Do we live in a golden age of television?

[Raoul Duke]

I've been ploughing through The Last Kingdom recently. It's solid, but it feels a bit like the Writers of Merlin had a go at writing Game of Thrones.

Going to give Vikings: Valhalla a go afterwards.

I really like it. There's a movie out as well as the series, FYI

[Alex]

I've been ploughing through The Last Kingdom recently. It's solid, but it feels a bit like the Writers of Merlin had a go at writing Game of Thrones.

Going to give Vikings: Valhalla a go afterwards.

Obligatory "Destiny is all!" post.

This reminds me I need to watch the film.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Yeah I still haven't watched the film either.

I'll chuck in an obligatory UHTRED SON OF UHTRED.

[phonics]

It's very good. Not in comparison to actual films but if you want more Last Kingdom, it does what it says on the tin. A series of events where Utred goes 'Don't do X or bad things will happen' and then they do X and somehow its Utreds fault that bad things happen.

Also btw @Alex new mini series of Justified this summer.

[Ben]

I enjoyed The Last Kingdom and that kind of thing is very not my bag.

[Serj]

Yeah, The Last Kingdom, while clunky in places and definitely past its peak in the last season, maintained its quality better than Vikings, I thought. With the latter there were several points during seasons 5 & 6 when I almost quit watching.

Yet to watch the TLK film, though.

[Baz]

Although only at the start of season four, I'm keen to hear peoples opinions on The Wire's best-to-worst season order. Please no spoilery discussion, just some numbers would suffice. I think I'll end up 14532 but that's based on being four episodes into 4, and obviously seeing nothing of 5.

[wullie]

2 as the best is the hill I'll die on, 5 worst. Can't remember which of the rest I like most

[Ben]

It's been a long time since I watched and my order would probably change if I watched again. But off the top of my head it would be 4-3-5-1-2. I didn't have a hatred for season 2 like you have, it was good but didn't have the great finale like subsequent seasons did.

[Jimmy Floyd]

1, 2, 3 and 4 are all Great with a capital G. 5 is merely good. That's my take. I can't order the first four as it's different on each rewatch.

[Max Power]

4 has an added emotional heft with the kids that nudges it to the top for me.

43125

[Shindig]

31245

[Spikey M]

Yeah, The Last Kingdom, while clunky in places and definitely past its peak in the last season, maintained its quality better than Vikings, I thought. With the latter there were several points during seasons 5 & 6 when I almost quit watching.

Yet to watch the TLK film, though.

I'm on Season 5 now and it is definitely a drop off in quality. I'm not sure why they're turning Uhtred into such a bitch, either. Geezer has sobbed his way through every episode so far.

Should finish it tonight anyway. Film Tomorrow.

[Mike]

41225. Maybe swap 2 and 3. Maybe swap 4 and 1

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

I believe my ranking was always 4, 1, 2, 3, 5.

4 was definitely my favourite with 5 as the worst.

[Baz]

Worrying seeing everyone say 5 is worse than 2.

[Boydy]

2 is brilliant. Frank Sobotka is a legend. You've just got shit taste.

[Jimmy Floyd]

2 is disorienting on first watch because it seems like a different show to what you were watching in 1, but once you've seen the rest it makes total sense. The key is that it isn't a cop show, it's a show about urban decay.

5 is more of a parable and so fans of gritty realism look away now.

[Mike]

Yeah, the second time you watch 2, it’s brilliant, it was just such a change that it was rough the first time around.
5 is a good season of a normal show, it just had such a high bar set by the other seasons. And it helped us all understand the correct use of evacuate.

[Bernanke]

I came into this thinking you were ranking Last Kingdom-seasons and was very confused all the way up to Frank Sobotka.

[Raoul Duke]

The crossover series we all want to see

[Shindig]

The docks is a Kingdom of lost products.

[igor_balis]

1, 2, 3 and 4 are all Great with a capital G. 5 is merely good. That's my take. I can't order the first four as it's different on each rewatch.

I'm currently on my billionth re-watch, and yeah, this is what I think too.

