Chindie Posted May 23, 2023 VT Supporter Share Posted May 23, 2023 A podcast I like recommended watching 'Jury Duty' for a simple good natured easy watch, so we've watched all 8 episodes over the last week. It's quite good, but very strange. The concept is this - it's a mockumentary about jury duty, except one of the jurors is a real person who doesn't know it's all fake. Everyone else is an actor and the whole thing is a set up so that have a narrative to work with that means the jury is sequestered to a hotel. The characters are all... turned up just a little from real, the trial is a mess with constant **** ups, the outside 'lives' of the some of the jurors come into it, and you have James Marsden, the Hollywood actor, playing an exaggerated version of himself crossed with the rich actor bellend persona. It's very odd. There's this strange mix of Office style mockumentary where the plot is played fairly straight, the show's style and tone is straight documentary, but you also have the hidden camera-yness of it, and you're watching something you know to be fake played as real, but the performances and the scenarios are such that they don't feel real which makes you question how much the real guy juror actually suspects this is all nonsense. He is a normal guy, but he applied to be on a documentary about jury duty, which immediately would make me, in his position, suspicious when everything about the trial is **** bizarre - a number of the jurors are straight up odd, an actual actor is there and he's a dickhead (admittedly it is LA so I imagine famous faces on jury duty isn't unusual), the trial is a shitshow... There's various moments where you can see him laughing at how absurd stonet of the stuff going on is. But. Setting that aside, it is quietly funny. And it's helped by the fact the normal guy seems to be a genuinely nice guy. He tries to be helpful in even the most cringe worthy circumstances, he doesn't judge people or stand off from strange personalities. He's a good bloke. Decent, easy watch. It's free on Amazon. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
claretman Posted May 23, 2023 Share Posted May 23, 2023 Agree re Jury Duty, well worth a watch. It was like The Office crossed with The Truman Show. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
il_serpente Posted May 24, 2023 VT Supporter Share Posted May 24, 2023 Another vote for Jury Duty. Watched the first couple of episodes last night with the family and we were in stitches. Like @Chindie says, the actors do a great job of pushing the boundary of believability with their antics and comments without crossing the line. The non-actor is often dumbstruck but doesn't suspect it's a put-on. I love how there are hilarious comments between others just within earshot of the guy so he can't help but overhear yet has to assume they weren't meant for his consumption and therefore doesn't get suspicious. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sheepyvillian Posted May 25, 2023 Share Posted May 25, 2023 Catching up on the last season of Yellowstone. I just had the pleasure of watching the straightner between Beth and Summer, and I gotta say, it was better than anything Jake Paul or KSI have ever served up. What a character Beth Dutton is and its a wonderful testament to the acting ability of Kelly Reilly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sheepyvillian Posted May 25, 2023 Share Posted May 25, 2023 Started my Gommarh re - binge. Can'tbelieve I left it this long. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
theboyangel Posted May 26, 2023 Share Posted May 26, 2023 Finished Extraordinary - absolutely brilliant stuff. Roll on Season 2! 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fightoffyour Posted May 26, 2023 VT Supporter Share Posted May 26, 2023 Atlanta is just brilliant TV Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
villa4europe Posted May 26, 2023 Share Posted May 26, 2023 1 hour ago, fightoffyour said: Atlanta is just brilliant TV Goes up and down for me, doesn't have many average episodes it seems either brilliant or poor, said before I'm glad I didn't watch it on a weekly basis as the randomness of it would have been unbearable The 4 leads are superb and deserve the big careers off it, watch judas and the black messiah, I think Lakeith Stanfield could go on to do great things and he's the best character in atlanta 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chindie Posted May 27, 2023 VT Supporter Share Posted May 27, 2023 Halt and Catch Fire has been added to 4OD. Criminally underrated series and basically disappeared from all services over the last couple of years. Fantastic to have it back. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dAVe80 Posted May 28, 2023 Share Posted May 28, 2023 Ted Lasso. I've watched it all, and quite enjoyed it, but I don't get they hype. It's an easy watch, and there's a nice sentiment behind it, but I just don't understand why people seem to rate it so highly. I've also got to say, as a football fan, the inaccuracies have really started to bug me too. