Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

If you can’t control your emotions, someone else will.

We need to vote them all out and restore sane Democratic government.

Jack Smith: “Why did you start campaigning in the middle of my investigation?!”

My years-long effort to drive family and friends away has really paid off this year.

I’d like to think you all would remain faithful to me if i ever tried to have some of you killed.

Russian mouthpiece, go fuck yourself.

The republican caucus is covering themselves with something, and it is not glory.

Oh FFS you might as well trust a 6-year-old with a flamethrower.

Republicans don’t want a speaker to lead them; they want a hostage.

Motto for the House: Flip 5 and lose none.

There are consequences to being an arrogant, sullen prick.

if you can’t see it, then you are useless in the fight to stop it.

“The defense has a certain level of trust in defendant that the government does not.”

… riddled with inexplicable and elementary errors of law and fact

Giving in to doom is how authoritarians win.

Tide comes in. Tide goes out. You can’t explain that.

You don’t get to peddle hatred on saturday and offer condolences on sunday.

President Musk and Trump are both poorly raised, coddled 8 year old boys.

American history and black history cannot be separated.

They think we are photo bombing their nice little lives.

Give the craziest people you know everything they want and hope they don’t ask for more? Great plan.

The willow is too close to the house.

The most dangerous place for a black man in America is in a white man’s imagination.

A sufficient plurality of insane, greedy people can tank any democratic system ever devised, apparently.

You are here: Home / Medium Cool / Medium Cool – Something Old, Something New

Medium Cool – Something Old, Something New

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Medium Cool is a weekly series related to popular culture, mostly film, TV, and books, with some music and games thrown in.  We hope it’s a welcome break from the anger, hate, and idiocy we see almost daily from the other side in the political sphere.

Arguments welcomed, opinions respected, fools un-suffered.  We’re here every Sunday at 7 pm.

Last week I said we would talk about the worst series finales this week, but I wonder if you all got that out of your system last week when we talked about the best ones?

I am in desperate need of a new “treadmill” show.  Last week I finished Night Agent, which I thought was really engaging and it kept my interest on the treadmill, so that was awesome.  Except for the last 15 minutes!  Did the original writer/director/producer  disappear with all but the ending done?  Seriously it was like they tacked a cheap, lame ending onto a good show.  What were they thinking???

Any then I tried the Spenser and Hawk origin story and on my gosh that was a terrible show.  I stuck with it – at least there was action and I had nothing to replace it with.  I finished that, glad that it was over, marked it “NOT FOR ME” and moved on.

I liked Hawk and this guy, though.

Medium Cool –  1

I am watching Treason now on Netflix and it seems pretty good but it’s only 5 episodes and I am already into episode 2.  I’m trying to do the treadmill 50 minutes a day, so I run through shows pretty quickly.

Is the new season of jack Ryan out?  Is it the last one?  What else is good that’s new?  For awhile Netflix showed some interesting looking things on the landing page, but of course I was into the show I was watching and didn’t take note of any of them or add them to my list.

So, calling all good shows!

 

Reader Interactions

162Comments

  1. 1.

    patrick II

    A new season of Lincoln Lawyer is on Netflix.

    Yes, the new season of Jack Ryan is out and it is the last one.

    A new season of “Justified” will be on Hulu later this month.  I think Raylen moves to Detroit.

    I liked “Silo” on Apple TV.  It is not a happy show, but interesting, interesting characters and good writing, and the lead actress, Rebecca Ferguson, gives a great peformance.

  2. 2.

    dmsilev

    What else is good that’s new?

    I really enjoyed the one season (so far) of Silo (Apple TV+). It’s SciFi dystopia, so not exactly happy cheery fun, but very well done.

  3. 3.

    Wayne

    Resident Alien.  Science fiction but based here on earth and not over done. My wife does not like science fiction but this she likes.

  4. 4.

    Craig

    The Bear season 2. I’m not even done with it yet, but it’s good. Some really great acting. Some lovable characters in it’s Dr. Jekyll mode. It’s Mr. Hyde mode is like if Ben Hecht and Samuel Beckett met up in the middle of a Sam Raimi horrorscape.

  5. 5.

    Jess

    I’ve just discovered Pennyworth on Max, and am loving it. If you like shows like Justified or Person of Interest, I recommend it. The main character really sells the competence porn aspect of it, but it’s pretty brutal at times.

  6. 6.

