@Thrillho Ah, I see. More like a premiere setting up a larger, over-arching narrative for the season then it sounds like. Hope it goes back more to case of the week over the course of the season so that you can still enjoy those episodes alongside the serialisation!
@FuriousMachine Delighted to hear I played a part in you deciding to start Pluribus earlier! We is us (as you'll come to understand after watching)! I'll be eagerly awaiting your thoughts and theories on what is going on. A shame that Matlock isn't yet available where you live. I'd think it would be on whatever Paramount+ equivalent is in your country, but looking it up just now I see it's not available on the Netherlands' equivalent either. Some shows I've simply had to sail the high antennas for...
Not sure how many Brits we have on here aside from the few that I know of, but for any of them reading, I'd love to recommend Riot Women. It's the new show from Sally Wainwright, most famous for writing Happy Valley, and I had a great time with it. Just finished it earlier today. I think it had a somewhat slow start with the first episode feeling very introductory, but I was very sold on this ensemble as the episodes went by. Rosalie Craig and Joanna Scanlan in particular give some outstanding performances. Would love to see the former be recognised at the BAFTAs for her work here!
@FuriousMachine@Tjuz Enjoying Pluribus myself. Bummed that I have to wait for episode 4, but the first three have been great. Nothing like Breaking Bad, but good nonetheless.
“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.”
@Tjuz Trying to avoid sailing the seas, myself. Was an avid sailor back in the day, but as more and more became available through legit channels, I stick to that as much as I can. If something comes along that simply demands a watch and is completely unavailable here, I will probably don peg-leg and shoulder-parrot again, but so far I've been able to do without, I'm proud to say.
@FuriousMachine Totally fair! I try to avoid it as much as I can as well. I have subscription services to more places than I can count on one hand, so I'll always prioritise those if they are available. Netflix, Disney+, HBO Max, Amazon Prime, Hayu, Apple TV+, Ziggo GO... and I'm probably forgetting one or two still as well. I'm glad that companies at least have gotten better at doing simultaneous international releases in recent years. The thing that used to piss me off the most was shows coming out in the US and, for no discernible reason, coming to the European equivalents months or a year later. I am too much of a TV nerd however to accept my fate there and wait for the powers that be! If it's not available to me, I've been cursed with the knowledge of knowing how to safely make it available to me nonetheless. If you have more patience than me with that, I commend you for it!
@Tjuz Yeah, I'm pretty much the same. My patience in waiting for some show to make it to my localised streaming service is much higher these days, though, as there is so much to watch and very few shows that I simply must watch immediately. Luckily, most of those are more or less day and date (well, typically one day delay) with the rest of the world. The exceptions are usually US network shows and non-Taylor-Sheridan shows on SkyShowtime (All the Taylor Sheridan shows seem to drop fairly close to their US debut - though Landman s2 should have started yesterday, but hasn't for some reason).
@Th3solution@Tjuz Watched the first three episodes of Pluribus this weekend and I absolutely loved it! I think Carol may be living in an introvert's paradise, at least for now 😁
And hello Norway in episode 3! I don't think the ice hotel is a real place (we do have ice bars and igloo hotels, but the one depicted sounds fictional - even our winters aren't long enough to rebuild the hotel from scratch every winter because everything melts down in the summer, so I that doesn't feel all that plausible), but the actor was a genuine Norwegian and not some pretend Norwegian which may sound Norwegian to foreign ears but is an American trained on videos of the Swedish Chef from the Muppets. Genuine Norwegian actors have historically been rare, though decent Norwegian actors seem to have become more common in Hollywood these days, so maybe it's easier for casting directors to "go authentic".
Watched the first episode of Last Samurai Standing on Netflix last night and it looks promising. I starts out bleak as hell in order to cement the protagonist's motivation for joining a competition that works a bit like Stephen King's "The Long Walk" crossed with "Battle Royale", but once the competition starts it sheds some of the bleakness. Looks like there may be some cool characters in this and I will definitely continue watching.
