What other TV shows do you watch?

[T.o.b.y]

I just found this interview and wanted to share the link because I think it's really rare to find one where there's a real conversation going on and you actually learn something about actor and character :

 

Is anyone brave enough to watch The Handmaid's Tale, btw? I have kind of a morbid fascination with it but can't stand more than 5 min at a time. I have heard it described as "emotional horror" and I am not really much of a horror fan. 

[Pseudonym]

I don't really know anything about it other than it's popular. 

[T.o.b.y]

Popular? With whom I wonder? 

I already marvel at the fact that Game of Thrones is entertainment but this is a hard-core dystopia with more misery and suffering than I previously thought you could stuff into a single story. 

Terribly good acting unfortunately and I am always drawn to that. 

[Boton]

18 minutes ago, T.o.b.y said:

 

Is anyone brave enough to watch The Handmaid's Tale, btw? I have kind of a morbid fascination with it but can't stand more than 5 min at a time. I have heard it described as "emotional horror" and I am not really much of a horror fan. 

I haven't watched it, but we had to read the book as part of our freshman reading program in college, and I've read it a few times since then.  I understand the first season, at least, tracks pretty closely to the book.  I think whether it is "emotional horror" is down to whether or not you personally feel threatened by the possibility of an intensely-patriarchal society where women are given only highly delineated roles.  If it doesn't feel too personal to you, it is a good dystopian story with a couple of pretty major flaws in plausibility, which is typical for any utopian or dystopian fantasy.

 

[T.o.b.y]

2 minutes ago, Boton said:

I haven't watched it, but we had to read the book as part of our freshman reading program in college, and I've read it a few times since then.  I understand the first season, at least, tracks pretty closely to the book.  I think whether it is "emotional horror" is down to whether or not you personally feel threatened by the possibility of an intensely-patriarchal society where women are given only highly delineated roles.  If it doesn't feel too personal to you, it is a good dystopian story with a couple of pretty major flaws in plausibility, which is typical for any utopian or dystopian fantasy.

 

To me, it has very little to do with any concrete threat I mayor or may not be feeling on a political or sociological level. Unlike some people, I doubt that Gilead is very realistic. 

But the show hits really close to home emotionally in many, many ways. I think it prays on more general, deeper rooted fears - being torn from your family, for example or having to make impossible choices, being forced to sacrifice your own humanity. 

Maybe I find it even more scary because I am German. We had real live fascism here not so very long ago. Just the other day, I spoke to a woman who remembers those times first hand. I think that every German has wondered what they would have done back then - would we really have had the courage to resist at the risk note only of our own wellbeing but also that of our loved ones? 

And resistance is so perilous and, even worse, so futile on The Handmaid's Tale. At least in the book I understand you are free to imagine that June gets out in the end, on the show, they have slammed that door shut like what, 3 times already? 

[Boton]

2 minutes ago, T.o.b.y said:

To me, it has very little to do with any concrete threat I mayor or may not be feeling on a political or sociological level. Unlike some people, I doubt that Gilead is very realistic. 

But the show hits really close to home emotionally in many, many ways. I think it prays on more general, deeper rooted fears - being torn from your family, for example or having to make impossible choices, being forced to sacrifice your own humanity. 

Maybe I find it even more scary because I am German. We had real live fascism here not so very long ago. Just the other day, I spoke to a woman who remembers those times first hand. I think that every German has wondered what they would have done back then - would we really have had the courage to resist at the risk note only of our own wellbeing but also that of our loved ones? 

And resistance is so perilous and, even worse, so futile on The Handmaid's Tale. At least in the book I understand you are free to imagine that June gets out in the end, on the show, they have slammed that door shut like what, 3 times already? 

I agree that Gilead is not very realistic.  I haven't seen the show, as I said, but yes, in the book it is implied that Ofglen (she never gets her real name) escapes. The question is, where does she escape to? Clearly, in the book, she can't remember a darn thing about about her life pre-Gilead other than these flashes of her family and of different kinds of freedom.  I doubt the book Ofglen would have gotten more than a mile out of town before she blew her own cover.

But yes, the proximity of a fascist experience in history has to put an additional layer on things.  I personally don't think most of us would jump into the forefront of a resistance, mostly because it is difficult to tell when you are in the middle of it.  I think it was Hannah Arendt's Eichmann in Jerusalem that made clear to me how easy it is to make these little decisions that as long as your own family is relatively safe, there is always the overriding desire to keep flying under the radar. 

That's another problem I have with the book. The way it was portrayed, Gilead came on way too quickly.  An awful lot of men and women would have had to be not just flying under the radar but flat out complicit in order for the take-over to happen that quickly.

