Finished TV series—who watches?

[Brian Boru]

I can't recall the last time I watched a fiction series live, ie one episode per week—roughly 8-10 years ago I suppose. We now watch mostly shows which have finished, or have a few seasons done and seem promising.

Mainstay are Brit cop & mystery shows. If you like US cop shows, then you may want to avoid—there are very few shootouts, car chases or explosions. Low-key slow-paced typically, more focused on the characters than the action.

Funnily enough, currently watching a short French cop show which I'll briefly cover when done—only 16 episodes.

Do you have a similar habit?

 

[Brian Boru]

Currently we're taking a break in the middle of a Harlan Coben spree. Netflix are going to bring 14 of his works to the screen, and there are 5-6 already available. Seen 3 so far, rate them in the 75-80 range.

They're faster paced than many Brit shows, lots of characters which are difficult to keep track of at times, good suspense for the 8 episodes in each. Good casts, good acting, and just all-round well worth watching if you like that kind of show.

Safe 80
Michael C. Hall [Dexter] is the main US 'name', surrounded by a very capable cast—incl the excellent Gemma Arterton's younger sister Hannah, who has a prominent role.

The Stranger 80
Richard Armitage [MI-5/Spooks], Stephen Rea [The Crying Game], and Anthony Head [Buffy, Merlin] are the names I knew, again with a fine supporting cast.

Stay Close 75
Richard Armitage again, plus a good cast. Starts a bit iffy but then finds its feet.

 

[DXCHASE]

I tend to watch a huge variety of finished and unfinished shows. A lot of the series i watch i am forced to watch on a weekly basis if i remember to torrent them. (Star Trek Discovery/Its Always Sunny In Philadelphia/Picard/Foundation/Curb Your Enthusiasm/American Dad/Family Guy etc.). Paramount Plus, HBO Plus, AppleTV etc. usually have shows that they only release 1 episode a week.

I occasionally binge-watch series with the latest being Cobra Kai (Started watching from season 1 about a month ago and finished it up about a week ago now). I tend to not like to binge so quickly, i usually relegate it to 1 episode a night during dinner but then sometimes ill relax and watch 1 or 2 more after.

 

[Zloth]

I've only just started on these new-fangled TV shows. I got used to waiting for them to come out then buying them on DVD/BluRay. And even then, I only watch when I'm eating.)

I did watch Wheel of Time weekly and even watched the whole show instead of cutting off whenever it was time to clean off the dishes.

 

[Brian Boru]

I tend to not like to binge so quickly, i usually relegate it to 1 episode a night during dinner

I only watch when I'm eating

Yeah, same for me, 2 episodes over dinner, unless it's a 90-minute show like Midsomer Murders—took us nearly 5 months to get thru that one!

 

[Brian Boru]

currently watching a short French cop show which I'll briefly cover when done—only 16 episodes

With a lot of sports going on, only got to finish this about a week ago.

Black Spot 2017
Suliane Brahim
Hubert Delattre
Laurent Capelluto
Cop show in a remote French town, it's a cross between a less-crazy Twin Peaks and a less-horror Blair Witch—the small town on the edge of a menacing forest. 16 x 50+ minutes episodes.

I loved the atmosphere thruout, and mostly a very decent cast, with nice pacing. Each episode has a case to solve, and there are also a couple of series-long story arcs running alongside. Very well done.
8/10

 

[Brian Boru]

Gone for Good
Finnegan Oldfield
Nicolas Duvauchelle
Guillaume Gouix
I hope this is the weakest of the Harlan Coben adaptations Netflix are doing. Script isn't great, which doesn't help a mostly so-so cast, but the main problem is the editing—there's at times nearly continuous skipping between present day, 10 years ago, and occasionally 3 years ago.

Tough luck if you miss the small date flashing up on screen—not an ideal series to watch while eating, the number of times we asked each other "Are we back to present day?" was way too much.

It's Coben staples about past and hidden family secrets upsetting the applecart in the present. It's not bad, but is annoying. Only 5 x ~50-min episodes in all, thankfully.
5/10

 

[Brian Boru]

Capitani 2019
Luc Schiltz
Sophie Mousel
Claude De Demo
First show I've seen set in and made by Luxembourg, so I was hoping to like it—but I didn't. Story is standard okay—outside cop investigating murder in small town full of secrets—but the implementation is poor. I don't look for plot holes, but when they're thrown in my face…

Acting is generally overdone, and the pacing is off—sometimes drags, sometimes rushes thru important events.
4/10

 

[Brian Boru]

The Innocent
Mario Casas
Xavi Sáez
Santi Pons
This is an excellent Netflix Spanish crime suspense set in Barcelona, based on a Harlan Coben book. 8 x 1-hour episodes.

