In terms of family-friendly fare, I think it’s basically impossible to go wrong with Hilda, one of Netflix’s latest crop of original shows that my wife and I recently blitzed through in a couple of days. It’s sweet and charming and funny and whimsical - basically the closest thing you’ll get to a TV show set in Miyazaki’s mind, but with British actors.
Also Twig (Hilda’s deer-fox pet) is the cutest thing ever.
Watching This Is Us Season 3. Must watch.
About an hour ago I was trying to make a list of shows that I’d like to keep up with. Thanks for the reminder!
Legends of tomorrow S4 started this week. First episode, a rainbow puking unicorn that eats human hearts, at Woodstock. God I love a show that doesn’t take itself too seriously.
Designated Survivor (it is OK)
Been working through Fargo a season at a time. (Fantastic)
Just discovered “Food Party”. (Wow) Can only watch an episode at a time, it is so weird.
Also working on purchasing the “River Cottage” series to scratch my outdoorsy itch.
We have been watching Jamestown, and enjoying it. Patsy Ferran plays probably the most memorable character.
Inside no. 9
I genuinely bought into that at first, almost turned it over. Evil geniuses! Genuinely unsettling.
Just finished Altered Carbon. I really enjoyed it. Like thoroughly.
I know a lot of people didn’t like it. The trailer really sold it short. But I think that my tendency is to impress a lot of my own ideas and things I’ve been thinking about onto whatever I’m reading, and now that I write this aloud, I don’t think I’m unique in that regard. I think the series just kind of hit me the right way at the right time. I think the series was a little too shy in its exploration of certain themes: What it might mean to cross racial, age, and gender bounds so easily, for instance. I sort of feel conned out of something that could have been a lot more interesting but would have stepped on a lot of toes and made a lot of people uncomfortable. They tiptoe around it pretty carefully. and in that way retain mass appeal. They really didn’t spend a lot of time on ugly bodies except to serve the plot. The plot wound itself a little tight and I had a couple of Ocean’s Eleven “I’m not sure I give a fuck” moments during some of the reveals. Those are my criticisms.
I do appreciate the multilingual future, and I think that Hollywood could crib some action scene choreography tips from the makers of this series–it was easy to follow what happens in a fight scene. The pleasure of it came mainly in the possibility space. They did a really good job of efficient worldbuilding, and didn’t give you too much information. I also dig the cyberpunk aesthetic, but the feel is more tech noir… or at least that’s what I sense is being reached for, and I think that despite not quite getting there, I enjoyed the attempt.
I subbed to Britbox again and dove into Season 4 of Doctor Blake Mysteries. Spoilers: Having the main character’s wife, who’s supposedly been dead for 15 years, show up on his doorstep as he’s proposing to another woman is LAZY WRITING.
Just a happy story about bunnies…
“You’ve read the book, you’ve seen the film - now try the stew!”
– Not the nine o’clock news (pilot)
Just from the way the animation was drawn, as a kid, I knew Watership Down was some serious shit.
Not a TV show per se, but the annual Desert Bus For Hope charity livestream starts on Friday at 10:00 AM Pacific (UTC-08:00, check your local time zone listings) at Twitch, and runs continuously until donations fail to keep pace with the 7% increase in the cost of each successive hour of driving, which usually takes just shy of a week. Even if you can’t donate anything, it’s always a lot of fun, and it’s a sorely-needed heartwarming/goofy respite from the rest of the world’s dumpster fire.
Some highlights from past years:
It’s Saturday Night!
Live QWERPline (a sort of morning radio show from the innocuous version of Night Vale that started as a goofy overnight “call-in” show at Desert Bus and is also its own show now) at db9
Alex pours his heart out near the end of the 2016 run, which was only a week after, well, that happened.
Singing/dancing to Gangnam Style at 50% speed
Some Magic: The Gathering hilarity
Honestly I could probably post videos all day long, but I’ll leave y’all with these 
. (Full disclosure: I have nothing to do with the event, I just love it a lot and it’s for a good cause.)
Is it just me, or are subtitles on Amazon Video really bad? Especially if you’re watching something with non-American accents. Half the shows I watch on Britbox have names misspelled (a character named Niamh was variously spelled as “Neve” and “Steve” in one show), whole sentences of dialogue reduced to “inaudible” or “mumbles” in the subtitles. And then there was this bit:
I still feel it’s tons better than some of the pirate sites or YouTube video subtitles I’ve seen. Plus, syncing is so important.
I don’t actually watch much TV, but I’ve been catching up on all the stuff I never watched because I was either too young to fully grasp (Twin Peaks) or just too lazy to VCR each week (Star Trek TNG) on Netflix. I’m excited for S3 of true detective though, I hope it doesn’t suck!
I haven’t seen it yet, but now that it’s spawned its own annoying meme I’m even less inclined to watch it. Also it seems to be engineered by netflix to draw the biggest possible audience. It’s like the streaming data poured into movie form, and it feels really cynical somehow.