 

[Boton]

*Offred, not Ofglen. Clearly time for a reread.


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[Pseudonym]

11 hours ago, T.o.b.y said:

Popular? With whom I wonder? 

It's just one of those I keep hearing people rave about. I've already got a list of stuff to watch, so I won't be watching it any time soon! 

The things I find I watch the most are the things I can pay part attention to and still follow easily. I can put those on in the background in work to keep me entertained. I have a bit of trouble finding time with the things I need to sit down and watch properly. The Alienist and Patrick Melrose are the top of the 'sit down' list at the moment. 

Has anyone seen Keeping Faith? It's a BBC drama, has good reviews, I might give that a crack later and see if it's any good as background viewing. 

[Boton]

6 hours ago, Pseudonym said:

 

The things I find I watch the most are the things I can pay part attention to and still follow easily. I can put those on in the background in work to keep me entertained.

I do *a lot* of background viewing.  I'm doing a complete rewatch of Grey's Anatomy right now, and then I have two more medical dramas to catch up on.  I mostly watch medical shows these days.

[Pseudonym]

Shame this isn't one.

But then again... 

[Boton]

I would watch BC in any medical drama he cares to be in.  MF too.  In fact, all my favorite male actors ought to get together and make a medical drama.  We can call it "Hottie Hospital" or something.

[T.o.b.y]

3 hours ago, Boton said:

I would watch BC in any medical drama he cares to be in.  MF too.  In fact, all my favorite male actors ought to get together and make a medical drama.  We can call it "Hottie Hospital" or something.

That sounds like some dubious anime... 

[Boton]

Actually, I'd be OK with a dubious anime set in a hospital too.  

[Pseudonym]

Lol, it does! It made me think of Supernatural, where there is a TV show Dean loves called 'Dr Sexy MD.' His reaction to meeting Dr Sexy is brilliant.  It's at the 2.20 mark. 

 

[J.P.]

I would watch BC doing dishes. If he sings doing this I would watch it TWICE.

[Arcadia]

Supernatural. Now there's a show I thought I could get into, but … circumstances … kept me from watching it, and then it went on forever (is it still on?) and catching up became too daunting a task … agh. No wonder I've started watching "talent" shows.

[Pseudonym]

I absolutely loved the first two seasons. Three and four are okay, then it all got a bit too silly for my liking, the tone changed, the music grated too much to watch it and so I gave up. Yup, it's still on. The creator had a vision of a set story arc, so you can pretty much watch up to four for the main story and resolution, don't much know what they did after that. It was definitely better in the beginning when they had less of a budget and so the monsters were half in shadows, made things much creepier. Even though there is an over reaching story arc most of the episodes are 'monster of the week' so it's not like it needs to be followed that closely. Give ep 1 a watch and see what you think... the first few minutes is a prologue that sets the tone of the show and the backstory. Episode 2 with the wendigo is pretty creepy. 

Ah, here's the prologue, I knew it'd be about somewhere.

 

 

[Pseudonym]

I just started watching The Alienist. I've had to turn the subtitles on, I can't understand a word any of them are saying. 

[Carol the Dabbler]

American accents?

[Pseudonym]

I honestly have no idea what the hell it is. It's set in New York, but they are more like garbled Irish accents. I thought maybe Bostonian, but I can understand that fine. I can also understand Irish fine. In the opening scene a kid says something that despite repeated listenings is utter gibberish without subs. I tried to find a clip of the kid but nothing coming up. 

[Pseudonym]

I can understand the adults now I've 'tuned' my ears in. I think it is meant to be Irish. Just badly done. 

[Carol the Dabbler]

Maybe it's an Irish-American accent?  That's surely become a bit different from the original.  Or, as you say, perhaps just badly done.

[Pseudonym]

Most of the people have the same sort of weird accent. If it was one person I could understand but it seems to have been a choice for them all to do it.

[Arcadia]

I just watched a few minutes of that (much to my shock, you can see the whole thing for free on TNT's website) and except for the police captain, I didn't have trouble understanding anyone. I did notice a trace of Irish here and there. My biggest problem was they all spoke in hushed tones, had to turn the volume way up to make out what they were saying. But once I did, they were pretty clear.

I may try to watch that, it looks good, if a bit dark and grim. Thanks for reminding me about it, Pseud.

[Pseudonym]

I'm okay now I've 'tuned my ear' in. Did you understand what the kid said right on the beginning the 'why was he wearing a dress?' because i couldn't make head or tails of that.