Watch, Watched, Watching: Those Bloodthirsty Gods!

[Martini Sigil]

We're also watching Top of the Lake S1 from 2013, before we get into S2... Elizabeth Moss is an absolute monster... holy cow she is a good actress

 

[williamjm]

3 hours ago, HelenaExMachina said:

I think the story this season was different, and can understand why some found it less compelling, but this actually ended up being possibly my favourite season of the show. The character moments (especially the stuff between Elizabeth and Paige) were absolutely excellent, and I actually ended up liking Stan this season (and have disliked him since the start). I also though the Tuan story was very interesting. My favourite scene of the season

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was after Elizabeth and Phillip have decided they will return home, and Elizabeth is seen look around at everything she will lose when she returns. I think the look on her face as she realised how "American" she had become was deeply moving. Keri Russel Killeen it of course, as she always does

I did like all the elements you mentioned. I think one thing it might have missed slightly compared to previous seasons is...

that there didn't seem to be quite the same sense of tension, that everything could be on the verge of going horribly wrong. Of course, there are still plenty of ways that things could have fallen apart at any given moment, but it didn't feel like there was a threat of the same magnitude as the FBI actually closing in, or the bioweapons plot or Paige not being able to keep their secret.

I agree, there will still plenty of great character moments, I thought Paige got some great scenes and I liked Martha's brief cameos

[Veltigar]

I finished the last episode of Strike (the BBC adaptation of the thrillers J.K. Rowling wrote under her pseudonym). Kind of bummed out by the fact that this was the last one. I really liked the characters and the stories (although the episodes based on the second book were definitely a bit weaker plotwise). I hope they'll decide not to wait for the release of further books and just make their own original mysteries for the series. I think that would be nice and it would mean I had a new crime series to look forward to every year. We are also all in dire need of more Tom Burke in our lives, so that alone is already a good excuse to make more of these. 

I also watched Kobayashi's Seppuku (1962). I had this one on my watch list for quite some time and I am very happy to say that it did not disappoint at all. It's an incredibly sad story, that manages to tug at the heartstrings without being manipulative. It was also pretty unpredictable. I honestly couldn't really predict where the story would go (I guess that that is both a result of the cultural strangeness and expectations shaped by the way modern films would go about telling this story), but I really like the way Kobayashi eventually developed it. It was compellingly tragic and surpringly calm (the action is handled extremely well when it occurs though).  

The acting was also great, I get why Tatsuya Nakadai was such a famous actor back in the day. He was very subtle, which was quite the pleasant surprise, because sometimes those Japanese actors can go really annoyingly over the top (one of the reasons why I didn't enjoy Rashomon). The film also made clever use of symbolism to convey its central (and imo very valuable) message and it contains some incredibly disturbing scences (If you have seen the film, you know the one I'm talking about). It's hard to talk about without spoiling anything, but I would definitely recommend it to you all.

On 17-9-2017 at 0:13 AM, GallowKnight said:

From what I've seen of Ruby Rose elsewhere, what makes her works so well here is that she does not speak.

Oh, that's a shame. She really had great presence in this one  

My thoughts exactly. I dug the first film for what it was, but the Net hype on JW2 was massive and I found it ultimately to be a big let down.

Now that I have had some more time to think about it, I can't help but notice just how unmemorable the movie is. Barring the collar bar pin Keanu weares when he gets his new Italian suit, I don't think I'll remember much about it in like a week or so. 

 

[l2 0 5 5]

Currently watching the Sinner on USA. On ep 6/8 right now, and it's pretty good. The last 2 episodes have especially picked up. Not bad coming from a station that I thought just aired Law and Order reruns (besides Mr. Robot). 

Keeping up with AHS: Cult. I typically watch a handful of episodes of AHS each year before I get burned out on it and tap out. The content this season is an interesting take on current affairs in US politics. I'll keep watching for now.

Watched Edge of Seventeen last night. Thought it was entertaining, funny, pretty clever, etc. Worth a watch.

[Mexal]

14 hours ago, l2 0 5 5 said:

Currently watching the Sinner on USA. On ep 6/8 right now, and it's pretty good. The last 2 episodes have especially picked up. Not bad coming from a station that I thought just aired Law and Order reruns (besides Mr. Robot). 

