'Whatchu Watching About, Willis?!' DIGRESSION ALERT: Please, for the love of all that is, don't call it that. 2.

Aye that was indeed a cracking episode as for the books though?

Spoiler:

That is a quality gif! Bloody Cypher, insult to all bald men, like Janos Slynt.

After finishing House Of Cards S5 - still not back to its best, I would say, although it did pick up somewhat - we've moved to Better Call Saul S2. Just finished the third ep. We've got a mind to start Stranger Things next. Boy howdy, there's sure a lot of this Net Flicks to go around!

Better Call Saul is astounding TV. Hope you enjoy it, Zero!

A tumble of telly has emerged all at once: must be the Autumn schedule, or something. The New Great British Bake Off has sprouted, moth-like, from its chrysalis, and it's not so bad, actually. There was one cringey moment of very forced joking from the new presenting team but, on the whole, I think it's going to work well. The ever joyful Celebrity MasterChef

DIGRESSION ALERT: I was thinking a few days ago that 'chef' is the French for 'chief', so we're essentially watching 'MasterChief'. I nearly told Drunka this realisation but forgot.

is back, which I like a great deal. Strike, the detective series about Robert Galbraith/JK Rowling's fictional PI, appeared a few days ago and is nice, although neither of the main characters look like they do in my head. Lastly, we've rocketed through Better Call Saul, with only two more episodes of the second series to go.

ZeroJones wrote:

DIGRESSION ALERT: I was thinking a few days ago that 'chef' is the French for 'chief', so we're essentially watching 'MasterChief'. I nearly told Drunka this realisation but forgot.

This pleases me greatly.

Yeah, I'm also on board for the GBBO. I know it's weird being on a different time and no Mel and no Sue and no Mary, but anything with Noel Fielding in is a good'n. I know he's a bit weird, but I've noticed that whenever he's with the "public" he's really nice to everyone.

I'm not a huge fan of Mighty Boosh, but I've always liked Noel himself. He seems genuinely a bit pleasantly weird, rather than it being an act.

I am warming to Noel, whose comedy I find difficult to enjoy consistently. I've always liked the efficient dry charm that Sandi Toksvig brings to the table... but the pair haven't gelled especially well, I fear. It's not disastrous, by any stretch; it's just a bit lacking.

In other news, we finished Better Call Saul S3. Jo has asked me to write to the producers to see if we can't get the first episode of S4 somehow.

Zero, that court episode . . .

I - I know. It was so expertly played by everyone. However...

Spoiler:

The drama, though... great, great stuff.

It was explained in earlier episodes:

Spoiler:

It was done so well, because of the characterisations. The result should have felt like a victory but it was just painful.

Chaps, especially Jas-like chaps: I need advice. The Lady has just pressed me into buying seasons 6 and 7 of Supernatural. I'm told they're bobbins by everyone else. Is this true? Do they ever start getting better again? If so, when? Thanking you.

I thought those were OK from what I can remember, it was from season 9 on wards where they started retreading old ground for me.

I don't know what to believe any more.

Just personal opinion innit? I don't actually know or talk to a lot of folk who like Supernatural so I'm in this wee bubble not knowing what the general opinion is from the majority of fans. I do know that Season 6 is where Kripke stepped down from being full time show runner so maybe that's why folk don't like it?

I will say this though even if I happen to dislike an overall season of the show because of the general story arc there will still be a handful of episodes I really enjoyed.

I finished Bojack Horseman season 4 yesterday and I think I can comfortably say it is my favourite television show.

The Last Leg's back. It's comfortably settled into being essential viewing at Zero Castle.

Anyone watched any Star Trek Discovery?

masofdas wrote:

Anyone watched any Star Trek Discovery?

Yeah, I watched the first couple. It's good, though I'm still disappointed we've got a militaristic prequel series in the vein of the films rather than a true sequel with lots of science and socialism and hippy-dippy philosophising and the great healing of Vulcan and Romulus.

Interested in Star Trek Discovery

DIGRESSION ALERT: STD? Really?

but my wife is emphatically not. Speaking of the lovely Jo, she has become addicted to Escape To The Château, a Channel 4 series about a couple who go to live in France (though why you would want to escape to the cat water is anyone's guess).

The 100th episode of Person of Interest, and it has once again reminded me why it's one of the most compelling shows in modern times. Between the fake-outs, the deaths, and the game-changers I have no idea how this is going to end in three episodes time. Five years following the series and it all ends tomorrow in one last binge, absolutely cannot wait. If there's one aspect this series is unparalleled at its the season finishers. To a season they've been intense, twisty, sometimes mind-bendy, edge-of-the seat affairs.

Those last ten minutes. . . Whew. You know those times when everything about a show just sends shivers up your spine? Those last ten minutes were exactly that. Haven't had those feels since Doctor Who's Heaven Sent (you know, that episode).

I've watched the first 3 episodes of STD and I really like it but like most prequels just seems odd they have better tech then what comes after.

At least they film it in space & on a real spaceship too though eh?

Ah, the sweet satisfaction of concluding a multi-season show on a high.  Is there a better feeling out there as far as TV is concerned?  Nope.  

God I love this series, it's brilliant on so many levels.  Part thriller, part spy-movie, part street-level superhero show, part sci-fi, all awesome.  At times intelligent, at others brilliantly self-aware, and at others incredibly emotional.  

I went into this expecting, to be completely blunt, a bleaker ending than even nortoriously brutal shows like Game of Thrones.  The nature of the shows ultimate conflict had the undertone that nobody was walking away alive, so it leaves me happy to see things weren't quiet that bleak after getting to know and love the cast over the five seasons.  

Actual spoilers:

The show went out strongly, at the right time.  In an age where series seem to go on forever this series, being criminally underwatched, actually arguably benefitted from it.  No dragging out after a fitting end-point, no stretching of material to the point it loses its impact, no contrived new elements to the point you start asking "where the f*** have all these villains been hiding during the course of all these seasons!?".  Just four seasons of slow epic escalation and a fifth of condensed glory and awesomeness to bring everything to a close.  



Know how many pieces of fiction have got my eyes leaking over the years?  None.  As emotional as the series 9 finale of Doctor Who was I didn't shed more than perhaps one tear.  I don't cry over fictional entertainment, it's just not something I do.  So it's safe to say I was pretty surprised I found myself with some streams running down my face during the last episode.  

I ask myself why.  Why do I care more about this set of characters more than, say, the fates of people in other technically well-done series like Game of Thrones?  Ultimately I believe it comes down to how a piece of fiction treats it characters.  A work of fiction that treats its cast as expendable (whether it makes good on those threats or not, looking at you Attack on Titan) cannot ever hope to truly capture the heart and mind of a viewer.  The more overtly ruthless a story is the more likely a viewer is to put up mental blocks to prevent overt attachement to them.  

It's a concept that was, in a way, present in the show.  Who is relevant and who is irrelevant.  Characters, heroes (and some major villains), were treated as in-expendable.  There were of course a few deaths, but the fact the series itself treated them as in-expendable made them hurt.


I know I sound like I'm ragging on Game of Thrones a bit here, it's a comparison that is getting a bit old at this point, but as probably one of the only shows everyone has actually watched it makes the best thing to compare to (well, that and my tone might also hint why I haven't actually continued it despite my previously positive reaction to it), it is the best example that illistrates my point.  



And I think that's enough typing of a post nobody is going to bother to read.  I'm done getting my generally-non-spoiler-y thoughts off my chest after digesting things for a night and I'm off to place this on the shelf next to a select few shows as genuine treasures and spend the rest of my evening gaming.  Or reading, haven't decided which I feel like doing yet.