Leaving aside This Town which came out a couple of weeks ago and is covered elswwhere) there have been absolutely four top notch programs out in the last week
Ripley (NF) covered elsewhere
Reenagade Nell (Disney)
Baby Reindeer (NF)
Fallout (AP)
RN is Sally Wainwright’s new show and very bingeable it is, too. More Gentleman Jack than Happy Valley, it’s also hugely good fun.
Based on a true story, BR is a bit of a leftfielder – a hybrid of an unsettling drama and black comedy about stalking by a UK stand up I’d never heard of before, Only watched its first (of eight) 30-minute episodes, but it is very, very gripping
After that. it’ll be Fallout which is also picking up great reviews
Best show I watched earlier in the year was 2022’s Aussie drama, Boy Swallows Universe – if you’ve not seen it, give it a go
Two episodes into 3 Body Problem and has gripped Mrs M who doesn’t like scifi on the whole. Wonderfully made tosh. The Chinese scenes in particular are brilliantly made – the opening cultural revolution scene is gob-smacking. I have ‘renewal worry’ of course as it was 3 novels of which this is only novel 1. But let’s just enjoy some high-calibre series making for itself if we can.
In this world of 10-hour series and endless reruns of 120-ep US sitcoms can I draw your attention to the Diane ‘Cunk’ Morgan masterpiece Mandy. The new series is now on the iplayer and at 15 minutes each they are mini delights. Ep 1 features her new airstewardess career after stretching her legs with metal calipers to meet the punishing minimum height requirement. Very hard not to watch them all in one go.
Binged the whole of Baby Reindeer, and, fuuuu-uuuck, it gets daaaaaaaark….. Takes you swiftly off to most unexpected territory round about episode 4, and doesn’t let up. Enjoyable in only the way a descent to hell might be.
Just watched episode 4 myself.
Wow
It goes to places no other show
I’ve ever seen
Just finished this.
Absolutely stunning performance by Jessica Gunning
Just binged watched it and it’s one of the best things l’ve ever seen on TV. Very dark indeed.
Baby Reindeer rocks!
Am I the only one who found it too stressful to watch?
I haven’t seen it yet, but I read this interesting article about it this morning and that was harrowing enough.
“Audiences weren’t necessarily drawn in by the fact that this was based on a true story, since some have been astonished to find that out.”
https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2024/apr/18/i-was-severely-stalked-and-severely-abused-richard-gadd-on-the-true-story-behind-baby-reindeer?CMP=share_btn_url
And here’s its creator on telly. He has the worst haircut I’ve seen outside of The Afterword.
@Gary
He’s apparently playing Mr. Logic in a Viz-based sketch show for Channel 5
I enjoyed The Gentleman on Netflix – “inspired” by the Guy Ritchie film, but not quite as much “alright geezer” about it.
Looking forward to series 2 of Blue Lights (not “season”) starting next Monday
Blue Lights s2 has just landed. Hope it’s as good as s1.
Beyond Paradise appears to be straying into soap opera territory. And I really don’t like Jon Boden’s singing voice* in the opening music. No complaints OTOH regarding the closing instrumental version.
Plenty of potential spinoffs from the Slow Horses series, with the three novellas The Drop, The List and The Catch, concerning the hapless John Batchelor and others, plus the Reconstruction and Nobody Walks novels. All of them tie into the main series in some way or other, so there’s lots of scope.
* Don’t know why, but I am just averse to his vocalising, either with Spiers & Boden, Bellowhead or solo. It just annoys me.
Just read that Apple TV+ have ordered a series adaptation of Mick Herron’s “Down Cemetery Road” with Emma Thompson and Ruth Wilson starring. Morwenna Banks will be lead writer.
The original book is the first in Herron’s Zoë Boehm detective series, written before the Slow Horses series.
Fallout is an absolute hoot.
My next up
Finished it last night – it remained consistently entertaining and funny, with plenty of cartoonish violence and a big reveal. There’ll have to be another series (sorry, season).
I haven’t seen Renegade Nell, but Eliza Carthy is very angry, on Twitter, around the imaginings of 17th c. English music being portrayed as low budget bluegrass. Clearly looking to appeal to our country loving kids.
I really enjoyed Ripley – I thought Andrew Scott was terrific in it.
Given the experience with the TV script editor, who can see a 2nd series. In about 5 years. Once she’s back on the street. At his behest. (Veiled vaguely to avoid spoilering)
Assume you mean Baby Reindeer.
