Connery was always game for an interview to promote his movies in the 80s but lacked Moore's easy charm, it could be a stressful watch sometimes, esp when in front of a TV audience. He was better on a one to one, say Barry Norman's Film series.
I’m watching this latest season of the popular series set in the 1950’s, (thank goodness for BritBox), and it’s excellent as usual, this time there is a long running back story about the homosexual curate played by the excellent Al Weaver, perfectly reflecting the attitudes of the times. Tom Brittney is good as the Reverend who helps Robson Green’s detective in his cases. The previous Reverend was played by James Norton who is being touted by some as the new James Bond.
Yeah, well, sometimes nothin' can be a real cool hand.
In the UK on BBC4 tonight at 8pm there's 'Looking for Mr Bond: 007 at the BBC - Timeshift' which promises to be the usual look at the way Bond has been presented on the telly via interviews and promo pieces over the decades. Followed at 9pm not very intuitively by the modern movie Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy and then Mark Kemode's Secrets of Cinema: Spies.
In amongst all the Bond stuff on BBC4 this week, I caught Shirley Bassey at the BBC. Some great performances from her TV shows, including Something, Goldfinger, This Is My Life (a really emotional Shirley on this one) and a blissful duet with Neil Diamond on Play Me, one of my favourites of his. There were rumours she fell in love with him, but she countered that cheekily by saying the only thing she really loved of Neil was the diamond necklace he wore. Oh, Shirley, you teaser ! I kept thinking, in fifty years time will there be a Billie Eilish at the BBC. I doubt it.
I’ve finished watching this on BritBox and it’s pretty good, a police series set in Brighton. It only lasted 1 season which seems strange to me as it was full of interesting characters. It followed the lives of a group of police officers at work and at home. A good cast including Shaun Dooley who I like very much, he can play both good and bad to equal effect.
Yeah, well, sometimes nothin' can be a real cool hand.
THE AVENGERS Season 5 Episode 17 Return of the Cybernauts
This is a superb episode directed by Robert Day. Peter Cushing is excellent as the brother of Michael Gough who was killed in a previous episode. He is after revenge for the death of his brother and he continues his brother’s work in creating a new Cybernaut to wreak vengeance. There are lots of effective scenes and Aimi MacDonald turns up as a sexy receptionist. Lots to recommend in this episode, one of the very best of the series.
Yeah, well, sometimes nothin' can be a real cool hand.
Just before a married couple embark on a “holiday of a lifetime” around Europe to celebrate their son leaving home for university, the wife announces to her husband that she is leaving him. Over the course of the holiday he tries to win her back. The story unfolds in the present and in the past as we learn how they first got together.
This 4-part series is excellent as we get drawn into the lives of a middle class couple who have drifted apart over the years. Recommended.
Yeah, well, sometimes nothin' can be a real cool hand.
thatd be a good Avengers episode to recommend to someone who'd never seen the series before and didn't want to sit through two full seasons (the Rigg seasons I mean). And its unusually serious for season 5, all the silliness is is concentrated into Aimi Macdonald's lines.
Another key episode to recommend to a new viewer would be A Touch of Brimstone, with Peter Wyngarde as the villain and Diana Rigg undercover in a dominatrix costume. Which other episodes could count towards a Top Five Best Of, for those who don't have the time to watch all 50?
(that said, the Emma Peel dvd megaset compiling both her seasons is still easy enough to find and should be essential to an BondFan's video library)
This is my third viewing of this stunning series, firstly when it originally aired and again about 10 years ago. It is of course important to Bond fans because it was Daniel Craig’s breakout role, although I defy anyone who would have thought he could have been James Bond at this stage.
The story concerns 4 friends in Newcastle from 1964 to 1995, each of the 9 episodes correspond with a UK general election year. Christopher Eccleston is Nicky, a left wing ideologist, Mark Strong is Tosker Cox, a womanising would be pop star, Daniel Craig is Geordie Peacock who runs to London after getting a girl pregnant and Gina McKee is Mary who is Nicky’s girlfriend but ends up with Tosker because of his lack of attention.
