So episode 1 of Shogun got off to a decent start. Cosmo Jarvis seemingly channeling his inner Tom Hardy. The last oriental show of this ilk I quite enjoyed was Marco Polo, but this seems a few notches higher, in terms of production and acting. Just don't call it 'the Japanese Game of Thrones' because that's something only a Western barbarian dog would say.

I liked the first series. Think there's a new one out soon?

The regime trailer looks ace, Kate Winslet, political satire, succession influence = sign me up

The New Look - the new big budget story of Christian Dior. Where to start with this fucking dumpster fire of a show? First off, it's deathly dull. There's nazis and war and torture etc so there should be some spark of excitement. But no, not an iota of it. It plods along at a leaden pace.

Secondly, whoever cast this thing should be shot. Ben Mendehlson, playing against type, bumbles and mumbles and bores his way through the lead role. He has as much character as a toilet roll. Maisey Williams is supposed to be his sister in spite of being 30 years younger than him. So every time she appears we think she's his daughter. Even Dior seems to think this sometimes judging by the way he treats her. And the less said about whatever John Malkovich is doing the better. 

The thing that really bugs the shit out of me, though, and it's not something that bothers everyone it seems, is the accents. Everyone has a put-on cod accent. The French speak to each other with this cod French accent. I suppose this is meant to indicate they are speaking French (btw, John Malkovich can't even do a cod French accent, he just sounds like he's had a stroke). The Germans speak to each other in cod German accents, for the same reason I guess. The problem then is that when the French speak to the Germans they continue in English using those same cod accents. So what language are they supposed to be speaking to each other? English characters join and they also just speak English to everyone. They go to Spain and everyone just continues speaking English in their cod accents. Everyone understands everyone else with absolutely no difficulty. So what fucking language are they speaking and how did they all learn it so perfectly? Claes Bang's stupid character speaks German at one point, to indicate he's bilingual. So what the fuck is everyone else doing? 

I'll probably be forced to watch the rest of it, but really it's the televisual equivalent of being put through a wood chipper.

From the film thread, but this is actually a TV series on Apple:

g.man wrote:

Oh yes please!

First 2 episodes "out" on the streaming sites. I've watched the first 3.5 minutes and was amused, so can confidently say that if you like Fielding and Boosh, you'll like this.

Caught the first episode of HBO's The Regime last night and I'm not sure what to make of it.  Initially trailers maybe hinted at a future fascist Britain, but apparently it's set in a fictitious central-European state.  But all the actors speak in either a plum British accent or regional ones, which only adds to the confusion.  Kate Winslet always gives good bang for her buck, but she's let down by the script here - its a like a much less funny 'The Death of Stalin'.

Blocks100 wrote:

Caught the first episode of HBO's The Regime last night and I'm not sure what to make of it.  Initially trailers maybe hinted at a future fascist Britain, but apparently it's set in a fictitious central-European state.  But all the actors speak in either a plum British accent or regional ones, which only adds to the confusion.  Kate Winslet always gives good bang for her buck, but she's let down by the script here - it’s a like a much less funny 'The Death of Stalin'.

Yeah very underwhelming, I have too many issues with it to list

.

djchump wrote:

From the film thread, but this is actually a TV series on Apple:

g.man wrote:

Oh yes please!

First 2 episodes "out" on the streaming sites. I've watched the first 3.5 minutes and was amused, so can confidently say that if you like Fielding and Boosh, you'll like this.

Watched the first few episodes tonight. Really enjoyed it, it's like a never ending line up of British comedian actors. Lots of fun.

Yeah but then we wouldn’t be able to enjoy Jarvis channeling his inner Tom Hardy from Taboo.

Just wait till ep 3 when he loses the plot when conversing with the locals.  Hilarious, but in a good way.

Loved the first two episodes of Shogun. If this was a Euro-Japanese production I’d get if they went full languages and subtitles, but I think it’s a fair compromise to have English-Japanese only. The most appealing part of the story is Hardy-Lite’s character fish out of water experience of being in a completely foreign land.

You could argue there shouldn’t be any Japanese subtitles, I think they did that in the first TV miniseries, but this version is focussing on the Japanese characters much more.

Yeah Richard Chamberlain in surprisingly good adaptation from what I recall.

It's from 1980. It was pretty popular at the time but I don't remember much about it. In fact, I probably wasn't allowed to watch it. Toshiro Mifune is in it, which alone makes it worth a watch.

Can't believe I didn't realise a whole adventure time spin off mini series came out late last year.
It's called Fionna and Cake and if you like adventure time you need to watch it. It was excellent.