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mottaloo Posted May 28, 2023 Share Posted May 28, 2023 52 minutes ago, dAVe80 said: Ted Lasso. I've watched it all, and quite enjoyed it, but I don't get they hype. It's an easy watch, and there's a nice sentiment behind it, but I just don't understand why people seem to rate it so highly. I've also got to say, as a football fan, the inaccuracies have really started to bug me too. I signed up to apple tv on the strength folk raving about Ted Lasso and I feel pretty much like this quote above. It got all meh. Ted's cheery and innocent enthusiasm got on my norks, as much as the wimp of a character who went on to manage west ham, from Richmond. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sheepyvillian Posted May 28, 2023 Share Posted May 28, 2023 In regards to The Last Kingdom and my previous criticism of King Alfred's wife. I feel she is well now on the way to redeeming herself in my eyes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sheepyvillian Posted May 30, 2023 Share Posted May 30, 2023 On the last season of The Last Kingdom. I've binged this show quicker than most. Some great characters and really good storylines. At least there's the movie to look forward to after the series is over. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tomav84 Posted May 30, 2023 VT Supporter Share Posted May 30, 2023 another shout for jury duty. binged the lot tonight as others have said, the supporting cast really do push it close to the line where you do see that he suspects things are untoward but you can tell he's genuinely shocked at the end kinda scary at the same time that the truman show really could happen they also got very lucky that the 'real' guy wasn't a total prick 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fightoffyour Posted May 30, 2023 VT Supporter Share Posted May 30, 2023 Finale of Succession was perfectly done. Also finished Atlanta tonight, brilliant series. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheAuthority Posted May 31, 2023 VT Supporter Share Posted May 31, 2023 14 hours ago, fightoffyour said: Finale of Succession was perfectly done. Also finished Atlanta tonight, brilliant series. Haven’t seen much talk about Succession on VT. It’s alright. I do think people will completely forget about it within 12 months. There is no story arc to the characters - no one is redeemed, they just continue in their selfish bubbles trying to outdo each other. Meh - some funny moments for sure but ultimately very shallow. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fightoffyour Posted May 31, 2023 VT Supporter Share Posted May 31, 2023 Just now, TheAuthority said: Haven’t seen much talk about Succession on VT. It’s alright. I do think people will completely forget about it within 12 months. There is no story arc to the characters - no one is redeemed, they just continue in their selfish bubbles trying to outdo each other. Meh - some funny moments for sure but ultimately very shallow. Why does everyone have to have a redemption arc. Some people are just arseholes. It's pretty funny, very Peep Show. Lot's of references too. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheAuthority Posted May 31, 2023 VT Supporter Share Posted May 31, 2023 4 hours ago, fightoffyour said: Why does everyone have to have a redemption arc. Some people are just arseholes. It's pretty funny, very Peep Show. Lot's of references too. They don't - and I agree it's funny, but ultimately not very satisfying. In the most interesting stories the characters develop/grow/change in some way which reveals something about humanity. Or maybe I'm talking bollocks and we should all just watch Fast and the Furious series because that's what life is really like Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fightoffyour Posted May 31, 2023 VT Supporter Share Posted May 31, 2023 1 hour ago, TheAuthority said: They don't - and I agree it's funny, but ultimately not very satisfying. In the most interesting stories the characters develop/grow/change in some way which reveals something about humanity. Or maybe I'm talking bollocks and we should all just watch Fast and the Furious series because that's what life is really like I just think it's a well made show. It's different to most other shows in the way you described. It's impressive to have these awful people that you feel compelled to watch and see who will **** each other the most. And you're right, the characters, or at least the main ones, perhaps don't change much, but they have depth. They're not just some man in Fast and Furious. Ultimately, I did find it satisfying that Spoiler they all lost in the end essentially, except some guy who was pretty pathetic throughout and slimed his way in. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sheepyvillian Posted May 31, 2023 Share Posted May 31, 2023 The Last Kingdom. Season 5 episode 6. What an episode that was. Totally blew me away. Sigtryggy, what a character. Loved him from day one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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