Debating TV shows

General
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I tried to get into Spider-Noir but it simply didn’t agree with me. The whole concept is really very niche, the intersection of Spider-Man, Nicholas Cage and James Ellroy fans. And Cage should have played the part 20 years sooner. It worked brilliantly as a cameo in the SPIDERVERSE but I wouldn’t be surprised if, in spite of the praise, the viewer numbers just weren’t there.

Sure, who can afford to stick to their guns and double down in the second season if not Amazon? But maybe here there’s not that big a potential for growth as in other shows. Spider-Noir was never going to be a mainstream hit, not even in the years when the MCU practically couldn’t do wrong with its productions and the superhero craze was at its zenith.

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This was my assumption as well.

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Stranger Things - Season 5

I waited to watch this for a long time now, making the already long hiatus between Season 4 and this last one even longer - which makes it so much more difficult to get back into the groove, especially since I enjoyed the show a lot but have not revisited it in order to be up to date with all the complex plot which came before.

And while this last season certainly knows it has to catch up with viewers like me and in addition sets so much up that it has to stop for numerous exposition dumps I must say…

… within the first episode I was hooked again and enjoyed it. Yes, the pattern - the baddie is conquered… oh, no, he is back - is what makes almost all mystery shows drag a bit, simply because the story can only be finished when the show is allowed to. But this mix tape of everything I grew up with and more is such a fun adventure of gigantic nostalgic proportions that I just lean back and enjoy the ride.

Now I only hope it can stick the landing. If not I will enjoy it nevertheless.

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Catching up on SAS Rogue Heroes and Slow Horses before their next seasons.

Should I re-watch The Capture series 1 at the same time to compare the current rumoured contenders Bond 7?

Only slightly joking.

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TBH I think Hardy’s problems were between him and the producers. Brosnan and Mirren are at the age of having seen worse probably many times before.

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Let‘s face it: Hardy is a deeply troubled man. That can transform into interesting performances. But mostly a terrible working atmosphere.

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Cape Fear (AppleTV)

Terrific performances, well shot and edited.

But when you stretch a two hour film into a ten hour series you have to fill it. Unfortunately, that detracts from everything. And all the twists and turns are so over the top here I wondered all the more: why was this made? Apart from IP, I mean? It just bored me tremendously, the pacing was so, so slow, even Cady‘s first appearance was put off and again stretched and stretched, like a Tarantino monologue. And giving Cady so much MOTIVATION just burdens the character and the story. It all becomes a soap opera with too much violence.

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Oh no doubt. Was more Brosnan and Mirren seem to have reached an age and point on their respective careers to not care.

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Maybe they have pay-or-play contracts :wink:

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Caught up on Slow Horses in time for series 6 (i still had series 4 and 5 to watch).

I forgot how good they are at rug pulling when you least expect it and just how fun the animosity between The Park and Slough House is. Definitely excited for the slow horses return on Wedneaday!

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Another 2 season comission(er Gordon)

No point pretending it’s not why they do that. They said so when 1 and 2 came out, just didn’t know they had kept that pattern beyond that

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I distinctly recall them having been at it this summer. That green light must have been given some time ago - or See-Saw was already at it blindly, which I don’t think they’d pull with this big a circus.

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Possibly timing it to get more articles mentioning it’s return on Wednesday.

I notice Oldman is the only confirmed cast member…

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I’ve been trawling Instagram a week or two ago, KST and Lowden seem to have been spotted - but it’s possible people posted older shots of Lowden. And/or nobody says they need to appear in both seasons*…

*though I’d be mightily miffed if Scott Thomas wasn’t.

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The odd relationship between KST and Oldman is always amongst the strongest stuff in each season.

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…mirroring the books. Taverner and Lamb are sides of the same coin. She’d likely barf at the mere suggestion they’d make the perfect spooks couple - and Lamb would rather have a bottle of scotch and Chinese takeaway than ‘Lady Di’ near his clammy hide - but together they represent the arcane profession in this environment perfectly.

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Going through this process quicker than expected…

28787

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The Pillars of the Earth (2010 eight-part miniseries based on the novel by Ken Follett): We watched this on DVD, borrowed from the library, after a friend recommended it. This miniseries is very much of its time, when people still believed in the hero’s journey (though The Odyssey seems to have reignited that interest). I wondered, as I watched, whether such a series would get made today.

The story, set in England during the 12th-century Anarchy, is about the building of a cathedral in a fictional village. Much of the subterfuge and violence is what you’d expect from the setting and time period. Though it felt like it ended rather abruptly. And, not having read the novel, both my husband and I had assumed that Tom Builder’s young son, Jonathan, would have played a larger role in the finale.

I’m not sure the abrupt shifts in time necessarily work. Especially when many of the actors look much as they did years before. The only noticeable change in appearance happened at the end. However, the sets are amazing, and the CGI is especially impressive for its time. Ian McShane does a little too much scenery-chewing, but Rufus Sewell, Eddie Redmayne, Hayley Atwell and Matthew Macfadyen are excellent.

Oh, and there was a familiar face: Anatole Taubman, from Quantum of Solace. (He had a lot more lines in this.)

Interestingly, I had just heard Ken Follett interviewed on CBC Radio about his latest book, Circle of Days, and he talked about the popularity of his book, The Pillars of the Earth:

https://www.cbc.ca/player/play/audio/9.6934561

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The Paper (Peacock/Universal)

From the people who brought you the terrific US version of “The Office”, now, more than 20 years later (what???), another mockumentary, and Oscar is also in it. But it´s not about a paper company - it´s about a newspaper, the Toledo Truth Teller, a paper which has become a flimsy shadow of itself, sharing offices with its big toilet paper parent company, until a new, young editor takes the reigns and tries to make the best of it with the staff which is not really qualified but rises to the occasion.

Yes, I was sceptical, too.

But when I gave it a chance I warmed to it very fast, and now it´s one of my favorite new shows. While it shows signs of “The Office”-like cringe humor, the characters feel more real, even if one major character at first appears to be a broad caricature. Soon, the underlying problems shine through, and you understand why they behave the way they do. Like all of us, hiding, trying to establish a persona which might be better suited to everyday´s catastrophes.

And Domhnall Gleeson as young new overenthusiastic editor Ned absolutely knocks it out of the park. I never thought he could pull this off, but he is incredibly funny, sympathetic, and authentically honest to the point of horrifically exposed to every mockery. His beginning romance with the journalist wanna be Mare (Chelsea Frei, also splendid, as the female Jim-version) fuels the proceedings just like Ned’s relationship with his ersatz-father, the well-meaning head of the toilet paper company (Allan Havey).

Maybe that’s what makes “The Paper” special: it establishes truly touching human relationships amid the jokes, and it also deals with a topic that absolutely rings true these days: journalists having fallen prey to economic interests, cast as “bad guys”, thrown away and having to scrape by while it´s them, still them, who we could and should count on to expose everything that’s going wrong in this society.

So, yes, watch it. It´s that good. And it holds the promise of an even brighter second season.

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