Did you have this on your radar, @BlAcK_Sw0rDsMaN, and, if so, did you see it yet?
i just had the perfect marvel experience with the latest X-men animated series. Its just so perfect and i would argue that the series is the best marvel series/movie ever made. Why bother with live actors and measleys stories when you can have the real deal with everything impossible made possible with the magic of animation. I cant wait for the new season coming.
I have also watched the first 3 seasons of Witcher, its fun to see it imagined in real life, but it was so and so. I have only played the games so i will not be the judge of how acurate everything is but i liked the monsters and the image of the world and Geralt. I am looking foreward to watch season 4 in a while. Henry Cavill does a good Geralt but there is room for improvement.
I have also been watching the Bear and that is a good series. BEing a former chef i could recognize some of the topics and the hardship of creating good food. Recommended, but i guess i am late to the party
@FuriousMachine I did take an interest in it, when you brought it to my attention, before, but I haven't seen it and as I don't have Netflix, I will be unable to partake in the adventuring unless it is released on Blu Ray at some point further down the line, but thanks for pointing this one out, nevertheless, Furious! .
"Preoccupied with a single leaf, you won’t see the tree. Preoccupied with a single tree, you’ll miss the entire forest. Don't be preoccupied with a single spot. See everything in its entirety...effortlessly. That is what it means...to truly "see." "
Been catching up with Stranger Things in advance of its final season. Got through the first two seasons and have made a small dent in Season 3. There's so much I'd forgotten about (some of which has been great to rediscover, but other parts I'd obviously blocked for good reason). I've never seen Season 4 before, either, so that'll be a first-time experience for me in the coming weeks. Hopefully I'll get it all done in time to meet the finale when it lands on New Year's Day.
"If I let not knowing anything stop me from doing something, I'd never do everything!"
@BlAcK_Sw0rDsMaN Now that you mention it, I seem to remember that you said something to that effect previously. Fingers crossed it gets a physical release, then
@FuriousMachine Does Norway have the odd SkyShowtime combination too? In the Netherlands, it's basically some version of Paramount+ and original content from Sky UK/Italy/Germany all mixed in one. Still somehow with less content than the domestic Paramount+ however. These media rights are a total menace! I'm glad that for the most part, the shows you get genuinely excited about are available to you in a relatively quick fashion. For the most part, mine are too. Like you said, US network shows are often the ones that don't release reliably, and both Elsbeth and Matlock are prime examples of that. It's unusual in this day and age for me to actively follow a US network show anyhow, but I couldn't resist spin-off show of a show I love as well as a Kathy Bates vehicle legal drama!
Happy to hear that you've enjoyed Pluribus! I haven't gotten around to watch the third episode yet, as I've been prioritising some other stuff over the last week, but I have no doubt it will deliver. No show will take priority over The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City for me though.... and I mean that unironically. Incredible television, though admittedly not for everyone, haha. I'm intrigued to see this fictional ''ice hotel'' you speak of. Sounds like a fun concept, albeit not realistic. If they were able to pull that off in real life however, I'd love to go there!
@Tjuz Yeah, we used to have Paramount+ here for about five minutes before SkyShowtime took over and that was not exactly an improvement in my opinion (I thought it would be, as it would bring in shows from Peacock as well, but those shows seem to drop looooong after they've originally aired. We just got "The Paper" the other day). Showtime itself used to be part of the then quite decent HBO Nordic. Must say that HBO Max is marginally better as a replacement there, though, even if Showtime suffers a bit at SkyShowtime.
Still, things are better now in terms of availability in general, compared to just 10 years ago, so I shan't complain (too much )
John Oliver extolled the virtues of RHoSLC on "Last Week Tonight" a while back, if I remember correctly, so much so that I considered a trial subscription to a streaming service that carried all those kind of reality shows. Haven't gotten around to it yet, though.
I googled ice hotel and there is, apparently, a hotel that is rebuilt every year as the ice has melted during the summer:
The world’s northernmost ice hotel can be found in Alta in Northern Norway. The first Sorrisniva Igloo Hotel was built in 1999, making it the second of its kind in the world.
Every winter, artists sculpt huge blocks of ice and shape the snow. After about a month, the hotel is completed and is open to the public.
"Things were a bit slow during the first eight to ten years, but it’s eventually become a popular experience,” says Sorrisniva’s head of sales and marketing, Jan Roger Eriksen.
