There have been a couple of good episodes in the latest series of Grand Designs. The one with the round buildings was good and this latest one (the lighthouse on the North Devon coast) should've been magnificent but fell apart due to finances. Predictably, I might add - far too high a percentage of the cost relied on borrowing (and from hedge funds and private lenders, no less) for it to ever not be a terrifying project. Not only did the build grind to a halt 2 years ago but his wife left him as well. I hope he goes on to finish it and we see a "Revisited" in a couple of years but I wouldn't bet on it.
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DaGaffer
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I don't think I've ever seen that happen that way on Grand Designs before, it was like Moby Dick with the house as the Whale. I felt so bad for him at the end.
It started off with such promise and would've instantly become one of my favourite builds if it ended up looking how it did in the visualisation at the beginning. McCloud described him as "a high flyer in the music industry" so I thought he'd just have the money, the doubts started to creep in when he said how much of the cost he was borrowing (and when he was trying to borrow it).
I agree that, in all the seasons, I don't think we've even seen a project fall apart quite so completely - sure there have been unfinished rooms but nothing like this. There was that massive cob house that had to be Revisited - his marriage fell apart too but he wasn't under nearly as much financial pressure and he had the security of it being his trade and he knew he could just plod on with it himself (with help from his kids). This lighthouse was just a shell, with gaping holes where windows should be, even after spending £3m on it. And a good half of it - between the pool and the cantilevered drive - wasn't even out of the ground yet.
Heartbreaking but know your limits ffs.
old.Osy
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Hawkwind
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Lasted 12 minutes watching Batwoman Episode 1.
Batman... bad. Doesnt care about the people apparently! Men...bad. I get it but dont need watch it thanks. Why they have to change the characters we grew up liking to fit current political/gender politic agendas is just not my cuppa.
Batman... bad. Doesnt care about the people apparently! Men...bad. I get it but dont need watch it thanks. Why they have to change the characters we grew up liking to fit current political/gender politic agendas is just not my cuppa.
DaGaffer
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They did the same thing on the Titans show, although they seem to be making an attempt to rehabilitate him in season 2.
I haven't watched Batwoman yet but my expectations are low. Arrow is nearly done (and was mostly crap last season), Flash and Legends are pretty poor now, and I never really watched Supergirl. I'm going to watch the Crisis on Infinite Earths thing at the end of the year (although I imagine it will be the pound shop Infinity War) and then I'm done with all these CW shows.
TBH I think Endgame was "peak superhero" and it's very much time for something new. We probably won't get it though.
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Joker felt like that. If they had the balls to follow that through into a batman film but still centred the entire story around Mr Phoenix, making batman an occasional obstacle (god-like figure like Superman in Dark Knight Returns) then it could be really interesting.
dysfunction
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They started out with that but then gave him a good impression afterwards.
It's a bit of a slow burner really and not as good as other super hero series.
DaGaffer
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Anyone watching World On Fire? I was actually enjoying a bit of BBC WW2 melodrama, albeit with quite a few highly implausible coincidences, then
last night's episode. Two Poles, escaping the Nazi and Soviet dismemberment of their country (which for thousands of Polish soldiers and airmen was a really incredible journey) suddenly wander into a group of British soldiers, presumably in France/Belgium. What the actual fuck? I've seen bad geography to support a script before, but this is the most stupid example I've ever seen.
Gwadien
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I was so confused too, I assumed they were in Poland still, how the fuck did they travel across Germany that easily?
Also, the portrayal of the British troops lounging around in country estates waiting for the baddies is somewhat unrealistic.
DaGaffer
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Well in the episode the week before they were heading east and ran into the Russians, so fuck knows.
Most of the Polish Army troops who actually escaped the country exited via Romania, got interred, but then left Romania (the Romanians turned a blind eye) across the Black Sea to Turkey and then French Syria, then to France in some cases, Britain in others. Which would have made a great story. Instead of this bullshit.
Gwadien
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I just think their time line is very quick thinking about it, but they need to show it clearer.
Last week Sean beans lad was around South America, now he's home.
Gwadien
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I also find the situation that the American journalist is in is somewhat unrealistic.
DaGaffer
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I'm ok with that as I get the point it's trying to make (and American journalists were still working in Germany until 1941).
True but that was largely due to a) them getting ahead of GRRM and running out of source material and b) the showrunners, Benioff and Weiss, who are going to be nowhere this project. They ruined GoT by rushing that last season so they could scurry off to work on Star Wars and now they've ditched that as well to do something else with Netflix.
DaGaffer
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Rick and Morty.
‘Watched it on the way in to work; need to watch again.
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Will be hitting download very shortlyRick and Morty.
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Watched the first, thought it was OK (not great but watchably silly). Maybe...
Hawkwind
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I read most of the books many years ago so interested in the characters.Watched the first, thought it was OK (not great but watchably silly). Maybe...
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Watched the first couple so far. First was pretty good. Second was weaker.
Then, I'm not a big fam of fantasy so...
DaGaffer
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I need to read the books again; its at least 25 years since I read them, and I seem to remember liking the first two and hating the last one, but I can't for the life of me remember it.
DaGaffer
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Didn't like it as much as the first series; the whole morally righteous boyscout shtick got a bit irritating by the last episode.
Hawkwind
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Agreed, it was the last episode that did it for me.
