Sadly, not a post for the best version of the LWTUA hitmakers classic but a request for things for me watch on Netflix, Prime, Apple TV+ and all of the UK free streaming channels.
It’s just me, a tv and a Roku streambar in a room for the next 10 days it seems.
Thanks y’all.
I’ve recently become addicted to Joe Robinet’s YouTube channel. Thirty-something bloke heads off into the wilderness on solo canoeing/camping trips in northern Ontario and films as he goes. Strangely therapeutic.
Talking of therapeutic, I find Paul Whitehouse & Bob Mortimer’s fishing show very calming. For some strange reason there’s about eight different British shows on Prime Video all about canals and narrowboats. It gets a bit samey very quickly, but it’s oddly relaxing.
If you have Apple TV+, you’ve got to try Ted Lasso.
You have excellent taste – I’m all over Bob, Paul and Ted. Did you do The Morning Show on Apple TV+? Very good indeed.
I watched the first episode, but all I could think of was that it seemed to be a pale imitation of The Newsroom, which I thought was, on the whole, excellent, especially this scene:
Newsroom is good. The Morning Show develops really well. Script and acting top notch.
I shall re-visit it then!
TMS was pretty good.S2 starts soon.
Tehran is another excellent Apple Show.
For All Mankind, a revisionist alt history of the space race is just box ticking woke bollocks
Joe Robinet is on the list.
Netflix:
Seasons 1-3 of House of Cards, if you are ok with Spacey. You can feel the vertiginous drop in quality vey quickly in 3, but 1-2 are golden.
Bojack Horseman – gets darker and more fun at the same time as the series progresses.
Call My Agent. Just Essential. At least once an episode we have to google ‘Herve’s flowery shirt’ or the equivalent. And you get to see Monica Bellucci’s secret risotto.
If you are a fan of the Sopranos then Lillehammer is basically Steve Van Zandt as Silvio plus comedy Norwegians.
Of their original films Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom is stupidly well acted.
Breaking Bad, Better Caul Saul are also on and if you’ve not watched do the BB first.
We’ve watched one episode of The Chair, set in a US University English Dept. Sanda Oh reliably excellent and promising.
Didn’t get on with Narcos – just too grim and depressing, but lauded by many others.
“You get to see Monica Bellucci’s secret risotto” – and they say you couldn’t make Carry On films nowadays!
(Serious recommendation: Palm Springs movie on Amazon Prime – a Groundhog Day for this century)
Mmm…. creamy….
Ooh. I never did The Sopranos. I should do that right?
Hell yes. It’s as good as long format TV gets.
Best TV series ever. OOAA (but wrong).
Thanks for those. Some I’ve seen but many I haven’t. On the list.
Sopranos if you can get it supersedes all else. Going through it with the family and we have 5 episodes left. Being carefully rationed. We will be bereft when it’s over.
What MM said re the Sopranos. If you’ve not seen them Breaking Bad and Better Call saul are also excellent.
Oh and get well soon. Three of my in-laws in Asia have just been diagnosed with it so i feel a little of your pain
Did both BB and BCS – truly excellent.
And thanks for the get well. Seems manageable at the moment. Hope your relatives have it mild too.
There’s aterrific show on Prime that harly anyone aside fro me ever seems to have heard of called Patriot that’s terrific.
There’s also tons of foreign language shows
Spiral (BBC iplayer)
The bureau (Prime)
deutschland 83, 86 and 89 ( all 4 – Walter Presents)
Being three excellent examples
Patriot was a staple of my business travel days. Really enjoyed it. Oddly odd but all the better for it. The urinal scenes were very good. And some great tracksuit wearing.
It’s one of those shows that hardly anyone seems to have seen. Really good though – very Coen Brothers
Same Sky is another excellent German show and El Marginal is a brilliant Argentinian prison drama
Seconded.
There’s also a couple of really good Spanish things on WP, I need to go and dig out the DVDs.
