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


Ramsay B.

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2 minutes ago, briantw said:

I found season two to be a lot more enjoyable, as it doesn't spend six episodes getting all the characters together.  They're all together from the start, and so the season just focuses on telling one story while simultaneously aping a bunch of different types of horror films in various episodes.

As far as season one goes, I thought the first episode was good, but then it just dragged ass for four or five episodes before it finally got its shit together again.  

Haven't seen season three yet, so can't comment on that.

Oh I agree. The first episode was great, really got me excited for where it was going. My enthusiasm dropped after every subsequent episode.

 

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1 minute ago, Heartofice said:

Oh I agree. The first episode was great, really got me excited for where it was going. My enthusiasm dropped after every subsequent episode.

 

The second season pretty much all takes place in one location, so it doesn't have the problem the first season has where they spend half the season traveling. 

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Watched the Playtest episode of Black Mirror last night.  I've been watching these in no particular order after the first season.  Last episode I watched was over a year ago when my wife and I watched Nosedive with Bryce Dallas Howard. Thought that ep was amazing. Playtest was good. I like video games so I enjoyed the premise. Not my favorite ep, maybe a 7 out of 10.  Need some recommendations on which ones to watch next.  I would go to that thread but I'd probably see a spoiler. 

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57 minutes ago, Triskele said:

It's really difficult.  When you look at lists of people's favorites and least favorites it can be all over the place.  

For example, I think Shut Up and Dance is amazing but saw it knocked as not great on one list, and that list also had Hated in the Nation near the top which I thought was middle tier at best.  

Hard to go wrong with USS Calister.  

I'm trying to think of one that fits in the same wheelhouse as Playtest, and nothing's jumping out to me.  

Thank you!

I just watched Metalhead by myself. Didn't think wife would care for that by the description. Thought it was good. Very straightforward and lacking twists. The first couple scenes had my heart pounding. May watch San Junipero with m'lady next. 

And you're right about these lists.  Seems like all these media outlets/entertainment sites have their rankings all over the place.  I'm looking at non-spoiler stuff btw.  I seem to see a couple eps that are consistently in top 5 like San Junipero, USS Calister and the Entire History of You. I actually think that's pretty cool. Different eps surely evoke different takes and emotions out of different people.  Only one of those three I have seen is History of You. Thought it was brilliant, scary and sad.  Callister and San Junipero are on my list for next.

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5 hours ago, l2 0 5 5 said:

Watched the Playtest episode of Black Mirror last night.  I've been watching these in no particular order after the first season.  Last episode I watched was over a year ago when my wife and I watched Nosedive with Bryce Dallas Howard. Thought that ep was amazing. Playtest was good. I like video games so I enjoyed the premise. Not my favorite ep, maybe a 7 out of 10.  Need some recommendations on which ones to watch next.  I would go to that thread but I'd probably see a spoiler. 

San Junipero will always be my go to rec. really though it depends what kind of episode you are in the mood for as to what you should watch as they differ so much. San Junipero has some darker stuff and the more you think on it the more complex the moral/ethical issues are, but mostly it’s one of the more light hearted watches, maybe in the vein of Nosedive.

For a much more twisted episode go with Black Museum or Shut Up and Dance. I prefer the former, as the latter, while still excellent, shares enough similarities with a season 2 episode that it doesn’t have the same pull for me.

Another good ‘light watch’ (though again, still some fucked up goings on) is USS Callister.

I would not recommend the newest episode Bandersnatch, which is more of a gimmick (it’s a choose your own adventure) than anything particularly entertaining

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So the end of Luther then...

 

I see a lot of people saying it's OTT. I think that maybe some people seemed to forget that Alice was a murdering psychopath and they wanted there to be this happy ending where Alice and John live happily ever after. But we are literally shown (again) in this season that she killed her parents (and the dog!!) for not all that much reason. She's not a nice person - for all that we are meant to think she's this anti-hero that we cheer for when she does fucking horrible things. Nope. There's not going to be any happy ending. And I hope that she's really dead this time.

Caught most of The Running Man last night and found that the crowd in the TV audience really reminded me of a Trump rally. And flicking channels we then caught most of Pulp Fiction and I was reminded that even though I saw it at the cinema and it was definitely a notable and impressive film at the time I just don't really care for it that much now. I don't know, maybe I had a personal backlash because everyone thought Pulp Fiction was so cool and I just watched it and moved on. Whereas Natural Born Killers is a film that I will probably always watch if I stumble across it and I still think it is a great film which had (and still has!) something to say. I think I saw it three times at the cinema aged 17.

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Yeah, on Luther:

I love Alice as a character, but her rescuing Luther at the end of s3 seemed to make people think she's an anti-hero. But that was always about John, not about being good. And this season took pains to emphasise that from the start, what with Luther being worried she was gonna hurt Halliday from early on, and the callbacks to her killing her parents, so anyone surprised that she turned out to be evil simply wasn't paying attention.There could never be a happy ending between them.



I thought it was brilliant, a great ending to a great season, as I said before the best series of the show so far.

