Anything Good on TV ?

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  • caractacus pottscaractacus potts Orbital communicator, level 10Posts: 3,907MI6 Agent

    Napoleon Plural said:

    I am late to the party when it comes to the acclaimed US series Breaking Bad.

    I've never seen the show either but its on my to-watch list. Bryan Cranston played dentist Tim Watley, a recurring role on Seinfeld. Remember that time Jerry found a Penthouse in his dentist's waiting room and was told there was a new Adults Only policy? or the time the dentist converted to Judaism just so he could tell the jokes, so Jerry retaliated by telling dentist jokes and got called an anti-dentite bastard?

    He was also the dad in Malcolm in the Middle, a more conventional sitcom, but proving he's a good comic actor. So I'm curious to see how he is in something so dark as Breaking Bad would seem to be.

  • Napoleon PluralNapoleon Plural LondonPosts: 10,239MI6 Agent

    Not seen either of those, there are holes in my knowledge. Funny thing is, BB* isn't really that dark... the joke is - so far - that the character is not so dark, nor even the situations, but it could go that way. It's not a heavy watch. First series is only seven episodes so no hardship to get a taster.

    *Not Barbara Broccoli, she really is dark. She's sick, man! 😀

    "This is where we leave you Mr Bond."

    Roger Moore 1927-2017
  • HardyboyHardyboy Posts: 5,882Chief of Staff

    BREAKING BAD is an incredible show--it's got elements of Shakespearean tragedy, Dickensian whimsy, and even the Coen Bros. If anything, its prequel, BETTER CALL SAUL, the final season of which will start airing soon, might actually be even better. Love 'em both!

    Vox clamantis in deserto
  • caractacus pottscaractacus potts Orbital communicator, level 10Posts: 3,907MI6 Agent

    never seen Seinfeld Napoleon?!!? The show is the source of much of the English language as we speak it today, that is a hole in your knowledge!

    I think as a connoisseur of MAD magazine you would appreciate it, its only just barely a sitcom.

  • Napoleon PluralNapoleon Plural LondonPosts: 10,239MI6 Agent

    I saw bits of Seinfeld over the years but It became one of those series that's for the initiated. It didn't help that the BBC messed about with it in the schedules so it wasn't on at a regular time, plus you might get it mixed up with the Larry Sanders Show or whatever it was.

    It tended to get overshadowed by Cheers or Frasier, which Channel 4 showed to more acclaim - though their stuff never pulled more than 4 million viewers, small beer back then. Channel 4 seem to have given up on their classy US sitcom imports, they really should have snaffled The Big Bang Theory, it's totally them.

    "This is where we leave you Mr Bond."

    Roger Moore 1927-2017
  • caractacus pottscaractacus potts Orbital communicator, level 10Posts: 3,907MI6 Agent

    the dvd's are ubiquitous over here, don't know about Britain. You're right, Seinfeld is better if youre "initiated", so start at the beginning and progress chronologically. The jokes are usually funny on the surface to a first time viewer (especially Kramers physical comedy moves), but even within one episode theyre much funnier if youre really paying attention to how the plots been developing, and in later seasons you almost need a flow chart. Jokes reference information established from earlier episodes, and are cumulative, almost symphonic.* Also they dont really follow the conventional setup-punchline-reaction shot rhythm at all, the dialog comes really fast and the jokes come and go without being spoonfed to the audience.

    Those other sitcoms you mention are much more conventional, except maybe Larry Sanders which I've never really seen.



    *whats that Classical music form where they establish four themes, each form develops, varies, and interacts before resolving at the end? maybe I dont mean symphonic, but whatever that form is, Seinfeld was the sitcom equivalent. Very clever writing.

