What are we watching this Fall, y'all?

[BrotherMan]

I gotta tell y'all. You missed an excellent premiere season of Whitechapel whenever it aired on BBCA. I only caught a couple of episodes but it was riveting. The premise for the first season was about a copycat murderer retracing the Ripper murders in modern England. I'm mostly angry at myself that I didn't make myself find the episodes on the telly.

Now it's three episodes into the second season and it just isn't letting up. It is a police drama on steroids. It's intense and moody and methodical. It's simply fantastic. Oh, and livius? They have a crime historian on staff who finds similar murders in England's past.

I am adoring British TV. They are p cool and rarely afraid of anything. And Whitechapel is a fantastic example of why I think they're kicking American ass.

[livius drusus]

I wanna be a crime historian on staff.

[Miisa]

The ripperologist is on staff? Isn't that season 3?

:smug:

[livius drusus]

Community is frikking amazing. I thought the Ken Burns episode was insuperable, and then they did Law & Order.

[Janet]

Is this where I ask you all to talk me out of buying three seasons of Fringe while it's on sale for 67% off at the WB store? Because I really need someone to talk me out of that.

[livius drusus]

We're really more on the enabling side of the business here. Viz: I've never seen Fringe but I don't see how you can walk away from 67% off.

[Janet]

Yeah, that's what everybody said. So I gave in and bought them.

[BrotherMan]

I might have encouraged you to buy it even if it was marked up 67%. Fringe is p awesome.

[proto-überGorden]

I am looking forward to Parade's End. When I first heard the name I was all like, Barry! It's a show about a rag-tag group of parade float dis-assemblers! But it was TOTES ABOUT SOMETHING ELSE. Not that I really care because Benedict Cumberbatch is HELLA DREAMBOAT, and I would watch him reading the phone book.

[LadyShea]

Originally Posted by BrotherMan

I gotta tell y'all. You missed an excellent premiere season of Whitechapel whenever it aired on BBCA. I only caught a couple of episodes but it was riveting. The premise for the first season was about a copycat murderer retracing the Ripper murders in modern England. I'm mostly angry at myself that I didn't make myself find the episodes on the telly.

Now it's three episodes into the second season and it just isn't letting up. It is a police drama on steroids. It's intense and moody and methodical. It's simply fantastic. Oh, and livius? They have a crime historian on staff who finds similar murders in England's past.

I am adoring British TV. They are p cool and rarely afraid of anything. And Whitechapel is a fantastic example of why I think they're kicking American ass.

I agree with you Bort

I am zombifying this thread and post because I am watching Whitechapel on the Amazon Prime. livius, watch it if you haven't yet. You must do so.

[livius drusus]

Queue! Next?

[LadyShea]

Bleak House

"Shake me up, Judy!"


* all of my recent suggestions are based on free Amazon streaming because I watch on my Kindle while the boys play video games and watch Face Off or whatever.

[livius drusus]

I was going to suggest Bleak House in the period drama thread. I think it's the best Dickens adaptation ever made. It's already nothing short of miraculous that someone was able to adapt that massive tome for television. To have it come out so spectacularly great is beyond my comprehension. Gillian Anderson is a damn revelation. Her neck alone projects incredible emotion.

[LadyShea]

I enjoyed Little Dorrit too.

[Dingfod]

I've lost interest in anything that once held my interest, so I spent two hours watching Lizard Lick Towing the other night. I could feel my IQ slipping. Alaskan State Troopers is high brow by comparison.

[SharonDee]

Tried Honey Boo Boo yet? That one will kill your IQ and make you feel better about yourself. In short, it is reality TV hell.

[Dingfod]

All I have to do is say "Honey Boo Boo" and I get a mean-looking stare from my grandson. So, of course I say it often. But watch it, no way.

[BrotherMan]

I just watched the (lol) Gizmodo television show that premiered Monday night on the BBCA channel. There was not a lot of gadget information happening but a lot of bullshit challenges to tell us not a lot of gadget information. And on top of that there were additional unfun things about it.

First off despite being premiered on the BBCA it was terribly American in its format and editing. You know what I mean if you've ever compared the brilliant Kitchen Nightmares of the old country and the abomination Kitchen Nightmares from our side of the Pond. Though I will say it wasn't the worst thing ever. But still the COMING UP before a commercial break plus the PREVIOUSLY ON after a commercial break JUST HAS TO GO, DAMMIT.

And then there was the over the top, fake dilemma challenges they put in the path of the gadgets and testers. They tested two categories of products: Action cameras and vacuum cleaners. For the Action cameras (GoProH2, Contour and Drift) there were three challenges. First, mount the camera to something for a downhill luge. Oh, you have one minute, GO GO GO. The second part of that challenge was about picture quality, which was totes legitimate so no argument from me. Except when talking cons they talked about the mounting causing problems; and each camera was mounted differently. And the final challenge for the cameras was to test durability and audio quality. Each tester fought a sumo wrestler. Weird, but it didn't seem that any camera or mount was in much danger of over-jostling until they handed the camera to the sumo to slam onto the ground.

The second products tested were vacuum cleaners. And get this, the pit a Dyson against a Kenmoore - both full size household cleaners - and a Roomba. There were only two challenges. The first was p much an obstacle course, at least for any vacuum cleaner. They piled various piles of things you can vacuum up on some stairs. Some outside stairs. Some rocky outside stairs. You know, something you'd never try to vacuum because it's stupid. Nevermind something you'd try to make a Roomba do. No real surprise then when every vacuum failed to finish, each one breaking (literally breaking) in some manner. And it's the final challenge that bugged me the most of all of them. Not so much what they made the vacuums do - it seemed a decent challenge idea, but ... well, let me just tell you. The placed some strips of carpet in a chicken coop. The carpets were covered in chicken coop detritus, feathers and what-all. (FYI: The Dyson did well, the Kenmoore did the best and the Roomba shouldn't have even shown up.)