    WaterGirl

    @patrick II: The new Lincoln Lawyer is out????  I thought they were just pushing the old season.  Yippee!

    Yay on the new Jack Ryan.

    Justified with the original cast?  I don’t do Hulu, but I would watch that in a heartbeat.

    What is Silo about?

    edit: question about Silo was answered in comment #2!

  8. 8.

    Jess

    It’s SciFi dystopia, so not exactly happy cheery fun, but very well done.

    Maybe too close to reality these days… (except for the well done part)

  10. 10.

    SFBayAreaGal

    The TV series Spenser for Hire wasn’t bad. My favorite character in the show was Hawk. If you want to see a great Hawk, Avery Brooks was the man.

  11. 11.

    tomtofa

    Station 11 on HBO from a year or two ago. The actresses who play the main character as a girl and young woman are both excellent; the story complex but satisfying (IMO).

    I guess technically SF, since it takes place in the near future, but much more about the characters.

  12. 12.

    David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch

    Baseball – there’s an original episode everyday

  14. 14.

    billcinsd

    @WaterGirl: It’s about a guy who is a chef who returns home to run the family sandwich shop when his brother commits suicide. There was a post today about it at LGM

  16. 16.

    Martin

    Another vote for Silo. Well executed. Looking forward to season 2 which is shooting now. I haven’t read the books, but I’m curious. The story feels very inspired by the Fallout universe at least at start.

  17. 17.

    UncleEbeneezer

    The Bear (Season 2) just dropped a couple weeks ago on Hulu.  First episode was meh, second was better, but I hear it gets really amazing by the end (as was the case with Season 1).  This is the show I’m seeing the most hype for right now.

    Not “new” but the K-drama, The Glory released its’ second half of episodes on Netflix a ways back and we just finally finished it.  It finished off better than I expected.  It’s the story of a woman getting revenge on her brutal high school bullies and solving a related murder mystery.  I’d give it a 7/10.  Definitely good enough to watch but not as great as Mr. Sunshine or Crash Landing Onto You (my two gold-standards for K-dramas).

    Black Mirror (Season 6) just dropped and three episodes in it is pretty awesome.  There’s an episode about a true crime documentary filming that gets CRAZY!

  18. 18.

    jackmac

    @SFBayAreaGal:  Avery Brooks was also terrific as Captain Benjamin Sisko in Star Trek Deep Space Nine.  I always wished he could be talked into returning for a cameo in a new Trek series. But he appears to be semi-retired these days.

  23. 23.

    patrick II

    Whatever you do, do not watch “The Idol” about Hollywood excess in the music industry on MAX (formerly HBO — why?)

    Anyhow, it had the worst series finale ever, preceded by the worst four episodes ever.  It was cut short because it was so bad.  I watched bits of it because I am a fan of one of the actors — but it is hard to believe anything that bad was actually produced and shown on a premium channel.

  24. 24.

    UncleEbeneezer

    @WaterGirl:  It’s really excellent (though very LOUD) and the episodes are fairly short but always have a twist where you realize you had probably been all wrong about a character.  It’s ultimately about grieving, family, loss and community.  It will definitely get you in your feels when you least expect it.  The soundtrack is superb too!

  29. 29.

    David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch

    @WaterGirl: ​
      someone once said, “if the Super Bowl is so super why do they have one each year”

  30. 30.

    UncleEbeneezer

    I will reiterate my recommendation for Beef on Netflix.  Best, funniest, most thought-provoking and moving series I’ve seen in a long time.

  33. 33.

    kindness

    Who likes Odd?  The new season of Miracle Workers starts next week.  It’s certainly odd but I’m entertained.  TBS.

  35. 35.

    Mousebumples

    We’re in the middle of Kitchen Confidential – a 1 season cooking show based on an Anthony Bourdain book, starring Bradley Cooper, among others. Mr. Mouse found the episodes in DailyMotion.

    Very different vibes from The Bear (*also recommend!) since it’s more of a sex romp comedy style, but it’s fun (though short).

  36. 36.

    zhena gogolia

    After watching the excellent last episode of Endeavour (at least the last 10-15 minutes or so were excellent), I realized that I had unforgivably failed to mention the superb last episode of Inspector Morse, “The Remorseful Day,” last week.

  37. 37.

    Czar Chasm

    Kinda fits here:  There is a YouTube playlist that has almost every episode of 8 Out of 10  Cats Do Countdown in chronological order.

