Telly thread

[TheBurningRed]

Been binge watching quite a few shows the past few months.

Homeland (Seems to be on every streaming service)

Espionage thriller focusing on the CIA and the War on Terror. I watched the first three seasons when they first came out and for some reason gave up watching the fourth after about two episodes. I think I got fed up of Claire Danes crying. So thought I was due a proper watch upon seeing they had eight seasons. 

First three seasons are great, the only negative being Brody's moody daughter shrugging away and dragging out every scene she's in. I was glad when we could finally move on from the Brody saga and on to season 4 which was the best season for me. I should've stuck with it at the time, as once it got going, it was fucking great.

They seemed to realise by the fifth season that terrorists aren't just brown guys, they can be white too. And the focus was of course, on the Russians. A spoiler for S5/start of S6 that I wanted to make mention of. Rupert Friend's character suffers a stroke and it's one of the best performances I have seen. My dad suffered a massive stroke nearly 11 years ago now. Rupert Friend nailed the mannerisms, the little things I have seen my dad and other stroke patients do and say. A strong man becoming weak. It was so spot on that it made me quite sad. And then 

Spoiler

when he died in S6, I was relieved as it made me sad seeing him on screen. And I did shed a tear

Anyway, the last three seasons are strong, but not as good as the first five. Claire Danes and Mandy Pantinkin are so good playing two characters who are trying to save their country, while also being horrible and selfish people below the surface. Carrie Mathison as a character can be exhausting, but the show is always better when it goes back to her.

I was going to watch The Beast In Me next, but I was suffering Claire Danes fatigue and watched something starring her co star Matthew Rhys

The Americans (Disney Plus)

First watch. Perhaps a show that went under the radar due to it being out during a "Golden Age" of tv. I've not seen this show being talked about nowhere it should have been. Matthew Rhys and Keri Russell play two Russian spies posing as an American couple, The Jennings', with their two unaware kids, during the Cold War in the 1980s. Some great supporting cast with Noah Emmerich playing their new neighbour, who's an FBI agent. Margo Martindale as a KGB officer, reoccurring actors such as Julia Garner, Frank Langella, Richard Thomas. Plus evil looking Dylan Baker plays an evil looking Russian. Keri Russell steals the show as the ruthless Elizabeth Jennings. 

I smashed through this very quickly. A phenomenal piece of television. Even the slower, less action packed episodes have you hooked. The only negative is something similar with Homeland. Moody teenage daughter. Paige Jennings and her parents have the same two conversations multiple times. Once they get over that, she's not as bad. If you don't watch this, I'd say it's worth looking at some of the terrible wigs and disguises throughout the show. Matthew Rhys as a goth is a site to be seen.

The Beauty (Disney Plus)

Latest mad shit show from Ryan Murphy. Starring Evan Peters (obviously), Rebecca Hall, Anthony Ramos and Ashton Kutcher. A drug/STD called The Beauty turns people in to the most physically attractive person you can be. But with DEADLY consequences. I can see why Ryan Murphy adapted it from the comics, sex and gore galore. Its shite, but thoroughly entertaining shite that me and the wife got through over the course of two nights. We were hooked. Hopefully there is a second season. But nothing beyond that.

The Night Manager Season 2

I adore the first season and lost count on how many times I've watched it. Not a patch on the first, but I thoroughly enjoyed this and I'm glad they will be getting to the third season pretty quick (I had read they filmed them back to back but I don't think that's true). Tom Hiddleston is thrown back into the world of spying with a trip to Columbia, where he has mad sexual chemistry with the man he is targeting. I suppose with a severe lack of Elizabeth Debecki in this season, the handsome Colombian man is the next best thing. Plus 

Spoiler

Richard Roper being alive - great. Richard Roper killing three dogs - Made me more angry than all the other crimes he has committed. 

