Television, drug of the nation

Hijack, Apple TV. Good stuff.

I found Hijack started really strong, but the 'mystery' it was building up was such a boring disappointment.

Neil Maskell is such a good baddie actor.

I can't ever unsee him from his role in Utopia!

One of my favourite little comic strips from Instagram and probably better places is now a cartoon on Apple TV, strange planet, first 2 were pretty good.

Where is Jessica Hyde...

Also really enjoying it so far. If you liked this, you might also enjoy "Three Pines"

Yes, great scenery, stories and characters to care about.

Mayor of Kingstown was ace, Even the MTV intro at the start of every episode

Just finished series 2. Was kind of expecting it, but still.

Where is Jessica Hyde...

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Enjoyed Three Pines based on the recco in here.

Read they've cancelled it though, so no season 2.

Mayor of Kingstown

Hard no from me. On the plus side, it explores a part of the U.S. justice system in what's probably a much more realistic way than U.S. television or film has ever seen. On the other hand, it's representation of women is fucking rank.

The show does a hell of a lot of lampshading, showing the sleazy exploitation of women superficially as a way of saying things are sleazy, but really for titillation.

Almost every woman in the show is a prostitute or a prisoner (which they basically treat the same as prostitutes), with the few exceptions being wives and mothers (somebody or some people writing this show has/have a huge Madonna-whore complex ), plus one woman who ostensibly has a responsible job but is just there so the protagonist can fuck her in public toilets. Any women who isn't in a mother/whore role gets about 5 seconds of screen time (and the mothers don't get much more). A lot of scenes happen in strip clubs, with women bumping and grinding in the background or foreground, some just bit parts, some major characters. There's a whole lot more of that than is necessary. We don't even have to have the whole "sex workers deserve respect even if the industry they work in doesn't respect women" conversation, because the women doing the lap dancing aren't sex workers, they're actors being shat on by the TV industry. Most of them are low-paid actors , some of them are playing key characters, all of them having to accept that this is what women typically have to go through just to get a role in TV/film.

There are themes in the show that I was interested to see, but I walked away because of this absolutely rank, depressing shit. Fuck that show.

Very late reply, but what did you think of the series as a whole? Top class, IMO.

I watched Mayor of Kingstown a couple of years ago and actually recommended it on here, I don’t recall it being wall to wall strip club action but I’ll take your word for it, the show was certainly gripping and well acted.

Serious question - how did you rationalise the Bada Bing scenes in Sopranos?

Ah no! That sucks

Serious question - how did you rationalise the Bada Bing scenes in Sopranos?

I didn't. I think that part of the show had a similar problem but at least it wasn't so relentless.

An update: we started at the beginning. And we're now halfway through the newest series. Have thoroughly enjoyed it, for the most part!

Bada Bing

The scenes at the front of house (ie with strippers) tend to be short - often with non-family members (I assume it's noise-context dependent). IMO it's not a full of tits show. Satriale's is also used extensively. Ultimately though it's a strip club with strippers.

Even rewatching it in the last 2yrs it didn't strike me as wildly inappropriate or anything. That could be biase from watching the show in my younger days. Conversely, my OH and I tried to watch GoT a couple of years ago having never watched it at the time. It felt incredibly gratuitous and uncomfortable in a post-#metoo world.

Finished Silo last night. Good, although can’t help feeling short changed and disappointed - could be spun out indefinitely, although I guess that’s like a lot of things.

Trying to decide between Invasion and Foundation next.

My OH got into Orange is the New Black during lockdown. There is a completely gratuitous mild topless/lesbian sex scene early in every episode. I assume it's for couples who sit down to watch, and it's timed so that when the man is about to say, 'This Cell Block H stuff is shite, let's watch something else', they get a bit of boobage so keep it on.

There are more books, so I assume there will be a 2nd/3rd series coming.

The Spanish version is very much like that too.

Finished the whole thing.

Absolutely loved it. Easily the most enjoyable thing I've watched for ages. Shows how much you can do in 25m rather than drawing everything out forever just for the sake of content creation.

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Watched "Wanted: the escape of Carlos Ghosn" on Apple TV this week. The unfeasible events keep upping the score; best to leave your jaw on the floor and collect it at the end of each episode. It was at the point where a high school American Football coach and former green beret turned up as a key player that I thought "If Steven Segal hasn't bought the film rights, it's only because the Oceans 11/12/13 people have outbid him".

Caught up on a year on this thread, no mention of star trek under decks.

First episode of One Piece is excellent.

Reviews saying it’s the first good live action manga adaptation and I believe it after e01.