Topic: What's your favourite TV program of the moment?

[8ullfrog]

Tom Clancy hinted at the supernatural ONCE in Debt of Honor.

A Pilot kamikazi's a 747 into the capitol building, killing congress and the president. Jack Ryan is in a Tunnel beneath the building... for some reason. It's been a long time since I read it.

But the explosion... stops.  As in Jack Ryan is immune to an exploding 747, but no one else is. I found it fascinating, but the book doesn't dwell, it rolls right on from that.

But yeah, Jack Ryan is a Were-Reagan where everything just falls in line because he glares hard enough.

[6pairsofshoes]

I am slogging through Paul Scott's The Jewel in the Crown as we so enjoyed the PBS/BBC series that we were inspired to read the books.  There are 4 of them and they're not always easy going as they veer back and forth from action to documents (letters, diaries, etc.) with long descriptive passages that make for slow going.

I may resort to Andromeda Strain, although I might want a little escape from books about sickness.  I realize this is the TV thread, but if anyone has any sci fi recommendations, tv shows or books, I'm all ears.  They're a little easier to get into via escapist mode.

I'm a little tired of this state of siege.  I'll be glad when it's over.

[8ullfrog]

... Burn Notice? It's not sci-fi, but it's a departure from reality. Plus Michael Shanks plays a batshit insane character.

[6pairsofshoes]

Thanks to both of you.  I will check out Burn Notice.

I've read Dune and really enjoyed it.  Dune Messiah, not so much.  It suggested to me that the energy had run out in that series.  Oddly, I was reading Martin's the Song of Ice and Fire series and never tired of it, same with the various Expanse novels.  Ender's Game was very good.  Too bad the author is so vile a human being.  As for Dan Simmons, I read the Hyperion Cantos and the two related novels, at your suggestion, and enjoyed them as well.   You know, I've never read Asimov's Foundation series.

I did see the first episode of Black Mirror, involving blackmail and getting up close and personal with a member of the porcine species.  It was pretty dark.  I don't know if the husband is up to more of that.  If not I might pursue that.  We liked season 1 of The Terror but the first episode of the second season was so gratuitously and graphically violent that we gave up after a short time, electing not to finish the episode.

If my German were better, I'd be finishing the Gereon Rath series by Volker Kutscher (the guy behind the Babylon Berlin series).  I've read everything that's been translated into English, thus far.  The third season of Babylon Berlin is out, but so far I've only been able to find it dubbed into Russian, and beyond "Nyet" and "Da," I'm pretty much hopeless there.

[8ullfrog]

Burn notice is interesting as it blends like, a 70's detective series, almost Rockford files, with some truly nasty spy drama. I found when it's fun it's great, when it's nasty, it's not so great. I believe the first season is mostly devoid of the really nasty stuff.

Plus it's utterly gorgeous to look at. USA network called that time it's "blue sky" era, and it very much lives up to that.

[6pairsofshoes]

Cool.  I didn't realize it was a series.  I'll rustle around and see if I can find it.

[8ullfrog]

that site I sent you a while back should have it.

At least you didn't slum as low as Lois & Clark. Holy hell I had to shut that off mid-pilot.

[6pairsofshoes]

It's on amazon prime video.

[8ullfrog]

That's fantastic, let me know what you think of Mr. Westen.

[6pairsofshoes]

We watched the pilot tonight.  Mixed reactions.  I thought it had promise.  We'll probably watch another episode.  It's a sweet little show and the main guy sort of grows on you, although the plots are sort of predictable.

I really like Jett, which seems to be in Florida but not quite sure of where it is.  I guess they're making more of that.  I'm not sure what I'll watch tonight, but I'll try to rustle something up.

[6pairsofshoes]

I've not seen "Once upon a time" and hadn't heard of it before now.  We like Robert Carlyle.  I can rummage around and see if I can locate it somewhere.

I tried a couple of shows on amazonprime last night and gave up after about 20 minutes.  Finally, ended up viewing the 1st episode of the third season of Ozark.  Laura Linney is a displaced housewife who is hell bent on making money while extricating self from obligations to Mexican drug kingpin that her husband was laundering money for.  They've managed to set up an extensive casino/resort complex in the Missouri Ozarks.  Her husband is also trying to find ways to run a legitimate business while getting out from under the shadow of the criminal empire he was tied to.  He was a brilliant accountant.  His partner back in Chicago embezzled money from the kingpin & was shot before our main character.  His entire family was threatened and they fled to the Ozarks to save their lives.  The understanding with the drug lord was that they'd take the money, launder it, and make lots more of it and channel it into legitimate
sources so he'd be on a sounder footing.  The family has some trouble adjusting but they find a web of corruption already in place that has to be dealt with, thereby doubling the problems they have to climb over to get safe.

The odd mix of characters in this series is imaginative and well constructed.  There's a fine supporting cast.  It's not a happy feel good show by any stretch of the imagination, rather a continual spiraling down.  It's impossible to see this ending happily but the path is engaging enough to continue watching.

[6pairsofshoes]

Reading Foundation now.

We started watching Benedict Cumberbatch in Patrick Melrose.  First episode was kind of hard to watch as the guy is a profligate addict and spends money like water.  Not much to like there, but BC can act.  We'll watch another episode as it shows promise.

[8ullfrog]

Ayy Goldshirt, Picard finally wrapped up. I can't say I'm happy with where they went with it, but I can't say I was surprised.

People thought Picard was going to bring hope back to Star Trek, and be a balm for fans who bless'ed despised Discovery.

Nope, it's essentially a discovery spinoff. Bad decisions, bad plots, and the creator (Chabon) "explains" things on instagram.

If you can't sell it in the source, don't bless'ed try to sell it on instagram!

Either way, Picard Season 1 is now finished, so if you want to watch it, you can. I'm not sure anyone should.

[6pairsofshoes]

amazon prime:   Tales from The Loop.
Odd, somewhat supernatural tales from a small Ohio town governed by a mysterious subterranean physics laboratory.  What do they study there?  Who can say?  Odd tech enters into the variety of stories that are told per episode.

It's kind of like poignant Outer Limits with better production quality and a string soundtrack.  I've seen 4 episodes.  Not the best tv ever, but respectable story writing and well acted.

[6pairsofshoes]

amazon prime.  Wired.

Bank fraud with bad guys, their victims, cops with conflicted loyalties, stressed and conflicted single mothers, Laurence Fox as bad guy.  Not terrible but made infinitely worse by a sound track that insists that this is a "high paced compelling drama" which it ain't.  If I could mute the stupid background music, it might be easier to stomach.  Kind of a lame show.  Ok if you are too tired to change the channel.  The UK has a wonderful culture of theatre with fine actors, so many of whom appear in this show it is the British equivalent of a WPA project.  But the writing and acting is heavy handed.  Sometimes it's better just to go to sleep.