# What are You Watching / Enjoying on TV?



## Fading Fast (Aug 22, 2012)

I searched but only found really old threads on this topic, but if there is a current thread going - I apologize and ask the moderators to please cancel this thread and just drop my post in the one that's already going.

Assuming there isn't another thread going on this, here's our inaugural post:









The first (and, so far, only) season of *In The Dark *(via Netflix, originally on the CW network).

It's off to the races right from the start in this crime mystery wrapped inside a drama about a young, very attractive blind girl, Murphy (played by Perry Mattfield) - early 20s, smokes, drinks, has (lots of) casual (and meaningless) sex, is rude, but, and kudos to the writers and Mattfeld for this, shows enough humanity (and more as the show goes on) to keep you intrigued and, mainly, rooting for her - and her devoted but weary parents and small circle of friends - you'd be weary too; she's pushes everyone's buttons, often too far.

But the catalyst for the plot is the murder of her young, still just a minor, teenage male friend and extremely small time drug dealer and Murphy's obsession to find his killer - you don't want to get in this blind girl's way when she's on the hunt for a clue.

Modern TV - when done well, as this show is - knows how to slowly unfold complex plots over several episodes while equally building three-dimensional characters and relationships where everything - the murder mystery, the characters and the relationships - continue to change in (overall) surprising but (mainly) believable ways.

As Murphy's world of friends, family and coworkers slowly gets entwined with the crazy dangerous world of drug dealers and both honest and dirty cops that Murphy engages with to solve the murder, the tensions rise and conflicts increase. This smashing together of two worlds flips everybody's "normal" upside down as when Murphy's kind veterinarian roommate finds herself accidentally teaming with drug dealers to hide a body and chase a suspect for a putative greater good that would knock any normal person's gyroscope way off balance.

And that's why you watch - everyone's gyroscope is rocked to tilt as a force-of-nature blind woman, who had an atypical but wonderful and deep friendship with a young drug dealer, pushes herself and anyone in her orbit to question their morality, their physical abilities and everything they believed about themselves and the world whether they want to or not, while, Murphy - ultimately - is forced to do the same.

It's not always easy watching, but few things that challenge you are; however, a surprising amount of light humor and warm friendships - that come from unlikely places - keeps it from draining you and there's also this: Murphy's companion dog has one of the best dog names ever - Pretzel (and he's as handsome a dog as you'll find). Oh, of course, it's not missed that Murphy's life and the crime mystery are all just one giant pretzel.

There's too much modern TV out there - some of it's garbage - but the good stuff, like *In the Dark*, is better than almost every movie made - quite a switch from a time when the quality was in film and TV was almost all mindless fluff.


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## Howard (Dec 7, 2004)

I was watching Full House this morning.


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## ran23 (Dec 11, 2014)

IN the Dark, 2013? watching it now.


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## Fading Fast (Aug 22, 2012)

ran23 said:


> IN the Dark, 2013? watching it now.


Hi, that's a different one - the one I saw is from 2019. Here's the link:

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7772602/


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## ran23 (Dec 11, 2014)

OK, this one was not bad, with Elisabeth Rohm in the lead. thanks


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## Howard (Dec 7, 2004)

News And Weather


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## Mr. B. Scott Robinson (Jan 16, 2017)

Only one thing to watch in the summer in Atlanta...the Braves!

Cheers

BSR


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## Dhaller (Jan 20, 2008)

I am not generally a TV watcher, but lately I've been binging on "The Americans", a spy drama.

(I discovered the show from an article in the WSJ on a private intelligence firm - founded by some ex-Mossad guys - called Black Cube. Amusingly, one thing they do with recruits is have them watch "The Americans", because it so accurately portrays tradecraft. Intrigued, I watched an episode, and was immediately hooked.)

DH


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## smmrfld (May 22, 2007)

Howard said:


> I was watching Full House this morning.


Excellent choice.


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## SG_67 (Mar 22, 2014)

I haven’t watched a regular TV series for some time. 

I did start and kept up with HBO’s Westworld and am looking forward to the 3rd season.


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## Fading Fast (Aug 22, 2012)

I chose to get sleep vs watching the Yankees last night and what a great choice as they lost on a 2-out, 2-strike walk-off home run. That high-anxiety moment would have made it impossible for me to quickly fall asleep afterwards. Instead, I skipped the game, read the box scores and watched the highlight this morning and was like, "whatever." If I don't watch the game, I find my emotional investment is so low, I almost don't care.