One of them is I Know Who You Are (Sé quién eres) – 16 episodes totalling 20 hours.
The other is Locked Up (Vis a vis) – 48 episodes, 46 hours.
If you have never watched breaking Bad followed by Better Call Saul you are in for some of the best TV ever made.
Saul Goodman and Mike were entertaining supporting characters in BB and having a whole intricate back story for both of them is just fantastic. And whoda thought that David St Hubbins was such a great actor?
But that whole thing of David St Hubbins being allergic to electricity I found so ridiculous it spoilt it for me. I’ve said this before and was disagreed with, but I found BCS had more in common with Ally McBeal than with the sort of gritty realism I like. It clearly set out to be quirky and I don’t much like quirky. I tend to prefer British tv seties like Happy Valley and The Missing.
@Gary
Polite question – How far into the series did you get?
While it starts molasses-slow, it builds and builds to the point where it is every bit as rich and dark as BB itself
I’ve watched every season so far. I didn’t dislike it. I thought it was perfectly pleasant entertainment, but I wouldn’t describe it as particularly dark and certainly not gritty realism. I enjoyed it but I don’t think it’s anything special and, unlike Happy Valley and The Missing, I wouldn’t bother watching it again. One American series I definitely must watch again is The Killing. That’s far more my kinda thang.
Re The Killing – Saw the Scandi Noir original which was very, very good.
Sorry, but have zero inclination for American reboots of foreign language shows (or even shows from the UK or Australia come to that).
Two Aussie series – Rake and Wilfred – are excellent examples of how the US took something brilliant and sucked the soul out of it.
Have just binge-watched all three seasons of Forbrydelsen/The Killing (it actually translates as ‘The Crime’, Danish fact-fans). An absolutely outstanding show, particularly the first season, where the additional length really helped to explore the characterisations and politics of all iterations. Sofie Grabol’s portrayal of Sarah Lund is a fantastic achievement. Highly recommended.
(spoiler alert)
The whole point – and kudos to the writers for the way that was handled, I’m blathering on to hide the spolier oh fuck it send, was that he wasn’t, which was shown in a crucial scene.
But everyone around him believed and acted as though he was, which I found too silly.
Or they were trying to protect someone in a fragile emotional state perhaps? I found it touching but I’m just an old softie.
I know someone who thinks they are allergic to electricity. They do all sorts of elaborate things to avoid it. People think they are nuts though.
To be fair, I’m not sure it did Ted Bundy much good.
Given that thought depends on electrical activity in the brain, this must represent quite a challenge.
I do know someone who installed a Faraday cage in their bedroom though, to block unwanted electromagnetic fields.
That’s what they told you. I’m suspecting elaborate BDSM shenanigans.
He wasn’t really allergic to electricity, he had mental health issues
Obviously my spoiler above was a bit too well hidden 😉
@Black-celebration
Well he’s an incredibly gifted improv comedian – check out Best in Show or A Mighty Wind
I haven’t seen a Mighty Wind yet. I picked up the DVD at least two years ago.
Probably blown away by now.
@Black=Celebration
Yes, I have an awful habit of buying stuff only for it to languish in a growing pile of discs and boxes that I wonder how I’m ever going to find time to watch.
Netflix
Money Heist is good escapist fun. The new series starts on Friday.
They also have some great sitcoms like the American version of the Office, Community and Arrested Development.
Do you have Covid or have you been in touch with someone who has it? If the latter then I didnt think you needed to isolate any more.
If the former then I wish you a speedy recovery.
In answer to the actual question I can highly recommend Wild Bill, a Netflix film.
I have it – to be confirmed by a PCR result tomorrow. Lateral flow positive and I feel mildly crap. Thanks for the wishes – much appreciated.
If that’s Dexter Fletcher’s Wild Bill (2011), I agree, it’s an excellent film.