Over the years the series follows real events, and incidents are adapted into the storyline such as corrupt councillors and police. There is a wealth of well known faces all putting in fabulous performances such as David Bradley as an MP, Peter Vaughn as Nicky’s father who descends into a tragic Alzheimer’s case, Alun Armstrong as a councillor, Malcolm McDowell as a London gangland boss, David Schofield and Donald Sumpter as corrupt police officers and many more.
Daniel Craig’s character rises to become the right hand man of the gangland boss and descends to poverty as a homeless vagrant. He puts in a truly epic performance.
I would love for there to be an update for this series to see how they are faring today.
If you haven’t seen it I recommend this wholeheartedly, it may just be the best TV series of all time.
Yeah, well, sometimes nothin' can be a real cool hand.
I hadn’t seen this series before and I loved it. Ripley Holden is an arcade owner who is wanting to open a casino hotel in Blackpool. The discovery of a body in his arcade one morning unravels a series of events that effect everybody. What makes this different is the use of original pop songs where the characters join in the singing and they dance to the tunes, which are relevant to the plot at that time. David Morrissey is brilliant as Holden and David Tennant stars as the detective assigned to the case.
6 episodes of sheer joy which I didn’t want to end.
Yeah, well, sometimes nothin' can be a real cool hand.
Enjoyed "The Defeated" on Netflix. Takes place in Berlin shortly after the end of WWII before the wall when the city was divided into sectors, British, American, Russian and French. The basic premise is a New York City Police Detective is sent to Berlin to help organize, train and assist the new Berlin Police Department which is made up of an unlikely bunch of people who only have in common that they are German, were not Nazis or Nazi sympathizers. Things get much more complicated from there. Nazi war criminals, unsavory diplomats, the Russians, and a criminal master mind that could have come from the mind of Fleming. Excellent show IMO with a very good German, American and British cast. The setting of post war Berlin is fantastic.
I watched this evening's ITV's documentary on Tuam, an Irish town where once local resident discovered there were hundreds of young kids from a Catholic convent buried in unmarked graves, with no burial certificate. In a sewage tank, actually. This began a process to uncover the scandal of the Bon Secours sisterhood, if I've got that right - a massive and lucrative adoption scandal between Ireland and America, carried out with the complicity and collusion of the local Galway Council, freight aircraft and the American Embassy. Bon Secours is now a multi-billion dollar firm with its hooks into private medical care.
The scandal outstrips that of another lucrative and abusive adoption wheeze carried out by an Australian couple in the 70s and 80s. What is mad about all this is how they all get away with it. The mad woman in that instance lived to a ripe old age and only died recently. The Irish Govt still refuses to arrest any nuns relating to Tuam and is clearly engaging in a cover-up still, it's just the way of things. Likewise, the UK state I understand is using adoption as a lucrative racket to fund local authorities as was clearly happening here - Surrey is one of the county councils among the suspects. The Family Courts are notoriously corrupt and secretive but you can't do much about it because journalists just can't report on it.
Steve Martin and Martin Short reunite in this comedy mystery series. Following a murder in the block where they live, they team up with lovely Selena Gomez to solve the mystery, meeting lots of quirky characters along the way.
I enjoyed this series, which is on Disney+, very much, it is well acted and intriguing, even if I did guess the killer well before the end. The only down part for me was the over use of unnecessary swearing.
Yeah, well, sometimes nothin' can be a real cool hand.
Last night this historic drama won the Emmy's for Best International TV movie or mini-series.
The mini-series is about crown princess Märtha of Norway and her experiences during WWII. When Norway lost its military resistance against nazi Germany's invation in 1940 the government and the royal family went into exile. The king and crown prince went to England while the crown princess and the children (including the current king Harald) ended up in the US. She became close to president Roosevelt and she and the kids even lived in the White House for a while. It can be argued that Märtha had more influence on FDR than anyone other than the first lady and central members of his administration. Sofia Helin (The Bridge) plays Märtha and Kyle MacLachlan plays FDR. If you like content like The Crown I'm sure you'll like this too. It's on Amazon Prime and PBS in the states.
