What are you watching tonight?

General Mannerheim · Post by **General Mannerheim** » Thu Aug 06, 2009 9:08 am

thebish wrote:having just watched the whole series 1 of The Wire with the missus on DVD (surely the best way to watch any long-running drama series??) - we shall be starting on series 2. We missed the entire thing when everyone else watched it!

As did i - just half way series 3 myself! crackin stuff!!!

(not sure 3 is as good as the first two tho!?)

thebish · Post by **thebish** » Thu Aug 06, 2009 9:21 am

General Mannerheim wrote:
thebish wrote:having just watched the whole series 1 of The Wire with the missus on DVD (surely the best way to watch any long-running drama series??) - we shall be starting on series 2. We missed the entire thing when everyone else watched it!
As did i - just half way series 3 myself! crackin stuff!!!

(not sure 3 is as good as the first two tho!?)

Interesting to note that "Stringer Bell" (Idris Elba) and McNulty (Dominic West) - key roles - are in fact British actors... (McNulty went to Eton)

William the White · Post by **William the White** » Thu Aug 06, 2009 1:58 pm

thebish wrote:
General Mannerheim wrote:
thebish wrote:having just watched the whole series 1 of The Wire with the missus on DVD (surely the best way to watch any long-running drama series??) - we shall be starting on series 2. We missed the entire thing when everyone else watched it!
As did i - just half way series 3 myself! crackin stuff!!!

(not sure 3 is as good as the first two tho!?)

Interesting to note that "Stringer Bell" (Idris Elba) and McNulty (Dominic West) - key roles - are in fact British actors... (McNulty went to Eton)

A stunning, brilliant series. You are about to meet Aiden Gillen in series 3 (or 4?) in what is proving a haven for quaity Brit actors...

ratbert · Post by **ratbert** » Thu Aug 06, 2009 2:02 pm

I tried with The Wire, I really did, but gave up halfway through series two. Like almost all US shows these days, there's just too many simultaneously running plots that take forever to play out. And I just can't bring myself to care about any of the characters.

thebish · Post by **thebish** » Fri Aug 07, 2009 1:00 pm

ratbert wrote:I tried with The Wire, I really did, but gave up halfway through series two. Like almost all US shows these days, there's just too many simultaneously running plots that take forever to play out. And I just can't bring myself to care about any of the characters.

I'm usually not good with multiple simultaneous parallel plots (especially in books where I always forget who's who and have to re-read chapter one several times) - I think it's a male thing. This is probably why I prefer to watch these series on DVD - then there isn't a whole week between episodes for me to forget who's who!

as for the characters - I think that's one of the rich things about the Wire - many of the characters are not drawn in black and white as unambiguously "good" or "bad" - which makes them more complex and therefore more interesting (and maybe why they need good British actors?

)

William the White · Post by **William the White** » Fri Aug 07, 2009 2:08 pm

thebish wrote:
ratbert wrote:I tried with The Wire, I really did, but gave up halfway through series two. Like almost all US shows these days, there's just too many simultaneously running plots that take forever to play out. And I just can't bring myself to care about any of the characters.

I'm usually not good with multiple simultaneous parallel plots (especially in books where I always forget who's who and have to re-read chapter one several times) - I think it's a male thing. This is probably why I prefer to watch these series on DVD - then there isn't a whole week between episodes for me to forget who's who!

as for the characters - I think that's one of the rich things about the Wire - many of the characters are not drawn in black and white as unambiguously "good" or "bad" - which makes them more complex and therefore more interesting (and maybe why they need good British actors? )

Spot on, bish. The Wire has every character deeply flawed - and that moral ambivalence is what keeps you there with them. Omar the ruthless murderer but honourable in his way and selective in who he kills, is my favourite. D'angelo was from series 1 and 2... better avoid a spoiler here...

Great series...

Still have a marginal prefeence for The Sopranos, though.

The one i didn't get was Six Feet Under...

Puskas · Post by **Puskas** » Mon Aug 10, 2009 10:11 pm

Just been watching Corbucci's brutal, snow-drenched masterpiece, "The Great Silence".

Superb.

hisroyalgingerness · Post by **hisroyalgingerness** » Mon Aug 10, 2009 10:43 pm

A DVD with commentary. Very odd. Prob not do it again

General Mannerheim · Post by **General Mannerheim** » Mon Aug 10, 2009 11:07 pm

Monday night - The Street.

fooking excellent again, staring Stephen Graham this week! superb acting!

BWFC_Insane · Post by **BWFC_Insane** » Tue Aug 11, 2009 8:44 am

General Mannerheim wrote:Monday night - The Street.

fooking excellent again, staring Stephen Graham this week! superb acting!

