Be Excellent To Each Other

Just watched the first episode of the new series of Freddy and it's still fine..
Cast feel more comfortable in their roles, there's still a bit of undermining of the episode's moral to get a lazy laugh, and it's still cosy and forgettable viewing.

The Knuckles series was good fun, I really enjoyed it. I feel like I wanted perhaps just a bit more screen time for Knuckles, but I can see why they ran it the way they did.

It was funny, engaging, and fairly focussed rather than some lumbering overlong mess. At the same time, it wasn't deep or anything like that. Overall I'm glad I have watched the Sonic movies and the Knuckles series, each time I have been surprised by how much better they were than I was expecting.

Currently watching Lady Dynamite which is a comedy vehicle for Maria Bamford who I quite like as a stand up. The show's a bit much at the moment but definitely has moments.

Also watching 'The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning' which is about three Swedes who teach grown adults how to throw their shit away. I LOVE that sort of thing. I'm such a minimalist now that anything that confirms that throwing shit out is good is always a winner with me. I even watch Stacy Solomon's Sort Your Life Out and the Nick Knowles version. Anyway, this is fun and it's narrated by Amy Poehler from Parks and Rec.

I always think there's too much good drama to watch reality stuff, but I also LOVE this kind of thing (only surpassed by people sorting their finances out [given the luck to be able to]). Being in a family who fudge decisions (a gentle but illustrative example - mum got a tax bill that has a due date of January 2026. Judged as "I don't think I need to pay that yet". This vagueness is how you end up with piles of paper and full inboxes, because the first decision is always "um, maybe later" basis). I will give it a go!

Watched the first episode of The Penguin last night, fucking amazing so far!

Late to the party but just watching and enjoying - Masters of the Air on Apple. Very much like Band of Brothers but in the sky, mostly.

Kaos was excellent. I expect the cancellation notice within a week.

The Stacy Solomon/Nick Knowles format started with a Netflix thing called Consumed where a Canadian women would go to a house (also in Canada) that was full of stupid shit and would take everything to a warehouse and make them go through it and get rid of 50% and in the meantime she'd get a team of workmen to decorate their house and make it nice.

I'm at that point in life where if it's not nailed down I may well throw/donate/sell it. So it absolutely resonates with me.

In your example. If your mum only had that one bill to deal with and no other paperwork, it'd probably get done. People just end up stuck with a mountain of stuff and so getting rid of it seems impossible.

I came to all this a few years ago because I had a load of those Pop Vinyl things in my study/mancave. Anyway, I wasn't even noticing them (certainly not enjoying them) and then one day I did and I just thought 'this is ALL SHIT' and so I decided to sell five things a week until everything I didn't want was gone. But I also made a point of investing all that money. So instead of having a load of shit in my room that I didn't want, it's now in an account earning money. It was enough stuff that I was able to comfortably downsize from a four bedroom house to a cute little three (more like 2.5) bedroom one in a nicer area. And now whenever I want to use anything, it's right there and not on a shelf or in a box with a bunch of other stuff. Completely life changing stuff really.

Life changing enough that I can enjoy content by Stacy Solomon anyway. Never saw that coming.

On TV: did anyone ever see Danger Five? I think it was Australian or something rather than US but it was amazing.

I've been wondering which thread to put that in, so haven't. Apart from being netflix and having Goldblum it's largely British. But (spoilers) in Greece.

Brilliant though.

Paris Has Fallen is excellent

All of this. Never was there a greater show so clearly ripe for cancellation after series 1.

Kim and Aggie did How Clean is Your House 20 years ago, surely that would have been first?

That was more of a clean dirt/grime off your surfaces. I think the newer wave is more strip down your overconsumption and throw away half your possessions for a streamlined life.

I would absolutely love to do some of that streamlining stuff but I am married to an absolute hoarder that loves buying new stuff and will buy lots of cheap stuff rather one really good and lovely thing.

They did a load of that too, though. When they weren't mixing baking soda with vinegar for basically any kind of stain.

Most of what I do in the kitchen is to a mental accompaniment of those two screeching in horror.

Ah, I didn’t know they did the organising stuff too.

I always wonder about the vinegar and baking soda thing. Don’t they just naturalise each other out? I thought you needed one OR the other to clean?

Russell used to line a show on Netflix. The Home Edit, I think it was called. Basically, what you need is everything in clear plastic co trainers. Though they didn’t slim down your goods. Somehow you ended up with more stuff. Kids got 20 felt tips spread all over the desk? Here are eight storage bins. 200 red pens in this one. 200 orange pens in this one. 200 yellow pens in this one. Etc. Everything they did relied on huge visual impact in rainbow order, which often relied on them buying MORE of the stuff that the containers had in them. Plus it was really uncomfortable viewing, as one of the two hosts really dominated the other, never looked at her partner, and the partner was always fawning to her.

This sort of thing. So instead of all the crayons being in one sectioned container, and all the paints being in another, containers are organised by colour. So your kid wants crayons, you have to get them every big chonky container because the crayons are spread among them.

Just no.

Chonky. I do like the word chonky. Not used often enough.

@mimi yes, vinegar and bicarb neutralise each other - it's the violence of the chemical reaction as it happens that can help shift stains and welded on stuff. Some heat, but mostly the rapid creation, expansion and collapse of millions of bubble.

Especially if you scrub with a bicarb slurry before adding the vinegar, it can get under the edges of stuff a bit.

