The TV you like thread - The Bear and Badger

Jaco

I_R wrote:

It's a kids show that's generally rubbish, but produces a gem every so often. Like Top Gear, it's hyped beyond all reason because the beeb can sell it abroad and it rekindles forty year out of date ideas about British TV being good or better than the yanks.

The difference being that, since Clarkson et al left (and after the Evans abomination), Top Gear has actually been very good.

Blocks100 wrote:

Had no idea the BBC did an adaptation of that. A quick google reveals that Neil Gaiman is doing another one (also for TV).

It's really very good. Dark and weird and exactly what you'd expect from Peake's opus. I highly recommend it. I picked it up on DVD for about £8 (IIRC). A few hours of properly good, sinister TV.

Paul the sparky

Dr Who has always been shite. So has Blue Peter. Dunno why they're held in such high regard, some weird BBC bonus multiplier or something.

Yossarian

Jaco wrote:

mannaboy wrote:

amazes me a quite placid show causes so much anger.

Not anger, just frustrated amazement at the plaudits and praise it gets. From the media, hype and viewing figures, you'd think it was the greatest sci-fi show ever made. When are we going to get some properly decent sci-fi TV (that's not from Netflix or Amazon)?

I'd love to see a lavish TV adaptation of Dune or Foundation. The last really great BBC sci-fi/fantasy TV series I can remember is Gormenghast. And that was years ago.

Apparently there’s a saying in TV: sci-fi is always really expensive to make but always looks cheap. Unless I suppose you’re Netflix and you have deep enough pockets to prevent it looking cheap.

But yes, Doctor Who’s fine. It’s not amazing, but there are some genuinely good episodes every now and then, with some interesting ideas thrown in, and it’s certainly got its own, positive ethos behind it (no guns, thinking your way out of difficult situations, positive outlook on what humans are capable of).

Plus in the new series they have a dyspraxic character and, as a dyspraxic who has never seen my condition represented anywhere in fiction, this is a positive thing for me.

Blocks100

Is anyone watching Little Drummer Girl? With Michael Shannon and Charles Dance, difficult to see how this can fail. After the triumph of Killing Eve, I'm up for more BBC drama. Although I imagine this strikes a very different tone.

The Daddy

Paul the sparky wrote:

Dr Who has always been shite. So has Blue Peter. Dunno why they're held in such high regard, some weird BBC bonus multiplier or something.

Yep. I’ve tried to like the former but I’ve never been able to get into it. Blue Peter was always a cue to turn over or go out when I was a kid.

The Daddy

Blocks100 wrote:

Is anyone watching Little Drummer Girl? With Michael Shannon and Charles Dance, difficult to see how this can fail. After the triumph of Killing Eve, I'm up for more BBC drama. Although I imagine this strikes a very different tone.

Started it last night but was shattered and couldn’t concentrate. Will try again tonight. Seems well put together.

g.man

Yeah, I enjoyed TLDG. Bit of a confusing opener tho.

Moot_Geeza

Dr. Who was great when I was a kid and it seemed a little scarier than most other things I was allowed to watch. The Sylvester McCoy one with the cat people freaked me out even more than the audio tape for The Magic Finger. Theme tune is an all-timer too. Last full episode I watched was the Paul McGann one. I did see most of an episode which I think was called Blink that was genuinely very good, but I gather that was the best of the newer ones.

Yossarian

Blink was pretty solid, but there certainly have been a few decent recent ones. Midnight, the Empty Child/The Doctor Dances and Silence in the Library/The Forest of the Dead 2 parters all stick in the mind too.

Kow

Tom Baker's Doctor Who was fantastic when I was a kid. I didn't even notice the ropey effects. It was scary and thrilling. It was probably shite for an adult but none of us were adults when Tom Baker was the Doctor.

mistercrayon

Yossarian wrote:

Blink was pretty solid, but there certainly have been a few decent recent ones. Midnight, the Empty Child/The Doctor Dances and Silence in the Library/The Forest of the Dead 2 parters all stick in the mind too.