I haven’t got Netflix, but if it’s still on there, the documentary Jim & Andy: The Great Beyond (2017) is an absolute must-see for anyone who, like me, loved Man On The Moon. It’s about how Jim Carrey went a little too far in his portrayal of Andy Kaufman (and Tony Clifton).
My favourite show when I did have Netflix was Narcos. Oh and the film Calibre (2018) was really good. About a hunting trip that results in an accidental murder. Oops.
The Stranger and Safe were 2 recent Netflix-isms.
Netflix also gave After Life (does contain Ricky Gervais, but is very good) and Criminal:UK
On Amazon, Clarkson Farm is worth a look. It’s Clarkson being Clarkson, but he does actually care about what he’s trying to do
More Canadian stuff Schitt’s Creek. 80 episodes to get stuck into. Get well soon
Thanks. I started Schitts Creek and sort of bailed. I have the time – I may give it another go.
It is a slow burner but well worth the effort. Got me through the first lock down!
Deadwood
A western set in the gold rush town of that name. I read an interview with a lady from the Deadwood Historical Society and she was asked if it were accurate and she replied, “Surprisingly…yes” It may be an odd thing to admire but one thing I loved about it is everyone is covered in shit, the look of it just makes it feel authentic.
As this trailer says Ian McShane as Al Swerengen is one of the greatest TV characters in history.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ylD-2j5VK9k
Deadwood is brilliant. And brilliantly filthy – literally and figuratively.
Deadwood is a great show cocksucker.
Part of what I think was a golden era for HBO:
Sopranos
Deadwood
Carnivale
Rome
You forgot Oz (the excellent prison drama that started the HBO long-form TV ball rolling).
Six Feet Under was another excellent early example.
While not on HBO, The Shield is another terrific show
If you haven’t seen Spiral, French law and order procedural, in which procedures don’t go well, you must.
Other than that try Babylon Berlin, a German crime procedural set within the build up to the Second World War. Absolutely sumptuous. And terrifying.
I have Spiral to finish. I’m starting to fear 10 days may not be enough…
And featuring Herr Bryan Ferry!
Eclipsed by the other cabaret performer. 😉
Being, originally, from suburban London, I like this
https://uktvplay.uktv.co.uk/shows/secrets-of-the-london-underground/watch-online
Easy watching, showing places you wouldn’t normally get to see.
Otherwise, maybe now’s the time to watch The World at War in sequence.
Oh, Bosch on Prime, if you haven’t already seen it.
There’s quite enough Bosch in the World at War….
Zehr gut.
And I thought I was the only one watching the London Underground thing.
London Transport Museum added to the list of “Stuff To Do In That London”
Maybe Fentonsteve?
I haven’t managed a whole episode without being interrupted by Mrs F and Offspring The Elder coming in to announce it “boring”, then switching over to Love Island, or Greg Wallace eating a roasted dingo’s cock.
London Transport Museum is ruddy ace. Stuff yer Covent Garden market.
Ozark. Hope the 10 days passes quickly, bud
Just recently we’ve been binge-avoiding the depressing tide of shit emanating from the mouths of Dominic Raab and various other inadequates by loading up on two televisual treats in particular.
Item the first: Ben Fogle’s series called ‘New Lives In The Wild’ whereupon Ben takes a break from rowing the Atlantic with unpleasant company and saunters off to various remote-ish parts of the globe to spend a week with various souls who have attempted to some degree or another to go off-grid and survive on foraged grub, roadkill and cold showers. It transpires that young Mr. Fogle is actually very good at this, winkling out a wide variety of personal stories that have led folks to largely turn their backs on plastic modernity in favour of something more frugal and more spiritually satisfying. You can watch many series of these intriguing little vignettes if you have access to the My5 channel on your idiot-box of choice.
Iten the second: Our own idiot-box of choice, a Sony thing, offers us Youtube as a source of enterntainment and information in a full-screen stylee. We have been plundering the archives of the wonderful thing that is Time Team – their channel is called ‘Time Team Classics’ and it is awash with archaeological fun and games in sufficient quantity to take one through a fair protion of one’s Covid isolation duty. I commend it to you as fully worthy of your attention, supposing, that is, that things buried in mud and dirt that reveal the deep history of these overcrowded islands are things that will fascinate you as they do us.
