Buffy coming to Channel 4 in the UK and its streaming service

[Hunga Munga]

Been thinking about the Hill Street DVD boxsets for a while , but I was glad to discover a legit free stream on All4 for UK viewers . Think it's all on Youtube too . It freaked me out a bit because I watched it as a young teen and remember thinking how progressive the attitudes were back then ....Now it seems downright racist and morally corrupt to 2020 vision .

In my head I tend to draw lines connecting Hill Street Blues and Moonlighting and Northern Exposure and others directly into the BTVS family tree ., Will probably do the first few seasons of Hill Street Blues , while it's still at its seminal peak .

 

[Mr Trick]

I watched a season of Hill Street Blues a few years ago with Mum and remember quite liking it. Think I would watch more. Moonlighting was very enjoyable too.

 

[TriBel]

@Hunga Munga - I've got S1 (and possibly 2) on DVD (somewhere) but the later seasons are difficult to get on R2. 1&2 are also on Prime (so I presume no ads). Homicide: Life on the Street was, I think, a direct descendant of Hill Street but without the techniques that were fairly radical for the time. Just watched Ep1. It's so chaotic - the handheld camera and overlapping speech - God knows how I ever followed it when it first aired. You're right about its racial politics but - TBH - I don't think I've ever seen a programme with so much diversity.

 

[Hunga Munga]

We're both old enough to remember when Hill Street Blues was a progressive inclusive text . The first episode was particularly hardhitting to my rarefied 21st century sensibilties.. I'm only on Episode 12 and they use heavy business like anti-semitism or racial miscegenation in a really offhand unproblematic manner..That's some hardcore oldschool racism being portrayed.

However in some ways these early episodes still have a progressive perspective that feels relevant today , for instance ,the attitudes to gang culture and abject poverty ... and its ongoing satire of SWAT style ops in an urban setting.

I think it's a nice little pit-stop for any student of English language popular culture . Hill Street Blues was quite unlike any other mainstream Network import I'd ever seen in the 1980s . It was an inspiration to a thousand+ seasons of shows we collectively love right now .

 

[Mr Trick]

I will be watching Welcome to the Hellmouth and tweeting live about it tonight if peeps want to check out my comments.

 

[TriBel]

We're both old enough to remember when Hill Street Blues was a progressive inclusive text . The first episode was particularly hardhitting to my rarefied 21st century sensibilties.. I'm only on Episode 12 and they use heavy business like anti-semitism or racial miscegenation in a really offhand unproblematic manner..That's some hardcore oldschool racism being portrayed.

However in some ways these early episodes still have a progressive perspective that feels relevant today , for instance ,the attitudes to gang culture and abject poverty ... and its ongoing satire of SWAT style ops in an urban setting.

I think it's a nice little pit-stop for any student of English language popular culture . Hill Street Blues was quite unlike any other mainstream Network import I'd ever seen in the 1980s . It was an inspiration to a thousand+ seasons of shows we collectively love right now .

I agree - I think it's sensibilities are more socialist than left leaning liberal. It makes a point with the dire conditions the black family are living in but pulls it back from stereotype by having Bobbie talk about his extended family (then makes a major faux pas by seeming to blame Mama for not putting out). The final reveal still gets me: sigh...Frank/Joyce - my OTP. I actual used the pilot in a "Crime and Popular Culture" class at uni but, TBH, I think it was wasted on the students. Same students thought The Searchers was boring and The Birds needed better CGI!

 

[Hunga Munga]

Blimey, they've only gone and put up the entire BTVS series on All4 straightaway .

 

[nightshade]

Blimey, they've only gone and put up the entire BTVS series on All4 straightaway .

Oh that's good, hopefully they'll get Angel and do the same

 

[Mr Trick]

Didn't know they were having an episode every week night. Assumed it'd be once a week. Will get through in no time! Might do a few live streams or twitter chats in the future. Its good to have them all up online.

 

[nightshade]

Anyone know anything about how the ratings are for it?

 

[Hunga Munga]

All4 was running like a blind three-legged dog on my desktop . I think my Ad blocker was not a fan . So I stuck the app on the PS4 and it's lovely . Love having a free copy of BTVS remaster on tap .

For UK based cult TV fans they've got copies of :-
The Shield
Hill Street Blues
Community
Scrubs
And others too
Seen a few episodes of 'The Shield' and didn't enjoy it much...but apparently it's a classic ? So I'm having another look at that one day .

My E4 Buffy Rewatch is all blocked up at the moment , already done a full HD watch this year and started another before E4 got the show , so it's not feeling as 'special' as it should right now . Give it a week or two and I'll be pining for some slayer antics again

I'm not getting bored of the HD cut anytime soon though ...especially the early seasons . Pick up silly little details I've never noticed before .

 

[Priceless]

There are some poor scenes in the HD version. In I Robot . . . Buffy enters a brightly lit classroom but doesn't notice the dead body hanging from the ceiling until she bumps into it. Some of the crops are just bad, and the close ups so close that you miss the joke happening behind the character.

It's not all bad though. I do like seeing every scene, noticing things I've not noticed before etc.

 

[TriBel]

@Hunga Munga and @Mr Trick - Shield's okay. If my shelves are anything to go by - good enough for me to have brought every season except the last one - make of that what you will.

 

[Athena]

Honestly, what a major coup for All4/Channel 4.

I haven't actually managed to catch any of it but I did see some of the ads and I was really impressed by them. They clearly knew the demographic they were aiming it towards!