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[watching] What have you viewed recently? (II)

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Dom said:
I also started rewatching The Sandbaggers (DVD, A Yorkshire Television Colour Production!). This is a pretty hard edged spy drama over three series. I never finished watching it when I first got it, but I'm pretty determined to this time. It's very nicely done.
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Matches Callan in the downbeat Cold War drama stakes. From memory there's one episode that's quite similar to the Callan series 3 episode God Help Your Friends.

I've got all three series of The Sandbaggers on DVD as well. You've reminded me it's high time I watched it again.
 
ltd said:
Matches Callan in the downbeat Cold War drama stakes. From memory there's one episode that's quite similar to the Callan series 3 episode God Help Your Friends.

I've got all three series of The Sandbaggers on DVD as well. You've reminded me it's high time I watched it again.
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If someone can point me to where I can find to watch sandbaggers and callan (I only listened to The big finish audios of callan)
 
Watched the first two episodes of Alien:Earth last night

  • was surprised to see Adrian Edmondson in it
  • cannot unsee Timothy Olyphants blonde hair and near invisible eyebrows look and channelling Rutger Hauer
  • not sure about the cyborg, feels a little power character-y
the 11/12 year old minds in synth bodies is interesting
  • the ceos aren’t completely written as knobends
  • there is a new gun for the rpg to be added; electro shock and spray goo combo
  • suspect it will end with the ship reactor nuking and the building tumbling down[/ISPOILER]
  • the other xenos are a good touch
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sanjurotokage said:
If someone can point me to where I can find to watch sandbaggers and callan (I only listened to The big finish audios of callan)
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Sandbaggers was illicitly on Youtube. Not looked recently though.
 
I'm in the middle of a Doctor Who (2005) rewatch (including Christmas specials). Just starting Matt Smith's run.
 
Dom said:
Sandbaggers was illicitly on Youtube. Not looked recently though.
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Definitely there. Had reason to look tonight when the DVD player remote failed at the holiday home.
 
Dom said:
Definitely there. Had reason to look tonight when the DVD player remote failed at the holiday home.
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Callan is as well (including the film).
 
Ok, I have just watched episode 5 of Alien: Earth. Bloody hell. One of the best bits of SF ever. Just wow.

I was a bit unsure at first, I enjoyed the first four episodes. Indeed they have become progressively more creepy and sustained. I guess that's it, it's built the tension in ways I didn't fully realise.

It's very very clever to be able to do that with a franchise where we know the key themes and elements, and yet still be unsettling.
 
Watched Sinners last night. US film set in 1932 in the south which focuses on black culture, blues and has edges of criminality. Takes a darker turn into horror. Music and visuals are great, and the story draws you through. There is a scene in the credits at the end, kind of a coda. Not perfect but in the good to great range.

Also watched Black Bag on the flight home, Soderberg’s take on modern spy drama. Definite shades of Smiley (Fassbender’s character’s glasses and coldness in parts, plus he’s called George). Husband and wife (Blanchett) both work for SIS (I think) and he’s in charge of counter-intelligence. Her name comes up on a list of potential traitors and he has to investigate. I think this is a marmite film - you’ll love it or hate it. I’m actually going to watch it again as I’m not completely certain I’m in the love it camp. In its essence it’s a whodunnit.

Both of these are recent enough that if you want to watch you’ll need to pay or rent them.
 
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So, I also finished Foundation Season 3 (Apple TV+)... and it was epic.

First of all, if you haven't watched the show, don't expect a direct adaptation of the original trilogy. This is definitely in the 'inspired by' box, which is a good thing as the original books, much as I love them and the impact that they had on my reading (and on Traveller), are pretty much unfilmable. They're creations of their time, full of cigar chomping men discuss things in back rooms and atomics. The epic concept and sweeping view of psychohistory was always the best part of the stories. The show runners have taken that, and layered in the link to Azimov's Robots books that he added in with later books after the original trilogy.

The show looks lovely, and a lot of the set up from Season 1 and 2 is starting to mesh nicely, and the conceit of the genetic dynasty means that the emperors may look the same, but play out very differently. I absolutely loved this season, and I'm really glad that they have renewed it for Season 4.

I think AppleTV+ continues to smash it out of the park with its SF offerings.
 
The Informer (2019): Ex-convict coerced into working undercover for the FBI is sent back to prison in order to break a major fentanyl ring. Rather bog standard this, without actually being bad. The most interesting part for me was that, despite being located in New York City, the jail was the former HMP Goucester. Used to work across the road from there, so had some fun spotting Glawster locations that they’d not managed to CGI out. There’s one aerial shot I found slightly disorientating where you see the entire prison complex inserted into what I would guess is either the East River or Lower/Upper Bay region of the NY conurbation.

Quite a few UK actors in the cast as well, so I'm guessing some kind of British/US joint financing in effect (are there still tax breaks for UK shot films? I dunno)

(Netflix)
 
Finished season 3 of Deadwood and the Deadwood movie. Which set me on a Western kick so I watched The Unforgiven (with Burt Lancaster, not Unforgiven with Clint Eastwood), El Dorado (John Wayne), Unholy Trinity (Pierce Brosnan & Samuel L. Jackson) and some other forgettable ones which I can't recall the titles of.

I now want to run Tales From the Old West. Which is a pity because I'm actually running Last Fleet and Hunter the Reckoning. :)

Also watched Doctor Who: The Sea Devils, which is still fun and hangs together well.
 
Binge watched Murderbot Diaries with a friend. Awesome. Laugh out loud funny. I really must read the third and fourth books in the series.

Saw another 3 episodes of Andor season 1 - the heist story arc. This is definitely my favourite Star Wars offering. It feels so much more grown up than the rest.

And I saw episode 1 of Silo. Hoping it comes out on DVD so I can watch the rest of it. Failing that I can re-read the books.

And the movie The Tomorrow War (Chris Pratt) falls into the 'mostly harmless' category. Check your brain in at the door and enjoy the explosions.
 
Who Dares Wins - none more 80s slice of thick ear, featuring a post-Professionals Lewis Collins and a distinguished supporting cast who probably should have known better. The whole thing's absolutely ludicrous, with the militant wing of CND taking over the American embassy and demanding that a cruise missile is fired at Holy Loch submarine base to demonstrate the evils of nuclear war...er...ok. Collins actually isn't bad, but as has been pointed out elsewhere he doesn't have enough to do until the final reel. The embassy final assault scene is well staged (apparently by real SAS "technical advisers") and Roy Budd's music is up to his usual standards, but overall this is a pretty poor piece of work. Six Days is a far better film based on the same events because of its non-sensationalist approach and naturalistic performances.
 
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