait and watch more?) but then I'd be tense waiting for them to come back. I wish I didn't live in a country where going to the movies feels too risky (or going to events, or to bars, or to any public place...)
posted by the thorn bushes have roses at 9:59 AM on August 30, 2019 [3 favorites]


I'm re-watching Six Feet Under and thoroughly enjoying it but my next episode up is That One Episode from season 4 and I don't know if I can take it.

I haven't had a new show really grab me lately so am watching this thread with interest. I've heard The Boys is good and am eagerly awaiting the new season of The Good Place.
posted by Twicketface at 10:08 AM on August 30, 2019 [3 favorites]


I've been enjoying this season of American Ninja Warrior (subject of a recent post on the blue), although I'm not completely sold on the Power Tower device. It's nice to have an extra bit of stakes for the top competitors, but the ethos of ANW is athlete vs. course and having an athlete vs. athlete segment seems a little off to me.

Also, the unevenness of the various courses is alternately exciting and frustrating. Jessie Graff would almost certainly have finished if she had run a week later (on the course referenced in the post above), but instead she got stuck on the course that literally nobody could complete.
posted by egregious theorem at 10:11 AM on August 30, 2019 [3 favorites]


Hard disagree on the quality of Veronica Mars season 4. I thoroughly enjoyed it!

Just started up the second season of Lodge 49; still great so far.

Started Good Omens and I should love it, I'm the target audience...but I was...underwhelmed? with the first episode. I'll keep giving it a chance but I was sad that I didn't love it immediately.

As always, watching baseball pretty much every night there's a game.

OH! My husband, daughter, and I watched all the MCU movies in chronological (not release) order over the summer. We ended with Ant Man & the Wasp and I'm not sure I can watch the two final Avengers movies, but it was fun to experience the universe chronologically.
posted by cooker girl at 10:14 AM on August 30, 2019 [1 favorite]


I just started watching the latest season of Dear White People and I love it so much. I feel like the characters are my friends because the talk about stuff they way me and my friends talk about stuff. It's such a relief.

Sometimes I love that TV can be a fantasy and an escape from life, but it feels so good to watch a show that's trying to exist in the real world. This season one of the characters casually mentioned that something weird happening to them could be an alt-right prank. It just feels so IMMEDIATE and relevant. Also there is a new character named D'Unte that is incredibly charming and fun to watch. Apparently he is based on a real person from show creator Justin Simien's life which pretty much makes me want to cry. p.s. For anyone else watching and loving D'Unte check out this article!

Also for any Handmaid's Tale fans (or haters) there is a really funny ridiculous show-within-a-show parody.
posted by sweetjane at 10:40 AM on August 30, 2019 [4 favorites]


> cooker girl: OH! My husband, daughter, and I watched all the MCU movies in chronological (not release) order over the summer. We ended with Ant Man & the Wasp and I'm not sure I can watch the two final Avengers movies, but it was fun to experience the universe chronologically.

Someone online put together instructions to watch every scene from the MCU movies in order (as in "Pause Captain America after [whatever scene] and now start Iron Man ... At this timestamp of Dr. Strange, start playing Ragnarok on another screen at this timestamp since the scenes happen simultaneously...") It was not particularly elegant, but it was feasible. I think it required at least two streaming devices and a couple of DVD players for the newer films. Can't find it amongst all the "Watch the MCU movies in order" lists online though.
posted by Rock Steady at 10:53 AM on August 30, 2019 [8 favorites]


I was inspired to watch all the Charlie Chan films after reading Yunte Huang's Charlie Chan: The Untold Story of the Honorable Detective and His Rendezvous with American History (previously). The films are as deeply problematic as you can imagine, for starters the lead is played by a white man, but they are historically interesting especially the ones from the 30s from the perspective of how American culture has treated race generally and Asian Americans specifically.
posted by Ashwagandha at 11:00 AM on August 30, 2019 [3 favorites]


Oh, meant to add, if you like crime drama, The Sinner just added its second season to Netflix. Two essentially separate stories about... unconventional killers. Does some really interesting things. If you like GBBO, Project Runway, and other generally chill reality competition shows, Blown Away on Netflix is pretty good. There is a little drama, and I wish they showed more of the actual glassblowing process, but the art is fascinating and the characters are fun.

If you want comedy, I know Schitt's Creek is a critic's darling these days, but if you are still holding out, I urge you to remedy that fact immediately. Another well-received but less popular sketch show is I Think You Should Leave. It is deeply weird and not for everyone, but I have had more out of control laughter during that show than any other in recent memory ("...it's about a big baby duck who gets his head caught in a stewed tomato, so hold on to your hats.")
posted by Rock Steady at 11:05 AM on August 30, 2019 [3 favorites]


All seven seasons of Designing Women are now available on Hulu. I am super excited as I have wanted to re-watch for years!
posted by Serene Empress Dork at 11:11 AM on August 30, 2019 [2 favorites]


I've been watching with my family lately. We went to see Totoro in the theatre (a local theatre is doing one Miyazaki film each month). It was great and I wish we hadn't missed when they were showing Kiki. Looking forward to Spirited Away in October.

We're also watching/rewatching Sherlock. Our kid had gotten really into reading Sherlock Holmes stories and she's pretty entranced by the show as well, but will also offer up how the show altered the story. (I like this because it's been ages since I read them and can't really tell the difference myself.) It's fun rewatching it with someone new to it too.
posted by Margalo Epps at 11:22 AM on August 30, 2019 [7 favorites]


My daughter and I also went to see My Neighbor Totoro this week, as our local AMC theater is participating in the MiyazakiFest thing, too. She is going off to college to start her freshman year this weekend, and it was our last special thing together before she goes.

