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TV series recommendations general (excluding Netflix/ Amazon)

I watched Salem's Lot again recently and it has all the strengths and drawbacks of Tobe Hoper (not counting Poltergeist where I'm 100% in the "Spielberg directed this"camp). The scary stuff still really works, these are some of the scariest vampires ever. The character stuff however falls flat and half of Salem's Lot is a small town soap opera where you have to be engaged by the many characters and sub-plots for its 3 hours running time.

There is a new feature film coming out and as a fan of the novel I'm curious to see what they did. The 2004 version is dreadful btw., never do that to yourself
 
I watched Salem's Lot again recently and it has all the strengths and drawbacks of Tobe Hoper (not counting Poltergeist where I'm 100% in the "Spielberg directed this"camp). The scary stuff still really works, these are some of the scariest vampires ever. The character stuff however falls flat and half of Salem's Lot is a small town soap opera where you have to be engaged by the many characters and sub-plots for its 3 hours running time.

There is a new feature film coming out and as a fan of the novel I'm curious to see what they did. The 2004 version is dreadful btw., never do that to yourself
Perhaps a discussion for a book thread, but arguably my favourite King novel, and I love many of them. The chapter when the main character and the skeptical doctor sneak into the local morgue to watch a recently deceased corpse to check that of course it was not going to raise at sunset is one of the most terrifying passages of any book I’ve read. As was the passage when the teacher is at his home telling the main female character someone had died the previous day in his guest room and he fears he might have become a vampire, and then says ‘there’s someone upstairs’. Brilliant stuff.
 
Is that the 1974 series, or the 2004 one, or anything new?
Yes the 70s one.

I have so much affection for it. I absolutely loved it as a youngster and would watch it every time it was on TV in the olden days.

I really enjoyed seeing it again and found it very pleasing that it still stands up.
 
Wow. Thanks to this thread, I watched severance. What an ending to season 1. Edge of the seat, stuff. Best TV show I've watched in a long long time. Cannot wait for season 2.

Also that chap who plays mark does look a lot like Tom cruise (to me, anyway)
 
Mr Inbetween.

I found it on Hulu.

An Australian black comedy-crime drama about a hit man balancing work with his more sedate home life. Only 3 seasons but it left you wanting more.

My sawdust prose can't do it justice so here's a wee clip to give you a flavour of it.


Also available on Disney+

I've managed to catch some of these on various alternative streaming services, but I'm so glad I've got it on a proper one, and the added benefit of getting Disney+ for only £1.99 for a month (special offer)

That's my viewing sorted for the foreseeable (or until the 14th when the trial offer runs out)
 
I'm three episodes into 30 Coins, a Spanish horror series by Alex de la Iglesia (Accion Mutante, The Day of the Beast). It's similar to the US series Evil in that it has three characters who investigate supernatural phenomena based around the Catholic church but this is better (and Evil is quite good). I'm really enjoying this, the subtitles are mental though and not long enough on the screen to properly follow. The show moves at a breakneck pace and characters speak Spanish fast and whoever did them doesn't understand that you can simplify the translation. Still the show itself is worth it. Despite the lead character being an exorcist, it never becomes a conventional possession show, its creepy, lots of fun and often quite outrageous in the way de la Iglesias work can be. It features Lovecraftian monsters and the source of evil isn't the devil, it lies at the heart of the Vatican based on a theological concept which I think is quite interesting.

Season 1 came out two years ago and season 2 is in production at the moment (Covid delay I assume).



This is from HBO Max and I got onto it via an article about best foreign horror shows of recent years:

 
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I’ve watched them and my conclusion is that they are simultaneously well done and clever but also boring and pointless.
I must have found them less boring as I have already finished it.
I do think that they rather over egg the 'point'. It's a bit like they are trying to suggest they are trapped in a kiddy TV world and there is something bigger about the whole thing that needs to be discovered. I think this is explored too deeply too early. Same problem the web series had. Goes dark too fast and too quickly. The TV version did it a bit better though. As I recall the last web episode was just plain boring (following the red guy rather than the yellow one), but ultimately neither were all that satisfying.
It certainly had it moments though, and it's the most interesting thing I have seen on channel 4 for a while.
 
Just finished the walk-in on itv player and enjoyed it, it’s about the hope not hate and national action informant uncovering of a plot to kill Rosie Cooper (the MP).
 
Minx. New series set in 1970s America about a woman who ends up launching the first woman-oriented porn publication. Very good so far. Paramount+ or naughty channels only, sadly.

 
Fans of Stephen King might be interested in Chapelwaite, a new series based on his short story Jerusalem’s Lot, which apparently is a prequel to Salem’s lot.

