What are you watching?

[bill_g]

Lincoln Lawyer on Netflix. Two thumbs up.

Mrs ado was telling me about that a few days ago as we were driving out to Point Reyes. I said it sounds a lot like Better Call Saul, which I have been watching on Netflix. I checked the listing on Netflix when I got home, which said it was a 99% match. So I guess I'll watch it...

Mickey Haller is no Saul Goodman. For one, Haller is not a "criminal" lawyer. (wink)

[neonzx]

And yet for some of us, it's literally a miracle that helps make a half-way decent life possible. I know it's hurt a LOT of people and that what PerduePharma did was reprehensible beyond belief, but I also know I'd likely have checked out due to the pain I have a long time a go without it and other meds like it.

For some, I believe that is true. For far too many others, it was a death sentence. Perdue Pharma had an FDA approved drug designed for addicts -- and they made billions upon billions knowing full well it was addictive. Perhaps you live in a state with better controls but down here in Florida there was an epidemic. I moved here in 2010 and learned new words -- Methadone and Narcan. And doctor shopping and pharmacy hopping. Perdue execs should be rotting in prison.

[Luke]

True Neon, and Florida's pill mills were awful. South Florida was so bad that insurance premiums were nearly double of Orange County (Orlando). But I agree with Kriselda, some of those medications are lifesavers for chronic pain and suffering.

On Netflix, the new season of BAKE OFF: THE PROFESSIONALS is on. I know nothing about cooking or baking, but it's great fun to watch how they do it. And I LOVE Cherish Finden, find her hilarious. We swapped tweets last season.. after seeing the end of it I'll send my love to her again.

[Kriselda Gray]

On Netflix, the new season of BAKE OFF: THE PROFESSIONALS is on. I know nothing about cooking or baking, but it's great fun to watch how they do it. And I LOVE Cherish Finden, find her hilarious. We swapped tweets last season.. after seeing the end of it I'll send my love to her again.

That's a great show - I really enjoyed it! If you're at all interested in cooking competitions, there's a couple others I've found quite good: Five Star Chef, which I believe is on Netflix, and Secret Chef, on Hulu (IIRC). The "host" for that show is an animated chef's hat that's pretty cheesy, but if you can handle that, it's good.

Five Star Chef stars one of the best chefs in Britain: Michel Roux Jr. He's looking for someone to take over the prime space in a 5-star luxury hotel. Each contestant has to present their concept for a restaurant, and then he puts them through their paces with a bunch of challenges - which they have to present how they would do it if they were running their concept restaurant. You end up with some really creative dishes and presentations (especially from the woman who wants to combine fine dining with circus-type theater).

The best part is that the day after the series finished showing in Britain, the winning chef actually did open his/her concept restaurant in the prime space at the hotel. On some shows that promise "You'll be the head chef at xyz restaurant" (I'm looking at you GR) they don't end up being really in charge of the restaurant - for example, they don't actually get to set the menu or change the decor, etc., but on this show, that what the winner got to do. Of course, that means you don't want to look at the hotel website right now or it'll spoil the show!

[Luke]

Thank you, I really enjoyed Five Star Chef. The winner only gets a guaranteed six months, but the reviews of the winner were fantastic. It was a really creative choice. No spoilers, it's just six episodes and agree it was great fun.

Amazon now has their version of Pluto TV (this is getting ridiculous lol). It's called FREEVEE and has commercials, but so far it's been far fewer than Pluto. It's strange, they both have the original Hawaii Five O, but Pluto only has Seasons 1-5. It's strange because Pluto is CBS and it was a CBS show. FreeVee has all 11 seasons, every episode. They really are a lot of fun... seeing the old methods of policework and sort of the innocence compared to today is interesting.

I wonder... while now we have so much surveillance, cell phones, drones, computer files (soon/now with AI), which era was more successful prosecuting crime. On H5O, people are having to go to payphones, there's hardly any radar tracking (the few they have are like suitcase sized and have 1 beep in the big box on the dashboard), and the computers were truly primitive. Is there more success with all this new technology, or was it in the old days when people couldn't run and hide as easily.

Here's a cool episode on FreeVee, wait until you see the "latest technology":

7 E15 - Computer Killer
January 13, 1975 50min
An investigation into a murder is sent off track through the modification of computer information, and Five-O must use the latest technology to rescue the case.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/video/detail/ ... play=1&t=0

Here's another one... the "computer" looks like it's just going through individual microfiche files.

