What are you watching in (late 2025 and) 2026?

[Kaodi]

Up to the most recent season of Murdoch Mysteries and things had been holding true to form (they will meet famous people, they will invent things, and Julia will occasionally do really annoying things.- but if you give it that it is a lot of fun).

I have two proposed alternate titles to Season 19 Episode 2: "WTF George Crabtree, WTF" or "George hands Julia his Beer".

If you are referring to what I think I am referring to then I will note that answer may be in the question: 19 seasons is a long time.

I remember we originally saw Yannick when he was just a wee lad of checks notes 33 in Sue Thomas F.B. Eye.

Anyway I made it through half of season 3 of the Canadian series Allegiance today. A show a kind of like watching but between seasons I ask myself a lot if I really want to keep going. The fact that it has Enrico Colantoni is part of why I started watching and part of why I cannot give it up either. I like the lead, Supinder Wraich, too. But the writing and production values leave something to be desired at times.

After I finish up that, hopefully tomorrow, we can move onto season 2 of Batlock.

 

[the Jester]

We're watching a few things right now, but one that I'm really enjoying is Netflix's Nero the Assassin. I'm pretty sure the lead is the guy who played Blackadder, but I've only ever seen a few clips of it. Anyway, Nero the Assassin is a medieval fantasy with the eponymous assassin as the main character. We've watched everything except the finale, so it's possible it won't stick the landing, but so far, I think it's pretty darn good.

 

[jian]

We're watching a few things right now, but one that I'm really enjoying is Netflix's Nero the Assassin. I'm pretty sure the lead is the guy who played Blackadder, but I've only ever seen a few clips of it. Anyway, Nero the Assassin is a medieval fantasy with the eponymous assassin as the main character. We've watched everything except the finale, so it's possible it won't stick the landing, but so far, I think it's pretty darn good.

He appears to be Pio Marmai, not Rowan Atkinson, who’s probably a bit old for that sort of thing.

(Ah, he’s the chap who played Porthos in the recent Three Musketeers films, that makes sense.)

 

[Cadence]

If you are referring to what I think I am referring to then I will note that answer may be in the question: 19 seasons is a long time.

Fair enough. I've watched several long-running detective shows that have dealt with this in various ways. For example, this series's solution for Hélène Joy was annoying, but at least it didn't have such a finality. (Granted even the one I'm on about isn't nearly as final in the same sense as some in Death in Paradise or Taggart). I'm not disappointed in the actors needing to move on, I'm not wishing this character was dead, I'm not saying I have a better solution, but the writers have left me disappointed in the character :-/

 

[Gradine]

Since I guess we're on a bit of Matthew Rhys kick (thanks to the excellent Widow's Bay) we started watching The Americans last night. Intense! But very good so far!

 

[Rabulias]

Yeah, for all we see of him leading a cohesive criminal group and grooming a potential apprentice, it's hard not to see the person we know he'll be in Rebels, willing to break any promise and betray any trust in pursuit of his goals.

Not to defend Maul, but at this point he does not know Obi-Wan is still alive. Maul is always capable of vile things and betrayal, of course, but I think his thirst for revenge drives him in the Rebels arc.

Last Sunday we finished season one of Invincible. Wow! That was...incredibly graphic for a superhero cartoon. It kind of reminded me of the big fight scene in the Miracleman (Marvelman) comic that showed the aftermath of a superhero battle in London, with body parts all strewn about and such.

Invincible is so good. They are doing a very good job hitting the high points of Kirkman's comic.

 

[overgeeked]

Continuing my Mr Bean and Blackadder rewatch. I've seen both all the way through before, but it somehow never fails to hit me anew when watching Blackadder 1 just how much I hate Rowan Atkinson's character, Edmund, in that series. He's so much more palatable in the rest of the show.

 

[jian]

Continuing my Mr Bean and Blackadder rewatch. I've seen both all the way through before, but it somehow never fails to hit me anew when watching Blackadder 1 just how much I hate Rowan Atkinson's character, Edmund, in that series. He's so much more palatable in the rest of the show.

Yup, the first Blackadder is pretty annoying to watch. Later versions are a bit smug but much more fun.

 

[jian]

We've just finished watching the first series of Rivals, on Disney Plus, and it was pretty good. I really wasn't expecting to enjoy it as much as I did.

For those who don't know, Rivals is based on the 1986 Jilly Cooper book of the same name. Cooper was well known for her Rutshire high society books, which are absolutely chock full of snobbery and bonking (not just sex, but ridiculous 80s style performative sex, also found in Jackie Collins, Shirley Conran, etc. books from the same period). Not my usual cup of tea. This specific book is about a competition to win the local TV franchise (the right to broadcast in that area for independent TV, not the BBC) in the Cotswolds (central/southwest England).

The competition is basically between Corinium, run by the hissably evil Tony Baddingham (clue's in the name, eh; played very well by David Tennant) and the newcomers Venturer, which is a consortium run by Rupert Campbell-Black (RCB, Tony's personal nemesis, Tory Minister for Sport and a former showjumper), Declan O'Hara (a principled investigative journalist fired by Tony for standing up for one of his colleagues), and Freddie Jones (a recently-wealthy electronics millionaire). Most of the characters are sympathetic and interesting, and fun to watch.

This even includes RCB, who is Cooper's most recurrent character and clearly her personal sex fantasy, and who is presented in the series as exactly the thoughtless entitled POS he is in the books, but with consequences. He's a terrible person but he's starting to realise it and is trying to be better.

Tony Baddingham is actually much more sympathetic than he is in the books - I was on his side for the first episode or so until I realised he was cheating on his wife. He's a clever, capable strategist and leader whose only weakness is how much RCB pisses him off (which is quite understandable).

 

[MarkB]

We've just finished watching the first series of Rivals, on Disney Plus, and it was pretty good. I really wasn't expecting to enjoy it as much as I did.

For those who don't know, Rivals is based on the 1986 Jilly Cooper book of the same name. Cooper was well known for her Rutshire high society books, which are absolutely chock full of snobbery and bonking (not just sex, but ridiculous 80s style performative sex, also found in Jackie Collins, Shirley Conran, etc. books from the same period). Not my usual cup of tea. This specific book is about a competition to win the local TV franchise (the right to broadcast in that area for independent TV, not the BBC) in the Cotswolds (central/southwest England).

The competition is basically between Corinium, run by the hissably evil Tony Baddingham (clue's in the name, eh; played very well by David Tennant) and the newcomers Venturer, which is a consortium run by Rupert Campbell-Black (RCB, Tony's personal nemesis, Tory Minister for Sport and a former showjumper), Declan O'Hara (a principled investigative journalist fired by Tony for standing up for one of his colleagues), and Freddie Jones (a recently-wealthy electronics millionaire). Most of the characters are sympathetic and interesting, and fun to watch.

This even includes RCB, who is Cooper's most recurrent character and clearly her personal sex fantasy, and who is presented in the series as exactly the thoughtless entitled POS he is in the books, but with consequences. He's a terrible person but he's starting to realise it and is trying to be better.

Tony Baddingham is actually much more sympathetic than he is in the books - I was on his side for the first episode or so until I realised he was cheating on his wife. He's a clever, capable strategist and leader whose only weakness is how much RCB pisses him off (which is quite understandable).

I watched the first episode and found it to be getting a little too soap-opera for my taste. Maybe I should give it another try.