General Open Thread – TV Shows

[Anonymous @]

Aaaaaah!  @scaryb, you just reminded me that I missed the last episdoe of Orphan Black.

Honestly, for someone with no TV I’m seriously behind on all the programmes that need to be watched.

I also followed one of @phaseshift‘s links today in a thread and ended up buying waaaay too many Doctor Who DVDs on the BBC site.  Thankfully they’re still to arrive or else I’d be cringing under the weight of necessary, required viewing.  🙂

But Scary, I’m totally with you on Orphan Black.  Isn’t it amazing when an actress comes of out practically nowhere and nails a multiple role like that?  I mean, Toni Collette in United States of Tara was already an established actress with oodles of meaty roles that she’d been marvellous in.  But Orphan Black?  Who she?  How did she arrive in this role with such confidence?

[ScaryB @scaryb]

Orphan Black

@bluesqueakpip Definitely mark it down for catching up on in the future.   Agree, Agents is fun.

@Shazzbot

Isn’t it amazing when an actress comes of out practically nowhere and nails a multiple role like that?

Can’t think of it having happened that often (didn’t see United States of Tara). Tatiana Maslany is seriously impressive, especially when she’s being one clone pretending to be another. She convinces us to like and care about Sarah, when our introduction to her, and some of the things she’s done since (esp in the consequences for Vic), she’s not always the most sympathetic/likeable character.  The central character is usually the moral highground, and the jury’s definitely still out on that re Sarah.  I like 🙂

[toinfinityandbepond @toinfinityandbepond]

ORPHAN BLACK   So, who is Sarah’s monitor? obv answer is the irish adopted mother,so not her then. Insane  theory logic says Felix.

 

WENTWORTH  Anyone watched this? ep8 in the UK . a regeneration of prisoner cell block H Franky Doyle and Bea Smith never looked like that!!!  they are bringing back The Freak next season.

[Anonymous @]

@toinfinityandbepond

If you’re asking who Sarah’s monitor is, perhaps you haven’t seen last week’s episode of Orphan Black?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b03c9pb0/Orphan_Black_Conditions_of_Existence/

Still available on BBC iPlayer for another half hour or so …

[ScaryB @scaryb]

@toinfinityandbepond @Shazzbot

Sorry Shazz, (up to and inc #5) we know who Beth‘s monitor is, but not Sarah’s. Or Cosima’s for that matter. We don’t know if the monitors change as they grow up, or if they’re attached to them once they become adults (which might put Vic the Dick in the frame, if you’re looking for unlikely!) They should check ALL the adoption records. Including Fee’s.   If you ask me. 🙂

[Anonymous @]

@toinfinityandbepond @scaryb – d’oh!  sorry, you’re absolutely right … Sarah‘s monitor.  I wouldn’t want to spoil anyone who is reading this thread who hasn’t caught up yet, or perhaps hasn’t started watching yet, so let’s not name names or give too many plot points.

But Scary – based on what we saw in 5, I’m wondering if we haven’t seen Cosima’s (Kaseema?  sp?) monitor now …  🙂

[ScaryB @scaryb]

@Shazzbot – Agree, and I’m trying to be careful re plot points.

But will someone PLEASE watch Orphan Black #6, so I can compare notes. Possibly the most surreally funny and simultaneously deeply scary and disturbing thing I’ve seen on TV since… I can’t remember when.  Off the scale of Bonkers

[PhaseShift @phaseshift Time Lord]

@scaryb

Heh – I said it was worth sticking with didn’t I? With episode 6 it became one of those shows I anticipated watching, because if they could do that, while making Alisons actions believable and understandable, they could do pretty much anything. I was also delighted to see Matt Frewer turn up as well. I’d forgotten, after his very affable guest spots in Eureka, how good he is at creepy.

It was actually frustrating having seen it earlier in the year and not having anyone to talk about it. When we were salivating over the appearance of Doctor Who at the ComicCon I saw the way BBC America were promoting Orphan Black there and laughed, but no-one else would have got the joke at the time.

[Anonymous @]

@scaryb @phaseshift – I watched ep 6 of Orphan Black this morning, and one thing going through my head was because I’ve recently watched Troughton in Enemy of the World – it takes an amazingly accomplished actor to pull off being one person pretending to be someone else (when the same actor already plays that ‘someone else’).

I’m still agog at where Tatiana Maslany came from.  I’m sure she must have a CV of some sort (will look it up, but this is more of a rhetorical point).  I’d expect someone of, say, Meryl Streep’s stature and experience to be required to pull this off successfully.  Yet someone as obviously talented as TM seems to have blown in off Dorothy’s tornado from Oz.

