TV Series

Новинки сентября

graker — Wed, 30 Sep 2026 07:45:00 +0000

And here is the monthly series post: September brought plenty to watch.

Last Seen

A gloomy small-town drama for fans of gloomy small-town dramas. About a missing daughter and a dad who has been searching for years for where she went. With an Australian flair and accent. Watchable.

Slow Horses

Jackson Lamb is back with the sixth season. Witty and engaging as always: if you have to choose what to watch, this is it. Besides, in the first episode Ho plays Ghost of Tsushima at work. Separately approved.

Golden Axe

If your old-school nostalgia has not kicked in for a while, here is a good reason. An animated adaptation of the ancient mega-game about a joyful side-scrolling beat'em up as a huge barbarian, a huge amazon, or a not so huge old man with an axe. An extra joy was that the heroes could ride beasts and beat enemies on horseback. Apparently, that is what the cartoon is about.

Personally, the trailer gave me all the nostalgia I needed, so I am unlikely to watch it. But if you are interested, the old man with the axe is voiced by Matthew Rhys, who, by the way, got three Emmys this year, for Widow's Bay and The Beast in Me.

Neagley

The Russian internet has not quite decided how to read her surname, but the season is already out in full, right after the last episode of Reacher. It is a spin-off about his former colleague from the dangerous military police service, Frances Neagley. Who is now a private detective. The spin-off does not drop the baton, Reacher was shown at the start and hidden right away. Well made, all those Ballards could learn a thing or two.

Line of Fire

A new series about a family fully employed by the US government: mom, dad and the kids serve as marshals and agents of the FBI, the Secret Service and the Department of Justice. This wonderful plot construction made it possible to cram five uninteresting stories into the frame instead of one interesting one. But it does have a conspiracy of reptilians, the Illuminati and some other secret services, and September would not be complete without one.

Worth watching if you need to fall asleep quickly. Or if you want to see Peter Krause, a veteran of the legendary Six Feet Under and the undeservedly forgotten The Lost Room. Where else would you see him these days?

And briefly about the returns, of which there are many in September:

— Guy Ritchie's The Gentlemen and MobLand are back with second seasons
— Stranger Things: Tales from '85: nobody liked the first season of the cartoon, so Netflix immediately released a second one
— If for some reason you do not like mediocre cartoons, you can watch South Park, back with its 29th (!) season
— You can tickle your nerves with the 13th season of American Horror Story
— The cozy police story set in Belfast, Blue Lights, is back with season 4
— And today the sequel to the sequel of Scrubs comes out (the second season).

That is a lot to watch. But if you get through it all, information about new shows, premieres, returns and schedules can be found as always in the TV Botopotamus bot on Telegram or on Max.

Синдром Рэя Уайза

graker — Mon, 28 Sep 2026 19:20:00 +0000

Watching detective series from the 2000s has become hard.

First, good luck finding a watchable one you have not seen yet.

Second, every one you find is sure to be struck by the «Ray Wise syndrome» ~~(yes, the one who killed Laura Palmer)~~

What does that mean? Say I am watching Life, the one with Damian Lewis. After Band of Brothers, but before Billions. A cool little police procedural. But what do I see:

— Oh, this guy is from Person of Interest.
— And this one is from Burn Notice.
— And this one was in Castle.
— And these seven in a row are from Supernatural.

And that is it: as soon as the brain latches on to a familiar face, you can stop watching the episode. Because this one standout supporting actor was almost certainly brought in to play the villain. The rest is clear.

The only thing that is not clear is how to watch.

P.S. And it is the Ray Wise syndrome because with him it always works.

Новинки августа

graker — Mon, 31 Aug 2026 07:00:00 +0000

Not that much watchable came out in August, but there is something to watch. And it is all returns.

Dark Matter

A guy chasing some kind of matter ends up in an alternate reality. Where he has a different life, and in it he lives through different versions of his fate once, and again, and many more times. But it all turns out, guys, not right, not the way it should be. A sci-fi thriller, decent ratings, the second season is out. I have not properly watched the first one yet, but I am watching.

