You should be watching

[sabotabby]

Things I don't want to talk about right now:
1. ISIS
2. Measles outbreaks and stupid anti-vaxxers and how I would like to shoot them in the head
3. Potential school closures/TDSB corruption

Things I do want to talk about:
1. How I find Yanis Varoufakis weirdly attractive
2. TV!

The first of those things is pretty well covered in one sentence, so let's talk about what you should be watching on TV.


Orphan Black
Have you not seen it? You need to fix that. Any description I give will fail to encompass why it's great; you just need to watch it. Season 3 premieres in April.


Peaky Blinders
This is the best thing on TV other than Orphan Black, and I probably like it just as much or even slightly more? It's on Netflix now so more of my friends have seen it, but as the percentage of my friends who haven't seen it is not yet at 100%, I must ensure that you at least know, so you can make your own choices.

Okay, imagine Boardwalk Empire but really, really good. Oh, you think Boardwalk Empire is already good? It is, but wouldn't it be better if it were set in Birmingham and there were more Marxists and the soundtrack was full of Nick Cave, Tom Waits, and PJ Harvey? And the lead was played by Cillian Murphy, with his dreamy eyes? If your answer to this is not "FUCK YES" I'm not sure I know you.

Oh, what's it about? A youth gang in the 1920s trying to go legit—kind of—while coping with PTSD left over from WWI. They fall afoul of one Winston Churchill, Minister of the Interior, as well as rival gangs and the IRA. Everyone wears excellent suits and/or dresses and the cinematography is gorgeous and gritty and the politics are spot-on.

Also did I mention that the theme song is "Red Right Hand"? Because the theme song is "Red Right Hand."


Strange Empire
You haven't heard of this, have you? I'm genuinely surprised it's not all over Tumblr, as (like Orphan Black) it's essentially a checklist of all the things we want to see in a TV show. It's CBC, so a little spotty in the pacing and plotting, but Our Heroines are a Métis gunslinging sheriff in a black duster and corset, a biracial former prostitute turned kept woman, and an autistic doctor, and I will forgive a lot for that. It's a revisionist Western in the tradition of Deadwood (alas, without my historical crush Al Swearengen and with substantially less use of the word "cocksucker") and most of the men in it are dead or useless, so it's Bechdel-win like you wouldn't believe. Also very pretty cinematography and scathing confrontation with Canada's racist heritage, particularly in regards to the treatment of indigenous and Chinese people. And Betty from Bomb Girls is in it.


The IT Crowd
I'm hopelessly late to the party on this one, but I only have a few episodes left and then there is no more series, and yet I wish I'd started watching it earlier in the year when a regular part of my job literally involved telling people to turn it off and then back on again. But I'm sure that will come in useful at some point later.


Agent Carter
There's no way you're not watching this. If you watch TV, you are watching this.

Comments

[kingtycoon.livejournal.com]

Did you see that ludicrous display last night?
Is my most useful shibboleth.

[resonant.livejournal.com]

Have you seen "Black Books" yet?

*googles*

[ironed_orchid]

Right, Peaky Blinders just went to the top of my queue. Your work is done.

[hano.livejournal.com]

I love the IT crowd. More accurately, I love Katherine Parkinson, the next Mrs Hano. (Although the current Mrs H might object...)
And seconding Black Books if you haven't seen it already

[smhwpf.livejournal.com]

Peaky Blinders most def. Set in Birmingham! My dad lives there, and I lived there for a year, so that's gotta be on the list.

I've seen the first few seasons of IT Crowd, generally watching it with my brother when I'm up in Scotland. Richard Ayoade is awesome of course. Sometimes slightly put off by the fairly heavy gender role stereotyping, but I guess this is still fairly normal in most shows.

I already have one Western, Hell on Wheels, but Strange Empire sounds better. Though HoW does have Chief O'Brien as Union Pacific robber baron Thomas 'Doc' Durant in its favour.

[khalinche.livejournal.com]

I fucking love Orphan Black. Can't wait for the new season, although I guess I'll be bittorrenting it because, um, reasons which I haven't posted about yet. The IT crowd is great apart from that one episode full of nasty transphobia. Respect to Graham Linehan though for talking it through with a trans friend of mine who explained how fucked up it was and why; I think they had a pretty good, productive conversation.

[angiereedgarner.livejournal.com]

Thank you. I need such help v much.

[apperception.livejournal.com]

Peaky Blinders is great. I binge-watched all two seasons last fall.

[misslynx.livejournal.com]

I love, love, love Agent Carter! It's my favourite TV discovery in recent times. Also quite like Orphan Black but find I am sometimes not up to watching it, because some days it's a little more intense than I want, but I do think it's awesome.

Strange Empire I have not seen yet, but it's been on my iTunes wish list for a while, because it looks great.

I have never heard of Peaky Blinders before, to the best of my recollection, but may have to check it out at some point. Though probably not right away, as I am barely keeping up on the very few shows I already watch.

[kryss-labryn.livejournal.com]

Agent Carter is fabulous and we watch it on my days off (although I still find I'm automatically adding "Stern" instead of "Stark" at the end every time someone mentions just "Howard;" I'm from the generation where if it was "Howard" it was "Howard Stern," I guess lol). We're a bit peeved at the Chief though for being so dumb about evidence. Don't know how caught up you are but the, uh, the one with the boat was particularly egregious with it.

Other than that it's awesome. :D

Hey, you seen Constantine yet? That's the other one we really like.

[princealberic.livejournal.com]

I still need to watch Peaky Blinders and Strange Empire! Also, I'm going to start watching Agent Carter now :D :D

[rohmie.livejournal.com]

I hear this is quite good. We need more feminist period tee-vee, please. Mad Men is wrapping up.