Television What Are You Watching?

[Thomas Veil]

Mr. Bates vs the Post Office (PBS Masterpiece).

Based on a true story. In the aughts in England, a handful of shopkeepers who run small post offices find themselves experiencing anomalous monetary shortfalls, thanks to a computer system called Horizon. None of these individuals know each other, and in each case the Horizon helpline gaslights them by telling them that they must be doing something wrong and that nobody else is having this problem. Not only that, but suggested solutions from the Horizon helpline only make the shortfalls larger.

Terrified and confused, each shopkeeper is accused of theft from the Post Office and hauled before the Crown. Some lose their jobs, some go to jail, and none of them know how to fight back…until one man becomes determined to find others like himself who have had their lives and their good names ruined by the Post Office.

Watching these poor souls get raked over the coals by an uncaring, corrupt bureaucracy is scary and pathetic—but it makes for some smashing drama.

 

[Huntn]

I barely managed to complete Constellation (AppleTV 2024). It was too many episodes of people lost and confused trying to figure out their circumstances in a parallel reality scenario, where the boundary between them is meager at best. At the end, there is resolution of sorts for one family, but the payoff for sticking though multiple episodes of “Mama!”, “Alice!” is not worth it. Now it‘s possible that season 2 (not yet released) is a continuation of this story, with these characters because things were not resolved for all of them. I’m just not that interested in enduring the continuation of the premise as presented.

 

[SouprMatt]

Suzume (2023) is a touching animated movie with some fantasy aspects to it. But at its core, it’s a story of self-discovery and coming to terms with childhood trauma. I highly recommend it. I watched it on Netflix, so I know that’s at least one place it’s available.

Suzume

17-year-old Suzume's journey begins in a quiet town in Kyushu when she encounters a young man who tells her,

www.rottentomatoes.com

 

[ronntaylor]

I barely managed to complete Constellation (AppleTV 2024). It was too many episodes of people lost and confused trying to figure out their circumstances in a parallel reality scenario, where the boundary between them is meager at best. At the end, there is resolution of sorts for one family, but the payoff for sticking though multiple episodes of “Mama!”, “Alice!” is not worth it. Now it‘s possible that season 2 (not yet released) is a continuation of this story, with these characters because things were not resolved for all of them. I’m just not that interested in enduring the continuation of the premise as presented.

I completely agree with your review. I dozed through most of the eps while my husband enjoyed it. 🤷‍♂️

 

[Huntn]

Fallout S1:E1- The End (Prime 2024)- Excellent, 200 years after nuclear war and a Vault dweller has a reason to climb up into the outside world. Keep in mind, this is based on one of my all time favorite games so I maybe biased. One thing I’ve not seen, or remember is interconnected vaults, but they easily could be which is a vital element as to why the series starts off as it does.

Set in Los Angeles so far there are 4 elements, Vault Dwellers hiding in their vaults, Raiders (surface dwelling bandits), Brotherhood of Steel (surface dwellers) who seeks to find and preserve technology, hates gouls and synths, although that has not been made evident yet, and a former Hollywood cowboy turned goul. There is a 5th element I’m not really familiar with The Enclave, a fascist organization in charge of much of the post- apocalyptic world. Plus they played one of my favorite Fallout songs from 1960. 🙂

​

For anyone who did not follow exactly:

Spoiler: Plot

Vault 32 and 33 are connected. Apparantly they don’t or rarely communicate with each other and apparantly they each have their own doors to the surface. A wedding contract between the vaults has 32 providing a breeder (husband) and 33 provides grain and supplies. However it turns out that 32 was taken over andvwiped out by raiders and these people are raiders disguised as Vault 32 inhabitants. Their goal is to raid Vault 33 and take some prisoners. The Vault Overseer (Kyle MacLachlan) is one of the prisoners and his daughter Lucy decides she will go find him out in the World.

 

[Huntn]

I completely agree with your review. I dozed through most of the eps while my husband enjoyed it. 🤷‍♂️

I see parralels in my marriage, 😄

 

[Scubachap]

Mr. Bates vs the Post Office (PBS Masterpiece).