Lioness

Another work by Taylor Sheridan. With such productivity he could outshine neural networks with his sheridanslop. Though his stuff usually turns out to be of decent quality. Lioness may not be reaching for the stars either, but it is quite watchable. Of course, the series is about conspiracies of reptilians, the Illuminati and all sorts of secret services.

The third season started in August, and this time the evil secret services are, of course, ours, Russian. I have not watched much yet: they showed the fighting in Ukraine, a swarm of drones, and Sheridan himself even grabbed a rifle and played a little movie war.

7/10 or so, worth a look, but I would not call it a must.

Reacher

Now this is a different story. Jack Reacher is back with the fourth season: a huge veteran roaming American towns and villages with nothing but a toothbrush in his pocket. On his travels he keeps stumbling over yet another conspiracy of reptilians, the Illuminati and secret services. And of course he tramples the enemies in his way with size 15 boots.

It is shot quite well, an old-school action flick about the last action hero, a little vaccine of masculinity for viewers spoiled by agendas. By the way, in September a Reacher spin-off comes out, «Neagley», about the character of the same name from the previous seasons. Apparently for those who for some reason got tired of watching a mountain of muscle and listening to soldier jokes as simple as an axe, but still like the setting.

Vigil

A detective story about women investigators, sailors, a British submarine and where one could possibly vanish from it. And not without conspiracies of you know who.

The third season is out. A murky series, even though it comes from the creators of Line of Duty. I think I did not even get through the second season.

Ted Lasso

One of the kindest, nicest and at the same time funniest comedies of recent years, with Jason Sudeikis, is also back for a fourth season. Which, by the way, was announced at the 2026 World Cup final, where he and Coach Beard ran around the stadium at half-time.

Still very good and fun, even if you are not really into football.

And that is all. Premiere and return dates can be found as always in the Telegram bot @tv_botopotamus_bot or in TV Botopotamus on Max.

Новинки июля

graker — Fri, 31 Jul 2026 12:45:00 +0000

And here's a short review of new TV shows. In July, of course, there's again nothing to watch, but a few things are still worth a try.

Silo

Popular sci-fi where citizens live in a multi-story silo pierced by a spiral staircase, yet nobody sings Led Zeppelin songs. And when someone goes outside — on their own or by force — everyone asks a very important question: will they wipe the window with a rag on their way out or not? The show is decent, although it can put even me to sleep. The third season came out in July and is airing now.

The Dark

A miniseries that has nothing to do with the famous German sci-fi show. It's a crime drama, rather grim and on a grim subject: an insidious killer maniac murdering teenagers in a small Scottish town. Not a masterpiece by any means, but in my opinion its rating is lower than it deserves. Worth a look if you're into grim detective stories.

The Westies

The 80s. The main characters are the Westies, an Irish ethnic gang from a New York neighborhood with the colorful name Hell's Kitchen. There they cross paths with Italians, Colombians and even Irish independence fighters. On the plus side — the Irish accent, plus Titus Welliver in one of the roles. On the minus side — J.K. Simmons just doesn't pull off the gang boss role for me, he's too cardboard and at times cartoonish here. The same goes for the Italian underboss. Which makes the show look rather run-of-the-mill, though it could have been better.

Lucky

A crime road movie in TV show form, so to speak. The main character, Lucky, is always running — from the authorities, from gangsters, from herself. But she's also chasing — her husband, who drugged her and made off with a pile of money. All in all, everything is pretty standard for this kind of story. Timothy Olyphant is in the cast, but there's too little of him. The lead is Anya Taylor-Joy from the fun show «The Queen's Gambit». As watchable as it is skippable.

Ann Droid

A comedy about a battered android assigned to look after an elderly woman. Ann the droid is played by Diane Morgan, the esteemed Philomena Cunk of British television. In my opinion it turned out pretty funny, I watched it in one go and laughed out loud in places. All in all, quite recommendable.

