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What's currently good on the BBC iPlayer?

Don't know if it's good or not, just the sight of the thumbnail on iPlayer has me spiralling into a weird kind of anticipatory anger.

1. Is the BBC going to hold itself to account for its role in falsifying the reporting of events during the miners strike? I won't hold my breath. The nerve of these people.

2. I am hugely suspicious of the trend towards looking at historical events through the lens of "personal stories" and assorted mythologising bullshit. It's a way of escaping the raw exercise of power to hurt and destroy a whole class and it produces safe little artefacts that make people think they have engaged with the truth. Expect crap about eg miners' wives emerging from their oppression to get the education and jobs they were denied under the patriarchal blah blah.
 
Anyone watch the way? Watched the first episode - Dark, very political and original - felt like some 70s dystopian sci fi thriller. What resonated for me was the idea that without the effective poltical structures (the labour movement, trade unions) people are left powerless - and eventually that explodes into incohate rage (which is pretty much how every revolution happens). Made me wonder how far we are away from an explosion - people are increaingly deperate and powerless and the whole system of basic services, the ability of people to neet basic needs and a sense of social cohesion seems to be cracking.
The young lad who tells his doctor "ive not felt anything for months" is suddenly inspried to get to the front of the aggro becauuse it feels real and meaningful - totally makes sense.
First episode was good.
Went downhill after that.
Ended up really silly.
5/10
 
Just watched the first episode of Prisoner: Sofie Grabol from The Killing (sans jumper) playing a prison guard in a ludicrously grim nick. The levels of Shawshankery require some suspension of disbelief: it would be more plausible if set anywhere but Denmark. Watchable, though.
 
The Space Shuttle That Fell to Earth ( their capitalisation, not mine).

Decent 3 part documentary on the Columbia disaster . Notable for the interviews with the engineers who tried to raise the alarm up the chain of command whilst the shuttle was still in space, and the lack of interviews with the managers who decided not to listen to them
 
They've over dramatised that somewhat. The engineers were listened to. Including the bit where the engineers concluded there was bugger all they could do about it in space, and it wasn't possible to launch a rescue vehicle before food/air/whatever ran out.

They decided not to tell the crew about it for that reason. They weren't sure what was going to happen and there was nothing they could do about it anyhow.
 
First episode was good.
Went downhill after that.
Ended up really silly.
5/10

Have to agree with this.

Really rated the first episode - very original and totally absorbing. I watched the second episode last night and was very disappointed - just got daft. I'll still watch the last one - but my expectations are low.....
 
Have to agree with this.

Really rated the first episode - very original and totally absorbing. I watched the second episode last night and was very disappointed - just got daft. I'll still watch the last one - but my expectations are low.....
I'm not quite sure which bit it was that made me :facepalm: most. Was it when the Driscoll family, who had seen themselves being portrayed as leading lights of the rebellion, all walked into a pub undisguised and just sat there? Or was it when their secret rendezvous met them with the loud cry, in said pub, of "You must be the Driscoll's then." No, obviously, it was neither of those. It was when you first got a glimpse of the, I was initially sure I had misheard because surely no one would call a character, the Welshcatcher.

Oh dear. Like you, we'll still watch the last part though.
 
I'm not quite sure which bit it was that made me :facepalm: most. Was it when the Driscoll family, who had seen themselves being portrayed as leading lights of the rebellion, all walked into a pub undisguised and just sat there? Or was it when their secret rendezvous met them with the loud cry, in said pub, of "You must be the Driscoll's then." No, obviously, it was neither of those. It was when you first got a glimpse of the, I was initially sure I had misheard because surely no one would call a character, the Welshcatcher.

Oh dear. Like you, we'll still watch the last part though.
I watched parts II and III thinking they were I and II, due to the iPlayer being set up in a weird way. It was very confusing, but I gather that was also the reaction from those who saw part I too.

The Welshcatcher was hilarious. I spat tea down my nose.
 
Have to agree with this.

Really rated the first episode - very original and totally absorbing. I watched the second episode last night and was very disappointed - just got daft. I'll still watch the last one - but my expectations are low.....
I thought it was truly dreadful . Typical a Brit drama. Dreadful production values, poor acting, plot holes and bearing in mind one of the themes was mass surveillance how the hell did the authorities not notice that bloody camp in episode three ? Constant arguing irrelevant family drama and of course the inevitable presence of a tormented female police officer in a high vis. vest.
 
Just watched the first episode of Prisoner: Sofie Grabol from The Killing (sans jumper) playing a prison guard in a ludicrously grim nick. The levels of Shawshankery require some suspension of disbelief: it would be more plausible if set anywhere but Denmark. Watchable, though.

Just finished watching this and thought it was excellent - grim but gripping. All the leads, including Grabol, are really good, and the violence is hard to watch but plausible rather than gratuitous.
 
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