I am late to the party when it comes to the acclaimed US series Breaking Bad.
As most of you will know, it's about a chemistry teacher and family man who, at the age of 50, has something of a midlife crisis, precipitated by some disturbing personal news that he keeps to himself. In need of funds, he hits upon the idea of using his expertise to cook up crystal meths - and it's superior stuff at that. Much of the humour comes from his interaction with his new, young accomplice in crime.
It's kind of Ferris Bueller's Day Off - from the perspective of beleaguered head principal Ed Rooney - mixed with Pulp Fiction in terms of grisly, unexpected deaths and the way random events conspire to set life off on a tangent, helping or hindering.
Not quite a comedy, but the situations are humorous - there isn't a 'funny' or witty character you root for exactly, but you do root for them anyway. Not least because the first episode sets up our lead character as the underdog. How it endures for a few series you'd never guess from the opener. It does spread itself a bit thinly and upon scrutiny it doesn't stand up, but like early Bonds you don't want to scrutinise it, because it's enjoyable. The plot thickens because his bullish brother in law is with the drugs enforcement agency. Again, it's not plausible in terms of how he can keep his new sideline a secret from his family, and other stuff that is thrown in is a bit ho-hum, but the ensemble cast really helps - there isn't a weak note among them.
In some ways it's the familiar trope of Clark Kent/Superman, Jason Bourne fame - everyman underdog who surprisingly to us or him discovers he's got an unusual, handy and very effective skill-set.
I am late to the party when it comes to the acclaimed US series Breaking Bad.
I've never seen the show either but its on my to-watch list. Bryan Cranston played dentist Tim Watley, a recurring role on Seinfeld. Remember that time Jerry found a Penthouse in his dentist's waiting room and was told there was a new Adults Only policy? or the time the dentist converted to Judaism just so he could tell the jokes, so Jerry retaliated by telling dentist jokes and got called an anti-dentite bastard?
He was also the dad in Malcolm in the Middle, a more conventional sitcom, but proving he's a good comic actor. So I'm curious to see how he is in something so dark as Breaking Bad would seem to be.
Not seen either of those, there are holes in my knowledge. Funny thing is, BB* isn't really that dark... the joke is - so far - that the character is not so dark, nor even the situations, but it could go that way. It's not a heavy watch. First series is only seven episodes so no hardship to get a taster.
*Not Barbara Broccoli, she really is dark. She's sick, man! 😀
BREAKING BAD is an incredible show--it's got elements of Shakespearean tragedy, Dickensian whimsy, and even the Coen Bros. If anything, its prequel, BETTER CALL SAUL, the final season of which will start airing soon, might actually be even better. Love 'em both!
I saw bits of Seinfeld over the years but It became one of those series that's for the initiated. It didn't help that the BBC messed about with it in the schedules so it wasn't on at a regular time, plus you might get it mixed up with the Larry Sanders Show or whatever it was.
It tended to get overshadowed by Cheers or Frasier, which Channel 4 showed to more acclaim - though their stuff never pulled more than 4 million viewers, small beer back then. Channel 4 seem to have given up on their classy US sitcom imports, they really should have snaffled The Big Bang Theory, it's totally them.
the dvd's are ubiquitous over here, don't know about Britain. You're right, Seinfeld is better if youre "initiated", so start at the beginning and progress chronologically. The jokes are usually funny on the surface to a first time viewer (especially Kramers physical comedy moves), but even within one episode theyre much funnier if youre really paying attention to how the plots been developing, and in later seasons you almost need a flow chart. Jokes reference information established from earlier episodes, and are cumulative, almost symphonic.* Also they dont really follow the conventional setup-punchline-reaction shot rhythm at all, the dialog comes really fast and the jokes come and go without being spoonfed to the audience.
Those other sitcoms you mention are much more conventional, except maybe Larry Sanders which I've never really seen.
