Be Excellent To Each Other

I would like to humbly suggest that the best thing about Series One of The Boys (series one, at least) is Black Noir.

About to watch series two and see if it’s as much of a hot mess as people suggest it is.

Ok, yeah. I’ve gone off him in the first scene of series two.

Oh no. Starlight is singing. Honestly this didn’t start well

Generally speaking the critical consensus on Season 2 of The Boys seems to be 'very good' to 'excellent', whereas me and Mrs Hearthly were less impressed, but we seem to be swimming against the tide on that one. She went 7/10, I'd maybe drop that down to 6.5/10, which are both 'above average' to 'good' ratings, but some way short of the stellar brilliance of Season 1. (To be clear, at its best it's still a bloody good show, but as noted previously, it's wildly uneven in terms of quality and pacing IMO.)

We're working our way through Season 2 of The Umbrella Academy now, and are both much preferring that as a viewing experience.

I just couldn't get into that at all. I think I gave it three or four episodes and wasn't caring about anyone or anything that was happening.

Season 1 or 2?

Season 1

I ended up enjoying Season 1 of The Umbrella Academy, but it was a lot of effort because every character was so fucking annoying. Thinking about it, it's a miracle I actually finished it. Clearly there was something about it that did something for me, though I struggle now to put my finger on what it was.

The episode of The Boys, Season 2 picked up as it went on. Glad the Aussie Irish cockney is back.

We watched a few (3?) episodes on The Umbrella Academy a few months ago, but I just couldn’t seem to get invested in it.

We are watching Ratched at the moment, too. I’m not heavily invested in it, but I do love how bold they have gone on the styling. I can watch it for that alone.

I enjoyed both seasons of The Umbrella Academy.

Currently bingeing Handmaids Tale, halfway through season 3 now.

Also enjoying The Haunting of Bly Manor, it’s not as good as Hill House so far but still good.

If anyone listens to the Song Exploder podcast, Netflix have made a four part serial with the folks that make the podcast. I only know one of the songs (REM’s Losing My Religion), but it’s worth watching just to see the physical reactions that some of the band members have (especially Stipe) as they strip the track down, and he’s faced with his bare vocal (which is cushioned a bit by the reverb). Worth watching if you have a spare hour.

Edit: because despite watching this I actually wrote the wrong song

I’ve been learning that on the mandolin recently.

I didn’t know you had a mandolin! How wonderful.

I inherited it from my father-in-law, who passed away in July.

Second this.

Obviously less happy, reason-wise, but a nice way to carry on his memory by learning, certainly.

I didn't realise there was a new series of Archer showing, but there is. And now you know too.

And: it's really good.

Hello,

I was hoping that somebody might be able to help. I think what we (ok, specifically me, but I am damned near certain also a bunch of you) need at the tail end of this horrible year is to watch Making It, the craft show with Amy Poehler and Nick Offerman (I copied and pasted those names as there was no way I was going to spell Knope’s real surname right).

But I cannot for the life of me work out where I can watch it. I think Amazon, NBC and a few others places have it in the US, but I can’t find a way to watch it in the U.K.

Happy to pay if it isn’t silly expensive. Need a Christmas treat, I think. Does anybody who understands the myriad of streaming options and tricks have any help/advice?

I'm afraid it doesn't look like any of the UK services have it

https://www.justwatch.com/uk/tv-series/making-it

I saw episodes some on torrenting things, but the fifth result was "lusty grandmas" and I'm afraid to look further.

Yep, it's really tricky to find online though nefarious means.
It seems to be on the US Apple TV or Google Play stores but you'd probably need to be using a vpn to purchase

Oh, that’s a big shame. I really appreciate you all looking/explaining though so at least I can stop searching fruitlessly. I’ve been checking periodically for months now. Thanks for your help xxx

I've found the first five episodes for download. Could probably upload them somewhere if you want?

That’d be amazing!! Have you ever used WeTransfer? A crafty friend sent me The Jinx on there (really good true crime documentary) and it worked really well, but if there’s somewhere better, then that’s cool too. I’ll drop you a line with my email x

Got the 2nd series downloading.

I’d be interested in giving it a go if possible.

Yayyy! Thank you folks! I think it is the winter TV we all need in our lives

Yeah, I've used WeTransfer. I'll sort it a bit later on

Thank you so much, Davpaz!

