What series should I watch next?
Jasmo said:
Saw The End of the F***ing World on Netflix recently, two seasons of about 8 episodes each or so. Started out very bizarrely and almost unbearable, but morphed into appreciation of a strange and caring relationship, combined with a thriller, and rather addicting.
Loved this!
not a series, but a movie to put on your must watch list — it was on TCM yesterday…
https://www.cineaste.com/summer2013/from-the-archives-this-land-is-mine
Laughton’s reading of this declaration to a classroom of school kids is powerful….
Definitely not for everyone but I just finished the old Showtime series Penny Dreadful. It is exquisitely set in 1890s London and weaves together characters such as Dr. Frankenstein, Dorian Grey, vampires, and a beautiful, possessed woman, Vanessa Ives. The costumes and sets rival those on The Gilded Age, but for those who are attracted to the usual period pieces be prepared for blood. That said the art direction is astonishing.
Morganna said:
Definitely not for everyone but I just finished the old Showtime series Penny Dreadful. It is exquisitely set in 1890s London and weaves together characters such as Dr. Frankenstein, Dorian Grey, vampires, and a beautiful, possessed woman, Vanessa Ives. The costumes and sets rival those on The Gilded Age, but for those who are attracted to the usual period pieces be prepared for blood. That said the art direction is astonishing.
Where is this streaming these days?
ridski said:
Where is this streaming these days?
I caught it on Showtime. I thought of you immediately. The cast is excellent and I was particularly captivated by Eva Green. Wanted Vanessa Ives entire wardrobe. Hope you can find it.
Victor Frankenstein's creature, John Clare is the most poignant character in the series.
Worth getting Showtime for a trial where it is On Demand. I'm restarting the series.
mrincredible said:
Paramount+
Alas, with Showtime, which unfortunately I don't have, just the regular Paramount Plus.
Watched the first episode of 2nd season of The Tourist. I thought how good can it be given that the central mystery of the main character was already revealed in Season 1. But I was wowed by it (it's received great reviews).
bub said:
Watched the first episode of 2nd season of The Tourist. I thought how good can it be given that the central mystery of the main character was already revealed in Season 1. But I was wowed by it (it's received great reviews).
streaming where?
ridski said:
mrincredible said:
Paramount+
Alas, with Showtime, which unfortunately I don't have, just the regular Paramount Plus.
oh fiddlesticks
Am almost through a quirky David E Kelly called The Calling on Peacock.
Think Monk as an Orthodox Jewish Detective... Am almost done with Season 1. There is supposedly a second season.
My son recommended The Tourist, on Netflix. An Australian amnesia thriller. Guy wakes up after a car accident and can't remember anything. (Sound familiar?) So far, it may be just a bit too creepy for me.
[[ In this genre, I loved The Dead Zone (1983) with Christopher Walken in a very understated role, from a Stephen King book. The Walken character wakes up from a coma 5 years after a car crash. And Martin Sheen as the bad guy. Great tension and story. In a way, Sheen plays sort of a Trump corelative. ]]
The_Soulful_Mr_T said:
My son recommended The Tourist, on Netflix. An Australian amnesia thriller. Guy wakes up after a car accident and can't remember anything. (Sound familiar?) So far, it may be just a bit too creepy for me.
[[ In this genre, I loved The Dead Zone (1983) with Christopher Walken in a very understated role, from a Stephen King book. The Walken character wakes up from a coma 5 years after a car crash. And Martin Sheen as the bad guy. Great tension and story. In a way, Sheen plays sort of a Trump corelative. ]]
stick with it.
Excellent police procedural, Let Sleeping Dogs, on Netflix, (oops, or Prime) was strong and complex, filmed in my favorite city, Vienna. For animal lovers, Inspector Rex, on Prime, is worth your time.
Even with all the films available on hundreds of channels, and spending $$$, often I find myself watching TCM instead. It was rewatching the great Gone With the Wind which “blew” me away recently. How in the world were those scenes — such as the one depicting hundreds of wounded soldiers lying on a street in Atlanta — even filmed back in that era? The film never gets old and always makes me cry!
Anyone see The Woman In the Wall? Showtime short series on the missing children from the mother/baby homes, run by the Catholic Church in Ireland? It was deeply moving and presented as a mystery.
Morganna said:
Anyone see The Woman In the Wall? Showtime short series on the missing children from the mother/baby homes, run by the Catholic Church in Ireland? It was deeply moving and presented as a mystery.
My adopted sister was in the same orphanage as the son of Philomena, and most likely at the same time. Sad time.
Okokokok said:
My adopted sister was in the same orphanage as the son of Philomena, and most likely at the same time. Sad time.
That is touching.
Did you watch the series? I had never heard of these "laundromats" before. I'm going to reach out to friends in Ireland to see if they saw the production. I gave the nuns that taught me here as difficult a time as they gave me. I had no trouble imagining the attitude.
Morganna said:
That is touching.
Did you watch the series? I had never heard of these "laundromats" before. I'm going to reach out to friends in Ireland to see if they saw the production. I gave the nuns that taught me here as difficult a time as they gave me. I had no trouble imagining the attitude.