  • Number24Number24 NorwayPosts: 21,702MI6 Agent

    I remember my younger sister's male friends when she was in her late teens. There was a group of about five boys who'd grown up together and were very smart. One is in the leadership of a major environmental organisation, one is a musician married to a poet and one majored in philosophy and then married my sister. Listening to them talking was like an episode of Seinfeld. The long talks about unimportant stuff with a very dry witt and sometimes strangely absurd. When asked they said they ran out of things to say about important stuff years ago. 😂

  • CoolHandBondCoolHandBond Mactan IslandPosts: 6,030MI6 Agent

    ANGELA BLACK (2021)

    Joanne Froggatt stars as an abused housewife who may be suffering another mental breakdown, as the husband plots to section her and take the children. The first 5 episodes are pretty decent but once the denouement is known it all becomes pointless and the wife could have ended the whole saga after a couple of episodes, which leaves the viewer disappointed. Plot holes galore including the two protagonists who appear to have never heard of Hitchcock’s Strangers On A Train.

    Yeah, well, sometimes nothin' can be a real cool hand.
  • CoolHandBondCoolHandBond Mactan IslandPosts: 6,030MI6 Agent

    PSYCHOVILLE (2009-2011)

    This black comedy was written by Inside No. 9 duo Reece Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton and ran for two seasons. Five different people are connected by a blackmailer who sends them an identical note “I know what you did”.

    This is a brilliant series full of weird characters with the writers taking on multi-parts. Shearsmith and Pemberton are writers and actors supreme, creating extraordinary characters where few dare to explore. It’s programmes like this that make TV a pleasure.

    Incidentally one of the stories from Inside No. 9 now makes more sense to me as there is a crossover episode.

    Highly recommended and I’m only sorry that I missed it first time around.

    Yeah, well, sometimes nothin' can be a real cool hand.
  • Sir MilesSir Miles The Wrong Side Of The WardrobePosts: 26,417Chief of Staff

    Such a pity this ended after series 2…I think the intention was to continue…first time I saw Daniel Kaluuya as well…

    A very underrated show 🍸

    YNWA 97
  • CoolHandBondCoolHandBond Mactan IslandPosts: 6,030MI6 Agent

    LIFE ON MARS (2006-2007) 2 Series

    DCI Sam Tyler is mown down by a car in 2006 and seemingly awakens back in 1973, one rank lower as a DI. Hearing voices and seeing things on TV, Sam finds himself under the command of DCI Gene Hunt who makes The Sweeney’s Jack Reagan look like a choir boy, while he tries to make sense of his predicament.

    I saw this upon its original broadcast and its just as good, if not even better, than the first viewing. Philip Glenister is magnificent as the old fashioned DCI, fast with his fists and definitely non-pc attitude to life. The series is a great look at how policing has changed over the years and I was chuckling out loud at the contrast between Hunt and Tyler.

    Dean Andrews, Marshall Lancaster and Liz White play the back-up detectives with aplomb as they keep the streets of Manchester safe from the bad boys.

    Backed up by a wealth of brilliant 70’s music, this is a joy to watch and highly recommended.

    Yeah, well, sometimes nothin' can be a real cool hand.
  • Sir MilesSir Miles The Wrong Side Of The WardrobePosts: 26,417Chief of Staff

    I missed this series on its original broadcast…a good friend of mine badgered me to watch it, so when it was repeated I did just that…excellent series…very enjoyable…and quite a bit of it was filmed near to where I live.

    YNWA 97
  • chrisno1chrisno1 LondonPosts: 3,177MI6 Agent

    The Sound of Musicals, with Neil Brand, the third time I've watched this fascinating look at the history of the modern musical; a bit of a pick n mix, but interesting all the same.

  • CoolHandBondCoolHandBond Mactan IslandPosts: 6,030MI6 Agent

    It’s always more interesting to see places on film that you actually know, especially if you live nearby.

    I was about to watch the sequel, Ashes To Ashes, but it’s been removed from BritBox, I hope it returns soon.

    Yeah, well, sometimes nothin' can be a real cool hand.
  • CoolHandBondCoolHandBond Mactan IslandPosts: 6,030MI6 Agent

    A CHRISTMAS CAROL (1977)

    Unseen for over 40 years this BBC version has landed on BritBox and has a good cast with Michael Holdern as Scrooge and our own Bernard Lee, with an unconvincing heavy beard, as the Ghost Of Christmas Present.