[Jimmy Floyd]

The 4th and most recent rewatch I did (last year, I think, or maybe 2021) was one of the most rewarding TV experiences I've ever had. Got far more out of it certainly than the first couple of times. I think that speaks partly to familiarity with who's who and what's happening (which is hard to follow first time especially if you're a Brit and not in with the lingo), and partly to the fact that I'm older and know more about life.

[igor_balis]

5 is more of a parable and so fans of gritty realism look away now.

S5 Spoilers

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I think there are a lot of problems with the final season. The McNulty serial killer plot is the obvious one, but equally important I think was the lack of development of the Newspaper characters. I never really cared about any of them, although Gus was alright I suppose. Possibly a symptom of them only having 10 episodes to work with. The only truly redeeming part of the serial killer plot was Norm pissing himself laughing and saying he wished he was still at the paper so he could write about it.

[Jimmy Floyd]

S5 Spoilers

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I think there are a lot of problems with the final season. The McNulty serial killer plot is the obvious one, but equally important I think was the lack of development of the Newspaper characters. I never really cared about any of them, although Gus was alright I suppose. Possibly a symptom of them only having 10 episodes to work with. The only truly redeeming part of the serial killer plot was Norm pissing himself laughing and saying he wished he was still at the paper so he could write about it.

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I agree on the newspaper characters, and also don't think it helps that it has dated worse than the other seasons - although the newspaper (like every other Baltimore institution covered in the series) is decaying, I don't think it quite captures what we now know which is that that entire world is heading very rapidly for the glue factory in a way that even the docks are not. If it had been made 5 years later it might have done so I guess. I also think there's quite a lot of Iraq and the concerns of the Iraq-era left/dems woven into the narrative (re truth and lies) which doesn't quite hit now in the way that the more timeless problems of S1-4 do.

[wullie]

Gus:

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I found him to be overly noble about his trade, like an avatar for David Simon that stood out a bit too much to be true. I remember The Newsroom was so rife with that kind of thing it felt like one big parody

[igor_balis]

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I agree on the newspaper characters, and also don't think it helps that it has dated worse than the other seasons - although the newspaper (like every other Baltimore institution covered in the series) is decaying, I don't think it quite captures what we now know which is that that entire world is heading very rapidly for the glue factory in a way that even the docks are not. If it had been made 5 years later it might have done so I guess. I also think there's quite a lot of Iraq and the concerns of the Iraq-era left/dems woven into the narrative (re truth and lies) which doesn't quite hit now in the way that the more timeless problems of S1-4 do.

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Yeah, agreed on all counts. Another issue is that I think a lot of the newspaper plotline was a chance for David Simon to settle personal grudges, with Gus a bit of an overly cool self-insert.

[igor_balis]

Gus:

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I found him to be overly noble about his trade, like an avatar for David Simon that stood out a bit too much to be true. I remember The Newsroom was so rife with that kind of thing it felt like one big parody

haha snap

[Disco]

I tolerated 4 because of how good 1-3 were and the less said about 5 the better, annoying from start to finish.

[phonics]

I don't think any show has let me down more than The Newsroom. It thought it was so important while being so full of shit that, in a way, it almost perfectly captured why the media became irrelevant to the zeitgeist over night. Just watch this scene:



Also on the sly probably the most sexist, anti-woman show never to be criticsed for it.

[Shindig]

Nobody gave that a pass and thought, "Why would the disruptive passenger be allowed to see the pilot?" Or, "There's a plane full of people reading the news? All at the same time?"

[Spikey M]

I don't think any show has let me down more than The Newsroom. It thought it was so important while being so full of shit that, in a way, it almost perfectly captured why the media became irrelevant to the zeitgeist over night. Just watch this scene:



Also on the sly probably the most sexist, anti-woman show never to be criticsed for it.

The entirety of traditional media has disappeared up its own arsehole. Hollywood being the worst for it. It's quite something that the best TV/films these days are dubbed / subtitled foreign efforts.

[wullie]

Speaking of foreign TV

We like to try the Walter Presents stuff to be all fancy and that, last few we watched were Torn, a French show with stunning scenery where a woman returns to her old home town and her old boyfriend immediately throws his existing life away to jump on her, someone dies but not all is as it seems and one of the characters is a Michelin star chef.