No, I don’t have Showtime, but there was a movie that came out many years ago called The Magdalene Sisters that was very good.
Joni Mitchell wrote an incredibly moving song about the Magdalene Laundries.
Elle_Cee said:
Joni Mitchell wrote an incredibly moving song about the Magdalene Laundries.
I'm learning even more! I've followed Joni Mitchell since her first album and never knew this song and it's story. Thank you for sharing this.
Just checked and it's from Turbulent Indigo. I have her earlier albums and CDs. I remember when she put this album out, and now I'm interested in listening to it in its entirety.
Elle_Cee said:
Joni Mitchell wrote an incredibly moving song about the Magdalene Laundries.
Have you seen the movie Small Things Like These produced by and starring Cillian Murphy? Based on Claire Keegan's Booker Prize award-winning novel.
Small Things Like These has only been screened at the Berlin Film Festival, at least according to IMDb, but I'm looking forward to seeing it when it goes into wide release. Thanks, Dave.
And, Morganna, glad to have introduced you to this song by the great Joni. Such a remarkable artist; her emergence last year after her stroke was beyond extraordinary. Never thought we'd see her sing again, yet she did, and sang magnificently. I will look for The Woman in the Wall, thanks.
We have been binging Long Way Round, Long Way Down and in the middle of Long Way Up. Motorcycle journeys with Ewan McGregor and Charlie Boorman. I think the first 2 were best - the Up one is more recent with electric Harleys. It's on Apple. Also on Apple - i like the Reluctant Traveler with Eugene Levy.
jamie said:
We have been binging Long Way Round, Long Way Down and in the middle of Long Way Up. Motorcycle journeys with Ewan McGregor and Charlie Boorman. I think the first 2 were best - the Up one is more recent with electric Harleys. It's on Apple. Also on Apple - i like the Reluctant Traveler with Eugene Levy.
Long Way Up starts off kind of dull, but gets more interesting when they have to avoid the cartels and Ewan Mcgregor being recognised as he could be kidnapped, but it's a fun way of watching his Obi Wan beard grow in as that's what he was heading to film in LA.
Another good one is a Dick Wolf true crime series of murders using real detectives,cops and medical staff.
Netflix Homicide New York.
We just finished watching Bandidos on Netflix. Ridiculous but fun.
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I enjoy watching Expats for a number of reasons — brilliant photography, a insider peek at the life of the rich, who are even richer in Hong Kong, living in spectacular, high rise apartment building, with servants at their beck and call, and expats who are without moral compass, confused, embittered, and unhappy — and disconnected. As a world traveler— literally and by armchair — I revel in the scenery— and the typhoon scenes had me looking for my umbrella!
Another major reason for my interest, of course, is our very own MOL connection!
Now this appears to be another global chapter in the offing…
Hong Kong’s Next Political Crackdown
The city that claims to be a global financial center targets local contact with foreigners.
By WSJ …The Editorial Board
Feb. 27, 2024
The line that used to separate Hong Kong from China continues to evanesce, and the latest example is a new national-security law known as Article 23.
Article 23 refers to a provision in the basic law—Hong Kong’s mini-constitution—calling for the territory to pass legislation to protect national security. So the government characterizes it as a “constitutional obligation.”
But Hong Kong hasn’t needed such a law since Britain handed the territory back to China in 1997. A previous effort to pass it in 2003 was dropped after a mass protest. Then China passed its own version of a different national security law in 2020 it imposed on Hong Kong.
That law has produced the trial of newspaper owner Jimmy Lai that has rightly been denounced as a sham by the U.S. and U.K. Forty-seven pro-democracy opposition leaders have been charged with subversion, of which 31 pleaded guilty. The Hong Kong Democracy Council says there are now 1,796 political prisoners in the territory. Chris Tang, the security minister, boasts that he has a 100% conviction rate under the national-security law.
Yet Hong Kong’s chief executive John Lee thinks he needs another law with more autocratic power. Ostensibly the Article 23 law is aimed at foreign agents and forces hostile to China. Yet somehow the people being arrested and imprisoned are Hong Kong Chinese. These include people like Mr. Lai, who is accused of colluding with foreign forces because he met openly with U.S. officials and journalists like us.
But the arrested include 23-year-old Yuen Ching-ting, who was sentenced to two months in jail for pro-independence posts she put on social media while studying in Japan. They include 69-year-old Li Jiexin, who was given a month for playing “Glory to Hong Kong” in public, the unofficial anthem of the pro-freedom movement. And they include five speech therapists who were sentenced to 19 months for creating supposedly seditious children’s books featuring sheep and wolves—seen as an allegory for Hong Kong people and government officials.
These are not the actions of a confident government, much less a world financial center. It is telling that Beijing and Hong Kong are more afraid of their own people than Hong Kong’s British colonial government ever was. The world sees this fear growing, as repression begets more repression.
No matter the public comments, Mr. Lee will get his way. In today’s Hong Kong the government leaves nothing to chance—even if that means looking more and more to Xi Jinping’s China as its model.