Just been cancelled by Fox. Won’t be returning for a third season.
The Leftovers, really enjoying watching this, so good.
Also,watched the first four episodes of the new Twin Peaks. I was not all that impressed with the debut episode, but it did get better with episodes 2 to 4.
Richard Diamond created by Blake Edwards, starring David Janssen… is a top-notch detective-show, for its 26-minute length. But the problem with Blake Edwards is usually; Blake Edwards. The series begins in New York. But David Janssen never feels like a New Yorker. Then at the beginning of Season-3, Diamond is suddenly in Los Angeles, without any explanation other than what he tells a-girl-at-the-pool: " I moved out here. "
Yet the show’s gimmick, the sexy switchboard-girl, goes from NY to LA too, without any elaboration on her and Diamond’s relationship. And yeah, he also goes from slumming at the NY police-HQ to slumming at the LA police-HQ.
That all said, it’s a well-written show with legitimate street-drama woven-in. -Made palpable by Janssen’s world-weary narration. The fist-fights are a little stage-y though. Too many guns swatted-out of hands too easily.
I had a shock: David Janssen, in a TV-series, as a private eye? The Fugitive must be several centuries old by now …
But checking things on You Tube, I discovered that it’s a series from the late Fifties …
I thought “Hannibal” on NBC (2013-15) was the best series on TV at the time. Certainly unlike anything else. At least seasons 1 & 2, the third and final was largely disappointing. The show was always at or near the bottom in ratings but popularity and quality are often two very different things.
Finished season three of Better Call Saul last night having watched all ten episodes over four days. I’m still bored senseless by Kim Wexler and her Mesa Verde storyline but the rest of the show went through the gears, making season three easily the best season so far. Jimmy is coming to the rather bleak conclusion that every time he tries to do the right thing he suffers for it, yet every time he hoodwinks the system and bilks somebody, it works like a charm. Turning that old lady over was just wrong, a real dark alley for Jimmy albeit under huge financial strain, and I’m glad he finally made amends for that even though, again, it cost him everything. Mike’s storyline has become Breaking Bad Season Zero in all but name and that’s just fine by me, with great work coming from Jonathan Banks of course but also from Mark Margolis (Hector) and Michael Mando (Nacho). Gus Fring hasn’t made quite the splash he did in Breaking Bad as yet but that will doubtless change. “Drug dealer? If that’s all you think he is… you don’t know Gus Fring,” whispered the returning Lydia to Mike, and I’m sure he’ll be demonstrating that before BCS is through.
And Michael McKean deserves every plaudit coming to him for his work as Jimmy’s troubled, spiteful brother Chuck. Man of the Match for this season 100%, and I reckon I’ll be hard pressed to find a better performance by anybody anywhere else on television this year. Typical of course of the Spın̈al Tap frontman to turn in a performance that goes to eleven.
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Four episodes into season three of Fargo. Excellent stuff again so far, with the highest praise going to the magnetic David Thewlis, to the gorgeous Mary Elizabeth Winstead and to Ewan McGregor in dual roles as a pair of feuding brothers. There was also an appearance in one episode by Clint Eastwood’s daughter Francesca (whom some may remember from her turn in last year’s rather violent western Outlaws and Angels) in flashback sequences as a vampish con-artist, with Francesca’s real-life mother Frances Fisher playing the part of the same character thirty-odd years later.
If the rest of the season maintains this form it’ll be the best season yet.
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26 Men… with Tris Coffin and Kelo Henderson. As Arizona was becoming a State in 1900, the former Territory only had enough money to employ 26 Rangers. They performed the same duties as the Texas Rangers, but it’s basically just Coffin and Henderson. Other Rangers come and go through-out the episodes.
It’s a crime-western with lots of action, shot almost entirely outside. The tightly written plots stay focused on the crime. Virtually no lingering side-dramas or humorous tie-in’s. The drama and humor are in-the-moment. Plus some of the action is pretty violent. A young boy is shot for no reason other than he’s hauling a barrel of water… so the killer can shoot holes in the barrel and get a drink.
A nice assortment of SW-influences are sprinkled through-out the series. They don’t put empty bottles on a fence for target-practice, for example. They put them on a spinning wagon-wheel ‘table’. The soundtrack goes from acoustic-guitar to orchestra to mens’ chorale, usually humming the show’s infectious theme-song. I’d rate this series as a solid 7-out-of-10.
