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What was the last TV show you watched?

Worf

I'll Lock Up
Messages
5,175
Location
Troy, New York, USA
"Black Mirror" - The latest season is a monster. This series of so good that it's right up there with it's forebears Twilight Zone and The Outer Limits. The first episode of the latest season is a corker. Can't recommend it any higher.

Worf
 

scottyrocks

I'll Lock Up
Messages
9,161
Location
Isle of Langerhan, NY
Maybe it won't work for you as it does stay with outsized Jewish stereotypes and and an over-stylized '50s visual. IMHO, both are done tongue-in-cheek or with a wink as if to say, this isn't how it really was, but is an intentionally exaggerated style. Even as the story and characters grow in depth and nuance - and, IMHO, become interesting and engaging - the over stylizing and over stereotyping doesn't go away.

One thing that I've learned is that as far as (Jewish) over-stylizing goes, there are plenty of people who fit the mold to the letter. :)
 

HanauMan

Practically Family
Messages
809
Location
Inverness, Scotland
Enjoyed episodes 5 & 6 of the Bette Davis / Joan Crawford based Feud. By now they're at it again, fighting each other on the film set of Hush Hush Sweet Charlotte.

As I hadn't seen that film for a long time I took the opportunity to watch it again (of course, Crawford was fired from her role, so not in the actual film). Whoa! I forgot that one of my favorite actors, a young Bruce Dern in this film, gets his hand chopped off within the first few minutes! How the hell did that pass the censor in 1964?

That said, the TV series Feud is so much better than the actual movie!
 

3fingers

One Too Many
Messages
1,797
Location
Illinois
One thing that I've learned is that as far as (Jewish) over-stylizing goes, there are plenty of people who fit the mold to the letter. :)
I think that's true in any faith. I know it was true in my experience with Catholicism. It may appear different, but the same elements are there. People are people.
 

Feraud

Bartender
Messages
17,190
Location
Hardlucksville, NY
"Black Mirror" - The latest season is a monster. This series of so good that it's right up there with it's forebears Twilight Zone and The Outer Limits. The first episode of the latest season is a corker. Can't recommend it any higher.

Worf
I wholeheartedly agree! This was another fantastic season of Black Mirror! These Hollywood hacks peddling their diluted excuses for sci-fi, which are really no more than silly action sequences set in space, should take a good hard look at this series. This is science fiction. As fans of the original Trek the wife and I loved the episode USS Callister. The other episodes were excellent and in keeping with Black Mirror's themes of mankind's interaction and dependence of technology. This is must see tv.


Toast of London is showing on Netflix and is simply hilarious.
 

Doctor Strange

I'll Lock Up
Messages
5,228
Location
Hudson Valley, NY
I watched the first two Black Mirror episodes - after only having seen a couple of the most-buzzed-about eps from the earlier seasons - and agree that they're good. And yes, as a since-1966 Trekker, I got a special kick out of "USS Callister" too. I'd take it over The Orville anytime!

But you know, this series doesn't really hit me where I live. I am a classic late adopter - I don't have a smartphone - so much of the present-day technology angst that this series exploits is a whole lot more abstract to me than to younger and/or more current-tech-savvy folks. And I don't actually need to be shown the dangers of our interaction/dependence on technology, I'm already looking at those of you whose phones seem to be permanently attached to your hands, shaking my head in disbelief.
 
Last edited:
Messages
16,882
Location
New York City
Watched the first three episodes of "The Last Post" on Amazon
  • Set in Yemen in '65, the story revolves around the British Royal Police's response to the Aden emergency - an Arab uprising against colonial rule
  • As is most TV today, it is visual stunning with incredible period details - clothes, cars, architecture - and cinematography
  • The script devotes about half its time to the military / political situation and half its time to the soap opera that is the British expats' lifestyle - basically too much booze and too much bed hopping by everyone (played by very good looking actors)
  • So far, it's good not great - would have qualified as great TV ten years ago, but TV raised its own bar - but worth staying with
 

LizzieMaine

Bartender
Messages
33,074
Location
Where The Tourists Meet The Sea
Watched a couple of "Twilight Zone" episodes with my mother, which is never a good idea. "Whoozis guy? What'd he say? Why's he doin' that? Who's she with again? What's that all about? This don't make any sense!" and so on into the night.

One of the episodes, "The Self-Improvement of Salvatore Ross," was done much better several years later by the CBS Radio Mystery Theatre.
 
Messages
16,882
Location
New York City
Watched a couple of "Twilight Zone" episodes with my mother, which is never a good idea. "Whoozis guy? What'd he say? Why's he doin' that? Who's she with again? What's that all about? This don't make any sense!" and so on into the night.

One of the episodes, "The Self-Improvement of Salvatore Ross," was done much better several years later by the CBS Radio Mystery Theatre.

Hey, at least she'll watch it with you. My mom considers all science fiction a complete waste of her time. As a kid, I loved "Star Trek" and the "Twilight Zone," but could never discuss it with her in any way - at all. And forget my father, he too thought the entire genre nonsense. She just doesn't get metaphors / analogies - she just sees it as made up kid's stuff. Sigh.
 

Doctor Strange

I'll Lock Up
Messages
5,228
Location
Hudson Valley, NY
My parents weren't fans of science fiction, but they very much were fans of Rod Serling's writing during the golden age of TV drama, so they watched the Zone. In fact, when I was around 7 or 8, I watched some episodes from the last couple of seasons along with them during their original airings! But a few years later, when Star Trek came along, I was banished to the upstairs TV by myself. They preferred Lost In Space!

It may be hard for post-Star Wars generations to understand how much SF was dismissed as "that Buck Rodgers junk" before the later sixties when things like Star Trek, Planet of the Apes, and 2001: A Space Odyssey started changing the conversation. It was a time when the Western was still the great American myth, and it wasn't until the world become a bit more science fiction-y that SF entered the mainstream. The majority of greatest gen folks like my parents just didn't get SF.
 

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