Set in the 19th century (or early 20th, not sure), it revolves about a widower and his kids who are left the family house of a cousin after he died in a small community in Maine, and decide to move in but quickly realise all is not well with the town or the house they’ve inherited.

First episode starts slow, but it is still promising, with good production values. On Paramount+
 
Episode 1 of season 2 of the White Lotus dropped on Sky/Now TV last night and, like season 1, it was absolutely fantastic! Already likely to be my TV show of the year.
 
Episode 1 of season 2 of the White Lotus dropped on Sky/Now TV last night and, like season 1, it was absolutely fantastic! Already likely to be my TV show of the year.
Really? I am reluctant to watch as I liked the first one so much and the law of diminishing returns and all that....

And it won't have Murray Bartlett in it (will it??) and he was just fabulous in it.
 
Fans of Stephen King might be interested in Chapelwaite, a new series based on his short story Jerusalem’s Lot, which apparently is a prequel to Salem’s lot.

Set in the 19th century (or early 20th, not sure), it revolves about a widower and his kids who are left the family house of a cousin after he died in a small community in Maine, and decide to move in but quickly realise all is not well with the town or the house they’ve inherited.

First episode starts slow, but it is still promising, with good production values. On Paramount+
I saw that last year. It stays slow - should blatantly have been a movie not a series.
 
Really? I am reluctant to watch as I liked the first one so much and the law of diminishing returns and all that....

And it won't have Murray Bartlett in it (will it??) and he was just fabulous in it.

It doesn't have anybody on a par with Armond I admit (I think we all knew it wouldn't!). It doesn't have a family as hilarious as the Mossbachers from season 1 either. But it's still got pretty much everything you could want from a great tv show.
 
Really? I am reluctant to watch as I liked the first one so much and the law of diminishing returns and all that....

And it won't have Murray Bartlett in it (will it??) and he was just fabulous in it.
It‘s still written and directed by Mike White who I think is one of the best writers of US films and TV shows. Reviews for this have been great.

This diminishing return thing which often gets mentioned here tends to be true for British TV series but it’s rarely the case for US series, which tend to improve or stay on the same level and then can tail off after several seasons, when they outstayed their welcome.
 
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It‘s still written and directed by Mike White who I think is one of the best writers of US films and TV shows. Reviews for this have been great.

This diminishing return thing which often gets mentioned here often tends to be true for British TV series (this is due to a different production approach ) but it’s rarely the case for US series, which tend to improve or stay on the same level and then can tail off after several seasons, when they outstayed their welcome.
I'll give it a whirl then....I just really, really liked the first one and don't want to be disappointed.
 
It’s okay. It ultimately spins the yarn of a few bad apples, in fact it‘s worse than that, it tries to pin the corruption on one cunt.
 
I'll give it a whirl then....I just really, really liked the first one and don't want to be disappointed.
Always worth checking subsequent seasons of series you really liked imo. Unlike sequel films, which are too short to quit midway, if a sequel season isn’t doing it for me, I’m perfectly happy to stop watching it and pretend the series ended with S1.

Prison Break is a prime example. Superb, clever, thrilling first season. Was in two minds about the cliffhanger ending but gave S2 the benefit of the doubt. Very quickly decided the story wasn’t doing it for me anymore so I stopped watching it. Already forgotten the main characters’ woes in S2, and it hasn’t spoiled my enjoyment of S1.
 
It’s okay. It ultimately spins the yarn of a few bad apples, in fact it‘s worse than that, it tries to pin the corruption on one cunt.

Feel like we watched different shows. This was about how such corruption is an inevitable consequence of the war on drugs.
 
Episode 1 of season 2 of the White Lotus dropped on Sky/Now TV last night and, like season 1, it was absolutely fantastic! Already likely to be my TV show of the year.
I certainly thought it was wise of the show to set S2 at a different hotel with a different set of characters. Keeps it fresh

Good ensemble of character actors as well. Already loving the no-shits-given hotel manager :D
 
Feel like we watched different shows. This was about how such corruption is an inevitable consequence of the war on drugs.

…and the conclusion? The viewer was drawn into perceiving the other corrupt cops were lead astray by one particular wrongun and he got what he deserved. All was well again.

I may have been mildly miffed by watching it. Disclaimer: most people will enjoy it.
 
…and the conclusion? The viewer was drawn into perceiving the other corrupt cops were lead astray by one particular wrongun and he got what he deserved. All was well again

It wasn’t just about one rouge cop though. It was about the environment that produced him and other cops like him - the training they received, the targets they were set, their brutalisation and lack of accountability to citizens. It was about deeply entrenched social and political structures, not a few bad apples. Why does the civil rights lawyer from the DOJ quit do you think? Because she’s seen these problems of police brutality occur again and again and again and feels there’s nothing she can do within the system to change them.
 
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