I was right!  I was right!  About Cosima’s monitor, although to be fair, it was laid on a bit thick in ep 5.  And I fully expected the two people in the last shot to be in cahoots.

But all that business with Paul at the house, then Vic, then that nosey neighbour (was Fee right?  Is she Alison’s monitor?  Wouldn’t it have to be someone a lot closer, like, in the family?) with the pot-luck going on – sub-lime.  (Also, my first twinge of ‘homesickness’ in over a decade – no-one does ‘pot-luck’ in England!)

Y’know, I was feeling a tad sorry for Vic by the end of this.  He’s lost a finger, he’s been maced and zapped, he’s been beat up and bolted … he’s like the Sarah-loving Energizer Bunny.  And if you think back to ep 1, it was Sarah who screwed him over about the coke money.  As you said @scaryb before, we really shouldn’t be rooting for Sarah, but TM is so compelling to watch that we somehow do.

[ScaryB @scaryb]

@phaseshift

Heh – I said it was worth sticking with didn’t I?

You did indeed and I thank you deeply for it – yours and other comments on this thread were what made me watch it in the first place. It’s up there with Broadchurch IMHO (which I came to the same way). #6  (in particular) works on so many levels, including social satire worthy of David Lynch at his (Twin) Peaks.

@Shazzbot You’re right. Maslany deserves every bit of praise and the awards she got for this.  Her characterisation generally is great, but she really delivers when it gets complicated (ie Sarah being Alison is subtly different from Alison being Sarah).  Agree re Cosima’s monitor. I also think the points raised in the lecture could be significant, especially that 1 throwaway line near the end of their encounter after it.  I don’t think Donnie is necessarily off the hook just yet btw.  And yes, poor Vic, you do, don’t you?

Did you pick up on where they’re getting the episode titles from btw?

Why does Cosima need glasses?  The others don’t.

And I love that this is SF – with very strong female leads. Even if all of them are played by the same person, LOL.

(@Shazzbot – Potlucks are great, but probably best if you’re not trying to sort out your domestic problems in the basement at the same time.  (Didn’t realise it was a US tradition (PLs, not Alison’s attempt at relationship therapy haha). PM me if you want to discuss this in a more spoilery way)

@phaseshift – please don’t laugh at our probably wrong-headed theories 🙂

[Anonymous @]

@scaryb – we just might have to PM about this, because I’d hate to spoil it for anyone not already as hooked as we are.  Points in your post worth highlighting:

Sarah being Alison is subtly different from Alison being Sarah

Yes!  This is where I’m just gob-smacked at TM and want to re-watch all episodes back-to-back to revisit her frankly astonishing acting.

I don’t think Donnie is necessarily off the hook just yet btw.

Y’know?  I wonder too.  But is it classic mis-direction of the Moffat School?  We were totally led to believe one thing when we heard his side of that phone conversation earlier; but perhaps he really was talking about the person he used as his excuse?  Or about the woman who became important in his and Alison’s last scene in bed?

Did you pick up on where they’re getting the episode titles from btw?

No!  Drat.  Will have to go back and look at them, and do some searches.

Why does Cosima need glasses?  The others don’t.

I wondered this the very first time we met her.  But in every scene, I look closely and they’re not prescription lenses.  It’s the Sarah Palin issue – there is no distortion of the facial outline through them, which means clear lenses.  Here, it could be just that TM wouldn’t be able to see too well if wearing visibly prescriptive lenses; or, perhaps Cos affects wearing glasses because it helps her ‘scholarly’ self-image?

Didn’t realise it was a US tradition (PLs, not Alison’s attempt at relationship therapy haha

Liked that joke.  🙂  Actually, pot-luck is the done thing for any social gathering – especially when, as here, the whole neighbourhood is involved.  The problem lies in coordination – you usually end up with 10 meat dishes and 15 desserts (the latter being usually 5 versions of Rice Crispie Squares and 7 kinds of fudge brownies, plus 3 people who just bought tubs of ice cream  😆  ).

[Anonymous @]

Phaseshift there are none of scientific shows i would rate over 9 that i have seen , maybe firefly only.

In movies off course star wars in the 70-80

[wolfweed @wolfweed]

http://blogtorwho.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/wizards-vs-aliens-series-2.html
 Starts on Monday…

[Anonymous @]

Fans of ‘Broadchurch’ will be pleased to know that David Tennant and Olivia Coleman have won Best Actor awards at the Specsavers Crime Thriller Awards.

