Red Hood in Titans
Streaming TV

What have you been watching? Including Titans and Superman & Lois

Look at that! It’s September. Didn’t time fly?

So what did I watch in August? Not a lot, to be honest. This actually wasn’t for want of trying but there haven’t been any appetising-looking new TV shows for me to bite my teeth into, TBH. I’m still considering Vigil on BBC One, mind, because it has submarines in it.

There’s one other exception: yet another remake of Fantasy Island, this time for Fox.

I thought about watching that. Then decided not to. It was August after all, and if normality is going to reassert itself post-Covid, we have to reassert the old rules, too: start a new show in August and TMINE will ignore you.

I also realised there’s a whole bunch of shows that are coming back for second seasons that I can’t be bothered with either. So Stargirl on Amazon isn’t getting much love from me, either.

That meant I’ve only been watching a couple of the regulars, both superhero shows, one concluding, one returning.

Superman & Lois

Superman & Lois remained perfect almost to the end, even if Lovely Wife did watch five minutes of it and declare it “terrible”. I thought it was great. Thrilling and exciting, with Adam Rayner proving a wonderful villain. The finale suffered maybe a little from being a slight retread of a previous episode, copying its conclusion and get-out mechanism, but I don’t think it suffered too much from that.

If I had one niggle, though, it’s the final scene: I just didn’t care. The funeral was oddly moving, given what it was. That’s not my niggle. That person showed up. I didn’t care. It was anti-climactic and actually put me off from watching the next season. But only a bit. I’ll definitely be back.

Titans

Meanwhile, Titans is back, now on HBO Max in the US. The main cast are a bit jauntier and a bit less angsty than before, although the absence of both Raven and Donna Troy is a real detraction from the show. Where it works still is on its depiction of superheroes growing up and ageing. This is still very much a show about sidekicks who are now too old to be sidekicks and need to move out of their friends’ shadows – and superheroes who are now old to be doing anything much at all, really.

The problem is that this season so far has focused on the ‘birth’ of Red Hood. Those who know their comics will not be surprised by who that is and the show only takes a couple of episodes to reveal all there. More surprising is just how bleak and miserable it all is. People are dying and getting tortured. Batman’s off murdering people. Not even Scarecrow – Pete from Mad Men – can add any fun to things. It’s just so unpleasant.

So I’ve given up after four episodes. Guys, we’ve been through so much misery over the past year and a half, I’d just like to watch something fun, please. Thanks!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ttU1iKSpdA
Streaming TV

What have you been watching? Including Young Wallander, The Umbrella Academy and The Boys

It’s “What have you been watching?”, your chance to recommend to fellow TMINE readers anything you’ve been watching this week

Previously on TMINE

I had a holiday. So it’s been a while, basically, since TMINE has reviewed anything.

I did watch some TV but not a huge amount, and what I did watch, I watched a little while ago, so I’m a little hazy about it. But I’ll do my best to recap, ready for September and the Autumn schedules.

Although…

Next on TMINE

…it’s worth noting that the US networks have basically pushed all new scripted shows to January 2021. Because of You Know What. So that means there won’t necessarily be a lot of new TV for the next few months. Or this week. But we’ll see what I can see.

In the schedules, at least, is Woke (US: Hulu) and The Duchess (Netflix), but I’ll probably give the latter a miss since I’m not the biggest fan of Katherine Ryan. So Woke it is.

Aya Cash and Antony Starr in The Boys

What TMINE has been watching

Long-time, observant readers will note that I didn’t apply my usual ‘Can I be arsed to catch up with this when I get back?’ rule to the Regulars list before I went. That’s because, with viewing fare scant, there was a big chance that even shows I couldn’t be bothered with I might still stick with. Conversely, holidays being what they are, there was also the possibility that I might not have stuck with shows I actually really liked.

So rather than second-guess myself, I decided to use empirical science to determine what I could actually be bothered catching up with and/or starting retrospectively.

