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What was the last TV show you watched?

Fading Fast

Fading Fast

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16,872
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New York City
Edward said:
...I remember when the thing was that almost all WW2 shows would have a line or two of German, then they'd switch to English, the understood convention being that they were still speaking in German, but we could magically understand them. That in a time when audiences were more resistant to subtitling. Not seen this show, though - is there a lot of "foreign" language discussion in it?...
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Since it was openly noted early on in the show that the female American spy (not really a spy, but a time-traveling historian with way too much makeup on) didn't speak German, the only logical assumption is that when she was speaking with the British Spy during the Nazi party was that she was speaking in English.

Away from that glaringly stupid thing (no half-trained spy would every do that), as with everything in this show, it is handled sloppily and inconsistently. Sometimes the Germans speak German and sometimes English and we are left to "know" that it's really all in German.

IMHO, either is fine - German with subtitles or English (in the manner you noted) with us assuming it's German, but consistency is key. I personally prefer subtitles for the authenticity and it eliminates audience confusion with bilingual speakers or when both languages are being used in a scene or show.
 
Inkstainedwretch

Inkstainedwretch

One Too Many
Messages
1,037
Location
United States
Benzadmiral said:
An exciting episode of Trackdown from 1958. It featured veteran TV heavy Richard Devon (did that guy ever get to play a sympathetic character?), Strother Martin (you know him as the horse trader flummoxed by Kim Darby's Mattie in True Grit), and Wallace Ford as the head of a hillbilly-lite family who want the reward offered for Martin -- and are happy to kill Texas Ranger Gilman if that's what it takes.

Come to think of it, Devon did have a sympathetic role as an unsmiling stable owner who helps out Robert Culp's Hoby Gilman in an earlier Trackdown. His motivation is never given or shown, though I might have missed it, but it was nice to see him play against type for once.
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Devon had a semi-sympathetic recurring role in "Yancey Derringer," as a shady French Quarter character who usually helped Yancey out but often reluctantly and was always willing to be bribed by the other side. YD was one of my favorite series in the late 50s.
 
Edward

Edward

Bartender
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24,789
Location
London, UK
Fading Fast said:
Since it was openly noted early on in the show that the female American spy (not really a spy, but a time-traveling historian with way too much makeup on) didn't speak German, the only logical assumption is that when she was speaking with the British Spy during the Nazi party was that she was speaking in English.

Away from that glaringly stupid thing (no half-trained spy would every do that), as with everything in this show, it is handled sloppily and inconsistently. Sometimes the Germans speak German and sometimes English and we are left to "know" that it's really all in German.

IMHO, either is fine - German with subtitles or English (in the manner you noted) with us assuming it's German, but consistency is key. I personally prefer subtitles for the authenticity and it eliminates audience confusion with bilingual speakers or when both languages are being used in a scene or show.
Click to expand...


Then there's always the old Allo Allo option of switching accents to indicate language - much in the same manner as the Asterix characters used to 'talk' in different fonts. (I always got a laugh out of the Egyptians speaking in Hieroglyphs.)
 
Feraud

Feraud

Bartender
Messages
17,190
Location
Hardlucksville, NY
Touchofevil said:
The Walking Dead season premiere. Annoyed with the episode. We felt it was too graphic and drawn out for the sake of shock value. :D
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Yep. This article highlights everything I found wrong with season 6/S7 premiere.
http://io9.gizmodo.com/the-walking-deads-season-premiere-wasnt-worth-it-1788142207

Apparently I am in the majority due to the HUGE ratings the show earned. The downside of the ratings is we can expect more of this awful plotting in the future..


Ernest P Shackleton said:
Scott M. Gimple. He was the ruination of the series. The more control and influence he gained, the worse it became.
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I absolutely agree. I came to loathe Talking Dead every time this pontificating jackass showed up to school us mere mortals on the finer points of character development.
 
PeterGunnLives

PeterGunnLives

One of the Regulars
Messages
223
Location
West Coast
I've been getting caught up on the last season of The Flash. It's fun, but I like the darker atmosphere of Arrow better. I have yet to watch Supergirl and Legends of Tomorrow.
 
Ernest P Shackleton

Ernest P Shackleton

One Too Many
Messages
1,220
Location
Midwest
Rectify. final season begins tonight.

Which brings me to Abigail Spencer. I thought she was fantastic in Mad Men, so it is disappointing to hear she finally got a show of her own (Timeless), only for it to be reported a sloppy mess. I haven't cared for her character in Rectify, but it is clear she has the chops.
 