Well done both 🙂

[Anonymous @]

QI tonight on BBC2 at 22:00 – Tim Minchin and Bill Bailey on the same show – that should be fun 🙂

On Sunday 27th Oct, Radio 4Extra are broadcasting the Orson Wells radio play of War Of The Worlds in celebration of it’s original broadcast 75 years ago. I doubt it’ll cause the same level of hysteria as it did back then.

[PhaseShift @phaseshift Time Lord]

@scaryb (and other Orphan Black watchers)

So, what did you think of the last episode? I only just noticed it was shown tonight, as this link went up on the Guardian.

http://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/tvandradioblog/2013/nov/01/orphan-black-season-one-finale-recap-bbc-three

I thought it was great, with a lot of potential for the next series. Thankfully, I think it sounds like we may get a concurrent deal between the US and UK for the next series of shows after this trial series.

[Anonymous @]

@phaseshift – just saw 9 & 10 of Orphan Black and … wow.  I rambled before about how wonderful Tatiana Maslany is, so no point repeating myself, just to say, as each of the clones went through the wringer more in each of their own ways throughout the last couple of episodes, she was riveting to watch.

Wasn’t the body count and violence getting awful?  The waste disposal scene literally had me watching through my hands, horrified.

But I just knew when one character said ‘her’ and the other character simply smiled (don’t want to do ‘spoilers, sweetie’) that that one clone should have a very interesting time in the next series.

[thommck @thommck]

Anyone watching the new series of Ripper Street on bbc1?

I love the show and the new series is even better than the first. Its not sci-fi but I have a friend who describes it as “what a Victorian Torchwood spin off could have been”, minus the aliens!

The latest episode had a character, a doctor in am asylum, that really reminded me of the BG master

[Arkleseizure @arkleseizure]

Just wanted to get this off my chest: Curtain, the last-ever Poirot, was brilliant. Wonder what David Suchet will do next, and can we get him Doctor Who?

[Bluesqueakpip @bluesqueakpip]

@arkleseizure – it was, wasn’t it? Very elegiac. And such a collection of actors, all giving it their best shot.

Direction was superb as well. A fitting end to a fine era.

[wolfweed @wolfweed]

‘Wizards vs Aliens’ is currently showing the 1st episode of ‘The Thirteenth Floor’, a script that was originally intended for ‘The Sarah Jane Adventures’ until the sad passing of Liz Sladen.

[historygeek5 @historygeek5]

Wondering if anyone is familiar with the show Hogan’s Heroes.

[Timeloop @timeloop]

New Interactive Trailer of Sherlock. Amazing work: http://www.wirewax.com/sherlock

[Elouise @elouise]

@timeloop

Thanks for sharing! 🙂 It’s been far too long since the last episode… 🙁

[toinfinityandbepond @toinfinityandbepond]

@historygeek5

I remember that show!

Bob Crane(Col Hogan) certainly had a,shall we say,”interesting” private life.

[Timeloop @timeloop]

@elouise You are very welcome. I am looking very much forward to January the 1st. I only discovered it a few months ago. Lucky me – can’t imagine to wait for years ‘n years!

As you might have noticed some of the interactive videos are locked. They can be unlocked with a key-combination (or that’s what I heard, anyway) One kind soul uploaded all of them here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UDHkeNrjQR8&list=PLEKeXtfnaSZLaka_odZ5DYs7K3LJ38sLv Some very nice extra snippets there. Moffat takes it all with: Sherlock’s aim was not to die, which he accomplished by not dying. I guess you gotta hate him or you gotta love him.

[Elouise @elouise]

@timeloop

I’ll have to check that out as soon as possible 🙂 Probably won’t be that great without sound 😛

[thommck @thommck]

I just heard that Ripper Street has been cancelled and there will be no more episodes after next week’s finale.

This is such a shame, the writing, characters and production was so well done I may have to start a petition! The BBC cited lack of viewers as the main reason as well as competition from “I’m a Celebrity…”. Do the BBC really think they should make more shows like IAC rather than quality dramas?!? <insert license fee grumble here>

[wolfweed @wolfweed]

Finale of Wizards vs Aliens by RTD today @ 5pm on CBBC…

http://www.bbc.co.uk/cbbc/clips/p01n1nmm

[Tennantmarsters2013 @tennantmarsters2013]

im a massive Buffy the vampire slayer fan and was planning a crossover fanfic with doctor who where one of the characters of Buffy is a past or future version of the doctor but has forgotten as they had to use the chameleon arch (like in the family of blood)

 

which character should it be it be and why? I have my ideas but would like to hear everyone’s opinions first

[PhaseShift @phaseshift Time Lord]

Marvel Agents of Shield

It’s that age old conundrum for me – when do I give up on a series?

