Quaran-TV, part 8
Jan. 30th, 2021 03:43 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dolorosa_12I think I'm going to have to grant myself comment amnesty on previous posts. I realise there are some comments to which I have not yet responded, but I feel like too much time has passed to come back to them. I've spent the past couple of weeks in a kind of exhausted fog, and I'm not entirely sure why, unless it's lingering feelings of incomplete tasks related to moving into the new house. Certainly we've had to buy a lot of stuff (a bed! a mattress! loads of bedding! a couch! curtains!) and fix various plumbing issues, and with all that hanging over my head, I felt drained and tired. But the new bed and mattress arrived, we assembled them today, the plumbing was fixed yesterday, and various sets of curtains should be making their way here next week. It's starting to feel like our house, instead of a holiday rental property that for some reason has all our furniture.
And so, a TV viewing log. I don't feel that I've read all that much this month, but I certainly watched (or finished) a lot of TV, mainly stuff on streaming services. I am probably going to update this post tomorrow as I will have watched one more film and finished one more TV show by then.
Matthias and I finished off watching Discovery this month. I personally really enjoyed this season — I felt it showcased the characters' relationships in interesting ways, I liked the new characters introduced, and the new aspects of returning characters' personalities that we learnt about. For the first time it felt as if all the characters on Discovery were working towards essentially the same goal in a collaborative manner, without tensions or unnecessary secrets. And I liked that it basically said that nothing is eternal, utopian societies can become dystopian, and the work of restoring something like a utopia is just that: work, slow, unglamorous, persistent and incremental.
The Serpent was a BBC drama about a serial killer (and his circle of complicit helpers) who preyed on hippie backpackers in South and Southeast Asia in the 1970s, operating mainly out of Thailand. The series had eight episodes, which at first I thought was excessive, but having watched the whole thing through, I now see that the length allowed the story to breathe, and unfold at the right pace. It's a dramatisation of real-world events, and focuses in equal part on the efforts of a Dutch diplomat and others to bring the killer to justice. I thought it did a really good job of evoking the spirit of the setting and era, in particular that combination of naivete and privilege that allowed thrill-seeking Westerners to treat Asia as a sort of theme park, playground, and site of supposed spiritual awakening.
I finally managed to watch The Queen's Gambit. I loved the look and feel of it, and felt that Anya Taylor-Joy did a great job conveying her character's brittle energy, nimble mind, and emotional wounds. Watching the dramatised chess matches was a delight, as well. I feel that at the end the show hewed too closely to sports movie clichés, making it a good, rather than great, piece of media.
Far more up my alley was the modern French adaptation of the Lupin stories. The whole thing was an utter joy to watch — Omar Sy was glorious in the title role, the supporting characters were great, and the twist (that he was able to hide in plain sight in the kinds of invisible, low-paying jobs that are normally done by immigrants and/or people of colour: cleaners, takeaway delivery drivers) made my heart absolutely sing. I always adore well-written heist stories, and Lupin is definitely that. I cannot wait for the second part of the series!
Barbarians is a deeply silly German drama (I hesitate to call it 'historical', since that's giving it too much credit) supposedly about the life of Arminius, a Germanic military leader who challenged the Romans when they tried to invade that part of the world. (Amusingly, it's the same part of Germany as where Matthias grew up, and there is even a 'Hermannsweg' — 'Arminius Trail' nearby where my mother and I spent several days hiking nearly ten years ago.) Historically accurate this show is not: it's going for the Game of Thrones-style gratuitous sex and violence, and borrows wholesale from both The Eagle of the Ninth and Braveheart in various places. We knew this would be ridiculous going in, and I don't mind the odd bit of trashy TV, but don't go into it expecting prestige historical television.
Late on Sunday night we finished up the final season of Spiral — a French crime series. I feel like this was Scandi noir (Gallic noir) before there was such a thing as Scandi noir. The series takes place in the grimy, grim, darker corners of Paris — there's not a tourist hotspot in sight — and it's all about the quiet, hidden violence done to those dispossessed, or excluded from the comforts of everyday society. I sometimes feels the show tips too far over into an attitude that because the violence and crime the police characters are dealing with is so extreme that it justifies them to abandon ethics, or proper procedure — but then again almost every crime drama takes this line. It was a satisfying conclusion to a series that's always dwelt in grey areas.
