OV9

I've started watching The Night Manager season 2 after a rewatch of the first one. Jury is out after a few episodes and I'm wondering if the thumbnail on the BBC iplayer is a massive spoiler - which is difficult to avoid as its on the home screen of the app.

We've been watching Mystery Road: Origin. We've doe it all wrong by starting with S2 of this prequel series . Still, really enjoyed it and will move on to S1 next, before then moving on the later-set series. Very dark.

Not a TV series, but we watched The Zone of Interest on Ch4 last week (it was one of their adbreak-free showings). As you would expect, it's a haunting and difficult watch. We deliberately didn't read anything about it beforehand, so only new it was something to do with Nazi-era Germany. We had a dawning realisation a few minutes in as to what the disposition was. I won't say anything more than that, in the event that anyone wants to watch. But be warned, it is a hard watch. Oh, and if you are thinking of watching it but don't know anything about it, keep it that way. I think knowing anything more about it beforehand would have diminished the impact.

unzippy wrote: Mon Feb 02, 2026 2:15 pm Also, only 30 mins an ep and 6 of them? A lot of effort for not a lot..

Yeah, I think releasing it weekly was not the best idea - the first three episodes have had a nice build up, and the last three will finish it up.

Still, can't get that water cooler hyyyyyyyyyype if you release it all at once, or in two blocks, etc.

Still pretty good so far IMHO.

Beany wrote: Mon Feb 02, 2026 3:47 pm

unzippy wrote: Mon Feb 02, 2026 2:15 pm Also, only 30 mins an ep and 6 of them? A lot of effort for not a lot..

Yeah, I think releasing it weekly was not the best idea - the first three episodes have had a nice build up, and the last three will finish it up.

Still, can't get that water cooler hyyyyyyyyyype if you release it all at once, or in two blocks, etc.

Still pretty good so far IMHO.

I was more thinking of the VFM side of things. Surely by the time you've got cast/crew organised, sets built etc you're better off maximising your investment by pumping out longer episodes than 30min?

unzippy wrote: Wed Feb 04, 2026 11:10 am by pumping out longer episodes than 30min?

Second Screen Viewing ??? I'd guess this is important give the typical sort of fan of this sort of show ??

Oh, the base problem there is that the novellas are (IIRC) all under 100 pages each in most prints; they're quite simple stories.

Even the audiobooks (which aren't exactly read at pace!) only go to three hours, and that's unabridged - again, 80-100 pages of material, nowt to abridge!

Getting more out of it would involve a lot more 'infill' writing and....well....you know how GoT and HotD have been doing in that respect....