    Ploddingly directed by Moria Armstrong this is a poverty row version of Charles Dickens’ classic book. I would imagine most of the low budget was spent on the cast that also has John Le Mesurier, Zoe Wanamaker and Christopher Biggins hamstrung by junior school sets and sketch drawings for outdoor scenes.

    The only real plus is that most of the dialogue is lifted directly from the pages of Dickens’ prose.

    The Alistair Sim and George C Scott versions are still the best ones to watch.

    Yeah, well, sometimes nothin' can be a real cool hand.
  • chrisno1chrisno1 LondonPosts: 3,177MI6 Agent
    edited December 2021

    I've just finished studying Dickens' A Christmas Carol for my O.U. course and they mention the Muppet version several times. Not even a murmur about Alistair Sim. @Gymkata I too consider The Muppet's Christmas Carol a very fine film. I watch it every year at Christmas. Another underrated version is the late Leslie Bricusse's Scrooge, with Albert Finney, an Oliver-lite delight of a musical. Best straight version, probably George C. Scott. Didn't Patrick Stewart do a turn? Wasn't the version reviewed above transmitted during the kids Sunday teatime slot? I vaguely remember it.

  • CoolHandBondCoolHandBond Mactan IslandPosts: 6,030MI6 Agent

    @Gymkata I did see the Guy Pearce version, I didn’t like the adaption because it changed too much of the original story, Scrooge never attempted to make Mrs Cratchit have sex with him, is one instance, being an aficionado of the book (in my top 10 favourite of all time), I don’t like too much deviation from the narrative, although filling in parts of Scrooge’s life, such as in Alastair Sim version, is perfect acceptable.

    I do like Muppet Christmas Carol, Michael Caine is superb.

    @chrisno1 Patrick Stewart did indeed do a version, it’s ok, but I’ve never been a fan of his overacting manner and it’s not one that I revisit often.

    I have no idea at which time the 1977 version was aired, I remember seeing it and being disappointed.

    Other adaptions I’ve enjoyed are Mister Magoo’s Christmas Carol (1962) , this was my first exposure to the story, and the 2009 Walt Disney motion capture version. Bill Murray’s Scrooged is also an interesting take on the story, as is the Ross Kemp updated version from 2000.

    Yeah, well, sometimes nothin' can be a real cool hand.
  • CoolHandBondCoolHandBond Mactan IslandPosts: 6,030MI6 Agent

    ARE YOU BEING SERVED Christmas Special 1975.

    The staff at Grace Brothers department store are called into an early meeting to discuss ways to boost the Christmas sales figures.

    This still has all the original lineup, although this is the last appearance of Mr Mash. The Carry On/Seaside postcard humour is in abundance here, what a brilliant job this cast did of making us laugh in the days when no one searched high and low to find something that offends them.

    Yeah, well, sometimes nothin' can be a real cool hand.
  • CoolHandBondCoolHandBond Mactan IslandPosts: 6,030MI6 Agent

    I’ve been watching a bunch of old Christmas specials of British TV comedies.

    STEPTOE AND SON (1973 and 1974) - High quality comedy

    DUTY FREE (1984) - Hugely entertaining

    WHATEVER HAPPENED TO THE LIKELY LADS? (1974) Superb - such a pity that the boys fell out in real life, this series could have run for years.

    SOME MOTHERS DO ‘AVE ‘EM (1974 and 1975) Slapstick comedy that perhaps has not aged too well, Michael Crawford is good though.

    TO THE MANOR BORN (1979) Amusing stuff.

    ONLY FOOLS AND HORSES (1981 and 1983) Hilarious adventures of Peckham’s finest residents!

    THE GOOD LIFE (1977) Very funny as posh neighbours have to make do with an “ordinary Christmas” and find its more fun.

    I’ve got a lot more to watch as well. This selection represents when comedy was sharp and witty, I had the misfortune of watching a few minutes of the current favourite, Mrs. Brown’s Boys, it’s enough to make you weep for times past.

    Yeah, well, sometimes nothin' can be a real cool hand.
  • CoolHandBondCoolHandBond Mactan IslandPosts: 6,030MI6 Agent

    BLACKADDER’S CHRISTMAS CAROL (1988)

    I can’t believe that I have never seen this one-off episode of the Blackadder series that I love so much.

