What TV are you watching?

[AndyRM]

The review I heard didn't centre around either factor (and, being R4, at least one reviewer had never see GoT ). It was more to do with the weak, superficial script, which they took the mickey out of, and the fact that some of the concentration on torture and execution seemed to be completely gratuitous.

Well, that's good I suppose. The script is a bit ropey in places, which is disappointing given that it was written/developed by Ronan Bennett.

I don't agree that the violence was gratuitous. It's the catalyst for the whole plot and had to be brutal. It's not like Catesby was going to start his plan off because someone booted his sandcastle over when he was a wee boy.

 

[AndyRM]

I think it wasn't that the violence itself was gratuitous, of course it's central to the story, it was more that it was shown and lingered over in a gratuitous way. They dismissed the whole thing as a feeble vanity project (as the writer is distantly related to Catesby, as are probably loads of people).

I'll have a listen to their review - assume it'll have been podcasted/put on iPlayer?

Though I think that's a pretty unfair criticism, if they hadn't shown it in the way they had, then the accusation would have been that the brutality of the time was glossed over. In any case, it was pretty tame compared to a lot of other shows out there, it's almost like the BBC isn't allowed to show gore or violence.

 

[srw]

Lucy Worsley on how Choral Evensong came about was excellent.
Who knew?

Yes, an excellent programme, although for me the Choral Evensong hook was occasionally overstretched and there were one or two "not quite right" moments. I wouldn't want to criticise the excellent David Skinner, but Mrs W, having specialised in that period at university, has spent the last nearly-30 years making sure I know that there is difference between a motet, an anthem and a respond. And it was a bit of an OMG moment to see a rather pi and campy anglocatholic I knew as an undergraduate dressed up in the royal chapel cope and pretending (badly) to enjoy the last piece of music in the programme....

Mrs W is not a Worsley fan, so while she was out I also watched her two-part series on opera. The first one is excellent, the second deals with some rather less interesting music and dragged a bit until she got on to Salome stripping off and killing John the Baptist.

 

[petek]

Yes, an excellent programme, although for me the Choral Evensong hook was occasionally overstretched and there were one or two "not quite right" moments. I wouldn't want to criticise the excellent David Skinner, but Mrs W, having specialised in that period at university, has spent the last nearly-30 years making sure I know that there is difference between a motet, an anthem and a respond. And it was a bit of an OMG moment to see a rather pi and campy anglocatholic I knew as an undergraduate dressed up in the royal chapel cope and pretending (badly) to enjoy the last piece of music in the programme....

Mrs W is not a Worsley fan, so while she was out I also watched her two-part series on opera. The first one is excellent, the second deals with some rather less interesting music and dragged a bit until she got on to Salome stripping off and killing John the Baptist.

Yep that chap in the Royal Chapel cope was a tad OTT. One suspected St Stephen's House Oxford. That seemed to specialise in high camp ordinands back in the day. You could always spot them at Walsingham on national pilgrimage weekend. Not these days though. The two opera progs were good. That American chap on the piano certainly knew and obviously loved his subject. The Salome clip was a tad gory, not something one might necessarily pay to see.

 

[srw]

One suspected St Stephen's House Oxford

I got the impression back in the day he regarded St Stephen's House as a little low church, and his online biog doesn't tell us where he was trained after he graduated. Mrs W and he shared a love of Anglocatholic ceremony - but there was a little bit of a clash of minds over the ordination of women.

And that American chap on the piano? He's an Essex boy from an Italian family.

 

[petek]

I got the impression back in the day he regarded St Stephen's House as a little low church, and his online biog doesn't tell us where he was trained after he graduated. Mrs W and he shared a love of Anglocatholic ceremony - but there was a little bit of a clash of minds over the ordination of women.

And that American chap on the piano? He's an Essex boy from an Italian family.

Good lord, the accent fooled me. Top chap though.

I got the impression back in the day he regarded St Stephen's House as a little low church, and his online biog doesn't tell us where he was trained after he graduated. Mrs W and he shared a love of Anglocatholic ceremony - but there was a little bit of a clash of minds over the ordination of women.

And that American chap on the piano? He's an Essex boy from an Italian family.

Chap who buried MrsK's mother was one of those super-high Forward in Faith priests. Single chap , lovely man and loved by his parishioners but he was very anti women in the priesthood. MrsK's mum left strict instructions for a full old-BCP funeral. Chap did it beautifully then not long after decamped from the CoE into the RC Ordinariate. Possibly one BCP funeral too far for him!

 

[Deleted member 23692]

I've just finished Season 3 of Fear the Walking Dead... and to be honest I've no idea why I've stuck with it this far. It really is tedious, with no engaging or interesting characters, and I've no interest in them surviving or not.

Perhaps I only watch in case one of the main characters do succumb to the zombies ... at lease the series would be one step closer to ending

 

[Levo-Lon]

I've just finished Season 3 of Fear the Walking Dead... and to be honest I've no idea why I've stuck with it this far. It really is tedious, with no engaging or interesting characters, and I've no interest in them surviving or not.