I’ve been bitten before – Firefly initially passed me by because I watched the first few at the wrong time really. My mind was on work and other things, and I ended up dismissing it. I only really got into it after seeing the Serenity film, and then buying the DVD after cancellation. I also had a similar problem with Farscape. I watched the first few on the back of a wave of reviews talking about “Muppets in Space” and gave up. It was a chance encounter with a rerun of an episode from the second series that made me re-evaluate my life choices.

So you can go the other way, and watch a series too long because of the people in front or behind the scenes, almost willing it to get better. Which it probably won’t. I think I’ve reached that point with AoS.

I haven’t watched the movie Avengers Assemble and originally thought my problem may be that, but I’ve been assured by other people who have seen it that it doesn’t really add that much understanding to the Universe. I think the problems for me are twofold-

• I think Skye is supposed to be our entry point character, but because she starts with some knowledge (even if a negative view) she isn’t really a great way to introduce the concepts.

• The Zeppo effect (to coin a term from a Whedon show). In “The Zeppo” you had another Buffy apocalypse going on in the background which interrupted the misadventures of Xander and his self esteem problems. It was a joke that worked well, but I can’t help thinking that the ongoing references to other characters in the Marvel franchise (designed to assure you that you are still in the same Universe) are a constant reminder that there are probably really exciting adventures going on somewhere, but you’re stuck watching the unexciting characters.

I quite like Coulson’s slightly subdued attitude, and grasped that the arc about him coming back/surviving death may hold some, but the other characters seem a bit wafer thin at the moment and I don’t find much charisma in evidence. @juniperfish, on another blog, suggested that she gritted her teeth at some of the forced elements to introduce chemistry between the characters, and I’d agree. Both sexual tension and conflicts all seem a little forced to me.

So – as well produced (it looks splendid) as it is, I don’t think it’s for me at the moment. I think it’s an interesting idea to try to develop these ideas in a franchise, but something seems off kilter. I’ll think I’ll duck out and wait for the comments that it all got better in series 2/3 or whenever.

[PhaseShift @phaseshift Time Lord]

Can I just say though that sometimes patience is rewarded. I almost gave up on Person of Interest about three quarters of the way through the first series, and I’m really glad I stuck with it. The end of the series pulled me back, and the second made me re-evaluate the first in light of new information. It had been playing a very long game. The last few episodes shown for series 3 were quite shocking with a regular character being killed, and the slightly paranoid feeling in the show about surveillance culture is great fun.

Amy Acker has been a great introduction as the psychopathic Root, and her relationship with Michael Emerson’s Finch and his unseen “Machine” is great TV.

Sexiest Joker on Deviant Art

[Charlie Cook @charlie-cook]

Has anyone else watched the ‘untitled web series about a space traveler who also travels through time’?
http://Www.theinspector.tv
Good spoof series

[Anonymous @]

@phaseshift @wolfweed @jimthefish and all ‘scapers – all the cartoon sequences from Revenging Angel edited together. Enjoy 🙂

[PhaseShift @phaseshift Time Lord]

@fatmaninabox

Thanks for that – I ended up watching the full episode afterwards, and I think common sense (or bonkersness) has won out, and it’s a likely candidate for the watch club. 😀

[PhaseShift @phaseshift Time Lord]

I had a bit of a revelation this morning. I was watching (by accident) a Christmas special of Saturday Kitchen, and it featured some very old footage of an old favourite.

The bow ties, the wild exuberance, the arm waving and the feeling you are watching someone who is probably completely bonkers. Was Keith Floyd the model for Doctor 11? I demand to know!

Keith – a man who was so bonkers his theme tune was “waltzinblack” by The Stranglers and it didn’t seem insane.

[Anonymous @]

Sherlock minisode available on iPlayer.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p01np1b8

[PhaseShift @phaseshift Time Lord]

I saw the adaptation of Colour of Magic/Light Fantastic that Sky did some time ago for the first time. It’s OK, although Pratchett’s trick of developing comedy in narrative is never going to transfer well to screen. Main reason for mentioning it though was the appearance by David Bradley as “Cohen the Barbarian” the Disc’s oldest surviving Hero.

