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Watch, Watched, Watching: The Art of the Rewatch edition


Ramsay B.

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6 hours ago, Triskele said:

Giving this new IO on Netflix a try now.  Funny to me that there are so many goddamned shows that there's a show called IO and a show called OA.  

ETA:  Oh, maybe IO is a standalone film rather than a show.

What did you think? I think it had some potential but ended up being ok at best. 

I thought the acting was pretty bad too. I guess Margaret Qualley’s character was supposed to be a little awkward or something, but some of the lines she delivered were so flat and robotic that it became distracting. Maybe it was the dialogue as even Anthony Mackie seemed a little off.

Was Margaret Qualley good in The Leftovers? I only remember her from a small role in The Nice Guys, which she was fine in.

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Saw Glass in theater today. The first 20 minutes are good, the last 40 minutes are good, but the middle hour or so sucks. I do not recommend seeing it in theater, versus streaming/renting it later and fast forwarding through the middle. 

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12 hours ago, red snow said:

I watched this last night and I'm actually pretty excited about where this goes now. I was slightly worried about the casting of Wolghast (mainly because I had the mental image of Michael Shannon in my head when reading) but the actor really won me over and the chemistry between him and Amy works really well and as I was watching I realised how VITAL it was they got that chemistry right because it could very easily have come off super creepy (it never crossed my mind in the books because I knew what Wolghast was thinking. It was also fun to see all the characters in place from the start knowing how some of them will have much bigger roles as it goes along. Still - I'm concerned the show is taking a major risk on their telling of the story but it'll be pretty cool to see them pull of the act 2 switch if the show catches on. My fear is they'll chicken out.

The underwhelming use of Fleetwood Mac's the chain was unforgiveable. That song should enhance any TV/film show it's put in see GOTG2 and The Americans as prime examples but it's use here fell flat - maybe because it was muted and playing within the show?

With these shows it's always hard to separate "do I like it because I like the books or does it stand on its own". But several of my friends who haven't read the book were intrigued by the pilot. They all enjoy Walking Dead  and some of them even watched "the strain" so I guess this show doesn't need to be that great to have a following :)

You're right about the chemistry being spot on. Have to say I thought the repeated, laid on with a trowel, reminders about how this dude is special forces blah blah blah was a bit much. I laughed at the 'X confirmed kills in Afghanistan' because I think it wasn't far off the number cited for Chris Kyle, the American Sniper guy who was like, the best American ever at shooting people... so this retired special forces dude is also the best sniper ever in his spare time? Cool! 

Must say that I have forgotten so much of what was in the book. The bit with the dreams works very well on screen. I am keen to see how it all pans out. Hopefully it's going to be good regardless of whether you have read the book or not.

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37 minutes ago, Isis said:

You're right about the chemistry being spot on. Have to say I thought the repeated, laid on with a trowel, reminders about how this dude is special forces blah blah blah was a bit much. I laughed at the 'X confirmed kills in Afghanistan' because I think it wasn't far off the number cited for Chris Kyle, the American Sniper guy who was like, the best American ever at shooting people... so this retired special forces dude is also the best sniper ever in his spare time? Cool! 

Must say that I have forgotten so much of what was in the book. The bit with the dreams works very well on screen. I am keen to see how it all pans out. Hopefully it's going to be good regardless of whether you have read the book or not.

Not only us he the best sniper ever, he can train kids within a minute how to be a marksman without the need of a montage!

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I'm now on S3 of The Magicians and I'm glad I gave it another go. Elliot and Margot are pure gold. The S2 episode with the Les Miz sequence sent me down a rabbit hole though. I could not get One Day More out of my head (not necessarily the worst problem). Having never seen Les Miz in any form I watched the 25th anniversary concert which formally introduced me to the incredible talent that is Ramin Karimloo who played Enjolras. I wound up watching the 25th anniversary presentation of The Phantom of the Opera right after and he was incredible. I was so moved by his voice and each movement and gesture. I saw Phantom during the first year in Toronto with Colm Wilkinson and Rebecca Caine. I was a senior in high school and it's something that's stayed with me these 29 years later (29 years ago, good lord) and I was amazed that something/someone could top that for me.