Because it's summer, I am watching American Ninja Warrior and America's Got Talent, and not much else, but we'll definitely be watching GBBO on Netflix tonight.
posted by briank at 11:40 AM on August 30, 2019 [2 favorites]


SEX EDUCATION on Netflix. Brit high school comedy drama. Great fun, liberal. Trailer
posted by alasdair at 11:42 AM on August 30, 2019 [9 favorites]


Derry Girls (on Netflix) — high school comedy set in Northern Ireland in the 1990s. Have had to pause it multiple times because I was laughing so hard.

Poldark (on Amazon Prime Video) — historical period drama set in Cornwall in the 1780s-1790s. A guy comes back from fighting on the British side of the American Revolutionary War to find his estate in ruins and the girl he left behind engaged to his cousin. The plot proceeds from there. Period dramas have not generally been my number one thing, but this one has really drawn me in and made me care about its characters. Plus, lush costumes and landscapes.

Letterkenny (on Hulu) — Comedy set in small Canadian town. Definitely have to pause this one to laugh, because the funny comes so fast. Here’s the cold open for the first episode — if you like this, you’ll like the show.
posted by snowmentality at 11:47 AM on August 30, 2019 [7 favorites]


Serene Empress Dork, I had no idea that Designing Women was coming and now I am so excited! I desperately need some Julia Sugarbaker takedowns in my life right about now, but the whole cast is pure delight.

So:

- Almost caught up on everything Phoebe Waller Bridge has available on streaming. Fleabag is magnificent in every way and so unexpectedly perfect, and Season 2 is even better. Killing Eve is phenomenal. Loved her in Broadchurch season 2! Just started Crashing and it's great but it makes me want to crawl into a hole, but also it is great.

- GLOW! Season 3 is so good!

- Good Girls Season 1 is really good! The three leads are all funny and winning, and Alison Tolman is fantastic as a supporting character, and it has just enough random plotting to make it fun. Retta is great and I love her relationship with her on-show husband.

- A Simple Favor just popped up on Hulu(?), and it's ridiculous but a lot of fun! Everything Blake Lively wears and says and does is stunning, and Anna Kendrick wins full credit for getting more than she possibly should out of the mommy blogger role. (And yes, that's sweet charming Ted from Schitt's Creek as her brother! And Jean Smart pops up and how does she always knock everything out of the park? Which brings us full circle to Designing Women!) Bonus: Now I want to swan around and be fabulous but act bored and listen to vintage french pop songs 25/8.

- Blown Away on Netflix! There's an unwelcome bit of trashtalking here and there, but in general it's largely quashed by the respect and goodwill the contestants have for each other, which feels similar to the great british baking show vibe. These are high-level blown glass artists (and aspiring ones) and it's a pleasure to watch them work. Wish the episodes were a bit longer so you could see more of the jawdropping skill and technique that goes into it.

I gave up on Harlots! And I LOOOOOOOVED Harlots S1 and S2 because 18th C London is totally my jam and the costumes and the writing and the seaminess of the era and as usual Samantha Morton is a gd force of nature, and here her awesomeness is somehow even fiercer in a corset, stomping her majestic self through both the filthy alleys and elegant brothels of London alike. But Season 3 felt really capricious from the start and I just stopped.

I am looking forward to checking out the new Dark Crystal prequel on Netflix. And I'm simply giddy about our next and final season of The Good Place and our fanfare threads there!
posted by mochapickle at 11:55 AM on August 30, 2019 [5 favorites]


After being told by numerous people that I had to watch Letterkenny, they were proven correct.

My main series project this summer was getting caught up. The Hard Right Jay episode is pretty brilliant (skoden!!!), as is the bizarro-world Quebec plotline.

Since my grandparents lived in Sudbury, I'm also enjoying the little glimpses of "Hey, I know where that is!"
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 11:56 AM on August 30, 2019 [3 favorites]


That farm stand in Letterkenny is down the street from the house I lived in as a young kid. Many of my grandmother's extended family had farms along those roads. Even the Bizarro Quebec world is just basically the other side of the valley from where we lived. They even were goofing around in the pond we used to swim in when I was a kid. That whole show is a walk down memory lane for me. It is doubly hilarious in that it is about Listowel Ontario which is near where I live now so I get it from the other end as well (all the references to Mennonites in the recent episodes). My only problem is that I can't suspend my disbelief during the winter episodes. Southern Ontario does not look like that in the winter.
posted by Ashwagandha at 12:16 PM on August 30, 2019 [9 favorites]


Me ‘n the mister have fallen into the gentle spiralling out of control problem of too many things to watch. We’re also slow to make progress because we don’t binge. And sometimes we forget to watch teevee. All this to say — our list is stupid long! And when I say “our”, it’s truthfully “me”. I’m the graphics novel & cooking fan and have been driving the we-watch list for a while.

* Preacher: season 3&4. i have the graphic novels so I have to watch. it’s so so good.
* The Tick: only one episode left. SNIFF. imma gonna miss the big blue guy.
* American Gods: season 2. am on fence with this one.
* Legends of Tomorrow: cuz sometimes I need sunny stuff
* The Boys: great cast, surprisingly good
* Killjoys: i want to grow up and be Dutch. not kidding.
* Sense8: my choice. Was in crunch when this was released hence behind the times
* Great British Bake Off
* Black Mirror

And the dark horse: Great British Sewing Bee. It unexpectedly caught our hearts.
posted by lemon_icing at 12:20 PM on August 30, 2019 [5 favorites]


On Netflix:

Bonding (straight college student who's a dominatrix hires her gay high school pal to be her assistant; I found this when I searched for "netflix" and "feminist" and a right-wing blog came up where the author excoriated this show for being everything that's wrong with left-wingers, so of course I watched it immediately. On the other hand, here's a strong critique from real-life dommes.)
Explained (Vox's easy-to-understand, short breakdowns of topics like the racial wealth gap, designer DNA, monogamy...)
The Family (miniseries, part documentary, part dramatization of Jeff Sharlet's books about exactly how White Christian fundamentalists spent decades laying the groundwork for influencing politicians at the highest levels in the US and internationally, culminating in the accelerating shitshow of depredations on human rights that we have now. In my opinion, this is essential viewing.)
Bates Motel (prequel to Psycho, of course, starting with Norman Bates as overall a kinda-normal, even sweet, high school kid)
posted by cybercoitus interruptus at 12:23 PM on August 30, 2019 [4 favorites]


cooker girl, don’t give up on Good Omens. Yes, it has a surprisingly and annoyingly slow, understated start but things accelerate every episode.
posted by lemon_icing at 12:32 PM on August 30, 2019 [1 favorite]


I've been watching HBO's Chernobyl which is so intense I felt the need for a palette cleanser between episodes, for which I chose the most recent season of Stranger Things.