In retrospect, and the evidence of all the other weeping angels episodes, it occurs to me the things that made blink GREAT we’re possibly

1) high amounts of Carey mulligan
2) low amounts of the Doctor.

(The later because it meant they needed to create a fun story without the easiest crutch in the universe)

poprock

g.man wrote:

Yeah, I enjoyed TLDG. Bit of a confusing opener tho.

Same thoughts here, really. Enjoyed it, especially some of the scenery chewing from all concerned, but it felt a bit vague. Stylish but directionless, so far.

Ha don idea before going in that Park Chan-Wook was directing!

The Daddy

Oo, Castlevania series 2 has appeared on Netflix over the weekend. Perfect timing.

JonB

Kow wrote:

Tom Baker's Doctor Who was fantastic when I was a kid. I didn't even notice the ropey effects. It was scary and thrilling. It was probably shite for an adult but none of us were adults when Tom Baker was the Doctor.

Yeah, I think first seeing it when Tom Baker was in the role probably helped a lot. It certainly lost something once Davison came in and went downhill from there.

Kow

That guy. When he popped up at the end of Baker's last episode I remember thinking wait a minute, that's that weed from All Creatures Great and Small.

Kow

And then he wore a cricket outfit, the cunt.

Raiziel

Sapphire and Steel > Doctor Who.

Yossarian

Reading up on the reaction to Inside No 9, it seems to have been a success. I wasn’t even aware of some of the additional meta stuff going on outside of the broadcast.

https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/news/inside-no-9-live-episode-halloween-reece-shearsmith-steve-pemberton-bbc-watch-reactions-a8606241.html

Yossarian

It seems they even updated their Wikipedia entries.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:MobileDiff/866207797

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:MobileDiff/866205585

Paul the sparky

The Daddy wrote:

Oo, Castlevania series 2 has appeared on Netflix over the weekend. Perfect timing.

Good shout. How many episodes? The first one was frustratingly short.

The Daddy

8, twice as many.

Facewon

Kow wrote:

Tom Baker's Doctor Who was fantastic when I was a kid. I didn't even notice the ropey effects. It was scary and thrilling. It was probably shite for an adult but none of us were adults when Tom Baker was the Doctor.

My man. Him and the white hair dude, not the first one.

The rest, whatever.

But even baker era was cheap and tatty and silly. It's just baker was such a boss.

Facewon

Also, g-force >>> who.

Tempy

Blocks100 wrote:

Was forced to watch Dr Who last night and although I find the new actress who plays the part quite watchable the script was utter pap...still. I thought they had changed writers? But it was still the same old garbage.

Spoiler:

Giant spiders caused by a toxic spill? How on earth is that supposed to be space sci-fi?

Ha, that's basically the plot of an old Pertwee episode, The Green Death. Who has never been strictly space based, it's always had it's fair share of terrestrial stuff.

Yossarian

Just watched Who, it was fine.

bad_hair_day

Tempy wrote:

Blocks100 wrote:

Was forced to watch Dr Who last night and although I find the new actress who plays the part quite watchable the script was utter pap...still. I thought they had changed writers? But it was still the same old garbage.

Spoiler:

Giant spiders caused by a toxic spill? How on earth is that supposed to be space sci-fi?

Ha, that's basically the plot of an old Pertwee episode, The Green Death. Who has never been strictly space based, it's always had it's fair share of terrestrial stuff.

He loves humans, yes it’s a contrivance but ego.

The Green Death gave me genuine nightmares for months. To a child, real world settings mixed with deadly critters (that can leap at you!) grounds the story more than tinfoil robots on wobbly sets.

Tempy

Yeah that set of episodes always really stuck with me too, even if it was just big maggots. Actually probably exactly because it was big maggots.

g.man

Yup. The maggots scared the living shit out of me when I was a lad.

WorKid

Man this Old People's Home for Four Year Olds is some uplifting telly.

mk64

what channel was inside number 9 on? I want to watch it

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