What Was the Last Television Episode You Watched?

[Parson]

Timeless I finished all the episodes and I must say I was quite impressed. I watched some of it when it came out a few years back. But doing pastoral work and watching evening TV do not often match all that well. I would put this series up there with any time travel TV I've ever seen. I especially liked the regular moral questioning that the characters had as they questioned their actions.

 

[JunkMonkey]

Daughter Number 2 just watched episodes five and six of French show Missions season 2 (on BBC iPlayer). Episodes are short - 20 or so minutes when you strip out the 'Previously On...' and titles. It's not perfect by any means and there are moments where you suspect the writers really don't know where they are going with it but, on the whole, it's a sod of a lot better than most SF shows I have tried to get into recently where the ability to do do stupid things to keep the plot moving, or having previous history with other crew members seem to be the only reason anyone gets to get on board a space ship.

 

[KGeo777]

Mission Impossible The Astrologer - This was a good one. Martin Landau does some phone calls impersonating a political leader just like those Russian pranksters.

SARGE - Ring In, Ring Out. Martin Sheen is getting married and Sarge is overseeing the wedding but he starts to get flashbacks about an unsolved murder case and begins to suspect Sheen is the suspect who got away. Highlight scene is where Sarge goes to nab the real suspect and gets beat up so his Japanese sidekick intervenes with sumo wrestling moves.

McMILLAN & WIFE - Blues For Sally M - Seen this before but noticed a few things in it, such as a close up of a newspaper headline which revealed that the text of the article had nothing to do with the headline. Fake news.

 

[Droflet]

Just began watching The Crown season 5. Excellent.

 

[KGeo777]

CANNON "Flight Plan" A Cuban exile hires Cannon to make him to disappear so he is not nabbed by Castro's government but turns out the guy stole money from other exiles. He tries to kill Cannon after he provides him with a way to hide and flees with his mistress. Later he dumps his mistress who begs for help and so Cannon gives her the last money he has and says "from one sucker to another sucker." I think this is the first time we have seen Cannon at home since the pilot.

BRONK "Wheels of Death" William Smith vs Jack Palance? Someone is smuggling Mexicans in a truck and after 12 of them die Bronk is on the case. Originally Bronk's daughter couldn't speak but now she is just confined to a wheel chair and wants to learn to drive. Henry Beckman is listed as a co-star but he wasn't in this-and what happened to Aggie the cat? We see the cat in the title sequence but not seen since the pilot.

 

[hitmouse]

The first series of Wisting on iPlayer. Norwegian detective series. Really good Scandi noir, even better than recent offerings from Iceland, the Faroes, and Shetland.

 

[THX1138]

Cowboy Bebop, live action ep9.
For me, the cinematograph works well with the jazz. Still a little theatrical at times, but it adds to the fun!

 

[Parson]

I've watched the first three episodes of Saving Grace (2007-2011) and I found them quite interesting. On one level it's a pretty typical detective show. Grace is a hard living, hard-nosed, don't-take-no-crap, detective, who is very effective at her job, if not always doing her job by the book. On the other hand, she's meeting a "last chance" angel. The last chance angel is trying to convince her to change her ways. If this were a movie it would receive and deserve a solid R rating for language and nudity, so it doesn't fit any category overly well. But I have to say it has my interest right now.

 

[Judderman]

A few series recently.
The Devil in Ohio, was pretty good. A cult story.
Currently watching “The English” which is a very interesting Western set in the 1890s. One of the characters seem to be a rip off of Alfie Solomons from Peaky Blinders. But that is a minor quibble.
The latest season of Handmaid’s Tale was somewhat of a return to form too.
The Watcher started extremely well but tailed off a bit.

 

[Rodders]

Still watching IASIP and the old Doctor Who episodes, although I'm still on Patrick Troughton and am really looking forward to John Pertwee.

 

[reiver33]

Not sure if it counts as a proper series, as there are only 4 episodes, but Grace, police procedural starring John Simm. Recommended, in a dark, twisted, way...

 

[Toby Frost]

The first episode of Andor.

Odd one, this. I'm interested to see the grubbier side of Star Wars, and the lack of Jedi is nice. It feels odd to have a "tough" story without swearing or references to real-world guns, drugs etc. I found it quite hard to make out some of the dialogue. Interesting stuff, but it didn't grab my attention the way that The Mandalorian did.

 

[Parson]

The first episode of Andor.

Odd one, this. I'm interested to see the grubbier side of Star Wars, and the lack of Jedi is nice. It feels odd to have a "tough" story without swearing or references to real-world guns, drugs etc. I found it quite hard to make out some of the dialogue. Interesting stuff, but it didn't grab my attention the way that The Mandalorian did.

I've taken to putting on the captions when I watch most things I stream. I usually don't need it, but once in a while it helps me understand what's actually been said.

--------

I am now 4 episodes deep into Saving Grace. This is an oddly gripping tale. As I said before it's the weird mixture of a detective story, sandwiched with a Fantasy (a real angel plays an important role) and a character study of Grace. It is amazing to me that this was ever shown on broadcast television. Every episode so far has shown Grace nude and seemingly engaged in a sex act. I don't find it gratuitous because it is clearly central to the plot of Grace struggling with her inner demons. Holly Hunter won a ton of rewards for acting in the first season of playing Grace Hanadarko, and it is easy to see why. She's utterly believable. It's easy to see why she been in such demand for so long.