The good news (for fans of those shows) is that I stuck it to the end of Baron Noir, Condor, Corporate, Doom Patrol, and Stargirl. I’ll discuss all of them after the jump.

The bad news (for fans of those shows) is that I really couldn’t be bothered watching any more of Das Boot, Dark or The Twilight Zone. I won’t be discussing them after the jump, but I watched a couple more episodes of Brave New World before giving up, so I will talk about that after the jump, as well.

In terms of new and returning shows, The Boys was back on Amazon on Friday with three new episodes, so I watched them. Young Wallander also showed up last week on Netflix, so I gave that a whirl, too. Earlier in August, The Umbrella Academy came back for season two, and I watched all of that. My thoughts on all of those after the jump as well.

I gave the second season of The New Legends of Monkey a go, but that was feeling a little too young for me this time round, so I never made it to the end of the first episode, although at least Monkey got his cloud powers back. But I might give that another go at some point.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ZvEywK1d7w

That made me want to watch old episodes of The Water Margin, so I caught of couple of those, which were actually really good. You remember that, don’t you? I might watch more of them at some point…

And in an unrelated development, Lovely Wife saw that Cobra Kai (seasons one and two) had come to Netflix, so we watched them in the space of about three days. She loved it for more or less the same reasons I did when I made it one of my top shows of 2018 and it really does hold up well on a second viewing, too. So if you’ve not watched it, I recommend you do.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MLpyi-oVoIY
Continue reading “What have you been watching? Including Young Wallander, The Umbrella Academy and The Boys”
Between Two Worlds
Streaming TV

What have you been watching? Including Between Two Worlds and Corporate

It’s “What have you been watching?”, your chance to recommend to fellow TMINE readers anything you’ve been watching this week

Previously on TMINE

I did another one of those movie review things for Covideodrome: Aladdin (2019).

Umbrella Academy
Umbrella Academy

Next on TMINE

This is the last WHYBW before TMINE’s August break, so there’s no ‘next on TMINE’. I’m on holiday! I’ll update you about that tomorrow.

That isn’t to say, however, despite COVID-19, that there’s no new TV on the way over the next month, just that TMINE probably won’t be reviewing it. Season two of Umbrella Academy is available on Netflix from tomorrow. Apple TV+ is offering us Ted Lasso in a fortnight. Lovecraft Country is coming a bit after that to HBO.

But actually, that’s about it. You can see why I don’t really bother with August, can’t you?

Corporate

What TMINE has been watching

I’ve not been able to watch anything German this week for a change (sorry, Das Boot and Dark) but hopefully I’ll be able to finish them off over August, along with all the other regulars.

I’ve now reached the point where Robert Lindsay is the captain in Hornblower. He’s a tad hammy but can’t dampen the overall awesomeness of the show – and neither can those cheap ITV models.

It’s the usual regulars after the jump: Baron Noir, Brave New World, Condor, Doom Patrol, Stargirl and The Twilight Zone. I’ll also be looking at a new Australian show Between Two Worlds and you’ll be delighted to hear that Corporate is back.

See you in a mo.

Continue reading “What have you been watching? Including Between Two Worlds and Corporate”
Streaming TV

What have you been watching? Including Brave New World, Cursed and United We Fall

It’s “What have you been watching?”, your chance to recommend to fellow TMINE readers anything you’ve been watching this week

Previously on TMINE

I did one of those movie review things: Greyhound (2020)

Netflix’s Signs

Next on TMINE

The upcoming week’s going to be quite busy, with work mounting up pre August break, but I’m going to give reviewing Aladdin (2019) another try.

Helping to ease my workload, however, is that looking ahead through the schedules, we have practically no new shows scheduled to come our way any time soon. In fact, all I could see was Signs on Netflix, which is an imported Polish cop show from 2018.

You can tell the summer season is here, but added to Covid, we’ve hit what I assume must be the opposite of peak TV – trough TV?

