Binge watched tv shows

re: derry girls and schitts creek - just you saying how you gave Schitts Creek another try makes me think i should give derry girls another try. good idea. I liked SC!

5 Likes

Same here. I couldn’t get into Schitt’s Creek even though my kids loved it. I tried again and again and finally got to love the show. I’ve tried Derry Girls a couple of times - so far hasn’t caught my attention. I’ll get back to it next month and give it another shot. I do love the Irish accents though.

2 Likes

The first paragraph summary on Wikipedia is

“Set in the 1830s in Yorkshire, it stars Suranne Jones as landowner and industrialist Anne Lister. The series is based on the collected diaries of Lister, which contain over four million words and are written largely in secret code, documenting a lifetime of lesbian relationships.[4][5]”

This certainly does not sound like my genre, but I may give the first episode a try. It wouldn’t be the first time I have been surprised.

3 Likes

I guess it’s one way to summarize it, wikipedia! For the record, only about 15% are in a secret code and only that documents lesbian relationships (as well as business deals) so the rest of the diary is about everything else, but I guess salacious minds would only read the “secret code” bits
 which ofc are interesting and I guess fundamental to history of women&LGBTQ people but miss 80% of the context - anyway in 1832, when the show starts, Miss Lister is trying to find herself a wife and grow her estate/start a business (2 apparently hopeless endeavors), so there’s basically one central relationship with mention of past ones.
The interesting part to me is the historical recreation, the historicity/veracity, of showing a very unusual woman trying to exist as herself, negotiating ways to conform in order not to conform in other ways, working to be taken seriously in an area considered tough for men (the coal industry), being arrogant instead of shy, nerding out on math, finance, “natural philosophy”, medicine, theology when she’s supposed to love painting and flowers
 as well as the day to day life of being sick before scientific medicine, finding servants, hierarchies, etc. and various situations where people are stuck (if the head of the family is a drunk abuser about to be thrown out, there’s no recourse. If you get married and choose wrong, there’s no recourse. If you get pregnant, there’s no recourse
) and how people tried to escape their plight anyway. But, yeah, there’s romance in it too (unbeknownst to her, her neighbor has harbored a crush for the past 12 years).
Even though it’s not your genre, do you like Pride&Prejudice and would you enjoy it more with a lot of mining&agriculture?

For those of you who are Endeavour fans, the last three episodes are airing in the UK starting this Sunday (2/26).

6 Likes

This just made me remember how I got interested in SC to begin with. My husband was watching it and kept laughing. He particularly liked the turkey shoot episode in Season 1 as he was reluctantly dragged on hunting trips with his father and older brother when he was younger. I started watching it but he lost interest after Season 1. No surprise to me now that I think about it because except for some historical shows he and I have VERY different interests in tv shows.

1 Like

I guess I’ll try again. I think I watched 3 episodes and was wondering what all the fuss was about (Derby Girl’s)

After trying Schitts Creek, we were lukewarm. Told daughters we didn’t like them as people. They replied, “you’re not supposed to------just keep watching”. We did and loved watching their transformation. The episode where Johnny defended Roland and Jocelyn when his friend from his old life was making fun of them started the transformation for us.

We really enjoyed the friendship between Twila and Alexis. Two women from very different backgrounds who really bonded as friends.

8 Likes

I watched Schitts Creek early in covid. I got grandchildren in March 2020 and Feb 22. I have to concentrate to say “baby” correctly. Around my Schitts-loving DS and DIL though it’s generally “the bay-bay”.

2 Likes

Following up on the Sally Wainwright universe:
(thank you people of this thread who recommended Last Tango in Halifax BTW)
HAPPY VALLEY
Binge reWatched Happy Valley before it aired on BBC - and it’ll be coming to the US on AMC+ in May, then Acorn.
Seasons 1-2 can be binged on AMC+ right now.
The basics: a woman in her mid 40s and her family. She is a sergent (so, not really investigating detective, just “sopping up the mess” and sending clues to higher ups) in a deindustrialized valley in Northern England awash with drugs.
A man who should have had a raise at work but didn’t, and needs it to send his daughter away from the local (destitute) public school hatches a kidnapping scheme, thus setting events into motion.
The sergent is Sarah Lancashire (SO totally different from “Julia”). There’s humor, tenderness, tough love, unblinking realism, and dread/suspense. Some violence (realistic: when a character is hurt, they may die or be in the hospital for weeks). Some of the horror of it is off screen.
NOT a “cop show” or detective show, rather a slice of life show where the main character is a cop.
The various cops “follow the trail of clues” and the viewers have big pieces too but no one has everything so it’s also piecing everything together that’s fun.
Considered one of Britain’s masterpieces. Really not to be missed.

1 Like

We enjoyed Happy Valley very much (what a sarcastic name comparing to what the area was about). Love Sarah Lancashire from this series.

Though we watched season 1&2 several years ago, we still talk fondly about some characters from the show esp. Cat.

Can’t wait for Season 3.

2 Likes

Yes, what a sarcastic title!!!

I liked how Ryan is still there and still himself, but teen version - he didn’t suddenly become a straight-A student. (A theme with him and definite aspect of the dread is “the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree”, like in S1&2). Like for all teens, what is worrisome and what is just being a teen? The young actor is excellent.
I felt the ending was a bit rushed, because there was still at least 15mn of story left to tell but the last episode is already extended so I guess BBC didn’t let them have a 1h30 episode - and it’s probably truer to life like this.

I’m glad I binge-watched S1&2 before starting S3, which takes place like IRL 6 or 7 years later.

Yes, the series took a long hiatus. We figure Ryan would be pre-teen or early teenager by now.

Thanks for the review. It is a very good show all around.

Ryan was 9 in S2. :slight_smile: Seeing the same young actor is quite a shock :slight_smile: but it’s so much better than if they’d picked another young man. Life as gone on // real life in “Happy Valley”: Ryan’s 16th birthday occurs early on in Episode 1.
Once the last episode has aired on AMC+ I’ll detail some more things but no spoiler!

1 Like

Schitt’s Creek - during Covid days D said she couldn’t believe I hadn’t watched it
put on ep 1 & afterwards I said “oh my god, I HATE these people
put on the next episode!” And I laughed from start to finish.

2 Likes

I feel like life is too short to watch of TV show that might eventually gets better. (I didn’t like Schitt’s Creek either, or Arrested Development and I watched that for way too long.)

2 Likes

that’s why for Schitt’s Creek, really, watch S1E01, S1E12 (last in the season), then straight to season 2 when it becomes awesome :slight_smile:

3 Likes

I get that, and totally respect the choice. But I will say, it’s possibly the best show I’ve ever watched. If not my number one, then very close. It hits the sweet spot of incredible warmth without getting sacchyrine and staying very funny throughout. The warmth starts creeping in in the first season, but not really there till toward the end of it (as @MYOS1634 says). But they had to set up where these folks started out from, to see how far they go to get to where they are by the end.

6 Likes

We are binging Mr Robot. It is a mind bender for sure. Remi Malek is superb.

5 Likes

I never got Schitt’s Creek, either, and I tried for awhile.