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Spoilers What's on TV?

charlesbronsen said:
I'm a male and I think its a great show, one of my favorites, can't seem to get enough of Violet, Dowager Countess of Grantham. She always has me in stitches
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Yes, she is a wonderful character and Dame Maggie Smith is an outstanding actress. There are times, - and this is one of them - where you get the sense that an actor/actress is hugely enjoying themselves while playing particular role.
bradl said:
Downton Abbey? Great show. Reminds me of a 1910s/1920s British Aristocratic version of Dynasty. That, and Call the Midwife. It doesn't help that my wife is looking into becoming a doula.

However, I still keep itching for Violet Crawley to pop someone upside the head with an Expeliarmus. :p

BL.
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But that is exactly what it is! Downton Abbey is almost like a chemistry experiment - what combination of ingredients, or elements, in what ratios, will give a certain (desired) outcome? What is the formula for success?

Julian Fellowes had almost cracked it with the movie 'Gosford Park' where he toyed with a number of the same elements under the narrative disguise of a 1920s country house murder mystery. So, in essence, what you have here is an outstanding cast thoroughly enjoying themselves, a great script, some terrific stories, ensemble playing (as with a good theatre company) rather than everything focussed on one or two leads, a period setting, meticulous and lavishly appointed production values, (which allow you to overlook the sheer implausibility of some of the story lines) and the narrative verve and dash and story telling discipline of a classy soap opera. You cannot lose with this formula….
 
Did anyone watch the FX Network, 3 night event called Ascension that was broadcast in mid-Dec? I started this today, hoping to be intrigued, and after 30 minutes it felt like just another run of the mill FX SciFi story with blah characters, similiar to Helix in its blah-ness.

This space ship is 50 years into a 100 year journey and there is a murder, an average style murder and a member of the crew investigates. Is this the story, a murder mystery/soap opera set in space? I may continue watching this tomorrow. Gallactica girl, No.7 still looks hot, in a semi nude scene showing off a very nice tush, but I can't say at this point, that would make it worth watching the series. ;) Looks like it is a series more than 3 nights.
 
Star Trek: The Next Generation. "Sins of the Father" Deleted Scenes

I saw this on io9.com about Star Trek TNG and some deleted scenes from the episode "Sins of the Father."

The Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "Sins of the Father" took Captain Picard to Qo'noS, the Klingon homeworld, for the first time, but a few moments ended up on the cutting room floor. The folks at TrekCore have recovered a workprint, revealing those moments for the very first time.

TrekCore has gotten a look at several VHS tapes containing workprints of episodes of The Next Generation, including "Sins of the Father," in which Worf goes to Qo'noS with the Enterprise crew in order to defend his father's honor before the High Council. Looking at that early, unfinished version of the episode, TrekCore has pieced together a a video containing extended and deleted scenes. Some of the cuts are small, but add a bit of nuance to scenes that are missing in the final version of the episode. But there's one particularly big cut that shows Kahlest announcing Mogh's innocence before the entire High Council, suggesting that the entire Council was would have been involved in suppressing Kahlest's testimony. Woof.

The video isn't embeddable, but head over to TrekCore to watch it and to see their breakdown of the deleted moments.
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http://vimeo.com/116389385
 
Mr. McMac said:
Love the original series, but never got into the later generation shows that followed. I have all the original Star Trek movies on DVD. I guess you can say I'm a Star Trek nerd at 62 years of age. When will I grow up??? Probably NEVER!!
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No one says we have to grow up and stop liking Star Trek. What kind of world would it be if we had to? :eek: :)
 
SandboxGeneral said:
No one says we have to grow up and stop liking Star Trek. What kind of world would it be if we had to? :eek: :)
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Thanks my much younger friend for making me feel not so old!

Edit: I really need to start reading my posts before I hit the enter button lol! More often than not I either miss a word or two here and there, or miss spell something. It's probably the age thing...oh well.
 
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SandboxGeneral said:
I saw this on io9.com about Star Trek TNG and some deleted scenes from the episode "Sins of the Father."




http://vimeo.com/116389385
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Well, as a number of you already know, I am a huge fan of STNG.