I’ll just have to stick with the regulars, I guess. Talking of which…

What TMINE has been watching

So it’s patently clear I can’t do boxsets right now. And trying to do them is, ironically, making it less likely that I watch/review things (sorry, Babylon Berlin). So rather than keep muttering on about Dark et al, I’ll carry on doing what I did with Das Boot and review now what I’ve seen so far and then just treat them as shows I watch weekly.

Which given next week is the last week before TMINE’s August holidays is probably just as a stupid as trying to watch boxsets.

Anyway, that means from now on, the usual regulars will be: Baron Noir, Condor, Dark, Das Boot, Doom Patrol, Stargirl and The Twilight Zone. We can talk about them after the jump.

I did try to watch season 2 of Humans (UK: Channel 4), given it’s now on Netflix. We made it through half an episode and quite enjoyed it, but it seems to have lost its metaphor and is basically an excuse to have androids/gynoids chatting and working out their feelings. The arrival of Carrie-Anne Moss on the scene did make me consider watching more, though.

And as mentioned in my Greyhound review, I’ve started rewatching ITV’s Hornblower, which stars a rather young Ioan Gruffudd. It’s very disconcerting watching it now, because… it’s really good. It’s a really good, scripted ITV show that isn’t a crime drama, a period crime drama or something that involves the aristocracy and country houses. The dialogue is also straight out of Forester. And it’s surprisingly dark, too, straight from the outset. Plus what sets! It’s like being on the Victory in Portsmouth, they’re so good.

So I know what I’m probably watching on my holidays at least.

But in contrast to this forthcoming week, last week brought us three new shows, so after the jump, we’ll be talking about: Brave New World, Cursed and United We Fall.

See you in a mo.

Continue reading “What have you been watching? Including Brave New World, Cursed and United We Fall”
US TV

What have you been watching? Including Retrograde

It’s “What have you been watching?”, your chance to recommend to fellow TMINE readers anything you’ve been watching this week

Previously on TMINE

Wednesday again. That’s almost approaching consistency. Can’t have that.

Equally consistently, no new reviews of anything over the past week. But then there’s not been much TV worth watching. And I decided to have a couple of days off. Because I needed them.

Next on TMINE

At some point, even though I’m taking Friday and Monday off, too, I’m going to try to review both Aladdin (2019) and Greyhound (2020) for Covideodrome. Or maybe even Orange Thursday.

TV-wise, we do have some promising things coming up. Brave New World (US: Peacock; UK: Sky Atlantic) has just started, as has Sextortion (New Zealand: TNVZ On Demand). United We Fall (US: ABC) starts tonight, after only a year of waiting, while Arthurian deconstruction Cursed starts on Netflix on Friday.

I might watch any or all of those. Review them? Who knows?

What TMINE has been watching

Dark required more attention of me than I was prepared to give this week, so I’ve not got any further. Less demanding was Stranger Things, which remains true to the original meaning of the word ‘nostalgia’, being an almost physically painful, beautiful journey home to the 80s. I think I could watch it and never get tired of it.

Coupling also proves to be as clever as always, as we went through some of its numerous highlights (The Girl with Two Breasts, The Cupboard of Patrick’s Love, The Man with Two Legs, Remember This and The Freckle, the Key, and the Couple Who Weren’t, to name but a few). The plotting is genuinely superb; the sexual politics less so. But the average sitcom would kill itself for just one of Coupling‘s jokes, so let’s squint passed that.

I’ve also been watching Tron (1982) and Tron Legacy (2010), so I tuned into a weird documentary, Photo Tronology, that must have come out at the same time as the latter movie, in which director Steven Lisberger and his son Carl look through a bunch of photos from the Disney archives that were taken when the first film was being made. It’s not bad, but you have to be a real Tron fan to enjoy a couple of people looking at photos for 17 minutes.

I did watch one new TV show: Retrograde (Australia: ABC), which is one of the first TV comedies to emerge from the Coronavirus lockdown. I’ll tell you about that after the jump.

That’s on top of the latest episodes of the usual regulars: Condor, Das Boot, Doom Patrol, Stargirl and The Twilight Zone. See you in a mo.

Continue reading “What have you been watching? Including Retrograde”