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

'The Good Lord Bird' a drama about abolitionist John Brown seen through the eyes of a rescued slave that accompanies Brown from Bloody Kansas and after. Ethan Hawke plays Brown and does a great job.
 
Mum, 8/10; British comedy available on Brit Box starring Lesley Ann Manville as a recently widowed mum of a gormless 20 something son who still lives at home. It's a mix of "After Life", "The Royle Family" and "Catherine Tate".
 
2020 Election Miniseries - It started off real fast, and while there have been some twists and turns and one particularly surprising outcome, it has gotten ridiculously slow. Makes The Man in High Castle look like the movie Speed! Also, the guy playing the President is just acting like an asshole, completely unbelievable behavior. Did the writers have to make him look like such a douchebag?

1.5 of 4
 
Finished Season Two of The Boys. Very mixed feelings, as the show seems to be forgetting plot lines and character motivations, as well as characters intersecting specific plot points way too easily. The last episode seemed the most guilty of this. They seemed to be moving in the right direction, but then it somewhat derails.


They do a good job of working it up with Stormfront. But then her character seems to become fodder in the end, needlessly.

The CEO of Vought's motivation continually shifts and makes little sense with a little bit of pondering.

Butcher's wife? Vought is incapable of finding her? (which also applies to the Supers who seem perfect at finding everything, when it is convenient... heck, they could have had a large picnic in the final resolution because everyone knew where everyone else was). And how things end for her... seem a bit different than Stormfront, despite the same cause.

And Starlight keeps bouncing all over the place, but again, this is partially due to the fact that plot lines are too easily intersecting other characters, like how Stormfront knew about her being the leak. Starlight blurting she knew who Stormfront was. So much for that drama.

 
The Tudors, season 1, 7/10; Available on Netflix this "historical" drama covers the early reign of England's King Henry VIII played by the talented but troubled Jonathan Rhys Meyers. A fairly standard period drama with lots of characters to keep up with as Henry tries to rule his kingdom, marry a woman that will give him a son and heir and still be able to shag who he wants on the side. There was an interesting episode where there was an outbreak of a deadly disease known as "the sweating sickness" which really happened. Yikes! It's quite interesting but I'm not sure I will be able to follow through until the end of season 4.
 
Just finished another episode of Leah Remini: Scientology and the Aftermath.

And just like at the end of every other episode of every season so far, I was left with my jaw wide open. Holy shit.
 
Just finished another episode of Leah Remini: Scientology and the Aftermath.

And just like at the end of every other episode of every season so far, I was left with my jaw wide open. Holy shit.
Saw an episode or two. I used to read a lot about Scientology long ago, but the Nation of Islam one I did not think was possible
 
The Expanse - Season Umm... 5... kind of? (up through episode 3)

So it appears they are adjusting somethings from the novel. Granted, I haven't read books from 1 to 4, but there are notable changes happening to the script, probably in part to tie up all loose ends by next season... which would be something because the author uses three more books to do so.


I was surprised the hit was so late in the season.
I didn't particularly like how they let you know it was coming, where as in the novel it was introduced as an aside as the characters weren't immediately impacted (yet).
Drummer seems to be getting meshed into Michio Pa's character, which of the changes makes sense as it'd be harder to get behind someone newer and understand the whole backstory in a season.
Why did they change the whole Alex and Bobby set up? It didn't particularly save time or enhance the story.
Same with Naomi, her going to see her son had a plot mechanism that was needlessly changed. Also, she bought a ship you didn't realize she bought.

These changes make me wonder just how much more they are squeezing into the final season. Squeezing the protomolecule into the story line and keeping a push on Mars seems to imply the end of Novel 6 isn't the end game here.



I'm only up to a bit in book 7 and am worrying they are going to blow through Books 6 to 9 (nine unpublished at the moment).
 
I'm late to the Expanse bandwagon (to my chagrin.) I've read the first book, and I've watched the show up to Episode 6 of Season Two, the part of the show that aligns perfectly with the end of Book One.

So then. Do I continue watching the show, confident that the changes won't spoil my enjoyment of the next books? Or do I put the show on hold until after I read the next book?
 
I'm late to the Expanse bandwagon (to my chagrin.) I've read the first book, and I've watched the show up to Episode 6 of Season Two, the part of the show that aligns perfectly with the end of Book One.

So then. Do I continue watching the show, confident that the changes won't spoil my enjoyment of the next books? Or do I put the show on hold until after I read the next book?
I watched up to Season 4 before reading the novels (starting at Book 5) and enjoyed the show a lot.
 
I'm only up to a bit in book 7 and am worrying they are going to blow through Books 6 to 9 (nine unpublished at the moment).

I don't think they are cramming as much as you think. The end of book six is a serviceable ending for the series. It offers a new normal to deal with everything the protomolecule has instigated, much like the end of book 3 could be used as closure.

So then. Do I continue watching the show, confident that the changes won't spoil my enjoyment of the next books? Or do I put the show on hold until after I read the next book?

I'd do one then the other, but not both concurrently. The differences between the two are just enough to be a little confusing. I pretty much devoured the books in between when SyFy cancelled the show and Amazon released season 4 and it didn't diminish my enjoyment of the show. I doubt I would have enjoyed either as much if I tried doing both at the same time.
 
Escape to the Chateau, Season 1, 8/10; This UK produced documentary series has started on HGTV. It follows the exploits of a mature couple who have purchased a huge property in France, a "chateau". The 40+ room property has not been lived in for about 40 years and is in a state of disrepair but Dick and Angel are determined to make a go of it and turn into a home and business. Angel is so positive thinking her can do attitude is infectious. She is a bit eccentric but charming, witty has such enthusiasm for the property. Her husband Dick has the powers of a superhero as he tackles almost every challenge himself with a team of helpers drafted in from the UK. It's very entertaining.
 
Escape to the Chateau, Season 1, 8/10; This UK produced documentary series has started on HGTV. It follows the exploits of a mature couple who have purchased a huge property in France, a "chateau". The 40+ room property has not been lived in for about 40 years and is in a state of disrepair but Dick and Angel are determined to make a go of it and turn into a home and business. Angel is so positive thinking her can do attitude is infectious. She is a bit eccentric but charming, witty has such enthusiasm for the property. Her husband Dick has the powers of a superhero as he tackles almost every challenge himself with a team of helpers drafted in from the UK. It's very entertaining.

Yeah. the wife likes that one....I'm ok.
 
Blue Bloods - 6/10

Fairly enjoyable cop drama about a family of cops with Tom Selleck playing the police commissioner. The stories are well written and the actors are good, but it is cop porn and all of the social issues involving police are presented heavily to the cops' side and that gets overdone from time to time.

Still worth watching, though.
 
The Crown, 7/10; A Netflix series that dramatizes the life and reign of Queen Elizabeth II starting off with her childhood. It's mostly entertaining but does have lulls where it can be quite boring. I am starting to get in to the Princess Diana years and the weird stuff that went on there. Plus the Thatcher years are quite interesting as she copes with her missing son and the building Falklands crisis. This has been the best section of the series so far.
 
The Crown, 7/10; A Netflix series that dramatizes the life and reign of Queen Elizabeth II starting off with her childhood. It's mostly entertaining but does have lulls where it can be quite boring. I am starting to get in to the Princess Diana years and the weird stuff that went on there. Plus the Thatcher years are quite interesting as she copes with her missing son and the building Falklands crisis. This has been the best section of the series so far.

Aside from Gillian Anderson‘s performance as Thatcher, I thought this was the weakest season. Hours of a whiny Prince Charles.
 
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