Heady blend, I tell you what.
posted by Phobos the Space Potato at 12:58 PM on August 30, 2019 [3 favorites]


Just finished watching the second season of Mindhunter and both seasons of Big Mouth with my wife and daughter, as well as the end of season 3 of The Handmaid's Tale with wife.

After wife and I watched the series finale of Jane the Virgin it occurred to me that I hadn't seen much of the earlier seasons--I just sort of picked up around the middle when wife and daughter were doing a watch-through. So I've been watching that straight through as my "knitting TV."

Planning to watch the new season of Dear White People, and all of Fleabag, which I've never seen. We liked the first two seasons of Killing Eve, so I got interested in what else Phoebe Waller-Bridge might do.
posted by dlugoczaj at 1:00 PM on August 30, 2019 [1 favorite]


Oh, and I need to pick up on Letterkenny. I watched the first few seasons on Hulu (my boss and I are fascinated by the language and speech patterns) and I knew they put up a couple more but for some reason I always forget that when I'm looking for something to watch. (That and I often want something to watch when I need to turn the TV down really low so wife can sleep--the TV's right on the other side of the bedroom wall--and that just doesn't work with Letterkenny.)
posted by dlugoczaj at 1:03 PM on August 30, 2019 [1 favorite]


Oh also my partner just introduced me to the 1986 David Byrne film True Stories which has a pleasant, warm kind of mad genius to it. Highly recommended.
posted by Phobos the Space Potato at 1:14 PM on August 30, 2019 [2 favorites]


Coming to the end of an Always Sunny In Philadelphia background rewatch. Only ever seen it once when binging NetFlix before and, wow! does some of it reek. Enjoyed enough episodes to stick with it and look up from my main focus (telling people they're wrong on the internet).

Prior to that, by way of interrogating half-remembered televisual phantasms of my early youth, I treated myself to A Very Peculiar Practice. It's a mid-late '80s comedy-drama series about Peter Davison (Fifth Doctor Great And Small) being a Peter Davison-y lowercase-d doc-tor in a jobbing university's medical centre and being bounced around by the petty politics? Never realised it was written by Andrew Davies (sexer-upper of various classics for TV, writer of the OG House Of Cards and purported author of Jane Austen's final novel). There were some good episodes and it was a fun watch, though by no means deserves its place in The Guardian's Top n TV Series Ever. The '90s A Very Polish Practice one-off was decent enough too.

Next up count me in on TEAM DARK CRYSTAL. Fanfare here I come!
posted by I'm always feeling, Blue at 2:22 PM on August 30, 2019 [1 favorite]


Currently: Lodge 49 (season 2 is getting good), On Becoming a God in Central Florida (Kirsten Dunst is great, as is the rest of the cast), and The Righteous Gemstones (I'm enjoying the awkward comedy so far, and have added Eastbound and Down and Vice Principals to my to-watch list), and slowly making my way through Patriot.

Also watching Brooklyn Nine-Nine in fits and starts, as a nice half hour sitcom. Still in season 1, I think.

Previously: Perpetual Grace, LTD (weird/western noir + New Mexico landscapes = insta-watch for me, and it was worth it, thanks to sylvanshine), Archer (season 11 will happen!), Strange Angel (supposedly getting a 3rd season!), NOS4A2 (ehh ... yeah), Neon Genesis Evangelion (oh, yeah!), and farther back, Warrior (hell yeah! Based on an unproduced pitch by the late Bruce Lee, a period-type piece focusing on the Chinese experience in San Francisco, set during the Tong Wars in the late 1800s -- thanks DirtyOldTown!).

[Almost all links to FanFare show pages, so beware spoilers in descriptions and all that]
posted by filthy light thief at 2:28 PM on August 30, 2019 [3 favorites]


Corner Gas, Amazon Prime, Canadian. Just about every cast member is annoying as hell constantly or sporadically, but still a gentle funny sitcom. 6 seasons, plus 2 animated seasons (haven't seen those).

I have to admit to So You Think You Can Dance (Hulu). This season is kinda bad, but I hope Mariah takes it. Her partner Bailey is pretty great, too.

Admit #2, new season of The Voice starting soon with coaches Blake Shelton, Kelly Clarkson, John Legend, Gwen Stefani. Gwen has been kind of a bad coach in the past but she and Blake should have a fun rivalry. Show may be much improved with Adam gone. Kelly's Clarkson's unbridled enthusiasm for her team (and in general) has made the show better and John Legend is just the coolest.

Gotta hit Season 3 of The Good Place and latest Great British Baking Show.
Team Dark Crystal for sure.
posted by Glinn at 2:39 PM on August 30, 2019 [1 favorite]


I continue in my quest to watch through every movie that has ever been in any edition of the 1001 Movies To See Before You Die books.

I just hit the just-after-World-War-II stuff. I still need to write my review for Out Of The Past and then I have the DVD for Monsieur Verdoux, so that should be tonight.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 2:42 PM on August 30, 2019 [3 favorites]


I was recently housesitting for someone, and whenever I housesit, I take advantage of streaming Prime to watch lots of Murder, She Wrote. It's been long enough since I saw the first couple seasons that I can rewatch all those episodes without getting bored. I like to fill up my Instagram feed with choice JB Fletcher moments as I come across them, and these are always way more popular with my friends than things from my actual life.