Looks like it's going to be Dropbox as Wetransfer is being a bitch. Zoidberg, sling me an email address and I'll send you the link

For TV shows from dodgy locations i do find this a useful page (link to Making It torrents)

https://showrss.info/browse/1030

It does have the advantage as well that you can add shows your interested in and just load up the page every day or two and grab the latest episodes easily (i find it better than random searches for things)

The trailer for that Making It looks really fun! Also, those lusty grandmas that Dimrill mentioned were pretty awesome too.

I’ve just watched the first episode of Ridley Scott’s “Raised by Wolves”. It’s high fantasy; high drama stuff and had a great opener to this universe. Will it be another Lost where it just gets shit and up it’s own arse as quickly as the memory of the opening episode fades? I don’t know, but damn I’m keen to see where this goes. Its certainly had some money thrown at it. I wouldn’t watch this trailer beyond the first 20 seconds if you want to go in blind but it’ll give you a feel for what it’s all about.

I also liked the first episode. Then not a lot happened.

I utterly hated it.

Nah, episode 2 was pretty good too. It might still tail off but it’s sustaining my interest so far.

Interested to see what you think.

I lost the will to live after two or three. Interesting idea but it didn't really go anywhere.

The Rookie's back

Settling down for it now.

The first two episodes of The Watch are available too, and it looks dreadful.

So happy to hear about The Rookie - though I've been watching Castle to get a Fillion Fix.

And now there's the second half of the last series of Vikings, and series 3 of Cobra Kai.

I watched S1. I didn't hate the episode itself but there are so many horrible things they've done to diverge from the source for no good reason. Vimes is an atrocity. Death has an American accent.

This sounds like a pile of cack.

What a shame.

I've been watching Brooklyn 99 recently and really enjoying it. I'd always dismissed it before and I'm not sure why now, but maybe because the trailers on E4 made it seem quite silly immature humour.

Watched Schitt's Creek earlier in the year and loved it. I found the first few episodes very forgettable and stopped but then I read that it's worth sticking with past season one so I went back to it. Season one isn't anywhere near as good as the rest of it, I think because the main characters are pretty awful people so it's hard to care about them but it's worth persevering because then you get the joy of seeing them become who they are by the end of the series and lot's of brilliant comedy along the way. The only reason I trusted the reviews that said to persevere is because I remember a lot of people saying the same about Parks and Rec and I could never work up the enthusiasm to force myself to watch it but when I was up in the middle of the night feeding the baby last year I started sticking Parks and Rec on and ended up adoring it. Anytime I see any of it on TV now it immediately teleports me back to 3am, in a dark quiet house, with a content little baby in my arms and everything seeming right with the world despite everything that was happening outside

It’s only Jake who is silly and immature, but in a mostly non-problematic fashion and he’s literally the least-best part of the show along with Gina (not saying they’re bad, just look at the competition).

I love Gina, particularly anytime she dresses in Amy's clothes or watching the Gina/Holt dynamic. Jake is silly but it's not annoying like I expected. His facial expressions are brilliant. I love the repetition of the Halloween challenge.

Raised by Wolves summary:

Episodes 1-2 excellent directed by Ridley Scott
All other episodes aren’t directed by Ridley Scott and it shows. Mainly cause it starts to look like a TV show.
3-4 both alright but felt a bit plodding. One scene has Mother telling the story of 3 little pigs. Like, 90% of it. Don’t. Fucking. Waste. My. Time. TV.
5 not so good at all. I have a really severe dislike of all dream sequences even if they are fluffed up ‘memories explored in VR’. If your game, movie or TV does this I fucking hate you and hope you get mushrooms growing on your arsehole.
6 Aye up, this is better. Some stuff going on and we’re actually moving the plot forward which we haven’t done for like two episodes or so. I swear the downfall of most TV series’ this side of the millennium is that someone wants to fill an extended runtime by sniffing their own farts rather than driving a story forward. I don’t mind the odd slow burn, that’s perfectly acceptable if done right, but once you start messing with the pace of a story for extended periods on inconsequential crap viewers will lose interest.

Still, it’s 3 for 6 in terms of episodes that sustained my interest. The Mandolorian didn’t even manage that, as far as I remember.