Rate the last series you completed out of 5 - No spoilers!

[Jamie John]

Catastrophe - Series 1

 

Late to the party, but this was great. My wife and I watched it together. Very funny, and pretty close to knuckle at times. I hear it only gets better. And I quite fancy Sharon. Scottish Simon Pegg Mark Bonnar as Chris is excellent, too.

[jonamok]

Peacemaker

 

Brilliant start to finish. Funny, irreverent, violent, spectacular, and touching. Just pure fun. Gunn at very close to his best.

 

An easy 5/5.

[Triple A]

The Tourist

 

Great photography and shots of the Outback, but that was about the only thing that was great really.

Average in just about every other facet, save for the way the guy’s background came into focus in the last couple episodes, which was poorly done.

Another WannaBeeb production.

 

2.5 maybe a 3

 

 

[ImmaculateClump]

Cursed Films - ***
Jimmy Savile A British Horror Story - ***
Severance - ****

[cassidy]

I haven't finished the series in fact only started it tonight but just watched EP 1 of I Claudius. 

 

Look it's 70's production values and it matters not a jot when it's this well written and acted.  

 

Blessed holding himself back  and actually acting. Delightful to see. 

 

Going to do an episode a night. 

[Bazjam]

On 11/04/2022 at 19:10, cassidy said:

I haven't finished the series in fact only started it tonight but just watched EP 1 of I Claudius. 

 

Look it's 70's production values and it matters not a jot when it's this well written and acted.  

 

Blessed holding himself back  and actually acting. Delightful to see. 

 

Going to do an episode a night. 

It’s an amazing show, one of my absolute faves. The acting is superb, especially Sian Phillips.

[Boothjan]

I, Claudius is one of the greatest ever dramas.  So many incredible performances.  Agreed with Sian Phillips but I also think John Hurt and Derek Jacobi turn in career best performances.

 

It's also weird seeing Patrick Stewart with hair.

[strider]

The lost City.

The trailer is brilliant, the film, far less so.

2/5

[ImmaculateClump]

Gazza - ****

[Sidewaysbob]

Bridgerton series 2 

 

I love it. And I don't care who knows it. 

[Triple A]

Top Boy series 2 (but is series 4 really)

 

Very good stuff - (still) a legit gangster show deserving a huge global audience, that just so happens to be based in Blighty.  This series took a while to get going but was gripping stuff by the end, that had you entwined in all the characters’ lives.  It’s all going to kick off in the next series, innit?

 

4

[Silent Runner]

Veronica Mars - season 4

 

Revisited this over the long weekend and had forgotten enough about it to really enjoy it again. It's a single mystery spread over 8 episodes so it's much tighter than the usual 22 episode seasons. The plot is nicely twisty and there are some real shocks but I think the story might fall apart if look at it closely. The cast are great - Kirsten Bell and Enrico Colantoni in particular and JK Simmons is a nice guest start. It looks really nice and there was clearly some proper money spent on filming locations. And they licensed some proper music. 

 

I doubt we'll ever get a 5th season but this was a fine way to wrap it up.

 

4/5

[Rayn]

Severance

5/5 WTFs

[teddymeow]

Single Parents (Seasons 1 & 2 - Disney+)

 

Lovely, Modern Family style sit-com featuring Leighton Meester, Brad Garrett and some others.

 

It's about, wait for it, a group of single parents and their kids and the random situations they find themselves in.

 

Some lovely heartfelt stuff throughout and a few absolute belly laughs across it's short length.

 

Shame it didn't get picked up for a third season.

 

4 playdates / 5

[SpagMasterSwift]

Lost In Space 4/5

 

Binged seasons 2 and 3 over the last couple of days due to COVID and really enjoyed it. The high level of effects held up throughout and the cast really grew on me. Very satisfying conclusion too. Of course I’m sick so probably shouldn’t take me at my word right now.

[Ry]

The Last Kingdom. 

 

Binge watched it all in the last couple weeks. Loved it. Looking forward to the film next. 

[ImmaculateClump]

Conversations with a Killer The John Wayne Gacy Tapes - **

[Silent Runner]

The Dry - nothing to do with the excellent Australian book/film from a few years back. This is an 8-part comedy-drama about an Irish woman living in London who returns to Dublin for her grandmothers funeral. She stays on in Dublin to try and re-connect with her family and get treatment for her alcoholism. 

 

This was pretty good but probably overstayed it's welcome slightly with 8 parts. The lead woman is excellent, Ciaran Hinds puts in a good turn as her Dad and Dublin looks nice. The story is well told but there are a few sub-plots and characters that go nowhere. 

 

Decent enough but not essential. 2.5/5, on Britbox.

 

The best thing I'm watching at the moment is Under The Banner of Heaven. The first 4 parts of this are out in America. It's a true story of the murder of a mother and her baby in the Mormon community in the late 1980's. The cast are excellent, Andrew Garfield in particular. And there's a real True Detective vibe from it. It's 5/5 so far and I'm sure it will keep up the quality right to the end.

