Good TV programmes to relax with

  1. Having thought I had watched all the comedy, mainly old stuff on I Player I found the second series of Austin which I am halfway through. Watching 'comfy' comedy or a good film that is not fast paced drama/action with a good ending is one of the few ways I find I can relax and chill out. Does anyone have any recommendations? I am thinking either on I player or TV.
Parents
  • I was considering putting up a discussion post about "Ann Droid" (the BBC TV series) earlier today and my search on the site has suggested your thread as  I agree Austin is great, The Detectorists, Ludwig and Small Prophets - likely stuff you've already been thro' but I thought that I'd mention them.  

    Happy viewing!

    Phased

  • I gave Ann Droid a go and quite enjoyed it. It took me a couple of episodes to get into it but once I got used to the concept it was very enjoyable.

  • I agree  , it will be interesting to see where they take it if there is a second series!
    What really stood out to me about Ann Droid is how much the robot character feels like an accidental metaphor for the autistic experience. Watching a character try to navigate the world by logically analyzing social rules, copying behaviors to fit in, and managing literal interpretations of language feels very familiar. And I admit I found that a little unsettling.
    Underneath all that it's a really sharp social commentary about how growing old has become in our society.  Massive gaps in social support and the way techno fixes are being looked to to patch over an overstretched social care.  Also how family and informal social care networks are overstretched too for supporting their loved ones.
    I am maybe overdoing my analysis, but I'd suggest that it manages to be a profound, dark critique of modern social isolation whilst still managing to maintain its warmth as a light comedy.
    And in my opinion less "cringemaking" than some of Dianne Morgan's other work...
  • yes it is complicated  

    shifting an "unknown unknown" into being a "known unknown" and then it becoming "known" is hard.  In my personal case, perhaps for others, maybe in respect of the "double empathy problem" the struggle is about pretty profound misconceptions.  Overturning the majority conception - even tho' it may be wrong - is something humanity as a whole seems to not find easy, so both you and I deserve to go easy on ourselves about it I think!

    You make some great points about the actor thing.

    I watched Shakespeare's "twelfth night" this summer - in it a woman character pretends to be a man.  Initially, because of social restrictions, when it was performed it would have been a man pretending to be a woman pretending to be a man!  Not so these days, women are allowed (well by a lot of human society anyway - maybe not enough yet...) - better equality perhaps.  Another title for the play is "whatever you like" - maybe if there was true equality people would be able to act in whatever way they liked - personally I would exclude serial killers from that right too - hehe maybe I'm just not liberal enough - but one draws a line somewhere!

    Your comment about by doing enough research a good actor may be able to play a broad range of characters might be a metaphor for the amount of effort an autistic person has to put into masking.

  • Yes I think that does make sense. Still blows my mind though. The brain is so complicated.

    There are definitely times that a role needs to be played by a particular actor. If race is key to the role e.g. a film about slavery, then yes it should be played by an actor of that race. If it were a condition like downs syndrome then yes it makes sense the actor also had the condition as that is visual. I don't think it's a bad thing an autistic actor playing an autistic character, I just don't think it's essential. I also think that could cause a big problem with type casting and could also risk autistic actors only being hired for autistic characters. The same argument might be used against them that they don't have lived experience of being neurotypical. I think if you're a good actor then you're a good actor and as long as you've done your research you should be able to play a broad range of characters.

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  • Yes I think that does make sense. Still blows my mind though. The brain is so complicated.

    There are definitely times that a role needs to be played by a particular actor. If race is key to the role e.g. a film about slavery, then yes it should be played by an actor of that race. If it were a condition like downs syndrome then yes it makes sense the actor also had the condition as that is visual. I don't think it's a bad thing an autistic actor playing an autistic character, I just don't think it's essential. I also think that could cause a big problem with type casting and could also risk autistic actors only being hired for autistic characters. The same argument might be used against them that they don't have lived experience of being neurotypical. I think if you're a good actor then you're a good actor and as long as you've done your research you should be able to play a broad range of characters.

Children
  • yes it is complicated  

    shifting an "unknown unknown" into being a "known unknown" and then it becoming "known" is hard.  In my personal case, perhaps for others, maybe in respect of the "double empathy problem" the struggle is about pretty profound misconceptions.  Overturning the majority conception - even tho' it may be wrong - is something humanity as a whole seems to not find easy, so both you and I deserve to go easy on ourselves about it I think!

    You make some great points about the actor thing.

    I watched Shakespeare's "twelfth night" this summer - in it a woman character pretends to be a man.  Initially, because of social restrictions, when it was performed it would have been a man pretending to be a woman pretending to be a man!  Not so these days, women are allowed (well by a lot of human society anyway - maybe not enough yet...) - better equality perhaps.  Another title for the play is "whatever you like" - maybe if there was true equality people would be able to act in whatever way they liked - personally I would exclude serial killers from that right too - hehe maybe I'm just not liberal enough - but one draws a line somewhere!

    Your comment about by doing enough research a good actor may be able to play a broad range of characters might be a metaphor for the amount of effort an autistic person has to put into masking.