Secrets Of The Dead, an archeologists/forensics documentary about the USA Jamestown VA Colony in 1609. The perilous journey from England only to arrive to the new world full of diseases starvation hostility and death.Crops would not grow and the native Indians had enough of trading with the settlers and turned on them. Anyway the skull fragments and a tibia bone of a 14 year old are dug up 400 years later with cut marks wich proves to be evidence of canabilism of the dead by the starving survivors inside the compound. A failing civilization in an ever dark hopeless world.Argh! Geez people really had it tough then.
This Wednesday's episode of The Americans. A very good show in its last season and the suspense, whilst not at Breaking Bad levels, is up there.
One of our (wife and I) regular watches has been The Royals. We started watching the soap in the first season by accident while channel surfing and its turned into kind of a guilty pleasure through season 4. It's just fun to watch, and for some reason best watched after dark, and gaawd Elizabeth Hurley is hot.
Finished Veronica Mars season 2 last week. Currently watching the final episodes of Buffy The Vampire Slayer season 4 and Angel season 1. Also currently watching The OC season 3. After I've finished those, I'm going to start watching Vikings season 3, looking forward to it!
I've watched one episode of 13 Reasons Why season 2...and I'm out. I'm not even sure why I watched season 1, except that the story was mildly engrossing, and then after a few episodes I stuck it out to the bitter (and quite explicit) end. The new season really requires you to know all of the intermingled relationships to make sense of what's going on, and I don't feel like reviewing all 13 previous episodes (and none of the recaps are remotely complete). Plus Hannah is now a ghost that talks to Clay. So I saved 12 hours.
Final for Marvels Agents of Shield. Whole season has been bad. I just loved last season with the Framework.
"The Twilight Zone" (original series, BR box): Working through the season 4 hour-longs (which I had not seen), I watched "On Thursday We Leave for Home". Rocket ship survivors, stranded for decades on alien planet, long for the ship to take them home. Their leader (James Whitmore), part motivator, part strongman, part preacher, has held them together with these qualities until the possible day of their rescue.... Written by Serling, this is in his flowery (preachy) mode, about what loyalty and freedom mean, and how power can corrupt...the piece is helped immensely by Whitmore's performance, even if he doesn't have enough to work with. He is better than the material, delivering a couple of touching insights into this man when he explains his methods for helping "his people". Other than that, the script demands real sets (planet, ship) and, with the Zone budget, you get bare bones. Any modern viewer will laugh at the backdrops, the rudimentary ship....but the magic of the show was that you saw it, and accepted it, while focusing on the story. The episode makes up for it with a cave set (towards the end) that is absolutely gorgeous and well-lit; one imagines it may have been a standing set from a film. The 'hour longs', with a few exceptions, tended to drag, no way around it. With more shooting time, more time for the longer scripts....ah well. "Thursday" is OK, not the best, not the worst of Season 4. It is too obvious in its message and lacks a few key scenes to make it more believable.
Binge-watching all 30 episodes of "Better Call Saul" on Netflix. If you liked "Breaking Bad', you have to see this.
"The Twilight Zone" (original series, BR box): "Passage on the Lady Anne" (Season 4, 1 hr episode)\ Young couple with marriage problems books trip on old Atlantic liner (at wife's request, to have time together) and things get strange from there... Directed by Lamont Johnson ('Crisis at Central High'). the episode succeeds where so many of the longer ones faltered, by being paced well and having great performances. Joyce van Patten is perfect as the frustrated wife whose distant hot-shot businessman husband won't touch her, and Wilfrid Hyde-White delivers another of his spot-on fussy older Englishmen as one of the passengers on the mysterious old ship. There is a naturalism to the scenes that is missing from many of the Zone episodes, and frequent DP Robert Pittack delivers some of his finest work on the show here, using fog and noir lighting (which also helps disguise the budget restraints.) "Lady Anne" feels like a modest but well-done B-movie, something the other long episodes rarely achieved.
Finished up on Designated Survivor. I can only hope someone picks it up and returns it back to early Season 1.
Just saw a couple eps of Nobodies this evening. Melissa McCartney produced a sitcom for TVLand (which went to Spike/Paramount Network) for Season 2. It's about about 3 writers trying to get a sitcom produced to get out of their hugely-successful kids-show about a family that farts a lot. Never in the mood to watch it, but always glad I did when I get around to it. Quite compelling and occasionally cerebrally-titter-ful. Somehow TiVo "forgot" again to catch half the season...beginning to think somebody's spiking my TiVo's mimosas.....
"One Day At A Time-Mrs. O'Leary's Kid" - My absolute favorite episode! If you're a fan of the show, you'll know about Schneider's relationship with Alex & how they care about each other. This episode hits the mark in a big way with superb acting that still brings me to tears. Highly recommended!
Judge Judy, Judge Judy, Judge Judy....."...put on your listening ears...".....not uh-huh, yes is an answer..."....I don't want to hear basically...."
Patrick Melrose, on Showtime, starring Benedict Cummerbund. Strictly for fans of the star. Way, way over the top. Like a British Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.
Finished a rewatch of Eureka. Going to alternate between episodes of Twilight Zone and The Outer Limits starting tonight.