Be sad if that happened as the story is just so singularly unhinged. Can’t remember ever having seen something so balls-to-the-wall transgressive on TV before
Also not sure how a continuation of the story would work as the series is based on something that apparently really happened to its creator and star.
Yes, Baby Reindeer, and I mean the prevailing sense of inevitability that real life will precede art.
Latest Fargo season was a return to form, even if they tend to drag things out a bit. Excellent performances from all *, especially Jon Hamm who convinced as a scary right wing villain
* Maybe not Jennifer Jason-Leigh
I don’t share the apparently commonly-held view that there was a real dip in form previously. Each series has its own merits and downright wonders. Some of the best tv ever. Hamm was indeed brilliant.
Me and the Mrs gave up on season 4 of Fargo – story didn’t engage us at all – but now well into season 5 and reckon it’s back in the top rankings.
Agree with D. Previous season/series came across to me as a poorly executed attempt at climbing aboard the BLM bus.
That said, F has been consistently one of the best written and acted TV shows of the last ten years or so
Must admit that I am loving Fallout – What with this, The Boys/Gen V, American Gods and Preacher, Amazon Prime seems to have cornered the market in quirky SF
“Agree with D”? Isn’t that against AW Rules?
So sue me.
In case you hadn’t noticed, Lodey, I’m a zig where others
zag kind of guy
Mrs F doesn’t like anything too sweary or violent and won’t watch This Town, so we’re currently on series 3 of Hope Street. I heard on Front Row last that series 4 is already on the way.
In case Beyond Paradise is a bit too cutting edge for you.
Final season of Curb Your Enthusiasm was a delight.
I don’t share the apparently commonly-held view that there was a real dip in form previously.
You wag!
Since I will certainly watch this on one streaming service or another, I’ll drop this here. Going to be essential.
2 episodes into Blue Lights and totally gripped, but we are rationing it to one ep per night.
Renegade Nell we did binge – a total hoot!
We started Mary and George, but it is very sweary (unnecessarily so in our opinion) and there is a heck of a lot of rumpy pumpy, discussions about rumpy pumpy and longing looks that suggest rumpy pumpy is going happen in the next scene, which all gets a bit tedious.
A Gentleman in Moscow is very enjoyable, with Ewan Macgregor in fine form and clearly enjoying himself. It looks absolutely gorgeous too – well done Bolton for standing in for Moscow. The underlying story about the affects of the Russian Revolution on the aristocracy are very conflicting – you can see their point, but the (mostly off screen) brutality makes for mixed emotions. Paramount are drip feeding one episode a week.
So many wonderful old Victorian-era buildings in and around Greater Manchester, the city and its satellite towns often feature in period dramas.
Remember a fair bit of Warren Beatty’s Reds was shot in and around Manc when I lived their in the late-70s/early-80s
Dying to see A Gentleman in Moscow – I loved the novel – but it’s on Paramount…can I really sign up for another bloody streaming service?
It’s free on 123movies.
So it is! Thanks.
Why not do what I do and rotate services by just signing up for individual streamers for a month at a time?
Generally means you only need to pay for Disney/Para/Apple, etc every three or four months and can binge everything new on there in one go
I tried watching Mary and George. Got three episodes in and bailed. The swearing and rumpy pumpy didn’t bother me (I find it both big and clever) but it was just shite. Went nowhere, said nothing. Now I’m halfway through the first episode of Fallout and I think that’s not for me either. Cartoon violence with no consequences is boring.
I know this thread is about telly, but has anyone else watched the film Knox Goes Away? I thought that was very excellent.
Care to elaborate about Knox?
It’s Michael Keaton’s debut as a director. I think he does a great job, both as director and lead actor. He plays a hitman. Normally I wouldn’t be interested in a film about a hitman (boring!). But it’s not about him being a hitman, that just happens to be his job, it’s really about how he copes with dementia. He has to get his son out of serious trouble before the aggressive dementia kicks in. And there’s a “twist”. Normally I hate films with a “twist”. You can always see it coming and usually it’s the sole point of the film (looking at you, M. Night Shyamalan), but I thought the “twist” in this was really clever and original.
Sounds interesting. Will look out for it
Parasyte – The Greys. – Excellent Korean alien invasion series (NF)
Artful Dodger – Fun sequel to Oliver Twist with David Thewlis as Fagin
(Disney)
What We Do in The Shadows – Up to their fifth 10-episode series 5 and
still very, very funny (Disney)