What Are You Currently Watching (on tv/dvd)?

[Ian]

Finished The Thick Of It season 1. Very funny political satire.

[sydney]

Fringe!!!

Bought season 1 a few weeks ago. Can't wait for the next episode.

[Ian]

Fringe is great! Re-watching season 3 at the moment, looking forward to seeing the 5th and final when it comes out at the end of September here.

[Ian]

Doctor Who - The Sontaran Strategem. Dumb but fun.

[Ian]

Finished 24 season 7. A great season for the most part, though it has to be said that the last 6 episodes, while not bad, do rather seem like small potatoes - and thus a tad damp squib-like - in comparison to the mad rollercoaster of the season's first two-thirds, which has some of the most all-time outrageous and thrilling stories and set-pieces (like the terrorist attack on the White House itself, and Jon Voight's JamesBondvillain maniac defence contractor trying to take over the country with a fleet of rockets filled with biological weapons!) that the show ever did.

[Ian]

Doctor Who - The Android Invasion. Bloody awful!

[Ian]

Finished The Thick Of It season 4, the final season. Brilliant. Special note to the one-hour penultimate episode, set entirely in front of a government inquiry committee, with every character in for a grilling over a leaking scandal. Riveting, frequently hilarious, and just plain brilliant TV.

[Ian]

Tales of the Unexpected: The Flypaper. I remember this episode of this sinister British anthology series from the early 80s. Freaked me out as a kid, and apparently it did the same for many (even though it wasn't supposed to be watched by kids lol!) and it's on good old YouTube. There's been a child murder in the local area, and an overly friendly old man is following a young girl home from school. Fortunately a bossy older woman soon sees him off and everything is A-Okay. Or is it?
Man, that s**t is dark.

[Ian]

Whitechapel season 1. A Jack the Ripper copycat starts up in Whitechapel on the 100th anniversary of "Jolly Jack". Chilling, gripping telly.

[Ian]

Jonathan Creek: The Clue of the Savant's Thumb. Surprisingly disappointing.

[fish]

... Surprisingly disappointing.

I didn't think it was all that surprising.

[Ian]

Surprising how easy it was to write the worst mystery resolution ever AND sell out your central character entirely within just 90 minutes, perhaps.

[fish]

Sounds like "special skills" are needed for that little task.

[Ian]

Whitechapel season 2. An apparent whole new generation of the Kray Twins emerge in a bid to seize unofficial control of all of London - including the police. Pretty good, though not as good as series 1 (or 3, for that matter).

[Ian]

Doctor Who - Vengeance on Varos. The people of Varos toil in poverty and misery while the ruling elite enjoy power and luxury and keep the people in line with televised "entertainment" of the torture and murder of anyone that dares question the status quo. When the Doctor and Peri arrive in the middle of one such execution, they immediately start off a chain reaction of violence... Dark and grim but enlivened with some black humour and Colin Baker on irrepressible form, this is a very fine story. Nice performances from Martin Jarvis as the Governor (a fundamentally decent bloke stuck as the powerless puppet leader of an utterly barbaric system) and Nabil Shaban, who is justly legendary for his turn as the repulsive slug-like uber-capitalist Sil (the perfect villain for the Thatcher years!), and the dramatic conceit of two characters - a married couple - who play no role in the plot but basically watch the events happening on TV and comment on it ("When did they last show something worth watching?") works very nicely. Most enjoyable.