Favourite TV Series

Looks like Phoebe has upgraded to a triple.

 

For my fellow non German speakers:

Manuel Neuer’s boot is lovely. He has seared his gut but is sewing it at the zoo.

Sounds like a Parental Guidance one to me.

 

ὑπερβολή

 

You say [that], I say hyperbole.

C&p didn’t seem to work on my phone so schoolboy Russian to the rescue!

 

Your Russian is bloody good! It's all Greek to me though.

 

A year's worth of schoolboy Russian once got me out of a tricky, Kelsoesque scrape in Moscow.

A mate who spoke Russian packed me off in a cab after a lengthy evening. Whilst the initial direction didn't seem spot on, I was focused mainly on not falling asleep.

After 15 mins, I became aware that things weren't on track & as we headed towards the outskirts of town, I became alarmed.

By happy chance, I noticed a large sign to an industrial park which I laboriously managed to decipher. I knew this place was exactly the wrong side of town.

I had wanted the Olympic Hotel, next the Olympic Park. For some reason, the driver was intent on taking me to the Olympic Hotel, the middle of ******* nowhere.

He also told me that when I tapped him on the shoulder, he thought I had a gun & was shitting himself at the mysterious Englishman in the back of the cab.

How we laughed!

 

And that's the story behind RookeryDad's first kill on Her Majesty's Service.

 

I suppose I had better metaphorically put pen to paper be fore the morons take over on the 29th March and I'm sent to a de- re-education camp.

It has a very different to the original series, but the on-board U-boat scenes are just as you would expect - the sets look fantastic and have the filthy, claustrophobic feel of the original - this "stuff" comprises about the 50% of the story. They also show a very different set of characters than the "noble" warriors in the first book - something that chimes as I seem to remember that the Unterseebootsflottille had by far the greatest proportion of Nazi "true-believers", as reflected by party membership, than any of the other uniformed services (I do remember that the police force had the lowest which is even more surprising/terrifying when the vast majority of what have been termed Einsatzgruppen were police battalions made up of "normal" everyday coppers)...

The other part is set, loosely, around a "resistance" cell operating in La Rochelle. This is definitely the weaker half but fortunately all of the cast are excellent (even though they suddenly break into English rather than French/German) and their performances do more than compensate for the frankly weak (and at times) ludicrous material.

The (historically accurate) ambivalence of the American population/politicians for their participation in the "European" war (in 1942) is also explored and looks like being the back-drop for a major plot line in later series.

It's easy to say "not as good as the first one"which does it a disservice as it's trying to tell a much "bigger" story than the original (which was little more than a diary). I look forward to seeing if a third gets made.

 

Trying hard to care about The Walking Dead...but struggling.

Watching True Detective...no idea what's going on...need to binge rewatch it.

 

If it's any consolation in the original source material* this story-line was, I think, the highlight of the series and I *think* I'll still have to watch as I want to see what they do without Rick and Karl (still there in the books) and Darren (who doesn't appears in the books). The comic is about a story-line ahead and it's really, really uninteresting - verging on boring.

*Comic.

 

Yeah the new 'enemy' is very much lather, rinse, repeat. Not surprised Andrew Lincoln left, the story lines are dull and repetitive now.

 

Need some recommendations as I broke my hand and I'm going to be off work for a while....

 

Shetland is pretty good. Only watched series 4 recently and am now backtracking on the earlier series - series 3 has started very promisingly.

 

Berlin Station is well worth a watch, if you haven't already seen it, as is The Team - although the subtitles can be annoying when the dialogue is in English and they're written in German or Danish.

If you're into police shows, three Canadian series stand out for me - Cardinal, Motive and Carter.

 

I’m enjoying ‘Russian Doll’ on Netflix, first couple of episodes at least. A bit ‘Groundhog Day’ meets ‘Life on Mars’ with New York attitude. Drugs and swearing aplenty.

Still recommend ‘Occupied’ too.

 

Star Trek Discovery.
Fleshlight.
Don't clap.

 

But we are all happy clappers aren't we?

 

Mrs Diamond had this on last night. I lasted 10 minutes before giving up on it.

 

You need to give it an episode. It's a great slow-burner though admittedly I've not seen the current one (s5?).

 

OK then I will watch it tonight on your behalf, (I must admit to quite liking his sidekick Tosh).

 

If you can 'obtain' 'obscure' TV series I cannot recommend the, extremely controversial*, Russian TV series "Shtrafbat" enough. The Russians have always made fantastic war movies (with casts of 1000's and their massive stocks/supplies of real actual contemporary vehicles/equipment as props).

*What most people may not know is the iconic status of WWII in Russia (far more than in the UK) is 'built on sand' as very, very few Russians know any history/details of what actually occurred. Putin's Russia uses an awful lot of WWII iconography and it's said that if the 'facts' of what actually went on in the "Great Patriotic War" were more widely known his grip on power would evaporate overnight.

 

I quite like Star Trek Discovery (STD?)

 

Looks like it will be slow and boring which is why we only recently watched it on the planner, but it gets very absorbing, and keeps you guessing. Can vouch for S4 and S3 but not seen the current one which I assume you are watching.

 

Always looks a bit bleak and melodramatic to me. Inspector Monkfish territory.

However, I can’t talk as I’m very excited to hear that ultra bleak, Icelandic murder fest ‘Trapped’ is to return.

 

Can’t you use your feet instead?

 

Not a series but I've just seen an 'Our World' piece on Chernobyl on BBC News.
Fascinating,sad and uplifting in many ways.
The radiation levels on the plane to Ukraine were three times higher than when the reporter and professor from Portsmouth University were 100 metres from the reactor.

 

Getting fed up with all these celebrities taking their old folks on a free holiday around the world for a tv series with a few cheap laughs. Whitehall, Ranganathanaghanthan(?) and Russell Howard for starters. The trailers for Howard's shows are plain embarrassing but i find the guy completely unfunny anyway.

 

Exactly The Geordies told us once that Peter Ried peeled bananas with his feet.

 

Just started rewatching The Wire for probably the 4th time.

What a show.

 

I’ve watched the first episode 3 times & never been able to push on.

I know I should like & know I will like it but something is elusive.

It’s like the Sannino season.

 

It’s a show that takes a genuine commitment.

Daunting at first, but once you plunge in, there’s no coming back. A bit like having kids, but more rewarding.

 

I have the boxset of The Wire and like you I have watched the first episode 2 or 3 times and then nothing else. I know it's supposed to be brilliant but I'm impatient and it just doesn't grab me me immediately