Finally, we wish you a speedy recovery from a hopefully relatively mild viral experience.
There are dozens of episodes of Storyville on iPlayer a the moment and they are pretty much universally excellent. For those who don’t know them, the only thing which connects the Storyville shows together is that they are excellent documentaries from all over the world.
My very favourite Storyville, which isn’t on iPlayer at the moment but is in full on YouTube is The Lost Gold of the Highlands.
Seconded – Storyville is reliably top stuff.
We watched Sweet Tooth recently. Really bizarre story but once you go along with it, it’s really very good – likeable characters and plenty of “oh, I see” moments that explain what had happened before.
Call my agent
Spiral
Homeland
Madam Secretary
Good Wife
Sons of Anarchy
… Off the top of my head…
I loved almost all of Homeland, but it’s gone from being always eerily prescient to utterly redundant in the space of two weeks.
Get well soon. I’ve been binge-ing on podcasts along the lines of three bean salad, beef and dairy network and St. Elwick’s neighbourhood podcast, which are essentially the same people in a variety of different guises. Not very high brow, but very funny.
I absolutely love Monk
Tony Shaloub plays Adrian Monk an OCD sufferer cursed with every phobia known to man (he keeps a ranked list, snakes are pretty high)
The need for order in his life has one positive side effect, his attention to detail makes him the greatest detective in the world. His specialty is breaking alibis, some of the people Monk has had arrested include an astronaut in space when the crime was committed. Another man may have been in a coma but he couldn’t outsmart Monk! He is only brought in when, “the police are baffled.”
My favourite episode of just about anything is “Mr Monk Goes To Mexico” A man plummets to his death while sky diving. The cause of death drowning. The victim’s friends who were watching from the ground as well as the pilot all swear he was alive and well when he jumped. He apparently drowned in mid air. Only Monk could solve that (and he does)
The excellent theme song for the later seasons was by Randy Newman
Some good in-jokes when Sarah Silverman appeared as a Monk super fan in a few episodes.
Yes
She kept referring to his past cases by their episode names such as “Mr Monk Goes to Mexico”
Monk responded in exasperation, “Where are you getting these titles from?”
I loved that show when it was on. His long-suffering assistant at one point lists all the things that Monk has phobias about – crowds, heights, the dark, open spaces, enclosed spaces. dogs, cats, milk. She pauses and says brightly “but we’re working on the milk”.
Another vote for Monk here. Consistently entertaining.
I’ve just rewatched both series of 15 Storeys High on BBC iPlayer which featured Sean Lock. I’d forgotten most of the storylines/gags, so it was like watching it for the first time. Highly recommended.
Also watcehd what was (hopefully) the first series of ‘Kevin Can F*** Himself’ on Prime. I enjoyed it; the ‘elevator pitch’ is “the internal life of a sitcom housewife”. Recommended if you like your humour on the dark side.
@garyt
While it took me a while to get used to its dual plot, Kevin Can F himself is indeed terrific.
Would imagine the guy playing the feckless Kevin is a big fan of Phil Silvers
And Mad Men if you have never seen it (or even if you have)
Yes, I agree, quite brilliant and second only to The Sopranos.
If you’re looking for somethinbg light, clever, pop culture references, and once it hits its stride very archly knowing about the kind of show it is, I loved Psych.
if you’re into sci fi, I hear Bab 5 has been remastered and re-released
I am rewatching Babylon 5 with daughtermoles, scifi nerds. For lovers of Star Trek TOS, Blakes 7, pre reboot Dr Who etc. where the storylines are top, great characters, and the sets pure cardboard. The CGI (roughly equivalent to an original Playstation game) is particularly hard to swallow. Oh, and series 5 which they never thought they’d make, is inessential. However they did let Neil Gaiman write one episode/he agreed to their request.