S5 E1 - Death Is a Company Policy
September 11, 1972 50min
McGarrett is puzzled when a computer programmed to help solve the slaying of an underworld figure's "business associate" indicates that the culprit is one of McGarrett's own people.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/video/detail/ ... play=1&t=0

[neonzx]

Amazon now has their version of Pluto TV (this is getting ridiculous lol). It's called FREEVEE and has commercials, but so far it's been far fewer than Pluto. It's strange, they both have the original Hawaii Five O, but Pluto only has Seasons 1-5. It's strange because Pluto is CBS and it was a CBS show. FreeVee has all 11 seasons, every episode. They reall

FreeVee has been on Amazon for awhile now. After Amazon bought IMDB, IMDB TV was rebranded FreeVee. Yeah, much of it is older programs and movies thus nothing current except original productions. But still a ton of choices for 'free' like Pluto. win-win
I had someone make fun of me for watching Pluto because it has commercials -- I said that is why god invented the mute button on the remote.

[Luke]

Exactly Neon, I remember it as IMDB TV and saw it was around but hadn't dug into it. They do have some new programming... Judge Judy created another show called Tribunal Justice with 3 judges. Haven't watched it yet. During Prime Day, got an Echo Show 15 heavily discounted. I love my Kindle Fire 10 tablet and thought it would be like that but bigger, but it's not. The voice remote is a must have with the 15, and it only has limited apps (with Alexa), but those include YouTube, Pluto, Netflix, FreeVee and some others. Screen quality is really nice and the sound is fine.

[neonzx]

Exactly Neon, I remember it as IMDB TV and saw it was around but hadn't dug into it. They do have some new programming... Judge Judy created another show called Tribunal Justice with 3 judges. Haven't watched it yet.

Judge Judy recreated her show as "Judy Justice" on FreeVee. And "Tribunal Justice" was previously "Hot Bench" created and owned by Judy. -- The male justice (Levin?) is actually one of Judy's sons. I really thought she was going to retire (it's not like she can't afford to). LOL

[shannon]

Let's see:

Strange New Worlds
The Book of Boba Fett
The Great Australian Bake Off
Inside the Factory
Supernatural
Doctor Who

And on YouTube:

B Dylan Hollis
Max Miller
Tasting History
Try Guys
Randy Rainbow
A Pretty Cool Hotel Tour
Musical Hell.

[neonzx]

On the Netflix, Clickbait. Eight episode mini-series that came out a couple years ago. It's a mystery drama with twists and turns to the end. Not bad at all. Makes me more thankful I do not social media my life.

[Kriselda Gray]

Let's see:

The Great Australian Bake Off

OOh - what service is this one on?

[shannon]

Let's see:

The Great Australian Bake Off

OOh - what service is this one on?

I've been downloading episodes from Reddit, but YouTube has some episodes on line.

I wish a service would carry this, along with the Great Canadian Baking Show, The Great Kiwi Bake Off, The Great Irish Bake Off, the Great South African Bake Off, and The Great Kenyan Bake Off.

[Kriselda Gray]

I've been downloading episodes from Reddit, but YouTube has some episodes on line.

I wish a service would carry this, along with the Great Canadian Baking Show, The Great Kiwi Bake Off, The Great Irish Bake Off, the Great South African Bake Off, and The Great Kenyan Bake Off.

Thanks, I'll look for it. All those others sound great, too. The most recent season of Top Chef featured winners and finalists from several international versions of that show, and I would love to be able to actually see those, too. It was really interesting to see all the different kinds of dishes they all made. IIRC, they had people from the Middle East/North Africa, Mexico, Canada, Germany, France and a couple other versions. One surprise was learning that not every version features Restaurant Wars. I'd think that'd be a gimme, you know?

[John Thomas8]

Binging on Billy Connolly:

[SuzieC]

Watching final episodes of Great British Bake Off The Professionals. These chefs are reaching amazing heights of artistry. Right now they are making classic pithiviers. As usual with this show, I want to move to Paris or London and spend the rest of my life consuming all these pastries.

[Foggy]

Just started 'The Diplomat' on Netflix.

Takes place in Ben-prime 's old stamping ground. I'm liking it so far. Its fun.

I wonder if the nerdish, uh..., gender fluid staffer who cant stop their tablet from playing loud videos is based on Ben.

No? Pity, I kind of like the character.

Ol' Wifehorn stumbled upon this one last night and loves it. She thinks it would be perfect for my dad, and we're going back up to Bathysphere or wherever it is in 8 days.

[keith]

Just finished "Queen's Gambit" on Netflicks. Excellent.

[Luke]

Netflix is adding HBO content (Max isn't doing as well as they wanted, so they are licensing back to Netflix again).