We rounded out the month by finishing the final season of The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina. Having found the last season a bit annoying (the same characters kept making the same mistakes), I felt this was a return to form, and the plot — Sabrina and her friends and family have to fight off various Lovecraftian 'eldritch terrors' — led to a monster-of-the-week style which I thought really suited the show. There were episodes that reminded me of the first season of Buffy (in a good way), and there were lots of Easter eggs for those of us '90s kids who'd grown up watching the Melissa Joan Hart Sabrina series. Sadly, I felt what was a really solid season of TV was let down by its utterly abysmal ending. It was excellent up until the last five minutes, and then it undercut every single thing it had been saying for the past 36 episodes.
So far this month we've watched films most weekends, although sadly I can't say either have been that great.
Wonder Woman 84 wasn't exactly a let-down, since I hadn't much cared for the first film, so I wasn't expecting much from this one. The '80s setting was fun, and I enjoyed Pedro Pascal chewing scenery, but that's about all I can really say.
New Mutants was ... odd. I think they were going for a sort of trapped-in-an-asylum horror film, but because of the age of the characters (they were meant to be teenagers with superpowers), it had a YA tone, and the horror elements were toned down to match. It had a good cast, but I was underwhelmed.
The Dig — a fantastic (if a bit by-the-numbers) Netflix film about the discovery of the Sutton Hoo archaeological treasures. I loved the cast, and the whole thing was just incredibly British.
And that's my televisual viewing for January. What have you been watching? What do you look forward to?
And so, a TV viewing log. I don't feel that I've read all that much this month, but I certainly watched (or finished) a lot of TV, mainly stuff on streaming services. I am probably going to update this post tomorrow as I will have watched one more film and finished one more TV show by then.
Matthias and I finished off watching Discovery this month. I personally really enjoyed this season — I felt it showcased the characters' relationships in interesting ways, I liked the new characters introduced, and the new aspects of returning characters' personalities that we learnt about. For the first time it felt as if all the characters on Discovery were working towards essentially the same goal in a collaborative manner, without tensions or unnecessary secrets. And I liked that it basically said that nothing is eternal, utopian societies can become dystopian, and the work of restoring something like a utopia is just that: work, slow, unglamorous, persistent and incremental.
The Serpent was a BBC drama about a serial killer (and his circle of complicit helpers) who preyed on hippie backpackers in South and Southeast Asia in the 1970s, operating mainly out of Thailand. The series had eight episodes, which at first I thought was excessive, but having watched the whole thing through, I now see that the length allowed the story to breathe, and unfold at the right pace. It's a dramatisation of real-world events, and focuses in equal part on the efforts of a Dutch diplomat and others to bring the killer to justice. I thought it did a really good job of evoking the spirit of the setting and era, in particular that combination of naivete and privilege that allowed thrill-seeking Westerners to treat Asia as a sort of theme park, playground, and site of supposed spiritual awakening.
I finally managed to watch The Queen's Gambit. I loved the look and feel of it, and felt that Anya Taylor-Joy did a great job conveying her character's brittle energy, nimble mind, and emotional wounds. Watching the dramatised chess matches was a delight, as well. I feel that at the end the show hewed too closely to sports movie clichés, making it a good, rather than great, piece of media.
Far more up my alley was the modern French adaptation of the Lupin stories. The whole thing was an utter joy to watch — Omar Sy was glorious in the title role, the supporting characters were great, and the twist (that he was able to hide in plain sight in the kinds of invisible, low-paying jobs that are normally done by immigrants and/or people of colour: cleaners, takeaway delivery drivers) made my heart absolutely sing. I always adore well-written heist stories, and Lupin is definitely that. I cannot wait for the second part of the series!
