fucking-amal.com

Ian wrote:...an inebriated young man flush with success in a seedy gambling establishment is offered a bed for the night by the proprietors to ensure his safety...

Yeah.
I'd buy that too.

To Catch a Killer. Veteran character actor Brian Dennehy gives a chilling and unforgettable performance in this early 90s TV miniseries retelling of the true events leading to the arrest of one of America's most notorious serial killers. When a teenage boy vanishes after supposedly stepping out to talk to John Wayne Gacy (Dennehy) about a part-time job at his construction company, a tenacious police Lieutenant becomes convinced that the "successful local businessman and respected member of the community" is responsible, though others are less persuaded by the slim-at-best circumstantial evidence. But his investigation into Gacy begins to unearth a pattern suggesting something far more horrifying than anyone suspected.

Disturbing stuff.

Ian wrote:Disturbing stuff.

Sounds it.

Melrose Place. Watching season 1 of this notorious 90s prime time soap at the moment. I haven't seen this show in 20 years since it went off-air, and I haven't seen this season since it first aired, a frankly unbelievable 26 years ago. (Dear God, I'm old!) I'm enjoying it so far, though it doesn't really become the show everyone remembers until the second half of the season IIRC. The first half is a relatively light hearted and restrained drama, not the OTT lurid soap it will soon become. The biggest shock going back is how completely different Michael is early on. He clearly has a bit of a temper but is otherwise a mature-minded, faithful and loving husband and caring doctor. Soon he will of course become the scheming, smirking, cheating rat we all remember lol! We've seen Kimberly a couple of times (again, very different and normal so far!) and the last one I saw just introduced Sydney. My, I forgot what a cute little vixen she was. Oh my.

I'm having nostalgic fun so far, so I can see me getting the rest if this keeps up.

Ian wrote:...the scheming, smirking, cheating rat...

It's almost like looking into a mirror, isn't it?

He has been one of my role models, I'll admit.

The Sandbaggers. Really good late 70s/early 80s British spy series with Roy Marsden (best remembered as Commander Adam Dalgliesh in the PD James Mystery adaptations from the early 80s to the late 90s). Always liked him as an actor, and it's very good, dark, gritty stuff. On season 2 at present.

Criminal Minds. The season 5 finale/season 6 premiere, with Tim Curry as a serial killer who's been murdering his way across the US in home invasions from city to city for decades wherever there's electricity blackouts. Robert Davi also guest stars in this cracking 2 parter, but it's Curry who predictably steals the show as the ghoulish "Prince of Darkness".

Columbo: A Stitch in Crime. Columbo takes on Mr Spock in this thoroughly entertaining installment, as Leonard Nimoy guest stars as a dastardly doctor who plots to kill a colleague to advance his own career, and then knocks off a nurse who figures out what he's up to. Can Columbo bring him down? Well, of course he can. It's only logical.

on All 4 (UK's channel 4's streaming site)

I watched the two seasons of Derry Girls, enjoyable comedy set in 90's with a great soundtrack and good performances. Got a ton of critical praise and loved by a large audience, it got a 8.3 on IMDB. A little overhyped but overall a really fun show.

Shane Meadow's new 4 part TV drama The Virtues, a hard hitting TV drama about abuse. Fantastic turn from Stephen Graham, not a easy watch but one of the best shows I've seen this year.

Press Gang: A Quarter to Midnight. On a Friday night, Lynda manages to get herself stuck in a company's security vault. It won't be opened again until Monday morning, and her mobile phone is broken. Great, she thinks, what a way to spend a weekend... until she realises the vault is airtight, and she'll be dead long before Monday... Press Gang only did a small handful of episodes that saw characters in genuine life-and-death situations, but when it did they were usually corkers, and this is no exception. Being mildly claustrophobic, I find this one pretty damn scary.

Ian wrote:Press Gang

I seem to have a box set of the whole series.
A young Julia Sawalha was excellent as I recall.

I'll have to watch it again soon.

Yeah I've finished the run again now. Still a great show.

The Married With Children double-length Xmas special It's a Bundyful Life. A very MWC take on... well, work it out... as a miserable Al wonders if he may as well not have been born, and soon finds out when a foul-mouthed angel arrives to show him. Discovering that the people who make his life miserable are all much better off without him inspires him to live again, because why the hell should they be?!

Buffy the Vampire Slayer season 6. Finished this the other day. It's still my least favourite season - in fact I skipped it on last run - but I enjoyed it well enough this time. It has a number of issues. While most Buffy seasons start slow and then slowly but surely build up, season 6 - because of the way 5 ended - kicks off like a bat out of hell but then drops like a stone and has to start again after episode 3, and 4-6 seem incredibly inconsequential as a result. This makes the season arc a victim of its own cleverness, as it's far from clear where this is going and the only new villains - the Nerd Trio - initially seem as threatening as a paper bag. The depressing nature of some of the arcs, particularly Buffy's post-resurrection depression and Willow's increasing magic dependency, likewise doesn't help. And while I quite enjoy Spike's unrequited obsession with Buffy in season 5, and the more emotional but still platonic bond they share after Spike is re-ensouled in season 7, here their relationship is just kind of disgusting and disturbing. But it's not all bad news. There are some really good episodes. The opening 3 episodes are terrific, as stated, and there are some very entertaining more-or-less standalones like Tabula Rasa, the darkly comic Doublemeat Palace, Older and Far Away and the chillingly executed Normal Again (the one where Buffy thinks she's a mental patient in an asylum, with her whole life as the Slayer nothing but a delusion). And the final four episodes are as good as almost any other finale, as the disparate strands of the season come together and Tara's death sends Willow on a magical bender of murderously vengeful and increasingly apocalyptic proportions. This is all terrific stuff, and as dark, frightening and upsetting as the show gets. I'll take a moment here to mention Nicholas Brendon, who's perpetually underrated as Xander but is a total standout here. Everyone raves about Alyson Hannigan as the utterly out of control Willow - and they should, cause she's great - but poor Xander just looks in a state of complete and total shock and horrified disbelief as one of his friends is murdered, another is gunned down in front of him and his best friend since childhood completely loses her mind. And, of course, he finally gets to be the one to save the day, with his willingness and insistence that if Willow's going to destroy the world she should start with him being the thing that finally reawakens her humanity.
So... season 6. It's a difficult season at times, but it's still pretty good.