Bradley was obviously having a whale of a time with it, especially with the sequences about his lack of teeth (prior to getting the din-chewers to replace them). His delivery of the line:

“You know what they shay? Shit down by the fire, grandpa, and have yourshelf shome shoup” is epic. 😀

[Hudsey @hudsey]

@phaseshift OMG your Floyd post is so dead on, can anyone get hold of Matt Smith to verify?!

[toinfinityandbepond @toinfinityandbepond]

@hudsey@phaseshift

“I’ve lived over 1100 years, I must have drunk wine at some point”

[Ketari @ketari]

TV Show magnets now available from Shipper Haven eBay Shop.

Designs available for: Dr Who, Game of Thrones, Stargate, Castle, Rizzoli & Isles, Xena: Warrior Princess…. with more to come.

Prints available for Once Upon a Time.

[WhoGirl @whogirl]

Unbelievably excited for the return of Sherlock on New Year’s Day! Can’t believe it’s been two years we’ve had to wait to find out HOW he did it. Actually, come to think of it, it does feel like two years!! The minisode whetted my appetite good n’ proper. I swear the theories have got wilder. The latest one I read was that Sherlock and Moriarty are the same person and it was Moriarty’s body that fell. I have no idea what that person was drinking…

@thommck- I was disappointed the BBC cancelled Ripper Street too. I know it had a few flaws but it was still a great drama. And yet they carry on with The Voice which gets boring when they lose the spinney chairs and the winner disappears into oblivion, and the rubbish they put on BBC3 most of the time! Shame.

[PhaseShift @phaseshift Time Lord]

I took the opportunity to record some of the Mrs Bradley mysteries over Christmas from 98/99 (shown now on UK Drama). Largely because it’s the wonderful Diana Rigg and I remembered enjoying a bit of 20s set murder mystery at the time. I watched the “Death at the Opera” one and had completely forgotton it featured both Peter Davison and David Tennant way before Who returned. Quite funny really. Drama seems to repeat things fairly frequently so they are probably scheduled fairly soon if you’ve never seen them (there were only 5 made).

[PhaseShift @phaseshift Time Lord]

This has been prep, of course. I’m now rewatching the last episode of Sherlock Reichenbach Fall prior to tonights return. Anyone got any clever theories?

[blenkinsopthebrave @blenkinsopthebrave]

@phaseshift

I’m now rewatching the last episode of Sherlock Reichenbach Fall prior to tonights return. Anyone got any clever theories?

I thought you would never ask.

1. There were the obvious hints dropped (via stories in newspapers read in other episodes about renovation work being done on St Barts). Admittedly, Gattis stated in the DVD commentary to the last season that this was an early idea that was dropped, but I hold out hope, nonetheless, that it may link to:

2. there were TWO jumps. One was Sherlock jumping into prepared scaffolding out of Watson’s (and assassin’s) line of sight, and one was replacement body (courtesy of Molly) that was body which hit the ground, which connects to:

3. cyclist was designed to disorient Watson, so that he did not realise body was not Holmes.

Alternatively:

1. Holmes jumps into truck filled with padding, and replacement body (courtesy of Molly again) is dumped on street. Truck drives off. Everyone on street is in on it (courtesy of Mycroft, who has already demonstrated he can fill a jumbo jet with dead bodies).

Alternatively:

blenkinsop has cup of tea to calm down, only to realise that because of the “Canada problem” he will not get to see what happens, and goes into complete funk.

[PhaseShift @phaseshift Time Lord]

@blenkinsopthebrave

All sound more feasible than mine. I keep getting stuck on an image of a blue box appearing half way up St. Barts and a voice shouting “It’s happening again! Clara – open the doors to the swimming pool!”.

I fear I may be stuck in “Doctor Time”.

Here’s hoping that the i-player Global app is cost effective for you!

[blenkinsopthebrave @blenkinsopthebrave]

@phaseshift,

Alas, iPlayer Global (which I now have) is not the same as what can be seen on the BBC site if you reside in the UK (international rights issues). So it is a matter of waiting for the DVD.

Needless to say, I will have to know and so will read all about it on the Guardian (cannot resist) and then will probably be confronted with the usual Guardian commentators telling us how Moffat has ruined another British cultural tradition, etc, etc.

[Timeloop @timeloop]

Sherlock! 4 more Minutes!

[toinfinityandbepond @toinfinityandbepond]

@timeloop

No Shit!

[Arkleseizure @arkleseizure]

Well, that was interesting. Mark Gatiss just gave us a critique of bonkers theorising!

[Author]

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