What TV are you watching and how would you rate it? [Revive from FRDB]

[Tars Tarkus]

Columbo is great, I think I've watched the whole series 3 or 4 times now. My personal favorite is when his boss, the deputy commissioner helps a friend who murdered his wife cover it up and then as payment demand his friend cover up the murder of his own wife.

 

[southernhybrid]

After finishing watching all of the "Columbo" episodes, we've been watching "Law and Order" and since it has 24 seasons, so it will keep us busy for a long time. I got hooked on it during the early 90s, but wanted to watch something old again. It has excellent writers, good acting and interesting plots. I even got Mr. Sohy hooked on it and he never had watched a single episode before. I guess we've gotten into murder mysteries and/or crime dramas lately. Any suggestions from that genre for me?

For something lighter, we watch the old "SNL" shows from the late 70s and early 80s.

My mom loved murder mysteries. Always had an Agatha Christie paperback with her. Perry Mason was her favorite TV show.

Mr. Sohy watched all of the Perry Mason shows, but I got tired of them because to me, a lot of them seemed very sexist. I don't remember exactly why because it was over a year ago that I had watched a few. I usually go to bed to read, then he stays up and watches whatever he wants. I only read non fiction and have never been interested in reading murder mysteries, even when I read fiction, but I do enjoy watching them, for some odd reason.

We also watch a lot of the old comedies, like "Seinfeld", "Frazier', and even 'Family Ties" lately. I wanted to remember Michael J. Fox in his younger days, and it was fun watching a show where the parents were hippy types and the teenager was conservative. The little sister was the best.

“Safari can’t open the page.”

Try this one:

That was good. Another episode is needed, to explore how this omnipotent father and daughter interact with the outside world.

I loved "The Twilight Zone" when I was a child. I'd sneak in the hallway to watch it because it was on after my bedtime. There was one epsisode that scared my sister shitless. It was the one where everyone was very ugly and weird looking and one woman was beautiful, but the ugly ones thought she was horrible looking so they kept doing surgery to try to adjust her looks. The would take off the bandage and say, "Unchanged", then everyone would look horrified by her face. I guess the idea was that "beauty is in the eye of the beholder" or humans don't like people who are different, something like that. I think we have the old episodes on DVD but I haven't watched any recently. We stream most of the old stuff on Hulu or Disney Plus.

 

[Emily Lake]

Why do none of the Google hits want to describe heroin lethality quantitatively

Google:

Its LD50 is of 3.1 mg/kg in rats and 0.03 mg/kg in monkeys. The LD50 in humans is unknown.

IOW it would probably take more than a hundred times as much to kill, say, Trump, as it would to kill you.

That's the LD50 of fentanyl, not heroin.

Fentanyl-related compounds and derivatives: current status and future prospects for pharmaceutical applications

Fentanyl is an extremely powerful analgesic, 50–100-times more potent than morphine. Its LD50 is of 3.1 mg/kg in rats and 0.03 mg/kg in monkeys. The LD50 in humans is unknown.

 

[Emily Lake]

After finishing watching all of the "Columbo" episodes, we've been watching "Law and Order" and since it has 24 seasons, so it will keep us busy for a long time. I got hooked on it during the early 90s, but wanted to watch something old again. It has excellent writers, good acting and interesting plots. I even got Mr. Sohy hooked on it and he never had watched a single episode before. I guess we've gotten into murder mysteries and/or crime dramas lately. Any suggestions from that genre for me?

For something lighter, we watch the old "SNL" shows from the late 70s and early 80s.

I like Criminal Minds, Bones, old-school CSI. I'm partial to crime dramas that focus on the science behind solving it, although I alway enjoy a decent detective story. I didn't much care for CSI: Miami or CSI: NY though, they got all wrapped up in people's gut feels and intuition and lost me.

What I watched of Will Trent was pretty good. I suspect there's a new season by now, so I might go back to it.

 

[southernhybrid]

After finishing watching all of the "Columbo" episodes, we've been watching "Law and Order" and since it has 24 seasons, so it will keep us busy for a long time. I got hooked on it during the early 90s, but wanted to watch something old again. It has excellent writers, good acting and interesting plots. I even got Mr. Sohy hooked on it and he never had watched a single episode before. I guess we've gotten into murder mysteries and/or crime dramas lately. Any suggestions from that genre for me?

For something lighter, we watch the old "SNL" shows from the late 70s and early 80s.

I like Criminal Minds, Bones, old-school CSI. I'm partial to crime dramas that focus on the science behind solving it, although I alway enjoy a decent detective story. I didn't much care for CSI: Miami or CSI: NY though, they got all wrapped up in people's gut feels and intuition and lost me.

What I watched of Will Trent was pretty good. I suspect there's a new season by now, so I might go back to it.

Thanks for the suggestions. IF we ever get finished with Law and Order, I'll check them out. Btw, I had a patient who had severe dementia who loved the show, "Bones". One of the few ways the staff could calm her down, was to put one of her "Bones" dvds on for her.

