Armed Polite Society
Main Forums => The Roundtable => Topic started by: just Warren on October 04, 2018, 06:48:15 PM
-
A spy drama out of Cold War Britain. I've only watched the first episode but I'm hooked.
This is not an action centered show, it is almost all dialogue and plot; mostly involving men wearing suits, yet it is amazing. It is really well written and covers all the angles of what the team of a special ops section has to deal with politically and personally to do the job.
Also it is explicitly the anti-James Bond. There are no gorgeous women or locales, no fancy gadgets, no high-octane set pieces and the dialog is normal, not quippy or laden with machismo. Well, except for the C.I.A. guy.
It's a character study of a group of courageous and dedicated people doing a very hard job under difficult circumstances and living with the toll it takes on them.
There are no easy answers or fixes and happy endings are not guaranteed.
Well-acted and they obviously did not have a huge budget but make it work and well. Despite the lack of action they were able to ratchet up the tension. But you have to pay attention and follow the dialog or you'll be lost. So the viewer has to do more work than in most shows today.
This is quality programming of the sort you just don't see anymore.
Two thumbs way way up for The Sandbaggers.
Here's the Youtube link. (https://youtu.be/lKg_t-Prhqk)
And it's Wikipedia page. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sandbaggers)
-
When I visited the UK years ago, I realized that the BBC produces a great deal of really crap tv shows. But, otoh, I also noted they did some very good educational tv programs, and there were also very good dramas.
We get "the cream of the cream" of British tv over here. Even old British tv can be very good.
Awhile ago I re-watched an old late 1950s British show, "QUATERMASS AND THE PIT." It was a six part series in b&w on DVD and it was well made, well acted, and intriging. In 1966 a color movie was made from the screenplay called "FIVE MILLION YEARS TO EARTH." Some people here may have seen it as it's been on American tv for decades. It's the same basic screenplay, made with a little higher production values, but, still true to the original story line.
There have been a number of other very well done British shows on American tv. They CAN do it, they're a smart people.
-
"FIVE MILLION YEARS TO EARTH."
That movie seriously creeped me out as a kid.
They CAN do it, they're a smart people.
Just don't mention the war.
(https://i.imgur.com/kaxFcQA.jpg)
-
Five Million Years to Earth is a fantastic movie, one the Hammer studios best works.
Either AMC or TMC used to do a Hammer Horror Classics film festival every year around Halloween, but they've not done it for a couple of years. I always got my Quartermass on when it was on.
-
If you have Roku you can watch The Sandbaggers on Tubi.
-
Just finished the first season.
Holy..........
This is some of the best writing I've ever encountered in any media.
If you haven't watched this yet, you are missing out.
-
Just finished the last season. It finished on a cliffhanger and had some very interesting plot lines that would have been the meat of the next season's narrative.
But they never got that fourth season.
Damn it! Of all the horrible things that have happened in this world, this is certainly one of them.