As far as Ramin Karimloo goes, I'm truly sad to be so far behind on him. I spent a while watching various YouTube clips like the 2014 Tony awards where he was nominated for playing Jean Valjean. I also watched some clips of Love Never Dies which is a thing that should never have happened. Anyways I'm hooked and have a Google alert set though it's pretty fruitless. He's touring UK with his band currently and also filming something called Holby City and is otherwise booked solid into 2020 with no plans for America including Broadway. Ah well.

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I watched The Little Mermaid (2018). It’s easily the dumbest of all the similarly terrible live action remakes of fairy tales. 

Nothing ever happens for any other reason than by accident. There’s no consistency within the plot and we really don’t learn anything about any of the characters. The acting is atrocious, the characterization is laughable, there’s no message, no atmosphere and really no visual value either. It’s just 90 minutes of fifth class early 2000s low-rate cable television nonsense. 

Imdb rated it 4/10, Which is overly generous. 

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1 hour ago, kairparavel said:

As far as Ramin Karimloo goes, I'm truly sad to be so far behind on him. I spent a while watching various YouTube clips like the 2014 Tony awards where he was nominated for playing Jean Valjean. I also watched some clips of Love Never Dies which is a thing that should never have happened. Anyways I'm hooked and have a Google alert set though it's pretty fruitless. He's touring UK with his band currently and also filming something called Holby City and is otherwise booked solid into 2020 with no plans for America including Broadway. Ah well.

Holby City is a hospital drama which was a spin off from the original hospital drama (Casualty). Generally someone had an outlandish accident in the first two minutes, the rest of it is co-worker drama. Holby City is generally a slush pool for ex-soap actors in the UK.

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21 minutes ago, Isis said:

Holby City is generally a slush pool for ex-soap actors in the UK.

Ah. I see other West End performers have been on it as well. A UK version of Law and Order to some extent, if not in idea or plot but transitional career moves. 

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Watched a Netflix series called Fallet which is a Swedish cop drama - or so I thought when I started watching, expecting some dark and moody thriller. But actually it's a comedy, bits of which were screamingly funny. I would recommend it if you want something light - although it is actually about solving a murder case. The protagonists are an odd pairing of Swedish and British police. I think there are seven or eight episodes BUT they are only half hour each. Give it a try.

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23 hours ago, kairparavel said:

Having never seen Les Miz in any form I watched the 25th anniversary concert which formally introduced me to the incredible talent that is Ramin Karimloo who played Enjolras.

My wife would leave me in a second for him, and i totally get it.  

Though personally i'd say Alfie Boe is the greater talent from that show, when the 4 Jean Valjeans sing 'bring him home' and he totally owns the other three who are all top top performers, its pretty special.

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On 1/19/2019 at 12:31 PM, BigFatCoward said:

Yep. My professional opinion was he did it, and they definitely fitted him up as well, just to be sure. 

Now I've finished the rest of the series, yeah, I'd definitely agree.

Spoiler

I think the two local officers almost certainly planted the key in Avery's house. It's possible they planted the blood evidence in the victim's car and, at a stretch, they might have planted the bullet. Beyond that though there's a lot pointing at Avery as by far the most likely killer.

I think beyond that though what happened to his nephew was pretty horrific and I'm not convinced at all he was involved.

 

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On 1/16/2019 at 8:15 PM, Ramsay B. said:

I’m intrigued to see what you say about this. I haven’t watched it yet.

I'm actually a little annoyed that the version I rented wasn't the director's cut, so I'm gonna wait for that before writing up anything too analytical.

Anyway, it was a nasty piece of work to be sure. One can't help but be a little entranced (albeit sickened) by the loving attention LVT takes in rubbing the audience's face in his disgust with the stupidity, greed, and dog-like obedience to masculine authority that he sees as defining the suburban and rural white women that voted for Donald Trump. Or to the attention to creative detail that he put into the emotional and psychological cruelty of some of these scenarios.

That being said, he really didn't do anything particularly new with this one. The points he makes are just nasty extensions of things that he's been saying for most of his career, with a thin veneer of Trump over everything (and lord knows nobody has covered that over the past few years...). Law enforcement is corrupt and incompetent. Women who are not stupid are cynical, and men are amoral predators who will never not disappoint. Redemption is just an enticing snare meant to lead you further into hell. Etc, etc.

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