     

    https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL3flb078XY68Ebti_O14dnHHccSMK_EPW&feature=sharea

     

    This is a mashup of two popular shows.  8 Out of 10 Cats is a comedy discussion show, and Countdown involves a Boggle-esque challenge that alternates between word scrambles and math equations.  It’s actually really brilliant, especially when all the guests are British comedians

  39. 39.

    bbleh

    Pretty sure Night Agent is being renewed.  And Upload S3 is coming.

    Kinda enjoyed watching James Spader in Blacklist.  It’s awfully formulaic, but the bad guys get to be really baaaad, and he always had a very believable sociopathic schtick.

  41. 41.

    Tim in SF

    The Good Place. It’s about philosophy and you can do two episodes in a treadmill session. 53 episodes so that’s 26 treadmill sessions.

  42. 42.

    Mousebumples

    @bbleh: I liked the first 2 seasons of Upload. (Prime) Similar to Good Place in some themes, but a different premise. Yay for upcoming season 3!

  44. 44.

    p.a.

    Nothing to recommend but want to say thanks to the people who said to stick with The Expanse through its first, “meh… WTF?” season; really took off season two etc…

  46. 46.

    MomSense

    Watergirl, I highly recommend Seaside Hotel streaming  on PBS.  It is one of the best series I’ve watched.

  47. 47.

    NotMax

    Know going in you eschew subtitles on the treadmill so shall omit those (although some of the below may include short scenes only with them). Repetition if currently streaming on more than one service. All are series unless otherwise noted.

    Prime/Freevee: Hustle, The City and the City, Murdoch Mysteries (7 seasons), River, The Crown Prince, Movies: Gunless, Ghost Town, Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris.

    Netflix: The New Legends of Monkey, Travelers.

    Hulu: New Tricks, Murdoch Mysteries (12 seasons),

    Filmrise: Charlie Jade, The Code, Criminal Justice.

    Roku channel: London Spy.

  49. 49.

    Layer8Problem

    @UncleEbeneezer:  We are about to finish the last episode of Crash Landing on You tonight.  It has been an excellent ride and I will actually miss the characters when it’s over.  I was surprised as hell how much I liked it.  It’s got the touches of soap opera, the way good-looking people, the choreographed action-adventure fights, the damsel in distress, the square-jawed male lead, etc., etc., but dammit it works!

  50. 50.

    dmsilev

    @WaterGirl:

    What is Silo about?

    To give a bit more detail beyond ‘dystopian’, remember the mine shafts featured towards the end of Dr. Strangelove? Long duration deep bunkers to sustain generations after an apocalypse? Silo is that bunker, hundreds of years after the apocalypse. The current inhabitants don’t know anything about what happened to the world outside, only that it’s deadly. They have a camera feeding video of the immediate outside of the silo, and pretty much the ultimate punishment is to be ‘sent out to clean’, to wipe off the outside of the camera and pretty much immediately afterwards die from the hostile environment.

    That’s the setup in which the story unfolds. I won’t spoil details of the actual story.

  51. 51.

    Central Planning

    I just started Suits on Netflix. It’s about a genius lawyer yoot that passed the bar without going to lawschool and works at a firm that only hires Harvard grads. It’s… a popcorn kinda show that I can watch while exercising.

    We are watching Hijack which had Idris Elba. Seems like 24 but on a plane. That’s on AppleTV

    I also just finished Deadloch, a murder mystery set in New Zealand. That’s on Prime.

    My daughter says The 100 on Netflix is horrible so I might watch that

    Thanks for the heads up on Lincoln Lawyer!

  54. 54.

    Litlebritdifrnt

    @Czar Chasm: I love both 8 out of ten cats and the countdown edition. My love is based on Jon Richardson who is a comedian from my home town (Lancaster) he went to the local grammar school and is quite honestly a mathmatical genius, he often solves the maths problems in his head without ever having to write it down, it is just wonderful to watch.

  55. 55.

    raven

    I’ve recommended Happy Valley over and over and no one ever said boo. Sarah Lancashire is incredible in it as she is in Last Tango in Halifax and Julia (Child).

  56. 56.

    Brachiator

    @SFBayAreaGal:

    Loving Star Trek: Strange New Worlds.

    Am also enjoying this show. I took to the new crew of the Enterprise immediately. A strong cast. I think that episodes from the first season may be available for free on YouTube.

    My only reservation is that sometimes the series plays it safe by winking and nodding to the fans and playing to nostalgia. But the best episodes are just good science fiction.