Just followed that with A Deadly Union, a French show with stunning scenery where a woman returns to her old home town and her old boyfriend immediately throws his existing life away to jump on her, a few people die but not all is as it seems and one of the characters is a Michelin star chef.

It's the variety we love most.

Just started Vanished by the Lake, a French show with stunning scenery where a woman returns to her old home town and her old boyfriend immediately throws his existing life away to jump on her, however it appears someone has disappeared rather than died and nobody's yet a Michelin chef so it's a real breath of fresh air.

[hfswjyr]

I don't think any show has let me down more than The Newsroom. It thought it was so important while being so full of shit that, in a way, it almost perfectly captured why the media became irrelevant to the zeitgeist over night. Just watch this scene:



Also on the sly probably the most sexist, anti-woman show never to be criticsed for it.

No doubt the scene is cheesy as hell, (along with a whole lot of the final season) but The Newsroom had some brilliant TV escapism moments and was downright funny in other bits.

[Disco]

It was even further up it's own arse than the West Wing but without any of the charm, huge suits, or Martin Sheen.

[Ian]

I think I'm just over halfway through the first season of Succession now and (hot take) I am quite liking it. It's full of detestable cunts of course, all being unrelentingly awful to each other, but the writing and performances are good enough to get over that hump (I don't always get on with shows where the characters have so few redeeming features.)

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The episode with the vote of no confidence on Logan was brilliant and they ramped the tension up superbly, the best of the episodes I've watched so far.

[Jimmy Floyd]

I think that no-confidence episode was the point when it went (in my mind) from 'yeah, not bad' to 'fucking hell this is amazing' and it basically maintains that quality relentlessly from then until the penultimate episode which has just aired.

[Bernanke]

Yeah, the only real dip is early to mid S3, where they are spinning their wheels a bit, but at worst that is around where it was at early S1. The consistency and payoff of this last season is ridiculous.

[Ian]

I think that no-confidence episode was the point when it went (in my mind) from 'yeah, not bad' to 'fucking hell this is amazing' and it basically maintains that quality relentlessly from then until the penultimate episode which has just aired.

Certainly it's the first where I was actively thinking how good it was rather than how competently done it all is so if that's the sign of things to come then great.

[Boydy]

Once Upon a Time in Northern Ireland is absolutely fantastic (so far anyway, I've watched two of five episodes now).

[Ben]

Is it well balanced? A mate mentioned this yesterday and I'll probably give it a go at the weekend.

[Boydy]

Yeah, it's got people from all sides in it. There's been republicans, loyalists, British soldiers, victims. All just telling their own stories. It's not an easy watch though.

[Spikey M]

It is indeed a horrible accent.

[Alex]

Also btw @Alex new mini series of Justified this summer.

I've been waiting for this for ages! I knew it had been in the pipeline for a while but glad to see it has an actual release date. I will miss Boyd (I assume he won't be in it) and the interplay between them but Olyphant can carry it by himself easily.

[Boydy]

More Justified? I completely missed that post before.

[hfswjyr]

Series finale of The Marvelous Mrs Maisel tomorrow. Thank you to whoever in this thread convinced me to watch it. I'm not ready for it to end... I'm going to miss all these characters.

[Spikey M]

Yeah, it's got people from all sides in it. There's been republicans, loyalists, British soldiers, victims. All just telling their own stories. It's not an easy watch though.

I'd skip episode 4 if you've struggled with the first 2.

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the footage of the funeral kicking off is absolutely brutal

[Boydy]

Which funeral's that? I've probably seen most of the footage before. It's the people telling their own stories that gets to me. That woman whose brother was killed on Bloody Sunday and her father was also shot (but survived) trying to help her brother in the first episode and Michael McConville in the second episode had me in bits.

[Spikey M]

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The one with the cunt chucking grenades about. Then the following one where they found a couple of British soldiers in a car.

I don't know if spoilering a documentary is necessary, but I don't want to... erm... ruin(?) It for anyone.