Stuart Fails to Save the Universe

It's not a cartoon, it's just the poster. A «Big Bang Theory» spin-off starring the supporting characters of «The Big Bang Theory». Comic book store owner Stuart, the huge geologist Bert, the nasty lisping physicist Kripke, and Denise, whom nobody remembers. They have to fight, or at least somehow survive, an apocalypse that Sheldon, Leonard and Howard accidentally unleashed on the planet. I've only watched the first episode so far. Honestly, with all due respect to the authors, the jokes are all pretty predictable and bland overall. The only bright moment is when Penn and Teller suddenly showed up — but even that only emphasized that the show is bullshit.

That's all for July. You can also browse the list of new shows and premieres in the @tv_botopotamus_bot bot. By the way, I recently added pagination to it. Now you can see what came out not only today but also yesterday. Or what's coming next month. And there will be something to watch there :)

Задача трёх тел

graker — Tue, 21 Jul 2026 07:40:00 +0000

To broaden my horizons and out of general interest, I watched «3 Body Problem» the other day. It's a TV series based on the famous book by the Chinese author Liu Cixin, so I watched the Chinese adaptation. Not the Netflix version, which exists too.

At first I wanted to read the book, but I figured it would take very long — so I decided to watch. I didn't notice right away, though, that the Chinese version has not the usual 10–12 episodes, but a whole 30. The book, however, really is very famous — the first in a trilogy. Oh well.

The genre here is science fiction, as scientific as it gets. About scientists. Something strange happens to them at the start of the series. Some kind of dissonance, or, on the contrary, an emotional catharsis. After that, some of them have accidents, while others even declare that their science doesn't exist and kill themselves. It's all mysterious and very suspicious, maybe there's a conspiracy, but whose — reptilians, the Illuminati or hostile Western intelligence services? Unclear.

A scientist and a policeman set out to figure out what happened. And while the scientist cares about physics, metaphysics and the deeper meaning of what's going on, the policeman is more down to earth — whom to catch and punish for the deaths of smart, talented comrades. At least at first.

There's plenty of mystery at the beginning, and the first episodes strongly reminded me of the old Strugatsky brothers' book «Definitely Maybe» («A Billion Years Before the End of the World»), where an insidious universe itself punished scientists so they wouldn't poke their noses where they shouldn't. But the plot here is original, not some clone, so it's not that simple.

There's also a Fringe vibe — that gorgeous sci-fi show from the late 2000s. But that's in moderation too: pleasant, without fawning, let alone copying.

I also liked the opening titles and the cool Chinese song in the background. Very atmospheric. I don't know what the song is about, I probably need a few more years of study to understand something like that. But in the series itself I managed to catch some Chinese words and phrases I already know behind the dubbing. Which is pleasing, of course.

Having watched it, I was a bit surprised that they stretched the story over a whole 30 episodes. Maybe that's typical of their TV production — I don't know. The Netflix version didn't drag it out. Then again, its IMDb rating is currently 7.5 versus 7.6 for the Chinese version. The long version has its advantages too — unhurried pace, atmosphere, contemplation. I'm a bore, I like it.

It's also somewhat confusing in places that some seemingly serious moments are peppered with lulz. Perhaps that's also a tradition of a culture I'm not very familiar with.

But overall it's good, and the take on the global problem it raises is original too. It won't blow your mind, but it's solid and useful for broadening your artistic horizons.

Too bad there's nothing in the news about a Chinese adaptation of the second book in the trilogy, «The Dark Forest». But the second season of the Netflix production seems to be coming out this year. So I guess I'll have to watch the Western version too. And we will, it's interesting after all.

Новинки июня

graker — Mon, 29 Jun 2026 16:49:00 +0000

In June there were new shows and returning series again, so there's even more of nothing to watch. Or is there? Let's figure it out.

From

For some reason this show didn't make it into the previous roundups, even though its new fourth season just ended. And it's not in the schedule my bot parses either. Some kind of mystery.

