COUNTERPART: Alternate History w/ Creepy Cold War Vibe

What two series are you watching now? Also, people seem to like J.K. Simmons but I never was aware of him until now. What else has he done I should think about checking out?

ThReads Must Roll: the new, improved rolling fantasy, science fiction, speculative fiction &c. thread

been watching ‘counterpart’ — two ten-episode seasons of sci-fi/thrillerdom from a couple years back featuring j.k. simmons; quite like it so far

it’s set in berlin and has a vibe not unlike that of dave hutchinson’s ‘fractured europe’ series

― mookieproof, Monday, 29 March 2021 00:22 (four months ago) link

jk simmons is a delight. and in counterpart you get two for the price of one!

the vaccine subplot ended up being pretty fuckin prescient

― Li'l Brexit (Tracer Hand), Monday, 29 March 2021 08:38 (four months ago

I come in peace... three times a night -- FOR ALL MANKIND (Apple TV Plus)

Man In High Castle is great (but also can be maddening & make you want to throw your tv out the window at times).

The Imposter is another good alternative reality show (on prime)

― terminators of endearment (VegemiteGrrl), Tuesday, 20 July 2021 23:28 (one week ago) link

alternate *history

― terminators of endearment (VegemiteGrrl), Tuesday, 20 July 2021 23:28 (one week ago) link

Do you have a link to that imposter show, vg? Please! The stuff I’m googling doesn’t sound right.

― Tsar Bombadil (James Morrison), Wednesday, 21 July 2021 00:57 (one week ago) link

lmao would help if i had the name right

COUNTERPART ffs

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4643084/

― terminators of endearment (VegemiteGrrl), Wednesday, 21 July 2021 01:08 (one week ago) link

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SZzDKUkJB6E

― Two Severins Clash (James Redd and the Blecchs), Wednesday, 21 July 2021 01:24 (one week ago) link

lol

― terminators of endearment (VegemiteGrrl), Wednesday, 21 July 2021 01:46 (one week ago) link

Counterpart is so low key, definitely worth your attention but it absolutely doesn’t loudly telegraph the important parts — which are really the little characters moments and JK Simmons doing subtlety

― mh, Wednesday, 21 July 2021 01:55 (one week ago) link

Aha, cool, thank you!

― Tsar Bombadil (James Morrison), Wednesday, 21 July 2021 05:35 (one week ago) link

Counterpart is amazing! I think I raved about it on a different thread. I never would have made a connection between the two shows, but I can see it now that vg has mentioned it

― Vinnie, Wednesday, 21 July 2021 11:10 (one week ago) link

The whole cast is really good in this, in particular Olivia Williams, who I haven't seen since Rushmore, sorry, as Simmons's wife.

Oh, I guess I saw The Sixth Sense, but conveniently forgot about that.

I'm currently watching Banshee (saw the first three seasons years ago but never the fourth, which is a step down in quality and/but also only eight episodes) and Warrior (a trashy kung fu version of Deadwood, basically, from the Banshee showrunners — a few actors are in both shows).

This show was superb, a definite watch. Is there anything JK Simmons isn't good in? He was good in the fucking Tomorrow War! Like every time he was on the screen I was like "wait is this script actually good? Oh, no, it's just JK Simmons."

The other main couple is also excellent, played by Charles Dicken's great-great-great-grandson Harry Lloyd and Tom Cruise's ex Nazanin Boniadi, who drew heavily upon that experience for her performance in this role.

Aargh. Dickens’s.

I used all my proofing energy on Nazanin Boniadi.

Few more things from the FOR ALL MANKIND thread:

Have to say the use of pop music in Counterpart show is a little more sparing and subtle and less Forrest Gump-like than in the titular show. Particularly liked discovering this song:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EZ55A__qO3o

Also there was a John Cale song I didn’t know too well that was cool.

― Two Severins Clash (James Redd and the Blecchs), Wednesday, 28 July 2021 14:07 (three days ago) link

“Big White Cloud” from Vintage Violence, which I haven’t listened to too much.

― Two Severins Clash (James Redd and the Blecchs), Wednesday, 28 July 2021 14:18 (three days ago) link

Enjoying James Cromwell much more than I though I would.

― Two Severins Clash (James Redd and the Blecchs), Friday, 30 July 2021 21:30 (yesterday) link

how could anyone not enjoy james cromwell

― mookieproof, Saturday, 31 July 2021 02:32 (fifteen hours ago) link

Sorry, he's always good but, and I know I am dating myself, I always have to get over the tendency to still think of him as Stretch Cunningham from All in the Family.