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

Some episodes of the old series Room 222 (1969 - 1974.) Comedy/drama about a high school. Pretty darn fancy high school, I'd say, given the classes they offer, the seeming professionalism of the members of the drama group, etc. Interesting for the time in that the two main leads (Lloyd Haynes as teacher and Denise Nicholas counselor) are both African-American, without race being the main theme of the show (although it does show up.) Michael Constantine is fine as the sardonic principal, Karen Valentine is perhaps a bit too ditzy as a student teacher.

 

[KGeo777]

It's interesting to hear about these forgotten shows--1969-74--that's a long run for a show.

THE INVADERS Vikor - Jack Lord is a decorated Korean war veteran who is resentful that he couldn't get bank loans due to his war injuries so he made a deal with the aliens to let them use his factory as a base for regenerating their disguises. Not a flattering view of an army veteran--interesting that this was during the Vietnam war and it portrays him as a conspirator who is willing to sacrifice his wife for success.

MANNIX - Huntdown - Mannix has a foot cast and gets on Wickersham's nerves so he sends him to a small town to acquire a signature from someone who turns out to be dead. The town is hiding a terrible secret. As a change the mayor is corrupt but the sheriff isn't.
Pretty good episode.

McMILLAN & WIFE "Cop of the Year." One of the highest rated episode--Sargent Enright is accused of murdering his ex-wife and it looks like an open and shut case. Broadcast 50 years ago this week. There's another big 50 show anniversary coming up.

 

[KGeo777]

CANNON - Devil's Playground. Martin Sheen guest stars as an ex-cop injured by a bank robber who faked his death--the robber is Daniel J Travanti and his doppelganger is future Hill Street blues co-star James Sikking. This was a good episode--Cannon has to take Sheen with him to find the bank robber .

S.W.A.T. - Death Score -- Not so good. This was very hokey with Robert Webber posing as a Mid East terrorist with a group titled something like "Organization for the liberation of oppressed people everywhere." In fact he is just a bank robber and decides to hold a basketball team hostage. One of the SWAT team members was a childhood friend of a star basketball player. This was almost worthy of Police Squad.

 

[dask]

The Virginian, “Showdown” written by Gene L. Coon, co-starring Michael Ansara, Tom Skerritt, Leonard Nimoy. All-star effort pays off.

 

[JunkMonkey]

I essayed an episode of The Sandman on Netflix the other day and had to give up after 15 minutes because it was so dull and lifeless. Totally lacking in every department.

Then Number One Son and I got to Yesterday's Enterprise in our slog through TNG. Billed by many fans as one of the best episodes of the series I must say I really wonder what Trekkies do with the rest of their lives. Patrick Stewart got to do some acting and the lighting designers did a good job in making the standing bridge set look interestingly different but it was hardly 'great'. (At least it didn't have Q in it.) I guess it's a fan favourite because it's one of the more Star Trekky episodes of TNG so far: three different Enterprises on different timelines messing with the canonical continuity, a character brought back from the dead, and all that other fan-pleasing, self-hugging, mutual congratulatory stuff.

Coincidentally Season 3 of Missions, which I am watching with Daughter No 2, also has a spaceship returning to the wrong (parallel?) universe. Here though things are far less clear and comprehensible (and all the better for it). One character kills the other version of himself, and then dies while delivering a message (from a character he never met) to someone who may (or may not) know what the f*ck is going on... because it's sure as hell we don't. My current theory about the WTFisGO is that the whole thing is a simulation run by the ship's computer - the only consistently honest character - though when she was cloned into the recreated body of the billionaire's daughter she was less than upfront about her conviction than humans were now obsolete - until it became an 'us or them' situation.

The next episode of TNG, The Offspring, in which Data builds another android, his 'child', was great. A real bit of SF that just happened to take place in the Star Trek universe.

Yesterday's Enterprise had six credited writers. The Offspring one.

 

[reiver33]

Tokyo Vice, episode one. Neon Babylon, in the raw. The Yakuza come over as a cross between the Mafia and the Masons, but without the laughs....

 

[reiver33]

Then Number One Son and I got to Yesterday's Enterprise in our slog through TNG. Billed by many fans as one of the best episodes of the series I must say I really wonder what Trekkies do with the rest of their lives. Patrick Stewart got to do some acting and the lighting designers did a good job in making the standing bridge set look interestingly different but it was hardly 'great'. (At least it didn't have Q in it.) I guess it's a fan favourite because it's one of the more Star Trekky episodes of TNG so far: three different Enterprises on different timelines messing with the canonical continuity, a character brought back from the dead, and all that other fan-pleasing, self-hugging, mutual congratulatory stuff.

I’ve always considered that this episode doesn’t mess with canonical continuity, it merely offers a glimpse of the true timeline which gets reset into TNG by the return of the “C” to its own era...but a discussion for another thread!