 

[TSwizzle]

Watching Cheers reminded me of visiting Boston last year and since I was in the area I visited the iconic Cheers bar where the opening credits feature the exterior. I did the touristy thing and had my picture taken outside and then went inside. Of course the interior of Cheers is nothing like the studio Cheers. It's a bit cramped inside the bar and it is mostly tourists that are in the place which is kind of amazing considering the show stopped filming in 1993. It had a decent menu but was a bit pricey and it has a lot of Cheers merch for sale, It's basically a tourist trap which is a shame as it would be a cool local bar. Anyway, it was fun to visit and have a pint but I didn't hang around. Boston is chock full of great bars so we moved on.

 

[ZiprHead]

Watching Cheers reminded me of visiting Boston last year and since I was in the area I visited the iconic Cheers bar where the opening credits feature the exterior. I did the touristy thing and had my picture taken outside and then went inside. Of course the interior of Cheers is nothing like the studio Cheers. It's a bit cramped inside the bar and it is mostly tourists that are in the place which is kind of amazing considering the show stopped filming in 1993. It had a decent menu but was a bit pricey and it has a lot of Cheers merch for sale, It's basically a tourist trap which is a shame as it would be a cool local bar. Anyway, it was fun to visit and have a pint but I didn't hang around. Boston is chock full of great bars so we moved on.

One of my all time favorite sitcoms.

 

[unapologetic]

If you liked 'Colombo', what is your opinion of 'Elsbeth'?

 

[blastula]

I like Columbo, haven't seen Elsbeth, but a current comp to Columbo is Poker Face. Has the inverted mystery, case of the week format with weekly guest stars and some clear homages to the Columbo style. Created by Rian Johnson, starring Natasha Lyonne. Very good show, 8/10.

 

[Patooka]

Poker Face feels like a spiritual successor to Columbo.

 

[Swammerdami]

Until recently I've only watched TV regularly during one year out of the past 58 years. During that year my wife and I watched the first season of the then-new NYPD Blue and reruns of Kojak and Columbo. I liked Columbo, but not as much as I liked the other two.

I didn't need TV -- I spent nights and days writing C code for fun. But my decades-old cygwin laptop gasped its last breath; I can't remember how to power on my Linux laptop; and to run a C compiler under Windows on the laptop where I'm typing now would be too nauseating to contemplate. Therefore I've gone cold-turkey, and haven't compiled a single line of C for 49 days! Tomorrow I get my 50-day medal from AA.

So now with my kids subscribing to Netflix and Max, I'm watching TV series night and day. I'll report on three recencies.

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Get Gotti (2023) is a 3-episode documentary about efforts to convict John Gotti, Mafia overlord of New York City, and send him to prison for life. This is a must-watch for those unfamiliar with the story and therefore deserves more than its 7.0 IMDB score. Gotti (with his $2000 silk suits and "movie star looks") was almost a folk hero, so was acquitted by the first three juries that heard evidence. He was finally convicted when noise-free tape recordings were produced in which Gotti clearly ordered murders.

It should have been "common knowledge" that Gotti was a ruthless Mafia boss, so the clear tape recordings "should have been" unnecessary. This reminds me of America's present-day top criminals. The criminality "should be" obvious yet, like Gotti, DJT and his top henchmen are admired by millions of Americans.

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I watched the 10-episode British spy thriller The Day of the Jackal (2024). I could write an essay on what I liked and what I disliked, but details might be spoilers. It's better than most "thrillers" and is worth a watch if you like that genre and have 8+ hours to kill. But it's not in the same league as good spy dramas. The 8.2 IMDB rating is too high; I'd give it 7.3 at most.

There are lots of spy drama films or series with IMDB scores in the low 7s or even 6s that I would recommend more highly, for example The Bourne Identity (7.8), Spy Game (7.1), Body of Lies (7.0), Smiley's People (8.5) or The Quiet American (7.0 and 6.6 -- watch BOTH versions).

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I just started the 5-episode Chernobyl (2019). I'd seen it already, but often re-watching an excellent film or series seems better than wasting time on yet another mediocrity. And this historical drama is excellent. It gets a whopping 9.3 IMDB rating, though I might give it just 9.2. Was it indeed the systemic flaws exposed by this disaster, rather than Reagan's stubbornness, that led to the Soviet Union voluntarily disintegrating?

I'm in the middle of Episode 2 and have a question for our nuclear engineers. In a meeting with Gorbachev the main protagonist informs us that three men must be sacrificed to open some sluice-gates: Otherwise 50 million casualties might be expected in Ukraine and Byelorussia. Was he exaggerating?

 

[bilby]

I'm in the middle of Episode 2 and have a question for our nuclear engineers. In a meeting with Gorbachev the main protagonist informs us that three men must be sacrificed to open some sluice-gates: Otherwise 50 million casualties might be expected in Ukraine and Byelorussia. Was he exaggerating?