I visited a friend a few months ago and got HER hooked on Murder, She Wrote. She recently showed me @angelafansbury, and now I feel like there are other secret 30-something JB Fletcher fans out there. I have another good friend who is a fan, and I feel like the common story among all of us is that we've each come to realize that we didn't "ironically" like the show as much as we thought we did (for me, it was seeing a recurring character get married and realizing I was laughing WITH the show at all the series in-jokes). But there's also still the ridiculous stuff like how callous she can be about someone who has recently died ("I noticed he didn't seem very well-liked ha ha!"), the awkward 80's big-hair relationship subplots, or even just the little gems like the expressions Angela Lansbury makes in close-ups when she's actively listening to someone. Or the episodes where she plays her own British cousin who sounds fake-Bri'ish, even though she is actually from England. Or just accents in general on that show, especially the colorful interpretations of Mainer accents.

What a show. I look forward to my next housesitting gig.
posted by shapes that haunt the dusk at 3:16 PM on August 30, 2019 [5 favorites]


And the dark horse: Great British Sewing Bee. It unexpectedly caught our hearts.

Forgot to say, the Sewing Bee is always Great and I was really pleased when it made a comeback. Thought it was gone for good in the post-Claud[ia] hiatus. Joe grew on me as this series went on and I loved how his banter with the contenders developed as they all got to know each other over the weeks. Some really good theme episodes too.
posted by I'm always feeling, Blue at 3:39 PM on August 30, 2019 [1 favorite]


So glad I read this thread! Designing Women! New season of GBBO! Yay!
So, I just watched the final ep of GOT. My son cancelled the subscription before I could watch it, so out of guilt, he re-subbed yesterday so we could watch it. I had already read all of the reviews and followed the FanFare threads and I thought it was much better than everyone else did. I get the disappointment that folks were feeling but I still thought it was good.
I have been watching The Handmaid’s Tale sporadically but still have ep 13 left, so.
I tried Stranger Things but can’t seem to catch the bug that everyone else has. Made it through 3 eps and gave up.
posted by sundrop at 3:39 PM on August 30, 2019 [1 favorite]


shapes that haunt the dusk, I adore Murder, She Wrote. I quickly started noticing how often the episodes pass the Bechdel test, and how refreshing that is.

Also, I get a rush from all the future vertigo. In the very first episode, Jessica is being mugged, and says to the mugger “I — I’ll call the police!” The mugger responds with extensive sarcasm, “What, you got a phone in your bag?” It is just an incredible exchange to hear in the late 20-teens when you were alive in the 1980s. Also, later episodes involve the concepts of self-driving cars, modems, virtual reality, and HDTV.

Also, I think most Star Trek cast members appeared on Murder, She Wrote. I kept running across them and going “Wait a minute, is that…” and it always was.
posted by snowmentality at 3:47 PM on August 30, 2019 [4 favorites]


I'm so excited about the new season of the Great British Baking show but it's going to be competing with Patriot for long-weekend vegetating; just started it last night and am two episodes in and am absolutely *loving* so far. Shouldn't have let the title put me off for so long.
posted by charmedimsure at 4:04 PM on August 30, 2019


Mostly I've been catching up on Bob's Burgers, with occasional breaks for the latest Battlebots episodes on the weekends. I have a few shows on Prime I'd like to watch (The Boys, Carnival Row) but also have the ancient 2 DVDs by mail subscription on Netflix and I'm contemplating an upgrade to streaming so I won't have Dark Crystal FOMO.
posted by The Ardship of Cambry at 4:14 PM on August 30, 2019 [1 favorite]


Some of my recent favorite comedy shows include Alternatino, Sherman's Showcase, The Black Lady Sketch Show, and Los Espookys. Eagerly awaiting new seasons of The Good Place, Documentary Now, Corporate, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, and High Maintenence.

Favorite recent standup includes My Favorite Shapes by Julio Torres, Ideas Not Worth Spreading by Ian Talk, Emily Heller's Ice Thickeners, Simon Amstell's Set Free, Ellen Degeneres' Relateable, Flo and Joan Alive on Stage, Tiffany Haddish Presents, They Ready, especially Flame Monroe and Chaunté Wayans, and Katherine Ryan: Glitter Room.

Favorite recent speculative shows include Years and Years, Preacher, Lodge 49, Black Mirror, The Man in the High Castle, Philip K. Dick's Electric Dreams. Eagerly awaiting Westworld.

Favorite recent movies include Sword of Trust and The Favourite.

Favorite recent dramas include Killing Eve, Fleabag, Godless, Euphoria, Mindhunter, and Chernobyl. Eagerly awaiting new seasons of Patriot, and Kidding.

Favorite recent documentaries include Bathtubs Over Broadway, the Lost Art of Szukalski, The Amazing Jonathan Documentary, and The Great Hack.
posted by Stanczyk at 4:19 PM on August 30, 2019 [4 favorites]


It appears I'm watching Still Standing because our internet is out and it's the best thing I can find on free to air. I recently watched Glow season 3, Derry Girls Season 2 and Good Omens and enjoyed all of them. I may now have a bit of a crush on Michael Sheen and am looking forward to checking out Prodigal Son when it starts next month.
posted by Kris10_b at 4:26 PM on August 30, 2019


Just watched Hail Satan? I am not much exposed to creeping theocracy here in New England or maybe I just miss it but this documentary reminded me to be alarmed. It's funny too.
posted by Botanizer at 4:37 PM on August 30, 2019 [1 favorite]


I am nearing the end of a three-year project to watch the entire run of Bones
posted by bq at 5:02 PM on August 30, 2019


Finished Jane The Virgin and we're halfway through s3 of GLOW.
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 5:30 PM on August 30, 2019


Is Bones worth it?
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 5:31 PM on August 30, 2019


It’s definitely worth it if you enjoy stupid procedurals with 12 seasons of character baggage and don’t mind gore. It’s my knitting TV.
posted by bq at 5:48 PM on August 30, 2019 [2 favorites]


I watched The Bachelorette this summer and now I'm watching Bachelor in Paradise and friends, it is trash, but it is trash in the way of watching beautiful people do stupid things that affect nobody but themselves and it's such a good mindless thing to be amused by. I've been watching Fosse/Verdon now that it's on Hulu, and it's good but a lot less fun. Also watched Derry Girls and Glow. For some reason, I've been putting off Fleabag.