*whats that Classical music form where they establish four themes, each form develops, varies, and interacts before resolving at the end? maybe I dont mean symphonic, but whatever that form is, Seinfeld was the sitcom equivalent. Very clever writing.
I remember my younger sister's male friends when she was in her late teens. There was a group of about five boys who'd grown up together and were very smart. One is in the leadership of a major environmental organisation, one is a musician married to a poet and one majored in philosophy and then married my sister. Listening to them talking was like an episode of Seinfeld. The long talks about unimportant stuff with a very dry witt and sometimes strangely absurd. When asked they said they ran out of things to say about important stuff years ago. 😂
Joanne Froggatt stars as an abused housewife who may be suffering another mental breakdown, as the husband plots to section her and take the children. The first 5 episodes are pretty decent but once the denouement is known it all becomes pointless and the wife could have ended the whole saga after a couple of episodes, which leaves the viewer disappointed. Plot holes galore including the two protagonists who appear to have never heard of Hitchcock’s Strangers On A Train.
Yeah, well, sometimes nothin' can be a real cool hand.
This black comedy was written by Inside No. 9 duo Reece Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton and ran for two seasons. Five different people are connected by a blackmailer who sends them an identical note “I know what you did”.
This is a brilliant series full of weird characters with the writers taking on multi-parts. Shearsmith and Pemberton are writers and actors supreme, creating extraordinary characters where few dare to explore. It’s programmes like this that make TV a pleasure.
Incidentally one of the stories from Inside No. 9 now makes more sense to me as there is a crossover episode.
Highly recommended and I’m only sorry that I missed it first time around.
Yeah, well, sometimes nothin' can be a real cool hand.
Sir MilesThe Wrong Side Of The WardrobePosts: 27,749Chief of Staff
Comments
I agree the interviews depends a lot on Craig's mood. But this one was one of his best IMO, he was relaxed and funny.
I recorded it, so will catch up with it at some stage.
Connery was always game for an interview to promote his movies in the 80s but lacked Moore's easy charm, it could be a stressful watch sometimes, esp when in front of a TV audience. He was better on a one to one, say Barry Norman's Film series.
Roger Moore 1927-2017
Grantchester (Season 6)
I’m watching this latest season of the popular series set in the 1950’s, (thank goodness for BritBox), and it’s excellent as usual, this time there is a long running back story about the homosexual curate played by the excellent Al Weaver, perfectly reflecting the attitudes of the times. Tom Brittney is good as the Reverend who helps Robson Green’s detective in his cases. The previous Reverend was played by James Norton who is being touted by some as the new James Bond.
In the UK on BBC4 tonight at 8pm there's 'Looking for Mr Bond: 007 at the BBC - Timeshift' which promises to be the usual look at the way Bond has been presented on the telly via interviews and promo pieces over the decades. Followed at 9pm not very intuitively by the modern movie Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy and then Mark Kemode's Secrets of Cinema: Spies.
Roger Moore 1927-2017
In amongst all the Bond stuff on BBC4 this week, I caught Shirley Bassey at the BBC. Some great performances from her TV shows, including Something, Goldfinger, This Is My Life (a really emotional Shirley on this one) and a blissful duet with Neil Diamond on Play Me, one of my favourites of his. There were rumours she fell in love with him, but she countered that cheekily by saying the only thing she really loved of Neil was the diamond necklace he wore. Oh, Shirley, you teaser ! I kept thinking, in fifty years time will there be a Billie Eilish at the BBC. I doubt it.
CUFFS (2015) Season 1
I’ve finished watching this on BritBox and it’s pretty good, a police series set in Brighton. It only lasted 1 season which seems strange to me as it was full of interesting characters. It followed the lives of a group of police officers at work and at home. A good cast including Shaun Dooley who I like very much, he can play both good and bad to equal effect.
THE AVENGERS Season 5 Episode 17 Return of the Cybernauts
This is a superb episode directed by Robert Day. Peter Cushing is excellent as the brother of Michael Gough who was killed in a previous episode. He is after revenge for the death of his brother and he continues his brother’s work in creating a new Cybernaut to wreak vengeance. There are lots of effective scenes and Aimi MacDonald turns up as a sexy receptionist. Lots to recommend in this episode, one of the very best of the series.