    I haven’t watched much else. Some recurring medical issues leave me tired at the end of the day. Also, even some popular shows that I dip into seem bland and unoriginal. The plots are predictable or seem too much like stuff I have seen before.

  59. 59.

    gwangung

    Hmmm….for sheer WTF, there’s Doom Patrol, which I appreciate as a Grant Morrison-derived weirdness.

    Pennysworth is a Batman “prequel”, but, really, it doesn’t have much to do with Batman.

    Strange New Worlds is about as close as you can get to the original series in the 21st Century (though they are criminally underusing Rebecca Romijin).

  60. 60.

    Layer8Problem

    Reservation Dogs is starting again in the beginning of August on FX on Hulu.  Funny as hell and strongly recommended.

    A bleg on my part:  does anyone, anyone, anyone know anything about the fourth season of Babylon Berlin?  It’s complete, has been out in Germany since last year, and I can find nothing about when it will show up on Netflix.

  61. 61.

    Steeplejack

    @WaterGirl:

    Have you seen The Night Manager (2016) with Tom Hiddleston? Taken from a John le Carré novel. Seven episodes on Prime.

  62. 62.

    NotMax

    @raven

    Agreed with you multiple times in the past, although it must be noted as relentlessly grim. Latest (belated) season, though, I found to be a balancing act that on the whole didn’t pan out.

  63. 63.

    raven

    @NotMax: Of course it’s grim, it’s real life. We had to go back and watch if from the start because my wife couldn’t remember it after the six year break. We have three to go but nothing will shake my admiration for Lancashire.

  65. 65.

    Litlebritdifrnt

    I absolutely adored “The X files” but Chris Carter should have wound it down after David Duchovny left. I tried to like it after that but his replacement just couldn’t cut it despite Gillian Anderson giving it her best. As for the new stuff there are some brilliant crime shows on British tv that I think you all will like. “Happy Valley” is, to be honest, the most brilliant story about a bog standard british cop in a yorkshire town that you will ever see, Sarah Lancashire plays the lead and is absolutely outstanding.  “The Responder” is another,  Martin Freeman (you will know him from lots of other stuff) is again outstanding.  “Silent Witness” has been going for years but is a brilliant portrayal of pathologists, if you have the time and the streaming ability go back to series one, they are currently on series 26.  Finally I have mentioned it before but “The Bay” is set in my home town, standard cop show but brilliantly done and the cinematography shows you the beauty of my area and why I love living here. (They are currently filming the newest series which means there is nowhere to park when I want to go to the market but oh well!)

  68. 68.

    Old School

    Thanks to everyone who has recommended Somebody Somewhere on MAX (HBO) in the past.

    We just finished it and quite enjoyed it, so I’ll name it in this thread.

  70. 70.

    MomSense

    I’m waiting impatiently for the third season of Slow Horses.  Brilliant acting and story.

  72. 72.

    lee

    Another vote for The Good Place. Not only is it a great show, I think is has one of the best series finales ever made.

  73. 73.

    citizen dave

    @UncleEbeneezer: I will second the upvote for Beef on netflix.  Excellent series,  well executed.  I think it’s the last series I’ve watched.  Can’t recommend Max series Southside enough if you want to laugh along with things to think about.

  74. 74.

    Brachiator

    @Czar Chasm:

    There is a YouTube playlist that has almost every episode of 8 Out of 10  Cats Do Countdown.

    Agree that this show is great fun, witty and hilarious. Jon Richardson, Lee Mack and the late Sean Lock, among other guests and regulars, are wonderful comedians. Mack in particular is quick witted.

  75. 75.

    schrodingers_cat

    @raven: They are laying on the micro aggressions part pretty thick. I am waiting for the murder mystery part to take off. I like British shows in general and Nagra in particular. I also like Bamber. So I think I will stick with it

    I do find her isolation believable though. At home nowhere and everywhere.

  76. 76.

    NotMax

    @raven

    Please note I said relentlessly grim. I stand by my theory of an ironclad rule on the set that anyone caught smiling forfeits a day’s salary each time. First two seasons were superb nonetheless.

  78. 78.

    zhena gogolia

    @raven: I would love to watch it, as I adore Lancashire and James Norton, but it’s too violent for me!

  81. 81.

    Eric K

    Lots of good ones already mentioned, one I haven’t seen anyone bring up is deadloch on Amazon

  83. 83.