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## eagle2250 (Mar 24, 2006)

Last evening we spent a couple of hours watching an episode of American Pickers on HGTV and an episode of The Code.


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## Howard (Dec 7, 2004)

smmrfld said:


> Excellent choice.


That's basically what I watch in the morning before I leave the house to go to work.


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## Fading Fast (Aug 22, 2012)

eagle2250 said:


> Last evening we spent a couple of hours watching an episode of American Pickers on HGTV and an episode of The Code.


We watch "American Pickers" off and on - love seeing some of the stuff they find. Here's the thing that surprises me - who knew there were so many places and people who collected all this stuff? Each week it seems these guy go to three or for barns/houses/warehouses/junkyard-ish places that have hundred or thousand of old things (and many in okay to excellent shape).

Usually one person or a couple had a passion for collecting and amassed these huge collections over many years. I get all that, but am amazed that there are so many of those people in the country that the show has been able to go on for years finding, as noted, three or four new places to pick each week.


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## SG_67 (Mar 22, 2014)

For those who may have missed “Chernobyl” on HBO, I would highly recommend it. 

For a more comedic, albeit dark, take on our former Soviet foes, I’d recommend “The Death of Stalin” on showtime.


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## Peak and Pine (Sep 12, 2007)

My tee vee crapped so I'm headed over to Howard's to get a little _Full House _injected into my eyeballs. You can never get too much Olsen.


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## Fading Fast (Aug 22, 2012)

We've watched the first several episodes of Netflix's *Dead to Me.* It's a solid half-hour mystery-around-a-"normal-"family series that, so far, reminds me of what an updated version of those old half-hour-long Hitchcock TV shows from the '50s and '60s would be like.

While this show stays with one family throughout, versus the Hitchcock show, which dropped you into a new situation each episode, the way *Dead to Me* shows the dark side of "normal" life - how most things are not as they appear to be on the surface - has a real echo back to Hitchcock.

And a shoutout is deserved for Christina Applegate as she's killing it in the lead role as a somewhat tired-of-it-all mother of two who's dealing with the fallout to her family and herself from the recent death of her husband.


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## Shaver (May 2, 2012)

I rarely, and by which I mean almost never, watch TV because, amongst the manifold and numerous other valid reasons, I become faintly annoyed by the progressive doublethink which increasingly permeates, saturates even, both adverts, programming and, especially, broadcast news.

"Thou hast set our iniquities before thee, our secret sins in the light of thy countenance 
For all our days are passed away in thy wrath: we spend our years as a tale that is told"

Psalm 90 verse 8










This said, I am rather keen on my bluray copies of American Gods seasons 1 and 2, which I suppose, at a push, could be counted as enjoying a television programme.


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## Shaver (May 2, 2012)

Dear moderator, sorry to be a nuisance but could you clip the word 'both' from this passage of my post above:

"increasingly permeates, saturates even, *both* adverts, programming and, especially, broadcast news".

Thank you.


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## Howard (Dec 7, 2004)

Peak and Pine said:


> My tee vee crapped so I'm headed over to Howard's to get a little _Full House _injected into my eyeballs. You can never get too much Olsen.


Full House is on in the morning between 4 and 530am.


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## Peak and Pine (Sep 12, 2007)

Howard said:


> Full House is on in the morning between 4 and 530am.


Where you are maybe. Up here it's on constantly, paused only to announce the tide tables, the current lobster run and where the week's bean suppers are. Maine is _Full House_ country. We love them Olsens.


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## SG_67 (Mar 22, 2014)

Shaver said:


> I rarely, and by which I mean almost never, watch TV because, amongst the manifold and numerous other valid reasons, I become faintly annoyed by the progressive doublethink which increasingly permeates, saturates even, both adverts, programming and, especially, broadcast news.
> 
> "Thou hast set our iniquities before thee, our secret sins in the light of thy countenance
> For all our days are passed away in thy wrath: we spend our years as a tale that is told"
> ...


Long live the new flesh!


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## FJW (Jan 25, 2012)

My wife and I complain about the cost of our cable/Internet bill every month since we generally watch 80 year old movies on TCM.


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## Fading Fast (Aug 22, 2012)

FJW said:


> My wife and I complain about the cost of our cable/Internet bill every month since we generally watch 80 year old movies on TCM.