My boyfriend and I are enmeshed in a variety of shows. We're about halfway finished with Killing Eve, Season 2 but we had to stop now that The Good Place Season 3 is on Netflix so that we can watch Season 4 as it happens. I still need to finish Babylon Berlin so I'll be ready when the new season is available. I want to watch The Terror as well, but promised we'd watch that together so I can't start yet.

Also watching lots of sports - I watched a lot of cricket this spring and summer between the Indian Premier League and the world cup, and I've seen some Formula 1 races - and now that college football season is upon us I may watch some OSU football. The new head coach went to my high school, and I'm thinking I might get some Central swag to send to my old PhD supervisor to get back in his good graces.
posted by ChuraChura at 5:57 PM on August 30, 2019


I am going back and rewatching the first few seasons of ER. It’s just so damn good!
posted by sallybrown at 6:02 PM on August 30, 2019 [4 favorites]


I have to admit to So You Think You Can Dance (Hulu). This season is kinda bad, but I hope Mariah takes it. Her partner Bailey is pretty great, too.

#TeamMariahAndBailey !!!
posted by filthy light thief at 6:18 PM on August 30, 2019 [4 favorites]


A friend of mine, knowing how much I like Sci Fi, recommended The Expanse to me a couple weeks ago. I have to admit I've been pleasantly surprised by it.
posted by Roger Pittman at 6:30 PM on August 30, 2019 [2 favorites]


I pretty much fell in love with Robson Green (Geordi) on Grantchester, so I've been watching him in the UK version of Touching Evil. I watch a lot of American procedurals, but nobody would expect me to like this because I don't like dark shows. (I like happy, happy shows.) The late 90s "internet" is laughable, and the Amazon Prime captioning is so, so mistake-ridden, but apparently I'll watch Robson Green, dreamy-eyed, in anything.

(I binged the entirety of Game of Thrones in the spring over the course of two weeks so I could finish with everyone else, even though I had read every single spoiler over the prior 7 years. So I decided watching something I'd never even heard of might be something to do.
posted by The Wrong Kind of Cheese at 7:00 PM on August 30, 2019


The final season of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. OK, laugh, haha! But Twilight Sparkle is the most engaging character I've known in a decade. I was skeptical when Hasbro announced Equestria Girls, the first movie spun off of MLP:FIM. But EG convinced me (this is a story point) that what I loved about Twilight was universal: she's smart, kind, earnest to help everypony (*slap*) everybody to be their best. The theme of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic is that we all can be redeemed. Even monsters like Nightmare Moon, Discord, Sunset Shimmer and Starlight Glimmer, each of whom could be extinction-level events, can learn better and become friends.

I love this show so much. I've written fanfiction about it and I have soundtracks in my head about the characters. I don't apologize. At the end of the day, Lauren Faust's vision of a story about girls going on adventures and doing interesting things, has been my soul support for almost a decade.
posted by SPrintF at 7:36 PM on August 30, 2019 [7 favorites]


Dark Phoenix set me off on a string of Michael Fassbender movies that has taken me to some dark places, man. This is a man who apparently does not know how to say "no" to a script. I don't know if I've ever seen an action movie quite as unwatchable as Assassin's Creed. And then he turns around and is all, "yes, let me be in your gruelling indie about sex addiction where I walk around buck naked and it's just sad."
posted by praemunire at 7:39 PM on August 30, 2019 [4 favorites]


Good to see you back here, Fizz!

I literally was just talking about this elsewhere (sorry if you've heard me say this already) but the short answer for me right now is Captain Marvel. I'm late to the party and only saw it this month. I had not read any of the comics, but the movie blew my mind and I have been thinking about it pretty much every day since I've seen it.

Slightly longer answer:

I'm still processing why it's made such an impact on me. It's definitely unearthed some things about myself that I hadn't thought of for many years. I wrote more about it in an even longer comment in FanFare a few days ago, in an attempt to convey a few reasons why I found the movie so powerful.

One thing I didn't mention in that comment is how much I loved movies as a kid, and was set on a career in film production; I pursued it well into my 20s. I applied and got into my first choice film school (but I went to a different school, long story). I interned for a production company, took writing classes, helped out on a couple of indie shorts. I studied and analyzed many many movies, old and new. But things changed, and it became clear that the kind of stories I wanted to tell would be super difficult for a stable career, so I went in a different direction. I eventually lost touch with the industry and what was happening, and stopped watching as many movies. (I guess this would also be appropriate for the "mistaken identities" thread.)

When I can, I've been going through Captain Marvel again: rewatching scenes, paying closer attention to the dialogue, taking notes. Anyone who knows me IRL knows that I tend to do this kind of close study for media I love: songs, TV, etc. But I haven't wanted to do this for a movie in over a decade. I keep thinking as I watch: "this feels unprecedented" or "why does this feel significant" and then reviewing again to see if I can figure it out -- I mean overall story, rather than nitpicking plot points or continuity (which I also track, but they're not my main concern). It's made me excited about film in a way I haven't been for ages.