I don't know any of the cast, but they're a strong group working with good material and direction. Editing and pacing are very good.

Subject matter is mature and dark—sex trafficking, prostitution—with plenty of gore and violence towards women. I usually don't like those depictions, because they're usually gratuitous, but they fit with the sordid storyline here.

9/10

 

[Brian Boru]

Unbelievable 2019
Kaitlyn Dever
Merritt Wever
Toni Collette
Another very good mature drama. 8 x ~50-min episodes of police tracking a serial rapist in the USA north-west—sadly, based on real events.
Cast are excellent. It's a little slow in places, but otherwise is well directed etc.

8/10

Now settling into Supernatural, so see y'all at year's end if we stay with it!

 

[Krud]

I've watched a few shows in "realtime" somewhat recently, like "Only Murders In The Building" (Steve Martin, Martin Short, Selena Gomez), and before that I watched some of the Marvel quasi-series (Wandavision, Loki, etc) as they released, but otherwise I tend to hold off until it's near the end of its run and then play catchup. (I do that in the hopes of the finale not being spoiled for me, because I learned my lesson with... *pause* actually, I can't even remember any more which show was spoiled for me, I just remember it was all over social media so there was no surprise twist/reveal when I watched it.)

 

[Brian Boru]

Now settling into Supernatural, so see y'all at year's end if we stay with it

We didn't, ditched it last week in season 4. It's got 15 seasons, over 300 x 44m episodes.

Supernatural 2005
Jared Padalecki
Jensen Ackles
Jim Beaver
It's okay, I didn't mind watching it, and didn't mind dumping it—just a time filler. I imagine its longevity for 15 seasons is due to the 2 cute lead guys being popular with younger girls—they're your typical Dawsons Creek guys, and over-acting most of the time.

We ditched it because it became too repetitive and gory, likely signs that the story is going to get crazy and there will be cracks papered over with lurid visuals and loud noises. Still, not bad.
55/100

 

[Brian Boru]

Hold Tight
Magdalena Boczarska
Leszek Lichota
Grzegorz Damiecki
This is good, another Harlan Coben 6-episode mystery/thriller set in Warsaw and well dubbed in English.

There are no gunfights or car chases or explosions, so it takes its time to move along and can confuse at times—had to backtrack a couple of times to recall who was who.

Cast are all Polish and very good. It's slow but consistently so, all in all well done.
7/10

PS it may be better to watch the one in the next post—The Woods—first, since it's also Warsaw with 2 of the same characters, and happens before this one. But I don't think stories are connected—but not clear yet.

 

[Brian Boru]

The Woods
Grzegorz Damiecki
Agnieszka Grochowska
Hubert Milkowski
Not as good a Harlan Coben 6-episode mystery/thriller as Hold Tight. I found it quite confusing, and a number of plot holes or unexplained events didn't help. It looks like poor screenplay and poor execution, since the cast are good and the scenarios are good.
55/100

 

[Brian Boru]

Grace and Frankie 2015
Jane Fonda
Lily Tomlin
Sam Waterston
Martin Sheen
Comedy farce rated 8.2 on IMDb, but didn't quite do it for me—not one I want to rewatch. Stellar cast, wasted to a degree by writing and execution. Lily is great in it and gets many of the best lines, and I enjoyed June Diane Raphael's bitchy performance also.

94 x 30-min episodes over 7 seasons, just finished.

Spoiler: Plot spoiler

Sam & Lily, and Jane & Martin, have been married for decades—Sam & Martin also business partners, while Jane & Lily are opposites who can't stand each other.

The kicker is that Sam & Martin have been lovers for most of the time. That's discovered, the women kick 'em out into one of their houses and the women live in the other house. That's the start, the show goes on from there.

Try a few episodes, you might love it.

6/10

 

[Brian Boru]

The Newsroom 2012, 25 x 55m episodes over 3 seasons.
Jeff Daniels
Emily Mortimer
John Gallagher Jr.
Alison Pill
Olivia Munn
Sam Waterston
Thomas Sadoski
Jane Fonda
This is simple—you'll feel about this the same way you felt about The West Wing. Same brilliant writer Aaron Sorkin, same style of execution. The Wet Swing is 10/10 for me, so The Newsroom is 9/10—can't really stand beside TWW's 155 episodes over 8 seasons.

It's all about a cable news operation. One big plus is they have real news, rather than the fictional events of TWW.

Cast is fine, no weak link in the main ones above. Jeff is great as the main anchor, and Jane has some great scenes in a supporting role. Alison Pill is new to me, and caught my eye as the other stand-out.

9/10

 

[Brian Boru]

The Lincoln Lawyer
I'll try to get back to flesh this out a bit.
Not bad, 6/10

PS ah, I won't bother
You're not missing anything, but it's watchable without high expectations.

