The Twilight Zone

Between Two Worlds
Streaming TV

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

30 July 2020 Rob Buckley 4 Comments

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

22 July 2020 Rob Buckley 7 Comments

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

15 July 2020 Rob Buckley 9 Comments

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”
Doctor Tyme in Doom Patrol
US TV

What have you been watching? Including Warrior Nun and Intelligence

8 July 2020 Rob Buckley 5 Comments

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

Somehow, completely by magic and completely unintentionally, WHYBW has ended up again on its normally scheduled Wednesday. It’s a miracle, I tell you. So I’m going to give up predicting when it’ll next show up and just say “next week”.

Covid schedules being what they are, I’ve not been able to review that much new TV over the past week and a bit, but Covideodrome did manage to take in Bad Boys For Life (2019), in case you fancied a movie review.

ABC (Australia)'s Retrograde
ABC (Australia)’s Retrograde

Next on TMINE

Talking of movies, I will at some point be reviewing Aladdin (2019) for Covideodrome. We also watched Frozen II (2019) this week, but that was so boring, I’m not sure I can be bothered with a review of it. It was all right, but it was ridiculously complicated for what it was and everyone seemed so bored by it all, that it wasn’t until halfway through that we realised it was the same voice cast as its predecessor.

An Apple TV+ gives us Greyhound (2020), Tom Hanks’s new World War II movie, so I’m sure I’ll be giving that a gander, too.

TV-wise, we’re a bit strapped. Apple TV+ will also be offering us Little Voice, but that’s probably too musical for TMINE’s tastes. Starz (US) will be giving us P-Valley on Sunday, but that’s a bit too stripteasey for TMINE’s tastes.

That’s more or less it for the streaming services and US TV.

Australia will, however, be giving us the first Covid comedy series, Retrograde, today, so I will have a look at that, at least.

Damon Wayans Jr in The Twilight Zone © Dean Buscher/CBS 2020 CBS Interactive

What TMINE has been watching

Baron Noir is now on pause. I can only watch so many foreign-language shows in one week, since I have to keep an eye on the subtitles and only have so much concentration left in me at this time of year, and what with German shows Das Boot and Dark, I’m afraid France has had to go on pause.

Dark continues… darkly. It’s basically repeating the first two seasons but with the burning question “What if it had been all about Martha instead?” I think her name’s Martha, but usual problems with names/Dark there. I’m quite enjoying it for that, but I would rather like it to move on, as I’m up to episode four already.

In terms of new shows, I decided not to watch Head High for all the reasons I stated last week (secondary school rugby). But I did manage to watch Netflix’s Warrior Nun, so we’ll be able to talk about that after the jump. I also caught quite a few episodes of Sky One’s Intelligence, as Lovely Wife fancied watching, so we can talk about that as well.

That’s all 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 Warrior Nun and Intelligence”
Doom Patrol
US TV

What have you been watching? Including Doom Patrol, The Twilight Zone and Das Boot

30 June 2020 Rob Buckley 6 Comments

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

Yes, a day late. Would you have expected anything else from me of late? But this really is only temporary – my workload should finally be abating a tad next week, so WHYBW should be back on Monday again.

In the past week, I did manage to review the first episode of Perry Mason (US: HBO; UK: Sky Atlantic), but that was it. Not that there was much new TV last week, so actually that was a pretty high success rate.

Dark
Dark

What TMINE has been watching

I’ve got one more episode further into season 3 of Baron Noir, so the end is nearly in sight. I also finished the first episode of season 2 of Das Boot, but rather than try to boxset that, I’ve learned my lesson – I’m adding that to the regulars and trying to do one episode a week. Should have thought of that with Baron Noir, shouldn’t I?

I’ve also started on season 3 of Dark. I’m pleased that three episodes in, the thing I was worried about at the end of season 2 has simply led to even more of the same as before, rather than shark-jumping. However, the whole show has now become in the process even more infinitely complicated. Somehow.

There’s no point trying to review it episode by episode, so I’ll try to Boxset that for next week. Once I’ve finished reading some Cliff Notes about Schopenhauer. It’s that kind of show.

Head High

Next on TMINE

There’s a new New Zealand TV show out: Head High. That’s about secondary school rugby, though, so the chances of me loving it are small (I had enough of secondary school rugby at secondary school). But let’s see what happens.

Warrior Nun starts on Netflix on Thursday, so I might give that a try. But that seems to be all the new shows out this week. As usual, don’t be too surprised if I missed something and a surprise review pops up, though.

We’ve also watched another Disney movie: Aladdin (2019). Hopefully, I can Covideodrome that, along with Bad Boys For Life (2019) some time this week. Coming to Disney+ on Friday, though, are Hamilton (a recording of the theatrical performance) and Frozen 2 (2019), so I’m pretty sure they’re going to be our weekend viewing – and next week’s Covideodrome offerings.

Joel McHale in The Twilight Zone
The Twilight Zone

After the jump…

After the jump, reviews of the latest episodes of Condor and Stargirl, as well as the aforementioned Das Boot. Doom Patrol and The Twilight Zone both returned last week, so I’ll be covering them, too. See you in a mo.

Continue reading “What have you been watching? Including Doom Patrol, The Twilight Zone and Das Boot”