What have you been watching on (proper scripted) telly?

[GalaxyV.2]

The Hotel is pure brilliance. Such a simple concept that has kept bringing up moments of brilliance.

 

Being Human back again last Sunday. Excellent as ever. It will be the last series of it. Whitehouse seems to be bound for the Who role very soon.

[Magnum]

I did read that they put an ad on Facebook for a 5th member to replace J though so I wonder if they will come out as 5ive or as 4our.

 

It will be Johnny Shentall or Andy Scott-Lee. It's ALWAYS Johnny Shentall or Andy Scott-Lee.

 

I loved 5ive, but I haven't got much time for a reunion without the best one. I always got told I looked like Big J when I was about 19, and even today I can do most of the raps on karaoke without looking at the screen. They made him out to be a prick on The Big Reunion, but I remember him coming across as a sound guy in the jungle a few years back. He was a bit of a misery, but in an endearing way, like Jason from the Jungle Cats.

 

 

I watched Charlie Brooker's Weekly Wipe last night, which included a section where he criticised people for beign rude about celebrities online. He didn't even include his usual self mocking. I know he hasn't done columns like that for a long time, since he suddenly entered the celebrity world and started feeling guilty, but this felt like a massive swing and a miss in presentation.

 

I hate all that 'I mix with celebrities now and they're all really nice people, so you should feel a right twat for anonymously pulling them apart like I used to'. He's far too self-righteous about that stuff now, which is a shame because modern 'celebrities' are more ridiculous than ever (as our very own Twatlist is testament to) and, more pointedly, it's the thing he's best at. I watched Black Mirror last year and on the whole found it pompous, pretentious and try-hard, aching to make a seminal point about society but in reality coming nowhere near close to being as incisive or entertaining as Nathan Barley.

Edited February 7, 2013 by Magnum

[Chest Rockwell]

Finished the last series of 30 Rock. I still really enjoyed the show, but I think it was the right thing to do to call time on it. It had gotten a bit patchy in terms of the overall story arcs, but still had good laughs. Better to end now before the wheels really fell off.

 

As much as I enjoy Liz and Jack, Tracey really was the MVP of the show overall. I wonder what he'll do next? I need to rewatch that buddy cop movie he was in.

[Dai]

Speaking of Black Mirror, I saw an advert for the new series during Derek last night. If I remember correctly, all three were entertaining, particularly the one where everything in your life was recorded.

 

 

Derek has been OK, but nothing more. The problem is, its not half as clever, complex, or statement making as Gervais probbably thinks. Its a fairly average sitcom, and nothing more. They even resorted to "LOL man having a shit", complete with shitting noises, as the big finish to last nights show.

 

 

Africa, much like Frozen Planet, finished with an episode about how people are fucking everything up. Its obviously a point that needs a lot of attention, but theres so many other shows and news reports about all of that stuff, it seems like a huge waste of an episode for a series this good. They spent 2 years, and filmed an insane amount of footage (into the thousands of hours I think), so it was a shame that we didnt get to see more of it.

[Monkee]

I loved 5ive, but I haven't got much time for a reunion without the best one. I always got told I looked like Big J when I was about 19, and even today I can do most of the raps on karaoke without looking at the screen. They made him out to be a prick on The Big Reunion, but I remember him coming across as a sound guy in the jungle a few years back. He was a bit of a misery, but in an endearing way, like Jason from the Jungle Cats.

 

You need to post a pic so I we can judge the resemblance. I also thought he came across as really nice in the jungle and was surprised watching The Big Reunion when they all said he was a bully and stuff. Would've been nice to see him defend himself and give his side of the story but if that's what they were going for then I'm not surprised he refused to appear.

 

Also, adding to my earlier comment about The Last Leg - I have 2 tickets spare for tomorrow night's recording so if anyone fancies it then let me know.

[King Pitcos]

Derek, to me, feels like the script wasn't as vetted as it could've been. The Office and Extras were quite consistent but Derek's a bit all over the shop. Some of the jokes are really broad and wacky and jar with the pianosad bits, and would likely be refined if there was a co-writer to bounce them off. Derek himself is over-caricatured and over-sentimentalised as well, I think. I love Karl Pilkington as Dougie, he's pitch-perfect for it, and some of David Earl's delivery cracks me up.