We are the exact same. My guesstimate, >50% of everything we watch on our God-knows-how-many cable channels is from TCM. I've had several conversations with our cable provider about this and have squeezed the package and bill as low as I can and still keep TCM, basic network TV and HBO (that's a non-negotiable one with the girlfriend).


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## Howard (Dec 7, 2004)

FJW said:


> My wife and I complain about the cost of our cable/Internet bill every month since we generally watch 80 year old movies on TCM.


What's your favorite?


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## eagle2250 (Mar 24, 2006)

Last evening we enjoyed a couple of hours of Forged In Fire on the History Channel.


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## FJW (Jan 25, 2012)

Howard said:


> What's your favorite?


I'm a big Cary Grant fan so I'd have to say "North By Northwest" or "Mr Blandings Builds His Dream House".


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## Fading Fast (Aug 22, 2012)

FJW said:


> I'm a big Cary Grant fan so I'd have to say "North By Northwest" or "Mr Blandings Builds His Dream House".


Good choices and I'd add, my favorite less-well-known CG movies are "In Name Only" and "People Will Talk."

As to favorites of his, that is hard as he had so many incredible movies. A few more to mention, "Holiday," "The Philadelphia Story" and "The Bishop's Wife."

If I had to name just one, it might be "His Girl Friday" with equal applause given to Rosalind Russell.

Also, just noting, "Only Angles Have Wings."


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## eagle2250 (Mar 24, 2006)

Last evening...:icon_scratch::icon_scratch::icon_scratch:...absolutely nothing! We each curled up with a couple of books!


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## Fading Fast (Aug 22, 2012)

eagle2250 said:


> Last evening...:icon_scratch::icon_scratch::icon_scratch:...absolutely nothing! We each curled up with a couple of books!


We did too - sometimes you don't want TV, just a book. Only a chapter to go in "Custom of the Country." Then I'll write up some comment about it for AAAC.


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## AndrewO (May 5, 2019)

I adore watching Hotstar while on a treadmill. Unfortunately, Hotstar is geoblocked in my area. That means that if you are an Indian expat living in UK, USA, Canada, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Australia, or elsewhere abroad you cannot watch Hotstar. Luckily, there is a way to bypass this restriction if you follow these recommendations [link removed by moderator] . And if modern Bollywood movies are too vulgar or pointless for you then Hotstar also has some classical movies for you.


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## Fading Fast (Aug 22, 2012)

*Tab Hunter Confidential* from 2015

A documentary on the life of Tab Hunter.

Here's what I thought I knew about Tab Hunter before the documentary: a poor man's Troy Donahue, did a bunch of college movies where he played the all-American boy, short career, maybe came out several years back that he was gay (not sure), past away recently.

I was batting a bit below 500 as he passed away recently (in 2018) and he did come out several years prior, but I was all but wrong about everything else - except, he was one of the original all-American-boy actors.

In the late '50s, Hunter was a huge star for about five-odd years with, like Elvis, a fan base of teens despite being in his late 20s during his career peak. He was also one of the original "triple threats -" a star in movies, TV and music. During those years, he was one of Warner Brothers top-grossing movie stars while also having several gold records and top-selling albums plus, at the same time, he was popular on many TV shows, even having his own show for a year.

We can debate the quality of his work - and the critics hated it - but the guy was a money-making machine and enormous pop icon for about five years. Unfortunately, as was common at the time, he had to hide his homosexuality as the press tried to out him while his studio (successfully) protected him. And, as with other heartthrobs / teen idols who were closeted, the irony wasn't lost on Hunter who, both at the time and later in life, came across as surprisingly and impressively not bitter about the challenges he faced.

And he did face challenges as when he negotiated out of his studio contract in the early '60s - he wanted more challenging rolls / more control / etc. - the press hurt him with salacious stories. While his career had probably already passed its peak, with the added fuel of the negative press, it went downhill fast - also not helped along by the rise of the next all-American pretty boy, Troy Donahue.

After that, he seemed to have come in an out of Hollywood over the next several decades - mainly on TV - while devoting his time to horses, which the documentary left unclear as to whether it was a paying career or just a successful hobby. Either way, he seemed to do all right and, as noted, eventually came out in the early 2000s.

And to close the loop, I was wrong as he only starred in one "college" movie and he pre-dated - and was much bigger than - Troy Donahue. Owing to the documentary and TCM's commentary, I've recorded what are said to be two of his best movies *That Kind of Woman* and *Battle Cry* - *Damn Yankees* is another, but I missed recording it. I'll report back after I get time to see them.


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