[Will Hunt]

American imports that my friends tell me to watch.Breaking Bad, Prison Break, Better Call Saul, Stranger Things, Cold Souls, The Walking Dead etc etc etc. 

Breaking Bad and BCS are worth all of their run time. BB especially.

I'm sure they're really good, but when I see series after series stretching out for endless hours I just feel that to watch it would be to waste a bit of my life. There's so much good telly out there that if you watch it all you'll end up giving up a lot of other stuff.

Some top brass at Netflix was recently asked who the competitor that he most worried about was. His answer? Not Sky, not Now TV, not Amazon Prime, not Freeview channels.

Netflix's biggest competitor is sleep. When you put it like that you realise that the model for most of these shows is to pin people to their sofas with a large quantity of Class A TV. I spend more time than I would like staring at the TV as it is, it's our default evening activity after work, putting our daughter to bed, cooking, eating etc is finished. I'd rather not start hitting the hard stuff and make it worse.

[tomtom]

I'm quite enjoying the 'Mars' thing on Netflix atm.

Its an interesting format - cutting between 2016 and interviews with present day scientists, Musk etc.. and talking about present day missions (probably 20-30% of the format) and 2033 when there are a load of mars visitors in the usual deep shit/peril/usual hollywood schmizzle.

Good idea for a docu-drama format.

[SA Chris]

I'm sure they're really good, but when I see series after series stretching out for endless hours I just feel that to watch it would be to waste a bit of my life. There's so much good telly out there that if you watch it all you'll end up giving up a lot of other stuff.

I'm totally in the same boat, but some are originally conceived to be of a finite length. with the story and character development spreading across all series. Rather than one series having a tenuous thread to the next. If you pick one that gets pretty much unanimous acclaim it's really great to watch the whole way through.

[Plattsy]

Was pleasantly surprised that the new Jack Ryan series on Netflix was almost completely self contained with no cliff hanger bs and a good pace per episode.

GoT is a funny one because the pace of each episode varies from amble to all out sprint through action, which actually kind of matches the books. If you are into fantasy stuff at all the last two series are essentially 9 hour long high budget feature films.

Yep GoT doesn't deserve to be clubbed in with the others. Based on existing literature to a point and the sheer scale and production quality means it worth a watch without pre conceived ideas of how it is going to be.

Anyone been watching The Preacher?

I've been watching episodes on and off and find it pleasantly weird.

Watched the first series and thought it was great for all it's weird and wonderfulness. Lost me a little during the second and haven't picked it back up.

Recent crackers include Sharp Objects, Cobra Kai (for Karate Kid nostalgia) and Waco.

[Nutty]

I'm sure they're really good, but when I see series after series stretching out for endless hours I just feel that to watch it would be to waste a bit of my life. There's so much good telly out there that if you watch it all you'll end up giving up a lot of other stuff.

Some top brass at Netflix was recently asked who the competitor that he most worried about was. His answer? Not Sky, not Now TV, not Amazon Prime, not Freeview channels.

Netflix's biggest competitor is sleep. When you put it like that you realise that the model for most of these shows is to pin people to their sofas with a large quantity of Class A TV. I spend more time than I would like staring at the TV as it is, it's our default evening activity after work, putting our daughter to bed, cooking, eating etc is finished. I'd rather not start hitting the hard stuff and make it worse.

These are my thoughts pretty much exactly about getting into TV series - they may be great TV but given the limited time I have in the evening after the little one is in bed I don't want to get invested in long running TV series that'll eat into time I'd prefer to spend doing other things (training/running etc.). I did watch the first series of A Handmaid's Tale as I was interested in it having read the book (and the book is my wife's favourite), but bounced off the second series as I'd watch an episode and feel I'd wasted the time doing so.

[SA Chris]

you can exercise while watching telly, i usually do.

[Mike Tyson]

Breaking Bad is mega, like proper mega. Think I’ve watched the whole thing at least three times, if not more.

GoT is also fucking brilliant.

Started on sharp objects but haven’t quite got into it yet, is it worth persevering?

I really enjoyed Banshee too.

[fatneck]

Started watching Maniac on Netflix the other day. Lost the wife after Episode 2 but I'm hooked! Proper funny, dark & weird. Right up my street apparently....

[Mike Tyson]

After a hard days graft, I like nothing more than to run a nice bath, climb in and watch a half hour show on my iPad.

Have recently watched all of The League of Gentlemen again after going to see the live show in York (It was fucking amazing)

But currently watching Mortimer & Whitehouse: Gone Fishing. And I’m really enjoying it. There is a strange sadness about it, as the show is based around the two of them going fishing as they’ve both got serious heart problems. Paul is the expert fisherman, and Bob does the cooking. They reflect on their lives and talk quite openly about death, mortality etc. As you’d expect there is plenty of laughs, but it’s them being more themselves rather than characters.

I’m up to episode 4 now, it’s on IPlayer if you should fancy it.