    Brachiator

    @gwangung:

    Strange New Worlds is about as close as you can get to the original series in the 21st Century (though they are criminally underusing Rebecca Romijin).

    This IS a puzzlement. I expected to see more of her character after the court martial episode, but strangely this did not happen.

  87. 87.

    Craig

    @WaterGirl: this probably got answered already, but it’s a contraction of the name of the family Betzatto. They call each other Bear.

  88. 88.

    NotMax

    I know it won’t float WG’s boat but allow me again to put in a plug for Patriot on Prime. Wild, wild ride. A case where the second season manages to climb higher than the first (which is itself no slouch).

  89. 89.

    Ninedragonspot

    My husband and I quite enjoyed Deadloch (Prime) and Holding (Acorn).

    I’d also give a shout-out to Wave Makers on Netflix, if only because it single-handedly seems to have launched the Me Too movement in Taiwan.

  90. 90.

    geg6

    I don’t generally fit in with the aesthetic of most of the Jackals tv viewing.  I do love Trek but refuse to sign up for Paramount.  But most of what others watch here doesn’t speak to me at all.  I mostly watch documentaries with true crime, pop culture (sometimes both in one!) and history being my favorites.  In that vein, I highly recommend the Duggar doc in Prime, Shiny, Happy People.  Extremely well done.  The whole thing is fascinating in a car wreck kind of way and my empathy for the daughter that got away is off the charts.

    ETA:  I am looking forward the Wham doc on Netflix.  I loved George Michael.  He was a terrific singer and and great pop songwriter.

  92. 92.

    NotMax

    @Craig

    Totally unrelated but thoroughly enjoying Homicide Hills on MHz Choice. Season 3 just arrived this month. Mentioned only because there’s a married couple (regular cast members) who have nicknames for each other which they use both in private and in public. She calls him Bear, he calls her Coochie.
    ;)

  95. 95.

    Craig

    I’ve been watching 100 Foot Wave on HBO. Not really a treadmill show. It follows a crew of big wave surfers who figure out a way to surf a monster wave on the coast of Portugal. It’s a cool look into the minds of crazy driven people who have a dream that may kill them at any time and they draw peace and community from it. It’s gorgeously shot and edited, and as pro surfers there is so much footage. There’s a nice note about the symbiotic relationship of surfers and surf photographers. Never been a surfer, but I found it interesting.

  97. 97.

    JoyceH

    Agree with The Good Place and Upload. Another couple good shows, and these are complete, are Imposters and Dead To Me.

  98. 98.

    JCNZ

    “Le Bureau,” a French spy series about France’s sort of CIA, the DGSE, is very good. And there are five series so far. Not sure where you’d access it in the US – I use expressVPN.

    Google ‘the Rainbow Warrior’ to see the sort of things its agents do in real life…

  102. 102.

    Yutsano

    @geg6: I do love Trek but refuse to sign up for Paramount.

    They’ve been releasing the episodes on YouTube! I discovered this the other day. The Paramount YouTube channel has them.

  106. 106.

    gwangung

    @Brachiator: She was no worse than competent there (though her acting persona doesn’t really match Majel Barrett’s Number One from the 60s), so I expected to see lots more of her in action, doing smart things.

  109. 109.

    eclare

    @WaterGirl:

    Steve Martin, Martin Short, and Selena Gomez are tenants obsessed with true crime podcasts who live in a bldg in NYC.  When someone in the bldg is found dead, they start to investigate.

    Two seasons so far.  Not very violent, good scripts, wonderfully acted, light comedy-ish.  Each ep is around thirty minutes.  On Hulu.

  110. 110.

    zhena gogolia

    @WaterGirl: No, it’s a police drama with a serial killer played by James Norton, who used to be the vicar on Grantchester.

  111. 111.

    SFBayAreaGal

    One of the TV stations is showing the first two episodes of the Sarah Connor Chronicles. I forgot how good the series was.

  113. 113.

    Amir Khalid

    @Litlebritdifrnt:

    I wonder what seasons 8 and 9 would have been, had Duchovny stayed with the show. It would have been interesting to see Mulder and Scully raising an infant son together while working X-Files cases.

    You’d have hated the season 11 ending, I think. In the show’s very last scene, Scully disowns William — the son she and Mulder had loved and for 16 years sorely missed — for no sensible reason at all. Then she tells Mulder she is pregnant again — at the age of 54. (I don’t doubt that a woman of 54 can have a successful pregnancy. I do doubt that Scully would make that life choice, given how old they’d be when the kid finished high school, let alone university.)