I watched the second episode last night, and I think this is possibly my favourite thing on TV at the moment.

I used to watch things despite Colin Farrell being in it, but recently I have found myself liking more and more of his stuff, and his turn as the Penguin is just spot on.

I went into this expecting to like it, but I turned off after about 10-15 minutes, it just seemed to have something 'missing' and Goldblum was just being Goldblum for the sake of being Goldblum, and wasn't doing a very good job of it.

I may go back and give it a second chance, because I love me some modern day Mythology, but we'll see.

We just watched Jury Duty, and it was great. I felt it was a slowish start and at first I wondered if it was really real or if the 'real juror' was an actor playing along. By the middle, I was really into it and the ending was great. i genuinely laughed out loud at the absurdity and humour, and also found the end quite heart-warming.

James Marsden looked like he was having a lot of fun during it.

D'oh! Now I'm not sure whether to bother watching it.

Maybe hope someone else picks it up?

Hysteria is fantastic. It’s like Stranger Things with more metal, crossed with 80s horror films like Nightmare On Elm Street

@sir Taxalot I absolutely cannot watch anything with James Marsden in if he isn't doing his Spike London accent - What's he doing in this?

You appear to be confusing James Marsden and James Marsters.

Er.... Just being a bit of a caricature version of himself really.

Oh, I see Grim... has worked this out, I don't really know James Masters.

Oh yes, I do, don't I?!

Currently watching Shrinking.

It's a comedy about psychiatrists. Starts Jason, the big guy from How I Met Your Mother, and has Harrison Ford in a prominent role too. It's brilliantly funny. It's written by the guy who wrote Scrubs.

The only downside is Christa Miller. She's still amazingly funny but she's really ruined her face with plastic surgery. Such a shame as she was so outrageously beautiful before all that nonsense.

Yeah, I like Shrinking, despite the fact that the neighbour (Christa Miller, I now know) is deep in the uncanny valley, and I find the lead desperate. But it's still amusing and touching.

Rust to Riches on Netflix is so bad I can’t stop watching it. Basically a body shop that specialises in taking beautiful cars and sets about making them look absolutely fucking shit with terrible “upgrades” that look like they’re designed by an eight year old. They’re currently trying to get into “high end clients” and are confused about why nobody seems to want their £300k Ferraris turning into bad Hot Wheels cars. Cracking telly.

I very much enjoyed the first series of Shrinking.

We do like having an easy to binge US comedy on the go and we've just found Animal Control which stars the guy that was the star of Community. That guy. Forehead guy.

As ever he's playing a guy that's not super likeable but the ensemble do okay. It's a bit like Brooklyn 911 but with animal control people rather than cops. Is alright but not brilliant. These shows always start quite weak though so I expect it'll get good and then will tail off hard at season five. It's up to two at the moment.

Back when Tour of Duty was my favourite thing, my brother called it the "Chip and Chuck" (American, guns, muscles) show.

Right now, I am spoilt for Chip and Chuck shows. SWAT didn't get cancelled and is back. When it might have been cancelled, I switched to Seal Team and have only seen one series so far. The Old Man turned into a spy-type thriller for series 2. Paris has Fallen is ticking boxes, Day of the Jackal is excellent, and Lioness started series 2 with a bang. Thandiwe Newton is going to need new vocal chords from the shouting by the end.

My wife wanted to finish the Lethal Weapon series - I really enjoyed S1 and the bits and pieces I saw of S2 were alright too, it was pretty easy going stuff.

However I was annoyed then and remain annoyed now at the stupid decision they made to kill off It just seemed so pointless

The Penguin is fucking incredible, from start to finish.

I absolutely cannot wait for more in The Batman Part II.

Yeah really enjoyed The Penguin, best tv show in ages.

Just got that last one to do on that. Probably tonight's viewing

I swore at the telly the other night. Fucking bat shit. Can’t stop watching.

Not US, but i'm a rebel.

Taskmaster NZ season 5 is on a par with season 2, thoroughly enjoyed it.

I love some of the reactions, the red vinyl wrapped DeLorean, fucking hell. Kind of wish they'd actually painted it for the lols though.

My son's got my wife and I watching Community.

It's really quite good most of the time, it sometimes borders on being "too American sitcomy" but Abed or Troy usually bring it back to being acceptable. The meta postpostmoderness is perfect for me and the homages are lovely.

recommend if you like that sort of thing!

Is this the one at Gotham Motors? We watched this a couple of years back. The ‘wheeler dealer’ guy is amazing. But yeah, they make some shocking looking things. Stretch it out, drop the suspension, make sure there is a spider web on it. I’m a bit suss at some of the symbols on the main guy’s hat, and so I don’t like him much.

That’s the one.

Makes me miss Rust Valley Restorers even more…

We watched that, too! That guy was also a knob.

Have you seen the lumber jacking version of this show? I’m convinced that the logging plot is directly above the Rust Valley Restorers yard.

https://www.netflix.com/gb/title/81349493

The two shows are not connected in any way, and logging has nothing in similar with car restoration, and yet Rust Valley Restorers and Big Timber occupy the exact same spot in my mind.

On a related note, if you’ve never watched Stihl Timber Sports you are missing out. It’s World’s Strongest Man, but with axes and chainsaws.

Big Timber, Ice Road Truckers, Gold Rush, Bering Sea Gold, The Curse of Oak Island.

All utter trash... that I watch religiously. They are just so easy to watch because it's the same thign every episode, but nothing ever happens.