Cas Stark

Is there any legitimate reason to believe that ROP will improve?  Are there interviews from the showrunners or actors or producers that give any impression of such a desire for 'improvement'?

I expect it to be exactly as bad as it was in the first season.  The extreme levels of stupidity with the Galadriel/Sauron story and how they ended it, make it impossible to fix the character flaws the show introduced for her.

Finally watched Barbie.  Okay, Gosling does a very good job in keeping just the right tone throughout the movie and the production design is unique and inventive.  That's all I got.  

Equalizer 3.  Stylish.  Violent.  Denzel.  Three thumbs up.  

2 hours ago, Calibandar said:

I'm excited for season 2. Who's with me?

No.  

23 minutes ago, Mr. Chatywin et al. said:

You're pure evil.

As to the strategy in both games for the losing teams, I only saw part of Chiefs-Ravens and none of Lions-Niners, but overall it sounds like the two less experienced teams panicked and broke their tendencies/game plans. Both seemed like they choked based on the postgame coverage. 

Not really.  The Ravens played pretty poorly from the jump, they did appear to change their general strategy, e.g. abandoned the run, etc..  The Lions played well, then choked, and still almost pulled it out at the end.  You could even say that refusing to abandon their tendency to go for it on 4th was a key reason they ended up losing.   

Watching Reacher, I don't notice it being any worse than season 1, which I remember exactly zero information about the plot.  It's dumb, superficial action entertainment.  There is no there there.  And, that's fine sometimes.

Also rewatched 1948's The Heiress, a masterpiece of directing, casting, acting.  It's funny that William Wyler is practically forgotten when it comes to 'best directors' lists these days.  Rewatched LOTR, which triggered a remembrance of how much I hate ROP and its dumb version of Galadriel.

3 minutes ago, Mr. Chatywin et al. said:

I've always said there's a few groups of QBs: Elite, Really Good, Mirrors, Bad Starters and Backups. The problem is the Really Good category is pretty slim. 

Is there even anyone in the 'elite' category right now except Mahomes?  Is Joe Burrow or Lamar Jackson elite?  I don't think so.    

Just now, Mr. Chatywin et al. said:

Dak is a top 10 QB, but like with Allen you need him to be hot for a month to make a deep playoff run. That one shit game is always looming. 

If Dak is a top 10 QB, then the NFL has fallen farther than I thought.   He's better than average with a strong streak of mediocre. 

I didn't expect this.  But, I'll take it. 

The River Finally came for Bill Belichick.  Fantastic [long] article...if you're a BB fan.

https://www.theringer.com/nfl/2024/1/11/24029361/bill-belichick-out-new-england-patriots-legacy-robert-kraft-tom-brady

I haven't seen poor things;still surprised its seeing more awards love than saltburn

15 minutes ago, Kalbear said:

I think one of the bigger strikes against his legacy is that with Brady he was stellar, and without Brady he was less than mediocre. Whereas Brady went off and went to another super bowl without Belichick. To be fair it's only been a couple of years, but it's still not a great sign of how good Belichick is. 

It's been a bad couple of years.  But, let's not forget he was the DC for all the Giant's Parcells superbowls and had finally gotten the hapless Browns to be good before Art Modell pulled the rug out.  He has a long history of winning before Brady.  

20 minutes ago, Mr. Chatywin et al. said:

Probably not in the NFL, but we've seen somewhat similar runs in the MLB and NBA. The wild part is how bad of a GM Belichick was. It just highlights how one person shouldn't have both jobs.

I agree he would have been better to have a GM, or at least a stronger second in command.  But, you can't really say that he was a 'bad' GM, considering that there was basically a superbowl appearance almost every other year for 20+ years.  That is insane.

20 minutes ago, Maithanet said:

I mean, they're sorta right, but there's nothing they can do about it.  The glory days of the Pats dynasty ended when Brady left.  Whether they keep BB or get a new coach, they are just another team now, and will be wallowing in the mud with the rest of us. 