  114. 114.

    HumboldtBlue

    @Czar Chasm:

    I’m a voracious consumer of 8 out of 10 cats, along with Would I Lie To You and the Big fat Quiz.

    And the US v Canada is headed to penalties after two extra time goals, one for each team.

  115. 115.

    Brachiator

    @Amir Khalid:

    I wonder what seasons 8 and 9 would have been, had Duchovny stayed with the show. It would have been interesting to see Mulder and Scully raising an infant son together while working X-Files cases.

    In general, the worst things that a TV series can do is to have the leads get married, especially when stories have used romantic tension as an undercurrent to the narrative. The next worse thing is to have the characters have kids.

  116. 116.

    Layer8Problem

    @JCNZ:  We really liked The Bureau here.  We watched it on Amazon Prime but had to purchase AMC+ on Amazon as well; I think Sundance Now is supposed to work as well.  Funny bit in a rarely funny show:  some of the character’s code names are from Captain Haddock’s attempts at cursing in The Adventures of Tintin.

  121. 121.

    Eric K

    @JCNZ: The Bureau is excellent, it’s on Sundance in the US, which you can get as part of AMC+ on Amazon Prime

  122. 122.

    pieceofpeace

    @UncleEbeneezer: Yes!  This is much more than it appears to be, although there must be groups dissecting it and coming up with different interpretations.   Haven’t looked for them.  I might have to watch it again.  The initial, classic scenario that sets up the show’s “issue” could not be better and the last several episodes were surprising.

    If you like looking into your own psyche and attitudes, this is a show to watch.  Observe and move past the minor script action distractions and, at times, the unrealistic parts.

    Take notes if that helps….think on them later.

  124. 124.

    Amir Khalid

    @Brachiator:

    The X-Files was different, though: the Mulder-Scully relationship and its evolution over 25 years was the real core of the show, in a way that even Chris Carter didn’t realise at first. It wasn’t a gratuitous add-on like corresponding relationships in contemporary shows like Bones and JAG that tried, a little too obviously, to copy the Mulder-Scully dynamic.

  127. 127.

    Brachiator

    @Amir Khalid:

    The X-Files was different, though: the Mulder-Scully relationship and its evolution over 25 years was the real core of the show, in a way that even Chris Carter didn’t realise at first.

    Okay. This makes sense. And I agree that sometimes even a show’s creators don’t see some of the possible dynamics between characters.

    That said, the romantic relationship didn’t work for me.

    ETA. This series and Babylon 5 were two shows that I talked to people about on Compuserve forums. You could sometimes tell whether a commenter was from the US, Canada or Hong Kong by their writing style and word choices. It was a very fun discussion board.

  128. 128.

    The Lodger

    @WaterGirl: If you liked Broadchurch, you’d probably like Happy Valley. Not having seen James Norton in anything else, I can’t imagine him as a good guy.

  129. 129.

    LarryB

    Netflix. Berlin Babylon…if you can do foreign language captions. Weimar Berlin in 1928, murders, Nazis, Cabaret clubs with no holds barred, beginning of the Depression, the Homicide squad, and did I say the rise of fascism?  Fascinating and educational…in a scary way

  130. 130.

    RaflW

    @tomtofa: Station 11 kind of haunted me afterwards (well, during, too). Very well done. I can recomed it, but it’s not (imo) for the faint of heart, since it’s pretty apocalyptic. My friend who suggested it, and rewatched the whole series with me since i don’t have whichever service has it, found it more ‘optimistic’ than I did.

    It really is about the characters & their development.

  131. 131.

    Mel

    @WaterGirl: I second The Sarah Connor Chronicles” and “Resident Alien”. Both are good sci-fi, but good in very different ways.

    We really enjoyed Surreal Estate (on SyFy), and also Killjoys. Killjoys is a space sci-fi with a lot of humor but a bit of pathos as well. It’s a good series to binge watch.

  132. 132.

    hitchhiker

    Deadloch is my current favorite for writing, originality, and humor, and The Bear for all that plus intensity & characters with smarts.

    I keep seeing The Good Place recommended, especially the last episode. I tried a couple of times to get into it but failed … maybe I’ll just watch the last episode!

    I watched an HBO film about the Hill/Thomas hearings today. It’s called Confirmation, produced in 2016, with good actors. Well done, but of course enraging in 2023.