― Two Severins Clash (James Redd and the Blecchs), Saturday, 31 July 2021 11:56 (five hours ago) link

Which character was notable for always being offscreen until Cromwell showed up one season and one season only, I think, to notably embody him. Believe it may have been a breakthrough role for him. Someone even posted a picture of Cromwell as Cunningham to say he wished the young Yanek looked more like this.
― Two Severins Clash (James Redd and the Blecchs), Saturday, 31 July 2021 15:25 (two hours ago) link

I downloaded this from usenet cos I'm not paying amazon a penneth. But it's very good - it reminds me of extremely good + fun dual universe bits of Fringe after the first ep.

*phew* made it to the end pretty much without encountering any spoilers. Not something that happens often enough.

Well, now that you have: I was bummed that we didn't get a season 3 but I like the dark place where it ended. It's not a very upbeat show but it was a fitting enough place to stop. Creator Justin Marks said the plan was to make S3 the "wild west of espionage" which intrigues me

I liked that the show structure called for having two older-than-usual leads, a nice change of pace. Besides those two, Boniadi was excellent in this

Yes, I agree, with both hidden and unhidden.

This show was um, surprisingly or satisfyingly consistent. I never really lost interest or felt like they ran out of ideas or were just killing time during any episode.

I wished they had gone full ham on the comedy possibilities of whiplash simmons vs "dad from juno" simmons.
the little dribbles of performance contrasts between doubles was a lot more enjoyable than the procedural drudgery of going from plot point to plot point.

also the dour portrayal of a plague and its attendant fanaticism feels very quaint now compared to the real-life circus of ridiculousness an actual pandemic conjures. i can't imagine they'd make this show the same way today.

what a weird time we live in to find escapism that way! the blue light instant hand sanitizing stations looked cool though.

Ulrich Thomsen and that posh English dimbo from Mad Men are both v good in this.

I'm going back to the dual universe storyline that dominated much of Fringe again here, it must have been a big influence on this series. Anyway it's consistently good stuff up to se01 e09 here!

Ulrich Thomsen
This guy is great.

posh English
Wait, who?

I thought he was the same actor who played the little annoying English prick in later seasons of Mad Men. And I don't mean the great Jared Harris obv! But I'm probably wrong. There is a certain type of posh English actor that all look the same to me.

it's Ryan Cartwright I'm getting him mixed up with, ignore me!

this is everything Line Of Duty could have been with decent writers!

it is seriously good though

You are making this Fringe show sound pretty good.

lots of early Fringe was quite forgettable, but the dual universe storyline - which had very similar themes to this series - was an absolute blast. It was much dafter I suppose though, like they were just making it up as they went along. Like for instance in the alt world aeroplanes never got invented and giganto airships still rule the skies.

Wonder if anyone else laughed when a Perl prompt appeared on one of the outdated technology screens.

Watched Season 1, enjoyed it, never quite felt motivated to watch Season 2. But it's still there if I ever change my mind.

the vaccine subplot ended up being pretty fuckin prescient

Yeah, it was crazy when that popped up.. I had to check to see when it was made. That pre-film commercial in the movie theater about making sure to wear your mask and narking on those who don't..

Second season was just as good as the first, which was a little surprising tbh.

Nearly finished with this and really digging it, although for such a secure and paranoid agency, these folks sure love to leave their valuable sources/suspects unguarded, with only one other person, free of observation or recordings. Fun to see one or two folks from Babylon Berlin pop up. I completed the video game Control just prior to starting the series, and the two complemented each other nicely.

How the hell did late 80s East Germany afford to set up that massive agency, though? Must have had a hell of a research grant writer.

Lol. Thought exactly the same thing

Only two episodes in but it's immediately engaging and very polished.

Every time someone re-ups this thread I hope against hope they found a way to bring back this great show.

I still have trouble seeing JK Simmons in something and not thinking of him as Schillinger, the evil neo-Nazi in OZ

the only solution is to watch a lot more JK Simmons imo

Same, eephus. I so want another season of this show

It was very well done. I think I saw it recommended in the 10 favorite shows thread so cheers to whomever did that.

The implausible premise seems to be mainly a tool to mine German Cold War nostalgia, in somewhat the same vein as Dark and Deutschland 83. There’s also some similarity there with The City & The City by China Mieville.

I'm through 5 episodes and have more thoughts but suffice to say I was very disoriented to see people wearing masks in public in the first episode.

Found another show that seems link a non-sf version of this set in the Middle East.

???

Tehran, on Apple TV+.

SEVERANCE too.