What TV are you watching?

[NorthernDave]

Wild Bill - another gem in a long history of appallingly bad ITV prime time shows.

Rob Lowe (who presumably needs the money) is parachuted in from the US of A to run "East Lincolnshire Police" in Boston (see what they did there). A police force that seems to only have about twenty officers, most of whom don't have speaking roles - probably due to this nasty government cuts that are heavily referenced.

0/10

 

[JtB]

Just finished Bosch S5. The first half of the season was very tedious to the point that I nearly stopped watching it, but then it picked up and I ended up enjoying it.

 

[Lullabelle]

Slimy, my other half says.

I wouldn't say slimy, just not Kevin

 

[Nigeyy]

Hmmm I got really excited when I found I had access to all the Space 1999 episodes. I remember watching it as a kid and thinking how brilliant and realistic it was....

errr, it's awful. I mean awful and not even funny bad awful. I could only manage 2 episodes and even the value of nostalgia couldn't get me to continue. In recent years I've seen old Starsky and Hutch episodes (so bad, but funny watching the antics as an adult now), The Sweeney (wow, it really aged well, very suprizing and way ahead of its time) and The Professionals (dated, but did have entertainment value). Space 1999 really hasn't held up well or at all sadly. I think I'd be afraid -very, very afraid -to even attempt Blakes 7, even if I could. Perhaps shaky sets, cheesy special effects, early 80's space fashion and permed hairstyles are best left in the archives.

A little aside: why is it in all those sci fi shows there is a random panel of flashing lights and buttons? And that an actor will then proudly declare "we'll re-route the unobtanium drive through the anal vents" and then, with measured stature and a studious facial expression, they push a series of these flashing buttons replete with those electonicky tones... I mean... how could anyone work with unlabelled buttons anyway? And why would the lights flash and what the heck would they mean? Boy I was impressed as a kid though.

 

[randynewmanscat]

Just finished Chernobyl.

An astonishing piece of television that demonstrates the power of lies.

"The real danger is if we hear enough lies, then we no longer recognise the truth at all"

As if to illustrate this, the Russians are making their own version of the disaster blaming American secret agents.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-48559289

You could not make this stuff up but it appears Vladimir Putin is happy to have one of his fans do just that.

 

[Joey Shabadoo]

You could not make this stuff up but it appears Vladimir Putin is happy to have one of his fans do just that.

The BBC ran a piece on their "news" page interviewing one of the workers who was there. He listed all the things HBO did wrong but tbh, it seemed to me it was more different people remembering things differently. He said the miners didn't work in the nude but kept their underpants on then said they were an unimportant part of the story anyway. He also said the 3 guys who went down in wetsuits to open sluice gates were just doing their job, not brave men doing something extraordinary. Smacked of sour grapes to me and the BBC having a dig at another broadcaster's show.

 

[Joey Shabadoo]

BTW, for a truly awful review, try the Guardian

https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-...aos-reigns-in-confusing-nuclear-disaster-epic

The poor woman complains about Ukrainians having confusing sounding names and all the nuclear power plant workers wearing the same uniforms making it difficult for her to understand things.

She gives the highest rated tv show ever on IMDB 3 out of 5

 

[randynewmanscat]

Oh no it wasn't just the BBC, they merely picked up on this. There are a number of columns and blogs written by people from the nuclear power industry that are highly critical of technical and anecdotal components of the story. Nuclear power remains a highly contentious subject along with nuclear weapons of course. For many the two are indivisible (they of course are because of the production of plutonium) I used to duck out of some social invites during the 1980's when I worked for Babcock due to being harangued by people who would have been polite had my work not been a red rag matter for them.
People in the industry see the docudrama Chernobyl as more scare stuff when the industry is on its knees in the West and many have come out to be critical of it.
I watched it and my takeaway was not facts and figures and whether the cherenkov effect persisted above the exposed reactor core or not. What I saw was the total failure of a command and control system that typified Soviet Russia and its satellites.
I am sure the BBC enjoyed repeating the pops taken at the series though.

 

[Joey Shabadoo]

Listen to the podcasts, they're excellent. The writer explains that it wasn't about Chernobyl per se, but about the culture. The female scientist didn't exist - she's meant to represent the Soviet scientific community. Bits that they didn't include too as just beyond the pale - apparently when they dumped the puppies into the pit, as the concrete was poured one of them was heard to bark.

 

[swee'pea99]

Can't speak for Chernobyl, didn't see it, but Mangan has form. Everyone said Brexit: An Uncivil War was brilliant...apart from LM, who again as best I recall gave it 3/5. Again can't speak for Chernobyl, but certainly on that occasion she was wrong and everyone else was right.

 

[randynewmanscat]

Listen to the podcasts, they're excellent. The writer explains that it wasn't about Chernobyl per se, but about the culture. The female scientist didn't exist - she's meant to represent the Soviet scientific community. Bits that they didn't include too as just beyond the pale - apparently when they dumped the puppies into the pit, as the concrete was poured one of them was heard to bark.

In the film "Darkest Hour" the tube train scene seems unlikely to most Brits of a certain age. A young Frenchman asked me if the scene described a true incident. I explained that it was just a distillation of what the British people thought and hoped for from their war leader. When you have only hours to tell a big story it is fair to resort to some fiction.
My guest was disappointed, he saw Churchill as a historical hero, I asked him why and he said that "he brought the hope", I had no reply suitable, for a moment I felt less cynical, just a moment.

 

[Lullabelle]

Grand Designs Australia.

 

[Chris S]

I've been watching the tottyball, some of them are really fit

 

[Leaway2]

I've been watching the tottyball, some of them are really fit

Renaissance Man!

 

[Chris S]

Renaissance Man!

More of a Gene Hunt actually.