W

Workhorse

New in Town
Messages
48
Location
Northern Colorado
I've been watching the Jack Benny Program lately with much delight. I just watched the one where he gets kidnapped. The kidnappers think he's loaded but find out that he only has $.015 on his person. They go to Mr. Benny's bank and everyone in the bank asks with peculiar surprise, "He wants to make a withdrawl?". Jack Benny portrayed himself as a very tight frugal cheapskate on his radio then television shows. He was known in real life as one of the biggest givers and most charitable persons around.

Very entertaining show, and I find myself laughing out loud through most of it. Very good stuff.
 
Fading Fast

Fading Fast

Messages
16,872
Location
New York City
"No Tomorrow" a new show about a straight-arrow girl who meets a free-spirited guy who firmly believes the apocalypse is coming in 8 months. This is just a variation on the "differences attract and what wackiness ensues" theme that been done forever with the additional angle of the, so far, not-interesting end-of-the-world twist all done in Millennial heaven Seattle.

The cast includes a pining ex-boyfriend, a wacky sidekick girlfriend and a somewhat-mean-but-mainly-insecure boss - most of whom work at a silly warehouse / shipping distribution center that is so horribly inefficient that Amazon would put it out of work in twenty to thirty seconds.

TV might be going through a Golden Age, but this predictable show is not part of it.
 
Benzadmiral

Benzadmiral

Call Me a Cab
Messages
2,815
Location
The Swamp
Workhorse said:
I've been watching the Jack Benny Program lately with much delight. I just watched the one where he gets kidnapped. The kidnappers think he's loaded but find out that he only has $.015 on his person. They go to Mr. Benny's bank and everyone in the bank asks with peculiar surprise, "He wants to make a withdrawl?". Jack Benny portrayed himself as a very tight frugal cheapskate on his radio then television shows. He was known in real life as one of the biggest givers and most charitable persons around.

Very entertaining show, and I find myself laughing out loud through most of it. Very good stuff.
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Robber: "Yer money or yer life!"
Jack Benny (after a long pause, displaying the comic timing he was known for): "I'm thinking, I'm thinking!"

On my TV logbook, a 1958 episode of Trackdown, and a 4th-season Star Trek: The Next Generation. The latter in particular was memorable. After beaming down to a planet, Cmdr. Riker wakes on the Enterprise with gray in his hair and beard, to be told it's 16 years later and he is now captain . . . and a widower with a 12-year-old son.

There's more than meets the eye here, and Jonathan Frakes's Riker displays an Ellery Queen-esque talent for seeing through the mists. My applause in particular goes out to the producers. They went to the trouble of securing an actress, Carolyn McCormick, who had played a memorable role with Riker in a 1st-season episode, to reprise that role here for the essential clue. Carolyn doesn't even have lines, but she is credited, and her brief presence makes the episode sing. Now that's paying attention to your continuity!
 
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Worf

Worf

I'll Lock Up
Messages
5,175
Location
Troy, New York, USA
MisterCairo said:
What are your thoughts on Gotham so far this season? My wife and I think the show is getting better each season, and really liking this one. Great, vicious new villain, the Penguin's story arc is improving, Bruce is growing up. Lovin' it!
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Puddin' and I are well and truly hooked. I'm not a D.C. comics fan but their TV shows have me watching. Gotham is better than it's other peers (Arrow, The Flash & Supergirl) in that it plays it straight with the drama, folks get hurt and folks die. What it doesn't do is follow the D.C. mythos. Villains that trouble Batman in his 20's are alive and well in his teens and some have died or taken on wildly different personas than those laid out in decades of comics and previous films. I love Pertwee as Alfred, not a frail old, English butler of dubious value in a fight but a rough, tough man's man who's not afraid to pull young Bruce Wayne into reality from his adolescent stupidity. "The Mad Hatter" was a minor villain in the Batman books but this guy's the real deal here and I like him. And Bruce is really becoming the "World's Greatest Detective". You can see his deductive reasoning growing with each episode. It's a good show that is getting better as it runs even farther afield of the D.C. universe.

Worf
 
F

Formeruser012523

Call Me a Cab
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2,466
Location
null
It being near Halloween, I decided to make my way through season 1 of Grimm again. Been so long, I'd forgotten how each episode is loosely based off the original Grimm's' Fairy Tales. It's definitely jumped the shark in subsequent seasons, hence the upcoming final season in January. Here's hoping it won't be as painful to watch as it more than likely will be. *cringe* At least not for Monroe, an interesting, funny character that kept me watching in the first place.
 
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