Perhaps I only watch in case one of the main characters do succumb to the zombies ... at lease the series would be one step closer to ending

Well done sir i managed 5 mins of series 1 episode 1, but then i dont get the walking dead fascination,zombies ....whatever its like the queue at the dhss

 

[Deleted member 23692]

Well done sir i managed 5 mins of series 1 episode 1, but then i dont get the walking dead fascination,zombies ....whatever its like the queue at the dhss

The Walking Dead is vastly superior to the spin-off prequel IMO

 

[John the Monkey]

American Horror Story s4 (Freaks), some of s5 (Hotel) (Netflix)
S4 had it's moments, but after the very strong s3 (Coven) I didn't feel like there were enough, really - and did think there was rather too much of Jessica Lange covering Bowie.

s5 though - Lange departs, with Lady GaGa taking on the role of the female big bad for this series. She has her moments, but she's no Jessica Lange, and struggles at times with the complexity of being an evil character for whom we need to feel some sympathy. Kathy Bates and Angela Bassett return, and are great, as is Sarah Paulson. Denis O'Hare (the conman in s4) is brilliant in s5. Evan Peters is very over the top in this, and I struggled slightly with figuring out whether that works or not - I'm still pondering it.

It has a sort of eighties, neon drenched design, coupled with a heavily synthy soundtrack to suit, although it seems like a pale version of a Nick Winding Refn film in its most neon red, synthy moments. There's also a problematic focus on sexual violence, it seemed to me. The weakest of the seasons I've watched so far.

Star Trek: Discovery
The new series continues to deliver, with this weeks episode giving us a bit more Tilly, more Michael back story, and more of a picture of Lorca as an "ends justify the means" captain than we've ever seen in Trek before.

Designated Survivor s2 (Netflix)
Although Kirkman can broker compromise agreements between implacable enemies, it seems, in this frustrating episode, that he's powerless in the face of neoliberal economic consensus. He sucks up to a plutocrat about to make thousands of jobs redundant by automating his plants (those granite countertops in the private yachts won't buy themselves) while brokering another improbable compromise between nations. We will, hopefully, get back to being properly, idealistically improbable once we move away from the tricky territory of economics, and back to easy stuff like international politics and domestic extremism again.

 

[AndyRM]

American Horror Story s4 (Freaks), some of s5 (Hotel) (Netflix)
S4 had it's moments, but after the very strong s3 (Coven) I didn't feel like there were enough, really - and did think there was rather too much of Jessica Lange covering Bowie.

s5 though - Lange departs, with Lady GaGa taking on the role of the female big bad for this series. She has her moments, but she's no Jessica Lange, and struggles at times with the complexity of being an evil character for whom we need to feel some sympathy. Kathy Bates and Angela Bassett return, and are great, as is Sarah Paulson. Denis O'Hare (the conman in s4) is brilliant in s5. Evan Peters is very over the top in this, and I struggled slightly with figuring out whether that works or not - I'm still pondering it.

It has a sort of eighties, neon drenched design, coupled with a heavily synthy soundtrack to suit, although it seems like a pale version of a Nick Winding Refn film in its most neon red, synthy moments. There's also a problematic focus on sexual violence, it seemed to me. The weakest of the seasons I've watched so far.

Star Trek: Discovery
The new series continues to deliver, with this weeks episode giving us a bit more Tilly, more Michael back story, and more of a picture of Lorca as an "ends justify the means" captain than we've ever seen in Trek before.

Designated Survivor s2 (Netflix)
Although Kirkman can broker compromise agreements between implacable enemies, it seems, in this frustrating episode, that he's powerless in the face of neoliberal economic consensus. He sucks up to a plutocrat about to make thousands of jobs redundant by automating his plants (those granite countertops in the private yachts won't buy themselves) while brokering another improbable compromise between nations. We will, hopefully, get back to being properly, idealistically improbable once we move away from the tricky territory of economics, and back to easy stuff like international politics and domestic extremism again.

Hotel, for me, was like a really long music video. Very cool, but seriously lacking the depth of other series. The stand out episode is the serial killer dinner party, which really was fantastic.

 

[MontyVeda]

Robot Wars.... it's the nearest thing to sport that i watch. Great stuff

 

[cisamcgu]

Star Trek: Discovery
The new series continues to deliver, with this weeks episode giving us a bit more Tilly, more Michael back story, and more of a picture of Lorca as an "ends justify the means" captain than we've ever seen in Trek before.

.

Star Trek : Entertaining, excellent production, but by God the Klingon bits are tedious !!!

 

[Threevok]

Star Trek : Entertaining, excellent production, but by God the Klingon bits are tedious !!!

Anything Klingon is tedious. But as they say - Soq pagh bISuDqu' 'e' pagh

 

[AndyRM]

Star Trek : Entertaining, excellent production, but by God the Klingon bits are tedious !!!

You can get it subtitled in Klingon, for reasons I fail to understand, but that's some impressive geekery right there.