Yes.

There is no concievable way that casualties could have risen so high.

Indeed, the actual toll was about as bad as it could have been, to within an order of magnitude; About a third of the total mass of the reactor turned to smoke and debris and was ejected from the reactor building. Worst case, there could have only been three times as much ejecta, and had there been, much of it would have gone into raising areas where the dose was fatal in six minutes, to be fatal in two - which would leave total fatalities practically unchanged.

The biggest contributor to casualties was not the amount of material spread over the countryside, but the failure of the authorities to act in a timely fashion. Opening those sluice gates was likely FAR less helpful in minimising casualties than an immediate evacuation of Pripyat when the incident first occured would have been.

Casualties in the hundreds or even thousands were possible; Tens of thousands, not so much; Tens of millions are absurd hyperbole. They would have struggled to kill a million people if they had been deliberately trying to maximise the casualty count.

 

[ZiprHead]

I'm in the middle of Episode 2 and have a question for our nuclear engineers. In a meeting with Gorbachev the main protagonist informs us that three men must be sacrificed to open some sluice-gates: Otherwise 50 million casualties might be expected in Ukraine and Byelorussia. Was he exaggerating?

Where's Spock when you need him?

 

[thebeave]

I'm in the middle of Episode 2 and have a question for our nuclear engineers. In a meeting with Gorbachev the main protagonist informs us that three men must be sacrificed to open some sluice-gates: Otherwise 50 million casualties might be expected in Ukraine and Byelorussia. Was he exaggerating?

Where's Spock when you need him?

Why'd you have to say that? I always get weepy thinking about that.

 

[Colonel Sanders]

Shining Vale

It's a show about a family that moves to a haunted house in upstate New York in an attempt to save and settle down their family. It stars Courtney Cox and Greg Kinnear.

Season 1: really good. It's an homage to Kubrick's the Shining, but also pretty funny and the supporting case does an excellent job as well. It's well written, well acted, and is aesthetically pleasing. It does an excellent job of going from heavy to light and then back to heavy while at the same time mixing in a lot of comedy.

Season 2: still pretty good, but not as good as the first season. Also, maybe it's just me but Courtney Cox's plastic surgery really stands out in this season. Maybe I was too wrapped up in the fun of the show in season 1 to notice, but damn, her appearance is really distracting. To each their own though. It's her face and she can do what she wants with it, but rather than grow old gracefully, she looks like the Joker.

Despite Cox's appearance getting more and more bizarre, I recommend this show to anyone. It crosses a lot of genres.

 

[Swammerdami]

... I have decided that Succession is my second favorite TV series of all-time.

Wikipedia calls it a "satirical black comedy-drama." What does "black comedy" even mean? ... Movies that Wikipedia calls "black comedy" include Network, Dr. Strangelove, Fargo, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, Don't Look Up, and In Bruges. I liked all those movies, so I guess black comedy is my genre!

I'm not sure exactly why I like Succession. I suppose the melodrama and extreme but almost believable characters just seem more interesting and engaging than a chase or fight, or clever police or criminals, or predictable romantic tale, etc.

The White Lotus is a "black (or satirical) comedy drama"; it gets 8.0 at IMDB and 93% Rotten tomatoes. So I started Season 1 and am half-way though. I'll go ahead and finish the Season but don't think I'll watch Seasons 2 or 3 It deserves only 6.1 or so, not 8.0. The stories are trite; and the "black comedy-drama" is neither funny nor dramatic nor even "black."

 

[Shadowy Man]

Watching season 2 of The Night Agent on Netflix. It is a somewhat typical action, thriller show but what sets it apart for me is that it is not cheesy, not super unrealistic, and the characters don’t seem to always be making stupid decisions. Unfortunately, in this day age this is novel.

 

[WAB]

The Blacklist. I learned an important thing: if you have a problem with someone, just shoot them.

 

[Emily Lake]

The Blacklist. I learned an important thing: if you have a problem with someone, just shoot them.

I was really enjoying Blacklist for a while. Then it got political for a while and we just stopped watching. Someone told me that it fixed itself soon after, but we've never made it back into rotation. Maybe some day I'll give it another shot.

 

[WAB]

The Blacklist. I learned an important thing: if you have a problem with someone, just shoot them.

I was really enjoying Blacklist for a while. Then it got political for a while and we just stopped watching. Someone told me that it fixed itself soon after, but we've never made it back into rotation. Maybe some day I'll give it another shot.

It actually was a good show, and Spader was excellent. I am just in a guns are for pussies mode at the moment, due to a lifetime of hearing how we cannot survive unless we have a gun. Phooey!

James Spader is the odd celebrity because he didn't age the way the world wants. He went from terribly handsome to ordinary, and he doesn't seem to care. Even his facial expressions seem to convey that. He's a class act. Great actor too.