That was an especially good - actually, a great - episode. Any episode that dealt with Klingon politics was riveting, and the complete credibility with which they were able to fashion an authentic political and social culture for the Klingon home world was very impressive.

I have long thought that many of the two-part episodes, indeed, many of the individual episodes (such as this one) far exceed all - and I mean all - of the ST movies (including STNG) in terms of intelligent and thoughtful narrative arc and story-telling verve, depth, range, scope, character development and sheer emotional and narrative power.


Mr. McMac said:
Love the original series, but never got into the later generation shows that followed. I have all the original Star Trek movies on DVD. I guess you can say I'm a Star Trek nerd at 62 years of age. When will I grow up??? Probably NEVER!!
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I really liked the original series (Mr Spock, needless to say was my hero even at the age of six), but I actually much prefer Star Trek next generation which I think is by far the best series of the entire Star Trek franchise.

Re growing up? This was brave, clever and inventive story telling; nothing wrong with keeping one's mind eternally youthful...
 
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In 3 hours the series premiere of 12 Monkeys on SyFy begins. I've moved my Philips Hue lights into the front room, downloaded the SyFy Sync app, connected the app to the Hue hub and am set to watch the show and have my lights change with the scenes.

I liked the movie from 1995, of the same name, and hope the series lives up to it.

Follow the journey of a time traveler from the post-apocalyptic future who appears in present day on a mission to locate and eradicate the source of a deadly plague that will eventually decimate the human race.
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To my unutterable disgust, it was announced earlier this week (after the second of three episodes which constitute Series 8 of 'Foyle's War') that the series will end, this time permanently, after the broadcast of next Sunday night's episode, which will be the final episode.

Yes, yes, I know the argument - that 'all good things' must come to an end - that series & stories outlive their welcome, - that teams and formats become stale - but this is a TV series that I have long loved.

I loved the acting (Michael Kitchen as Christopher Foyle, and Honeysuckle Weeks as Samantha Stewart are superb), the scripts, the stories, and above all, the meticulous historical research…..

This is a series I shall most certainly miss…….
 
SandboxGeneral said:
In 3 hours the series premiere of 12 Monkeys on SyFy begins. I've moved my Philips Hue lights into the front room, downloaded the SyFy Sync app, connected the app to the Hue hub and am set to watch the show and have my lights change with the scenes.

I liked the movie from 1995, of the same name, and hope the series lives up to it.


View attachment 525262
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That is _ridiculously_ awesome. Can’t wait to hear about the experience. :cool:

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Scepticalscribe said:
Well, as a number of you already know, I am a huge fan of STNG.

That was an especially good - actually, a great - episode.
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In some part due to a guest appearance by the always most excellent Tony Todd!
 
D.T. said:
That is _ridiculously_ awesome. Can’t wait to hear about the experience. :cool:

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In some part due to a guest appearance by the always most excellent Tony Todd!
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STNG was an excellent show; a very good cast, great ensemble acting, thoughtful scripts, some terrific stories all helped make it worth watching again and again, even years (decades?) later.

Most of the individual episodes were very good, a great many were excellent and a few were simply outstanding. This was a show that, for the most part, managed to set and sustain an impressively high standard for years…..

Twenty years later, I still think it the best of the entire 'Star Trek' franchise…..
 
Huntn said:
Did anyone watch the FX Network......Ascension .................This space ship is 50 years into a 100 year journey and there is a murder, an average style murder and a member of the crew investigates. Is this the story.................Looks like it is a series more than 3 nights.
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The murder has not a lot to do with the story. It was a 6 part series changed to 3 parts. I was going to give up on it too but things change about an hour in. The change kept my interest. It is ok. I would like to see a second series to see how the 'other' story develops.
 
D.T. said:
That is _ridiculously_ awesome. Can’t wait to hear about the experience. :cool:
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It was pretty neat having the lights change with the action on the screen. The mood and story was certainly enhanced by it.

The only thing I found was that the SyFy Sync app had to stay active on the iPhone screen and I couldn't put the display to sleep. Otherwise the lights stopped working in sync. At first, for almost 15 minutes, the lights weren't doing anything until I brought it up on the screen and then they began to work. So I just left it up and active and put the iPhone face down so it's light didn't distract me.

The first episode was pretty good too; I enjoyed it and look forward to next weeks episode.

