Box set and binge viewing megathread.

[hauxwell]

Binge watched The Tourist and I agree with Rocker it’s well worth watching.  Although I was disappointed how it ended.   

It would be nice if they made a second season for more closure.

 

[Funky_Gibbon]

The Chestnut Man

 

Danish TV crime show (via Netflix) ala The Killing in which a serial killer targets mothers and leaves little human stick figures made out of chestnuts at the scene of the crime. A pair of detectives with personal issues (they always have personal issues) investigate and clash with their superiors as the investigation leads to a prominent politician. Pretty standard stuff but enjoyable nonetheless.

 

The whole story about creepy looking chestnut men figures initially felt weird to me until I read that it's a Danish tradition and I realised that from the outside things like Bonfire Night must (accurately) look much more sinister than we think they are.

 

 

The Silent Sea

 

Korean sci-fi mystery thriller (Netflix again) set in some future period where water has become a scarce resource and everywhere is slowing being turned into a desert. A team of scientists and military types are sent to an research station on the Moon, abandoned years before after all 150 people working there suddenly died, to recover some kind of experiment.

 

Wasn't bowled over by this one. Didn't help that the main characters weren't particularly sympathetic. The ending will leave you going "Eh?"

[ChrisIB]

The Witcher S2
Henry Cavill's wry dispatcher of monsters returns but this season is a step down from the first.

[alchresearch]

The Tourist - BBC iplayer

 

Trying too hard to copy the Coen Brothers (notably Fargo & No Country For Old Men) but doesn't know if it wants to be a comedy or serious.

 

A disappointing series with lots of frustrating plot holes. E.g: If someone is trying to kill you and has already taken a dozen shots at you, you don't try shooting him once then leaving it after you missed.  Or letting him fall into a well and not putting a bullet into him to make sure he's dead.

 

[Bargepole23]

19 hours ago, alchresearch said:

The Tourist - BBC iplayer

 

Trying too hard to copy the Coen Brothers (notably Fargo & No Country For Old Men) but doesn't know if it wants to be a comedy or serious.

 

A disappointing series with lots of frustrating plot holes. E.g: If someone is trying to kill you and has already taken a dozen shots at you, you don't try shooting him once then leaving it after you missed.  Or letting him fall into a well and not putting a bullet into him to make sure he's dead.

 

Wow. Remind me not to get in your bad books Alch 🙂 

 

I quite enjoyed The Tourist for what it was without too much analysis.

[Rockers rule]

The girl before BBC1  (HTSBO's choice).

 

Not sure what needs analysing more the TV series or me after watching the thing ! 

 

The blurb says young women falls in love with a minimalistic house and its architect.

No party's, hanging of pictures on the wall, no personal ornaments etc etc etc are allowed in the rental agreement.

Apart from being highly computerised, the interior (bare concrete walls) looks like your in a lower ground floor (un-finished) multistory carpark. Keeping in the same theme , the exterior looks like the fencing you'd put around a unfinished multistory carpark  .

The 'Girl before' in the title refers to exactly that. And that's where the plot descends into trying to figure out which one of them your following. Lost? good ! your not the only one.

 

Definitely one to avoid.

 

I couldn't do minimalistic, where would I keep everything ? .

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Funky_Gibbon]

On 11/01/2022 at 18:27, Funky_Gibbon said:

The Chestnut Man

 

Danish TV crime show (via Netflix) ala The Killing

 

Just found out why this one was so similar to The Killing. It's literally written by the same guy who wrote the screenplay... that explains a lot.

[Funky_Gibbon]

Arcane season 1 (Netflix)

 

Apparently based on the multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) game called League of Legends (with a huge dollop of the Dishonoured games style-wise IMO), this 9-part animated steampunk action adventure might possibly be the best (and loosest) game tie-in I've ever seen. The basic premise is that there's a city, split into the above ground utopian city going through a renaissance of technological wonders and science and the undercity, a crumbling, polluted hellhole that is home to the unwanted and dominated by criminal gangs and full of simmering anger at being oppressed and neglected by the rule of city above. The series follows two sisters from the undercity and the paths their lives take as a result of them breaking into an apartment in the city above and stealing whatever they could find.

 

Stylish and beautifully animated with a good storyline that is quite dark and gritty in places. Doesn't require any knowledge of the game it's supposedly based on. I wasn't sure I was going to enjoy this but saw enough recommendations about it to give it a good and glad I did.

[ChrisIB]

A Discovery of Witches S3
Deborah Harkness's story of the forbidden affair between a vampire and a witch returns to contemporary intrigue after a weak second season. 

[S35_2o21]

On 09/01/2022 at 14:48, Rockers rule said:

Screw.  all 4.

(6 parts)

 

Total nonsense,

Our version of cell block H but with solid walls .

Poorly thought-out poorly written unbelievable prison drama.

Characters blunder from one situation to another.

Worse of all - its left open for a second series.

 

 

Who's on the night shift ❓

Despite all of this, I am quite enjoying it! 

Umbrella Academy, S2, Netflix

 

We watched 'Misfits' on All4 last year, and this has a similar feel but with a much much bigger budget. It's an enjoyable change from the tonnes of serious drama that is on at the moment.