TV series you are watching now

Watched the last episode of 'The North Water' last night. It's a bleak BBC mini series, about a whaling boat and its crew up in the frozen north.
I personally thought it was great, but at times grim and depressing and it could be a little slow (BBC historical drama) The characters were also raw and some pretty evil.
Well worth a watch.

Won me over with "raw and some pretty evil," but not gonna lie, "bleak" had me looking the series up.

I'm weird with stuff like this, I can either love it or hate it for the same, exact reasons, and there's no way of knowing until I watch it.

Also, anyone watch Netflix' new spin on He-man?

Wtf, right?

Watched the last episode of 'The North Water' last night. It's a bleak BBC mini series, about a whaling boat and its crew up in the frozen north.
I personally thought it was great, but at times grim and depressing and it could be a little slow (BBC historical drama) The characters were also raw and some pretty evil.
Well worth a watch.

Sounds a bit like 'The Terror'. That was a great series. I think I may have to check this one out.

Don't watch TV.

   No one watches a TV anymore. Everyone here at home just sits around and watches whatever on their phones or laptop. The lonely TV just sits in a corner by itself.

Just started watching this show where Keifer Sutherland becomes the President.  Forget the name.  I liked him in 24.  His daddy was originally from Saint John, New Brunswick (Canada).

Just started watching this show where Keifer Sutherland becomes the President.  Forget the name.  I liked him in 24.  His daddy was originally from Saint John, New Brunswick (Canada).

There is also a Korean remake of this.

Won me over with "raw and some pretty evil," but not gonna lie, "bleak" had me looking the series up.

I'm weird with stuff like this, I can either love it or hate it for the same, exact reasons, and there's no way of knowing until I watch it.

If you like bleak, raw, and pretty evil, you might enjoy "Raised by Wolves".
I enjoyed it, although I'm a sucker for sci-fi.

A number of new seasons and a few new shows have started this past week. Here's a few that I'm watching or about to watch.

'Yellowstone season 3'. One of my favorites. Kevein Costner and Kelly Reilly are great. Always bloody and full of drama.
'Wu Tang: An American Saga season 2'. I enjoyed season 1, surprisingly. Ashton Sanders plays a good part.
'Silent Witness season 24'. Episode 4 is up. I'll binge watch this. Never disappointed with this show.
"Only Murders in the Building', starring Steve Martin, is a new whodunnit comedy. Again, I haven't looked at it yet. Another binge watch.

'Kin' is a new Irish gangster series. Episode 1 was okay, but I'm not sold just yet.
Same goes for American Rust', starring Jeff Daniels. A little slow, and maybe  too much mellodrama to come.

I watched episode 1 of 'Australian gangster' last night. Turned it off after 30 minutes. Terrible, but that's me. Generally, I like Aussie TV and movies.
Which reminds me, 'Polynesian Panthers' is also a new New Zealand show. It's based on events back in the 70s during the Robert Muldoon Era Government, and the institutional racism and policies aimed at Polynesian people. It's not bad, but very 'Kiwi'.

Also watching new seasons of:

# Animal Kingdom
# American Horror

Wow! I didn't know they'd made a TV series out of Animal Kingdom. I must've been living under a rock.
Having said that I've just looked at the trailers and first impressions are pretty ordinary compared to the original Movie which was a classic.
I thought the original really captured the character of alienated and dysfunctional Australian males to a tee. Jacky Weaver was awesome as a Ma Baker type of matriarchal crime boss. 

Started watching:

Vigil (BBC drama set aboard a Nuclear Submarine)
Y: The Last Man (based on the comic I've read, description of the show in the title, don't watch if you hate too many women in one show)

Going to watch:
Only Murders in the Building (Steve Martin, Martin Short, Selena Gomez starring)

It would be helpful if people add how they're watching these shows.  I just have Netflix and Amazon Prime.  I used to do do the torrents but since I switched to an iMac I heard using bittorrents is not as safe.  I may have to go the VPN route. 

Good point OnNut.
Not 10 minutes ago I was thinking the same. People do need to know where you got the shows from. That, I didn't, and haven't mentioned before.
Yeah, the shows that I talked about above are all downloaded. Although some previous seasons may be on Netflix.

I haven't watched the Aussie movie this series was based on. I'll put it on my list.
I do really like the TV series though. Have a watch Adel, you might enjoy it.

Likewise I'd recommend you check out the movie.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=YNszOl14AWg&t=19s

https://www.theguardian.com/film/australia-culture-blog/2014/jun/13/animal-kingdom-rewatching-classic-australian-films

I watched a 2 season series from Canada called Blown Away. It's a reality competition a la Hell's Kitchen (but polite cuz they're Canadians eh) about blowing glass.

It really is incredible. I have two hand blown glass clowns my mother had made when we moved to West Germany in 1967. I remember watching them being made. It is astonishing that they have made their around the world without the slightest chip. I had the dragon made from a guy in Nong Khai who had his little glass blowing table set up at an outdoor market.

For anyone familiar with Quebec City there was a very cool glass blowing place you could go in and watch in the old city halfway down the concrete stairs. You'll understand if you've been there.