  133. 133.

    ColoradoGuy

    @LarryB: Berlin Babylon is also very stylish, with the visual esthetic of the time. We, the audience, know what utter horrors are coming, but the characters don’t, but their apprehension can be felt. The ultra-wealthy are foolishly confident they can manage the chaos, but it increases, bit by bit, and everyone is trying to survive as best they can.

    The show is superb at capturing the feeling of monsters, real monsters, just below the surface, in a society on the verge of chaos.

  135. 135.

    Chetan Murthy

    @hitchhiker: like many here, I cannot recommend The Good Place enough.  It’s just a really great comedy, and yet it manages to never actually kick anyone.  All of its gags are kind.  The other thing that really got me about it was that it’s the first comedy I’ve ever seen That actually discusses moral philosophy and does it something approaching justice.  I mean for that alone it’s worth watching!  During the pandemic I watched it at least twice, because it was such comfort food.

    Obviously YMMV, but seriously it’s just a great series.

  136. 136.

    eclare

    @hitchhiker:

    To me The Good Place is not a show to binge, if you normally binge shows.  I would watch a couple of episodes a day, rather than try to get through an entire season in one day.  Maybe that would help.

    If you do want to watch the series ending because of what you have heard, watch the second to last episode too for the set-up.

  137. 137.

    Laura

    We loved “Happy valley” with Sarah Lancashire on acorn accessed through Amazon prime.
    One of the best shows we’ve seen in years. Three seasons of it, too!  Hilarious, moving, and deeply engrossing, excellent writing and excellent character development. Cheers

  140. 140.

    VeniceRiley

    The final episode of Happy Valley was a masterpiece.

    2nd season of Foundation starts July 14 on APPLETV.

    Also Apple: Loved the newest season of For all Mankind.

    Disney Plus has a remarkable amount of content as well. Both series and movies. Prey, in the predator series, is the best prequel movie ever.

  141. 141.

    patrick II

    @VeniceRiley:

    I agree with you about “Prey” being a great film.  An alien predator has the misfortune to meet a young Native American girl in the 17th century with exceptional close combat skills.

    It is, however, on Hulu, not Disney.  Easy to get them confused since they often come as a pair.

  142. 142.

    Spode

    I second the vote for The Night Manager.  Few episodes, but awesome writing and acting.  Great show.

    Also

    • Slow Horses
    • From
    • The Mysterious Benedict Society
    • The Night Agent (different from the night manager above)
    • Wednesday
    • Andor
    • Moon Knight

    Other of some interest

    • Secret Invasion (we’ll see where it goes in this, it’s first season)
    • Sweet Tooth
    • Mrs Davis
    • The Nevers
    • Shrinking
    • Poker Face
    • Gentleman Jack (meh for me but some friends love it)
    • 1899
    • Russian Doll (season 1 – season 2 is much less engaging)
    • Heartstopper (juvenile but okay)
    • Love, Death and Robots (3 seasons, but episodes may be too short for treadmill)

    Have fun!

  148. 148.

    Low Key Swagger

    Likely a dead thread, but OMG the new Jack Ryan is just awful.  LOVED the first season, enjoyed the second, tolerated the third but I hate the 4th.  Rather they would have stopped after the first two.  I like all the actors, but I guess budget cuts sank this series.

  150. 150.

    UncleEbeneezer

    @Layer8Problem: What I loved so much about CLOY is the way the characters manage to be very silly at times and yet it totally works and is very funny.  K-drama comedy sometimes just doesn’t hit for us.  With the zany sound effects and over-the-top acting, many of the jokes fall flat or even turn us off, but Crash Landing did comedy just perfectly.  So many ridiculous, funny moments and we really loved the way the main characters used dead-pan approaches so much of the time.  I think it is definitely one of the funniest K-dramas we have ever watched.  Such a great series!

  151. 151.

    UncleEbeneezer

    @hitchhiker: I couldn’t get into The Good Place either.  A bit too sweet/precious for my taste.  Too wholesome.  It’s the same thing that makes it hard for me to love Ted Lasso.  I only stick with TL because I love when it goes dark and serious.

  152. 152.

    Layer8Problem

    @UncleEbeneezer:  K-drama’s been completely off my radar up to now, to my loss.  I’m considering Memories of the Alhambra, another Hyun Bin series, the Alhambra being a place I’ve been fascinated with since I was young.

  153. 153.

