What Was the Last Television Episode You Watched?

[CrazyKB]

I finished the last episode of Peaky Blinders. Great show! I finished the last episode of Dark last week. Another Great show!

 

[Matteo]

Doctor Who: City of Death. Tom Baker adventure, I believe the only classic Who story to have an overseas location-filming budget. A bit too much running around Paris and some plot illogicalities, but some surprisingly good dialogue and a decent story.

Is that the one where Cleese and Eleanor Bron are pretentiously admiring the modern art installation (the TARDIS) when the Doctor and Romana jump into it and disappear?

And, on a general note, whenever I re-watch some Classic Who (at least Pertwee/Baker/Davison that I have on dvd) I frequently think there is good dialogue and a decent story. Unlike, sadly, much of the new stuff.

 

[HareBrain]

Is that the one where Cleese and Eleanor Bron are pretentiously admiring the modern art installation (the TARDIS) when the Doctor and Romana jump into it and disappear?

Yes, that's the one. "Exquisite..."

 

[Parson]

Have re-watched Queen's Gambit over the last week or so. It was just as good as I remembered it.

Just started for the first time. I find the jury's out for me so far. I really, really, really, didn't like that it started and then flashed back. I hate knowing where the show is headed before watching it.

 

[Matteo]

To be honest, that was annoying.

 

[Ubergeek]

Is that the one where Cleese and Eleanor Bron are pretentiously admiring the modern art installation (the TARDIS) when the Doctor and Romana jump into it and disappear?

And, on a general note, whenever I re-watch some Classic Who (at least Pertwee/Baker/Davison that I have on dvd) I frequently think there is good dialogue and a decent story. Unlike, sadly, much of the new stuff.

And at the original broadcast Cleese and Bron's appearance would have been a real surprise impact ! I was too young to appreciate the significance and got my Dad to explain . Perhaps it was meta before that was a thing !

Considering the cultural weight of both ( clearly outside their comfort zones ) it would have been a real talking point in workplaces the following Monday .

Sadly , couldn't be done now in the social media age of spoiler leaks .

 

[AE35Unit]

Wolf Hall,season 2 episode 5. I don't understand it all but it is fun. Apparently the codpieces worn were made smaller at the request of PBS so as not to offend American audiences. Bonkers.
Before that we watched the first episode of Andor. And that's as far as we got. The least star wars of all the star wars shows. Boring

 

[Danny McG]

I finished the last episode of Peaky Blinders. Great show! I finished the last episode of Dark last week. Another Great show!

They're filming further Peaky Blinders episodes this week out past Ennerdale here in the Lake District.

 

[Danny McG]

They're filming further Peaky Blinders episodes this week out past Ennerdale here in the Lake District.

I got a message today from a pal who works in catering, they've been with the film crew....he brought me a heap of food from the set.

 

[Toby Frost]

Somewhere, a gangster is glaring at an empty table and snarling "Oi! Wot slag's gone and half-inched me crutons?"

 

[Pyan]

Watching the 1970s productions of Dorothy L Sayer's Lord Peter Wimsey novels, starring Ian Carmichael in the title role. The production values are very much of their time, of course, and the colour balance is definitely on the faded side, but it's still very enjoyable to watch.
Having read the books many, many times, I know them very well, and the main thing that strikes me is the fidelity of the story and the script to the novels. It's so refreshing to watch something I know well that hasn't been mucked about with and rewritten by the adapters and directors as happens so often these days (koff koff peter jackson koff).
Very much worth watching if you're into period detective novels/films.

 

[AE35Unit]

Began to watch Foundation but the dog was creating so had to be walked (he's like an errant toddler)
What I saw of it did not look like Foundation. More like Star Wars. And there were kids at the start, one of whom, a young girl, offered to show one of the boys her boobs. Err, ok!

 

[paranoid marvin]

This Is England 86/88/90

Funny, poignant, heart breaking, and at times terrifying.

A coming of age drama from the late 80s/early 90s in Northern England.

Brilliant, and utterly compelling.

 

[Bookworm]

The last movie I watched was 'Barbie.' It turned out to be way more interesting than I expected! It was funny and had a deep message. I really liked the bright colors and the music.

 

[Randy M.]

The Avengers, 1966, season 4, episode 13: "Too Many Christmas Trees", starring Patrick McNee and Diana Rigg, directed by Roy Ward Baker

John Steed has bad dreams; Mrs. Emma Peel suggests a cure. Steed's dreams have left him unrested and restless, also disturbed since his dream of a friend's death appears prophetic. Mrs. Peel has been invited to a Christmas party held by a publisher she knows slightly and in turn invites Steed to join her for a holiday rest. Naturally, it's not as simple as all that.

Proving Easter Eggs aren't a new concept, the publisher is Dickens besotted, with busts of Dickens decorating his house, Dickensian Christmas decorations and a Dickens inspired dinner during which his guests dress as Dickens charaters (Mrs. Peel as Oliver Twist, Steed as Sydney Carlton); the publisher is played by Mervyn Johns, who was Bob Cratchett in the 1951 A Christmas Carol, staring Alastair Sim.