[ukfan11]

I thought last nights episode of Derek was betting the last weeks. Its one of the weirdest things Gervais has made, but there were lots of bits I laughed at last night, like "80 is still 80, you're fucked" and the boss-eyed cat. It has much more drama in it then anything he's done before, imo and really strange montage segments, (well they feel strange to me when watching them).

Edited February 7, 2013 by ukfan11

[GalaxyV.2]

David Earl is great. Chexk out Cumbo if you can on youtube.

 

I still don't get why Gervais is doing that face. His 'oh it isn't offensive' is slightly ruined when he was doing exactly the same face on Twitter and calling it 'monging'

 

In many ways it would have been better had someone else played the lead and he had just scripted it with a Merchant, who seems to be able to reign in some of Gervais' bloated moments.

 

Pilkington is very good in it though.

[Astro Hollywood]

I'm saving Derek up until I can breeze through it all in one go, but the reaction's been... interesting. Twitter, which was talking about it quite a bit during the first episode, was completely Derek-free, other than people who were dying with the hilarity of just how misjudged it was, all sad piano and "here's the bit you cry at" montages of old people. Gervais has completely lost it these days. Life's Too Short was really bad, but Derek seems an exercise in subconsciously atoning for the crueler side of his humour by having something he can wheel out in defense of all the ironic spastics and niggers jokes. "Remember I made that show about that lovely disabled fella? He was kind wasn't he?"

 

I imagine any of these great celebrity mates he harps on about are gnawing off chunks of desk at the embarrassment of the shit he posts on Twitter. I hope someday I can write something as nuanced and brilliant as The Office, so I can spend 18 hours a day arguing with idiots on there.

[Astro Hollywood]

Just caught up with the finale of American Horror Story: Asylum. Well, umm. I've watched this entire season thinking how great it was and an hour a week wasn't enough - exactly as I thought with the first series - but I just feel let down. I don't think it was very good at all and I'm disappointed.

 

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It would've been a great twist if Johnny turned out to be Kit's son instead of Lana's and her baby really had died shortly after birth or something. I think it was all wrapped up too neatly and everyone lives happily ever after.

 

 

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Anyone else?

 

Man, what show were you watching?

 

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Happy ending? Who actually lived out of the enormous cast -- Lana Banana? Kit got sucked up by the aliens, but he was terminally ill, and both the women he loved had died horribly. Sister Jude got a happy ending of sorts, but it doesn't exactly balance out the years of torment leading up to that. And she did die, like pretty much everyone else.

 

I thought the finale was spectacular. It's such a consciously wacky show, and most of the time, that's what it's all about, the HOLY SHIT stuff where it's just wall to wall craziness. But the final episode had moments in it that were genuinely very, very moving. Jude's scenes were so beautifully shot and acted, it's hard to believe the same show that gave you Ian McShane as a crazy Santa, or a Nazi war criminal climbing into a furnace with the corpse of a dead nun who'd been possessed by Satan could move you to tears.

 

The Name Game sequence from earlier in the season is one of my favourite things for years.

 

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[Loki]

New series of Sons Of Anarchy started with a bang then! That was some upsetting shit, seeing

 

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a girl get burnt to death in front of her dad's eyes

 

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I've missed this show.

[IANdrewDiceClay]

Yeah, that was pretty rough to watch. That's an intense show when it gets going.

[dopper]

I really enjoyed this week's 'Derek'. The change in attitude by the new girl was all done and dusted a bit too quickly maybe, but that was my only complaint.

 

Gervais has said a few times on Twitter that "Episode 6 is the best thing I have ever written in my entire career".

 

That's quite a statement. You would think one of the old folks we get to know through the series is going to die, but living up to Dawn returning to the Xmas Party or Andy's apology to Maggie in the Big Brother house or Bruce fetching his dad a lager (Cemetery Junction) is a tall task imo.

[Astro Hollywood]

Gervais has said a few times on Twitter that "Episode 6 is the best thing I have ever written in my entire career".

 

He was saying that about Life's Too Short too.

[Chest Rockwell]

..also I'm pretty sure we can agree that he's proven himself to have zero self-awareness to the degree that his opinion on his own work is irrelevant.

 

Anyway, I see that some plot synopses from the next season of Community have leaked and are out on the net. They look pretty great.

Edited February 8, 2013 by Chest Rockwell