I've enjoyed it before, but thought this weeks was weak!

ratbert · Post by **ratbert** » Tue Aug 11, 2009 9:17 am

Haven't seen any of The Street this year. Does every episode still end with the main character being sent to prison or their other half leaving them?

William the White · Post by **William the White** » Tue Aug 11, 2009 11:08 am

General Mannerheim wrote:Monday night - The Street.

fooking excellent again, staring Stephen Graham this week! superb acting!

Agreed. McGovern outstanding writer also. I'm gonna keep up with this series, it's hitting the mark.

Deperate Romantics on BBC2 tonight... Amiable stuff... Opposite of The Street...

Bruno · Post by **Bruno** » Tue Aug 11, 2009 11:09 am

Stephen Graham is fantastic in pretty much everything he is ever in, sad I missed this one now.

thebish · Post by **thebish** » Tue Aug 11, 2009 11:22 am

William the White wrote:
General Mannerheim wrote:Monday night - The Street.

fooking excellent again, staring Stephen Graham this week! superb acting!
Agreed. McGovern outstanding writer also. I'm gonna keep up with this series, it's hitting the mark.

Deperate Romantics on BBC2 tonight... Amiable stuff... Opposite of The Street...

I'm enjoying desperate romantics - with the added bonus of having most of the pictures they are painting hanging around the sitting room as we watch (err - no - not the originals) - the missus being a pre-raphaelite buff and print-collector...

have always enjoyed Samuel Barnett's (Millais) performances since I first saw him in the excellent "History Boys" many moons ago (and more recently in "Beautiful People" which was marvellously odd but very funny)

Bruce Rioja · Post by **Bruce Rioja** » Tue Aug 11, 2009 11:50 am

Tonight I'll be watching T'Shakers ant' Baggies. Footy's back. Yeay!

William the White · Post by **William the White** » Tue Aug 11, 2009 11:26 pm

Well, Desperate Romantics continues exactly as it should. Doesn't grip, does hold. Don't laugh, do smile. Not unmissable - but, in truth, have not missed.

I'm enjoying the coast to coast walk immediately after as well.

Today i walked up great hill, after trusting the weather forecast, wearing a t-shirt.

Came back wearing a very, very wet t-shirt.

Since there was only me in the competition, i guess I won it (or came last).

TANGODANCER · Post by **TANGODANCER** » Tue Aug 11, 2009 11:36 pm

Dutifuly watched the next part of Desperate Romantics (randy lot these painters are they not?) and methinks I'll have to dig a little deeper into the real lives of the trio (particularly Holman-Hunt) . Not too long ago I used a copy of Milais "Bubbles" to have a dig at our resident cockney, jellied eel botherers, so it was interesting to see where he got the idea from.

thebish · Post by **thebish** » Tue Aug 11, 2009 11:40 pm

TANGODANCER wrote:Dutifuly watched the next part of Desperate Romantics (randy lot these painters are they not?) and methinks I'll have to dig a little deeper into the real lives of the trio (particularly Holman-Hunt) . Not too long ago I used a copy of Milais "Bubbles" to have a dig at our resident cockney, jellied eel botherers, so it was interesting to see where he got the idea from.

there is a concurrant "real lives" series running on BBC4 - you might find it on the bbc-player jobbie... let me go have a look..

here... http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00lbnnd

this evening a boffin told us that Ruskin - when annulling his marriage - offered to the court to "prove his manhood" - the judge declined - the boffin was much amused by the idea of how Ruskin might have achieved this in open court had the judge taken him up on the offer!

TANGODANCER · Post by **TANGODANCER** » Tue Aug 11, 2009 11:48 pm

thebish wrote:
TANGODANCER wrote:Dutifuly watched the next part of Desperate Romantics (randy lot these painters are they not?) and methinks I'll have to dig a little deeper into the real lives of the trio (particularly Holman-Hunt) . Not too long ago I used a copy of Milais "Bubbles" to have a dig at our resident cockney, jellied eel botherers, so it was interesting to see where he got the idea from.
there is a concurrant "real lives" series running on BBC4 - you might find it on the bbc-player jobbie... let me go have a look..

here... http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00lbnnd

this evening a boffin told us that Ruskin - when annulling his marriage - offered to the court to "prove his manhood" - the judge declined - the boffin was much amused by the idea of how Ruskin might have achieved this in open court had the judge taken him up on the offer!

Excellent. I'll check that one out. Cheers.

Verbal · Post by **Verbal** » Tue Aug 11, 2009 11:55 pm

Early Doors.

Cracking comedy.

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