[Will Hunt]

Inside No9 Live. On iplayer now but not sure it will work as well on catch up. I was watching it through my fingers.

[moose]

But currently watching Mortimer & Whitehouse: Gone Fishing. And I’m really enjoying it. There is a strange sadness about it, as the show is based around the two of them going fishing as they’ve both got serious heart problems. Paul is the expert fisherman, and Bob does the cooking. They reflect on their lives and talk quite openly about death, mortality etc. As you’d expect there is plenty of laughs, but it’s them being more themselves rather than characters.

Have you been watching "My Favourite Sketch" on  UK Gold?  If not, I think you might like it.   It is like a comedy Desert Island Disks: one hour episodes of comedians talking about their favourite sketches with Sally Philiips. One of those programmes where the format, i.e. talking about other comedians' works, is an excuse to get guests to let their guard down and talk about their early careers, failures, hang-ups etc... but leavened with lots of funny clips. So far, Johnny Vegas and Bob Mortimer have been the biggest names, from my own history, but Sue Perkins and Jessica Hynes' episodes have maybe been the most interesting.

https://gold.uktv.co.uk/shows/my-favourite-sketch/episodes/

[Will Hunt]

After a blissfully telly free month or two it seems the winter TV season is beginning.

Watched the first episode of Little Drummer Girl which has got me. Looking forward to more.

And Only Connect is back on so I can resume my pastime of staring adoringly at Victoria Coren-Mitchell while being completely baffled.

[nik at work]

Only Connect is amazing.

I've also enjoyed watching Taskmaster, it's fairly standard Dave tv fare so an easy end of the day watch.

I was deeply disappointed by Hannah Fry's maths/numbers thing on the beeb. I had high hopes but the endless long drawn out shots of Hannah looking deep in thought in a weird garden were too much to even make it through the first episode. Please let me know if I bailed too early on this one...

[Johnny Brown]

staring adoringly at Victoria Coren-Mitchell while being completely baffled.

   Smuggest woman on tv?

[Will Hunt]

staring adoringly at Victoria Coren-Mitchell while being completely baffled.

   Smuggest woman on tv?

Those who are intimidated by witty and attractive women need not watch 

[Oldmanmatt]

“The Good Place”.
Netflix.

At first it just seemed frivolous and silly, if funny.
But as it progresses, real Doug Adams/ Gaiman vibe begins to assert itself. By season 3, the characters are quite relatable and the conversations with my 13 year old daughter are becoming quite interesting.

[TobyD]

Better call Saul

Just started watching season 4 on Netflix. I'd forgotten just how good this is.

[ashtond6]

Springsteen on Broadway on Netflix is incredible.

Lots of emotive talking and visions of USA in the last 60 years.

I think it would be enjoyable even if you don't like Bruce

[Johnny Brown]

Just watching the Bros doc, again. 
Not long left on iplayer...

[TobyD]

A rant (with slight Killing Eve spoiler so look away now if you're watching it)...

I am getting increasingly annoyed with the obsession in modern TV of never ending a series / season. Why are writers / commissioners obsessed with the next series, at the expense of (in my opinion) frustrating the viewers?

I get this all the time now - you are engrossed in something, enjoying watching it but midway through the penultimate episode, uh oh there it is. You can see the plot lines not being drawn to a close, potential ambiguity being opened up and you know you're in for the televisual equivalent of being put on hold.

Killing Eve's a case in point - and I just know Bodyguard is going to do the same.

The best TV series (in my opinion) have managed to drive smaller series-level plots that can be resolved, but still exist within a wider universal narrative.

Think The Wire, any of the seasons of which can be enjoyed without necessarily seeing the previous ones. The same is true to a certain extent of The Sopranos.

The Bridge was a master of this - "the case" was satisfactorily rounded off within the series, and also a chapter of Saga's life too.

True Detective even managed to do a first season that was compelling, self-contained and actually had an ending after the final episode. It's not that hard. (Caveat that subsequent series have I gather been terrible so maybe not the best example but you get the idea).

Not everything has to be bloody Lost, meandering along with no sense of an ending!

Having finished watching Killing Eve now I agree with you ttt. It started really well, but I felt it lost its own internal structure, the expense of trying to create a jaw dropping cliff hanger. Some things pull this off but it's now become cliche.

[SA Chris]

Just watching the Bros doc, again. 
Not long left on iplayer...

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0001qyv tomorrow night again


Apparently unintentionally hilarious.

[Johnny Brown]

Oh I think the directors knew exactly what they were doing. It's funnier than Spinal Tap, not only are they more ridiculous they're not acting.

[SA Chris]

Looking forward to seeing it.

[tomtom]

Just watching “a slow odyssey: the Great Wall” on bbc4.... in its own words slow tv style flight along 2500km of the Great Wall... no music - captions annotating the highlights.

Amazing!

[TobyD]

I don't know if it's already been mentioned here, I'm watching Luther on I player at the moment. Enjoyable cop drama, nothing ground breaking just entertaining.