    UncleEbeneezer

    @pieceofpeace: As one of my favorite podcasters noted, so much of the anger and aggressiveness you see online is really just the result of people who are sad, lonely, hurt and have no idea how to cope so they get sucked into the addiction of perpetual and continually escalating rage.  Social Media encourages it and gives them a nice serotonin hit for doing so, creating a vicious cycle that is really bad for their mental health.  It’s a truly brilliant series and both Wong and Yeun absolutely killed it in their amazing performances.

  154. 154.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Brachiator: I think Paramount yanked the free Season 1 of Strange New Worlds from YouTube–it was a limited-time promotional deal to persuade people to sign up for P+. They had the S2 premiere up for free for a short time too, but now it seems like it’s all behind the paywall.

    I like Star Trek:SNW a lot but I’m not convinced it’s worth signing up for Paramount+ again, on its own. It’s cool having all of Star Trek there on tap (well, not all of Star Trek, just most of it–they’re being assholes about that too), I’m mildly curious about the later seasons of Discovery and Picard, and Lower Decks seems to have a rabid fan base… but I have other things in my life.

  155. 155.

    Matt McIrvin

    The crazy thing about The Good Place is that I think the ONLY episode I haven’t seen is the series finale! We were watching it regularly through the end of the last season, but at some point my daughter decided the show’s increasingly philosophical bent was annoying her and no longer wanted to watch it. (And for a while, we cycled back to the beginning of season 1 instead of watching the last episode.) I think my wife watched the last episode at some point but I missed it. Should get around to it sometime.

  156. 156.

    Matt McIrvin

    …We love Mrs. Davis, I think it’s a show tailor-made to entertain my family, but I think we heard somewhere that it’s already been cancelled, so its accumulation of increasingly bizarre and surrealistic plot threads may just be left hanging or else resolved in some excessively pat finale.

    My wife and I have been plowing through the seasons of For All Mankind, which as a space-history geek going way back is again something tailor-made to tickle me, though I do find a lot of it is the drama doing a great job of getting me to empathize with the struggles of a lot of characters I would really not want to hang with in real life. The leveraging of real history and unrealized proposals to tell its story of an alternate timeline (not necessarily a better timeline) in which the US went much harder on human spaceflight is extremely clever, though I also know just enough that I can tell when they’re seriously fudging the plausibility of the tech, which they do.

    I really want to see more of Poker Face (which has nice self-contained stories, no real risk of being left in the lurch by baroque serialization) but the people I was watching it with always seem to want to watch something else instead.

  157. 157.

    JustRuss

    Try The Diplomat, on Prime, or maybe Netflix, not sure.  I’ve never thought of Rufus Sewell as a chewer of scenery, but OMG is he having a good time.

  158. 158.

    Matt McIrvin

    (Hmm, slightly spoiling myself for Mrs. Davis by reading plot synopses, it does sound like there’s an ending of sorts with episode 8, though I can’t imagine all of this will end up making perfect sense. The show kind of reminds me of the closest extant thing to a TV adaptation of a John Sladek novel.)

  159. 159.

    Bonnie McDaniel

    I also really liked Silo. Another good series on Apple Plus is The Crowded Room with Tom Holland, although it tackles some pretty heavy subject matter. Not sure if it’s a “treadmill show”. And Strange New Worlds is a delight.

  160. 160.

    Jack the Cold Warrior

    I recommend “Lucifer” on Netflix. The concept is outrageous – Devil tires of Hell, goes on vacation to, where else, Los Angeles,stays, becomes a night club owner, that later becomes a detective consultant for the LAPD, but it works for me. The actors are a great ensemble, and the lead, Tom Ellis, is fantastic. The first 3 seasons on Fox are good, the last  3 seasons on Netflix are excellent since the showrunners/writers were free from the limits of over the air TV. Best of all is how funny and thought provoking it is. Five stars. 

  161. 161.

    Procopius

    Highly recommend “The Blue Bloods.” About a police family, four generations. Another one, I’m less sure of is “House, MD,” about a weird doctor. The first five seasons he’s addicted to a pain killer, then he gets cured, but he’s the same megalomaniac. Good supporting cast. Both series are long; 11 seasons and 8 seasons, respectively

  162. 162.

    Laura

    Also, Black Butterflies on Netflix is a wonderful series. Dark, brooding, fascinating. Set in France, subtitles. Glorious cinematography and really and grossing. Highly recommended!

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