September TV shows

[dolorosa_12]

I'm racing to get this done before the month ends. As always, it's been a pretty mixed month in terms of genres of shows watched. I finished five TV shows:

The Capture — the second season of this classy BBC spy thriller, which focuses on the use of sophisticated deep fake technology by the security services of the British state (and others). This is a twisty, gripping, well told story, but I can't help but feel — in light of so many instances where I've seen people fooled by much cruder fakes — that most states would never bother with something this complicated and expensive when they could just throw out an out-of-context video or provocative social media post, and achieve the same effect. Nevertheless, this is well worth watching.

Shetland — the concluding season (at least with this protagonist) of this melancholy, atmospheric crime series did a great job in wrapping things up. As always, the setting is the star of the show. I'll be sad to see Jimmy Perez go — he's a great character, and his insistence on taking on the pain and problems of everyone he encounters (another character even called him Shetland's 'sin eater,' which is something I've been saying since I first watched the series) is so brilliantly written.

Our Flag Means Death — Matthias and I were finally legally able to watch this show during our holiday in New York, and I'm so glad I had this opportunity. I don't know if I have anything to say about this show that hasn't already been said, except to say that I feel blessed to have not one but two anti-colonial, queer pirate shows of such great quality!

Surreal Estate — a deeply silly show about a team of real estate agents who specialise in dealing with haunted houses. Tim Rozon (from Wynonna Earp) stars in the show, and has clearly found his niche in low-budget, ridiculous genre shows.

Crossfire — a three-part British miniseries about a group of friends living through an attack by gunmen on the hotel in Spain in which they are holidaying. It digs into the unspoken tensions in all their various relationships, which are laid starkly bare in their experiences during the siege, and in its aftermath. I found its conclusion and choices in emphasis in the final episode a bit offputting; the sections during the siege and the lead-up to it are great, but it felt as if the conclusion belonged to an entirely different show, and lacked the quality that had been present for the other portions of the series.

And that's been my month in TV.

Comments

[corvidology]

Did Surreal Estate only just become available in the UK or have you only just got around to watching it. I'm curious because it aired here early last year and then we were told it was cancelled... only now there's going to be a season 2.

I loved Wynonna Earp to a degree I don't feel for Surreal Estate but it is a lot of fun.

[dolorosa_12]

Surreal Estate only just came out here. This happens a lot with US genre shows, unless they're big blockbusters like Game of Thrones, the current Lord of the Rings prequel series, or stuff created exclusively for the big streaming platforms such as Netflix or Disney+. (Our Flag Means Death, which I also mention on this post, for example, still hasn't been released here and there's no word on when this will happen, or on what platform.)

Wynonna Earp was great, although the last season was self-indulgent fanservice, and like you I much prefer it Surreal Estate, which I found to be a sort of silly fun diversion.

[corvidology]

I think the WE crew felt that owed the fans after they managed to save the show from cancellation - even SyFy admitted that was the case - but I do think it weakened the story line.

[yarnofariadne]

We truly are so blessed to have TWO queer pirate shows!

[dolorosa_12]

I know, right? They're both so great in their own very different ways!

[kingstoken]

OFMD, Yeah! I am trying to get everyone to watch it, it's so much fun!

[dolorosa_12]

I'd been wanting to watch it since I first heard of it (I'm a huge Taika Waititi fan), but it still hasn't been given a release date in the UK (or indeed in the entirety of Europe) so I had no legal way to watch it. Thankfully, my recent trip to the US (and the fact that I was staying in a flat that had full subscriptions to all the main streaming services) meant that I could finally watch it. It was definitely worth the wait, and I'm now just wondering how on Earth I'm going to be able to watch the second season, since it's unlikely I'll be back to the US any time soon.

[kingstoken]

Not that I want to encourage watching things in a less than legal way, but there are lots of sites run by pirates, if you get my drift, and sometimes you got to do what you got to do.

[dolorosa_12]

Hahaha! I used to watch almost all the TV I watched through illegal streaming sites, but these days my husband and I are subscribed to so many streaming services that there's basically no need. This is the first instance in years where I haven't been able to watch a specific show legally (or at least without any indication that it's ever going to be picked up by a platform in my part of the world).

[kore]

....ooh I forgot there was a Shetland series! I'll have to check that out.

[dolorosa_12]

It's a fantastic show. I've not read the books, so I'm not able to say how it compares to them, but as its own thing it's pretty good.

[charlottenewtons]

Jimmy had a nice send off. For a while I was convinced they were going to kill him off.

[dolorosa_12]

Oh wow, that would have been a dark direction for the show to take! It is a sad, melancholy series, but I feel that it's ultimately not a grim show, and killing Jimmy off feels as if it would have been a step too far. But I can see why you might have thought it!

[charlottenewtons]

It was Tosh almost getting blown up in the caravan that made me think that they might try and surprise us by actually killing off Jimmy. You're right though, it's not the kind of show that would do something like that thankfully.