[Dark Soldier]

Hacks - Series 1

 

Funniest show I've seen in ages with some wonderful central performances. I woke up Sunday and missus had just started episode one. Drew me in and we binged it all that day. Lovely thing.

 

5/5

[Timmo]

The Virtues 

 

This and the This is England series have turned me into a Shane Meadows fanboy. Just amazing tv.

 

5/5

[Minion]

Gomorrah S5 - 1/5 - Wow they really ruined the final series, it's so shit. Compared to S1 which I would rate 5/5 it was a huge disappointment. Absolutely ridiculous things happen to service a non-sensical plot, the characters behave with no logic and do things again just to service a ridiculous shit plot, pretty gutted on this one but at least it's done now.

 

 

[Jamie John]

What We Do In the Shadows - Series 1 (iPlayer)

 

Excellent. Each episode had me cackling like a loon. Matt Berry on top form, especially.

 

4.5/5

 

 

[Triple A]

WandaVision

 

So close but no cigar.  Breathtaking stuff at the start and in the middle, but fell apart a bit at the end.  Still great telly though.

 

4

[James Lyon]

Crazy Ex-Girlfriend (season 1)

 

Loved it for the most part. Most of the songs were great and it was properly funny in places. I did cool on it a bit by the end, though. Mainly because it's 18 episodes and anything over thirteen these days feels a bit of a slog to watch for me. But it ended with a decent lead into season 2 so I might watch a bit more some time.

 

It's interesting how quickly things date, though. There's jokes about Vampire Weekend and Words With Friends. So 2010s. It could be any time, otherwise. It reminds me of The Good Place. Great show but all the contemporary references won't be as funny ten years on.

 

 

[englishbob]

Ignore, wrong thread!

[Jamie John]

The Mandalorian - Series 1 (Disney+)

 

 

I'm not the biggest Star Wars guy, but, having watched the sequel trilogy for the first time recently, I thought I'd give it a go. It was great!

 

What makes it work is that it's not trying to copy the light vs dark side stuff from the films or tell any grand narrative about the battle between good and evil, but is instead essentially just a sci-fi western with some cool shoot-outs and interesting scenery. The Mandalorian himself is a great character, part Man With No Name, part Batman, but with a heart of gold beneath his (literally) steely exterior. The one bounty per episode structure works well, too, making each episode feel neatly self-contained. It made me smile and chuckle frequently, and the theme tune is excellent.

 

It's not exactly highbrow prestige drama, but then it doesn't try to be; it's just well-paced, tightly-written and compelling fun that knows exactly what it's setting out to achieve and doesn't outstay its welcome. I'm looking forward to going to go straight into season 2.

 

4/5

[Triple A]

Anatomy of a Scandal

 

Glossy production, wafer-thin plot (literally) from a trash novel.  Didn’t need to be a series, a sub 2-hour movie could easily fit everything needed into its runtime.

 

2

[RubberJohnny]

Severance - Not quite as hot on it as others, the stuff around the titular concept is as interesting as everyone says, but the bits about how weird the office are (which is most of the series running time?) suffer a bit from not being weird enough, really. I mean if you watched more than one series of Lost, you're getting deja vu here:

 

Spoiler

Mysterious organisation with strange rituals!

Using 1970s Retro tech!

Meaningless jobs involving manipulating numbers!

Projects involving live animals!

Led by a mysterious figure, dedicated to furthering a strange utopian project!

With strangely affable characters who know a lot more than they let on!

 

You sort of go "couldn't you have done one of these differently?", I mean even Loki borrowed a fair few of these from the trope-maker recently. I bet next season we'll find out the work really is meaningless and macrodata refinement is just a psychology experiment to test the Severance tech and we'll have Bingo.

 

But still well worth a watch, great performances (especially the lead woman who looks really familiar despite not having seen her in anything) and interesting direction, I was really surprised when the director name flashed up at the end was Ben Stiller, of mostly shit 00s comedies. Apple TV might not have had an all-time great yet, but I find its adult dramas a nice antidote to Disney+ churning out yet another middling action series.  4/5

[Boothjan]

Wandavision

 

This was cool.  Really enjoyed the originality of the concept, and the way the story unravels was excellent.    

 

4/5

[Vimster]

This Is England '86 - I found the original 2006 film to be a great combination of setting, dark humour and drama, with the latter two often mixed together incongruously and deftly. That continues with this series which follows most of the characters three years after the events of the film. It starts off like a slice-of-life drama, light-hearted, before events turn very dark. Difficult to be specific but it was a proper gut-punch, very hard watch at times.

 

This Is England '88 - similar structure to the previous series, interesting to see how the character's lives had moved on, having to deal with becoming full-on adults with responsibilities, most of them anyway. Another good combination of humour and tough drama that probably doesn't have the impact of the first series but is equal on most levels. 

 

Currently watching This Is England '90, so far I'm not that impressed but we'll see how it pans out.