(And TV-wise I've always had a soft spot for detective shows with great locations, even if I have to ignore certain parts of the writing. e.g. Vera, and Shetland are a couple that I've seen all of so far and plan to keep watching. I also need to finish She-Ra season 3 and Doctor Who 11.)
posted by rangefinder 1.4 at 7:46 PM on August 30, 2019 [6 favorites]


I have extremely narrow tastes in TV and just the other day was struggling to find something new to watch. I had not watched the new Queer Eye ever before but I near binge watched the whole she-bang when the latest season came out. Of recent stuff I've enjoyed The Good Place and Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, but there's so much stuff that other people seem to like that doesn't click for me (most recently Schitt's Creek and Fleabag). I watched the first 2 eps of Good Omens and it was ok enough that I'll probably watch the rest of what's available. So this is just to say, thank you for everyone who has recommended, Letterkenny, it is extremely my jam and I watched two episodes tonight and did, indeed, have to pause the TV because I was laughing so hard at one point.
posted by drlith at 8:05 PM on August 30, 2019 [1 favorite]


For everyone who found the first ep of Good Omens slow (and/or excessively self-satisfied), I say, stick with it til the end of the cold open of the third ep. If you're not feeling it by then, you won't--but there's a good chance you'll be turned around.
posted by praemunire at 8:09 PM on August 30, 2019 [2 favorites]


I'm obsessed with Succession to a degree that is vaguely humiliating. But WOW such a good show.

I also binged the new season of 13 Reasons Why because teen dramas are weirdly still and maybe forever will be my ~thing.~ Wouldn't necessarily recommend it, though. The acting is good and the writing is way better this season (in my opinion) but the show can get too disturbing -- both because of its subject matter and because sometimes it seems like in the world of the show, US society has by and large failed to evolve past the social conventions of 1967. Makes one feel a bit hopeless.

Oh, that reminds me, I watched Euphoria, HBO's new teen drama. It grew on me. The look of the show is phenomenal, the acting is good, and there are one or two characters that are interesting enough to carry it. (I liked the drug dealer a lot, Kat's got an interesting storyline, and Maddy and Cassie feel like girls that I could have gone to high school with, so I've got an enormous soft spot for them). The writing is a little off, though. I feel like it's not true to itself somehow? Like it tries to be too gritty or too artsy or too "too" at times when it needs to be more grounded or dig deeper instead. That seems like a small thing but I think it undermines the show kind of a lot. It gets hard to feel invested in the characters and their world when the "spell" is constantly breaking and you're constantly being reminded by these tiny little false notes that you're just watching the story that somebody wrote, not living characters in a living universe.

The guy I'm seeing loves the West Wing and we watched the pilot together because, despite being a political AND TV junkie, I've never seen it. It was really good! But depressing to watch in today's climate.

Trying to like The Mighty Gemstones because I can tell it's a good show. But I'm not connecting with it yet somehow.

Guys, why is The Expanse not coming back for months and months still? We've been waiting forever already.

I'm trying to watch the second season of Mindhunter, but it is slow, slow going.

I also watched The Boys and the final season of Orange is the New Black pretty recently. Homelander is a freak, isn't he? I don't really care about "the boys" of The Boys, and I feel like Starlight's powers are more interesting than her personality, so I wish her storylines were more about the former and less about the latter, but DAMN is Homelander nuts, right? I also love how they're the "talent" in this corporate milieu. Not a great show but an interesting show, and well-made. The final season of OitNB was fantastic and Maritza still haunts me. I think about her a lot.
posted by rue72 at 9:05 PM on August 30, 2019 [2 favorites]


Oh, yes, also watching So You Think You Can Dance, which I have loved since its first season. The cut to one hour rather than two bummed me out this year, but it seems like they've gone back up.
posted by lazuli at 9:06 PM on August 30, 2019 [2 favorites]


You'd think "Dark" would have been up my alley, but I struggled to keep track of it. *shrug*

Yah, me too. I don't think I got through the first season.

Bordertown(finnish)

I was enjoying this until it reached a point where I was just like, "Does everything bad in this town have to happen to this family?"

Northern European foreign cop drama passion aka "Nordic Noir"

Give Black Spot (also on Netflix) a whirl - it's French rather than N. European but it's got a similar feel to at least some of the shows you listed. It seems to kinda be aiming at the same thing as "Dark" but does it better, IMO.
posted by soundguy99 at 10:54 PM on August 30, 2019 [1 favorite]


Black Spot/Zone Blanche !!! By turns funny and weird and supernatural and messed up and surprising and and and. I’ve totally enjoyed everything about it. The other day I got this total shock, though: I turned it on and for some reason it self-selected the dubbing into English language option and wow! The voices! Yikes! In the original the major has a slightly deep woman’s voice (she’s late thirties early forties, has a kid) and in the dubbed thing she’s... way more ‘girly’. It was deeply off-putting. So, read subtitles because the dub is crap. Unfortunately the subtitles don’t really do justice to the humor (dry, off hand) when it comes which is generally very subtly played by the actors who are, all, terrific.
And - to go on a little more, a big part of the overarching story is that the forest will kill you and it brings up a lot of issues about modern man’s slightly ambiguous relationship with nature. I gotta say I dig it.
My sister’s been pestering me to watch Letterkenny and though I caught the first few episodes when they first came out, I haven’t seen any beyond that but have it on my to do list.
Saw Killing Eve On an airplane recently, got through about five episodes and thought it was brilliant and will look for more. The acting there, as well, is tops and maybe the only reason it isn’t utterly ridiculous (because it is ridiculous).
Mindhunter was also very satisfying, and in light of the recent new reports out of St Louis, illustrative of ‘institutional racism’ writ large.
posted by From Bklyn at 12:15 AM on August 31, 2019 [2 favorites]


Someone finally talked me into Bojack Horseman but there’s only so much my little heart can take, so it’s slow going.

