TV Tips

[Geoff Grace]

Can quality shows have so much graphic violence for you to the point where you feel kind of sorry after you watch?

“Peaky Blinders” ran for six seasons and a film is coming out and it has been widely praised as one of the best shows in years. I hadn’t seen it until yesterday, when I watched the first two episodes, and this morning when I started to watch another.

It’s as good as advertised, especially Cillian Murphy, but jeez, I felt kind of sickened by it and I don’t think I want to watch more.

Any of you react that way to that kind of show, quality though it may be?

I’ve never liked gratuitous or graphic violence, Jay. I even struggle with violence that has an educational aspect, as it did in Band of Brothers.

I typically watch TV to escape from stress rather than embrace it. As a result, (American) football and the news are usually the most violent things I watch.

Best,

Geoff

[Guy Rowland]

Can quality shows have so much graphic violence for you to the point where you feel kind of sorry after you watch?

“Peaky Blinders” ran for six seasons and a film is coming out and it has been widely praised as one of the best shows in years. I hadn’t seen it until yesterday, when I watched the first two episodes, and this morning when I started to watch another.

It’s as good as advertised, especially Cillian Murphy, but jeez, I felt kind of sickened by it and I don’t think I want to watch more.

Any of you react that way to that kind of show, quality though it may be?

Like Geoff I have a really low tolerance for graphic violence, I can't stand it. A few shows I've made it through, I guess Breaking Bad would be one example, but I so nearly bailed after the 2nd or 3rd episode - I think I'd heard that the violence was infrequent and so it turned out to be (in fact I I'm not sure Season Two had any at all). Sometimes it's vital that it is in there - American History X or All Quiet On The Western Front just two film examples, but I've noticed even though I think both are excellent and the violence was right, I can never bring myself to re-watch them.

I've never done Peaky Blinders, unsurprisingly.

[Lawrence]

In most of Tarantino’s films, the violence is not only gratuitous, it’s gleeful. However, it’s so over the top that it crosses over into the comedic. The fight scene in “Kill Bill” that featured the Crazy 88’s is a prime example- lots of hacked off limbs, all of them deliberately spurting gallons of blood that spray everywhere-it’s ridiculous but left me feeling sort of queasy.

Peaky Blinders, Deadwood-these were period series in violent times and incredibly well written. All of Scorsese’s Mafia oeuvre, The Godfather trilogy and Apocalypse Now by Coppola, fantastic films regardless of violence, great writing, amazing cinematography.

Some films that include psychological as well as physical violence are too hard for me.
Two I can think of-“Hostel “and “Funny Games.” Couldn’t make it through either.

Peaky Blinders is, in my opinion, can’t miss entertainment regardless of violence. Fantastic drawing of characters, great acting, great writing, amazing sets, interesting material about ethnicities.

[Ashermusic]

Like it’s two predecessors in the Knives Out series, Wake Up, Dead Man is big time fun!

[Guy Rowland]

Spoilerful thoughts after seeing the finale of ep 1 of Pluribus:

► Show Spoiler

Adore this show beyond words. Every episode I wrestle with huge philosophical issues from a perspective I've never considered before. I'm immersed into every second. Everything rings true though character and grounded in a wildly fantastical world whose rules are invented from the ground up, and quite unlike anything I've seen before.

My overall feeling at the end of Ep9 is that although the show is about many, many things, it feels at this point that most pertinently it is a show about cults. The series - even right from ep 1 - is about lovebombing Carol. She seems a hopeless case, an angry volatile misanthrope grieving her wife that they killed. How could they possibly get her onside?

Abandonment. Give her enforced apparently blissful solitude, and add time. It won't take all that long.

Indeed it doesn't. They get her to a point of maximum vulnerability and milk it for all its worth. Carol feels loved. She even realises at one point that her partner is really her chaperone - "exactly" Zosia confirms. They're not even hiding it - they can't. And STILL Carol is in. She tells herself she can live with that because the alternative is so much worse. She "feels" amazing. And it must do - she is being globally love-bombed.

The feeling that you - squirty, failing, hopeless little you - are actually the centre of someone else's world is such a heady part about being mutually in love. It feels unbelievable, you pinch yourself - can it even be true? Yes! It is true! Oh my God. It is overwhelming. Well never mind that, Carol is the centre of 7 billion others' world. Everything is designed to make her happy. Limitless, boundless. Zosia herself is designed to make her happy, the person plucked from 7 billion as the most likely to be able to woo, seduce her and then fulfil her every conceivable wish. And these others totally believe in it too. Completely. It's all for one purpose.

The cable cars quietly stop the moment Carol and Zosia have departed.

This is cults, pure and simple, only on the largest scale possible. Cults are masters at exploiting vulnerability (often not a negative vulnerability at all, eg compassion). They make you feel like you are the centre of their world. And slowly they become the centre of YOUR world. In fact, not just the centre, your periphery too - they are your ENTIRE world. You cannot leave because if you do you lose everything. You are shunned, rejected, utterly alone. Everything you believed in, the reason you got up in the morning, the purpose that you put your heart and soul into, shattered.

Having an entire city move away to avoid you is the perfect metaphor for what that would feel like. And they do it to her TWICE.

There were times when I thought Carol wouldn't have gone so far down the rabbit hole, but by the end I realised it was inevitable she would.

So. Delightfully... now what?

[Guy Rowland]

PluribuS

► Show Spoiler

Vince Gilligan holds the rights to Raven, the biography of Jim Jones. He knows how this stuff works.

[Guy Rowland]

Good to see Rhea Seehorn winning best actress in the Critics Choice awards for Pluribus - she never won anything for her incredible performance in Better Call Saul.

I also see Tramell Tillman won best supporting actor for Severance. All the cast are strong, but he is exceptional. Even though season two was a major disappointment for me, great to see he won.

The biggest TV winner - best drama, best actor, supporting actress - was The Pitt. I don't recall anyone mentioning it here. We have a good excuse not to in the UK - it STILL hasn't been released, but this is about to change I believe. Very much looking forward to trying it.

The Studio picked up the comedy awards - it was okay, quite clever and well executed in places but I honestly didn't love it. I think my tolerance for industry navel-gazing has diminished over the years.

Adolescence won best Limited Series and quite right too - that was exceptional. It picked up almost all the acting awards, including the extraordinary young actor Owen Cooper. But I was most thrilled to see Erin Doherty win, she was only in one episode (3) but she was phenomenal. I don't think I'll ever forget it.

No music awards at the Critics Choice! Boo.

[wst3]

I can't remember the title, but Kevin Bacon starred as your stereotypical burnt out FBI Behaviorist who was (predictably) called back to help with an especially difficult case. The series was dark, and had more violence than I like, but it was, at the same time compelling. I got sucked in. Judi did not, and after a couple of episodes opted out of watching it. So I ended up watching it when she was busy or asleep.

And now I'm wishing I hadn't. I won't spoil anything, except to say that the finale was over-the-top dark and violent, and left me feeling like I had wasted my time watching it.

Quality is important. It is especially important for shows that lean towards the darker side of humanity. Maybe I've just watched one too many, but I am a lot less likely to watch all the way through.

The same can be said for a lot of shows though - I find myself getting bored, even when there are plenty of twists... they just don't interest me.

[Ashermusic]

Bill it was called “The Following” and James Purefoy was the villain.

I though it was brilliant. It’s being streamed for free on Tubi, along with my “Zorro” tv series,which is considerably less dark

[wst3]

Jay - that's the one. It was brilliant, well written, well cast, well acted, well directed, well produced, and I enjoyed it, right up until the end. The end disturbed me, and I am not easy to disturb.