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

[Dahls]

Leaning towards is a beautiful song indeed, with a equally lovely video.
Yeah, this looks like something I'll probably watch.

[sydney]

Really enjoying The 4400 series on Netflix

[Ian]

Finished The Returned season 1. Very good for the most part, although the Lostesque vibe gets a tad concerning sometimes. Still, strong stuff and I look forward to season 2.
Also just two episodes to go of The Tunnel. I did kind of expect the twist at the end of episode 8. To be honest, I thought it would turn out to be that bastard the moment he turned up!

[DMt.]

Finished The Returned season 1. Very good for the most part, although the Lostesque vibe gets a tad concerning sometimes. Still, strong stuff and I look forward to season 2.

I too have wondered about the plot arc, and whether it would disintegrate like Lost [apparently] did. Having Céline Sciamma onboard as 'script support' is reassuring, I think; and she probably has something to do with the dreamlike verisimilitude [apparently Fabrice Gobert had them film only at dawn and dusk] and the slow but relentless emotional grip of the thing.

They start filming S2 this month, fingers crossed and wishing them well. Can't believe Acquart isn't in it, though...tch tch tch.

Also can't wait to see some of the new Sherlock...ah me, the tasty bait on the sharp hook of TV.

[Ian]

Buffy: New Moon Rising. This brilliant episode does a brilliant job of intertwining various running plot threads into one cohesive whole, resolving some issues and upping the stakes in others. Oz's return throws Willow - and her just gently blooming pseudo-romance with Tara - into a tailspin. His arrival, being a werewolf, also attracts the decidedly unwanted attentions of the Initiative, and the tension that has been simmering all season between this secret military unit and Buffy's company finally explodes; battle lines are drawn, and Riley finally has to decide which side he's on. Cracking stuff, with a really lovely ending as Willow finally takes the plunge with Tara.

[Ian]

Finished The Tunnel. Excellent. Best show to come out of the UK for a few years. Really hope they do a second season, cracking good thriller.

[Ian]

Buffy: Primeval/Restless. The season 4 finale is a bit of an odd one; the traditional finale - the all-action epic that resolves the season's main plot (Adam/The Initiative) is actually the penultimate episode this time around, with the finale being a decidedly odd episode that sees Buffy, Giles, Willow and Xander attacked in their dreams by the spirit of the primitive first Slayer - and she ain't happy. Seriously surreal.
"You think you know, what you are, what's to come... You haven't even begun."

[Ian]

I do wish Channel 9 (and all of them really) would put a bit more effort into publicizing shows. I had no idea Sherlock actually started LAST WEEK!

It's like they think you should scour all the listings every day on the off chance there might be one thing worth watching on. No wonder TV ratings are down!

[fish]

Rupertvision has so many self promotional adds that I just switch channels.
I can watch the entire range of music stations in a single add break.

If channel 9 can't be bothered to tell you what's on, send them a nasty email.
They always pay attention to those.

[Ian]

The second one came on 20 minutes after advertised, as well.

Gee, I wonder why torrent sites are so popular...

[Ian]

The Avengers: Death's Door. A prominent politician suffers a series of seemingly prophetic nightmares that culminate in his own death. When the same thing starts happening to his successor, Steed and Emma have one hell of a mystery to solve... This is an excellent, and unusually serious, episode with some striking sequences (Emma finding the warehouse where the "nightmares" are manufactured, an under-attack Steed killing an assassin by using a rock to explode a bullet). Classic stuff.

[Ian]

Started the Swedish SF series Real Humans last night, which is absolutely excellent if the first episode is anything to go by. In the near future, humanoid robots are becoming an accepted part of society, used as factory workers, housekeepers, caregivers and, of course, sexbots! Some people are developing real relationships with and feelings for those "HuBots", while others are becoming increasingly resentful and even paranoid of them. And some of the HuBots are starting to develop beyond their original programming... I hope the rest of the series lives up to the first episode, because that was superb, fascinating, gripping and darkly comic in equal measure. First class.

[fish]

Just because I'm paranoid doesn't mean you're not all out to get me.

Sounds good.
DVD or TV?

[Ian]

DVD. I think it was on SBS last year, but I missed the first few due to have no idea of its existence so there wasn't much point starting midway through!

[DMt.]

Big Bang Theory, lots of it, at the folks'.

Great stuff; wonderful scripting, sparky ensemble playing, great live theatre ambience, and impeccable production values; deserves all its success.

Parsons [Sheldon] is a comic genius, Cuoco [Penny] is also a natural; but, like the Beatles, it's the group spirit, the gestalt, the whole is greater than the sum.

The emergence of the extra female characters, and Sheldon's gradual approximations to emotional intelligence, run almost in parallel...