US (2020)
Just before a married couple embark on a “holiday of a lifetime” around Europe to celebrate their son leaving home for university, the wife announces to her husband that she is leaving him. Over the course of the holiday he tries to win her back. The story unfolds in the present and in the past as we learn how they first got together.
This 4-part series is excellent as we get drawn into the lives of a middle class couple who have drifted apart over the years. Recommended.
thatd be a good Avengers episode to recommend to someone who'd never seen the series before and didn't want to sit through two full seasons (the Rigg seasons I mean). And its unusually serious for season 5, all the silliness is is concentrated into Aimi Macdonald's lines.
Another key episode to recommend to a new viewer would be A Touch of Brimstone, with Peter Wyngarde as the villain and Diana Rigg undercover in a dominatrix costume. Which other episodes could count towards a Top Five Best Of, for those who don't have the time to watch all 50?
(that said, the Emma Peel dvd megaset compiling both her seasons is still easy enough to find and should be essential to an BondFan's video library)
OUR FRIENDS IN THE NORTH (1996)
This is my third viewing of this stunning series, firstly when it originally aired and again about 10 years ago. It is of course important to Bond fans because it was Daniel Craig’s breakout role, although I defy anyone who would have thought he could have been James Bond at this stage.
The story concerns 4 friends in Newcastle from 1964 to 1995, each of the 9 episodes correspond with a UK general election year. Christopher Eccleston is Nicky, a left wing ideologist, Mark Strong is Tosker Cox, a womanising would be pop star, Daniel Craig is Geordie Peacock who runs to London after getting a girl pregnant and Gina McKee is Mary who is Nicky’s girlfriend but ends up with Tosker because of his lack of attention.
Over the years the series follows real events, and incidents are adapted into the storyline such as corrupt councillors and police. There is a wealth of well known faces all putting in fabulous performances such as David Bradley as an MP, Peter Vaughn as Nicky’s father who descends into a tragic Alzheimer’s case, Alun Armstrong as a councillor, Malcolm McDowell as a London gangland boss, David Schofield and Donald Sumpter as corrupt police officers and many more.
Daniel Craig’s character rises to become the right hand man of the gangland boss and descends to poverty as a homeless vagrant. He puts in a truly epic performance.
I would love for there to be an update for this series to see how they are faring today.
If you haven’t seen it I recommend this wholeheartedly, it may just be the best TV series of all time.
Yes. A very good series, although I've not seen it since it premiered on TV. I think it was voted one of the ten best television series of all time.
BLACKPOOL (2004)
I hadn’t seen this series before and I loved it. Ripley Holden is an arcade owner who is wanting to open a casino hotel in Blackpool. The discovery of a body in his arcade one morning unravels a series of events that effect everybody. What makes this different is the use of original pop songs where the characters join in the singing and they dance to the tunes, which are relevant to the plot at that time. David Morrissey is brilliant as Holden and David Tennant stars as the detective assigned to the case.
6 episodes of sheer joy which I didn’t want to end.
Enjoyed "The Defeated" on Netflix. Takes place in Berlin shortly after the end of WWII before the wall when the city was divided into sectors, British, American, Russian and French. The basic premise is a New York City Police Detective is sent to Berlin to help organize, train and assist the new Berlin Police Department which is made up of an unlikely bunch of people who only have in common that they are German, were not Nazis or Nazi sympathizers. Things get much more complicated from there. Nazi war criminals, unsavory diplomats, the Russians, and a criminal master mind that could have come from the mind of Fleming. Excellent show IMO with a very good German, American and British cast. The setting of post war Berlin is fantastic.
GUILT (Season Two) finished this week. They're repeating Season One on BBC4. This was better than the first series.
