Masterpiece Theater

[Drunk Monk]

All Creatures S2e1: It’s getting cutesy. That’s easy to do when their are animals about. The music is overly cutesy too. But it’s still lovely - green pastures, stone walls, pleasant township full of quaint accents. It’s nice. No sword fights.

80 Days: e2 This is getting absurd plot wise but the characters are okay. The music reminds me faintly of the present James Bond theme. That’s a tad distracting. I like the three adventurers as characters tho, or at least they’re growing on me.

[Drunk Monk]

All creatures is painfully lovely, like tea and crumpets at a pastoral paradise of green rolling hills and mossy stone fences. Comfort masterpiece. It just got renewed for two more seasons.

[Drunk Monk]

S2 finale of All Creatures Great and Small was an xmas ep, because what gets more warm and fuzzy than a UK xmas? A delightful show with such lush scenery, lovable characters, and cute animals. Even Yuki likes it because he likes the dog. So sappy sweet, but there's comfort in that. I hear this has been renewed for through S4. They drink a lot on this show. A happy finale but war is coming - next season prolly as foreshadowed by the bombers. 


Also finished S2 of Vienna Blood (http://www.brotherhoodofdoom.com/doomFor...0#pid44260). Again, 3 two-part eps, each about an hour. The architecture and costumes are still gorgeous. The inspector/psychiatrist crime solving buddies are still hackneyed, yet they're getting it sorted. On the third story, there was a breakthrough at which point I began calling every scene until the conclusion of the ep, just before it happened. "It's the spear" "He did it this way" "She's going to find it" "He's going to catch her" etc. and so on. But it was still enjoyable. Man, I want one of those trench coats.


Two season finales in one night. And this after just finishing The Witcher.

[Drunk Monk]

80 Days e3: This continues to be absurd and yet we continue to watch amused. Dr Fogg is a fool so it’s all about Passepartout & Ms Fix. Both are a tad woke, grappling with subjugation issues of race and gender. It’s got a dry Brit sense of humor and I want it to be funnier. I also don’t see how they keep their stuff. Passepartout’s bowler gets dramatically blown off in a sandstorm yet magically reappears. They packed really light for an 80 day trip, a mere fraction of what I’d pack for only a week of backpacking. Nevertheless it does manage some scenic shots. Totally predicted the outcome of the night fight. Too obvs.

[Drunk Monk]

80 days keeps chugging along. This was the India ep and it had a psychedelic trip which wasn’t bad - kinda captured the spirit of it. Fogg is such an ass but then comes through in the end and saves the day - it’s a tad ridiculous. Then there are moments that are kinda woke with all the POC surrounding Fogg. 

Next ep is Hong Kong.

[Drunk Monk]

80 days HK ep was okay, unbelievable like all of them, and the flogging scene was surprising. There’s a LC apologist tone as something is returned to the rightful owner after being pillaged the Brits - didn’t quite make sense in the end but we won’t quibble. 

I was surprised that I could read most of the Chinese signs. Enough Chinese characters stuck. Coincidentally I unlocked a major iPhone function that empowers me to lift characters off printed material and convert them to font which I can then run through translators. You have no idea what a huge door that opens for my research. Today’s tech is magik.

[Drunk Monk]

Fell behind on my 80 Days reports. After HK was the shipwreck, which was a bit silly, but a beautiful deserted island. 

The last ep was the wild west, which was painfully predictable, so much so that Stacy & I called most of the scenes before they happened. It had a racial theme with a KKK prisoner and a black sheriff, but was mostly lip service to Black History Awareness month. Good ol' Feb, BHA month and Lunar New Year - yeah, let's give the POC the shortest month of the year. 

Tennant has really grown into Fogg. And I just learned Passepartout's first name is Jean, which is cool because he's the coolest character and I'm pulling for him to get the girl in the end. Eugenes get a bad rap in movies and TV. Jeans do much better but you gotta be French. Such a trade off.

This ep was dedicated to the memory of Charles Beeson, the director, who also did many other series like The Mentalist, Smallville, EastEnders, Inspector Morse, et. al. He directed one ep 80 Days - it was his final project. 

Next week is the finale. It's been renewed for S2, but this looks like it'll end where the story ends, so S2 will have to be something completely different.

[Drunk Monk]

80 Days finale ended just like the book, or having never read the book, just like all the other versions of 80 Days I remember which were based upon the book. In the end, it was satisfying, largely due to Tennant's take on Fogg, and the general style and pacing of it all. 

There was a tease at the very end about a submarine, no doubt it's the Nautilus. Our heroic trio dashes off to find it. So that's where S2 will likely go, as it is green lit. We'll watch it. We watch everything Masterpiece.

[Drunk Monk]

Sanditon is kinda lame. It’s Jane Austin’s unfinished novel and according to Stacy the series ran the course of what she wrote halfway through the first season. The second season is tepid - the trappings of an Austen tale without that exquisite language and etiquette, and lackluster performances.

---

Before We Die is pbs but I’m not sure if it was masterpiece. It’s a remake of a Swedish police procedural that went 2 seasons. The first season of this reboot is six eps and stars Lesley Sharp. She’s a cop and her son, who she put in jail in a sting operation, has gone deep undercover to expose a drug smuggling family that killed her partner. She’s teamed with a rogue agent and there’s a mole in the police dept so they must investigate off the books.

This started somewhat hackneyed but grew in complexity and intensity until the final two eps, which were quite engrossing. Some unforeseen twists and new territory for the old deep cover yarn. Had us both guessing incorrectly on several occasions. 

I got rather confused when looking this up just now because I stumbled on the original which was like the multiverse version - different actors playing somewhat parallel named characters. Took me a bit to sort it. 

Not D00M recommended because y’all ain’t into euro procedurally like us. But this was a pretty good one as that genre goes.

[Dr. Ivor Yeti]

“Not D00M recommended because y’all ain’t into euro procedurally like us.”

Oh, reeeeeally? I beg to differ, my PBS-Enslaved friend. Some of us subscribe to MHz and get our Northern European crime procedurals *fresh*, with added subtitles.

[Drunk Monk]

Oh, reeeeeally? I beg to differ, my PBS-Enslaved friend. Some of us subscribe to MHz and get our Northern European crime procedurals *fresh*, with added subtitles.

D00M posts or it didn’t happen.

[Greg]

Probably going to need an MHz thread soon. ( I have no idea what MHz even is)

[Drunk Monk]

I have no idea what MHz even is

Me neither but knowing the Yeti, it prolly runs on kerosene...

[Dr. Ivor Yeti]

Accurate.

[Drunk Monk]

Still watching Sanditon. Still kinda lame. Lots of derivative tropes from previous Austen works, leaning heavily on the films. 

Rose Williams (Charlotte) has an impossible dimple in her chin and I can't see past it.