What Are You Watching

[Rumpelteazer]

In these times of social distancing and self isolation we have to find ways to entertain ourselves. Many of us are watching more TV, whether it be series, films or YouTube videos.

What are you enjoying? Maybe a TV series you are binging on, a certain YouTuber you enjoy or a film you've seen that made a big impression on you.

Personally I'm now enjoying The Brokenwood Mysteries. I would describe it as New Zealand's answer to Midsomer Murders. It's a quirky mystery series set in a small village in New Zealand. No gore, not much action and a lot of humor. One of my favorite characters is Gina, the Russian pathologist, who has a crush on Mike Shepherd, the lead detective.

[OtinG]

Well it is pretty much business as usual for me. I live alone with no family nearby and few friends nearby. I'm retired, so people my age normally stay home more often than not, and "in person" socializing is rare. I did that when I was young. As an old fart, not so much! And since my friends tend to be mostly old farts too, well we just don't get out much. So I’m use to being home alone! Still sux though, but it is just a part of being old in the USA! I'm used to it, so sheltering in place is not that big of a change. Basically it is life as usual plus a whole lot more of disinfecting and washing of hands.

I read a lot and love studying history and new things. I do watch TV at night and mostly I’m streaming BritBox, Curiosity, Netflix, MotorTrend, and checking Philo, Pluto, and OTA TV channels for things to watch. I cut the cord and mostly stream now. Unfortunately this is the time of year when series end for the year and reruns return. So not a lot on regular TV as most series have, or are in the process, of shutting down production because its spring and because of coronavirus. But streaming is good since there are a lot of shows/movies I’ve never seen and I can bing watch them now.

And being old, with a memory that is not what it used to be, I can reread books I read not too many years ago and enjoy them the second time around!

[dawsonthrilled]

I'd like to see old movies but lately been finding myself watching disaster movies. I think I'm trying to scare myself even more. The last movie I watched was World War Z.

[poohbear_nc]

Spent the weekend watching Animal Planet's marathon of Too Cute episodes ... puppies ... kittens .... duckies and goats ...

[OtinG]

Originally Posted by poohbear_nc

Spent the weekend watching Animal Planet's marathon of Too Cute episodes ... puppies ... kittens .... duckies and goats ...

Animal Planet has a lot of good shows. I like watching the shows with Game and Wildlife Wardens doing their duties. They have one from Texas, and a few from the northeastern states and the northwestern states.

[OtinG]

If you have the ability to record streamed shows, you might want to do that now. I’ve read where Netflix and Apple, and I assume other companies, have had to reduce resolution for their streams per requests from the EU do to streaming issues in Europe. We are okay in the US currently, but we also have a large portion of our population still in denial over coronavirus and still out doing their socializing in person. But as more cities, counties, states, etc. issue stay at home orders, and as more companies tell their employees to work from home, the internet might take a hit here as well as in Europe and other areas around the world. So enjoy what we have now, but if you can record a lot of stuff in case we start having outages. Cloud recordings probably won’t be of much help though if the internet goes down or becomes spotty. But if you can record to a DVR that will be good.

And come to think about it, if you rely greatly on cloud services to maintain data you need, you might want to ensure you have current local copies of same, just in case.

[Rumpelteazer]

I stayed with my sister over the weekend. We watched several things:

His Dark Materials: I really liked it. I read the books in 2002 and I can't remember that religion is such a big theme in them. But that's probably me.

The Pale Horse: somewhat confusing, though the set and costume design was very beautiful.

Shaft (2019): fun escapism. Poking fun at various generations.

Crooked House: a very good mystery, though most characters were stereotypes.

[trichobezoar]

I've been watching an hour's worth of Fraggle Rock, a colorful puppet program, every day for a few days. I know it's a children's show, but it helps me keep my spirit up. I love the sage advice, cheerful songs and silly storylines.

[Bilbo1967]

Originally Posted by trichobezoar

I've been watching an hour's worth of Fraggle Rock, a colorful puppet program, every day for a few days. I know it's a children's show, but it helps me keep my spirit up. I love the sage advice, cheerful songs and silly storylines.

Haven't seen that for a long time, but used to watch it with my youngest son. My younger brother (Matthew) went off to work on cruise ships at that time and became known as Uncle Travelling Matt to my son!

[trichobezoar]

Originally Posted by Bilbo1967

Haven't seen that for a long time, but used to watch it with my youngest son. My younger brother (Matthew) went off to work on cruise ships at that time and became known as Uncle Travelling Matt to my son!

lol It's one of the most positive shows out there... Thank goodness I have the complete set on DVD.

[timebug]

Over the past few days I have streamed the Fox/Canal production of 'War of The Worlds'. A different, modern day take on the classic story, that is miles above the recent terrible BBC adaptation. Brooding,thoughtful and intelligent storytelling, which is rare in these days of instant-C.G.I-high octane-in your face type shows. No conclusion though, as this is Series 1. I expect they will get at least one more series out of it, if not two!
But at eight episodes, of forty five minutes length each, I reiterate that I enjoyed this and will certainly watch Series 2,as and when it arrives!

[Rumpelteazer]

Originally Posted by trichobezoar

I've been watching an hour's worth of Fraggle Rock, a colorful puppet program, every day for a few days. I know it's a children's show, but it helps me keep my spirit up. I love the sage advice, cheerful songs and silly storylines.

I loved Fraggle Rock as a kid, I will now need to see if I can get it somewhere.

Currently my go-to program to forget everything is Bob Ross' The Joy of Painting. All episodes are available for free on YouTube, I often watch an episode before going to sleep.

[trichobezoar]

Cool. Thank you for the link! Maybe I'll start painting again. I bought the complete series of Fraggle Rock on eBay several years ago... *checking* I went onto eBay, searched for "Fraggle Rock complete series DVD" and a lot of auctions came up. The cost ranges from $30 - $65.

[cc_in_oh]

Originally Posted by Rumpelteazer

I stayed with my sister over the weekend. We watched several things:

His Dark Materials: I really liked it. I read the books in 2002 and I can't remember that religion is such a big theme in them. But that's probably me.

The Pale Horse: somewhat confusing, though the set and costume design was very beautiful.

Shaft (2019): fun escapism. Poking fun at various generations.

Crooked House: a very good mystery, though most characters were stereotypes.

I read the first Dark Materials book and liked it - not sure when I'll get back to the rest. I hope the TV series comes out on DVD eventually and that my libraries get it.

I watched Pale Horse a few days ago and had to rack my brain to even remember what it was about. I guess I'm not much of an Agatha Christie fan.

[Rumpelteazer]

Originally Posted by cc_in_oh

I watched Pale Horse a few days ago and had to rack my brain to even remember what it was about. I guess I'm not much of an Agatha Christie fan.

I generally like Agatha Christie, but I agree with you on forgetting what it was about. It reminds me of the 2002 Anna Karenina adaptation: it looks really pretty but I just can't remember what the story was about.