That said, Belichick has been an absolute titan in the NFL these past 24 years.  So many of the biggest moments in the Brady-Belichick era are because some other player (often a no-name guy) made a big play, and you can't attribute that to anything but coaching.   

Eh, I don't say it wasn't time for BB to leave the Pats, but seriously, they won their last superbowl 5 years ago.  The game has not 'changed' other than becoming ever more sloppy and poorly officiated.  BB problem was, for whatever reason, he was not a good judge of talent and if he didn't have someone on staff who was, then bad draft/trade decisions would happen.  

I expectr the Patriots to be mediocre to bad for the next several years, though I do like Vrabel, he's no BB.

There will  never be another run like the Patriots last 20 years.  It's hilarious and sad to hear my fellow Pats fans blabbing about how 'the game has changed' and BB hasn't.  Alrighty then.  You're going to get what you asked for and good.

Saltburn.  Mixed feelings.  I like it more if I don't take it too seriously since it has a lot of plot holes and is somewhat confused thematically.  Nice cinematography, excellent acting, obviously a gorgeous setting.  R Pike stole every single scene she was in. 

I'm not a huge fan of the 'eat the rich' type movies, though I know some don't see that this film really fits that genre......but then, Fennel did say that the expectation was the audience would be invested in Oliver and side with him [I didn't and wasn't]....you could see what a freak he was early on in the film when he's stalking Felix...even before any of the other reveals.  Also mixed on the 'gross out' scenes, not really offended per se, but they went on for a looong time and not sure we really needed that many minutes devoted to the grave scene or some of the others.  

And another year winds down.

OT/I really miss the old ProFootballTalk including the comments section.  Whatever reasons they had for both the design change and the killing of comments, there is nothing there anymore, it's like scrolling google news, information wtihout any spark. 

A rare occurance, I rewatched The Wolfman w/del toro and a hopkins, which i HATED originally, it still  has pacing issues but I liked it a lot more than on my previous viewing.

Last Night in Soho.  What's this?  Something original?  Anya TJ, Diana Rigg and the guy who played prince phillip on the crown.  It wasn't really scary, but original and interesting.

House of Usher.  Ugh.  Why is it modern??  Why is it about pharma now?  I'm sure I will eventually finish it, but I wanted Vincent Price gothic camp.

Beckham doc.  Loved it.  

I liked it, thought it had too much going on for a single episode.  The last three episodes definitely better than anything that went before.

Lanfear, Moraine&family, Lan, Rand, Siuan, Logain and a couple of others are all very watchable.  Not so much for most of the rest.... I'm just not interested in Matt and Perrin.  The two women's stories are more interesting, but they are not that interesting on their own.  

I can always do without the animal deaths.  Always. 

I thought this was the best episode of the series so far. 

I'm not sure we're going to see any break-out stars emerging from this show, the casting is just not that great for the most part.  Everyone is mostly 'fine' but there is a serious lack of charisma.

Unbelievable.  4 snaps and he's out, probably for good.  I don't even want to say anything quippy about the Jets.  

I watched all 4 episodes, so I guess I was wrong that I won't finish season 2.  I still think it's extremely weak, but I'm glad fans of the book series are enjoying it.  It certainly doesn't enrage me to the level of ROP Galadriel as an unhinged fuckwit, etc. etc. does.  A lot of the casting seems, not very good to me.  There are only a handful of actors who are GOT level. 

If everyone was killing it like Alvaro Morte [hitting just the right notes of scenery chewing], I would more easily overlook the choppy story and other issues.

I don't think I will make it through season 2.  This show is fucking terrible, worse than I remembered, it's like Zena the Warrior Princess but with a massive budget.  It's only saving graces are Rosamund Pike and good production.  

Oh Harry, don't ever change.       Even in a documentary about military veterans he manages to include footage of Diana's funeral.  

Lilibet is a dumb name, not quite as dumb as North or some others, but still in the top tier of dumb.