Based on a true story. In the aughts in England, a handful of shopkeepers who run small post offices find themselves experiencing anomalous monetary shortfalls, thanks to a computer system called Horizon. None of these individuals know each other, and in each case the Horizon helpline gaslights them by telling them that they must be doing something wrong and that nobody else is having this problem. Not only that, but suggested solutions from the Horizon helpline only make the shortfalls larger.

Terrified and confused, each shopkeeper is accused of theft from the Post Office and hauled before the Crown. Some lose their jobs, some go to jail, and none of them know how to fight back…until one man becomes determined to find others like himself who have had their lives and their good names ruined by the Post Office.

Watching these poor souls get raked over the coals by an uncaring, corrupt bureaucracy is scary and pathetic—but it makes for some smashing drama.

This is and continues to be a horrendous scandal. It started around 20 years ago and i've been following it with mounting incredulity in the pages of Private Eye (a UK satirical magazine) on and off for I think, around 14 years. It was also being reported in Computer Weekly who first started to break it back in the day. It's probably one of the worst scandals here in the UK for generations (the contaminated blood one is also up there.) You probably know most of the details by now but what still really makes me furious is that it took an ITV drama for people to finally wake up to what's been going on.

I'm also furious with the mainstream media and yes, that even includes the ever sanctimonious Guardian, the smug BBC*, Channel 4 news and Sky News who are always so right on but studiously didn't re-report or engage with any of it really. The mainstream media currently seem so self occupied / obsessed with their own little agendas that they couldn't recognise or weren't interested in one of the biggest stories here in the past 20 years. The excuses now seem to be that the the story was too complicated and long winded for them to think any audience (anyone outside North London is apparently only interested in moronic game shows apparently) to be interested in it. (They all deserve to go down the financial tubes IMHO). Amusingly it was the ever snobbishly looked down on commercial ITV channel which made the difference to everyone!

* To be completely fair to the BBC they did run a podcast a few years ago and did do a short doc (Panorama?) again relatively recently but it was a really, really pathetic effort.

Phew! Got that all of my chest now!

 

[Thomas Veil]

Thanks for the additional background, @Scubachap. Those of us in the United States almost certainly have not heard about this before, but that’s nothing new to us. It took the TV series Watchmen to introduce many of us to the “Black Wall Street” massacre in Tulsa, Oklahoma in our own country.

I’m looking forward to the next episode airing tonight.

 

[Huntn]

Thanks for the additional background, @Scubachap. Those of us in the United States almost certainly have not heard about this before, but that’s nothing new to us. It took the TV series Watchmen to introduce many of us to the “Black Wall Street” massacre in Tulsa, Oklahoma in our own country.

I’m looking forward to the next episode airing tonight.

When I watched HBO‘s Watchmen and they were bombing a neighborhood in Tulsa, my first reaction was, “this is over the top”…. No, it was not. 😢

 

[ronntaylor]

When I watched HBO‘s Watchmen and they were bombing a neighborhood in Tulsa, my first reaction was, “this is over the top”…. No, it was not. 😢

I was given a heads about the opening scene depicting Tulsa. But I was still surprised by how detailed and exact those opening minutes were. In a word, it was masterful. And of course there were so many that still can't believe that it happened here. That there has to have been exaggerations for entertainment.

 

[ronntaylor]

I was given a heads about the opening scene depicting Tulsa. But I was still surprised by how detailed and exact those opening minutes were. In a word, it was masterful. And of course there were so many that still can't believe that it happened here. That there has to have been exaggerations for entertainment.

After posting this, I rewatched the entire Watchmen series (probably 4 or 5X). How am I just noticing that Fred Trump is hinted as the racist Cyclops guy? Yes, only his first name, Fred, is used. But his company's name is F.T. & Co. = Fred Trump. And of course, he's from Queens, NY. How slick of the show! 😏

 

[Huntn]

Halo Series (Paramont+ 2022-)
Somehow I let this slip by when it first aired, today caught S1:E1 on an airliner, and it was excellent, although the sound quality (by virtue of being on a plane) sucked, so I’ve got this queued until we get home. Hard hitting action, combatants (Spartans and Covenant) with personal shield protection, most others seem like fodder.

Of note I’m a huge Halo fan from its XBox days. This was Bungie’s follow on FPS shooter game to Marathon, a huge Mac FPS that beat the snot out of Microsoft’s Doom. 😀

The Master Chief (Spartans) and Covenant were just like I remember them although the Covenant (aggressive aliens) seem more bulked up. And blame it on me, I don’t remember that Spartans were bio-enhanced? Also waiting to see if Cortana, MasterChief’s AI equivalent of a love interest appears in this story.