There was a part, not going to spoil anything, toward the end which sort of reminded me of The Terminator 3 where the Terminator (Arnold) says something like, "you weren't meant to prevent judgment day, you only postponed it", a shout back to The Terminator 2.
 
748s said:
The murder has not a lot to do with the story. It was a 6 part series changed to 3 parts. I was going to give up on it too but things change about an hour in. The change kept my interest. It is ok. I would like to see a second series to see how the 'other' story develops.
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Hmm. The other problem I had was a bunch of ho-hum characters. For myself as a general rule, it's a bad thing if I have to give a show time to grow on me. That night I was just not in the mood. I wanted to grabbed. :)

There is another show I've recorded, Twelve Monkeys (FX or SciFi). Hoping this might hold me.
 
Speaking of being grabbed, Twelve Monkeys (SciFi) Elisode 1 staring Aarond Stanford, (in a previous role as Pyro), was pretty good! Fingers crossed it keeps going! I might have to find the 1995 movie staring Bruce for review! :)

o-12-MONKEYS-facebook.jpg
 
SandboxGeneral said:
It was pretty neat having the lights change with the action on the screen. The mood and story was certainly enhanced by it.

The only thing I found was that the SyFy Sync app had to stay active on the iPhone screen and I couldn't put the display to sleep. Otherwise the lights stopped working in sync. At first, for almost 15 minutes, the lights weren't doing anything until I brought it up on the screen and then they began to work. So I just left it up and active and put the iPhone face down so it's light didn't distract me.

The first episode was pretty good too; I enjoyed it and look forward to next weeks episode.

There was a part, not going to spoil anything, toward the end which sort of reminded me of The Terminator 3 where the Terminator (Arnold) says something like, "you weren't meant to prevent judgment day, you only postponed it", a shout back to The Terminator 2.
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Watched with Hue and LOVED it.
Totally immersive experience. Praying more shows get the Hue light soundtrack.
And yes, the app has to be open, as that's how the signal is being sent to the bridge (I suspect).
It crashed almost everytime I fast forwarded to the next segment.
Had some friends over to show them this...they all want Hue lights now..

As for the show, I dug it. Can't wait for Friday night.
 
Went back to some trusty favourites, especially since I hadn't seen the entire series.. May have to binge on it one of these days.

Whose Line is it Anyway? the UK, US, and New series.

A quick clip: Colin Mochrie as the main anchorman on Weird Newscasters. That's all the setup you need. :D


P.S. Be sure you are not drinking or eating anything while watching. It will come back out while you're laughing. :p

BL.
 

Just watched the first episode (of four, I think) of the BBC TV (on BBC2) adaptation of 'Wolf Hall' the novel by Hilary Mantel which most deservedly won the Booker Prize in 2009.

Although the BBC production is called 'Wolf Hall' after the book of that name, it also deals with the material covered in the sequel to 'Wolf Hall', - a which itself also won the Booker Prize (in 2012), named 'Bring Up The Bodies'.

This is an excellent, dark, brooding TV series, with outstanding production values (many of the scenes are shot in genuine Tudor houses, mansions and settings), an outstanding cast, impeccable attention to historical detail and faithful to Hilary Mantel's vision.

Last autumn, I was fortunate to see the outstanding RSC stage adaptation of both 'Wolf Hall' and 'Bring Up The Bodies' in the Aldwych Theatre - it was simply superb.

For anyone who likes Tudor history - and I do - this is unmissable.
 
Just finished the first 2 seasons of Banshee (Cinemax). It's about a recently-released-from-prison reformed thief that goes to a remote town to track down his former partner-in-crime, only to find that she's created a whole new life for herself without him. He sticks around to deal with problems that arise in town, as dangerous people from their past catch up with them. Plenty of violence ensues (lots of fist fighting, and some but not too much shooting). I liked it, and while some parts of the story are farfetched, overall it's really well-done. Season 3 just started, but I'll probably wait until it's completed airing and binge-watch it in a weekend.

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I've watched the first two episodes of Grandchester on Masterpiece Mystery, PBS. It's a low key British drama. Enjoying it so far. :)

Grantchester-675X290-scale-2000x2000.jpg
 
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