the official binge-watching thread

[gh]

I just finished crunching my way through The Leftovers (how did I miss it when it first came out?).

I don't wanna say it's too weird in places, but David Lynch probably gave up and walked out at some point :-)

overall, very much a keeper: 8/10

[bhall]

I just found Patriot on Amazon Prime. Dark spy comedy set around preventing Iran from having an active nuclear weapons programs. Some laugh out loud moment in each episode. We just started the second season.

[gh]

a new list from Esquire, choosing the 30 top HBO shows ever; quite the collection of must-watch stuff (generally speaking)

https://www.esquire.com/entertainmen...st-hbo-series/

[KevinR]

We just finished watching The Spy on Netflix. Great series, and Sacha Baron Cohen is outstanding in the lead role.

[Dave]

Watched Part 1 of Lupin, https://www.netflix.com/title/80994082, dubbed in English. Enjoyable. It is originally in French.

We binged through that a few days ago. It was great and I’m looking forward to the next batch of them.

We watched it in French with subtitles.

[gh]

If you like WWII history and moviemaking they don't come any better than Five Came Back, which is three 1-hour pieces on Netflix.

The IMDB précis:

<<Five present-day directors discuss five wartime directors who voluntarily joined WW2 in order to film it: William Wyler (presented by Steven Spielberg), Frank Capra (Guillermo del Toro), George Stevens (Laurence Kasdan), John Ford (Paul Greengrass) and John Huston (Francis Ford Coppola). Narrated by Meryl Streep>>

[gh]

We just finished watching The Spy on Netflix. Great series, and Sacha Baron Cohen is outstanding in the lead role.

well worth the watch (but as great as Cohen is in the role, I still refuse to try to watch Borat again!!!)

[Atticus]

I still refuse to try to watch Borat again!!!

Gee, really? It is, of course, the WORST movie ever made! [That I've seen; I've heard of others far worse (HC)]

[lonewolf]

My first binge after discovering I have Peacock in my cable package. I never saw an episode of Downton Abbey in its original release. I am glad I didn't because I just watched all six seasons this week and I would have hated to wait a week for all the cliffhangers for six years. It was an entertaining, frustrating series of crises about a lifestyle I cannot imagine.
Although I doubt there are any survivors here of the 1912-26 period of the show, I have a question for forum members who now or have lived in England. Is the speech, manners, class distinction authentic?

A question for all. Is anyone else bothered by the geographic and logistical impossibilities imposed by the scriptwriters?
I understand scenes have to be shot at appropriate locations but Downton is as impossible as the Yellowstone series, returning June 21, with which I have severe time and space issues.

Downton is set in Yorkshire, northern UK, 200 to 300 miles north of London. Downtown Abbey is actually Highclere Castle, 50 miles west of London, which fits nicely for the character's frequent day trips to London. Downton village is actually 40 miles SW of Highclere Castle.

HIghclere village is about a mile from the castle. However, the village scenes were shot at Brampton, UK, a village 10 miles from the Scottish border, 300 miles north of London, convenient for the elopement to Greta Green but awkward to fit into the timeline to York, 100 miles south. They use actual Yorkshire place names but I doubt they were able in 1915 (or now) to catch the train and return to return to Downton (Brampton) between lunch and teatime.
Still a fascinating look at a different time and place.

[jeremyp]

Still a fascinating look at a different time and place.

Fascinating but fictional. It goes back to "Upstairs, Downstairs" which depicted relatively free, and amiable movement up and down, which in reality rarely occurred. Maids were to do their work through separate entry ways and were not to be seen. A few mansions had tunnels between them and the "servants" quarters. You snuck in and did the work unseen. The upper classes were quite insistent on their total superiority which was as slave owners without actual slaves, but pretty much total right to do what they wanted.
https://britishheritage.com/art-cult...-downton-abbey

[Conor Dary]

I've been to some of the old houses, like Chatsworth... Wollaton Hall is right next to the University of Nottingham and ran on the grounds every day for 4 years.

[Conor Dary]

As to realism in the show...

How realistic is Downton Abbey?

There are few grays in the Downton Abbey world. Right, wrong, done, and not done are clearly known by all. Much-applauded author Julian Fellowes has made sure that we know black from white in this world as well. There are the good guys and girls and there are the villains. We can’t understand how everyone from scullery maid Daisy to Lady Grantham fails to see that footman Thomas and Lady’s maid O’Brien are a bad lot all around. Among the questions I have been asked most about Downton Abbey is how accurately the series depicts Edwardian and post-Edwardian life in an aristocratic home such as Downton. Are we getting the real picture?

How truthful is Downton Abbey?


In most respects, very. The one element that does not ring true is the easy interaction and conversation between the upstairs world of the family and their peers and the downstairs world of the hired help. That just didn’t happen (or at least not on such a scale). Most of the family wouldn’t have even known a housemaid’s name. These great country homes had back stairways for a reason. There’s not going to have been much interaction between these social sets, let alone much of an emotional connection. Of course, it always takes some element of the improbable to make a story a story instead of a dull narrative.


Downton Abbey is inexplicably situated in distant Yorkshire (probably to avoid having to weave London life into the tale). In “real life,” the series is shot at Highclere Castle, near the Berkshire market town of Newbury - about 65 miles west of London. What was originally, and probably more accurately, named Highclere House, the “castle” has been the ancestral home of the Earls of Carnarvon for more than 300 years. Its present residents are the youngish 8th Earl and Countess of Carnarvon.

https://britishheritage.com/art-cult...-downton-abbey

[Conor Dary]

The Shooting Party is an excellent movie depicting that era.

[Trickstat]

The Shooting Party is an excellent movie depicting that era.

I must admit I've never seen it but I do remember it was filmed near to me at Knebworth House, whose grounds were used for the 1984 English Women's National Cross-Country champs. The senior race was won by Jane Furniss/Shields.

Wollaton Park is one of the top cross-country venues and has hosted the National Champs, the World Trials and the English Schools' Champs.

[Conor Dary]

I must admit I've never seen it but I do remember it was filmed near to me at Knebworth House, whose grounds were used for the 1984 English Women's National Cross-Country champs. The senior race was won by Jane Furniss/Shields.

Wollaton Park is one of the top cross-country venues and has hosted the National Champs, the World Trials and the English Schools' Champs.

Jane is a long time friend....I knew she won in 1984, and 1987, but I didn't know about the connection with the movie...one of my favorites.

Her son is competing for Boise State now...