 

[lizkat]

I'm interested to see what HBO/Max will have done in its mini-series adaptation of Viet Thanh Nguyen's complex, layered novel The Sympathizer.

It has just started streaming on Max as of April 14, last episode drops in late May.

 

[ronntaylor]

I'm interested to see what HBO/Max will have done in its mini-series adaptation of Viet Thanh Nguyen's complex, layered novel The Sympathizer.

It has just started streaming on Max as of April 14, last episode drops in late May.

I watched the first ten minutes of episode one. Then my husband said he wanted to watch together to see the transfer from book to mini-series. So we'll begin watching this coming weekend (I hope).

 

[P___X]

Fallout S1:E1- The End (Prime 2024)- Excellent, 200 years after nuclear war and a Vault dweller has a reason to climb up into the outside world. Keep in mind, this is based on one of my all time favorite games so I maybe biased. One thing I’ve not seen, or remember is interconnected vaults, but they easily could be which is a vital element as to why the series starts off as it does.

Set in Los Angeles so far there are 4 elements, Vault Dwellers hiding in their vaults, Raiders (surface dwelling bandits), Brotherhood of Steel (surface dwellers) who seeks to find and preserve technology, hates gouls and synths, although that has not been made evident yet, and a former Hollywood cowboy turned goul. There is a 5th element I’m not really familiar with The Enclave, a fascist organization in charge of much of the post- apocalyptic world. Plus they played one of my favorite Fallout songs from 1960. 🙂

​

For anyone who did not follow exactly:

Spoiler: Plot

Vault 32 and 33 are connected. Apparantly they don’t or rarely communicate with each other and apparantly they each have their own doors to the surface. A wedding contract between the vaults has 32 providing a breeder (husband) and 33 provides grain and supplies. However it turns out that 32 was taken over andvwiped out by raiders and these people are raiders disguised as Vault 32 inhabitants. Their goal is to raid Vault 33 and take some prisoners. The Vault Overseer (Kyle MacLachlan) is one of the prisoners and his daughter Lucy decides she will go find him out in the World.

It's been pretty cute. Captures the games humor quite well. I never could get into it, all the Fallout FPS engines gave me nausea😀 The series is much more enjoyable.

 

[Huntn]

It's been pretty cute. Captures the games humor quite well. I never could get into it, all the Fallout FPS engines gave me nausea😀 The series is much more enjoyable.

Ok, you must have a weak stomach, so I’ll forgive you. 😄 I’ve not been affected in such a manner, at least not for this game. Remastered version might make a difference? 🤔

 

[P___X]

Ok, you must have a weak stomach, so I’ll forgive you. 😄 I’ve not been affected in such a manner, at least not for this game. Remastered version might make a difference? 🤔

It’s not my stomach. In FPS games where there’s a lot of tunnel/cave/dungeon activity, turning around gives me a migraine with nausea after 10-15minutes of playing. I can power through it (or take some meds) but it kills the fun

 

[Huntn]

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A Man in Full (2024, Netflix)- Short and sweet, a drama about the head of a Corporation based in Atlanta, who is in conflict with a bank over the $800M he owes them. It’s watching a character study about a character I mostly did not like, but I enjoyed the performances and approve of the ending. 😀 Note, on RT, this got poor audience and critic reviews. I can’t speak to that, Jeff Daniels, Diane Lane, Tom Pelphrey, Aml Ameen and cast do a great job imho.

 

[Huntn]

Renegade Nell (Disney 2024-) Fantasy. set in the 18th Century England, Nelly Jackson discovers she is protected by an entity that gives her extraordinary fighting skills, before she is framed for murder. One episode and I’m in. 😀

​

 

[SouprMatt]

Renegade Nell (Disney 2024-) Fantasy. set in the 18th Century England, Nelly Jackson discovers she is protected by an entity that gives her extraordinary fighting skills, before she is framed for murder. One episode and I’m in. 😀

View attachment 1302​

I just watched the first episode earlier this week, and I like it too. One of the actors is also in Ted Lasso and he is great in this.