“…and the sets pure cardboard.”
I’ve found it much easier to watch since I decided it was a series of television plays, as opposed to a usual series. Somehow it’s easier to overlook the lack of production values that way, and just concentrate on the script and acting.
Get well soon.
A couple to add from me…
The Serpent
I know this was on BBC earlier in the year, but I believe it’s now on Netflix. If you didn’t catch when it was on TV, an eight part drama on the French serial killer in SE Asia. Includes added Jenna Coleman.
Unforgotten
The last season (4) was superb, but after introducing it to my elder son, I’ve recently also watched the three previous seasons. Nicola Walker and Sanjeev Bhaskar are superb. I believe this is now also on Netflix (well it is here)
This Is Pop
The recent 8 part Netflix series looking at different aspects on Pop music. Some of the subject matter may not appeal, but it is really worth it. Much lighter that Apple’s look at 1971.
Not too many UK shows up here.
If you only have time for one, suggest you try Our Friends in the North.
Don’t think it’s been mentioned already but Boardwalk Empire on Sky is well worth a look. It’s a crime drama set in Atlantic City during prohibition and stars Steve Buscemi.
Stephen Graham is in it.
I said that like it’s a big deal as a joke, as Stephen Graham is in pretty much everything. He’s probably in the new Let it Be and the Abba gig for all I know.
He was excellent in…
…no, not that. A recent three part drama called Time, where he played a prison guard and Mr Bean a prisoner.
Yeah. His presence is usually a mark of quality. It seems like he’s on all the time to me because he’s in a lot of the things I watch and I don’t watch much. I expect he’s not in Love Island or Hollyoaks or Peppa Pig.
well, every rule has an exception, and in SG’s case, its Code 404 on Sky. I don’t know what such a talented cast are doing in such a piece of crap.
@Gary
Cue hardened cons struggling to stop their sides from splitting as Rowan Atkinson’s much loved gormless comic grotesque falls for the old pick-up-the-dropped-bar-of-Imperial Leather in the prison shower block for the 10th time that week
😁
I’ll second the recommendation for the Serpent from @Chrisf – superb stuff, thoroughly enjoyed it earlier this year.
Also on iPlayer – all of Inspector Montalbano if you’ve not watched it. Can be a bit daft (amusingly so, most of the time), but compelling nonetheless, and Luca Zingaretti’s world weary, wily but caring detective is a fine character.
Lupin is shallow but stylish fun on Netflix.
My favourite series that no-one else ever mentions is Santa Clarita Diet. Been cancelled now but it’s more or less Modern Family with Zombies. Drew Barrymore makes a very good zombie housewife. And the overserious sheriff from Deadwood gurns to good effect as her non-zombie but still loving husband.
Speaking of zombies. I’ve just watched Zombieland 2. Had no idea it existed, but am very glad it does. 90 minutes and you’re done, which makes it a nice palette cleanser between series which take themselves much too seriously.
SPOILER
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While you’re all here: on the Sopranos did no-one else find the “it was all a dream” coma plot strand that lasted about half a season, a bit odd slash poor?
Yes. There was an element of the scriptwriters saying “Uhhh… what shall we do now?” there, as there is in all dramas around the fourth or fifth season.
S’pose they figured that if Aaron Spelling got away with that Bobby Ewing in the shower scene from Dallas, there was probably some mileage in doing something similar.
A GWS from me, BTW.
Having watched the Sops 5 times I have no idea what you’re referring to. There was no “it’s all a dream” story line.
5 times? Respect. Thinking of starting my 3rd Mad Men go around for deepest winter
Re: Mad Men
I didn’t like it when Duck Philips abandoned his dog Chauncey by just pushing him out of the door into Madison Avenue. The bastard!
Not nice, great character though. Loved it when things inevitably went wrong for him
I’m currently rewatching whilst listening to the Talking Sopranos podcast which is great fun.