Mr. eirias and I are just finishing up Stranger Things 3. It’s... more of a B movie than I remember earlier seasons being. But I’m still engaged with the characters and I still love that it’s an intergenerational show. Next up will either be the final season of OITNB or season 3 of The Good Place.
posted by eirias at 1:41 AM on August 31, 2019 [2 favorites]


Glad to see you back Fizz!

I watched and loved Free Solo recently, and as a former climber it sparked a love of climbing documentaries! I’ve also watched Meru, The Dawn Wall, and Valley Uprising.

I’ve had trouble with TV since fibromyalgia messed up my concentration, but I happy to say I made it through a whole series! Diagnosis, on fanfare but it doesn’t seem to have been as popular with others!
posted by ellieBOA at 1:58 AM on August 31, 2019 [3 favorites]


It turned out my SO hadn't seen the Dark Crystal, so we watched that tonight. The skeksis and the little nature scenes are of course amazing. One thing I didn't notice years ago is that they go from a shot of a weird animal who just saved the idiot Jen's life to the skeksis eating that type of animal at their feast scene.

As a kid I thought it was slow, but in 2019 watching a 90-minute movie is like bam bam bam bam, wow such effciient.
posted by fleacircus at 2:45 AM on August 31, 2019 [1 favorite]


....Yeah, so I need to admit to myself:

I got a Roku this week, which I told myself was an investment in "oh this will let me cast to the TV a couple of random streaming services I need for movies for my blog". But this week it's also been an exercise in "eeeeee now it's easier to stream the shows on Netflix that I haven't been able to before let's now bingewatch Sense8 again and oh hey the latest Great British Baking Show let's watch that too".

Most of the movies are on Netflix DVD, so the immediacy of viewing is just seducing me a little right now, it'll pass.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 5:10 AM on August 31, 2019 [1 favorite]


On The West Wing: It was really good! But depressing to watch in today's climate.

Watching The West Wing in 2019.

Especially poignant is watching the last season, the campaign between young Latino Congressman Matt Santos and smart, reasonable Republican old-timer Arnold Vinick.

I've also been enjoying an Australian kid's show Dance Academy. The romantic subplots get a little boring sometimes, but my wife assures me that they are an accurate and probably didactic depiction of the mistakes people make when they start dating as teenagers.

Mostly, I watch for this one tragic character who works way harder than any of the others, and is technically among the best, but just doesn't have the body for professional ballet.

And, indeed, as I watch some of the choreography these actors pull off, it's humbling to realize that these are the ones who didn't even have a shot at professional careers.
posted by meaty shoe puppet at 5:50 AM on August 31, 2019 [2 favorites]


I am currently obsessed with The Repair shop, which is currently on iPlayer in large chunks. It’s a) soothing and b) amazing to watch the repair works, especially the ceramic restorer Kirsten Ramsay, who I think might actually be a witch, her repairs are magical.
posted by halcyonday at 6:14 AM on August 31, 2019


A properly curated media collection can be a satisfying thing. I finally bothered to figure out what that Plex app was on my tv, Tivo, and Roku. What a game changer; now it's all arranged like Netflix/Hulu, and the sort function is handy AF. I noticed I had The Goonies, so that's on the agenda this morning (never seen it). Last night I watched a few episodes of Chico and the Man, a show I vaguely recall liking as a kid; it's... fascinating. I have an xx-long holiday weekend, so it'll be a learning staycation (as in: learning what all I have in there).

Still working on getting it all matched and my drives sorted so that every single thing is recognized and playable, but that's half the fun, right?
posted by heyho at 8:10 AM on August 31, 2019


This season of anime is a bit meh. Or I've been cursed by the binge watch. I was slightly disappointed by Invader Zim but just because I thought it was going to be a series and it's a movie. Now that I know Dark Crystal is out... that will be really soon now. Weekends are "is there an F1 race this weekend". I totally have this inherited from my father and go-karts and screaming around in a tiny little machine taking twists and turns.

I finally ditched cable but discovered streaming cable sort of thing and the joys of DVR and just clicking record and then being able to skip through commercials.

I'm slowly going through a re-watch of Reboot because it's quite punny.
posted by zengargoyle at 10:00 AM on August 31, 2019 [1 favorite]


halcyonday I love The Repair Shop! Watched that and Love Your Garden while I was home.
posted by ellieBOA at 12:22 PM on August 31, 2019 [1 favorite]


I just finished season 2 of Into the Badlands. One more season. It's entertaining enough and has aMAZing fight scenes. TW for lots and lots and lots of blood and gore. Great villains. In the past year or so I've binged these (in no particular order) and would recommend all except the last one, depending on your taste:

-Better Call Saul - so great, possibly fave of all
-Schitt’s Creek - so great. ew, David
-Halt and Catch Fire - really great 80s drama about 4 problematic early adopters coding computer software and video games, highly recommend, just finished watching it last week and want to watch it again
-Stranger Things - good, ofc
-Santa Clarita Diet - good
-Punisher - good
-Iron Fist - good, has fleshed-out, likable characters except for Danny Rand, the Iron Fist, who is an idiot and was really miscast imo
-Daredevil - good
-Red Road - has Jason Momoa, pretty good but ended unsatisfyingly due to be cancelled with cliffhangers
-The Umbrella Academy - good, visually very appealing, well cast, looking forward to a second season
-Longmire - good modern western procedural with characters you grow to really care about
-Broadchurch - really great acting and scenery, whodunit procedural, I just love Olivia Colman
-Happy Valley - very good; female-driven procedural, the acting is off the charts amazing, good story and atmosphere
-Master of None - good
-A Series of Unfortunate Events - meh, the only one of all of these that I would not recommend. As one or two episodes it's actually decently entertaining, but it's the same thing over and over again; they get sent to a caregiver, things happen, the caregiver dies, Count Olaf comes to get them and twirls his moustaches menacingly. Admittedly I did not even finish the first season, it remains the only show I've binged that I didn't stay with.