Also, Steed receives a Christmas card from Cathy Gale. Gale was his partner for the show's previous two seasons, as played by Honor Blackman who left to star in Goldfinger: Steed says, "Mrs. Gale! Ah, how nice of her to remember me. What can she be doing in Fort Knox?"

 

[KGeo777]

THE INVADERS - The Trial - David Vincent's war buddy (Don Gordon) is charged with murder after he kills an invader and the body disappears. Vincent and the defense lawyer (Russell Johnson) try to save him while the prosecutor (Harold Gould) seems to be confident he will get a conviction. Could he be an alien too?

MANNIX - All Around The Money Tree -- Joe's neighbor (Christopher Cary) who throws around his British accent more flamboyantly than Austin Powers, is being pursued by a variety of UK accented folk as they are after some stolen money. It ends with Mannix recovering the money which--as reviewers have pointed out--would be such a big payout for him that he could have retired from the business.

KOLCHAK- THE NIGHT STALKER - The Energy Eater - one of the two episodes I have seen the leas due to it being combined into a tv-movie--and watched for the first time in HD. Not one of the better episodes although unusual for having Kolchak partnered with William Smith for much of it (who calls him "Charles" instead of Carl to the point where even he gets confused). Premiered 50 years ago today.

Also watched this clip from a game show I think I saw back when it first aired.

 

[KGeo777]

KOJAK - The Betrayal -- in an episode directed by Savalas, an ambitious detective is being manipulated by a lowlife underworld informant (Paul Anka) to the point of no return. They also put up a Christmas tree in the squad room with wanted mugshots as decorations before Crocker and Stavros get chewed out by the bald one for disrespecting the holiday.
Premiered 50 years ago today.

 

[Jeffbert]

LIS #74 (s3 #15) The Anti-Matter Man. A negative John & Don attack. Silly, but dramatic.


#75 (s3 #16) Target Earth. A very similar theme, but this time, the whole crew is duplicated, as aliens, who are all very much alike, decide they must impersonate the crew, go to Earth, & conquer it. It all starts when Dr. Smith accidentally launches the space pod with the robot's lower half to the surface of a certain planet. No explanation for the fact that the upper half appears to be levitating.

When the J2 lands next to the space pod, gloopy aliens overpower the crew, and turn some of their own, into duplicates of them. The J2 lifts-off, heading to Earth (who knew it was so close, & easy to locate?) returns the pod to the J2, go all the way to Earth, where the real Will somehow takes control and flies back to the other planet, where they forgot to move the Space Pod out of the scene. Don & John the fakes are at each other's throats, attempting to assert dominance over each other.

Despite the inept plot, some of the music is rather creepy.

 

[Randy M.]

"Lost Hearts" (1973) dir. Lawrence Gordon Clark; starring Simon Gipps-Kent, Joseph O'Connor, Susan Richards

Part of "A Ghost Story for Christmas" anthology. A well-done adaptation of one of M. R. James' darker stories, of the same title. A show like this lives or dies on the child's acting, and Gipps-Kent was quite good as the orphaned boy sent to live with his cousin. Likewise, O'Connor, playing the much older cousin, handles his part well, too.


"Whistle and I'll Come to You" (1968) dir. Jonathan Miller; starring Michael Hordern

An episode of "Omnibus" based on M. R. James' "Oh, Whistle, and I'll Come to You, My Lad." I'm ambivalent about this one. What it does well, it does very well: The first intrusion of ... something ... on the beach, the final scenes (someone noted the illustration that went with, I presume, the story's initial publication) and Hordern's acting as Prof. Parkins. A good deal of the episode's effectiveness rests on Hodern's ability to shift from preoccupied to concerned to fearful. What this adaptation doesn't capture is the story's early light-heartedness as James skewers the main character's pompousness and pretensions. There's a stab at it, but I didn't find it effective.

 

[paranoid marvin]

"Lost Hearts" (1973) dir. Lawrence Gordon Clark; starring Simon Gipps-Kent, Joseph O'Connor, Susan Richards

Part of "A Ghost Story for Christmas" anthology. A well-done adaptation of one of M. R. James' darker stories, of the same title. A show like this lives or dies on the child's acting, and Gipps-Kent was quite good as the orphaned boy sent to live with his cousin. Likewise, O'Connor, playing the much older cousin, handles his part well, too.


"Whistle and I'll Come to You" (1968) dir. Jonathan Miller; starring Michael Hordern

An episode of "Omnibus" based on M. R. James' "Oh, Whistle, and I'll Come to You, My Lad." I'm ambivalent about this one. What it does well, it does very well: The first intrusion of ... something ... on the beach, the final scenes (someone noted the illustration that went with, I presume, the story's initial publication) and Hordern's acting as Prof. Parkins. A good deal of the episode's effectiveness rests on Hodern's ability to shift from preoccupied to concerned to fearful. What this adaptation doesn't capture is the story's early light-heartedness as James skewers the main character's pompousness and pretensions. There's a stab at it, but I didn't find it effective.

Hordern's professor is quite a different one to that in James' story. The Omnibus adaptation makes him older and far more introverted, to the point of isolation. His conversations are more like pontifications, with the professor enjoying scoring points off others.

The Professor feels 'protected' by his intellectual superiority, and the horror occurs when this is stripped away, confronted by a primordial entity that cares nothing for wit or words.