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dolorosa_12I think the fact that I'm only getting to this TV logging now reflects the kind of month I've had. It's been busy — in a good way, but still busy.
There was, of course, time for TV — five shows finished in the past two months. Those were:
Under Salt Marsh, a waterlogged Welsh noir set on a fictional island (under threat from climate change-induced rising sea levels, and periodically cut off from the mainland when the causeway road in and out is covered by tidal waters), in which the death of a child dredges up connections with the death of a child a few years previously. As with this kind of story about supposedly idyllic close-knit communities, various wounds and tensions lie under the surface, and are brought into light by the shocking crimes.
The latest season of Industry, a sort of British Succession-esque show about terrible, selfish people working in the finance industry. Every season picks a real-world political upheaval and shows how it affects global finance, the people who work in it, and the slow shifts in UK politics it provokes, even if those are not immediately obvious in the moment. This season focused on attempts to regulate tech companies (particularly the real age-verification legislation passed by the current UK government), through the window of a company that previously made its money as a payment processor for the seedier side of the internet and is now attempting to clean up its act and present itself as a poster child for the new Labour government's anxiously pro-business posturing. As always in Industry, there's more going on beneath the glossy surface, and the appeal — such as it is — is watching terrible people destroy the world, and destroy themselves in the process, all the while thinking that they are succeeding. By the end, everyone gets what they deserve, and has convinced themselves that it's what they wanted all along, and viewers will feel as if they need a thorough shower to rid themselves of all the accumulated moral grime.
High Country, an Australian mystery miniseries set in a small town in the Victorian mountains, in which (you guessed it) a series of deaths and disappearances dredge up long-buried secrets and injustices that make a mockery of the town's genteel facade and close-knit community. The police officer in charge of solving this string of crimes is Indigenous, but was adopted by a white mother and Indigenous father (the father subsequently died shortly after her adoption), and that longstanding trauma of being cut off from one's roots, identity and community, which is such a strong and horrific throughline of so many Australian Indigenous people's experiences is an important component of the show. The setting is striking (with that common Australian undercurrent of unease in a hostile landscape), the cast is solid, but I think the pacing is a bit uneven.
The latest season of Bridgerton, which presumably needs little introduction. This installment adapts Benedict's (the second Bridgerton sibling's) book, which is a Regency Cinderella retelling of an ill-used illegitimate daughter of a nobleman exploited by her stepmother after her father's death. As with all previous seasons of Bridgerton, there's a sort of half-hearted attempt to make some deeper points about social justice (in this case class and the huge army of servants whose unnoticed labour allows the show's aristocratic characters to live their charmed and untroubled lives), but this is at odds with the frothy tone and nothing much comes of it. I enjoyed the central romance (the charm and chemistry of the two actors, who were clearly having a great time, did a lot to help with this), and I thought Bridgerton sister Francesca's subplot was handled very well (presumably setting things up for the next season), although in general I think there are too many subplots per season and some are very superficially served.
Sandokan, a deeply silly Italian (but mainly in English) Netflix adaptation of some nineteenth-century adventure novels about the titular character, a pirate operating around what is now Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, and various other southeast Asian countries, along with his ragtag international crew of misfits. The show's tone swings wildly between (if we're taking pirate examples) Pirates of the Caribbean without the supernatural elements and Black Sails — it can't decide if it wants to be a swashbuckling adventure story or a serious exploration of the iniquities of colonialism and empire, and none of the actors (least of all the one playing Sandokan, an Italian actor of Turkish background, whose acting ability is far exceeded by his looks) is particularly equal to the task. Add to that some eyebrow-raising moments of uncritical orientalism, and you can probably see why I can't really recommend the show, although I found it endearingly silly, and kind of ended up loving it quite a lot.
I'm not going to be around enough tomorrow to do an open thread post, so consider this your open thread prompt one day early: what TV have you been enjoying recently?
There was, of course, time for TV — five shows finished in the past two months. Those were:
I'm not going to be around enough tomorrow to do an open thread post, so consider this your open thread prompt one day early: what TV have you been enjoying recently?
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Date: 2026-04-02 01:29 pm (UTC)My mum, who's a big fan of British mystery shows with a strong sense of place and a lot more on top of British tv as a whole than me, has recommended Under Salt Marsh to me. Adding your vote and bumping it up to the top of the list of things to check out. :D
Lots of people speak well of Industry but it seems heavy and like depressing/maddening. I need escapism in my tv (says the woman who just rewatched an epiosde of Heated Rivalry for the umpteenth time).
Ah, Sandokan lol. I heard that the main actor just can't act. This is of course a new version but there was a classic 1970s tv show about it here, and my mum who loved it told me the new one is shit. Another friend whose judgement I trusted, instead, said it's not so bad. Not surpirsed by the uncritical orientalism. It is an Italian production. sigh
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Date: 2026-04-02 04:12 pm (UTC)I need escapism in my tv
Totally fair, although I also seem to remember that you're watching/have watched The Pitt. I just watched the first episode of that this week, and had to immediately follow it with a long cottagecore video about a woman doing renovations on a house in the Isle of Skye to lower my stress levels! (Possibly because I work in a healthcare-adjacent job, stuff about the pressures on medical and healthcare workers really hits home.) In any case, I wouldn't exactly describe it as escapist!
I heard about the 1970s Sandokan adaptation — it would be interesting to compare. You're definitely not missing much, and as I say I can hardly recommend it, although for me it was a nice few hours of my kind of dumb escapism!