I ought to have a Mad Men rewatch. Loved it.
It was/is a real work of art.
Anybody see The Romanoffs? Didn’t really work at all
@Dai
No, it got pretty negative reviews from the UK press so I didn’t bother.
General consensus was that two of the episodes (sorry, can’t remember which ones) were worth watching and the rest were just dire.
Shame as it seems like quite an interesting premise for a show
It can’t be worse than The Great. A lot of people in costumes saying “fark” a lot. Pathetic, really.
I liked it! I thought Nicholas Hoult was a hòot.
Though saying “Hoult was a hoot ” makes one sound like a deformed owl.
The cast seemed to having a great time, more so than the audience. It might have been fun as a one-off but couldn’t sustain a series. I wanted to enjoy it but bailed after, I think, 3 episodes.
Fark!
I did watch it, and agree about 2 of the episodes were decent. Another couple were dire
About the same for me.
Like all great art, the Sops reveals something new and unexpected every time you watch it.
All of which reminds me that it’s been a long time since I yanked and followed a thread in that particular tapestry.
Wasn’t there some kind of hallucination or something? I remember a strange house somewhere.
It has been some years since I’ve seen it.
I’m sure I saw some episodes where he was in a coma and his dreams became several episodes. @moose-the-mooche, help me out here.
I seem to remember some dream bits. I remember them on account of how much I hate dream sequences, in film or literature (or recounted in real life). I hate investing my attention in something that never actually happened.
This article reckons the dream bits were “littered across the seasons”:
https://screenrant.com/sopranos-tony-dreams-meaning
It all adds up though. All part of the overall arc.
The Billy Bass dream sequences were in the second or third season, mostly dealing with the psychic aftermath of SPOILER ALERT the death of Big Pussy.
He did have coma sequences too but I can’t remember them, appropriately enough.
It’s so long since I watched it that every time I think of Carmela I see Emily Maitlis. What a marriage that would have been.
Emily Maitlis looks more like an extra off The Walking Dead
POSSIBLE SPOILERS
Tony was in a coma for a couple of episodes and had dreams, but pretty sure the dreams didn’t occupy the whole episodes.
The reason for the coma dreams was that it gave Tony a last chance to turn or burn and he did try to make a go off it when the rest of the guys wanted to whack Vito for being gay and Tony told them to live and let live.
Hmmm … I’d say there was one episode that was pretty dream-heavy, namely “The Test Dream” (Season 5, Episode 11).
You’re right! Damn time I got the DVDs out again and gave the show another airing – whatever else you do, don’t tell me the ending!
I don’t buy this “story arc” stuff. As with that Breaking Bad episode which revolves around a fly in the meth lab, it’s filling in a few episodes until somebody works out where to take the story next. The equivalent of the bass solo.
And in the case of a show Lost that bass solo’s low notes dragged on for something like five years. (“Baddddd” and indeed “Owwwww” as Moose might say)
@Leedsboy
If you ever get bored of watching DVDs/streaming shows, LB,
the tax dodgers are doing three Of Philip Kerr’s splendid Bernie Gunther
novels for 99p via kindle monthly deals
To everyone – thank you for taking the time to make some recommendations. I have another 7 days to go (got the dreaded positive on Friday and have since lost my sense of smell yesterday and my taste went this morning – insert you own gag here).
I have already started on The Sopranos and Money Heist. I have watched some Joe Robinet (my son will love watching these so I will save the rest for when we can watch them together).
I have watched series 5 and 6 of Bosch and have started series 7. Is there a show with a better opening title sequence than Bosch?
I also watched the first few of 15 Storeys High which is joyful in a miserable way. Genuinely laughing out loud. I will miss Sean Lock.
And thank you for the best wishes. It’s a bit of a bummer – feeling crap and staying in my room but I know there are plenty like me right now. And plenty worse off.
Stay safe everyone.