Barbarians is a deeply silly German drama (I hesitate to call it 'historical', since that's giving it too much credit) supposedly about the life of Arminius, a Germanic military leader who challenged the Romans when they tried to invade that part of the world. (Amusingly, it's the same part of Germany as where Matthias grew up, and there is even a 'Hermannsweg' — 'Arminius Trail' nearby where my mother and I spent several days hiking nearly ten years ago.) Historically accurate this show is not: it's going for the Game of Thrones-style gratuitous sex and violence, and borrows wholesale from both The Eagle of the Ninth and Braveheart in various places. We knew this would be ridiculous going in, and I don't mind the odd bit of trashy TV, but don't go into it expecting prestige historical television.
Late on Sunday night we finished up the final season of Spiral — a French crime series. I feel like this was Scandi noir (Gallic noir) before there was such a thing as Scandi noir. The series takes place in the grimy, grim, darker corners of Paris — there's not a tourist hotspot in sight — and it's all about the quiet, hidden violence done to those dispossessed, or excluded from the comforts of everyday society. I sometimes feels the show tips too far over into an attitude that because the violence and crime the police characters are dealing with is so extreme that it justifies them to abandon ethics, or proper procedure — but then again almost every crime drama takes this line. It was a satisfying conclusion to a series that's always dwelt in grey areas.
We rounded out the month by finishing the final season of The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina. Having found the last season a bit annoying (the same characters kept making the same mistakes), I felt this was a return to form, and the plot — Sabrina and her friends and family have to fight off various Lovecraftian 'eldritch terrors' — led to a monster-of-the-week style which I thought really suited the show. There were episodes that reminded me of the first season of Buffy (in a good way), and there were lots of Easter eggs for those of us '90s kids who'd grown up watching the Melissa Joan Hart Sabrina series. Sadly, I felt what was a really solid season of TV was let down by its utterly abysmal ending. It was excellent up until the last five minutes, and then it undercut every single thing it had been saying for the past 36 episodes.
So far this month we've watched films most weekends, although sadly I can't say either have been that great.
Wonder Woman 84 wasn't exactly a let-down, since I hadn't much cared for the first film, so I wasn't expecting much from this one. The '80s setting was fun, and I enjoyed Pedro Pascal chewing scenery, but that's about all I can really say.
New Mutants was ... odd. I think they were going for a sort of trapped-in-an-asylum horror film, but because of the age of the characters (they were meant to be teenagers with superpowers), it had a YA tone, and the horror elements were toned down to match. It had a good cast, but I was underwhelmed.
The Dig — a fantastic (if a bit by-the-numbers) Netflix film about the discovery of the Sutton Hoo archaeological treasures. I loved the cast, and the whole thing was just incredibly British.
And that's my televisual viewing for January. What have you been watching? What do you look forward to?
no subject
Date: 2021-01-30 05:20 pm (UTC)The Expanse
American Gods
His Dark Materials
All Creatures Great And Small [the latest one]
no subject
Date: 2021-01-30 07:30 pm (UTC)The Expanse is one of my husband's favourite TV shows.
I haven't seen the His Dark Materials series because the books are one of my most beloved and formative works of fiction, and I have a policy of not watching adaptations of books that were/are super meaningful to me. But the adaptation looks great, from what I can tell — a good cast, competent writing, and changes from the source material that work — and as a fan of the books, I do actually want them to get a decent adaptation.
no subject
Date: 2021-01-30 08:11 pm (UTC)Ghosts [BBC comedy by the Horrible Histories people]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5e0nB1mSd9Q
and Wandavision [didn't like the first episode much, decided to give the second one a go anyway, am now up to episode 4 and liking it more the longer it goes on]
Also Avenue 5 [Galaxy Quest type comedy with Hugh Laurie]
no subject
Date: 2021-01-31 04:07 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-01-31 02:31 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-01-31 04:08 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-01-31 05:25 pm (UTC)I agree, it was such a bizarre and off-putting note to end the series on!
no subject
Date: 2021-01-31 05:36 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-02-01 02:11 pm (UTC)My wife is watching Lupin and she loves it!
no subject
Date: 2021-02-02 04:37 pm (UTC)Lupin is great — easily the best TV series I've seen all year (although of course we're only one month into 2021).
no subject
Date: 2021-02-01 04:28 pm (UTC)And wasn't Anya glorious in TQG?
no subject
Date: 2021-02-02 04:41 pm (UTC)And wasn't Anya glorious in TQG?
She was great!