    In a reversal of Scrooge, Blackadder is a kindly soul who does good by giving away all his income to good causes and is leeched upon by everyone who see him as a soft touch. The Spirit of Christmas visits him and shows him what could happen if he changed his way and became mean.

    This is very funny with several laugh out loud moments.

    it’s the forerunner to Blackadder Goes Forth, which has the most poignant ending of any comedy programme, ever.

    Yeah, well, sometimes nothin' can be a real cool hand.
  • chrisno1chrisno1 LondonPosts: 3,177MI6 Agent

    That's a good pick, although repeated viewings dull the laughter. The Good Life episode is a brilliant slice of seventies class culture. I like that these Christmas specials were a standard length, sometimes with little more than a sparkly tree in the background, before the days of double-length three-episode 'specials.'

  • Napoleon PluralNapoleon Plural LondonPosts: 10,239MI6 Agent

    You Don't Know Me

    BBC four part drama, trumpeted by some as having an all black cast, derided by one other - Camilla Long - on that it didn't require that, you could replace them with white actors and it wouldn't make much difference, which is arguably the point.

    Good acting, nice McGuffin, bit of padding as a car salesman is accused of murder and in the witness box summing up tries to explain how all the evidence that points to his guilt actually explains his innocence.

    Some nice twists, fine ensemble cast, but ultimately a bit of a shaggy dog story with one villain having our mate Safrin's level of resistance to gunshot at close range.

    "This is where we leave you Mr Bond."

    Roger Moore 1927-2017
  • chrisno1chrisno1 LondonPosts: 3,177MI6 Agent

    Started watching The Tourist on BBC. If you can overlook the glaring plot inconsistencies, especially regarding police procedure which are more glaring than glaring, its quite fun.

    Inside Dubai just made me feel very uncomfortable.

  • Napoleon PluralNapoleon Plural LondonPosts: 10,239MI6 Agent

    I suppose it's one way to kick of the New Year, dramas of two truly disgraceful police scandals, South Yorkshire Police and the notorious Met respectively, in Anne and 4 Lives. One is on ITV, the other BBC1 and at the same time over consecutive nights. It's like walking down a high street and being targeted by one chugger after another, a pre-pandemic phenomenon I now realise.

    Not that I'm in any way unsympathetic to either cause. It is of course disheartening for those of us older enough to recall the drama Hillsborough to realise that not much has changed since then, and the State has done everything in its power to run down the clock on any kind of complaints process. This is the same story with other massive scandals of the last 30 years in particular Contaminated Blood, the killings at Gosport and so on. They all close ranks. There was a verdict of unlawful killing at the football stadium, some 27 years after the event, but nobody has done jail time.

    The other drama depicted a more recent scandal, about how a serial killer - helped in part by the incompetence and disregard of Barking police to fulfil that title - picked up fellow gay blokes on Grindr dating website and killed them with a drug, leaving two bodies at least in a local cemetery on separate occasions with a faked suicide note. The drama or scandal has similarities with Anne, firstly how the police feel free to disregard an unflavoured section of society, in one instance football fans, in the other young gay lads out on the pull. I suppose the latter owed a bit to the Yorkshire Ripper case, whose victims were disregarded by West Yorkshire police on account of their being prostitutes, here one of them belongs to an escort agency. Also, both dramas showed how State cover-up, contempt and intransigence takes its toll on the families involved, usually it's one family member who is like a dog with a bone going after justice while the others tend to think, leave it, let it go.

    There seems to be an increasing narrative in papers like the Times, Sunday Times, Metro, not to mention TV dramas, keen to expose how corrupt and downright odd the people are who rule over us, or enforce those rules. We used to have Dixon of Dock Green, Juliet Bravo or The Bill, now we have Line of Duty. I have no objection to this, but it's surprising to learn that Line of Duty is far from fanciful in its depiction of longstanding, decades old police and local authority corruption. You need to read Private Eye for more on this, in particular its section called Rotten Boroughs which deals with local authority corruption, but though the cartoons are often top notch, it's not as jolly a read as it makes out. If nobody is actually held to account for a lot of this stuff - and the Met West Dagenham police officers have not been sacked, they've all kept their jobs I think - then instead it almost becomes a playbook, a checklist of things people can get away with.