Watched Edge of Seventeen last night. Thought it was entertaining, funny, pretty clever, etc. Worth a watch.

Agreed with both.

[Veltigar]

Just finished The Lost City of Z by James Grey, starring Sienna Miller, Charlie Hunnan and Robert Pattinson. I can't believe I haven't seen more discussion about this online, it really is a great film. And here I was thinking that 2017 was quite a bad year for films (well, I actually still think that to be honest, but at least we got this one and Logan). 

The film really feels like a throwback to an older kind of film. Some of the better reviews I read described it as a cross between one of those epic New Hollywood films of the 1970s and a David Lean epic. I can see where they got that from, although I feel like its a lot closer to David Lean in feeling than New Hollywood, without actively copying it.

The story of Fawcett's obsession is staggerinly well-portrayed, the actors all gave great performances. I never really payed much attention to Charlien Hunnan before, but he was really good in this. And Robert Pattinson was a revalation. I knew he was in this and I knew which character he was playing and I still had trouble recognising him. That was a really great performance I have to say. The lighting and cinematography was really beautiful. I can't really remember any of Grey's other films, but here he really displays great attention to detail. I wish more directors put this much care in their craft. I definitely warmly recommend this one.

[Sir Thursday]

Spent the weekend watching American Vandal on Netflix. I was very entertained! It takes the obsessive mystery investigation format of Serial and applies it to a lower stakes setting (dicks spray painted on teachers' cars at an American high school). The investigation is played straight, but the nature of the crime leads to more than the occasional bit of hilarity!

One thing I was very impressed by was how the show did a good job of showing the way modern teenagers' lives are full to the brim with technology. The sheer quantity of video footage the characters take of themselves and others means the narrative has plenty of evidence to work with, and it all felt very natural. With the caveat that I haven't been a teenager for a decade now, it all felt very believable.

So yeah, I would recommend this one, especially if you enjoyed Serial but don't mind it being given a light ribbing.

[HexMachina]

@Risto I'm most disappointed not to see you with an Emmy thread  for shame, standards are truly slipping.

Anyway, I'm watching The Expanse season 2. I think thisnshow is great and I'm only sorry the UK had to wait so long to get it. Hope this is fixed for future seasons because I don't want to wait

[Astromech]

8 hours ago, Sir Thursday said:

Spent the weekend watching American Vandal on Netflix. I was very entertained! It takes the obsessive mystery investigation format of Serial and applies it to a lower stakes setting (dicks spray painted on teachers' cars at an American high school). The investigation is played straight, but the nature of the crime leads to more than the occasional bit of hilarity!

One thing I was very impressed by was how the show did a good job of showing the way modern teenagers' lives are full to the brim with technology. The sheer quantity of video footage the characters take of themselves and others means the narrative has plenty of evidence to work with, and it all felt very natural. With the caveat that I haven't been a teenager for a decade now, it all felt very believable.

So yeah, I would recommend this one, especially if you enjoyed Serial but don't mind it being given a light ribbing.

I'm halfway through this series. I love how it takes the piss out of these true crime documentaries. Sure it's filled with sophomoric humor, but it is high school. I think it captures the teenage mindset quite well as well as the various types of teachers. I've known both Mrs. Shapiros and Mr. Krazs. The cliffhangers at the end of each episode are well done. 

I'm two episodes into Ken Burns' The Vietnam War. Very good so far like all of Ken Burns' documentaries.. I believe this one will be airing nearly nightly for the next two weeks.

[Zorral]

51 minutes ago, Astromech said:

I'm halfway through this series. I love how it takes the piss out of these true crime documentaries. Sure it's filled with sophomoric humor, but it is high school. I think it captures the teenage mindset quite well as well as the various types of teachers. I've known both Mrs. Shapiros and Mr. Krazs. The cliffhangers at the end of each episode are well done. 

I'm two episodes into Ken Burns' The Vietnam War. Very good so far like all of Ken Burns' documentaries.. I believe this one will be airing nearly nightly for the next two weeks.