Next three on my list: When They See Us, Lodge 49, Hinterland (supposedly a procedural somewhat like Broadchurch but set in Wales instead of England)
posted by the webmistress at 1:18 PM on August 31, 2019


I failed to notice with my earlier comment that this thread was supposed to be politics-free. So as an apology, here are upbeat, non-political shows we finished recently that we love:

Fallet (Swedish crime spoof, intelligent, funny, feminist)
Special (autobiographical by and starring Ryan O'Connell about being gay and having cerebral palsy -- it's mostly hilarious, though I should say that the last episode takes a different tone)
Kim's Convenience (Warm & funny family and friendships. So proud that Canada is producing lots of excellent tv!)
Tuca & Bertie (from the linked interview with creator Lisa Hanawalt: "some people are really going to hate it, and that's fine. I'm sure a lot of men on 4chan will be pissed off" haHAhaha!)
posted by cybercoitus interruptus at 12:53 AM on September 1, 2019 [2 favorites]


Watching Season 2 of Mindhunter and determined to watch the whole thing but we'll see. I'm so bad at watching TV and can never seem to finish seasons; the list of series that I've bailed on is probably longer than the ones that I've finished. I get excited when I start a new series but always get bored with it after half a dozen episodes and my viewing starts to trail off.
posted by octothorpe at 4:45 PM on September 1, 2019


We are working our way through Jane the Virgin.
posted by COD at 5:07 PM on September 1, 2019


I was a good girl and posted my review of Out Of The Past so I could watch Monsieur Verdoux. It's gonna be overcast and rainy all day today (Labor Day) here in NYC, so everyone did their BBQs and picnics yesterday; so today is going to be devoted to bingewatching Sense8 and Great British Baking Show while puttering around the house ("puttering" is for me defined by cooking and knitting, ahhhhh).
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 7:09 AM on September 2, 2019


I'm up to the embroidery stage of a wall hanging I'm making, which means tv has to be something I've seen before that I can listen to and look away from. For this, I've been watching Criminal Minds and Umbrella Academy, since that seems to be the kind of mood I'm in.

The wall hanging is coming along.
posted by bile and syntax at 7:21 AM on September 2, 2019 [4 favorites]


I've been too tired to do anything but catch reruns of the original Law and Order. They're going through what I consider my personal golden years of the franchise - Green and Briscoe under Van Buren, McCoy with Carmichael and Schiff (then Lewin, then Southerlyn, then Branch - so basically most of Briscoe's tenure I guess!) - and it's like comfort food mixed with crack. It's also depressing because, uh, I'm black, and complicated feelings about the criminal justice system and police overreach and all sorts of other things that I didn't think about when I was a kid.

But Jack McCoy made me want to be a lawyer (and also be Mrs. McCoy #3), and I wanted to be Anita Van Buren when I grew up. (Also I'd still probably marry a cynical ex-Catholic workaholic attorney who bent rules like straws today, jUST SAYING)
posted by Freeze Peach at 9:17 AM on September 2, 2019 [6 favorites]


Heh; the McCoy/Briscoe era of Law and Order is also when I was doing theater, and so I would regularly see people I'd done shows with turn up as extras in episodes. Even more of them turned up in Law and Order SVU - one night I saw two actors from two completely different shows turn up in the same episode (the fiddle player from the folk opera in 2007 was a witness Finn and Munch talked to in Act 1, and the guy who played the father in Fool For Love in 2002 was the Guy Who Dunnit).

I'm pretty sure that the last thing I see before I die will be an episode of Law and Order that's been cast by everyone I've ever met.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 8:02 AM on September 3, 2019 [3 favorites]


I love Maigret on Mhz -- that and Beck, Bukow and König and, oh, yes, Lulu the Bankrobber's Wife.
posted by y2karl at 1:18 PM on September 3, 2019


And let's not forget Nicholas Le Floch, a gritty police procedural set in pre-revolutionary France. Mhz can really rock.
posted by y2karl at 1:24 PM on September 3, 2019


Hinterland (supposedly a procedural somewhat like Broadchurch but set in Wales instead of England)

I really enjoyed Hinterland. The acting is good, and the scenery and characters are interesting. I actually thought the mysteries were intriguing and well done too. Unlike Broadchurch, each mystery is contained and there isn't a season long investigation (although I think they have some characters pop up more than once and there are some personal subplots). Anyway I recommend it.
posted by JenMarie at 1:28 PM on September 3, 2019


TV I've really enjoyed over the past several weeks - A Black Lady Sketch Show, Alternatino, Los Espookys (and writer/actor/performer/spaceprince Julio Torres' special "My Favorite Shapes" which is so low-key amazing that we keep putting crystals on tiny chairs and laughing about it weeks later.)

We switched cable companies from TWC/Spectrum to ATT and seemingly right after that, CBS went away, so most of the past season of Elementary didn't end up on the DVR. So, we just got a free week of CBS All Access so we could catch up and watch the finale as well. Ahhhh I forgot how much I loved that show, and I will be sad to not have future seasons to look forward to. I especially loved googling Joan Watson's outfits, but the core four cast (Watson, Holmes, Bell, Gregson) were just wonderful and worked so well together.
posted by 41swans at 4:57 AM on September 4, 2019


Just finished Good Omens and thought it was terribly cute. If you like Good Omens, then you'll like Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency, which should be on Netflix and which Good Omens kept reminding me of.

Just finished Fleabag season 2 and my god, what a show! Laughed and cried and it's so, so perfect.
posted by vivzan at 9:14 AM on September 4, 2019 [3 favorites]


Rookie Historian Goo Hae-ryung. it was recommended to me by another librarian and I am addicted. it has feminism, history, romance, family dynamics, integrity...and all the characters are easy on the eyes.

also since it's Korean it is super great to just see a show that *is* Asian - not just one character. the subtitles seem well done.
posted by biggreenplant at 12:10 PM on September 5, 2019 [2 favorites]


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