OT: Favourite Current Television Programme?

I logged in to make sure Danny was aware of the new Poirot starting in half an hour.

It does overlap with this hyped new French zombie thing on C4 though.

Lara Lara Laughs wrote:I logged in to make sure Danny was aware of the new Poirot starting in half an hour.

It does overlap with this hyped new French zombie thing on C4 though.

Hell yeah! I'm watching it now. Cheers for the heads up

Lara Lara Laughs wrote:I logged in to make sure Danny was aware of the new Poirot starting in half an hour.

It does overlap with this hyped new French zombie thing on C4 though.

C4+1 anyone?

4seven later in the week?

Catch up TV?

PVR?

Sky+?

The modern world allows you have your Poirot and eat your French zombies.

Here it is, Laz.

If you can be arsed to go through it all...

Does anyone watch The Newsroom?

I am seriously in love with Emily Mortimer's character.

True Detective just started on HBO this week. Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson.

Saw the first episode. Not bad. Promising.

damn. those 2 are fantastic actors. going to have a watch

mcconaughey seems to be in an absolute golden period. killer joe, mud, dallas buyer's club. thank god he gave up those rom-coms

All of a sudden he's become an actor, after a career of coasting along as a by-the-numbers love interest.

And what happened to Sasha.

Dello wrote:True Detective just started on HBO this week. Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson.

Saw the first episode. Not bad. Promising.

Watched the first two episodes. Very good. Dialogues are well written too.

McConaughey has become an actor.

Third episode down (it's not back for two weeks now due to some American thing - four hours of adverts interspersed with brief snippets of wrong rugby) and I'm sold on this.

Slow moving, dialogue heavy, achingly cinematic - it's No Country For Old Men in TV form.

It is just a 8 episode season though. Next season, the major cast will be different.

Yes, that is a good analogy.

Anyone given the Spacey version of House of Cards a look? Quality TV.

Think I mentioned it some months back.

S2 starts in the States on Feb 14.

Anthony_Gonzales wrote:It is just a 8 episode season though. Next season, the major cast will be different.

Yes, that is a good analogy.

It's an interesting approach, a new cast every season to tell a different story, under the "True Detective" banner. I wonder if there'll be some overlap, here and there, with Rust or Marty making an appearance in whoever's investigating the next chapter.

But eight episodes - basically four movies' worth of time - seems a good fit for the kind of character study the show's going for. Not sure Rust could keep up his bleak, world weary, nihilistic persona for five seasons without sucking on the end of a revolver.

I was confident it was going to be decent as soon as the opening theme tune kicked in.

skully wrote:Anyone given the Spacey version of House of Cards a look? Quality TV.

Adapted from a British miniseries. I've considered it.

Dello wrote:

skully wrote:Anyone given the Spacey version of House of Cards a look? Quality TV.

Adapted from a British miniseries.  

Aye, hence my qualification. Worth a squiz IMHO. Meanders a bit in the later eps of S1, but eminently watchable.

skully wrote:

Dello wrote:

skully wrote:Anyone given the Spacey version of House of Cards a look? Quality TV.

Adapted from a British miniseries.  

Aye, hence my qualification. Worth a squiz IMHO.

I hav'nt seen the American version but i hear Spacey is excellent.

Aye, top shelf actor who pulls off the influential southern pollie role brilliantly.

Dello wrote:

Anthony_Gonzales wrote:It is just a 8 episode season though. Next season, the major cast will be different.

Yes, that is a good analogy.

It's an interesting approach, a new cast every season to tell a different story, under the "True Detective" banner. I wonder if there'll be some overlap, here and there, with Rust or Marty making an appearance in whoever's investigating the next chapter.

But eight episodes - basically four movies' worth of time - seems a good fit for the kind of character study the show's going for. Not sure Rust could keep up his bleak, world weary, nihilistic persona for five seasons without sucking on the end of a revolver.

I was confident it was going to be decent as soon as the opening theme tune kicked in.

Yes, precisely. Since it is not purely a whodunit kind of thing and as much if not more of a character study of Rust, they can't possibly keep going it that long. Quality over quantity. Plus I don't think someone like Harrelson would ever do a long running tv show, season after season, without devaluing himself big time.

Alexandra Daddario isn't bad to look at

Spacey - I think he is fine enough actor, and I like him. But he mostly does similar kind of roles - smartass, with a mean streak, with a certain facial expression, etc etc.

He does not have the range of truly great actors like Daniel Day Lewis or Meryl Streep or DeNiro back when he used to do movies for more than just cash.

But that's the nub of it. Pretty much every actor has to keep the pot boiling with more weak roles (schematically delivered from the travelling bag of tricks) than challenging star roles (perfect for demonstrating range, flair and excellence).

The puffed-up but always interesting reviewer Mark Kermode said of Spacey that when he's good, he's very, very good, but when he's bad, he stinks the place out.

There are - by economic necessity as much as anything - few actors who entirely escape that problem.

As De Niro once simply remarked (with a shrug) when challenged why he too often took undemanding parts: "I got bills to pay."

Anthony_Gonzales wrote:

Dello wrote:

Anthony_Gonzales wrote:It is just a 8 episode season though. Next season, the major cast will be different.

Yes, that is a good analogy.

It's an interesting approach, a new cast every season to tell a different story, under the "True Detective" banner. I wonder if there'll be some overlap, here and there, with Rust or Marty making an appearance in whoever's investigating the next chapter.

But eight episodes - basically four movies' worth of time - seems a good fit for the kind of character study the show's going for. Not sure Rust could keep up his bleak, world weary, nihilistic persona for five seasons without sucking on the end of a revolver.

I was confident it was going to be decent as soon as the opening theme tune kicked in.

Yes, precisely. Since it is not purely a whodunit kind of thing and as much if not more of a character study of Rust, they can't possibly keep going it that long. Quality over quantity. Plus I don't think someone like Harrelson would ever do a long running tv show, season after season, without devaluing himself big time.

Alexandra Daddario isn't bad to look at

Harrelson?

Yeah right. He only did 8 years in Cheers.

I didn't know that, but I looked up and that was from 85-93. He wasn't much of name in movies for most of those years.