On the one hand I hope she is dead because her faking it twice would be boooooring but on the other Luther without Alice is mostly pointless so if she is dead I hope the series is too. There is already a theory that she snuck away when he moved away from the drop as the police showed up then disguised herself as one of them. I don't like it but it's plausible that that's what they're setting up.

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1 hour ago, Isis said:

So the end of Luther then...

  Reveal hidden contents

I see a lot of people saying it's OTT. I think that maybe some people seemed to forget that Alice was a murdering psychopath and they wanted there to be this happy ending where Alice and John live happily ever after. But we are literally shown (again) in this season that she killed her parents (and the dog!!) for not all that much reason. She's not a nice person - for all that we are meant to think she's this anti-hero that we cheer for when she does fucking horrible things. Nope. There's not going to be any happy ending. And I hope that she's really dead this time.

Caught most of The Running Man last night and found that the crowd in the TV audience really reminded me of a Trump rally. And flicking channels we then caught most of Pulp Fiction and I was reminded that even though I saw it at the cinema and it was definitely a notable and impressive film at the time I just don't really care for it that much now. I don't know, maybe I had a personal backlash because everyone thought Pulp Fiction was so cool and I just watched it and moved on. Whereas Natural Born Killers is a film that I will probably always watch if I stumble across it and I still think it is a great film which had (and still has!) something to say. I think I saw it three times at the cinema aged 17.

Having rewatched Pulp Fiction recently I think I felt the same. At the time it came out I was obsessed by it, it felt so fresh and exciting. Now in 2019 it just reminds me of almost every movie from the early 2000s that tried to rip it off. The use of language at the time seemed so cool and new compared to the very scripted ways of talking you would hear , but now movies are often almost completely improv and consequently Pulp Fiction doesn’t feel quite so natural.

Like a lot of movies, it’s hard to view it through a modern lens and still have it come out favourably 

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On 12/6/2018 at 9:01 AM, Nictarion said:

I love it as well. I have the Criterion Blu ray, and it’s one of the best looking films in my collection. 

Is there anyone out there watching Wanted? I found it very interesting, mostly for the two strong female leads that don't rely on men to solve their problems. Definitely worth a watch if you haven't seen it yet. 

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I watched the anime film Your Name. I remember it getting a lot of great reviews when it came out a couple of years ago, and I saw it was available for streaming. I thought it was an excellent film, it starts as a likeable but apparently relatively straightforward story, but then becomes something more, I didn't really expect some of the plot developments but I think they made it into a very compelling story. It looked great visually as well, I think as good as any of the Studio Ghibli films.

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28 minutes ago, williamjm said:

It looked great visually as well, I think as good as any of the Studio Ghibli films.


I haven't seen Your Name yet but tbh in terms of just visuals I think Makoto Shinkai is on another level to Miyazaki (and I think Miyazaki's amazing). Mostly because of the way he depicts light.

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52 minutes ago, polishgenius said:

I haven't seen Your Name yet but tbh in terms of just visuals I think Makoto Shinkai is on another level to Miyazaki (and I think Miyazaki's amazing). Mostly because of the way he depicts light.

I haven't seen any of his other work, is there anything you'd particularly recommend?

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6 hours ago, williamjm said:

I haven't seen any of his other work, is there anything you'd particularly recommend?


5 Centimeters Per Second. Though you have to be prepared for it being quite slow (and also the rare anime, at least of those that make a splash in the west, that has no fantastic or SF elements whatsoever) but it's a quality film.

The Places Promised in Our Early Days doesn't quite fulfill the promise of its setup plotwise, but it's fine and visually also a gorgeous film.

His only other full-length - it's still early in his career yet - is Children Who Chase Lost Voices, which I've not managed to see either. Voices of a Distant Star is worth getting hold of too, though, it's a short(ish, 25 minutes) film that made his name.

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On 1/5/2019 at 5:42 AM, HelenaExMachina said:

San Junipero will always be my go to rec. really though it depends what kind of episode you are in the mood for as to what you should watch as they differ so much. San Junipero has some darker stuff and the more you think on it the more complex the moral/ethical issues are, but mostly it’s one of the more light hearted watches, maybe in the vein of Nosedive.

For a much more twisted episode go with Black Museum or Shut Up and Dance. I prefer the former, as the latter, while still excellent, shares enough similarities with a season 2 episode that it doesn’t have the same pull for me.

Another good ‘light watch’ (though again, still some fucked up goings on) is USS Callister.

I would not recommend the newest episode Bandersnatch, which is more of a gimmick (it’s a choose your own adventure) than anything particularly entertaining

Thank you for the recs.  San Junipero will be the next watch. Certainly seems to be the consensus pick.

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Saw The Favourite. All 3 of the main leads are absolutely wonderful in their roles, and the interplay and dynamics between them is mesmerising. Olivia Colman is always brilliant in everything, even when I first saw her in Peep Show and Look around You, so its so nice to see her getting the roles she deserves and can really get her teeth into. 

I was expecting the movie to be a little odder, considering who directed it, but its actually quite straightforward. Its also beautiful to look at, amazing use of light at times.

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