    "This is where we leave you Mr Bond."

    Roger Moore 1927-2017
  • chrisno1chrisno1 LondonPosts: 3,177MI6 Agent

    You're dead right regarding corruption, and that Rotten Borough column gives many examples. My brother works for a local council, I won't name it, and three years ago they employed a chief executive who organised a bunch of expensive consultants to cast an eye over all departments and create efficiency recommendations. The basic recommendation was to out-source almost all services to external contractors.

    Odd, though, the chief exec previous role had been for another council. He hired consultants there, who recommended outsourcing, and the major company which took on the contracts was *surprise surprise* part-owned by the very same chief executive. Costs spiralled out of control. The previous council dismissed him and eventually took all the contracts back in house.

    My brother and his colleagues discovered this information quite easily online. When they raised it as a potential conflict of interest issue, as well as a competency one, their concerns were dismissed. The council is now, after three years, reconsidering the recommendations to outsource, but in the meantime departments have been mismanaged, restructured and closed down to accommodate potential outsourcing. This has involved employing a new tier of interim managers in addition to the still employed consultants who each earn over £100k and are basically making money while dismissing others from hard earned jobs.

    This is not unusual in Britain. For all my country's good points, we have a fundamentally corrupt society. It starts at the top and like all corruption, it always eventually seeps through to the bottom, hence petty theft, drug wars and vandalism.

  • Number24Number24 NorwayPosts: 21,702MI6 Agent

    Here is a link to Transparancy International's site on the net. TI is a "nonprofit and non-governmental purpose is to take action to combat global[1] corruption with civil societal anti-corruption measures and to prevent criminal activities arising from corruption". (Wikipedia)


    The UK is ranked as number twelve among the least corrupt countries in the world, far from a fundamentally corrupt society. Anecdotes are entertaining, but they don't show clearly the big picture. I don't post this information to be difficult or to put anyone in a bad light. i think it's important to highlight how lucky we are to live in democracies with the rule of law, even though our countries aren't perfect and should be kept a sharp eye on.

  • chrisno1chrisno1 LondonPosts: 3,177MI6 Agent

    That's an interesting website, although it is mostly concerned with the perception of politicians and the political elite. My example is a civil one, councillors are not politicians, even if they think they are, the consultants are certainly not. Transparency International doesn't have a lot to say about civil corruption other than in their binding summary: To end corruption, we promote transparency, accountability and integrity at all levels and across all sectors of society. All very laudable. I'm not suggesting the UK is fundamentally corrupt, but there are many more examples of the kind of behaviour I have outlined than people believe. They don't know it exists because they don't witness it, or consider it to be acceptable practice, like "oh he's one of the boys, what a sharp... etc." We tend too much to laugh this kind of issue away, when in fact its a festering sore. It's why Boris Johnson is still popular among certain sections, because he's seen as being a harmless, prattling idler, when he's really promoting an agenda of exclusion, which in itself is fundamentally corrupting.

  • Number24Number24 NorwayPosts: 21,702MI6 Agent

    Now you say you're "not suggesting the UK is fundamentally corrupt", but in your above post you say "we have a fundamentally corrupt society"? Make up your mind, please.

  • Number24Number24 NorwayPosts: 21,702MI6 Agent

    I think you had the best intentions when you wrote what you wrote, but Transpararancy International is perhaps the most respected authorithy on corruption worldwide. It's easy to focus on anecdotes, hearsay and (in your case) individual cases and draw too general or even plain wrong conclusions, This may not sound so wrong and we're all guilty of this at some point in our lives, but one year ago a large mob attacked police and elected officials doing their job as written in the constitution based on hearsay, lies and possibly individual cases. It's important to use good sources to check the facts and the big picture. I hope you're not offended by what I write, because my intentions come from a good place.

  • Number24Number24 NorwayPosts: 21,702MI6 Agent
    edited January 2022


    The UK is number eleven, not twelve. My mistake.

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