Yes, some kind of mystery is the genre of From. Various outsiders end up in a sinister little town that you can't leave, and on top of that, at night strange people come out of the woods who smile and say hello, but as soon as you get closer, they start tearing everyone to pieces. You might think From is based on Stephen King: the setting, the scares, the atmosphere are similar. But no, it's an original story. Though the maestro of horror himself watched the show and praised it.

All in all, decent mystery, watchable. Over four seasons, the only thing that's started to get on my nerves is the Que será será song in the intro.

Cape Fear

Vicious killer Max Cady is released from prison due to newly discovered circumstances. And off he goes, apparently, to take terrible revenge on the main characters — the family of the prosecutor and the lawyer who once sent him to prison.

It's a remake of the 1991 film where Max Cady was played by Robert De Niro. Which in turn is a remake of the 1962 film. Which in turn is based on a book.

The show isn't very gripping, a sort of thriller chewing gum. You can watch it, or you can not.

Alice and Steve

A comedy about how Steve, in his golden years at a respectable 50, decided to start a romance with his best friend Alice's 26-year-old daughter.
Steve is played by Jemaine Clement from "Flight of the Conchords", but there's nothing else good in the show. It's not funny, not sharp, and the authors can't even properly make fun of zoomers. Feel free to skip it.

The other Conchord, by the way, recently showed up in some New Zealand spy comedy, but I don't really feel like watching it.

The Agency

A more solid story. A story about how a CIA agent decided he no longer wants to fight reptilians, Illuminati and other intelligence agencies, but wants to love a black woman. The woman is beautiful and smart, no argument there. But you don't just leave the intelligence services to love women. Yet the hero wants love really badly, so he schemes at work, pretends to be busy, and then sneaks off to the woman. ~~Julia Roberts~~ Richard Gere is also in it, but he doesn't do anything special, apparently because they didn't assign him a woman of his own.

The first season was quite watchable, but by no means a masterpiece. 7.4 on IMDb

I Will Find You

An action thriller mystery based on a Harlan Coben book. Shows based on this author get stamped out pretty often lately. The main character is serving a life sentence for murdering his son, when suddenly (5 years later) he's told that not only is he innocent, but his son was probably never murdered at all. Because he seems to be quite alive. But someone did kill someone, otherwise where did the sentence come from? Clearly a conspiracy by you-know-who.

There isn't much new to watch this month, so this miniseries is quite watchable. Again, not a masterpiece: well made, but not without flaws.

Sugar

The show starts as a classic, even canonical LA noir. Hollywood, a detective story, betrayal, a flashy car, inserts of retro films. And the main character John Sugar (Colin Farrell) is dramatically charismatic, he'll dance, he'll sing, and give the villains a sugaring when the occasion calls for it.

And so the show goes on, in this pleasant old-school style, with a light touch of a conspiracy of reptilians, Illuminati and intelligence agencies. But closer to the end, when you're smiling contentedly and saying "God, how I love ~~BTS~~ neo-noir", the following happens.

A car pulls up to a house we haven't seen before. The devil jumps out of it. He runs inside, takes Chekhov's gun off the wall, runs out onto the porch and shoots the viewer right in the face. Then he jumps into the bushes, where he sits down at a piano and plays either Fly Me to the Moon or I Wanna Be Sedated, but it doesn't matter, because the viewer can't hear anymore anyway.

If after such a wonderful twist all you want is to twist the writers' ears off, fine, I can understand you. But if you carried on with the words "We've watched worse crap than this" — then here you go, the second season has started. You can keep watching.

House of the Dragon

The third season is underway. The second season achieved the impossible — it outdid "The Rings of Power", airing at the same time, in boredom. And here the first episode even showed a lively 20-minute battle. But because the second season was so uninteresting, it's pretty hard to remember or figure out who is fighting on which side. We'll see further on, maybe we'll manage to sort it out.

As always, you can see what's coming out today or this month in my bot @tv_botopotamus_bot on Telegram or Max.