Sorrisniva is among the world's most famous ice hotels, right up there with Jukkasjärvi Ice Hotel in Sweden, the hotel that started the concept as early as 1990. As its name implies, everything in the hotel is built of ice and snow, from the bed in which you sleep to the glasses from which you drink.
When spring rolls around the entire hotel is reduced to steaming puddles of water. This cycle gives Sorrisniva and its artists a golden opportunity to renew themselves each and every year.
Fascinating... personally I would rather spend my winters in the Maldives or something like that, but to each his own, I guess
EDIT: I originally posted a summary from the intrusive browser AI, which was most likely inaccurate, so I found a quite from VisitNorway instead, which is far more likely to not be an AI fever dream
@FuriousMachine Always a good sign the machine is working well when they need to replace one service with the other in mere minutes! I'm surprised to hear HBO Nordic previously had Showtime shows as well. I wonder if that had to do with something like Deadwood having its international streaming rights owned by Paramount. Possibly one way of making sure that show (and possibly others?) are with the other HBO shows where they belong! Nowadays, it's only available on Paramount+ or any region's equivalent. Which feels wrong.
I'm shocked John Oliver's endorsement was enough to have you consider a subscription to (what I assume to be) Hayu! I imagine most people who watched that would still be too judgy of reality TV to give it a shot despite his praise, but I'm happy to hear its had a positive influence on at least one person. Or well, positive for my sake at least! If you ever do pull the trigger and give it a shot, please do report back. I am obsessed. Do you generally watch any reality TV or would this be among your first dives into it?
That is fascinating! I googled some pictures of it and it looks lovely. I understand it's not your idea of a holiday as a Norwegian, however. Plenty of cold to go around when you're living that life!
@Tjuz I've never been a huge fan of reality shows, to be honest. Back in the day when I got most of my entertainment from questionable sources I would watch competition shows like "Survivor" and "The Amazing Race". Also "America's Got Talent", but the intensely annoying production style overshadowed the fun of seeing interesting performers do occasionally amazing things, so I gave up on that.
I would watch "Survivor" and "Amazing Race" still if it were available on streaming; I would also love to watch "The Traitors" with Alan Cumming, but that's not available here either (to my knowledge).
So outside of that, not a big reality fan, I'm afraid
@FuriousMachine Totally fair! I don't watch so many myself, and Real Housewives of Salt Lake City is really the only one I actively watch when it comes to that type of reality show. Reality competition was definitely my gateway into the genre as a whole too, as I've religiously followed all of the shows you've mentioned at different points. Or well, in America's Got Talent's case, it was X-Factor UK for me.
Since you said you would still watch Survivor if legally available, I'd recommend you to try out Australian Survivor if you have any interest in getting back into it now. I imagine it's also not available on Norwegian streaming services, but all episodes are uploaded on YouTube for free, so you can still watch it through non-sketchy sources. I'm not sure during what time you were a fan of the US version, but just this year they did a worldwide all-stars season with US veterans like Parvati Shallow, Cirie Fields and Tony Vlachos returning. It was a lot of fun! Though I'd easily recommend many of the regular seasons as well, so if you are interested, let me know and I'd give you a breakdown. I think it's better produced than modern US seasons.
As for The Traitors, I personally prefer the UK version to the US version as they're regular folks instead of reality TV stars. I know that one has full episodes uploaded on DailyMotion as well if you're interested. The kind of things you only find out being bored at the work office and needing to watch something on a site that wouldn't be blocked by work security.... I'd highly recommend just starting with the first season of that one and moving on from there! The finale of the first season is one of the best episodes of any reality competition show I've ever seen.
@Tjuz Cool, will absolutely take a peek at AUS Survivor; I remember all those you mention (Cirie and Parvati being on The Traitors US is part of the reason I want to see it, but mainly for Alan Cumming being the most Alan Cumming he possibly can be, if the clips I've seen are to believed). Now I really want to put my inflatable parrot (which came with an excellent Monty Python DVD set) on my shoulder, put on an eyepatch and feign a peg-leg to get back into some of these shows. I miss Probst and Keoghan.
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