I watched this evening's ITV's documentary on Tuam, an Irish town where once local resident discovered there were hundreds of young kids from a Catholic convent buried in unmarked graves, with no burial certificate. In a sewage tank, actually. This began a process to uncover the scandal of the Bon Secours sisterhood, if I've got that right - a massive and lucrative adoption scandal between Ireland and America, carried out with the complicity and collusion of the local Galway Council, freight aircraft and the American Embassy. Bon Secours is now a multi-billion dollar firm with its hooks into private medical care.
The scandal outstrips that of another lucrative and abusive adoption wheeze carried out by an Australian couple in the 70s and 80s. What is mad about all this is how they all get away with it. The mad woman in that instance lived to a ripe old age and only died recently. The Irish Govt still refuses to arrest any nuns relating to Tuam and is clearly engaging in a cover-up still, it's just the way of things. Likewise, the UK state I understand is using adoption as a lucrative racket to fund local authorities as was clearly happening here - Surrey is one of the county councils among the suspects. The Family Courts are notoriously corrupt and secretive but you can't do much about it because journalists just can't report on it.
Roger Moore 1927-2017
ONLY MURDERS IN THE BUILDING (2021)
Steve Martin and Martin Short reunite in this comedy mystery series. Following a murder in the block where they live, they team up with lovely Selena Gomez to solve the mystery, meeting lots of quirky characters along the way.
I enjoyed this series, which is on Disney+, very much, it is well acted and intriguing, even if I did guess the killer well before the end. The only down part for me was the over use of unnecessary swearing.
Atlantic Crossing (2021)
Last night this historic drama won the Emmy's for Best International TV movie or mini-series.
The mini-series is about crown princess Märtha of Norway and her experiences during WWII. When Norway lost its military resistance against nazi Germany's invation in 1940 the government and the royal family went into exile. The king and crown prince went to England while the crown princess and the children (including the current king Harald) ended up in the US. She became close to president Roosevelt and she and the kids even lived in the White House for a while. It can be argued that Märtha had more influence on FDR than anyone other than the first lady and central members of his administration. Sofia Helin (The Bridge) plays Märtha and Kyle MacLachlan plays FDR. If you like content like The Crown I'm sure you'll like this too. It's on Amazon Prime and PBS in the states.
Repeats of The Millennium Trilogy.
I am late to the party when it comes to the acclaimed US series Breaking Bad.
As most of you will know, it's about a chemistry teacher and family man who, at the age of 50, has something of a midlife crisis, precipitated by some disturbing personal news that he keeps to himself. In need of funds, he hits upon the idea of using his expertise to cook up crystal meths - and it's superior stuff at that. Much of the humour comes from his interaction with his new, young accomplice in crime.
It's kind of Ferris Bueller's Day Off - from the perspective of beleaguered head principal Ed Rooney - mixed with Pulp Fiction in terms of grisly, unexpected deaths and the way random events conspire to set life off on a tangent, helping or hindering.
Not quite a comedy, but the situations are humorous - there isn't a 'funny' or witty character you root for exactly, but you do root for them anyway. Not least because the first episode sets up our lead character as the underdog. How it endures for a few series you'd never guess from the opener. It does spread itself a bit thinly and upon scrutiny it doesn't stand up, but like early Bonds you don't want to scrutinise it, because it's enjoyable. The plot thickens because his bullish brother in law is with the drugs enforcement agency. Again, it's not plausible in terms of how he can keep his new sideline a secret from his family, and other stuff that is thrown in is a bit ho-hum, but the ensemble cast really helps - there isn't a weak note among them.
In some ways it's the familiar trope of Clark Kent/Superman, Jason Bourne fame - everyman underdog who surprisingly to us or him discovers he's got an unusual, handy and very effective skill-set.
Roger Moore 1927-2017
Napoleon Plural said:
I am late to the party when it comes to the acclaimed US series Breaking Bad.
I've never seen the show either but its on my to-watch list. Bryan Cranston played dentist Tim Watley, a recurring role on Seinfeld. Remember that time Jerry found a Penthouse in his dentist's waiting room and was told there was a new Adults Only policy? or the time the dentist converted to Judaism just so he could tell the jokes, so Jerry retaliated by telling dentist jokes and got called an anti-dentite bastard?
