Christmas and 2015 Telly Thoughts

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There really wasn't much on TV this Christmas, I felt. There was The Farmer's Llamas, of course, the latest adventures of Shaun the Sheep, but apart from that, there was the Doctor Who Christmas Special and Sherlock, and that's pretty much it.

Thoughts on those, and my pick of the best of new TV in 2015 behind cut.



I'm not much of a River Song fan, but I liked her better with Peter Capaldi's Doctor than with Matt Smith's. The story was okay, but it didn't half go on and on. Moffatt can't seem to write a sentence if he thinks he can get away with a paragraph. Ended up thinking (as I often do) that Capaldi is way too good an actor for this show. But he loves it. And I love it because of him.

As for Sherlock, I didn't get to watch it until almost a week after it aired, but it was worth the wait, I thought. Again, Moffatt's tendency to be over word-y got on my nerves at times, and the denouement of the Victorian mystery wasn't nearly as feminist-friendly as he possibly thinks it was (for one thing, having the explanation come from the lips of Sherlock himself - who Cumberbatch has always portrayed as seeming to regard women as a hostile alien species - just rings false), but there was lots of very enjoyable stuff in it. I liked the idea of Moriarty as existing inside Sherlock's head, I loved Mrs Hudson's lines about how she never gets any lines in the Victorian era scenes, which made me laugh out loud, it looked terrific, and Cumberbatch and Freeman - not to mention the entire supporting cast - were all terrific too. Cumberbatch, in particular, managed to look very Jeremy Brett-like in the Victorian scenes. Great stuff.

As far as 2015 TV is concerned, below, in no particular order, are the five new shows I enjoyed most in 2015.

Agent Carter: a gorgeous, glossy post-WW2 romp, featuring one of the best lead female characters since Buffy. The new series starts next week. Hoorah!

Jessica Jones: Not so gorgeous, maybe, certainly more violent. But again, a great female lead character, whose weaknesses were just as important as her strengths. Also featuring a female friendship as the most important relationship in the show.

Sense 8: Weird, wonderful, beautiful to look at, and with a truly international cast. Loved all the main characters. Loved the people they loved. Very scared about what might happen to them all in season 2.

The Last Kingdom: Set in Anglo-Saxon England during the Danish invasions, based on the novels by Bernard Cornwell. Critics beforehand claimed it was trying to ride the wave of popularity of Game of Thrones, which might well be true, but it was good. Pretty much everyone agreed (even if how good it was surprised a lot of them). Also helped boost the popularity of the man-bun.

Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell: Bit of a cheat including this, as there there was never going to be a season 2, but I do think the BBC succeeded in bringing an almost un-filmable book to the screen, and did it very well indeed.

I also enjoyed (with qualifications) Netflix's Marco Polo (the young actor playing Marco had zero charisma, unfortunately, but the 'supporting cast' had more than enough to make up for it), and Amazon Prime's The Man in the High Castle (the problem with this was with the three main characters, who, sadly, remained largely unsympathetic throughout, but there were some great things in the show all the same).

As for returning shows, the best by miles was The Americans, but I enjoyed Ripper Street season 3 as well. I haven't watched all of The Good Wife season 6 yet, but what I have seen of it (about half the series) has been a huge disappointment. I hope it picks up again in season 7 and then ends before it gets really crap.

Comments

[dragonyphoenix.livejournal.com]

I finally got to see Sherlock last night! My local PBS stations does occasionally come through on my set but never when there's anything on I want to watch so I had to wait for the streaming version. I think you hit it right on the nose. The feminist storyline could have been stronger. The legend of a vengeful bride is supposed to bring equality to women? Aren't there always legends of vengeful subordinated people about?

I am quite looking forward to the next season now. How is Moriarty back but also dead? I'm intrigued.

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I'm a bit unclear as to whether there will be another season, or whether Cumberbatch and Freeman agreed to do this as a one-off. Either way, having Moriarty as the voice of Sherlock's inner doubts works very well, I think.

ETA: Ah, okay, seems there really will be a season 4, but they haven't started filming it yet, so it's unlikely to air before January 2017. Again, it's only three episodes.

I'm quite surprised Cumberbatch can fit it in, actually. He seems to be in everything these days.

[dragonyphoenix.livejournal.com]

I'm quite surprised Cumberbatch can fit it in, actually. He seems to be in everything these days. *laughs* He really does.

[ex_peasant441]

I think Cumberbatch really likes playing Sherlock and working with Freeman, so hopefully they will continue to fit it in as long as its only a brief thing every two or three years or so.

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Hopefully.

[thismaz.livejournal.com]

Sparrow told me there was some twitter outrage about the 'mansplaining' of the feminist angle in Sherlock, but since the whole story was inside Sherlock's head and deeply his POV, I don't really see how another character could have delivered the lines. Especially inside his own mind, Sherlock has to be the one to solve the puzzle. I really enjoyed Mycroft and how he looks through Sherlock's eyes.

I am still way behind on Doctor Who - the downside of living with someone who tolerates it, rather than enjoys it as a series and we are still waiting for Agent Carter. But we both enjoyed Jessica Jones. DJ also enjoyed Sense8, but watched it while I was at work, so I didn't see it.

I thought The Last Kingdom was very good and look forward to season 2. Immeasurably better than the new Beowulf, which we watched the first episode of, while playing 'spot the derivation'.

It was good to see Ripper Street back and I am still enjoying The Good Wife, although I am not sure which season is next for us. In the end I couldn't get into Man in a High Castle and I decided not to spoil my memories (dim though they are) of the book.

Other things we enjoyed last year (I think they were last year) were Black Sails and Vikings. Did you watch them?

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Sparrow told me there was some twitter outrage about the 'mansplaining' of the feminist angle in Sherlock, but since the whole story was inside Sherlock's head and deeply his POV, I don't really see how another character could have delivered the lines.

That aspect didn't bother me - though him being so understanding of the women's reasons for doing what they were doing rather did, because of the whole 'hostile alien race' thing. What did bother me somewhat was the fact that the women expressed their anger by becoming murderers. That was a lot more troubling. Maybe you can put that part down to it being all in Sherlock's head too, which the 'hostile alien race' attitude does make somewhat likely. ;)

and we are still waiting for Agent Carter

It's already been shown over here - on FX, so if you don't have Sky, you'll have to watch it on DVD. Season 1 is available. In fact, I got it for Christmas. ;)

I didn't bother with Beowulf. ITV always put these things on at silly times. I also haven't watched either Black Sails or Vikings. I've sort of considered them, but suspect them both of being very violent. Are they?

[thismaz.livejournal.com]

No, we do not have Sky. Agent Carter is on my Lovefilm list.

I don't think either Vikings or Black Sails were particularly violent. No more so that most mainstream TV. There is off-screen sexual violence in Black Sails, but I don't remember either of them having anything particularly graphic in them.

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Isn't there a blood-eagle scene in Vikings? I'm sure I read about that somewhere. Can really do with not seeing that.

[thismaz.livejournal.com]

As I remember, the procedure was described to the victim, but I don't remember it being shown. I am far to squeamish to watch something like that, so I suppose I might have had my eyes closed, but I don't think so.

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Maybe I'll risk peeking at it, then.

[ex_peasant441]

I found the Victorian setting for Sherlock very annoying at first, but then perked up a lot once it started to weave in the modern plot, which I thought was very neat.

Doctor Who was fun.

Still can't bring myself to join Amazon Prime so I will have to wait for The Man in the High Castle.

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I found the Victorian setting for Sherlock very annoying at first.

Why was that? I thought they did it really well.