 

[SleepingDog]

Poltergeist: The Legacy
Recently finished the first season (for the 3rd time?) of this supernatural thriller. "The Legacy" are a group of supernatural hunters who protect humans (usually) from supernatural events. While the series is the "monster per week" variety it's strength is the story and how the weak and puny humans find solutions to problems. This is not the Supernatural "all monsters are bad and need to be beheaded" type of show. It looks for cause, effect and solutions.

There is some interesting interactions between people in the group though jumping into bed with each other does not appear to be one. There is little violent action but when it occurs it is a necessary part of the story. Identity politics is in some episodes but it tends to be subtle rather than in your face - so you tend to say of course that is wrong rather than do you think I don't know right from wrong?

The bad news is that the series is from 1996 so the picture quality is bad by today standards and the special effects are often naff. But I will repeat that the strengths are the story and the characters so I can see me watching it again.

There are 22 episodes each 42 minutes long.

 

[Brian Boru]

Poltergeist: The Legacy
Recently finished the first season … There are 22 episodes

Just for others, there are 4 seasons and 87 episodes in total.

I watched it ~20 years ago and enjoyed it, I rate it 7/10 Good.

 

[Brian Boru]

Evil 2019, 37 x 47-min episodes over 4 seasons so far.
Michael Emerson
Katja Herbers
Mike Colter
Aasif Mandvi
This starts out well, but we switched off towards end of season 2 when it moved to substituting interesting plots with violence and gore—figure it was running out of ideas.

Michael is his brilliant self, Katja is very good, Aasif is also quite good, and Mike is okay.

Supernatural angels and demons stuff, Michael is one of the devil's top guys while the other 3 are a team hired by the Catholic church to investigate events.

65/100 for the first ~15 episodes.

 

[Brian Boru]

Anatomy of a Scandal 2022, 6 x ~45-min episodes, mini-series.
Sienna Miller
Rupert Friend
Michelle Dockery
The first 4 episodes are good 75/100 stuff, but then the plot loses the plot—as in, there are 2 ridiculous occurrences in the last 2 episodes which ruin the immersion/credibility.

It's your standard English politician having an affair and accused of rape story. Sienna is good, others okay. It's generally well done apart from the plot—writing is good, and supporting cast are good. Editing a bit questionable at times, ie why did we have that scene?

6/10

 

[SleepingDog]

Just for others, there are 4 seasons and 87 episodes in total.

I watched it ~20 years ago and enjoyed it, I rate it 7/10 Good.

Brian is spot on - the problem is that the other seasons appear to be available only in the USA and the complete series DVD (all 4 seasons) only came out in 2017. So for us UK people it means spending £50 to £60 on a US import and needing, I think, a DVD region 1 player.

 

[SleepingDog]

Evil 2019, 37 x 47-min episodes over 4 seasons so far.

This starts out well, but we switched off towards end of season 2 when it moved to substituting interesting plots with violence and gore—figure it was running out of ideas.

Michael is his brilliant self, Katja is very good, Aasif is also quite good, and Mike is okay.

Supernatural angels and demons stuff, Michael is one of the devil's top guys while the other 3 are a team hired by the Catholic church to investigate events.

65/100 for the first ~15 episodes.

Agree that there is a change in direction in the second series. The first is a bit more subtle - you can be almost believe that there was no supernatural agency and it was just human evil that was the cause of the problems. This was no longer the case in season 2.

The team is interesting ( a bit X-files) with a forensic psychologist, a scientist (neither believers) and a trainee priest. Some sexual tension exists. Background on the characters and how their work impacts those they love and protect. I would probably give the first season 75 or 80 but less for the second season.

 

[Brian Boru]

the other seasons appear to be available only in the USA

I don't see them apart from DVD on Amazon for $25. Hopefully it'll make a streaming service sometime, I'd like to give it a rerun.

I would probably give the first season 75 or 80

Yeah, I agree with that.

 

[SleepingDog]

Superman and Lois

There are two seasons of 15 episodes available in the UK on iPlayer. Each episodes is approximately 40 minutes long. Both series are available for over a year. It is broadcast in the 5pm slot on a Saturday so "family friendly".

The Beeb describes them as "relationships & romance" and "sci fi & fantasy" (though I would probably use superhero somewhere in the description). Superman and Lois decide to move to Smallville bringing their two teenage sons with them. So you would think that not much happens in Smallville - you could not be more wrong.

There is plenty of superhero stuff but I think that there is an equal amount about relationships/ friendships and romance. Unlike some other programmes I have seen there is the interaction between teens and parents which is treated seriously. Sibling rivalry is also explored.

Two main stars are Tyler Hoechlin as Clark Kent and Elizabeth Tulloch as Lois Lane.

I plan to watch them again and will try to see the 3rd season which was given the go ahead in March this year.