Amazon Prime added The Saint with Roger Moore. They've had it on Tubi with ads, but now they have it ad free on Prime. It's great! Love seeing the old black and white with cities like Paris from so many years ago. Roger breaks the fourth wall and talks to camera at the top of each episode. They are murder mysteries usually... he is Simon Templar. Never saw the movie or read the books. Roger is SO HANDSOME in these and the episodes are sort of innocent with twists. It's a great show to watch before bed, like The Avengers (with Diana Rigg, also on Prime). Mary Tyler Moore is still my go-to show and also on Prime, can watch them over and over and still laugh at the brilliant characters, acting and stories. So there are a few to wind down and relax before bedtime.

Finally feeling a little better, slept almost 18 hours yesterday. Love to you all for the good wishes xx. Took some cough syrup and aspirin which knocked me out after watching a few Saints. Back to sleep and repeat. Uber Eats offers amazing deals, Every since I was little my Mommy only let me have fast food when I was sick. So I really wanted McDonald's, must have been 2 years. 40% off with a $20 max discount along with a free item (10 piece McNuggets, that was in addition to the 40%). Saved $24 last night on a $35 order, can't beat it.

Also had some good chicken soup with meds and some fun TV on the new Echo Show which is 15" with good sound. You need the voice remote to make it work and it's not as versatile as as the Kindle Fire 10, but the 15" size is great, the audio is fine, and the video is top quality (I think it's 1080p). It has Netflix, YouTube, Pluto, Prime Video and other apps built in. It also has a web browser, but only one tab, and you have to use the voice remote to type letter by letter. So I don't use it for that much. Got it on Prime Day for under $100 so it's been worth it. Check out The Saint if you haven't seen it and like seeing classic TV with old city footage (they seemed to be on location a lot). Such a different time... people dressed in jackets and ties just walking on the street, general politeness, and big difference in skylines and different looking landmarks.

Hope my nose is cold and wet again tomorrow, I've been approved for telemedicine by the 699th medical hotline. They suggested I put my meds in a piece of cheese to make it tastier to eat, and learned how to curl up in a ball. Highly recommend it if you can get Gregg to admit you on a guest pass.

[pipistrelle]

Never saw the movie or read the books.

I liked them as occasional fluff, and much better than the show. They're set in a different time period with different sensibilities.

[neonzx]

Netflix is adding HBO content (Max isn't doing as well as they wanted, so they are licensing back to Netflix again).

Amazon Prime added The Saint with Roger Moore. They've had it on Tubi with ads,

I think many of these production companies who ran away to start their own streaming platforms have realized consumers don't want to pay 10 subscriptions and they are now paying more than what they used to for "cable".

I still have HBOMax, but that was a *goof* on my part. (they plan it that way -- so you forget to cancel during trial).

So taking advantage of it watching "Zack Synder's Justice League" --- 3.5 hours or so.

[Luke]

Thank you! Interesting, Libby (the library app) doesn't have The Saint at all, not kindle books nor audiobooks. But Audible has tons on audiobooks. Are there any you especially recommend? Will be fun to hear the full books with audio. Thanks again!

[pipistrelle]

Thank you! Interesting, Libby (the library app) doesn't have The Saint at all, not kindle books nor audiobooks. But Audible has tons on audiobooks. Are there any you especially recommend? Will be fun to hear the full books with audio. Thanks again!

Yeah, I can’t imagine a library investing in outdated books, even if digitized. I read them long again, and they are lightweight , so I don’t remember any in particular. But then I don’t remember the Bond novels, either, only that they weren’t as silly as the movies.

[John Thomas8]

There's something calming and interesting about watching old toys get restored. This fellow combines simple hand tools and state-of-the-art milling machines to bring 1950s, 60s and 70s back to their rightful glory, complete with puffball sheep and cat snacks at the end:

https://www.youtube.com/@ChipChannelRestorations

[keith]

Looking for something great to watch on Prime Video?

Check out the series "The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart"

It is based on the novel by Australian author Holly Ringland. I gave it to my sister for Christmas last year. She couldn't put it down, and passed it around her quilting club, and across the wider town. Nobody could put it down. I never got around to reading it, but I guarantee I will.

With 7 episodes in the series, 6 have been shown so far with the seventh to air on 2 January (in Oz so 1 Jan in the USA?).

Sigourney Weaver gives a magnificent performance, as does Leah Purcell and Alycia Debnam-Carey. All are major award worthy performances. The cinematography is superb.

I CANNOT RECOMMEND THIS SHOW HIGHLY ENOUGH.

(Advisories for Aboriginal and Torres Straits peoples and domestic violence).

[bob]

Binged The Watchmen, the 2019 series that was a retelling? reimagination? sequel? to the original series.

It used the Tulsa Greenwood massacre as a touchstone for its Watchmen's take on alternative history, perceptions of time, vigilanteism, etc.