Beef Season 2

Another show which had a great first season and an equally great soundtrack. Season 2 was perfectly fine, but felt more like a season of The White Lotus. Cailee Spaeny was a joy. It was the most I’ve ever enjoyed Oscar Isaac. I loved that William Fichtner and Song Kang-ho were featured in it more than just cameos. I think having it as a shorter season was the right call. I don’t think they could’ve stretched it out with another two episodes. 

Edited April 30 by TheBurningRed

[SuperBacon]

I still maintain series 1 of Homeland is one of the best telly series ever, and the final episode one of the tensest I've ever been watching the box.

I never give up on things but yeah I tapped out on Homeland at some time around series 6. It was just too depressing but I did love the stuff set in Russia.

Agree with you on Rupert Friend, hes brilliant and Quinn is a great character.

Edit: sorry @TheBurningRed tagged the wrong person!

Edited April 30 by SuperBacon
Hounslow brother

[Dai]

I wrote a while back that I was half way through the new season of Hijack, and hoped it would get better. It didn't. Overcomplicated story, too many characters, all of which were shallow and bland as hell. After the very good first season, this was a big mis-step. 

Zero Stars is a bog standard travelogue show on HBO Max with Sara Pascoe and Roisin Conatay. Roisin continues her streak of being painfully unfunny on a TV show, which she must have had for 10-15 years now. The premise is that they do activities and stay at places which are badly reviewed. What do they do for the first scene in episode one? Stay at a five star hotel in Turkey. Why the producers thought that was a good thing to do to set out the show, I have no idea. Every episode they do some mildly interesting things, of which none are actually that bad, thus defeating the USP of the show.

 

The new season of St Denis Medical has been put onto iPlayer. Strongly recommend it, as its a really solid sitcom, with some great characters. 

Edited May 1 by Dai

[DavidB6937]

45 minutes ago, Dai said:

The new season of St Denis Medical has been put onto iPlayer. Strongly recommend it, as its a really solid sitcom, which some great characters. 

Thank you! Been waiting for this. Took a few episodes for me to really get into it but ended up being a really good well rounded show.

[Hannibal Scorch]

I think SNL UK is better then it’s US counterpart. For something that looked shit at the outset, it’s really come into its own.

Sorry for the X link, but it’s not uploaded on their YT. They had a few funny sketches this episode. But this one for the Pork Ad really made me laugh 

 

[Nexus]

I am really enjoying SNL UK. I think they have more hits than misses, and I think that Fouracres is the stand out star from it, although Paddy and Ania doing Weekend Update always elicits a good laugh. 

 

I do think the final ad break is always positioned weirdly, and it loses a bit of momentum. 

[Frankie Crisp]

We watched both available episodes of Widow’s Bay last night and it’s got so much going for it. It’s very dark but with some brilliantly written/delivered humour, plus some characters who could all go on to steal the show as more episodes are broadcast.

We also caught up on the most recent two episodes of Race Across the World and I won’t lie, the bit with Jo and Kush at the Dojo followed by their waiting job at the fancy ball had me welling up and smiling in equal measure. That Irish Dad is coming across as a tit.

[HarmonicGenerator]

1 hour ago, Nexus said:

I am really enjoying SNL UK. I think they have more hits than misses, and I think that Fouracres is the stand out star from it, although Paddy and Ania doing Weekend Update always elicits a good laugh. 

 

I do think the final ad break is always positioned weirdly, and it loses a bit of momentum. 

Agree with all these points. I’m really enjoying it - in addition to Fouracres, Ania and Paddy, I think Emma Sidi has been great, and Al Nash is always dependably funny when he appears. I thought this week was one of the weaker episodes (Riz Ahmed’s has been my favourite) but it still had three sketches that really made me laugh. Out of six episodes, there’s only been one that was properly hard going, and I blame Jack Whitehall entirely for that. He dragged everyone down to his level and it was rough stuff. 

Hannah Waddingham and Ncuti Gatwa should both be great to finish the run.