But it's so filled with errors, such as the Gulf of Tonkin business that the series insists was the cause of US retaliation -- when, of course the whole Gulf of Tonkin biz was made-up by LBJ:

Quote

 

In the 2003 documentary The Fog of War, the former United States Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamaraadmitted that the August 2 USS Maddox attack happened with no Defense Department response, but the August 4 Gulf of Tonkin attack never happened.^[8] In 1995, McNamara met with former Vietnam People's Army General Võ Nguyên Giápto ask what happened on August 4, 1964 in the second Gulf of Tonkin Incident. "Absolutely nothing", Giáp replied.^[9] Giáp claimed that the attack had been imaginary.^[10]

The outcome of these two incidents was the passage by Congress of the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, which granted President Lyndon B. Johnson the authority to assist any Southeast Asian country whose government was considered to be jeopardized by "communist aggression". The resolution served as Johnson's legal justification for deploying U.S. conventional forces and the commencement of open warfare against North Vietnam.

In 2005, an internal National Security Agency historical study was declassified; it concluded that Maddoxhad engaged the North Vietnamese Navy on August 2, but that there were no North Vietnamese naval vessels present during the incident of August 4. The report stated, regarding the first incident on August 2, that "at 1500G,^{[note 1]} Captain Herrick ordered Ogier's gun crews to open fire if the boats approached within ten thousand yards. At about 1505G,^{[note 1]} Maddox fired three rounds to warn off the communist boats. This initial action was never reported by the Johnson administration, which insisted that the Vietnamese boats fired first."^[5]

 

Burns fame for telling the stories of the United States is despicable -- for other instances, all the shyte he got wrong, while leaving out the really important things, about jazz and New Orleans, not to mention in the War of Rebellion series.

[Astromech]

1 hour ago, Zorral said:

But it's so filled with errors, such as the Gulf of Tonkin business that the series insists was the cause of US retaliation -- when, of course the whole Gulf of Tonkin biz was made-up by LBJ:

Burns fame for telling the stories of the United States is despicable -- for other instances, all the shyte he got wrong, while leaving out the really important things, about jazz and New Orleans, not to mention in the War of Rebellion series.

The first two episodes haven't yet treated the Gulf of Tonkin. The latest episode to air ended with Kennedy's assassination and LBJ's taking the oath. I'm assuming tonight's episode will cover Tonkin. Have you already seen that episode covering Tonkin?

 

[Zorral]

2 hours ago, Astromech said:

The first two episodes haven't yet treated the Gulf of Tonkin. The latest episode to air ended with Kennedy's assassination and LBJ's taking the oath. I'm assuming tonight's episode will cover Tonkin. Have you already seen that episode covering Tonkin?

 

People with the screener code (television projects that as a matter of course want television professionalss and critics to see the programming ahead of time don't do dvds any longer but put it up online and send the code so we can watch) have and have written about this and many other errors.

[Astromech]

39 minutes ago, Zorral said:

People with the screener code (television projects that as a matter of course want television professionalss and critics to see the programming ahead of time don't do dvds any longer but put it up online and send the code so we can watch) have and have written about this and many other errors.

I'll have to see for myself this evening. Mind you, interpretation does not equal fact.

[Zorral]

Assertions as fact, when the facts are wrong, is just wrong.  Not interpretation.  This stuff about the Gulf of Tonkin is now history.  It's been verified by the people who were involved in creating the lie.

Recall, there were very many, very huge, very important reasons that people objected to the Vietnam War here.  The great big lies were a great big part of that.  But burns and co pretend there's always this mythical central area in which everything is all OK with amurrika and there's no racism, no lies, no imperialism, no etc.

[Astromech]

10 minutes ago, Zorral said:

Assertions as fact, when the facts are wrong, is just wrong.  Not interpretation.  This stuff about the Gulf of Tonkin is now history.  It's been verified by the people who were involved in creating the lie.

Recall, there were very many, very huge, very important reasons that people objected to the Vietnam War here.  The great big lies were a great big part of that.  But burns and co pretend there's always this mythical central area in which everything is all OK with amurrika and there's no racism, no lies, no imperialism, no etc.

