Recommended Television Programmes

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  • jayne lee wilson
    Banned
    • Jul 2011
    • 10711

    Enjoying Resident Alien on Sky One, where a crash-landed alien assumes human form, as a Doctor in a Colorado town, while trying to find essential equipment lost in the snow from his ship.....





    Up to Ep. 2 in UK, the highlight of the opening episode was in the bar, where our interplanetary friend discovers the delights of whisky ("this is awful - so why do I want more of it?" ) and dancing, when the wonderful Nikki Minaj Starships come on and he takes to the dance floor for the first time, with a stiff yet surprisingly elegant take on a kind of raised-arms monster mash...
    (I can't stay in my chair either, when that brilliant track comes on, especially unexpectedly...)

    Billed as comedy (a genre I tend to keep away from) but there's more to it. Great offbeat US pop and folk soundtrack a real highlight, too..
    Last edited by jayne lee wilson; 07-02-21, 19:39.

    Comment

    • Katzelmacher
      Member
      • Jan 2021
      • 178

      I’m going to make my dissenting voice heard:

      It’s A Sin is bad television, as only the 2020s can make it.

      The characters are stereotypes and Davies lays his Manichean world view (gays/BAMES, good; religious people, bad) on us with a trowel.

      Ritchie’s parents are so cliched, you wonder why the actors in question (who can’t be short of job offers) accepted the roles.

      All in all, a lowering experience.

      But I’ll give it one thing: it wasn’t boring.

      Comment

      • jayne lee wilson
        Banned
        • Jul 2011
        • 10711

        Originally posted by Katzelmacher View Post
        I’m going to make my dissenting voice heard:

        It’s A Sin is bad television, as only the 2020s can make it.

        The characters are stereotypes and Davies lays his Manichean world view (gays/BAMES, good; religious people, bad) on us with a trowel.

        Ritchie’s parents are so cliched, you wonder why the actors in question (who can’t be short of job offers) accepted the roles.

        All in all, a lowering experience.

        But I’ll give it one thing: it wasn’t boring.
        Well, she seems to like it....
        Jill Nalder, who lost three friends to Aids in the 1980s, inspired one of the characters in the TV hit.


        Did you experience any of the prejudicial attitudes of the characters you call stereotypes yourself..? Or the passing of anyone you knew because of AIDS?
        I DID. I WAS THERE.
        And those hateful attitudes, whether domestic or religious varieties, were the bane of our lives, especially when shockingly underscored with the legal seal of approval, coming in 1988 (after all the tabloid banners of "The Gay Plague", after the appallingly misleading, apocalyptic AIDS TV-advert warnings) of the terrible Section 28.
        The gay characters themselves in Its a Sin were very true to life and covered a wide range of LGBT experiences and identifications. It is brilliantly cast, written, directed and acted.

        Your own stereotyping of attitudes within the series "(gays/BAMES, good; religious people, bad)" reveals your own crudeness, both in its inaccuracy to the drama and its prejudicial lumping together of extremely diverse societal and ethnic groups you evidently have a reductive aversion to.
        In any case, many religions, including Christian Biblical varieties, have a terrible historical record of hostility and prejudice toward LGBT people, as a simple matter of fact.

        My own life was badly damaged by such prejudices (which did indeed become "stereotypical" of many people, as they repeatedly, hurtfully, advanced them), even within my own family. A promising, prizewinning academic career was wrecked by such unthinking hostilities.

        I suggest that you consider Wittgenstein: "whereof you do not know, thereof be silent"...

        (But I'd be interested to know how you could find a TV show bad, yet not be bored by it. It seems you are in denial of something, especially given your prejudices seem to extend to the 2020s generally. Perhaps you could tell us which decade you'd prefer to live in? The 1950s? Maybe as a headmaster, a vicar or a politician... )
        Last edited by jayne lee wilson; 07-02-21, 21:50.

        Comment

        • Bryn
          Banned
          • Mar 2007
          • 24688

          Trump Senate trial now live on Al Jazeera.

          Comment

          • Bryn
            Banned
            • Mar 2007
            • 24688

            Originally posted by Bryn View Post
            Trump Senate trial now live on Al Jazeera.
            Powerful stuff!

            Leaves political fiction standing.

            Comment

            • oddoneout
              Full Member
              • Nov 2015
              • 9204

              A welcome bit of escapism and reminder that there is more to this country than the pandemic and incompetent government
              https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08f1cc0 A Year on Blencathra
              I'm sure it's been shown before but I hadn't seen it, and although I'm not Lake District fan the images were balm to the soul.

              Comment

              • jayne lee wilson
                Banned
                • Jul 2011
                • 10711

                Excellent multi-voiced commentary/reviews of Its A Sin here....