We were lucky enough to see Fouracres in ‘One Man Musical’ with Flo & Joan at the Fringe a couple of years ago. He was incredible in that and they’d surely do huge business if they brought it back now. Wish I’d had the chance to see him do Falstaff at the Globe.

[Dai]

6 hours ago, Frankie Crisp said:

We watched both available episodes of Widow’s Bay last night and it’s got so much going for it. It’s very dark but with some brilliantly written/delivered humour, plus some characters who could all go on to steal the show as more episodes are broadcast.

We also caught up on the most recent two episodes of Race Across the World and I won’t lie, the bit with Jo and Kush at the Dojo followed by their waiting job at the fancy ball had me welling up and smiling in equal measure. That Irish Dad is coming across as a tit.

Widows Bay seems to be getting a nice bit of traction as a must watch show. I enjoyed the first two episodes too. Nearly every character had a 'They were good in...' reaction, which shows the depth of the cast.

 

Race Across the World is such an easy watch. I assume the Irish Dad will have his redemption at some point, and realise he needs to trust his daughter. Speaking of, does anyone else find it a bit creepy how the daughter, who I think is mid 20s, still calls him 'Daddy'? 

A few episodes back, the producers released the brother and sister from the hotel at midnight. Very shady, and essentially a mini screw job to cost them a load of hours right off the bat. They never release people that late, so was definitely dodgy.

Big Mistakes on Netlfix is about the most Netflix style 30 minute comedy drama you can get. Brainless, lots of over the top acting, plenty of quips, and eccentric characters. Perfectly mindless TV that you forget instantly.

Edited May 4 by Dai

[SuperBacon]

22 minutes ago, Dai said:

Irish Dad will have his redemption at some point, and realise he needs to trust his daughter. Speaking of, does anyone else find it a bit creepy how the daughter, who I think is mid 20s, still calls him 'Daddy'? 

I may be wrong, and just going on extended family interactions, but I thought it was quite common for Irish to refer to their parents as Mammy and Daddy all throughout life?

Anyway lad, I want Kush lad and Joe lad to win lad. Lad.

[LaGoosh]

I also enjoyed Widows Bay. Perfect balance of humour and tension in the second episode. And the cast is great - hope we get a live action King of the Hill reunion and the always brilliant Stephen Root and Toby Huss share a scene.

[gmoney]

16 minutes ago, SuperBacon said:

I may be wrong, and just going on extended family interactions, but I thought it was quite common for Irish to refer to their parents as Mammy and Daddy all throughout life?

 

This is true, and especially common in Northern Ireland. 

[WyattSheepMask]

Considering how popular Baby Reindeer was, I’m surprised to have heard very little from anyone about Richard Gaad’s new project Half Man.

We’ve watched the first two episodes, the first of which was very uncomfortable viewing almost to the point that it was just trying too much to be the grimest thing possible. Not that it eve could be as we live in a world where A Serbian Film and Salò exist, but for mainstream BBC One this was heavy stuff. 
The second episode dailed the grimness back a bit but there was still a moment that get a proper reaction for its nastiness.

I’ll stick with it for now

[TheBurningRed]

21 minutes ago, WyattSheepMask said:

We’ve watched the first two episodes, the first of which was very uncomfortable viewing almost to the point that it was just trying too much to be the grimest thing possible.

Scottish Shane Meadows. The Virtues was the bleakest thing he made. This is Gadd’s Virtures so far. 

[HarmonicGenerator]

On 5/4/2026 at 4:11 PM, HarmonicGenerator said:

 We were lucky enough to see Fouracres in ‘One Man Musical’ with Flo & Joan at the Fringe a couple of years ago. He was incredible in that and they’d surely do huge business if they brought it back now.

Ask and ye shall receive. 
https://www.pleasance.co.uk/event/one-man-musical

Fouracres not confirmed (yet) but we’ve got tickets anyway just in case.

Edited May 7 by HarmonicGenerator