My statement about interpretation not equaling fact was a generalization rather than a specific to Tonkin as it is handled by Burns' new series since I haven't yet been able to view the latest episode. If there is an actual error in the documentary as to the specific facts surrounding Tonkin then I'll agree with your previous statement about errors. Oftentimes criticisms are lodged due to disagreements about interpretations of events rather than the hard facts of such events. While I'll take issue with errors in actual facts, I won't necessarily take issues with interpretations which are subjective. For example I've read a criticism or two about how the series handles the causes of America's involvement in Vietnam and the series explaining how it was essentially a civil war between North and South Vietnam.  Basically differences in interpretation.

I don't see Burns' documentaries in the same light as you do. Could Burns include more in his documentaries about various socio-economic issues and skeletons in America's closet? Of course he could give more time to such issues. But to claim he is pretending everything is peachy in America is a bit of a stretch.

[Zorral]

2 hours ago, Astromech said:

My statement about interpretation not equaling fact was a generalization rather than a specific to Tonkin as it is handled by Burns' new series since I haven't yet been able to view the latest episode. If there is an actual error in the documentary as to the specific facts surrounding Tonkin then I'll agree with your previous statement about errors. Oftentimes criticisms are lodged due to disagreements about interpretations of events rather than the hard facts of such events. While I'll take issue with errors in actual facts, I won't necessarily take issues with interpretations which are subjective. For example I've read a criticism or two about how the series handles the causes of America's involvement in Vietnam and the series explaining how it was essentially a civil war between North and South Vietnam.  Basically differences in interpretation.

I don't see Burns' documentaries in the same light as you do. Could Burns include more in his documentaries about various socio-economic issues and skeletons in America's closet? Of course he could give more time to such issues. But to claim he is pretending everything is peachy in America is a bit of a stretch.

To say what you said is a very huge stretch.

[RedEyedGhost]

I finished American Gods today, and I absolutely loved it - from the first scene to the last.  The climax of season 8 was fantastic. It's been 15 years since I read the book, so I'm not sure how faithful the adaptation was, and I don't care.  I really liked Ricky Whittle, Pablo Schreiber, Orlando Jones (would have loved to have seen more of him, I didn't even recognize him) in their roles, and of course McShane knocked it out of the park.  Browning didn't wow me though, she always seems to be scowling.  

Last night I watch The Cockney King Arthur, and it was just as bad as everybody said it was.  I liked bits of it here and there, but it felt like a mash up of The Ten Commandments, Lock Stock, and Robin Hood Prince of Thieves.  Not good.  I was horribly bored by the end.

Just started the series finale of The Strain.  So glad this is the very last one.  Should be exceptionally awful, definitely not awfully exceptional.

[Astromech]

1 hour ago, Zorral said:

To say what you said is a very huge stretch.

You should watch The Vietnam War. It's very good so far.

[Werthead]

American Vandal is very good, much better than I was expecting. The tonal variation towards the end is handled well and it ends up exploring High School relationships very well. Plus it's quite funny.

[Unlady B]

Lately I've been watching a few Spanish suspense movies:

El Bar (2017), directed by Álex de la Iglesia. A group of people in a bar are suddenly trapped there after a shooting begins outside. It's mainly suspense and dark humor. I like dark humor and bizarre terror movies, so I loved it. Also it stars Blanca Suárez, who is part of the casting of Las Chicas del Cable, a Netflix original series worth watching. 

Contratiempo (2017). Directed by Oriol Paulo. The story begins with the main character being charged with the homicide of his lover. He and his lawyer have only a couple of hours to come up with a defense before a critical witness declares with the judge. A suspense full of twists. Paulo also directed El Cuerpo (2012), that has a similar tone to this movie. In El Cuerpo, a body goes missing from a morgue. If you like stories taking twists, you'll like both movies. My recommendation is not to watch them one soon after the other, as the director uses similar resources, and one ends up comparing them instead of just enjoying them.

La playa de los ahogados (2015), directed by Gerardo Herrero. A drowned corpse appears in a beach, and soon a homicide investigation starts in a small town that nobody seems to know anything until you ask the right questions. Not very original this one, as there are better movies with a similar story, but it's not bad, just meets some obvious clichés.