Blown Away is very well worth the watch if you appreciate true mastery of blown glass.

It's on Netflix.

Moviesjoy.to

Has tv series, too.

That's how i've watched things for years.

If you like bleak, raw, and pretty evil, you might enjoy "Raised by Wolves".
I enjoyed it, although I'm a sucker for sci-fi.

I was actually just looking at this the other day, but I wasn't sure about it. Thanks for the rec, I'll add it to my list.

BTW Chinguetti (if you're around)
Did you get around to watching 'The North Water'.

I've already downloaded it, just haven't sat down to watch it, yet. I try to wait to watch stuff like this when I have a lot of time because I tend to binge shows that I end up enjoying a lot, lol. Will probably get started on it this weekend.

Survivor Australia, this summer's season 8, binge watching this week. It's better than the American version in several ways, though less angry confrontations, which can be a good thing, as there's more subterfuge, flipping and blindsides.

The new, and unfortunately final, Goliath on Amazon Prime.

Fairly ironic, since Bezos would be the perfect target for Billy McBride.

Hey has anyone seen Squid Games (Korean Drama/Thriller/Horror series)?  It's pretty popular right now on Netflix.

I binge-watched it in one week and I thought (for the most part) it was quite good, although the people they choose to act as the "foreigners" (not the Hindi guy) were so cringe~~~ GRRR.  Although to be fair, the script they were working with sucked (the English part).

Would love to know what others thought of the series.

the people they choose to act as the "foreigners" (not the Hindi guy) were so cringe~~~ GRRR.  Although to be fair, the script they were working with sucked (the English part).

FROM REDDIT:  https://www.reddit.com/r/korea/comments/pvv1z1/netflix_faces_major_backlash_for_their_response/heg42qu/
Some reasons why foreign actors in Korean media often suck:

1) Most foreign actors in Korean media are not trained professionals. Usually, they’re part-time models who came as teachers or students and married locally or got recruited by agencies. It’s a decent gig if you can get it - nothing against them. But yeah they are generally going to have almost zero acting training compared to Korean actors who usually go to school for this from a young age (often middle school or younger).

2) Scenes shot with foreign actors are typically shot in one or two days to minimize costs (costumes, makeup, feedback from directors, etc are a lot more chaotic when there are people who don’t speak Korean fluently - which is most foreign actors - on set so often there will be someone translating) So the actors have fewer chances to fix a scene if they did it oddly the first time.

3) The crew, director, and editors often do not speak English well enough to realize when an actor is reading a line in a weird way, or will even specifically ask them to read it in a way that does not sound natural to speakers of that language. Their lines are also typically written in Korean first and then translated, usually by someone who is not fluent in either Korean or the other language, leading to stilted or awkward writing.

4) Casting calls involving foreigners are literally advertised weeks or even days or hours before shoots in Korea (go to Craigslist Seoul if you don’t believe me lol) and the actors are often told very little about the project they are working on making it pretty difficult to prepare.

5) Foreign actors are not paid very much (100 to 400 a day on days when you get a gig which is like 10 to 15 days a month if you are lucky). Also, the people making the videos usually can’t give you any useful feedback because of language barriers and/or because giving feedback to foreign actors that you usually work with one or two times per project is not a high priority. Agencies for models and actors are usually just providing a visa and do not provide classes, feedback, or even references to jobs, but they do take a commission of 15 to even 40 percent per job, whether they helped you find it or not. It's really difficult to improve and develop as an actor in this kind of environment.

Bitching about foeign acting? That's fine. But some people are saying it "ruins" the show! hahahah

Don't you hate it when an off-kilter 1% ruins the other 99% of quality TV?

Anyway, the show is VERY good. It's not amazing, but it's well worth a watch.

Yeah, I thought the series was okay. I get the hype over it, but I'm gonna have to be that guy and say that it was a complete mess. So much of it was clearly copied from other sources, there were zero attempts to fill in at least some of the holes, a lot of the content was thrown in just to fill in space, and so much of the plot was contradictory and inexplicable. Overall, it was incredibly predictable. Even the "subtle" foreshadowing was too obvious and heavy-handed.

The VIPs were the most glaring example of all of the above. They were written so poorly, and they were filmed so poorly. They just didn't fit in with the rest of the series at all, not in tone, dialogue, or cinematography. They stood out too much in every possible way, and they were very clearly meant to be a xenophobic message that was ham-fisted as far up everyone's asses as they could get. The actors are getting the blame for all of that, but it's really a production and writer issue. Even A-List actors look like shitty actors if they aren't filmed properly.

Every character was a caricature of a stereotype or trope, Korean or otherwise. The crazy woman was loud and did the whole wide-eyed thing, the corrupt broker was comically sleazy, the main loser character is just some poor misunderstood guy, the foreign migrant was kind and strong but naive/stupid, and etc.

I actually hate the positive reviews that this series has received so far. I really don't think it deserves it. Sure, the sets were fantastic, and the Korean actors played their parts well, but that's as far as it goes for me. The over-arching societal message that the series is supposed to have does NOT make up for what the whole of it lacks, imo.