                How well does the Russell T Davies drama capture the 1980s Aids crisis? Influential queer figures who lived through it and in its wake – including Owen Jones, Rev Richard Coles, Lisa Power and Marc Thompson – give their verdicts

                Comment

                • johncorrigan
                  Full Member
                  • Nov 2010
                  • 10363

                  Originally posted by jayne lee wilson View Post
                  Excellent multi-voiced commentary/reviews of Its A Sin here....

                  https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-r...aw-truth-to-it
                  We've watched the first four so will finish tonight and then read the article, jayne. I've been really enjoying the characters and the energy of 'It's a Sin', and I think the programmes have covered the changing moods very well: from isolation, through partying, to fear of the unknown, to people coming together under a shared identity. It has reminded me a bit of the film 'Pride', and no bad thing in my books, and promotes the importance of the gang and the cause and the community. Some really sad bits, especially the decline of Gladys and the horrors of the way AIDS was dealt with when the understanding of the disease was in its infancy; and the crassness of those who were disgusted with homosexuals, and saw it as 'their fault' (Gloria's Scottish family). The public attitude felt medieval in places even if it wasn't all that long ago - no doubt true that if it had been heterosexual men who had been dying in these numbers, more would have been done, and more quickly. I suppose I am hoping to see the continuation of the indomitable spirit by the end of the last programme. Really well made series.

                  Comment

                  • Pulcinella
                    Host
                    • Feb 2014
                    • 10948

                    I don't follow this thread closely, so I apologise if this has already been mentioned.

                    I thoroughly enjoyed the BBC4 series A Volatile History (especially the first two episodes):

                    Jim Al-Khalili traces the story of how the elements were discovered and mapped.


                    In it, Jim Al-Khalili traces the story of how the elements, the building blocks that make up our entire world, were discovered and mapped.

                    Available on iPlayer.

                    Comment

                    • jayne lee wilson
                      Banned
                      • Jul 2011
                      • 10711

                      Originally posted by johncorrigan View Post
                      We've watched the first four so will finish tonight and then read the article, jayne. I've been really enjoying the characters and the energy of 'It's a Sin', and I think the programmes have covered the changing moods very well: from isolation, through partying, to fear of the unknown, to people coming together under a shared identity. It has reminded me a bit of the film 'Pride', and no bad thing in my books, and promotes the importance of the gang and the cause and the community. Some really sad bits, especially the decline of Gladys and the horrors of the way AIDS was dealt with when the understanding of the disease was in its infancy; and the crassness of those who were disgusted with homosexuals, and saw it as 'their fault' (Gloria's Scottish family). The public attitude felt medieval in places even if it wasn't all that long ago - no doubt true that if it had been heterosexual men who had been dying in these numbers, more would have been done, and more quickly. I suppose I am hoping to see the continuation of the indomitable spirit by the end of the last programme. Really well made series.
                      Its worth emphasising to anyone who hasn't seen it how hugely entertaining it is. Far from a worthy, gloomy historical docudrama, it has the classic ability, the tonal range, to effortlessly combine comedy and tragedy in its wide and generous embrace. It is full of love and fun, insight, affection and compassion.

                      You'll be crying through the laughter, laughing through the tears. But sometimes just devastated. And all to a great, singalong 80s pop soundtrack....
                      Last edited by jayne lee wilson; 10-02-21, 22:29.

                      Comment

                      • gurnemanz
                        Full Member
                        • Nov 2010
                        • 7388

                        We've just watched Ep 3 and are finding It's a Sin very moving, compelling, entertaining and involving - we do care about the characters. Also enlightening since we lived through that period and were obviously aware of the AIDS situation but we had no direct personal contact with anyone affected and were ourselves more preoccupied at the time with other things like babies, mortgage, work.

                        Comment

                        • kernelbogey
                          Full Member
                          • Nov 2010
                          • 5748

                          Can’t Get You Out of My Head: An Emotional History of the Modern World, BBC. Strongly recommended - grown up television.

                          Lucy Mangan's ***** review in the Guardian is worth reading as a taster.

                          Comment

                          • Serial_Apologist
                            Full Member
                            • Dec 2010
                            • 37687

                            Originally posted by kernelbogey View Post
                            Can’t Get You Out of My Head: An Emotional History of the Modern World, BBC. Strongly recommended - grown up television.

                            Lucy Mangan's ***** review in the Guardian is worth reading as a taster.
                            Thanks _ I forgot about this being on!

                            Comment

                            • kernelbogey
                              Full Member
                              • Nov 2010
                              • 5748

                              Aaah - glad you have noticed, SA! I'm finding it fascinating, and am unable to pin any kind of label on it. Perhaps just iconoclastic. It doesn't take either a right or left political perspective, but exposes a kind of constant interplay between revolutionary movements and power/money, generally to the benefit of the latter. I'm enjoying seeing the events of my lifetime described in an absorbing filmic narrative.

                              Comment

                              • johncorrigan
                                Full Member
                                • Nov 2010
                                • 10363

                                Originally posted by kernelbogey View Post
                                Can’t Get You Out of My Head: An Emotional History of the Modern World, BBC. Strongly recommended - grown up television.

                                Lucy Mangan's ***** review in the Guardian is worth reading as a taster.
                                Thanks, kb. I was not sure about watching this though I enjoyed hearing Adam Curtis being interviewed on the radio about it. Glad I took your recommendation...some fascinating ideas in the first programme. Look forward to the next one.

                                Comment

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