But what bothers me utterly and completely was the condition of the many chickens in the coop. Most of the chickens in this enclosure were missing feathers from some part of their body. Many of the hens sitting in cages at head level were missing feathers from their necks, likely from sticking their heads between the bars. Other, sort of free roaming chickens were missing feathers from their body. I'm no chicken veterinarian so I can't begin to imagine what the fuck is wrong with the conditions at this coop. But it was terrible and whoever scouted, okay-ed and eventually filmed at this location should get a good cock-punching (no pun mother fuckers because they don't deserve it).

[Dingfod]

On Netflix, I've been watching the BBC America programme Copper, which is about a 1860s police detective in NYC in the predominantly Irish Five Points neighborhood. I would describe this series as Gangs of New York meets Deadwood, only with slightly cleaner language and less nudity and gore, though not much less. It is so well-written and well-acted it is compelling. I have watched all 10 episodes over the last three days, and now my wife is hooked on it too.

The main character is Kevin "Corky" Corcoran, a police detective, and his two detective cohorts, a young Ian McShane look-alike, Francis McGuire and the shotgun-wielding big-guy Andrew O'Brien. Aiding Det. Corcoran in his crime-solving is Matthew Freeman, a black doctor who is keenly interested in the scientific method and very knowledgeable. Because he's black, his testimony would never be taken seriously, so Corky takes credit for his findings. Also an ally of Corky is the one-legged Robert Morehouse, the son of a wealthy 5th Avenue industrialist. Once a Major in the Army during the ongoing Civil War, Robert owes Corky for saving his life in Atlanta. Corky was mustered out of the Army at the same time as Robert due to the murder of his daughter and disappearance of his wife, a recurring theme thoughout the series.

There is usually a unique murder that is solved during each episode, but ongoing drama and intrigue. There are twists and turns getting here, but the series climaxes with the 10th episode. They could leave it there, and that would be fine, but it has been renewed for 13 more episodes beginning June 23rd.

[LadyShea]

Did anyone else watch Defiance?

[Dingfod]

What I won't be watching this Fall is Longmire, but only because its season finale is next week. I got hooked on it watching the first season on Netflix back in May. The show is a crime drama show about the sheriff of the fictional Absoroka County in Wyoming. The series, filmed primarily in New Mexico, is based on the Walt Longmire detective novels by author Craig Johnson. Longmire stars Australian actor Robert Taylor in the lead role, Lou Diamond-Phillips as his best friend Henry Standing Bear, a Cheyenne tracker and owner of the local bar, Katee Sackhoff as Vic, a deputy sheriff and a refugee of some trouble in Philly, Bailee Chase as Branch Connolly, another deputy and challenger in the election for sheriff, and Cassidy Freeman as Walt's daughter Cady. In recurring roles in the series are Charles S. Dutton as a Denver detective looking into the murder of the meth-head that killed Walt's wife, Gerald McRaney as Branch's dad, a wealthy and somewhat unethical developer, A Martinez as Jacob Nighthorse, a Cheyenne casino operator, AND (ATTN: IMUS) Peter Weller as a retired former Absoroka County Sheriff.

[BrotherMan]

I'm sorry LadyShea, I didn't on purpose ignore you. I had watched a couple episodes of Defiance on the former Science Fiction channel and gave up on it. I thought it was just going to be some over wrought dramatic schlock set in the distant dystopian future of our dear planet. That is until I spoke with a friend about it. I told her what I thought and she was completely crestfallen. (Basically: I thought it was trying to do too much too soon. She encouraged me to give it enough of a shot (you know, more than a couple of episodes) which I did. Turns out, it's actually p good, even if it is still a little multi-thradded plot wise. It wins extra bonus points for having good lady characters (goodly and not-goodly motives each has).

I, like the Dingford, watched Longmire on the Netflixes.

[BrotherMan]

Coming up this month: The return of Legend of Korra (13th) and the brand new Agents of SHIELD (24th). I'm thinking about adding Arrow whenever it returns for its second season. I heard good things, and plus there's a bonus of CW working on a Flash show set in the same cwverse, which I guess is cool. And then this pops up and I'm stupid excited because 1) Karl Urban - I don't care what you say, I'd probably watch just because he's involved and 2) Michael Ealy. Y'all probably haven't heard of Ealy. He was on a short lived series called Common Law on the USA. It was a promising buddy cop show with the hook of Ealy and his partner being forced into couples counseling because they almost shot each other. Both guys were p good and it was an alright show, mainly because they are both good and charismatic and they had good chemistry. BUT ANYWAY. Almost Human -

Official Trailer | ALMOST HUMAN | FOX...

So, like I was saying Karl Urban, right? Then I'm all HEY IT'S THAT GUY FROM THAT SHOW and I was more happy. That is until I saw who was producing and I cursed once. I'mma still watch it but he better not pull his Alias and Lost bullshit.

eta: Almost Human premieres in November

[Janet]

Looks good to me. I never watched Alias or Lost, but I love Fringe so Abrams has nothing but goodwill from me, on TV anyway.

[Ensign Steve]

That's so weird! I never watched Alias or Fringe, but I love Lost so Abrams has nothing but goodwill from me, too!