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Date: 2026-04-02 04:18 pm (UTC)Oh, and I've been rewatching Fisk. That's a good show to watch before bed. The Pitt, less so. (That's part of the problem - I mostly watch shows in bed, but because I do, it's harder watching more intense shows because the whole point is to turn my brain off. The intense shows I watch at dinner, or during the day.)
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Date: 2026-04-02 06:38 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2026-04-02 05:03 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2026-04-02 06:38 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2026-04-02 07:55 pm (UTC)I dunno about enjoying, but I've kind of been keeping up with Daredevil Born Again in a "wow what a trainwreck" way. The second season of The Pitt and I got a divorce. We really need to finish up Orphan Black, except I did my usual thing where I started dragging my heels because there is ONE season left and then what do we do?? (T's solution is always an immediate rewatch, LOL.) Sadly the sequel is absolute shit. HOW they could waste Krysten Ritter that way I don't know. I keep meaning to see Slow Horses....and like twenty other different series. I'm always so behind on TV, it's embarrassing.
Orphan Black is awesome though!
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Date: 2026-04-02 08:11 pm (UTC)The previous season of the Daredevil reboot was enough to convince me to give it up, but then I heard Jessica Jones was coming back, and I decided to come crawling back again. I haven't had time to start it yet, but I'm disappointed to know that it's a trainwreck, though not surprised.
I'm two episodes into the first season of The Pitt and loving it so far, but finding it unbelievably stressful. I have to watch a bunch of cosy cottagecore videos after each episode to lower my heart rate!
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Date: 2026-04-02 08:31 pm (UTC)I think Jessica's going to be in the "back half" of Born Again which means like four episodes, sigh. Like a sucker, I will show up for her.
The first season of The Pitt was absolutely stellar, I don't think it had any really bad episodes. I was just struggling so hard with the second season I was like, fuckit, I might watch it later when I can binge it, because the "one episode is one hour" thing really does not work for me with a week to wait.
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Date: 2026-04-02 08:32 pm (UTC)I don't tend to vibe a whole lot with shows that are very acclaimed (The White Lotus, Adolescence, fucking SUCCESSION, Severance, The Rehearsal WTF, blahblah) so I often wind up watching older stuff. It's kind of rare for me nowadays to get into a new canon that's currently airing! and also there's still sooo much for me to just catch up on, lolsob. I think next we might watch Queen's Gambit! Which is....six years old. But after The Gorge I will watch Anya Taylor-Joy in absolutely anything (that already really paid off with The Menu).
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Date: 2026-04-05 09:14 am (UTC)I think my husband has watched literally every show you've mentioned here (including the acclaimed ones that you haven't seen), but I've only watched about 1/3 of them! He watches way more TV than me because he commutes to work to London for over an hour on the train, and he exercises on an exercise bike — both things which lend themselves to watching one episode of TV for the duration. My commute is shorter (I read) and I mainly swim and do classes for exercise, and I can't watch TV when I'm supposed to be watching the instructor or when I'm underwater!
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Date: 2026-04-02 09:22 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2026-04-05 09:18 am (UTC)I'll be interested to know what you think about the second season of A Thousand Blows, without wanting to say anything here about my own impressions before you've watched it.
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Date: 2026-04-03 02:29 pm (UTC)This coincided very funnily with the runtime of Pursuit of Jade, since when that started in March, I was also rewatching the Wanted Detective! The joke is that the same man who plays the rival in the detective show also plays the beautifully sickly and absolutely psychotic yet sympathetic villain in Pursuit of Jade, so I have had the incredibly enjoyable opportunity of watching a wildly talented and skilled actor pull off two entirely different but also insanely swagful characters at the same time. I suppose it also helps that he is very pretty if you are into tall Asian men who give both elf prince and mad Targaryen at the same time. He has the skill to go from scary psycho to wounded puppy to schemer king in like the span of two minutes and in a convincing way! It's honestly terrifying if it wasn't so enjoyable to watch. :D
Pursuit of Jade basically shat itself in terms of plot and consistency around episode 26 of 40, and I pretty much stuck it out for my fave and his character's younger brother who is played by probably one of the most talented young guys I have seen in a long time, I cannot believe he was 19 at the time of filming...how. Still absolutely worth it, and the tumblr/discord activity around it has also been fun for most of the time.
In regards to the detectives, I barely if ever hyperfixate on characters for more than a month and a time, but for these guys I have written 160k+ worth of fic in total, which encompasses a 106k monster that needs editing and is why I am watching for the third time. In terms of data, I have yearly word counts for all years since 2020 and including, where the highest word count was 50k for 2025. This year (2026) I have written 155k fic in THREE months and 2 days which is unprecedented and honestly just speaks to how massive the hyperfixation is.
I have planned to do a "shitty powerpoint"/fandom primer for Wanted Detective for far too long now, bc the fandom is nearly non-existent. But I have surgery on Monday, so I need to get through that first.
Next to all that I have also been enjoying Love Beyond the Grave which is about a spirit lady who strikes a bargain with a general who is of the "the hinges are there but removable at will" variety. Quite high fantasy, very romantic and beautiful, really hoping it stays good but after Pursuit of Jade ended up like it did...I cannot trust anyone...or can I? :D
If anyone wants to see all these, Wanted Detective is available on iqiyi (a chinese streamer), Pursuit of Jade is both on iqiyi and Netflix (albeit the subs are kind of bad) and Love Beyond The Grave is on Viki and WeTV, I think.
Thank you for the opportunity to infodump!!! :D
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Date: 2026-04-05 09:22 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2026-04-05 01:10 pm (UTC)It has been great and wild and great...I honestly feel possessed most of the time, I am might be in the driver's seat but they're in the backseat and telling me where we're going. :D