He was also the dad in Malcolm in the Middle, a more conventional sitcom, but proving he's a good comic actor. So I'm curious to see how he is in something so dark as Breaking Bad would seem to be.
Not seen either of those, there are holes in my knowledge. Funny thing is, BB* isn't really that dark... the joke is - so far - that the character is not so dark, nor even the situations, but it could go that way. It's not a heavy watch. First series is only seven episodes so no hardship to get a taster.
*Not Barbara Broccoli, she really is dark. She's sick, man! 😀
Roger Moore 1927-2017
BREAKING BAD is an incredible show--it's got elements of Shakespearean tragedy, Dickensian whimsy, and even the Coen Bros. If anything, its prequel, BETTER CALL SAUL, the final season of which will start airing soon, might actually be even better. Love 'em both!
never seen Seinfeld Napoleon?!!? The show is the source of much of the English language as we speak it today, that is a hole in your knowledge!
I think as a connoisseur of MAD magazine you would appreciate it, its only just barely a sitcom.
I saw bits of Seinfeld over the years but It became one of those series that's for the initiated. It didn't help that the BBC messed about with it in the schedules so it wasn't on at a regular time, plus you might get it mixed up with the Larry Sanders Show or whatever it was.
It tended to get overshadowed by Cheers or Frasier, which Channel 4 showed to more acclaim - though their stuff never pulled more than 4 million viewers, small beer back then. Channel 4 seem to have given up on their classy US sitcom imports, they really should have snaffled The Big Bang Theory, it's totally them.
Roger Moore 1927-2017
the dvd's are ubiquitous over here, don't know about Britain. You're right, Seinfeld is better if youre "initiated", so start at the beginning and progress chronologically. The jokes are usually funny on the surface to a first time viewer (especially Kramers physical comedy moves), but even within one episode theyre much funnier if youre really paying attention to how the plots been developing, and in later seasons you almost need a flow chart. Jokes reference information established from earlier episodes, and are cumulative, almost symphonic.* Also they dont really follow the conventional setup-punchline-reaction shot rhythm at all, the dialog comes really fast and the jokes come and go without being spoonfed to the audience.
Those other sitcoms you mention are much more conventional, except maybe Larry Sanders which I've never really seen.
*whats that Classical music form where they establish four themes, each form develops, varies, and interacts before resolving at the end? maybe I dont mean symphonic, but whatever that form is, Seinfeld was the sitcom equivalent. Very clever writing.
I remember my younger sister's male friends when she was in her late teens. There was a group of about five boys who'd grown up together and were very smart. One is in the leadership of a major environmental organisation, one is a musician married to a poet and one majored in philosophy and then married my sister. Listening to them talking was like an episode of Seinfeld. The long talks about unimportant stuff with a very dry witt and sometimes strangely absurd. When asked they said they ran out of things to say about important stuff years ago. 😂
ANGELA BLACK (2021)
Joanne Froggatt stars as an abused housewife who may be suffering another mental breakdown, as the husband plots to section her and take the children. The first 5 episodes are pretty decent but once the denouement is known it all becomes pointless and the wife could have ended the whole saga after a couple of episodes, which leaves the viewer disappointed. Plot holes galore including the two protagonists who appear to have never heard of Hitchcock’s Strangers On A Train.
PSYCHOVILLE (2009-2011)
This black comedy was written by Inside No. 9 duo Reece Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton and ran for two seasons. Five different people are connected by a blackmailer who sends them an identical note “I know what you did”.
This is a brilliant series full of weird characters with the writers taking on multi-parts. Shearsmith and Pemberton are writers and actors supreme, creating extraordinary characters where few dare to explore. It’s programmes like this that make TV a pleasure.
Incidentally one of the stories from Inside No. 9 now makes more sense to me as there is a crossover episode.
Highly recommended and I’m only sorry that I missed it first time around.
Such a pity this ended after series 2…I think the intention was to continue…first time I saw Daniel Kaluuya as well…
A very underrated show 🍸