Neglected to mention that, prior to starting Better Call Saul season 3, we watched season 5 of Orange is the New Black a season which takes place entirely over the course of three or four days during a prison riot which began in the very last episode of season 4. Very uneven season, I thought. I mean OitNB has always been a comedy/drama but it struggled to find that mix this time out, leaning too heavily on the comedy and subsequently rendering what drama there was - in this season and the season previous - to be of little consequence. I don’t know what it is with this show, it seems to alternate between having a good season, a bad season and an indifferent season.
Finished Fargo season 3 last night and I think I liked it better than the second season. @MazzyStar definitely didnt; I don’t think she appreciated the strange, vaguely supernatural quirks of one or two of the episodes. I reminded her that a major shootout in season two was resolved by the arrival of a bloody great big spaceship but she reminded me that she didn’t appreciate that aspect of Fargo either. Fair enough.
Game of Thrones season 7 now, every Monday for the next seven weeks. In between, I think we’re going to watch the original Twin Peaks. I haven’t seen it in years, wife’s never seen it ever, and I want to be fully re-acclimated before we get stuck into the new Twin Peaks.
Just as long as you don’t expect the new Twin Peaks season to be anything like the original two. They are miles apart. If you love Lynch’s more ‘far-out’ stuff like Inland Empire, Eraserhead, that vein, you are going to be ok. If not, it’s going to eat you and spit you out after a couple of episodes 
I dig Nobel quite a bit, and I’m still watching Bloodline. Saw the first episode of Shooter (but knowing the movie it might turn out boring). I’m also watching The Affair, which is quite interesting.
Oh, I loves me a bit of weird. Certainly if it’s a bit of Lynchian weird. Can’t see the missus liking it but, well, I didn’t like The bloody Affair.
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I really liked Nobel. Highly recommended
Finished the short first season of Twin Peaks (1990). I’ve enjoyed returning to it and I’m seeing a lot more of the humour in there than I did years ago but I have to be honest: I don’t think it’s dated very well at all (in fairness, not many 20th century tv dramas have, imho).
Really?
I re-watched several parts a few weeks ago, and it still looks amazing. I rewatched it with some people a few years ago (actually in 2009), and they were fascinated by it.
Twin Peals was well ahead if its time, and for me it still shows. It looks somehow better than the new episodes.
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Twin Peaks sitll in a league of its own, I’ve rewatched maybe some 10 years ago (after rewatched Dune in turn), and was still memorably fresh. The concept combined with the dialogues and music made a perfect combination.
Like they only made two seasons it never became boring or something, they finished at the ideal time. A good ideia for a holiday watch, not Game of Thrones that’s for sure,
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You clearly cannot remember second half of season 2 I have seen the first two seasons several times now and each rewatch I’ve said to myself: This time you are going to pull yourself together and find something good in the last 10-12 episodes and I’ve failed every time 
I don’t think they finished the show by the way. I’m pretty sure it was cancelled and for good reasons in my opinion.
Season three is something totally different. Not the same series at all.
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The first 14-15 episodes are still excellent I think. Rewatched the whole mess a year ago or so I think. It has its flaws of course but I pretty much think it is a series in a league of its own and comparing it or putting it in a basket called “20th century tv dramas” is unfair I think.
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Yes, well each to their own of course but I think it looks dated now. Everything about it felt in front of the game a quarter of a century ago and the concepts are still absolutely outstanding for a network TV show but the execution simply isn’t comparable with present TV standards, IMO.
No, it’s not unfair to call it a 20th century TV drama; it IS a 20th century TV drama. You may of course suggest that it’s many other things besides and I’d likely agree with many of those other things - I have been a fan since it first aired - but it’s a matter of fact that Twin Peaks (the first two seasons) is a 20th century TV drama. In addition, it’s my opinion that most of those - Twin Peaks among them - have dated quite badly in their presentation, probably I suppose because of the greater budgets and attention lavished on TV dramas since, say, The Sopranos or maybe Oz. IMO.
I would certainly imagine so; I’m enormously looking forward to something as forward thinking as Twin Peaks getting the treatment afforded to the best TV dramas of today. I’m not sure I can think of a show more deserving of a televisual revisit/update.
Again, each to their own but personally I think Game of Thrones is f*cking excellent; maybe the greatest TV show ever, with the possible exception of Breaking Bad. Of course, as good as those shows are, maybe both will look fairly quaint by the standards against which TV shows are measured 27 years hence. Who knows?
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Don’t got me wrong I like game of thrones, finnaly the inner geek in me came out of the closet , I was just giving an exemple of something totally contrary to Twin Peaks, maybe not the best one.
Still not the greatest TV show ever for me of course, can’t beat those classic British TV series, like Danger UXB, The Jewel in the Crown or Brideshead Revisited. but for 8 million by episode you’re probably right
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