Really? Because I'm with The Quince, it looks absolutely shite.
Really? Because I'm with The Quince, it looks absolutely shite.
I started watching The North Water last night and it's quite good. The book I thought was really good when I read it and they seem to be doing an alright job. It's got a good cast and all the shots of them in the Arctic are great. I do like old-school nautical settings, for some reason. It's very reminiscent of the first season of The Terror actually, but it would take some doing to top that. That was class.
It's on the list.
Agree on The Terror. Tremendous tele.
Love on the Spectrum S2 is the one.
I like it, but I don't love it.Originally Posted by Manc
Vigil.
Reserve the right to change my mind next week though.
Agree with that. It's got some of the right ingredients but it's also a bit meh.
It's all a bit contrived but the baldy jock Taggart guy holds it together.
I have a theory it was originally a tightly scripted 2/3 parter but when they spunked all that money on the set they decided they needed to bulk it out a bit to justify the outlay.
Foundation out today on Apple TV+. First two episodes dropping today I think.
Hard to see how they can possibly work such a multi-era-spanning story, but I’m excited nonetheless. It’s got Jared Harris and Lee Pace. Initial reviews are generally positive, but I think it’ll take a lot of scene-setting to establish the plot, so it could be a slow burner.
Thanks for this. Started it last night and it's a welcome break from the drug fuelled world of LA.
I will definitely be giving this a go, but I do know what you mean in terms of the difficulty of adapting it. I've only read the first book, and it was a while ago now, but I recall quite a lot of it just being quite lengthly exposition. Like conversations between people in rooms talking about what was going on rather than much in the way of action.
I liked it a lot, don't get me wrong. The whole "Psychohistory" thing is cool and a really unique plot device. I just imagine they will have to build a fair bit into it for a successful TV adaptation. The cast is good though, as you say. As a general rule of thumb I will watch anything with Jared Harris in it.
Squid Game on Netflix is good.
Sharks no longer doing it for you?
I think I've rewatched about half of the entire run of the wire in the last few weeks just by going down the rabbit hole of watching clips on youtube. I had convinced myself the sopranos was better, but I've gone back the other way now.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-58699058
Can't argue with that casting. I was thinking how they'd try to be authentic about the whole thing and then realised the BBC were making it.
Weak ending to Vigil.
Why would anyone want to go anywhere near that from Savile's perspective? He did exactly what he wanted his entire life and got away with every single aspect of it - I can't see how that makes for anything close to worthwhile viewing.
6 hours of torturous flashbacks so Silvas 'arc' could be resolved, pure tosh. So many plot threads just dropped and ignored. Rose Leslie deserves a crack at one of these as the lead.
I liked it, but didn't realise it was the last episode until wife told me with 15 mins to go.
They could call it The Yorkshireman and tell his bullshit version of events with a voiceover. Rob Brydon as Gary Glitter.
Who was that bloke from The Thick of It who claimed he only had a load of child porn on his hard drive as 'research for a role'.
Maybe just trying to build in an excuse for later.
Chris Langham.
I don't understand why Coogan wants to be in it or why the BBC want to make it.
There's some bullshit in that piece about a story that needs to be told - it has been already from the perspective of the victims over the years since he died. How do you portray it from his perspective anyway? Bit of light groping at the opticians, before moving onto raping mental patients at Broadmoor and finishing off with the corpses at the mortuary in Leeds general?
In their minds it’s probably their own way of ‘getting’ him in retrospect seeing as the same organisation let him away with everything his whole life. Make themselves feel better.
I can hear the statement following it's predictably poor reception already.
"In hindsight, it was in error..."
It's true crime innit, apparently people love this shit.
And Steve's been wanting to bring his Saville impressions back since Spitting Image.
They do, and I do myself, but where there's some sort of resolution. If ever there was an example of "people get what they deserve" being absolute horseshit, it's this.
Yeah, Vigil was pretty wank in the end for any number of reasons.
Spend 5 and 3/4 episodes desperately trying to avoid having to 'surface the boat' and then just do it on your own terms once the DRAMA was over.
Having some random rogue guy just going about merrily murdering people and undertaking massive acts of sabotage on a pretty casual "just need to duck out to vom guv" basis in what you would imagine would be a fairly secure environment generally.
Having about 4 million people per square inch until something nefarious was afoot when it was like Piggy's floor on Manhunt all of a sudden.
Then there's the broader question as to whether in geopolitical terms Russia would risk starting a nuclear war for lols, which seemed to be the plot device on offer.
I joked about it earlier but Coogan did legit kick off about that Chris Langham being called a pedo so maybe its spite.
I am struggling to imagine the story arc for a Savile drama. It's not like making a thing about Levi Bellfield where a doughty cop catches him in the end. With Savile there are no heroes.
Indeed and the stuff he did is pretty much un-broadcastable in anything more than an implied sense, so no clue where there'll go with it.
Maybe that's the point though?
"Three Girls" was a bit like that, although th woman working st the Sexual Health Clinic kind if ticks the hero box, I guess.
They'd probably do the same here.
The "hero" is going to be Coleen fucking Nolan, isn't it?
Last edited by Spikey M; 26-09-2021 at 10:15 PM.
They will just imply it. Three Girls did that well too. It was pretty distressing despite not actually seeing anything.
Did he actually? Lol.
I mean, if you were doing that for research purposes you'd presumably realise it'd be good to tell/ask someone in authority first.
I watched that and it was good, but imagine that with the scum involved doing what they did with impunity until the day they died.
They can imply what they like, but there has to be some kind of relatable protagonist and/or narrative arc for it to work. I would say if you were going to make a drama about the subject the only way you could do it would be to tell the story of the post-death whistleblowing and the effect on the victims, and to frame the man himself as a towering unseen menace from the past, rather than hiring Alan Partridge to play him.
The only way you do it is by making everyone who watches it angry at how it was allowed to happen. Making a Murderer but with the alternative title 'Enabling a Nonce'.
It just sounds like complete and utter shit. I, for one, will not be watching it because I'm not a nonce.
That's what a nonce would say.
Heres my angle on how you do it, you have Saville do Saville but the story is actually about those in power covering it up.
Good summation. The Russia/anti trident angle never really sat right for me. It seemed to bail out of the Russia doing it for more than the political lols which seemed like a whole lot of effort for a bit of a chance vote ("they'll never vote for it now" o rly?)
I did like the Russian terminator at the end. Just needed him to melt into some molten lava.
Re Saville: I'm reading Ecstasy at the moment and the second novel inside it is just all about him. Shagging dead bodies in hospitals for fun. Irvine Welsh wrote that in 96 as well.
Squid Game is excellent and should be watched by all.
That has caught my eye. Will check it out.
Halfway through episode one of the new Taskmaster and it seems like it’s gonna be dreadful.
Tempted to rewatch series two of the NZ one.
I'm a twit
Midnight Mass on Netflix is tedious beyond words. Don't bother.
Watching the last of Vigil tonight, I've avoided reading the posts on it but I've seen enough to expect a disappointing end to what has been a bit of an underwhelming show.
After 3 or 4 boring episodes I perserved with this and it picks up.
It's unnecessarily long but once it gets going it's pretty good. Great concept, execution... meh.
I've been quite enjoying Shooter on Netflix. It's not great but it's fairly entertaining.
At the end of S1 of the Terror. It's bloody brill.
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